Hey Good Lookin'! Whatcha Got Cookin'? Hamburger Buns

I was shocked at how easy these hamburger buns were to make. Now I make them at least every 2 weeks.


Hamburger Buns

1 cup milk

1/2 cup water

1/4 cup unsalted butter

4 1/2 cups flour
1 package instant yeast

1 tablespoons honey

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1 egg, room temperature

1/2 tsp onion powder (optional)

Heat the milk, water, honey and butter until butter is melted. I usually put it in the microwave for 1 minute. The butter continues to melt. Once it is cool to 120F, you can carefully beat in the egg. Then let it cool some more.

Mix 2 cups of the flour , the yeast, salt and onion powder (optional) Mix into the milk mixture. Stir in the rest of the flour, 1/2 cup at a time. Beat well after each addition.

When the dough pulls together, (it will form a soft ball) turn it out onto a floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic. This should take about 5 minutes.

Divide dough into 8 equal pieces if you want large hamburger sized buns. More if you want smaller buns.

Shape into smooth balls, flatten slightly, and place on a silpat covered baking sheet.Let rise for 30 to 35 minutes.

When buns have almost doubled bake at 400 degrees for 10 to 12 minutes.
You can brush the tops with egg wash and sprinkle with poppy seeds, sesame seeds, coarse sea salt, or whatever you like.

Hot Topic: Media Coverage of the thwarted Yemen attack

I am very upset with the recent headlines emphasizing how our law enforcement and anti-terrorism “barely” prevented the bomb attacks that originated in Yemen. Below is a copy of an email I sent to the editors of the St. Petersburg Times in response to a front page article entitled: “Bomb disaster barely averted.”

Dear Mr. Brown,


I am all fired up about a front page story “Bomb disaster barely averted.” I understand from the lack of byline that you all just pieced together the AP and wire coverage. I feel this coverage was an irresponsible way to represent the heroic acts that prevented loss of life from a terroristic attack.

You are a journalist. How in the world do you know if it was “barely”? What does “barely” mean anyway? Should they have caught them in Yemen – the country that is fake cooperating with us? Should they have hired psychics to tell them who the bombers were going to be and then imprisoned them so you could report that they clearly prevented a terrorist act? Give me a break. Yes, the bombs flew on planes before they were intercepted. That could have been your headline, in fact. “Bombs flew twice before detection.” But instead you try to sensationalize the facts and make it seem like it was luck. The truth is that THEY STOPPED THE ATTACK!

This country is under threat daily from sources and plots that we, as civilians, cannot imagine. When something goes wrong, it is an abysmal, catastrophic failure that only reinforces our leadership is inadequate. Yet, when something goes right, when loss of lives is prevented – you can’t even give them credit for that. You degrade their efforts by saying “just barely” or “they got these but there could be more.” It’s disgusting. I understand that this operation was not perfect and I am not recommending a parade, but I would appreciate some even-handedness.

I admire the St Pete Times for its journalistic integrity. I continue to subscribe because your investigative pieces are top notch. I just wish you had used some of those talents in the telling of this story instead of relying on the insulting characterizations of the AP.



Thank you.

Ask Angie: When to Confront and When to Accept: Part 2

Last week, I raised the question: When do you confront and when do you accept? The response I got was very interesting. Most people said that it really depends on the situation. I mostly agree. I do feel that many people get this all confused and end up at an extreme – either holding their loved ones to unrealistic expectations and then getting pissed when they don’t meet them or imitating a welcome mat and becoming resentful.

Today I am going to focus on the difference between setting an unrealistic expectation and communicating what you need. I call it the “change your stripes” test. There is a huge difference between asking someone to fundamentally change who they are and just letting someone know what it is you need in this moment. I find a couple examples to be helpful:

1. Expecting me to go on a 14 hour hiking excursion that necessitates using an ice axe because you love it is an unrealistic expectation. If you have met me, you know that the only thing I am doing with an ice axe is carving a vodka luge. Asking me to join you on a short hike more suited to my abilities or discussing the option of taking a hiking trip without me is communicating what you need.

2. Expecting you to magically know that I have had a bad day and need you to greet me at the door with a hug, a glass of wine and a hot bath waiting is bat sh*t crazy. Sending you a text or email with that information several hours before I head home is communicating what I need.

3. Expecting the friend who has been late to every single event you have ever attended with her to be on time for something because she “knows” how important it is to you is asking to attend a closing ceremony for that friendship. Lying to that friend about what time she needs to be there or kidnapping her so she is with you and cannot possible be late is just plain old smart.

Do these make sense?

When we enter into a relationship with someone – it is an as-is contract. There are no promises or warranties that those personality traits that don’t make your top ten are going to disappear because that person is now in a relationship with you. And let’s be honest, that person is putting up with some smelly business to be friends with you as well.


How many of you have heard the phrases:

• “How was I supposed to know?”

• “I thought that’s what you wanted!”

• “I’m not a mind reader.”

• “You should know what I need”

• “Well, he should KNOW!”

• “Why do you insist on leaving the sponge in the sink? Haven’t you noticed that I always put it back in the holder? Why don’t you put it back in the holder!” (What? That one is not so familiar? Hmmmm…)


Somehow many of us end up thinking that if we communicate to someone what we need that our relationship isn’t perfect. That if we have to tell the other person that we need a year off from exchanging gifts, or someone else to figure out dinner, or that Valentine’s Day is going to be really hard this year and you would really appreciate it if people sent you cards, then something is missing. Our perfect partner/ friend/ mother/ sister/etc. should have the magic power to read our mind. That is a ton of CRAP! I can’t be mad at you for breaking the rules if I never laid out the rules clearly and applied them consistently. Well, technically, I guess I could be mad but that would be kind of dumb and really annoying for the other person.

For me, that perfect relationship is the other person who shows up, rides your crazy train, and if I say I need something reasonable, he/she does his/her best to make it happen.

You picked the person because of their stripes – you can’t expect them to erase them mid-stream.

Book Review: Switch by Chip and Dan Heath

Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard by Chip Heath and Dan Heath

I found this book to be a revelation. It’s smart and delivers on its promise. By the end of the book, I had a much clearer perspective on to make change. One of the reasons that I like this book so much is that it focuses on the systems in place – not the people. Too many books focuses on the people and start from the assumption that there is something wrong with them: they are lazy or they are dumb. These assumptions lead only to two solutions: inspiring pep talks or more training.

Switch focuses on the environment and the systems that are in place that lead to a given result. The Heath brothers argue that to be successful you have to change the systems, the environment or the person’s mindset. They go through all the emotional pieces that make people resistant to change.

A great example of the book’s ideology takes place at a factory. This factory has struggled with safety. Workers are getting their hands caught in one particular rate at an unacceptable rate. Now, some ways to deal with this could have been to “educate” the workers on the dangers of getting their hands caught in the machine, or to create a punishment/incentive scheme. The managers look at the problem and realized that no one wants to get their hand stuck so they devised a safety mechanism where in order to operate the machine, two buttons a arms length apart had to be pressed. If both buttons were not pressed, the machine would turn off. Now it was impossible to both run the machine and get your hand caught. Genius.


I highly recommend this book. It is one of the few management books I plan to purchase and go back to over and over.

Brewing Report: Cigar City Brewing

The Tampa Bay area has quite a few breweries. Since micro-breweries are a big part of many of our travelling adventures, we figured we should try to visit some of them right here in our own backyard. The first up was Cigar City Brewing. http://www.cigarcitybrewing.com/

Cigar City has a national reputation for putting out great beer. They have even won awards at the Great American Beer Festival.

That tasting room is attached to the brewery. It's a long wooden bar where you can buy pints, quarts and a sampler of four beers. We sampled eight of their beers on tap. They had two Saisons that were very unique. Marshal Zukov’s Imperial Stout was delicious – smooth, robust and one of our favorites. The two we decided to bring home were the:

Madero Oatmeal Brown Ale – This is a fantastic brown ale. It is smooth and malty. It is full of flavor, yet very drinkable. It has a great toasted flavor. Definitely one of the best brown ales I have ever had.

Rye Porter – The Rye Porter was also a winner. It was full of flavor and well balanced with a nice finish.

We will definitely be back.

Blogs I like: Pioneer Woman and The Girl Who

I am going to do you a favor and pass along the names of some of my favorite blogs. You are welcome:


The Pioneer Woman  http://www.thepioneerwoman.com/
I love all the facets of this website. There’s photography, cooking, general posts about her family, contests, and sometimes very funny posts about her dogs and the adventure of living on a working cattle ranch. She has inspired me to take on bigger cooking and photography challenges. Plus she posts often so there’s always something new.


The Girl Who http://www.thegirlwho.net/

I adore this blog. I have followed it for years. I even have that weird stalkery feeling that we are friends, even though we have never met or communicated in more than 140 characters. I respect her honesty and envy her writing ability. She definitely does not sugar coat motherhood, marriage or the challenges of living in Utah. Her husband has taken up residence in a corner of her blog these days and the way he writes about their daughter is swoon worthy so take a seat before you click. Enjoy!

What are some of your favorite blogs?

Hey Good Lookin'! Whatcha Got Cooking? Candy Corn Infused Vodka

So today's recipe is all about vodka. I know - not exactly the best recipe for feeding your family, but very appropriate for feeding your family. I got the idea from Food Network Magazine. The originial recipe is found here.

The recipe used egg whites and I was a little skeeved out by that even though I think the acid in the lemon juice basically cooks them... Maybe??

Anyway - here we go.

"Infusing" vodka (or any liquid for that matter) - basically means soaking something in it for long enough that the flavor transfers to the vodka.

The ration for this recipe is 1/2 cup candy corn to 1 and 1/2 cups vodka. You see here I doubled it:



1 cup candy corn to 3 cups vodka



Just combine them in an airtight container and leave for at least 3 hours. I used a rubbermaid container and forgot about it for a couple days. The candy corn starts to disenigrate and takes on a slightly orange color and sweeter taste.

After you are done "infusing", you just pour the combination through a strainer and voila - you have candy corn vodka.

To make a candy corn martini - I combined:

2 parts candy corn vodka
1 part Triple Sec.
Shake in ice and the strain into a glass

Garnish with a candy corn and you are good to go! Happy Halloween!