Whats For Dinner?

So, I picked up a pork roast at the store yesterday. I had planned on cooking it today but with the snow and all, I never got around to it.

I saw this great recipe but I probably won’t try it this time because it takes a long time to cook and there is a basketball game tomorrow. Basically, you dry rub it with a lot of spicy things. Then you wrap bacon slices around it. Roast it at 350 degrees for like 2 hours. Then you make a sauce with mustard and vinegar and a few other things  that you put on the roast for the last 20 to 30 minutes of cooking.

I’ll probably end up cooking it in the crockpot and then I’ll make like pulled pork sandwiches with it. I’ll have to stop and get some rolls if I want to make sandwiches. It sounds like a plan.

Do you watch this show on the Travel Channel? It’s the one with Andrew Zimmern who travels the world eating the nastiest food on the planet.

Many people complain that it bothers them when Zimmern talks with food in his mouth. I never really noticed until somebody pointed it out to me and then I couldn’t stop focusing on it.

In all the episodes that I have watched, I’ve only seen him not eat one thing. He couldn’t eat the stinky tofu that was fermented in an attic of a restaurant somewhere in Asia (I can’t remember exactly where).

He eats a lot of bugs, scorpions, snakes, and other disgusting, nasty things. The other night he was in a “restaurant” that was actually in someone’s kitchen. He eats in a lot of outdoor markets around the world. I wonder if he ever got food poisoning. He must have somewhere a long the way.

It’s like a train wreck of a show where you get totally grossed out but you can’t stop watching it.

I cooked tonight! All we had was a basketball game today and now the girls play the first game so we were home before 4:30PM.

I made pork chops using Shake N Bake barbeque glaze. I also made mashed potatoes, from a box of course. I also made a salad. It’s usually so tough to get good salad ingredients in my area in the winter but things looked good this week.

Ultimately, I’d like to have the kids eat more vegetables but it just doesn’t seem to happen. The little one won’t eat mashed potatoes but likes salad. Since salad is so much better for you than mashed potatoes, I’m OK with it.

Then, they actually made some dessert tonight. For Christmas, I got an ice cream maker and they made chocolate frozen yogurt. It was the first time we strayed away from basic vanilla ice cream.

I was so worn out by making dinner, I didn’t wash the pans or the ice cream maker yet. I’ll do that tomorrow. Hey, you can’t have everything.

Well, it’s was a long weekend here and I didn’t do too well cooking dinner. Friday night we got Chinese take-out food. It’s so good but it makes me so thirsty. I had the chow mein sandwich that I talked about the other day.

Saturday, we had a late lunch out (hot dogs and fries) and I really didn’t feel like any dinner. I made the others what they wanted and one kid went out to dinner with a friend’s family.

Sunday, another daughter had a friend sleep over so we ended up getting pizza for dinner. I feel like all we’ve been eating is pizza lately.

Last night, I made Schezuan chicken (from a packet) but I had to make other things for the kids because they won’t eat it because it’s too spicy. It was good though.

Tonight was Hamburger Helper with ground turkey instead of ground beef. Tomorrow is a very busy night so I really don’t know what will happen. Thursday I hope to make a roast beef with real mashed potatoes, but we’ll see what happens.

A friend of mine posted on a message board today that she had finally bought new dishes. It got me to thinking about dishes. The set I have, I love them, but they are over 16 years old.

I have a lot of the serving pieces that came with the set that have hardly been used. The dishes that get used every day are looking pretty shabby but most of the other pieces still look good.

But, I think if I were ever to buy a new set, I’d get Fiestaware. I really like the bright colors. It’s too bad they got rid of the Betty Crocker catalog because you could get real good deals from them.

It’s strange that something in your house that you use every day, you think so little about. Well, that’s unless you haven’t washed dishes in a while and you need a clean one to have dinner on.

If you could have one meal prepared just for you by the best chefs, what would it be?

I know what mine would be: Surf and Turf, which would consist of prime rib and lobster (but I’d just probably eat the tail). I’d have a huge baked potato with butter and sour cream. I guess, if I had to have a vegetable, I’d have some salad. There would have to be a dinner roll that’s crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside. I’ve been to restaurants that have honey butter for it’s rolls.

If I had to have dessert, I’d probably have a piece of lemon merangue pie. I might not eat all the crust either.

Obviously, I didn’t come up with this meal off the top of my head. It’s something that I’ve thought long and hard about. It would be perfect.

We got Chinese take out tonight. I almost always get a chow mein sandwich. I think it’s one of those strange items that came from something else and found only in the area where I live.

The sandwich comes on a hamburger bun although you cannot pick it up. On top of the bottom bun is the crunchy noodles which is topped with the sauce. Hopefully I get a lot of really soft celery and onions. There is ground pork in the sauce too. Then the top bun sits on top.

When I eat one, I take off the top bun and eat it. It usually has some of the components stuck to it. I put a little cider vinegar on top to spice it up a little. You really have to eat this with a fork. It’s a nice surprise when you get to the bottom roll and it’s so soaked with the sauce.

Most places I go, these sandwiches are inexpensive at $2 to $3. I worked one place that had a lunch truck come. You had to order the sandwich ahead of time or he wouldn’t have any left by the time he got to us. He usually only had them on Fridays.

It grosses out my family when I eat it. They call it the worm sandwich but I don’t care. It’s one of my favorites and no one is going to change my mind.

This week is the coldest week in like 4 years in the northeast. School was cancelled today and we never left the house. Actually, I went to the mailbox and it was freezing out.

I really should have cooked something in the crock pot but I didn’t. So, I let everyone have their choice for dinner. Two people had soup, actually 1 was ramen noodle soup. One had a frozen pizza. I gotta love the frozen pizzas that I can get for a buck and take 3 minutes in the microwave.

One had Eggo Mini Muffin Tops which are all the rage with the kids today. They actually smell like cake when they are cooking.

I had oatmeal. I used 2 envelopes of instant oatmeal with raisins in it. It warmed me up so much. It was so good. It’ll stick with me all night.

Tomorrow is supposed to be even colder than today. I’d really like to get things cooking early tomorrow and make something nice and warm since the temperature won’t get over 12 degrees.

I was searching for something to post about today. I know, I do it every day. Today I was looking for newest dinner crazes. I didn’t find too much, just a lot of diet stuff.

One thing I did find was the concept of eating in complete darkness. This was at a restaurant but I think it would be too weird for me but the concept behind it was quite interesting.

The whole concept is that you don’t get to see the food. You have to rely on other senses to experience the food. The smells and the textures are the 2 most important senses involved. How many times have you heard kids say “I’m not eating that” just by the looks of it.

Of course, there are obstacles to eating in the dark. You’d have to have everything already in bite sized pieces before serving. You shouldn’t trust anyone with a knife in the dark.

Although I might like to try this at home, I definately would not go to a restaurant that’s completely dark. There really isn’t much left new to do with food, you have to come up with interesting ways to serve it.

If you read yesterday’s post, you know how I mentioned that more people are trying to save money by cooking more at home. If you didn’t see it, scroll down and then come back to finish reading this post.

I’m sitting here watching television (Bruins beat the Canadians tonight, YEAH) and all the commercials are for take out food. I don’t know how many times I’ve seen Papa John tonight. He’s trying to give away some dessert thing now.

Then there was the Quiznos commercial where they claim that they have lowered their prices on their subs. Then some guy at the end says, “now you’ll have more money for the $12 coffees”.

Then, of course, there’s the “$5 footlong” commercials. Even the kids sing along to those they are on so much. They even have a blooper commercial out now. People love the bloopers.

If your one of the ones trying to cook more at home to save money, ignore the commercials. Don’t let them suck you in. Cook your own dinner and save the take out for a treat once in a while. I can’t expect you to cook every day.