Category — Random

Shrimp: My darling daughter, Marissa, made dinner for the family last night. I’m guessing she did this for two reasons. First, she misses making “roomie dinners” for her college roommates now that they’ve all graduated. And second, she feels sorry for me, her sad exhausted mother.

Hoarding: Yes, hoarding is the reason for both my sadness and my complete and utter emotional, mental, and physical exhaustion. No, I am not the hoarder. Someone very close to me, who shall remain nameless, is though. When said person goes out of town for more than a week, (which only happens once, maybe twice, a year) I go over and clean up the disgusting mess that this person calls home.

I won’t go into the gory details, but trust me, it’s awful! During this particular cleaning and tossing session, I went deep, deeper than I have in many years. I began on Saturday and have been working on it every single day, every waking hour, since.

Hence, cooking and taking care of myself, my family, and this blog have been on the back burner (pun intended) and that burner has been turned off! I’ve missed a couple of days of posting and will miss a few more.

Thankfully, the next few days will be due to something much more fun and happy. I’ll be in Laguna Beach this weekend for the wedding of a dear friend’s beautiful daughter. I’ll be back on Monday.

Contest: No, as you’ve probably figured out by now, this is not an actual “Shrimp Hoarding Contest”, although that doesn’t sound all bad. The contest I am referring to is the one that ends at 11:59 PM Mountain Time on August 22, 2010. That is Sunday night, so get on the stick and ENTER HERE! I don’t want any of you to miss out. The winner will be named when I return to blogging on Monday morning, it’ll be here before you know it.

Now for Marissa’s dinner. A wonderful cookbook, for novices and experienced cooks alike, is Homemade in a Hurry by Andrew Schloss. In fact, it is on my list of “must-have cookbooks” which you can view HERE.

Marissa adapted the recipe a bit to match her taste and it was delicious! Thank you, sweetheart, not only did you make dinner – you made my day! xoxox [Read more →]

That’s right, the LPG blog is 1 year old today! This is post #347! If you haven’t been along for the ride since day one, here is a LINK to August 16, 2009.

The reason for the big countdown on each of the last week’s posts wasn’t just to say, “Hey, look at me and my huge accomplishment of sticking with this blogging thing for a whole year! Can you believe I posted just about every day, only “taking off” 15 days out of 365?”  Although, I do want to shout that from the top of Camelback Mountain. It has also been a build-up to the fabulous Give-Away to celebrate the 1 year anniversary or as it’s known in the world of bloggers, the 1st Blogiversary.

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Today I’d planned to post a recipe using the rest of the poblano peppers, but plans changed. We went to a movie and dinner last night so the poblanos will have to wait a day. Instead, how about a lazy Sunday late morning – early afternoon cocktail by the pool? Sounds so much better to me!

Any orange vodka will work here, the Svedka just seems sexier than, say Smirnoff. There’s Absolut Mandarin, Grey Goose L’Orange,  Orange V, Three Olive Orange, Ketel One Oranje, and many more. So pick your own poison, swim up to the pool bar or relax in the whirlpool by the waterfall, and enjoy.

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We left early this morning for the drive down to Tucson to pack up Marissa and move her back to Scottsdale. Of course, I love having her home, so that is the really sweet part. But I also know how eager she is to “begin” her independent life, her career, and to have a place to call her own. I remember that feeling of longing and yearning and wish all those wonderful things for her. But with today’s economy and job market, she is just one of the thousands, probably hundreds of thousands, of young adults and college graduates in the same situation. Daily she is sending out resumes, searching online, and reaching out to every possible connection; lucky to ever get a call, acknowledgment, or interview. So, we’ll store her furniture and other belongings that one doesn’t need when living with your family (meaning parents) in mini-storage and continue to give her all the love and support we can while she waits for her new beginning. And of course, if you are reading this and know of any positions or possible openings for a brilliant, beautiful, and bold graduate with a bonafide Journalism degree, (such as writing, editing, public relations, journalist, newspaper, magazine, etc.) who will move anywhere for an opportunity; please email or call right this very minute!

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The title of this post is frightening to anyone who really knows me. If I’ve ever left you a voicemail while I’m driving, you already know how I tend to go on and on and on. I begin with the reason for my call, with every minute detail imaginable. Then I will whine about how sad I am that I didn’t reach you personally. And if traffic is bad or there is a horrific driver in my path (and really, when isn’t there?!) I will tell you all about it. After that useless information, I’ll feel the need to let you know where, why, how, who, what, and where I am going. But aside from the part you just read, this post is not like that…

Instead, I am going to share with you some cool stuff of late… at least I think it’s cool stuff.

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I am trying to avoid the aroma that is currently flowing from my kitchen and filling the entire house… baked sweetness. So instead I shall write about something else that may not seem so sweet at first but truly is… compost.

Some thirteen or fourteen years ago I began composting. I would love to say that I am an avid composter, but honestly, I’m more of a sporadic composter. It all began when I spotted an article in the newspaper stating that the City of Phoenix was recycling old worn-out trash cans into compost bins and all you needed to do was call and they would gladly deliver one to your home … free! I was into gardening so the idea of composting appealed to me and the word “free” – of course, was all it took. The next day a city truck arrived and dropped off my new bin. What they had done was cut off the bottom of the large rubber trash can, cut large holes all around the sides of the can, and take off the hinged lid, leaving an opening where the hinge had been – voila, a compost bin was born.

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Maybe I should explain my title choice for today’s post. So, I live in the southwest portion of the United States.  Here, we have two popular convenience stores, 7-11 and Circle K.  As previously mentioned, and actually bragged about, I am posting and scheduling my posts about 10 days to 2 weeks ahead of time. As I typed in my “scheduled” date, I noticed that today is 7-11, so whenever we (south-westerners) say “7-11”, we (or at least, I) like to follow it up with “and equal time for Circle K!”  The last thing we want to be is based – in Arizona, of all places! Yeah, right – tell that to our state legislatures! Sorry, no politics allowed here – just recipes and a bit of occasional humor or insights! Honestly – love it all!

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Before I begin telling you more than you may ever want to know about tomatoes, their seeds, “seeding” them, and tomato water… I have much more intriguing and interesting information to pass along. I added a new name to the Blogroll over there on the right. It is called “Linger” and is listed under the “Super Non-Cooking Stuff” category, directly below “Larry Fitzgerald”.  Which actually is appropriate. Since I met and began teaching Larry to cook, more than five years ago, I sometimes consider him to be just like a 3rd kid. And “Linger” is the new blog of one of my actual kids – Marissa, my gorgeous and talented daughter. (BTW, moms are totally permitted to brag and say things like that – especially when it is true!) Marissa recently graduated from the University of Arizona with a degree in Journalism and a creative writing minor… so it is natural for her to have a blog – she’s a writer!  Please check her out when you have a second, she just got the site up about a week ago and it’s already looking great!

Now on to the task at hand… tomatoes…

You may think that the reason recipes call for tomatoes to be seeded is to… well, remove the seeds. While the seeds may bother some people, the real benefit of seeding tomatoes is to get rid of the water liquid/juice found along with the seeds in the tomato’s interior chambers. Excess liquid makes some dishes soggy, such as salsas and pizzas, and other dishes gummy, such as pasta salads, especially if they sit for a while before being served.

You can choose to either discard the seeds and liquids after seeding the tomatoes, or you may want to save the juices and use them in a chilled soup or even a cocktail. Click here for an article from Bon Appetit about doing just that.

To seed a tomato; cut the tomato in half around its equator. If saving the juice, place a sieve or strainer over a bowl. If discarding the seeds and juice don’t bother to use the strainer. Grasp a tomato half in one hand and gently squeeze it over the strainer/bowl to remove the seeds and the juices. Then slice or dice as directed in the recipe.

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Since this post was originally put up, a charitable non-denominational organization called Spirit & Word was founded and established with initial funding from the estate of Bill Austin. They do wonderful work and you can contribute or just go there as a spiritual resource.  CLICK HERE to learn more.

Bill Austin 1954- 2010

Yesterday a friend of mine passed away after a brave battle with bladder cancer. He was not the kind of friend who I would see often, actually, I only saw him in person about a dozen times. But I heard his voice 5 days a week for nearly 20 years… and man.. could he make me laugh!  Not only me but hundreds of thousands of people across the Valley of the Sun and throughout the state of Arizona.

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Today is my baby’s 19th birthday! We’re spending it in Turks & Caicos on our family vacation.

Our suite includes butler service and our butlers, Minto and Ellen, made the day extra special. While we were out getting spa treatments, they hooked up our room with a full-blown party.

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