Before Dinner Snack...

OK, so it's after 4 pm and I've been running all day and
haven't put anything is in body except a bottle of water...

Sooooo, I slapped that PESTO on top of a corn tortilla
with some sharp cheese and VOILA...
Pesto Pizza, quick and tasty!

I'm telling ya, make some for you and yours!

Well Looky Here, Looky Here...

The Salsitas!!!

Aih Aih Aih Aih !

Sorry I Offended myself with that one...Oops!

I was just strolling alongLA LA LA...On my way to drop a few things at the tailor and decided to stroll into a (not so far) Pioneer Grocery Store, just to see what their store was like. It smelled horribly I opted to turn around and leave. BAM! There they were...My personal Chip Dream come true. Haven't cracked them yet, so I'm not sure if they're FRESH but I can't wait...

What are the chances of that...Guess if you put it out in the universe and truly want it it will come to you...even if it's only a chip...The Secret is REAL!

APB, APB...I'm putting out an All Points Bulletin...

For these chips right here!!!

I got them from a 7-11 while I was in Baltimore, MD about a month ago and love them.

Now that I'm back in NY I have been on a serious hunt for them and have had no luck...

Has anyone out there seen them in
BK or the surrounding NYC area in general ?

"You come in my house, you eat my food the way I f*%king make it! You understand me? Tip your waitress."

My fellow True Blood fans will get that one...

Like my girls & I, millions of people out there are serious True Blood fans, but we are real serious. Each week we talk about every detail over email and TRUST, with about 10 of us on "the cables" 5 days a week, we don’t miss a beat.

Right before the new season started, we through a True Blood themed party. We watched highlights from the first season on DVD and of course some of use dressed pretty vampy. To save their identities I won’t post pics of all that.
I’ll only implicate myself… Tre Dominatrix-y Huh?

My girl Mims rocked the t-shirt Sookie ended putting on in Fangtasia after she was attacked by the ‘bull man’.

Life really does begin at night at my house!

Utterly adorable! Please peep the Blow Pop.

I decorated the table with some Tre Cutacious, vampire inspired items, and we tried to keep the food as close to red in color as possible.

I made some super spicy wings, and some chopped BBQ chicken,

and our resident baker, Kimmy made some banging Red Velvet Cup Cakes.

She always comes through with the banging baked goods!

I found out the hard way that black table clothes are hard to come by so I just used black shower curtain liners…

For the drinks we had Red Wine Sangria, Watermelon Martinis and a bunch of other stuff that wasn’t red, but when it comes to the drinks, we’re not really that picky.

To make sure we had something a little healthy in the building I made fruit salad and served it in one of the Peacocks I carved out of a watermelon. The one on the left is the Watermelon Martini.

• To make the decorations on the table I got an over sized champagne glass from a crafts store. That was about $12.
• You’ll need some syringes as well. Get different sizes so they can sit @ different heights in your vase or whatever setting you decide to arrange them in or on. Those, you can get at a cooking store but if you’re really nice to a nurse the next time you happen to be visiting someone in the hospital you can get the real ones…Thanks anonymous nurse who’s a total Sweet Pea.
• I had some glass stones I usually use to decorate a table setting or use under a candle and I threw those on there to look like ice but you just use the real thing.
• I happened to have an old glass container with a gothic looking design etched on the front so I filled that with the remaining blood for an extra old feel.
  
  
  
  For your fake blood you'll need
  
  
  Corn Syrup
  Red Food Coloring
  Green Food Coloring (optional)
  Milk
  Water
  
  Get your self a nice size clear bowl and pour about 8 oz. of the corn syrup into it (more depending on how much you want to make). You want your bowl to be clear so you can see the color of the liquid clearly before you put it into the syringes. Add in about 4 oz. of water and stir until completely blended. Add in roughly 5-8 drops of the red food coloring until you get the desired color. Then add a small amount of milk (about a tablespoon at a time) until it’s no longer clear and looks more like real blood. You know, kind of opaque and more burgundy than red. Stir liquid and adjust to desired color. This is when you can add 1 or 2 drops of the green to get that more authentic darker red.
  
  You really don’t need to worry about the consistency when using the "blood" in the needles. If you were using it, to so say pour on top a Jell-O mold brain or something you’d need to add more corn syrup to make it thicker. You can save that tip for your next Halloween party for the kiddies.

Of course after that, just fill your syringes from the bowl and arrange then how ever you like. I put a small computer light into the bottom of the vase so the color of the blood would really stand out and put it on a red tray with some dirt and a few little other vampy things I happened to have around my house.

Of course RED ROSES are a must and little tomb stone to top it all off and VIOLA,

your True Blood table is set.

Though the Watermelon Peacocks aren’t really vampire-ish, I found a video on how to make them for you guys. I just played around until came up with something I liked so be creative but be sure whatever you draw on your watemelon with is non toxic.

I used the point of a skewer to lightly outline my bird before cutting into it.

To make the "tail" of the peacock I put, whole or sclied fruit onto skewers and

placed a 3 or more of them onto the back of each finished bird bowl.

I also used a longer, more oval watermelon than in this video and was able to carve the remaining side into another bird and made 2 serving bird/bowls from one watermelon.


For some reason she does not show you how to draw the design onto the

watermelon in this video but I know you're all smart cookies...
Think pumpkins at Halloween. Get creative and send me flicks of what you come up with.


The next time we have a True Blood shindig I want

Lafayette to come through and do his dance now that he's all healed...

Bang it Baby!



Bwah! Sunday can’t come fast enough!

Quick and Easy Gloomy Day Treats !!!

So it’s a dreary overcast day here in Brooklyn and I figured since I had some leftovers from a dinner party I had for my family the other day, I’d make some quick snacks.

I'm making SHRIMP ROLLS and FRUIT TARTS.

While staying in DC for the Inauguration with my girl Nicole she made some shrimp rolls with a bag of frozen Asian Style veggies and frozen shrimp that were truly delicious and ever since I saw the Nasoya Egg Roll Skins in the store, I’ve been on a little egg roll craze. The fruit tarts, we used to order at my old job for our monthly lunches and we’d always fight over them so I figured I'd better learn to make them since I’d often lose out.

I’ll warn you in advance that this may look like a lot but trust me these are super easy to make (less than an hour from start to finish for both) and you can make the stuffing and keep it in the fridge or freezer for a few days and make them fresh during the week…Trust, home made egg rolls impress but are super easy to make.

For the Shrimp Rolls you’ll need:

*Nasoya Egg Roll Skins (they cost about 3 bucks for 20)

*Roughly 12 large shrimp, cleaned, deveined, tails removed and chopped into ½ in chunks (you can use baby shrimp but I find the larger ones have more flavor)

*1 medium sized head of green cabbage shredded

*2 - 3 carrots shredded 1 teaspoons grated ginger (more or less to taste)

*½ a yellow onion sliced

*1/2 a red onion sliced

*2-3 cloves of garlic minced

1 tablespoon Soy Sauce (more or less to taste)

2 teaspoons Oyster Sauce (not mandatory but it’s nice if you have it)

Making the Shrimp Roll Stuffing:

Lightly season the shrimp with salt and pepper. Using a large shallow pot with a top, cook the shrimp in a few drops of olive oil for about 5 minutes until completely cooked. You do not want to over cook the shrimp; they get hard when over cooked.

Remove the shrimp from the pot and set aside. Add about 1 tablespoon of olive oil to the pot and heat on a medium flame. Add all the vegetables to the pot. This will look like a lot of cabbage but it will cook down quickly.

Add the soy sauce and oyster sauce, if you are using it and mix completely.

Cover the veggies and let cook down for about 10 – 15 minutes. Once the veggies have cooked down mix in the shrimp and let cool for roughly 10 – 15 minutes. Removing them from the pot you used to cook them in will speed up the process (and if you are making the fruit tarts this is all the time it will take).

Filling your Shrimp Rolls:

Lay your egg roll skin on a flat dry surface so they appear in the shape of a diamond in front of you.

Place roughly 2 tablespoons of shrimp & veggie mix towards the bottom of the egg roll skin.

Take the bottom point of the egg roll skin and roll upward being sure to keep the stuffing away from the sides of the skin.

Once you have rolled the skin half way up fold both sides of the skin towards the middle.

Lightly wet your fingers and fold the top point downward over the rolled portion of the egg roll creating and envelope effect.

Frying your Shrimp Rolls:

In a shallow dry skillet add about ½ inch of olive or canola oil and heat to at least 250 (you can use a deep fryer if you are making a large batch).

Gently place the shrimp rolls into the hot oil and cook on each side for roughly a minute until golden brown.

Remove the shrimp rolls from the oil and place on paper towels or brown paper bags to drain.

Serving Your Egg Rolls:

You can either sever you egg rolls whole as finger food or cut them on the bias and served them plated as individual appetizers.

I’m a spicy food junky so the Asian Chili Paste mixed with a sweat and sour sauce is perfect for me but some people like them with just soy sauce or "duck sauce".
I LOVE the Sambal Oelek Chili Sauce (I went through a bottle in a week) and Trader Joe's makes a great Sweet Chili Sauce as well. Both cost about $2.50.



TIPS: Of course you could remove the shrimp or substitute it for chicken. Red meat doesn’t really work but hey, play around and let me know what you come up with. I've done all veggie ones with broccoli, string beans, water crest etc., that came out great. If you plan on serving them plated and you have some cabbage left over, put some raw cabbage on the plate as a bed for your standing egg roll...It's look Tre Cutatious!

Happy Shrimp Rolling!!!

On to our FRUIT TARTS!

I make some great baked fruit tarts too but there are no-bake and are much better for the warmer months and take about 15 minutes from start to finish.

For the FRUIT TARTS you’ll need:

*1 package of Athens Mini Fillo Dough Shells

*1 package of vanilla (or french vanilla) Instant Jell-O Pudding

*1 ripe yet firm Haitian mango

*2-3 strawberries

*4-5 black berries or raspberries

*1/2 a sweet plum

Follow the basic pudding directions on the Jell-O box, using 2 cups of milk and mixing with a whisk for roughly 2 minutes until thickened. Place in the fridge.

Slice the raspberries in half and the strawberries, plum and skinned mango in 1 inch slices.

Fill each Fillo Dough Cup with the pudding.

Gently place slices of fruit onto the filled pudding cups being sure all the fruit is visible and standing up when possible.

Place in the fridge until time to serve, but not over night. You can top them off with powdered sugar when you are ready to serve but I’m not really a fan.

TIPS: Be advised that they do not keep or travel well. When left in the fridge for more than a few hours the pudding begins to take on the color of the fruit and the shells become less crispy. Since they are so quick to assemble you can prepare all the fruit and pudding the day before and assemble them the day you plan on serving them. These are also a great semi healthy treat and a fun little project for kids. My God-kids better get ready for me...