Prom Dinner For 8

1. Baby Spinach with Lemon Vinaigrette
   
   
2. Roasted Balsamic Grape Tomato Marmalade and Mint Leaf on Crostini
   
   
3. Steamed Snow Peas and Carrots with Cilantro Butter
   
   
4. Linguine Alfredo
   
   
5. Panko Crusted Ginger Peach Marinated Chicken Breast with Roasted Sesame Oil and Maple Glaze
   
   
6. 'Apple Pockets' Puff Pastry Filled with Pink Lady Apples Simmered in Quady Red Electra and Cinnamon Sugar Reduction

Booya. :o)

such sweet words...

Mystery creates wonder and wonder is the basis of man's desire to understand. --Neil Armstrong

Cooking Competitions

I'll admit it. I watch a fair amount of Food Network and HGTV...Discovery Channel...Travel Channel... for some really lame reason I refer to this conglomeration of shows as The DC ("Domesticated Circuit").

Okay rephrase: The DC is often on TV at my house...i may not be full-heartedly watching it, but it's on....

I like to watch the cooking competitions that have become a huge fad, Top Chef, Next Food Network Star, Iron Chef (and I even cringe my way through an hour of Iron Chef America every now and then...) Ultimate Challenge, and most recently Chopped! *Don't worry, I'm still waiting for the 3rd season of Army Wives on Lifetime to air later this summer/fall.

I think I could win one of those competitions. [*In due time, I fully intend on submitting a tape/application for Top Chef...if it's still on the air in 10 years] The Celebrity Chefs that are sweeping the hearts and minds of Americans via Food Network (Emeril, Mario Batali, Bobby Flay....etc.) are who they are not simply because of their culinary abilities, but largely in part for their personalities and marketing potential. That and they have a lot of $$$.

Anyways. I've contemplated entering recipes of my own, and I have these illusions and dreams of a huge TV breakthrough by winning something. And they're nice thoughts, but I generally dismiss them, mostly l tell myself these silly things out of my personal disapproval with a contestant's tragic choices....or because I can't stand Alton Brown. And that I think Guy Fieri is a sad excuse for a cooking show host.

*I fully acknowledge the ease with which I can sit back and type ferociously, all the while verbally bashing these Culinary figures and their careers....and ignoring how little I actually know in comparison to them.

Did I mention I hate Raechel Ray?? Because I do. A lot.


So what started as a nice post about competitive aspirations has become a bloody rant against Food Networks overly praised, overly payed icons. Best post I've put together in awhile! if I do say so myself.

Lunch Nerves

First lunch shift EVER @ the Rubaiyat tomorrow......

My brain feels like a jet pushing mach 4 and my stomach is not its normal self.

Classic combination results in equation:
Jello brains + Jello Tummy = Sleepless in Decorah


(har har)
.... So I guess I'll read my newest book: Service Included: Four-Star Secrets of an Eavesdropping Waiter by Phoebe Damrosch.

Review to come shortly... Hopefully Wednesday is a lucky day. Might need it.

Hired for Prom

....planning a menu for some local Prom-go-ers in a couple weeks.

*yes.

In a nutshell

Busy bees make lots of honey...but not without flowers.

Wacky Wednesdays

I cleaned today----and amidst the wake of recycling, trash, rags, old journals, pictures, and boxes I found some $30 of loose change in a ziploc bag.

Lunch @ the Rubaiyat coming soooooooon!!!!

My brother has decided to be a Johnny in the fall.....oh my.