Everyday Italian

I love a cooking show on Food Network, Everyday Italian. I Tivo every episode, my mom gave me a cookbook by the show's host, Giada de Laurentiis, for Christmas, and my mom and dad gave me a wonderful Wusthof santuko style chef's knife. With all that inspiration, I prepared two of her dishes tonight. First, a roasted red pepper soup, with a scoop of mascarpone cheese and homemade croutons. And, for the main course, angel hair with eggplant, zucchini and sausage baked in a puffed pastry. Delicious!

I snapped some photos of the food before I put away the leftovers.

Soup recipe is here.
Angle hair recipe is here. I recommend you only use 2 eggplants, not the 4-6 it says. I hedged a bit and included a zucchini and it worked well.

Addictive

So addictive, so fun, so interesting: Sand game Be sure to see the manipulations available on the bottom.

King Kong

Colleen and I went to see King Kong last night. Although I typically despise big special effects-driven movies, I was thoroughly entertained by King Kong last night. The effects were dazzling, yet not over the top. Kong was believable, but even more so were the creepy crawly attacking bugs that plagued the explorers on Skull Island. Spiders the size of a human head, cave crickets the size of a torso, giant larvae-like suckoids about 20 feet long, not to mention the mosquitoes the size of pint of milk. Jack Black, Adrian Brody and Naomi Watts all put in solid performances, and I heard one reviewer say that this was both a film and a movie. He defined films as independent, character-driven features, while movies were big-budget special effects behemoths. I agree. Though the special effects are what hits you in the face, the story is well done too. I give it 3 out of 4 stars, or a solid letter grade of B.

Merry Christmas Indeed!

Mystery giver bestows $15,000 diamond ring
Motorist returns to unlocked car to find sparkler, note mourning lost love

WESTBOROUGH, Mass. - Imagine getting off the train after work and finding a $15,000 diamond ring in your car.

A Westborough, Mass., man says that’s what happened to him.

It seems the ring was left in his unlocked car by a total stranger, heartbroken over a lost love.

The ring came in a box topped with a white bow. A note with it read: “Merry Christmas. Thank you for leaving your car door unlocked. Instead of stealing your car I gave you a present. Hopefully this will land in the hands of someone you love, for my love is gone now.”

The finder told police about the ring after having it appraised.

Police say they have no idea where the ring came from or who left it. For now, it’s finders, keepers.

Food Combos

My 3-year old, Liam, makes the oddest food combinations.

Tonight he took a bite of pizza, inserted some peas and then stuffed in a slice of banana.

Other things I remember gagging at:

• Mixing ranch dressing into applesauce
• Dipping bananas in ketchup
• Putting peas in peach yogurt
• Dipping carrots into strawberry jello

(In case you're wondering why he has these foods on his plate all at once, it's because his 5-year old brother usually finishes his main course first and we have to serve the fruit dessert to them both at the same time, otherwise Liam gets very jealous and will refuse to finish his meal. This way, he at least continues to eat the main course, but he inevitably mixes it up with the dessert.)

What gross, but enjoyable-to-you food combination have you invented or seen your kids make?

Hair of the ....Eye

The weirdest thing just happened to me. I rubbed the corner of my eye with my right index finger and felt a sharp pain in my fingertip. I realized there was a splinter in my finger, so went to the bathroom to get tweezers. When I pulled the splinter out, I realized it was a bottom eyelash! It wasn't harder or different in any way than my normal ones, so I found it quite strange that it could enter into the thickened skin of my fingertip.

Yummmm

Can you guess what has been my snack staple for over 5 years? I'm sure you've seen them on your grocery store shelves -- do yourself a flavor and pick one, or six, up.

Christmas Pageant Footage

Or, for better quality footage, click here (6.5 MB .WMV file)

Winter Wonderland

There are so many things I love about this video. Grady's hair, his bobbing to the beat, his hand movement at "we'll say no man!", how he swallows mid song like he belongs in a Little Rascals episode, how I inadvertantly keep him hanging at the end, and then Liam's approval.

Note: that links you to Youtube.com where I posted it with diminished quality. If you want a better quality video and have time to wait for 3+MB to load, click here.

Like Father Like Son

Untouched.
Enhanced.


















Liam gets in on the act too.

Hiking Stuff for Sale

I know some of my blog readers are wonderful outdoorswomen and men (Erik, Chelsie, Heather, Curtis, Mike), so I'm linking you to some hiking items I have for sale. We bought these via a silent auction this past summer for a Campfire charity event. I can reduce the prices for my blog readers; just name a price and I'll let you know if I can let it go at that price.

Bergans of Norway Breheimen Lady Jacket, size Medium. Retails for $300, selling for $199.99.
Craigslist posting here.


Bergans of Norway Sport Alpin 40L backpack. Retails for $124, selling for $99.
Craigslist posting here.


Mazamas Moutaineering School Basic Climbing Education Package. $295 value, selling for $199.
Craigslist posting here.

Bolognese Sauce Recipe

I'm quite proud of the bolognese sauce that our Italian venture last summer inspired me to create. Trial and error has produced something that is worthy of being served in any trattoria in Italy, that is, if the sort-of-objective palates of my friends and family can be trusted. I created a step-by-step and picture-by-picture web page that teaches you how to recreate what has become my wife's, my two son's and my favorite meal of all time.

Click the pic.

Getting in on the Act

Liam (my 3 year old) hopped on the joke train today after Grady (my 5 year old) told the duck joke below. Here is 3 year old humor:

"Knock, knock."

"Who's there?"

"Apples."

"Apples who?"

"Bananas!"

Um. OK. 3-year old humor perhaps not at its best.

Duck Crossing

Grady just told me a joke.

"Why did the duck cross the road?"

"Because he needed to. Then he stood still and was
laughing, laughing, laughing. BUMP, the car."

Technicially this duck didn't cross the road.