Saturday, July 16, 2011 Big Things on the Horizon!

One week from today my new play Connect Couples (dot) Com will premiere at the Piedmont Club in Darien, CT. My friend and fellow playwright Kato McNickle made this fabulous poster, first thing I saw today on Facebook, can't think of a better way to start the day.

I'm very proud of this play and I hope you are able to come and see it. Call the Piedmont at 203-655-7884 to make a reservation. If you can't get through e-mail me at headbanginghostess@gmail.com and I'll make the reservation for you. We're also performing it on Monday July, 25th somewhere in Mystic, CT. How funny is that? I don't even know where it is. I'll post the information as soon as I have it.

And speaking of the Piedmont...

Sometime in the fall we will be holding the first ever Headbanging Hostess Night at the Piedmont! That's right! No longer will my guests be crammed into my little apartment, baking in the heat and smoking in the garden. There'll be plenty of room to romp and enjoy my food along with the cash bar.

You know it!

This time the food will be on us. Let's show the folks at the Piedmont that people will come out to eat my food, enjoy their club, and spend money at the bar. Are you catching my drift? If we can make it a successful night we can do it again! And next time, no the food is not on us. It's time for me to start making a living and I ain't gonna do that by giving away my fantastic food. So start saving your pennies, kids, because Mamma is hitting the big time.

And speaking of the big time. I'm thrilled to announce Sacrament from Finland has agreed to let me use their music in a video! In addition to that I've got music from Headstone Hawkins, Mongrel and Dark Blu in the cue! Rock on, mother fucker \m/

Stay tuned

-HH

Friday, July 15, 2011 Grilled Pork Chops, Peaches and Squash

As you can see, I didn't end up stuffing my squash. Well, I stuffed it onto my face, along with a pork chop and a peach.

There's just something groovy about having your husband out on the grill, cooking away. I did the prep work - sliced the squash into steaks and seasoned it, seasoned the pork chops with some Worcestershire sauce and cinnamon, allspice, black and red, ancho, cumin and salt and then sliced the peaches in half and dipped them in vanilla extract.

As you can see, they were all grilled very nicely. The peaches could have been a bit more ripe, but I liked the toothiness (is that really a word?) and, of course, the sweet and the savory were playing off each other like Satriani and Vai (best example I can come up with right now).

I still have one more patty pan squash in my fridge. We'll see if I get inspired to do something else with it!

Until then...

-HH

Thursday, July 14, 2011 Farmers Market in Full Swing

I love me some patty pan squash. In the past I've stuffed them with mac-n-cheese and chili but I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do with these bad boys yet. I could go ahead and make my faux-chetta which was a hit last year around this time, or I could go off the deep end and make something totally new. I'll keep you posted.

If you haven't gotten to your local farmers market yet this summer you'd better get a move on! It's amazing how quickly things go in and out of season. Last weeks cherries are gone and blueberries are in. Squash is everywhere in every shape, size and color. Garlic, onions, lettuces, beets, Swiss chard, tomatoes, cucumbers. I'm tellin' ya! Get your ass down there before the season is over and your stuck with supermarket produce.

-HH

Thursday, July 7, 2011 Eating Healthy Takes Time (and a little money)

Yesterday I promised my husband two healthy meals - and I delivered, of course.

Wednesday is Farmers Market day in Darien, 11-6 in the lot behind the firehouse, across from Goodwives Shopping Center. But I began my shopping at Stop & Shop across the street. We all know how our trips to the Farmers Market can quickly get out of control budget wise. So I wandered aimlessly around the produce department, as usual, until it hit me. I was going to recreate the veggie melt that my husband missed so much from his days back at Tumbleweeds.

Tumbleweeds was a bar in Bridgeport, that closed before I even met my husband 16 years ago, but it was home to him for a rough period in his life so, even though I have little understanding of bar culture, I tried my best to bring back the feeling of home away from home.

I crammed my basket full of veggies - I figured I'd make a salad for lunch and the veggie melt for dinner. So I bought celery and broccoli and sweet peppers and Swiss cheese and a portobello mushroom cap and corn (20 cents each, how could I resist?) and an onion and...I think that was everything. Oh, and the wheat pita. 21 bucks and change...not too bad.

Then I wandered across the street to the Farmers Market. They key to the market for me is first wandering around all the booths to find what I'm going to buy and from whom I am going to buy it. I have my favorite farmers and I like to spread the money around. So I ended up buying a tomato and a cuke from one guy for $1.95, a squash and some green beans from another woman for 95 cents, a couple carrots from another booth for 50 cents and then a quart of cherries for 5 bucks.

I don't think I've ever gotten out of the Farmers Market that cheap!

So, I get home and start to prep the salad. I had half a head of iceberg that I trimmed up and I added some lettuce from my garden to give it some color. I sliced up the cuke, some pepper, threw in some carrot ribbons, tomato, celery. I made pasta and dressed it with an onion, arugula and basil concoction - this salad probably took me a good 45 minutes to make! (This is why I'm not Food Network Competition material.) It was damn tasty, though! Worth the effort, and our bodies needed the veggies after the holiday weekend.

Dinner might not have taken as long - I really should time what I'm doing, but I'm usually too busy cooking to take pictures, never mind keeping score. I prepped all my veggies separately - putting each one into its own bowl. Little bits of broccoli, sliced peppers and onions, squash circles, mushroom chunks and corn off the cob.

I cooked all the veggies separately but in the same pan - putting the cooked ones into a big bowl and tossing them all together at the end. The pitas I bought were ridiculously thin, like tissue paper - I guess that's how they're low calorie, there's nothing to them. So I carefully opened them up and scooped the hot veggies inside. Then I stuffed them with slices of Swiss and carefully transferred them to my pizza stone in the hot oven for about 5 minutes to melt the cheese.

Hard to eat because of the pita, but a fork and knife managed to get the cheesy chunks of veggies into my mouth. I don't think I nailed the taste my husband was looking for, but I did manage to make us a nice healthy dinner.

Two healthy meals in a row! WTF? It's a good thing we polished off a bag of Swedish Fish for dessert...

By the way - Check out the article I wrote for CT Bites about Dinner on a Stick Night!

-HH

Friday, July 1, 2011 Grape Soda Night! - Featuring "Hit The Ground Running" and "Shadows" by ...