03 September 2015

Romancing The Chocolate: New Orleans Chef Competition Winner: Macadamia Nut Pineapple Up-Side Down Cake, New Orleans Restaurant Links


Photo by Cynthia Campbell  --  Macadamia Nut Pineapple Up-Side Down Cake by Restaurant R'evolution pastry chef Erin Swanson is the silver-medal dessert at the 2014 New Orleans Wine & Food Experience's Grand Tastings.
       Photo: Cynthia Campbell
                                                              
Romancing The Chocolate: New Orleans Chef Competition Winner: Macadamia Nut Pineapple Up-Side Down Cake, New Orleans Restaurant Links: From Denny:  Louisiana is fond of food competitions and New Orleans attracts the top chefs who are willing to compete for charity events and industry competition too.  This tasty recipe competed in a New Orleans Wine and Food Experience competition, developed by Pastry Chef Erin Swanson, Restaurant R’evolution, located in New Orleans, Louisiana. She was the 2014 desserts category silver medal winner.  All those lucky tasters were found returning for seconds of this delicious simple cake!...

... To satisfy your foodie curiosity here's what the other medal winners were cooking and the New Orleans restaurants from which they hail are linked so you can go visit and check out their stellar menus: ...
                                                              
Romancing The Chocolate: New Orleans Chef Competition Winner: Macadamia Nut Pineapple Up-Side Down Cake, New Orleans Restaurant Links



Sleep Majesty King Duvet

Sleep Majesty King Duvet


Sleep Majesty: Restful, blissful, restorative sleep reigns supreme to pump up our attitude to take on a new day!  Easy to coordinate with other patterns!


Visit Denny Lyon Gifts  @ CafePress.com  -  see what's new!  Also note that I leave up all my designs from year to year so you have the security knowing that you can purchase as your budget permits to coordinate a room.


02 September 2015

Dennys Food and Recipes: Labor Day, Football Tailgating: Check Out Some New Drinks, Appetizer Cheesy Zucchini No-Fry Fries with Smoked Paprika Dip Sauce


Associated Press photo by Matthew Mead -- Cutting a zucchini into frylike sticks then cooking them delivers a signature crunch without the deep-frying.
Photo:  Matthew Mead/AP

Dennys Food and Recipes: Labor Day, Football Tailgating: Check Out Some New Drinks, Appetizer Cheesy Zucchini No-Fry Fries with Smoked Paprika Dip Sauce: From Denny:  Ready to try something new for the Labor Day weekend and tailgating season?  Audition it on Labor Day and check out your reviews, and, if all goes well, you have some winners for the tailgating season.  I know.  I know.  The conventional wisdom is that you are not supposed to audition something new on your guests but my crowd likes to review.  Come on; put a little risk into your life!

I usually cook up standards I know most people enjoy and then introduce a couple of new things for review and comment.  It's a conversation starter and since my friends tend to be as opinionated as myself, well, they enjoy weighing in.  They even make suggestions to kick it up, tone it down or variations that I might not have considered.  Since I value their input it's all done in good fun.  For my guests to take home I also make copies of the new recipes with space for them to make notes while we discuss the food.

The first two drinks up for consideration are old standards with new twists:  a Planter's Punch and a Bloody Mary.  The new twist for the Planter's Punch is that it has some added Camus Cognac with the apple cider, apple juice and pineapple juice.  The new twist for the Bloody Mary is the addition of Lucid Absinthe with the spicy bloody mary mix, worchestershire sauce, horseradish, black pepper, celery salt and garlic salt.  These two drinks come from  Niccole Trzaska at The Liberty Bar in New York City.

This appetizer recipe is from Chef Sara Moulton, one of the busiest TV chefs.  Check out this link to her site for online cooking classes, links to her TV shows and awesome easy recipes.  Sara has enjoyed a long career:  a 25-year stint at Gourmet magazine (which had a run from 1941 - 2009), hosted several Food Network shows for a decade, hosts public TV's "Sara's Weeknight Meals" and has written three cookbooks, one of which is "Sara Moulton's Everyday Family Dinners."  Whew! All while raising her own family.  It's no wonder she specializes in quick and easy food...


Dennys Food and Recipes: Labor Day, Football Tailgating: Check Out Some New Drinks, Appetizer Cheesy Zucchini No-Fry Fries with Smoked Paprika Dip Sauce



Louisiana Seafood Reusable Shopping Bag


Louisiana Seafood Reusable Shopping Bag

Check out awesome Louisiana eating: oysters, shrimp, crawfish, gumbo, jambalaya
Visit Denny Lyon Gifts  @ CafePress.com  -  see what's new! 




Summer Food:  Deliciously Easy Small Blueberry Cake

Summer Food: Cream Cheese Pastry Blueberry-Apple Cobbler and Traditional Blueberry Cobbler


Summer Food: Blueberry Yum Yum Cake Says It All


Summer Food: Raspberry Almond Cheesecake Tartlets

Breakfast: Easy Simple French Toast Casserole



Funny Coffee Cats Shower Curtain


Not ready for the world before your cup of joe? Quit hissing, COFFEE's brewing!
Visit Denny Lyon Gifts  @ CafePress.com  -  see what's new!  

31 August 2015

Dennys Food and Recipes: Super Simple Breakfast: Texas Hash, Sausage and Egg Casserole, More Casserole Links


Sausage Egg Casserole

                                                    Photo: Sausage Egg Casserole from AllRecipes.com


Dennys Food and Recipes: Super Simple Breakfast: Texas Hash, Sausage and Egg Casserole, More Casserole Links: From Denny:  Going to the beach for Labor Day?  Company coming and you are wondering what is easy to cook up for a hungry crowd?  Here are a couple of easy recipes for breakfast any time of the day.  They are also the kind of flexible recipes that you can add some of your favorite ingredients or seasonings to your taste...




Summer Food:  Deliciously Easy Small Blueberry Cake

Summer Food: Cream Cheese Pastry Blueberry-Apple Cobbler and Traditional Blueberry Cobbler




Summer Food: Blueberry Yum Yum Cake Says It All


Summer Food: Raspberry Almond Cheesecake Tartlets


Breakfast: Easy Simple French Toast Casserole



Funny Coffee Cats Shower Curtain

Not ready for the world before your cup of joe? Quit hissing, COFFEE's brewing!
Visit Denny Lyon Gifts  @ CafePress.com  -  see what's new!  

28 August 2015

A Truth Journal: Hey, DNI Clapper: Demand Agency Heads Change Profile of IC Hiring To Get Real Productivity


nsa_eye.jpg


A Truth Journal: Hey, DNI Clapper: Demand Agency Heads Change Profile of IC Hiring To Get Real Productivity: From Denny:  Listen, Clapper, if your intelligence agency heads keep sending you the same profile over and over, as they have been doing for some time now, quit getting angry about it and just fire their lazy asses.  They are still operating on the outmoded and unsuccessful game plan of Andrew Marshall who seriously F'd up both the military and intelligence communities for the past 60 years.  The Andrew Marshall idea was to hire just the very young, because, he reasoned, they were the easiest to fool and the easiest to control both mentally and physically.  Seriously?

You just can't keep hiring young IT people.  Young people don't belong in the ugly intelligence business.  IT people are the worst choice because they have rarely developed any people skills.  That isn't how their brains move in real time. They certainly don't have much life experience yet either.  The skills they do have for technology is great but you only need a handful of them compared to requiring legions of critical thinkers, and, yes, to a lesser extent, some analytical thinkers.

The field you should be looking at are the Baby Boomers and older.  What a shocking revelation?  That's right; you should be pulling from the 55 - 85 age group, as long as their minds are sharp.  You can teach IT skills to most of them who would be delighted to learn it.  Many of them are either underemployed and bored or outright retired and bored, wanting new challenges.  And, guess what, they would not be frittering away their days collecting dick pics and spying on nude celebrities like at the NSA...

A Truth Journal: Hey, DNI Clapper: Demand Agency Heads Change Profile of IC Hiring To Get Real Productivity



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Why Get Involved Iphone Plus 6 Tough Case



Get Involved: "if you don't have a seat at the table you are probably on the menu" - Senator Elizabeth Warren
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26 August 2015

Dennys Food and Recipes: Summer Food: Raspberry Almond Cheesecake Tartlets



Photo by Helana Brigman  --  Instead of cheesecake, try Raspberry Almond Cream Tartlets.
                                             Photo: Helana Brigman


Dennys Food and Recipes: Summer Food: Raspberry Almond Cheesecake Tartlets: From Denny:  Do you enjoy cheesecake but want an easier way to make it?  Then this recipe is for you.  I like cheesecake too but find it too large for just two of us to eat and too time consuming to make unless I plan on entertaining a hungry crowd.

A springform pan is an absolute must to make a proper cheesecake - and the patience of a saint to leave the oven door cracked open as it slowly cools down for hours so you can hopefully avoid it cracking straight down the middle like an ugly scar.  Usually, I've been pretty lucky over the years.  Of course, when I wasn't lucky it was evident that a wonderful fruit topping like blueberry or strawberry could hide a multitude of sins just like gravy on a screwed up dinner. :)...

Dennys Food and Recipes: Summer Food: Raspberry Almond Cheesecake Tartlets



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Keep Calm, Really? Potholder


Unleash your funny inner emotional diva!
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25 August 2015

Dennys Food and Recipes: Breakfast: Easy Simple French Toast Casserole


Advocate staff photo by HEATHER MCCLELLAND -- Gourmet Galley, French Toast Casserole
          The Advocate photo: HEATHER MCCLELLAND 
                                                                    
Dennys Food and Recipes: Breakfast: Easy Simple French Toast Casserole: From Denny:  Whether it's the holidays, a busy summer when the kids are out of school or company came to visit, we all need something fast and simple to put together that's a crowd pleaser.  This simple easy to assemble breakfast casserole fits that bill!

All the ingredients required are a loaf of good French bread, a full 8 ounces of your favorite brand of cream cheese, milk, maple syrup, butter, sugar and eggs.  Add fresh fruit to serve and it's that easy!

Usually when a recipe calls for sugar I often substitute agave syrup or brown rice syrup or even molasses.  If you don't like or can enjoy cow's milk why not substitute almond milk?  When butter is in a recipe I choose to clarify it just because we love the extra boost of flavor at our house from browning and filtering out the milk solids - as well as the added health benefits.  You could use margarine in this recipe as a substitute too.  And, to gild the lily, why not add a few shakes of nutmeg and/or cinnamon, some chopped pecans or walnuts before baking?  Yeah, Flavor Town is the name at our house...

Dennys Food and Recipes: Breakfast: Easy Simple French Toast Casserole



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Sports Blue Soccer Woven Throw Pillow



Sports Blue Soccer Woven Throw Pillow


A blue abstract background with bold lettering declaring your love of the sport from Louisiana artist Denny Lyon.  Available on other products too!
Visit Denny Lyon Gifts  @ CafePress.com  -  see what's new! 


24 August 2015

Dennys Food and Recipes: Summer Food: Blueberry Yum Yum Cake Says It All





Dennys Food and Recipes: Summer Food: Blueberry Yum Yum Cake Says It All: From Denny:  This sheet pan cake of creamy goodness only requires two cups of fresh blueberries.  First you make a simple syrup of water and sugar, add cornstarch to thicken, then add the blueberries.  Set the blueberry topping aside to cool while you create the crust.

The crust is a yummy combination of finely chopped pecans, butter and flour that you pat into the sheet pan and bake for about 10 to 20 minutes to make your tasty crust.  Set aside to cool.

To make your filling you combine the cream cheese and powdered sugar together and when that is well combined you add in the whipped topping, pouring it into the cooled crust.

After the blueberry topping has cooled then pour over the cream cheese-powdered sugar-whipping topping mixture.  Now set the sheet pan of blueberry goodness into the fridge to chill well.  Serve to screams of total delight!...


Dennys Food and Recipes: Summer Food: Blueberry Yum Yum Cake Says It All


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Cooper Name Mug





Shooting star Cooper says, "I'm the man!" What confidence! Who doesn't want to drink coffee every morning with him?  More products available in this name design for your pet or your man! 
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