Not So Yum-O

I found this article last month, and have been meaning to blog about it's ridiculousness for a while. The gist of the story is that some conservative right-wingers had beef with Rachael Ray's new Dunkin' Donuts commercial. Not because Republicans don't allow themselves simple joys like donuts or even that Rachael's voice distracts them from their work of sucking souls, but because of what she is wearing. Apparently Republican's have become the fashion police, the global fashion police. Surprise surprise, something else for them to have their panties in a bunch about. According to the MSNBC article, right wing people with some pull claimed that Rachael is wearing what appeared to be a kaffiyeh, which is an Arab head wrap. This of course confuses the general American audience, and tricks them into believing that supporting religious radicals and terrorists is a good thing, and now can't make the difference between a greasy donut-pushing television host and a Muslim extremist.

To me, (and probably anyone else with a rational bone in their body) the scarf looks like a hip fashion trend. I actually like the look, and wouldn't mind having one like it. In fact, Kanye West is even wearing one in his new video with Chris Martin. Oh wait, he already is the enemy of the Bush regime. What's worse, instead of Dunkin' Donuts' advertising team standing up to these goons and defending this ridiculous claim, they pulled the ad! Whatever Dunkin' Donuts, whatever.

What prompted me to finally get around to writing about this article was a conversation I had with a woman who I met at a wedding this weekend. This woman works for an advertising agency which handles some of Rachael Ray's products, which means this woman has met and worked with Rachael herself. I was a little bit surprised to hear her tell me that in real life, behind the camera and the overly kitschy Catskill Mountains charm, Rachael is "a total bitch". According to my conversation, she's a chain-smoker who won't leave Manhattan. I personally enjoy this little bit of information about Rachael. She seems a little too cute and campy on her shows (and her talk show is a disaster), so the smoking and bad attitude give her a bit of cred in my opinion. Terrorist sympathizer or not, any chain-smoking, trash-talking, beer-swilling mountain girl is my type of TV Chef.

Ahh So Soothing

As promised, here is a picture (which is a good candidate for a 'food and finger' picture) of the maiden use of one of my gifts from Jen-nay and Julia;
a lettuce knife (along with some other fun kitchen gadgets and a nice cookbook). I used it this evening to make a semi-homemade meal of lettuce wraps and brown rice with beans.
I found a lettuce wrap filling in the organic section of my grocery store, and decided it try it out. It was quite yum-mo and sort of like the coveted "Soothing Lettuce Wraps" from P.F. Changs! Happy New Year, by the way, to all my readers!

Sandra Lee A'int Got Shit On Me

What I believe to be a result of heavy drinking all weekend and no sleep lowering my immunity, I've seem to come down with the flu in the past two days. Of course, working with little germ factories doesn't help either. So I've been popping the Vitamin C and Zicam in an effort to ward off the sickness. Because it's a super busy time of the semester I'm unable to take any time off this week, so needless to say I've been a miserable bitch at work, which is fun for everyone involved. I actually quoted the great sage Julia today when complaining to one of my colleagues "I can't stop bitching!". I am however feeling a bit better tonight and have regained some of my appetite.

Right before I got sick I made a very delicious pan of Stuffed Shells Florentine, which I had been unable to enjoy until this evening. And let me tell you, they were quite YUM-MO! I'm not quite sure what possessed me to make them, and I'm even more puzzled why I had all the ingredients chilling in my kitchen. I think my mother was a bit baffled also, because when I called her to ask her how to make them (which I do for almost everything I cook because I'm usually pretty clueless) she informed me that Sam's Club has excellent stuffed shells in the freezer section instead of giving the recipe.

In other recipe news, I decided to take Elisabeth's advice, and made an awesome meal last week. It was my spin on chicken Marsala with portabello and porccini mushrooms, aspargus and orecchiette pasta in a wine sauce with chicken. It was quite good, and pretty. And as any good chef will tell you, you eat with your eyes first! So I am trying to learn to cook my own gourmet meals, and not be at the mercy of other for a yum-mo meal.

The stray kitty has not been back. Or, that I have seen I guess I should say, since I did see kitty tracks in the snow on my porch yesterday, but no cat. This elates me, because, although I feel bad for the thing in this cold weather, I would not be able to handle it hanging and meowing at my place all the time.

More Grunge Comin' At Ya

What makes a 90's music video great you ask? Well, an old man crucified with a pope hat, fetuses hanging from trees and a child in a clan outfit help.


I rock this song on Guitar Hero by the way. Also, here's a Cobain fix for you, Elisabeth.

Definitely Not Yum-mo.

Today's Hump Day leaves me with two sub-par dining experiences. After my strike duties this afternoon I went to a small tavern in the next town over. One of my work cohorts suggested the place because it was "close and has good food". Well, she was half right. I had been to the place only once before, but not to eat. The mood was set by the waitress (who had a deeper voice than I do) rolling her eyes when not everyone at the table was ready to order. When it finally came time, she blurted out "Excuse me!" and made a rolling motion as if she was too busy to wait with her hand to my friend who was having some trouble making up her mind. When all the orders were made, another friend decided to change her order, to which the waitress replied "You know, I've got other orders up and a lot of things to do". Ok, thanks. No new order. To further the ambiance, a half empty, already open liter jug of ice tea with a glass of ice was placed in front of someone who ordered the drink, and I got an economy size bottle of Hidden Valley ranch dressing which was obviously quite an old bottle that they simply kept refilling because I ordered my salad dressing "on the side". My "grilled" chicken salad was OK, except the chicken was boiled and chewy. Yum-mo numero ONE.

To treat myself further this evening because the strike is now complete, I decided to order from a gourmet pizza shop here in town. I had ordered from here before and everything was generally quite good. This place has interesting pizza choices such as the "Cypress Pizza" with feta and eggplant and the "Bacon Cheddar & Fries Pizza" (a sure artery clogger). I decided to go with the "Monte Cristo" which claims to include white sauce with sun-dried tomates, fire roasted red peppers, prosciutto, mozzarella and provolone. I also included an order of hot wings because they were on special. When the pizza came it was definitely not as gourmet as it was cracked up to be. The prosciutto was more like diced ham, no sauce and no tomatoes. The wings were freezer burnt and had no sauce. Normally I would call back and bitch, but tonight it just doesn't seem worth it. I'm taking it as a sign that I need to quit eating out and start eating better.

Long story short $35 spent today on food that was positively NOT yum-mo.