Aldi's Does It Right!

Rehoboth Beach boardwalk earlier today. This is why I stay away during the summer season. These people all drive down to Rehoboth and they are in a hurry. 

 Late yesterday afternoon, I braved the Route One summer crowds and drove down to Aldi's, four miles outside of Rehoboth Beach.

I hate, hate, hate driving down Route One especially in the summertime really ESPECIALLY during the height of summertime season at Rehoboth Beach. I live near a beach resort folks, on the east side of Route One which is the main throughway from Maine to Florida, otherwise famously known as Coastal Highway. 

Each year Route One becomes more congested and dangerous, and this year it is the worse yet. I can barely get through a day without hearing the wail of police or ambulance sirens responding to the latest accident from speeding visitors. During the summer tourist season I stay away from Rehoboth Beach even though it is only ten miles as the crow flies. I do go to the Rehoboth Beach one mile boardwalk which is a wonderful boardwalk as boardwalks go, but only in the fall, winter and spring. If I have visitors, like last year when Pat and Glenn visited me, I'll have them drive me down (I won't drive) but even then, I became exhausted and passed out and spent three days in the hospital last June for evaluation. 

Yesterday was no exception with the craziness but I was determined to go to Aldi's because that's where my neighbor bought that out of this world cole slaw. I had to have some yesterday. Had to have it! Yes, I am an impulsive person. Guilty!

So at about 5:30 PM I head out of my very quiet

and peaceful development and enter The Highway Of Death, otherwise know variously as Route One or the Coastal Highway.  The video above I took from the lane out of my house towards Route One. All that traffic is headed south on Route One and they are always in a hurry.

Route One south towards Rehoboth Beach on a rare light traffic day. I must have taken this picture early in the morning (6 AM) when I used to go to Rehoboth to walk on the boardwalk before the traffic picked up by 8 AM. During the summer tourist season, especially on the weekends, you can't even see the road because of all the vehicles which is often bumper to bumper. Sometimes the traffic is backed up all the way to my house, ten miles north. This usually happens during accidents, which are not infrequent in season.

Not too bad going down. Traffic heavy and slow moving of course, but I was very careful. Of course I encountered a couple of idiots who are in a hurry, weaving in and out the five lanes of traffic. Yes, five lanes. When Bill and I first moved to Delaware there were three lanes and a beautiful, grassy medial strip. However, over the years and addition lane was added, then another. No more grassy medial strip. Just all traffic now including a dedicated lane for shuttle buses to the beach, which was a great idea that should have been adopted years ago. There is just so much parking space in Rehoboth Beach, that doesn't expand. There is even metered parking in the formerly quiet Rehoboth Beach neighborhoods now. Guess what the main source of Rehoboth Beach's revenue is? Parking fees and fines. They make millions each year. Millions!

Route One is jam packed with shopping venues and entertainment. When in Rehoboth Beach, if you want something else besides overpriced boardwalk cheap souvenir junk made in China, you're advised "Go out on the Highway for that!" Cracker Barrell, Chick-fil-A, and other chain restaurants, Walmart, local eateries, grocery stores (no Wegman's yet, those grocery stores need Wegmans competition), and many other sundry establishments to part the tourists from their money....fast.  Inner Rehoboth itself specializes in the really expensive local restaurants (high rents, not because the food is anything special). Location, location, location!

Arriving at the shopping center

where Aldi's is located I see there is a light. Thank goodness, I don't have to make one of those dreaded U-turns to get into that shopping center. By the way, did I mention that Delaware is a sales tax free state? That's another reason for all the shopping on both sides of Route One as you approach Rehoboth Beach. Many, many outlet stores of every persuasion you can imagine. NO SALES TAX, which is another reason Delaware thrives in addition to all those retirees like me who have moved down here to escape the outrageous personal property and school taxes of neighboring states like Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York. 

Aldi's is located in the shopping center that formerly held K-Mart. K-Mart died years ago from short-sighted management by Sears and even Martha Stewart couldn't save them. The former K-Mart store is massive. 

I park my car in the parking meter free parking lot and get out to enter the store. I notice that the Aldi shopping carts have that little small chain with a slot to enter a quarter to unlock the chain. Smart move! This is to prevent those lazy people who take a store shopping cart and after loading their shopping booty in their cart, they let their shopping cart drift away in the parking lot. You would be surprise at how cheap most people are, they want their quarter back so they will return their cart to the place where they can push in the chain and their quarter pops back. Of course not everyone does that, I did see one lonely looking orphan Aldi shopping cart by itself in the parking lot, look for some shopper to claim their free quarter that they will reward them with when they return that cart to where the quarter will pop out.

As I entered the store I noticed a different demographic of shopper in Aldi's. These were Beach People. You know, skimpily dressed, smelling of sun tan lotion, wearing flip flops with usually several Mexican Jumping Jack kids jumping up and down and running through the wide aisles. Yes wide aisles! Aldi's is one of those rare grocery stores that doesn't clog up it's aisles with more grocery product to get your attention. Also, I didn't see anyone stocking shelves which is a new annoyance at all the other grocery stores. I guess they don't pay their employees to stock their shelves overnight when the store is closed. Did I mentioned wide aisles? 

As I soaked up the pleasure of walking down those wide aisles I noticed that the prices in Aldi's was LOW. OMG! I'm talking low! Hummus, which I would pay $4.99 for at a chain supermarket was $2.69 at Aldi's. And they had a selection. Imagine that?

I surmised that they could offer low prices because the ambiance (if I could use such an elegant term to describe a supermarket/grocery store) was decidedly BASIC. Fine with me, I'm only after the product I was looking for. I don't need fancy accruements.  Pat, where he lives in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, shops at a store like this. He often tells me of the bargains he encounters and takes advantage of. I think one of the stores he shops is called "Food Basics." That's all we need folks, the basics. 

I found my cole slaw but while I was in the store, and wanted to minimize any future trips this summer down Route One, I took a look-see around the rest of the store to see what I could abscond with. Wait, I think "abscond" means steal. I took a look to see if there was anything else I could sample and I found it, several different varieties of hummus which isn't available at my regular store. They only have regular hummus and red pepper hummus.

Now my hands/arms were full as I was wobbling my way to the check out counter. Self checkout, of course. Saving more money to offer lower prices.

I scan my new found treasures, pay for them with my credit card and, carefully balancing my five items, head for my car, which I couldn't find initially. Aldi's has a large parking lot. Eventually after wandering around for a few minutes looking for my car, ignoring the few pitiful looks I was getting from fellow shoppers (old man wandering around the parking lot looking for his car who couldn't even afford a quarter for a shopping cart), I found my car.

I loaded everything up in my car including myself and headed out to the lane to the light, which again I was thankful I "had the light" to get out. While waiting for the light to change and the never ending stream of traffic headed north on Route One to God knows where, I see a break in traffic. I make my right turn on red only to hear a horn BLARING AT ME. Whoops! Someone is in a hurry! As that car passed me (of course they had to pass me because they obviously didn't have brakes on their car to slow down as I merged into traffic), the woman passenger, her face twisted in anger, was saying something to me as she waived her finger at me (no middle finger thank goodness, that's a fighting challenge). Ah ha, my day is complete. Now I have again become a recipient of road rage. By the way folks, I had plenty of time and besides I had a whole line of cars behind me waiting to merge on Route One. The one right behind me was ready to blast his horn at me when he saw the same break in traffic going north on Route One that I saw. 

I ignored the "lady" as I always do when I'm the recipient of one of these childish and unnecessary road rage incidents. Do you have any idea at how many times I've been cutoff while driving in traffic. I've lost count. Most times I just chalk it up to unreasonable, in a hurry, motorists. Almost always when I'm driving down Route One in heavy traffic, some is cutting me of as they weave in and out of traffic. Years ago they used to have a sign on the right side of the road as you enter Rehoboth Beach that said: "Slow down and relax, you're at the beach now." I wonder what happened to that sign, I haven't seen it in years. Probably taken down because some Important was insulted. Yes, we do have a lot of Important people down here Lower Slower.

I made it home safe and sound. Yes, a little rattled because of that impatient motorist but that's to be expected when entering Route One during the height of the summer tourist season.

"Going to the beach!"

Just another little adventure to share with you my ever faithful blog followers. 

Potato Salad

 

Ron's Potato Salad

This morning I made another batch of potato salad. 

I thrive on this potato salad. 

Funny thing though, growing up I didn't like potato salad. 

There was a lot of food I didn't like growing up that I like now. It isn't because my tastes have changed, it is because I didn't like the way my Mother prepared certain dishes. 

Growing up in the Forties and Fifties, I assumed that's the way potato salad, stuffed cabbage, spaghetti and many other foods tasted, bland at best offensive at worst. 

My Father fished and hunted a lot. I hate fish. I hate any seafood except maybe tuna salad and that has to be white albacore tuna. 

I don't like squirrel or rabbit. Both often had remnants of buckshot in the flesh. You haven't lived until your teeth unexpectedly crunch down on buckshot. Lovely, just lovely. 

My father especially liked squirrel stew with dumplings, squirrel skull included. Seriously, he liked to suck the squirrel brains out through the squirrel's empty eye sockets. 

Fish, all those tiny little bones in trout. Flounder was a little better.

Now my Mom's potato salad; she made it very dry with onions and green peppers. I like onions and green peppers but not in potato salad. 

Green string beans. I hated them when growing up. I just assumed all string beans were cooked to almost mush like consistency. And "Pop" especially like sour string beans. Imagine my delight in discovering green string beans eaten al dente.  Crisp and flavorful, having only been gently steamed a minute or two. My brother Isaac still likes the mush string beans, he can't understand why his son Isaac III likes lightly steamed string beans like I do. I tell him "Ike, I can now taste the flavor of the string bean." He still doesn't get it but then he a MAGA guy. Their tastes are different (to say the least). I never liked Kook-Aid either.

Let's talk spaghetti. My Mother didn't like garlic. I never tasted garlic until I was in the Army. I actually had spaghetti that tasted good. When Mom made spaghetti she would cook the spaghetti and then put it in a bowl dry and put a big spoonful of bland garlic less spaghetti sauce on top then mix it all in. Both my brothers liked this bastardized version of spaghetti so much they would have the leftovers the next day for breakfast by frying the spaghetti in one of Mom's well worn cast iron skillets. YUM!

Perhaps the one fish exception was my Mom's salmon patty cakes. She made the best patty cakes which I've never been able to duplicate. It was always a treat when she made us kids salmon patty cakes, which we didn't have often because canned salmon was too expensive to buy often.

If Mom was alive today I doubt she would like my potato salad. My recipe (and it is my personalized recipe) is more like potato/egg salad.

For one thing I don't boil the unpeeled potatoes first then cool them off and peel them. I find preparing the potatoes that way cooks them unevenly. The outside is overdone, almost like mush and the insides are almost uncooked. Oh I know, "Slower boil", but I don't have the patience for that method. Instead I peel and cut the raw potatoes ahead of time and then put them in lightly salted water and bring them to a slow boil, watching that the pot doesn't boil over. I only boil them abut five to seven minutes, or until the peeled and cut potatoes are tender which I check frequently with a fork. Be careful not to let the potatoes cook too long or else you'll have mashed potatoes.

After I determine the potatoes are tender I drain them in a colander and put the colander on a plate and outside on my back deck to cool down. In the meantime I have been boiling four large eggs.

One the potatoes have cooled down dump them in a big bowl and mix in one diced celery stalk. Also mix in either celery seed or caraway seed to your preference taste. Lately I've been using caraway seed. I used to put a tablespoon of vinegar but I stopped doing that because the potato salad tends to separate and get watery when storing in the refrigerator more than three days. When I make a big batch of potato salad like this I make it to last a week. I have a couple of dollops of this delicious and unique potato salad with both my lunch and dinner. 

Now for the main ingredient of my potato salad, mayonnaise. I don't hold back on the mayo. I use Kraft's mayonnaise. Oh I know everyone and their sister says Hellman's is the ONLY mayo to use but I beg to differ. I find Kraft's the ONLY mayo to use. And for God's sake, DON'T USE MIRACLE WHIP.

I don't know what that is but it sure ain't mayo.

Now I use a lot of mayonnaise, at least a half a jar, sometimes more. I mix the mayo in with a spatula then I add the hard boiled eggs. Depending on the consistency of the potato salad I may add more mayo. I also add chopped fresh parsley. Not dried but fresh parsley. I nurse parsley plants outside during the winter but this winter I ran out early so I made my potato salad without the parsley. It tasted just as good. 

Oh, one more very important ingredient I almost forgot it mustard. Definitely add mustard. I use French's mustard. You can use Heinz also when the store you shop is out of French's, a situation I found myself in this past winter. Don't use any of the fancy mustard, just the plain old yellow mustard. Now I do go heavy on the mustard but not too heavy. Maybe use two tablespoons to my half a jar of mayo. Every batch of potato salad has a different consistency. I think it is the starch in the type of potatoes you use. I used Idaho baking potatoes. Again, do everything to your taste. 

This potato salad is good at room temperature but I think best cold after at least four hours in the refrigerator. 

Coronavirus Pandemic Update Friday April 17, 2020

Me and Bill face masked at Ace Hardware

Trump wants to open up the country to get the economy going again. He's convinced a thriving economy is the only way he can get reelected. Of course he doesn't care how many die by sending people back to work before we have stopped the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. Trump only cares about himself and getting reelected. The only way we're going to get the economy going again is testing. 

TESTING! TESTING! TESTING!

We need testing and tracking. That is the ONLY way we're going to get back to normal. 

Now that I have had my say, let's take a break from this all consuming coronavirus news, which is scaring us all to death. 

A few months ago I came across a wonderful cucumber salad recipe which I will share with all of you now.  I discovered it as a leftover salad from an event at the hotel where I used to work.  Where I hope I can go back to work someday. Yes, I do miss working at the hotel even though at times I didn't feel like going it. Working two days a week at the hotel gave my week structure. Often now I'm not sure what day it is.

Marinated Cucumber Onion Tomato Salad

1 cup water
1/2 cup distilled white vinegar
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons salt

1 tablespoon fresh, coarsely ground back pepper
3 cucumbers, peeled and sliced 1/4 inch thick
3 tomatoes, cut into wedges
1 onion, sliced and separated into rings


1) whisk water, vinegar, oil, sugar and pepper together in a large bowl until smooth; add cucumbers, tomatoes, and onion and stir to coat

2) Cover bowl with plastic wrap; refrigerate at least 2 hours

Marinated cucumber, onion and tomato salad

Foods That I Don't Like

Me having a black bean burger and big fries at 33 Bowen Restaurant during my recent visit to Hamilton Canada. Black bean burger was flat and the roll tasteless but the fries were great!  I love crispy fries!

Time for a list!

I love lists.  This one is of foods that I don't like. Actually, foods that I hate.  Foods that I cannot eat.  Foods that literally I am unable to swallow.

Some of these foods I have disliked all my life.  Growing up, I didn't have much choice since we had to eat what my Mother put on the table. But once I got away from home, I had the freedom to choose to eat what I liked.  

As I have grown older I have noticed that foods that I used to like I can no longer eat.  My stomach rebels. Maybe I shouldn't have eaten those foods earlier in my life.  But when you're brainwashed by the mass advertisements for food, you don't know the difference.  But I have listened to my body and here are the foods, in no particular order, that will never pass my lips again:

Seafood - that includes ANY kind of seafood including fish, shrimp, lobster, octopus, mussels, oysters, et al.  I literally gag if I eat seafood

Rhubarb - I had a piece of rhubarb pie once given to me by the mother of a friend of mine, I almost died.  I don't know what was in it but it was one of the worst things I ever ate.  It took me about three days to recover. That was because she insisted that I take a "second piece."  Makes me dizzy to think about that episode again

Milk - I used to drink milk as a beverage as I was growing up.  However, the older I became I must have developed an intolerance to lactose. The first time I tried almond milk on my cereal my stomach said "Thank you!"  Thus, the rest of my life, no milk. Sorry milk industry.

Beer - sorry beer drinkers, but to me beer tastes like piss (not that I know what piss would taste like).  For the life of me, I cannot understand why anyone would like the taste of beer.  I just don't get it.

Prime rib steak rare - a big slab of pink meat? No thank you!  I can eat beef stew where the chunks of beef are very small and fork tender.

Any food with artificial ingredients including trans fat - I know this covers a wide range of foods.  It took me some time to realize that I was allergic to artificial flavoring and other shelf extenders.  Once I cut out foods with artificial ingredients I didn't have an upset stomach anymore.

Garlic powder - this is an interesting choice because I love garlic but garlic powder makes me sick.  Every now and then I eat a frozen entree or other prepared food for convenience.  If I get an upset stomach I check the ingredients of what I ate and sure enough, garlic power was one of the ingredients.  I don't know what it is about garlic powder but if I eat food that is loaded down with garlic powder I don't have a good night's sleep.

Brown chicken meat - all my life I could only eat the white meat (breast) of chicken.  Growing up only my Mother was allowed to eat the chicken breast.  Me and my brothers got the drum stick or wings.  My father used to love to torture me by giving me the tail of the chicken and forcing me to eat it.  Yep, that was pop.  I vowed when I grew up I would only eat the white meat of chicken.  Now I can hardly eat even a half a breast of chicken. I can tolerate three or four chunks stewed in a white wine and vegetable mixture.

Wild game - includes rabbit, deer, squirrels and another other game meat.  I ate pheasant once and like that but that was only once when I was about ten years old.  

Rice - I actually like to eat rice but if I do, it constipates me something terribly.  If I do eat rice, it has to be very light, aromatic and fluffy. I hate the gummy kind.

Macaroni and cheese - literally gags me.  Which is interesting because I love pasta. I just can't figure out why I can't eat macaroni and cheese. So many find it the perfect comfort food. For a long time I thought my aversion to macaroni and cheese was the macaroni pasta but I've had that pasta in a Greek dish called Pastiche and I like it.  Tis a mystery to me.

Ground turkey - as in meatballs and meatloaf.  Sorry, if I'm having meatballs or meatloaf I'm having ground beef in that concoction.  What's with the turkey? I love turkey but cooked in the oven and slathered with turkey gravy, not ground up in a fake meatball.

Candy - I don't eat candy.  Which is very unusual because as a kid I practically lived on candy.  I spent most of my paper boy money on candy (and comic books).  After I left school and put on forty pounds (weighing over two hundred pounds), I gave up candy.  Haven't gone back since.  I do like dessert which I usually treat myself to once a day, at the end of the day but to snack on candy?  Something I haven't done in over fifty years and never will again as long as I live.  I could eat it but I have a mental block against eating candy.

Wonder bread - like many of you I was brought up eating Wonder bread.  Didn't like it then and don't like it now.  Tasteless.  I do like fresh bread but that's very rare to get really fresh bread. I don't eat any bread at all.  Only exception is the Indian Naan bread, a flat bread.

There are more foods that I don't like but I can't think of them now.  As I said before, I've notice the older I get I don't have the appetite I used to have and my tastes are more sensitive.   




This video was taken during my recent visit to Canada. Pat and I always stop at IKEA and partake of their wonderful cafeteria. I go for the Swedish meatballs and Pat gets the veggie meatballs.

Chicken Pot Pie

My Number 1 comfort food - chicken pot pie

Perhaps my favorite comfort food is chicken pot pie. 

I grew up eating Swanson frozen chicken pot pies. I loved those pasty concoctions. 

I liked them so much I talked my Mother into making her own homemade chicken pot pies.

My Mom the cook in her kitchen  - she made great biscuits and gravy (December 20, 1975)

My Mother was a pretty good cook but somewhat limited. She never did learn how to make a flaky pie crust. Her pie crust tasted like cardboard. Of course a prime ingredient of a chicken pot pie is a flaky, calorific pie crust.

She also wasn't too good on the filling. I like white meat.  She would fill her chicken pot pies with all the chicken meat; brown, white and even the chicken gizzards and liver. Lots of sorting out for me when I ate one of her chicken pot pies.

Occasionally I've had chicken pot pies at restaurants. Sometimes they  were pretty good.  

I've purchased chicken pot pies at the supermarket.  Although they were relatively expensive, they were bland and tasteless. Not worth the five bucks I paid for them. 

In the past I've tried making my own chicken pot pies from various recipes in my many cook books. They never turned out right.  I think the problem was that I always followed the recipes exactly. 

One thing I've learned in my old age is that it is all right to alter recipes to my taste. I thought this was against the law to alter printed recipes. Really, I did. 

Now I alter recipes to my taste. This doesn't always work out but most times it does. One of those successes was this week.  I made the best chicken pot pie I've ever had in my life.  And I am going to share it with you, my loyal readers!

INGREDIENTS

Crust

1 bit refrigerated pie crusts, softened as directed on box

Filling

1/3 cup butter
1/3 cup shopped shallot
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 3/4 cups chicken broth (from 32-oz carton)
1/2 cup half and half
2 1/2 cups chopped cooked chicken
1 celery stalk cut to preference
1 carrot cut to preference
1 cup frozen peas
4 small new potatoes (with skin) cut to pref



Steps

• Heat oven to 425 degreesF. 
• Place one pie crust in large pie glass dish and bake in oven until brown. Remove from oven.
• In 2-quart saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. Add chopped shallots; cook 2 minutes, stirring frequently, until tender. Stir in flour, salt and pepper until well blended. Gradually stir in broth and half and half, cooking and stirring until bubbly and thickened. 
• Place mixed vegetables in baked pie crust. 

Uncooked vegetables in backed pie crust

• Pour cooked white sauce mixture over chopped vegetables. 

White sauce poured over uncooked vegetables - will blend as it bakes

• Top with second crust; seal edge and flute. Cut slits in several places in top crust.
• Bake 30 to 40 minutes or until crust is golden brown. 

Baked pie

• Let stand 5 minutes before serving.

After the pie has cooled, cut slices and enjoy. The only problem is that you won't be able to stop at one slice. Yum!

Flaky pie crust, crunchy, fresh veggies, delicious white sauce - very tasty!

Vegan Glory

Vegan Soup

Since I met my Canadian friend Pat in August of 2013, I've been gradually transitioning to vegetarianism. For some years now I have been migrating away from a meat only diet. 

Pat standing in front of another vegan restaurant we found during our stay in Los Angeles

Never a big steak eater, I did like pork chops, sausage and chicken.  Mostly chicken.  But one can have too much chicken too.  I think the last time I had an actual steak was when we lived in Philly in 1976.  I have cooked beef in stews and had hamburgers, but one of those big, juicy, bloody steaks that so many crave?  Not me, and besides I like my meat well done much to the consternation of some of my fellow diners who like to see a pink center to their prime rib and a slight pulse. When I eat meat, I want it dead.  Of course this rules out sushi. But I digress.

Me trying out this vegan soup at the Vegan Glory restaurant - I forget what was in it now but it was good

Meeting Pat and being exposed to his vegan only diet I have been experimenting with a vegan/vegetarian diet.  And I have to say I like it.  I don't think I'll ever go totally vegan (no dairy products) like Pat but I seem to be morphing into being a vegetarian although still like white meat chicken, but only small pieces and mixed with vegetables.

"Yum! This is alright!"

I listen to my body/stomach these days.  I know if I stuff the usual artificial trans fat foodstuff down my pie hole my stomach rebels. "What are you doing to me?" it asks.  We in our culture have been brainwashed for so long that food that is jacked up with preservatives (to extend the shelf life and thus the profits of the big food companies) and artificial ingredients (to fool us into thinking we tasting real food) and colors (to look pretty to entice us to buy their damn junk food), that we don't think we have a choice.  Well, we do folks.  I see the cultural shift in our society by the ever increasing demands for natural, real "natural" foods.  They taste better and they sure are a lot healthier for your body.

My stomach sending me a message "Thank you!" - happens every time I eat food that is fresh, natural and wholesome

Well, I'm starting to sound preachy now and I promised myself I would refrain from proselytizing and complaining in my blog posts so I won't belabor this subject.  But I do want to say that I feel a lot better, a way lot better when I eat food that is freshly prepared and not loaded down with sugar and salt and fat.

My delicious entree at the Vegan Glory restaurant - fabulous!

When Pat and I travel together on one our our adventures, we seek out the vegan and vegetarian restaurants. This isn't too hard of a task in big cities like Toronto and Los Angeles.  Of course in a small, backwater, pseudo cool place like Rehoboth Beach, it's almost impossible unless you consider a wedge of iceberg lettuce a sufficient vegan meal.  That's about all you're going to get where I reside now.  

Pat's entree - also delicious!

Oh I know what you're thinking you Rehoboth readers "There goes Ron again, bashing Rehoboth Beach and the surrounding communities Lewes and Milton, Delaware."  Yep, that's what I'm doing folks.  Seriously my Rehoboth Beach friends, how many more restaurants do we need bragging about their crab bombs and restaurants with "Fish" in their names?  I get it, I get it . . . . seafood all the time.  That's all fine and well if you love seafood.  Me personally (and Pat), we hate seafood.  It's very simple with me, I just don't like the fishy smell.  And the residual mercury? Don't need it.

Seafood - this makes me queasy just looking at it

Now to be fair I hear there is a vegan restaurant in Rehoboth beach, who name I will not mention because any names I mention in my blog in a negative light I usually get a blowback on, but this particular vegan restaurant is expensive. Apparently they view a vegan menu in the caviar category.  I just cannot find a restaurant in the area where I live that offers a vegetarian meal with reasonable prices.  Although I do hear a falafel hut is going to open on the boardwalk.  I'll believe it when I see it.

To some this looks delicious and they could eat it all, to me it looks pre-barf

The only problem I find with a vegan or vegetarian diet is that preparing the dishes take a lot longer than throwing a slab of meat on the grill or in the frying pan. 

So there you go folks, that my little screed for the day. Hope I haven't offended all you seafood lovers but you really should consider taking a break from your mercury intake.

Hummus

HUMMUS:

Hummus is a Levantine food dip or spread made from cooked, mashed chickpeas blended with tahini, olive oil, lemon juice, salt and garlic.  Today, it is popular through the Middle East, North Africa, and in Middle Eastern cuisine around the globe.

I grew up in a household of very limited cooking abilities.  When my Mother married my hillbilly father, his mother taught my Mom how to make the staple of the Hillbilly Diet, biscuits.

 
And my Mom made them good but as she often said, "Not as good as Mrs. Tipton makes them."  But her mother-in-law told her "If you're going to marry one of my sons (she had eleven sons, no daughters) you going to have to feed him biscuits or else your marriage won't last."  For sixty years my parents were married and I can barely remember a day that my Mom didn't make my father biscuits, sometimes twice a day.

Homemade Hillbilly Biscuits
The Irish have their potatoes, the Italians have their pasta and hillbillies have their biscuits - major diet staple - goes with anything - slather gravy on top - YUM!

Other than biscuits (and gravy), my Mom's culinary skills were rather ("rawther") limited.  

Once I got away from home (at 18 years of age going the Army) I had food for the first time in my life that I never "et" before.  "Exotic" food like veal, rice (regular rice not rice pudding which is what I thought Chinese always ate, rice pudding), salads (we had corn on the cob and pickled beans, a salad bowl never graced our table), and chili (my Mom's version of "chili" was string beans and tomatoes - NO chili powder - first time I ever tasted chili powder was when I was in the A.R.M.Y).  You get the idea?  Haute cuisine was not the forte at the Tipton Household.  Fried chicken, pig's feet

and beans (yum!), squirrels and dumplings (I'm telling the truth), an occasional buckshot loaded rabbit (have your teeth crunch down on a rabbit leg with just ONE buck shot and WOW, you're breaking your tooth), and of course that old hillbilly mainstay scrapple which is basically seasoned cornmeal and all the parts of a left over butchered pig including the ears, snout, and . . . . . butt hole (oh my father always had a great time of reminding me and my brothers that we were eating pig asshole).  So you get the idea. 

Scrapple - I LIKE! (as long as it's cooked properly)

Once I got away from home, first stop the Army, I was introduced to a whole new culinary kaleidoscope of foodstuff to put down my pie hole. I won't go through the whole itinerary on this blog post, which longer already than I had planned, but suffice it to say I've migrated away from pulling squirrel skulls out of Mom's famous Squirrel and Dumpling Stew and sucking squirrel brains out of the dead squirrel's eye sockets (true story - Pop loved it! Used to make a big sucking sound every time sucked these squirrel brains out) to my current fav: HUMMUS

Poor Pop, he must be rolling over in his grave now knowing that I'm eating an ARAB dish.  Mom too.  I loved both of my parents (Mom more than Pop) but both were brainwashed, conspiracy Fox News addicts.  They would never eat one of THOSE dishes that the A-RABS ate.  I'm eat hummus every day.  I've been eating hummus every day for about six years now.

So how did I come upon Hummus?  As regular followers of this blog know I work part-time at a chi chi boutique hotel in Lewes, Delaware.  Frequently we have "events" at the hotel which is nothing more than an off site for business meetings or some other such gathering of Our Betters who will decided how they're going to get our money (see my earlier "Sheep and Wolves" posting).  Many of these events are catered by local chi chi chefs.  And I'm not talking a Big Bag of KFC chicken.  Oh no, we have the fou fou Food.  "Stuff" like broccoli rate (delicious!) and all such manner of for hors d'oeuvres.  In the Tipton household hors d'oeuvres would be pickled string beans.  

About six years ago, after one such event I was helping my co-worker Sandi (who was the event coordinator) to clean up after the event.  As so often happens, there were left overs.  

LEFTOVERS! I LOVE LEFTOVERS!

She showed me this one huge bowl of a pale, tan mush.  I said "What's that?"  She said "Hummus"  I said "What's that?"  She repeated herself "Hummus."  I said "I don't know what hummus is. I've never heard of it."  She asked me "How old are  you?" (I was 66 at the time, old enough to know better but still attractively ignorant as I am today - he said tongue in cheek - don't always take everything I say seriously folks in this blog - lighten up) 

She said "Taste it!"  I eyed the light tan mush that reminded me of cat poo and tentatively dipped my forefinger into the bowl and deposited about a half teaspoonful on my finger with I "put the plane in the hanger" in my mouth. 

Hmmmmm . . . . good!  I like!  Thus folks, that evening, I was converted to hummus.

Now most folks use hummus as a dip.  That's fine but what I use hummus for is to slather it on a wrap, sprinkle it with feta cheese (another Arab food, oh how my parents' must be twirling in their final resting places) and roll it up,  cut it in half and have my hummus wrap with homemade soup for lunch . . . . every day.  Yes  you read that right folks. . . . EVERY DAY.

But I had a problem, I could only buy hummus in the little "dip" packages in the local supermarket Food Lion.  Quite an expensive proposition if I'm eating a hummus wrap every day.  Fortunately I found that the wholesale store in Millsboro (B.J.'s) offers industrial sized hummus.  Thus my regular forays to B.J.'s were started by my addiction for hummus.

Oh this blog posting is going on a lot longer than I intended.  I'll wrap up this sordid tale now.  Yesterday I decided to make my own hummus.  I was inspired by my friend Pat who makes his own hummus all the time.  He just whips up a batch, thinks nothing of it.  So, thusly inspired I got the ingredients and MADE IT.  

Guess what folks?  IT WAS DELICIOUS!  WOW!  Better than store made.  And so simple to make.  Well, sort of.  You have to put all the ingredients in a blender and the consistency is sort of like cement, especially getting it out of the mixer.  My hummus recipe isn't a smooth and creamy as the store bought but man oh man, is it ever tasty.  

Here's the recipe:

You Will Need

• One 15-ounce can (425 grams) chickpeas, also called garbanzo beans
• 1/4 cup (59 ml) fresh lemon juice, about 1 large lemon
• 1/4 cup (59 ml) tahini (we used Krinos)
• Half of a large garlic clove, minced
• 2 tablespoons olive oil, plus more for serving
• 1/2 to 1 teaspoon kosher salt, depending on taste
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• 2 to 3 tablespoons water
• Dash of ground paprika for serving

So there you go folks.  Chickpeas, lemon juice, tahini (ground sesame seed), garlic, kosher salt, olive oil, cumin and water. Simple . . . . and delicious.  

Sorry B.J.'s, I make my own hummus from now on.  Again, just another example of what I make homemade is way better than anything I can find and buy in the store or restaurants.  

My red skin potato salad is to die for.

Eating Healthy

Growing up, some of my favorite foods were candy bars, caramel covered popcorn, potato chips and hoagies.  These days some of my favorite foods are hummus, eggplant and black bean soup. Yes folks, I've become one of THOSE people, a healthy eater.  

My vegan friend Pat at Wegman's in Downingtown, PA

About five years ago I started to pull away from eating red meats.  Occasionally I would have a well done hamburger with all the fixings at the Purple Parrot in Rehoboth but generally, red meat was no more in my diet. 

I stopped eating candy in 1960.  All during my school days I used most of the money I earned as a paper boy to buy candy and comic books.  When I joined the Army I left candy behind.  The damage was already done though, plenty of tooth cavities.

I never was a soda drinker.  Nor a coffee drinker although I did enjoy an occasional coffee after a restaurant meal.  

A healthy meal at Cafe Azafran in Lewes, DE

I never eat between meals.  I'm not a snacker. I gave up on snacking when I put on a lot of weight after my near death experience resulting from surgery when I was 17 years old.  I was so inactive during that time that my weight increased from 160 lbs. to 202 lbs.  I was determined to drop that weight so I went on a life long diet.  No candy and no potato chips.  However about twenty years ago I did become addicted to Doritos, that's not the same is it?

I used to love pork chops but about ten years ago my stomach started to rebel against pork fat.  Listen to your body Ron.  I'm listening. 

My main meat the past several years has been chicken.  Boneless chicken breasts.  Now I'm even getting tired of chicken.  

What about fish you ask?  No way, NO WAY.  I never was a fish eater.  No seafood.  NO WAY.  Seafood gags me.  

This summer I met a delightful man who happens to be a vegan.  Not a vegetarian but a vegan.  The difference is that he doesn't eat any dairy products.   I don't know if I can go that far, at least now.  I do like eggs and butter.  I am getting away from milk.  These days I have Almond milk on my cereal. 

A healthy lunch at Nectar in Lewes, DE

One of my very favorite "meals" used to be a grease ladened hoagie.  Hey folks, if I had one of these bombs these days I would be on the floor, writhing in agony.  

So folks, I'm one of THOSE people these days.  A Fussy Eater.  I'm listening to my body.  

Now I think I'll go out and get some more Almond Milk.  The weather forecast is for another Major Winter Storm.  Yep, I'm going to be one of THOSE PEOPLE who storm the local supermarket and clean off the shelves of milk.  However, in my case it's almost milk.  The basis for my nightly smoothie.