Just in time for the holidays, y'awl!

Paul here, giving Darlene a break today while she preps for the Thanksgiving feast we're planning for tomorrow. HA! No, that's a joke -- we did Thanksgiving last weekend. A recap to come.

Some comedian made a joke once that being in a relationship with a vegetarian essentially means he's a vegetarian. Well, the sames holds true if you're with a foodie. You end up talking about food, exploring different cuisines, seeking out bigger and better, even spending more than the typical passing thought on kitchen gadgets.

And on early Sunday mornings, we have our coffee while watching stupid amounts of Food Network or infomercials. Hence this posting.

Pop culture the wheelhouse for my comic Cool Jerk, and foodie culture is certainly a facet of that.



Click to enlargify!

Some of the gags above should come as no surprise if you know me. Thinking about Paula Deen deep-frying bacon in butter was the impetus for my strip, instead of the more recent (and much more exciting) news. I actually adore Giada and find it hard to say anything overly critical of her, except maybe for her resemblance to a De Laurentiisaurus Rex. And Guy Fieri? I know he's an easy target. But on the upside, a good friend of ours will have her café featured on "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives" soon. So that's a good thing. (More to come on that; I don't want to steal any thunder or jinx anything.)

Happy Thanksgiving, y'awl!

P.Ho

"We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give."

Fellow local food bloggers, Alice Q. Foodie and Caron Golden are spearheading San Diego Food Bank's "Food 4 Kids" backpack program this season. Please take a moment to read about this cause and what you can do to help hungry children in San Diego County.

The San Diego Food Bank’s Food 4 Kids Backpack Program was launched in 2007 to provide food to get chronically hungry elementary school students through the weekend. Every Friday, participating children receive a backpack with child friendly items such as peanut butter, pop-top canned goods, cereal, juice boxes, fruit cups, raisins, pudding cups, granola bars, shelf-stable milk and macaroni and cheese tucked inside.

The children receive free or reduced cost meals while school is in session, but do not have food available on the weekends or school holidays for themselves and their siblings. Food 4 Kids provides food directly to the children, without requiring their parents to receive a referral to a local food pantry, pick up food at the pantry or prepare it at home.

San Diego’s food bloggers and other members of the local community are coming together to raise funds for the San Diego Food Bank’s Food 4 Kids Backpack Program. A little goes a long way – the program costs approximately $7.00 per week per child to fund, and a donation of $250.00 will fund a backpack for a child for the entire 36 week school year. Giving whatever you can afford will help to ensure this program continues to provide a much needed service.

As an added incentive, several San Diego food bloggers will be hosting prizes to be awarded in a drawing at our live food and backpack drive at our booth at the Little Italy Mercato on December 12, 2009. We will also be collecting non-perishable, child-friendly food items and backpacks. Come and meet your favorite food bloggers, drop off your donations and celebrate the Holidays at the Mercato!

So remember – there are two ways to donate: online here or at the donations drive at the Little Italy Mercaton on December 12th!

This post was brought to you by Hello Kitty

When JustJenn emailed me a few days ago asking if I was free to go to lunch at Royal/T, I jumped at the chance. I didn't care that it was in Culver City, over an hour away or that I had visited Royal/T last year. I was going to hang out with her and a few other bloggers and celebrate the icon Hello Kitty.

I never really got into Hello Kitty as a kid. My aunts would always get me Little Twin Stars instead (another product produced by Sanrio). Maybe my aunts knew something I didn't know like that I am deathly allergic to cats. Oh well. I still adore Hello Kitty.


In addition to showcasing art related to Hello Kitty. The menu at Royal/T also had a special menu devoted to the icon of all things cute: waffles, pancakes and the pinacle being the Hello Kitty High Tea, which was filled with sushi, pressed sandwiches, brownie bites cupcakes, a pot of tea and a decorated Hello Kitty cookie.


It was all very cute and eating surrounded by all things relating to Hello Kitty certainly set the mood.

The Three Apples Hello Kitty exhibit goes on until Sunday, November 15.

Read more posts on the exhibit by JustJenn, The Food Librarian or Nanette. Additional photos from Sarah Kuhn or me.

Food Faux Pas #1

Eating Count Chocula after Halloween is the equivalent of wearing white after Labor Day.

Kids have better toys than when I was growing up

I'm so jealous of kids nowadays. They have the internet, MP3s, YouTube and apparently more money than I did when I was growing up. Walking down the toy aisle at Target always fuels my envy. With Paul and I being trapped in the bodies of adults, we always spend lot of time looking at toys and collecting them. If you've ever visited our place, you'll know what I mean.

The latest target of my jealous are all the baking toys available. Instead of just having the Easy Bake Oven, there are pastry decorating toys for actual edible desserts! As someone who never owned an Easy Bake Oven, I feel envy for my next door neighbor all over again.


Admittedly, the cool thing about the packaging for some of these toys is that Duff from Ace of Cakes/Charm City Cakes is prominently displayed on the box. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to find a kid, tell 'em how I used to record TV shows on my portable cassette recorder because we didn't have a VCR or YouTube when I was growing up. That will make them cry.

With laughter.

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I love Mother's Cookies. There were an integral part of my childhood. When I thought they were going out of business, I was heart broken but they're back!

With their return, I'm giving away a bag of Circus Animals and Taffy cookies courtesy of the poople who make Mother's. Leave a comment by November 30 and one lucky person will have free cookies delivered to their doorstop. And what's better than free cookies?

I came. I saw. I concord.

I've been obsessing over concord grapes all fall. The last time I tasted some was in Seattle a few years ago. From the first taste, I was gobsmacked. It tasted the way grapes should be. And until I tried it, I thought concord jelly was just a made-up flavor because it tastes nothing like the red or green table grapes seen in grocery stores in San Diego.

Lucky for me there is Specialty Produce in Middletown. Specialty Produce is a wholesale distributor catering to restaurants and home consumers alike. Their warehouse-size facility is daunting but a call to customer service for special produce in season often brings satisfactory results like these concord grapes.

Concord grapes have a dark and chalky, bitter skin. They are fine for eating despite the seeds but I couldn't foresee myself eating 5lbs. of grapes before they went bad. The obvious choice was to make concord grape jelly. Instead, I went with concord grape pie. Yes, pie. And a very delicious pie too for all you nonbelievers.



I should have stuck with jelly because I had to separate the flesh from the skin from almost 5 lbs. of grapes to make two pies. My nails and fingers were stained purple for several days. The work was tedious and you know what kind of music goes with peeling grapes? Apparently Sparks. The skins were saved for later use but the grape guts were boiled until the seeds separated from the flesh.



The grape skins are reunited with the flesh and pureed until smooth. Just add sugar, lemon juice, corn starch, place in a pie shell, bake and it's done.



The pie was left to cool in the refrigerator overnight, giving it a chance to firm up. It has an extreme grape taste -- much like a sandwich with lot of grape jelly -- with which I have absolutely no problem. I did have a problem with the filling staining everything it touched.

Corcord Grape Pie
About 2 lbs Concord grapes
1/2 cup white sugar
1/4 cup flour
2 tbsp cornstarch
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 pie shell

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F

Squeeze the pulp out the skins into a saucepan, saving the skins in a bowl. Cook the pulp in a saucepan over medium heat, stirring frequently, until the seeds are beginning to come out.

Strain the pulp into the skins, using a spoon to rub the pulp off the seeds. Add sugar, flour, cornstarch and lemon juice.

Pour into an unbaked 9" pie crust and make a lattice top.

Bake at 375 degrees F for about 50 minutes. Refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight before serving.