cayenne pepper

behold the home garden grown cayenne pepper.

Jimmy John’s

too much sex work and too little sleep lead me to the chain sandwich shop, jimmy john’s. rarely a fast food chain type girl, i was left with little choice. grow ever weaker or try jimmy john’s. i chose the italian night club and found 8” of goodness. fat with genoa salami, italian capicola, smoked ham, provolone cheese with lettuce, tomato, onion, mayo and vinaigrette - bellissimo. next time you find yourself with two too many balls in the air (make sure they are shaved) wheel into jimmy john’s - it was super fast too, so the sticker on the sub paper is true: SUBS SO FAST YOU’LL FREAK.  all for a measly $5.50.

Jimmy John’s
World’s Greatest Gourmet Sandwiches
4120 E. McCain Blvd.
NLR

501.945.9500

NOOO COOOOK PAAASTA SAAAAAUUUCE!!

(yell it like Oprah)

this is OMG delicious! no cook pasta sauce put together with items you should have in your kitchen anyway. super summer fresh! get creative. do it!

you’ll need:

8 oz pagoda pasta, cooked
cherry toms, sliced in ½
10 black olives, pitted & quartered
parsley, finely chopped
basil leaves, chiffonade
1 garlic clove, pressed
¼ cup good olive oil
salt
pepper
1 teaspoon pepper flakes (less if you are a chicken shit)
¼ cup parm cheese, finely grated

you’ll do:

put all ingredients, except pasta, in a large bowl to marinate at room temp for at least an hour. cook pasta in salted water. drain pasta & add to bowl. stir. eat. yum

every third thursday

Around The World Thursdays are location themed dinners served at Cafe 42 in the basement of the Clinton Library Center. Dinners come with a glass of wine, music and possibly some entertainment.

$27.95 for three mystery courses with the option to purchase additional wine or alcohol. Seating is limited and reservations are required. Menus are generally not disclosed before seating.

upcoming dinner themes:

June~Austrailia

July~Hawaii

August~Greece

September~Hong Kong

October~Germany

November~France

December~Warsaw

Reserve your seats now. I am in for Warsaw...

Café 42

Inside the Clinton Presidential Center

1200 President Clinton Avenue

Little Rock

501-537-0042

Pagoda Pasta Salad

pasta salad. a nice light meal for these hot days. quick, easy & made mostly with pantry items. mushrooms, parsley and tomatoes make it fresh. pack it in your lunch. here’s how:

you'll need:
1 8 oz box of quinoa pagodas (or any pasta)
4 oz fresh mushrooms, sliced
1 12 oz jar of marinated artichoke hearts
12 black olives, quartered
parsley, finely chopped

2 tomatoes, deseeded & chopped
a dollop of mayo
oregano, a pinch
salt, pepper & cayenne to taste

you'll do:

boil pasta. do not over cook. drain and rinse with cold water.

in a large bowl, add sliced mushrooms, jar of artichoke hearts WITH liquid and olives. add cooked pasta, stir. season with oregano, salt, pepper & cayenne and add a dollop of mayo to make it just a wee bit creamy. stir. violà.

DO YOU GET IT NOW?

The New Orleans’ Oyster saloon is now tits up.

You didn’t let the oil gusher under the sea worry you too much. You didn’t lose sleep over the oil plume video feed. You swilled your diet coke while the evening news covered oil slicked and paralyzed birds, crabs feeding in oil glossed and dying marshes and dolphins beached and lifeless. Now; a New Orleans’ institution is putting it into perspective for you:

New Orleans' P&J Oyster Company, the oldest business of its kind in the United States, the oldest continually operating dealer of oysters in the U.S., since 1876, HAS CLOSED THE SHUCKING DOWN.

NPR story on P&J Oyster Company Closing.

Do You Get It Now?

Do you get that in your lifetime, there will be no more gulf oysters for you to suck down? Yeah, they may tell you two 5-10 years, but, wake up. Alaska is STILL suffering toxic effects 21 years later.

Oysters feed on phytoplankton and zooplankton. If the food supply for oysters (shrimp, crabs & fish) are dead and gone or poisoned, the result is NO oysters (shrimp, crabs & fish) for you to eat. And since you probably won’t believe the lingering effects from me, I will cut & paste a quote from Thomas Shirley, a prominent marine biologist:


“Most of the damage remains out of sight below the surface, as creatures succumb to the toxic effects of the rapidly spreading tide of oil.” The oil, coupled with the dispersants designed to break it up, will — at least in the foreseeable future — deal a serious blow to the foundation of this ecosystem: the tiny plants and animals known as phytoplankton and zooplankton." - Thomas Shirley, Scientist

Read Thomas Shirley’s sobering interview.


And for nostalgia sake, here are a couple of oyster facts you didn’t know:


Are oysters male or female?
It is hard to determine the gender of an oyster because unless they are spawning, the sex organs are not visible. All oysters start off life as a male, but they are hermaphroditic and after one year can change to females. Within 3 years, 90% of oysters are female, so you can usually tell the gender of an oyster by the size: small ones are males, and large ones are females. An oyster cannot be male and female at the same time.


How do pearls end up inside of oysters?
An oyster produces a pearl when foreign material becomes trapped inside the shell. The oyster responds to the irritation by producing nacre, a combination of calcium and protein. The nacre coats the foreign material and over time produces a pearl.


My I ♥ brown shrimp t-shirt and my little red envelope containing 5 found pearls are now just symbols of the past, but, who cares, right?

mexico midgets

mexico midgets. these tiny tomatoes are the first of my small garden harvest! this heirloom variety is said to produce all summer. yippee!

blackberry muffins!

blackberry muffins. this recipe comes together quickly. i don't usually bake, so, take it from me, it's easy. i picked up blackberries on the cheap AND i purchased a cool new kitchen scale. problems was, i didn’t have buttermilk or milk. i used a mixture of sour cream and half & half and these are the best muffins i’ve ever eaten! moist, sweet with a lemony-sugary top. if you'd like to eat my muffin, here’s how:

you’ll need:

⅓ cup sugar (2 ⅓ ounces)
1 ½ teaspoons finely grated zest from 1 lemon

RECIPE FOR THE TOPPING:

stir together sugar and lemon zest in small bowl; set aside.

FOR THE MUFFINS:

1 cup fresh blackberries (about 5 ounces)
1 1⁄8 cups sugar (8 ounces)
2 ½ cups unbleached all-purpose flour (12 1/2 ounces)
2 ½ teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon table salt
2 large eggs
4 tablespoons (½ stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
¼ cup vegetable oil
¾ cup sour cream
¼ cup half and half
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract

you’ll do:
 

adjust oven rack to upper-middle position and heat oven to 425℉.
spray standard size muffin tin with nonstick cooking spray. do this over your sink.

in a large bowl, whisk flour, baking powder, and salt together.

whisk remaining 8 ounces sugar and eggs together in medium bowl until thick and homogeneous, about 45 seconds.

slowly whisk in butter and oil until combined.

whisk in sour cream, half & half and vanilla until combined. using rubber spatula, fold egg mixture and heaping cup of blackberries into flour mixture until just moistened. (Batter will be very lumpy with few spots of dry flour; do not overmix.)

use a ⅓ measuring cup or ice cream scoop to divide batter equally among prepared muffin cups (batter should completely fill cups and mound slightly).

add a fresh berry or two to each battered cup. this ensures you get a berry in every muffin!

sprinkle lemon sugar evenly over muffins.

bake until muffin tops are golden and just firm, 17 to 19 minutes, rotating muffin tin from front to back halfway through baking time. cool muffins in muffin tin on a wire rack for 5 minutes.

eat my muffin.

fall apart pork

fall apart pork. this is THE best shredded pork. douse it with bbq sauce (previous post) for a sammy, or use it naked to eat as a main dish, or filling for a taco/enchilada. this pork is so tender and delicious, you’ll eat ½ of it before you actually sit down to eat. it’s that good. another recipe adapted from the Bromberg Brothers. take 5 hours and do it. well, you aren't really doing anything...here’s how:

you’ll need:

1 food processor or blender
dutch oven with lid or a roasting pan and parchment paper and foil
1 2-3 pound pork butt (double the following marinade recipe if you are using a bigger butt)
8 cloves garlic
1 small onion
1 carrot
1 celery rib
2 tablespoons ground cumin
4 tablespoons coarse salt (if you are using fine, reduce amount by ½)
¼ cup h2o
beer(s)

place garlic, onion, carrot, celery, cumin, salt in processor and blend until smooth. add ¼ cup water (thru feed chute, if your processor/blender has one) and blend until combined and it is a smooth paste.

cover pork butt with veg puree, cover and refrigerate over night.

next day:

preheat oven to 350℉.

place butt and marinade in dutch oven/roasting pan. pour beer until butt is submerged ½ way. place lid on dutch oven or cover roasting pan with parchment paper then foil.

bake for 2.5 hours. remove lid and cook for an additional 2.5 hours. marinade/beer with be thick and dark and butt will be very tender.

remove from oven, let cool. eat. i know, you love me, i love me too.