What I learned from William Today

Who is William? Click here!!

While discussing a book that William had written, we got of the topic of Cas Walker. Although it seems that everyone that has grown up in TN or spent any real time in Knoxville knows who he is, I didn't have a clue who Cas Walker was. William gave me a brief overview of who he was. His rise to political power, his dramatic life, and some of the things that made Cas Walker a legend. Here are 3 things I learned from William about Cas Walker that you won't find on his Wikipedia page:

1) While Cas Walker owned a number of grocery stores across Knoxville, he got into trouble for putting formaldehyde in his meats to make them last longer on the shelves.

2) Cas Walker's first major business as mayor was an attempt to allow grocery stores to sell milk 5 days past their expiration date. Umm....ewwwww!!!

3) Maybe the most entertaining of all. When Cas was older, he was put into a home and diagnosed with Alzheimer's. He argued for over 2 years that it was the medication that he had been put on and as it turns out, he was right. A family member returned him to live in his own home while she looked after him. She for whatever reason, didn't pay the electric bill and his electricity was turned off. What was his remedy? He ran an extension cord across the street to his neighbor's house and plugged into their house.

And that is what I learned from William today.

Pantry Purge 2011, Weekend Edition

This weekend I was able to spend a lot of time in the kitchen. It was nice because it wasn't for Realize Gourmet and I remembered what it felt like to cook without so much pressure. It was much needed!

It started Friday night. I baked my very first loaf of bread. And it was perfect. I seriously couldn't have hoped for it to come out any better. It smelled heavenly and get this: It tasted like BREAD. Not that stuff you buy on the shelves at the grocery store that acts as a vehicle for whatever goodness you have stacked between two pieces. That was a great kickoff to the weekend.

Saturday morning we got up and made homemade Peanut Butter Waffles with HOMEMADE Blueberry syrup. I used a different waffle recipe and really wasn't happy with it, so I'll spare sharing it with you. The syrup on the other hand was so delicious. Brennan was a huge fan! Drew thought it was alright! And Brent and I are looking forward to making more soon. Here is the RECIPE FOR THE BLUEBERRY SYRUP. SUPER YUMMY!

For lunch we were all anxious to have some of the delicious bread that had been taunting us all morning. Since we have long been out of lunch meat, we opted for good old fashioned grilled cheese sandwiches. They were FANTASTIC!!! I believe Drew said that it tasted like restaurant bread on the sandwiches! SCORE!! We had some American cheese slices and I also found a wheel of the laughing cow cheese (Sun dried tomato flavor). I buttered one slice of bread, added two slices of American cheese, spread one wedge of laughing cow cheese on the other slice. I sprinkled some Italian seasoning and garlic powder, put them together, buttered the other piece of bread and grilled them up! One of the best grilled cheese sammiches that I've made in a long time!!

For dinner, we decided to keep with the Super bowl theme and decided on pizza. I decided that since I'd had such great success on the bread to try to make the dough myself. I didn't have as much success. I piled the dough up with a half of jar of leftover pizza sauce, some fresh garlic, fresh basil, onions, red and green peppers, and jalapenos. Covered that with mozzarella and threw it in the oven . It wasn't bad, but as you can see from the picture the crust isn't quite right. I was disappointed, but with all the success I'd had all day... I couldn't complain.

Our cabinets are starting to look bare and we are running pretty low on meat. I know we have 3 pork roasts left so we may be living on pork for a while. I'm pretty sure that Brent is ok with that! :)

What I learned from William Today

So working in a coffee shop I meet a lot of really unique characters. One of my very favorite regulars, William, is no different. I'm pretty confident that if you compared how much time he and I spend there, he just might be there as many hours a week as I am. He is there everyday regardless of weather, holidays, or circumstance. He's more reliable than the postal service.

William is quiet and keeps to himself. He drinks the same thing everyday. He reads the NY Times daily and says that he will be the last man in the world reading a printed paper before they abandon them for the online version and I believe him. He reads book after book, all various content. He skips from website to website, spending as much time as a kid would with A.D.D in a room filled with midgets and clowns trying to recite a poem. He types away on his laptop cleverly adorned with a skin of Snow White holding the Apple logo.

I've been told that William is a writer. That he has successfully published a couple of screenplays. I've also been told that he was at one time some kind of super genius scientist. The only evidence that I have of either of these is what he has mentioned briefly in conversation. You take what you can get with William because if there is anything that he is a master of, it is his ninja like skill of turning any conversation to anything or anyone other than himself .

I LOVE talking to William. He is easily one of the smartest people I have ever encountered. Regardless of the topic of conversation, he has first hand knowledge. He's been everywhere (most places more than once) and seen everything.

Today, we were discussing how Downtown Knoxville seems to be broken up into 3 distinct sections. Market Square/Downtown, the 100 block of Gay Street, and The Old City. For whatever reason it seems that people don't really walk from one to the other. We decided it was because there is a slight incline from one to the other. During this chat, I mentioned a new restaurant moving into the Old City. It is located where the Knoxville Cigar Company failed to succeed. William says, "Did you know that that space was the first place in Knoxville to play silent films?" Of course I didn't. He wasn't positive of the year, but he thought it dated back to 1914. Only William would know that.

And that is what I learned from William today.

Pantry Purge 2011, I don't even remember what day we're on!

Well that pantry purge is still going strong. I think we are actually finally in a place where it's not going to be easy anymore. We have enjoyed some creative meals over the last few days, including one that we affectionately refer to as Senor Ralph. I wanted to get rid of a bag of frozen hash browns and some preshaped hamburger patties. I decided to go with a Mexican type theme. I browned the hash browns with some onion, jalapeno, and cumin. Next came the hash browns. I added some shredded cheese and a couple of tomatoes I ran through the food processor and let it simmer. While it cooked, it sincerely looked like vomit. I knew this wasn't going to be consumed by Brennan and Drew if I didn't figure out a way to rectify the situation. I found a bag of tortilla chips and crushed a few handfuls up into the bottom of a pan and threw the simmered vomit like contents on top. I shredded some more cheese and diced up some tomatoes to put on top and threw it into the oven I baked it for 15 minutes until the pukey mixture was disguised by the gooey, melted cheese and the fresh tomatoes. I added a few tortilla chips to eat plate, added some of the newly baked goo and added some salsa and fresh cilantro. And voila! Senor Ralph was born. It never really looked good, but it looked far more appealing than when I started. The boys ate it without hesitation. In fact, they finished the leftovers today for lunch wrapped up in a tortilla and grilled on the george foreman grill.

Tonight's dinner I forgot to take pictures of, but it was really, really good! We had Marsala Pork Chops and Potatoes au Gratin. I cheated with the potatoes. My parents sent us a package of Omaha Steaks for Christmas and the potatoes were in the there. They were like crispy mashed potato balls and Brennan and Drew both loved them!!! I found a recipe for the pork chops in my eating well magazine and made a few alterations to fit what I had in my pantry. The only thing that I didn't include, which would have made it even better, was the prosciutto. Here's the link for dinner. The recipe was really simple and everyone really loved it. I think next time, I would serve it with noodles to soak up all the juices.

We ran out of bread and my first loaf of homemade bread is currently baking. Ummm....why have I never made bread before. It smells sooooo good!!! Pictures to come!

Pantry Purge 2011 has Come Down to Hot Dogs

I have done a terrible job of keeping track of the days over the last week. I know that we have been doing this for 19 days and we still have a long ways to go!! We have been very creative and the kids are even on board with it, which I'd say is a testament to the meals being as tasty as they are unique.

Here are a couple of highlights from the last couple of weeks:

Last week I posted about the pork tacos. Well that meal left us with some leftovers that made it easy to make some black bean and rice burritos. I threw some cilantro, tomatoes, a jalapeno, 1/2 an onion and some salt into a food processor and made some faux salsa. I set that aside and heated up the griddle. Once heated, I laid some whole wheat tortillas on the griddle and covered them with grated cheddar cheese, a scoop of the leftover cilantro lime rice, some canned black beans, a little of the salsa and some cilantro. Once the cheese was melted, I rolled them up into burritos and covered them with a little more salsa and cilantro. They were really good and SUPER easy!! I served them with some left over cabbage slaw from the pork tacos and some of the leftover rice.

Tonight the Pantry Purge cleaned out some hot dogs. I was really intimidated with what to do with them, but the dinner has earned the name Haute Daug Delight and it was really yummy.

Haute Daug Delight

4 medium tomatoes, processed in food processor
1 medium onion, roughly chopped
1 red pepper, chopped
3 stalks celery
3 cloves garlic
2 tsp olive oil
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
1/4 tsp celery seed
1/2 tsp italian seasoning
salt and pepper to taste
4 hot dogs
1/2 package egg noodles, cooked according to package

Heat olive oil in wok. Add onion and season with red pepper flakes, salt, pepper, celery seed, and italian seasoning. Once starting to turn translucent, add garlic. Cook until fragrant. Add celery and red pepper. Cook for 2 minutes. Add tomatoes from food processor. Bring to a boil and then add hot dogs. Bring to a simmer for 5 minutes. Add cooked egg noodles. Simmer for 5 more minutes and serve.


Who knew hot dogs could taste so good!? My next challenge is to turn a bag of frozen hash browns into dinner. This one is going to take some creativity! Wish me luck! :)