Monday

Monday's With Michelle: Creative Loafing's Atlanta 2013 Culinary Bucket List

Happy Monday foodie friends!

On Thursday, April 25th, Creative Loafing introduced it's Atlanta's 2013 culinary bucket list (see the pic below just to get an idea). Definitely worth checking out... lots of yummy eats waiting to be had! Make sure you check it out! And even if you don't reside in Atlanta, please check out the list and see what's comparatively cooking in your stomping grounds.

Which dish are going to mark off your bucket list first? Post your comments below!

Don't forget to visit my Foodie blog for more recipes, food tips and other foodie fun.

Thanks for reading!

Thoughts? Please, let me know in the Facebook or Disqus comment sections below.

We can also talk about it on Twitter at @EPayneTheDad.

Prefer Facebook instead? Please Like the Facebook Page if you haven't already.

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Food Network's Atlanta Food Destinations

Hello dear foodie friends, welcome back to Mondays with Michelle!

I don’t know about you, but I am major Food TV junkie. In my down time you will usually find me on the couch watching some of my favorite celebrity chefs do their thing. I particularly enjoy watching the hosts walk through some of my local neighborhoods and sampling yummy treats in restaurants I've either been too or seen passing by. My partner and I always have a hard time deciding what new places to try, so keeping a list of local Food TV favorites is a great place to start. Check out the list below for some of our local “famous” eatery’s and start your Food TV tour asap!

Diners, Drive-ins and Dives, ATL

Gladys Knight’s Chicken and Waffles

Best thing I ever ate

Cupcake Wars

Miss Mamie’s Cupcakes

Have you eaten at any of these Food Network visited restaurants? What was your favorite dish? Post your comments below!

Don't forget to visit my Foodie blog for more recipes, food tips and other foodie fun.

Thanks for reading!

Thoughts? Please, let me know in the Facebook or Disqus comment sections below.

We can also talk about it on Twitter at @EPayneTheDad.

Prefer Facebook instead? Please Like the Facebook Page if you haven't already.

Enjoyed this post? Download my parenting book for less than a cup of coffee.

Sunday

A Grill-Off Against The Wife #SteakOver

When it comes to cooking in the kitchen of my home it is an undisputed fact that my wife reigns supreme. And this isn't because she spends all her time in the kitchen. In fact as a Senior Marketing Manager at her company she has been spending the majority of her time checking emails on her phone. Cooking is just something she likes to do. It soothes her and she is a foodie. She spends a good amount of time on Pinterest making the food she likes to pin.

When it comes to the grill it is presumed that I am king in my castle, but that's primarily because I'm the only one who uses it. At family gatherings, parties we throw and just dinner when we want barbecue, she seasons and I fire it up on the grill.

The Challenge

Heading into the weekend, I wondered if we went head to head who would come out on top. I posed the challenge and of course, she was game. With the rainy weekend ahead of us, getting company over would be impossible so I selected the best of all possible impartial judges: my self-indulged, eating food by the package seventeen year-old son. If it's food, he eats it. If the food is good, he eats all of it before any of us get a chance.

Since we haven't had red meat in a while I opted for our barbecue challenge meat to be Walmart's new USDA Choice Premium Steaks, specifically, a lean looking pair of New York Strip steaks. Our recipes are as following:

Steak A - The Wife's Lime-Chile Rub:

a pinch of salt and pepper
a pinch of cayenne powder
a pinch of chili powder
lime juice
butter

The steak was massaged with lime juice, followed by the seasonings and the butter and thrown on the grill for twelve minutes, six minutes each side.

Steak B - E.Payne's Basic Dry Rub:

When it comes to tentpole items, like coffee, hot dogs and steak I don't believe in fanciful I believe in keeping it simple and memorable.

1 teaspoon of cumin
1 teaspoon of pepper
1 teaspoon of steak seasoning (generic anywhere and everywhere)
1 teaspoon of Mediterranean sea salt
1/2 teaspoon of paprika
1/2 lemon
olive oil cooking spray

The steak was rubbed down with the lemon, then the seasonings and the steak were dumped into a gallon-size storage bag and then it was shaken (think Shake and Bake - if you're from that generation) until the seasonings are evenly coated on the steak. After removing the steak from the bag, lightly spray it with olive oil cooking spray on both sides and put on the grill for fifteen minutes (7-8 minutes each side).

The Results

Pictured below from left to right, are Steak A and Steak B. Before sitting down to dinner our son was called from the man cave where he was playing video games and asked to test each. He liked Steak A, but he LOVED Steak B and declared it the winner, citing its crispiness and explosion of flavor with smoke as the reasons for his picking it the winner. Personally, I believe that by not massaging the meat doing the "shake and bake" my steak preserved its original shape and consistency allowing the fire to benefit from the fat that dripped onto it.

Steak A (l); The Champion (r)

I did a little happy dance in the kitchen. My wife smiled briefly in her best effort of sportsmanship and then told us all to get out of her kitchen. After belting out Accapella rendition of Queen's "We Are The Champions" I finished doing my share of cooking. The steaks as well as the rest of the food that had been prepared for the evening were divvied up appropriately and we enjoyed our meal around the table on a rainy Saturday night.

About Walmart USDA Choice Premium Steaks - Just in time for early grilling season and Memorial Day, Walmart is helping shoppers take their grilling up a notch with its top-quality selection of delicious, juicy and tender USDA Choice Premium Beef available in a variety of cuts. Only one in five steaks is good enough to call Walmart Choice Premium Beef, which has been approved by the USDA for quality. For more recipes, tips and to find a store near you, visit www.walmart.com/steak.

Attend A Steak-Over Challenge In Your Town

Local firefighters from eight different cities will compete in the Wal-Mart Steak-Over Challenge presented by Kingsford® Charcoal, Dr. Pepper® and A.1.® steak sauce to determine who has the best steak-grilling chops in town.

Shoppers who attend will have the chance to join in the festivities, taste test Wal-Mart USDA Choice Premium steaks, sample Dr. Pepper and A.1. steak sauce for free, and cast their vote for best steak.

The firefighter finalist from each city will compete on behalf of their station for a $20,000 grand prize in Los Angeles, the week of May 20.

What is your favorite way to grill a steak?

Are you ready to experience Walmart’s Steak-Over for yourself? Find out why you should choose your steaks at Walmart here. We shared our winning grilling tip - now tell us yours!

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Walmart. The opinions and text are all mine.

Friday

My Greatest Weakness

A few days ago my daughter asked me what her greatest weakness is. I told her she is very smart. Because of that she sometimes talks more than she listens. She then asked me what her mother's greatest weakness was and I answered, "No comment." She begged and pleaded but I refused to get on that train. She asked about her brother and then asked me what I thought mine is. I told her that until recently I've always had a hard time saying "no" for fear of upsetting and disappointing others. And in the process I've volunteered to do a lot of things I never wanted to do or been trapped in places I never wanted to be. She said, "Well, you tell me no." I laughed and said, "That's different. That's me trying to be a parent and take care of you." She got it.

What is your greatest weakness?

photo credit: Darwin Bell via photopin cc

Thoughts? Please, let me know in the Facebook or Disqus comment sections below.

We can also talk about it on Twitter at @EPayneTheDad.

Prefer Facebook instead? Please Like the Facebook Page if you haven't already.

Enjoyed this post? Download my parenting book for less than a cup of coffee.

Parents: You Don't Have To Multitask (All The Time)

This week I personally learned a lesson I thought I already knew. Multitasking is cool (but not exactly natural for humans), but getting things done, one job at a time, is better.

My morning duties include getting the kids' food ready for the day, breakfast and lunch and somehow in the midst of that making my own breakfast and lunch and brewing coffee for my wife and myself. I always take care of the kids, and I'm pretty on point when it comes to the coffee for the wife. But it's been hit or miss whether or not I take care of myself. I often leave the house feeling disorganized and the rest of the time I'm leaving stuff at home, such as my phone, and at my worst, my work laptop.

The Superhero Complex

What is it about the superhero that so many of us find so fascinating? Everyone isn't a comic book reader and everyone doesn't have a wild imagination, but with the technology of visual effects having caught up with the minds of the artists and writers who put ink to page and brought the characters of our modern day mythology to life, superhero flicks being runaway blockbusters is irrefutable proof that they mean something to most of us. (Side note, that was an incredibly long sentence).

People who know me well know how far and wild my imagination soars. They've seen me pour through the pages of the superhero comics. They've commented that my drive is inexhaustible. But life dictates that you take care of your responsibilities, FIRST. And so I do. And find myself at times terribly confined and unbearably normal.

The superhero complex is an easy one. It isn't about the iron suit, the invulnerability, the ability to fly, the dark rage, the awesome gadgets, the healing factor or the ability to sense danger. These are the mere tools that distinguish one from the other. What marries them all together is their decision, or in some instances, compulsion, to become more than what they previously were or what they thought they were even capable of. When push came to shove these men and women tapped into their essence and used their powers, whether they were derived from birthright, through tragedy or by way of some freak accident, to rise above and make lives or life itself, a little better and a little safer.

And aren't we all capable of the same? But how many of us opt to be terribly ordinary for fear of rocking the boat or having to contend with what others think. How ironic is it that we go out in droves to watch movies about people with extraordinary abilities, when every single one of these characters were created as metaphors that exist in everyday life.

And not to leave the fairer sex out...

We make actors and singers into millionaires --- people who dared to be different and some who probably spent some part of their lives judged and misunderstood. Why can't you be super? Why can't I? What's so complex about being a superhero, other than the fear of embracing your true nature and making life better because of it?