Remember This?

Jiffy Pop!





I was under the assumption that if you were a child of the 70's this is what you ate when it came time for popcorn.  


I guess I was wrong.  Until New Year's Eve 2010, my husband, 41 years old had never had Jiffy Pop.  Tragic, I know!


He came home from the store that afternoon with a package of saying he'd walked by it and just had to buy it because he'd never had it growing up and wanted to finally try it.  


So I popped it for him that night.  I wasn't nearly as good as I remember.  I'd say at least half of it didn't even pop.  Hubby was not impressed.  But hey, as a kid in the 70's it was cool!  We didn't have microwave popcorn we had Jiffy Pop. 


He ended up putting all the unpopped ones in some oil and popping them.  And of course, I being the bad blogger that I am didn't even photograph the festivities to show off here.  

Table Topics Tuesday: Who's Hungry?

if you had to eat one meal for the rest of your life, what would it be?

Are you kidding me?

PIZZA!

I know, nothing special or fancy but I love me some pizza.  Pepperoni and Black Olives.  I tried to come up with something else but really if I had to choose this would be it.

Now this is all under the assumption that I would never get sick of eating the same thing over and over, not gain weight eating all those carbs and of course never get heartburn or indegestion from all that pepperoni!

Eat your veggies!

If your kids are like mine.......or pretty much any kid out there........or like me, pickiest eater in the world......you have a hard time getting them to eat many veggies.

Well, here's my "trick" to get mine to eat green beans. Hey, did you ever think you'd be getting a cooking/food tip from this blog? Probably not!

Anyway, all you need is some butter or margarine, a can of French cut green beans and some bread crumbs.

Melt margarine in a skillet, drain the green beans, spread them in the pan and cover them with bread crumbs. Stir fry them until they are a nice golden brown. Don't be afraid to add bread crumbs until you get the right texture. Even though you drain the beans they tend to soak up the moisture from them. You want them kinda crisp, not soggy!

And viola..........

Bread crumbs and beans! Even I think they are yummy! I'm lucky if I can get the kids to eat a couple beans normally. I make them like this and they take a whole big spoon full and even ask for more.

My grandmother used to make them like this all the time! It wasn't until just recently that I tried them again, not sure why. Hers of course were much better........she used fresh beans and cooked them in a cast iron pan. So all the better if you've got either of those.

Time to make the donuts

Tiger loves donuts! My hubby thought it would be funny to sneak "donut maker" on to her Christmas list. Well, when she saw it she insisted on getting one "if they are invented yet" she said!

So I found one of these at a kitchen gadget store:

It's basically just for dropping pancake batter but it did have "donut maker" on the box also, she was all excited. It included what looked like and easy recipe for regular donuts. All you have to do is mix the batter, put it in the contraption and "release rings of batter into hot oil"

Well this is the closest to a ring we got:

The dough just seemed to have a mind of it's own and take on random shapes. It also broke off into smaller pieces and we had all those turds you see around the edges.

Here are a couple more of the random shapes we got.

We tried again the next day and ended up with a seahorse, a dinosaur and one that was a little obscene! lol

I thought they tasted good though. Skowt didn't think they tasted like donuts. Whatever.

Who's Hungry?

One of the best parts (besides seeing family I hardly see) about visiting MA is the food! It's also the reason I gained back 4 of the 5 pounds I lost before our trip. :(

These are what my family calls "Wilsons". Not sure if that is the real name for them. That is what the bakery they used to get them from called them. That bakery is no longer around so we went elsewhere. Yummy! But too huge to eat an entire one........well, unless you are my brother!



This is a party size pizza from one of the best pizza places around! It fed 9 people and cost less than $25! Around here it would have cost at least $45-50

And since we are a bunch of Polacks we of course had to have some Polish food. We all downed it so quickly I forgot to get pictures!

My chips are stale

I mentioned about a week and a half ago that I'm trying to lose a little weight.

One of my biggest food weaknesses is potato chips. I love 'em. I can't eat a sandwich without chips on the side. It's just not right. Gotta have that crunch to go along with it. My mom jokes that she can open a bag from a mile away and I know! I seem to walk in to her house whenever she does.

My favorite kind are Krunchers. Or any other kettle cooked kind.

I decided that to keep myself going I'm not going to give up any of my favorites. I'm just going to eat them in moderation to stay within my point range.....or as close to it as I can. ;)

So this past week instead of having an open bag of chips next to me, I've been weighing out a serving size according to the bag.

That bag of chips freakin lasted FOREVER! Long enough that they were going stale by the end of the bag! Not cool! But I ate them! lol

Hmm? What's worse? No chips or stale chips?

BTW: I got on the scale today after 10 days and I'm down 3.5 lbs. Yay me!

Wish me Luck

I'm gonna need it. Because I may soon starve to death!

Let me explain. I eat like a pig and it needs to stop! Over the past couple years I have slowing been putting on weight. My mom and I decided to try weight watchers. She was a member a few years ago and still has all her books, charts and cookbooks. We aren't going to meetings but will be doing it together.

According to the chart, I am allowed 20-25 points for my weight bracket. What? Who can survive on this? That has to be a misprint!

We started yesterday and I had 35 points. Yup, 10 over. No surprise there that I wasn't able to keep it in my range. And I still went to bed hungry!

But you know what? I'm not gonna sweat it. Because I ate waaaaayyyy less than normal. So the way we figure it, even if we go over a bit here and there, we are still eating less and *should* lose weight. I hope. Just writing it down and keeping track is making me think twice about what goes in my mouth.

The really hard part for me is that I'm such a picky eater! Out of a list of 37 "free" zero point items I will eat about 5 or 6 of them. Notice I said "will eat" them, not "like" them. Pickles I like, but who can survive on pickles? But say lettuce.......I'll eat it on my sandwich, burger, taco, but I'm not one for a salad. It's just too bland to eat a whole bowl of it. And it's not like I'm gonna snack on a head of lettuce while watching my fave tv show!

Writing all this is making me really hungry!

Frozen Pickle Juice?

I went with my mom to the dentist the other day so that after her appointment we could do lunch and some bumming. While sitting there waiting for her I glanced down at the newspaper sitting there and in it was a short little write up about the Pickle Sickle, a frozen treat made of pickle juice.

I love a me a good pickle. Like those big ones they have at the State Fair and I've often joked about drinking the juice out of the pickle jar. But never thought of freezing it. I'd be willing to try one but it looks like unless you live in the Texas area where they're made you can only order by the box online and they seem a bit pricey.

Don't wait until the last minute!

I've used that line on my kids I don't know how many times. I should have known it would come back to bite me in the a$$ eventually. For some reason unknown to me I decided to join a cookie exchange a few people are doing at work. I'm not much of a baker.

So, I decided on what I was going to make and got all the ingredients this past weekend and decided I was going to make them late yesterday afternoon after my hubby went to work. Well, it was a recipe I had never done before so that should have been my first clue. Long story short, they turned out terrible! The bottoms are burned and they are as dry as the Sahara desert. I cooked them according to the recipe but I think it's way too long. Even my second batch that I shortened the time on were bad. My oldest came home toward the end of the fiasco and wanted to try one. Sure, at your own risk! We decide they were gross and she asked "When are these due?". "Um, tomorrow. " I said. Here it comes......"Mom, you always say don't wait to the last minute!" Doh!

Yup, lesson learned. So next time one of 4 things will happen.
1. I will give myself more time to prepare cookies.
2. I will use a recipe I have made before that I know I can make.
3. I will get hubby to make them. (He's a much better cook/baker)

OR (and this is the option I like best)
4. I will NOT even join the freakin' exchange in the first place!
What the hell was I thinking anyway??

I would now like to wish a Happy Birthday to my bestest Rick bud! Hope you have a great day and may the coming year be better than ever!