Leaving a carbon footprint on your neck.

Recently I have become more and more irritated by the current incarnation of the 21st Century White Man's Burden Fad - Global Warming and assorted handwringing.

I have mellowed over the years. I used to be far more pessimistic - a common catchphrase was "Pave the Rainforest." Now I'm of the opinion that Mother Nature is going to fine without us and realistically would be better off without us. However we/us/you/I should at the very least be considerate of our fellow man and our surroundings, etc, etc, etc, stop driving gas guzzlers, etc,
The one thing that really chaps my ass about the entire "green" marketing campaign is simply the fact that common sense has been replaced by over priced and has corporate slime all over it.

Example:
Windex with Vinegar. Are you kidding me? For five bucks I can get Windex with vinegar added in? Hey, for less than a buck I can get a jug of regular white vinegar to clean with. In case you didn't know this you only need a handful of cleaning products for your home - unless you don't clean then never mind.

1. Bleach. Regular old cheap bleach.

2. White vinegar. The stuff for .99 is better than good enough.

3. Baking soda.

You can clean your house for less than $5.00 without lord only knows what is actually in Windex.

Grilled cheese & chicken sandwich of DOOM!

I hope -since I am on vacation for July - that I will be able to get some posts on here. Amanda is working and I am running the household. That's just fine by me since I am getting back into cooking and it's kind of nice to call her and put in orders for ingredients for dinner.

Yesterday I baked a chicken. Nothing terribly fancy though I did brine/marinade it for a good part of the day in kosher salt, limeade, coarse ground pepper, and something else. With the price increases on pretty much everything I have to say that a whole chicken is still the cheapest way to get your chicken fix. I slow cooked the bird and there was plenty left over. Fortunately Amanda likes leg & thigh and I'm a white meat fan - huh huh huh breasts.

With my leftover breast - huh huh huh - I tossed it in the microwave and prepped the grilled cheese. I picked up some unsalted butter from the store the other day from Challenge Dairy. It's my new favorite butter and it's cheaper than Land O'Lakes. I melted some of that and put Original Hot Mister Mustard - not the Sweet - on my bread.

Put on some Pepper Jack cheese, candied Jalapenos, thin sliced white onion, and the sliced chicken. Cooked, considered taking a picture, and then ate the sandwich before I could reach the camera. Next time I'll make sure to have a camera handy.

How do you folks dig your grilled cheese?

Super Secret Recipe Revealed!

Yes friends here it is:

Chicken-fried steak with mole colorado.

Here are facts you need to know:

1. Chicken-fried steak (and Chicken-fried Chicken) is traditionally served with gravy. White flour (White Flour!) gravy. No me gusta el gringo gravy blanco.
2. There are seven different styles/schools of Oaxacan mole : negro , red, yellow, colorado, green, almendrado, pipián. Mole is - in my ignorant opinion - Mexican curry. I don't mean that gross tumeric ridden powder you get in grocery stores I mean the real deal curry - a melange of flavours and spices. Personally I'm a SE-Asian curry kind of fan.
3. One day while sitting at the Austin Diner - I'm not name dropping, we live next door and eat there all the freaking time - I wondered if a Chicken-fried Steak would be good with anything except white gravy. They did not have any mole made so I could not test my theory then and there. About a week later we went there for lunch and on the Specials menu was an Omlette with mole verde and Chicken-fried steak. I asked the waiter if the guys in the back could just put the mole verde on my Chicken-fried steak. They did. It was good but it wasn't right.
4. If you want something done right you have to do it your damn self.
5. Before you do it your damn self you have to learn how to do it. To the internet!
6. I enlisted two real life Texans to help me make a trial batch of Chicken-fried steaks. This being Texas it really wasn't that difficult.
7. The day of I began with a jar of mole - what? you ever make mole from scratch the first time out? - and started adding things to it. The flavour I was shooting for was smoky, mysterious, and dangerous. I think I did fairly well but I will tweak it a bit the next time.
8. Making Chicken-fried steak is very, very easy but involves the need for counter space - you need room for flouring pans, etc, etc.
9. Make more than you think you could possibly eat because you will eat all of it all the while thinking, "We have to eat it all...it won't keep!"
10. If you have any doubts about the awesomeness of this Chicken-fried steak variation then come over and let me disspell them for you.

That's all for now. I must think of a way to tweak my mole...or something...

Super Secret new recipe in the works.

That's right folks. Super. Secret. New.

Okay it's a variation on a theme so it's not that new but the R&D is happening this weekend.

More news to follow.

"A SKILLET! A SKILLET! MY KINGDOM FOR A SKILLET!"

Thanks to friend Farley for the gift of a cast iron skillet. I kind of love it. A lot. Every time I cook with it I love it more. I have to admit that I felt a bit strange making tofu stir fry in it.

I've looked around on the internet for recipes and have found some good ones but most of them seem like home cooking. I love home cooking and love cooking at home but with this new diet bacon is kind of a no no and some of the dishes that sound awesome - baked cheezy potatoes and cornbread - but I don't think they are on the list.

What do you guys think? Any ideas?