Keep It Simple Stupid

Sometimes you want simple
no fancy words
quick recipe
enough said !

Free Turkey Advice

Do you need some help with your turkey?
Mary Clingman, director of the Butterball Turkey Talk-Line, will lead 45-minute classes on turkey preparation. She will be teaching at two different locations on November 3. Both classes are free!


Location 1: Top Food and Drug 1301 Ave. D, Snohomish
Time: 10:30 a.m

Location 2: Haggen Food & Pharmacy, 8915 Market Place N.E., Lake Stevens
Time: 1:30 p.m

The classes are limited to the first 50 people to register at the guest services counter of each store or register by phone (Snohomish, 360-568-1395; Lake Stevens, 425-377-7100)
Class attendees will receive a $5 coupon toward the purchase of a Butterball turkey.

The Butterball Turkey Talk-Line will be open from Nov. 1-Dec. 25. U.S. and Canadian consumers with questions about preparing turkeys may call toll-free (800) BUTTERBALL – 1-800-288-8372. Bilingual English/Spanish support is available.

More about turkey talk line

Amateur Gourmet Almost Gives Up Restaurant Reviews

The Amateur Gourmet has taken some new turns lately. A new book, an improved website. Fame is the name of the game.

I am an avid reader of his blog
for a really long time so I feel like I am part of his blossoming process into a real time
writer. Too much credit for myself, possibly. Don't forget that it's the little people that count.
I really enjoyed his post about restaurant reviews. He mentions his inner conflicts about how much to write and how critical he can be. He suddenly has to be careful not to ruin any of his contacts.
He now knows what it's like to be criticized. It's so easy to ruin someones business with a few innocent words. It's also easy to lose readers of your own when you are not sharing all the information you know.
Read the comments to the post as well. They tell you a lot about what his audience likes.

What do you think? To write or not to write?

Churro- Dunkable doughnuts

Thought I would check in and say hi. I have been busy in brideland. The last week before the wedding is the most stressful and all I can think about is the wedding.
Every time I go out to eat, I remember a wedding invitation that I once saw.
The bride has been living on lettuce for 3 months. The least you can do is come to the
wedding. I am not one of those, I had chocolate today. I swear. I don't have
bridearexia.
Two days away from the big day.
I just realized that there will be no churros at my wedding. This was one of the options on the tasting menu but I was scared that people would want desserts that are more chocolaty and less fried. I thought I would post the picture. Just in case someone has never heard of these crunchy, dunkable doughnuts. Please add this to your food repertoire.

My Wedding Dinner

My Wedding Food Tasting
Finally the wedding is getting closer....less than two weeks to be precise. Yesterday, I went for the second tasting before the wedding. The food will be served Asado, which is a kind of Argentinean barbecue. Asado is the name for grilled beef. The waiters will come to the table with the beef on sticks. They will slice the meat hot and serve it directly to the guests.
There will be five different types of beef. There were chorizo sausages on the menu
but some of my family members had a problem with the idea of sausages being served at a wedding

As for the salads, I had to choose six salads out of so many. I chose cherry tomatoes,
wild mushrooms, a salad with a lemony vinaigrette, spicy coleslaw, cucumbers with a creamy sauce and grilled eggplant with tehini sauce. All I know is that I didn't choose the beets or the sweet potatoes because most people I know have a problem with beets and there are thick fried potatoes in the stations at the beginning.
I am not going to go through the whole menu because I can't remember most of the stuff from the stations and the hors d'oevres are a blur to me.

All I know is that people will need to be hauled out of the hall with such heavy food. I was thinking of putting warnings on the tables: Warning: more meat to come. Do not keep eating.

Are All Sausages the Same?

We tasted all the wedding food today. I got to pick and choose what I like. Details
to come( I need to download the pics). My future mother in- law had a bit of a fit when she found out that they want to put chorizo sausages on the menu?
No weiners on my menu! No way! No how! I thought it was cute. She called them weiners. To her, a weiner is a weiner even if it is spicy and delicious.
I wasn't about to argue. I could live without the damn sausage.
No pun intended. Really!

Who Let the Lettuce Out?

Yes, the lettuce is not here. Not in my salad. Only tomatoes, cucumbers, onions
olive oil, lemon juice and salt. All cut into teeny weeny squares.
Now this is a salad!

Halva Heaven Dessert

This is a dessert that I witnessed a friend of the family create 5 minutes after dinner. Since I was already a witness, she had to give me the recipe.

Halva Heaven Dessert(only for people who love the taste of halva)

Ingredients:

Ice cream
pistachios(toasted)
halva(the kind that comes in chunks)
tahini
date syrup(honey would probably work too, date syrup is hard to find)

1. Scoop ice cream into clear bowl
2. Break up halva and sprinkle generous amounts onto ice cream.
3. Drizzle about 2 tablespoons of tahini on the ice cream.
4. Drizzle date syrup on the ice cream.
5. Repeat with 2 more tablespoons of tahini and date syrup. Cover with pistachios.


Note:

She only gave me the list of ingredients and I wasn't able to guess amounts.
Most of the ingredients can be found in a Middle Eastern store such as Byblos Deli.

Rockfour Music Tour

I know that this is a food blog but once in a while I can sway away from the main topic if there is some correlation with food. Rockfour, is not the cheese but an uber talented band all the way from Tel-Aviv. Their songs are in English and they are touring the U.S in October. Unfortunately, they will not be coming to Seattle.
To hear their music and see where their touring, click here
Check them out and tell me what you think?