If You’re Not in the Mood,
It Shows in the Food!
With that said, I was disappointed to discover that Alton Brown had given up writing, directing, and starring in his ‘don’t you dare change that channel!’ food show, called Good Eats. He had been doing this for 13 years. I honestly can’t remember how many years, all I can say is that I would sit and watch the show, the reruns, the re-reruns, and then collect the videos of the show so that I could watch them over and over again. In fact, that is the main reason I had a flat screen tv and computer installed in my kitchen so that I could watch his shows while I was cooking in the kitchen (it’s where my wife keeps me chained up most of the time).
I met ‘the man’ once about 6 or 7 years ago now (time starts to blur at my age). I had been at my local Sur La Table store in Kirkland, Washington, salivating over the kitchen knives, like I do so often. I heard a voice to the right of me that my brain was already jumping up and down saying ‘it’s him, it’s him’. There he stood; his royal geekiness. It turned out that he was going to be there later that evening to do a guest cooking demonstration.
At that time, I only had one of his books (I have all but his last one now). Trying to act cool (which I pull off most of the time), I said, ” Shoot, if I knew you were going to be here, I would have brought my book down to sign!” Now, here comes the really cool part; he asked how far away I lived. I told him that I could be home and back in 15 minutes. He said that he would wait.
So, I ran home, flung the door open rather violently, ran to the bedroom and grabbed my book. Running out, my wife stops me and asks me what is going on. All I could say was, ‘I can’t stop, he’s waiting for me, me.’ Of course, she had to ask who, and with the rolling of my eyes and and a loud exasperated sigh, ‘ALTON BROWN! He’s waiting for me down at Sur La Table!’ And out the door I went.
On my way back, doing 45 (maybe 50) in a 25 mile an hour zone, I got pulled over for speeding. The officer walks up and asks me if I knew why he pulled me over. ‘Speeding,” I replied, ‘but he’s waiting for me!’ Then pointed at the book in the passenger seat. ‘Hey isn’t he that guy who has the show on the cooking channel? Yeah, Good Eats.’ I replied, ‘YES! And he is waiting down at Sur La Table for ME to sign MY book!’ After a brief moment, while looking over his shoulder, he said ‘get going, but stop your speeding.’ And off I went.
After 23 minutes, I arrived at Sur La Table, and he was still there. He signed my book with ‘May The Food Be With You!’
Now how could I not be a fan after that. Admittedly, I may not be the biggest fan, I don’t want to have his baby or anything, but I’m sure I am in the top percentile. So when I read his Twitter post from March 12, 2012 that said, ‘The only way I’d bring back Good Eats is if there were overwhelming fan demand. And I don’t think that’s going to happen.’ I decided that I have to try to prove him wrong.
Mr. Brown, this post is for you. If you ever read this, know that I am one of your many fans. You are an inspiration to all of us. You make time in the kitchen fun. This is just one of the things that we do in our house every year, Jerkython! We your fans will give you that overwhelming demand! This is just the beginning.
I learned this new word when I visited the new kitchen at Le Petit Terroir, where my friend, Kevin Sarbora, is now the executive chef. Having known him since his days as head butcher at Bill the Butcher, I saw that his zeal for food encouraged his customers, helping them discover their own inspiration, challenging them to new horizons.
And I am not the only one that saw this passion. Dave and Karin Shoup saw it also. Le Petit Terroir is their brainchild. I was honored to meet the couple while visiting Mr. Sarbora, and I had to smile while I stood there and watched the interaction between these three. Mr. and Mrs. Shoup were bouncing around the kitchen with as much excitement as Mr. Sarbora was. I truly saw that this was a team, a partnership of appetite you could say, that I foresee will make a statement here in the wine world of Woodinville, WA.
But it wasn’t just their enthusiasm, it was the food that they were creating. I was allowed to taste a few of the flavors that they are soon to introduce to the public. I could tell that the true love of food had been put into these creations. What were they you ask? Well, let’s just say, if you really know me, you know that when I say that ‘someone was in the mood, because it showed in the food’, then you know it was good.
But don’t just take my word for it, check out their site. See what they are all about. If you enjoy the wine culture here on the Eastside, ask at your favorite wine tasting establishment if they are also serving food from Le Petit Terroir.
I, for one, will raise a glass to Mr. Sarbora and the Shoups. Here is to a wonderful future for you and your guests. I plan on being one of them. Sláinte mhaith!
I initially raised an eyebrow about this, but then thought ‘why not?!’. Bacon is one of those foods that dependent on how it is used will go with many ‘sweet’ foods.
But this isn’t a post about bacon, it’s about Bacon Rice Krispies Treats. Yes, that is exactly what I just said. . .B-A-C-O-N R-I-C-E K-R-I-S-P-I-E-S T-R-E-A-T-S!
Do you like bacon? Do you like Rice Krispie Treats? If you answered Yes! to both of these questions, then there is a 99.99% chance that you will like Bacon Rice Krispies Treats. For the other .01% of you I have a ‘Water Flavored Water’ recipe that I can post for you later.
There have been many skeptics to this phenomenon. Like Shannon K Butcher, author and wife of author Jim Butcher. Who, after I gave her some, tweeted on April 22, 2011 “also, we’ve been given snicker doodles, beef jerky, and rice crispy treats with bacon, which have changed my life. Nom!” and in reply to a comment to her tweet “. . .I was skeptical, but am now a true believer. They were beyond good, and I’m not one who enjoys interesting foods.”
So why don’t you make some up and become a True Believer also!
| Bacon Rice Krispies Treats |
- 6 cups Rice Krispies
- 10 oz marshmallows
- 3 oz unsalted butter
- 12 oz Bacon (preferably regular or smoked flavors)
- Cook bacon to slightly crispy stage (it will soften somewhat after being mixed with rice krispies and marshmallows).
- Soak up as much grease from bacon as possible.
- Chop cooled bacon to medium consistency.
- In large saucepan melt butter over low heat. Add marshmallows and stir until completely melted. Remove from heat.
- Add chopped bacon to the rice krispies and mix thoroughly before adding to the melted marshmallow mixture.
- Place in a buttered pan to cool.
- Slice a few pieces of cooled treats, find a quiet room, light some candles, pull out your favorite mandala, sit down, enjoy and become enlightened.
- You are now a True Believer!
Unless you like maple flavor a lot, do not use maple flavor bacon because it will overwhelm the treats.
The nutritional is based off the fact that once you eat one piece you won’t want to share and will end up eating the whole batch.
Each year, I would call up my mom for the recipe. I would write it down, make the cheese balls, then commence to somehow lose the recipe until the following year, when I would call her again. Nowadays, I keep better track of my recipes, but I still call my mom and ask her for the recipe. I never tell her that I have the recipe saved in four different areas. It’s just something I do to make my mom smile and roll her eyes.
So here you go:
| Holiday Cheese Ball |
- 2 lbs shredded medium cheddar cheese (I prefer Tillamook cheese for this)
- 1 lb cream cheese (Philadelphia)
- 3/4 green pepper; finely chopped
- 3/4 medium onion; finely chopped
- 4 tsp Worcestershire sauce
- 2 tsp Lemon juice
- 2 tsp prepared mustard
- 2 dashes Cayenne Pepper
- 1/4 tsp salt
- Put all ingredients in a large bowl (I usually put them in my Kitchenaid mixer bowl), cover, and let sit until room temperature.
- Mix until well blended
- Make the balls as big as you want then roll them in chopped nuts of your choice.
- Put on cookie sheet, cover, and chill until firm. About 12 hours.
- Wrap individually in plastic wrap.
- Keep refrigerated.
This is the base recipe. I add many different ingredients for different flavors each year. These are just some:
Mrs. Dash Hot and Spicy;
Liquid Smoke;
Jalapeno Powder/Jalapenos;
Garlic;
Red Bell Peppers;
Finely Ground Herb de Provence (w/lavender);
Taco Seasoning
Make up some of your own!
My husband and I recently watched a documentary called Food, Inc. This really opened my eyes to how commercial food is grown, its effect on the environment, and what it can do to one’s health. While I know that I won’t be able to change years of poor eating all at once, it did prompt me to be more responsible in where I buy my food. I feel very lucky to live in the Pacific Northwest, where there are so many local organic options.
I am determined to eat less prepackaged food. I find that I’m not missing all the chips and cookies that I used to crave. I even managed to give up drinking soda, which was a huge addiction of mine. I feel so much better it felt like a “duh” moment when I realized that all of the chemicals I was putting in my body were making me feel bad.
I believe in cooking at home at least several times a week, and not just because it’s healthier and less expensive. It’s a great way to spend time with my husband who loves to cook. I also love having friends over for a homemade meal, or being able to give gifts of tasty goodies that aren’t packed with chemical preservatives.
I hope my own food journey helps spark inspiration in others to become more informed about food, and share my joy in cooking at home.
-The Muse
January 2003 Beth and I start looking for that special cake for our wedding. It wasn’t until June so we figured we had plenty of time. We were having a medieval/renaissance themed wedding, and with all of the fancy cake shops around we thought that it would be easy peasy (yes, that’s a word, because Guy Murphy says so) to find a place that was 1. decently priced, 2. decorated to our theme, and 3. most importantly, taste good.
April 2003, yeah, the wedding was getting closer, only two months away. That was plenty of time right? We had been to a couple of shops, none of them were decently priced, and only one of them tasted a little better than ok. We still had a few shops to go, we were going to find something.
June 6, 2003, 15 days before the wedding and we still haven’t found a wedding cake. My mother had a friend that did wedding cakes, or use to, but she was willing to do ours for minimal cost. We met with her on June 11th, unfortunately, she only did traditional white wedding cakes, and although ‘pretty’ it wasn’t what we wanted. By this time wedding stress was starting to get both of us, so I said *beep* it. I bought two Costco sheet cakes, the medieval lego castle set, a $1.99 beginner’s cake decorating set from Safeway, and some extra little decorations. With the supervision and some help from my mother’s friend I decorated our own wedding cake. And you know what? It was a lot more fun than I thought it would be.
. . .and the people ate the cake, for the cake was good.
I first saw the Woodinville, WA shop when skipping work for my birthday one day. I had been trying to figure out what I wanted for my birthday dinner, so decided to go in and check out this new butcher.
Now, what I remember of the neighborhood butcher when I was very very young, which was of course probably expounded upon by Hollywood, was the non-smiling, cleaver-wielding, finger-missing figure that would always show up in black and white even though you were watching a movie in color. I was pleasantly surprised to find a very helpful, very knowledgeable, and very cheerful group who had all of their fingers (although a little dissapointed because I really wanted to meet the previously described individual in person). The shop was clean, the work area tidy, and the atmosphere inviting.
Because I wasn’t sure what I wanted, I told them why I was there, and after answering a few of their questions, I walked out with a couple of dry aged prime rib steaks. I was not dissappointed. Since then, I have purchased:
- 32+ lbs of landjaeger (hunter sausage, but if you get some, get the regular, you don’t want the spicy, leave that for me),
- 243 lbs of brisket (for the yearly beef jerky extravaganza),
- 27+ lbs of corned beef (my last name is Murphy after all),
- 16+ lbs of lamb kebabs in various different marinades,
- 4 chickens,
- a lot of buffalo (mostly to make Tatanka Tacos),
- and a hefty portion of ‘whatever tickles my fancy’.
Special note; recently the shops have started to carrying Fentiman’s Botanically Brew Beverages. I strongly suggest trying Curiosity Cola, Victorian Lemonade, Mandarin and Seville Orange Jigger, and the Ginger Beer, in that order. Although Fentiman’s Beverages have been very difficult to find, Bill the Butcher has made finding these bottles of liquid gold much easier.
If you have time go check out any of the Bill the Butcher shops, but especially visit the Woodinville shop, meet Kevin Sarbora and Brege Tivnan the two fresh butchers and Bree Croteau, who like the others will welcome you with a smile. They will charm you with their humor and dazzle you with their knowledge. If you don’t have time to visit, make some, you will thank me later.
July 4th, 1976, the Bicentennial celebration; I was reintroduced to the Jello Cake. This time, red, white and blue. It consisted of white cake, vanilla pudding (dyed blue), and raspberry jello. Now, this was much tastier, but the vanilla pudding topping was still thin and had no body/structure; and the cake was soggy.
August 21st, 1976, my mom had asked me what type of cake I wanted for my birthday a couple of days earlier. I had decided that I wanted Jello Cake, but I wanted to make it.
First, had to fix the problem of the soggy cake but still have good raspberry jello flavor. I decided to use about fourth to a third of the water needed. Half hot water to get the jello dissolved, somewhat, then the other half cold to get the jello to start congealing faster. I poke holes in the cake with a fork and poured the jello over the top. Even then I didn’t even use all of the jello (but I did drink the rest). I immediately put the cake in the refrigerator so that the jello would cool.
After about an hour I started to make the topping. As most any kid, I wanted a thick ‘frosting’. I can’t remember how I thought of this, it just came to me, one of those epiphany things. I took two small boxes vanilla pudding and mixed it up using half of the milk required for the pudding. I then took out chilled but thawed Cool Whip and slowly folded in enough with the pudding until it created the consistency I was looking for; about 12 ounces of Cool Whip. I took the now chilled cake out and poured the pudding over the top, all of it. The topping was now almost as thick as the cake
Had my friends over (and their mothers, *sigh*) for my birthday party. The cake had been chilling for about 3 hours after the topping was put on (turns out that it only needs to chill for about an hour for the last stage, but my mom wasn’t going to let me eat any until my party so I didn’t find that out until a few months later). It was a hit! Everyone liked it. Although, hearing your mom say that it was almost ‘orgasmic’ was not usually a word you wanted to hear your mom say (yes, at 11 I knew what orgasmic meant, I had read it in a copy of Cosmopolitan that my friend stole from his mom’s nightstand).
Anyway, here you go folks. Hope you have as much fun eating it as I do!
| Jello Cake |
- 1 White cake mix (I use Betty Crocker French Vanilla), and the ingredients for the mix
- 1 small box of jello (whatever flavor you like, but the berry flavors tend to be the favorite)
- 2 small boxes of Jell-O brand instant vanilla pudding (yes, Jell-O brand, because the others taste like . . .)
- 2 cups 2% milk
- 12 oz Cool Whip (the Extra Creamy is my preference)
- Make the cake as instructed on box
- Let the pan cool on a wife rack long enough so that you can actually touch the bottom of the pan without it being hot, then put it in the refrigerator to cool completely
- Take the small box of jello and mix it with a half cup of hot tap water, stir until mostly dissolved, then add a half cup of cold tap water.
- Take the cake out of refrigerator and using a fork, poke numerous holes in the cake.
- Slowly pour the jello over the cake (use as much as you want but my preference has been only using half of the jello that I just made).
- Now put cake back into the refrigerator for at least 1 hour.
- Mix the two small boxes of vanilla pudding. Use only half of the milk required to do so (Jell-O brand require 2 cups of milk per small box, so use only 1 cup per box), this will make the pudding extra thick, and it may also seem a bit grainy, but that is ok.
- Take the Cool Whip and fold it into the pudding.
- Take the cake out of refrigerator and dump the pudding mixture on top, spreading it around. Yes, the topping is about as thick as the cake, but this is how you want it. Trust me.
- Put cake back into refrigerator for another hour for the topping to set.
- Devour!
Variation 1; Diabetic Friendly:
Use Reduced Sugar cake mix, Sugar Free jello, Sugar Free pudding, Sugar Free Cool Whip
Variation 2; Chocolate Jello Cake:
1. Use Dark Chocolate cake mix,
2. Use butter knife to make holes in cake bigger than the usual,
3. FREEZE the cake,
4. Use Smuckers Chocolate Magic Shell ice cream topper instead of jello, pouring over frozen cake making sure you get some down in the bigger holes. You can immediately put the pudding mixture on and then just put the cake in the refrigerator, don’t put it back into the freezer.
5. Use instant chocolate fudge pudding instead of vanilla
6. Do NOT use chocolate Cool Whip (bleck!)
While once again despairing over the fact that I couldn’t find the previously mentioned soda, I noticed this little bottle sitting at eye level on the shelf. It said ‘Curiosity Cola’. . .
Now since curiosity is one of the eight driving forces of my life, naturally this piqued my interest.
At a somewhat pricey $7.99 for 4-9.3 oz bottles I didn’t even hesitate to buy my first four pack. I went home and stuck them in our beverage refrigerator (yes, we have a beverage refrigerator, I am a gamer after all). Luckily, I promised my wife that I would go out an mow the lawn and do some other yard work, thus allowing the soda to chill.
Before I opened the bottle, I noticed that there was some sediment at the bottom. Discovering that this was to be expected, I carefully stirred it up and opened the bottle with a twist.
The first sip. . .I thought I died and went to heaven. After the second sip. . . St. Peter asked for some. Well, let’s just say, I won’t be getting into heaven any time soon, because I wasn’t sharing.
I remember my first sip of another cola when I was but 4 years old. It was grandma’s and my secret. Drinking Curiosity Cola brought me back to that moment. Fentimans not only added a touch of ginger to it, or cane sugar, but they added a bit of themselves to it. The Fentimans family obviously love doing what they do. They were definitely ‘in the mood’. Curiosity Cola, Seville Orange Jigger, and Victorian Lemonade are now my beverages of choice when I am ‘in the mood’ to cook or bake.
Cheers to Fentimans!
Check out their US and UK sites!
This saying came up one day as I was discussing my numerous quirks in cooking with my friend John Calderon. I was telling him how when I cook, I drink out of one particular glass and no other; or that I listen to different types of music, depending on what type of cooking, baking or decorating I was doing; or that I would have some ‘foodie’ movie playing in the background, among many others.
As I was telling him all of this, I said, “You have to be in the mood to cook; because, if you’re not in the mood, it shows in the food.”
He looked at me and said, “that’s cool, what you just said.”
“What did I just say?” was my reply (if you knew me, you would know that this is a common occurrence).
“If you’re not in the mood, it shows in the food.” Oh, yeah. That.
And a thought was born.
So, my friends, if you’re not in the mood to cook, don’t. Let someone else cook, order a pizza, or something similar so you don’t have to cook.
Because as I said, “If You’re Not in the Mood, It Shows in the Food.”
Are You In The Mood!? 
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There are no secrets. . . 
- Quoth the Raven . . .
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