meal with a view

Getting ready for some delicious fresh guacamole. Not a bad way to spend an evening.

Good News

The Beets did some celebrating tonight...

Tell you why when we get back from our mini-break!

Christmas Desserts

For Christmas at my parent's house, I ended up making two desserts.  One, the Chocolate Hazelnut Ganache Tart that was already featured, and the second a Cranberry-Pear Crisp.  I thought this sounded rather festive and more seasonal than the other fruit based desserts I was considering.  My sister-in-law made an apple pie for our feast, so for the 6 of us, there was a dessert for every two people.  I like that kind of ratio.  I liked the Crisp a lot and would definitely make it again.

Courtesy of Martha Stewart.com

Cranberry Pear Crisp
Serves 6 - Hands-On Time: 20 minutes - Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes

Meat Sweats

You have not lived until you've seen these fellows take down 200 wings.

Or maybe you'll just live a lot longer than they will.

Dinosaur Meat Update

Thanks to a faithful reader, I have an update on our dinosaur eating discussion.  She sent in the following link which we found most illuminating:

What did dinosaur meat taste like?

Based on that, I think I'll pass on the dino meat.  I don't have a lot of hawk in my diet, and I don't think I'm missing out on too much.

Not Yum.

Stimulating Dinner Conversation #2

This past weekend, I sat down to dinner with a group of friends.  This group was made up of many of the same people who chimed in on the "Which dinosaur would you rather eat?" debate of 2010 and the topic was once again visited.  At some point Beet mentioned getting in a time machine and going back in time to actually get a dinosaur and decide the point once and for all, but I'm not sure how we got to that scenario.  Instead, most of the conversation was hijacked by the Kool-Aid Man.

Kool-Aid Man

It seemed pretty universal that we would be fairly angry if the Kool-Aid Man came busting through our walls.  I don't think most insurance covers that.  Who's going to pay for that damage?  Getting some Kool-Aid is definitely not worth that headache, especially when we could have just gone to the store to get the drink, or the Kool-Aid Man could have come in through the door.  But could he have?  And here's where the conversation took an interesting turn.

The Kool-Aid Man can't use the door.  He's way too big.  We had a lawyer in our midst, so we queried about whether venues were in violation of the American's With Disabilities Act.  Her take was that he often busts through the walls at private residences, which aren't covered under the ADA.  But he could have a case at any sort of public place.  We still don't think it gives him the right to vandalize property in such a flagrant fashion, but it did make us pause and think about how tough life must be for him and to try to put ourselves in his jug before we judge again.

This could be an interesting topic to discuss with your loved ones this Thanksgiving.  What a great time to teach the kids about acceptance.  I look forward to hearing your take on the topic, and if you have any interesting conversations around the old bird tomorrow, come on back and let us know.  From everyone here at Scuttlebuttering, have a great Thanksgiving, folks!

 

Happy Turkey Day!

Stimulating Dinner Conversation

The Beets like to entertain.  It's a fact of life.  Last week, Ray was cooking up 5 lbs of pot roast, so we decided to have some friends over.  Boxed wine was flowing, stirring up some rousing debate.  Eventually, we came back to one of life's most important questions - which dinosaur would you prefer to eat?

Now, the answers ran the gamut.  Bert said T. Rex, of course, 'cause he's a burly man.  The brontosaurus got 3 votes.  The theory behind this was that since they were herbivores, the meat would be nice and tender, like a grass-fed cow.  That's solid logic that you just can't argue with.  Another good answer was pterodactyl confit which would be tasty due to ample amounts of fat.  I'm a little grossed out, but still on board.  Triceratops and Stegosaurus rounded out the legitimate answers.  Of course our favorite train enthusiast had to throw a wrench in the conversation by saying she would like to eat dragon.  Which is just absurd.  Damn it.

The conclusion?  We need to buy a dinosaur and eat it, that's the only way to solve the discussion.

And yes, I did take notes during the debate.