My Opinion Counts

I am the benefactor of my husband’s love of cooking. He watches many cooking shows on television and is always learning new things. Last night he grilled chicken and tried a new rub. The rub gave the chicken a lemon flavor. My mouth is watering just thinking about it. LOL

I can cook but it is not my favorite thing to do. I would rather keep the laundry done and do the dishes after my hubby cooks.

I am looking through the videos I took of various family members while they played Guitar Hero. They crack me up! I am thinking about entering them in the ENGOBI Guitar Hero video contest. ENGOBI’s high-octane snack chips are flying off the shelves and people are finding out about this contest. ENGOBI’s Guitar Hero video contest is where fans can upload videos of themselves playing the game to ENGOBI.com and win cool prizes, including a game-customized Fender Strat. Very cool!

ENGOBI is launching the contest and they are having a ball. They even have a van that will be visiting nine East Coast and Southern cities over the next month and handing out ENGOBI, which comes in two perky, high-impact flavors – Lemon Lift and Cinnamon Surge. Watch for the van and join in the fun as you can have the chance to receive ENGOBI gear and the chance to play Guitar Hero with friends.

I just had the most yummy lemon bar and I wondered what the ingredients were. )Mom made the one I had). I know that this is not the recipe mom used because hers had blueberries in them but this one sounds good too.

Lemon Bars
Recipe courtesy Paula Deen
Crust:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup confectioners’ sugar, plus more for dusting
Pinch salt
2 sticks butter, at room temperature, plus more for greasing

Filling:
4 eggs
2 cups granulated sugar
6 tablespoons all-purpose flour
6 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease a 9 by 13 by 2-inch pan.

Make the crust by combining the flour, confectioners’ sugar, and salt in a large bowl. Cut in the butter to make a crumbly mixture. Press the mixture into the prepared pan. You may need to dip your fingers into a little flour or confectioners’ sugar to keep the dough from sticking to your fingers. Bake for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, to make the filling, mix the eggs, granulated sugar, flour, and lemon juice. Pour this over the baked crust and bake for 25 minutes longer. Sprinkle with confectioners’ sugar, if desired, when the bars are done.

Hubby has been a lost soul lately. His grill died. He looked into buying parts for it and it was going to cost too much to repair it. He has been looking for just the right grill. It has to meet his specification you know. He found one but it was out of stock. He couldn’t find that grill anywhere else so he ordered it. He was all prepared to wait for his grill to come in when he noticed the same grill was at Rural King for $15 dollars less. So, he canceled the order and went to Rural King. He was all prepared to come home with a grill but the clerk recommended he wait until this Saturday to make his purchase. They were having a no sales tax sale. I don’t know how they can do that but we went to Rural King today and he is a happy camper. I benefit from his happiness because the man can cook.

I found this recipe on the Food Network website. I hope he will try it on his new grill.

BBQ Bacon Wrapped Mushrooms

1 (8-ounce) package large button mushrooms
1 pound package peppered bacon, room temperature, slices cut in 1/2
4 tablespoons barbecue sauce

Cut the stems off the mushrooms. Rinse briefly and dry them well with paper towels.

Wrap each mushroom with the bacon strip halves. Use 2 if the cap is not completely covered. The bacon will stick to the mushrooms so there is no need for toothpicks.

In a medium saute pan over medium-high heat, saute the bacon wrapped mushrooms until the bacon is golden brown. Just as the bacon begins to crisp up a bit, add the BBQ sauce and toss until coated. Serve immediately.

Do you sit down as a family and eat meals? When my children were small we usually sat at the table for our evening meal. As they grew older and were involved in after school activities it was hard for us to all eat at the same time so now and then we missed sitting at the table together to eat. I was very diligent about preparing healthy meals. I was raised during the time when the pyramid food group strategy was stressed. I still cook by choosing a meat, potato and vegetable. It is hard for me to call a meal dinner if it does not have a meat served. I made casseroles for dinner and always served it with a vegetable.

When our lives became more active it was awfully hard to stay in a routine. Fast food often filled our tummies and I made sure we all took our vitamins and would get Trivita Sublingual B12 here. The offer of mental clarity and increasing energy was important.

As the kids got older and began driving, I went back to cooking regular meals that they could reheat when they got home from their event. Since I didn’t have to drive them back and forth, I had more time to make sure they got a healthy meal. It is funny to see what vegetables they eat as adults that they didn’t want to touch when they were younger. I have seen both my kids eat okra! They still don’t want to eat my favorite vegetable, brussell sprouts. They just don’t understand how good they are.