Lunch is Served

I was at a local Italian restaurant a few weeks ago and I ordered something called Mozzarella Caprese. It was wonderful. So, I was at the grocery store today and I decided I would try to recreate it. The above picture is what I cam up with. This is my recipe:
One tomato, sliced and arranged on the plate. (I recommend fresh garden tomatoes. They have the best flavor, but if you must buy your tomatoes from the store get the ones that are still on the vine.)
Slices of soft mozzarella Cheese arranged on top of tomato slices. (buy it in a block and slice it yourself. You basically want large fat chunks of cheese to cover your tomato.
Spoon out Black and Green Olives over top of the mozzarella cheese.
Spoon out feta cheese crumbles over top of olives.
Pour Kraft Tuscan House Italian dressing and marinade over entire contents.
Splash a touch of balsamic vinegar over entire contents. (Hint: Just a little of the vinegar goes a long way.) And Enjoy.

It is such a wonderful summer dish that requires no cooking. Plus, it creates a flavor explosion in your mouth. My recipe differs slightly from Roma's because they also added red peppers and instead of feta cheese crumbles, the put the Parmesan cheese powder stuff on it. I am very spoiled and cannot stand that imitation Parmesan cheese powder. I have to have the real shredded Parmesan cheese now. But the feta give it a much stronger and more powerful taste, as does the balsamic vinegar. Oh and if you must have meat with yours, you can add pepperoni slices to it and it is delicious, but it isn't necessary.

45 Days, and Counting...

There are only 45 days until Suzanne's Birthday...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR SUZANNE.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU.

Kid Speak

As of late, my little munchkins have had the most hilarious vocabulary.
Now I have always thought that they were the cutest kids in the world, but lately, they have been the funniest kids too. For example, my husband had taken them to Wal-Mart the other day. As they were heading out of the store the door greeter lady told them to have a good day. Forrest, being the friendly child that he is, yells back at her, "See ya later, Sugar Butt!" My husband was absolutely stunned. We have no idea as to where this vocabulary came from. He does not call me pet names like that, so we don't know where he heard it. Anyway, he promptly told Forrest that it was wrong to say things like that to women and people in general and they went on their merry way. Of course, when he told me, I died laughing. It was the funniest thing I had ever heard.

On to Nathan. Today we went out to lunch at a pizza joint called Larry's Pizza. They have all sorts of specialty pizza. Loaded baked potato pizza, chicken alfredo pizza, taco salad pizza, BBQ pig pizza, ect.... The list goes on and on. And they have all sorts of dessert pizzas too. Nathan was looking at some pizza on my husbands plate and he asked his dad what was on the pizza. It was pepperoni, sausage, and bacon pizza. Nathan goes, "UMMMMM Yum!" My husband asked him if he would like a piece and Nathan said yes. So he gave Nathan the piece off of his plate and went back up to the bar to get himself another piece. Forrest followed his dad because he wanted more tomatoes. Nathan and I were sitting at the table and he looks at me and say, "Mom." "Yes dear," I say. "Daddy gave me this piece of pizza off of his plate. He is so good." I thought it was so sweet that Nathan was impressed by the fact that his dad gave him pizza off of his plate. Don't you?

My last story happened yesterday. If you all read my comments on RC's blog during Bitch fest, then you already know part of the story. Anyway, I took my neighbor to Enterprise to rent a car yesterday evening. She was going to go spend the night with her cousin once she got her a car to drive, so she had to bring her two dogs with her. Her puppy, Sarge, is a Great Pyrenees. He is about 4 or 5 months old, and already quite large. Sarge was sitting in the back seat between the boys when Forrest pipped up and said, "Sarge's wiener looks kind of like a cow." I didn't know what to say, so I chose to say nothing at all.

This is Sarge.

Kids really do say the darndest things.

She Thought She Could Get Away With It

She thought she was super clever...deleting a comment that held a certain secret.

But Random Chick is smarter than you're average 41 year-old random blogging chick! RC figured out the clues...though they were hard to uncover...

(RC wishes she looked like this...hey, a chick can dream!)

Leave it to Just Bob to be the one to crack the case...


We figured her out...

SUZANNE's BIRTHDAY IS AUGUST 8th!

She tried to keep it from us, but we are too smart for her! Muwah ha ha ha ha ha (evil laugh). Some of us didn't think we'd ever hear from her again, according to Doctor's orders she's NOT SUPPOSED TO BE BLOGGING. But, deep down, we knew she'd be lurking, and commenting, and POSTING! Because she isn't very well behaved.


This woman deserves a serious virtual celebration: for Suzanne is beautiful beyond all measure. She is compassionate, creative, LOL funny...and she's a BLOTTIE!!! So get ready folks, mark your calendars NOW....we're gonna blast this cafe through the blogosphere. Stay tuned...

Happy Birthday Random Chick!

What? Your not 50? Well of course you're not! We all know that. I just couldn't pass up the opportunity to point out that you are, however, older than me. But putting all jokes aside, I know that we are going to have a big crowd show up here to celebrate, so I was extra busy last night and made several birthday cakes for our birthday girl. So you all just take your pick on which one you want a piece of. (cake not birthday girls. GESH I.V and MJ get your minds out of the gutter.)

And what about delicious things to eat? Well, don't worry. I've got that covered. Picnic style.

And for all of you fruit and veggie types out there.




And the music for the party has to be the new song "Hell Yeah" by the band Rev Theory.

This song rocks my ass off. I could listen to it all day long.

And last but not least we must have a huge selection of adult beverages to choose from. I mean without the booze, this really couldn't be called a party now could it?




So come on people. LET"S PARTY, RANDOM STYLE!

I've been working on some new art to hang up on the walls here at the cafe.

A way to class the joint up. Of course, I think I'm going to need to enlist the help of

all of you REAL artists out there. You see, I'm just and amateur. Show me some of your original masterpieces and we can class this joint up. Or at least make it look like the gift shop at the Cracker Barrel.

For Our Dear Bindi...

Bindi,

I love you, and you know that. I picked your favorite flowers today: a gorgeous Gardenia and some blooms of the Confederate Jasmine. Yes, my office has the scent of Heaven! I want to cheer you up and bring you some beautiful memories of home and family. I know life is very difficult at the moment, but remember discontent doesn't have to last forever. Congratulations on your pregnancy. Even in times of deepest pain, you will love this baby with your whole heart, no matter what the future holds.

~

I love you my dear friend and it is with such joy that I give you this floating bouquet. I've shared it with everyone because I know they love and support you as much as I do.

~

Please be kind and gentle to yourself,

Suze XO

~

P.S. I made the heart too. I usually fill the sachets with lavender and hang them on every door in the house! Multiple times!!! My office door has about 5 (both fabric and hand painted). They fill a room with laughter and a wee bit of fun. ;)

I love you. XO

Changes

I've made these new flower arrangements to place on all of the tables here at the Cafe.

I thought it might add a little pizazz to the place. Or at least a little color. Business has been slow lately, and all the help has been drinking up the profit. Of course, I did say the staff didn't have to pay for their drinks didn't I. Damn! I knew I was making a mistake. I didn't realize I had hired a room full of virtual alcoholics. It is still storming here. I just heard a crack of lightening hit so close to he house it made the desk shake. I probably should shut down this damn computer. Don't want another month without it. But, I just wanted to show everyone our new table decorations. Enjoy the flowers. Oh and I.V. don't eat the limes.

*****************************UPDATE*******************


I also want to introduce the newest member of our staff.
Javie dog.
She is an American pit bulldog that loves to clean up.
She is great at multi tasking and she has been hired as both a dish washer and garbage disposal. She has signed a lifetime contract and in turn for her years of loyal service she will be paid with all you can eat scraps buffet every day, short spurts of activity and trips around the block when I feel like it. A nice comfortable bed on my $1800 Italian Leather couch, and tummy scratches. She is quite adamant about the tummy scratches, so throw the poor dog a bone and give her tummy a scratch when you come in. Trust me she will pant and doggie smile from ear to ear and it will warm your heart. Or at least your hand will be warm from the doggie breath.

I've asked Cece to take my name off the Wild Onion. I'll check in once in a while to see how you're all doing. After the comments on Brian's blog yesterday, I've decided to move on. I will most likely close my blog too. I realize that friendship is an illusion. I will miss you all.

XO

Red Sky

I had to get up very early this morning to start my day. 5:15 am to be exact. It was way too early to be awake, but since I am a responsible adult (at least part of the time), it was a necessary evil.
But I looked out my bedroom window for some reason. Maybe I was checking the weather, or maybe the world was screaming out to me, but I was awarded with this view.
The sun was attempting to enter the sky, and there were several large fluffy dark cumulus clouds thwarting it's effort. The wind was warm and pleasant and it gave the morning a nice cool summertime feel. I just wished I could have played hookie again and stayed home from work. But the responsible adult side of me was taking control and forcing me on to do my service to my fellow countrymen and my pocketbook. But I thought that I would share my sunrise experience with all of you and allow you to bask in the glory with me. Have a great weekend.

Cilantro Shrimp anyone?

Well, I guess we made history yesterday by having the first black candidate running for President. It will be interesting to see how all of this turns out. In the mean time, I propose that we just eat lots of Cilantro grilled shrimp and pray. For what? I'm not sure. It seems the world is already heading to hell in a hand basket anyway, so I'm not sure how much good praying will do. But for the sake of action, I suppose we should pray anyway. I don't particularly care what name your supreme being goes by (Just as long as it isn't Satan or Lucifer we already have enough dark forces at work in the world.) So let's eat, drink, be merry and pretend that the world is not turning to shit all around us.