utenzi

Chicken Piccata and the risotto from last night. There was no way we were going to toss out the leftovers from last night's dinner--and Julie's suggestion that she could just bring it home with her was resoundly ignored. Instead it was some chicken on the side with Tarheel basketball as an accent as we finished off the wonderful leftovers from Friday. BTW, the Tarheels smoked Villanova despite an uninspired second half. On to the finals and Michigan...

The UNC Tarheels made their bid tonight to move from the Sweet 16 to the Elite 8. As it turned out the Tarheels breezed past Gonzaga having a lead of almost 30 points at one time. The final score? 98 to 77. Next stop? Oklahoma on Sunday around 4pm. After the game I decided to make some cookies. A friend I was hiking with last week invited me to a home owners association party that is being held on Saturday. It sounded like a lot of fun so I said "yes" and these cookies are my contribution. Since I had half a bottle of sparkling wine left over from Thursday night, I decided to make cookie prep more fun by drinking the wine while cooking cookies. (doesn't that sound weird? normally you associate baking with cookies) It was very tasty! I told y'all that you should have come over to watch the game with me. But not a one of you showed up! :-p This is what the cookies end up looking like. They taste better than they look, I might add. Since it's been raining for sever...

The Carolina Tarheels had made it to the Sweet 16 on Friday in a very uneven game. They won it but it wasn't pretty. In contrast to that, earlier today they played a very good game against Georgetown. At least it was well played by the Tarheels until the last 5 minutes or so of regulation play. They they just couldn't get any points and Georgetown was able to come up from behind and tie--forcing overtime, which just hasn't worked well for the Tarheels all season long. This was no exception. The Tarheels collapsed in overtime. Georgetown scored something like 12 points in the 5 minutes and the Tarheels went scoreless until the last 7 seconds. A 3-pointer that was far too little and far, far too late. End of the season for the Heels. It was sweet while it lasted and there's always next year -- and for such a young team, that's a promise that will be kept. That was the "ugly" that was referred to in the title. The "soft" was 60 Minutes. Have you eve...

Happy Saint Patrick's Day! Today was dedicated to basketball not food. As a result some of our food choices might have been selected more for convenience and not good health. Let's see: I woke up my girlfriend with a diet coke and a few slices of warmed up left-over pizza from the night before. After that I made some toasted garlic bread with cheese on top that we shared--I had Pepsi to drink. Not long after that I finished off some Wise cheese doodles and then we both had some Hershey nuggets while she checked her Email. As we started watching basketball in the early afternoon I made us some more garlic bread and Ren started working on some shelled peanuts. At half time I made some chicken nuggets with honey mustard on the side. During the game we also managed to down 3 vodka screwdrivers each. Some Oreos to celebrate UNC's win over Michigan State soon followed. UNC made it to the Sweet 16. They play either Southern Cal or Texas next. Depends on who wins the game tomorrow ...

Renee's parents came over to my house to visit with her and also bring her a gift. The present was a Christmas decoration that her mother had made using some Xmas lights inside a glass block with a big wire rimmed ribbon on top. Yes, that's it over to the left. They came over around 11am and then at noon we watched the UNC vs U of Kentucky basketball game and a little of the Wake Forest Football game against GA Tech afterwards. In both cases the NC teams won. Naturally. LOL There was much rejoicing when UNC won though admittedly it wasn't one of their better played games--and Tyler Hansbrough (6'9" Forward) kinda sucked, which is rather unusual since he's one of the top players in the country. Towards the end of the football game dinner was ready and we sat down to eat. I put a Boston Butt Pork Roast into my slow cooker in the morning so it was ready around 3:30pm and we had that with sides of mashed potatoes, Japanese snow peas, and a bowl of the aromatic veg...

I'm not a basketball fan and normally don't watch the games but I just happened to catch the first few minutes of the UNC versus Ohio State game Wednesday night. Wow. I was immediately hooked. These were two very motivated and skilled teams. Both teams have an unusually large contingent of young players with a lot to prove and it really showed on the court. The Buckeyes (Ohio) were dominant in the first half but the Tarheels (NC) hung tight. Sometimes trailing by as much as 10 but ending the half just down by 4. It was anybody's game at that point but the Heels came out of the gate fast in the second half and took the first 9 points unanswered for a 5 point lead. After that UNC had the momentum though the game was never a runaway. The final score was 98-89 in favor of North Carolina. Ohio was ranked 3rd in the nation and UNC 7th going into the game so in that sense it was an upset. Some might argue that with UNC playing in the Dean Dome , their home court, and the Buckeyes...