Hello, Ruby Tuesday!

Consider this for a moment, if you will:

Its New Year’s Eve, you and your man are all duded up for a night out on the town (and looking quite good, I’d like to add), it’s approaching seven o’clock, and you’re only halfway to where the live show and the midnight champagne toast beckons.

And, let’s just say that the whole traffic rugby scrum around the “King Of Prussia” mall is a mess, you don’t have any dinner reservations anywhere near Doylestown, so the two of you just decide to wing it, and see what happens, because, you see, this is what you both do, and it always seems to work out fine in the end.

And, while you’re driving past all of the diners and pizza places to Doylestown (where, of course, the live show and champagne beckons), you both see that all of the parking lots are full.

Packed. Beyond packed. Packed to the gills, packed. There’s not even a parking space left in the local diner, let alone the Wawa on the corner.

You’d both like something nice to eat, but considering the hunger pangs, you end up at the “Ruby Tuesday” in Warrington, Pennsylvania.

And, since both of you like to take chances, it doesn’t take long before you both understand you’re just in the right spot at the right time.

Forget the 45 minute wait, we’ll eat at the bar, thank you very much!

And, then you find yourself entirely entertained by Sean and John, who, despite being entirely overwhelmed by the bar crowd (including tracking down a party of kids who stiffed them for a dinner check!) somehow managed to make you laugh, keep your wine glass full and serve you a really nice dinner all at the same time.

Rattling the chains, indeed!

Mmmm...cookies!

Mmmm…Christmas cookies!

It’s a true labor of love, but there’s really nothing better than getting up early, rolling up your sleeves and beginning to bake.

The butter is getting soft, there’s enough flour and vanilla extract in the house. The eggs are in a bowl making their way to room temperature, the recipes are good to go.

And, if you’ve been really good, you already know where you’re going to set up all of your cooling racks.

If you’ve been even better, the baking sheets are out, covered with parchment paper. The second pot of coffee is on, and you’ve got a whole stack of CD’s to listen to.

Have another cup of coffee, put your favorite CD on, and just enjoy making things for your friends and family.

Will you be covered with flour, butter, nuts and other sorts of cookie detritus? Of course you will!

Will you need to power clean your kitchen afterwards? Absolutely!

I truly believe that if the kitchen isn’t entirely trashed, you’re simply not having a good time, but that’s just me.

And, after all of your beautiful holiday cookies have cooled and packed away for the holidays, I suggest three things:

1 – A hot shower, to get all of the cookie dough detritus off of yourself.
2 – A nice bottle of wine, so that you can forget all of that work, and cookie dough detritus.
3 – The number to your favorite Chinese restaurant…you know, the one that actually delivers.

EDIT: Pictures of cookies to come tomorrow...Blogger isn't loving these huge pix files of mine right about now!

A Cook's Weekend

For those of us who find the “Food Network” entirely unpalatable these days, there’s tons of love along with great appreciation for Anthony Bourdain, who did an amazing talk over the weekend at the “Free Library of Philadelphia”.

If you’ve ever attended culinary school, or ever worked in a three star restaurant as a cook, you “got it”, and you probably laughed your butt off, as I did!

If you have, you know as well as I do that it’s dirty, tough work.

Forget all about your nights, weekends and your holidays, you know.

Just remove the mouse from the flour; just don’t tell the pastry chef about it.

You will work your butt off with your fellow line cooks, know what it’s like to be “in the weeds” (meaning you can’t keep up with all of the dining room tickets coming in) at 9 PM on a Saturday night with a full dining room, and you’ll end up with a whole new understanding of what “teamwork” really means…along with a new slew of profanities in languages that you would never say in polite conversation.

Bourdain was brutally honest about his treatment from the “Food Network” as well as the “Travel Network”, profane, funny and intelligent. This was a free event, but Paul and I both agreed that we’d pay money to attend another speaking event with him again.

On the way back to the car, we stopped at a used bookstore called “Book Corner” and all of the proceeds benefit the nonprofit org called “The Friends Of The Free Library”.

I’d been searching the Web for ages trying to find a recipe from Jeff Smith (remember him? The “Frugal Gourmet”?) for his recipe for “Shrimp Etoufee”. It’s from his “Frugal Gourmet Cooks American”, and I had the paperback, but I lent it to someone, and it just disappeared into the atmosphere somewhere along the way.

I found it there! The hardback version, in wonderful shape, for 6 bucks!
Hmm…I wonder if Tony would like to join Paul and I for dinner next Friday?

Pushing Christmas

Just in case you haven’t checked your calendar, Thanksgiving is next Thursday.

Yeah, I know; it seems we just go from Labor Day directly to “Christmakwanzaakah” these days, but here it is, staring us in the face.

I do my best to ignore the fact that Wegmans’ chooses to display Christmas trees before Halloween (WTF?), but you’ve got to love their disclosure on how some people prefer to shop early for the holidays, which at their Cherry Hill location is strategically placed in front of a frog (huh?), wearing a Santa hat, all covered in green and red lights.

If anyone out there has a good explanation for this, please let me know. I’d love to hear it. “A Muppet Christmas” I get; a frog that’s not Kermit, not so much.

I have enough problems these days explaining (again) how a vegetarian celebrates Thanksgiving, but I’m used to it. I’ve been a veghead (on and off) for well over twenty years, and my stock answer is always this; I eat everything but the turkey. Besides, I’m a “Just Say No To Tofurkey” kind of gal. See that picture up there? That's not Thanksgiving dinner; that's some sort of weird punishment.

Bring on the wild mushroom stuffing (made with veggie stock, of course!), homemade mushroom gravy, more mashed potatoes, please, fresh spicy cranberry sauce, green beans with shallots and tomatoes, roasted butternut squash with real maple syrup and butter, homemade rolls with more butter, carrots with fresh ginger and honey, and those pearl onions in cream sauce.

Mmmm…with that all-star lineup, who needs the turkey?

Bring on the pumpkin pie, baby! I'm ready!