I love feisty old people!

My sister Anna enlightened me to this awesome blogsite: http://margaretandhelen.wordpress.com/

You'd enjoy it more if you were of the liberal persuasion and had a fear/dislike/distaste/disgust for Gov. Palin. But if not, it's interesting to see the articulate perspectives of an 82 year old grandmother. She likes swearing (like me, she thinks they enhance what you are saying -haha), and she definitely gives her opinion bluntly. No pretty words for Helen!! I laugh EVERY TIME I read her blog.

Last night I did laundry and then made an awesome fried potato/onion/cauliflower thingy. Using just a tablespoon of canola oil, I chopped up a baked potato I had in my fridge from a previous meal, chopped up 1/2 a medium onion, then when the oil was hot (in an 8" nonstick pan), I put the potatoes and onions in with a lot of Pampered Chef Greek Seasoning, salt & pepper, and paprika. Paprika is a trick I learned for frying potatoes (makes them "brown" better) while working at the Full Circle Cafe in Fargo when I was in college. I worked as a job coach through Community Living Services and I had a few clients that worked in this cafe run by Deb Jenkins and Betty (something). I learned so much about cooking from Deb and Betty!!!. Anyway, back to the potato dish. So I cooked it for a bit, tossing every now and then. I then chopped up 1/2 a head of cauliflower, put the potatoes/onions mixture in a bowl to set aside, added 1 tsp of olive oil, more greek seasoning, and more salt & pepper and cooked up the cauliflower for a few minutes, then added back the potatoes and onions and cooked for a bit until everything was warmed through. It was delicious. And if you're counting weight watchers points, the whole thing (really, it was enough for TWO people) was 8.5. If I only ate half of it, it would have been an "under 5 pts" meal. However, I had like 14 points to use up after an apple in the afternoon, so I pigged out.

Then I had a beer. I LOVE Leinenkuegal's Oktoberfest. I also love their Leinie Red and Leinie Light. The dark one is good too (can't remember that name) You can't find the Light up in this area (or even fargo sometimes), but you can closer to the cities. I dare to say, Leinie light is better than Miller Lite....sorry brothers and sisters!! I visited the Leinie's brewery with my sister Amelia a couple summers ago. It was a very good tour and I highly recommend visiting them!!

On another note about food, I use kosher salt. I've used it for about a year now and can tell the difference between kosher and table salt. Regular table salt has a tinny/metallic taste to me but kosher is smoother and seems to blend with flavors better, enhancing the natural taste of food. I haven't cooked much with sea salt, so I'm not sure how that would compare but I suspect it is similar to kosher. Kosher has large granules which aren't as dense as regular table salt, so it seems like you are using A LOT when really you are using a couple "shakes" of regular table salt. It's fantastic, and if you enjoy cooking -or just enjoy eating, I highly recommend using kosher salt. You'll love the difference -and I could go on and on. Don't get me started on freshly ground pepper either! :-)