Category: Life

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I bet that’d be better with a butter sauce…

Via boing-boing, I came across Men’s Health rankings of “The 20 Worst Foods in America,” which I found pretty much lol funny, like foods served on The Simpsons (I am thinking in particular of Homer wrapping a bacon cheeseburger around a stick of butter). The absolute worst food on the list are these cheese fries from Outback Steakhouse:

Cheese fries

Note the sides of bacon and ranch dressing.

The other items on the list here are pretty predictable, with Chili’s winning a lot of the top 20 spots.

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Yes we can/no we can’t

These both might be kind of teachable moments in a couple different classes. First, there’s the Obama inspired “Yes We Can” song/video:

Well-done, inspiring, etc. And then, via Deb Hawhee, I came across this parody featuring almost certain GOP candidate John McCain:

Good luck with that in November 2008 indeed….

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(Faux) Mardi Gras Party, 2008

Party Pictures We had our second annual Mardi Gras Party last night, and a good time was had, me thinks. Annette and I have done a fall party of Indian food for several years now, and we decided last year that February was a good time to have another party, especially since it is cold and dreary and kind of the low-point of the school year. So Mardi Gras it was then, and Mardi Gras it was this year.

Well, sort of. Purists will note that “Fat Tuesday” was last week, so technically, we should have had this party last weekend. But scheduling conflicts and all the rest postponed it. No one seemed to mind.

The pre-party planning/work started with a bit of a bang, and I mean that in a bad way. I slipped and fell about halfway down the basement stairs and I managed to land quite hard on my ass in the process. I don’t think I broke anything too significant, but I had the wind knocked out of me pretty good and I was kind of dazed for about the first hour or so of the festivities. This morning, I’m not so much hung over as I am sore. Sitting down is a delicate matter.

I uploaded a boatload of pictures to my flickr account here, or, if you’re a facebook kinda person, you can go see them over there, too. I didn’t actually take any of these pictures– Becky S. started playing with the camera, and, 70 some odd pictures later, I had a bunch to share. Note how many of these pictures Andre manages to get in. My favorite is this one where he must be going for the cover of Teen Beat.

Of course it was great to have so many good friends, work colleagues, neighbor-types, kids, etc. But what I like most about Mardi Gras is the food, and we had WAY WAY too much of it. Here’s what we had, along with my own biased reviews:

  • Muffuletta sandwiches. I vaguely followed this recipe on Food Network. They were pretty good, though I think they could have been a little juicier/oilier.
  • Vegetarian Red Beans and Rice. Mine was based on this one, without the meat of course. They disappeared, so I guess that’s a good sign, but personally, I kind of thought that they needed something… like sausage….
  • Chicken and Sausage Gumbo. With a kind of lame roux, lots of okra, etc., and based on a Weight Watchers recipe, so sort of healthy. I’m planning on it for dinner tonight.
  • Shrimp Jambalaya. Something of a disappointment because the rice never really cooked to my liking. I tried a recipe from a Cajun cookbook that said to cook it in the oven instead of on the stovetop, and I think that was where I went wrong. Some people liked the slightly crunchy rice though, and it did make for excellent left-overs for lunch today.
  • Annette’s Mom’s Famous Jalapeno poppers, which are halved jalapenos stuffed with breakfast sausage, cream cheese, and parmesan cheese, and then baked for about 20 minutes. Excellent as always, though we made way too many.
  • Shrimp cakes, which is a Emeril Lagasse recipe that features an amazing cream sauce. I thought these might have been a mistake when we were frantically getting stuff ready at the last minute because they are a little on the complicated side of things. But man, are they good.
  • King Cake, which is more of a sweet bread/coffee cake than it is a “cake” cake. There are a bunch of different recipes out there, but I followed this one and it turned out pretty darn good.
  • And assorted fruits, veggies, and fine cheeses, and some goodies just for the kids.

So by next year, maybe we’ll figure out how to streamline this a bit and how to gauge how much food we actually need. And now, I’m going to go wash some more dishes.

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I don’t care how you say it, it’s still a jelly doughnut

It’s not just “super Tuesday,” you know; it’s also Fat Tuesday, Mardi Gras, etc., etc., and around here, that means it’s time for one of the few foods I think of as being at least kind of unique and/or a “specialty” of the greater Detroit area, the jelly doughnut confection known as the Paczki. (BTW, the other food I associate with metro Detroit is the coney island hot dog and the restaurants that serve them, the diners known as “Coney Islands.” With foods like these, it’s shocking that Detroit has long been considered one of the fattest cities in America, isn’t it?)

I read a nice entry on the local food blog Kitchen Chick, one that even includes audio for the proper pronunciation of the Polish word “Paczki.” Her first recommendation for the best in local/ Ypsi-Arbor Paczki was the restaurant Amadeus, but considering that this was a bit out of the way and it sounded like special ordering was involved, I took the next best option and went to the Copernicus European Deli in downtown Ann Arbor. They get their Paczki in from some bakery in Hamtramck, which is a town completely within the boundaries of Detroit and known for its Polish population.

I went on my Paczki run before going to the gym (no kidding). If nothing else, it was nice to visit the Copernicus Deli, which was connected to a bulk food place and a Brazilian food place on Main street in Ann Arbor, and it was clearly a very local and very Polish-immigrant-run business. At least I think they were speaking Polish. Nice little shops.

The flavors available were plum (aka prune), strawberry, raspberry, cream, and rose. I asked about the rose one first, and the woman explained to me it was a kind of jelly that had a sort of floral taste. So I ordered a couple plum/prune and a couple rose, and I ate one of each on my way to ride the stationary bike and lift weights. So I figure I didn’t gain any weight today, but I sure as heck didn’t lose any either.

The details here are all in the filling. The plum/prune one reminded me of these things my Grandma Krause made once in a while called Kolaches, which is another one of these East European pastries, so I guess that makes sense. The rose one was interesting, kind of like a strawberry or some other smooth and red berry jam with a flowery smell and aftertaste. And I mean that in a good way.

But I have to say, with apologies to Detroit-city purists/loyalists, you can call ’em what you want, but they are still jelly doughnuts, ones with really good filling, but jelly doughnuts nonetheless. They were sugary and doughy and heavy and– dare I say it?– nothing that special.

Don’t get me wrong– I’ll probably have one next year, and I may very well get mine from the Copernicus Deli again. But it’s not like I’m going to start a calendar count-down to next year’s Paczkis.

Oh PS: Will likes ’em too.

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Groundhog Day analysis (or someone has way too much free time…)

Yesterday was Groundhog day (apparently we’re likely to have six more weeks of winter), which naturally brings up that great movie, Groundhog Day. Now, I’m all for obsessive/compulsive behavior, but this analysis of how long Phil Connors was stuck in that Groundhog day time-loop is a little much.

Besides, everyone knows the answer is really seven years. Duh, they didn’t include every day in the movie!

Via kottke.org

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The Yin/Yang of official/unofficial blogging as one: two video examples

Here’s a good example of the challenges of posting stuff here that will reach different audiences, potentially in different ways.

The first one is pretty easy, and something I might before have put on my “official” blog, because it is an example of a “smart mob” phenomenon that gets talked up once in a while in computers and writing circles. From the group/organization (?) Improv Everywhere comes “Frozen Grand Central.”

Okay, and now the yang, the sort of thing I would have posted on my unofficial blog: I personally find Sarah Silverman funny, but she also is really really good at being pretty darn offensive and/or annoying. This video is an excellent example.

Helpful info before viewing:

  • Sarah Silverman and Jimmy Kimmel have been dating for years.
  • There is very liberal use of a bleeped out naughty word that begins with “F.” So if you are offended by such things….
  • It gets kind of repetitive and annoying by the end.
  • Matt Damon must have a pretty damn good sense of humor.