Twisty

Dish Bloggin'

Haven’t been a bloggin’ too much lately.

The weather has been too freakin’ gorgeous.

Also, the bottom of our dishwasher is filled with a toxic soup of stagnant water, as GE doesn’t seem to feel my sense of urgency when it comes to repairs. So, I’ve been spending a good chunk of my time hunched over the sink, reaching again and again for my Dawn dish detergent.

Well, off to make some risotto. (One-pot meal and paper plates. Woo hoo!)

Ketchup

As of late I’ve been trying to do a clean-out-the-refrigerator/freezer theme in preparation for all the yummyness that is spring and summer produce.

Truth be told, one of the nicest gifts someone could give me would be one of those could-hide-a-dead-body-size freezers people have in the basement. I freeze food. A lot.

I’m not what you’d call frugal, but I really don’t like to waste food. I figure if I put effort into making something, we can’t finish it and it will freeze well, why not pop it in the coolerator? One day when we’re hungry for home cooking, it will be a nice surprise.

My mother is known for her outrageously good Christmas cookies. One year, she took some of the surplus and froze it. I still remember that July day when she found them snugly wrapped, all but forgotten in the back of the freezer. We didn't even wait for them to thaw.

This week I happened to find a bag of fully cooked shrimp lingering in the freezer. So, the easiest thing to do would be to whip up some cocktail sauce – my ex-boyfriend’s mom’s recipe – and we would be good to go.

Shrimp thawed? Check.
Ingredients for cocktail sauce? Check.

Uh, wait.

We had no ketchup. Not a drop to be found.

So, I figured I would be all experimental and make my own ketchup.

Some tomato paste, water, granulated sugar, kosher salt and cider vinegar later, I had a pretty damn delicious base for my soon-to-be cocktail sauce.

I know there are some chefs reading this who are all, “Ketchup? Oh, come on! I made Fillet Wellington from scratch yesterday.” (For example, Mr. Scriblerus -- a natural-born chef, who treats us to amazing feats of deliciousness involving things like red wine shallot reductions at Casa del Scriblerus-- probably thinks me a kitchen wussy.)

Nevertheless for me this was a very big deal.

It’s official. I can cook.

Need a from-scratch condiment? I am so your gal!

Oscar Rundown 2006

Last night I broke a promise to myself.

I watched the damn Oscars.

However, it turned out to be a wise choice, as I haven’t laughed so hard in a while.

I believe the best joke of the evening came from host Jon Stewart after a live rendition (and subsequent) win for the Academy Award nominated song, “It’s Hard Out Here was a Pimp”:

“Martin Scorsese, zero Oscars; Three 6 Mafia, one”

I only watched until about 11 pm east coast time, so I didn’t get to watch the whole show.

Here were some of the downers:

• After a win for makeup in “Chronicles of Narnia,” seeing co-winner Howard Berger take all of the acceptance speech time, leaving his co-winner, Tami Lane, with none. (Couldn’t the fine stage manager have given her an extra few seconds? I mean, she couldn’t help that her partner was a mike hog.)
• Lauren Bacall’s rough time at the mike. Nerves or a bad teleprompter seem to have gotten the best of her.

But here are some of the highlights:

• Dolly Parton’s performance of the award-nominated theme from Transamerica. I mean, it was just her. Live. Out on the stage all by herself in front of a billion viewers and more jaded celebrities than you can shake a stick at. No interpretive dancers. No flaming cars. No set covered with Starbucks coffee carriers. Call me old school, but Dolly kicks ass.
• Phillip Seymour Hoffman’s acceptance speech where he thanked his mom and talked about them going to the theater and watching basketball.
• Wallace and Gromit winners, Nick Park and Steve Box,  putting little bow ties on their just-won Oscars.
• Jennifer Garner stumbling on her high heels and taking it in stride.
• Three 6 Mafia’s genuine enthusiasm at being given a statuette. Like ‘em or hate ‘em, one rarely gets to see such a display of genuine appreciation at this rather stuffy event.
• One winner thanking the Academy for sitting her next to George Clooney at the nominees luncheon.
• The faux smear campaign ads for the “Best Actress” and “Sound” categories.

Danielle's Big Day

OK. So, J and I were in the car today and passed a strip club.

Now, here’s what I think is funny. The sign read “Join us for Danielle D’s Birthday, March 9.”

I can safely assume that Danielle is an exotic dancer at said establishment.

Why the heck would Danielle want to spend her special day at work, slithering in the laps of drooly, dollar-waving bar patrons?  Methinks Danielle would much prefer a night off - spending her birthday in sweatpants, swigging some beers with her girlfriends, eating pepperoni pizza and watching Pretty in Pink.

Happy Birthday, Danielle! I hope you’ll score some much-deserved time off.

Today's Pet Peeves

• Americans who use British pronunciations instead of American ones. (The only exception is the word “schedule.” Frankly, “SHED-oo-ule” just sounds a lot cooler.)
• Getting that Friday afternoon e-mail bomb that just completely takes a big pee all over your weekend.
• The Oscars.
• Brokeback Mountain (Ring-a-ding ding! A movie about homosexual ranchers! I totally celebrate our gay friends and those in bovine/equine-related professions. But, come the frig on? How much glorious, praise-filled prose do I have to read about it every farookin day? It’s a MOVIE. It’s not like the CURE for CANCER.)
• The 10 p.m. start time of Battlestar Galactica. Who the hell watches Stargate, anyway?
• Anything flavored cherry or grape. (OK. This is just not a today pet peeve. That’s kind of an every day pet peeve.)
• Misuse of “its” and “it’s.”
• Anything “Red Carpet.”

The Right to Drive a Car

I feel like a horse’s ass.

J: Hey, can list all the rights granted in the first Amendment?

T: 1^st Amendment? Speech and expression.

J: What else?

T: You mean, in the rest of the constitution? Like, 2^nd Amendment, right to bear arms --

J: No. First amendment. There are 5.

T: Uh…freedom from fear?

J: That’s Roosevelt. Four freedoms.

Frankly I’m embarrassed at my lack of knowledge. This was certainly an eye-opener and the impetus for an extended surfing session of www.usconstitution.net.

However, I’m grateful that I’m not one of the 1 in 5 Americans who thinks the first Amendment guarantees them a right to drive a car.

Methinks the blogosphere will be all over this today.

Meme!

Man, you know you're out of the loop when your dad has to e-mail you to say that you've been tagged for a meme -- one posted by the ever-sweet, always sassy Zonker. (Zonker - I'm hoping you will be one of the folks at the Austin blogmeet. Keeping fingers crossed.)

Alas, work and life stuff have left me drained of inspiration with little time to hammer away at the keys. (Meh!)  So, it's nice to be back a-bloggin' again.

Here we go:

List seven songs you are into right now. No matter what the genre, whether they have words, or even if they're any good, but they must be songs you're really enjoying now. Post these instructions in your blog along with your seven songs. Then tag seven other people to see what they're listening to.

I have a confession to make. Despite having come from a musical background (me + my dad = The VonIrish Family Singers!), my taste in music is decidedly uncool. I tend like stuff they play on the radio that makes real music affectionados say, "Ugh!!!" And, I don't mind show tunes. Also, I have absolutely no concept of what's trendy. I envy folks who can listen to college radio stations and spot emerging artists. My husband can do that. Instead, I pop in my Madonna: The Immaculate Collection CD to drown out the maudlin music coming from the radio stations he picks.

Here's the list. (Literally, I grabbed the stack of CDs next to my desk and here's what I've listened to the past 2 days.)

1.) "Groove Me" by King Floyd, Swingers Soundtrack

2.) "I'd Be Surprisingly Good for You" from Evita, 1976 recording

3.) "Let Go" by Frou Frou, Garden State Sountrack

4.) "Pax Deorum" by Enya "The Memory of Trees"

5.) "Karma Chamelion" by Culture Club, "Totally 80s"

6.) "Don't Give Up" by Peter Gabriel, "Secret World Live"

7.) "Sex Machine" by James Brown "20 All-Time Greatest Hits"

I'm tagging pinktalk. She knows a heck of a lot more cool music than I do.