Friday Foodie-Salute to Cheese

I think I will wrap up my salute to cheese next week and then start to focus on summer vegetables. I don't know about the rest of you but every summer I always get some mysterious gnome leaving veggies at my workstation or home because the person had a bumper crop and did not know what to do with them.

Today's cheese is Fontina. Fontina is a classic Italian cheese,which can be semi soft to firm in texture, with a range of flavors from mild and creamy to more intense and pungent.

Its not as common as mozzarella or ricotta but it is a delicious cheese that I think a lot of you will enjoy!

Stuffed Zinfandel Burgers (Serves 4)
Who says you can't mix wine with burgers. This is maybe a little much for the kids, but perfect for a grown up burger night.


1-1/2 pounds ground beef
2 (1 ounce) packages dry onion soup mix
2 cups minced red onion
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon and 1 teaspoon garlic, minced
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1/4 pound fontina cheese, cubed
1-1/2 cups bacon bits
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cups minced red onion
3/4 pound button mushrooms, sliced
2 teaspoons minced garlic
2 (14 ounce) cans low-sodium beef broth
2 cups full-bodied red wine, such as Zinfandel
8 oz fontina cheese
4 Kaiser rolls, split

1. Preheat an outdoor grill for medium-high heat, and lightly oil the grate.
2. Mix together the ground beef, onion soup mix, 1 cup minced red onion, Worcestershire sauce, garlic, and Dijon mustard with your hands. Shape the mixture into 4 patties of equal size. Place about half of the fontina cheese and bacon bits in the center of 2 of the patties; top with the other 2 patties and press edges of the patties to seal the cheese and bacon inside.
3. Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Cook 1 cup red onion in the hot oil until translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the mushrooms and garlic to the onions; cook and stir until the mushrooms are softened, about 5 minutes. Pour the beef broth and Zinfandel into the skillet and bring to a simmer; allow to cook until the liquid reduces by about half.
4. Cook burgers on the preheated grill to your desired degree of doneness, 7 to 10 minutes per side for well done. An instant-read thermometer inserted into the center should read 160 degrees F (70 degrees C). Top the burgers with equal amounts of the fontina cheese; cook until the fontina begins to melt, about 1 minute more. Place the burgers on the Kaiser rolls and top with the Zinfandel reduction sauce to serve.

Gnocchi in Fontina Sauce (Serves 4)
This is a little heavy so serve with a salad. If you don't like Gnocchi this will also be tasty with tortellini or any other kind of pasta. I bet you can also make this sauce and just use it as a fondue and dip things into it.

1 pound refrigerated gnocchi
6 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 tablespoons chopped shallots
8 ounces Italian fontina cheese, cubed
1/3 cup heavy cream
3 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil

1. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add the gnocchi, and cook until tender, about 5 minutes. Drain, and set aside.
2. Once the gnocchi goes into the pot, start the sauce, as you want the gnocci to be done first. Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Add the shallots, and cook for a few minutes, until tender. Stir in the cream, and heat to almost a boil. Gradually mix in the fontina and Parmesan cheeses, being careful not to boil. Stir until smooth, then remove from the heat immediately, or the sauce may clump.
3. Place gnocchi into serving dishes, and spoon the sauce over them. Garnish with chopped fresh basil.

Roasted Portobello Mushrooms with Fontina (Serves 4)
A sophisticated grilled cheese.

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil
1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
2 garlic cloves, minced
4 4-to 5-inch-diameter portobello mushrooms, stems removed
8 ounces Fontina cheese, cut into 4 equal sized strips
4 slices bread from crusty round loaf, lightly toasted

1. Position oven rack 6 inches from broiler.
2. Preheat broiler.
3. Mix first 4 ingredients in bowl.
4. Place mushrooms, stem side up, on heavy large baking sheet.
5. Brush mushrooms with oil mixture. Season with salt and pepper.
6. Broil mushrooms until just cooked through, about 3 minutes. Place on work surface.
7. Set oven temperature at 450°F.
8. Cut each mushroom crosswise into 1/2-inch-wide strips atop each bread slice.
9.Place bread on baking sheet. Bake until cheese melts, about 5 minutes.

HNT Alphabet Edition

Today's HNT is brought to you by the letter V.......

V... is for Vote.

The people have spoken and you chose full frontal nudity for your photo. Vote and you shall receive. I do have to make one comment though. According to my sitemeter I average about 350 visitors a day. When I look at my poll, there were only 144 votes . I am appalled by voter apathy. It's not like we were making you choose the leader of the free world, it was a simple vote for your nekkid picture choice.


The picture above was taken after a morning sex session. I am basking in the afterglow.

The photo below.....

was taken during.

So I guess almost everyone is a winner today.

Hubman is looking rested today. Guess why he needed the rest? For more nekkidness visit The Other HNT. To see who else got half-nekkid this week, visit Osbasso.

The Randomness of My Mind

Michael Jackson was laid to rest yesterday. His whole death and the hoopla surrounding it has been very easy to mock, as was Michael. However if you watch the clip of his daughter speaking at the memorial it reminds you that however odd Michal Jackson was, he has three children that he is leaving behind and that is the one true tragedy in all of this. But watching his daughter being flanked by the entire family makes me hopeful that the children will end up as well adjusted and functional as the rest of us.

I have an annoying habit of rapidly changing topics. I think Hubman tracked me once and I changed topics three times in the course of a 2 minute conversation. Today will be one of those days for all of you.

New Topic: I am getting settled in my own office. So far it has been great. I am the kind of person that needs a certain amount of alone time to function. And for the past few years I have NOT been getting it. I have a five minute drive between my daughter's day care and my office. Then at work, I sat literally five feet away from my co-worker. Then I would come home and be surrounded by the stalkers children until they went to bed.

Now I can close my door and take naughty photos think in peace.
Its also nice that I am away from my co-worker. She gets worked up about things very easily and I think having someone close by that she can vent to all day was not helping.

New Topic: I also had one of those days where I am glad that people cannot read my mind. One of the women in the office storms into my office on Monday. She declares "If Janey does one more thing to annoy me today, I'm giving my notice." I will grant you that Janey is annoying. My real answer to Beth (complaining employee)"Now Beth, calm down you don't want to make any hasty decisions. I am trying to work with your department about your issues, but you have to just be patient." What I really wanted to say was, "Make my day you stupid cow! Its not like you are very good about your job. Go ahead and quit! I can run an ad tomorrow and get a hundred applicants more qualified than you!" But I did not.

I work in the Public Sector. We are having hard times (like everyone not employed by dollar stores and bars)so we have had some hiring freezes and made cuts by attrition. So we are technically understaffed. Now in the private sector, people quietly grumble amongst themselves at lunch, but stop the discussion the second I walk into the room. In the Public Sector, people come into my office, complain about it and ask me what I am going to do to fix the problem. My actual answer is "Well right now we all have to make do with less. We all have to pull together and just be grateful that we are employed right now." The answer in my head is, "I could fix this really quick if I could fire your lazy, incompetent ass and hire someone qualified and not related to the department head."

It seems that Wednesday Weirdness is now defunct. The original moderator has been hammered by real life and the sub moderators do not have the time to maintain the site. For those of you that have participated in Wednesday Weirdness I wanted to say thank you. If you have questions that you always meant to send to Wednesday Weirdness, please send them to TMI Tuesday instead.

Happy Hump Day Everyone!

TMI Tuesday

Well, it looks like full frontal nudity carries the day! Thanks for voting and come back on Thursday to see the result. (Thanks to Hubman & Danimo for pointing out the error)

I am enjoying my new private office greatly. Once I master using the I-phone for pictures, I am sure I might take a naughty photo or two for my friends.

Please click over here and join in the TMI fun. If you have any idea for questions, they would appreciate your submissions as well.

Tuesday also means that there are fresh Tits for Troops photos up. Please take a few minutes and submit some photos to Blue Eyed Vixen so she can help boost morale.

TMI Tuesday #194

1. Where was the first place you ever had sex?
My boyfriends bedroom on his bed under his Bruce Springsteen poster. I think I might have taken out my scrunchi before sex. Viva la 80's.

2. How often do you lie?
Not too often. Telling the truth means less to remember.

3. If you could only be one, would you rather be smart or good looking?
Smart. While being smart may not come through in my swinger profile, I would know enough on how to get the most flattering poses possible to attract people.

4. Have you ever passed out or suffered memory loss from drinking too much?
No. I get drunk on two drinks and very rarely have more than that as I do not like feel totally out of control. I also HATE vomiting and don't want to risk it.

5. Top or bottom?
Bunk? Bottom then as I sometimes have to get up to pee in the middle of the night. Sex, I usually like the bottom as well as the friction works best for me. Plus, my knee injury makes being on top challenging right now.

Bonus: Do you have any catalogs for toys/videos/lingerie delivered to your home?
I occasionally get the Victoria's Secret catalog mailed, but otherwise I do all of my shopping online. Yay for Online Smut!

Monday Musings and Spotlight Blog

Michael Jackson will be buried this week and hopefully the constant media coverage will be buried with him. While his death is a tragedy and a shock, I am growing weary of the all Michael all the time coverage. Even Sarah Palin's sudden resignation did not take away from that. I do wonder why is Sarah Palin really resigning? Could it be that she wants to run for Senate in 2010, or move to a lower 48 state and run for office there to get more exposure? Is there a scandal brewing? Whatever the reason I am sure it will be fascinating.

Both Michael Jackson and Sarah Palin have the same problem though. They do not have a 'no' person. A 'no' person is someone that you trust who will tell you when you have a bad idea.

I think if you look at any 'train wreck' celebrity they will admit that they do not have a person to tell them, "Hey Michael, perhaps sleepovers with non-relative children is not such a good idea" or "Sarah, perhaps you are not really ready to run for VP" or "'I know who killed me' for your next film? Really?"

I think that it is especially hard when you are a child celebrity like Michael Jackson, Britney Spears or Lindsay Lohan. How does a parent effectively set boundaries with a child if the child is the one supporting the whole family?

So if you find yourself frequently getting into scrapes, you might want to consider finding yourself that 'no' person.

I was also saddened to hear of Steve McNair's passing. I always enjoyed watching him play and he did seem like a decent person. I was surprised by a lot of the vitriol in the comments on different news stories. Initially people assumed that he died due to a drug deal gone wrong. I was surprised to see the amount of racist comments as well. I really thought that we as a nation were past that sort of racism.

Unfortunately, McNair's life seems to have been cut short by a relationship gone bad.
I can only hope that this was not how Mechelle McNair found out about her husband's infidelity.

Tonight they started running reruns of Malcolm in the Middle on Nick at Nite. I forgot how funny that show was. I had gotten PP out of the bath to find Darling Boy laughing hysterically at the show. Hubman and I decided to let him watch it, as long as he is supervised.

This week's spotlight blog is April's Random Shower's. She is a funny woman and her blog is very entertaining.

Happy Monday Everyone!

Does our Dog Need a Dog?

Our beagle Lucy turned 10 in April. This is a picture from when we 1st got her.


She is getting old and grumpy. Since Hubman and I both work outside the home she is left alone for several hours every day. Even though she has toys and stuff to play with, I think she is getting bored being all alone during the day and I am beginning to think she needs a dog of her own.

If any of my readers have experience with this, I would love to hear about it. I am debating if Lucy would enjoy a puppy, or if an older dog would be less hyper and better suited to mix with her temperament.

I want a small dog that has hair, rather than fur to minimize shedding, although I did see a puggle the other day that was very cute. We have been thinking of a Shih Tzu but am open to suggestion.

Am I crazy to want to get my dog a companion? Should I just get her a mirror or one of those stuffed dogs that makes noises when you hit certain spots on it?

I would love to hear your opinion.

Independence Day

Today is Independence Day. For many of us this means cookouts, fireworks, and time with family and friends. If you are really lucky your town might sponsor a parade.

The holiday also celebrates the birth of our nation, but all of the blood, sweat and tears that Independence costs seems to have gotten lost in our celebration of the holiday.

Why not celebrate Independence Day by declaring your own Independence? Is there a toxic habit or person or relationship that you harbor? Why not take today and declare your Independence. Renew one of those long forgotten New Year's resolutions and take today as a fresh start.

Independence is never easy, but I am sure that it is worth it in the end.

Also on Independence Day please remember that Freedom isn't free. If you see someone who serves our country, please thank them. If you are so inspired, you can help our troops in many ways, one of them being Hope Radio's Letters to Leathernecks Campaigns. You can also go here for other ways to support our troops.