Dear John Kerry Can you speak more than one sentence where you don't mention that you served in Vietnam? "Hi John, got all your Christmas shopping done?" "Almost Fred, but you know when I served in Vietnam with all those brave soildiers, the Viet Cong didn't give us a break for holiday shopping"
Making food We had John & Tams over for dinner on Saturday night and it was a swell time (although I think we needed one more dish, but alas).
The main course was the fun baked macaroni recipe that is in the Mark Bittman cookbook (many of you have gotten this as a gift - open and make it tonight (don't use cheddar)). We made the regular recipe, but also added some spicy Italian sausage and chopped tomatoes.
But what I was really thrilled with was the salad. "Spinach Salad With Oranges And Warm Goat Cheese" This was a really simple recipe (the dressing was delightful), and I contributed (other than very clean spinach leaves) the goat cheese little discs. We still had some pecans from Thanksgiving, so I roasted those for a little while and then threw them into the chopper and chopped them up.
I had bought one of those a-bit-bigger-than-a-golf-ball containers of goat cheese and cut it up into about 10-12 sections and then squashed them around in my hand until they were fat disc shaped. The little blobs of goat cheese were then dropped into the chopped pecans and rolled around until they were covered. Those were then toasted for about 5-10 minutes. Toasty warm pecans and warm goat cheese on a spinach salad. Yum.
Very nice wine We started with a 2005 Cloudy BaySauvignon Blanc which was perfect with the salad. I have been reading about their SB for years and have never had a chance to try it until recently and it is stupendously kick-ass.
For the macaroni, we opened a bottle of Ottimino ("Little 8") Zinfandel. This bottle was a gift from our pal Kristy - her brother-in-law works at the winery.
Oh, Zinfandel. It's one of my favorite things these days. Nice and spicy and helped cut through the big fancy cheese in the macaroni. Really. If you haven't experienced the joy of a red zinfandel, pick one up on the way home.
My legs are restless! I caught the last bit of 60 Minutes last night - there was a nice piece about the whole Mexican immigration issue and the increase of these folks not making it alive across the desert. During a commercial break, I saw a commercial for some medicine to treat "restless legs syndrome" or "RLS". "Restless Legs Syndrome is an overwhelming urge to move the legs usually caused by uncomfortable or unpleasant sensations in the legs"
Restless. Legs. Syndrome.
I love it. Now, I am assuming that I will get an email from a pal who will write: "Jerk! I have RLS and it's a living hell!"
Sorry for snarking on your disorder, but I find it by far the funniest syndrome of the year. By the way, up to 8% of the US population may have this neurologic condition. "may have" "8%"
Bon Voyage Mrs. Robot She's off to New Orleans to go wild as girls are apt to do. No, it's actually a documentary - possibly about a plucky mule that fights cougars.
My marriage failed because of "gay uncle Rich" I had this brother-in-law at one point - "had" as he has divorced himself out of my wife's family tree. He was the anti-"me". The bizarro "me". No, really. Completely opposite end of the spectrum.
This will be our first Christmas without him, and I am slowly realizing that without him around, Mrs. Robot and I won't have anything to talk about - we won't have anything to whisper and laugh about while in bed at her parent's house. We won't have anything to tell friends about over dinner in January.
I will miss him - but from a purely comic fodder point of view.
Classic Former Brother-in-Law stories 1. The one about how he was going bear hunting that weekend
2. The one where he went to Wal-Mart at 5am the day after thanksgiving to buy a DVD player for their SUV (note: this story has pretty much all the elements for great snarking)
