Happy Holidays, everyone!

woo hoo!

Hi there!  As some may have noticed, I’ve been an absentee blogger for..oh, I would say since my Halloween post.  Why you ask?  Because I’ve been in a pseudo comatose state.  This consisted of being a lazy ass, lacking motivation, in a television stupor, beriddled with flu-like symptoms, and the most of all… growing a baby inside of me.

Wow, I’ve been gone so long, they changed the posting format.  Anywho, don’t worry, my fingers are gaining strength and the clouds in my mind are beginning to dissipate…. I’ll be back to regularly blogging in the near future.

I do have to give much love to a very special blogger acting as my WordPress coach.  He tweeted and guilted me into getting back on here.  If it weren’t for the nugget of guilt he left in my brain, I could have easily fell right back into a Law & Order marathon instead of posting today.  Thank you, SocialKenny!

Random Online Dating tip:

Drunken Christmas parties don’t usually make for the start of a meaningful office romance.

Happy Holidays everyone!

and of course, follow me on twitter in case another marathon is on.

Everything but the kitchen sink… moist turkey meatballs

Double, double toil and trouble…  or rather, bubble bubble boil and nibble

Hola!  Today I’ll share hubby’s favorite dish… Everything but the kitchen sink… moist turkey meatballs.

Now, you can get the 100% lean turkey meat, but the way I figure, turkey is naturally lean so I usually get the one with a little fat left in there.

Plus, a little fat makes your tastebuds do back flips… which can feel a little strange since the inside of your mouth is a rather small enclosed space.

If you do use the leanest of meats, veggies will add extra moisture, meaning fun front flips in your mouth to balance out the fatty back flips.

Use whichever turkey package is on sale.  The end result is always delicious.

What you need for meatballs:

1 package of ground turkey

1/2 onion diced (I use a yellow Spanish onion cause they’re sweeter and less expensive)

1 large bell pepper or a bunch of sweet peppers different colors (diced, should be about 1 cup)

1 zucchini (diced, should be about 1/2 – 3/4 cup)… feel free to substitute portabella mushrooms (same amount)

1 teaspoon dried parsley

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1/4 cup seasoned Italian breadcrumbs

1/2 cup grated parmeson cheese

2 large eggs

1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley

Sauce:

1 jar of vodka pasta sauce

5 cloves of garlic (sliced or minced)… feel free to use less garlic, but personally, I can eat garlic cloves whole without flinching.  That’s how deep my love runs.

It also makes me the opposite of a vampire.  Get it?  Vampires hate garlic and I love it.

1/2 onion diced (you can use the remaining half from the meatballs)

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (EVOO)

1/2 cup sliced zucchini or portabella mushrooms (whatever you used in the meatballs)

What to do:

In large pot, heat up EVOO.  Saute onions on medium heat for 5 minutes.  Add whatever vegetable you choose.  Add garlic.  Stir until fragrant.  Add jar of vodka sauce.  Mix and heat until simmering.

In large separate bowl, mix in all ingredients under “meatball” list except for fresh parsley (reserve that on the side).  Once mixture is incorporated, ball up meatballs (any size you want), but mine are about 1 1/2 tablespoon in size.

Next just drop them into simmering vodka sauce.  It’s easiest if you drop them around along the sides first and work yourself towards the center.

Cover with lid for about 1/2 hour on medium heat (sauce should be bubbling slightly).  After 1/2 hour, flip meatballs.  Reduce heat to low.  Add reserved parsley and let simmer for 45 minutes on low with lid on.

Feel free to add whatever type of cooked pasta to pot after meatballs are fully cooked through and mix all together.  I usually add whole wheat thin spaghetti… or…garlic bread :o)

yumz

Serve, drizzle EVOO, and parm on top and eat…yum yum yum.

Make this for your family, online date, non-online date, friends, enemies, frenemies, school board, classmates, political candidates (that you love of course), and especially yourself…yum yum yum!

Plus leftovers are great…especially on pizza!

Tell me what you think…would love to hear from you!

*help me rule the world and follow me on twitter: @angiegomez1010 *

When friends of loved ones get too gross for comfort

My head is itchy…think I’ll scratch it. (Photo credit: srcurran)

Hello!  So last night, hubby’s friend was in town and dropped by to say hi.  I have known him for what seems like forever.  Throughout the years I’ve seen him grow into the wonderful man he is today.  So when I came home last night… we

(hubby, friend, and I) were all in the living room shooting the breeze.  As in normal group conversations, sometimes I would talk to friend, then switch to talking with hubby, then friend and hubby would talk to eachother (promise I’m not referencing a threeway…dirty minds people).

When I started talking to hubby, I could see in my peripheral vision that friend was picking his nose.  Not just picking his nose, but scratching his forehead with his thumb through his nose.  I was appalled.  Do I call him out on it?  Do I simply pass him a tissue?  Do I stare at friend in hopes of him getting caught and his personal embarrassment ceasing his search and rescue?  About a million thoughts went through my head and all I can think to do was give hubby strange glances while nodding in the direction of his friend.

Did he take my what I thought to be obvious hint of hey, check out gold digger over there.  Do something about it!  No, of course he didn’t.  Hubby just chatted away while giving me strange looks himself as if we were in a facial expression face-off.  Throughout this exchange of facial muscles, friend kept digging.  And then he proceeded to ball up his finds and throw them on MY living room floor.  At this point I was about to vomit.  I stared at friends face praying he would turn around to see my disgust.  He never did.  So I said goodnight (no hugs were given).

As soon as hubby came to bed I verbally steamrolled him and asked why he didn’t interject with the picking.

me: Didn’t you see the faces I was making?
hubby: Yeah, I didn’t know what you were doing.  I thought you weren’t feeling well…looks at me with childlike big doe eyes
me: What?!…sigh

We fell asleep at 2am with promises of hubby confronting his friend and our new rule of: no boogers allowed on the floor.

This morning after vacuuming up debris, sanitizing everything friend touched, and feeling somewhat back to normal, I went to the bathroom to wash my hands…only to find that friend left me a little present in the bowl…sigh.

How do you handle unsavory habits of a friend’s friend?

Would love to hear your thoughts!

Related articles

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• BUSTED! Mom Shoving That Finger Up Her Nose At Pacers-Cavs Game [VIDEO] (bustedcoverage.com)

Catching the big one… tuna that is!

Hello there!  So hubby went fishing the other day.  Got himself a nice size tuna.  He was so excited because he finally caught something after literally, years (no exaggeration), of trying.  True, there would be months that went by without him even seeing the ocean… but he still remained pretty persistent and spent a small fortune swaying the Gods in his favor (ie buying special poles, chairs, shoes….).

So when we went to his brothers house to eat this fresh kill… I was excited.  That is…until the New Yorker in me started to silently scream in my head.  How do we know it’s safe?  What if it’s radio-active (like the tuna found in California)?  Don’t we need some sort of government grade inspection?  I didn’t even know what a fresh piece of tuna was supposed to look like outside of a sushi house or the seafood department in the grocery store.  And even there, it’s cut up in filets.

Fast forward a couple glasses of wine … tuna was delicious!  But now that that I’m sober again (being that it’s the next day), my reservations are back and I’m stuck with pounds of tuna to cook.  Well, before there was “the man”, people caught fish and ate it without fear, right?  And some still do (outside of NYC)…

With positive thoughts in my head giving me courage, I decided (well actually, hubby suggested), that I cook a schmorgesborg of dishes featuring the prize fish.  Normally I would of ordered him to cook it himself if he thinks I like spending my spare time making up special tuna recipes… but then I got to thinking…he finally caught “the big one”, let’s give the poor guy a break.  It’s not like anyone is hiring me to do anything in Florida (thanks job market).

So today I thought I would do something different and share with you some blackfin tuna recipes (which is a flaky white fish):

Fish dip:

2 filet sizes of tuna

1/2 teaspoon old bay seasoning

1 teaspoon course black pepper

1 big pinch kosher salt

4-5 splashes worcestershire sauce

2 rounded teaspoons sour cream

1 rounded teaspoon mayo

2 pinches dried parsley

1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil (enough to lightly coat pan)

veggies, pita chips/crackers/toast points (whatever you want to spread dip on)

Rinse filets with water and pat dry.  Heat up a wide frying pan with the EVOO on medium/high heat.  When pan is hot, season fish fillets with pinch of salt and pepper seasonings on one side only (note: it is not necessary to season both sides since you will season later when combining ingredients for dip).  Place filets in pan season side down.  Cook approx 2 min (depending on thickness of fish..ours was about 1/2 inch thick) on each side with lid on.  Remove and plate.  Make sure fish is cooked through (that’s where the lid comes in handy).

Break apart fish in bowl and let cool slightly.  Add in the rest of the ingredients (including the rest of the salt and pepper).  Stir, combine, and let set in fridge at least an hour before serving.  Feel free to adjust salt and pepper to individual taste.  Also feel free to add tabasco for heat (I left it out).  Serve on crackers or the very delicious Staci’s Chips (Whole Wheat)… I swear I’m not paid to endorse.

Tuna honey-ginger soy filet:

2 filets

1/2 cup low sodium soy sauce

1 tablespoon freshly grated ginger

1 tablespoon freshly grated garlic (around 5 big cloves)

1 teaspoon honey

2 tablespoons sesame oil

1 teaspoon EVOO (extra virgin olive oil)

zip-lock bag

Combine all ingredients in large zip-lock back while reserving 1 tablespoon of sesame oil and 1 teaspoon of EVOO.  Marinate thoroughly anywhere from 1/2 hour to 2 hours.  When cooking, heat frying pan with reserved sesame oil and EVOO.  Make sure pan is medium-high heat (not scorching).  Place filets in pan for about 2 minutes on each side (discard zip-lock bag with liquid).  Do not move filet around when cooking or they will break apart.  You know when to flip when meat gets a nice black sear on it’s side.  Flip and repeat on second side.

Seared tuna with sesame seeds:

All the same ingredients in above recipe plus 1 cup sesame seeds (I used hulled seeds purchased in the bulk section of Whole Foods).

Feel free to add low sodium soy sauce and wasabi on the side for dipping.

Take the seeds, put on a flat surface.  Take the filets and place on seeds so all sides are covered with seeds (same process you would use to bread something (minus the egg dip)).  Heat up frying pan with the oils until very hot.  Place filets down for about 30 to 60 seconds on each side.  Sesame seeds will sear and middle of filets should be raw.  Serve with low sodium soy sauce and wasabi.  *We were so excited about this one and ate the whole thing before remembering to snap a picture!*  yum yum yum

Tuna with white wine-garlic sauce:

2 tuna filets

kosher salt

course black pepper

handful grape tomatoes (around 1/2 cup)

1.2 cup dry white wine (like a pinot grigio)

1 sweet pepper (yellow or red is fine)

2 teaspoons poultry seasoning

5 diced garlic cloves

1/2 onion (sweet) diced

4 tablespoons EVOO

(1/2 cup sliced mushrooms and chopped handful of parsley, optional)

Heat large frying pan with 2 tablespoons of EVOO.  Add diced onions, tomatoes, and sweet pepper (mushrooms and parsley if you want).  Season with salt and pepper.  After a couple of minutes, add garlic.  Keep stirring.  Season one side of filets with poultry seasoning (I use this because it’s less intense in flavor than old bay seasoning).  move veggies in pan around to make room for filets in middle of pan.  Add filets season side down.  Season other side of filets with remaining poultry seasoning.  Add remaining EVOO.  Add wine.  Bring up to a bubble.  Reduce heat and put lid on top to cook fish through.  Plate fish and if liquid is still watery, cook on medium to low heat until sauce thickens up.  Place on top of fish.

Feel free to add a side salad and pinot grigio of course!

Related articles

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• Popular Bangor restaurant features fiddleheads in main dishes (bangordailynews.com)
• Dr Cohen : Recipes of fractionated diet (weightloser7.blogspot.com)
• Seared sesame crusted tuna with orange ginger soy sauce (snixykitchen.wordpress.com)
• Sesame Crusted Seared Tuna (potsandplots.wordpress.com)

Social Media and kids…good or bad?

English: social media monitors logo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Hola!  You know what kind of freaks me out?  Semi-naked kids on social media.  I remember way back when in highschool, kids used to get beat down (or at least severely scolded) by their parents for dressing like hoochie mamas and cursing in front of adults.  Now parents sit back and let their kids post pics of themselves in underthings on MySpace and Facebook, and pretty much turn a blind eye.  Not only are the girls semi-naked… they’re also puckering for the camera.  Boys are throwing up gang symbols, having IM wars, and bragging about what chick they just laid.  WTF is going on?

Granted, I was a handful back in the day, but my mom had no problem snooping around my personal things, and pretty much whooping my ass when I was ten minutes late for curfew (my mom is Asian so it was a little intense at home… FYI: I don’t endorse beatings for ten minute late curfews), but at least I grew up knowing to respect my elders (especially short little Asian ladies), and not to kiss and tell… because if you truly are a hoochie, you at least want to be a respectable one.

As I got older, I heard disturbing things about colored wristbands, naked sexting, and God knows what else.  Maybe it’s best I grew up when AOL just started and it took a good twenty minutes signing in …diiinnnnnnngggg….pshhhhhhhhhh…ding ding..shhhhhhhh  remember that?  It felt like winning the lotto everytime.

It’s normal for kids to test their boundaries…I know I did.  But it’s disturbing when I see middle-schoolers and dare I say elementary kids act like I did in highschool… and in some cases, my twenties.

Now I hear FB is trying to “allow” membership of users under 13 years old.  Is it just me or does no one else realize that 13 year olds are ALREADY on the site claiming they are of appropriate age.  It’s kind of like what we did when stumbling on a free porn site when we were 16…(just check off the 18 or older button)…or was that just me?

Point is, I wish parents were a little more strict with their kids nowadays and not feel bad about “snooping”.  It’s not snooping if it’s your house.  Also, a little fear never hurt anyone … fear is best instilled at a young age.  FYI: This is very different than beating the crap out of your kids and being verbally abusive

I think social media is great and computers and technology are wonderful…and really don’t know what I’m trying to say in this blog except watch your kids and what they do.  Even if they have the body of an adult, they certainly don’t have the mind of one.

Maybe the problem is that everything is now viral.  Sure, kids do the darnedest things, but now when they do, the whole world knows about it.

What are some ways to monitor your kids behavior online that does not involve lockdown?

Do you believe 13 year olds and younger should go on social media?

Related articles

• A Parents’ Guide to Kids’ Social Media (blogs.wsj.com)
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• Facebook for First-Graders? The Social Media Giant Looks to Welcome Kids Under 13 (healthland.time.com)

Online dating extra-marital affairs… why even start?

Maury Povich…who’s my baby daddy? (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Hello, hello!  Let’s talk about something unsavory today…extra-marital affairs.  This brings us into how they all usually start, which is a lie.

Everyone lies.  Some more than others and sometimes it’s just a little lie that really has no significance in the world.  But other times, people lie about big things such as, oh I don’t know, sleeping with other people they are not married to.

Usually these lies start out small like, “that’s’ an old friend’s number you found in my pocket”; “I have to work late, again…my boss is really driving me crazy”; “what?…I had to take a shower because I went to the gym after work”…stuff like that.

If you’re one of those couples in an open/swingeresque type relationship, I don’t understand, but you have my blessing… I’m referring to the cheats out there looking to get it on behind their partners back.  Unfortunately, this seems to be all the rage.

In randomly Googling for online fodder, I came across a website called ashleymadison.  This is an entire site dedicated to cheating and has a whopping 6 million members who want to have extra-marital affairs.  There are also TV shows (and you know how much I love my television), solely based on cheating.  Shows such as: Cheater, Unfaithful: stories of infidelity; and let’s not forget Maury Povich and the ongoing paternity tests.

I’m guilty of being sucked into the televised drama every now and then, but after a while, it gets a little depressing.

So those looking for love online or elsewhere, please don’t fall for the married guy/girl.  There is no point in even starting a relationship with a “taken”.  Cheats also use the web, but only because they want to get their rock off/find excitement/get caught….  He/she is just not worth it.  They may be loving and all you dreamed of, but at the end of the day…they’re still married (for whatever reason they give you).

Note: cheaters cheat (aka lie), so they may make their marriage seem worst than it actually is for the sake of getting in your pants.  And if their wife is “a bitch” and not “giving them any”, or their husband is “a bore” or “a lazy bastard” …that’s not your problem!  Move on.

Tip:

• Don’t meet married people on online dating sites

or anywhere else

I figure, if married people don’t have any one to cheat with, they’ll be forced to work on their marriage (or get a divorce), then they’ll be perfectly free to date.

Related articles

• Why Women Cheat (everydayhealth.com)
• Did You Marry A Cheater? Or, 4 Ways to Tell A Study Is Baloney (blogher.com)
• Can a Marriage Survive Infidelity? (everydayhealth.com)
• David Letterman’s Shocking Admission of Infidelity and Cheating: A Warning for Everyone in a Committed Relationship (prweb.com)
• Ten Tips to Help Protect Your Marriage Against Adultery / Extramarital Affairs (tip#5) (unwalled.wordpress.com)

Online dating for parents… not taboo!

Who is the mother? Who is the daughter? (Photo credit: Mubina H)

Hey there!  The other day I was watching a new series on TLC called “My Mom‘s Obsession”… whoa.  This brings us into today’s topic blog… online dating for people with kids at home.

I’m all about online dating for all, including those with kids, but… parents have to be extra careful who they bring home around their children.  Again, I feel like I’m stating the obvious, but after watching this show, there are some people out there in the world that just don’t seem to have a clue.

The episode I’m referencing followed the lives of two mothers who had teenage daughters.  One mom was described as “needy” and looking for male attention.  She would be in the middle of shopping with her daughter, get a text from a hot, would be luvvah in training, needing a ride (because the men she seemed to attract couldn’t drive)?, then would ditch her daughter in the middle of a parking lot.  The mom attributed this behavior to the men in her life not calling her pretty.  She said she liked the attention she gets from 20 somethings (she was close to 50), calling her hot…errr…that’s what young guys who want a sugar mama, or free taxi service, do.

Mon #2 had this overwhelming desire to anoint her teenage daughter as the modern day Cinderella.  She took her children out of school, home-schooled them… but get this, not really because the girls home-schooled themselves while mom went about her business outside of the home.  How can you be home-schooled without an adult present?  Anyways, she would give “Cinderella” a loose-leaf paper full of daily household chores, which included cooking dinner, while mom went out every night and boogied down with her eldest, 20something year old daughter (after she ate said dinner).  Mom said she “liked her freedom”.

Both of the examples above are what you should NOT do.  I admit, not once was online dating mentioned on this TLC episode, but this episode was too fantastic not to mention.  There is also a correlation between online dating and “dating” (in general), as well as “freedom” which are what the mothers wanted to feel but stepped off the deep end trying to recapture their youth.

Here are some tips on online dating for parents:

1. Always make your child priority #1… this means no ditching them in parking lots if you get a text from a hottie saying they need a ride
2. Be aware of your child’s age… having a 2 year old has different responsibilities than having a 16 year old.  However, both require different types of attention
3. Do not post a picture of your child online… there are a lot of pervs out there that will only date you to get to your child
4. Be honest about having kids/ how many kids/ if you want more kids, etc on your profile… if you fear that you might not be a “good catch” if you’re up front about the kid issue, then you have bigger problems and need to seek emotional help.  There is no embarrassment or deceitfulness that should come up regarding your children
5. Try not to have a revolving door when it comes to the dates you expose your kids to…only have them meet your new beau when it starts getting serious

Remember, online dating for parents is not taboo!

Be sure to adhere to the above as well as these safety tips

Any parents out there with online dating comments/tips?

Would  love to hear from you!

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What’s your type of guy?

A pack of blueberries from a organic farm co-op program. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Hello, hello, hello!  I just ate about a pound of blueberries because I have it in my head that they are a powerful antioxidant, so I figure eating a pound of them in one shot should override the mini-chocolate bars I ate earlier.  Wish me luck.

I was thinking about my wonderful lil’ big sis this weekend because I am so excited she is coming down to Florida.  I refer to her as lil’ big sis and she conversely refers to me as big lil’ sis.  Lets just use LBS and BLS for short.  Hopefully these acronyms don’t stand for anything too unsavory in the digital world.  This is due to our age and height discrepancy.  She is a mere 5 feet, arguably 4’11” and I am around half a foot taller, yet she is a few years older than I.

So I was remembering a time when we were talking about online dates in general and where we go, what we do, and all other fun things involving encounters of dating kind.  We were comparing stories and noticed that even though we are two peas in a pod, we have completely different online dating (or really any kind of dating), styles.

LBS likes the artsy romantic that writes poems about her beauty while I always tended to go for the business type guys who had 5 year plans and verbally told me I was beautiful (poems were not necessary).  She didn’t mind going dutch while I couldn’t even comprehend the words coming out of her mouth when she told me she “split the bill”, she had dates lasting upwards of eight hours while I thought a long dinner would suffice and save me from boredom, she told me how she would meet a guy after having no phone interaction while I just thought that plain ridiculous.

I would go in cyberspace and send her what I thought were potentials and she wouldn’t even respond to them.  My LBS would continue to tell me horror stories of guys she met involving men that I didn’t send her.  After several months, one could almost imagine a cartoon bubble with a question mark above my head.  I just didn’t get it.  Then it dawned on me, we had different tastes in men.  Even though I was vetting and sending her potentials that were artsy, had witty blurbs, and even some that lived in Brooklyn, she didn’t bite.  Reason being, they had different long term goals.

When looking for a potential mate, seriously looking, I think a key thing to have in mind is what you want.  This should include more than just surface qualities such as funny, adventurous, witty, etc.  These personality traits should filter through naturally in the dating process.  ie: If the guy is a bore, most likely you will not continue to go out with him.  Qualities I am talking about should be what Patti Stanger calls “non-negotiables”.  These are qualities in your future mate that cannot be adjusted.  In addition, try to establish a rough 5 year plan.  Where do you see yourself in 5 years?  What kind of mate do you see yourself having for those 5 years?  If you really can’t answer those questions for yourself then maybe you just want to enjoy dating and living life?

As for my sister, I cannot wait till she comes down so we can exchange stories on all things in life.  Hopefully she doesn’t kick my ass over mentioning her on the web.  Oh well…thats what families are for, and ours is a doozy!

So with that said, what’s your type of guy?  Do you like blueberries?  How many did you eat today?