Sixty Reasons

Ten for every year we’ve been together:

1. Always ready to watch Vertigo any time of day or night
2. Turned animating clay dinosaurs into a booming career
3. Finds my glasses for me
4. Brings a racquetball to roll under my foot when walking causes me pain
5. Once accidentally put a dozen eggs in the freezer.

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Cherry Butter Bars and the Milli Vanilli Connection

As I write this entry, I’m listening to the song Blame it on the Rain by Milli Vanilli.

You remember those guys… Rob and Fab.

I’m at a loss for a fun story to go along with this recipe. Here’s the dull reality: cherries were on sale at my Rock and Roll Ralphs and I bought way more than I’ll ever be able to nibble away before they go bad. I went looking for a recipe, found the only one that interested me at Smitten Kitchen, made it while burning What’s My Line? episodes off my DVR, had a bourbon and went to bed.

Not much to really sink your teeth into, is there?

Would it help if I mentioned the mystery celebrity guests on WML? were Robert Wagner and Anna Maria Alberghetti? Anyone else remember Anna’s delightful Good Seasons salad dressing tv commercials from the 1970s? Anyone?

Didn’t think so.

Perhaps the most exciting part of this entry is that I’m actually listening to Milli Vanilli. Probably shouldn’t have led with my best. But I can still manage to tie it all together becasue I have found a mystery link that connects the disgraced foot-stomping braid-heads to the sweet, lovely, industrious cherry itself.

But you’ll have to read the rest of the entry to learn it.

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Lemon Bars

My friend Laura recently informed me that I’m going through my “gadget phase,” — a mandatory period that apparently all new kitchen bugs like me go through. At first, I privately scoffed at the idea, but since taking inventory of my kitchen, I’ve had to give up the grunt and admit she’s right. After all, in just the last three months, my culinary family has grown by a NuWave oven, a garlic press, a crock pot, a Magic Bullet, a potato press, an olive oil sprayer, an oven liner, plastic cutting mats, a food processor, two aprons, an assortment of cookie sheets, cake and brownie pans, a potato scooper, a bounty of serving dishes, bowls, and trays, and barbecue tongs that, thankfully, fold up to save room in my utensil drawer. On top of that, an entire shelf of DVD’s has been dispalced in favor of cook books and cocktail manuals, and I’m curently sitting on a $150 gift card to Sur La Table.

Oh, and as of yesterday… I am the proud papa of a shiny lemon zester.

I hope I stay in the gadget phase for a long, long time. Nothing’s making me happier these days than the cacophony of steel, plastic and wire that plays anytime I give my utensil drawer a nice firm pull.

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Pulled Pork Sandwiches

As of last night, I am no longer the Last American Crock Pot Virgin!

After months enduring slings and barbs from my co-workers for spending as much time as I do in the kitchen without a crock, I finally lucked out and scored myself one for Christmas, courtesy of my mom and dad.

It’s little.  It’s like a “Bachelor Crock Pot,” or perhaps a “Baby’s First Crock Pot,” or a “Vern Troyer Crock Pot.”  I didn’t actually think there were crock pots this little, but now that I have mine, I see them in this little Hobbit-size nearly everywhere I go!

As for the first meal to make in it… that wasn’t a tough call.  I’d just recently enjoyed a fantastic pulled pork sandwich at The Tipsy Pig, a great gastropub up in San Francisco, and it had been flickering around in the back of my mind like a fugitive kite ever since.  Plus, I’m always looking for a reason to use barbecue sauce, and finally and most importantly, my boyfriend wanted it.

I let the pork cook through most of my Saturday afternoon.  The smell that slowly snaked its way through my apartment… well, you can imagine.  Even my twenty pound cat who doesn’t do much of anything other than lie on his back all day was dancing back and forth through the kitchen with his nose twitching and pointing up to the counter.  When MG finally showed up and walked through my door, the first thing he said was, “Hey, it smells like North Carolina in here!”  What kitchen-dabbler could ask for a better compliment than that?

So, thank you to my co-workers in the booth for the bullying, and to my parents for listening to them, and to MG for loving food, and to pork everywhere, and to the pulling of pork, and most importantly to the Naxon Utilities Corporation of Chicago for giving birth to the original slow cooker that would eventually go on to a life of fame and praise.

Pulled Pork Sandwiches

• 1-2 pound pork loin, trimmed of fat
• 1 1/2 cups barbecue sauce, divided
• a medium onion, chopped
• 1/2 bell pepper, chopped
• hamburger buns or the rolls of your choice

Place pork loin in crock pot and top with onion, pepper and barbecue sauce

Cover and cook on LOW for 7-8 hours or on HIGH for 4-5 hours

Shred with a fork, stir and continue to cook for another hour at least

Pile it up on your hamburger bun or roll and have at it!

Click on the below pics for hi-res versions.

My Kitchen is Broken

PC users may be noticing some formatting issues when viewing Tv Food and Drink. It seems that some gremlins slipped into my coding over the weekend while I was doing some upgrades and made a mess of everything. Please rest assured that I’m fixing things as fast as I can, and should up to snuff by January 8th if not sooner. The kitchen can’t always be neat and tidy, you know.

Nu Wave Super Goodness!

Miss Heidi Bohay is the Grand Dutchess of NuWave brand convection ovens, and after a particularly trying week for me at GSN Live, the hostess with the mostess snuck into my office and left me a NuWave as a feel-better present.

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I’m Taking My NuWave Oven to Bed With Me

Forget the fact that you don’t have to defrost first.  Forget that the everyone on-line says that it’s a snap to clean!  Forget that it will cook my meals up to 50% faster.  Forget that the base also works as a serving tray (something I can always use).  Forget that celebrity pitch-woman Heidi Bohay is just SO DARN CUTE.  All of that should be put aside and forgotten about because when MG saw it and read the box over, all he could say was, “I CAN MAKE BEEF JERKEY WITH IT!”

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