A Tiny Bitch

“Live to Eat or Eat to Live”. I think we’ve all heard that phrase. I’m sure I fall into the first category and, I guess like being there, but at times I envy the picky eaters who care little about eating but tolerate it just to stay alive. That first category makes it difficult to stay trim and healthy, while the ones in the other category are the ones we look at and say how the hell do they stay that skinny?

While I’m not quite like Andrew Zimmer on the Travel Channel, I must confess that it’s difficult for me to find foods I won’t taste or foods I dislike. Only one exception, I don’t care for bananas. Can’t stand the texture, but they’re fine in a nice banana bread. My love for so many foods creates a problem for me when going out to eat in restaurants. It’s very difficult to make up my mind. The problem is even worst when we eat at diners, especially those real authentic Greek ones. No one page menu specials for them, oh no, you’re handed a menu book, and if you’re there with a few people almost too heavy for the waitress to carry.

You begin to thumb through the six or seven pages and begin to wonder how the hell can they have all these types of food and keep them fresh. Then to top it all off the waitress comes back in a flash and says “are you ready to order”? Are you kidding, I need the whole damn afternoon to read this thing. For us indiscriminant eaters we are now in trouble. We find so many things that we like in the damn thing, how the hell can we possibly make the right choice. Oh please, please give me a single sheet special sheet and end my frustration.

Such a minor problem in my life that I’m ashamed to write about it, but I can’t enter a blog with out a little bitch, I’d lose my reputation. By the way we stopped in one of these diners last Sunday after the play I wrote about. One of only a few bad diner experiences I’ve ever had. Only one inexperienced waiter who got trapped having to make my coffee, and tried to take the order from a table of six who each asked him questions about every menu item they were interested in. We sat there for a half an hour without ever even giving him our order out of one of those huge menu books. Rarely walk out of restaurants, but gave him two bucks for my coffee and got the hell out of there,

The diner pictured here along Pennsylvania route 209, however, was an exception. One sheet of specials, great service and great food. Once in awhile I get lucky.

Here’s a little diner type recipe from one of my Mother-in-Law’s handwritten notes.

Simple Bread Pudding – Mary Shields

2-1/2 cups stale bread, broken in small pieces (about 4 slices)
1-1/2 cups milk
1 egg
1 tablespoon butter, melted
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup raisins
1/4 cup pecans
Cinnamon

In a large bowl, combine all ingredients except butter. Stir to mix well. Pour into buttered loaf pan. Cook at 350 degrees for 45 to 50 minutes. Serves 4

My Blog Block

In the past I’ve expressed my admiration for prolific writers like Stephen King and others who can sit down and bang out 1000 pages of script. I don’t know how they do it, I know I’m not one of them. I really enjoy entering these one page Blogs, but even the one page becomes a challenge at times. During the course of a day many things I consider interesting cross my mind, but when I come downstairs rigor mortise seems to set in my fingers and the thoughts just die. Oh well, I sold screws and bolts for a living, a far cry from creative writing.

But guess what? I think I’ve got my fingers moving. I was fortunate enough to receive two tickets from my brother and Kathy for a performance of The Producers. The play took place at the Warner Theater in Torrington, CT. The Warner, I learned is a renovated movie house that was built in 1931 by Warner Brothers. Now, with the exception of one year, I have lived in Connecticut all my life and never once attended anything in this 79 year old theater. What a wonderful thing it is to keep from tearing down these wonderful structures. I have also attended a concert at one of these in Poughkeepsie, New York. They are absolutely gorgeous and certainly too costly to build today. They’re a far cry from the multi-room theaters of today, which, for my book are pretty boring.

Anyway, back to my tale. I’m certainly familiar with the play and the movie of the same name, which never impressed me, but not anymore. Marge and I were treated to an absolutely great performance. I thought this was being performed by a traveling group of professionals until Marge told me that this was Community Theater. Unbelievable!! Thirty six in the cast, all with wonderful voices and professional acting. Sets and costumes were outstanding. What have I been missing all these years? I wish you all could see it, but unfortunately this was the last performance.

My thanks to both of you for a very nice birthday present.

Dinner after the theater is another story, but I’m going to hold off since I decided not to include any of my bitches in this Blog.

I’ve been thinking about menus for some of our summer pool picnics and pulled pork sandwiches keep cropping up in my head. I thought I’d research a few recipes. Found these two which look not only tasty, but easy to make. One is real easy because it’s a crock pot one while the other is an oven creation. Haven’t tried either one yet so I can’t give you a review. If you make it before me let me know how it turned out.

Bon Appetite!!

Pork Barbecue North Carolina Style

4 lb. Boston butt roast
1 large onion, chopped
1 1/2 cup water
1 cup vinegar
1/2 cup ketchup
1/2 cup Worcestershire sauce
3 tablespoon. brown sugar
2 tablespoon dry mustard
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon each red pepper and black pepper

Mix all ingredients except roast in large 4 quart Pyrex dish. Place roast in mixture after mixing well. Cover with lid and bake at 325 degrees for 5 hours. Remove from oven and let cool. Remove roast from sauce. Remove meat from bone and spread meat with fork. It falls apart. Return meat to sauce in pan and stir the sauce into the meat. Cover and bake at 325 degrees for 15 minutes or until heated. May be served over rice or on hamburger rolls.



Easy Crock-pot Pulled Pork

1/2 Cup Ketchup
1/3 Cup Worcestershire
1/3 Cup Apple Cider Vinegar
1 Tablespoon Ground Mustard
1 Tablespoon Garlic Powder
1/2 Teaspoon Paprika
1/4 Cup Brown Sugar
1/2 Teaspoon Liquid Smoke
Dash Red Chili Pepper Flakes
Pinch Salt and Pepper
1 Medium Sweet Onion, Chopped
3 Pounds Pork Shoulder, Trimmed of Fat.

1. Combine all ingredients except for onion and pork into crock pot. Whisk all ingredients until well blended.
2. Place pork and onions into mixture, coating both sides of meat.
3. Cook for 8 to 10 hours under "low" slow cooker setting.
4. After meat is cooked, remove from slow cooker onto plate and break apart with fork. If meat has any bones, please discard at this time.
5. Place meat back into warm sauce to reheat.
6. Serve on hamburger buns or Kaiser Rolls.