Wienies 'n Things

There is a place, actually a couple places, in Rock River, Wyo., I have wanted to stop in at for a long time.

This is saying something because if you've ever driven through Rock River you know it's a place you generally just drive through.  It's a tiny town.  But there is a bar and a little hot dog stand called Wienies 'n Things that I have been dying to go to.

I am completely drawn to these kinds of places.  I love the local dive bars and diners with their...local color.

My coworker Matt and I first came across Wienies 'n Things on a work trip over the summer, but we didn't have time to go in.

I wasn't going to let that opportunity pass me by today as Linds and I drove back from Casper, Wyo.

The wienie joint...

They sell t-shirts that look very much like this. If they didn't have the owners' names on it I would TOTALLY have bought one... 

Linds and I agreed these plates hanging on the wall were pretty darn cute...

Neither of us were very hungry so we just got an order of fries each.  We were the only ones in there and, who I'm guessing must have been Shawn, one of the owners, had to fire up the fryer just for us.  We kind of felt bad about him having to do that for our measly little order, but we couldn't leave there empty handed!

And because I have a love of all animated foods I made Linds take a picture of me with this.  Poor girl had to tromp through about an inch of snow to do it too!  

Tune(a) in

There are a handful of things I've been craving lately: pork chops, stuffed peppers, and tuna casserole.

There is no rhyme or reason for my cravings.  They're just there.  And I've put off appeasing them until I can barely take it.  So, tonight I caved to the call of the casserole.

I didn't want to make a dish that called for cream of mushroom soup, so I took to the Internet to see what I could find.  What I discovered is there are a lot of tuna casserole recipes out there!  And I didn't like just one.  So, I took an ingredient from one, an idea for thickening from another, and so forth, until I concocted what I thought might make a good combo.

Then I asked Linds H. for her recipe.  She's a good cook and I wanted to compare notes.  Her's was completely different still!

I decided to give mine a shot.

I know what's coming next is not modest at all:  It was freaking awesome!  AWESOME!  Todd and I were both very happy with it.  And I was very proud.

Kim's Kicka$$ Concocted Tuna Casserole
1 medium onion, finely chopped
4 large garlic cloves, finely chopped
1/4 c. flour
1/2 c. heavy whipping cream
1 1/2 c. milk (we use skim around here, which I figure makes up for the use of cream)
1/2 - 1 c. frozen peas
1 13.25 oz. can of mushroom stems and pieces + the juice
3 5-oz. cans tuna packed in water, undrained
16 oz. pasta of choice
pepper to taste
about 5 twists of a salt grinder
5 oz. pkg. of shredded parm
Plain bread crumbs

Throw your pasta in some water and get it going.

While the pasta is cooking, brown onion and garlic in a little bit of olive oil over medium-high.  Turn heat to just a little hotter than low, and sprinkle flour over onions.  Whisk in cream and milk, season with pepper, and bring to a simmer, stirring periodically to keep smooth.

Keep checking the pasta - you want it cooked to only slightly more than al dente.  

Add the peas, mushrooms, tuna, and salt to the cream mixture.  Simmer, stirring with a wooden spoon to break up tuna.

Drain pasta and dump into large mixing bowl.  Pour sauce over the noodles and mix.  Add package of parm.  Mix thoroughly.

Pour casserole into a medium-sized baking dish and sprinkle with plain bread crumbs.

Pop in the oven and bake until bread crumbs are crisp and casserole is bubbling through.

Friday night fish fry

As I learned in November, Friday night across the state of Wisconsin is fish fry night.

With Todd's mom here we decided to create our own Wisconsin fish fry at the house. We even thawed a bunch of crappies Todd caught in Wisconsin.

The battering process. Just dip each side in egg then roll thoroughly in plain bread crumbs...


Snap, crackle, pop! Drop the fish in a light layer of olive oil...


Whip up some coleslaw, steam some broccoli and butter some cornbread and voila! Wisconsin fish fry!


Friday Fish Fry Coleslaw

Nancy is a coleslaw lover, so I was flattered when she said she wanted my recipe. I can't remember where I found it - probably Cooking Light.

1 pkg. of pre-shredded cabbage/carrot coleslaw mix from the produce section
6 tbsp. light mayo or Miracle Whip (NOTE: I HATE beyond reason mayo/Miracle Whip. I hate the color, smell...sound...of it. But sometimes you can't get around it. I have wanted to try this with plain fat-free yogurt but haven't done it yet. Will report back when I do...)
1 tsp. celery seed
1/4 tsp. salt
3 tsp. sugar
3 tsp. apple cider vinegar

Whisk all ingredients minus the coleslaw mix in a small bowl. Thoroughly combine sauce mixture with pkg. of coleslaw in a larger bowl. Chill until ready to serve.

Cheers for charity

Tonight Jonna, Linds H., Whit and I went to a charity wine tasting event for the Laramie Hospice.

I wasn't sure what to expect because too many times I've gone to these things and they just haven't been impressive. It didn't take long to realize, however, that this one was fantastic!

There was a great variety of wines to sample - not only in the number of kinds available, but in the quality!

And the food was amazing. I loved the tuna on what we called a veggie crisp and we all raved over the Gorgonzola and sausage mac and cheese. It was truly delicious (and no, Linds C., I'm not becoming a pasta person!).

All-in-all I would totally recommend this event and plan to attend every year!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Just kidding. I obviously know it's not at all November.

But it didn't feel like it this morning as I stood for an hour and cleaned a 20 lb. turkey I had cooked through the night.

Why in the world was I doing this if it isn't anywhere near Thanksgiving?

Good question!

Last year, there was a bin of turkeys on sale at the grocery store for $6.99 flat. I thought, that's amazing! I picked out the biggest one I could find with the intention of freezing it until Thanksgiving this year.

I was right on track until...Todd and I went to my place to get a load of stuff a couple nights ago and we accidentally left the turkey on the kitchen table. Needless to say, it was thawing quite nicely when I went over the next day.

I was afraid it would be ruined if I tried to refreeze it, so I decided to just cook it. I threw it in the oven overnight and at 6 a.m. this morning I was standing in the dark cleaning my bird.

Happy Thanksgiving!

"You are an obsession..."

There are some foods right now that, in the words of the 1984 Animotion song Obsession, "I will have you, I will find a way, and I will have you."

Those foods are fruit salads and chicken thighs - but not mixed together, mind you!

Hardly a day goes by that I don't have a fruit salad. They're so refreshing, and perfectly sweet and tart, and filling, and healthy, and delicious!

And chicken thighs...oh man. Several years ago I stumbled on a recipe that called for chicken thighs. I made it and there was no going back. Recently, however, my taste for them has become almost insatiable. They are SO amazing and juicy. And their flavor is to die for. Lately, I've just been dipping them in various rubs or bbq sauce and throwing them on the grill. I can't get enough!

So, what's in my fruit salads?

1 fat-free plain yogurt cup with any mixture of fruit I want. I've been using various combos of strawberries, grapes, bananas, peaches, and raspberries.

"Like a butterfly...a wild butterfly..."

Game nights

I am not a vegetarian. Not by a long shot. I'm also pretty adventurous with food and think I've been fortunate to have tried lots of different things.

But this weekend there was a first:

Bear.

I'd always wanted to try bear, but was hesitant because I'd heard it was really greasy. But at a BBq Friday night I had my first bite of bear in burger form and it was great!

The meal was rounded out with antelope kabobs, and at another bbq on Saturday I had deer sausage.

I guess you could say I'm "game" for pretty much anything.

Gluttony and bliss

Every year in D.C., Jeff M. and I would organize an outing to Sushi Taro's crazy amazing all-you-can-eat sushi day that the restaurant hosted as part of the Cherry Blossom Celebration.

For $32, which includes tax and tip, you get to enter a sushi wonderland where you have your pick of nearly any kind of roll you could dream of, and where tray after tray of sashimi lines the bar. There are endless plates of tempura veggies (which I'm not a fan of), piles of soba noodles, stacks of tofu cakes, tubs of miso...you name it, they have it.

(I'm dying as I write this!)

And you can go up as many times as you like. It's total gluttony - and total bliss!

Jeff and I would get in line an hour and a half early. That sounds crazy, I get it, but if you didn't make the first wave in when the doors opened at 12 p.m., you'd be stuck in a line that wrapped around the block waiting for other gorgers to trickle out.

Thursday night, the Nagel-Warren Mansion here in town hosted an all-u-can-eat sushi night also for $32. A group of us went to check it out.

We had a blast, and it was good. We got plate after plate of some very nice fish. But there were hardly any rolls - which are my favorite. And there weren't any of the fixins - like soup, edamame, or dumplings. And I ended up paying a LOT more when it was all said and done.

It was a fun first-time event for the inn to hold, but at the end of the day I'd be happier going to my beloved Tokyo Bowl (a.k.a. Burger King sushi). You get more for your money and I leave more satisfied.

The cast of characters: Me, Don, Todd...

Cast 2: Molly, Brandon, Annie...

Cast 3: Salmon, white tuna, tuna...


I have NO idea what I'm talking about here...


Um...yeah. You can't take this group anywhere! We have Angry Walrus, Happy Walrus, and Goofy Walrus. The fam's all here!


The Mansion's owner took us on a tour of the place later. It was awesome! I LOVE, LOVED this painting...

Mimosas, Mondays and sausage loaves

Today was another successful Mimosa Monday.

I made waffles like I used to for Mimosa Mondays of yore. We had sausage links, a wonderful fruit plate, and this DELICIOUS bread from Molly with even more sausage, which we called the sausage loaf. Oh, and don't forget a couple pitchers of mimosas...

I really love this event!

Molly's Sausage Bread (a.k.a. the sausage loaf)

1 can Pilsbury pizza dough
1 lb. Jimmy Dean sausage, cooked, crumbled
Shredded mozzarella and shredded parmesean - amount depends on how cheesy as you want it
1 egg

Spread pizza dough out. Top dough with sausage and cheese spreading to within an inch of the edge of the dough. Roll the dough into a "log." Gently whisk the egg then brush it over the "log."

Cook the loaf at the temp specified on the dough can.

Voila! Sausage loaf!

You can also spice it up with jalapenos, or top it with marinara...the possibilities are endless!

Did I say how much I love this event?!

Mimosa Monday - bringin' it back

My friend Dave R. and I started this great event several years ago in D.C., called Mimosa Monday (MM). Any time we'd have a Monday off for a federal holiday, a big group of us would get together at someone's place for a potluck brunch and pitchers of mimosas.

We kept it up for a long time. But inevitably people started to get busy, started to move, or started to make a little more money to travel with on long weekends, and MM started to fall by the way-side.

But in it's glory days MM was a big deal. There would easily be at least 15 people at each one - and sometimes parents, hanging out, eating tons of breakfast food, and drinking pitcher after pitcher (from our special MM pitcher) of mimosas until the early afternoon.

When someone DID move, they took the MM tradition with them. We've had MM from L.A., and NYC for example.

Today...I brought it to Wyoming. Linds, Jonna, April and I had our own little MM this morning at Jonna's place. It was small, but it was fun, and importantly, it was back.

The menu: Two kinds of frittatas, yogurt with tropical flavored granola, bananas, and english muffins. And of course a big pitcher of mimosas!

Jonna with frittatas fresh from the oven...


Me mixing the magic elixir...


Cheers!

Happy Veterans Day!

Remember to take a moment to thank the people serving, or who have served our country!

This was at the local King Soopers grocery store today...you don't see stuff like this in big cities. I got there too late to chat with the Vets, but thought it was a nice thing to do:


This was also at the grocery store. The "word up!" CRACKS me up!

Lunch Longings

I've never really been one to go out for lunch every day, finding it more economical for my wallet and my waist if I bring my own.

Today, however, innocently sitting at my desk working on an article, I was struck with a very out of the blue thought: I really want a build-your-own salad and slab of bread from Cosi.

Oh man.

The number of BYO salads I have eaten from that chain is beyond counting. I have gone days on end eating them. It really started when I worked in an office downtown D.C., that was right above a Cosi. Not loving my other options in the area I would inevitably find myself choosing ingredients and munching on bread samples in the lunch line there.

I haven't once thought of Cosi since leaving D.C., and all of the sudden there it was: a sad longing for greens with low-fat ginger soy dressing and a hunk of their amazing - truly amazing - bread.

It was at that precise moment that Jonna called to say she was in Cheyenne shopping and would I like to go to lunch? A trip to the sushi place curbed my Cosi craving, but I'm worried it won't be for long...

I just peeked at their website to check locations and unless I want to drive to California, Oklahoma or Texas, I'm out of luck. And knowing I can't have it makes me want it a bit more than before.

So...I'll be expecting Cosi care packages from D.C., friends any day now, hint, hint...

On a (Dinner) Roll

I am on a roll with entertaining these past couple weeks.

I hosted my first dinner party a few weeks ago with Lori and Shaq, and tonight I had my second.

Linds and Jonna drove over from Laramie to hang out and eat some grub. Jonna hadn't seen my apartment since I moved in - and Linds hadn't seen it since the addition of my living room rug - so it was fun to show them how the place has changed.

We had a roast chicken, sweet potatoes "fries," and a new recipe: asparagus with balsamic brown butter sauce that was an absolute disaster.

The directions call for adding a balsamic mixture to a pan of browned butter, the process of which completely exploded all over my stove and walls - sort of in the manner of a fireworks show. There were little explosions and splatters at first that rose to a grand finale of sprays and bursts before I could move the pan from the stove.

On top of that the recipe sucked. I will not be making that again.

However, I made another new recipe for dessert: Glazed Lemon Buttermilk Cake that we topped with mixed berries.

And that totally made up for the asparagus...

Whole Foods Happiness

Last week I went to Ft. Collins to look for a couch and to hit up Whole Foods.

I haven't been in a Whole Foods but once since I left D.C. Now, with an apartment that sports a large refrigerator my longing for a GOOD grocery store could barely be contained.

I pulled in the parking lot and gazed lovingly at the big green Whole Foods letters. I seriously think I heard angels singing and saw the heavens break open over the store much like this:

Ok, maybe this is just a picture I took from I-25 on my way home, but the feeling was the same. The closer I got to the front door of the store the more I felt like skipping. Seriously. I grabbed a cart and stood overwhelmed with happiness in the produce section.

I went up and down EVERY aisle. I tried to be judicious in my selections, but when I was checking out I realized I hadn't been as frugal as I'd hoped.

That's ok though because I have been happily eating marinated tofu, homemade breads, and nice meats all week.

Who says money can't buy happiness??

Kim's Altitude Defying Banana Bread

Or, I might call this "Welcome to the West Banana Bread" since it was one of the first things I baked after getting here. It's really called "Mom's Banana Bread" and is from Cooking Light, but I like my names better. The recipe is delicious no matter what it's called, and what's even better is I didn't have to adjust it for altitude.

Enjoy!

1 cup sugar

1/4 cup butter, softened

1 2/3 cups mashed ripe banana

1/4 cup skim milk

1/4 cup low-fat sour cream

2 large egg whites

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

Cooking Spray

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Combine sugar and butter in a bowl; beat at medium speed of a mixer until well-blended. Add banana, milk, sour cream, and egg whites; beat well and set aside.

Combine flour, baking soda, and salt; stir well. Add dry ingredients to creamed mixture, beating until blended.

Spoon batter into either 4 (5 x 2 1/2 -inch) mini loaf pans or one 9 x 5-inch loaf pan coated with cooking spray. Bake for 45 minutes for mini loaves, or 1 hour and 10 minutes for larger loaf, or until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Let bread cool in pans 10 minutes. Remove from pans and let cool completely before cutting.

Serving size = 1 slice

Calories 147; Fat 2.2 g; Protein 2.5 g; Cholesterol 7 mg; Sodium 180 mg; Carbs 30.2 g

Cooking Light, Nov. 1996

Trader Joe's Trail of Tears

I miss Trader Joe's.

Big time.

This thought occurred to me as I was standing in the kitchen a few minutes ago munching on a piece of toast I had slathered with Whole Foods' 365 blueberry jam.

My train of thought went something like this...

"Huh, I'm almost out of my jam. Too bad I have to drive to a Whole Foods in Denver to get it. What else would I need from Whole Foods? Ah, forget it. Whole Foods plus gas money down would cost a fortune! If only there were a Trader Joe's...I would make special trips to Denver for a TJ's. I wonder if the CEO is contemplating the email I sent suggesting a TJ's in Colorado? Do they not realize what they're missing out on here?! I mean, Colorado is the very definition of a TJ's location. Maybe I'll tell him again. I think I'll blog about this..."

And here I am.

If you have never been to a Trader Joe's you have not lived. Ok, that's a bit much, but it is amazing. It is like a discount drug store version of Whole Foods. (Something tells me the TJ's marketing department wouldn't appreciate this description.) Good, healthy food for a fraction of the cost! Cheeses are a third of the price there - nice ones! (It's no secret cheese bin, you're right Dupont Dwellers.) And you can get amazing wines for $4. Don't trust a $4 wine? You've never shopped Trader Joe's.

And all the employees wear Hawaiian shirts! You definitely don't get that at other stores.

It's like a grocery wonderland. But they aren't perfect. Some things you just need to supplement at a Safeway, or Albertson's...or Whole Foods. But what you can get there is fantastic.

I used to work three blocks from a TJ's. I would go there for lunch or pop in after work for some last minute groceries. I would spend Sundays standing in a line that wrapped around the inside of the Foggy Bottom store just so I could have my TJ's soup for lunch the next week.

Now, the closest one is in New Mexico, which is infinitely sad. For once it would be cheaper to just hit a Whole Foods...ho hum.