Archive for September, 2009

Where else can you find a variety of videos showing people dancing en mass at a wedding, (or a prison) or newscasters having epic meltdowns on camera or the creme de la creme, people falling down.  And people falling down while being accompanied by a keyboard playing cat!  YouTube of course! YouTube is my GO TO when I’ve had a bad day, or I’m cranky or just need something to remind me of the humor in life.

Today, I’m going to share with you my favorite YouTube videos of all time.  I’ll keep it clean, I promise.  I do have to mention one thing.  I purposely keep the comments hidden when I go to YouTube because I don’t like to see people being extremely negative (especially when I’m looking at something funny…it totally brings me down).

German Forest Prank – No explanation needed, just watch.

German Language commercial -

Weatherman Vs. Cockroach.  I feel so badly for this guy. He’s up there with the weathermap, just going to town when suddenly a cockroach crawls across his foot.  His reaction is pretty priceless.  Just when you think it can’t get worse, it happens again shortly after. I think I’d probably do the same.

Chicken with Pears: Who doesn’t love a good Christopher Walken cooking video? Not really funny, but very surreal. He sure likes salt.

The lovely Miss Zoe and her “Praise the Lord, I love my Bike” This is my niece, who is one of the funniest people I know. This was an off the cuff, unprompted, unscripted response to “What do you think of your new bike?”

Then we have the “people falling down” category. I can’t help it. It makes me laugh. (I give full permission for people to laugh at me when I fall down.)  After every epic fall, Keyboard Cat is there and ready to play ‘em off.

Treadmill Guy with Flying Shoes – Play him off, Keyboard Cat!

Singing Lady Falls Off Table – Play her off, Keyboard Cat!

Ouch! That had to hurt but I hear she’s ok and has done a few interviews since this event.

The best, and by far the funniest thing I’ve ever seen on the internet is…… GRAPE STOMP LADY!!  Watch a live report gone bad.  Every time I watch this (and crack up) I truly believe I’m a bad, bad person. But, I can’t stop. It’s like a train wreck.  You may need to watch it more than once to get the full effect. For your protection, please don’t eat or drink while watching this.

I’m dying to know what happened to this lady after this interview. Wonder how she feels about being a YouTube sensation. I’m sorry you fell down while trying to cheat at grape stomping, but you should know that you’ve erased my bad mood on many an occasion.

YES! Another post about meatloaf, but this time I’m documenting my recipe and cooking experience.  We cannot get enough of this meal.  Just to recap, it’s from Jose’s friend Judy at Easy and Tasty Food. I actually just modified Judy’s recipe a bit.  I’m admitting right now that I used a lot of Judy’s recipe almost verbatim, but I did take out all her cute comments about being friends with your meatloaf. You can read all about her triumph with this stove top meatloaf here. It’s quite funny.

• Olive Oil – 5 T – separated
• Mushrooms – 8 oz fresh white (1 pint container), sliced
• Beef stock – 2 cups
• Milk – 1 T
• White Bread – 1 2-inch square, crust removed, cubed
• Ground Beef – 1 lb., lean
• Onion – 1/2  small finely chopped
• Salt – 1 t
• Pepper – 1/2 t.
• Prosciutto (or unsmoked ham, or salami) – 2 T, chopped
• Parmesan Cheese – 1/3 cup, freshly grated
• Garlic – 3 cloves, minced
• Egg – 1, lightly beaten
• Bread Crumbs – 1/2 cup, unflavored
• Tomato Paste – 4 T – I’ve been using the tubed kind instead of a can
• White wine – 1/3 cup, dry

1. In the same pan you will cook the meat loaf in (a Dutch Oven or other heavy stove-top pan with high sides), saute the sliced mushrooms in 2 Tblsp of olive oil. Cook until brown, about 3-5 minutes. I learned from Julia Child that you shouldn’t crowd your mushrooms.
   
2. In a medium bowl and add the beef stock and tomato paste. Whisk well and add the cooked mushrooms. Set aside.
   
3. In a large bowl, combine the milk and bread and mash until the bread is mushy.
   
4. Add the onion, salt, pepper, prosciutto, cheese, garlic and egg and mix thoroughly. (I didn’t have the prosciutto or ham this time, so I left it out.)
   
5. Add the meat, breaking it up as up you add it, and use your hands to blend thoroughly. Mix until the egg mixture is entirely blended in.
   
6. Mold the meat mixture into a cylindrical salami shape, short enough to fit into your pan. Make sure you have at least 2 inches of “wiggle room” so you can turn the loaf over easily.
7. Pour the bread crumbs on a plate and roll the loaf through them, covering all sides entirely with the bread crumbs.
8. Heat the butter and 3 Tblsp. of olive oil in the same pan, medium heat, until the butter is melted. Place the loaf carefully into the pan and brown on all sides, about 3 minutes or so per side. I used a spatula and a large spoon to roll it.
   

   

9. Once the meatloaf is browned on all sides, you can pour the wine over it and bring it to a boil over medium heat.
10. Roll the loaf once or twice while it cooks in the wine and when the wine is reduced by half, lower the heat to medium low and add the mushroom sauce mixture.
    
11. Mix and bring to a simmer, then cover and cook for about 30 minutes, giving your loaf a few rolls in the sauce to ensure even cooking.
    
    

    

12. When done, carefully remove the loaf from the pan onto a cutting board. Let it rest for a few minutes.
13. Continue simmering the sauce to thicken is up.
14. After a few minutes, slice the loaf at a slant, making slices about 1/2 inch thick and serve slices covered in sauce.
    
    

    My brother (Jason) and Jose enjoying a yummy meatloaf dinner!

Goes well with mashed OR baked potatoes and green beans!  Those lovely yellow tomatoes are from a friend of my brother’s.  They were so delicious with a little salt and balsamic vinegar.  Please let me know what you think of the meatloaf and go visit Judy’s site and let her know too. She’s got lots of great, easy recipes there.

The blue pan is my new Rachael Ray saute pan. I can’t tell you how much I love it (aside from the cobolt blue..which does NOT match my red kitchen!). It’s a great, heavyweight deep sided pan, that CAN go in the oven,too! My old one couldn’t.  I did not pay $66 for it, I got mine for $40 on Amazon during a sale.

I’ve been a reading nut for the past few weeks, pretty much to the detriment of everything else that wasn’t work or required household jobs (like making dinner).  Last September, HBO started airing True Blood, which is based on a series of books about a telepathic waitress who gets involved in some mysteries involving vampires and other supernatural creatures. Does that not sound like great TV or what?  The TV series is highly enjoyable and right in tune with HBO’s other great shows like Rome (sigh. I miss you, Lucius Vorenas and your equally intense friend Titus Pullo).

Back to True Blood…it’s bright, sassy, and full of excess.  In typical HBO fashion it’s excessive everything…violence, sex, humor, over the top characters.  Someone summed up the show in three words. Vampires and hillbillies.  It’s a pretty accurate description, but they are likable hillbillies.  Some of them.  Ok, most of them are pretty stereotypical., but I can’t help but like the show, even the vampires.  Especially the vampires. Highly ironic  considering  I spent my entire childhood, teenage years and even some of my early twenties being scared to death of vampires.  Really, I’m not kidding. I had a real, tangible fear of them.  Damn you Stephen King and your Salem’s Lot.  I read that book in high school.  Literally. I kept it in my locker and refused to take it home.  It scared the bejeezus out of me.  I somehow convinced myself that if i only read about vampires during the day when they were locked away in their hidey holes (aka coffins), I would be safe from them.  I had nightmares for years about them.  Until I read It and then my vampire nightmares were hijacked by a really scary clown hiding in the sewer.

Anyway, the TV show is based on a series of books about a waitress (Sookie Stackhouse) and the vampires who have now gone public.  I bought the first four books just after we started watching the show and began reading the first one (Dead Until Dark).  I quickly decided that I wanted to watch the entire first season on HBO first before tainting either the books or the show with the influence of the other.

I had a hard time getting into the first book and adapting to the author’s writing style.  I’m by no means a book snob. I read everything…good, bad, classics, pulp.  Whatever. I give it a try.  I was having trouble reconciling the character in the book with the actress playing her on the show because I didn’t like the way the character came across in the beginning of the book series. So I ended up putting the book aside until after the season ended.  Then, I got caught up in basketball (Go Cetics!!) and CSI and Grey’s Anatomy.  Then it was June and before I knew it, True Blood season 2 was going to begin.  I started reading the first book again from the beginning and it was much easier  now that I wasn’t doing a direct comparison to the show; the characters were able to live on their own.  I flew through the first two books while we were in San Francisco, then watched the entire season and finally just read the last 7 books in the series over the past 3 weeks.

I love the books…they are fun and light and just like really good, filling, addictive candy.  The books have become more fantastical as the series progresses.  Besides vampires, you’ll meet were-creatures, shape shifters and fairies just to name a few.  The book covers are elaborate and over the top… illustrations with just the right hits of sparkle, plus the occasional hovering vampire, flying coffin and gigantic tiger.  I’m happy to say that the show is doing the right thing by the books.  They’ve changed some details, fleshed out characters and moved some events around, but the overall feel is very good.  I especially like that the author, Charlaine Harris, is very involved in the general show, even though she does not do any of the script writing.  Did I mention that True Blood has an awesome theme song and opening credits?  That song is so good I won’t even fast forward through it. (youtube to it!!)

HBO has also just started marketing a Tru Blood beverage. It’s a blood orange soda that looks exactly like what’s on the show. How fun!  In the books/show, the vamps are able to go public because of the development of a synthetic blood substitute, Tru Blood, that allows them to live without human blood. (Of course, not all of them choose to drink it.)

I could write another ten paragraphs about the world’s reaction to the True Blood phenomenon.  How some people feel the books and show are making elaborate social commentaries on a myriad of topics encompassing race, religion, homosexuality and poverty just to name a few.  Personally, I’m not sure I’d dig that deeply into the show or the books.  But that’s just me.  It’s pure superficial entertainment on my part.

I can’t believe I wrote an entire post about a vampire book/TV series without even mentioning how good looking most of them are, especially the two main vamps.  Do a quick True Blood Google search and you’ll see.  You won’t be disappointed.  Bill (dark haired) is pretty darn good looking, and Eric (blond Viking vampire)..he’s…well, let’s just use the word luscious. It certainly fits.  So sad that I have to wait until next June for season three, but if they stick even a little bit to the 3rd book, it should make for some excellent TV.

Next up on my reading list is our October book club selection: Roast Beef’s Promise. It’s about a son who promises his dying father that he’ll spread his ashes in every state.  I sure hope it’s funny.

And on the TV front is Dexter.  Another superb cable show also based on a book series…but more on serial killer, forensic blood spatter analysts another time.

Happy Reading! (and watching!)

Book Log Goal -Whoa! I’m way behind.  I’m only at 31 books and my goal is 150.  I think next year I need to revise my goal, but hey, a lot can happen in 4 months.

Health/Exercise Goal – ummmm.  Next?

Triathlon Goal – ummmm.  Next?

Fixing the missing photos on the blog Goal – Working on it!  I’ve completed almost all of the missing photos.  Just working on the Rome and Pompeii ones now.  Then I’m going back to resize the rest of the photos using the flickr widget for wordpress.  Hopefully, within the next few weeks (hah, you’ve all heard that before) every photo will be the way it should be.

Updating my recipe index Goal – in progress. I have a plan!