FCM and welby good on ya for the weight loss and stuff. I need to do some of that. My doctor said weight loss and exercise would be really good to help keep my bp in check. That and not smoking which I don’t do now.
I haven’t had pizza in a long time. I want some pizza. Maybe Wednesday I can have pizza. Maybe I can talk my group of friends who I like to hang out with on Wednesday nights into going to the Harvest Moon Cafe for a Grilled Chicken Caesar Pizza. YUMMMMMMMMMMY!!!
welby I’m with Rue on the checking out CharBroil grills. I’ve had one for six years now and it’s still really good. I have a nice little area just off my back porch that I’m considering building a small covered deck on. I would put my grill and smokers and outdoor fryer out there. I think that’d be nice. And since my back yard has a privacy fence all around it, maybe nomads wouldn’t come by and take my grill cause their’s died from being toted around so much. I like bratwursts grilled on my propane grill. I have some that I grilled frozen in the freezer (as opposed to frozen in the oven, HAH!) right now. I might go home and nuke one for lunch. MMMM… nuked grilled bratwurst.
I had all the pine trees cut down, so I don’t need a tree surgeon. Well, I do have several Bradford Pear trees, but they’re healthy and don’t need surgery.
I got nuttin’ about shock absorbers, except to wonder if absorbing shocks is a kind of anti-electro-shock theerapy.
swampy? Have I mentioned how proud I am that you quit smoking? Yay you!
I never realized you had a nomad problem there in Leesburg. Has 60 Minutes gotten wind of this? It’s just the sort of story that Mike Wallace loves to sink his gums into! OK, so maybe he still has all his own teeth, even if he is older than dirt. But that doesn’t change that he used to do daring expose stories about stuff like nomads who steal propane grills. I’m pretty sure I saw that particular story. Maybe not. Maybe I just made it up as I typed it.
Still, good on you for the non-smoking thing. I’m just being encouraging here…
Brats are supposed to be boiled in beer before being grilled. I don’t eat the nasty things myself, but spouse and kid do, and that’s how they like ‘em. So that’s my brat tip o’ the day!
Awww…:o thanks lightingtool. It’s technically called an outdoor cooker cause you can do more than fry in it. I use it to fry fish (I hate that fishy smell all over the house, so outdoors is the way to fry fish), fry turkeys, to boil shrimp and crabs, and to make low country boils. According to the handy dandy manual of instruction that came with it, I can also make delicious soups and stews but I haven’t tried that yet.
Thanks for the encouragement FCM. Three months smoke free. Sounds pretty good after 35 years of smoking, I think.
“Chocolate infused icewine?” “Potato, mozzerella and onion pizza with cream sauce, garlic and olive oil?” Never mind the SARS, now I have a GOOD reason to avoid Toronto!
Okay, that heart attack on a crust sounds tasty, but you CAN’T call it PIZZA! That’s just wrong.
At my last job I ate so much bad pizza that I almost lost my taste for all pizza. I went almost two years without eating pizza. Recently I have had pizza delivered for Papa John’s. Surprisingly good, for a chain delivery place–last delivery was as hot as if I was in a pizza parlor!
I’ve had beer-boiled grilled brats and they are delish! Eating them outside in a cold, sharp wind, amid the falling leaves adds to the flavor. Isn’t it funny how where you eat certain things add to it’s flavor? Salted peanuts at a baseball game taste better than they do when you eat them at home, hot dogs are better at the beach, and s’mores, although tasty when made at home, are ambrosia when made at camp.
And then there’s the stuff that you would only eat at particular places. Nobody makes a blooming onion (deep-fried onion) at home, but at the steakhouse, bring it on! Who would eat cotton candy except at a fair? In fact, fair food is a catagory all its own–elephant ears, deep fried candy bars, frozen soda, caramel popcorn, chili cheese fries. Okay, some of those foods do have life outside of fairs, but the fair version has a quality all its own.
I occasionally try to regain my childhood by eating a Hostess Cupcake (all store bought goodies were a treat, because we all baked–I used to trade homemade cookies for Oreos). As a kid, Hostess cupcakes were the height of indulgence. So about once a year or so, as I pass the display in the grocery store, I see them and am filled with nostalgia for their chocolaty goodness. Of course, when I eat them, they are just vile, but it’s apparently a short term memory and after a year or so, I’m ready to try again. In fact, I may go get one late today. I mean, maybe thay’ve gotten good again.
When I was a kid and we’d go down to my grandparents’ place on the Magothy River, on some occasions, rather than fire up the grill and make burgers, my grandmother would fire up the little one-burner propane stove and heat up a big can of Chef Boy-Ar-Dee Ravioli. It always tasted wonderful, but never tasted quite the same when cooked at home. Maybe it needed to be eaten in the musty old shack where my grandfather stored his old tools and outboard motor parts.
I’m on a modified Weight-Watchers diet. By that I mean that Mrs. B. goes to weight-watchers and comes home and tells me about it and sometimes I listen.
Pizza! Now there’s a topic I can sink my teeth into! [sub]hee[/sub]
We made home-made pizza last week. But we didn’t make our own dough, ‘cause we had a loaf of Rhode’s frozen bread dough in the freezer, so we used that. Defrosted of course. We cooked down some canned tomatoes into sauce. We coulda used fresh tomatoes, but canned are good enough for sauce, and you don’t have to go through the ‘peeling tomatoes’ process. Then we fried about a third of a pound of hamburger. Then I sliced up some red onion and green bell peppers real thin and some crimini mushrooms not so thin and sauteed those a bit. Then we put the tomato sauce and hamburger and veggies and mushrooms on the pizza and covered it with shredded medium cheddar and freshly grated parmesan and put it on our pizza stone in the oven.
That was some mighty fine eatin’!
We’ve got a Thermos brand propane grill that we’ve had for about 5 years that I’ve replaced the burners in twice and the flame shield once. Actually I couldn’t get a new flame shield so I got a set of grates to fit in the bottom and bought a great big bag of lava rocks in the garden department of someplace and dumped those in on top of it. We have a covered patio so we grill all year long. You can even cook a pizza on a gas grill, but we didn’t cook our latest creation that way, 'cause we’ve got an oven stone, that’s why.
Do you know the difference between those little bitty bags of lava rocks you pay $6.00 for in the barbeque section and those great big bags of lava rocks you can get for $3.00 a bag in the garden section? The little bitty bags of rocks are washed.
Do you know what you can do to lava rocks if you have a good sized bucket and some water?
I thought so.
Swampy, good on ya for quitting. I quit about 16 years ago and it was one of the few smart things I ever did.
Lissla, is icewine the late harvest wine that’s really sweet?
Kallessa, you were a lawyer in a pizza parlor? Kinda like Ed only without Carol Vessy and all the wacky high-jinks? Wow!
I think I’d better post this before I think of something else to say.
Central Indiana has Pizza King - a local chain that cuts their thin, crispy round pizzas into squares about yay by yay* . There’s not really any crust to speak of either - the toppings go right to the edge.
The middle pieces are a bit difficult to eat daintily - but who eats pizza daintily? The corner pieces are the family favorite & have to be doled out equally. They also make a yummy salad with mozzarella cheese & bacon crumbles on top.
My dad used to work at a pizza place & can still do the dough up in the air thing - just has to be careful of the ceiling fan…
I thought Ed was a lawyer in a bowling alley? And Carol Vessy gets on my nerves.
Anyhow, I wasn’t a lawyer when I was hanging around pizza parlors. Well, I was a lawyer, but I wasn’t a practicing lawyer like I am now (and I’ll get it right one of these days, I will). In my last job I was a labor representative and I met with our union members all over the state. Why is it that small towns that only have one pizza place always serve lousy pizza?
You know what you call a person who always screws up the high-jinks? A high-jinks jinx.
Kallessa (a practicing punster–but only in small doses)
Yup, it is. They let the grapes freeze on the vine, and that freezes most of the water content but somehow not the grape juice, and make wine with the sweet, concentrated grape juice. It’s a dessert wine and it’s frickin’ awesome and blasted expensive ($40 to $120 for 375ml) , so it doesn’t come my way often.
It’s usually made out of vidal or riesling grapes.
So far I have received icewine, two amazing cookbooks, money, a vintage 1950’s evening dress, vino d’asti, and from my lovely huband a Japanese teapot, candles and candleholders, and a Discworld novel. Life is good. Thank you for the birthday song, swampbear. It was… um… loud.
Do I want pizza or Vietnamese for dinner? Yay! And Mr. Lissar has promised to sit through Pirates Of The Carribean again if I want to!
Whee I get to post to the MMP while it is still MONDAY. At least I think today is monday. I haven’t been sleeping very well and the percocet does strange things to the brain and stuff like that.
I do miss good pizza. I haven’t found any truly wonderful pizza within 50 miles of Casa Tanookie.
Oh and baby is wonderful however he is not home I hope it won’t be more than a few days. Thanks to all who visited our thread and wished us well.
Welcome back, tanookie, it’s nice to see your voice again. Glad your baby boyo is doing well–does he have the cutest little toes?
I just like baby toes, that’s all. Can’t a person like baby toes without getting strange looks? My interest in baby toes is perfectly normal. Really. It is.
Well, I started a new job last week and now I get to work before the MMP gets posted, and they run a nasty little snoop software on the office computers to make sure we’re behaving and following the “ABSOLUTELY NO ONLINE BULLETIN BOARDS!!” rule that our occasionally micromanaging office administrator has put in place. (She also makes the receptionist keep track of our comings and goings – but hey, it works in my favor since I spend half my lunch break reading at my desk. :D)
So no more MMPs for me. Now they’re MEPs.
We have two grills, one not terribly expensive one that we got several years ago before we moved here that hasn’t rusted out because Papa Tiger bought a nice cover for it and has bee obsessive about keeping it covered, and the other one that’s not propane but natural gas because it’s piped into our house natural gas system. So since we moved here, we’ve been using the one that comes with the house. I mean, our gas bill in the summer is all of $12 a month with all the grilling we do, so we can probably afford it. Natural gas doesn’t make food taste as good as propane (especially when using the right propane accessories – my shout out to Hank Hill) but it’s sure nice to have the endless supply of fuel for it.
We’ve found one little local Italian place that serves really yummy pizza. They don’t deliver, but they’re so nearby it’s not a big deal, we don’t mind going out for it occasionally. Except I never end up getting their pizza because all their other food is so good, too.
To which all I have to say is: Pbbbbbbtht! I will be double your age exactly one month from today, and I can promise you that the bits will be falling off faster than you ever thought possible long before you get here. Advancing years my left toenail!
Good on the no smoking, Swampy! And congrats to the young one, FCM! It’s always nice to hear good stuff about people!
Lissla: I think Shibb was hoping you resided in a Vonnegut novel. (Sorry, Shibb, I don’t think she’s got any ice-nine!)
forbidden doughnut - I felt kinda weird recently when someone registered as Rufus T. Firefly. I think if someone claims a screen name close enough to yours to cause confusion, you can email one of the admins and ask them to request that the newbie choose something different. (I didn’t think my alter ego was sufficiently close, so I didn’t bother asking. But in your position, I think I would.)
pizza: I like to make my own, too, although I’ll buy the crust-dough-in-a-bag from TJ’s, rather than making the dough from scratch. (If I had to do that, I’d make a lot less pizza.) This weekend, my wife and I are hosting a pizza party for some of her co-workers; I’m gonna have a good old time.
Speaking of which, I recently got a Presto Pizzazz Pizza Maker. It’s the one that looks like a big clothes iron with a bite out of the middle. It works pretty well, and it’s gonna be really handy for this party, since I’ll be able to cook pizzas in the oven and the funky pizza maker at the same time.
welby - I bought an inexpensive (~$130) propane grill at K-Mart back in the spring of 2000. No rusting yet (and I’m lousy about protecting it from the elements), so it’s not simply a matter of price.
Lissla Lissar glad you enjoyed the song. Here’s hoping there’s pirate play in the bedroom tonight.
FCM I was remiss earlier. Big WOOHOOS for ThePerfectChild[sup]TM[/sup] getting accepted into UCF. I know that’s what she wanted, so good on her! Is TheBoy[sup]TM[/sup] going there too?
Mama Tiger thanks for the good on for the no smoking. Encouragement is always accepted. And congrats on the new job. May it bring lots of promotions and dough (the green kind not the pizza kind) your way.
tanookie welcome back! Congrats on BabyBoyParanookie[sup]TM[/sup]. Be sure to give him a great big ol’ hug and kiss from Uncle swampbear.
Lots of goodness to celebrate in the MMP this week.
-swampbear (doing a lot of [sup]TM[/sup] tonight.)
swampy, The Boy is not college bound. He barely got out of high school. I sincerely hope he’s history before she moves there. He was recently mentioning enlisting in the Army which would be a Very Good Thing for him, and us too!!
Welcome back, tanookie! Get a bunch of sleep before your newbie comes home to roost.
So, where the heck is Exgineer?? I threw out all those hijack possibilities and he doesn’t even mosey on by? Da noive!!
Ohh… man… I miss me some Papa John’s. That was the Friday dinner staple when I was in college. They don’t seem to have it up here.
However, if you put my brother’s crust-making talents and his girlfriend’s shocking marinara abilities together, you get a truly excellent pizza. But sometimes I miss that garlic dipping sauce like you wouldn’t believe. Mail me some, won’t you, Kallessa?
I noticed a few of you are hankerin’ for pizza whilst on a low-carb diet. My husband and I are on Atkins, and we started to crave pizza the other day. So, I devised this: I took two large portobello mushrooms and rubbed them with a little minced garlic and olive oil. I topped them with shredded mozzarella and a few slices of 0-carb pepperoni (found at Whole Foods Market). Popped them on the grill for a few minutes, and presto! Mushroom pizzas. Ok, so it’s not exactly pizza, but it had enough of the flavors going that our cravings went bye-bye.
Natural gas doesn’t make food taste as good as propane (especially when using the right propane accessories – my shout out to Hank Hill) but it’s sure nice to have the endless supply of fuel for it.