Cranky Is As Cranky Does…I’m HUNGRY

Chicken soup is a common classic comfort food that might be found across cultures. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

HELP WANTED: LOOKING FOR A SCONE ASAP OR EASY RECIPE

Yes, it’s true. I AM CRANKY and I don’t even need to explain it. I know. That’s enough. I don’t want pity and I can’t change the situations. My physical health, sigh, I have to accept. I’ll live. However, when my life’s joy, (vice,) hobby and life’s work is limited then it gets darned serious. No, I am not on a diet. That would be easy. I wish I was on a diet because there would be a reason and an outcome and a desired result.

But, with my bad luck, I have to be the one whose jaw blows out whose sound carried through the house leaving me shrieking in unbearable pain and crying that my husband came running. I knew I should have gone to the ER.

I saw my dentist, an oral surgeon and now I’m supposed to see a TMJ specialist. I’m not surprised, it was just another thing to heap on but for me, this was a personal tragedy. Not being able to EAT?  I don’t like drinking or smoking or anything else, I have no hobbies but one thing I love is food and now that has been taken away from me. I’m yearning for real food that is not mashed, white, banana-like or blended.

A fresh batch of homemade buttermilk scones. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

And even if I tried to like drinking I have recently been informed that my kidneys are in bad shape too. Surprise!

I’m sick of chicken soup, vanilla milkshakes, rice and bananas. I long for warm, crunchy French bread dripping with butter, a large sandwich, basically anything I am now denied. I still want scones, pizza and a great big salad and did I mention scones?

I can’t bear to call another doctor tonight. I’m in no mood. It’s almost time for dinner, home-made chicken soup with mashed up Saltines in them, I learned that from my kids. Luckily, we have cupcakes from yesterday, they better taste good. I need something before I start to scream.

The oral surgeon also said that this pain will come back that some internal bleeding happened when the disk in my jaw slipped. He’s a nice guy, a really nice guy, he didn’t even charge for the five-minute consult but I wish he hadn’t said what he did.

I’m hungry, I want to eat real food, Last night I rebelled and tried (the operative word) to eat teeny, tiny bites of pizza with fork and knife (a la Diblasio ) which really was no fun at all and of course the pizza WAS BURNED.

Out of pure desperation I ate my husband’s filet of sole drenched in egg and butter:  I don’t even like fish but it was something different.

BUT, I want scones, surely I could eat those, sweet scones made with love and wild blueberries, I see them dancing beneath my eyes.

I wish I could bake with ease. With all my illnesses I just may have to acquire a new skill: baking. No more liquid diet. ‘Eat as if you were a three-year old” the charming doctor said. I will listen to him, cutting everything up into tiny pieces, everything for a taste of variety.

I’m stuck on muffins and stones. Any kind. Soon. Help me. Please?

Related articles

• Delicious Scones (thethirdcoastyankee.wordpress.com)

Plinky Prompt: Good News, How Do YOU Celebrate? (Food Pop)

• 

  English: A shrimp cocktail. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

  

• You receive some wonderful, improbable, hoped-for good news. How do you celebrate? See all answers

• Edit answer |
• October 11, 2013 by hibernationnow

• Celebrate good times

• Food, Glorious Food. Always Food. If I had to drink I’d have half of one very weak Amaretto Sour, which I learned about from my college age kids.I would then quickly change to cranberry-pineapple juice. Several, no ice, please. But, celebration and happiness go hand in hand with a really good meal with my family at a fabulous restaurant.

  Some of the choices would be:

  Hot French Dinner Rolls, with (Soft) Butter

  Appetizers: Shrimp Cocktail (the shrimp is just a vehicle for the cocktail sauce) salad, small but entertaining with many ingredients i(.e. raisins, avocado, cheese, fresh tomatoes,) creamy leek soup, crunchy lamb spring rolls with a yogurt dill sauce. All of the above.

  Entrée:
  Beef Wellington
  Filet Mignon
  Chicken (the one with the fresh lemon sauce and capers)
  Lobster (out of the shell, grilled, buttered with cream sauce if or plain.

  Side orders of:
  Rice, Grilled Asparagus, glazed carrots, roasted baby brussel sprouts with carmelized onions, creamed spinach

  Dessert:
  Chocolate layer cake (Hazelnut mousse inside)
  Blueberry and almond bread pudding, marzipan
  Vanilla/almond cake
  Vanilla/Chocolate ice cream
  Fresh berries in season (ha ha ha)

• Oh, and the meal is free. Congratulations to me.

• 

  English: chocolate-hazelnut mousse cake (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Plinky Prompt: Which food transports you to childhood?

Heinz ketchup – 57 varieties (Photo credit: Leonid Mamchenkov)

• Which food, when you eat it, instantly transports you to childhood? See all answers

• Edit answer |
• January 30, 2013 by hibernationnow

• Childhood food
• My friend, Maureen, is just going to LOVE this one. I will preface my answer by saying that my mother is of German/French descent and my father was from Vienna, Austria. So, the playing field here is really not equal. We were brought up with some unconventional (to American standards) ways.  The answer is rice with ketchup.( it could ONLY be Heinz) I don’t have it very often but once in a while I do have a craving for the good old days.  Yes, I did pass that particular culinary pleasure on to my son who still eats rice that way. In fact, our son used to eat ketchup on everything including the ketchup (nothing else) sandwich days. Our daughter just ate her rice with butter. After that it would be noodles with ketchup (we didn’t know the word pasta.) It was only in college that I learned about tomato sauce, it was never in our house, ever. Our family was invited to a friend’s house one night and they served lasagna, it looked good to me but my father? Oh my, he hated it and complained about it for days. It was just too complicated and foreign to him. I learned about all these “exotic foods” when I went to college. Tomato sauce not ketchup? Honestly, I could still go either way. Butter, however, was the great equalizer. Substitute butter (or add to ketchup) for a tasty treat. I don’t think it works with marinara sauce at least I’ve never tried it, but, if you think about it, why not? How could butter be bad on ANYTHING?
  p.s.Hey Mo, I bet you thought I was going to bring up pizza and grape jelly but I couldn’t; that started in college. Silly.

Plinky Prompt: Describe The Perfect Meal

• Describe the perfect meal.

• Edit answer |
• September 18, 2012 by hibernationnow

• A Foodie Begs
• Welcome To My Food Fantasy (Any Famous Chef Want To Make It Come True?)
• Beef Wellington You are talking to a foodie here so I take this question very SERIOUSLY. I’m not just going to say “chicken dumpling soup” or “steak and a potato.” Oh No, details count and while I can’t cook very well, I can eat and enjoy food in a restaurant with the greatest of pleasure……Let us begin.I would start with an appetizer of shrimp cocktail and lobster meat (fresh not canned) with cocktail sauce and of course a lemon wedge or two. Here’s the thing, I would eat practically anything BECAUSE of the cocktail sauce. As my brother-in-law, Ron would say, the shrimp/lobster is just THE VEHICLE, well said, Ron. There would be a basket of rolls (an assortment) on the table “Timmy approved” which means they would be warm. DO NOT SERVE US COLD ROLLS AND COLD BUTTER, EVER. After that, a light salad, with a sprinkle of goat cheese, currants and avocado. The greens would be watercress, endive and Boston Lettuce. The dressing, a citrus vinagrette with balsamic vinegar.The main course: Mmmmm… It would be hard to choose between filet mignon or Beef Wellington (which is an OLD classic but this is MY fantasy) served with a crunchy baked potato (baked in the oven and NOT in the microwave, and yes, I do eat the skin, with huge dollops of butter, sour cream and chives) and glazed carrots. (A refill on the bread basket? That would be lovely, thank you.)To the disappointment of my family I do not like any type of alcohol so I would have a Shirley Temple, extra cherries, please. Ok, I’m sorry.Dessert: I’M SO EXCITED!! That said, there is no way I could pick one dessert so because this is my fantasy I would have the dessert sampler platter which happens to include: a piece of a raspberry/currant exploding tart (I had this in Vienna with my dad, once!) the berries explode in your mouth with a sugar crumble pie top, a fudge brownie with walnuts (served with home-made vanilla bean ice cream), a piece of NY Cheesecake with Strawberry Sauce and one real strawberry and Creme Brulee.Since we are lingering at this fantasy meal, after this I would like a cheese platter consisting of St. André, (no blue cheese) Gouda, Edam and is Münster too common? (Oh, who cares, I love it.)On my way out, I would like to be handed a small box (just two pieces) of chocolate, to be exact, two champagne truffles.Wow, I’m full, but it has been delightful fantasizing. Thanks for dining with me. If anyone would like to make this dream come true, feel free to email me. My RSVP will be a definite “Yes.”

Plinky Prompt: If You Could Live On One Food Item….

• 

  Slices of French Bread (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

  July 29, 2012 by hibernationnow

• I could live on…
• Please Can I Have Some Butter or Jam Too?
  Bread BREAD:
  Home-Baked Bread. Italian bread, French bread, Portuguese rolls, Multi-grain bread, even Wonder Bread or Whole Wheat…… but please, can I have some butter or jam with that too?

Mellow Yellow Monday – Butter

Two Butters (Photo credit: ulterior epicure)

Imagine a freshly baked loaf of French bread just out of the oven. You can smell the aroma from the house. Everyone’s nose follows the smell. There, in the middle of the counter is the loaf of hot, French bread with a dish of sweet, fresh butter next to it, just waiting…. No fake butter, no margarine, no chemicals, the real thing. Diets forgotten for tonight. French bread and butter. That’s all I need to be happy.

Stuff I Collect

Image via Wikipedia

I don’t collect things like coins or stamps or Mickey Mouse dolls, though I did have a brief flirtation with both foxes and cows and an occasional stuffed animal. Now, the only thing I collect (and I won’t say memories because that is way too sappy) are seashells. I’ve always loved seashells, the beach and the ocean since I was a child. I remember going to the beach, Jones Beach, very early on Sunday mornings, with my friend Micky (now Michal) and her father, Teddy and my parents and sister, Edna (now Emma). They would come over and bring kaiser rolls, you know the ones that have the tiny speckled blue-black seeds on top. I would look at Teddy’s cut roll which was always piled high, with at least an inch of butter on it, if not more. That image has always stuck in my mind. Also, we ate soft-boiled eggs those magical Sundays and while I was brought up, by my European parents, to slice the “head” of the egg with a knife, Teddy always tapped his egg on top with a tiny silver spoon. I remember that image and his face as if it had happened yesterday.

I’ve always loved the beach and the water and it I started way back then, when I was not more than 5 or 6 to walk on the sand and pick up shells. I still have shells from wherever I go, just a few. My most recent shells are from this past trip to Barcelona and the Coast with my husband. I will put them together in a tiny, special, delicate dish and those shells from Spain will remind me of the soothing sun, the glittering green water, my wonderful husband and our amazing vacation.

Unusual Food Combination Plinky Prompt

Image via Wikipedia

• An Unlikely Delicacy
• Sweet and Salty: Don’t Judge Until You Have Tried It !
  Grape 

  Pizza and grape jelly, so easy. I discovered it in college when the pizza was dry and I had packets of grape jelly. Instant combination! Salty and sweet at the same time, what more could you want? Also, scrambled eggs with American cheese and strawberry jam, cheddar cheese on toast with butter and honey. Yum. I can see my friends and family groaning but it’s true, I do eat these food items frequently. Once, just once, I ate a tuna fish with peanut butter and jelly sandwich. It was pretty good but I’m in no rush to eat it again.

• Previous Answer

Breakfast, Lunch or Dinner, Pick One And Just Eat That

Image by Ben Ward via Flickr

I Pick: BREAKFAST, HANDS DOWN

BREAKFAST! Pancakes with sweet maple syrup and a pat of melting butter, English Muffins with cream cheese, butter or peanut butter and jelly, scrambled eggs, fried eggs, egg in a hole, bacon extra well done and crunchy, cereal…. Want more?  Scrambled eggs with cheese or an egg and cheese sandwich on a roll, French toast, sometimes with cinnamon, sometimes plain, cinnamon-sugar toast, a fruit cup, ripe red raspberries, plump blueberries, a sliced banana cut into “coins.” Strawberries and nuts and raisins and brown sugar in hot oatmeal. Your beverage order? Freshly squeezed orange juice, hot chocolate, coffee, tea? Toast or bread with butter and honey. I’m drooling here…….Breakfast is comfort food, I like just about everything. It’s warm, it’s a memory of your childhood, it is sweet cinnamon rolls with vanilla icing. Just one thing, please hold the sausage.

Thank You, Erica

Image by ecstaticist via FlickrI

I am not a paid restaurant reviewer so I am writing about my love of eating good food (not making it.)  I also have great admiration for those who cook incredibly well. Our friends, Mike and Erica, hosted a reunion a few weeks ago and old friends from the East Coast and the West Coast gathered together.  Erica made a divine appetizer of stuffed mushrooms based on Ina Garten’s recipe. It was one of the best things I have ever eaten and this is NOT the Food or Cooking Channel. We ate those amazing stuffed mushrooms with our eager fingers and never have I eaten such different tastes and textures in one appetizer. The sausage, olive oil, cheese, bread crumbs and mushroom appetizer combined with seeing old friends, talking, hugging and laughing, was a highlight of 2010 for me.

It felt like the kitchen scene from the movie, The Big Chill,  except no one died (although one person did leave the dinner table, head to the living room, wrapped himself up in a blanket, appropriated two pillows and apparently fell asleep on the couch for 3 hours.) I couldn’t make this up if I tried.

Presently I fantasize about eating my favorite things in an expensive restaurant.  My husband and I would be seated inside a small dining room near a beautiful fireplace. A small bouquet of red and purple flowers sit prettily on the thickly starched white tablecloth where a soft candle would be burning.

To start, I would have jumbo prawns with cocktail sauce and a wedge of lemon (that had a paper coverlet on it to protect it from seeds.) In some circles the prawns would be the delicacy but in our family we have named the shrimp as the vehicle to which we get to eat the cocktail sauce. Another example of this would be that lobster is the vehicle to get to the melted butter sauce. You get the idea.

After that I would order a salad made with a lemon/olive oil, vinagrette salad dressing (the words truffle and champagne could be added although I don’t know exactly what they do.) Ripe cherry tomatoes, julienned carrots, red cabbage, and chopped parsley and chives would be on top. I love adding sweetness to things so for me, some craisins would be tossed in there as well.

The table is laden with “everything” flat crackers and warm, soft, dinner rolls with butter, room temperature (I hate hard, freezing cold butter)  shaped like sea shells. My entrée would either be the outstanding chateaubriand, like it is prepared at the  restaurant X2O or the divine filet mignon served at the Crabtree Kittle House, both amazing restaurants are located in New York. Rice pilaf or mashed potatoes would work nicely with this meal, but nothing fried and undignified as french fries and ketchup (those go with cheeseburgers only.)  Grilled brussel sprouts paired with a hint of maple syrup glaze and slivered almonds would be our vegetable.

Blood orange or lemon sorbet served in martini glass would be our palate cleanser. It would be served to help settle our wonderful meal and to leave room (not that this has ever been a problem for me) for dessert.  I am a sugar junkie and I like a variety of things so because it is my fantasy I am picking two desserts: a fresh fruit tart served in a marzipan shortbread crust with vanilla custard and a fluffy (never flourless) milk and dark chocolate mousse cake with real vanilla bean ice cream.

Thanks for joining me in my food fantasy. Here’s to 2011, with good friends and great food.  Wishing all of you a Happy, Healthy and delicious New Year.