A few days ago I was alerted to a great video that Benihana put out, a commercial, that takes a look at both the current, modern incarnation as well as looking back at their beginnings in 1964 as a glamorous, sexy and exotic place. Take a look!

My sis and I had a rare and welcome Christmas alone, which meant parade and movies, lighting the Christmas tree and playing records – no family drama, how sweet is that? But we didn’t want to have just your ordinary, everyday Christmas dinner. We decided to do it the KFC way, the way so many people celebrate in Japan.

Well, we can’t get to a KFC and we don’t know all the recipes, so we just had to find a recipe for corn salad and sort of wing it then buy the chicken and cake at Hy-Vee – here’s how it’s supposed to look:

And here’s what our make-shift Christmas dinner looked like:

Pretty close, huh? Okay, not exactly – but it was fun and tasty!

Baked chicken, broccoli and rice with stir fried peppers, sausage crabs and meatballs.

 Guess what time of year it is? Easter? No, try again! Did you say Spring Break…? Need a hint? It’s time for the holidays to roll around, along with all of those delicious desserts and perfect toasts that could use a little something special! There are several things I do differently during the holidays than others do. For one, I can’t stand pumpkin pie. It’s always too thick for me. How good can pie really be if you can’t stomach it without whipped cream? So, of course, I had to mess with it a little bit. 

Not only do I fold in whipped cream in place of half of the evaporated milk, but I also get in about 3 or 4 tsp of warm, delicious premium dark rum to give it  an extra pop of taste. I carry that rum over to my infamous pumpkin latte that doesn’t taste right without a little rum in it.

Zapaca rum, named for the town of Zapaca in Guatemala, is a beautiful premium dark rum made with quality sugar cane grown in fertile volcanic soil. They don’t use molasses to make their rum, they use virgin sugar cane honey as their base. 

Zacapa premium rum is then aged in Quetzaltenango in an aging facility called The House Above the Clouds which stands at 2,300 meters above sea level and is one of the highest in the world. At The House Above the Clouds (don’t you love that name?) they use a 500 year old aging process in which each drop of rum passes through several casks and the rum derives complex flavors, not only from the slow aging process, but also from casks that were used previously for Pedro Ximenez wines, Olosoro sherry and – my favorite – American whiskey.

Interested in learning more? You might consider joining the Zacapa Society where you’ll be able to learn even more about Zapaca aged rum and might even be eligible for prize and gifts!

So, I’ve told you my secret for using Zapaca premium rum in holiday recipes – what’s yours?

I can’t stand Hunt’s canned pasta sauce, there’s just something too bitter about it. So I cooked up some spaghetti, browned some ground beef and added the pasta sauce + about 2 T of honey to round out the flavor. Worked like a charm – I do so love spaghetti!

How do we not have this in America? That’s all I can think as I poke around this awesome website for a hog roast hire business in the UK called Parkers.

The idea is that you can hire Parkers to come and cater your function or event and, for about the same price as it would cost you to rent a roasting machine, they come in with the machine and hog, roast your dinner for you and serve it so you can think about other things like how to keep Uncle Mike-y away from the liquor cabinet and thus avoid a no-pants, lampshade-hat scenario!

One of the really great things about this is that, other than it just freeing up your time, your hog is also prepared by professionals who know what they’re doing and roast these hogs for a living. It’s a fabulous concept because it would take you out of the equation, and the possibility of you absolutely ruining your own roast hog by trying to do it yourself if you’re not familiar with these roasting machines. And if you’re hosting a party or event, the last thing you want to do is cook with a contraption you don’t understand – you could end up with a lot of sick guests and a polite decline to your next party invitations! Why not let the professionals do it? You wouldn’t try and fix your car by yourself if you didn’t know how, would you? Well, I wouldn’t but that’s because I know me and I know how much I can fudge up what should be a simple job!

I really wish they’d expand their business with one in the United States. As you probably know, I’m a vintage loving gal and this would make a great centerpiece to an old fashioned tiki party or kitsch luau!

Long time no see! I’ve been snapping pics of everything, but I haven’t had time to come on and post for a bit – sorry about that! I may yet still be a bit shaky getting back into it, but I’m giving it my best!

We made a couple of hand-tossed crust pizzas the other day, this pic is of the pizza with olives and mushrooms (both canned – which tasted surprisingly great on the pizza). The first pizza has cheese, the second has velveeta because we didn’t realize that Hubby had used up all the cheese in at breakfast – was still good!