Not just the bar keep's friend

Buy this NOW!

I swear my range looked like it had survived a nuclear war. I have used everything on it. The orange clorox wipes that clean any spill I've made. I used steel wool which left slight scratches but that's not the optimal way to get a stovetop cleaned. Then, an aunt in Ohio told me to buy this and I swear my range top has never looked better!

Keep in mind that before I started, there were stains from the front burners to the back burners. Food stuck on, yellow stains, whatever you could think of.

It looks like this now:

Rum balls - a recipe from Kim Jenner

This is a recipe I got from a coworker and friend.

Ingredients:

1/4 cup confectioners sugar

1 tbs coca powder

1.5 tbs light corn syrup

1/4 cup finely ground pecans

1/4 cup rum

1.5 cups vanilla wafer crumbs (I substituted 1 cup vanilla wafer crumbs and 1/2 cup graham cracker crumbs)

Mix all the ingredients except for the wafer crumbs till well mixed. Pour in the crumbs and mix into a dough. Pinch off little pieces and roll into balls. Roll the rum balls in confectioners sugar and store on wax paper in the fridge.

Tropical smoothie

Sorry for the emptiness here. I just bought the most awesome blender there ever was: The Osterizer!

Why I picked this over every other blender and shelled out a nice $120?
- 1000 Watts of power
- A really thick glass jar
- The claim that it can crush ice in seconds, which I already tested and proved

So, here's the recipe for the very first thing I made in my brand new blender:

Ingredients:
1 cup yogurt
1 lb or 750 grams mango - frozen or freshly sliced
1/2 cup mango or mango-pineapple juice
1 cup ice cubes



First, crush the ice in the blender; then, add the rest of the ingredients.



Blend it well. Pour and enjoy!



Hint: This is somewhat tart. If you like yours sweeter, add a banana and a 1/2 cup milk to the smoothie.

Pork Chops

Apologies up front, for not having step by step pictures, but I was in a hurry and wasn't sure how it would turn out. But, it turned out yummilicious, so here's the recipe.

Ingredients:

any number of chops, 1 inch thick
1/2 cup flour
salt
black pepper
garlic powder
cayenne pepper
fennel seeds
2 tablespoons vegetable oil

Sauce:
1 cup water
4 tablespoon ketchup
4 tablespoon soy sauce
4 tablespoon jam (marmalade, plum jam, strawberry jam, anything you like)

Heat oil in medium skillet till pinch of flour sizzles. Mix the flour, salt, black pepper, garlic powder, cayenne pepper to taste. Cover the chops on both sides with the flour mixture. Put into the hot oil and cover with fennel seeds. Brown on both sides over medium heat till brown.

Mix the sauce ingredients and pour over the pork chops. Cover and simmer for 30 minutes on medium heat. Spoon sauce over chops when serving.

I broke down

and bought a mixer. A heavy duty kitchen mixer with a dough hook and a splatter guard.

But, instead of spending over $300 on a Kitchenaid mixer, I bought the JCPenney brand Cooks mixer for $169.

The reasons behind this choice:

- The Cooks' mixer was almost half the price

- It has the same 5 quart capacity as the Kitchenaid

- It has a lot more power at 700 Watts than the 325 Watts Kitchenaid gives you

- It has 12 speed levels versus 10 (though this one wasn't really that big of a consideration)

Overall, I bought this so I could get my dough kneaded so I can make Indian flat bread: chapatis.