Mrs Duck and I went out to dinner at our favorite steak place Friday night. And while we are finishing up our excellent Longhorn dinner, this song blared over the speakers. I had never heard it before, though Jennifer Nettles has such a distinct voice, you knew it was Sugarland. And it was beautiful.
I had an early day from work today. Mostly because I am going to have to work Saturday and with our new system, we can no longer fiddle with the time sheets.
So, I took advantage of the day by going to the doctors, getting a prescription and then shuffling off to the closest supermarket, Acme. Big Mistake!
Things went well early on, until I got to the Deli section. It was a mob scene on a Thursday, which is not normal. So, I had a choice, grab some ham and cheese from the Oscar Mayer counter, or wait in line. I went with the Oscar Mayer, as opposed to losing 20 minutes of my life. Overpriced does not equal Xbox time.
Dammit Acme, you are already more expensive, please do not allow your staffing to become a Genaurdi's!
That's what tonights meal is. Cooking can be so much fun, experimenting with things, so figs are the main ingredient tonight. Unfortunately, no fig newtons for dessert.
But, our appetizer comes from the Martha Stewart clone, Sandra Lee.
Prosciutto Wrapped Figs
4 large whole figs (or 16 small mission figs), quartered
Goat cheese
1 (3-ounce) package prosciutto
3 tablespoons honey
1/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper; set aside.
Cut a small hole in the center of the flesh of each fig. Fill each hole with 1/4 teaspoon of goat cheese.
Take a prosciutto slice and tear in half. Use 1 half to diagonally wrap around the fig, starting from the top. Tuck underneath at the ends. Repeat until all figs are wrapped. (Secure with toothpicks if necessary.) Place wrapped figs on prepared baking sheet, evenly spaced.
In a small bowl, combine honey and pumpkin pie spice. Drizzle honey evenly over each fig.
Place in the oven on the top rack and roast for 8 to 10 minutes. Remove and serve immediately.
And, the old favorite from Dragon's Kitchen, combined with Montalcino Gnocchi with Rachel Ray.
Yes, I said Chocolate Covered Bacon!!! How bad could that be? Famous Dave's is my favorite chain barbeque place to get ribs. Though I admit that there are other down home places that are better, FD is everywhere and suckling good.
At the Minnesota State fair, Famous Dave's put out a recipe for Chocolate Covered Bacon (yes Bacon!!) that is all the rage now in Minnesota and California. This sounds like the yummiest thing ever. Sweet and salty and nothing with bacon ever tastes bad.
Well, if you had under 3 hours in the how long it would take me to get annoyed at work over/under game, you won.
So, in an effort to try and still capture the trip down to Hilton Head and savor the feeling that is vacation, lets try and review a few of the days.
Delta is quickly becoming one of my favorite airlines. They were friendly, on time and actually kind of a pleasure to fly on. Yes, I know its amazing. So once we finally arrived via a connection in Atlanta, we got picked up at the Savannah airport by Subway. It took Doc a little while to get out of work, which was probably a good thing since Mrs Duck and I did need some time to decompress.
Then it was off to walk on the beach. Now, the Hilton Head beach is not as tropical as Florida or Hawaii, but when you have been dealing with the 50 degree weather of Philadelphia, it hit the spot. Though dinner that night at Turtles did not exactly hit the spot, since I got like little mini BBQ sandwiches. I could have eaten 2 orders and still have been hungry.
Friday, it was back to the beach. One complaint about Subway and Doc's house was that the bed was uncomfortable and the pillows were even worse, so being up at 7:30 was not a surprise. Folly Beach was on the agenda for the day, and while it was breezy at the shore, it was still fantastic lay out on the beach weather. Though the weather was ice cold. Subway and Doc were brave enough to dip there toes in the water, and that was about as brave as any of the 4 of us could get.
Dinner was at Shrimp Michaels and it was fanatastic, though danged expensive. I had soft shell crabs, which is a treat because they do not get up past the Delaware River. Dessert also easily topped the soft shell crabs.
In our next review, its golf and more golf. I know you are all so jealous.
Mrs Duck had her girlfriends brunch this past weekend at Chez Duck. You can tell that these girls are losing some of there steam, I remember when I first dated my future wife, these girls outings were girl's nights in Center City. Then they shifted to dinners out at your TGI Fridays and Ruby Tuesdays and now they are brunches at different houses.
Mrs Duck did most of the cooking, I did pitch in here and there. But I did just want to watch football and avoid all the husband bashing. But, one of the things I did whip up was a crowd favorite. It just needs a better name then the one I found it with on the internet. Thanks to Recipezaar.
Amazing White Trash Puff Balls
1 package hormel sliced pepperoni (or any brand)
1 package cream cheese
2 packages Pillsbury Refrigerated Crescent Dinner Rolls
1. Take out the crescent rolls, and seperate into the individual triangles.
2. Flatten each triangle and slice it so that it becomes three small triangles.
3. Dice or chop your pepperoni into tiny, tiny pieces.
4. Mix the pepperoni into the cream cheese, stir very well so all of the pepperoni pieces are mixed into the cream cheese.
5. Take a little spoonful of your cream cheese/pepperoni mixture and put it in the middle of one of your crescent rolls triangles.
6. Pinch up all of the sides around the filling.
7. Repeat and place them all on a cookie sheet.
8. Bake for the amount of time stated on the crescent rolls (usually 11 minutes at 350) Let cool for a few minutes before serving!
I love to cook, everyone that reads this little blog knows that. And I search the web all the time for recipes.
Recipezaar is one place where I get alot of good ideas. There are thousands of recipes there, including ones that you can cook camping, not that I am going to go camping anytime soon. Also, Dragon's Kitchen is great for some original recipes, including her famous Sausage and Potato Gnocchi.
I also wander over to Bleeding Espresso on Wednesdays. She is an American living in Italy and while I often have to convert her recipes from the metric system so I can make them, they are always so freaking tasty. I figured I would share what we will be enjoying tonight, so you will know what I am doing at 7 pm. I am hoping Sognatrice does not mind that I am sharing, but it is also getting her recipes more notice, which is a good thing, no?
Pasta all'Amatriciana
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 small onion, diced
1 garlic clove, diced
100 grams pancetta arrotolata,
unrolled and cut into bite-sized chunks
1 tablespoon freshly chopped parsley
1 can peeled tomatoes
500 grams penne pasta
water and salt to boil pasta
grated pecorino romano cheese to garnish
First put on the water to boil for the pasta, and then chop all your ingredients as described above.
Put olive oil in skillet and heat on medium. Add pancetta, and let cook for about five minutes, until the pancetta renders its fat. I know, yum, right?
Then add the onions and cook until translucent. Add garlic and parsley and let cook for another minute or so.
At this point, your water should be boiling, and you can add salt and the pasta to the water (or do this whenever your water *is* boiling after this point).
Now add the tomatoes to the skillet. You can run them through a grinder or roughly chop them first depending on how you like them. You can also add some of the pasta water to thin out the sauce a bit; I usually use about 1/4 cup.
Let the sauce simmer for about 1o minutes or until the tomatoes taste done to you. You can add salt, but do so sparingly because the pancetta is salty and you've also added salted pasta water.
When the pasta is just short of al dente, remove, strain, and combine well with the completely cooked sauce, still over medium heat.
Once the pasta has absorbed some of the sauce and become fully al dente, remove and serve immediately. Garnish with grated pecorino romano cheese.
A note: Don't worry if your timing isn't exact the first time you make this--it'll get easier the more you make it, which is only more incentive to keep pancetta in your fridge.
We do not really consider this to be last minute, its more like we like to go out and make all of our decisions carefully. Plus, I am hoping a Tuesday night before Thanksgiving will be alot better then the weekend before Thanksgiving, because that was a nightmare.
So, what do you all do with your turkeys. I know I can just put some herbs on the skin and then butter underneath, but since it will just be the two of us this Turkey Day, I figure I could try something a little bit different. Mrs Duck is adventurous enough.
So, give me some recipe hints for your bird. Send me some ideas for your stuffing. The veggies gotta be something that someone allows there inner Paula Deen out for. Share share share.
Plus, if you do my shopping list, I will have more time to try and get the last minute gifts for Mrs Duck, whose birthday is Saturday.
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A couple of weeks back, the Rutgers Football team put a thumping on the Naval Academy. The game was known for Ray Rice becoming the all time leading rusher in school history, and it was also known for the awful behavior of the Rutgers student section. Now, I do not condone harsh words and a spew of obscene gestures at the opposing team, though a little booing here or there is acceptable in any sporting event, even if the opponent is the one of the service academies. Now, a BullS**T chant at a referee, thats all fun and games. But, I felt the need to defend my state, because every single person that is a fan in NJ is being painted with the same brush, awful loutish people. Now, I know a list will do nothing to change peoples opinions, but maybe if I tell everyone about all the great things they get from the Garden State (yes besides a bad smell, ha ha) it will help a little to improve our image. 1.Bosco Chocolate Syrup-Ok, its no Hershey's but its gotta be better then Ovaltine. 2.Campbells Soup-2 Billion soup cans a year can't be wrong. 3.Creative Products-All those great Seen on TV products, including the Bacon Wave and Blu Blocker Sun Glasses 4.Ecko Apparel-I have no idea, I don't wear his stuff, but I have heard of it. 5.Goya-The only brand of canned adobo chiles I can find. 6.Flying Fish Beer-This could be a recurring theme, since there seems to be alot of alcohol leaning beverages from NJ, but Flying Fish is one of my favorites. 7.Johnson & Johnson-Ok, not every product Johnson and Johnson makes come from NJ, but all of the money does. 8.Honeywell-They produce many products that are found in the home that I am sure you had no idea Honeywell made, just like me. Some them include thermostats, dampers fro furnaces and Jet Engines 9.Ingersoll-Rand-a manufacturing company that creates bobcats and other earth movers. But also makes Golf Carts! 10.Maidenform-Bras, ladies, Bras. 11.Toys R Us-Let me know how much you hate NJ for spawning this company at the holiday season when you can't find anything. 12.NFL Films-Have you ever settled down to watch some highlights of the great Steelers teams of the 70s? Chance are its an NFL Films production 13.Tabatchnik Fine Foods-The best split pea soup in a supermarket. Links to other Thursday Thirteens! 1. (leave your link in comments, I’ll add you here!) |
I have been devoting some time now to the Consumerist. Not only do they let you know about some good deals, but they also give you a peek at the ninnies that are running corporations right now. One of there posts yesterday talked about sugar, and how avoiding unnecessary sugar can make you healthier.
In fact, there are at least 30 different variations of sugar on nutrition lists.
Brown-rice syrup
Corn sweetener
Corn syrup, or corn syrup solids
Cane Juice
Dehydrated cane juice
Dextrin
Dextrose
Fructose
Fruit juice concentrate
Glucose
High-fructose corn syrup
Honey
Invert sugar
Lactose
Maltodextrin
Malt syrup
Maltose
Mannitol
Maple syrup
Molasses
Raw sugar
Rice Syrup
Saccharose
Sorbitol
Sorghum or sorghum syrup
Sucrose
Syrup
Treacle
Turbinado Sugar
Xylose
Wow, I can not believe this is the 52nd week. Well I actually can believe it, Im just saying.
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Now, while these recipes are no where near as good as what is being cranked out by Dragon's Kitchen, when there are over 244,000 recipes, something has to be good. So, from Recipezaar, here are my Thirteen Favorite Recipes. 1.Chicago Style Hotdogs-Though I did not use Vienna Franks, they have always kinda skeeved me out. 2.Emeril's Lobster Cheesecake-Filling as all get out, even if you use imitation Lobster. 3.Fannie Farmers Classic Baked Macaroni and Cheese-Want Creamy, Use Velveeta 4.McDonald's Shamrock Shake-Get Passed the green color and its great. 5.Tangier Island Baked Crab-I liked it, tasted like a big crabcake, Mrs Duck did not like the consistency. Use 2 eggs not 1. 6.Crab Rangoons-Delicious and easy. 7.Kung Pao Chicken-Anything with peanuts, I am all over! 8.Moroccan Chicken-I mentioned this one in Twitter, so I just had to share. 9.Shrimpin Dippin Broth-This was a great recipe for when Mrs Duck was just eating clears. 10.Smoky Mountain Chicken-Fantastic 11.PF Changs Chicken Lettuce Wraps-This is one of Mrs Duck's Favorites and also it can be like a salad, just serve over shredded lettuce. 12.Garlic Beef Enchiladas-When the recipe reviews say they take forever, they are not kidding, but it is one of my favorite recipes on this site. 13.Singapore Street Noodles-When Mrs Duck took her leftovers to work, I got 6 requests for the recipe. One Bonus-A few weeks ago I mention Jack in The Box and I got some questions about there tacos, and this is what I found. Hungry yet? Damn Im starving! Links to other Thursday Thirteens! 1. (leave your link in comments, I’ll add you here!) |
We traveled down to South Philly for the capper on the golf, football, relatives Friday. Villa Di Roma was the choice and if you are ever in South Philadelphia it is certainly some place you should add to your eating list. It is one of those restaurants thats screams authentic. You are looking out for one of the Sopranos to walk in the door while you wait for your table. In fact, it is apparently in the same vicinity of where Philip "The Chicken Man" Testa was blown up by a nail bomb sent to his row home. Yep, that kind of authentic.
But the good thing about that kind of restaurant is that the pasta is cooked fresh, the sausages are homemade and the prices are fair and kind of cheap. For drinks and a lovely filling italian dinner, it was only about $55 per couple. And that is including homemade cannolis. It is one of those restaurants that you would think you would see in Lady and the Tramp, though not as schmaltzy Italian. One drawback is the cash only policy, but it also should not be too surprising.
Now, this would be an extremely boring post if I did not have something else to it but a foodie review. Or at least, you would think I was in Villa Di Roma's pocket. I do want to stress that what I witnessed next had nothing to do with the restaurant at all.
We were walking back to the car, another slight complaint about South Philly, not alot of parking. And as we walked we passed a wide variety of shops, most closed. One of the shops was a well known butcher and gourmet food establishment in Philadelphia and I am not talking about Wawa. Well, there lights were still on inside and Tin Man, who was lagging a bit behind the rest of the group said something along the lines of "hmm will you look at that." I am the kinda guy who will always have my feathers perked by a statement like that and so I doubled back. Inside the store, amongst the food and such were not one but two mice running around there floor. I am not going to say they were rats, but I am also not going to call them sweet little field mice. They were healthy city mice, running amongst the grains and rice and pasta and who knows what. I still feel my stomach flipping a little bit now in thought about it. I know this can happen all the time in the city, but I am much better at being oblivious then actually seeing the evidence with my own eyes. Yick!
Rhian had this quiz over on her site and of course I just had to take it. Dammit if it did not read the whole my life on the inside thing. I think I may need therapy.
You're Mrs. Dalloway!
by Virginia Woolf
Your life seems utterly bland and normal to the casual observer, but
inside you are churning with a million tensions and worries. The company you surround
yourself with may be shallow, but their effects upon your reality are tremendously deep.
To stay above water, you must try to act like nothing's wrong, but you know that the
truth is catching up with you. You're not crazy, you're just a little unwell. But no
doctor can help you now.
Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.
| You Are Smores |
 Unusual and unconventional, you make your strange ways work for you. You've got personality - no one's denying that! |
| Your Mind is PG-13 Rated |
 Your mind is definitely a little dirty. You're naughty, but not trashy. You don't shy away from a dirty joke, and you're clearly not a prude. |
For the times when I got nothing to say. Or at least am to lazy to type that I have nothing to say.
| You Should Spend Your Summer at the Beach |
 You're a free spirit who is always thinking of new ways to have fun. And you don't just love summer... you live for it. So, you really should blow off your responsibilities and head to the beach! |
You are a Social Justice Crusader, also known as a rights activist. You believe in equality, fairness, and preventing neo-Confederate conservative troglodytes from rolling back fifty years of civil rights gains.
Take the quiz at www.FightConservatives.com
| What Your Pizza Reveals |
 You have a hearty appetite. You are likely to complain if a restaurant has small portions. You aren't particularly picky about pizza. It's so good... how could you be? You fit in best in the Western part of the US. You like food that's traditional and well crafted. You aren't impressed with "gourmet" foods. You are dependable, loyal, and conservative with your choices. You are definitely unique and artistically inclined. You should consider traveling to Prague. The stereotype that best fits you is guy or girl next door. Hey, there's nothing wrong with being average. |
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I do enjoy my Fast Food. The last few Wednesdays or so, Mrs Duck has been going out to spend time with friends, leaving me on my own for dinner. I have been using that opportunity to get my Fast Food fix. But, the choices around here kinda suck. Here's 13 Fast Food joints I wish were in my area. 1.Whataburger-I had these on my first trip to Arizona, and there was just something different about them. Maybe bigger, or a different make up, but they were tasty, though not as tasty as... 2.In N Out-The Best damn burgers, hands down end of discussion. A West Coast institution. If they ever moved this way, we would both probably be there every week. 3.Sonic-No Sonic here either, I think the closest is out by Penn State. There food does not look overally appetizing on the commercials, but there drinks and shakes just make the mouth sort of water. 4.Hardees/Carl Jrs-Any place with this kind of commercial will get my business at least once! And Hardees always had some excellent biscuits. 5.Geno's-One of my first memories is stopping on the way to the house that I would grow up in and getting a bucket of Geno's chicken the night we moved in. It was the first meal in the new house at it was at like 10:30 at night, a treat for an 8 year old. 6.Jake's Burgers-A University of Delaware institution. Not exactly a fast food because the burgers would need to be called in for ahead of time to be fast, but what great burgers, especially for a college student budget. 7.White Castle-Mmmm sliders. So good, so cheap, so filling. So quick to get through the digestive system. 8.Chipolte-Another discovery when the folks lived in Arizona. A giant dinner for under $5. I mean huge burritos! I would have trouble finishing one, and that says a lot for a healthy eater like myself. 9.Jack in the Box-We used to have them out here on the East Coast, until they had that whole E Coli scare that nearly put em out of business. But, now we don't get to eat Clown Burgers, nor see the funny commercials. 10.Roy Rogers-We used to have one of the last Roy Rogers in existence at my local New Jersey mall. It survived because the mall did not have a food court and needed to have a burger place for its patrons. Who didn't love the fixings bar, BBQ on there fries and some fine fried chicken. Well, i do know the Senior Citizens did since they always seemed to fill the place. 11.Baja Fresh-sometimes you are in the mood for some Mexican, but without all the fat fried taste of Taco Bell. Ok, that does not happen for me much, since I love Taco Bell, but sometimes you wanna think you were eating healthy. For that, Baja Fresh was one of the best options. 12.Pei Wei-Fast Food of the asian variety that did not taste like fast food at all. Another favorite stop of Tex's when they lived in Arizona, because he could feed 4 and not break the bank. Love there noodles. 13.Coffee People-An old Oregon hippy institution, that served some of the best coffee. And it was one of the first coffee drive ups that I could recall being around, at least before Dunkin Donuts had a drive up. Its since been bought out by Starbucks and I think most of the Portland chains are gone. I am glad I missed the demise, because they had some fine coffee. Links to other Thursday Thirteens! 1. (leave your link in comments, I’ll add you here!) |
Ahh yes, Wawa, a staple of the Delaware Valley. It portrays it self like a 7-11 on the outside, but on the inside, it is something else entirely. You can get coffee that is brewed fresh every 20 minutes or so and you don't need to have a Tall, Short, Soy mind to it. The sandwiches are fresh made and if you are in a jam for a party, you can get a couple of giant hoagies. The stores are almost always well lit and the people are almost always friendly. Its like a little convenience store nirvana. Now, if they could just find a way to get those giant red bull big gulps that I have seen out in Arizona, it might actually be a little piece of nirvana. Now, I don't mind my local 7-11, he always has my smokes for me at the ready, but for overall presentation, its Wawa!
Ask a native Philadelphian where the best cheese steak is and you will surely get a wide variety of answers. Heck in this household, if you ask Mrs Duck, she will say Steve's and if you asked me, I would vote for Chinks in the Northeast. But what do I know I am from Jersey, originally.
The cheese steak, known as a Philly cheese steak everywhere else is one of the culinary delights that Philadelphia is known for. You can get one almost everywhere, but you can only get a good one certain places. I remember when I first started dating Mrs Duck, I ordered one at a diner when out with her parents and I thought there eyes would fall out of there head. When I said a Cheese Steak is a Cheese Steak, I though the diner would collapse.
There are two very well known Cheesesteak places in Philadelphia, Geno's and Pat's. Pat's is said to be the first originator of the steak sandwich in 1930, though Geno's claims to be the first to put cheese on the sandwich. They are rivals, in fact the two shops are right across the street from each other.
And when it comes to the cheese steak, you can order a sandwich like so
"whiz with" means cheese whiz and onions on your sandwich
"provolone without" means provolone cheese and no onions.
And if you ever go to either of these establishments, don't delay, because you will get nasty looks and run over by the people behind you. You are there for cheese steaks, no reason to look at the menu.
On a seperate note, another contest coming soon...
