utenzi

There's a new show on Food Network named Secrets of a Restaurant Chef and it had its first episode today. It's running once a week (Sunday mornings) with no repeats during the week, at least not at first, which is unusual for Food Network. The Chef that hosts the show is Anne Burrell, seen over there to the left. Does she remind you of a young  Sharon Gless ?  Maybe I just have Gless on my mind due to the imminent start of season two of Burn Notice on July 10th. In any case, Secrets of a Restaurant Chef is a very good show. I plan on watching it every week. Burrell plays it over the top, which is a far cry from how she appears when she works as Mario Batali's sous chef on Iron Chef America, but I suspect this is her real personality. There's no denying that she has enthusiasm! Burrell is now the Executive Chef at Centro Vinoteca in New York City, near 7th Ave and Bleecker Street. The restaurant's been open for a year now to fairly good reviews. What I really like a...

Don't you just hate all those damn errands that make a household run?  I was going to go hike at Eno River today before it got too hot--but guilt set in. I just had too much crap on my to-do list and so no hike. Maybe tomorrow tho. That's a close up of a snake skin I found while hiking at Eno River last week. It was still damn and flexible so I figure that snake hadn't shed it very long before. Too bad I missed him--he must have been a big one. On the other hand, they're grumpy while shedding... So far today I updated my IBS blog, first things first--after all, then gathered garbage together and made a run to the landfill. Next up was my color wash which was way overdue. It actually exceeded the capacity of my washer so I'll have to do another one soon.   *sigh*  And then came a run to the gas station since I'm out of gas for my mower. That's 2.5 gallons and a scary $10.  *ouch* Next up? Well, there's the lawn mowing. I'll put in an hour on that bef...

I'm currently reading Michael Ruhlman's book The Making of a Chef and there's a lot of information in there about making sauces so that topic has been on my mind of late. Sauces got their start in the Western world with garum (sometimes referred to as liquamen), a sauce created by Romans for seasoning meat. This garum was used like a condiment, sprinkled on meat at the table, and probably wouldn't appeal to most of us. Garum was typically made from anchovies and the intestines of larger fish. This was mixed and then heavily salted, and allowed to sit for 24 hours. Then this fishy mix was placed in sealed containers in the sun and allowed to ferment for several months. Today most sauces are variations on the sauces derived by 3 famous French chefs, La Varenne, Careme, and Escoffier. One of my favorite meals is based on Béchamel , a French sauce developed around 1650 (or maybe from Italy if you believe the Catherine de Medici line of thought--personally, I don't). Si...

Last Friday I had an EKG for the first time in my life---very non-traumatic, by the way, it's such a simple test to have done---so an article I read regarding heart disease and it's causes on Science Daily today really resonated. According to the article, heart disease is the number one killer of Americans and about 29 percent of all U.S. deaths are from heart disease (approximately 700,000 a year). Ouch! I love the following quote: "Even if we delay the process [ atherosclerosis ] by exercise and rabbit food, sooner or later our blood vessels rot," said Gerald Weissmann, MD, Editor-in-Chief of The FASEB Journal. "Now that we appreciate that atherosclerosis is inflammation gone awry, we can attack its root causes. Studies like these take us closer to delaying the inevitable, and help us understand the factors that provoke heart attacks and strokes." I find it very amusing that an MD editor of a famous journal would call greens "rabbit food." App...

I was trying to go for the cycle (baseball terminology) but I fell one short. I got the single as you can see below, followed up by a double, and even a triple--but that elusive four-bagger just would not materialize. Still, this is the most I've seen in my yard at any one time to date.

Here's the results of two tests I took at Hello Quizzy (a site from the same folk that do okCupid). At the bottom of each is a link to the test if you want to take it, and there's plenty of other quizzes there should you feel like something of a different nature. Enjoy! Your result for The Tits, Ass, and Cuteness Test... Curvy and Naughty Raw score: 63% Big Breasts, 64% Big Ass, and 60% Cute! Thanks for taking the T and A and C test! Based on your selections, the results are clear: you show an attraction to larger breasts , larger asses , and cuter composures than others who've taken the test. Note that you like women overall curvier than average . My third variable, "cuteness" is a mostly objective measure of how innocent a given model looked. It's determined by a combination of a lot of factors: lack of dark eye makeup, facial expression, posture, etc. If you scored high on that variable, you are either really nice OR you're into deflowering teens. ...

After ignoring the medical community for over 11 years I've gotten hooked into the whole thing. My first doctor's visit 5 weeks ago was very interesting. I really like her and feel comfortable so I'll probably not have a lengthy gap in coverage again. On the other hand, once the doctor-thing gets its hooks into you, they don't let go. Today was my second visit and there's a third scheduled for a month from now--and I suspect there'll be at least one more following that. I think I'm paying the price for not visiting the med community more regularly in the past. This is their way of making me pay! LOL And now it's not just my doctor--she's got me set up to visit more of the little critters. 3 more in the next month or so. Now, there's nothing wrong with me other than the IBS (and maybe a few pesky little things) but doctors seem to want to run tests for everything... just in case. What a waste of time and money, huh? Anyway, there's going to...