Almost Campfire Burgers

I have never ever been camping in my entire life. I've always wanted to - but not the really hard kind. lol. What I picture is roasting hot dogs on sticks over a campfire. I can't get that image out of my head when I think about camping. I think I watched too many cartoons as a kid. Anyway, (and this is a little exciting) - we had a blackout the other night. For Hours. And it was dinnertime on a budget. My first instinct was to order out. Pizza or chinese. I couldn't care less. But we had the 1/4 lb burger patties in the 'fridge and it wasn't getting any colder in there.

That's when I remembered that Steve used to go camping and had cooking equipment. There's this bunsen burner ee type thing that we set a small frying pan on. You can see its the blue flame. Anyhow, we happened to have campfire oil fuel or gas or whatever it was - and it was brilliant. We were frying one burger at a time in the dark. Provolone cheese. It was so much fun. I have no idea why it was as fun as it was. The burgers were delicious. Extra delicious cause it was cooked on the thingie. And the fuel stuff was clean burning. That's what Steve said. I'm just repeating it in case any of you were concerned about my respiratory health. What? Who's typing here? Gotta go an' Eat Something Good!

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Sid on the beach

sid_2.jpg
Originally uploaded by notajones

This is my handsome and darling Sid on the beach in Nantucket. We had the most splendid time. I will cherish it forever.

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Food Babbling

I just read someone's blog about tuna noodle casserole. I've had it before. Steve made it. I think just a few years ago (when he made it) was the first and only time that I've ever had it. I ate it, but I didn't love it. I do, however, love tuna. As a steak, in cans and as sushi. Spicy tuna rolls. That's what I usually get when I eat sushi. I also get an order of tekka maki? If that's the cucumber roll thing then that's what I eat. I torture myself with wasabi. I use too much and then it lights up my brain and I freak out and then get happy. The first time I had sushi, I hated it. I thought it was one of the grossest things I'd ever tasted. I didn't understand it. I didn't understand that raw part of it. Why not just cook it, I thought. Stupid? Yeah but no.

Anyway, I had some eggs with cheese, home fries and Pepperidge farm white toast. Steve made the home fries. They weren't exactly made from fresh potatoes. We were doing like Sandra Lee (from Food Network) and making it semi-homemade. hehehe. Steve taught me that there was a frozen bag of cubed potatoes literally called hash browns. Anyway, he sautees onions and peppers (finely diced) and then heats up the frozen hash browns. And then adds the onion-pepper mixture. It's not bad. I certainly ate enough of it.

I'm obsessed with the idea of a potato sandwich. I think it comes from when I visited Spain. They have these egg and potato "omelette" type things called tortillas (not as in the chip) that you can make sandwiches out of. The omelette is just loaded with potatoes and I was loving the combo of bread with potato. Oh, the "tortilla" is probably better known to most as a "fritatta". Italian egg omelette. They're really simple and really good. I haven't made one in ages.

For a while now, I dreamed of having a hot dog cart alongside Washington Square Park in NYC (on NYU campus) serving mashed potato cones instead of hotdogs. On these cones - made of a bruschetta type material - one can add gravy, veggies, maybe even meat though I had vegetarian in mind for all the weirdos in Manhattan. (Not that vegetarians are weird. Actually they are. I'm not sure what it is about them. Hey! Wait. I might become one of the fish eating variety. Not a real category but lotsa so called vegetarians make exceptions for fish.)

I wish I had some cherry juice. I loved, past tense, Cherry Juicy Juice. I stopped drinking it because they changed the formula and it has less cherry flavor. The company didn't dispute my accusation. All they did was apologize and told me to keep drinking it and sent me a coupon for a free bottle. Fishy, eh? I thought so too. So, I started buying the generic version of it (stop n' shop store brand) and it is very good. Good cherry flavor and loving the fact that it's 100% juice. This is a long entry. Sid is barking a little out of frustration. Yes, another toy has rolled under the couch. I have to take him out in a little while. Have a good eve all! Thanks for visiting.

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Sherman's BBQ

My hair is one giant knot. I made the mistake of putting mousse in my hair before going for a motorcycle ride. I'm not even going to attempt to straighten it out. I think it might be poofing funny in the back, but I'm not going to look. Hair drama.

NE way, we went into Manhattan and just got back. We circled around Harlem and decided to stop at Sherman's BBQ. Steve used to live in the area when he was a young buck. Every time we cruised by, he'd mention Sherman's. So today, after all these years, I sat down on the dirty NYC curb and ate me some barbecue. (They don't have any seating - take out only.) So the q, it was not at all what I expected. It fell short of my wishful thoughts. The chicken itself - fell off the bone. That was the good part. The rest, well, the sauce. It wasn't barbecue. It was like sweetened tomato sauce with peppers (green bell) in it. And the potato salad, too, was way too sweet. Neither the sauce nor the potato salad tasted seasoned at all although I'm not sure if just a little salt & pepper would've done the trick. Sigh. I had an unsatisfactory food experience.

Sherman's Barbecue
2509 7 Avenue
Manhattan, NY 10039

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BBQ Beef Brisket Sandwich

Oh my goodness! I had the most delicious sandwich experience today. It was so good that when I came home, Sid licked my hand (the one that was holding the sandwich) - a lot. So you're probably wondering where and what. I'll tell yas...

We were casually cruising by on the motorcycle when we spotted something to the left. An empty lot with several cars and a big, black truck with a trailer attached to it. I saw that the trailer had somethings that looked like a smoker and a grill with top. My brain screamed 'Roadside BBQ'!

It was here that we had this amazing beef brisket sandwich on a roll. For $7, you'd get a big mound (like maybe over half-pound) of pink & brown, well seasoned and smokey-flavored meat. The seedless kaiser roll was really good too. It worked really well with the brisket. It wasn't too fluffy or spongy. Good complement. I really wanted the baby back ribs, but I'm so glad we decided to split the brisket. It was so yum, that we made pigs of ourselves and split another - exactly the same. Damn, good food makes me happy. The only downside to this experience was that I ate way too fast (it was piping hot) and the blister that formed on the roof of my mouth popped (and with a little sting) as I was scootering later in the day.

Oh, there's another downside, for some reason - now I'm not saying it was the brisket - but, but when I came home I had to run to the bathroom. And even after spending a good part of the afternoon in the bathroom (pardon the tmi), I would still definitely go back and eat another beef brisket sandwich without hesitation. I love sandwiches. And that was the best beef brisket sandwich I ever had.

All Smoked Up BBQ
Beekman NY
(Along Route 55 - road side)

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Self-Rising Crust Pizza Review

So who doesn't like pizza? Everybody likes it. Grandmas, adults, small children and dogs (and my dead cat Sonny - he was usually a very picky eater. He didn't eat stuff that you'd think cats did. But when it came to pizza, he'd sit on top of the box until I gave him a piece of crust.)

And not too long ago, my brother and sister-in-law asked me to review frozen pizzas. I wrote a couple of reviews but never blogged 'em. From what I remember, I disliked DiGiorno's and I liked Frescetta. These pizzas are the ones with the self-rising crust. (The one I liked best so far is an ultra thin crust white pizza made by California Pizza Kitchen.) So, the rising crusts. The one we had tonight was, *hold your breath*-a store brand. Yes, Stop n' Shop was having a sale. We got a couple (well, 3). Tonight, we baked some up with freshly grated pecorino romano on top. Afterwards, I tore up some fresh basil and we were in business. Okay, the crust rose alright. It was a lot denser than I expected it to be. It just barely made the cut off for being too doughy. Actually, I think maybe it didn't - it was doughy. The sauce was a little on the sour side. Not too much flavor there. It was doable tho' - it didn't gross me out the way DiGiorno's does. The cheese was nothing special. It was okay. It was the extra romano we grated on top that did the trick.

All in all, with 5 being average, I'd say it's about a 5. (DiGiorno's gets a 1; Frescetta gets a 7.)

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