A Nice Leather Vase

Last week my co-worker asked me why my blog was titled: "So Now What". For those of you who never read my first post, I will tell you what I told her: These are the words I said after the Super Bowl ended in 2005. The day after the Super Bowl is a hard one for me. It means I will have to wait seven more months until I see another snap again. Hello my name is Michele and I am addicted to football. However today is also the three year anniversary of my blog. This anniversary is more like Thanksgiving than the Fourth of July. It doesn't always fall on the same date, but it is always the Monday after the Super Bowl. I was looking on-line to see what gift to give my blog for this three year anniversary. The traditional gift for three years is leather and the modern gift is crystal, so I am torn.

In other news, the Super Bowl last night was incredible, and I made the most of the event, which happens to be one of my favorite days of the year. We had my brother Mark over and the three of us all agreed the party was the perfect size. I found out last night that Mark and I have the same theories on Super Bowl party size, and creating the perfect environment in which to watch the game. Hello my name is Michele and I am addicted to football. If you saw the food we put out, you probably would have thought there were ten people there, not to mention the amount of beer that was consumed. We put out homemade spinach dip, a jalapeno cheese ball, shrimp cocktail, salsa and chips and this recipe for chicken legs, which turned out to be the perfect Super Bowl snack. The only problem with cooking these chicken legs is that they make the house really smokey, which obviously takes away from the perfect Super Bowl environment.

Sportygrrl=Sportygrill

The harder you work for something, the better it tastes. If that is the case then our meal last night tasted like the best meal I have ever eaten.

Maria and I had all our shopping done by 4, the likes of which consisted of hot dogs, bratwurst, burgers, steak, shrimp, salads and the ingredients for the now infamous beer margaritas. Tim said he would be over and add to our meat buffet with his boneless pork spare ribs topped off with Hoisan sauce for an asian flair. We were about to have the best barbeque three people could ever throw, however the barbeque gods were not on the same page with us.

With all our meat prepped and marinated, I went downstairs to light the grill. Except the grill didn’t want to light. There was a tiny little light but it went out. Earlier in the day I actually thought about how much propane gas I had. What are the chances I would run out on July 4th for our big barbeque? Sure enough I was out of propane. Time and the holiday were not on our side. We had to move and we had to move fast, except we didn’t know where to move to. I have never filled my propane tank in Cleveland before and the chances anything was still open were slim and none, yet we all jumped in my car and started driving west. 7:50, 7:55, 8:00, 8:05…time was running out. I pull into Home Depot where all the lights were out and the employees were walking to their cars. They told us if we drove down to the other door and begged we might get lucky. So we sped down there and saw a woman manning the propane tanks. As we were getting closer we rolled down all the windows and started yelling, “propane, propane, propane, we need propane.” She said if we hurried we could get a tank and she asked us where our empty tank was. Everyone turned to me and I said: “I didn’t know I was supposed to bring the old tank.” The woman looked at me like I was crazy and explained the price difference to be about $40 between turning in your old tank or just getting a new tank. We had a decision to make and we had to make it fast. Maria stepped up to the plate and literally took charge. When we went in to pay for it, they didn’t even know how to ring up a new tank because who would be stupid enough to spend that much money on a propane tank? My fellow readers please understand that when you have over seven pounds of meat marinating in your fridge on the fourth of July, you have to make rash decisions.

As we drove back to my house, with a full tank of propane gas in the trunk, it was almost like being in a video game. We could hear illegal fireworks going off on the streets around us and we all joked about the dangers of toting around all this gas on the fourth of July. Yet we were relentless. I got out of the car, switched tanks and went to turn the grill on. Click, click, nothing. Hmmm…click, click, nothing. Not only had we run out of gas, my ignition had gone out as well. Normally I would just throw a match into the grill, but my grill can’t be that simple. There is no bottom and we couldn’t find the “match hole.” Not to mention Tim and I aren’t the bravest people in the world when it comes to throwing a match into propane fumes. I got on the phone with my father and over the next 20 minutes I talked to all three of my brothers as well for some advice. Conversations that went like this: “Ok David this used to be your grill…think where the match hole is. Can you imagine how you use to manually light this grill?” No luck. Tim and I tried everything. We waved fired around the whole grill, made small torches out of paper to stick in every possible hole, checked all the burners, checked the gas and did the same thing over and over again. Finally, sweaty and gross from frustration and humidity, we took a couple minutes to let the grill rest and decided to give it one more try and this time it worked. FIRE! You know that scene in Castaway when Tom Hanks is so frustrated from not being able to make fire and then when he does it he is so excited? Yeah, it was like that.

We started grilling at 9:30. There I was standing in the dark with my neighbors smoky fireworks surrounding me but I didn’t care. I didn’t care that I could hardly see my meat or that I could hardly breathe. I turned on my grilling sixth sense and went to work (see picture above of the darkness/smoke surrounding the steak and pork). Tim and I spent the next hour outside grilling bratwurst, burgers, steak, asian pork and hotdogs and we savored every minute of it along with a lot of cold beer and beer margaritas which we have decided will be our new signature drink. If you want the recipe, let me know because it was awesome and didn’t take nearly as long to make as the meat if you factor in the trip to Home Depot and the hour spent praying to my grill before we actually got it to light. I hope everyone had as much fun on Independence Day as we did!

Genetics

People tell me all the time I look like my mother. I inherited her nose and her eyes. I also inherited her wit and smartass personality. There is one thing, however I got from my father which may top all of those traits. I grill like my dad.

When I say I grill like my dad, I don’t just mean the way the meat tastes, I am including all of my mannerisms as well. From the way I marinade the meat, to the way I keep walking into the house yelling “ten more minutes” (when I actually have no idea how long it will really be because I time the meat on whether or not I need another beer), to they way I clean my plate after I throw the meat on the grill, to the way I talk to myself while I am grilling, to the way I believe you can grill out no matter the weather (snowing, raining, sunny, hail storms, etc…), to the way I think beer and cigarettes are as crucial as the tongs, I am truly my father’s daughter.

I think this all hit me last night when I walked into my apartment and yelled “ten more minutes”. The weird part was that I was the only one home.

All I Want For Valentines Day Is A New Oven

Had a great Valentine's Day but it would have been better if I didn't have an oven circa 1972. I decided to put a fun meal together consisting of beef florentine, stuffed mushrooms, rice pilaf and green beans with almonds (pictured), however the meat turned out to be tougher than expected. This would be due to the fact that 200-350 degrees on my oven is pretty much the same temperature so it is hard to gauge meat tenderness. For now on, I am only going to eat meat I can throw on my grill, whether it is supposed to be cooked that way or not.

Happy Holidays

I am looking forward to this three day weekend. Not just because I love three day weekends, but because it is my first Labor Day where I actually deserve a Labor Day Holiday. After this past week of crazy anecdotal stories provided from my job, I am ready for a little rest, relaxation and barbeque.

Damn That Rachel Ray

Oh, I may just be addicted. Addicted to Rachel Ray and her 30 minute meals on the Food Network. I love this show and it has inspired me to cook and create my own new dishes. In the past week I have made homemade chicken noodle soup, a big hearty vegetable and sausage lasagna and last night I made baby back ribs with red smashed potatoes prepared with garlic and herb cream cheese and baked barbeque sauce.

I can’t cook my meals in 30 minutes but let’s not kid ourselves, there is no way these meals can really be done in 30 minutes. She obviously cheats a little bit because everything is ready to go at the beginning of the show. My meals definitely take a lot longer than that. I tried to be a short order cook when I was in college and I couldn’t do it. I am just too damn slow and too easily distracted. Speaking of taking my time in the kitchen, it usually takes me two hours to make ribs and this weekend it took 24 hours.

On Saturday night I had planned on staying in, cooking ribs and going to bed early because I had to get up at 7 am on Sunday for work. Right after I finished boiling the ribs, there was a knock on the door and two of our friends showed up and then an hour later two more friends showed, and then an hour later another friend showed up. Next thing I know I am finding Tupperware for my ribs and potatoes as we are heading out to “the beer store” (as Karen called it) for a night of adventures that finally ended at 2:30 in the morning. The ribs actually turned out pretty well after sitting in the fridge all night, so that may be part of my new recipe. It will go something like this:

Boil ribs for 45 minutes in beer and water
Have friends come over and start drinking beer
Decide to go out and play air hockey
Put ribs in fridge over night
Pull ribs out 24 hours later and bake with sauce for 45 minutes
(This recipe calls for at least three friends)


Speaking of sauce, I made my own homemade sauce this weekend and it was great. I have been playing with a lot of different ingredients and I think I have found that one special ingredient: merlot. If all else fails, go with merlot. I find this helps with many situations in general, not just with cooking.