Harken back to your youth, a time of : games, betrayal, the gaining of wisdom, and the losing of innocence.
If you have but one more movie to see, see this one.
– Paul De Lancey, The Comic Chef, Ph.D.
My cookbook, Following Good Food Around the World, with its 180 wonderful recipes, my newest novel, Do Lutheran Hunks Eat Mushrooms, a hilarious apocalyptic thriller, and all my other books, are available on amazon.com.
INGREDIENTS
2 10.75 cans of condensed chicken noodle soup
¼ cup crumbled Cotija cheese
4 turkey dogs
3½ ounces diced green chiles
⅓ cup grated Four Mexican cheeses
PREPARATION
Pour the condensed chicken-noodle soup into a saucepan. Fill the soup cans with any water. (You may use Norwegian glacier water if you feel the need to impress gourmet friends.) Pour the water into the pan.
Don’t read this sentence.
Cut turkey dogs into ½” slices. Add hot-dog slices, Cotija cheese, green chiles and Four Mexican cheeses. Heat to boiling and serve. Stir frequently to keep the cheese from burning on the bottom.
This is a family favorite and also death to nasty cold bugs lurking in your throat or sinus.
TIDBITS
1) “Pow-Mex” is a fusion between Powegian food and Mexican.
2) Poway is the name of my fair city.
3) At one time Mexico owned the land on which Poway stands.
4) Green chiles spice up and spiff up any food.
5) Poway has its own train park complete with a 1903 Baldwin steam engine.
6) How many of us survived on condensed soups in college?
7) Poway has two live theaters and one bowling alley. It also boasts a low crime rate and a superb school system. I don’t know if that is a coincidence.
– Paul De Lancey, The Comic Chef, Ph.D.
My cookbook, Following Good Food Around the World, with its 180 wonderful recipes, my newest novel, Do Lutheran Hunks Eat Mushrooms, a hilarious apocalyptic thriller, and all my other books, are available on amazon.com.
I had to use this. My photo of Biden didn’t look like Biden
I have invited every president to a debate or a dinner. I see no reason to stop this fine tradition. So,
Dear President Biden,
I am officially inviting you and whomever you wish to come with you to have a gourmet five-course meal at my humble abode in Poway, California. My wonderful wife, many friends, and I eagerly await your appearance. As you know, Mr. President, Poway is the hot point of all political campaigns and legislation. The saying runs, “As goes Poway, so does the Presidency.”
You’ll have have a great time in Poway with its many streets, walking trails, theaters, library, and the site of the proposed Candyland(tm) Museum. So, please come. It will help your approval rating. And heck, you’ll have fun chowing down on home-style gourmet cooking.
Sincerely,
Paul De Lancey, The Comic Chef, Ph.D.
P.S. I even have the complete collection of The Adventures of Robin Hood with Richard Greene. We could watch that after dinner.
My cookbook, Following Good Food Around the World, with its 180 wonderful recipes, my newest novel, Do Lutheran Hunks Eat Mushrooms, a hilarious apocalyptic thriller, and all my other books, are available on amazon.com.
Saudi Entree
AL KABSA
(Chicken and rice)
INGREDIENTS
3 pounds chicken breasts (or other parts)
2 carrots
5 garlic cloves
2 medium onions
3 Roma tomatoes
4 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup tomato puree
2 ½ cups water
1 ½ cups chicken stock
2 whole cloves
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons kabsa spice mix (See Kabsa Spice Mix recipe if you can’t find the mix.)
2 cups basmati rice (Do not precook.)
1/4 cup raisins
1/4 cup slivered almonds
Serves 6
SPECIAL UTENSIL
Dutch oven
PREPARATION
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Chop chicken into 12 pieces. Grate or dice carrots. Mince garlic cloves and onions. Dice Roma tomatoes. Add garlic, onion, and butter to Dutch oven. Sauté garlic and onion on medium-high heat or until onion softens. Stir frequently. Add chicken, tomato puree, and chopped tomatoes, Reduce heat to low and simmer for 5 minutes. Stir occasionally.
Add water, chicken stock, carrot, cloves, nutmeg, salt and kabsa spice mix. Bring to boil using high heat. Cover, reduce heat to low and simmer for 30 minutes or until chicken is no longer pink inside. Remove chicken and bake for 25-to-30 minutes at 350 degrees or until it starts to brown.
Bring to boil. Stir in rice. Simmer for 30 minutes or until rice is tender and liquid is absorbed. Stir occasionally. Add raisins. Simmer for 5 minutes. Stir occasionally. Place rice on plate and top with 2 chicken pieces. Garnish with an equal amount of almonds.
TIDBITS
1) The Temple of Eve is supposedly located in the Saudi city of Jeddah. Cool.
2) Saudi Arabia is one of the driest countries in the world.
3) British humor is one of the driest in the world.
4) These tidbits are getting shorter, aren’t they?
5) Yes, they are. You can measure them.
6) Soon nothingness.
7)
8) And rebirth.
9) And so new, longer, vibrant tidbits come into being.
10) I feel like writing a haiku to tidbits.
11) Tidbits, o, tidbits.
Life was so sad when you were gone.
I’m glad you are back
12) Haikus are composed of three lines of five, seven, and five syllables respectively. They can evoke complex imagery within this restrictive space or they can display the elegant simplicity of the following effort:
Word, word, word, word, word
Word, word, word, word, word, word, word
Word, word, word, word, word
13) Speaking of using words to communicate information; all shops in Saudi Arabia are forbidden on Valentine’s day from selling anything red or with hearts on it. You may not wear anything red.
14) Movie theaters and beer are banned in Saudi Arabia. You must drive to Bahrain for these things, which depending on where you live could be anywhere from twenty minutes to twenty hours away. That movie had better be good.
15) And what if the beer you had made you sleepy and you fell asleep during the movie? That movie that took you twenty hours to get to? And twenty hours to get back?
16) If had to drive forty total hours for a beer, I would get the best, most expensive beer I could buy and really, really, really savor it.
17) And I would get gourmet popcorn for the movie. A giant tub of it.
– Paul De Lancey, The Comic Chef
My cookbook, Following Good Food Around the World, with its 180 wonderful recipes, my newest novel, Do Lutheran Hunks Eat Mushrooms, a hilarious apocalyptic thriller, and all my other books, are available on amazon.com.
American Appetizer
LIME-CHILI POPCORN
INGREDIENTS
1/4 cup popcorn
2 tablespoons lime juice
1 teaspoon chili powder
SPECIAL UTENSIL
air popcorn popper
PREPARATION
Put popcorn in popper. Put bowl underneath popper’s opening. Keep bowl in place until all the kernels have popped. Sprinkle lime juice and chili powder into bowl with popcorn. Stir with long spoon or fork.
TIDBITS
1) There is moisture in each kernel. This liquid turns to steam as the popcorn heats up. Water cannot escape the kernel shell. Pressure builds up until the kernel explodes.
2) Popcorn dating from 3000 B.C. has been found in New Mexican caves. People were happy.
3) The first permanent income tax for the United States was established in 1913. Americans became cranky. We fought a bloody war in Germany from 1917 to 1918. We greatly expanded our navy.
4) Charles Manley developed the first good electric popcorn popper in 1925 and sold it to theaters. Americans became happy again. Our economy boomed. It was the Golden Age of Comedy.
5) The Great Depression struck in 1929. Harrowing economic hardships resulted in fascist dictatorships in Germany, Italy, and Spain. America kept its democratic form of government.
6) Why? Popcorn. Popcorn was one of the few treats millions of Americans could afford to eat while watching their beloved movies.
7) The recent and relatively peaceful break up of the Soviet Union occurred because of the easy accessibility of popcorn in contrast to its popcornless Revolution of 1917.
8) The Wampanoag tribe brought popcorn to the colonists for that famous autumnal feast in Plymouth, Massachusetts. The grateful settlers called the meal, “Thanksgiving.” We are still grateful.
– Paul De Lancey, The Comic Chef
My cookbook, Following Good Food Around the World, with its 180 wonderful recipes, my newest novel, Do Lutheran Hunks Eat Mushrooms, a hilarious apocalyptic thriller, and all my other books, are available on amazon.com.
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