Archive for August, 2012

Nariah says… #84

Posted: August 31, 2012 in Comedy, Fatherhood, Nariah
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After work, if the weather’s nice, I like to take the kids to the end of our cul de sac, stand/sit on the hill, and watch the cars go by. One thing I always did with Nariah was pretend to take her nose off and throw it somewhere or either eat it. When she was old enough to “fight” back, she’d do the same back to me. This eventually moved on to other body parts; eyes, ears, mouth, arms, belly, etc… Today was Toryn’s turn and both Nariah and I played with him, throwing his nose into the street while he giggles or either looks us like “uhhhh ok????”

Nariah has started to focus on me now, stealing my nose and eating it. She is laughing and giggling and feeding my “nose” to Toryn who is back to giggling again. Finally Nariah goes for the gutso. She takes my belly. “Now I’ve got your belly! Yum yum yum yum!”
She’s running around in circles from me as I chase her to get my belly back.

All of a sudden she stops, and has this wild “OMG” look on her face. “Wait a second here! Daddy’s belly has hair on it! ptooey ptooey ptooey“.
Nariah now proceeds to spit my belly out over the ground, looks at me, smiles the biggest grin, and then runs off towards the house laughing.
This child is a mess.

Grilled Bacon Wrapped SoCo Colossal Shrimp

Posted: August 25, 2012 in Food, Main course, On the grill
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A common question I get is “Where in the world do you come up with this stuff?”. There really isn’t a method to this madness. It just happens. Sometimes tasty dishes kinda come out of nowhere. I like to do things spur of the moment perform better when I’m rushed. This particular evening I lost track of time before the family got home from school/work and I knew if something wasn’t cooked by the time the Mrs. got home, there was a pretty good chance I’d be in trouble. I remembered we had some Colossal shrimp in the freezer. Hmmm… As I walked up the stairs I noticed a bottle of Southern Comfort sitting on the bar in the basement. “Hey SoCo! Do you want some shrimp today too? Come on! we’re in a hurry!”
Upstairs in the fridge, SoCo and I find some bacon. “Well that makes everything better doesn’t it?”. SoCo didn’t say anything back, I took it to mean he was too overly excited with the thought of bacon on some shrimp. Now we need something to “hold” the seasoning. Since honey is our normal staple, decided to go with the dark agave nectar and switch it up this time. If you’ve read some of the past shrimp/lobster posts, they normally use a heated sauce I brush on while grilling. This time we’re letting it soak, no brush. (All SoCo’s suggestion)

Colossal Shrimp peeled and deveined
Agave nectar (or honey (or maple syrup if you’re short on the first 2 options))
Garlic Powder
Old Bay seasoning (or if you’re in the deep south area try Swamp Fire)
Southern Comfort
Bacon (a half strip for each shrimp)
Toothpicks
DisAronno Amaretto in a spray water bottle (this is extra credit, I pulled this out at the last minute as I walked outside)

Get your grill started and ready for direct grilling.
Place your shrimp in a bowl and (I’m sorry I really didn’t measure this at all, I was in a rush remember?) pour on some Southern Comfort and Agave nectar. Enough to let the shrimp sit in it but not be covered. See the pics in the slideshow below for an idea. Definitely use more Southern Comfort than the Agave nectar, as too much “sugar” will burn when cooking. Toss the shrimp, mix it up, get the juices all in the shrimp. Generously add garlic powder and Old Bay and toss again. I say generously add because a lot of the seasoning will come off into the liquid. Wrap each shrimp with bacon, hold in place with a toothpick on each end, and return to the Southern Comfort Agave nectar bowl.

Brush the hot grates with a napkin dipped in olive oil, (or if you have time and feeling funky fresh, cut an onion in half, and dip that in olive oil and brush the grates with it). Place the shrimp on the grill and cover. Let grill for about 4-5 minutes. Turn the shrimp (if you are using the amaretto, spray each shrimp before turning. note that amaretto is flammable and will cause a flare up but it should be real short lived). Cover and let cook another 5 or so minutes. Spray with amaretto again and turn if needed until bacon looks done to your liking.

ENJOY!

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Nariah says… #83

Posted: August 19, 2012 in Comedy, Nariah
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We’re having a nice family Saturday at the Rio boardwalk in Gaithersburg. Was actually on our way to the car to leave when we decided to get cupcakes. On the way to get cupcakes, we notice a band playing near the middle of the boardwalk by the lake. Sooooo, we decide to get our cupcakes and go check them out. Now I don’t know what kind of music it was, but if I had to guess, I’d say it was like a Native American slash Folk slash semi-Polka type combo music, whatever that is.

So those of you that know me can figure out that music, live atmosphere and just being me will probably equal something crazy. How do you dance to Native American slash Folk slash semi-Polka type combo music? I don’t know, but I was gonna try a few things to see what worked out. First I tried to hand dance with Toya. Ummm, yeah…. its doable, but not quite hitting the zone. Then I tried Detroit (or maybe its Chicago?) stepping. Toya couldn’t even keep a straight face because I had the the serious stepper face going on but was slowed down 3.8 times to fit the Native American slash Folk slash semi-Polka type combo music. I actually wish I had video of it to show, I was laughing at myself on that one. If you don’t know “steppin” in this format, click this link HERE, and note the footwork, that’s what I was trying to achieve with Toya in the slow motion form. LOL. Needless to say, Nariah is starting to get embarrassed. Yep, she’s not wanting to dance with her father. After numerous times of trying to get grab her hands and try to turn her around and dance, she finally puts her arms inside her shirt.

“Nariah??? You aren’t gonna dance with your daddy? Come on boo, its me!”
“Nope!”
“I’m embarrassing you? Really?”
Nariah turns her head away. I try to pull her close to me and she leans back.
“I can’t dance with you daddy, I would if I could”
“Huh? What you mean? Of course you can dance with me, come on!”
“Sorry, but there has to be arms in order for you to twirl me around and stuff, and look….. I don’t any arms!”

She says this with a slight smirk too mind you.
I couldn’t help but laugh and be impressed with her quick wit.

But alas, I still had the last laugh as I put my arms in my shirt like Nariah had done, and proceeded to dance around her, armless. If she gonna be embarrassed, might as well go all out!
*She gon learn today!!!!*

And to my delight, Nariah did indeed start dancing back with me…. armless…

(Kinda ironic that my shirt fit the mood for me not even thinking about being embarrassed, LOL)

Toryn says… #2

Posted: August 12, 2012 in Comedy, Toryn
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We’re sitting at dinner, feeding Toryn in the high chair and he’s eating pretty good. After awhile I give him his water bottle to quench his thirst. He plays around with it, drinks some, plays some more, drinks some more, and then drops the bottle. Now this bottle travels all the way down to the floor, unobstructed, and lands directly on the big joint at the base of my big toe. Right where I had bunion surgery years ago. OMG. Talk about pain! I believe I said “AAAAAAAAAAAAAUGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!” for a good sustained 8 seconds. The whole time Toya turned from the kitched to see what was wrong as she heard the mishap. I look at Toryn to check and make sure he wasn’t too startled by my outcry. This child is just staring at me like I have 3 heads or something. He then puts his forefinger in his mouth, smiles, and says “Uh oh!”

I couldn’t help but to laugh, which was Toya’s queue to laugh as well to fit in with the “check if a person is alright before you start laughing” code of ethics. LOL