Tag: tonytown

Ferociously Friendly Friday #FF

Tony's Birthday DragonWe all look forward to Fridays.

It’s probably because they are Fridays. Let loose, cut loose, grab your friends, check out a new scene, catch a show, gather at a friends, cook out, hit a party…whatever it is you do on the weekend, Friday is what sets the tone.

This Friday has been just a hair outside the norm. There are so many things going on that my eyes got crossed. I have the opportunity to come out and meet a pretty cool twitter friend at a local club. The Stars regular season opener is tonight, in which fektons of friends and tweeps are going. There is a really good band (The Mind Spiders) playing in Denton tonight. This is the last weekend of DTC’s production of Shakespeare’s ‘The Tempest’ at the Wyly Theater. AND, a very awesome little girl named Sydney made me a dragon for my birthday and I have to go visit and accept said gracious gift this evening.

So. I have this HUGE deal about not showing up or being there for kiddos when they are expecting me for something they consider important. Ergo, I am meeting up with my friends and they insanely cool daughter is going to give me my present…(yes, that a photo of the dragon she made me) πŸ˜‰

Anyhow last week this came up in some conversations and really just makes better sense to me. Who you follow on twitter should be based on interest, not on building reciprocal followers. That said, I’m going to *try* to do this every Friday. I’ll be present a few cool peeps that I follow on Twitter. If it’s going to be called “Follow Friday” I am making sure you know why I recommend them.

Here’s this week’s awesome people:

@TheRealChes Ches is a geek, a supermom, a great coder, and most importantly she’s got a pretty damn good sense of humor. We been friends for a pretty long time and she’s got a good .02 for you when she sees fit πŸ˜‰

@MarkRamseyhttp://markramsey.com Mark is a buddy back from my college days and is a pretty fun guy to listen to. He’s got tons going on and has two internet shows, in addition to running multiple other businesses and is a great resource for almost anything tech. Check him out!

@Melysa_Shttp://sexliesandbacon.com I kind of consider Melysa an authority on snark πŸ˜‰ She’s a pretty funny and her quest(s) to find the right guy are pretty funny to follow.

So here’s to a great start on the weekend πŸ˜‰ have a great weekend everyone!

-T




Tony’s Big Chili Yum Yum

So I’ve been talking up a big game regarding my chili recipe, and figured I ‘d finally getting around to sharing the Yum Yum from Tony’s Kitchen.

The first part I’ll just go over is this chili is incredibly kick ass with or without the meat, and is vegan friendly to boot (sans the meat). So no crying about your diet. The spices can be moderated easily to suit your palate and easily accommodate the whole household. As usual, this isn’t portioned for a few servings, this is portioned to feed the family and have loads for leftovers.

We’re going to go over the list of Yum-Yums (in-greed-ee-unts) now. Remember you’ll want to read the whole recipe before jumping in on this…;)

Ingredients

BIG FAT RED KIDNEY BEANS FOR CHILI!#1 BEANS
1lb Red Kidney Beans
I’ve tried black beans, and even black eyed peas, they still don’t work anywhere near as well as good ol’ Red Kidney Beans.

#2 SPICES
I tried about 20 different combinations and this one got the most kudos from my guinea pigs friends.
1.5 tbsp cumin
2 tbsp garlic
3 tbsp sea salt
3 tbsp ground multicolor pepper
3 tbsp red pepper
3 tbsp chili pepper (sometimes more)

Veggies for Chili!#3 VEGGIES!
This is where the chili really stands out. This really adds to the flavor of the chili and kills the competition.
.5 bell pepper (red)
.5 bell pepper (green)
.5 bell pepper (yellow)
4 celery sticks
3 tomatoes
3x Giant Hot jalapenos
3x large seranos
1-2x habanero (optional, will make things very hot for people not used to peppers)
1-2 cups of corn

Veggies for Chili!#4. MEAT
2lbs pork loin or ribeye (I am going to try it with Bison next!)

Prep

#1 Prep the beans by themselves first, they take the longest to get ready by far. I bring half a pot of water to a boil. Pour them in. Let the boil continue for 3 minutes. Take them off hot, let them soak warm for however many hours they decide to take πŸ˜‰

#2 & #3 About an hour before you want everything to be ready, boil water in a spare pot, for #2 & #3, chop up everything in #3, mix them all together, add boiling water to desired consistency. Let that mixture stew up…remember we want all that stuff to cook & soak hot for at least an hour.

Chopped Ribeye for Chili!#4 Pork loin really does way better for this stuff, the meat stay moist and more mean than beef, so much that ribeye is the only competition. No prep necessary except maybe dicing it all up ahead of time. I usually just dice it all up and throw it into the #2 and #3 mix about 20-30 minutes before serving.

Drain the beans and mix with the rest.

Variables

* If you are vegetarian/vegan, you have only to omit #4 and you’re golden.
* Adding a can of tomato sauce does a ton of good.
* You can skip the jalapeno and serrano by adding a can of RoTel hot, but to be honest, the pepper taste isn’t quite the same.
* Do not use canned beans!!!! (They’re Nasty!)
* 2 bell peppers are just as good as three halves mentioned above…I just love the taste they bring to the chili.

Specific People Notes:
@Jessazombie, I have not tested this with Tofu. Use at your own risk…but it does have cumin!
@andriastanley, I couldn’t get croutons to work…BUT garlic bread is surprisingly good with this!
@thebloggess, do not cook this in a red dress, but you should certainly act like it πŸ˜‰
@laurenacarlton, this is that chili your hubbie and talked about at that place that time




I have the greatest fans/friends!

So I got up this morning and found my FB notices going nuts…why? Sad Tony Is Sad. If you’ve heard this phrase…you know what comes with it…funny pics of me πŸ˜‰

Here’s why. Tony is a dork, but he has some AWESOME friends and fans.

One of my very awesome friends posted this on her FB page. It’s a funny t-shirt idea I came up with as sort of a gag. The promotion is, if I see you wearing it in public…or more importantly posting a pic of you wearing it online (and keep it up there)…I’ll totally buy you a beer.

I cant tell you how awesome this is πŸ˜‰ …I’ve been grinning all afternoon, and the best part, she remarked that she would have done this sooner if her daughter hadn’t commandeered the shirt for so long πŸ˜‰

Heather is made of awesome sauce.

So I guess we could title this “Free Beer for My Fans” but it isn’t exactly that now is it? It’s just that for those friends and fans wearing the shirt I wanted to give back to them a bit, yaknow? The picture links to my Zazzle store where you can buy the shirt, and potentially dupe me into thinking you need a free drink πŸ˜‰

Anyhow, you guys enjoy and have a GREAT weekend.

-Tony