Foodie Chickie

It was a nice weekend. Hope everyone had a nice Easter. Although I was fighting a cold during most of the weekend. My nose went from leaking to being stuffed. My throat felt like it was being scrubbed by steel wool. Now the cold is also in my chest. I doused myself with as much Vitamin C as humanly possible and also am taking cold and flu meds. Hope the cold goes away soon. Although all the extra attention is nice.

We went to see a movie and had dinner Friday night since Niel didn't have a troop meeting because of Good Friday. Yay date night.

We saw Lipstick and Dynamite a documentary on female wrestlers from the 1940's to 1970's. Except for the fabulous Mullah and May Young making asses of themselves on the WWE, female wrestlers are a forgotten lot. It's sad. Female wrestlers paved the way for the likes of Trish Stratus, Lita, Molly Holly, and Ivory and yet there is no recognition of their achievements besides this movie. The film showed black and white footage of matches as well as interviews. One particular sad person, was 83 year old Killem Gillem. She now is this small framed lady, but man can she shoot her mouth off. Wooo Woooo. That wasn't the sad part though. She was basically broke and living with her wackadoo son. Unlike some of the other wrestlers she didn't have a retirement fund. I wish the fabulous Mullah would have made the retired lady wrestlers home the film gave a rumor about; instead of pushing around an obvious mentally challenged littler person and May Young in her North Carolina estate. You would think that an industry controlled by greed and plucking young naive women off the trains, that Mullah would have banned together the women when she became a promoter. Instead of giving up her integrity. But I guess she too had to survive.

The Mexican restaurant we ate at was near NYU. I forget the name. It was Niel and my first time eating there and is an obvious popular college hangout. The food was given in large portions (except for the toppings) and was so so in the flavor department. I had to add two different varieties of hot sauce to give it some flavor and heat.

Saturday we ran errands and did laundry. Then I came back and started the cooking process for Easter since we were hosting it again this year. I learned not to do everything on the day of the event otherwise I would be very stressed out. Our friends Dave and Holly came over in the evening. And that was real nice. It's great they can stop by when they can, when they are in town. We appreciate it and enjoyed ourselves.

Sunday our parents and brothers came over for Easter dinner. I went through two and a half dozen eggs this weeken! Cripes. We served Country baked ham. I was very happy when Niel found Country baked ham a local meat market. I had been wanting to serve it for Easter ever since I ate some at Cracker Barrel a few years ago. I found Country ham a bit saltier and I love salty food. Although last year's coke and pineapple baked ham was surprisingly delicious and not at all sweet as I expected. But the instructions I found said to soak the ham for 24 hours or cook as is. Stupid me cooked as is. It was so salty!!!! We had to serve cranberry sauce on the side to break some of the salt. It was funny even though it was so salty we couldn't stop trying the ham. Wierdly enough when it got cold a few hours later the saltiness disappeared considerably. We gave some of the ham to Mike to take to Ripley who apparently likes salty meats. Plus I broke our gravy boat when I heated it up in the microwave. I couldn't stop the trail of crazy Easter mistakes. And in the end all I could do was laugh. Niel reassured me by saying to think of all the other good meals I had made and it was a learning experience. Plus the cupcakes I made for the production department today were a hit so I do feel a bit better. I just want to be as good as my mom is with cooking. The side dishes were Easter Pie (cheese & cold cut filled), double stuffed potatoes, mushroom and green bean casserole, salad, Easter eggs, and for dessert Pineapple cake and jello. My mom made Balenchik, a savory crepe with ground meat, eggs, and spices, Baklava, and brought Easter bread. People could not stop eating the Baklava and Balenchik. Niel's mom brought over Tiramisu and Grain Pie. I thought it would have grain in it like the name, but it was filled with dried fruit and sweet ricotta. It was neat to have a Venitan dessert table of sorts.

I can't wait one day to have a large enough dining room table so we won't have to put the food on a separate table and eat on another table, like we do now. And a dishwasher would be nice too. LOL. Here are the pics.