Happy Birthday to my Favorite Girl

This is one of my favorite pictures of my Sissy. (pictured with her fabulous partner Beth) We were in Central Park and it was a beautiful day. My Sissy is smart, funny and beautiful. (not necessarily in that order) She is a also a great cook. Yesterday was her Birthday and I hope it was great. I think about her all the time and can't wait until I can visit her in Miami. Happy Birthday Chickie Face!

HNS' new home and old treasures.

HNS has a great new house that I visited last night. The outside was all decorated for Christmas with a wreath and cute hanging icicle lights. It was dark so I couldn't get a picture of them. I did get some shots inside.
Beautiful Tree!
Awesome kitchen.

Really old crap left in the medicine cabinet!
I wonder if this is still good?

But seriously - congrats HNS! I am so happy for you.

It's a very scary Christmas

I shall not name any names but this is the home of a dear friend of mine on Christmas morning. So far so good, right? Very pretty tree, lovely garland, packages underneath. Lets look a little closer shall we? I found some very disturbing things hanging around. (literally)
What is this?
I call this one little orphan Annie on crack.
Someone gave up on this angel. I think it's eyes are bleeding. Yikes - that is some scary s#@*!
But nothing topped this ...this...this thing. I think my friend referred to this as the Christmas embryo.

Kelly and Paul's Christmas Eve Caroling party

This room was packed with singers.
This may be one of my favorite pictures ever. Late in the evening Paul had punked out his hair. At lease it matched his wife's dress.
The whole family dressed up for us!
The glowing, expecting newlyweds.

As I looked over the invite on the morning of the party I noticed it suggested we bring finger food. I had nothing like that on hand so I checked in my cupboard to see what I had.
I found some spinach and a can of artichokes. I grilled some onions and combined the spinach and artichokes, fresh grated Swiss, and a little mayo just to hold it all together. I found wonton wrappers in my fridge and decided they would work as finger food. I added some spices as well and filled the wrappers and gave them a quick fry. They took about 5 seconds to cook once they hit the hot oil. I made a few different shapes just for variety and they turned out crispy and tasty. Not at all greasy. I served them room temperature. I just love the before and after pictures. Thankfully, they were a huge hit! I will definitely make these again.

Christmas party food and pics

Erin and Tony had their annual Holiday open house party last week and I had a blast contributing food and hanging out with good friends. There was great food all around this party. Andy made some amazing mini chocolate cream puff things and I saw a roasted veggie plate that Laine made. My absolute favorite thing every year is Gordon's sausage balls. I had more than my share as I was waiting for his balls all year long. I could talk about his balls all night but ...moving on. Erin made a gazillion things as usual and every thing was yummy. Erin loves my cucumber sandwiches and meatballs so that is what I made for this party. Unfortunately I have no idea where I put those pics so please enjoy these pics of some of the lovely guests.

The last pic was my "surprise pic" from Richard and Vicky. See, before digital cameras my sister and I made a game out of steeling each others cameras whenever we were at the same event and secretly taking a pic that the other would only come across after the pics were developed. I recall something about a urinal in one shot and a ceramic cat in another. I told Vicky and Richard this story before leaving the room for a minute and when I came home I found they had carried on the tradition of leaving me a "surprise pic"! Notice how they are all wearing red?

I hope all my readers had a great Christmas and a wonderful New Year.

Sparkie Strikes Again

I have to share this email I got from my friend Sparkie. Pictured above. (can you guess his real name?) He writes:

I just signed up for a google account so I could post comments on your blog, and at one point you have to type in the "secret word" that's all wiggly and wonky. Usually, it tends to be some random collection of letters that doesn't make a real word. This time, my secret word that I had to retype was "hymency", which, I suppose means "the state or act of retaining one's virginity". Let me use it in a sentence..... "Jamie Lynn Spears recent announcement confirms that her hymency has been ultimately compromised".

Happy Holidays!

Love,

Sparkie

Baked Spaghetti Ala Vacation

I had not been feeling great this week and needed to pamper myself. I don't do that by eating but by cooking. My BFF and Robert came by to eat and plan a vacation for New Years. More on that later.

For the baked spaghetti I started with browning ground round and adding fresh mushrooms, grated parm and assorted herbs. After all that cooked down I added my sauce. meanwhile I put some angel hair in the bottom of the casserole dish and covered that with bow tie pasta. I covered the bow tie pasta with a layer of shredded cheddar and covered that cheese with the rest of the angel hair. Kind of like a lasagna. I topped that with the sauce and covered it all with sliced provolone. Since the best baked spaghetti I ever had is from Joe's and they top theirs with provolone it just doesn't taste like baked spaghetti to me without that cheese on top. It browns nicely too and forms a great crust.

As my BFF was stuffing the food into his mouth he said "Nothing on my plate sucks."

I felt so warm and fuzzy.

I also made a salad with cucumbers, toasted almond slices and Mandarin oranges.

Oh, and Robyn O. - how about we extend our contest one month? Seriously.

It's a Sign

Barksdale's Home for the Holidays Cabaret

Saturday night (as mentioned in a previous post) I hosted the Holiday Cabaret at the Barksdale Theatre at Willow Lawn. The Cabaret is a benefit for the Richmond Theatre Artists Fund and Saturday was a special 11 pm performance. They have 2 more performances left. Tonight, Monday, December 17th and Tuesday, December 18th. I know there are a limited amount of tickets left for each night and I urge you to go. Don't miss the opportunity to be entertained by such amazing singers and contribute to a great cause at the same time. 7:30 pm both nights. Tickets are $25 for general public and $20 for Barksdale subscribers.

Another pic stolen from my Sissy's blog

My mom gave me a great gift on Thanksgiving this year. We were relaxing (after stuffing ourselves) in a beautiful house on Va Beach that my youngest step sister owns. Which reminds me - I need to thank her for that - my Mom and I were the only ones there that night. My moms gift was a story about what happened the night I was born and brought back from the hospital. I was in the crib and my big sister (who was almost 3 at the time) was dancing around my crib singing " I have a sister, I have a sister!"

After spending most our lives together, through adolescent fights and other sister issues - that is my favorite way of picturing her - just dancing and clapping her hands in appreciation of me being alive. I would have done the same for her. I would now.

She recently posted this picture on her blog:
It made me think of a couple things. First I was so focused on licking the icing that I didn't even notice a picture was being taken. That is not like me. That must have been some good icing and second - do you see the container of Bon Ami in the background? I know this (and the clothes) date me but isn't that cleaner/ toxic disinfectant a little close to the food?
This explains a lot.

Guest Hosting Gig

The Barksdale Home for the Holidays Review to support the Actors Fund is always a good time. My BFF and I have made it a yearly tradition. Seriously - I laugh, cry ....it had me at hello. All that stuff - great singers and good drinks. I went last Tuesday and had so much fun. All the performers were wonderful.


Saturday night I will be filling in for Erin who is hosting the show this year. The show Saturday is at 11 pm so if you are a late nighter please join us. (I know nighter isn't a real word) And if you aren't just take a nap during the day and prepare yourself for a fun night. It is for a great cause and if you are a theatre professional you can see the show for $10.00. Please join us!!!
(Barksdale at Willow Lawn.)

Squash Casserole

I bet you all were wondering where I was.

To say the week has been busy doesn't really start to cover it but you get the idea. I hope I have been missed.

I want to give a shout out to my beautiful Sis-in-Law who's birthday I completely missed. I am so sorry and I hope it was great.

I was lucky enough to be invited to celebrate Chanukah with one of my favorite families.

Since it was the first time I had been to their home I decided to leave my camera behind. But - heads up Timberline's - next time I will definitely be bringing it along. We had savory and colorful sweet potato latkies and a great curry and turkey dish. I am waiting on the recipe so I can share that with you all. And it was all very healthy stuff so I could eat it guilt-free. It doesn't really seem like Chanukah without the guilt but still....

I finally cooked a squash casserole from a recipe Lisa K. gave me. This was less healthy but not too bad. I mean there was squash and zucchini involved so that's gotta count for something.

I sauteed the onions until they were a little caramelized and then laid them in the bottom of the dish. I also sauteed the squash even though the recipe didn't say to do so. I guess I par-cooked them. After I layered them on top of the onions I grated some nice sharp cheddar and covered the dish with it.

then I mixed together 2 eggs, 4 tablespoons of Bisquick, and one cup of milk. I poured that mixture over everything and cooked it for an hour at 350.

I think it turned out well. It was great to finally have time to make this simple and yummy recipe and to share it with such great folks. Thank you Timberline's!!

Food and People

A Note to my readers from my Sissy:

Two of the main passions in my life are people and food. I started a new experimental blog, hoping to capture the two of them in a unique way, but I need your help. I am looking for input from diverse people, both ethnically and geographically. I need only two things: a portrait photograph (mostly face/head) and a food memory. That's all! I think the site will be fantastic, and take on a life of its own. Right now, I am just trying to get it started. Your food memories will not be edited, I will not comment. Under your photo will be your full name and your food memory, as you write it. If you have any questions, please e-mail me at the link on my main website, www.andtheeggs.net. Also on that site, on the upper right hand corner, is a link to the new blog. Or click here to access it- www.foodandpeople.blogspot.com
Thank you for your consideration!!


Chickie Face (Muffin Face's sister)

Gift from ...and the eggs!!!

Now

And then. (Muffin face is the one holding the brick) (hey Steve K. - that reminds me of a joke we used to tell!)

Did we think we were actually building something? I don't get it. Anyway - this is a pic of me and my sissy. When my sissy was little she ended every song by singing "and the eggs". It is a strange tag line and I am not sure where it came from.
My Father taught us "Golden Oldies" and we would spend short and long road trips singing our hearts out. I am glad I grew up then and sang and laughed with my family instead of staring at a gameboy or portable CD player or whatever the kids are doing these days. So we would be singing Shanty Town or Show me the way to go home or Be sure its true or any one of a hundred songs and we would finish and then my sissy's little voice would say....and the eggs! Again, I have no idea why but now she is all grown up (old) and has a blog all about food called ...and the eggs.

I was the 10,000th visitor on my sissy's blog! How exciting. So Yesterday I got this present in the mail. The only one like it in the world. I had HNS go back to his modeling days so I could get a good shot of it. Seriously, he was a child model who actually avoided all the pit falls of fame - of course he was only 4.


Anyway - congrats to my sissy for having such a successful blog. Go visit her at http://www.andtheeggs.blogspot.com/

...and the eggs.