My Top Ten Favorite Posts

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blog post, Cuban Sandwiches, Dumped, Elves, Fire, Lobsters holding beer, oysters, Pot stickers, St Loueats, Top Ten, Trip to Dentist, Type 1 Diabetes

Strike while the iron is hot!  I’ve had a lot of people looking at my farewell letter to St. Louis, so I thought I’d parlay that attention into MORE attention.  Perhaps I should of done this sooner…I am not as strategic as my lovely wife.  So, if you liked the Open Letter to St. Louis, here are my favorite ten posts that I’ve done over the last two years.  By the way, you may wonder, “Why did this talented young (Am I young anymore??) man take such a large break between his his second to last post and last post?”

Because this last school year kicked my butt.  Feel free to judge (especially if you are a soldier, firefighter, police officer, miner, fisherman, or any job requiring hard manual labor), but I did not have the drive or mental stamina to post ANY witty thoughts with any regularity over the last ten months.  

So, without further ado, here are the diamonds in the rough of St. Loueats.  

10.  I Like Big Butts.  An ode to the pork shoulder, AKA pork butt, picnic shoulder, Boston butt.

9. Llewellyn’s Winghaven.  A snarky review of a good restaurant…with some reminiscences of Las Vegas.  Reading it may make you wonder why we’re moving back. 

8. Food with Friends, An Ode to Oysters.  This post is worth it for the pics of live lobsters holding Natty Lite alone.  It also delves into a bit of family history regarding this humble bivalve.  Also, that was a great weekend with friends.

7. How Do You Say Fiasco in Chinese?  Quite possibly the worst (or best if you are a third grade student) cooking club ever.  I solemnly swear to never attempt pot stickers again.

6.  Of Elves and Type One Diabetes.  A Christmas tearjerker.  By the way, UP YOURS DIABETES!  YOU SUCK!

5.  German Oven Pancake.  This is a family tradition in our house, passed down from my grandparents, that we have passed on to other families.  You should try it.  Like all German things, it is more threatening than a normal pancake, but it blows regular pancakes out of the water.  

4.  Let the Grilling Season Begin.  This is THE RECIPE for successfully charcoal grilling a THICK ribeye to medium rare.  I self reference this post myself to remind myself how to grill a THICK slab of beef.  However, now that beef is approaching the price of platinum, I may not be using this much in the near future. 

3. REVOLUTIONARY SANDWICHES FOR THE PROLETARIAT! Have you tried Cuban sandwiches?  You should.  I just had one today!  This also contains my thoughts on Communist Dictators.  Don’t you just love that Kim Jong Un gets crazier by the day?  I mean I hope he’s overthrown soon, to end the suffering of the North Korean people, but he IS highly entertaining in a crazy uncle sort of way.

2.  Dumped.  I don’t think this is my best post, but it has an adorable picture of my pleasant children.  Therefore, it caught fire on Pinterest because women love adorable children and dessert, and is somehow my most seen post.  By the way, dump cake is good…

1.  A Trip to the Dentist.  This isn’t about food, but it is the most hilarious experience I’ve went through in the last couple of years.  I went back to this dentist just last week and they apologized AGAIN for this…even though it had been a year.  My sincere apologies to Doris.  

Well, there you have it.  The Best of St. Loueats before I leave STL.  Enjoy!

 

Labor Day Lasagna

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cottage cheese, Labor Day, lasagna, Type 1 Diabetes

Last week the lovely wife and I had a miscommunication. She went to Costco and picked up a giant tub of cottage cheese. I went to the store two days later, and passed the cottage cheese, and thought to myself, “Hey, we DO need three more pounds of cottage cheese.” And so I purchased it. When I came home, I encountered our unfinished tub, plus the one purchased by Sarah. Overall, we were looking at about seven pounds of curds and whey.

What to do?

Lasagna.

Back in the day, I used to be a lasagna-making machine. I would make four at a time, and put them in the deep freeze to savor over the winter months. As time went on, I think we experienced lasagna overload, and we got away from that. I asked Sarah today why we don’t eat lasagna much anymore, and her response was, “Because we got fat.” That’s a pretty good answer. However, today is Labor Day. And nothing says labor like homemade lasagna.

Anyway, I will say this, cottage cheese lasagna is easier to make and spread than traditional ricotta lasagna. Interestingly, the whole family said they liked it better.

Here’s the recipe:

1 lb. ground beef, pork sausage, or Italian sausage (tonight it was ground beef)

15 oven-ready lasagna noodles

32 oz cottage cheese

2 eggs

1 jar of marinara sauce

3 cups mozzerella

1/2 cups grated parmesan cheese, separated

1/2 teaspoon salt

pepper to taste

basil and oregano to taste

1/2 cup water

STEPS:

1. In a skillet, brown meat. Once meat is browned, add jar of sauce, 1/2 cup of water, and let simmer on low for five minutes

2. In large bowl add 32 oz. cottage cheese, 2 cups mozzarella, 1/4 cup parmesan cheese, two eggs, 1/2 teaspoon salt, pepper, oregano, basil to taste.

3. Stir that cottage cheese up.

4. Preheat oven to 375

5. place 1 and 1/2 cups of meat sauce mix on bottom of a 9 x 13 pan

6. place 5 lasagna noodles on top…make em’ fit. I usually lay 4 lengthwise and one across the breadth of the pan.

7. Add a third of the cottage cheese layer.

8. Add 1 and one half cups meat sauce on top of cheese.

9. Repeat process until you have built three layers.

10. On top of last layer of noodles place remaining cheese and sauce. Sprinkle 1 cup of mozzarella cheese, 1/4 cup of parmesan cheese on top.

(I added some colby jack for good measure tonight)

11. Bake for 50 minutes

12. Take out at 50 mins and let rest for 10 minutes.

By the way, we cut this recipe into 12 LARGE pieces. We only ate five as a family. Which means this dish will save us some labor on another night. Hooray for Labor Day lasagna!

Finally, for diabetics, I found this site, that tells how many carbs are in one lasagna noodle. So, overall, there were about 28 carbs per slice of lasagna (I added up the sauce, cottage cheese, and noodles in the dish then divided by 12). Katie loved it, but somehow still went high this evening with her blood sugar :(. Such is life, but there you have it, labor saving cottage cheese lasagna on Labor Day.

Finally, what do you all think? Is ricotta or cottage cheese lasagna superior?

Let me know

Disney’s Geographically Incorrect Kebabs for Diabetics

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Ariel, chicken, Disney, Donald, Dumbo, Kebabs, Mowgli, pork tenderloin, Type 1 Diabetes

Disney has their hands in a bit of everything these days, including health care.* We discovered this back in April when our daughter was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes.

*If Disney ran health care, we might not be having the debates we are having today. Disney treated Katie wonderfully when we went to Disneyland this summer after her diagnosis. We are VERY grateful. They even have a diabetic character, Coco the Diabetic Monkey…which I find ridiculous and supportive all at once.

During one of our visits to the endocrinologist, one of the nurses asked if we would like a Diabetes cookbook for kids.They are a new product from Disney, in cooperation with the drug company Lilly. The nurse did ask us if we would ACTUALLY use it, and once we assured her that we do cook, she gave us a free copy!

Dishing it up Disney Style is a handy cookbook full of recipes for the diabetic in the family. Each recipe shows the all important carbs, calories, fiber, and other important info for each dish. And to be quite honest, the recipes that we’ve tried so far have been WONDERFUL! For the kids, each dish is “inspired” by a Disney character. This is what I find humorous about the cookbook. You have Alice’s Chicken Salad Tea Sandwiches, Lady and the Tramp’s Cartwheels with Tomato Sauce, Mulan’s Egg Fried Rice, and Tiana’s Shrimp Gumbo. These all make sense.

Then we have the Disney character dishes that don’t really fit, or in some cases are mildly alarming.

Let’s start with Ariel’s Turkey Pilaf. I just know, that under the sea, merpeople just craved some juicy turkey. I’m sure when King Triton was hungry, she dutifully brought her dad a plate of fresh sea turkey and rice.

Next we have Genie’s Guacamole Potato Salad…I honestly do want to try this one, but two points: First, I can picture the Genie making hummus, not guacamole. Second, if he’s a genie, is the cooking really necessary?

Dumbo’s Corn Chowder: Baby elephants LOVE soup! I am concerned about allowing an elephant-A BABY ELEPHANT-to cook.

Pumba’s Black Bean Salsa: Salsa’s all the rage on the African savannah.

And finally, most concerning is Donald’s Chicken Fajitas. For some reason Bird making bird is mildly disturbing. I can picture Donald feeling conflicted while cooking this dish.

Anyway, the dish I have made most often is Mowgli’s Moroccan Chicken Kebabs. As a Geography teacher, I find this dish perplexing and possibly harmful to the American student. Namely, Mowgli is from The Jungle Book, which is set in India. Morocco is nowhere near India. Also, I don’t see Mowgli making Kebabs (He seems to be the most unsanitary Disney character in the book). But I digress.

NOTICE THE DISTANCE BETWEEN MOROCCO AND INDIA!!!

When we make the recipe at home, we do make some modifications. Namely, we use pork tenderloin rather than chicken, as I am allergic. Also, I have been making it on the grill pan for the sake of convenience. Regardless, it is a DELICIOUS dish, and you should give it a try!

Here’s the recipe:

Dry Rub:

• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne (optional)
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves (I’m still debating if the cloves should be used…they’re powerful)
• 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
• 2 teaspoons brown sugar

Meat:

Two pounds of boneless, skinless chicken breasts, or pork tenderloin

Veggies:

I like an onion and a cup of grape tomatoes, but you could use your imagination here.

STEPS:

1. Assemble the dry rub in a bowl. Stir to combine.

2. Cut the meat into one-inch cubes.

3. Place cubed meat in a large bowl. Sprinkle over dry rub. Cover thoroughly with your hands.

4. Cut up one onion into one inch wedges. Place with a cup of grape tomatoes in another bowl.

5. Add a half tablespoon of oil to onions and tomatoes and toss to coat.

6. Preheat grill pan on high on the stove. Spray non-stick spray to coat bottom of the pan

7. TURN ON THE FAN ABOVE THE STOVE…there will be smoke.

8. Place meat on grill pan, use tongs to turn chunks of meat after about two minutes. Continue turning periodically. I find that the meat is done in about 8 minutes.

9. After 8 minutes, place meat on serving platter and add the tomatoes and onions. Stir frequently, and remove when tomatoes have char marks and onions are tender.

10. Place tomatoes and onions over the meat, serve and enjoy!

We had rice and a salad with it on Wednesday night. Try it you’ll like it! Here’s a pic of our completed dish on Wednesday night:

The dish is definitely flavorful, and in case you are curious, the meat contains only 4 carbs! If you like you can tone down the heat, but Mowgli may be disappointed!

Finally, I’ll ask my readers, what is your favorite Disney character, and what food do you think they would like and or make?

Have a great weekend!