First of all, my wife and i are headed out to GrapeFest in “Historic Grapevine Texas” this Friday. We were originally planning to go for both Thursday and Friday’s festivities, but with me coming off the first cold of the year and our son coming off his 2 year old shots, it seemed a much better idea to just make it a day-trip.

From what I’ve been able to see, it looks like a heck of a fun time.  Check out the official commercial:

On another note, my wife is really pushing her weight Watcher’s and physical exercise regimen, and has been doing wonderfully! (Applause, everyone. Applause!) So expect a lot more healthy dishes to be springing up and if I can find the time, I’ll be adding nutritional information as well as Weight Watcher’s points to some or all of my recipes. (There’s nothing like adding a ton of work to my life just before the Holiday season, right!?!)

And there you have the most recent slew of updates from we at CbsoP! Be looking for pics and observations on GrapeFest on Saturday or Sunday.

Will anyone else be attending? If so, wanna have a glass of wine?

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Vegetarians avert your eyes.  Have your children leave the room, you don’t want them to see this.  For you it won’t be pretty.  However, for those of us who are dedicated omnivores (or in Dr. Biggles case, card carrying carnivores), it’s a dream on a bun, and I had to share it with the world at large.

Please excuse the fact that this really isn’t a recipe.  It’s more of a field assembly guide for the ultimate in meat based sandwiches. There will be no fluff, no cheese, no greens or sprouts.  Only bell peppers (or jalapeños, if you’re so inclined) are worthy of this carnivorous delight.

This sandwich was three days in the making. Was it worth it?  I think so.  Hopefully you will as well, but the only way you’ll ever know is if you try it for yourself.

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Whether you’ve thought of it or not, Halloween is right around the corner.  In just over a month and three quarters things will once again be bumping in the night, or at least pounding on your door in search of free candy.  For some of us the season will bring with it a few parties or gatherings of friends and family, all of whom will be vying to see who can find the most outrageous costume of the bunch.

For some of my military friends this will mean choosing something wildly inappropriate, especially if the party involves alcohol.  For me however, I think this year I’m going to be running for mayor.  The Mayor of Munchkin Land, that is.  Why? I don’t know, really.  I was looking over the Wizard Of Oz Costumes at Halloween Adventure and just decided that it would be a lot of fun! Besides, who didn’t want to be the mayor of Munchkin Land as a kid?

There are a lot of Halloween Costume Storesout there, but hey, why not go with one that offers free shipping on orders over $100.00?  You’re going to spend that much or more on a pair of costumes anyway, right?  You don’t have to go as something out of OZ, either.  They’ve got a ton of different costumes available, one of them should be just right for you!

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I may not have been born Texan, but Texas is where I call home these days and proudly so at that. Texas has been good to both my wife and I from the day we set foot here and even though we’re sure to leave her eventually, for now I’m Texan, and a piece of my heart will always be in the Lone Star State. A part of me will always be Texan. The place is just like that, it can’t help itself.

Having said that, you might be able to surmise how tickled I was to get a message from the Texas Beef Council asking me to help spread the word about Texas Beef.   We really don’t need to go into all the yelling and carrying on that happened on this end of that conversation, so let’s just say I was happy to accept shall we? The nice folks over at Texas Beef sent me a few recipes and a $25.00 prepaid card to buy whatever ingredients I’d need for the party, which was nice of them since I would have done it on my own dime anyway.

After looking over our choices, my wife and I decided on the Gazpacho Steak Salad. It looked pretty refreshing for days still well into the 90′s with an average 45% humidity and it sounded a bit different from the dishes we’d been having over the past few weeks, which would make for an interesting change of pace, so I set off for the store to get what I needed and got to work.

Of course I couldn’t follow the directions 100%, could I? That’s not in my nature unless bread making is involved. (which is why I leave that up to my wife when possible).  Not only did I forget I’d used up one of the ingredients, but I managed to misread the recipe in the process of making the dish, though neither change was that large a departure from the original.

My thoughts?  Well, you’ll have to read through my version of the recipe to get those.  I wouldn’t want to give everything away at the very beginning of the story.

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If you’ve not been seeing anything out of this site for a few days, it’s probably because you RSS reader was doing exactly what it should have been doing.  It was ignoring me.  It seems I forgot to set the site as “visible to search engines and visitors” when I transferred it over.

Sometimes I fool so feelish!

Anyway, the issue should be solved now…  Or at least I hope it is.

Have a great Friday!

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What if I told you that you could make a dish that would wow your guests with less effort than it takes to order-in?  What if I told you that you don’t need a huge arsenal of cooking skills or prior knowledge to turn out a perfect meal each and every time? What if I told you that all of this can be done with just five or six ingredients that can be found in any big-scary-mega-mart anywhere in the country, for somewhere around $10.00, depending on the price of pork in your area?

It’s all true, every word of it. With just a few minutes of prep time and a few lazy hours spent doing… Well, whatever it is that you’d like to do… You can produce something so sinfully delicious and decadent that everyone who tries it will think you’ve slaved your day away working on the perfect meal. And I’m going to tell you how to do it.

Hey, I won’t tell anyone it was easy. That will be our little secret, O.K?

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I can’t help but love any cookbook that starts off with the following dedication:

Dedicated To THAT GREAT HOST OF BACHELORS
AND BENEDICTS ALIKE -
who have at one time or another
tried to cook something and
who in the attempt have weak-
ened under a fire of feminine
raillery and sarcasm only to
spoil what under more favor-
able circumstances would have
proved a chef d’osuvre

The Stag Cook Book Written for Men by Men By Carroll Mac Sheridan

Though this volume was written in 1922 and is most definitely dated, it is now and will forever more be one of my favorite tomes of cookery. The commetary and asides are enough to send me into fits of laughter or as a strange juxtaposition, into a deeply contemplative state as I ponder just how the world has changed in the past 86 years.

The recipes, while perhaps not what a modern foodie would find the epitome of culinary delight, are functional and just by looking I can tell you that there are more than a few that I would be happy to serve to friends or family on any occasion. (Of course, with a modern bent on some ingredients.)

Did I mention that it’s free read from Google Books?!?

No?  How horrible of me.

This is a tome that would make my friend Dr. Biggles proud, and I hope he has a chance to look it over. I’m also dedicating this to my good friend Kelly Wright, whom I think will find this a hilarious read.

Thanks also to Hugging the Coast, who brought this wonderful read to my attention.

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Ah, back to school.  There’s nothing a parent loves to hear more, especially if the summer has conspired to keep the more youthful members of the family indoors for extended periods. Of course, the kids might not find going back to school as welcome a thought as their parents do, especially if it’s the first day in a new school.

I remember my first day of high school.  It was nothing short of terrifying.  In fact, even though it’s a normal part of every child’s life, I can honestly say that the only thing I’ve ever done that was more nerve wracking than starting my high school career was my first week of basic training in the Navy, but at least there I didn’t have to worry about whether what I was wearing was in style.  We all knew that our bell bottoms were rather hilarious, especially when paired with black socks.

If you haven’t taken the time to try to get your school age children organized, now might be the time.  And a label maker might be just the help you need to avoid the most feared call in a parent’s world…

“Moooooooom! Have you seen my <insert lost item-that-will-inevitably-be-found-in-the-bottom-of-the-backpack here>?”

Label makers aren’t what they were when we were kids.  Not only do they print the same way that an inkjet printer does, but they are quick, too.  Add in some Color labels for a bit of additional help in locating that missing whatever-it-is, and you’re in business, with more time to devote to actually getting the little monsters darlings to do their homework.

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This dish is most commonly known as Country Captain’s Chicken, but in my house it was always called Captain’s Chicken Curry. Since this is my mother’s recipe, I’ll use her name for it here.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I have not managed to get around to sharing some of my all-time favorite chicken recipes. I really don’t know why it has taken me so long to do so.  Maybe it’s that to me these really aren’t anything special in terms of skill or flavor, but rather the things that I grew up begging my mother to make.  At some point these things become something “normal”, and in being such a part of my life, it seems strange that every other person in the world doesn’t already know of this recipe.  This is an oversight I refuse to allow to continue, mostly because it is completely foolish, but also because I have to believe that if I love this dish, someone else will and not sharing it with those who have never tried it would be nothing short of a tragedy.

I don’t remember my mother making this often in my teen years, but as a child it was something that I would ask for whenever a choice was given. My mother, who knew full well that this was the only way she could get her then 7 year old son to eat tomatoes in any sort of solid form, was usually very happy to oblige me.  It didn’t hurt that my father loved it as much as I did either.

So please, enjoy this foray into my childhood.  This dish carries fond memories of chilly autumn evenings, wonderful aromas and the laughter of a family who was quite happy to simply enjoy each other’s company.  I never recall my mom serving this to guests, it was something we enjoyed as a family, so I’m thrilled to have all of you join me as I share this dish with friends for the first time in my memory. I hope you love it as much as I do.

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