Ham and Eggs

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Our first home-cooked breakfast of 2015 consisted of organic free-range eggs cooked in imported Irish butter, ham flown in from Oklahoma, and tater tots.

Yep. Tater tots. Or, rather, their non-national-brand store equivalent. I suppose I'm committing the ultimate in gastronomic faux pas, but... such is life. I didn't feel like frying potatoes.

This is the fun of eating at our house... Meals are an amalgamation of foods that work together because we say they do. It's a bit of no-rules cookery. Like spreading homemade blueberry peach jam and imported Sicilian blood orange marmalade on store-bought toasted wheat bread. It works. Well, in fact.

The star of the meal, of course, was the ham. And boy, did it taste good wrapped in toast and dipped in runny egg yolks. When all of those flavors and textures get together... well... it's one of life's ultimate joys. Simple things can bring the biggest smiles - and a belch, if you eat it too fast!

Breakfast really is one of my favorite meals - and it is probably the messiest meal to cook. For me, anyway... It takes lots of pans to do it up right, not to mention the accoutrements... It's also one of the most difficult to cook - as a cook. My time at the Old Post Office in Carnelian Bay on Tahoe's North Shore taught me that one. Cooks have one definition of what something like an over-easy egg is - but the general public has a totally different idea. And don't even get me started on bacon... There are just so many variables and so many personal ideas of what they all should be.

I quit that job on Mother's Day, 1976. After we closed. I stuck it out, although I really wanted to walk early in the day. I still remember it almost 39 years later. It was not pretty.

Almost 39 years later, I get to cook breakfast the way I want to - and to mix tater tots with organic eggs and imported-from-Oklahoma ham, if I want to.

It's fun being a rebel.

 

 

 


Corned Beef Hash and Poached Eggs

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One of my (many) guilty pleasures in life is Mary Kitchen Corned Beef Hash.

I know... I know... For all the espousing I do on eating well, opening a can of corned beef hash seems pretty bad. Oh well. I've always liked corned beef hash and when I see it on a diner menu will almost always go for it for breakfast. Such is life.

My father would cook up corned beef hash now and again for breakfast with eggs fried in what seemed like an inch of oil. The man definitely had a way with food. He'd fry eggs that were actually crispy around the edges and brew the cheapest damned coffee on the planet - and we'd be lined up for more. Drinking bottomless cups of Lady Lee coffee - bought ground in 3-pound cans - and waiting for the next pot to brew.

Definitely good memories.

Victor had actually made a comment about corned beef hash a few days ago, and when I was at the store today, I grabbed some with the thought of making it for Sunday Lunch since he had made pumpkin scones for Sunday Breakfast.

Asking Nonna if she wanted corned beef hash and poached eggs for lunch was another who's on first conversation... After a few minutes, she finally said yes, although the look on her face was more of a puzzled what are we having for lunch?!?

It's always an adventure...

Perfectly-poached eggs atop crispy-fried hash. It was good. Real good.

And Nonna cleaned her plate. as well.


Cinnamon Rolls

Hot, fresh, light-as-a-feather cinnamon rolls for breakfast. What could be better?!?

Many moons ago - as in living-in-Tahoe-in-the-'70s-many-moons-ago - I had a sweet dough recipe that was pretty fool-proof. Granted, this was Tahoe in the '70s and we were smoking so much pot that any recollections can be viewed as suspect, but I did make some good cinnamon rolls back then.  Actually, cinnamon raisin rolls... It's slowly coming back to me... I remember making them once in a while as a breakfast special at The Old Post Office when I cooked there - and they were an inevitable part of our fabulous Sunday Brunches at home.

That recipe faded away and over the years I tended to go back to my earliest days of baking and make convoluted 196-step-all-day-in-the-kitchen Danish.  They are absolutely fabulous and are worth every step and moment it takes to make them - but sometimes I just want something a bit simpler.

And last night on Facebook, Ruth posted a recipe that could well have been that recipe from 1976.

I didn't quite realize it at the time that it would be so similar - I was caught up with the fact she had said the dough came together easily and rolled out like a dream.  And, that she was switching them out to make a savory garlic and sun-dried tomato version. I like that kind of versatility! But biting into one this morning brought back a lot of fond, mimosa-addled memories. Tahoe in the '70s. Ya should have been there...

The basic recipe is easy and quick to put together. It's a single-rise dough, so depending upon your weather and temperature, you can have fresh danish in a couple of hours - or, in 30 minutes if you make the dough before you go to bed.

The recipe Ruth found from Sally's Baking Addiction calls for rapid-rise yeast. I generally avoid the rapid-rise because I like a slower, more complex rise for my baked goods. It's a personal preference - nothing more. Basic active dry yeast requires liquid to activate it - the 'proofing' step - while rapid-rise can be mixed straight into the dry ingredients.

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.

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Right out of the oven before the glaze.

I made these in a 10" springform pan. I rolled them out, formed them, and placed them in the pan and then covered it with a kitchen towel before heading off to bed.

This morning I preheated the oven and baked them off. The recipe called for a 375° oven but without thinking, I preheated to 350°.   I think my old Tahoe recipe was 350° and I just went on auto-pilot. They came out perfect at that temperature without having to worry about over-browning.

They are feathery-light and can definitely be reworked to suit your gastronomic desires. I'll be adding plumped raisins, for sure, next time around - and probably walnuts.

So thank you, Ruth, for yet another fantastic culinary idea. Think of the fun we could have if we did this for a living...


Sunday Scones

 

Scones. There are probably more variations on this Scottish quickbread than there are Scots to bake them. They are round, square, rectangular or wedge-shaped - not to mention heart-shaped on Valentine's Day. They are sweet, savory, filled, topped, studded with dried fruit or nuts, drizzled with icing, or served plain with butter, jams, and clotted cream. They can be light as a feather or dense like a shortbread. They're all scones. And they're all good.

In the US, scones are pretty much always sweet, although, as with every other variation imaginable, the degree of sweetness can vary greatly. My first choice is usually a less-sweet light-biscuity style as these are. I don't really care that much for the overly-iced sweet things sold at the coffee chains.

We have a throw-together recipe that can be tweaked countless ways to make countless variations. It's pretty no-fail. The only caveat is to have a light hand as you would making biscuits.

Basic Scones

  • 3 cups flour
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 5 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 1/2 sticks butter
  • 1 egg
  • 1 cup milk

Preheat oven to 400°. Line cookie sheet with parchment or very lightly grease.

Mix flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in bowl. Cut in butter. Mix the egg and milk and stir in until moistened.

Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface, and knead briefly. Form dough out into a 1/2 inch thick round. Cut into 8 wedges, and place on the prepared baking sheet a couple inches apart.

Bake 15 minutes or until golden brown.

Today, Victor added about a cup of dried cranberries and sprinkled the top with sugar before baking.

It's a gray, dreary, wet day here in Pennsylvania and the dough was a tad more sticky than usual. It was a bit more difficult to work with, but he wisely resisted adding more flour and cut 6 not-so-even wedges instead of the usual 8.

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The end result was an airy light-as-a-feather scone that brought a smile to my face with every bite.  What they lacked in uniformity they more than made up for in flavor and texture.

I think it's time for another...

 


Sunday Breakfast with Mike and Barbara

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Mike and Barbara may have physically been in South Carolina this morning, but they were here with us, nonetheless - in a way that could only be topped by them being here in person!

A couple of days ago the UPS man rang the doorbell with an absolutely delightful surprise - a gift of smoked and cured meats from Broadbents in Kentucky! Mike and I have traded stories of cooking, cast iron skillets, grandmas, and family feeding frenzies in between left-leaning liberal politics for many years, now, while Barbara has won more ribbons at the South Carolina State Fair than Carter has little liver pills. Seriously - she's won several hundred over the years. She ain't no slouch. These two know their food.

When Mike starts talkin' food - especially Southern food - I listen.  And when food he talks about arrives at my door, I eat!

I have spent some time down south, I have former brothers-in-law from down south, we have some great friends who live throughout the south, and I have cooked and eaten my share of southern food, but I'm not an instinctive southern cook. I can fake it pretty well and can make a pretty good biscuit, but good sausage or red-eye gravies simply elude me, as does a lot of the basics.  My maternal grandfather's family goes back to North Carolina and Tennessee in the late 1700s and early 1800s, but my Missouri-born grandfather moved to California and married a Yankee girl. That was the end of grits in his life - and the end of Traditional Southern Cooking in our family. I didn't know what okra was until I went into the Navy. In fact, Uncle Sam's Yacht Club was my introduction to a lot of southern foods, from chitlin's to collards to fried biscuits. Who knew?!? Certainly not this San Francisco boy. 

But the palate expanded over the years and the curiosity continued to grow. And, the more I tried, the more I liked and the more I liked, the more I tried.

Which brings me back to the package...

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Ham, bacon, and sausage. Hog Heaven, indeed!

It's funny that with any ol' ham, bacon, or sausage, I just take it for granted and use however I wish, but with ham bacon and sausage that was dry-rubbed, smoked, and cured in Kentucky and bought by friends in South Carolina, I feel slightly intimidated. What should I do?  What should I do?

The obvious response is, "Eat it, dummy!" but I need to do it justice. I need to over-think this. I mean, just eat it?!? Would Julia Child just eat a poussin?!? Well, yeah, she would - done simply and done well.

So I started with the sausage.

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A basic Sunday breakfast - sausage and eggs, potatoes and toast. Lots of coffee.

I took the outer wrapper off the sausage and was immediately hit with hickory smoke. I peeled it out of its muslin bag - the sausage is packed into them and then smoked - and marveled at the aroma.

I drooled a little bit.

The instructions on the pack said to place slices in a cold skillet and then cook and brown. It's the same concept as cooking a duck breast - you start rendering the fat slowly for maximum flavor and crispy skin with minimal burn. I did as I was told and within minutes the kitchen was filling with the scent of smoky goodness. The sausage cooked to a perfect crunchy-crusty exterior with a firm, meaty, and juicy interior. It was sausage unlike any sausage I have ever had in my life. It had absolutely everything going for it  - I have now been totally spoiled.

Mike says that the flavors are strong, but they are as close as he has ever seen to the meat they used to hang and smoke when his grandmother had hogs and they butchered in the fall. I can't imagine being able to do something like that and have it taste so good. I wonder what the neighbors would say if we built a smokehouse out back...

In the meantime, my tummy is smiling and the brain is working overtime trying to figure out a simple way to serve up some ham and bacon. The nice thing is it's smoked - I don't need to use it up immediately.

I can obsess over this for a while...

Thanks, Mike and Barbara! We're lovin' it!


Baked French Toast

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I read food magazines and cookbooks the way other people read novels.  Some people get immersed in the mystery or the science or the other-world. I'm fantasizing an intimate dinner party with Meryl Streep with hand-made pasta...

My mom would talk about reading a recipe and tasting the ingredients in her mind as she read them - adding this, substituting that - and pretty much reworking the recipe as she read.

It's genetic. I do the exact same thing. It's why it's difficult for me to follow a recipe - and also difficult to write them. I can tell you what I did today, but it's more than probable that I'll do it differently next time.

It's one of many reasons why I'm not a famous cookbook author or food blogger. My skill lies in doing it - not explaining how I did it.

Once upon a time, working in commercial kitchens, it was easy to replicate the same dish over and over. The same ingredients were always there, along with the same pots, pans, utensils... It's almost robotic. And it was the expectation. Doing menu and recipe development was merely playing food scientist - mixing ingredients following prescribed techniques. It was often knowing what you wanted the end-product to be and working backwards to achieve it. I found all of that to be very easy - I could be very precise in what I did, how I did it, how long it took step one, step two...

But cooking at home is not cooking in a commercial kitchen. I don't always have the same ingredients or the same utensil in front of me, and I definitely don't have the luxury of playing with someone elses food budget.

On many levels it is more difficult to be a home cook than a commercial cook - and while I have worked with a couple of real [expletive deleted] chefs in my life, I don't think anything would compare to a screaming toddler or two.

Which, in a way, is seguing right into where I was starting with all of this...

I received my latest copy of Fine Cooking magazine and found a great article - Make Ahead Breakfasts for a Crowd - written by my dear friend Debbie Koenig! Debbie is pretty much the reason I started food blogging in the first place, after talking food all during Thanksgiving dinner many moons ago, so it's always a special thrill to see her byline in newspapers and magazines.

One of the dishes she created was a baked apricot french toast. Back in my Lake Tahoe days, we used to make what we called "Tahoe Brunch." It was a savory baked french toast that would definitely satisfy a hungover crowd. Totally different than what Debbie created, and totally different than what I made, today, but you get a glimpse of how my mind works... Baked French Toast is the concept that links everything together. It doesn't matter that the actual ingredients are totally different - it's the concept that matters.

So after reading the article and recipes, I brought home a loaf of walnut raisin bread knowing that some would go for dinner and some for a great baked french toast today.

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I went with Debbie's concept and made it sweet. I started with a layer of sliced bread and spread some mascarpone cheese and lingonberry preserves over the top. I then added another two layers of bread, cut to fit an 8x8 baking dish.

I mixed a cup of heavy cream with 4 eggs, a pinch of salt, a tbsp of vanilla, and 1/4 cup sugar. I slowly poured it all over, covered it with plastic wrap and placed it in the 'fridge overnight.

This morning I covered it in foil and baked it at 350° for about 45 minutes. I didn't remove the foil as I didn't want this one to get too crispy on top. The crust of this particular bread is chewy even after soaking in milk overnight.

Hot out of the oven with maple syrup on top. Oh yum.

I love the idea of a crunchy corn flake topping and the apricot nectar in the custard is brilliant, so maybe we can do this for Christmas morning to go along with Uncle Ross' pancakes! I think I can follow her recipe pretty much exactly as written. At least once.

 


Prosciutto Egg Cups

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It is not often that Victor sees something and immediately says "OMG! I have to have this!"  so when he does say it, I tend to listen.

His cousin Kate had posted a picture of a prosciutto egg cup and he started drooling the moment he saw it. Time to get ::egg:: cracking!

The concept is actually very simple. It's prosciutto, cheese, and an egg in a muffin tin and baked in the oven. Simple concept but extraordinary flavor!

Prosciutto Egg Cups

for each one you will need:

  • prosciutto
  • cheese
  • egg
  • salt and pepper
  • buttered toast slice
  • parsley, for garnish

Preheat oven to 350°.

Spray muffin tin with cooking spray. Line each section with 1 slice prosciutto, making sure there are no holes. Add about 2 tbsp shredded cheese and then crack one egg atop.

Sprinkle with a bit of salt and pepper, if desired, and place in oven about 12 minutes - and then rest for a couple more to allow them to set.

Place cooked egg cup atop buttered toast slice and sprinkle with parsley.

Enjoy.

These really did rock the Casbah. And it's the sort of dish you could easily make for a crowd. I used a pepper jack cheese this morning but absolutely anything would work - from ricotta to cream cheese, cheddar to mozzarella, or bits and pieces of whatever you have in the 'fridge.

And considering the mess I usually make cooking breakfast, clean-up was a snap!

I see a lot more of these in our future...

 

 

 

 


Sunday Breakfast

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I just loves me some Sunday Morning Breakfast.

Eggs, potatoes, toast, and whatever breakfast meat is available... it's one of the easiest - and most difficult - meals to prepare. Easy, because the ingredients really are simple. Difficult, because everything cooks in different pans and at different times and temperatures, yet needs to be ready at the same time.

And then there's all the other variations on the theme... pancakes and waffles, omelettes, french toast, and any number of breakfast casseroles. Breakfast burritos. Breakfast pizza...

Donuts, muffins, danish pastries... Bagels. Hot cereal. Cold cereal. Stratas, fritattas, quiche...

Berries, yogurts, granola, and juice.

It's mind-boggling.

My idea of gastronomic heaven is an endless brunch buffet - over-the-top food selections like we did at the various Hyatts I worked for - or the really over-the-top brunch in The Garden Court of the Palace Hotel in San Francisco. That buffet is now a mere $75/per person.

But since none of those options are available out here in the sterile suburbs of Philadelphia, I'll have to settle on flipping the eggs and buttering the toast, myself. It may not be as elegant, but the price is definitely right.

And I don't have to wait for a coffee refill.

 

 


Sunday French Toast and Fresh-Squeezed Juice

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I've probably mentioned a few (hundred) times that we never buy single-use appliances. I've also mentioned a few (hundred) times that there always seems to be an exception. I'm sure you will be shocked to learn there is now another exception.

Victor bought a citrus juicer.

He has become enamored with a small glass of fresh-squeezed orange juice in the morning and the 1930's green pressed-glass juicer we have used since forever just wasn't cutting it, anymore. And I hate to admit it, but I have to agree. For more than just a couple of oranges, it gets tiring at our advancing age.

I'm not a juicer-proponent, making drinkable meals from every form of produce, imaginable. I figure at some point my meals may just be in some form of liquefied state. I'm in no hurry to get there. But a glass of fresh heirloom orange juice is the perfect accompaniment to breakfast.

And fresh-squeezed orange juice deserves a great breakfast to go around it - Cinnamon French Toast and thick-sliced bacon filled the bill, this morning.

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Gorgeous blue skies and sun streaming into the kitchen. It's gonna be a fine day, indeed!

In fact, it has gotten us in the mood of looking into solar power for the house. I don't know if it is feasible, I have no idea what it may cost, but... wouldn't it be nice to get off the grid?!?

We'll keep ya posted.


Poached Eggs

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Sunday Breakfast... What can be said that hasn't been said before?  Probably not much - but that's not going to stop me from adding more...

This morning's gastronomic delight comes courtesy of Victor. He's taking off tomorrow for Dallas for the week and wanted to make sure I had at least one decent meal while he's gone. I tend to eat hot dogs and chili when he's not here. I soaked the beans last night and will be starting a batch in a while.

I had brought home some English muffins yesterday with a vague idea of having them with breakfast, but while I was working on a web design this morning, Victor headed to the kitchen.

He decided he wanted poached eggs and then upped the ante to muffin sandwiches with poached eggs. With bacon. And brie.

Oh lord.

He also wanted the poached eggs to be reasonably the size of the muffins since they were going to be sandwiches. We don't have poaching rings but we do have canning lids. The boy's a genius - the ring was the perfect size. He just set them into the simmering water, cracked the egg inside, and then removed the ring when the egg was set. Did I say genius?!? Genius!

They came out perfect. Finger-licking runny yolks, perfectly-cooked bacon, runny brie, and crunchy-buttery muffin.

With freshly-brewed dark-roast coffee.

It just doesn't get any better.

So I'm off to make the chili. It's 49er Football Food today - and my staple for the week.

 


Happy New Year!

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It is so nice to wake up early on New Year's Day feeling rested and refreshed!

I worked every single New Year's Eve from my mid-teens to my late 30's. The craziness of delivering pizza for Pirro's, glasses being thrown into the huge fireplace at the Hyatt Lake Tahoe, dealing with drunk employees and belligerent guests at any number of places, New Year's Eve was never a day I looked forward to.

When I left hotels and went into health care, I  worked a few more, but usually only had to deal with the idiots peripherally.

And now I don't have to deal with them, at all.

Other than a couple of house parties over the last 20 years, we haven't gone out to celebrate. The lone exception was New Year's Eve 2003 when we went to New York and saw The Producers. It was the night Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick returned. Mel Brooks played the judge, and we saw Anne Bancroft step out of her limo just beaming at the crowd. I'm not much of a celebrity hound, but I swooned seeing her. She was one of my most favorite actresses of all time.

The theatre was a half-block from Times Square, so when we got out at 11:00pm, we headed to Broadway - and were stopped by cops and barricades. It seemed that "for our safety" we were not allowed in. No amount of arguing could convince these guys to let us through. They even lied to us saying if we just walked a couple of blocks we could see everything unfettered.

We headed back down to 8th - where there were a million pissed off people who also couldn't get in - and said hell with it, jumped on the subway back to the hotel and rang in 2004 with a glass of champagne in the lobby bar with a couple of hotel employees and a couple from Norway.

It was the last time we went out.

Our quiet celebratory dinner last night was a ham, so this morning was fried ham and over-easy eggs. I broke one putting it on the plate - oh well. Fried ham and eggs always reminds me of my father. He could do a mean Sunday breakfast with fried eggs cooked in an inch of grease that no one on earth could replicate. He's the only person I know who could get away with it - and make them taste so good.

Later will be bean soup - I soaked them last night and will get it on the stove soon.

It's great being clear-headed.

So here's a toast to 2012 and all the fun food we had - and another toast to 2013 and all the fun meals to come!

Happy New Year!

 


Sunday Pastry

 

This morning's breakfast is brought to you by Victor:

I love Ina Garten. She has a tag line she uses all the time. "How easy is that?"

I was watching her last week and she was making danish pastry. I happened to have some frozen puff pastry (doesn't everyone?) so for Sunday breakfast I decided to make Tim a treat. Cheese/Pear Danish. How easy is that?

  • Peel the pear
  • Core the pear
  • Dice the pear
  • Cook the pear
  • Cool the pear
  • Get the cream cheese
  • Get the ricotta cheese
  • Separate an egg
  • Mix the cheese with
  • Egg Yolk
  • Vanilla
  • Sugar
  • Thaw the puff pastry
  • Roll the puff pastry out to 10x10 inches
  • Cut the puff pastry into quarters
  • Fill the pasty with cheese
  • Top the cheese with cooked pear
  • Make an egg wash
  • Brush egg was around the edges of the 4 pastries
  • Fold one corner over the cheese
  • Fold the other corner over the top
  • Repeat with other 3 pastries
  • Place pastry on a parchment lined baking sheet
  • Egg wash the folded pastry
  • Sprinkle with sugar
  • Pre-heat the oven
  • Refridgerate the pastry for 15 minutes
  • Bake for 20 minutes
  • Clean kitchen
  • Make more coffee
  • Cool Danish
  • Serve warm

The next time Ina says "How easy was that?" I'm going to put my foot through the TV.