As the Gawker T-Shirt said, "George Clooney Stalked Me"

I know by now it's old news but only in New Jersey would 27 hospital workers be suspended for accessing George Clooney's personal information without authorization after his hospital stay in Bergen County last month.

Velib it or not...

Check out the latest Parisian bicycle craze.

To Boldly Go...

More casting updates on the J.J. Abrams helmed Star Trek pic. Okay, I have to say Zachary Quinto (aka Sylar) is a perfect choice for Spock, but Karl Urban as Bones!?! I mean I like Karl... he was great as the villian in The Bourne Supremacy, but as Bones? There is absolutely no resemblence whatsoever. He's a Kiwi for God's sake! He'd be a better villian... better than poor Eric Bana! I know, I know, Eric Bana made a failed attempt at the Hulk (which apparently is going to be remade with Ed Norton??) but he was great in Munich. You make one bad Drew Barrymore movie (hello "Lucky You") and you're relegated to being the Star Trek villian, a role less important than that of Karl Urban? Sure he'll be with the likes of Ricardo Montalban, but still. Then Sulu: John Cho. Harold and Kumar go to Azati Prime? But the question remains--- will James Cromwell reprise his role as Zefram Cochrane?

How to Stop an Exploding Man...

Here's my review of the latest fall tv season. Ah, there were so many hopes.

Heroes. Back again and just as many commercial interruptions as at the end of last season. So far the storylines have been fine but what's with having approximately 38 minutes of show for a one hour block of television? Just how many Nissan Rogue commercials does NBC think I will sit through before I'll just TiVo the damn thing and watch it later, commercial free?

Chuck. Like it. Close to loving it, will give it a bit more time. Given that this has a handful less commercials than Heroes I have been finding it actually *more* entertaining than Heroes. No matter how much time goes by Adam Baldwin will always just be that kid from "My Bodyguard".

Journeyman. Okay I know its lame and everyone says its just recycled Quantum Leap (but hell, I never watched Quantum Leap). Again, I know its cheesy and I'm kind of surprised it hasn't been cancelled yet but for some reason I'm totally mesmerized by the fact that Kevin McKidd looks just like Anthony Michael Hall. Perhaps in a future episode he'll go back to the past and meet AMH. One never knows, and speaking of name acronyms, whatever happened to PMT? Anyhoo, its semi-sci-fi and generally not crime based. I like it.

Cavemen. At least there aren't any Geico commercials while the show is on. I like that Joel works at a thinly veiled IKEA. This show could actually be funny but surprisingly there aren't enough "caveman" jokes. Instead its just like they're a bunch of hairy guys living in San Diego.

Carpoolers. Is it just me or is Jerry O'Connell kind of funny looking? It's like his face is a mask or something. Anyway, the show kind of has potential. As the Husband has noted it occasionally has some funny lines. I'll give it some time, perhaps it will hit its stride, god knows riding on the coattails of Cavemen isn't doing it any favors.

Bionic Woman. Sorry Dave, I couldn't sit through it. It lost me with Isaiah Washington and a trip to Paraguay.

Kitchen Nightmares. So much better than "Hell's Kitchen". I do prefer the BBC America version, but this isn't bad. All I can say is thank god I had never eaten at that Indian restaurant they showed in the second episode.

Reaper. What the hell has happened to Kevin Smith's career? Okay, I guess this means that Clerks and Dogma were just flukes and Jersey Girl really was about all he's worth? I will give it this much-- watching a typical episode of Heroes you've got a commercial by minute 6. Reaper? No commercials in the first 15 minutes. Then again it is on the CW.

Pushing Daisies. Yada, yada, yada. Everybody raves. Again, the Husband hit the nail on the head-- it's trying to be an HBO series. What kills it? That fricking narrator. I can't take the narrator anymore. The narration is only made worse when, at the commercial break, the same guy does the voice over for the latest quit-smoking scheme (you know, the one with the tortoise and the hare). Yeah, same guy. Make it stop. Please.

Kid Nation. Why did I TiVo this in the first place? Will somebody send that little girl with the annoying southern accent HOME?

30 Rock. It's getting funnier. But the Office? Two weeks in a row now they've done "full hours" of The Office. Ugh. Steve Carrell- you're not Ricky Gervais and let's face it, the British version wasn't that funny either. Let's just put on Seinfeld re-runs instead and be done.

Antiques Roadshow. There, that's good prime-time television I can stand behind. Now, let's keep our eye out for the episodes with the third Keno brother!

Take a Little Time to Enjoy the View...

This morning's daily View watching was irritatingly interrupted by a press conference from the President. (Why is it that he always calls these damn things at 11am?) Did anybody besides Miss S and I watch this? Are W's advisors telling him to beef up the Texas accent? And I loved his response to the reporter asking how he felt back in 1981 when Israel bombed the "power plant" in Iraq. To paraphrase: "I don't recall how I reacted, I was trying to make a living to take care of my family." Yes, but you're the president now, so from a historical point of view, surely, you have an opinion? I guess not. I also loved the line of questioning about Putin. Now perhaps I understand why these things are limited to being on at 11am.

Nobel Prize???

Okay, so Al Gore gets the Peace Prize?? Can one explain to me exactly how "An Inconvienent Truth" merits the *peace* prize? I mean hell, what about Leo DiCaprio, he drives a Prius and just narrated "The 11th Hour" and we already know he's "king of the world!" so why not give him the prize? Or what about Bono. I mean come on, Bono's not only best friends with Nelson Mandela but he's been wearing those goofy blue x-ray specs for years now, I think in the realm of celebrities "trying to make a difference" Bono has certainly more street cred vis-a-vis the Peace Prize than ol' Al. Next thing you know Sean Penn will be in the running.

It's an S-N-P Thing...

Got to love the Salt N Pepa Show on VH-1. But where's Spinderella?

Let Me Get This Straight....

If there's not a hurricane in the next few days Atlanta could run out of drinking water in 90-121 days? How exactly does one get itself into that spot? I guess when your governor is named "Sonny Purdue" just about anything can happen.

Discovery HD Theater

So we're watching some nature show on Base Jumping in Norway and can I just say, Discovery HD Theater is much cooler than watching Conan O'Brien in HD.

On the Road to Hopewell

Trees. We LOVE Trees!

Trend Breakers....

We're watching this lame show called "Trend Breakers" on NBC 4 this morning and I love that they're talking about time travel. "Is time travel possible, and if so, where would you go?" Yeah, this is real news!

Le Transporteur

We've seen The Transporter II 50 bazillion times, love Jason Statham, deplore Matthew Modine, the villians are good, the stunts are great, we'll forgive the use of an Audi rather than a BMW. I had started to watch The Transporter once before and now I'm remembering why I couldn't make it through. The love-interest girl is so *boring*. Ugh. Could the pace of this movie *be* any slower???

Okay, it picked up a little bit, Frank spent a few minutes driving a beat-up old SAAB.

Social Security?

When Miss Baby was born we filled out a form at the hospital to get a social security number (because really, shouldn't she be paying taxes already??) Well the social security card came shortly after we got home from the hospital and I stowed it away somewhere safe and of course that means, as it always does in my family, that it's in a place so safe even I can't find it. Since we need the social security card for obtaining a passport I decided to just break down and order a replacement card from the Social Security Administration. And, while I was at it, I figured I'd get a replacement for myself since I haven't had my card since I don't even know when. I went to the SSA website to find out where to go and by putting in my zip code the website directed me to the closest office. That meant the office in Trenton. Yeah, okay, I made the mistake of getting my NJ Driver's License at the DMV in Trenton and I decided then and there that I wouldn't be traveling to Trenton for anything else. Does the SSA website have a link for you to locate all of the offices within a particular state or locality? (You know, like if you were on the Gap's website and wanted to find all of their stores in NJ)... No, of course not, instead I have to sit there and jockey between the Post Office's zip code locator and the SSN's website trying to figure out zip codes of local towns that are far enough away from here that I wouldn't be directed back to Trenton. We're not even going to discuss the office in New Brunswick, instead let's just say that today we went to Somerville. The folks at the Somerville office were very helpful and the experience was much quicker than I expected (even given the whole "step right up and take your deli ticket number" atmosphere).

The first thing that happens when I step in the door is that I'm asked by a senior citizen volunteer if I have an appointment (can you even make appointments??) No, I say. Then I'm asked what I'm here for-- I say, replacement cards. Do you have proof of identification? To that I state that I have my daughter's birth certificate, immunization record and insurance card. Then I'm told: "Well, you know, a birth certificate isn't proof of identity."

Okay, a birth certificate certified by the health department in the locality where she was born *isn't* proof of identity? (Granted-- I knew this already from the SSN website, and hence that's why I had the immunization record) Isn't this a little bizzare? The immunization record was all of one printed page with Miss Baby's name on it and the name, address and phone number of the doctor's office with a notation as to when she had her DipTet shot. I could have typed it up at home. It wasn't on letterhead, it even vaguely looked like it had been printed on a dot matrix. I'll give you that the insurance card is a little more reputable, I mean, after all, it is laminated. Certainly by having an insurance card I'm showing that a) I'm not on medicare and b) I have gone to the trouble of reporting a birth to my insurance company and am paying some sort of premium for this little person, but then again, how does Oxford actually know she exists? The people at the Health Department actually have access to the birth record from the hospital, so shouldn't the "birth certificate" carry a bit more weight than either the immunization sheet or the insurance card??

Note also that the birth certificate doesn't prove "identity" for purposes of the passport either, yet a baptismal record will. Can anyone explain to me why it is that the Federal Government apparently puts no value on documentation provided by local and state municipalities? Isn't this a little odd? They'll trust Oxford and a baptism certificate but not the health department?

I can't wait to find out what kind of a debacle obtaining a passport will be.

In the "What is The World Coming To" Department

this week's In Touch cover story is: "Angelina gains 10 Pounds!"

Is It Just Me

or do you agree that J-Lo and Alan Greenspan is an unexpected guest combination on David Letterman?

Sting's Favorite Pasta

I'm amazed at how many hits I get for the "Sting's Favorite Pasta" entry.

Also, interestingly, someone from DC viewed a link to one of my posts that mentioned "homeland security".

Got to love Statcounter.

Thanks to the Thisbe Family!

This afternoon we had a lovely visit in P-town with the Thisbe Family! including a trip to the Bent Spoon for ice cream. It was a happy fun birthday treat! Yay!

Random Thoughts...

Last night I watched The Holiday. Ugh. Didn't the producers or the casting director realize that generally speaking Cameron Diaz is not someone that women relate to? Yeah, sure, she's fine in Charlie's Angels or There's Something About Mary (to which the Husband noted Chris Elliott and even Brett Favre were good in that movie), but in a "romantic comedy"? She's no Meg Ryan or Sandra Bullock. The only good thing about the movie was her sweater wardrobe. And, Jude Law? How can one take Jude Law as a single dad seriously after Nannygate? Do the people who put this movie together not read the tabloids? And poor Kate Winslet? I've said it before and I'll say it again, the woman puts on a few pounds from the days of Titanic and her love interest goes from Leonardo DiCaprio to Jack Black??? I mean true Jack Black's performance in the film was oscarworthy compared to Cameron's but still!

Next random thought: Just how fast to infant's fingernails grow?? It seems as though we're trimming Miss S's nails every five minutes and due to the fact that she's reached the height of her squirmy phase we have recently had to move to clipping her nails while she sleeps. It's an interesting state of affairs when it is actually easier to clip the cat's claws...

More Movies.... Blood Diamond. It was The Beach all over again, just with a political message. And riddle me this one, why, if you previously worked as a gun runner and "soldier of fortune" would you not wear a bullet proof vest? Who'd have thunk Leo would get sidelined by that rare bullet to the armpit.

Birthday Shout-Out

October 8 is not only Columbus Day this year but is also the birthday for the Mom, Matt Damon, Sigourney Weaver and the infamous Chevy Chase. Happy Birthday, everybody!

"Free"Public Library Part Deux

Okay, for comparison's sake, I checked out the library card requirements at the New York Public Library. All you have to do is live in NEW YORK STATE, work in NEW YORK STATE, own property in NEW YORK STATE or be a student in NEW YORK STATE and your library card is free. That means me, still maintaining a work address in NYC can get a free library card. If I lived in Angola, NY or Watertown or any other farflung location I could also get a card. Clear on the other side of the state! Now, if you can't meet any of those options you can buy your library card for $100 per year. Now explain to me why my property taxes in New Jersey can't create a state wide library system???

"Free" Public Library....?

So I am utterly adverse to the concept of a "lending library" due to my Howard Hughes like germ-phobia. While I used to use the local library back in Marietta, and obviously used the library at Cornell, it was my time living in New York that gave me a second thought about reading a book which may have been in the hands of any of the other 8 million people in the city, but I digress. In Princeton there is a brand new lovely library. On a whim I visited the Princeton Public Library website to see what knitting books they had available, thinking, perhaps it would be more cost effective to just borrow a pattern book rather than forking over $$$ at the local B&N if there was only one pattern I was interested in (case in point: "Twinkle's Big City Knits", do I really need to own this when all I'm interested in is one measly shrug pattern? NO.) Alas, the library didn't have Twinkle's Big City Knits, but it did have at least three books by knitting guru Debbie Bliss including one book with a pattern for a shawl collared baby sweater that I have been contemplating knitting up for Miss Baby. Great, I decide to take the plunge and the library website is so sophisticated that I was not only able to review the book's table of contents, but I could also reserve it online! I clicked on the link to get my library card and was hit with the following information:

"Free cards are available to all residents of Princeton Borough and Township, including those in university housing. Just fill out a small card, show identification and proof of residence, and receive your card immediately. Cards are renewed every 3 years."


"Free cards are also available to non-resident Princeton property owners, business CEOs, teachers who work in a public or private school in Princeton, librarians and literacy tutors or their students. Cards are renewed annually."


"Other non-residents may purchase cards for fees equivalent to the tax payments of local residents. The fees for one card are: $30 for 1 month; $90 for 6 months; or $150 for 1 year. Cards for additional household members are $10 each."

And, just to clear up any confusion:

"Princeton Area Residents: Parts of several other municipalities share Princeton ZIP codes and mailing addresses. In addition, many area subdivisions not within the border of Princeton Borough or Township include the word "Princeton" in their names. While we are unable to offer free borrowing privileges to residents of these communities, we can direct people to the public library that serves their local community."

Yes, that's right, if I want to check this book out I'd need a subscription. A subscription that is thirty dollars per month or one fifty per year. WHAT?? Am I crazy? First of all, since when is it the borough and township that runs the library? What about having a county wide library system? Secondly, if my driver's license says I live in Princeton and the Post Office says I live in Princeton, why exactly is it that the folks at the library think I'm a non-resident? Exactly what part of my property tax is going to fund the library?? Okay, I don't mind having to fork over some cash if they really insist but $150 per year? Give me a break. Personally, if I'm going to spend $150 I'd rather just buy the books and get to keep them.

Now I think I finally understand why so many people just sit at Barnes and Noble reading books and magazines as if they were in a library-- because it's free.

French Vegetables, Kind Of...

Tonight I cheated and picked up a lemon garlic rotisserie chicken at Wegmans. But, not wanting to go completely pre-prepared, I made the vegetable sides... we hadCaramelized Shallots, a Vegetable Tian, Parmesan couscous and a loaf of pepperidge farm artisan bread. The Husband not only actually put butter on the hot loaf of bread but he also suggested that the vegetables be put on the rotating menu. The Tian was very easy (though it does take about 40 minutes to roast in the oven)... I stuck with Ina's recipe for the most part (adjusting the ingredient amounts as I was making it just for 2 instead of 4 to 6) and changing up the potatoes and tomatoes due to a small vegetable emergency. For some reason the tomatoes I bought earlier in the week decided to become some sort of science experiment along with two of the three white potatoes. Luckily I had a reserve of alternate tomatoes and potatoes so I ended up using one yukon gold potato, two small red potatoes and one white potato and instead of two regular tomatoes I sliced up a bunch of grape tomatoes and tossed them on top of the layered potatoes and zucchini (my zucchini, unlike the potatoes and tomatoes were unscathed)... Overall I liked the Yukon Gold potato slices the best, because after all Yukon Gold potatoes seem to be the equivalent of potato crack. The vegetable slices were placed on top of a layer of sauteed onions and then roasted in the oven for about 40 minutes or so.

For the caramelized shallots I wasn't able to keep them together as Ina's recipe suggests since I managed to obtain the world's largest shallots. Instead of a bunch of small shallots making up my pound I had about 4 giant ones. So, I cut them into quarters, sauteed them in butter with a bit of sugar and red wine vinegar and then I placed them in a baking dish. Once in the baking dish I added a bit of cream and put some bread crumbs on top and added them to the oven with the Tian. Very, very tasty. Topped off with a bit of couscous (what is possibly the easiest starch in the world to prepare) and accompanied by the rotisserie chicken, all was right with dinner.

Avocado Ranch...

So, I've known for years that Tom Selleck has an Avocado farm, but the question is, how do you know if those Hass Avocado you're buying at WF are from Tom's farm?? Really, he should market those better.

Two Words:

Pumpkin Hat.

Jane Austen Book Club

Okay Hollywood. I liked the Jane Austen Book Club. It was an easy read and a decent book overall, but the movie version?? Ugh. What's with that cast!?! It's like a lame version of a Lifetime movie. I like Emily Blunt (thanks only to TDWP), but Maria Bello (sorry, just don't like the look of her...), Amy Brennemen and Kathy Baker?? Not to mention, Jimmy Smits? (What is this, get Denis Franz and its an NYPD Blue reunion). Anyhoo, that's just my two cents.

ps. on a completely unrelated topic... I feel that the use of "Anyhoo" has been completely legitimized, thanks to this past Sunday's On Language by William Safire in the Times Magazine.

Just a Thought....

So, if Britney Spears' has lost custody of her sons, my question is... shouldn't they just skip K-Fed and go straight to living with Shar Jackson? I mean, that's where Kev's other kids are, right?

Croque Monsieur

Tonight's dinner was Croque Monsieur. We used Ina's recipe from Barefoot in Paris. It was really easy and very tasty! In addition to gruyere and parmesan I added extra sharp cheddar to the cheese sauce. I served the sandwiches with a salad of mixed greens and baby roma tomatoes with a lemon vinagrette (and goat cheese on baguette slices). We finished things off with fresh baked brownies! (out of a box)... I have to say, the roux that Ina has you use for the sandwiches is essentially the same as she has you use for her Macaroni and Cheese. Let me just say, we love the roux.
ps. Last night we made "Sting's Favorite Pasta" again. I highly recommend it!

Hypochondriacs' Nightmare

Brain-Eating Amoeba found in Lake Havasu. Remind me never to go to Arizona.

Less Than Accurate...

Today was Miss S's four month doctor's visit. This goes to prove that the scale apparatus at Wegmans is less than accurate. While our informal "weigh in" reflected a clothed weight of 12 and a half pounds, the official doctor's office calculation was 14.6. Talk about a margin of error. Additionally, our informal length measurement had been 26 inches, the doctor's measurement was 25 1/2 (not bad, but I still say she's 26).

Burgers and Observations

So it was a good night. We had french fries and mini roadside slider burgers with velveeta (shhhh, don't tell the Husband) and baby roma tomato slices on sweet Hawaiian rolls and the Da Vinci Code was on, so obviously we had to watch it. It finally hit me... Based on Tom Hanks' line delivery throughout the whole movie, it should have been more aptly titled "You've Got Grail".

Alas, More Random Thoughts.

This morning I had a cavity filled. Nothing like having a dremel tool in your mouth at 8am and having your dentist singing along to "Sweet Caroline". There's a time and a place for Neil Diamond. During a dental procedure isn't one of those times or places.

Then, later in the afternoon, the deer family came to visit the back yard. Normally this is a fine occurrence, cute and whatnot. Today, however, I found out a bit too much information about our deer family. Specifically that the two smaller deer are apparently still breast feeding. Yup, there I am walking through the family room and I just happened to look out the sliding glass door and the two smaller deer ran up to the mom deer and then just started chugging away. I understand this is a natural process but I felt a bit too much like I was part of a camera crew for Marty Stouffer's "Wild America" I even kind of felt like I was invading their privacy, but then I did remember, it's my backyard! At least they weren't humming "Kentucky Woman".

Exersaucer

Should the exersaucer assembly instructions really be 17 pages?

Weigh In.

Yes, last night (after visiting the Steinway piano event at the McCarter Theater.... I'm sorry, I just didn't know they start at $56,700 for a new one...) we took Miss Baby to Wegmans. While shopping in the produce department we thought this was the perfect opportunity to do an "informal" weigh in on one of the produce scales. According to the scale next to the lemons and limes Miss S. is about 12 and a half pounds (obviously we'd need to adjust the tare weight to take into account her outfit... but since she wasn't dressed like someone doing a floor show in Vegas I doubt her onesie and skirt combo added that much weight).

Update on Baby's "Big" Adventure

One thing I forgot to note in the post about our trip into NYC was that while out and about we managed to roll past two productions being filmed. The first was the CW's "Gossip Girl" (around Madison and 50th) and the second was an "Untiled Avery Pix, Production" on Madison in the 60s. When walking past the "Untiled" some other pedestrians noted that they had just seen Chris Noth step out of a trailer. Me, being completely oblivious, filed this away and while riding home that evening mentioned it to the Husband and we both said: "Oh, it must be some USA movie." Yeah, think again! It seems that the Sex and the City movie began filming in various locations around New York this week!

Talk About Not Having Any Free Time...

An article in last week's New Yorker magazine noted that a 1969 and 1971 study of the !Kung San tribe of Botswana revealed that the women of the !Kung San "breast-feed [their babies] every 13.69 minutes for the first one to two years of life."

Shout Out to David and Emily and Baby's Big Adventure!

So yesterday was quite an exciting day. The fam headed into the city (Husband off to work and Miss Baby and I off for a day of fun and adventure). We got in around 11 and went to The Job where I got to introduce Miss Baby as the "cutest baby ever", noting that, the general consensus was that she looks like the Husband. At about a bit before 12:30 we headed over to Saks and met Thisbe and the Wee Kraken for a bit of shopping and lunch at the newly renovated Cafe SFA (see below)




Sophie was a bit bored by the menu, but who could blame her-- she knew she'd be getting formula anyway.





After lunch we did some shopping (including a fun visit to H. Stern). Thisbe and WK left us in the afternoon and we stayed on wandering around the East Side hitting up many exciting shopping destinations (including the kid's floor at Barney's where we picked up a very cute little stuffed monkey), Bonpoint (where clearly only Jerry Seinfeld's kids and Barron Trump can shop...), the more hoi poloi Baby Gap on Third Ave and Bloomingdales. At 7pm we met up with the Husband and David and Emily for a fun dinner at Dos Caminos Third Avenue (which replaced the formerly dreadful La Maganette... sure, we move out of the neighborhood and they put a Dos Caminos on the corner of 50th and Third and a Bliss Spa at 49th and Lex, what luck!) We look forward to the impending arrival of David and Emily's little person, as soon, we will be six at dinner!

Really, just about anyone can use Blogger...

Brrr!

Much Better than Meatloaf

Tonight's "comfort food" was Parmesan Chicken served Milanese style. I used Ina's recipe, but added sliced baby roma tomatoes to the greens. We had this served with spaghetti (with olive oil and lemon artichoke pesto) and a warm baguette. It was pretty tasty! This I would definitely make again.

Meatloaf, Meatloaf Double Beetloaf

I hate meatloaf!

While the sundried tomato turkey meatloaf was *okay* the looks of it alone proved enough to warrant a permanent ban on "loaves" of anything besides bread in this house. I'm sorry, but after you've made really tasty, appealing looking food, one really can't serve up meat formed into a brick.

Welcome to Comfort Food Week...

This week is officially comfort food week. Now, while there are many, many comfort foods out there, we can only pick a few. Tonight's comfort food is Chicken Pot Pieeeee! This time around I did add a bit of white wine to the broth and I've also added in mushrooms... Tomorrow we're trying our hand at (gasp!) Sundried-Tomato Turkey Meatloaf with mashed potatoes. Wednesday is off the schedule since we're meeting Thisbe and the Wee Kraken in the city for some quality time at Saks (aka our Happy Place). (But, on a comfort food side note, while in the city we are planning to lunch at the Saks Cafe, provided its renovation has been complete. All I have to say is if the people at the Saks Cafe don't want to have a small international incident on their hands it is my grave hope that they have retained their half tuna sandwich and cup of corn chowder on their menu...) Back to comfort food week here at home, the next three recipes are Mac and Cheese, Chicken Milanese with pasta on the side (continental comfort food) and Potato Leek Vichyssoise. Recipes to follow and as always, we'll let you know how everything goes!

All Those Book Prices...

The Raf-O blog notes that the Canadian dollar is quickly gaining on the US Dollar. Damn, now all those book prices are going to have to be revised.

The Dumbing of America

The other day I picked up the TV Guide Fall Preview. The Fall Preview had always been a bit a tradition while growing up and I hadn't read the TV Guide in ages. Since I'm at home now and have a bit of an open schedule where TV viewing is concerned I thought I would use this as an opportunity to familiarize myself with the new fall offerings. I was aware that TV Guide had changed their format from the little reader's digest sized booklet to more of a regular glossy mag format, but I didn't have a true sense of the content revisions until I started reading my issue. Used to be that the TV Guide would have every single hour, for almost all of your broadcast and basic cable tv stations (plus HBO, Cinemax, Showtime and The Movie Channel-- which, by the way, no one ever had a subscription to) for an entire week. To my surprise, this is no longer. No, instead TV Guide now only focuses on primetime (from 8-11) each night of the week and then at the back of the mag there is a single page of "Daytime" (being 12pm-7:30pm) and "Late Evening"/"Early Morning" for your most basic of basic cable services (the bulk of which is shown as "Various Programming" and even more helpful, at 11:30pm on TBS you can watch "Movie", "Movie" also appears on Oxygen and FX at midnight). We're not actually going to tell you what movie is on, we'll let it be a surprise. Oh, and if you actually want to watch local programming after 11pm? Good luck. Planning to watch something after 4:30am but before 12noon? According to TV Guide you should either be asleep or at work, or let's just make everything simple and assume everyone is watching that new 4 hour long Today Show.

All I could think of is, why the hell is this thing still published and who buys it? Clearly the TV Guide people assume everyone has access to the TV Guide Channel and some sort of a cable "Guide" and the whole "TV Guide" has become a superfluous waste of paper useful mainly as a coaster.

Now, to be fair, the TV Guide does still provide some insightful info. The last page of the magazine (before the ever important horoscope and crossword) is a listing of "Late Night Movies" on 6 randomly chosen movie channels. Someone at TV Guide must be staying up nights to write the descriptions of these movies. For instance:

"Indepndc. Day": Aliens attack earth -- Okay, I know that technically this is an accurate description, but come on. I think it was a bit more than that.

"The Island": Cloistered Clones escape -- escape what, exactly? Couldn't we have a bit more info?

"Annapolis": A Man joins the Navy -- like he just walked into a recruitment station and said sign me up!

"Get on the Bus": Blacks go to Washington, DC -- A little vague, no?

"Cousins": Relatives have an affair -- Sunrise at Campobello, or Ted Danson, take your pick.

"Glory": Story of black soldiers -- What war, please?

"World Trade Center": Two cops are trapped -- again, while this is a portion of the plot, aren't we missing the bigger picture?

Yet other films, seemingly clear on their content get detailed explanations:

"Midnight Express": Drug Smuggler's ordeal in a Turkish Prison
"Bats" A Texas town is attacked by a swarm of bats.
"The Firm": A Thriller about a lawyer who discovers that his employers are controlled by the mob.

So The Firm practically gets a novella for a description and The Island gets cloistered clones escape. All I can think of is whoever is drafting these summaries must be trying to get themselves into the Crossword business.

Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Prices

So I checked out this Wal-Mart documentary... the whole time I was waiting to see the folks up in Ithaca protesting against the Mart, but alas, they never showed them.

Yes!

Sure, search for "sundried tomato turkey meatloaf" you get nothing, but search for "turkey meatloaf with sundried tomatoes" and Voila!

Naked Chef Week Ends With a Bang!

Tonight's final Jamie Oliver meal was Risotto ai Carcofi (aka Risotto with Artichokes). Unfortunately I wasn't paying attention to either the recipe or common sense when I was shopping for ingredients for this meal. Did I buy white wine? No. Did I have the white onion and celery that Jamie has you sauteeing as your first step? No. I had to make due. I had two shallots and a bottle of champagne. What can I say, it worked! I sauteed the minced shallots with garlic in olive oil very gently. I then added in my arborio rice (allowing the olive oil to coat each piece of rice just enough so the outside edges were translucent). Then I began heating my box of low sodium chicken stock.

I cooked the arborio very low and slow adding a bit of the heated stock as needed to keep the rice moist. After a while I added in some of the champagne, a pinch of salt and some fresh ground black pepper. After about 15-20 minutes I thinly sliced five artichoke hearts (I used canned) and I put five artichoke hearts in the remaining chicken stock. Then I added a small bit of butter to the risotto and I also grated some fresh parmesan into the mix.

Meanwhile, I wanted to try a new side dish for the risotto so I decided to try my hand at Panzanella. I had about a half a loaf of french bread left over from yesterday's dinner and a package of heirloom tomatoes. I used the Panzanella recipe from the Gourmet cookbook and changed things up a bit. I didn't have any cucumber (which I'm not a big fan of anyway) but I did have red onion, red wine vinegar, olive oil, dried basil, dried oregano and feta. I cut up the heirloom tomatoes (varying sizes and shapes in order to give the salad a different texture), tore up about 5-6 thin slices of the left over bread, tossed them together with the vinegar, a bit of diced red onion and the remaining seasoning and the feta. Wow. That's all I can say. Both the Husband and I were utterly mesmerized by the vinegar and soppy-bread. I guess we really are Italian if we can be put into a total food stupor with day-old bread.

Anyway, back to the risotto. The trick with Risotto is that you do have to taste it as you go along to see whether the rice is the right consistency. Cooking it low and slow really gave it a great silky looking texture. Towards the end I added in a bit more artichoke and a few dashes of lemon juice (nice kick that lemon juice). Once I was happy with the consistency of the rice, I took it off of the heat, added in the artichoke halves which had been simmering in the remaining stock, added a bit more butter and parmesan and let it sit (covered) for two minutes per Jamie's instruction. It did set up nicely! I served the risotto in shallow bowls with a sprig of fresh mint on top and more parmesan (trust me, we keep the parmiggiano-reggiano people in business).

This was one of the best risottos that I've ever made. The artichokes really blended in nicely, the lemon juice gave a nice kick and the champagne (rather than regular white wine) added a nice hint of flavor. Between the risotto and the panzanella its a wonder that we're still awake at this hour.

What is next, you say? Well, I do want to do a week from "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" (ala "Julie and Julia") but before we do that I think we may have comfort food week. Last winter I made a really tasty pot pie, mac and cheese is always tops and years ago back in Ithaca I had a really delectable sundried tomato turkey meatloaf (god awful sounding, I know, but it was really good!) I'm going to try and reproduce it! Anyway, that will be next week. For now, I think after this week of good food we deserve to go to Burger King for dinner tomorrow.

FYI

A strawberries and cream frappucino should not be followed by some five layer mexican dip from Whole Foods.

Pesto!

Tonight's Jamie Oliver meal was home made pesto with pasta shaped like "little silk handkerchiefs"-- I copped out and used pappardelle instead, but the fresh pesto was very tasty and very easy! I toasted pine nuts in the oven on 350 until they were golden brown. I then used the Kitchenaid MiniPrep to food process the pine nuts, fresh basil, fresh grated parmesan, garlic, olive oil and a pinch of salt and pepper. In addition we had a nice antipasto platter with olive bread sticks, proscuitto, mortadella, fresh mozzarella, tomato and peppered salame. Tomorrow will bring us to the end of Naked Chef week-- here's to artichoke risotto!!

At the Movies

Today was Miss Sophie's first trip to the movies! She voted for The Sorrow and the Pity. But I thought that would be a bit long. Instead we checked out The Nanny Diaries. It worked out well as we were the only people in the theater. Sophie got to have a bottle, nap a little and take in the scenery. She had started to fall asleep quite nicely right up until the MGM lion roared-- what, it can be startling, you know?

Carbonara!

Last night's Jamie Oliver meal was linguine carbonara with sausage. I chose hot italian sausage (which gave the dish a nice spicy flavor). First Jamie has you cutting open sausage links and forming little sausage meatballs. Then you brown the sausage meatballs in olive oil (I added a little garlic too). Once the sausage meatballs begin to brown you add in some pancetta. Then you begin cooking your linguine according to the package instructions. While the pasta is cooking you prepare your carbonara sauce. Jamie has you whipping up in a bowl 4 egg yolks, a half a cup of heavy cream, 1 1/2 ounces of freshly grated parmesan, the zest of one lemon and a chopped up sprig of italian parsley. I wanted more sauce so I added in two additional yolks, another quarter of a cup of cream and some additional lemon zest and parmesan. Once the linguine is cooked to taste you can toss it in a pan with the carbonara, sausage, pancetta and some reserved pasta water. The heat from the pasta water and the cooked linguine will cause the carbonara to cook (though not scramble).

This wasn't bad, though not as good as the Pasta alla Norma.

Pasta alla Norma

Tonight's pasta meal was a success! I first started by cutting three baby eggplant into quarters. I cut out the fleshy seeded center and cut the remaining pieces of eggplant into long strips. I fried the strips in olive oil, garlic and oregano until golden brown. Once the eggplant was finished I put it into a larger pan with more olive oil, garlic and two large stems of fresh basil (chopped, leaves and stems). I added a bit of red pepper flakes and once the mixture was tossed with the olive oil I added a large can of diced plum tomatoes and a touch of white wine vinegar. I simmered the sauce for about a half an hour and then added a half a can of tomato paste, a half a cup of water and salt, pepper, oregano and basil to taste. The sauce thickened nicely. We also had herbed goat cheese toasts and I served the sauce tossed in with spaghetti with small dollops of fresh ricotta on top. The ricotta evened out the eggplant flavor nicely and all in all it was a nice fresh tasting sauce. Very good for the end of summer! Tomorrow: Carbonara with sausage. Wish me luck!

Pasta e Ceci

Jamie's Pasta e Ceci (aka pasta and chickpea soup) was a success. It was very easy and very tasty. First I sauteed garlic, olive oil, chopped onion and celery in a stock pot with one branch of fresh rosemary. Jamie's directions are to cook this very gently for about 15-20 minutes or until the onions and celery are translucent. Once this happens, add two cans of chick peas (thoroughly rinsed and drained) and then cover with chicken stock (I found one small box worked). Simmer for a half an hour (I also added a bit of balsamic vinegar, salt, pepper and oregano at this time). Once your half hour is up, take about half of the chick peas out of the soup and reserve on the side. Puree the remaining soup-- remember to remove the rosemary branch!-- (Jamie recommends using an emersion blender, but I just used a regular blender and then returned the pureed soup to the pot). Once you have your pureed soup in the stock pot again, add back in your reserved chick peas and add in soup pasta (ditalini would work, I used mini shells). Simmer until the remaining chick peas and the pasta is tender. You may need to add a bit of water to the soup if it gets too thick. I also grated some parmesan directly into the soup (as well as serving the soup with grated parm on top). It was very easy and quite a tasty soup-- the rosemary and parmesan worked together nicely. I'd recommend serving this with a good crusty bread.

As for the tiramisu. It's best if we don't discuss it.

Tonight, Pasta al la Norma!

Naked Chef Week...

After the success of Soup Week we've decided to make this week Naked Chef Week. We're making a week's worth (Sunday through Thursday-- Friday night is for fun food) of recipes from Jamie Oliver's Jamie's Italy cookbook. Tonight it's Pasta e Ceci (otherwise known as Pasta and Chickpea soup) with Tiramisu for dessert.

The rest of the week will include:

Fazzoletti di Seta al Pesto (Pasta shaped like "little silk handkerchiefs with homemade pesto)
Linguine alla Carbonara de Salsiccia (Linguine, carbonara and sausage)
Pasta alla Norma (spaghetti with tomatoes, eggplant and ricotta)
and Risotto ai Carcofi (Risotto with artichokes)

So far the tiramisu was very easy to make (and Jamie's recipe did not include any raw eggs! Yay!) So I'm hoping its as good as it was easy. I'll let you know tomorrow both how the soup was and how the dessert was!

Wildflowers or Weeds, take your pick.

All Hail the Wagon!

Just Lounging Around....

The deer wanted to catch some rays before its time to close up the pool...

Air Nepal....?

I'll let you draw your own conclusions.

Orville's Rolling Over In His Grave...

Butter-Flavored Microwave Popcorn linked to lung disease? And you're telling me that the smell of burnt popcorn doesn't do the same thing? How many people have had to suffer through burnt-popcorn smell coming out of your office's pantry?? Ugh!

Sting's Favorite Pasta

Last night we tried a recipe from this month's Food and Wine magazine. It's the cover recipe and the article which accompanies it claims that it is Sting's favorite pasta dish when he is visiting his villa in Tuscany (noting however that he's currently going macrobiotic so, the dish is out for now). It is bucatini with sausage and peas and it was quite a success! The recipe tells you to first brown the sausage and then sautee garlic and shallots, but I chose to sautee the garlic and shallots first, then I deglazed the pan with some marsala wine after having browned the sausage. The recipe calls for you to use pre-prepared tomato sauce so I used Classico's spicy tomato basil sauce as well as a half a can of diced tomatoes. I added that to the sausage, shallots and garlic and simmered for about 15 minutes. I then added about a half a cup of heavy cream, some organo, basil, salt and pepper and a half a bag of frozen peas. We served it with a bit of grated parm and some fresh basil. All togther it was very tasty and I'd recommend it!

Where We're Going We Don't Need Roads...

It happened. In Milan Township, Ohio. I got a speeding ticket. It's a first! In 31 years I had never before gotten a speeding ticket (not for lack of going fast, mind you).

From when we entered Ohio there were speed traps everywhere. In the first 46 miles I had seen 6 police cars, at least three of which were already in the act of ticketing folks. The Husband had advised that I should stay between 70-72.

Then it happened. At a spot where I-80 has three lanes, there were two trucks in the slow lane and a third truck in front of me in the middle lane. I moved to the fast lane to pass the truck in the middle lane and as I passed it, one of the trucks from the slow lane cut in to the middle lane right into the spot where I was about to move. This happened on a hill, on a curve. Once this new truck was in the middle lane I had to pass it to otherwise I would be stuck out in the fast lane. Just as we came down the hill I managed to overtake the truck and change into the middle lane. As I was doing this, the cop was out of his car and he stepped out into the road and flagged us down. He claims I was going 84 in a 65. To be fair, I was probably going 80, given that we were going down hill it might have gotten faster, but I'm still skeptical. When the officer talked to me about it he asked if we were in a hurry and if I knew how fast I was going. I was very tempted to quote "Ricky Bobby" and say "I want to go fast!" but I thought better of it.

Please Pack Your Knives and Go

Katie Lee Joel was turned away from P. Diddy's "White Party" for wearing a shade of cream. But, did anyone tell her to "Pack her dress, and go".

Inquiring Minds Want To Know...

So we're in Wisconsin this weekend for the wedding of one of the Husband's cousins and the christening of our nephew. Last night was the wedding reception and the Sophie and I were seated next to the Husband's very cute six-year-old second cousin Abigail. Abigail is quite precocious and a great conversationalist. She was very interested in Sophie and kept remarking how cute she was and was very interested in Sophie's tiny hands and feet. Abigail even quite rightly noted (and as we learned on babycenter last week) that Sophie has elbows but no knees yet. Things were all going quite well until I heard those fateful words: "Where did she come from?"
Yes, that's right I had just been asked by a six year old the dreaded infamous question: Where do babies come from? Had I been thinking on my feet I would have replied: "Saks Fifth Avenue, baby department." Instead I sat there for a moment dumbfounded, wheels turning, thinking-- I can't say stork, shit, what do I do? I replied: "um, she just came out" and then I quickly asked: "are you going to dance tonight?" I got an excited "Oh, yes!!!" Followed then by a an ever welcome topic switch to "have you ever seen Hannah Montana?" "Why no!" I replied (delightedly) "Why don't you tell me about that" and the most grave of bird and bee inquiries had quickly and thankfully passed.

Globe Trekker....

Miss Sophie has officially become quite continental. Be it known that last Friday she drove through New York City for the first time (we cut through midtown after our drop-off at LGA and this Friday she drove through Chicago. I totally think she could be the next Globe Trekker host. I can hear the rubberband-based theme music now...

Diaper-free???

MSNBC is carrying a story from the Associated Press on the "diaper-free" movement. To quote one of the diaper-free moms, "being able to travel without a big, bloated diaper bag is terrific”. Now I'm all for advancing the potty-training concept, but I'm thinking it may be a bit tough to potty train someone who can't focus more than 8-10 inches in front of their face, don't you?

And, as for the diaper bag. I'm all for travling with a "big, bloated diaper bag". I spent much of my adult years trying to cram everything a girl needs into a Louis Vuitton pochette (i.e. cell phone/blackberry, house keys, lipstick, money, credit cards, etc., etc.) and now I can finally carry a giant bag. I get to be like Batman. I can carry all of man's greatest inventions in travel size. In fact, I not only have one diaper bag, but two. One is stylish the other utilitarian (and plain enough that the Husband can carry it too, if need be, and it doesn't look like a "man bag").

I've not only got diapers but I have three different kinds of purell (before having a baby I didn't even know they made different kinds of purell... for what it's worth, I prefer the "aloe and vitamin e" formula-- it's very soothing), band-aids, sensitive baby wipes, multiple pacifiers, baby wash, shout pads, a small duck that contains deodorizing diaper disposal bags (courtesy of in-the-know and ever resourceful Sister-In-Law), cell phone, blackberry, lipstick, wallet, car keys, burp cloths, baby socks, hat and onesie, sample packs of Boudreau's butt paste (hoping that we never need to use that...), ready-to-feed Similac, spare bottles, changing pad. give me a stick of gum and some toothpicks and I could be MacGuyver. I'm sorry but diapers or not, you totally *need* the diaper bag. Once Miss S. begins on solid food I'll have to add the bibity, food, spoons, etc. to the mix.

Babies travel with their own entourage and that entourage is made up of stuff.

Potty trained or not, you have to have the bag.

Big Day Out!

Today we had an exciting adventure as Sophie and I took Miss Kitty to the vet. Sophie was outfitted for the occasion in her Zutano zoo crew pants and a stylish white Gordan Ramsey style short sleeve kimono top.

For those of you familiar with the Carnegie Cat Clinic you know that it is essentially "down in a hole". For some reason the dogs get the top level of the animal hospital and the cats get the space below grade.... it's a new building, so why they didn't just make it to storeys above ground beats me. Regardless, luckily they have an elevator so I didn't have to try and maneuver baby and feline down a flight of stairs...

On the way over I figure Miss Kitty must have felt it was some sort of a coup as she was riding shotgun with Miss Baby in the back (we don't need to mention to her that Miss Sophie always rides in the back...). But of course to make things interesting once we arrived and as I am steering the Bugaboo, Kitty decides to roll up into a ball and put all of her 12 pounds of cat weight in the back of the cat carrier in a vein attempt to throw off my balance... I think she must have known a distemper booster was in her future.

Once inside we were in line behind another Miss Kitty. That Miss Kitty's owner then felt our life would be highly improved if we also knew that Catwoman named her cat Miss Kitty too. Perhaps this is why they put the cat people in the basement.

Extinction for Redheads???

An article in this month's National Geographic Magazine suggests that redheads will be "extinct" in about 100 years... but alas, we'll always have hair dye.

C&C Baby T!

Love the C&C California Baby T-Shirts.

Hmmm. I Don't Think So...

AOL has declared that "Everyone Loves a Ferris Wheel!" I have to beg to differ.

Adventures in the Hampton and the Meadowlands...

Today we headed up to Stamford for a lovely BBQ in the "Hampton" at Leda and Demetri's house. The whole gang was there and a good time was had by all. As if this adventure wasn't enough for our little lady we followed BBQ-ing with a trip to Giants Stadium to see a preseason Giants/Jets tet-a-tet. Yes, that's right we were those people in the third row of Section 133 with the three month old. I do have to say, if you're taking a three month old to an NFL game, going to a Giants Jets game is *much* *much* better than going to an Eagles Packers game. But that's another story for another time.

What have we learned from this experience? Mainly that Sophie will have a much better time at the Met. She loves opera, classical music (and disco) but loud fans, big plays, bright lights and planes flying overhead? Not so much.

And This is How Bad Things Happen...

I checked my voicemail at the Job today. I had one message. It was a recording from "Maria at Loehmann's" wanting to let me know that the new shipment of items by Italian designers has arrived! To delete voicemessages, you hit star 3. To forward a voicemessage to another person you hit star 2. I was using my blackberry phone to check messages and needless to say the keyboard is a bit tight. Next thing I know I've not only hit Star 2 but I am about to forward my message from Maria at Loehmann's to the entire San Diego Office. I sat there, frozen. What do I do now? Do I just hang up? Do I hit zero or pound? How the hell do I cancel this?? They'll never take my maternity leave extension request seriously now if suddenly I've alerted everyone in San Diego that Italian Designer fashions are now in for Fall at their local Loehmanns!

Soup Week.... continues!

Last night was the french onion soup and goat cheese tarts. The goat cheese tarts (I technically made tartlettes....) were very good, the french onion soup? Even dressed up with a slice of sourdough bread and much gruyere, it was only okay. I've made better-- the Mom's version is better. But hey, soup week is a learning experience right? Tonight we're working on the Rosemary White Bean soup. I have already departed from the recipe slightly, after our experience with the Corn Chowder.

My time in cooking class at Cornell taught me that the key to any soup is mire poix. Ina starts off the soup recipe with onions only, I, instead included carrots and celery. I thought this would help to give the soup a bit more flavor. I also used canned cannellini beans instead of dried (in order to cut down prep time). Finally, I also added to the soup a touch of cream (as everything is better with cream...), a bit of grated Parmesan (same goes for cheese as with cream) and a tiny bit of balsamic vinegar (I keep the balsamic vinegar people in business). Instead of using a food mill I popped the soup in my trusty blender (One of these days I'll get the immersion kind...) and the Husband claimed it was the best soup of soup week so far.

Also, if you're looking to recreate soup week at home, don't forget that the official bowl of soup week is Emile Henry's red lionhead soup bowl. Happy souping!

Random!

See when Nicolas Sarkozy went on vacation in New Hampshire and had his shirt off while boating it didn't seem odd. Put Putin in Siberia without a shirt but with combat boots on, it just seems odd, don't you think?

Halloween...

We are now taking votes on what Sophie should dress up as for her first Halloween. So far the suggestions have been:

(a) Lincoln (with the cat dressed as a badger and the Husband in a diving bell so we can recreate a Rozerem commercial)... or

(b) One of the Singing Bee's "Honey Bees".

Thoughts? Suggestions?

Cheddar Corn Chowder....

Wasn't bad, but also wasn't the best corn chowder I've ever had. The Husband wasn't a fan of the bacon. I liked the bacon (as how can you really go wrong with bacon, unless of course, you're ordering it on something from Burger King, but that's another story entirely...) As for the soup, it definitely needed another vegetable in it (other than just onions, potatoes and corn... carrots maybe?) Not sure, but regardless, the Husband proved that he is not only the toastmaster but he is also the breadmaster. He picked up for us at Whole Foods a loaf of pecan raisin sourdough bread and it was the *perfect* companion for the corn chowder.

Well, onward and upward. Tomorrow French Onion Soup with a Goat Cheese Tart. Oh dear, our digestive systems are in for a wild ride.

Go Big Red!

Cornell ranked "Hottest Ivy" in Newsweek Magazine.

Welcome to Soup Week

This week we've decided to try Soup Week, like Shark Week on The Discovery Channel (only with soup).

On Friday the Husband picked up for me the original Barefoot Contessa cookbook. After the success of Ina's Potato Leek Vichyssoise, mac and cheese and various other goodies which we had at the pool party we've decided to give six of her soups a go this week for dinner. Last night's trial run was with Parker's Split Pea Soup. Ina claims that Steven Speilberg has said this soup taste's just like his mom's. We were hoping Steven's mom makes good split pea soup, and indeed she must as it went over quite well! I added a little bit of white wine and a touch of heavy cream (but otherwise stayed true to the recipe). After all, what doesn't taste better with a bit of heavy cream? The real winner though? Parmesan croutons which Ina recommended as an accompaniment. You just brush olive oil on 1/4 inch thick slices of french bread, sprinkle with salt, pepper and grated parmesan cheese. Bake at 400 for 15-20 minutes and Voila! Perfect tasty soup toppers.

Tonight's soup project is Cheddar Corn Chowder (looking forward to this one!)
Tomorrow is French Onion Soup (which we may try with the goat cheese tart that Ina recommends). Thursday is roasted-potato fennel soup (never worked with fennel before). Then it's Rosemary White Bean Soup and finally thenRoasted Tomato Basil Soup (to be served with grilled cheese, of course. Each morning we'll let you know how the soup from the night before went over!

Ark Building 101

Okay, its been raining now for three days straight!

I Love The Nightlife...

On Saturday we got our first official laugh. Sophie has been making laughing faces for a while now, but no sound was coming out. That all changed on Saturday. In what will I'm sure be the first of many times her parents will make fools of themselves in order to get a good laugh, the Husband and I were singing and dancing along to Alicia Bridges' disco hit "I Love the Nightlife". Then, during one of the choruses' where we sang "I've got to Boogie on the disco 'round", we got an official giggle noise. We've been trying to reproduce it (without much success) ever since!

How Did I Miss This?

Ewan and Charley just finished their 15,000 mile motorbike journey, Long Way Down. Click on the button below to see their official BBC website!!!

Ravioli...

The latest cooking adventure was last night's homemade ravioli. The Mom had tried out Giada's recipe for ravioli caprese and highly recommended it so we gave it a go. The dough is simply 2 1/2 cups of all purpose flour mixed with one cup of water. We mixed it in the kitchenaid (using the dough hook) and then let it set up (covered with saran wrap for 10 minutes). After the ten minutes are up you cut the dough ball into 4 parts and roll out each one separately. Giada gives you specific dimensions in her recipe but I just rolled it out into basically a rectangle as thin as I could (without making the dough split). For the filling the Mom had advised to use one small container of ricotta, salt, pepper, one egg, chopped fresh parsley and parmesan cheese... I also added some pecorino romano as I had some in the fridge. Mind that you don't over stuff the ravis and be sure to add a good bit of salt to the water when you boil them. The Mom recommended boiling them for 5 minutes. The Husband said he would have preferred them a bit more al dente (but I'm a soggy pasta lover so they were perfect for me). I paired them with a light tomato basil sauce and they were very fresh, light and tasty. If you have any trouble forming traditional ravioli shapes I would suggest trying agnolotti (pardon my masacre of proper Italian spelling...)

ps. with this I also tried this new artisan frozen demi baguette from Pepperidge Farm. You pop it in the oven for 15 minutes at 400 (or thereabouts) and it was really good-- a great item to stick in the freezer for those nights when you haven't had the chance to go out and buy a fresh loaf of bread!!

One More Thing...

While reading a story on AOL about a Chinese couple who wanted to name their baby "@", I came upon a few links to Baby Name generators. By far my favorite is the Baby Name Genie. Not only does the Genie give you witty retorts when you reject a generated name (such as Dalton Irving or Reba Chloe...btw, don't these sound like Cabbage Patch names???), it also has a "Baby Name Test Drive" feature where you can plug in your name of choice and have real life phrases generated such as: "Sophie ****, come on down, you're our next contestant!!!" or "You have reached Sophie ****'s voicemail, I'm not here to answer the phone right now but if you'd leave your name and number I'll call you right back."

Mini Storage, Major Uproar

Last night on the news they made quite a stink about the new Ad for Manhattan Mini Storage (See below)



Thoughts? First Off, Manhattan Mini Storage is getting a *lot* of free advertising right now. Who would have guessed that an ad on the West Side Highway could bring such great TV coverage?

Second, it's Manhattan Mini Storage... do you really think there are that many conservative Christian or otherwise pro-life folks who's usership of Manhattan Mini Storage will be affected because of this ad? After all, it's not 'Bama Mini Storage or Baptist Mini Storage.

Tasteless or not and regardless of your views on abortion it's still cheaper than an apartment with good closets.

The Nanny Diaries...

If you're telling me about your child care provider I really don't want to know whether they're illegal. Scratch that-- perfectly appropriate to share that said provider *is* in the country legally, if they aren't... I don't want to know. Thanks.

Maternity Leave?

Yesterday I took the plunge and spoke to my firm about "returning" after Maternity Leave.

The call started off well enough with some random pleasantries about how things are in the office, how the office move went, who the new hires are (two guys-- I guess they finally wised up after 5 of the women in the department all became moms during the same calendar year...) and of course an always encouraging description of how work just got so busy that Partner had to cancel his vacation.

To get to the nitty gritty, I think it's pretty standard in the New York Market for folks (and when I say folks I mean women-- because god forbid a lawfirm would let a man take off for more than thirty seconds if they have managed to find a free moment to reproduce...) to get 3 months paid leave and up to 3 months unpaid leave. Alas, though my firm is an "international/national" firm, god forbid they could be market.

Encouraging though it was for one of my co-workers (who had her baby in April) to advise that she was able to swing an extra 3 months of leave.

I mention this to Partner and he basically does the plausible deniability thing and claims he knows nothing of Co-Worker's status. In one breath I'm told how Partner will try very hard to get me whatever it is that I want and when I say 3 months unpaid leave (with an offer to be available on a project basis if needed during the year end-crunch) then in Partner's next breath it becomes clear that three months wasn't what he was looking for. I guess he was hoping for just a request for part-time? (Isn't that worse?) Maybe he was hoping that I'd just ask for my office to be moved closer to the coffee maker (noting that I don't drink coffee) or better yet, perhaps that I'd just ask to take a vacation at Christmas (since end-of-year vacations are always verboten in our department??) Or, most easily accomplished, a new chair (got one already) or a request for some fancy Bic pens to be ordered for me from Staples? Clearly, 3 months unpaid leave was asking too much. I could go back and offer 60%, 100% from home, but I doubt they'd take on that challenge.

How Its Made...

Okay, I know I've posted about this before but I'm still mesmerized. Below are a few of the latest episodes of "How Its Made" on the Discovery Channel:

Inflatable Watercraft, Couscous and Modeling Dough

Prepared Mustards, Violins, Nuts and Bolts, Toilet Paper

and, not to be outdone:

Fresh Cut Flowers, Adhesive Tape, Tofu and Lottery Tickets.

I think there should be a reality show that challenges contestants to make something useful out of the items depicted on that day's "How Its Made" episode. It could be a cross between MacGuyver and Survivor.

Your Challenge: Cross the Mississippi with only Fresh Cut Flowers, Adhesive Tape, Tofu and a bag full of Lottery Tickets.

100 Good Things...

Thisbe has added a new blog!

Credit Crunch...

So there's an interesting story in this week's New York Magazine. To quote it, "You’re probably losing money here or there, you’re probably losing money everywhere (except maybe from your savings account and wallet).... Unless you keep your money in cash or Treasuries or CDs or the First National Bank of Sealy, there’s a pretty good chance that you’re in a fund or funds that are mismarked and worth less than they and you think."

King Tut!

I think the photo says it all... this afternoon we visited the King Tut exhibit with the Thisbe Family at the Franklin Institute in Philly. I think it is fair to say that we were all a bit surprised when we got to the end of the exhibit and there was no mummy-- just a holographic image of the mummy, but what do you want, that Egyptian antiquities guy is like something straight out of Raiders of the Lost Ark! We're lucky we got to see a replica of the death mask in the gift shop! The highlights though included various fancy Egyptian jewelry and a nifty little gold and jewel encrusted mini-tomb for Tut's liver. Ah yes, a liver coffin for the afterlife. So, tell me, if you're the guy who makes those-- how explain that industry on a business card back in 1322 BCE?

Overall though, a few observations about going to museums in general.

First-- those people with the audio tours. I swear, it's like you put on an audio tour headset and suddenly you become some sort of audio tour drone. I've never seen people walk around in such a trance before-- completely oblivious to personal space and/or whether or not other human beings were in their path. It was kind of like Night of the Living Dead, only with head phones. On the plus side-- I've recently read that certain museums are offering their audio tours to be purchased on itunes and/or downloaded off the museums' websites. At least this would be a step in the right direction for hygene. I'm not an audio tour fan-- in big part because of the whole communal headphone concept. ANYHOO...

Next item: While walking around I came upon some sort of monolith/ballustrade carved item that depicted a couple of ancient egyptians holding up some sort of sacrifice to a "sun disk". There were two other folks standing in front of this item discussing it-- more specifcally trying to figure out where exactly in the image Nefertiti's boobs were. It was a very "Sex and the City" type of conversation. Here I'm thinking "interesting craftsmanship, gee, I wonder if this is alabaster or limestone" and these people were trying to figure out if Nefertiti had sagging boobs.

Finally, after we left the exhibit the Husband found a little hands on item called the "Age Machine". It was a computer and a video camera which allowed museum patrons to have their photo captured on the computer screen and then an "aged" photo of you would be generated. Cool concept-- especially if you're travelling with a 2 month old baby! Whoopie we're thinking-- this could theoretically settle the "who does Sophie look like" debate. So, we get an image captured and suddenly there is an older husband and wife couple hovering behind us. The Husband and I both assume these two want to use the machine-- the image mapping process was getting a bit complicated and the hover-ers just kept getting closer so we get up to walk away and then the couple says to us... "No, we don't want to use it, we just want to see how it works! Let's see how she ages!" OKAY, CREEPY! Get your own baby for the age machine!! We go to walk away and the people then take over the machine with our daughter's picture still on the screen and they're trying to make it work as if she's some sort of guinea pig! Hello!?! Am I the only one who thinks this is a bit odd? As we hurriedly get on the elevator to leave my last parting statement is-- "can't we get her picture off of there???"

Do You Speak Bocce?

"Of course I can, sir. It's like a second language for me."

Yesterday afternoon we had our first pool party and lots of friends were kind enough to join us including Dave and Em, the Thisbe Family, Leda and Demetri, Raf-Oh and Katy, 410 and Jackie, Mel and Mike and Gretchen and Moritz!

We had a menu which relied heavily on The Barefoot Contessa including her potato salad, tomato and feta salad, peanutbutter and jelly bars and frozen key lime pie. Melanie and Mike joined in on the theme by bringing uber-tasty home made coconut cupcakes (also an Ina specialty!) and they also brought fabulous cookies from Lulu. We were also in further sugar shock in the form of cupcakes from the Buttercup Bake Shop thanks to Dave, Em and the rest of the NYC gang.

It was also Sophie-kins first event with people and she did well! When asked she said she had a nice time and really loved meeting everybody but she still wasn't quite sure why she couldn't have any cupcakes.

Overall, fun was had by all (especially the Thisbe Family's Wee Kraken). Folks went in the pool (playing what appeared to be a variant of baseball with wacky noodles) and in an interesting turn of events the bulk of the menfolk appeared to very much enjoy playing Bocce.

All this talk of bocce and all I can think of is "Bocce Balls!" as an exclamation but I can't remember for the life of me what movie that is from...

And, let's not forget that in two weekends it will be time to BBQ in the Hampton! :)

Tonight's Cooking Adventure...

Royal Icing. Heard of it, never used it or made it until tonight. I used powdered egg whites as a subsitute for regular egg whites (alas, we didn't want any salmonella scares, even if we are using "Eggland's Best"). I also tried my hand at Ina Garten's "frozen key lime pie" which required a double boiler (improvised out of two pots that almost fit together) for me to heat my egg yolks. Yolks, whites, so many eggs, so little time.

Interesting....

So in the past few days I've had page views from people in Turkey and the UK looking for information on Restasis and a person from Illinois doing a google search for a former high school classmate. Not to mention somebody from New Hampshire searching Sarkozy and Winnepesaukee!

Random Home Disaster #312

We live in an old house. Okay, that is an understatement. It's a pre-revolutionary war house. What does this mean to you and me? No central air. Today was a *really* hot day, a really *humid* day. Such that, after the whole "tornado" in Brooklyn thing, Mayor Bloomberg had said the next weather event for NY to deal with would be the heat. Now, back to the house. Not only do we not have central air, but our bedrooms are in what is essentially the attic of our house. Heat rises. In order to abate this situation we have window air conditioner units. We have 5 of them-- two in each room on the second and third levels of the house and then one big one which is permanently attached to the wall in the family room on the lower level. The exterior our of house is stone. In between the stone is mortar. What happens when your attic bedroom gets really humid? According to the Frigidaire website, window air conditioner units (when attempting to cool very humid rooms) will leak water (aka condensation created water) out of the unit.

This afternoon I was sitting in the kitchen next to the window that, two floors above, contains one of our window units. I had noticed a drip. At first I thought it was outside the window and just assumed it was coming from the a/c unit. A little while later I looked closer. (To be fair, last night I had noticed that the ceiling above this window in the kitchen looked a little funny. I told myself, oh, it's probably nothing, it's probably just shadows on the paint. Note to self: In a house from 1760, it's never just "shadows on the paint"). Upon closer inspection I noticed that the ceiling had bubbled-- water was dripping from it. I took a piece of paper towel, touched the ceiling and a big section of plaster became stuck to the paper towel and thus no longer stuck to the ceiling. I went outside, looked on the side of the house and there was a giant line of wetness coming right from the air conditioner. Yes, the a/c unit was condensing so much water (and presumably has been condensing so much water) that it was wicked in to the mortar between the stones and was now leaking out of the lowest point-- the ceiling above the kitchen window.

I scraped off as much of the wet plaster as I could and this revealed-- more mortar. I had always wondered what the ceiling above the windows in the kitchen was made out of. I hadn't really been that interested to find out, but now I know. Turn off the a/c unit and an hour or so later the drip stopped. Turn it back on? Drip resumes. Yes, water from the third floor window is making its way out on the bottom floor's ceiling. Once the Husband came home he managed to install a plastic sheet (aka a tray from IKEA) under the a/c unit to divert the water for now. The leak has stopped. I guess there will be some replastering in our future.

iTunes makes for Strange Bedfellows...

I'm sure that no one else's iTunes transaction has included songs by both Fergie and Perry Como.

French Cat Culinary School...

This evening I am trying out a recipe for "Oven Fried Chicken" as seen on Epicurious.com. I've been marinating a whole cut-up chicken since yesterday in buttermilk, olive oil and various spices and began breading this evening. Miss Kitty was very interested in this whole process, especially once the marinating chicken came out of the fridge. She made numerous attempts to jump up on to the counter to inspect said chicken.

"Just looking to make sure all of the pieces are there..." I'm sure is what she was thinking...

"Just wanting to make sure you coated all of the sides of the drumsticks, that's all..."

The recipe called for a breading mixture of bread crumbs, flour, paprika and cayenne pepper... various reviewers indicated that panko was a good addition, so I used half regular breadcrumbs and half panko. I assembled my breading in a large emile henry baking pan (also placed on said counter). Miss Kitty then became insistent on trying to inspect the bag of panko.

"I've never seen *real* Japanese panko before.... surely you'll let me take a peek?" she was thinking.

My response was simple-- "I'm sure in your days at Le Cordon Bleu" (where she studied in her summers between semesters at Sarah Lawrence, of course) "you worked with panko plenty."

That cat, always up to something. For now though the breaded chicken is "sitting" for about a half an hour, per the receipe, and then will be drizzled with butter and placed in the oven for 50 minutes at 425. In the mean time I have also breaded red onion rings (as onion slices were also part of the original marinade).

Miss Kitty seemed to find the onion rings vulgar. Perhaps she would have preferreed french fries.

Gigli...

This morning Jennifer Garner was on Martha and Marc Anthony was on The View... leaving open the question of-- just where were Ben Affleck and J-Lo?

Those Wacky French...

While vacationing at Lake Winnepesaukee in New Hampshire, France's president Sarkozy apparently yelled at news photographers loudly in French. The reporters indicated that they repeatedly advised President Sarkozy that they did not speak French.

Seems Like Old Times...

Tonight I went out to get Wegman's sandwiches for the fam for dinner... on the way home I decided to drive through town. It was a nice night-- 75, so I rode with the windows down and in an homage to 1984 I listened to Van Halen's version of "Dancin' in the Streets". Ah yes, David Lee Roth blaring out of a wagon. Yes, I felt old.

Farewell to Tom...

One night while sitting around in 411 Lyon Hall at Cornell with my then roomate Cynthia from Maine, I received an odd phone call. Cynthy had answered the phone and in a rare moment of clarity introduced herself with her full name and home town/state. It was the Late Late Show with Tom Snyder-- Live. Nancy Cartwright (aka the voice of Bart Simspon) was the guest. I don't remember the exact specifics now (and alas, I didn't have cable at the time, so I didn't see the show as it happened), but Cynthy handed me the phone and I was called upon to sing like Ethel Merman. Truly there is no business like show business.

(This was all coordinated by my mother, you see, who had written to Tom letting him know that I watched the show religiously before heading off to college and was now without TV-- somehow or another the whole Ethel Merman impersonation came out, as well... noting that, anyone, really can impersonate old Ethel... but I digress).

There I was, on late night TV on CBS chatting it up for a few moments with Tom, Nancy and singing like Ethel.

In an interesting turn of events, 410e9th, while still a high schooler at the time, claims to have seen the show.

Tom passed away this week and will be missed.

As he would have said, for the rest of us-- "Fire up a colortini, sit back, relax, and watch the pictures, now, as they fly through the air."

Willy Wonka, Willy Wonka

Sophie will be taking over for Johnny Depp in the Willy Wonka sequel...

It wasn't me....

I swear, the Cookie Monster did it.