I just couldn’t get out of bed this morning. It had something to do with it being near-freezing outside, significantly warmer but still chilly inside, my bed being multitudes warmer than the surrounding air temperature, and my being tired. Subsequently I’m tardy this morning.
Holy Cacciatore!
While I won’t lie and say my cacciatore concoction last night was Top Chef worthy I think with a tweak and a little more practice it could become a standard on my list of recipes to prepare. This list used to be longer, but with a lack of cooking it has shrunk.
Last night’s chicken cacciatore, a slight variant from Giada de Laurentiis’ version, was cooked with care as I blasted Christmas music in the kitchen via my beloved iPad (more than a device for displaying recipes, a device for displaying recipes while playing Christmas music using the Pandora app. Magical!). The entree was served with a spinach salad which had cherry tomatoes and feta, and a bit of white wine — even though the weather has turned to red wine temperatures.
Even with my plumbing woes [note to self: NOW is the time!] I’ve been trying to cook more. See also “Pilgrim’s Pie.” Because I mistakenly plopped the remaining uncooked chicken into the freezer last night next on my cooking list will be a chunk of pork. I’m debating on trying a new twist on my crockpot pork, or letting my inefficient oven help warm the house by roasting the pork instead.
RealiTV Update: Top Chef, Texas – I Have A Beef With You
There are no real personalities on this season’s Top Chef: Texas. It’d be one thing if the tattooed cheftestants were cooking so well that they were picked for that skill over having ideal television personalities, but we are not being led to believe that is the case. Though I have already identified the person I’d like to see not win…
Last night’s QuickFire Challenge involved the making, and perhaps altering, one of the five “mother sauces”. I’ll be honest, I was so enthralled with shoving food into my own mouth that missed a lot of what was going on. With immunity on the line “ain’t no thang!” Grayson won, and it was pretty much the last we heard of her last night.
With the QuickFire Challenge over it was time to introduce the Elimination Challenge — a steak dinner for two hundred of the Cattle Lovers Society — or something like that. In addition to bragging rights the winner of the Elimination Challenge was to get a [SPONSOR CAR MANUFACTURER] [SPONSOR CAR MANUFACTURER MODEL].
The cheftestants split up into teams where Bossy McBoss-a-Lot who decided to remake a cake she’s already prepared on Top Chef and then whine and bitch about everything else. I think you might be able to tell who I’d like to see not become Top Chef. The garishly-clad cowpokers bellied up at the South Park Ranch, or whatever the name of the ranch used in the tv show “Dallas” (never saw it) is and chomped on cold soup, steak with vegetables, more steak with potatoes gratin, and then dessert. The amount of steak eaten proved to me that sometimes you must hurt the ones you love.
In an odd twist of Top Chef fate dessert ruled the day and she who bitched a moaned won the [SPONSOR CAR MANUFACTURER] [SPONSOR CAR MANUFACTURER MODEL]. I hope they give her one with industrial suspension for she’s not exactly a svelte cheftestant — if’n you know what I mean.
There was no similar love for the potatoes gratin made by the tatoo-sleeved-one who looks as if she never sees the light of day. For a long while I thought her name was Wednesday, like the girl in the Adams Family, but from the Bravo website I see her name was Whitney. I kept waiting for one of the judges to use the pun “This gratin is grating” but alas they took the high-road on that one.
Okay, time to make the software…
Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]
I didn’t do much for dinner last night but make a salad and thaw out a frozen spinach pie. However, I did make a decent dessert with some of the MANY apples I have from my CSA box. I made an apple-cranberry coffee cake, it tasted pretty good but I think looked better (thanks to the spring form pan not failing on me for once).
lol, so this is what I initially read.. “Even with my plumping woes”…I thought well cooking more should help out with that…
“Even with my plumping woes” is not a incorrect statement for me either. 😉
Debbie and I met a friend for dinner in Senoia at http://maguiresirishpub.com/GreatFood/ and enjoyed good food and conversation. The friend is a horse event official and it was interesting to hear her tell tales of competitions and dealing with riders. Not that different than what I do at bike races, though there are animals involved.
Yesterday was the 4th anniversary of our purchase of JEFDSDR. The commute is still a pain, but I have accepted it as the cost of loving where I live. We still look at other places for when we win the lottery, but they are only more of the same. Guess the lottery would pay for a helicopter…
-FP
I read about it being the fourth anniversary of the JEFDSDR. Where does the time go???
I should learn to play the lottery but if I won I’m sure I would spend it all on hookers and blow while I walked away from the ITP Estate.
Steve – if you got a small helicopter – you could come land in my back yard…….
I was leftover queen last night, made mexican chicken in the crockpot last friday, then made a pan of enchiladas with leftovers, but still had more, so I made quesadillas last night. It is finally gone………
Small helicopter?? We’re talking LOTTERY here.. dream big. I mean really- look where Paulie went.
a big helicopter probably won’t fit into my back yard……..
…but you might be able to park it in your garage…
I’m sort of in the same situation as Paulie in that my house needs a full plumbing over-haul, among many other necessary improvements which we can’t afford. I’ve been thinking about it so long that I honestly think if I won the lottery I would rehab my current house and continue to live in it, JUST BECAUSE.
oh Jenka, you are supposed ot be able to afford home repairs? Not at our house, but as Allan says, we are going to die in this house, we might as well make it the way we want now so we can enjoy it as we pay it off!
Plumbing is expensive – that is one thing Allan hasn’t really tackled on his own yet and we’ve paid someone to do. It scares me even more than the electrical stuff to do ourselves……… so it doesn’t bother me to pay someone that knows what they are doing.
“I hope they give her one with industrial suspension for she’s not exactly a svelte cheftestant.”
Wow. Isn’t that a little bit harsh? Afterall, she’s not on America’s Next Top Model…what does her weight have anything to do with her culinary skills?
It has absolutely nothing to do with her being a good chef. You read the part where I said that I didn’t like her, right.