Things I eat: Smashburger

I enjoy a good burger so I finally got a chance to try SmashBurger…not too many gripes here.
The burger is well seasoned, I had the windy city burger. The bun is The only problem, it slips and slides everywhere.

The fries aren’t anything special. They are skinnier and lightly salted, I prefer Meatheads fries to Smashburgers.

My son got the kids cheeseburger and the same issue with the bun. Regardless he finished the whole thing up without complaint.

My only problem, is that the wait staff was so eager to clean up. I got up to take my little person to the bathroom and we came back and our half eaten food was gone. They immediately replaced it, but I mean come on our coats were sitting right in the seats!
I’d recommend Smashburger. Meatheads though in Naperville would still have to be my local fav. until Smash got their stuff together.

 

PS they have one of them cool Coca Cola Freestyle Machine, with 100 some odd flavors

Things I eat: Grilled Cheese

Enjoy life and eat a Grilled Cheese Sandwich! Why not right? It is fairly easy to make and a staple of American society. Everyone loves a grilled cheese. Lately I have been experimenting with different variations of said sandwich and just the other day I have come up with the killer grilled cheese sandwich that surely will hit home with all of you. Stay with me on this one. I am going to dive deep…

The basic grilled cheese is your buttery covered bread and grilled cheese, cooked on the stove to a golden brown perfection. I am going to take it a few steps further.

I won’t include a picture of the Bread, but you should all know what bread looks like. You will start with 2 pieces of White bread, whole grain, or which ever floats your boat. I will use white bread.

Next I actually like to completely melt my butter, I used a quarter to half a stick of butter for the Grilled Cheese.

Once the butter is melted I like to add a bit of Garlic Powder to the butter mix, it makes the finished product taste a bit like garlic bread!

Once you mix in the Garlic Powder, pour a fair amount onto once side of each slice of bread and make sure it is soaked in. The buttered side will go face down onto the pan.

So basically it is all uphill from here and you will have that cheese in your mouth very shortly…

Make sure the pan is heated and add the bread.

You will have to be a good judge at watching the bread. You don’t want it to burn, but when it starts to get a golden brown color that is when you go ahead and add the cheeses and whatnot.

I will start with 3 pieces of American cheese. We had the good stuff this kind, straight up from the Deli.

Take the three pieces and place them on one of the slices of bread.

Next I added a piece of ham, just for taste.

Then believe it or not, I grilled up some bacon. Hold it. This is about to get tasty! I am not kidding around here.

To be completely honest, I ended up eating one piece before it ever got onto the Grilled Cheese. But one piece DID make it and it made the sandwich. It really put the sandwich together.

Then finally just for added effect, I decided to throw on some Feta cheese, which is probably one of the smartest things I have done in my life.

The Feta really made the Grilled Cheese unique tasting. Really can’t put it into words, kind of dark and sweet taste.

But lets not forget the bacon, that is the real reason I made the grilled cheese. For the Bacon.

So once everything is on the sandwich add the other slice of bread to the top. You really do not need to keep flipping it over and over. One flip  will do. When the cheese is oozing out, that’s how you know you have a winner. Carefully place the Grilled Cheese on a dinner plate and enjoy. Ideally you should have this with tomato soup, for dipping but the bacon would have been too over powering

-Daniel Lee

Things I eat: “Magic Hotdogs”

My mom was always a great cook growing up! One of the things she made was what she coined “Magic Hotdogs” or crescent dogs, but the name Magic Hotdog has always stuck with me. I realize it is kind of childish but it is what it is. This is one of the dishes I have kinda carried over and  started make for myself and my son when I am making dinner. It is fairly simple to make and takes about a half hour total. I will explain it here.

 

You need to start with Crescent Rolls. Normal size will do. You need about 8 of them.

 

You also need cheese, American works best. 4 slices will be plenty.

 

 

Finally you need 8 hotdogs, Oscar Mayer Hotdogs will work perfectly and taste the best for this dish.

 

So basically what you’re going to do it this. Take out the 8 hotdogs and 4 slices of cheese and crescent rolls. With a sharp knife slice the hotdogs straight down the middle, not so they are sliced in half, but about a halfway deep slice keeping them still intact. You next want to take a slice of cheese and fold into 4 equal parts. Each hotdog will need half a slice of cheese, you will take two of the quarter cheese and put them side by side in the hotdog.

By this point you can preheat your oven to 375 degrees…

 

After each and every hotdog has cheese in it, you will take the crescent rolls and individually wrap each dog with one roll like so.

Bake for about 20 minutes, or when the crescent rolls are golden brown and the cheese is nice and melted, take them out and enjoy!

 

 

These Magic Hotdogs are best served with a decent amount of ketchup for dipping.  YUMMY No…Magic!. Enjoy.

 

I will try and document the weirder dishes I eat and how to make them from now on.

My one regret….

Out of Highschool I wanted to join the Marine Corps, and I did. I enlisted, passed the tests and left for bootcamp. The problem started when I met a girl right before I left. She was beautiful! I thought she was the cutest girl I have ever been with and would ever be with. I was only 18 and I thought she was “the one.” What a joke that was eh? What does a kid know about love. I wish the 24 year old me could go back and beat the shit out of the 18 year old me and tell me to cut the shit, you’ll only get hurt. No, I have a girlfriend and I was going to be a big bad ass Marine. What more could a kid want?

My biggest regret is slagging off the Marines. But I digress. Bootcamp was 3 months long, in Sunny San Diego and I was motivated going in. There were days where I thought why the hell am I doing this, but that was always a passing problem. I wanted it, or thought I did. I got a letter the second month in this girl who I told I loved (again WTF was I thinking?) I told her I LOVED her after two weeks of knowing her. Jesus Christ! This girl who said she felt the same sends me a letter breaking up with me while I was at bootcamp. Sends me a letter not only breaking up with me but god dammit she said she was seeing my BEST FRIEND from High Scnhool. A kid who I foolishly introduced her to, I was excited to have my buddy meet this girl and thought he would be excited for me as well. Nope! They are tearing up the lines, hanging out while I am gone!

A normal person would think so what, get over it. NOT THAT EASY when you are already in the process of being broken down, told you are lower than shit, working the hardest physically you ever have in your life. Then you are brought back up to be someone who is Proud, Looked Up to, admired even. I didn’t get to that last part. I had someone or thought I had someone on the outside who would encourage me and tell me to do my best who would write me sweet letters and send me pictures of a pretty face to look at.

I was sent a break up letter at the worst possible time, when I was at my lowest point. I lost my will to keep going in the Marines. I essentially gave up. They tell you there is no way out but someone who is determined will find a way out. Which is something I regret doing for 6 years now.

Things that SHOULD and SHOULDN’T be dipped in Ketchup.

 

Things that should be dipped into ketchup:

French Fries, Tater Tots, Meatloaf, Hotdogs, Hamburgers(and any subtext),

 

Things that SHOULDN’T be dipped into Ketchup:

 

Eggs, small children, Mashed Potatoes, Steak, Pickles,

 

Welcome Dan! HUH?

I am starting to think I go to Wal Mart a bit too much. Once or twice a week I can honestly say I visit there for things I need. The other couple times it is purely because I need something to do.

The most awkward part is walking in. You enter the automatic door and you are greeted by someone who says “Welcome to Wal Mart,” or when your leaving “Thank you for shopping at Wal Mart.” The other day the older lady says “Welcome to Wal Mart Dan,” as I walked in. I walked by as normal and a few minutes later I thought, Did she say my name? I didn’t give too much thought to it. A few days later I walk in and there is a different kid standing there so I walk by as normal “Thank you for shopping at Wal Mart Daniel!” DAMMIT! They DO know who I am.

Hmm…this is getting interesting, I have to devise a way to get past these folks where they do not see me. The thing about the greeters is they LOVE IT when someone engages them in conversation. They crave it actually. So What I will do is hide out by the cart area and just watch and wait. I sort of have to peek around the corner every few moments. 2 minutes…4 minutes…5 minutes passed and finally someone was talking to them, it was more than the casual greeting! So I quickly run past the greeter in a hurry but darn it sure enough “Hey Daniel! Welcome to Wal Mart today!”

All this can be avoided maybe if I didn’t worry about it and just say Hi back, or even give them a little smile and wave but I don’t make things that easy for myself.

Schweddy Balls in my mouth,

I like to think I am a fan of Ice Cream. I am certainly not an enthusiast by any means but if something catches my eye, I’ll normally buy it and indulge myself. I almost always purchase Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream. They always have interesting flavors and they usually do not disappoint. My favorite will have to be Cherry Garcia. The way you get a big bite of a Cherry. YUM.

Having said all that, a few weeks ago I saw someone post a picture of a new flavor from B&J called…wait for it….

Schweddy Balls!

So it took me a while to search for it, I tried the local supermarkets, the Wal Mart and had no luck. I knew this was a limited edition flavor so I felt my time running out. Then out of no where a few days later, a lady friend of mine called and said she had found it at the store and I told her to buy it and save it until I got there.

The next day I finally got to crack open the pint and experience the Schweddy Balls in my mouth for the first time. How did I feel after putting it in my mouth for the first time? GREAT! I can’t believe I waited that long.

All sexual jokes aside the Ice Cream is not bad at all. Basically what we have here is Vanilla Ice Cream with a Rum flavor. The “Balls” are a chocolate covered Rum Ball and a Chocolate covered Malt Ball. The 2 balls are similar so you don’t exactly know which one you are going to bite into when you have one. The Malt Ball is complimented well by the vanilla Ice Cream and has a nice little crunch to it and the Rum Ball sort of melts. I dig it a lot. My son and I finished off the entire pint in about 45 minutes!

 

The voices in my ears.

Here are a few Podcasts I listen to. Things that help me think, help me get through my day, help me laugh. I think these have become more a staple in my life than T.V. is. I mean I have a few shows, but I’d rather lay in bed and listen to a good podcast any day.

1.The Joe Rogan Experience. Joe Rogan is a Comedian first and for most, real funny guy. His last CD Talking Monkeys in Space is more a commentary on life before it is a comedy cd, which makes it even more funny. Joe Rogan also hosts Fear Factor and commentates on the UFC PPV Events. His podcast is filled with everyone from his Comedy buddies to UFC fighters to actors or television actors. The best episodes to look for are with Duncan Trussell and Joey “CoCo” Diaz. The episodes are about 2 to 2 and a half hours, which is a good way to kill time at work if you can listen to an IPod or mp3 device.

2. Talking Sh** With Jim Jefferies and Eddie Ifft. Jim Jefferies and Eddie Ifft are two funny comedians as well. Both roommates who do 2 hour-long podcasts a week. There is no real basis to the show but the real continuity is that they pick on their homeless friend Jason Auer pretty much every episode which is hilarious and sad but more hilarious. They do have guests, actors and fellow comedians which they pretty much always ignore to pick at Jason.

3. Jay and Silent Bob: Get Jobs. There are many podcasts on the SMODCAST network, the next 2 are really two of my favorites. Kevin Smith and his life long acting partner Jason Mewes AKA Jay and Silent Bob are the focus in this one. The shows usually are longer, 2 hours to 2 and a half hours again good for a long 8 hour work day. Smith and Mewes do this show as their…”Job” it is also broadcast on Sirius/XM daily. They cover a range of topics news, entertainment, gossip and just have fun.

4. Jay and Silent Bob: Get Old. Like the former this has Jason Mewes and Kevin Smith but instead of doing it in Kevin Smiths home and doing it as a radio program they do this one live, usually onstage in front of a crowd. Topics range from Jason Mewes sobriety and stories from both of them as they grew up in NJ. This show is updated sort of infrequently but worthwhile listening to when it is updated.

5. The Todd Glass Show. This show is newer so I think it is still trying to find its place but regardless it is great. Todd Glass is a comedian, he has had his standup specials and in some of the documentary I Am Comic. His humor is the kind where he is not flat-out trying to be funny, but by the way he talks, you can’t tell if he is serious or joking which makes it funny. Shorter show right around an hour.

These are just a few of the hundreds and hundreds out there.

DLR

A call to Rock.

Lets see if I can make this understandable…

Music in the last ten-twenty years now is at a standstill. There are only a few bands out right now that I can count on my hand that will stand the test of time. Let me explain.

You have your greats. The Beatles changed everything for rock music. Set the standard if you will. They def. didn’t invent Rock N’ Roll but they sure as hell made it there own and raised the bar. Everyone of their CD’s or albums if you will were instant classics. John, Paul, Ringo and George were only a few years younger than me 17-20 when they set out to change the world.

I could argue the Rolling Stones also had a huge impact in music although I dont care for them as much. They came out right around the same time the Beatles did. Also had several classic Records that hold up to today.

Led Zeppelin. Blues, Rock, Metal all rolled into one. They came out about a decade or so later than the Beatles and are almost as influential as the Beatles were but did impact Music as hardly as their peers. Zeppelin had one of the BEST drummers that ever lived. John Bonham pounded on his drums like no one else has since.

The Who is another band that formed in that era, 1964 to be exact. They changed music just as much as any of the above mentioned groups did as well. Tommy, the best album they put out was a Mini Rock Opera, nothing quite like it has been done since.

Pink Floyd also an English band formed…can you guess? 1965. They are probably one of the most commercially successful bands ever. David Gilmour and Roger Waters joint effort gave them this creepy psychedelic sound that no one has achieved since.

There might be a few more, with no real explanation I will name out Black Sabath, MAYBE AC/DC, and I do not really feel comfortable naming much else.

Not too much in my opinion happened in the 80s for rock music. For sure Guns N’ Roses will be recalled for years to come and possibly Van Halen will be remembered years and years later but only 80s Halen.

Fast forward to the mid to late 80s and early 90′s, Grunge Rock started. One band. ONE band that anyone will remember in 50 years when I am an old man and my grandkids are listening to “Old” music will be Nirvana. Nevermind which was released November of 1991 took Rock music right into another direction. Nirvana paved the way for bands like Pearl Jam, Stone Temple Pilots, Green Day and even the Smashing Pumpkins to be successful.

The 2000′s didn’t give very much to music. There are but one or two bands from that decade that will live on. Linkin Park, who mix Rock and Rap. With each of their CDs comes something different. Like the music itself or not, it is something new, something different, something that has not been done before. Finishing up the 2nd year of the decade, there is nothing but the same old sound as the last 10 years.

I have been listening to music since I was very little, I mean I am sure my parents had music playing when I was in the crib as a baby. But my very first memory of Rock music is my dad singing AC/DC’s TNT and me repeating the words back to him, he said I couldn’t have been much older than 2 or 3. I grew up with good music. I had all the great bands to look back to and coming up in the 90′s I had many good rock albums to listen to. I took percussion and drum lessons starting in 6th grade onwards, I am 24 now, I also have played in a few garage bands and recorded some music with a buddy, so I KNOW music.

BUT why does it seem like music is at a standstill? Why couldn’t I have come up in the 60′s and 70′s when music was at its all time peak? I often wonder if kids from that generation knew how lucky they had it music wise.

Has Rock N’ Roll lost its ability to change the culture like it once had? You know what, maybe…there is nothing new out now. Where is that new sound? Where is the band that will make people go Holy Crap. Is it coming? Has it already been here in the 60′s and 70′s and that is all we have to offer? I like to think not. Music is afraid to try something different, to try and go somewhere new. I know what music needs, but me being JUST a drummer and a percussion maker I can’t do it alone.

This is a call out to all my fellow musicians in the town, in the state, in the country and the world. Let us change things, Rock not only the scene but the culture. It can be done. It will be done again, but who will be the one to do it?