Easy Grill Vegetables

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This is way to easy.
Start your grill & put on a vegetable grill pan. Or you could put some foil on the grill & poke some holes.
In a large vip lock bag add 1/2 cup olive oil, seasoned salt  3 Tbls balsamic vinegar.  Cut your veg’s into thick 1/2″ slices & into bag toss and let sit 15 – 30 minutes.
We have done this inside on the stove top with a grill frying pan too.

Low Fat Alfredo Pasta Bow Ties

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1 Tbls oil into frying pan, add chopped garlic & onion saute until translucent. add 1 can evaporated skim milk. Stir non-stop. When hot add 1 tsp tarragon, “Over Night Yogurt  Cheese” (see below) , 1/4 cup low fat swiss cheese & graded parm cheese.
Pour mixture over cooked past & add squeeze  of lime juice.
This is low fat and tastes like Alfredo. Can add cooked chicken & vegies
“Over Night Yogurt Cheese”
Put one small container into a coffee filter and then into a strainer then over a bowl. Leave in ref over night.
Can be used is so many different recipes.

Baked Vidalia Onions with Toppers

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This is so fun to impress company with. Especial good when served as a side with steak.
Make a very small cut from the top of the onion to the roots. Just enough for the top layer. Peal back the outer layers and leave attached to roots. Pull together, kinda  like a pony tail on top of a head.  Place the onion on foil with one cube of beef bouillon  thyme, rosemary, sugar, salt & pepper dab of butter. Wrap up in foil with the outer pealed back leaves out side.  Bake 400 degrees 25min.
When opening save the juice to make salsa on the side.
Mix the juice with  fresh tomatoes, chivies, garlic,salt & pepper, olive oil & red wine vinegar.
We made this on time for our friends Bryan & Tim. The backyard cook out was a huge hit!!!

Great Table Setting Idea

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1st put a tablecloth on your table. Then in the center use a NEW small rug.  this will save the table top from hot pads and adds lots of color & fun.  We did it once with a shag red rug.  Looks Great!

The Rainbow Table

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The Rainbow Table by Mark & Carrie
    A friend once asked us, “What advice do you wish an older Gay person would given you when you were young?” This got us a thinking.  Here is something we would like to share.
    When you become a couple it is not about you & me anymore. It becomes about “us” or “n”  as in Mark n Carrie. We are not saying that you should loose your identity but that a third person is created “us/n”.  Life is much easier and a lot more fun if you let “us/n” do the cooking. Here is what we did. Over the years we cook back and forth for each other. Sometimes cooking old family traditions and other times new things. When we both agreed that the recipe was GREAT we would write it down in our “Best Dish” journal. All theses recipes then received the “us/n” stamp of approval.  Some times we would also write a note about the recipe too.  What fun to come home not knowing what to cook and to just pick up this book. Then to find ourselves saying, “That sounds good, we haven’t had that for a long time!” or “Remember that crazy party when…?”
    For many years we have wanted to write a cookbook for our nieces & nephews. With “Dishing with Mark and Carrie” we now have 10′s of 1,000′s of nieces and nephews across the world. Suddenly a light bulb went off. Since we already have our web site  www.mcfilm.co  why not write it on the site. Now we can share the progress weekly.  To be quite honest… by writing one or two recipes a week we actually might get the book written!!! LOL LOL  We invite you to join us on this journey of creating our book “The Rainbow Table.”
Where did the title “Rainbow Table” come from?
    We were at a auction with our good friend Marie Hall, a neighbor and good ol Southern Charm Mom.  A new classic Florida antique white pedestal dining room table with 6 matching chairs came up for sale. While Carrie was out getting Marie & Mark our beer soaked hot dogs, Mark bought the table. When Carrie came back with the hot dogs Marie leaned over a with a smile  laughing said, “How do you like that table Carrie? Mark just bought it!” Carrie was not amused but we took it home that night.
     The next day when Carrie came home around 5pm Mark was in the back yard with the chair seats removed and was busy spray painting the chairs. Carrie yelled, “What are you doing?!?!?”  Mark said, “You really didn’t think I like antique white chairs, did you?? 6 chairs 6 colors in the Gay Rainbow flag, it’s a natural.”  We both laughed and the chairs have been a big conversation piece ever since.

You Just Can Not Make This Stuff Up!!!

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The names have been changed to protect the innocent! Kinda – Sort of… LOL
“4th of July Fireworks at the SunCoast Resort”
(7)
The fireworks at The Suncoast Resort were one of the crowds favorites. The first few times the maintenance manager would drive to Tennessee and come back with a car load of fireworks. Later after words from the city this all changed and it was done professionally. The fireworks were shot off the second floor of the parking garage. One of the first times one of the rockets went into the garbage dumpster next to the SW building. The fire department was called out to put the fire out.  The next time they started to shoot off fireworks somebody tipped off the fire department.  With sirens blazing and lights all flashing here came the BIG NEW Fire Truck. They hit the horns and told security to get out of the way here they are coming in. They went straight back to the up ramp to the second floor. Once again security tried to stop the fire trucks but they insisted they were coming in!!! Driving up on the second floor of the garage to stop the fire works.  The Suncoast management turned white and ran up to the fire chief. The upper deck of the parking garage was CONDEMEND Unsafe for small cars!!! There sat the new many ton fire tuck. Back up police & fire were called. The garage was closed with 100’s of cars packed in below. VERY SLOWLY the fire truck was backed out with dozens of firemen on radios trying to back out over supports only. Many new large cracks were made in the concrete that long night!
To read more “You just can not make this stuff up” visit

July 3rd GaYBOR Style

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After dinner we went out for a stroll down 5th Ave in GaYBOR/Ybor City.  The sun was just starting to set and the lights were coming on.  People forget how beautiful the homes are in GaYBOR/Ybor. Our first stop was at the Crowbar to see Bonnie & Tom. Out on the patio Tom was busy grilling hotdog for the big Annual 4th of July HOTDOG Contest! Inside Bonnie was looking beautiful, as always. We popped into Hamburger Mary’s to say hi. Dinning on the sidewalk was Frank Sinatra with his wife & friend. At New York New Ybor Pizza there were busy remolding. New store front & larger kitchen. Looks like they are keeping the Hot Guys!!! wink wink… At Bradley’s on 7th it looked like a Friday night.  Many groups of fun party people getting the party started.  Liquid TAMPA’s  party was “Candy Land USA” Hosted by DJ Power Infiniti. There was candy every where and we do mean every where!!! On the way to G.BAR we thought we were seeing double!!! A Flaming Orange Honda Element exactly like ours was parked next to us! G.BAR felt like a Wild Saturday Night. Dances on top of the bar everywhere. Miss Esme Russell Hosting a Crazy show and from NYC DJ Chris Cox!!!!
What a Great way to kick off the July 4th Celebration, GaYBOR Style!!!
Viva La GaYBOR

Wine Tip

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We love to cook with wine and sometimes even put it into the food!
Our must do wine tip. ALWAYS keep a bottle of Dry Vermouth on the kitchen counter. All that dry vermouth is condense white wine.  You will be amazed at how the flavors change with just a splash!

 

Low Fat Spiced Chicken with Spinach & Noodles

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Into coffee grinder whole pepper corns, salt, cloves, all spice, red pepper, sun dried tomatoes. GRIND all
Start to cook some egg noodles now.
4 chicken breasts. Put ground spice under skin and both sides. Brown in 1 tsp olive oli skin side down about 10 minutes. Remove & cut up.
Back into fry pan 1 can chicken broth, reduce & add 1/2 cup parsley, chopped pimentos & 10 sun dried tomatoes that had pre soaked in boiling water.
add 1 Tbls arrow root or cornstarch  & splash of wine.
Into a soup kettle put 4 cups chopped fresh spinach. Put cooked noodles over and cooked chicken with sauce.  Let all set for 5 minutes to cooks spinach.
Toss and serve with a sprinkle of ground spices on top.

Grandma Bias’s Chicken or Ox Tail Soup

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Her was her secret tip for clear broth. 1st bring the water to a very hard boil. Then add chicken or ox tails with 3 bay leaves and 1 Tbls kosher salt. Bring back to soft simmer and cook 1&1/2 hours. When we are making chicken soup we like to use chicken leg & thighs quarters. You can get a 10 lb bag for under $7.00. For ox tails usually 2-3 pounds.
Then remove the meat.  My Grandma would save the legs & put them back in when serving for the children. Other wise the meat was saved & used for something else like chicken salad spread, etc.
Now add to the broth 1 Tbls better than bouillon chicken bouillon,  carrots, white turnips, celery & onions. Bring back to simmer for 1/2 to 1 hour. If adding noodles always cook in separate kettle then drain & rinse before adding to soup.
Carrie never had ox tail soup until he meet Mark. Now it’s one of his and the dogs favorite too!!
Always make way more than you need. Freeze leftovers in the new screw top containers for later use.