Random Images - Clearing my Phone's Image Folder

Apple Wood

Recently I realized that I was running low on apple wood. So, this past weekend as we were on our way to Cafe Mio in Gardiner, NY, I stopped at Right's Farm to check out their apple wood. I purchased apple wood from them when I first started grilling but this time I was going to buy apple wood that required less work to cut into chunks.

This is what I actually bought. The wood looks like it came from wooden crates because some pieces still had rusted nails. Of course, I will remove the nails before using the wood for smoking the meat.

Cafe Mio

Cafe Mio is our favorite restaurant. The food and service there it's just great. Every time we go there the experience is amazing. The always have new options to choose from. This past weekend my wife and I went there to have lunch with two friends. The friends were going to bike there and they were going to be a little late because the winds were blowing from the south. Of course we were there on time because we used an automobile and the winds did not affect our time of arrival.

This is what we ordered to share and had it as an appetizer. I think it was called Shrimp Roll.

Thruway Market

Recently, Thruway Market, located at the foot of Oak street in Walden, NY, was selling their entire inventory at 50% off. They sold the business to a supermarket chain and they had to get rid of everything in the store. My wife and I went there several times and the first time we bought a few useful things, the second time we bought things that we might use, the third time we bought crap that no one else would buy and the last time we went there I bought two bottles of gefilte fish. Oy vey.

Here are two other pieces of crap things that I bought during this crazy sale.

Usually a crock pot is used by busy people that work. They slow cook food during the day and they eat it in the evening when they get home. Now, I am neither working nor I am busy, and that doesn't explain what pushed me to buy this crock pot.

This box has a metal divider and it holds the charcoals in place. As if the charcoals will grow legs and walk away.Another great purchase.

Greek Bank

In Greece going to the bank is an experience. The personal check concept does not exist and people go to their bank in order to access their money. Wait times range from a few minutes to an hour or more, depending of the day of the week and month. The first few days of every month all banks are swarmed by retirees that want to cash their checks.

Here is a picture from a National Bank of Greece branch. Pay attention to the digital counter in the back of the room. When you enter a Greek bank you immediately take a number from a machine, similar to those that supermarkets have at the deli counter. The day I took the picture I had 503 and waited over one hour before seeing the pissed-off cashier.

Full Moon Farm

We visited the farm recently to buy meat and to feed the piglets. We saw at the supermarket a table with vegetables that with drastically reduced prices because they wanted to get rid of them. So, we bought a variety of vegetables and went to the farm to feed the piglets.

This is the left view as you approach the entrance of the farm.

On the right side of the entrance you see the pigpen, clearly a messy place.

This picture shows the entrance (white door) of the meat store.

This is a random picture taken inside the meat store. 

 This shows other buildings located near the entrance.

This is the bag with the veggies that the piglets ate.  Yummy. At some point my wife complaint that I should place the veggies neatly on the ground. My reply was, "they are pigs, for crying out loud!"

Rasputin

If you haven't read any entries yet, Rasputin, or Raspy, is the owner of our house. She tolerates our existence and we are privileged to live in the same house as she.

Here she is resting on her Cats Love it mat.

That's it. I cleared my phone's picture folder and I have nothing else to share with you.

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Meat Kebab - Souvlaki - Σουβλάκι

We recently went to Full Moon Farm to buy meat for shish kebab. Shish kebob is a middle eastern way of cooking food and it is basically cooked over charcoals. My parents were cooking shish kebob back in the old country over charcoals and it was delicious. My dad (ref 1, 2, 3) was in charge of the grill, which was like a small rectangular box with four short legs and with the top open. My parents had purchased metal skewers that they would use to make shish kebobs. The recipe was simple: rub the meat with olive oil and then sprinkle a generous amount of salt and oregano.

Here are two pictures of the package.

Update to "Please Don't Grab!"

After someone challenged me to write some type of program/script to find the frequency of the word grab occurring in a webpage I have an update for you.

The following two lines get the job done: 

$str = file_get_contents('URL'); //gets the contents of the webpage

print_r(array_count_values(str_word_count(strip_tags(strtolower($str)), 1))); //prints a list of all words found

The second line:

•  converts all words to lower case using strtolower
•  then it uses strip_tags to remove the html tags
• str_word_count returns information about words used in a string
• and array_count_values counts the values of the array

I copied and pasted a few URLs from the Pioneer Woman's website and ran the script to produce the following:

Link: http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2010/08/fried-round-steak/ found 1 occurrence
Link: http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2010/08/homemade-cinnamon-bread/ found 1 occurrence
Link: http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2010/07/16-minute-meal-3-mini-meatball-sandwiches/ found 4 occurrences
Link: http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2010/04/the-right-way-and-the-wrong-way-to-make-cinnamon-toast/ found 2 occurrences
Link: http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2010/04/sloppy-joes/ found 0 occurrences
Link http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2010/02/homemade-glazed-doughnuts/ found 2 occurrences
Link http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2010/01/homemade-chicken-and-noodles/ found 2 occurrences
Link: http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2010/01/perfect-potatoes-au-gratin/ found 1 occurrence
Link: http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2009/10/simple-pan-fried-pork-chops found 1 occurrence
Link: http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2009/10/simple-pan-fried-pork-chops/ found 1 occurrence
Link: http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2009/07/vanilla-bean-ice-cream/ found 1 occurrence
Link: http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2009/07/edna-maes-escalloped-cabbage-recipe/ found 0 occurrencesLink: http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2009/05/perfect-pancakes/ found 1 occurrence
Link: http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2009/04/creamed-spinach-to-die-for/ found 1 occurrence
Link: http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2009/04/macaroni-cheese/ found 0 occurrences
Link: http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2009/03/bbq-meatballs-comfort-food-to-the-max/ found 1 occurrence
Link: http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2009/02/spreads-my-brothers-favorite-cookie/ found 3 occurrences

 These 17 URLs found a total of 22 occurrences of the word grab.

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Voodoo Chicken

Please keep reading to learn why I chose this name.

I have seen in movies how people use voodoo dolls and I wanted to "use voodoo" in order to cook a chicken. The Internet is filled with chicken recipes, grilled and otherwise, but I wanted to give it a different spin, and I chose voodoo.

This is a 7.5 lb chicken and let me tell you that it is big and huge! I bought it on Monday from ShopRite taking advantage of the special they run every week for senior citizens. Yes. I am proud to state that I do have a ShopRite senior discount card. When I qualified for it I went to the counter to ask for it and the person just processed it. When  asked him if he wanted to see proof of age he said that no one asks for this card except...senior citizens.

I took the chicken out of the package, removed the bag with the miscellaneous chicken parts and gave it a good wash. Look at this chicken. look at it, I tell ya. She is a beauty.

Here are the ingredients I will mix together to make my rub. I used a teaspoon of each with the exception of the oregano which is behind the paprika and mustard. I used three tablespoons of oregano.

I placed these ingredients in a bowl and mixed them a little.

Octopus in tomato sauce and pasta

During my last visit to Greece, I went a couple of times to a supermarket to get some type of prepared food for dinner. I had a choice between souvlaki and supermarket food and trust me, the latter was the best choice. The quality of the food was excellent and it was fresh since the ingredients came from the supermarket. Twice, I had a traditional dish of octopus with pasta cooked in tomato sauce. Eating octopus is very common. I remember eating grilled octopus when I was a little kid and I still salivate thinking about it. I got to talk to the person that maintained the hot food counter and he gave me his recipe which turned out to be simple.

I went to ShopRite, our local supermarket, to buy octopus, frozen, of course, and I was told that they carry larger octopus only during the holidays. I failed to ask which holidays but I will ask this question next time. Here are the three small frozen octopi that I purchased.

I removed the octopi from the package and washed it under running water. I cut the tentacles in bite sized pieces and I cut the ink sack in half and washed the inside of it well, even though it appeared to be very clean.

I started to warm up a pan on med-high heat.

Please Don't Grab!

Because English is my Second Language, ESL, I often make mistakes when I speak and write. I always have to proofread what I write and always the first draft is hideous, the second is marginal, the third is acceptable and... well, you get my point.

As a novice cook I like to browse the Internet for ideas and recipes and I watch certain TV shows and channels on a regular basis for the same reason. There are some TV personalities that use certain words and phrases over and over and over.

For example you can catch Guy Fiery say things like:

• out-of-the-park,
• mega-super,
• outta-bounds

If you watch Rachael Ray
you will notice that she uses the word grab constantly:

• she goes to the refrigerator to "grab some milk,"
• "I'll grab the spoon," etc.

I went to google.com and searched for the word grab within the rachaelray.com domain name. It's a little tricky but you have to go to google.com, enter the search term, the word grab in this case, then you will either press the search button or press the enter key for google to do the search. After google return the results, scroll all the way to the bottom of the page and click on the Advanced search link. In the Advance search options look for the site or domain area and enter the domain, rachaelray.com in my case, and press the Advanced Search button. Google will then go to rachaelray.com and return all pages containing the word grab. Google reported the word grab was found in 133 pages in rachaelray.com. Here are some links and excerpts:

• In www.rachaelray.com/food/collections/lwra/index.php?section=amazing
  

  "...snack to grab on the go or to throw into smoothies. When it's not in season, it's perfectly fine to grab a bag..."

  "...by grabbing bacteria and carrying..."

   
• Also in www.rachaelray.com/blogs/index.php/author/rosemary/page/10/
  

  "I would grab whatever I..."

  "I’d make toast, grab crackers, whatever was in sight..."

Then I listened to the the TV show The Pioneer Woman on the Food channel and she too "grabs" every chance she gets. I went to her website, thepioneerwoman.com, and there too she uses the word grab VERY often, much more than Rachael Ray. A google advanced search shows that grab appears in 5,250 pages! Wow! Pioneer Girl, slow down!

Where we buy eggs and meat - Full Moon Farm

Many times we buy our meat and eggs from the Full Moon Farm located in Gardiner, NY. Recently we went there to buy ground beef and eggs.

They have a self-serve store located right at the entrance of the farm. This time I saw in the store a display with beautiful yarn ready to be made into clothes by some industrious person. Diane?

When we walked outside of the store we met Doreen, a very friendly person who works there. She showed us 27 newly arrived piglets.

In the foreground the first structure has feed for them and right behind it is another structure for the piglets go to relax and play cards and board games.

Woodchucks Love Basil and Dill

That's right. Woodchucks love dill and basil and I have proof of this.

This is how I found the plants I bought yesterday at the supermarket. 

The two smaller plants had dill and the larger one had basil. It took me a long time to pick the nicest, healthiest, strongest plants. I argued with the sales person about the plants. It took me extra time in the parking lot trying to choose the best location in the trunk of the car to transport the plants without traumatizing them. After all that... 'chuck gave them a "hair cut."

Soon this woodchuck will be trapped humanely and moved to a better garden.

I would like to return these plants but I don't have a good excuse to tell them.  Does anyone have any ideas to share with me because these plans cost me a handsome penny.

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Σπανακοπιτα (Spanakopita, Spinach Pie): A Public Apology

Perhaps you have heard of Socrates's Apology where Socrates defends himself against charges of: corrupting the young, and by not believing in the Gods. Well, now it is my turn to apologize to my readers and all people around me for not being truthful and for, in some way, corrupting them by not cooking authentic Hellenic dishes.

I will start with a very familiar recipe for Σπανακοπιτα, spanakopita or spinach pie. I have been cooking a type of spinach pie that can be found in books and the Internet.  Oh, the humanity! Most of these Americanized recipes incorporate, oh my God, ricotta cheese. What? In Hellas they don't cook with ricotta cheese! I cooked several pies over the years and shared them with you on many happy occasions. You gave me very positive feedback and you made me feel humble and successful in your company. I failed you. I am truly sorry for this BUT I now have a chance to redeem myself by showing you a recipe that has been used by my ancestors back in Hellas.

It was several years ago when I was conversing on the phone with relatives from Hellas where I would begin to talk about my Σπανακοπιτα recipe and I just could not understand why I couldn't get them interested in it. I thought that because I was using, dare to say it, frozen spinach turned them off. So I started to use fresh spinach but that didn't do it. I was perplexed. I begun to have nightmares and even sometimes I woke up screaming incoherent Hellenic curse words. Something was wrong and I wasn't ready to admit it. Here is an image of the hideous pies I was cooking.

Fast forward eleven painful years to March of 2013 when I visited the old country for three weeks. Once or twice a week I would go to the supermarket

to buy food when I saw something very different. They had a wide variety of frozen spinach, zucchini, leek pies. Below is a package showing spinach pie rolls.

I Want my Baby Back, Baby Back, Baby Back Ribs

This past weekend I decided to bbq baby back ribs. So, I went to Adams Fair Acre Farms in Newburgh and immediately I was drawn to their wonderful meat department where I found the baby back ribs. They were on sale, lucky me, but I had to scrutinize the quality of them and the only way to do this was by carefully examining the contents of each package. I want the ribs to be in the full rack and not cut in small chunks. Also, baby back ribs must weigh less than 1-3/4 pounds per slab.

I picked up each package and made sure each slab was intact, the meat on ribs in not bruised and, generally speaking, the ribs look healthy.

I bought four slabs and here they are at home on the counter top still in the shopping bag. 

I took them out of the shopping bag and the packages. Gave them a quick wash in the sink, dried them and got ready to process them.

First I had to remove the membrane that is found under the rack. It is almost invisible but you can pull it away from the rack if use a kitchen paper towel and begin by pinching it. Here I show you the membrane after I've pulled it a little.

After pulling each membrane I placed the four racks in a bowl. As you can see I have my trusted knife sharpener ready.