3 Quarters Today

My Life, my photography, my passions

Food

Day 98/365: McDonalds Shamrock Shake

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Day 98: The Shamrock Shake Has Returned
Day 98: The Shamrock Shake Has Returned

This year my Connecticut friends on Facebook have been talking about the Shamrock Shake, I bet few knew it was invented in 1966, in a Connecticut McDonalds.  I didn’t. But it didn’t get it’s nationwide acclaim until 1975. I love milkshakes and the thicker the better, give me a different flavor and I’m right there. (Eggnog shakes at McDonalds are also one of my favorites)

The  Shamrock Shake bring back memories of childhood, when there wasn’t a McDonalds in every town and going to eat at the Golden Arches was a treat. Once a year, for a very short time, the traditional chocolate, vanilla and strawberry shake flavors would give way to minty green wonders that made your teeth hurt and give you a brain freeze if you drank it too fast.

There is quite the cult following on social media circles this year the humble shake has over 35 Fan Pages (I stopped counting) on  Facebook  and even it’s own website, Find the Shake, as people track it’s appearance at various franchises.  It appears that not every McDonalds carries this much loved shake and in 2010 there was the Great Shamrock Shake Crisis, as well as the great shake hunt.

The appearance has been enhanced over the years, and I’m sure to some traditionalists that is pure sacrilege. But, I really like the added Redi-Whip and the cherry on top.

What people will do to go back to their childhood. Since we’re going down memory lane, enjoy a video from the early 1980’s

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GkQvhOtZzI]

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Day 96/365: Midnight Snack Starts Off Right With Squeezie Cheese

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Photoshop Poster Edge

Yup, almost midnight and I forgot my picture of the day. Oops.  I quickly get out my camera and snap a quick pic of my favorite snack, in the dark, couldn’t even see through the window. So it’s blurry, but I like the arrangement, so it goes through Photoshop. Is there any improvement? Probably not, but it’s a reason to play around with effects. You be the judge, open to suggestions. This can be a lesson how to make a blurry, crappy photo look decent.

By the way, did you know that Party Cheese, cheese in a can, squeeze cheese is actually real cheese? I thought it was fake cheese, nope. First ingredients: milk, whey, water, milkfat. Wow! I’m impressed!

On One Photo Tools 2.5

Used the On One Phototool plug in tools I just downloaded thanks to the suggestion of my blogging friend at 365Project .  Just used the color boost and sharpen, with a fill flash, as you can see you can’t make a blurry picture sharp. I haven’t had a chance to really the program on a special photograph yet, but the free tools there are awesome and work in CS2 and up. Below is the original straight out of camera (SOOC)

SOOC orginal

Day 92/365: Oven Baked BBQ Chicken

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Day 92: BBQ Chicken
Day 92: BBQ Chicken

Just a simple and easy Friday night supper, oven baked barbecue chicken with mixed fruit for dessert. Tried something different this time. Normally when basting sauce onto unbaked chicken the sauce doesn’t stick. The moist skin won’t hold the barbecue sauce, and I like a LOT of sauce on my chicken.

COOKING TIP: Dust the chicken in flour before cooking, then baste with sauce before placing in the oven. Perfect! The flour gives a dry base for the BBQ sauce and even thickened it a little so a second coat could be added when I turned the meat at the half way point.  I will have to remember this for other basting sauces in the future.

Day 88/365: Red Peppers

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Day 88: Red Peppers

Took this at the  HyVee grocery store in Lincoln Nebraska. The produce department is a vast array of photo opportunities when there isn’t anything interesting during the brown, drab month of February and March.  I love red peppers in my food, especially sauteed chicken or pork, just makes a colorful addition to a dish. Other than that a pretty quick picture today.

Day 83/365: Egg and Sausage Breakfast Casserole

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Day 83: Breakfast Egg Casserole
Day 83: Breakfast Egg Casserole

I don’t know why I procrastinate in posting to my 365 Blog, I really do take pictures everyday. But, I seem to wait until the end of the week and post everything at once and try and catch up. This leaves me with an empty blog for several days and my statistics crash and burn.  Since I’m goal oriented and like to challenge myself the decrease in viewing numbers is not a pretty site.  So now I’m going to spread out the posts to just once a day and do a better job of twitter updates and lets see how that works.

Today is another recipe. I had teenage boys over for an Xbox Black Ops party last weekend, which means they stayed up until 4 am, something like that. It also means they slept until almost noon. To help wake them up I prepared an breakfast egg and sausage casserole. Not only is this is easy to make, but it’s a great way to use stale Italian/French bread and there are so many variations that you can create your own variety every time.

I used a silicon pan, just got this last year, haven’t decided whether I like them or not. I’m a traditionalist and silicon cookware doesn’t have the rigidity of metal. But there are benefits, as I learned from the Shakin N’ Bakin blog, silicon bakeware doesn’t need to be greased or oiled and it cools down quickly after being taken out of the oven. It’s also not supposed to stain, but mine did. I do have a few other pieces I’m going to try out. I’ll let you know how I like them.

Egg and Sausage Breakfast CasseroleRecipe

Ingredients

  • Sausage (ground, link, or patties, ham can also be used)
  • Bread (I used Italian, but stale bread works best)
  • 1 cup cheese
  • 8 Large Eggs
  • 1/2 Cup Milk
  • Dried Mustard
  • Salt
  • Pepper
  • Onions (other veggies can be added, tomatoes, peppers, mushrooms)
  • Sweet Basil (optional, I like sweet basil on everything)

Directions

Cube the bread and place in the bottom of a casserole dish, layer the sausage pieces, cheese, and vegetables, until ingredients are gone. Sprinkle each layer with salt, pepper, dried mustard, and sweet basil.  Scramble the eggs and milk in a bowl. Slowly pour over the layered ingredients making sure to soak the pieces of bread. Bake in a preheated 350F oven for approximately 25 minutes or until the eggs are set.

Photoshop Notes: general layers and resizing, brightened and added slight contrast. Biggest edit was cleaning my stove on the computer. Thought it was clean, but had grease splatters from cooking the sausage, so I cloned out the spots.