H-Man on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives

We are big fans here. It's Guy Fieri's show on Food Network. Of course diner in itself is a scary word. But this show gives me new hope. Good cooks all over the country open up small carry-outs and do great things. So the boys and I were watching one night last week and it's a place in Virginia. I made a point that this is a place that H-Man might visit. This dive did a good job and made French Toast thus giving me subliminal advertising so I made French Toast the next morning.
Late in the show, H-Man is interviewed while enjoying his meal. I start screaming. The boys all scream loudly at 10:30 at night. There is our friend on television.
So I texted and then called H-Man. He said it was filmed last November. He said it took three days for the show to get the episode down. He really didn't think they would use his quote. Of course everyone says good things. What if the food was really bad? "I just broke a tooth on this,'' he said. Or "I wouldn't feed this to my dog,'' she said. I guess that's why they tape it in advance.
Oh, the boys and I took in a diner in Des Plaines named the Paradise Pup that we saw on the show. It was smaller than a closet but the burgers were super. I guess I'm officially a member of the Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives cult.

Heat your oven to 500 degrees

No doubt Marie will find the recipe. But this is a keeper. On this night, I couldn't find a whole chicken so I went with a chicken already cut up. The recipe calls for shallots which I neglected. Hey, I was rushed. It was a drop off at basketball and dash to Joe Caputo's. All was well until the air conditioning guy called. Oh that's right, they were coming.

Anyway, you blast your oven up to 500 and roast the chicken for about 20 minutes. Oh, wait, first you give it a bath in olive oil and rosemary. Make sure you salt it nicely. I added a few spices. After the hot oven, you take the chicken and potatoes (also in the mix) out. You turn the oven down to 425 and turn over the chicken. After another 20 minutes, you pull out the chicken and turn it over again. Next you turn the oven down to 350 and finish the bird off in about 45 minutes to an hour.
One of our neighbors felt it might mess up the oven. Nonsense.

Nolan here grabs all the potatoes. You just dip your pieces in the lovely rosemary/olive oil sauce and all is well.
It's something about the differing temperatures. I forgot the shallots on this night and it mattered not.
Enjoy!

Sing, Boom, Tararrel

The three boys and I took off for the Brewers game at around 4 p.m. Heck they closed the road I usually take to the ballpark but the detour was excellent and we got into the parking lot with little trouble. There was a guy selling tickets in the lot so I grabbed 4 $10 buck tickets and we were set. We even got this guy's permission to switch seats during the game. Heck, I used to sell tickets for a living and that's not permissible. Of course, we moved to some really nice seats after our dinner. Anyway, the game was terrific. It might have been the best game we had ever seen. The Mets from New York scored 5 runs in the top of the 8th to put the game away. Evidently that plan didn't work as Milwaukee answered with 4 runs in the bottom half of the inning. It was getting late so the Brew Crew won the game in exciting fashion. We came out of the ball field at around 11 and then dashed to Leon's. By this time, it was lightning and raining hard. We ate our ice cream and hit the road for home. That is until midnight struck and stinking 94 closed for the night. Luckily the boys went to sleep cause I was taking back roads and following big trucks. Got home exactly at 2 a.m.
The next trip is a day game in Milwaukee with Arizona on July 6. Hope someone can make that one or I'll take this nice group of boys again. Oh, sing, boom, tararrel? One wacky line in the Roll out the Barrel sing a long in the seventh inning.