The Big DumpTruck

Over on Gizmodo there is a story about a pizza oven that you can plug into your car's lighter. I think this is awesome on so many levels. I'm sure you will all agree with me when I explain.

1. Pizza rules. Everyone loves pizza. If you do not love pizza, I don't think you and I can be friends any more. I'm sorry, but it's just that our friendship would be based on a lie, and I can't have that. So long, I'll miss you.

2. Sometimes, driving makes you hungry. Or maybe it's that driving is boring and I tend to like to eat when I'm bored, which may explain the closet full of circus tent clothing. But just think, no more will I grocery shop while hungry, because I can cook a pizza in between my house and the grocery store. Sure, I might have to take the long way to the store, or sit in the parking lot while it finishes cooking, but hey, pizza!

3. How many times have you been invited out on a picnic and thought "gee, I wish I could have pizza instead of cold cuts." Well lookee here, you will be the belle of the ball with your car-based pizza oven!

4. Goodbye, stinky Pine Tree air fresheners, hello pepperoni-scented upholstery!

Seriously, do you really need any other excuses to run out and get one of these? I think not.

Labels: car, cooking, gadgets

This weather makes me want to nap. A lot. Had to get up early for a 9am appointment and ran two errands but now the rest of the day is free. Except for the need to get groceries, but who wants to do that. I'm sure I can make a meal out of items found around the house. I can pretend I'm on Iron Chef, or that show they used to have where you would hand a chef $10 worth of stuff you bought at the store and they would have to make a meal out of it. My $10 worth of food could be made up of canned goods. What can I make out of baked beans, canned yams and chicken noodle soup. Mmmmmm, that's good eatin'!

Labels: cooking, food

Okay, I didn't lose macaroni salad, exactly, but I did create a whole post about macaroni salad, and when I went to view BDT, there was no mention of macaroni salad anywhere. Not even a whiff of it. So what, now I have to type it in again? That's a lot of work just to dazzle you guys with nonsense. Let's not even count the minutes spent pressing the spell check button and correcting all the errors.

I believe I started off by mentioning that Junior's baseball team won their second game last night with a more reasonable 7-5 final score. Not that 28-4 wasn't fun. Except it wasn't, really. Last night's game was really fun to watch because the teams were so evenly matched. Quite frankly, I was shocked that we won. Based on the first couple of innings, we didn't, but we really pulled it together at the end.

So the macaroni part of the message was related to me bitching about the weather predicted for this weekend. I hate hot and humid (which should not be news to anyone here) and I said I would probably only leave the house to grill burgers and dogs. And then I asked you all to post your favorite/best/easiest macaroni (aka pasta) salad because I adore macaroni salad and I think it should be required any time you fire up the grill to have a giant bowl of pasta salad available.

I also requested recipes that were mayo based because I'm in search of the macaroni salad of my childhood, and while I "get" dumping a bottle of italian dressing on cooked macaroni, that's not what I'm looking for. Even though that's sort of how I'm kick starting the request:

1 pound cooked rotini
1 green pepper, diced
1-2 tablespoons of light mayo
1 bottle of Wishbone Russian dressing (MUST BE WISHBONE. It's dark red in the bottle)

Mix up the rotini and pepper with the mayo to sort of coat the pasta. This will help the russian dressing stick. Stir in the bottle of Wishbone Russian Dressing. Cool in fridge. Re-stir before serving. This dish is even better after it sits. Even Mr. Dump likes this one.

Labels: baseball, cooking, weather

I didn't have the $$ to renew my .Mac account (it expired yesterday) so the DumpCast link that used to be in the upper right hand corner has been removed. I don't know when or where it will re-surface, but I may just host it right here on BDT going forward. I'll make sure I let all the faithful fans know when it's available again.

I took yesterday and today off from work because Junior is on April vacation. Yesterday I combed the back yard for dog poop, and I was thinking to myself...hunting for crap is still better than going to work. I also did a little raking (after we picked up a new metal rake...way too much thatch to use a plastic rake) and we did get the little tabletop grill I was yearning for. Cooked up some shrimp and steak to break it in and welcome it to the family. I think there may be a problem with it (flame is too low) but by the time we figured that out, we'd already started cooking on it. So now I'm not sure what to do. I guess I'll contact the manufacturer, because I don't think Lowes wants me to take back a used grill. Or maybe they do, because the thing we noticed might be a safety issue. Will keep you informed

Labels: cooking, shopping, spring

Okay, not me, Junior. Although he seems to be doing better today than yesterday. But he can't go back to school tomorrow because he had a fever today. He's actually upset that he can't go to school, not because of his burning love of school work and math lessons, but because he misses his friends. And apparently at aftercare he was supposed to join a club somehow related to Tech Decks (those little tiny skateboards). I don't have all the details on that one, but I'm sure I'll hear all about it eventually.

I am about done with the children's programming. He had no interest in doing anything but crashing on the couch. I made him watch the Food Network for a while thinking that it might help him take a nap but he actually got more animated and chatty about Rachel Ray's cooking show than he did about any cartoon. (We came to an agreement that no way no how would we want to eat the "hot dog salad" she made today. Gah.)

So wish us luck. I have to have my mom watch him tomorrow and I didn't want to do that but maybe he's getting past the contagious stage. Mr. Dump and I are convinced we won't be able to avoid getting what he has, based on the past three days. Yay.

Labels: cooking, illness, junior, Rachel Ray