Date Nut Bread

Date Nut Bread

In our latest box from Imperfect Foods - nee Imperfect Produce - I ordered a bag of Medjool Dates. No particular reason, except we both like dates. Imperfect Foods, if you haven't heard of them, is a great produce and food delivery service. They're especially good in the time of Covid - less time spent in a grocery store and their prices are good!

As I said, I had no particular idea for the dates, but the moment Victor saw them, Date Nut Bread flashed before his eyes! And in no time, it was in front of mine, as well!

Date Nut Bread

He found an interesting recipe on the King Arthur Flour website, calling for a cup of hot coffee. It is often said that cooking is an art and baking is a science. Well... in scientific terms, the acid in the coffee works with the baking soda to create the leavening, so, while it doesn't add a deep coffee flavor, it's a necessary ingredient.

The recipe also calls for a tablespoon of vodka or brandy - Victor used Meyers Rum. Alcohol works as a flavor enhancer, serving to disperse flavor molecules throughout the bread. More science. Fortunately, the recipe itself is pretty basic and straightforward - you don't need to be a mad scientist to make it or even know why it works the way it does. Personally, I find it helpful to know why things work the way they do so I can play and experiment.

No experimenting needed with this, though - it came out perfect! Moist, nutty, rich, and flavorful - the perfect dessert - or breakfast!

Date Nut Bread

I have a kitchen scale and use it whenever possible when baking. Weighed measurements really are the way to go. I also wish we had gone on the Metric System back in the '70s when the rest of the world did. It really makes more sense... But I digress...

Date Nut Bread

adapted from King Arthur Flour

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups (227g) chopped dates
  • 4 tablespoons (57g) softened butter
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 3/4 teaspoon salt
  • 2/3 to 3/4 cup (142g to 159g) brown sugar
  • 1 cup (227g) hot brewed coffee
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 tablespoon (14g) vodka or brandy, optional; to enhance flavor
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 3/4 cups (206g) Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
  • 1 cup (113g) coarsely chopped walnuts

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly grease an 8 1/2" x 4 1/2" loaf pan. Place the dates, butter, baking soda, salt, and brown sugar in a mixing bowl. Pour the hot coffee into the bowl, stirring to combine. Allow the mixture to cool for 15 minutes.

Add the egg, vanilla, liquor, baking powder, and flour, beating gently until smooth. Stir in the walnuts.

Pour the batter into the pan, gently tapping the pan on the counter to settle the batter.

Bake the bread for 45 to 55 minutes, tenting the loaf gently with foil after 30 minutes, to prevent over-browning. Remove the bread from the oven; a cake tester or toothpick inserted into the center should come out clean, and an instant-read thermometer should read about 200°F.

After 10 minutes, gently turn the bread out of the pan onto a rack to cool. Cool completely before slicing. Wrap airtight, and store at room temperature for several days; freeze for longer storage.

In less than 2 hours you can be enjoying a slice!

 


Sunday Breakfast

A couple of pantry staples and 20 minutes of your time can make sheltering in place downright pleasant - especially when someone else is doing the cooking!

Victor has wanted to make Dutch Baby's for a while, now - and this morning was the perfect time to do it!

They're ridiculously easy to make and absolutely delicious. I think you should head into the kitchen right this very minute and make one!

Dutch Baby

  • 2 eggs
  • 1/2 cup milk
  • 1/2 cup sifted all-purpose flour
  • 1 pinch ground nutmeg
  • 1 pinch salt
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 2 tablespoons butter
  • confectioners' sugar for dusting

Directions

Place a 10 inch cast iron skillet inside oven and preheat oven to 475°F.

In a medium bowl, beat eggs with a whisk until light. Add milk and vanilla and stir. Gradually whisk in flour, nutmeg and salt.

Remove skillet from oven and reduce oven heat to 425°F.

Melt butter in hot skillet so that inside of skillet is completely coated with butter. Pour all the batter in the skillet and return skillet to oven.

Bake until puffed and lightly browned, about 12 minutes. Remove promptly and sprinkle with powdered sugar.

A bit of raspberry jam and a drizzle of maple syrup finished it off.

We may be under a stay at home order, but that doesn't mean we have to be heathens about it!


Individual Frittatas

Individual Frittatas

We have been looking at ways to switch up breakfast around here. I usually go for plain yogurt - whole milk Greek - with half a banana and sprinkled with Grape Nuts, or my other go-to, steel cut oatmeal with banana - no milk or sugar. Victor will go for the other half of the banana with chunky peanut butter and a hard-cooked egg or something similar. Not exactly exciting, but it's something to stoke the early morning fire before heading off to the gym or whatever else needs doing in the morning.

I make a batch of oatmeal in advance, and we cook off eggs in advance, as well. Having good food readily available keeps us from looking for the instant-gratification crap food.

Today, Victor caught a cooking show that was making individual frittatas! Moments after the show ended, he was in the kitchen!

Individual Frittatas

We've made things like this in the past, but always to eat right away. It took seeing them on a TV show to realize they could sit in the 'fridge awaiting our morning nutritional needs!

And, like any frittata, they were easy to put together and are limited only by your imagination and items in your 'fridge or pantry.

His recipe made exactly 12.

Individual Frittatas

  • 8 eggs
  • 1/2 cup milk
  • 1/4 cup grated cheese
  • 1/2 cup chopped fennel
  • 3 green onions, chopped
  • 2 oz sun-dried tomatoes in oil, drained and chopped
  • 2 oz chopped mushrooms
  • salt and pepper
  • shredded cheese to top

Preheat over to 375°F. Spray a 12-cup muffin tin with food release spray.

Sauté fennel and mushrooms. When nearly done, add tomatoes and green onions. Cool.

Mix eggs with milk. Stir in cooled vegetable mix and grated cheese. Add S&P to taste.

Portion into prepared muffin tin and sprinkle with shredded cheese.

Bake for 10 minutes, cool, and remove from tin.

Individual Frittatas

They puffed up beautifully, and then fell as they cooled. They're now in a lovely container awaiting breakfast tomorrow morning!

 


Kolaches for the New Year

We do not go for the New Year Tradition foods at our house. There will be no black-eyed peas, pork and sauerkraut, lentils, grapes, greens... We seem to have amazingly good luck without them, so why ask for more?!? We'll send our share off to folks who really do need it! Tonight's dinner is probably going to be a Sicilian Pollo Agrodolce - a sweet and sour braised chicken. I wouldn't mind spending New Year's in the Mediterranean... Maybe next year...

But I digress...

I do like to make a sweet roll of sorts on the major holidays and thought that I'd make Kolaches for Christmas Morning. Alas, I didn't have any cream cheese in the house - huh?!? - and wasn't going to be one of those people out shopping. I made Cinnamon Rolls, instead, and planned the Kolaches for New Year's Day!

I wanted them ready early, so I made the dough last night, let it rise for an hour, and then formed the balls and placed the sheet pans in the 'fridge overnight. I think I would have been better off making them from scratch this morning - they really did take a long time to come up to temperature - but the end result was perfection! They really came out good.

I hesitate to say something is really easy because easiness is pretty subjective - but these are not complicated by any means, and I think anyone really could make them! The original recipe comes from Cooks Country/America's Test Kitchen. While I find that they can often complicate the hell out of simple things, this time they didn't!

Kolaches

adapted from Cooks Country

INGREDIENTS

DOUGH

  • 1 cup whole milk
  • 10 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
  • 1 large egg plus 2 large yolks
  • 3 1/2 cups (17 1/2 ounces) all-purpose flour
  • 1/3 cup (2 ounces) sugar
  • 2 1/4 teaspoon instant or rapid-rise yeast
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons salt

CHEESE FILLING

  • 6 ounces cream cheese, softened
  • 3 tablespoons sugar
  • 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon grated lemon zest
  • 6 ounces (3/4 cup) whole-milk or part-skim ricotta cheese

STREUSEL

  • 2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons all-purpose flour
  • 2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons sugar
  • 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces and chilled
  • 1 large egg beaten with 1 tablespoon milk (for glaze)

INSTRUCTIONS

1. FOR THE DOUGH: Grease large bowl. Whisk milk, melted butter, and egg and yolks together in 2-cup liquid measuring cup (butter will form clumps). Whisk flour, sugar, yeast, and salt together in bowl of stand mixer. Fit stand mixer with dough hook, add milk mixture to flour mixture, and knead on low speed until no dry flour remains, about 2 minutes. Increase speed to medium and knead until dough clears sides of bowl but still sticks to bottom, 8 to 12 minutes.

2. Transfer dough to greased bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Adjust oven racks to upper-middle and lower-middle positions. Place dough on lower-middle rack and place loaf pan on bottom of oven. Pour 3 cups boiling water into loaf pan, close oven door, and let dough rise until doubled, about 1 hour.

3. FOR THE CHEESE FILLING: Using stand mixer fitted with paddle, beat cream cheese, sugar, flour, and lemon zest on low speed until smooth, about 1 minute. Add ricotta and beat until just combined, about 30 seconds. Transfer to bowl, cover with plastic, and refrigerate until ready to use.

4. FOR THE STREUSEL: Combine flour, sugar, and butter in bowl and rub between fingers until mixture resembles wet sand. Cover with plastic and refrigerate until ready to use.

5. Line 2 rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper. Punch down dough and place on lightly floured counter. Divide into quarters and cut each quarter into 4 equal pieces. Form each piece into rough ball by pulling dough edges underneath so top is smooth. On unfloured counter, cup each ball in your palm and roll into smooth, tight ball. Arrange 8 balls on each prepared sheet and cover loosely with plastic. Place sheets on oven racks. Replace water in loaf pan with 3 cups boiling water, close oven door, and let dough rise until doubled, about 90 minutes.

6. Remove sheets and loaf pan from oven. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour bottom of 1/3-cup measure (or 2 1/4-inch-diameter drinking glass). Make deep indentation in center of each dough ball by slowly pressing until cup touches sheet. (Perimeter of balls may deflate slightly.)

7. Gently brush kolaches all over with egg-milk mixture. Divide filling evenly among kolaches (about 1½ tablespoons per kolache) and smooth with back of spoon. Sprinkle streusel over kolaches, avoiding filling. Bake until golden brown, about 25 minutes, switching and rotating sheets halfway through baking. Let kolaches cool on pans for 20 minutes. Serve warm.

I proofed my yeast in the milk because I never have rapid rise/instant yeast, but otherwise followed the recipe pretty closely.

I highly recommend making them soon!


Christmas Cinnamon Rolls

Christmas Morning, 2017. It's reasonably quiet around here. Nonna's TV is blaring away - switching between Midnight Mass at the Vatican and Singing Nuns on Good Morning, America - but, otherwise, it's a quiet morning.

Perfect for Cinnamon Rolls right out of the oven!

My friend, Ruth, posted this recipe several years ago, and it's the closest thing I have ever found to replicate the cinnamon rolls I used to make at Tahoe, lo, these many years ago. It's an easy dough to make, it rolls out in a snap, and in 2 hours time, you can have fresh rolls on your plate!

I made them last night and put them in the 'fridge to rise overnight. They didn't rise very much, but an hour on the counter this morning was perfect.

And they are, too!

Cinnamon Rolls

Dough

  • 2 3/4 cups flour
  • 3 tbsp sugar
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 envelope active dry yeast
  • 1/2 cup warm water
  • 1/4 cup milk
  • 2  1/2 tbsp butter
  • 1 large egg

Cinnamon Sugar

  • 1/4 cup butter, room temperature
  • 2 tbsp cinnamon
  • 1/2 cup sugar

Glaze

  • 1 cup powdered sugar
  • 2 tsp vanilla
  • 2 tbsp milk

Directions:

Mix yeast and sugar in mixing bowl. Add 1/2 cup warm water (110°). Allow to proof while getting other ingredients together.

Melt milk and butter together and cool to no more than 110°.

Add flour, salt, milk mixture, and egg to mixing bowl. Blend on low speed until flour is incorporated. Knead about 4 minutes. Cover bowl and let dough rest for 10 minutes. This relaxes the gluten and allows the flour to fully-incorporate the liquid.

On a lightly-floured counter, roll the dough to an 8″ x 14″ rectangle. Spread with the soft butter and then sprinkle with the cinnamon sugar. (Add chopped walnuts and/or plumped raisins, if desired.) Tightly roll and slice into 12 rolls.

Place in greased 9″ pan and allow to rise until doubled – about 90 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350°. Place pan in oven and bake about 30-35 minutes, or until nicely-browned.

Allow to cool slightly and then apply glaze.

To make glaze:

Mix powdered sugar, vanilla, and milk. Drizzle over warm rolls.

A great way to start the day!

 


Sunday Scones

Sunday scones are becoming a bit of a tradition around here... They're quick and easy to make - and really taste great.

I have a couple of go-to recipes - one using heavy cream and one using buttermilk. I almost always have one or the other in the 'fridge. This week it's the buttermilk since I soaked the chicken in it for the fried chicken, tonight.

There are a bazillion different ways of making scones. I like putting a dollop of jam on the wide edge before baking them. Sometimes it runs off a bit, but... such is life. That's why I line my pans with parchment paper. These are also throw-togethers. I'm not trying to impress someone with my fabulous baking skills or sell them for $20 a piece. They're just something to have on a Sunday morning with a fresh cup of coffee.

Today, I topped half of them with raspberry jam and the others with gooseberry jam.

My first introduction to a gooseberry was back in the early '60s. My mom had a pen-pal (remember those?!?) in England, named Ruth Brown. I think she lived in Birmingham. Anyway... they sent each other gift packs one year and the two things I remember from the box are gooseberry jam and Brighton Rock candy. The candy was way-cool for this 12-year old. It had the words "Brighton Rock" embedded all the way through the stick - something I had never seen before. It was a marvel.

The gooseberry jam is a little less memorable - I barely got a taste of it. My mom saved it for her own toast in the morning - it was much too good to waste on mere children. Yes. I was raised by a woman who thought children had their place in a family - and it wasn't always first. The emotional scars run deep.

But back to scones...

These really are simple to put together and in a mere 30 minutes from start-to-finish, you can be eating scones fresh from the oven!

Buttermilk Scones

  • 2 cups flour
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 2 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 stick cold butter
  • 1/2 cup buttermilk
  • 1 egg
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • jam of choice

Preheat oven to 375°F / 190°C.

Mix dry ingredients together. Quickly cut in butter using a pastry knife or your fingers. You can also use a food processor.

Mix buttermilk with the egg and vanilla. Lightly mix into flour mixture.

Form into a circle about 1 inch / 25 mm.

Cut into 8 pieces, make an indentation on wide end and add about a tablespoon of your favorite jam.

Bake about 22-25 minutes, or until browned.

Let cool slightly and enjoy!

Make some memories...

 

 


Raspberry Scones

One of the great pleasures of life is a hot-out-of-the-oven scone with a freshly-brewed cup of coffee.

Welcome to another Sunday at our house.

Scones really are one of the easiest things one can throw together on a Sunday morn - a few basic ingredients and 18 minutes in the oven is all it takes.

This recipe started out years ago as a stuffed scone, but I've adapted it a bazillion times as my mood and tastes shifted. The main secret is using a cup of heavy cream as the liquid. In basic baking, fat and sugar are used for tenderness, eggs and flour are used for structure. This recipe doesn't have eggs - and the end result is a light-as-a-feather scone just waiting to be bitten into!

Raspberry Scones

  • 2 cups all purpose flour
  • 1/3 cup sugar
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 5 tablespoons chilled unsalted butter
  • 1 cup whipping cream
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • raspberry jam

Preheat oven to 400°F. Mix flour, sugar, baking powder, and 1/2 teaspoon salt in large bowl. Add butter, rubbing in with fingertips until mixture resembles fine meal. Gradually add 1 cup cream and vanilla. With a light hand, mix until dough comes together. Pat to 1/2-inch thickness. Cut scones into wedges.

Transfer to parchment-lined baking sheet. Create an indentation at the wide end of each scone and fill with 1 teaspoon jam.

Bake scones until brown, about 18 minutes. Serve warm.

Served with a cup of Old City Coffee Viennese Roast Sumatra. 

It just does not suck to be at our house, right now...

 


Breakfast for Dinner

Every now and again we get the urge to have the traditional breakfast foods for dinner. Breakfast is by far, one of my most favorite meals. The other two - lunch and dinner - are my other favorites. I also have a penchant for snacks. And dessert is my favorite non-meal meal. One might say that my real favorite meal is the one I'm eating at the moment. Some people eat to live - I live to eat.

I could easily picture myself at one of those renaissance banquets that went on for days and days... Gluttony and debauchery. How fun can you get?!?

Actually... I think we've thrown a couple of those... Some of those Tahoe parties were pretty wild - and they usually required huge breakfasts the following day for the bodies strewn about the house. Notice I said day and not morning. The parties ended in the wee hours of the morning. Breakfast was served late. We had a standard dish we made the night before we called "Tahoe Brunch" that seemed to take the edge off... especially if served with lots of bloody marys.

Some of those parties really were legendary - like the time 20 friends came up for a skiing weekend. Bodies everywhere. Or my 26th birthday party - we were celebrating three birthdays - with a live band and more drugs than a Mexican Cartel. Wall-to-wall-to-wall people inside and out. I really only have vague snapshot recollections of that one. And no idea how or when it ended - although I am sure I was up and at 'em to the very end. Sweet youth.

That glass is the last remaining bit of memorabilia from my almost 5 years living at Lake Tahoe. Like me, it has seen better days. And also like me, it is full of stories.

Which segues right into tonight's feast...

Ever wonder why Bacon and Eggs is the quintessential American Breakfast? Wonder, no more! Prior to 1920, the typical American breakfast was much lighter - fruit, hot cereal, and coffee was pretty much the mainstay. A certain Mr. Edward Bernays changed all that.

Bernays was hired by the Beech-Nut Packaging Company - of Beech Nut gum fame - to sell more of their bacon. Back in the day they were producers of peanut butter, jam, pork and beans, ketchup, chili sauce, mustard, spaghetti, macaroni, marmalade, caramel, fruit drops, mints, chewing gum, and coffee. Now they're a baby food company.

But I digress...

It seems that sometime in the 1920s, wanting to increase his client's bacon sales, Bernays spoke with the internal doctor working for Beech-Nut and asked him if eating a heavier breakfast would be good for Americans. Being a company man, he said yes - and he then wrote to 5000 of his fellow doctors asking them to endorse the idea. The story was published in all of the media of the time - newspapers and magazines galore - and the American Public bought it. Sales of Beech-Nut bacon soared, and a tradition was built. Bacon and Eggs as a breakfast meal was brought to you by advertising - and a Doctor's study that wasn't a study - and foisted upon a gullible populace.

Can you imagine people today falling for such a stunt?

So here we are with our bacon and eggs. And sausage. And potatoes. And rye toast. And freshly-squeezed blood orange juice. The eggs were perfectly runny, the bacon crisp, and the toast perfect for dunking.

Not a bad way to end the culinary day...

Well... except for the homemade fudge we'll have later. Small pieces. Wouldn't want to be a glutton.

 

 


Corned Beef Hash

It looks as if the Blizzard of '17 is coming to an end. We didn't get the two feet forecasted but we got a hellava lot of ice and sleet. And cold, cold wind. It's still blowing like crazy, but the worst of it seems to have passed.

I guess at some point I'll have to get out there and start clearing the drive. I'm in no hurry, though. I've reached prime heart-attack-while-shovelling-snow-age. I shall take my time.

In the meantime, a boy must eat. With enough provisions set to keep us going until the next blizzard, I thought corned beef hash with a basted egg would be a nice spin on things. I bought a pre-cooked corned beef a few days ago thinking I might make Reubens or maybe a Corned Beef Special for Victor, but hash called my name, today. There's still enough to do sandwiches. Maybe.

The hash was as basic as basic can be. Cubed potatoes, cubed corned beef, onions, garlic, salt, and pepper. Fried. When it was 99% done, I cracked a couple of eggs on top and covered the pan for the eggs to baste.

It was the perfect luncheon on a cold, wet, snowy day, and the perfect fuel needed to go out and tackle the drive.

For dinner, we're going south of the wall. Not sure exactly what, but it will have a Mexican flair!

Stay tuned...

 

 


Peach Pancakes

Victor is in Chicago for work, which leaves me, Blanche, and Nonna fending for ourselves.

Once upon a time, when Victor took off for work trips, I would subsist on chili dogs while doing a surprise project around the house. That kinda changed when we moved Nonna in with us. I actually have to prepare reasonably healthy meals at prescribed times for her, so making noise whenever and standing by the stove eating cold chili out of the pot isn't quite in the plan, anymore.

Times do change...

I still have a couple of pounds of peaches so I thought a couple would be a good start for breakfast. My first thought was to cut them up into yogurt - and I actually grabbed the yogurt out of the 'fridge - when something clicked in the brain and peach pancakes became an immediate obsession.

The yogurt went back into the 'fridge and I grabbed a mixing bowl.

I added some corn meal to the pancake mix just because, added an egg, and eyeballed the milk. Chopped up two nice, ripe peaches, and stirred them in. Into the skillet and onto the plate.

Breakfast was a success. Not nearly as healthy as my yogurt, but it put a smile on my face. Not a bad thing.

And maybe a chili dog for lunch... I'm sure there's an emergency can of Hormel down in the basement...

 


Breakfast For Dinner

02-13-16-breakfast-for-dinner

We were just sitting down to dinner when the phone rang. It was my brother, asking if we had seen the news. We hadn't, and it was with a glass of blood orange juice in my hand that I learned of Antonin Scalia being found dead in Texas.

I smiled and raised my glass in a toast saying that I was glad he lived long enough to see gay marriage the law of the land.

And then we continued dinner, remarking about what a lovely day it was.

Fresh-squeezed blood orange juice. What a treat. And corned beef hash - from a can. Fried potatoes and eggs over-easy. Perfection. Well - the perfection part came from the toast - French Bread Toast.

As a kid, one of my most favorite things was crunchy-crusty French bread toast. I'm a bread-lover from way back. And I have always been a fan of Corned Beef Hash.

I know, I know... the stuff is not exactly health-food, but, damn, once in a while it just can't be beat - especially with a couple of nice, over-easy eggs on top and some crispy potatoes on the side. The mandoline comes in handy for dicing potatoes. Nice, even slices turn into nice, even cubes.

As good as it was, though. not going to top our Valentine's Day Dinner. Victor is making Lasagne - including homemade lasagne noodles  -and I'm making Pane Siciliano - a Sicilian bread.

Lovely day, indeed...


Sunday Breakfast

Imagine being in a house with the smell of freshly-baked scones and bacon wafting through the air...

I, of course, did not have to imagine it - it was my house! Victor has been plotting a frittata for breakfast all week. It started with me cutting up some peppers and having him ask me to save some. It kinda grew from there.

02-07-16-frittata

Red and green peppers, asparagus, kalamata olives, bacon, potatoes, garlic, ricotta cheese... Just little bits of this-n-that that were in the 'fridge. The perfect assortment of flavors.

We were fresh out of bread for toast - I'm going to be baking that later on today - so Victor threw together some cherry scones to go along with the frittata.

It's rough living in our house.

02-07-16-scones

Cherry Scones

  • 2 cups flour
  • 1/3 cup sugar
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1/4 tsp baking soda
  • pinch salt
  • 1 stick butter
  • 1 cup dried cherries
  • 1/2 cup sour cream
  • 1 egg

Preheat oven to 400°F.

Mix dry ingredients. Cut in butter. Stir in cherries. Mix sour cream and egg and stir into flour mixture.

Place on a lightly floured surface and pat into an 8" circle about 3/4-inch thick. Sprinkle a bit of sugar.

Cut into 8 wedges and place on a parchment-lined sheet pan. Bake about 15 minutes or until nicely browned.

A great way to start the day. It's the perfect sustenance to get us through comfy-chair shopping, today.

Yeah... we need to go shopping. Our leather La-Z-Boy has seen better days. Springs have sprung and it's finally beyond repair - or comfortable sitting. I love the look of the chair, so here's hoping we can find something similar.

It's a sad state of affairs when we would rather leave the house to go furniture shopping than watch the Super Bowl.