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“If I’m out of town and I’m in a situation where I have to be creative, it has to be hot dogs because that’s my comfort food.”

July 23, 2017

The song of the morning is “What a Difference a Day Makes.” We have a breeze. The humidity is much less than it has been the whole week. I have doors and windows open. The air from the window behind me is even a bit chilly. Earlier I did see a bit of blue but now the sky is gray. It is only 72˚ and the high will be just 75˚. That’s delightful, gray skies or not.

Sometimes, when I wake up, I have no idea what day of the week it is. It’s not all that important in the scheme of things, but I admit to being somewhat curious. Mostly what I did the day before is the key, but if it was a sloth day, I have to think a bit harder. It was so much easier when I worked. The days never blended together. Which day of the week made a difference then. It doesn’t anymore.

I was busy on the deck yesterday. I replaced dead with living plants in the smallest pots. I watered all the plants and filled the bird feeders. The birds seem to prefer the feeders hanging from tree limbs. I still need to get the fountain working and put the new lights on the deck rail for the spawns to eat.

I’m beginning to feel like Old Mother Hubbard. My cupboards are bare. When I open the fridge, I’m blinded by the light as the fridge is mostly empty, but I have some cheese so all is not lost.

I think the kids in my neighborhood have been kidnapped. My advice is not to pay the ransom. The quiet is wonderful. I hear only the singing birds. If this makes me a crotchety old lady, then so be it.

I really like hot dogs in toasted rolls. They are best grilled or fried though I’ll even eat them boiled. At Fenway they do both. First the dogs are boiled then fried. I’m not a fan of kraut on my dogs, but I do like chopped onions. I’m a mustard and piccalilli aficionado but relish will do. I like all sorts of mustards though yellow mustard is low on my list. When I was a kid, yellow mustard was all we had. No one ever used ketchup on a hot dog. It was for burgers, one of my all time favorite foods. I, however, am partial to mayonnaise on my burgers. I even use it with French fries.

I haven’t had seafood for a while. I’m thinking scallops or fish and chips. I have to go out later so I’m going to treat myself at Captain Frosty’s. Their onion rings are the best. I’m already salivating at the thought.

Categories: Musings
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I still love making hamburgers on the grill. I guess whenever I eat them childhood memories come up for me.”

May 12, 2015

Last night was hot and muggy. Poor Gracie was panting so I turned the AC on in my bedroom. It was a delight feeling the chill, and we both slept deeply. Today is sunny but cool and tonight will be back to the 40’s. It rained sometime earlier this morning. I know only because the street was still wet when I woke up.

My mother cooked hamburger more than any other kind of meat. It was the cheapest and the most versatile. My favorite was always her meatloaf. From meal to meal it never really tasted the same. I know it had eggs and breadcrumbs but I have no idea what else she threw in for flavor. In those days herbs came from a bottle. My mother always had onion and garlic powder on hand as well as oregano and parsley. Sometimes her meatloaf had ketchup spread across the top with bacon strips covering the ketchup. We always wanted a piece with the crusty bacon. Sometimes she frosted the meatloaf with mashed potatoes and then would brown the tips in the oven. Every now and then we’d get a round meatloaf hand-formed and placed in a pie pan to cook.

We always thought ourselves quite the gourmands when my mother cooked her Chinese food. We had a chop suey sort of dish with hamburger, bean sprouts and water chestnuts. My mother always put crunchy chow mein noodles on the top. Then there was American chop suey, a name which still perplexes me today. It has nothing to do with chop suey; instead, it’s elbow macaroni, hamburger, tomato sauce and onions and peppers. My mother would sprinkle parmesan cheese from the green container on top.

Hamburgers were a summer staple grilled to perfection by my dad. I always wanted a cheeseburger, and my father would open the cellophane covering each piece of yellow cheese and crown the meat with the cheese. He’d put the top on the grill so the cheese would melt. My mother usually made potato salad. It didn’t matter how often we had hamburgers and hot dogs in the summer. I would have eaten them every night without complaint.

I think my mother was a bit of a magician in the kitchen. We never thought of how often we ate hamburger. All of those dishes tasted different to us and a couple were even exotic.

Categories: Musings
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“Nobody knows the truffles I’ve seen.”

May 8, 2014

Yesterday while I was out doing errands, I noticed all the trees and bushes in bloom. The bright yellow of the forsythias popped and caught my eyes. I saw white blossoms on a row of trees and trees with purples and pinks. I smiled all the way home. It was just that kind of a ride.

Today is warm and lovely.

I don’t eat beans except for green beans. Refried beans look thoroughly disgusting to me. Baked beans are squishy. Lima beans have a strange, uninviting color. Kidney beans could use a change of name. I have never been a fan of beans, and this distaste for all things bean dates from my childhood. I have tried over the years to eat beans just in case but the outcome has always been the same.

When I was a kid, we only had yellow mustard so I used it on my hot dogs. I don’t eat yellow mustard any more though I am still a mustard fan. My fridge probably has five or six different mustards.

Speaking of hot dogs, ketchup on hot dogs is just wrong. Ketchup is for hamburgers and French fries. Piccalilli or relish goes perfectly with the mustard. Onions add a dimension to the dog but no onions with ketchup. It is the same for sauerkraut, cheese or any other topping. Ketchup limits the choices and the taste.

Speaking of ketchup, I just don’t see putting it on eggs. Ketchup on scrambled eggs is not a pretty picture. Nobody puts it on fried eggs or boiled eggs, just scrambled and sometimes omelets. Why is ketchup for some eggs but not for others?

I never put ketchup on onion rings, just on French fries. I never use much salt, but I do put salt on both of those. They just seem to taste better. I also like mayonnaise for my fries. That probably seems weird.

I love cheeseburgers. When I go out, I order them often as I don’t eat them much at home. Sometimes I add lettuce, onion and tomato, and when I do, mayonnaise is my condiment of choice. If I don’t, ketchup is just fine.

On my sub sandwiches, depending, of course, on the sandwich, I add pickles, onions and hot peppers. My love for hot peppers comes from the father of an elementary school mate of mine. I was at her house sometimes for lunch and her father always added hot peppers to his sandwiches. He offered them to me, and I tried them and liked them. I also like to add chopped jalapeños. Sandwiches need the kick.

Ghana was where I became an adventurous eater. It was where I first ate Indian food and Middle Eastern dishes like hummus, falafel and tabbouleh. I saw and ate okra for the first time. The slime in the soup was a bit much, but I got over that. Bush rat and goat were tasty.

I learned in Ghana to ask very few questions about what I was eating. It was better that way.

Categories: Musings
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Comments: 16 Comments

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