Dinner With Friends... And Sharing A New Award

We had our best friends (former residents of Galveston) over for dinner tonight for leftovers. Yes, I said leftovers. Neither of us was able to finish our lobster tails Valentines' Day night, so I kept it and we had the most mouth-watering lobster quesadillas with guacamole & sour cream dollops on the side, Spanish Rice, and refried beans.

Mr. Snoots was very skeptical about serving lobster in a quesadilla, but I assured him that it would all be okay. He shook his head and rolled his eyes during the entire preparation and cooking time, certain that I was going to have a failure to serve our friends. I'm more than proud to say that he was the first one to praise them once we all began to eat. I served a nice 2006 Pinot Grigio from an Italian vineyard called Mezzacorona which Mr. Snoots just happened to pick up on his last trip to Sam's Club. Yes, he still has a lot learn, but he's definitely trying. It was perfect for the lobster quesadillas. Here's the recipe:

Makes 4 (6-inch) Quesadillas.

Ingredients:

4 (5-ounce) lobster tails (approximately 10 ounces actual lobster meat)
2 tablespoons neutral-flavored oil, (i.e. grape seed or canola oil) plus extra for sauteing quesadillas
3/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon chili powder
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 clove garlic, passed through a garlic press
3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice
1/3 teaspoon fine sea salt
8 (6-inch) flour tortillas
4 tablespoons chopped cilantro
2 medium avocados, peeled and diced
1/2 cup grated Monterey Jack cheese
1/2 cup grated sharp cheddar cheese


1. Using a pair of kitchen shears, cut through the underside of lobster shell and remove lobster meat from shell. Reserve shells for lobster stock or another use. Dice lobster meat into 1/2-inch chunks. Or, you could just use leftover lobster.

2. Place lobster chunks in mixing bowl. Add 2 tablespoons oil, cumin, chili powder, cayenne pepper, garlic, lime juice and salt. Toss gently to combine ingredients and coat lobster thoroughly; marinate 15 minutes.

3. Heat a medium non-stick saute pan over medium-high heat. Add marinated lobster and saute until just cooked through, about 3 to 4 minutes. Remove from heat.

4. Place one tortilla on a work surface and layer with one fourth of the lobster, cilantro, avocado and cheeses. Cover with second tortilla.

5. Heat a non-stick sauce pan or griddle with 2 tablespoons oil. Place filled tortilla in pan, cook on medium-low heat until golden brown, about 2 to 3 minutes on each side. Remove from skillet and cut into wedges. Continue process with remaining ingredients, wiping out pan and adding oil between each quesadilla. Serve hot.

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Rubbish By Roan was kind enough to bestow upon me the same award she was recently presented with. I'm pretty sure I don't deserve this award, but I'm thrilled to accept it just the same. Therefore, I shall try to pass this award on to other more deserving bloggers. I think it says Best Blog Darts Thinker. However, my eyesight has run away with the candlestick maker, so it's entirely possible that I'm wrong.



Thankfully, the message remains the same:

“This award acknowledges the values that every Blogger displays in their effort to transmit cultural, ethical, literary, and personal values with each message they write. Awards like this have been created with the intention of promoting community among Bloggers. It’s a great
way to show appreciation and gratitude for work that adds value to the Web.”

So, the deal is that I have to nominate another 15 bloggers to pass this award on to. No problemo. Each of these bloggers has a keen sense of humor and they are great writers as well. Please give them each a click because you won't be disappointed. Here they are:

1. Tales From The Vinyl Village
2. The Incredible Woody
3. The Color Of Home
4. Golf Girl's Diary
5. Two Dogs Running
6. Country Girl On The Chesapeake Bay
7. Ask Allison at Women In Bloom
8. Queen Of The Planet Hot Flash
9. My J'Ollie Blog Home
10. Tales From The Clippy Mat
11. Mental Pause Chronicles
12. The Bliss Of It All
13. Real Women Golf
14. Kansas Chaos
15. Country Girl On The Chesapeake Bay

OMG! My Brain's Lost Its Mind Again, But I'm Still Not A Really Mean Girl... Yet

Last night for dinner Mr. Snooty & I had planned to dine on a light meal, since we'd had a rather large lunch. I'd had 4 small artichokes in the fridge for days, so I decided we'd better include them or it might be too late if we waited. Good. Fine. I also decided that we'd have pasta with the chokes, which sounded like the perfect pairing. Good. Fine. Again.

This is what I eventually came up with:

You can click on the picture to see a larger version.

I was halfway through my meal before I realized what I'd done. Does anyone else notice this little *faux pas* or am I the only one who feels that this is completely off the scale of feeble minded thinking? Look at the picture very carefully. Yes, I had opened a large can of artichoke hearts, which I chopped up & added to the pasta & mushrooms. You know, to go with our steamed Artichokes Jerusalem. *Sigh.*

I immediately started laughing at myself for this ridiculous mistake, wondering why Mr. Snooty had not said anything. I suppose he knows me better than I realized, after almost 31 years of marriage, and he decided against bringing this up. He's such a wise man. I do wish he could be that quiet when we play golf. Anyway, the whole thing triggered a memory in my mind, so I'm going to run with it. Try to keep up.

I've been guilty of this sort of thinking before and I wasn't even old then. We were all Thirty Something (think early 1990's here) at the time and had been invited to a friend's home for a Lasagna Dinner and each couple had been asked, by our hostess, to bring a side dish. She had invited us a week earlier to insure that everyone could attend. Brainiac that I am, I worked all day on a lovely Pasta Primavera. Uh-Huh. As a side dish to Lasagna. Uh-Huh.

When we arrived, the hostess (whom I never did care much for) said to me "What the hell were you thinking?" I quickly apologized but as the other couples arrived, our hostess would immediately tell everyone what I'd brought and proceeded to make a Huge Deal out of it. It was humiliating the way she was referring to me as a complete basket case, a nut cake, and so on. Yes, I was actually bothered about other's opinions of me back then. Thank God that ship sailed.

It was Summer and it was as hot as the Devil himself, and I sat there thinking "So, Mrs. Bitch, why would you make & serve lasagna on one of the hottest days of the Summer? Served outside on your patio? In the heat?" When I excused myself to take my dishes in to the kitchen, she was still going on about it. She should have been keeping her eyes on me. I looked over at her lovely knives in their wooden stand, contemplating using the rather large one to either cut out her tongue or slice her throat, but decided I wouldn't like prison. However, I would have been doing her hubby a huge favor. Or perhaps he likes being emotionally beaten up. He must like it because they're still married.

So, I turned around and went over to their garbage container, which was enclosed in a lower cabinet, to throw away my napkin (I would also never serve dinner with lousy paper napkins) when I spotted a large Stouffer's Lasagna container & box in her garbage. That Bitch. She had bought her *homemade* lasagna at Sam's Club, then proceeded to pass it off as her own, then berate & belittle me for bringing Pasta Primavera that I made from scratch. Even the pasta.

Her biggest mistake of the day was not having the sneakiness foresight to take the packaging to the alley & place them in the trash bin. At least I'm not that stoooopid. And, yes, I am that sneaky, although I would never serve something from the frozen section at Sam's to my dinner guests. That privilege is reserved strictly for family.

So, being another type of bitch than she, I returned to the table with a smile on my face, having decided that if she said one more word about my dish, I was going to let the cat out of the proverbial bag. Of course, I knew she wouldn't be able to help herself. I knew it was going to happen and I laid in wait like some sort of predator, planning how nicely I was going to reveal her secret, as I stuck the invisible knife in her flat tummy & twisted it. Hehehehehe.....

I knew she wouldn't fail me and she did not. A bitch can always be counted on to open her mean mouth, which I already knew. Especially this one. She had the entire table of couples' attention when she made her fatal mistake. She opened her mouth about my dish one last time and I launched my verbal rocket... headed straight for her. Heads Up!

I spoke not too softly, nor too loudly as I very sweetly said "Well, at least I didn't buy it at Sam's and then pass it off as my own." All heads turned in her direction with mouths popping open & jaws dropping, sounding almost like a musical background for my rocket launch. Victory! All the compliments on her lasagna flew straight out the window at that point, followed by all of the mean remarks she'd made to me & about me that night. I couldn't even begin to tell you how perfectly sweet it was. Each wife had worked hard on their contribution to this woman's meal, so I'm fairly certain there were more pissed off people than just I.

Unlike her, I am not the type to go on about the ordeal all night. I just smiled the rest of the night. Contentment achieved. I still cannot understand why we never were invited to dinner again. Yeah, right. We never again did anything together either, which was such a shame. Not. And, guess what? She's still a mean bitch to this day, but not to me. Hehehe... I'm sure someone else has that dubious honor now, but it certainly isn't Moi!

We used to have them visit at the lake house every summer, for a week, with another couple & she was always a skinny bitch, which accounts for strike one.

She never even made their beds. Strike Two.

She also never pitched in to help with the work, nor brought an ounce of food. Yes, the guest from Hell. Strike Three... So, in honor of such a wonderful guest, I'm posting pictures for everyone's perusal. She's the one on the right trying to pee off the back of the boat. Hehehehe...

Then, a pic of the 3 of us on the Water Weenie. YeeHaaaawww!

The Final Countdown Begins... and I'm Running Behind

So, today begins the *Final Countdown* for our California trip to see the Daughter Unit. Sunday: 4 days. However, that doesn't mean we can't go to a friend's for dinner!

Our best friends now split their time between their house here and their Galveston beach house. Frankly, I can't blame them. Both houses are warm, inviting, comfortable, and perfect for entertaining. It's just that I prefer them to be HERE. Ummmm.... that is, unless we're invited to the beach house, lol. I'm not crazy. I swear!

At any rate, they are here for the week, give or take a few days. So, tonight they invited us to dinner (along with another couple we're all close with). As always, our host *D* had planned a new menu of delectable edibles for us all. We started out with a damn fiery hot salsa (which we all love) and their signature Queso, all served with chips. Cocktails flowed, of course! Then, he proceeded to tempt our palates with the most delicious pulled pork soft corn tortillas, served with avocado, onion, cheese, shredded cabbage, and the most incredible sauce made from the veggies & peppers (whizzed in a blender) that were cooked with the pork. I promise you, it was truly a gourmet delight. The corn tortillas were so fresh that they made your mouth water in anticipation.

Also, he served the most scrumptious black bean/hominy salad that had an entire array of ingredients that each complimented one another, while also being the perfect accompaniment to the soft tacos. White and red wines were served and it was all consumed in the end.

Then, to our total delight, *D*'s wife *B* surprised us with little chocolate tulips filled with whipped cream, strawberries, & raspberries. I would have taken a picture, but it was all basically inhaled before any of us came to our senses. No, she didn't make them, but she had the genius foresight to buy them at HEB (which if you don't live in this part of the country, you don't realize what you're missing). HEB has desserts I could never even dream of imitating.... they are the best!

So, tonight I might be in even more of a panic because we spent time with friends, but believe me, it was certainly worth every minute & morsel. I'll deal with the panic of running behind tomorrow...