Adventures in Tamara Land

#38. Hide and Seek!

tamgar13 — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 00:18:30 +0000

So, I assumed that the jack for changing my tire would be in the back of my SUV. But no. Luckily, I had some spare (no pun intended) time at work and looked up my car’s owners manual. My back seats are nifty in that you can push the seats forward and the back rests flat so that you then have a large cargo area in the back instead of a back seat. This is fantastic for scuba diving since it is all hard plastic and I can easily wipe down the back. Anyway, I digress. It seems that the jack is underneath the back seats. I never would have thought of that and since I don’t have a physical owners manual only the resources online it would have been real fun to try and figure that out in a real flat tire situation. And of course that situation would have been at night, on a back road, while raining. Isn’t that always the case? Anyway, I haven’t changed a tire yet. I’m just researching it. I’m hoping one of my dear friends will be willing to walk me through it. Any volunteers?

Lights, Camera, Action

tamgar13 — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 07:46:18 +0000

#33. I’m a big fan of movies. Bit of a movie theater snob. I’m very picky about where I will go see a film. Stadium seating, Coke products in the concessions lineup, relatively clean bathrooms, and not to0 ghetto of an audience. My friend Jodi and I had the privilege of going to Cinebarre in Mt. Lake Terrace yesterday to see The Informant. Jodi had been before and had free passes so I got to tag-a-long AND cross off one item from my “List”. First of all while the theater was virtually empty except for 2 other people, that didn’t taint my experience. I actually prefer a thinner crowd. Cinebarre has the added advantage that parents who can’t find childcare for their infants can’t bring them into the theater so that they can see a movie while their child screams. So annoying. This is strictly a 21 and older crowd. So the deal at the Cinebarre is that it is a combo restaurant/bar/cinema. The food was good, I had the Fried Green Tomatoes BLT w/fries and a HUGE Coke. The food was great and priced reasonably. However, there must be some unspoken rule that soda prices at cinemas must be a certain price because I was charged $8.50 for my entree and $4.50 just for my Coke. My friend ordered a beer and paid $4.00. That seems wrong somehow. Kinda ironic considering the movie we saw, which was incredibly hilarious, was about price fixing in the sugar industry. It MUST be a conspiracy. I give Cinebarre 3 stars. Go enjoy with my blessing.

#16 Make It Burn

tamgar13 — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 19:53:52 +0000

Well, that’s what Jane Fonda would say in her videos. Jillian Michaels just screams “Don’t Waste A Minute!”. Whatever works for you. Anyway, I’m happy to report I have lost another lbs. So I am now at 14 lbs to go. Yay!

My People I have heard your call….

tamgar13 — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 19:20:07 +0000

Jack and Lorraine Quiche

I am so thrilled by your comments and have received a couple of suggestions. I know I’ve told my friends and family to throw out suggestions and I would consider adding them to the list. Well, my fans have spoken and I have listened. Now Michael, my nephew, will be disappointed that I’m not going to give him any money. Sorry kid I’m broke, but maybe when you turn 21 we’ll go to Vegas. But I’m not taking you to a strip club. You can figure that out for yourself. My mother, however, did suggest trying to bake other types of pies besides dessert pies. Soooo……drum roll please, we have the splendid, world renowned, modified for high-intensity deliciousness QUICHE LORRAINE! Well, kinda quiche lorraine. I had to swap a couple of the ingredients with other things that I actually had. So instead of Swiss cheese I used pepper jack and instead of adding a dash of nutmeg I added a touch of cinnamon. I know eggs and cinnamon don’t sound so yummy but let me assure you that this was the most wonderful quiche I have ever tasted in my entire life. The ingredients ended up being eggs, milk, pepper jack cheese, cinnamon, bacon, and onions. I confess I did not make the crust myself I bought it pre-made. I don’t yet own a rolling pin so I couldn’t make pie dough at my place. I had borrowed Jodi’s before.

While the end result was fabulous let me just say the road to the final product was paved with pitfalls. First of all, the recipe said to take the pie shell and double line it with foil and bake for 8 minutes then to take it out, remove foil and continue baking for 4 minutes. Well, isn’t that simple except that the foil frickin’ stuck to the crust and pulled off huge chunks of my dough. So I scrapped off the half-cooked crust that adhered to the foil and pressed it back into the shell and hoped it would be okay. The rest of the cooking of the crust was fine. Then, I burned half the bacon while I was trying to multitask. So I sorted through the unburned parts and then threw 3 pieces into the microwave really quickly so that I could add them in. Everything was looking good until I went to pour the final ingredients into the pie shell. I had about a 1 1/2 cups too much mixture to add to this shell! I wasn’t paying close attention and it almost ran over the edges. I think I added too many onions so I started picking them out to lower the level of the egg mixture in the pan to provide room for the rest of the egg and cheese that remained in the bowl. At this point I thought the hard part was over and everything that could go wrong had already gone wrong and I was home free. Umm..no. I opened the oven door, grabbed my pie pan (unfortunately by the edges and not the bottom), and proceeded to dump quiche “batter” on my oven door, which then rolled off the door and onto my floor. Luckily only about 1/2 cup poured out but still. I hadn’t realized that the pie pan would be so flimsy, especially with all that liquid in it. So the quiche finally made it into the oven. I frantically cleaned the now cooking egg of the door of the oven with a wet washcloth and my dog Ace assisted in the floor cleanup. He is ever the good helper. The end product though was worth the struggle. I had a most wonderful dinner and have leftovers to savor later. I guess I’ll have to come up with a new name for the quiche though. How about Jack and Lorraine quiche?

Best Pie Ever!

tamgar13 — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 21:41:16 +0000

#2 – Okay that may be stretching it a bit but the final product was pretty damn good. The crust was flaky, the filling sweet with just a hint of tart, and of course the ice cream on top didn’t hurt either. I have to say though that if Jodi hadn’t helped me out the entire experience would have been different. I probably could have handled most of it up to the pivotal rolling of the dough. I guess there is something we layman like to call a “technique” to properly rolling out dough. Well, I guess I had a technique. It is more commonly called the f-it up royally method and start from scratch again. Luckily, Jodi kindly suggested after watching me for about a nanosecond that she should intervene. I had insisted that she was not allowed to do anything but verbally instruct. So I buckled and allowed Jodi to briefly show me how it is done. Other than that it pretty much went over without a hitch. I attribute it to fabulous teaching and my lucky blue apron since I myself hold no great cooking, especially baking ability. But I can officially say, item number two can be crossed off the list.

Tapioca

tamgar13 — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 08:10:49 +0000

So thinking I’d be clever I researched peach pie recipes. Usually when I don’t know how to do something I read up on it. Something I learned from my former librarian mother. I checked out a couple of my cookbooks. One only had peach cream pie (definitely not what I was looking for) and the other had a pretty simple peach pie recipe. But wait, I thought, this must be too simple. Surely a divinely peach pie must have some type of obscure ingredient in it. A pinch of freshly grated Armenia slava-nut. Kidding, I know there is no such thing but you get my drift. So I meandered to the ultimate location of food knowledge, foodnetwork.com. They did indeed have one recipe for peach pie. They had very helpful hints for the pie crust, such as adding apple cider vinegar for extra flakiness. Not an ingredient that I would have guess. I was feeling secure in the high end pie that would result from this recipe. Then the pie filling threw me for a loop. Tapioca is something that I enjoy as a pudding but never envisioned it in a pie. But hey, I thought, the vinegar was a new one for me too so the tapioca must just top off the level of bliss in this pie. I went and forked over $4.50 for a teeny box of tapioca unfortunately before I conferred with my baking expert. Umm…I guess if you want a more gel or firm filling then the tapioca is the way to go. But no, I want the yummy oozy down home goodness that comes with pie that doesn’t need to hold a perfect triangle to be divine. In fact, just like a fantastic burger, the ones that slop down your shirt are usually the best.

OOOOOHHHH… We’re from Ka-Est-A!

tamgar13 — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 20:23:01 +0000

#20 – Okay, I know most of you have no idea what that opening line means. What the hell is Ka-Est-A? Well, when I was a kid I went to Camp Fire camp at Lake of the Woods in Oregon. It was called Camp Ka-Est-A. It was fabulous. The food was great (my mom was the cook of course). I was so proud when I earned my Tippy Canoe badge and my cousin Emily and I could take the canoes out alone. And I survived the pivotal overnight survival camping trip. This camping trip was a rite of passage at Camp Ka-Est-A. When you reached the age of camper maturity, 13, you went trekking into the great beyond with all your supplies for survival strapped to your back. We ventured into the wilds where there were no tents, only tarps to lay under. There were no stoves, only campfires and #10 cans to cook in. And there were no toilets, only holes to squat over. The first night went fine. The second night it snowed and we were sleeping by a lake that the wind blew across and plummeted us with its frigid fingers that dug into our bones. It sucked but somehow I felt like I had truly come of age. Okay maybe I was just feeling warm and fuzzy because I was finally dry, drinking hot cocoa, and got to sleep in a real bed. Anyway, that’s my first memory really of camping on my own.

So I have wanted for some time to take my dogs camping. I’ve heard of others doing it with great results and fun and thought my dogs, Ace and Lucky, would get a kick out of it too. Next week is my vacation and I thought I’d do a dry run by camping out in my back yard and cooking on my burn pit. That way if it all goes to hell, we can slink back into the house and curl up in bed. And of course there is the benefit of a flush toilet and shower. I will keep you posted on the results and of course take pics for your enjoyment.

Bake-a-rama

tamgar13 — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 20:09:44 +0000

#2 – I thought this whole baking a pie thing was going to be a snap. Sure I knew the pie crust would be a bitch to perfect but I figured I’d get it after a few tries. Then I started talking to my friend about my plans to bake a pie next week. Well, being an experienced pastry goddess she outlined the ease of taking the butter and cubing it then chilling it and using ice cold water. My palms began to sweat and my pulse raced as I realized that this may take a bit more technique than I thought. Ugh! Luckily my friend had mercy on me and offered to walk me through it. We are baking pies together next week. I’ll be sure to show you the end result so you can drool over my pie extravaganza.