I already have someone take care of me...my wife.
Who are 12 people who have never been in my kitchen?
- Thread starter Norm
- Start date
where is this bar
Filling in the Gaps: February 5th in the City, Then on to Football
Let's be honest. On February 5th we woke up late, we woke up hungover, and we woke up to texts from a few people asking if we got married. D had called it the night before but I guess I didn't think it would amount to anything until my mom was sending me messages.
Eventually we scraped ourselves out of bed and found somewhere to go for breakfast. We did not use the usual Yelp criteria and as good as this looks, it was disappointing.
What is it with breakfasts these days that everyone is afraid of salt? Don't they understand people who are hungover need salt?
After breakfast we walked down a few blocks to a hotel where we know there is free wifi in the lounge on the 7th floor. We just hung out there for a few hours, D reading, me working. We didn't have much to do at the moment and we had some time to kill before the rest of the plans for the day. At some point we started walking back to the subway and passed this.
We both want to go one day but christ, these tickets are brutal. It is on the list of things to do but for now, we just take pics. On the way we grabbed lunch at a Japanese place that sells these rice-burger patties that I have not had since I was in Taiwan.
They were fine, but nothing as good as I have had overseas. I don't know what the problem was today really but the food just wasn't up to par. Perhaps we had blown out our taste buds the previous 2 nights. Eventually we got on the subway and took it uptown to the car. It was still there in 1 piece which was good. You always sort of wonder if it'll be in the same state you left it.
Got in and drove across the bridge, hopped on route 80, and made a B-line to Utah's house for a Super Bowl party. Witness the excitement.
I don't watch football anymore but I used to and in some odd way it was really enjoyable to watch this. I mean, the game was truly crap when you look at it in 2 parts. The first 3 quarters was lousy then the last quarter was lousy but in the other direction. In the end, Atlanta managed to out-lousy the lousiness of the Pats in the first 3 quarters. Frankly I don't care enough to offer an opinion on the game but the evening was nice and we got to hang out with some people before making our way back home.
The weekend was a long one, to say the least. And truth be told this one probably took some time off the end of our lives. But like I have said before, if having fun now removes the years when I am drooling on myself and shitting my pants, then I'm kinda ok with that.
Another good weekend in the books.
Let's be honest. On February 5th we woke up late, we woke up hungover, and we woke up to texts from a few people asking if we got married. D had called it the night before but I guess I didn't think it would amount to anything until my mom was sending me messages.
Eventually we scraped ourselves out of bed and found somewhere to go for breakfast. We did not use the usual Yelp criteria and as good as this looks, it was disappointing.
What is it with breakfasts these days that everyone is afraid of salt? Don't they understand people who are hungover need salt?
After breakfast we walked down a few blocks to a hotel where we know there is free wifi in the lounge on the 7th floor. We just hung out there for a few hours, D reading, me working. We didn't have much to do at the moment and we had some time to kill before the rest of the plans for the day. At some point we started walking back to the subway and passed this.
We both want to go one day but christ, these tickets are brutal. It is on the list of things to do but for now, we just take pics. On the way we grabbed lunch at a Japanese place that sells these rice-burger patties that I have not had since I was in Taiwan.
They were fine, but nothing as good as I have had overseas. I don't know what the problem was today really but the food just wasn't up to par. Perhaps we had blown out our taste buds the previous 2 nights. Eventually we got on the subway and took it uptown to the car. It was still there in 1 piece which was good. You always sort of wonder if it'll be in the same state you left it.
Got in and drove across the bridge, hopped on route 80, and made a B-line to Utah's house for a Super Bowl party. Witness the excitement.
I don't watch football anymore but I used to and in some odd way it was really enjoyable to watch this. I mean, the game was truly crap when you look at it in 2 parts. The first 3 quarters was lousy then the last quarter was lousy but in the other direction. In the end, Atlanta managed to out-lousy the lousiness of the Pats in the first 3 quarters. Frankly I don't care enough to offer an opinion on the game but the evening was nice and we got to hang out with some people before making our way back home.
The weekend was a long one, to say the least. And truth be told this one probably took some time off the end of our lives. But like I have said before, if having fun now removes the years when I am drooling on myself and shitting my pants, then I'm kinda ok with that.
Another good weekend in the books.
rlb
Well-Known Member
This is what it'a all about! Thanks for sharing the good times.
Movies (2 of 12)
At no point did I say that the movies would be always intellectually stimulating. A movie is a movie, damn it.
Lego Batman
First: who doesn't like Lego? Lego is awesome
Second: who doesn't like Batman. Batman is awesome.
In theory if you put the 2 together you would have a guaranteed hit. Zac had showed me some of the YouTube clips and I had to admit, there was some stupidly funny stuff in there. So when it came time to go see Batman, I was all-in. Add to the fact that the kids ended up with a snow day on a random Thursday, and we were 100% in because it had been a long day trying to work. The movie technically did not come out until the next day but I guess "the next day" now means 5:00 pm the previous day of the official opening date.
As far as 2 things that seem good independently, well I love beer and I love ice cream. But I would never mix the 2. I'm not sure if that is considere foreshadowing if you telegraph the pass that much.
Outside the theater we are all excited to go in.
They get 1 tub and 1 tub only.
After that, we hit the theater where absolutely nobody is there yet.
So the movie...
Ah, what can I say. It was juvenile, lacked a lot of the subtle adult humor I was hoping for, and really didn't live up to the YouTube hype that seemed to make it interesting. In fact, Zac and I commented afterwords that some of the preview clips hadn't even made the movie. I don't understand how you can cut out the stuff that you use to promote the film. But hey, what do I know about making movies?
I know the movie isn't really geared for me and in the end the kids liked it, so that's all that you can really ask for. If you ask me if you should go see it, I would say certainly not. Unless you have kids, in which case, sure. There are worse things you can spend your time on. Like having your cavities filled, as an example.
In the end, I think the best part of the movie was that if you paid close attention, you got to see the Wonder Twins, and Gleek. A few weeks after we went to see this I was explaining the Wonder Twins to Simon as he was eating breakfast and I said, "I know this sounds like I am totally making this up. But it's true. They had a pet monkey."
Anyway, I suggest drinking your beer then going to have a bowl of ice cream after you are done.
At no point did I say that the movies would be always intellectually stimulating. A movie is a movie, damn it.
Lego Batman
First: who doesn't like Lego? Lego is awesome
Second: who doesn't like Batman. Batman is awesome.
In theory if you put the 2 together you would have a guaranteed hit. Zac had showed me some of the YouTube clips and I had to admit, there was some stupidly funny stuff in there. So when it came time to go see Batman, I was all-in. Add to the fact that the kids ended up with a snow day on a random Thursday, and we were 100% in because it had been a long day trying to work. The movie technically did not come out until the next day but I guess "the next day" now means 5:00 pm the previous day of the official opening date.
As far as 2 things that seem good independently, well I love beer and I love ice cream. But I would never mix the 2. I'm not sure if that is considere foreshadowing if you telegraph the pass that much.
Outside the theater we are all excited to go in.
They get 1 tub and 1 tub only.
After that, we hit the theater where absolutely nobody is there yet.
So the movie...
Ah, what can I say. It was juvenile, lacked a lot of the subtle adult humor I was hoping for, and really didn't live up to the YouTube hype that seemed to make it interesting. In fact, Zac and I commented afterwords that some of the preview clips hadn't even made the movie. I don't understand how you can cut out the stuff that you use to promote the film. But hey, what do I know about making movies?
I know the movie isn't really geared for me and in the end the kids liked it, so that's all that you can really ask for. If you ask me if you should go see it, I would say certainly not. Unless you have kids, in which case, sure. There are worse things you can spend your time on. Like having your cavities filled, as an example.
In the end, I think the best part of the movie was that if you paid close attention, you got to see the Wonder Twins, and Gleek. A few weeks after we went to see this I was explaining the Wonder Twins to Simon as he was eating breakfast and I said, "I know this sounds like I am totally making this up. But it's true. They had a pet monkey."
Anyway, I suggest drinking your beer then going to have a bowl of ice cream after you are done.
bout time you recapped the utah experience.
@Norm is actually VERY knowledgeable about football, so watching a game with him is kinda fun. What sucks is that the one game non football people will watch every year is the superbowl, which is nothing like a regular season game...Just impossibly slow and basicly twice as long as its supposed to be. And that game was a complete piece of shit from start to finish.
Batman was Bobs first movie...he liked it...I thought it was good enough to keep my attention. Staggering what it costs to take 4 people to the movies now....and then you get to sit through 30 min of commercials.
@Norm is actually VERY knowledgeable about football, so watching a game with him is kinda fun. What sucks is that the one game non football people will watch every year is the superbowl, which is nothing like a regular season game...Just impossibly slow and basicly twice as long as its supposed to be. And that game was a complete piece of shit from start to finish.
Batman was Bobs first movie...he liked it...I thought it was good enough to keep my attention. Staggering what it costs to take 4 people to the movies now....and then you get to sit through 30 min of commercials.
A Night With Some Friends
I know @Dominos has been waiting for this review all week, if not longer. She sent me a message this week saying that she was eagerly awaiting this review. Little did she know, I had the Super Bowl Sunday recap plus a riveting Lego Batman movie to discuss before I got to this. Having said that, this evening with the Oishi's (and assorted other friends) neither qualifies as a dinner out nor dinner with friends. But I would be remiss as to not enter it into the annals of my blog-o-sphere.
I think it is obvious why this does not qualify as a meal at a Yelp restaurant of 4 stars & 2 dollar signs. But I should explain why it does not qualify as a friends dinner. A friends dinner needs to be 2-4 other people, no more. In general it would be a kid-free affair as the point is to spend quality time as adults, talking about things that adults talk about. While this rule is strictly not always true, having 8 adults and 7 kids sort of blows the budget on what qualifies. Be that as it may, I am going to share the fun times and set up the pins for a future dinner with some subset of the dinner party tonight. And I am going to review the fuck out of dinner, of course.
So the cast, other than @Dominique and myself...
@Dominos
@Delish
@UtahJoe
Mrs. Utah
@pearl
@mandi
A picture. Don't ask me why D looks so unthrilled. Maybe Utah had just passed gas.
What you see on the counter was Allison's Great Sangiovese Wine Experiment, where we all brought 2 bottles of wine from the region and we would put them all in paper bags and blindly taste them. I went and bought a $10 bottle and a $30 bottle. I think the other 4 varied in range from $15-$25 or so. In the end, honestly, the experiment was a tough one as there certainly was no consensus and there was no correlation on cost. But honestly, cost has been disproven as being a reliable factor many times in the past.
So we got our wine glasses and I got the ass of @Mitch...
So at some point Eric starts this pizza-oven-grill thing which is like a pizza oven you put on your grill, thus the name: pizza-oven-grill thing. I look out the back door and see flames roaring up & over this contraption, thinking that this looks more like a doll crematorium and less like something you would cook food in. Eventually the raging inferno died down and I went back to the ass of Mitch.
On a side note I just got this text. You can't make this shit up. I guess he just wears these same underwear all the time.
Anyway, the service at this joint is ok. I mean they have this 18 month pregnant woman waddling around trying to host the evening. We're pounding out 6 bottles of wine and she is literally 3 days from giving birth and yet can't really partake in the wine drinking, at least not too much. So given that she can't drink and she's a walking time bomb, I guess the service wasn't too overly pushy.
I do have to give the host credit though. She gave me the wifi password which allowed me to jack into the Sonos system that was playing. Other than a volume mini-pump I really did not abuse that power, though as I sit here I am not sure why. It did allow me to land some decent new music, including this not-entirely-new song but was new to me and I totally dig.
So they start jamming out the pizzas at some point, and as anyone who has partaken in the Oishi Pizza Train knows, once they start they really do not stop until someone passes out. I don't have any pics but in general I most enjoy the white pizzas with garlic and maybe broccoli. I think there are some growing pains going on with the pizza-grill-oven thing, as Eric admitted to that night. In his words, the groove was not totally happening and they were coming out uneven, or something like that. Personally I thought they were good though I guess the fire was too hot or something. To me they were like pizzas that were cooked on the grill, which is probably as tricky as it sounds.
In the end, I felt the food was great as always, and the wine experiment, while maybe not super conclusive, was a fun twist to the night. I admire that Allison always tries to add a twist to the dinner parties with things like this, or the story telling idea that never transpired. I think in time that one will cone to pass, though maybe we need to invite Tall Sean to come over and recite all our stories that we can write. Maybe we can play Operator instead.
It was also good to see the Pearls, and as is often the case with good friends, it was as if they had never left. I look forward to seeing them again hopefully this year.
The kids got frozen pizza but they killed it because kids like that stuff.
At the end of the day this was a good time and I look forward to more of these. And I shall put @Dominos & @Delish as well as @UtahJoe on notice. You are all still on the To Be Eaten list this year but in a smaller setting at some point. And if the @pearl party comes back to town, you as well.
While the food at this joint earns the 4 star rating, the fact we paid nothing means it does not live up to the 2-$$ criteria.
I know @Dominos has been waiting for this review all week, if not longer. She sent me a message this week saying that she was eagerly awaiting this review. Little did she know, I had the Super Bowl Sunday recap plus a riveting Lego Batman movie to discuss before I got to this. Having said that, this evening with the Oishi's (and assorted other friends) neither qualifies as a dinner out nor dinner with friends. But I would be remiss as to not enter it into the annals of my blog-o-sphere.
I think it is obvious why this does not qualify as a meal at a Yelp restaurant of 4 stars & 2 dollar signs. But I should explain why it does not qualify as a friends dinner. A friends dinner needs to be 2-4 other people, no more. In general it would be a kid-free affair as the point is to spend quality time as adults, talking about things that adults talk about. While this rule is strictly not always true, having 8 adults and 7 kids sort of blows the budget on what qualifies. Be that as it may, I am going to share the fun times and set up the pins for a future dinner with some subset of the dinner party tonight. And I am going to review the fuck out of dinner, of course.
So the cast, other than @Dominique and myself...
@Dominos
@Delish
@UtahJoe
Mrs. Utah
@pearl
@mandi
A picture. Don't ask me why D looks so unthrilled. Maybe Utah had just passed gas.
What you see on the counter was Allison's Great Sangiovese Wine Experiment, where we all brought 2 bottles of wine from the region and we would put them all in paper bags and blindly taste them. I went and bought a $10 bottle and a $30 bottle. I think the other 4 varied in range from $15-$25 or so. In the end, honestly, the experiment was a tough one as there certainly was no consensus and there was no correlation on cost. But honestly, cost has been disproven as being a reliable factor many times in the past.
So we got our wine glasses and I got the ass of @Mitch...
So at some point Eric starts this pizza-oven-grill thing which is like a pizza oven you put on your grill, thus the name: pizza-oven-grill thing. I look out the back door and see flames roaring up & over this contraption, thinking that this looks more like a doll crematorium and less like something you would cook food in. Eventually the raging inferno died down and I went back to the ass of Mitch.
On a side note I just got this text. You can't make this shit up. I guess he just wears these same underwear all the time.
Anyway, the service at this joint is ok. I mean they have this 18 month pregnant woman waddling around trying to host the evening. We're pounding out 6 bottles of wine and she is literally 3 days from giving birth and yet can't really partake in the wine drinking, at least not too much. So given that she can't drink and she's a walking time bomb, I guess the service wasn't too overly pushy.
I do have to give the host credit though. She gave me the wifi password which allowed me to jack into the Sonos system that was playing. Other than a volume mini-pump I really did not abuse that power, though as I sit here I am not sure why. It did allow me to land some decent new music, including this not-entirely-new song but was new to me and I totally dig.
So they start jamming out the pizzas at some point, and as anyone who has partaken in the Oishi Pizza Train knows, once they start they really do not stop until someone passes out. I don't have any pics but in general I most enjoy the white pizzas with garlic and maybe broccoli. I think there are some growing pains going on with the pizza-grill-oven thing, as Eric admitted to that night. In his words, the groove was not totally happening and they were coming out uneven, or something like that. Personally I thought they were good though I guess the fire was too hot or something. To me they were like pizzas that were cooked on the grill, which is probably as tricky as it sounds.
In the end, I felt the food was great as always, and the wine experiment, while maybe not super conclusive, was a fun twist to the night. I admire that Allison always tries to add a twist to the dinner parties with things like this, or the story telling idea that never transpired. I think in time that one will cone to pass, though maybe we need to invite Tall Sean to come over and recite all our stories that we can write. Maybe we can play Operator instead.
It was also good to see the Pearls, and as is often the case with good friends, it was as if they had never left. I look forward to seeing them again hopefully this year.
The kids got frozen pizza but they killed it because kids like that stuff.
At the end of the day this was a good time and I look forward to more of these. And I shall put @Dominos & @Delish as well as @UtahJoe on notice. You are all still on the To Be Eaten list this year but in a smaller setting at some point. And if the @pearl party comes back to town, you as well.
While the food at this joint earns the 4 star rating, the fact we paid nothing means it does not live up to the 2-$$ criteria.
Kid's Adventures (3 of 12)
When we were kids, I think you got a single day off for the President's Weekend. These days, they get a 5 day weekend. Keeping the kids in the house on a winter day with nothing to do is hard enough. Add in a second day, and @Dominique made the smart decision to book an overnight at our next kid's adventure....
Great Wolf Lodge
So the way this place works is that you have to get a room in order to get the water park. But the room gets you the water park the day before your stay and the day after. So you get 2 full days of water park and the night in the hotel room. I'm not sure how many people here have taken a family of 5 to a water park before, but I can tell you that 2 full days in the park plus a hotel is well worth the price of admission. The fact that D had booked well in advance and got it at half price made the day a total bargain.
We were in no rush to get there because there was plenty of time to get water-logged in the next 2 days. Eventually we got in the car with the aim to get there right about at 1:00, the time we were able to jump in and start enjoying. Here we are, just after we set sail.
We got there, got our room, got dressed, then hit the pool. The place is massive with a bunch of big slides and a wave pool and all sorts of other things. We ended up going out and meeting a bunch of school friends so all told, there were something like 11 kids or something. Before long the kids were gone and I was surprised at the sudden lack of kids to run around with. Usually at these places, the kids always want us to do everything with them. Right away, they were all gone and I kind of didn't know what to do. It was an odd feeling, I have to say.
In the end it didn't last long, as some of the kids didn't like the slides and we quickly became their companions on the slide in the end. That was fine because I really wasn't ready to sit around the pool all day and drink beer like half the adults there. I get that it that some of the parents just want to relax. But you know, we're paying for this, might as well enjoy it. In all, there were 6 adults with the 11 kids. Only 3 of us went on the slides.
The lazy river was where a few of the slides dumped out and where the kids would relax and dial back a bit from time to time. Here's a subset of them cruising around the loop:
Day 1 ended, I brought my own refreshments. As I have discussed with Kirt and Fletch, these OH beers have really ruined almost everything else. So I snuck a pair of my own in to enjoy after the long day.
After dinner and a drink, we took our turn with the kids. For a little bit we were all in the arcade but Simon was about to turn into a pumpkin so D went upstairs with him while I stayed with the older 2. I ended up dumping far too much cash into the machines for the kids but eventually even I had to tap out of this and head back upstairs. Once we got there, D went out with the older 2 for the dance and I hung out with Simon (who was now wide awake) and drank my second beer.
Here's the crew, less Simon the iPad playing pumpkin of the night.
The next day we did breakfast and then more water park. We got in probably another 5 hours of park on the day and hit all the slides again. In the end we were there until 4:00 when he boys' dad showed up 2-3 hours late (as usual). They were off for the weekend to ski in NY and we headed out to my parent's house to grab dinner before heading back home.
In all it was a solid pre-weekend trip with the kids, one that I think they thoroughly enjoyed and one we will surely think about doing again next year.
When we were kids, I think you got a single day off for the President's Weekend. These days, they get a 5 day weekend. Keeping the kids in the house on a winter day with nothing to do is hard enough. Add in a second day, and @Dominique made the smart decision to book an overnight at our next kid's adventure....
Great Wolf Lodge
So the way this place works is that you have to get a room in order to get the water park. But the room gets you the water park the day before your stay and the day after. So you get 2 full days of water park and the night in the hotel room. I'm not sure how many people here have taken a family of 5 to a water park before, but I can tell you that 2 full days in the park plus a hotel is well worth the price of admission. The fact that D had booked well in advance and got it at half price made the day a total bargain.
We were in no rush to get there because there was plenty of time to get water-logged in the next 2 days. Eventually we got in the car with the aim to get there right about at 1:00, the time we were able to jump in and start enjoying. Here we are, just after we set sail.
We got there, got our room, got dressed, then hit the pool. The place is massive with a bunch of big slides and a wave pool and all sorts of other things. We ended up going out and meeting a bunch of school friends so all told, there were something like 11 kids or something. Before long the kids were gone and I was surprised at the sudden lack of kids to run around with. Usually at these places, the kids always want us to do everything with them. Right away, they were all gone and I kind of didn't know what to do. It was an odd feeling, I have to say.
In the end it didn't last long, as some of the kids didn't like the slides and we quickly became their companions on the slide in the end. That was fine because I really wasn't ready to sit around the pool all day and drink beer like half the adults there. I get that it that some of the parents just want to relax. But you know, we're paying for this, might as well enjoy it. In all, there were 6 adults with the 11 kids. Only 3 of us went on the slides.
The lazy river was where a few of the slides dumped out and where the kids would relax and dial back a bit from time to time. Here's a subset of them cruising around the loop:
Day 1 ended, I brought my own refreshments. As I have discussed with Kirt and Fletch, these OH beers have really ruined almost everything else. So I snuck a pair of my own in to enjoy after the long day.
After dinner and a drink, we took our turn with the kids. For a little bit we were all in the arcade but Simon was about to turn into a pumpkin so D went upstairs with him while I stayed with the older 2. I ended up dumping far too much cash into the machines for the kids but eventually even I had to tap out of this and head back upstairs. Once we got there, D went out with the older 2 for the dance and I hung out with Simon (who was now wide awake) and drank my second beer.
Here's the crew, less Simon the iPad playing pumpkin of the night.
The next day we did breakfast and then more water park. We got in probably another 5 hours of park on the day and hit all the slides again. In the end we were there until 4:00 when he boys' dad showed up 2-3 hours late (as usual). They were off for the weekend to ski in NY and we headed out to my parent's house to grab dinner before heading back home.
In all it was a solid pre-weekend trip with the kids, one that I think they thoroughly enjoyed and one we will surely think about doing again next year.
Movies (3 of 12)
Central Intelligence
After the Great Wolf Lodge 2-day was over, we headed home and pretty much sat on the couch and most likely drank red wine and stared into space. As it turns out, at our house, staring into space means looking at the TV. And before we knew it we were watching this movie that by all objective measurements, should have been really terrible. I think the movie poster above more or less tells that story.
Anyway, this movie is absurd in many ways. I mean if you have seen it they just keep adding up, scene after scene. The premise is ridiculous, scene after scene is ridiculous, the whole damn thing is ridiculous.
Having said that, this movie is great. It is such a great combination of absurdity and comedy being played with really likable characters. Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart are great together, and they pull off such ridiculous conversations that at times you have to wonder how on earth they ever got through the scene without laughing. Someone they carry this absurdity through the whole movie and we both found ourselves laughing at it again and again.
In the end the movie does deliver a nice message but let's be clear, this movie is for comedic relief and it was certainly that. The running time is apparently 1:48 which seems much shorter when you are watching. As soon as the movie was over I was wishing we could watch a sequel or something similar along the same lines. Easy, funny, and to be perfectly honest you didn't need to think that much.
Totally would recommend this. It makes me want to see Dwayne Johnson in some other things (not Fast & Furious). If a sequel to this movie came out, I would think long & hard about going to see it in the theater. I probably wouldn't. But I would think about it.
Stupid & funny. A much-needed comic relief on this evening.
Central Intelligence
After the Great Wolf Lodge 2-day was over, we headed home and pretty much sat on the couch and most likely drank red wine and stared into space. As it turns out, at our house, staring into space means looking at the TV. And before we knew it we were watching this movie that by all objective measurements, should have been really terrible. I think the movie poster above more or less tells that story.
Anyway, this movie is absurd in many ways. I mean if you have seen it they just keep adding up, scene after scene. The premise is ridiculous, scene after scene is ridiculous, the whole damn thing is ridiculous.
Having said that, this movie is great. It is such a great combination of absurdity and comedy being played with really likable characters. Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart are great together, and they pull off such ridiculous conversations that at times you have to wonder how on earth they ever got through the scene without laughing. Someone they carry this absurdity through the whole movie and we both found ourselves laughing at it again and again.
In the end the movie does deliver a nice message but let's be clear, this movie is for comedic relief and it was certainly that. The running time is apparently 1:48 which seems much shorter when you are watching. As soon as the movie was over I was wishing we could watch a sequel or something similar along the same lines. Easy, funny, and to be perfectly honest you didn't need to think that much.
Totally would recommend this. It makes me want to see Dwayne Johnson in some other things (not Fast & Furious). If a sequel to this movie came out, I would think long & hard about going to see it in the theater. I probably wouldn't. But I would think about it.
Stupid & funny. A much-needed comic relief on this evening.
Cooking (1 of 12)
Having problems staying on top of the slew of shit we are doing. But you know, we do what we do. The journey of 1000 miles begins with the first step. Having said that, after 843 steps would you be like, "jesus man, there's a lot of miles to go yet"?
This was requested by @Dominique.
Seafood Risotto
So we're at the Korean market one day and came across this pack of frozen seafood. We pick it up. As I sit here now I am not sure why we bought this or if we had a purpose. Maybe we were just infatuated by this bag of frozen fish, former relics of the sea, frozen in their infamy. Maybe we wanted to make seafood pancakes* for breakfast, who knows.
(* @soundz gets it, seafood pancakes are the)
One day D says she wants me to make seafood risotto, that she wants this to be one of my new meals. Maybe this why she wanted to buy the bag of frozen seafood, and not for breakfast at all.
So, I have made mushroom risotto before. And I have to say I have been pretty good at that. But those have been long, well-thought out processes that have been cultivated after several iterations. This was a new endeavor that involved frozen shit you usually put into pancakes. So this was like taking the Starship Enterprise to a Sonic Drive-In.
So we start with the raw, no longer frozen, hunks of seafood. I am not going to pretend I know what this all is. It's not cat. Well, I'm reasonably sure you cannot sell cat in the US and label it "frozen seafood". So I thawed this out, and pressed the water out because D mentioned I had to make sure to drain it properly. Apparently there is a difference between "drain" and "press the ever-living shit out of" in the culinary world. This is what they call "foreshadowing"...I think.
Anyway, fish and such. Oh I think I see a mussel!
So then you take this as your base of "seafood" risotto. Or, "frozen things that were" risotto.
I like putting things in separate bowls because it makes everything look segmented and isolated and meaningful and such. I will admit this doesn't look like a plethora of awesome. It's really just a few ingredients to this. The way I would normally mix the things is by cooking steps. So if your first step was "add garlic & onions" I would put the garlic & onions in the same bowl. But if I haven't really read the recipe I will just toss them into separate bowls and figure it out later.
It looks much less impressive because it's supposed to be a bevy of disparate fresh seafood items, not a blob of miscellany. Anyway, ingredients:
If you've made risotto before you know how it goes. First you fry up some stuff, then you add the rice with that start, and then you slowly add stock in 1/2 cup increments. The rice slowly absorbs the liquid and when it gets dry you add another 1/2 cup. You do this until the stock is gone. What that stock is, well that's entirely up to you.
At the very end you add the seafood and a tomato that has been boiled and peeled.
Yes, I boiled a tomato and peeled it. Have you ever done this? You set a pot of water to boil and score the bottom of the tomato as a cross at the bottom. In this context, "score" means cut. So you cut an X in the bottom of the tomato. You toss it in the boiling water for 10 seconds, then take it out and toss it in ice water. Then the skin pretty much pulls right off.
I would love to know how long it took someone to figure that out.
Almost done here. It actually looks pretty, though from an aesthetics perspective it lacks the color green. And I guess blue.
So the end result is pictured below. I threw in a soup that looks pretty awesome here but frankly was a bit too spicy. I mean it was good but it totally blew the doors off the whole meal. I think I ate some of mine but for the most part you could not eat the whole bowl and then eat the rice. It just wouldn't work. So we both had a few bites of the soup and ate the rice.
Overall the meal looks pretty solid. At least I think so.
The reality is that the meal was pretty much a dud. If you are going to do this you need to probably do it with fresh seafood. I guess I have dropped enough foreshadowing bombs that you knew I was going to say that. The dish was not especially flavorful, the rice was not entirely cooked, and the seafood was like rubber. In all, it was pretty much a failure.
Overall grade: Fail. I tried something new and it wasn't amazing, but it was something I had not done before. Would I do this again? Maybe, but it would be with fresh seafood and I would make sure the rice was cooked more. I entered into a realm I had not entered before and that was all well and good. But I didn't really know what I was doing and I think in the end it showed.
If I ever ask you over for seafood risotto it means 1 of 2 things. Either I think I have nailed it and I want to show it off to you. Or it means I really don't like you.
Having problems staying on top of the slew of shit we are doing. But you know, we do what we do. The journey of 1000 miles begins with the first step. Having said that, after 843 steps would you be like, "jesus man, there's a lot of miles to go yet"?
This was requested by @Dominique.
Seafood Risotto
So we're at the Korean market one day and came across this pack of frozen seafood. We pick it up. As I sit here now I am not sure why we bought this or if we had a purpose. Maybe we were just infatuated by this bag of frozen fish, former relics of the sea, frozen in their infamy. Maybe we wanted to make seafood pancakes* for breakfast, who knows.
(* @soundz gets it, seafood pancakes are the)
One day D says she wants me to make seafood risotto, that she wants this to be one of my new meals. Maybe this why she wanted to buy the bag of frozen seafood, and not for breakfast at all.
So, I have made mushroom risotto before. And I have to say I have been pretty good at that. But those have been long, well-thought out processes that have been cultivated after several iterations. This was a new endeavor that involved frozen shit you usually put into pancakes. So this was like taking the Starship Enterprise to a Sonic Drive-In.
So we start with the raw, no longer frozen, hunks of seafood. I am not going to pretend I know what this all is. It's not cat. Well, I'm reasonably sure you cannot sell cat in the US and label it "frozen seafood". So I thawed this out, and pressed the water out because D mentioned I had to make sure to drain it properly. Apparently there is a difference between "drain" and "press the ever-living shit out of" in the culinary world. This is what they call "foreshadowing"...I think.
Anyway, fish and such. Oh I think I see a mussel!
So then you take this as your base of "seafood" risotto. Or, "frozen things that were" risotto.
I like putting things in separate bowls because it makes everything look segmented and isolated and meaningful and such. I will admit this doesn't look like a plethora of awesome. It's really just a few ingredients to this. The way I would normally mix the things is by cooking steps. So if your first step was "add garlic & onions" I would put the garlic & onions in the same bowl. But if I haven't really read the recipe I will just toss them into separate bowls and figure it out later.
It looks much less impressive because it's supposed to be a bevy of disparate fresh seafood items, not a blob of miscellany. Anyway, ingredients:
If you've made risotto before you know how it goes. First you fry up some stuff, then you add the rice with that start, and then you slowly add stock in 1/2 cup increments. The rice slowly absorbs the liquid and when it gets dry you add another 1/2 cup. You do this until the stock is gone. What that stock is, well that's entirely up to you.
At the very end you add the seafood and a tomato that has been boiled and peeled.
Yes, I boiled a tomato and peeled it. Have you ever done this? You set a pot of water to boil and score the bottom of the tomato as a cross at the bottom. In this context, "score" means cut. So you cut an X in the bottom of the tomato. You toss it in the boiling water for 10 seconds, then take it out and toss it in ice water. Then the skin pretty much pulls right off.
I would love to know how long it took someone to figure that out.
Almost done here. It actually looks pretty, though from an aesthetics perspective it lacks the color green. And I guess blue.
So the end result is pictured below. I threw in a soup that looks pretty awesome here but frankly was a bit too spicy. I mean it was good but it totally blew the doors off the whole meal. I think I ate some of mine but for the most part you could not eat the whole bowl and then eat the rice. It just wouldn't work. So we both had a few bites of the soup and ate the rice.
Overall the meal looks pretty solid. At least I think so.
The reality is that the meal was pretty much a dud. If you are going to do this you need to probably do it with fresh seafood. I guess I have dropped enough foreshadowing bombs that you knew I was going to say that. The dish was not especially flavorful, the rice was not entirely cooked, and the seafood was like rubber. In all, it was pretty much a failure.
Overall grade: Fail. I tried something new and it wasn't amazing, but it was something I had not done before. Would I do this again? Maybe, but it would be with fresh seafood and I would make sure the rice was cooked more. I entered into a realm I had not entered before and that was all well and good. But I didn't really know what I was doing and I think in the end it showed.
If I ever ask you over for seafood risotto it means 1 of 2 things. Either I think I have nailed it and I want to show it off to you. Or it means I really don't like you.
StayHydrated
Swedish Chef
I remember when I first learned this from my girlfriend, amazing.
Commercial peeling is sometimes done with lye. Find yourself some NaOH and make that cooking episode #2, what could go wrong?
All the time. A bunch of other fruits and veggies with skins bother my stomach such as apples, peaches, etc.
My gf and I took a cooking class a bit back and made mushroom risotto. We still haven't made it at home ourselves, but it's so easy and delicious. She took another one for paella and she got the seafood one to make which also turned out awesome. Seafood is tough to cook, especially a mix like that where each one may need a different cooking time. There are so few places that make good calamari.
We always cook with small ingredient bowls too. We learned that it's called 'mise en place', which is pronounced like 'meesen plus' or something like that. Good stuff.
use the left-over to make pretzels.
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Ah, the art of risotto. While your last name does end in a vowel, i'm thinking it might be more of a kielbasi ending, than a sopressata.
which rice did you use, carnaroli or arborio? Fish stock for prep'ing, and frozen seafood is fine in this meal. maybe even a 1/2 teaspoon of that
nasty fish sauce from the asian market.
Please mention wine selection when serving dinner!! (and if it was used in the meal)
I'm giving you an F on the croutons
StayHydrated
Swedish Chef
We affectionately refer to it as "pee sauce" in our house. Great flavor base, but damn that smell gets me every time.