I'm pleased about the Next Iron Chef. I won't say who it is in case anyone reading this hasn't seen the finale yet. But, I'll be interested to see his first few battles since those are usually the roughest. And that's my Hooray!

The Not is... Michael is sick now, too. *sigh* I'm trying not to be too bitter over the fact that we both have a week off and there's a holiday coming up and we're both sick. Trying... not totally successful. I should count my blessings... that always helps put things into perspective.

At least I'm not completely debilitated with fever and other symptoms. I just have a real bad sore throat and a killer headache, but both are under control with pain meds and for the most part, I can function. It does frost me that I'm having to struggle through, but I am glad I can at least struggle through. It could be worse.

I had a lot to say about the end of last week. An appointment scheduled for an abdominal CAT scan that had to be rescheduled because my doctor's office didn't do the insurance pre-certification... that was a lot of running around and less fun than... most things.

Friday's potluck luncheon wherein I brought brussel sprouts au gratin and a pumpkin/maple bread pudding with maple whipped cream. All very tasty and I even got pictures of everything! I was going to post the recipes, too.

But ah... as it turns out I think I have strep. I'm miserably ill. Not so much feverish, but my throat hurts a lot, is coated in gunky white stuff and feels swollen to twice it's normal size... which makes me not want to talk. Or eat. And also, for two days I've had a really rockin' headache. A headache so bad that even three Tylenol don't put a dent in it. I finally broke down and took the Rx stuff and that's finally kicked it. But now I'm all drowsy and out of it and kinda got the munchies. *sigh*

I'm seeing the dermatologist on Monday about the mole on my scalp. I don't imagine he'll be very interested in my throat. I'll probably have to go to a walk-in clinic... I can't bear the thought of being really sick for Thanksgiving. It's my second favorite holiday all year! All the food and drink... I can NOT be sick!

Oh, but yeah, I was gonna say... looks like NaBloPoMo is really not working out for me this year. I guess I'm an every OTHER year NaBloPoMo participant. I made it the first year, didn't do it the next, made it the third year and this year didn't. I see a pattern here.

Oops... darn it. Missed a day.

Ah well... it's only one day and I don't actually do NaBloPoMo to win any prizes or anything. I just do it for the fun and challenge of it and it's still fun and challenging even if I miss one day.

And now I feel as though I should say something more interesting than an apology.

Michael had a Cub Scout pack meeting last night wherein he got his Bobcat badge in a little ceremony that included symbolic face-painting. Very ritualistic. Heh.

Tomorrow, I will go have a CAT scan performed on my abdomen in the continuing saga of "What's wrong with Katy's stomach?!" Turns out Naomi Campbell isn't in there... or at least, I assume not since no one mentioned her during the ultrasound meant to hunt for imaginary gall stones.

And next week, I get to finally get the GIGANTIC mole removed from my scalp. Yay! Good times!

At least Michael and I both have next week off... that is nice. Very, very nice.

My mom and dad are leaving town tomorrow to visit relatives not going anywhere at all or might be back at any moment (who can know?!), but in the meantime, they've handed over their dog to my care.

He'll be exactly like this pretty much the whole week time he's here except most of the time his eyes will be closed. He's aud. <-- "old" He sleeps a lot. He likes to sleep even more than I do. He is the epitome of what people mean when they say "lazy dog." He doesn't like to do much or be out in the weather or anything. He's perfectly content to laze about all day.

This past weekend was a good reflection of how busy and hectic the prior week had been... which is to say, we slowed down and relaxed and did things we love to do. Which included sleeping, eating, watching movies and playing games.

Saturday was mostly spent sleeping late. I also did some weekend chores, but we rented movies and grilled steaks, too.

Today was more chores, more movies, a Cub Scout meeting and Baked Ziti Cavatapi (corkscrews) for dinner.

A friend recommended Be Kind Rewind as a good offering from Jack Black. It was a cute movie. I was particularly entertained by their "swedeing" of recent classics and, of course, Jack Black never fails to be funny.

I also got a chance to watch Coraline, finally. Well... *ahem* excuse me... I watched some of it. I did take a somewhat involuntary nap through some of the middle of it, but I still liked it a whole lot. And the good news is, I bought us that one, so I can watch it again and see if I make it all the way through.

Today we watched G.I. Joe. I was looking forward to it... I'm all for good action movies with special effects and good-looking good guys. I fell asleep through that one, too. Which was a real trick considering the movie is pretty much non-stop explosions and gun-fire. I won't go out of my way to watch that one again to find out what I missed. I'm pretty sure it wasn't anything all that special.

I also gave some thought to what I'll bring next week for our department Thanksgiving luncheon. I think I shall subject them all to Brussell Sprouts Gratin since we were all recently discussing brussell sprouts and I think that despite the fact that some of my co-workers have said brussell sprouts are not their favorite thing, the gratin will be so spectacularly delicious, I will have convinced them otherwise! OR! If not... I'll at least get practice making it before Thanksgiving because we've already decided we're having that with our family Thanksgiving dinner this year.

I also want to take something I'm sure everyone will like so I thought I'd do a pumpkin bread pudding. I found a recipe made from cinnamon bread and accompanied by a maple sauce that will be extremely tasty. Along the way I found a recipe for Meyer Lemon & Blackberry bread pudding with Meyer Lemon whipped cream which sounds SO good, I think I'll have to try that another time soon and perhaps include that as our dessert at Christmas. Wow.

And now a word about The Next Iron Chef. Look away if you haven't seen it!

My favorite was Chef Trevino, but they got rid of him. My second favorite was Chef Freitag, but they got rid of her, too. Tonight it was down to Mullen, Mehta and Garces and of those three, the two I like least are Mullen and Mehta, so that left me pulling for Garces by default. Fortunately, it was Mullen who was eliminated tonight so next week Mehta and Garces will do the sudden death match in Kitchen Stadium. I'm still pulling for Garces. Frankly, I think he and Mehta are pretty evenly matched as far as culinary skills go. In my mind it boils down to who is the more likable of the two? Who will we want to watch on a weekly basis? As far as I'm concerned, from that perspective, there's no question that Garces should be the next Iron Chef. But the judges may disagree with me next week. Who knows?

And now... because I always take pictures of my food... here are photos of tonight's Baked Cavatapi. I can never find ziti and I like the cavatapi pretty well. I used Paul Newman's Cabernet Marinara which was rich and flavorful. Yum!

From Sunday Stealing

Part One - Describe:

Your hair?

Long. Brown.

Your mother?

Happy. Generous.

Your father?

Intelligent. Stern.

Your favorite food?

UMAMI! <-- hahaha...

Your dream last night?

Forgotten.

Your favorite drink?

Dry. Rich.

Your dream/goal?

Fulfillment. Lucrative.

The room are you in?

Large. Multi-purpose.

Your hobby?

Kitchen-oriented.

Your fear?

Loss of independence.

Your TV?

Large, yet, old-fashioned.

Your Pets?

Virtual.

Friends?

Fun. Smart.

Your life?

Good.

Your mood?

Also good.

If you're missing someone?

Nope.

Your best friend?

Smart, pretty, compatible.

Part Two - The Where's?

Tomorrow...

Yes, this is a bit of a cheat because it's Friday night and my brain is already well soaked in Cabernet.

I love this, though. Love it enough to watch it at least once a month. And share it. If you haven't seen it - you're gonna love it!!!

Chicken Parmesan with spaghetti squash topped with lemony ricotta cheese.

Roast half of a spaghetti squash at 425 for 45 - 50 minutes, then shred with fork.

Mix ricotta cheese with lemon zest, a little bit of lemon juice, salt and pepper.

I used frozen breaded chicken breast patties and just heated them in the toaster oven until they were crispy and then topped with some spaghetti sauce and a big pile of mozzarella. Serve next to a pile of spaghetti squash topped with the lemony, creamy ricotta. YUM!

Tasty! Different! Pretty easy.

Sari says she wants to write about things she likes but keeps coming up with things she hates and the things she hates are so similar to things I hate and reading her stuff made me think of a thing I hate that happened to me today...

I had to go to the grocery store.

I could stop right there and not have to say anything else, right? We all hate it. Everytime. Today, though, I thought it might be okay because I took off half a day because the little one didn't have school today...

...a moment to express profound appreciation and honor to all veterans -- including my own dad who fought in the Viet Nam war -- for their risk and sacrifice and to offer recognition to all those families who have lost their military loved ones so that our country may remain the safe, free, prosperous country it is...

...so I thought going to the store at 11am would be better than going at 5pm. Well, it is... and it isn't. Volume-wise, there are less people there. But, the people who shop during the day move slower and behave in a more entitled fashion than those of us who crowd the place up after work. And that bugs me.

I couldn't seem to get away from the lady today who parked her cart in the middle of the aisle, then wandered away to reflect and ponder deeply all the shelf items. On two occasions she was in deep thought right in front of something I needed to grab and when I made a move to grab the thing off the shelf from in front of her, which I realize is a teeny bit rude even though I did wait and it didn't seem like she was going anywhere any time soon, as her eyes swam up out of her brownstudy, she looked at me with slightly puzzled hostility. "This is my aisle!" she seemed to want to say. And yet, it wasn't and when all was said and done, I did not have all day to shop and thus, needed to git 'er done.

So I very aggressively and with malice aforethought ignored her and went quickly about my own business. And right now someone else is posting about the woman in the grocery store today who was in such a hurry she reached in front of people rudely and just practically knocked people down! And she can't have been considering the saturated fat content of the food she was buying (for her family!) nor did she bother for a second to compare unit pricing to see what the best deal was! Sheesh! Some people!!!

If you happen to be a fan of music, specifically metal of all sorts and descriptions, along with some rock and other oddities mixed in... I have a recommendation for you!

Copy and paste the following link into your Windows Media Player. Open WMP, click the file menu and choose "Open URL." Then paste in: http://66.109.26.197:7054 and hit enter. That linked but it won't work to just click it, you have to copy and paste it into WMP.

This is DJ Slammaurai's EARGASM internet radio station and it rocks.

You can also go here to visit the lounge in Fubar.

My lovely young friend, the very talented Kate Garcia and her equally talented business partner, Gerry Bernhard, have just opened a pottery shop downtown here in Victoria. It's a beautiful, charming little shop filled with truly unique, handmade pottery.

Gerry and Kate can be found at 706 E. Santa Rosa in Victoria, Texas, 77901. And now... let me introduce you to these two amazing ladies on the day of their Grand Opening! November 7, 2009. Kate is on the far left and Gerry is to the right of her.



Here's Kate hard at work at her wheel. She was actually demonstrating to my son how to make a cup.



Kate in the shop.



And now to follow are quite a number of photos of Kate and Gerry's pottery. I can't speak highly enough about how wonderful the shop is and how delightful and beautiful their pottery is... frankly I hope they hire me to make a Web site and Facebook fan page for them and sell their pottery by mail order, too. Seriously, if anyone who reads my blog wants more contact information, let me know, I will put you in touch!





























There is much, much more to see and they do custom ceramics as well. And they make Christmas ornaments!



706 E. Santa Rosa, Victoria, Texas 77901 or email to santarosapottery@gmail.com.

Saturday was a full day... got up reasonably early (for me anyway) and headed straight to work. After I finished up there, my friend and I went to visit the grand opening of another friend's new pottery shop (more on that tomorrow). Then Michael and I headed home to get our stuff together and go visit my mom.

Dad was off deer hunting since late last week (successfully, I might add), but mom was home and wanted a bit of company. So I got some gourmet goodies (Gruyere cheese, pepper and poppyseed crackers, dried apricots, peppered salami, artichoke tapenade and a really good bottle of wine plus a bundle of very unusual Gerbera daisies for decor) and we headed to her house.

We enjoyed the goodies and watch Food Network on her new HDtv, then went out to dinner. After dinner, we rented The Proposal for mom and I, which we both enjoyed immensely. Michael enjoyed Monsters vs. Aliens.

We drank a fair bit of wine (mom and I) and consequently did not have a particularly early morning, but as usual... Sunday brunch was in order. I don't have photos because I was at her house and, shockingly, without a camera... but we had biscuits with sausage gravy, scrambled eggs and some fresh pineapple. Delicious, but kinda regular.

Usually we make biscuits one at a time, either from the ones that are individually packaged or from frozen. However, today, my mom only had a popcan of biscuits... so we had to bake the whole bunch.

She gave me the leftovers, which was the whole amount minus the three we ate... I think there were five left. I had the idea to use the leftover biscuits in a sort of casserole for dinner. I thought I could cut the leftover biscuits into cubes and then sprinkle in some cubed ham, cubed provolone cheese and some frozen broccoli and then pour in a custard made from four eggs, two cups of milk and seasoned with some salt, pepper, Season All and some Montreal Steak seasoning blend.

I let it sit for a while so the biscuits could soak up the custard, then baked it at 425 for about 55 minutes. I should have cooked it at 400 for 55 minutes or even just 50 minutes, but even though it was a bit overdone just on the bottom, it came out puffed and creamy and delicious and Michael and I both loved it. I can't wait to try other variations of this!!!

Check it out:





This is a great and very easy use up for leftovers... some stale bread, meat, vegetables, cheese and some custard mix... bake and eat. YUM!

Thanks Erik! I knew I'd need this one!

What is on your desktop wallpaper?




What is your favorite zoo animal?

Tortoises, because they don't seem to mind being there as much as most of the other animals do.

What was your favorite toy as a child?

Dolls and Barbies.

What food do you eat too much of?

Mexican food... specifically: chips and salsa.

What kind of hairstyle do you have?

Um... long?

What was your favorite activity in gym class?

I kinda liked volleyball.

What is on the shirt you are wearing right now?

Betty Boop.

What is the picture nearest to you of?

Some cookies in muffin papers.

What kind of salad dressing do you like?

My own roasted red pepper salad dressing on my own World's Best Salad.

What’s your least favorite food?

Eggplant.

What do you do on a Sunday night?

Watch Iron Chef America and fold laundry.

If you could only use one condiment on your food for the rest of your life, what would it be?

Using only one would be a real bummer, but I love remoulade sauce and could eat it on most everything. Or I guess... maybe my own green tomato relish.

What color are your sheets?

White as a puffy summer cloud.

How big is your computer display?

20 inches.

What pair of shoes do you wear most often?

Sneaks.

What is your favorite game?

SimCity.

What is your favorite Thanksgiving food?

All of it. Turkey, dressing, gravy, rolls, salad, veggie side dishes... yummmm!

What is your favorite pizza topping?

I like pesto pizza where I made the pesto myself and then top it with sliced tomatoes and slices of fresh mozzarella. On that pizza my favorite topping is the tomatoes.

What time do you plan on waking up tomorrow?

Tomorrow is Sunday, so I don't plan on waking up at any certain time... just whenever I wake up.

What is your favorite day of the year?

Christmas.

It's been a long, long, long stressful week. Much has happened and much is still to happen. It seems like last week, today even, was a much longer span of time than just a week. I never seem to have enough time, and yet each day is so full that it seems like two days crammed into one.

Which is all just to say that the arrival of Friday this week was heralded with an extra measure of enthusiastic welcome along with plans to throw off the stresses and worries of the week and just enjoy with family and friends, good food and yes... some alcohol. Because all Fridays should include some alcohol. Especially when they cap off weeks like this week has been.

And so we decided to drink and dine at Johnny Carino's... a Chili's type version of Olive Garden. I had two "Italian" margaritas, which were really just regular margaritas as they had regular old tequila in them. Nothin' Italian about that! But they were tasty and went down quick. And immediately improved my mood, my headache, my outlook on life. In fact, I deem them medicinal!

The food was reasonably good, I was certainly hungry enough to render it pretty high cuisine at any rate... but the strangest thing happened on our way out!

We opened the outer outside door and right away Michael took kind of a hop and said, "Uh!!! A toad!" Well! Upon closer inspection we discovered it was... :::drumroll please::: ...a bat. Like... a bat. Erm, with the skin covered wingie things and the little rat face. AYYYYIIII!!!! And people! It crawled in the creepiest possible way across the ground as it attacked some helpless insect.

YAHHHH!!!!

I dun like bats. Nope. No tanks.

I love it when I can get shots of them in the air!



Our Lady Pirates won tonight in three straight games. Go Pirates!!!

Tomorrow, we're celebrating the birthday of one of our friends/co-workers in our department by throwing her a potluck lunch. As you may imagine, this is right up my alley. In fact, I have been known to bring breakfast or lunch for co-workers just because. I don't even require anyone to be having a birthday. It's fun when everyone pitches in and we all sit around at lunchtime and stuff our faces with each others' excellent food.

My other friends/co-workers have volunteered to bring "main dish" type food, so I had planned to bring fruit salad and something desserty.

In the summer, I make a fruit salad from summer fruit such as apples, grapes, melons and strawberries (and sometimes blueberries, too). This selection of fruit stores reasonably well if doused liberally with some citrus juice (preferably orange) and Fruit Fresh. I make a "dressing" from cream cheese, orange zest and juice, sour cream, honey and vanilla. I have made the dressing from yogurt (even greek yogurt) instead of the cream cheese, but when you mix citrus with yogurt it gets runny and then it doesn't stick to the fruit very well. So the cream cheese is better. And I always bring toasted walnuts to sprinkle on top.

But it's not summer. Of course, it is apple season and I'm sure I could still get melon, strawberries and grapes, but using fruit out of season is always kind of a tricky thing. I could be bad... it's also much more expensive. So I thought maybe I'd try a variation on that fruit salad and use only apples and pears and shift the dressing away from a citrus flavor to a cinnamon flavor that would go well with the apple and pear. So I mixed cream cheese, cinnamon, honey, vanilla and a little milk to thin it enough so it would pour. If you wanted to make that as a fruit dip, leave the milk out... it stays nice and thick. I have also already toasted the walnuts. I tasted it... it's good.

I decided to go ahead and just bring that for breakfast instead of lunch, especially since there will already be tons of food for lunch and we're all usually starving all morning. I'm also bringing some sour cream cake donuts. MMMMM!!! I know those are the birthday girl's favorite.

To go with our lunch, I have made some of that spinach dip people usually put in the bread bowl. I've never made it before but I always love it and I thought it would be pretty easy. Turns out, it is. Just sour cream, mayo, vegetable soup mix, spinach and water chestnuts. I got a cut veggie tray and a couple of bags of pita chips to go with that.

Now I'm already looking forward to breakfast AND lunch tomorrow!

The really big news from my day isn't interesting. Well, it is, but only to a very, very few people, none of whom read my blog. And actually, that news is not so much interesting as it is kind of... nauseating.

Second most interesting news is that I have finally decided to address my endless stomach/digestive issues and saw the doctor yesterday and had an ultrasound today. No word yet on any of that. Michael's a bit worried... his school is on a campaign to help raise money to help kids with cancer, so they've been showing the kids the stories of kids who have been helped by this donated money. But now he's all wigged out that I'm going to get sick and die. Poor kid... I promised him I wouldn't. Stomach issues have been going on SO long that if they were life-threatening, I'd be long gone by now.

I had a parent/teacher conference this afternoon with Michael's teacher. The news there is that he's very smart and makes good grades, but is also kinda messy and disorganized and enjoys socializing to the point of failing to hand in work he's done. So we need to work on that.

This morning, Michael played his rented Wii game while I got ready for work because he'd finished his breakfast. It's some iteration of Crash Bandicoot and I haven't been paying close attention to the story or what's going on in the game despite hearing, "Mom look!" every five seconds when he's playing. However, I can hear things that are said and this morning I heard a character say, "ooga booga." Just your typical ooga booga. Which made me laugh because isn't ooga booga kind of a cliched thing for any monster/villian/adversary to say? Ooga Booga? Really? Come on! Or maybe it actually is subversively original in its sheer mundane, sort of antique unoriginalness. But all day long, all I can think is: ooga booga.

Just Finished: Robots of Dawn by Isaac Asimov



Yes, I've read it before, but I love it. Daneel and Giskard are my two favorite robots and I loved how Bailey managed to suss the real robot-killer in that one, too. There's nothing particularly logical about his ability to solve a mystery, but it had been so long since I'd read it, I didn't immediately remember all the details. I did remember that after the fact, the one thing that Giskard did to give himself away was come in to save Bailey on approach to Aurora when he was so seized up with agoraphobia he couldn't speak or move.

Now Reading: The Harlequin by Laurell K. Hamilton



Yes, I'm a fan of Laurell K. Hamilton. Even though her books are a horror version of a sex-filled Danielle Steele novel, I still love them. She does manage to make the magic and mythology compelling and, usually, interweaves all the sex in well enough that it enhances the story. And I'm anxious to read more in the saga of her little menage a cast of thousands. Heh.

SIDE NOTE: Michael and I went to the library tonight. We love the library. In addition to picking up The Harlequin, I also got Havana Nocturne: How the Mob Owned Cuba... and Then Lost It to the Revolution by T.J. English. I don't know when I think I'm going to have time to read it, but I'm really going to try because it sounds extremely compelling.

Dear Miracle Whip:

First of all... I'm not a fan of Miracle Whip. Too sweet. Yuck. And also... what is it? But nevermind! That is strictly a matter of taste and in this case, beside the point.

The new ad campaign where you claim(imply) that Miracle Whip is radically different and somehow the use of Miracle Whip enhances an aura of non-conformist differentness and provides this identifiable hallmark so valued by younger generations? I have so many problems with this.

Yes, Miracle Whip does appeal to those with underdeveloped taste-buds, you hit that target pretty well there... but I hate to tell you this: a bunch of young people dancing around to some vaguely rock/punk music and partying? Quite possibly the MOST normal thing ever in the history of ad campaigns. There is nothing even the least bit unusual, different, individualistic or non-conformist about kids dancing and partying. Laughing? Having fun? Eating hamburgers? It's great and all, but is as blandly normal as just about anything ever was.

Just so ya know.

Sincerely,
Mayonnaise Eater

Sheesh I almost missed it! If I hadn't stopped by Sari's blog tonight, I would have. But I juuuuuuust made it. Whew.

Now... because this is so last minute, I can only blog about what's on the brain tonight and it's a number of things, as you might expect, food related.

Last week my mom gave me a bunch of leftover roasted sweet potatoes she had from when company was at her house because I had mentioned I wanted to make sweet potato pancakes. And so this morning, I did:



I also made the syrup... it's just brown sugar cinnamon syrup (not super fancy), but it was perfect on the pancakes and they were delicious. I also managed to get them cooked perfectly despite being MUCH more dense than regular pancakes due to the addition of the sweet potato. Michael loved them. I wanted to add some toasted honey pecans to the syrup... but what can I say? I do manage to burn stuff from time to time and they were, unfortunately, inedible. Toasting nuts is essential, but one little tip: watch them.

The pancakes didn't put much of a dent in the amount of leftover sweet potato, though, so then I decided to make some sweet potato bread. Which turned out quite tasty! In addition to some toasted pecans (I didn't burn 'em the second time!), I added in some dried cranberries which make the perfect sharp little tangy chewyness inside the soft, sweet, moist bread. Yum! Can't wait to toast a piece in the morning and put some butter on it.

Regarding tonight's episode of The Next Iron Chef: I wept big tears of disappointment that Chef Trevino was eliminated. He was my favorite. The only saving grace on that was that Appleman was also eliminated. Can't stand that guy... way too arrogant and unlikeable to be an Iron Chef (good call, judges). Someone needed to tell him a little humility goes a long way.

Regarding tonight's episode of Iron Chef America: Well, first... I'm never surprised when Morimoto wins. I heart him very much. But tonight I was especially interested in one of the challenger's dishes. He ground the pheasant heart and liver and wrapped it in caul fat. I wish I'd paid more attention to how he cooked that because it was beautiful and looked like it would be gorgeously delicious. Very rich.

I'd love to try grinding poultry heart and liver and mixing in some par cooked chunks of carrot (for sweetness) and turnip (for bitterness) to add texture (because I think the meat by itself would be very soft and could use some al dente texture in there) and then wrapping in caul fat like that. Probably the ONLY dish I've ever seen made on Iron Chef America that I'd ever consider really making myself. Erm... if I can get caul fat.