Food Archives - Page 12 of 24

Aloha Friday: Grill Fail to Grill Win

May 27, 2011 TechyDad Aloha Friday, Cooking, Food

A couple of days ago, I posted about my Grill Fail. Well, yesterday we tried again. This time I had some new tools and was all set. I put the coals in and lit them. For awhile, things weren’t looking so hot. Literally. The coals seemed to refuse to stay lit.

Just as we were deciding to give up, I gave it one more try and success!

Before long, we had hamburgers and hot dogs for dinner. We only had hot dog buns, so we split the burgers in half and put them on the hot dog rolls.

NHL, B and I each ate two hot dogs and one hamburger. JSL ate one… hot dog bun. (He’s extremely picky and barely tasted the hot dogs or burgers.)

With this initial success under my belt, I want to do two things. First of all, I want to buy a chimney starter. This should make starting the coals a lot easier. Secondly, I want to try some other things on the grill. Turkey burgers and chicken breasts are a sure thing.

Another possibility is salami. My father used to slice salami, grill it and then serve it atop rye bread. Delicious!

My Aloha Friday question for today is: Do you have/use a grill? What do you grill on it?

Don’t forget to enter my Dinosaur Train giveaway. You could win Dino Poop and Hatchers.

Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the McLinky there if you are participating.

Aloha #89

Grilling Fail

May 25, 2011 TechyDad BBQ, Cooking, Food

Last year, I won a Weber Grill and grilling utensil set during a Twitter party. The grill arrived and I hastily assembled it. If by “hastily” you mean “let it sit in the box in our living room for a month and only put it together and took it out because B was going to kill me.” With the grill all set up, I proceeded to not use it. For one reason or another, I just didn’t get to use it during the rest of the summer or fall. Winter came and away the grill went.

With spring here, I decided that we should grill. I remembered that the instructions had said to heat the grill for one hour prior to first use. Unfortunately, this meant that I couldn’t use the grill during the week. (Waiting an hour and *then* cooking time seemed excessive.) Weekends were perfect, but it seemed like every day brought rain. No way was I going to be standing over the grill with an umbrella!

Finally, this past Sunday, we had nice weather. B went to the store to get some hot dogs and hamburgers. When she got back, I went out, put some charcoal in the grill and tried to light it. Sadly, the wind quickly put out any flame I lit. Undaunted, I recalled a trick about using newspaper. So I got a single sheet of newspaper, arranged it among the charcoal and lit the paper.

Sure enough, I got a nice, big flame. I also got pieces of paper shooting off. Too late, I noticed some vines (waiting to be bagged) that had potential for catching on fire. The hose was close, but not on. Fail #1. Luckily, nothing caught on fire, but lesson learned. Next time, I’ll turn the hose on before I light the grill to cut down on any fire extinguishing delay.

The next fail came soon after. I had the grill all ready now and going nicely. I began to picture the hamburgers and hot dogs on there cooking away with me flipping them using… uh oh. Where were my utensils. During the winter, we put the utensils away. For the life of us, though, we couldn’t remember where. Taking turns (as we weren’t comfortable leaving the grill unattended), we looked and looked to no avail. The utensils *are* in our house. Somewhere. But “somewhere” doesn’t help me flip burgers. Fail #2.

It was too late to go out and buy new utensils, so I let the grill burn for the hour, snuffed the flames and put the grill away (after it cooled down). The next day, I looked into some new utensils. On the way home, I bought a new spatula, tongs, and grill brush from Lowe’s. Tomorrow’s weather is looking good so here’s hoping that My First Grilling Take Two is more successful than Take One was.

Don’t forget to enter my Dinosaur Train giveaway. You could win Dino Poop and Hatchers.

Aloha Friday: Expanding Culinary Horizons

May 20, 2011 TechyDad Aloha Friday, Food, NHL

NHL used to be such a good eater. He would order pizza with broccoli and mushrooms. Not because we promised him dessert, mind you, but because he liked broccoli and mushrooms. Then he would proceed to eat every veggie and fungal item on his plate. He also once wanted a taste of some spicy vegetarian chili I had ordered. I wavered, afraid to give him spicy foods, but he liked it. He wanted another bit and another and another.

Sometime around three or four, though, his culinary horizons collapsed inward. Suddenly, vegetables were avoided and spicy was shunned. About the only healthy thing he would eat was fruit. We would implore him to eat veggies to no avail. We tried sneaking them in, but he kept finding us out. He, sadly, inherited stubbornness from somewhere. (*whistles innocently*)

Recently, though, he appears to be rediscovering the joy of trying new foods. He fell in love with broccoli awhile ago, but, on one of our rare trips to McDonald’s, he decided to try BBQ sauce on his chicken nuggets. He loved it. That led him to try the sweet and sour sauce that came with his “Chinese chicken nuggets” (our code name for “Sweet and Sour Chicken”). He loved that too. This from the kid that once refused anything that contained any kind of “sauce.” (The lone exception being pizza.)

The most surprising, though, came a few days ago. We were trying Green Giant’s Simply Steam Brussels Sprouts with Butter Sauce. NHL looked at the green orbs on our plate and asked to try it. I’ll admit, I was conflicted. On one hand, how could I say no to a kid asking to try brussels sprouts? On the other hand, it’s brussels sprouts! What’s the likelihood that he would like it?

He didn’t just like it, he loved it! He ate about a third of the package by himself. Now, if he sees us take out a package, he asked for some. He’s even identified them fresh in the supermarket and has asked for me to make them. (I know that poorly made brussels sprouts can taste bad, so I’m not sure how brave I am making them just yet.)

Now, if only he could help us convince JSL to eat veggies instead of asking for Mac and Cheese for breakfast, lunch and dinner!

My Aloha Friday question for today is: Does you and/or your child eat vegetables? If so, what kinds of veggies are your and/or your child’s favorites?

Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the McLinky there if you are participating.

Aloha #88

Aloha Friday: Food Deprivation

April 29, 2011 TechyDad Aloha Friday, Food, Holidays, Judaism

Last week (and the beginning of this week), I celebrated Passover. During this holiday, I give up a lot of foods like bread, rice, corn, beans, and soy products. This can be a tricky time as we are confined to matzo as most of our source of carbs. It also means that favorite year round foods, such as macaroni and cheese or soy-based veggie burgers, aren’t allowed.

Of course, in many ways I’m used to restricting my diet. While growing up, I learned about the Kosher dietary rules during Hebrew school. One by one I decided to follow them. First, I stopped eating milk and meat together. This meant turning my usual bacon cheeseburger into a bacon burger.

Next, I gave up all meats that couldn’t be kosher* while eating out. This wasn’t too hard. Except for bacon and the occasional Chinese food spare rib, I was never a big fan of shrimp, clams, ham and the like. Spare ribs were occasional enough that I gave them up easily. Bacon, however, I dreaded giving up. I expected it to be a difficult affair packed with cravings and backsliding. Instead, I turned my bacon burger into a plain burger and never looked back.

My Aloha Friday question for today is: What foods would you find difficult (if not impossible) to give up for a week? What foods would you find difficult or impossible to give up for the rest of your life?

* To clarify, by “meats that couldn’t be kosher”, I mean meats that intrinsically couldn’t be kosher due to the animal they come from** such as ham (from pigs) and shrimp.

** For the curious, the rule for land animals is cloven hooves and chews its cud. Pigs have the hooves but don’t chew their cud; cows do both. Therefore cows are kosher while pigs aren’t. Water animals, meanwhile, need to have fins and scales. Tilapia, for example, have both and are thus kosher while shrimp have neither. Of course, while eating out, I tend to just say I am “vegetarian” since this is quicker and something most waiters will understand instead of “I have a complex set of religious rules that I follow and here they are…”

Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the McLinky there if you are participating.

Aloha #85

The Beginning and Ending of Passover

April 26, 2011 TechyDad Dessert, Family, Food, Holidays, JSL, Judaism, NHL, Photos

Today is the last day of Passover. During the day, we’ll eat up some of the remaining matzoh and dream of the bread-filled meals coming the next day. Technically, we can break Passover tonight, but, practically, eating dinner after 8:30pm isn’t worth it, even if it will be our first non-Passover meal in 8 days.

I was going to end with a Cooking With TechyDad post on how to make matzoh brie, but I realized that I did that last year. So instead, I’ll give you a quick photo tour of our Passover experience.

The day before Passover, we mostly spent cleaning and shopping. However, we did have one unexpected treat. As we pulled into a local Target’s parking lot, we saw a familiar pink truck. It was the Fluffalicious cupcake truck!

We decided to get the boys one cupcake each and split a giant cupcake between the two of us. NHL got a S’mores cupcake. JSL chose a chocolate banana cupcake. B and I split a giant cookie dough cupcake. (Let me tell you: It’s torture to go through these photos during Passover!)

The morning before Passover, I went to temple very early. You see, because one of the plagues was death of the first born, first born Jewish males have to fast the day before Passover. However, there’s a way out of this obligation. If you attend a special learning session, you have to celebrate afterwards by participating in a celebratory meal. And once you eat, you’re let out of the fast for the rest of the day.

After temple, we went out to Friendly’s for breakfast. B had eggs and french toast (which I don’t have a photo of), I had eggs and pancakes and the boys had M&M pancakes.

Sadly, while delicious, this was our last non-Passover food for the next 8 days.

That night, we went to B’s aunt’s house for the Passover seder. We had a great time with family and had fabulous food.

The next night we had the second seder. In many ways, it was a repeat of the first. Lots of good times and good food with family.

During the rest of Passover, we dealt with a finicky child’s hunger strike (luckily, it turns out he really likes matzoh pizza), a lot of exhaustion and a lot of matzoh. Tonight, we’ll pack up our Passover pans, cooking utensils and the like and put them away for another year. I can’t say we’ll be very sorry to see it go. Passover is fun, but by now we are all dreaming of our favorite non-Kosher-for-Passover foods!

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