Month: August 2006

DINNER 239: Sunday, August 27, 2006

DINNER 239: Sunday, August 27, 2006

Wendy took part in a multi-family yard sale that required her to be at our friends’ garage by 8:30 this morning, so she was up and away quite early (which is fairly unusual for Wendy, who likes to sleep in on Sunday mornings). I had…

DINNER 240: Monday, August 28, 2006

DINNER 240: Monday, August 28, 2006

After work, I ran by Borders near our house to pick up The Seasoning of a Chef: My Journey from Diner to Ducasse and Beyond, which I fully expect to be a crappy book but want to read anyway. Then, I got a nice surprise…

High Five! Meme

High Five! Meme

From The Unlimited Mood, by way of Virtualzen

Five Items in My Freezer
* Herbed Goat Cheese Polenta Cakes — I made it as an experiment some time ago
* Vidallia Onion burgers just waiting to be cooked
* An old, squarshed genoise cake — it’s probably no good anymore…
* Stouffer’s French Bread Pizzas
* Chicken frames for stock

Five Items in My Closet
* A plastic hamper
* Shoeboxes
* A big blue terrycloth robe — very comfortable!
* Several chef coats
* Frequently, a cat. Often, a blind cat

Five Items in My Car
* CDs — Over the Rhine, Rocky Horror, and The Verve Pipe at the moment
* Pen & paper (does that count as one item?)
* FM transmitter — I listen to audiobooks on my PDA through this
* Mobile phone charger
* Little Debbie Oatmeal Creme Pie

Five Items in My Wallet
* Business cards
* 2 free passes to the movies
* A fortune from a fortune cookie: “A man [sic] best possession is a sympathetic wife.; Lucky # 4 8 15 16 23 42″
* 4 phone calling cards (all expired by now, I would imagine)
* “Player’s club” cards from 3 casinos in 2 states

DINNER 241: Tuesday, August 29, 2006

DINNER 241: Tuesday, August 29, 2006

Another quiet evening at home with a simple dinner of beef ravioli in tomato sauce. Then, we cut the dogs’ toenails and gave them all baths, so I sit before the computer a bit damp, dog-hairy, and a little dog-smelly. But the dogs are all…

DINNER 242: Wednesday, August 30, 2006

DINNER 242: Wednesday, August 30, 2006

A last-minute call from Chef Lilly at Cincinnati State modified my early-evening plans a bit. They were hosting a culinary event and needed an extra pair of hands from 5:00 until 7:00, so I agreed to swing by the college before heading home. Shruging into…

Reading: Haunted

Reading: Haunted

After experiencing the petering-out of the second half of HEAT by Bill Buford, I’ve moved on to HAUNTED by Chuck Palahniuk. It’s got a scary-looking cover with a secret — it glows in the dark! Thematically, the book is about as far away from HEAT as you can get (from the back of the book): “Haunted is a novel made up of twenty-three horrifying, hilarious, and stomach-churning stories. They’re told by people who have answered an ad for a writer’s retreat and unwittingly joined a “Survivor”-like scenario where the host withholds heat, power, and food. As the storytellers grow more desperate, their tales become more extreme, and they ruthlessly plot to make themselves the hero of the reality show that will surely be made from their plight. This is one of the most disturbing and outrageous books you’ll ever read, one that could only come from the mind of Chuck Palahniuk.

 

 

Haunted: A Novel
Next up…  

 

 

The Big Over Easy: A Nursery Crime and then The Fourth Bear or California Dish: What I Saw (and Cooked) at the American Culinary Revolution
   

DINNER 243: Thursday, August 31, 2006

DINNER 243: Thursday, August 31, 2006

Since Wendy had rehearsal tonight, I stopped by a new Chinese restaurant that has opened on my way home. I got an order of their house Fried Rice, some fried wontons, and a spring roll. Everything was pretty good, nothing special, but I appreciate the…