Thanksgiving is less than a week away, which is a story in itself as I have no idea where the year went.  But I thought I would post a mashed potato recipe.  As with most of my recipes it’s not technically a recipe, it’s more here are some things I put in a bowl, when the amounts are right it’s really tasty.  I honestly never measure anything when I make mashed potatoes so I wouldn’t feel comfortable giving measurements.  I’ll try to guesstimate though.

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I made chili for the first time last night, and it was delicious.  I didn’t follow a specific recipe but I did base it from what I recalled was in one of my friend’s parent’s recipes. Read more…

I spent tonight sitting in front the TV watching the Democratic National Convention, Following Twitter, and eating Kettle corn popcorn.  I’ll leave the political analysis to the experts.  But I do want to recommend twitter to anyone who wants to follow the convention online and don’t want to jump from blog to blog.  Ton’s of good content there.

Anyway here is my recipe for Kettle corn.  It’s easy and tastes just like the stuff you get at the Fair.

I use a 6 quart saucepan to pop popcorn, use whatever size you want but know I screwed up 3 times in a row trying to make this previously and burned the sugar to the bottom of the pain.  So don’t use your best pan.

• Add just enough oil to the bottom of the pan to 1/2 cover a layer of popcorn.
• Add 1/2 cup of popcorn and about 3-4 tablespoons of white sugar and shake or stir
• Cover and turn the heat on medium high to high
• Shake frequently about once every thirty seconds to keep contents from burning
• Once the kernels start to pop, shake once or twice more and then wait until popping stops
• Dump in to bowl, add a bit of salt if you would like and enjoy.

When I was in Montana last week, my family and I went to The Garage in Bozeman, MT.  No website, so you will just have to trust me when I say it exists.  The Garage is  a soup and burger joint located just off main street.  Apparently it’s usually busy, and on the night we went it wasn’t full but it was busy for a Tuesday.  There was plenty of patio seating which made the experience great, unfortunately the sun was directly in my eyes for the first 15 minutes or so, they did have some shade, but the sun was peaking through at first.

The first thing that stood out was the menus.  The design itself wasn’t phenomenal, but they came bound to state licenses plates.  This is a great touch.  Not overwhelming, but unique enough to be remember on a future hungry night.

Their food was pretty good.  I had a burger that was topped with spinach, bacon, and swiss cheese.  It was excellent, not as good as a Five Guys burger, but still excellent.  The best part of the meal was their coleslaw.  Normally I’m hesitant to order coleslaw, but decided to take the risk.  It was well worth it, the coleslaw was cabbage, red onion, and I believe sesame seeds.  The dressing was great, it was oil based and really tasty.  My brother ordered the fries, and it they were pretty good, but nothing to crow about.

On great thing about Montana is most restaurants have a large beer selection.  The Garage was no different, having a good selection of local and national brews to choose from.  I opted for a Skinny Dip from the New Belgium brewery in Colorado and it went well with my meal.

Their soup selection appears to be what they are known for locally.  Unfortunatly it was a hot day and I opted to skip the soup.  They have a soup bar during the winter months and I hope to be able to return in December and give it a try.

When I went grocery shopping on Thursday, I needed some tea.  I was not at my usual Cub, I had to go to Office Max so I ended up at the Apple Valley Cub.  Unlike my normal store, they sell bulk tea there.  I compared  the prices and realized I needed to buy my tea in bulk from now on.  It was on sale for 99 center per ounce, most bagged tea wasn’t even 1 oz total weight and cost around 3-4 dollars.

I purchased a couple of different varieties.  I bought some mint green tea.  I love green tea and I had bought some Bigelow mint green tea recently and found it really refreshing.  But the tea that I’m falling in love with is the summer peach tea.  It is phenomenal, refreshing yet the tea flavor is very evident under the peach.  It makes great iced tea.  It seems to have a pretty high caffeine content for tea though, so be aware.

Cameron’s Coffee - Bulk Teas

I was craving tacos on Wednesday, which is my weekly grocery day.  It happened to be that my grocery store has shrimp on sale for a reasonable price so I decided to make tacos using shrimp.  This is the recipe that I came up with.

I serve these cold, but you could definitely heat up the shrimp and beans. They are super easy and helped me up my protein intake, which was really causing problems for me.

• Flat Out Wraps - I like these due to their high fiber content
• Cooked Shrimp - Any size will do, I like smaller sized shrimp as I feel like you get more per serving
• Black Beans - I would recommend preparing them yourself if you have the time and inclination
• Salsa
• Spinach - Lettuce will work to, but spinach just has so much more nutritional value
• Lime Wedges
• Sour Cream
• Cheese - I use sharp cheddar as it requires less to achieve the right flavor

They are very simple, I season the shrimp with cajun spice and assemble the tacos.  Before rolling I squeeze the lime wedge over the top, this really helps bring out the flavors of the beans and spice.  I use full flavor sour cream and just use a small amount, you could omit it but I have a weakness for sour cream.

I started the summer weighing185, and now weigh 172.  Three simple steps that have made a big difference in how I feel.

1. No processed sugar; no soda, no candy, no high fructose corn syrup.
2. No white bread, only whole grain high fiber bread
3. Eat Yogurt, stick with plain yogurt and add fresh or frozen fruit

Of course exercise is important to but those three things have definitely made a difference in my energy level.

Tasty simple and delicious sandwich:

Ingredients

• Ciabatta Bread
• Avocado
• Turkey
• Pepperocini Peppers
• Tomatoes
• Onion
• Mozzarella Cheese

Grill the turkey along with the onions with a touch of olive oil and some vinegerrette .  In the meantime roast the tomatoes seasoned with basil and oregano.  Cut up your avacado’s and peppers.  Cut a slice of bread in half lengthwise, top each slice with the turkey and onions, peppers, tomatos, and cheese.  Toss in the oven under the broiler for 4-5 minutes and remove.  Add the avocados close sandwich, cut in half and enjoy.

I got home from a long day at work yesterday cracked a ice cold Murphy’s Stout and thought about what to make for dinner.  Ever since the Amateur Gourmet wrote about Polenta, it has been in the back of my mind.  So I decided to give it a try.  Instead of grabbing the recipe from the Amateur Gourmet web site, I just opened up my “Joy of Cooking” and took the recipe from there.  Basically it called for four cups of water to one cup of Corn Meal.  Cook for 30-40 minutes and then add some salt and Parmesan cheese.

So I started the water boiling, poured the in the corn meal and waited.  Added about a 1/4 cup of fresh Parmesan and a bit of salt and got ready to try some.  I have to say it was not amazing, but it definitely was good comfort food.   Of course I was just cooking for myself so I had quite a bit left over.  What do you do with left over Polenta?

Well the only idea I’ve had so far was breakfast.  I just warmed some up and added a bit of honey and went to town.  I have to say it was better this morning than last night and most definitely kept me full until lunch.

Thoughts:

1. Polenta definitely need help to be tasty
2. Make sure you add the Corn Meal slowly or you can be guaranteed to have lumps
3. Polenta is versatile
4. Polenta is very filling
5. Polenta would be an excellent side dish with mozerella a bit of tomato sauce and some Italian spices.