I’m a pasta fiend, I love it in practically any setting and have a hard time controlling myself. I’m like Garfield when it comes to lasagna, I can eat a ton. Of course, this can lead to my rear looking like Garfield’s so I show some self-restraint.

I’ve been dying to make lasagna, rather than buying one of those frozen feasts, for a long time. The other day, I came across a recipe on the internet for a from scratch lasagna that looked great. I bought all the ingredients in our last grocery trip and had big hopes for it.

Last night was the night, I had Joey take the hamburger out of the freezer to defrost and started planning the meal. We got sucked into a show on TV and suddenly it was nearly 7 o’clock. I pulled up the recipe and realized the homemade sauce takes over an hour by itself, not including the hour of oven time. That just wouldn’t do so I looked in the pantry and there laid my favorite cheap, bottled pasta sauce, Ragu. Okay, so it wouldn’t be exactly gourmet but I was making the lasagna, come hell or high water.

I have to say, despite not making the sauce from scratch, it came out really good. Everyone went back for seconds and Joey’s Mom couldn’t stop saying how much she loved it. I impressed my future mother-in-law with this recipe, that’s gotta be worth something, people.

Hot, fresh and all gooey, right out of the over.

All plated up, look at that melted cheesiness, I love cheese with an unbridled passion.

The pictures do not do this thing justice, I need a new camera ASAP if I’m going to keep doing this food thing. I’d put a recipe on here, but I really just winged it off the back of the noodle box. My fear of lasagna is long gone and I will happily make this again in the future.

Growing up, my parents would make lots of BBQ, it was a family favorite. When my Mom was short on time and cash, she’d toss a pork butt in the slow cooker and cook it down for pulled pork sandwiches (sammiches). I loved this and would constantly be checking the pot to see if it was done yet. My Mom never let on to how easy it was to make this until I was older and could help cook.

Last week, I had a sudden craving for her pulled pork and decided to take a look on the internet since I couldn’t get a hold of her. I came across a recipe that seemed pretty easy so after some shopping, I got started the next day.

What’s that lurking under the lid?

All cooked and shredded, it took everything I had not to eat it straight out of the pot.
Ok you caught me, I did.

This makes a lot, it fed the two of us for a week on lunches and impromptu dinners, PLUS 2 small containers put into the freezer. The recipe is extremely simple, here’s what I did.

Pulled pork

- 5lb pork shoulder/butt
- 2 bottles of Kraft light BBQ sauce (Use whatever sauce you like.)
- 1 medium onion
- Salt & pepper to season
- Chili powder

1.) Chop onion up into small chunks and set aside.
2.) Grease crock pot.
3.) Toss pork butt/shoulder into the pot, cover with salt, pepper and chili powder.
4.) Pour 1 bottle of BBQ sauce over the top and half the onions.
5.) Flip pork butt over and cover with sauce, making sure some gets beneath it.
6.) Pour 2nd bottle of BBQ sauce over the top and the rest of the onions.
7.) Cook on low heat for 7 to 9 hours.
8.) Remove pork from crock pot and shred down with 2 forks in a large bowl.

The next steps are optional, I did them but didn’t really notice a difference aside from removing the fat.

9.) Transfer boiled down BBQ sauce to a saucepan and skim off the fat.
10.) Reduce down to a thicker sauce. (FYI: I let mine boil for a bit and it never reduced down.)
11.) Place pork and sauce back into crock pot, place crock pot on warm setting.

All done, serve it up however you like and chow down. We had mini tortillas we had bought, so I decided to make pulled pork soft tacos. I added a bit of Hidden Valley (from the packet with buttermilk and fat free sour cream) ranch on top, it wasn’t needed but it tasted so good.

All plated up, ignore the signs of a pulled pork casualty beneath it. I was starving and couldn’t wait.

I haven’t disappeared, I’ve just been swept up in work and WoW lately. I return to you with everyone’s favorite summer treat, ice cream!

My favorite ice cream maker’s are Ben & Jerry. Practically every product I’ve had that they make has lived up to my expectations. Let me tell you, give me a pint of Karamel Sutra and I’m in heaven. I always thought it was vanilla and chocolate until I watched an episode of Unwrapped and they mentioned caramel ice cream. Mmmm!

I’ve been working on breaking myself out of my food molds and trying new flavors whenever I buy something or we go somewhere to eat. This lead to me trying the Pistachio! Pistachio! flavor made by Ben & Jerry. I had seen it mentioned somewhere on the internet and it just stuck in my head for days on end. Finally, one day I broke down and told Joey we had to get ice cream to go with our movies. He jumped right on it because he had been dying to try the specialty flavor of Sticky toffee pudding by Haagen-Dazs since we saw the Food Network show on it.

I’ll start with the Pistachio! Pistachio! since that was my choice of ice cream. I’ve recently fallen in love with pistachios as they are full of flavor and low in calories for the amount you can eat. Upon opening the ice cream, I had a ton of pistachios staring back at me. I took a small bite at first because I was a bit hesitant about the nuts. Ask anyone who knows me, I hate having nuts on my ice cream. I’ve been known to throw the packet of nuts McDonald’s gives you back at my friends when they hand it to me. As I took the first bite, it was delicious and creamy with a nice big pistachio right in the middle. The flavor of the ice cream, I can’t really describe, it just seemed really, really fresh. I know that’s weird but the ice cream didn’t have an overwhelming pistachio taste to it. The pistachios were full of flavor and very tasty. I’d definitely buy this again if I was in the mood for a nutty ice cream.

As said before, Joey picked out Sticky toffee pudding and he was kind enough to let me try a bite. After he took a bite and declared it his favorite ice cream ever, I knew I was in for a treat. He’s a bit odd in the sense that he doesn’t really like ice cream that much so for an ice cream to pull him in is big. I dived right in with my spoon, making sure to get a cake piece and toffee all in one. The ice cream itself is buttery vanilla, very smooth and a creamy texture. The swirls of toffee have a strong brown sugar taste along with a slight burnt butter taste, I could eat it by the spoonful itself. The cake wasn’t soggy at all, it was penetrated with the ice cream and had a nice spongy texture. Everything combined together perfectly and it was my favorite of the bunch. I would happily buy this for myself next time but I’d need a lock on it so I didn’t eat it all in one sitting.

If I had to pick a favorite meal of the day, breakfast would win by a landslide. Normally, my favorite breakfast in the world is eggs over easy and grits all mashed together with some toast along for the ride. This weekend though, Joey and I decided to go all out with a nice hearty breakfast before hitting the flea markets. Warm fluffy scrambled eggs, crispy hashbrowns, perfectly browned sausage and if I’m feeling decadent (which I was this weekend) chocolate chip pancakes. This meal was delicious and it kept us energized all throughout the morning and late into the afternoon. My favorite item on the plate was the chocolate chip pancakes made with Ghirardelli chocolate chips. The chocolate mixed with the sweet maple syrup tasted like a small slice of heaven with each bite.

My first product review and unfortunately, it’s a negative one. I’m following the Weight Watchers plan in an effort to lose weight. So, every chance I get to replace a high calorie food with something significantly less calorie filled, I jump on it.

The product in question here is House Foods Tofu Shirataki noodles in the fettucine shape. They come in 8oz packages, filled with a brine and require refrigeration. They are made up of tofu and yam flour so they are high in fiber and low in calories.

I had high hopes for these noodles because I am a pasta fiend. Give me some pasta with cream sauce and broccoli, I’m in foodie heaven. My first indication that these noodles were not all they were hyped up to be was when I cut open the bag. A sudden offensive odor quickly worked it’s way into my nostrils. It smelled faintly of over ripe fish, not a pleasant thought.

“Okay,” I thought to myself, “just give them a rinse and dry them out, maybe that will help.” Since there are packaged in a brine, they require rinsing and them a subsequent wringing out of the liquid with paper towels.

As I was wringing the liquid out, I got a quick glimpse of the texture. It was extremely slimy and, well…icky feeling. I was already dreading eating this concoction but I paid good money for them so I was determined.

I quickly heated up one of my spare broccoli and cheese frozen side dishes. There was no way I was risking delicious fresh steamed broccoli on these monstrosities. After the broccoli was heated up, I put the noodles in for a quick heat as instructed on the bag. Once I pulled them out, I dumped the broccoli and cheese mixture over them and mixed them up.

I’ll be honest, the visual appeal was amazing, all previous notions went out the window. It’s rare that something that looks this good tastes as horrible as I was expecting. Of course, next came the real test, tasting the meal. At this point, the smell and texture jumped back to the front of my mind.

With much anxiety, I swirled up a decent sized amount and took it in. Friends, let me tell you, it was one of my most bizarre culinary experiences to date. The texture is horrible, really really bad. It’s like overcooked noodles that have been refrigerated. Remember the smell I mentioned earlier? It was there in full force when eating the noodles and it wasn’t pleasant but the broccoli mixture was throwing my taste buds off. Unfortunately, the broccoli couldn’t save it and I had to throw it away. Well, not before forcing Joey to try a bite and he had the same reaction.

So, for the ingenuity, I give House Foods a thumbs up but in every other category, they get a hefty thumbs down from me. I’ve read plenty of other reviews where the person consuming these loved them. I know the people over at Hungry-Girl rave about them in practically every noodle based email I get. I’ll be sticking to whole wheat noodles, they are superior in every way possible.

The other night I was up late waiting for Joey to get home from band practice when I had a sudden sweet craving. After rifling through the cabinets, I came across the ingredients to make this.

I’m not a big graham cracker fan so I replaced that component with peanut butter. As anyone who’s anyone knows, peanut butter and chocolate or peanut butter and marshmallows make fantastic combinations. So, why wouldn’t all three thrown together make an even better combo?

I didn’t have anything aside from bread to toss the combination on so I decided to use that as the serving vessel. It’s just your plain white bread although I could see this being fantastic on a nice homemade crusty bread.

So, how is this made?

1) Spread peanut butter on bread.
2) Sprinkle chocolate chips over the peanut butter.
3) Spread marshmallows over the chocolate chips.
4) Put under the broiler for 10 to 15 minutes, depending on how brown you like your marshmallows.
5) Plate up and enjoy, they are fantastic.

A couple notes for next time:

After making homemade marshmallows this past Christmas, I really think store bought ones taste too fake. I’d love to make my own marshmallows to use.

Also, don’t sacrifice me for saying this but I’d cut down on the amount of chocolate chips or maybe go with a darker variety. They were a bit overwhelming in this variety.

Lastly, I’d toast the bread lightly before putting under the broiler, the bread was still a bit too soft for me. Of course, this could be solved by having a nice crusty bread.

All in all, this was a nice late night snack that could use a few tweaks to take it to a higher level.