On the memory of American Food #2

I've spoken before about family holidays to Florida, and pancakes especially making an impact, but the really formative memory in my mind is the little things related to 2 successive family holidays to Clearwater beach.

They are, in no particular order:

The gravy on a meat dish, possibly meat loaf, at a diner in Scientology laden Clearwater
Shopping in publix, where they had calculators attached to the shopping trolleys
Having jalapeños on a burger at an Irish-American bar on Island estates
drinking unsweetened ice tea from dimpled red plastic beakers
Eating front loops and the colour the milk went
Eating pop tarts in exciting flavours
Running across hot sands with Cubans sandwiches and black coffee for my mother's lunch
The marinara sauce on angel hair pasta at a restaurant across the road from the Tropicana Motel where we stayed.
Saltwater taffy, blue smurf & superman flavoured ice cream.
Key Lime Pie...

My birthday card from my mother this year - I remember picking up this postcard in Florida

I should point out, these memories are so ingrained in my mind that I'm pretty sure heading back to Clearwater beach would cause flood of tears because I know it wouldn't be the same, things would have moved on and it may not be as good......

In fact just think about Clearwater Beach makes me cry....

(Part 1 is here)

The Fish Graveyard

I suppose I should update you on the fish - we've currently got 3 Isambard*, Nietzsche , Vince - they seem fine. The extreme cold did a few in and they probably need some proper TLC. Anyway - Pete and I were trying to recall other fish we'd had over the years so I started scanning the blog for fish related posts and I came across the fish graveyard from an old bit of my website that still floating around the tubes of the internet... So here it is - in memory of of the valiant pets of old. And for the ones that don't have little grave markers (or dates) Darnell Bertrand Pushkin Heisenburg I should possibly make a marker for the tomb of the unknown goldfish because I'm sure we've forgotten one... .. time for some more fish? Any ideas for names?? *We were slightly uncertain for a while if it was Heisenburg or Isambard that had survived

Tofu Recipe Round Up

More for my own benefit then anything else I'm going to round up my favourite go-to weeknight tofu recipes. This is different from my pinterest board which is full of things I haven't necessarily tried yet but look yummy. Vegan Tofu Taco Crumbles Vietnamese Fried Tofu w/ Tomato Sauce – Dau Sot Ca Chua (I airfry the tofu for this one) I also like to slather it in BBQ sauce and bake it for about 40 mins with peppers and onions before adding it to wraps with some salad. I've also found it's a great substitute for paneer in things - it's not quite there but it's close oh, and if I do need to press it, and I haven't got time (which is almost always) I used the microwave method from this chirpy little video

The Pretty, The Easy and the things on Sticks #2

I've spoken before about Pinterest, and how pretty everything is on there, but there's another side, a very definite, and I can only guess american trend - the easy fix. Easy cheats, how to make things without the effort, how to cheat, how to make restaurant specials at home, so you end up with a massive jug of frappachino mix or a dressing not too dissimilar from the amazing blue cheese dressing at Pizza Hut (this is our holy grail - we've gone to PH just to eat the Blue Cheese dressing) and it shows an interesting side of people, and if you look at the ingredients they use, and most of these tips and tricks would be impossible to remake outside of the states. Source: therebelchick.com via Rebecca E. on Pinterest This isn't a new thing - Top Secret Recipes was one of the first websites I remember checking back and linking too - even if I was looking at recipes I had no idea what the original tasted like, but it's impressive so much effort is given over to ma...

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