A Foodies Life

Loser

I'm a loser.  Seriously, I lose things.  I was just telling someone the other day that if my head wasn't attached I would lose it.  While I was talking to that gentleman I was searching for the cap for a can of oil.  

The reason that I bring this up is because I lost my body bugg digital display, which costs $100.  It's an important feature to the bodybugg for me because it gives you an idea throughout the day of the amount of calories you've burned.  Now that I'm getting on my real diet kick I'm wearing the bodybugg again and damn-it I wanted my display.  So because I couldn't find it I ordered another one from the NBC Universal Store.  I even went to the extreme measure of ordering it 2nd day air because the diet was starting immediately and I needed it!  The day I ordered it was a Sunday morning and I thought it would be here by Wednesday at the latest.  So I patiently looked at my bank account to see if I was charged for it.  Monday went by and nothing.  Tuesday went by and nothing.  On Wednesday I emailed them asking them the status of my order.  By Thursday I hadn't gotten an answer.  

I decided it was time to call.  After the normal press here, press there I got a customer service agent. 

"Thank you for calling the NBC Universal Store this is Sue how can I help you?"

"Hi Sue, my name is Ron and I placed an order on Sunday and want to find out when I should expect it."

"Ok can I have your order number?"

I continued to give her my order number and be kept on hold for an uncomfortable amount of time.  You know those times when you just know that they've lost your order or never started to process your order? 

"Sir, thanks for holding.  It seems that there was an issue between your order and we are going to refund your shipping charge."

"That's wonderful but when will i receive it?"  I was seething.  

"Well sir, since it hasn't shipped out in time we will refund your shipping cost, is there anything else I can help you with?"

"Yes I would like to know when the product will be shipped out????  Will it be tomorrow?  Tuesday?  Next year?"

"Well sir I don't know that information, is there anything else I can help you with?"

"Yeah you can cancel my order please."  

"Yes sir I can take care of that for you."  

"Thanks."  Frustrated I hung up the phone.

"Well what are going to do now?" Mom, who was in the room said.

"I'm going to order from somewhere else."  

I took a few minutes searching to find the display from another vendor but thought I should give it another search before I bought another one.  I went to the bedroom where I stayed in a couple weeks ago and looked right on the bed side stand.  

So while I'm a loser, I am also a finder as well. I usually find the things I lose or go out and buy another one.  Hey at least I didn't have to spend another $100 this time!

Acorn squash

The wind is howling, rain is crashing against the window. It's the second straight day of rain. I don't know how the people that live in Seattle deal with the constant rain. Actually when I briefly lives in south eastern Alaska it was like this and I was depressed. I don't do dark and rainy very well, guess that's why I moved to Florida!

I've been trying to watch what I eat, as you know I'm dieting. Today was a bad day, I ate almost everything in sight. Last night though I had the great meal you see above. It was acorn squash that I cut and de seeded then rubbed it in olive oil and that lawry's 17 seasoning. Then I baked it at 400 degrees on convection for about fifteen minutes. Then I flipped them and added some grated Parmesan cheese. While I roasted the squash I also roasted shish kebob vegetables that we got from Fresh Market. I coated them with Newman's Own Sesame Ginger dressing. Makes for a delicious and wonderful meal!

Stay dry and have a great weekend!

Irresponsible Dog Owners

So now that I have a puppy, whom I love very much.  I know, I know I promised that I wouldn't be one of those people whose pet was all over their blog and talked about them constantly.  I spend so much time with her, almost every waking moment with her when I'm not at work or out to dinner, grocery shopping etc.  As a matter of fact she just walked into the room and started sniffing around.  

So I've become attached to my little ball of fur.  That's why I get very upset when other people let their dogs out without them being on a leash.  Now I'm not talking about the times a dog gets out occasionally and your in a panic to find them.  Or perhaps you have a guest over for dinner and they let your dog out. You spend fifteen minutes frantically chasing her, she looking at you and then running.  You imagine she is laughing the whole time at you, that's what it felt like last night.  I mean the neighbors that we have that let their pitbull out, or at least it seems to get out once a week.  

Imagine this.  It's a lovely Saturday afternoon, you and your lovely pooch are sitting on the couch, you reading a book, she staring out the window just hoping for the day when she can run free.  All of a sudden said pooch starts going crazy, yapping, screaming at the top of her little lungs.  You look up but see nothing.  You go back to reading your book and out of the corner of your eye you see something going down your driveway.  At this point your dog is freaking out beyond believe.  You go to the back of the house where you have a great view of the yard, where you were sitting just an hour ago with your dog tied up peacefully enjoying the outdoors.  You look up and see a pitbull staring you down, smelling, wanting to take a bite out of your tiny pooch.  You imagine the windows crashing down, the pitbull attacking you and your dog.  You grab your dog and put her safely in a back bathroom so you can call security.  Eventually they come and get the pitbull and take him home.  

That was what I dealt with last weekend.  This is the fifth time this has happened at least.  I'm hoping it will be the last time but somehow I doubt it.  I just hope I'm not outside walking Zoe when the pitbull is loose.  Today I was outside and another dog came upon me and Zoe and he wasn't on a chain and an owner wasn't anywhere to be found either.  We survived!  

Another thing I said I would never ever do is dress my dog up.  I just can't help it that my mother's friends come by and bring her outfits.  So I had to dress her up today just to try it on.  What do you think?

Off The Vine Produce

In the past few weeks I've spent almost every other waking minute I'm not at work either reading about food or listening to audio-books on my Iphone.   Specifically I've become interested in our food supply and how unhealthy it really is thanks to big business.  In the past few weeks I've spent almost every other waking minute I'm not at work either reading about food or listening to audio-books on my Iphone.   Specifically I've become interested in our food supply and how unhealthy it really is thanks to big business.

The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, by Michael Pollan was the first one that I picked up.  In it Mr. Pollan speaks of corn and ethanol gas.  You get the idea that something is amiss in what we are eating.  He has someone deconstruct a meal from McDonald's and it turns out that an incredible amount of it is corn.  Do you want to eat a piece of chicken that is mostly corn and raised inhumanely?  That's what we've been doing, definitely what I've been doing most of my life.  I also listened on my Iphone to Mr. Pollan's other book, In Defense of Food.  And read a book by Mark Bittman, Food Matters basically the theme of this book is to eat more fruits and vegetables and less meat. 

What it has all gotten me to think about is what I eat.  Where does the food that I eat come from?  What pesticides and antibiotics are used in making my food?  I wish the answer to the last one was none but we all know that's not true.  Unless you shop locally and trust and know who your getting your food from.  Everytime I've gone to the grocery store recently to pick up a piece of meat I've gone into the Publix Greenwise section of our grocery store.  My next move was to search for more organic or local produce.  So I did a search on the Internet.   I couldn't find anything close to here but I did find a company that deliver's produce directly to your door once a week, or as often as you'd like.  They are called Off the Vine Produce.  They travel around to a few southeastern states each week and deliver produce right to your house.   This week they delivered green peppers, red cabbage, two different kinds of apples, kiwi, carrots, fingerling potatoes, sweet potatoes, strawberries, cherry tomatoes etc.  It came exactly when promised and was actually delivered by the owner of the company herself.  It was a little pricey, $80, but when you consider a trip to Fresh Market I'm not convinced it was much more.  

The reason it fascinated me is because I'm a chef.  I love to create.  If you order this box every week than you get something new in it because they get things that are local and in season.  So it really makes you have to think about what you are going to cook.  It reminds me of the chef basket concept when your in a cooking competition.  So you can look forward to new recipes in the coming weeks from produce that we've gotten from Off The Vine Produce.  And if your in the south where they deliver give it a shot!

  

Funny Napkins

Do you ever go to parties and see napkins like this?  Does it make you want to drink and smoke and just screw it?  I mean the last thing in the world I want to be called is a quitter!  

On a different note do you like the changes I've made to the site?  I'm trying to teach myself how to make custom banners to update our look here.  As you can see I have some work that I need to do but I'll get it eventually.  I love figuring this stuff out.  Let me know how you like it!

Creole Spiced Seafood Gazpacho

After making a delicious Risotto at work this afternoon, tough to do when you can't use salt and you have no stock or wine in house, I walked out of the door at work to a beautiful 70 plus degree day.  It was refreshing to be leaving work at five o'clock and know that the sun would be out for at least another hour or so.  I was exhausted, wanted to sit out on the porch, play with the pooch and do not much of anything.  

I walked into the house and saw an array of dishes and beautiful looking vegetables being cut in the kitchen.  Dad was making Emeril's Creole Spiced Seafood Gazpacho.  What a great idea if your trying to eat healthy.  The dish is an array of tomatoes, peppers, onions, garlic, cucumbers and more and is garnished with a brunoise of those vegetables, lump crab meat and shrimp.  Dad and I joked about brunoise, he pronounced it brown noise.  I told him that it gave me flashbacks from culinary school, chef's with rulers etc.  

It should be noted that I've ordered a battery charger so I can charge the battery for my camera so we'll have better pictures on this site.  I have some other stuff that I want to write about but can't get the pictures because I've lost the charger.  As anyone who knows me will tell you, if my head wasn't attached I would lose it.  

Oh, and you notice those brunoise cuts are far from it.  We would have failed tonight if we were getting graded.  The taste was wonderful though.  It was very flavorful and spicy.  We left out the lobster that is in the recipe and to be honest I can't imagine spending the money on the lobster when it would be greatly over powered by the dish.  

If your looking for something lite and summery give this a shot!

Twitter

Twitter has become this amazing thing for me.  Mainly because it puts me in contact with people that I've admired for a long time, they include Ruth Reichl and other's.  Some people have found me and they will follow what I'm doing.  Which I find incredible.  Why would anyone want to follow what I'm doing throughout the day?  

Anyway, during this I've discovered a website, Streaming Gourmet, where you can go and watch many video's about food, cooking video's etc.  Last night while I was sitting at the computer eating dinner I stumbled upon this wonderful video by Elizabeth Gilbert who wrote Eat, Pray, Love.  I have to admit I haven't read the book yet, actually I downloaded it last night immediately after I watched this and am going to listen to the audio book.  It's about twenty minutes long but they are twenty minutes you will enjoy so watch this video and let me know if your on Twitter!  

Amazon Kindle for Iphone

You all remember last year when I got the Amazon Kindle for Christmas?  I was so excited.  Well today I was floating around in my Twitterific App on my Iphone and I came across a tweet by someone that I'm following discussing the Kindle for Iphone App that came out earlier today.  I was psyched because I hadn't even heard that such a thing was coming out.  I downloaded it to my phone and transferred a book that I was reading to my iphone.  I can now read books where ever I am and don't even have to have my Kindle because I can read on the phone.  How great is that.  So if I'm waiting for a meeting to happen and want to read a couple of pages, or if I'm outside waiting for Zoe to go the bathroom, or waiting for a pot of water to boil, I can read.  I love to read actually I am reading two books currently.  

The best part of the feature is that both the App and the actual Kindle synch up to each other so I can read a couple of pages on my phone and then go to the Kindle and it will know where I left off on the phone.  How amazing is that!  Technology is incredible.  

Britney Lipsynch's concert

Ok so I wasn't even going to write a blog this morning but I couldn't not comment on something that I just read.  Perez Hilton posted this review on his website of the opening of a Britney Spears concert that he went to last night in New Orleans.  Now, I know you'll find this shocking, but I'm not a huge Britney fan.  I don't even own one of her albums.  But I read his review and it was pretty good, except when you got down to this paragraph.

Now, let's get our biggest gripe/problem with the show out of the way.Yes, she lipsynchs during the entire concert. There is no live singing. None!. She recorded vocals to "sound like" live, but they were all canned, pre-taped.

However, it's a Britney Spears show. You expect that!

Now I have to say that I'm glad that it's a gripe and problem.  What concerns me is that last sentence.  You expect that!  Why is it ok for anyone to go to a concert and expect that artist to lipsynch?  I wouldn't expect it.  Actually the reason I go to a concert is to hear someone sing.  If I'm paying $50 or more for a show I expect them to sing.  Ugh.  

Time for work.  What are your thoughts?

Top Chef- A Week Late

Ok so I'm way behind in chatting with you all about Top Chef.  Do I think the right person won?  Better question, do you think the right person won?  Well it's  no secret that I would have preferred Carla to win.  Did she deserve to win, probably not.  Was she the best chef, probably not.  She has something that none of the rest of them have, an endearing personality.  The only other one that had any sort of charm, or was at least fun to watch was Fabio.  With that name how could you not be charming and a little pompous to go with it.  

Carla just made me like her.  The day or so after the finale I was browsing the food blogs and I came upon a post from The Amateur Gourmet.  He rants about a rant from Casey who was a past contestant on the show.  Actually I forgot who she was until she showed up on the finale.  You can read her rant here.  She puts down Carla pretty bad.  The thing that I don't understand is while she must feel good now that she's gotten that out of her system what good did it bring her?  Probably not much.  

Hopefully we'll hear more about it in the special that airs tomorrow night.  Check those rants out and comment below.  Let me know what you think!