Monthly Archives: June 2008

Arepas!

Yesterday I was watching Bobby Flay’s Throwdown. “Bobby challenges Maribel and Aristides Barrios, NYC restaurateurs who hail from Venezuela, to a throwdown featuring their house specialty, arepas, which are delicious grilled cornmeal patties filled with sweet and savory treats.”

I watched carefully to see how the arepas were made because they looked and sounded wonderful. When I went to the Food Network website, however, the only recipe was for bobby Flay’s and I preferred to make the original Venezuelan ones. I did some searching around and found a blog article that described them very closely to the ones on the show and had pictures. I tried to find the masa arepa (pre-cooked cornmeal) and of course I couldn’t. I got the closest thing I could which was corn flour and I think that mine are not as good as they would be with the correct ingredients. I will keep looking and if nothing else when we go for Dale’s next appointment in Dallas I will pick some up there and try some more.

They look similar to English muffins but they don’t taste the same and are different texture. They were pretty good right out of the oven with butter. The dough is very simple to make and you pick up a ball of it and basically toss it hand to hand til it makes a dense ball and then kind of rotate as you toss smoothing it into a disk about a third of an inch thick. You cook it over medium heat on a cast iron griddle or non-stick skillet. Cook about 7 minutes on each side being careful not to burn it. Place in oven for about 15 minutes to finish cooking (350 degrees).

Here is my finished result:

myfirstarepa

The recipe and other pictures can be found here.

I hope you will give it a try and let me know how it turns out for you!

Addendum:  I found the Masa Arepa and it makes a big difference in the texture and the taste.  I still need practice but my second batch was much better.  They taste just a little bit like grits.

Stress and Cars and Stress!

It is 5:00 P.M. I say this because I just got home and we left the house this morning at 8:00 A.M, We went to look at a used car which we ended up buying but I never dreamed we would have been gone ALL day.

We saw the ad in a sale paper last night. It’s a pretty 2005 blue Impala. We had been looking at cars knowing that when school starts we were going to need another vehicle. We were looking at something that would get good gas mileage for obvious reasons. I was leaning towards a Toyota Corolla or Nisson Sentra but Dale has always liked the Impala so he is happy.

I just can’t believe how disorganized the whole experience was. The car was not even at Bonham Chrysler which is where the ad was from. They looked all over the lot and then started calling around and it ended up being in Greenville. The salesman got a car (a 2008 Dodge Magnum which is very nice, by the way) and drove us over to Greenville It was lunchtime by the time we got there. The car was there but the key was NOT! They hunted and couldn’t find it and decided to go up to the Pontiac place and get them to cut a new one. Keeping in mind this is only a little ways down the road, an hour later we finally have the keys. We drove the car and liked it and then had to drive back to Bonham. Next we had to do the whole paperwork thing which didn’t take too long but by the time it was all complete it was about 2:30 and we have still not had lunch. They were cleaning the inside and washing the car and by the time we left it was 4:00.

We headed for the nearest restaurant because we were starving and then got to sit in traffic because a long stretch of 82 was being resurfaced. We are tired, cranky, and the proud owners of a “newer” car. If you know me you will know how much I hate to part with money for a car but now I just hope it turns out to be a good car and that it lasts half and long as my little blazer but with better gas mileage!
impala.jpg

Google Docs Spreadsheet With Embedded Map

Let’s make a quick guide for someone planning to visit Paris. There is more that could be included but this will be enough to get you started! The instructions came from the Google Docs Blog which is a wonderful resource!

First, determine the sites you will use and open a Google docs spreadsheet

In the first column put the addresses

In the second column put the names and a short description (you can include a link)

Click and drag to highlight both columns

Click Insert on the toolbar and choose gadget

Select Google Maps

You can add a title but you now have a list of sites with their addresses and links and a map to boot! Cool and simple.

Save it, click publish and check the box – republish changes and you can continue to add to it and you can email a link to it to your friends and family!

Here is a link to mine:

http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pgVdUefx1CH0V_U5tumJrHw

Here is a screenshot:

googdocmap.jpg

Just a Family Update

My son called last night. He and the rest of the NL Debate team and their coaches are in Las Vegas for Nationals. There are seven debate students, two coaches, and their son in a van pulling a u-haul trailer full of luggage, a huge ice chest, cases of evidence and dollies for hauling the evidence cases around.
They have been to The Painted Desert, Hoover Dam, The Petrified Forest, and the Grand Canyon and are still speaking to each other. Last night they made it to Vegas and the hotel they had reserved had a few guests that decided at the last minute to extend their stay so the hotel just gave their reservations away. On top of that, instead of calling the coaches cell number which she gave them as the designated contact number, they called yesterday to her home number in Paris to tell her. This meant they had no idea until they showed up at the hotel that they had no rooms. They were supposed to stay at Homewood Suites Henderson Nevada Hotel. They ended up at Circus Circus on the strip. THAT should be interesting!

My daughter got her drivers license (finally) this week so I haven’t been able to run a single errand myself all week. She is going to try to find a summer job and I am hoping that with her skills with Microsoft Excel and Access that she will find something besides slinging burgers.  She has decided to try to do municipal band this year as they can use a base clarinet player so at least I won’t have to drive her to practice everyday!

Dale and I are having a pretty peaceful summer so far – aside from the kids stuff that is!  I am all for keeping it that way!

Father’s Day

My sidebar contains a list of historical events of the current day and today in 1954 President Eisenhower signed an order adding words ‘under God’ to the Pledge. It was the year that Marilyn Monroe married Joe DiMaggio, IBM announced vacuum tube “electronic” brain that could perform 10 million operations an hour, Bob Dylan was Bar Mitzvahed, the Moonies were established, Ellis Island closed, Davy Crockett played by Fess Parker appeared on Walt Disney (oh man – I remember Disney nights when we could eat potato chips and drink red pop in the living room!).  The first atomic power station opened near Moscow, Russia and Joseph Welch asked Senator Joseph McCarthy “Have you no sense of decency, sir?” during Senate-Army hearings.  Armistice divided Vietnam into two countries, Charles C Diggs Jr. was elected Michigan’s first black congressman (my home state!), and Senator John Kennedy appeared on “Meet the Press” which brings us around to this weekend.  Tim Russert, only four years older than I am is gone.

So many events of my birth year were foreshadowing the things that would shape my opinions and relationships and politics. How many folks were educated, informed, entertained, and shaped by watching this gentleman.

To a wonderful father, who wrote a book about his father, that spoke to sons of fathers everywhere – you are now with the Father.  Happy Father’s Day.