MUTE MONDAY - NEW YORK (Gangs and Gangsters)

Note: Although this is a Mute Monday I felt the first 5 pictures needed identification. The rest is up to you.

Joseph Massino - The Bonanno Family

Steven "Stevie Wonder" Crea - The Lucchese Family

Alphonse "Little Allie Boy" Persico - The Colombo Family

Daniel "The Lion" Leo - The Genovese Family

John Gotti - The Gambino Family

Dim Sum Sunday - Memorial Day Grilling

Big Shamu over at the Karmic Kitchen had a grilling challenge this past Memorial Day weekend. Specifically hot dogs. I love hot dogs and hers looked really good. The onions are a nice touch and I have to try that fruit chili sauce recipe (it keeps turning up in multiple blogs, so it must be good).

Well, I did barbecue this Memorial Day but it was last minute, nothing special and I forgot my camera (the sun was in my eyes, I ran out of gas, the dog ate my homework - choose any or all of these whiny excuses). We have a local swim club that we belong to and decided to join 2 other families for an impromptu barbecue in the shady grove.

The grove has charcoal barbecues available so that's what we used to cook hot dogs (Ballparks), hamburgers (Bubba Burgers) and chicken breasts (with BBQ sauce). I don't use charcoal that often and I overload the grill because I was drinking heavily. So we ended up with a mini-blast furnace. Needless to say the food was on the crispy side. But you know what, everyone was so hungry that they ate them anyway (listen boy, it's this or nothing). The boy's buddies (I call them the locusts - they lay waste to my fridge and pantry every weekend) didn't have any problem mooching the crispy food either.

I did make a green bean salad (sans kidney beans because the Mrs. doesn't like beans of any kind) with onion, parsley, salt, pepper, vinegar and garlic that came out pretty good. A little too green without the kidney beans but everyone ate it. All in all a nice afternoon at the pool. If I can ever get control of my schedule, maybe I can do some blog-worthy cooking in the future.

MUTE MONDAY - (Ego) TRIP

Dim Sum Sunday - How Does Your Garden Grow?

How does my garden grow? Well. that's hard to say right now. We just started it this past Saturday and it's not my garden, it's the wife's. In our town we have an old farmstead that's about 200 years old and was made a public park (I think its a Green Acres protected tract of land). As such (and because it use to be a farm) the town started a program a few years ago where they would let residents tend gardens on 25' X 25' plots. This year it was really hard to get a plot what with the economy and all (we were #42 on the waiting list). As luck would have it (and my decision is still out on whether this was lucky or not) my neighbor has 3 lots in the park (because he's a founding gardener) and he graciously let us have one.

So the Mrs., the boy , the pudge and I spent most of Saturday tilling the soil, putting up a deer fence, putting down anti-weed plastic and actually planting some tomatoes. The Mrs. has grand plans and many pots of starter seeds going in the driveway that will add to this garden. When we'll have time to do this is any one's guess (the calendar this week is a horror).

Anyway, here's what it looks like so far.

This is the farm house.

As for making a Dim Sum Sunday entry, I had to buy stuff from the local Produce Junction. And I had to go simple because of the soccer/baseball Sunday schedule. I love Cucumber Salad and can remember a couple of variations that my mom use to make. I decided to go with my mom's basic recipe but with the addition of some fresh dill.

Here are the pre-sliced ingredients. Cucumber, onion, parsley and dill.

To the cucumbers, onions dill and parley, I added white vinegar, kosher salt, black pepper, sugar and garlic powder. Mix it all up. adjust the spices and put in the fridge during the soccer/baseball games.

The Mrs. actually barbecued while we were at the games. She did up some new potatoes (that I pre-prepared with olive oil, salt, pepper, dill and crushed garlic in a Ziploc) and some store bought chicken shish kabobs. It all actually came out pretty good.

The Mrs. tells me we are growing cucumbers so I may revisit the cucumber salad with another of my mom's recipes (sour cream this time) assuming the deer and our schedule don't get them first.

MUTE MONDAY - LIBERTY (CALL)

MUTE MONDAY - SPEAR IT