Poker Night = Man Food

Tonight is Poker Night for Mr. Wii and his friends. Each guy brings something to snack on while they play Poker. Mr. Wii is quite specific about his Poker Night Man Food. There are rules. The number one rule, it cannot be messy. The guys don't want particles and drips or stickiness all over the chips and cards. It can't be too big, nor too small. The snack must be able to be classified as a Man Food. To tell you the truth, I'm not really sure what is good Poker Night Man Food, so I just follow Mr. Wii's lead. Kinda like dancing in the kitchen.

He wanted Pimiento Cheese Sandwiches. Easy enough. However, I did cut them wrong. I had cut them into sandwich halves on the diagonal. He said they were too big. Too big? Are you kidding me? I thought he was kidding me. Nope, he went and got a knife and cut them all in half again. I didn't tell him they looked like tea sandwiches. I'm not so sure he knows what a tea sandwich is. It would have been wasted humor. I laughed to myself.

The sandwiches are quite easy. All you need is a cheddar cheese of your liking, or Mr. Wii's liking. In this case it was Colby and I used two 8 ounce bricks. A 4 ounce jar of pimientos. The chopped would have been perfect, but the sliced were just fine. Mayo, of course. A pinch of salt, only if you think you need it, and a soft, white bread. Whole grains and artisnal breads are out the door. No sour dough, rye, or baguette. This sandwich requires a doughy soft, stick to your teeth kind of bread. You all know what I'm talking about, don't pretend you don't.

I grate the cheese. I heard you gasp. No, I didn't buy the already shredded stuff. Do you want to know why? Can you handle it? It's not going to be pretty. Okay....Mr. Wii says there is "mold" on the already shredded cheese. That's what he calls that white powder stuff that somebody adds to perfectly good cheese to keep it from sticking together. I call that white stuff "anti-coagulant". I warned you.

It didn't take any time at all to shred the cheese. Make sure it is nice and cold, it makes it easier to shred. Nice, creamy shreds of Colby cheese. Yum.

Next, you drain the liquid from the jar of pimientos. Save the liquid, it can be used to thin out the spread a bit, if needed. Then, add the mayo a couple of spoonfuls at a time. Just lightly stir until evenly distributed, no need to over mix. It will be pasty if you over mix. Add more mayo until the shreds are pretty much covered. Go ahead and add some of the reserved liquid to make it creamy. Give it a taste and add only a pinch of salt, if needed, and you are ready to make sandwiches.

I didn't add any additional butter or mayo to the bread slices. If we were taking these to a picnic, I would have put a thin layer of butter on each slice.....just to keep the sandwich from getting soggy. These sandwiches were going directly down the street to Poker Night at the neighbor's.

They really would have been tea sandwiches if I had buttered the bread and cut off the crust!

Vacation

I have a couple of blog articles partially written. I have them on hold because they are not finished yet. What to do with tons of tomatoes and my favorite kitchen tips. Don't they sound like exciting topics????? I didn't think so. So, while I am still warm from my lovely sun tan, I shall tell you a little bit about my vacation.

Mr. Wii and I went back to our lovely little place in Mexico. The small resort is cozy and quiet and the view from the veranda is kick butt gorgeous! You already know Mr. Wii and I are veranda people. Well, so did the kind folks at the Villa Premiere. When we checked in, they asked if we had been there before. We told them it was our fourth time and that we were glad to be back. They then asked us if we would like a free upgrade to the honeymoon suite. We were stunned, to say the least. We both looked at each other like "can you freaking believe what they just said", and then we told them we would love the honeymoon suite.

/div>

A pretty hot tub on the veranda overlooking the Pacific ocean. That's what I'm talking about. Call the suite what you must. I called it sweet.

Mr. Wii couldn't wait to soak up the view. We were consumers of the best kind: sun, food, alcohol.

We met some great people from all over North America. Our "next door neighbors" were the best. On the evening of Mr. Wii's birthday, they brought over a bottle of champagne. I must tell you, our room was a zoo when they stopped by. The maid was in to turn down the bed and was telling me about Acapulco, her mom, and what it meant to be jovan. At least that's what I think the conversation was about. She didn't speak English and my Spanish was slightly better at comprehension than speaking. Jim kept asking what she was saying and I kept telling him in English. There was lots of laughter. Then, the room service guy was setting the table and asking where to put the food. During all this, our neighbors came in with birthday wishes and were telling us about their day of snorkeling. There were hugs and kisses all around...including from the maid. Only in Mexico!

We are rested and ready to resume our so called normal life. Fall is in its full glory of color and the oven is ready for a season of baking and cooking. Life is so darn good it must be shared.
Nella

Bedtime Snack at Nanna and Poppy's House

It's not really a recipe, but it sure is good. Mr. Wii (Poppy) has this almost every night. He calls it a Chocolate Float. He says it is the best with Breyer's. I am not going to argue this one. I have bought other ice cream brands and he says it's not the same. I believe him.

You take the Breyer's vanilla ice cream and put small chunks in a tall glass. Then, you pour the chocolate milk over it. There you go. It's not a recipe, it's a taste thrill.

For the little girls, he chops up the ice cream and then pours the chocolate milk over it. Kind of like ice cream cereal. Or not.



Oh yeah, baby! I think we have a winner here. She likes it!

Good to the last drop. It really is that good. Enjoy.

Note: Mr. Wii took all the pictures with his iPhone.