Monday Night Mania
Mood:  lazy
Now Playing: The Sex Pistols - Revolution in the Classroom

Ah, the first Monday night of football season brings out the urge to cook in the heart of many a man and woman, the urge to eat a staggering amount of food that is dubious for one's health at the very least. I am one of those people, and as last night was indeed the first Monday night game of the season, it was time to have enough burgers to choke a camel. Now football fans might be quick to point out the the boys of Monday night officially kicked off the season last Thursday night with the official season opener in New England, but I would be quick to point out to those folks that while they may have a valid point, Thursday is still not Monday and as such, doesn't count.

Now, the confession: Because of time constraints between work and kickoff, I had to take the lazy way out (well, had to or not, that's exactly what I did, but who doesn't like a good excuse?) Anyway, the hows and whys be damned, I made a quick stop at my local H.E.B. (I would say my grocer of choice, but in fact it is my grocer of convenience. I prefer Sun Harvest) and acquired the items that would be needed: pre-formed and fabricated hamburger patties (eight steak flavored patties, eight jalapeno and cheese flavored patties shaped like Texas, and eight chipolte and cheese patties), hamburger buns, some nice colby jack cheese from the deli sliced on number 2 (I feel that number 2 is the perfect thickness for hamburgers, not too thick to melt gently over the patty, but not too thin to require two slices of cheese), and some nice, ripe, red tomatos. Oh, and a cold Dr. Pepper for the drive home. Shopping is hard work, you know.

Now, under more leisurely circumstances, I prefer to use the grill to make burgers, but by the time I had returned from the store, it was already seven and that left me only a single hour before the kickoff at eight. Not a lot of time at all, considering the staggering amount of work to be done. Ok, not really. It isn't like making burgers is the most time intensive thing in the world, so I won't pretent it is here, but grilling, as anyone knows, takes time, and really, pre-fashioned burgers aren't worth it. One day, we will speak of homemade burgers on these pages, and discuss the joys of grilling said bugers, but this is not that day. So out comes the giant, non-stick skillet of my choice (Having a mother that does Pampered Chef comes in handy sometimes) and in go the burgers.

Now pre-formed burgers don't take any skill at all to cook, just basically a timer. Ten minutes on one side, flip, five minutes more on the other, and they are all done and ready to go. Unfortunely, I couldn't fit all twenty four patties in the frying pan at once, so it did take about an hour and a half to finish them all. That did give me plenty of time to slice up the onion (purple, of course), the aforementioned tomatoes, and to set out the various other odds and ends (spicy brown mustard, yellow mustard, mayonaise, ketchup, etc.). The wife pitched in as well, washing off the leafy green lettuce we had purchased a few days earlier, and drying off each individual leaf with love, and a paper towel. Luckily, my friends are always fashionably late, or just plain late, depending on how you look at it.

All in all, everything turned out as well as it could, considering some of the shortcuts I took, but that's the way life is sometimes. We just don't have all the time we would like to do everything we would like. So I have a ton of food ready, at least enough for the ten or so people that said they were going to show up. Not a large celebration, but football with the guys. Then the cancellations start, at least those that bothered to call and cancel. Not a big deal though, there are always a certain amount of people that cancel out on any given gathering. At the final tally, there were five or so people that showed, and a good time was had by all. The only downside is that I may be eating burgers for dinner for another day or three. Such is life.

Mood:  lazy
Now Playing: Opeth - Ending Credits

Last night ended up being the wife's night to cook. Unfortunately there aren't any pictures of the proceedings since the batteries for the camera aren't recharged yet (I'm sure this is a devastating development for all of you) but there is a post or two.

The circumstances that let to the wife being in charge of the kitchen last night are fairly straight forward. During our ride home from work (the wife and I carpool), I received a call from my good friend and workout partner. He was leaving work early, thus our workout was pushed forward from it's usual seven-thirty, eight time period. Thus a pre-workout snack was in order, but what to have? Probably should have been a protein shake or nutritional item, so the wife and I settled on fries from Wing Stop. Wing Stop, for those of you not in the know, is a place that serves buffalo style wings in a variety of flavors, but the best thing on the menu is the fries. I need to set out on an experiment that will result in at least getting close to matching their seasoning at the house so I can stop giving them so much of my money.

So, we get to the house, fries in hand, and I can't wait to eat them. Ah, the pure goodness of well made fries, not helping my diet to be sure, but certainly well worth the extra pounds. By the time I finish making a pig out of myself with the fries, it's time to hit the gym and make up for my culinary indiscretion, so off I go to workout, leaving the poor wife alone in the kitchen. Luckily, for me, I have a good wife. Does she sit around watching the TV and wait for me to return? No. She dives right in to the kitchen and begins to cook.

When I return home, it is to find the house full of the fantastic smells of frying bacony goodness. B.L.Ts are on the menu and this makes me happy, very happy. Not only did she cook up the bacon, but she also sliced up the ripe, red tomatoes and provided a bowl full of crisp, green lettuce that we had picked up for just such an occasion. She had even waited for me to come home before she started eating. Probably a good thing, because everything was so good that if she had started before me, there may not have been anything left by the time I made it home (just kidding love). :) Anyway, we quickly made up some sandwiches. I had three. Nothing quite like a pure B.L.T., just bacon, lettuce, tomato, and a small amount of mayo. A satisfying meal.

The Big Introduction
Mood:  lazy
Now Playing: Opeth - Windowpane
Welcome to the Everyday Home Chef. Really, this is more of a space for me as I go through the trials and tribulations of weight loss and changing eating habits, but it's also for any of you that are interested in broadening your culinary horizons while cooking at home and keeping a more healthy outlook on food and eating. This is not to say that there will be nothing but "healthy" stuff here. I don't adhere strictly to a healthy diet, just like many of you, and thus the "everyday" label. I'm just an everyday guy, trying to make it through each day the best I can, and still trying to find time to keep my wife and future baby well fed.

So, now that we have jumped through the hoops of confusing and pointless introduction, what is it that will actually be found here? Well, the answer to that is fairly simple and straight forward: anything interesting about food that I find and want to share, recipes that I use, pictures of me actually preparing said recipes, and any other tidbits I can think of or feel like sharing that have to do with food or eating. Also, it can be a place for discussions about food, sharing recipes, or any other food related activites that you, the reader, would like to share in. Have a nice time, and eat well.