swt61

A NY steak, just a wee bit of sautéed mushrooms, sourdough baguette, baked potato and iced coffee with Irish Cream Liqueur.

At Casa Bedecarre.

Yet another cheesecake. This one is to take to the MOA compound tomorrow. I hadn't forgotten about them, but last I was there it was Dorothy's Birthday dinner, and I knew that Claire would be baking a Birthday cake. Like my maccaroni dish, this is something I believe I've perfected over the years. We'll see what the judges have to say.

Had some shopping to do before work, so I stopped at a favorite diner of mine.

Kickin' back with Maki on my lap, listening to good tunes. Maki's favorite? Nazareth of course. Hair of the Dog!

Salmon, potatoes and zucchini.

Not listening via speakers or headphones, but in my head I've been hearing Cher's "Believe" but in a Country format. I've been internally interpreting this for a few days now, with a baritone, male vocal. I think this song would lend itself to Country quite well.

^ Big mistake!!! Although I did have a delicious dinner at the MOA compound last night, I believe this taco salad to be the culprit. As it was much spicier than expected. I had a horrible night! Not only once, but twice, with no warning at all, I had two of the worst GIRD events I've ever had. The first one was about 1:00 am, when out of nowhere a river of lava came gushing through my esophagus onto my pillow. After cleaning that up, taking some acid reducers and allowing my esophagus to calm down (about an hour before I could even think about going horizontal again), I tried to go back to sleep, which I did successfully. Successfully until about 3:30 am, when river #2 did the exact same thing. No sleep after that and my throat is still raw. I coughed for two hours. Fast forward to 20 minutes ago when another river decided to take a different path. I barely made it onto the porcelain bomb containment device when an explosion that probably caused another California quake, created a not so coveted Jackson Pollock on the inside of said bomb containment device. And now I can feel a second atmospheric river beginning to stir. All I want to do is sleep, but I'm literally afraid to even try. Sorry about the graphic, too detailed mind paintings that I've gifted you.

Facsimile machine powered up and ready!

Taco salad, after getting my hair cut next door.

Happy 60th!!!

I made my caramel, apple cheesecake to take to work. It's a fairly standard baked NY cheesecake recipe, but I add an apple filling, drizzle caramel sauce on before baking and substitute ginger snaps in place of graham crackers in the crust. No offense Grahame.

My viewpoint to a tee!

I'll bite my tongue and just disagree strongly.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Birthday!

Have an incredible day!

Obviously my ability to pick winners is seriously in decline. First Kamala, now Iron Mike.😟

Hey, I resent that comment!

I'm pretty sure I've talked about my macaroni before. But today I'll tell the origins and recipe as I make a batch to take to my coworkers that have to work weekends. In late 1989 I was getting ready to go for my first tour on the F/V Ocean Rover, in the Berring Sea. It was nearing Christmas and I was helping two gay friends who owned a furniture store in downtown Anchorage. They always needed extra help for the holidays, as they had lots of holiday gift items and such. As I was on my lunch break and crossing the street, I slipped on some Black ice, hidden under some fresh snow. I landed on my ankle, but thought I was OK. After working for the next three days, my foot just got bigger and bigger until I couldn't get a shoe on that foot and my toes wouldn't touch the ground. Being a bone head I kept telling the guys that it was fine and I should keep walking on it to keep it limber. At this point I was about two weeks away from the new boat being completed and going on it's maiden journey. They ended up calling my Mother when I wouldn't admit it might be worse than I thought. She came, saw my foot and immediately drove me to the emergency room. After explaining to the Dr. what had happened, he agreed that it probably wasn't broken, because he said the pain would be far too great to walk on it for 3 days. However he wanted Xrays to be sure. Once the Xrays were developed he showed me the full and jagged break. He was dumbfounded as to how I had been able to walk on it at all, let alone for 3 days. After resetting the break and getting my first and only cast, I had to come to terms with missing out on the maiden tour of the fishing boat. My Mom insisted I stay at her house while my leg healed. One night when she was out, I got really hungry. The only thing I could find in her cupboard was Velveta shells and cheese. I don't like that kind of cheese sauce with macaroni, so I found some sour cream and thought that might help with the flavor. It did. That was the start of my journey to make my idea of the perfect macaroni and cheese. It took a few years to tweak and perfect, but I've been making this dish at Thanksgiving for at least 25 years now. This year after talking about it with a coworker, I decided to make an early batch as there seemed to be a lot of interest. Here's my recipe for a large batch. 2 lbs. Lg. Macaroni elbows. 2.5 lbs. Tillamook cheddar cheese. 1.5 lbs. Tillamook pepper jack cheese. 1 pt. heavy cream. 1 pt. sour cream. 1 lb. thick cut bacon. Most of these ingredients are available at Costco for a nice savings. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. First I cook off the bacon, then crumble it into small pieces. Next I cube up the cheese to make it melt much easier. Save about 1/2 cup of each cheese to grate and top off the dish. Take a lg. 8 qt. enameled dutch oven and pour the pint of cream into it. This is usually when I add salt and pepper to taste. Then add the cheese cubes. Slowly heat and melt cheese into cream at about medium heat. Once the cheese is incorporated into the cream and is melted to a smooth consistency, add the pint of sour cream and bacon pieces. Cover and keep warm on low temp. In a large stock pot heat up 8 to 10 quarts of water to a boil. Add salt. Once boiling cook macaroni noodles to al dente. About 6 to 7 minutes. Drain pasta well and slowly stir into cheese sauce. Add grated cheeses to the top. Cover and bake for 45 minutes. Uncover and broil for 5 to ten minutes. This will give a lovely, cheesy, Brown crust. I'm toying with the idea of adding sliced jalapeño peppers, but haven't experimented with this yet. I have added red pepper flakes, but didn't love that. This should be served warm. And reheating should be done on the stove top with a little added milk. This will keep reheated portions from getting oily, like they do in the microwave. It does freeze well in portion sizes.

Just got back from grocery shopping. Now I'm waiting to see Iron Mike kick Jake Paul's ass.

I call it bachelor's casserole. Polish sausage, potatoes, onion, corn, bell pepper and mushrooms. Really, whatever I have in the fridge.

Last night my new landlord brought me a rotisserie chicken from Costco. So tonight I made chicken/green chili enchiladas. I also made a blueberry cobbler that I delivered to said landlord. She was very surprised, but one good deed deserves another. Didn't take pics.