Mastering The Art

As a result of the movie "Julie & Julia," Mastering the Art of French Cooking, which is the book that started it all, is finally reaching the number 1 spot on the New York Times bestseller list. I loved the movie when I saw it last week-end, although I was a little disappointed that it didn't include more actual cooking. I also agreed with many of the critics that the Julia in Paris segments, starring Meryl Streep as Julia Child, were hugely more interesting than the modern day tale of the New York blogger who decided to cook her way through the entire cookbook in one year.

I already own the cookbook, volumes 1 and 2, having purchased a 40th Anniversary edition a few years ago when I found it on sale at Costco. As outlined in this article, modern cooks who are used to quick low-fat cooking will find Julia's masterpiece to be a bit of a challenge, with ingredients, techniques and calorie counts that we just don't see on the Food Network. Still, it's fun every now and then to at least attempt to master Julia's art. I'm certainly going to keep trying, one recipe at a time and I'll let you know how it goes. For the moment, there's nothing else to say except "Bon Appetit!!!"

To Watch, Or Not To Watch...

... that is definitely the question. If you haven't heard, there's a new two-hour special on Fox tonight, starring none other than Octomom!!

In a previous post about rumors that Nadya was getting a reality show, I said that I would probably watch, but I might not admit it. In the interest of full disclosure, I am thinking that I will at least check it out tonight, in the spirit of "how horrifyingly bad will this train wreck be?" curiosity. In fact, I really am interested to see what the eight babies look like now, at about six or seven months old, and in particular whether or not they're all healthy. But that's about 90 seconds worth of material, and I can hardly bear to think about what kind of inane absurdities might be used to fill up the rest of a two-hour show. Maybe I'll tape it, which gives me the option of skipping over the really icky parts.

Believe me, I'm aware of my own hypocrisy concerning this whole subject. I'm having so much fun being all snarky and snotty about Nadya's show, even as I sheepishly admit that no way I'm going to miss watching at least part of it. If 10 million other viewers feel the same way, Nadya gets the last laugh and a new reality star is born. Tune in tonight, 7:00 p.m. central time on Fox, and let's see what happens.

The Harvest Begins

Check out my beautiful tomatoes! Unfortunately at the end of the video you'll also see my basil, which is under attack from japanese beetles. I've now sprayed with bug spray which will hopefully get rid of the bugs, but who knows whether or not the basil plants can recover.

In spite of that, I'm so excited about my tomatoes!

Is This News?

There's a lot going on in the world today, including, off the top of my head, the health care debate, the Sotomayor confirmation, record unemployment, two wars, and even as two American journalists are released by North Korea, three American hikers are now being held by Iran. So what was the lead story on both Good Morning America and the Today show this morning? A shooting at a health club last night in Pennsylvania. Based on the way it was presented by both shows, this story was very big news indeed. NBC was running a "Breaking News" banner, even though the story was now about 12 hours old, and both shows sent big gun news stars to report "Live" from the scene - Lester Holt ("filling in for Matt Lauer") for Today and Chris Cuomo for GMA.

For the families of those killed and injured this is, of course, a tragedy, and for those who were in the health club and survived it had to have been terrifying, but for everyone else, is this really news? National-level, "lead story" important news? I don't think so. This was a perfect example of the news judgement axiom that "If it bleeds, it leads." To put it another way, it's not just People magazine that has been dumbed down and sexed up.

Still Thinking About Nacho

A few weeks ago, I picked Nacho Figueras as my #1 choice in an on-line poll for the world's best looking man. I'd actually never heard of him before I saw the poll, but whatever. He looked really hot in the pictures. Now, because I know you were wondering, I'm happy to report that Nacho is still around. Here's another article about the life and times of the "Stud on a Steed." Turns out he's actually a married man with kids, a hard-working guy just trying to tap into and cash in on America's culture of celebrity, commercialism and manly hotness. I think we should all keep an eye on Nacho, don't you?

Back To Blogging

I'm back - and take a look at today's pictures of my tomatoes! It's been such a non-hot and sunny summer here in Chicagoland that it took a lot longer than I expected to get even a few red ones, but I'm in business now.