What's for dinner?

Panko crusted halibut with mango beurre blanc and brown rice.

"But you don't cook!", they say.  I know.  I know. First off, it was a recipe.  I didn't come up with the idea myself, which is the crux of why I think I am not a cook.  But, as anyone who knows me well would say, I can follow a well written list of instructions like nobody's business.  Luckily this list was very well written and our dinner turned out perfectly.  Perfectly done halibut.  Perfectly sauced buerre blanc. 

Can I just say that the fish was easy compared to the beurre blanc (as an aside, the coating on the fish to hold the Panko was Thai chili mayo...I could have/should have taken a bath in that!)?  Beurre blanc is a pain in ass with all that adding small cubes of butter one at a time while continually whisking.  The sauce alone took 45 minutes.  The fish took 3 min on each side and then 5 minutes in the oven to finish.

Like I've said before.  It's not that I can't, it's just that I don't.  Part of the reason why is that I don't usually want to take 1 hour+ to cook dinner.   Another part is the cleanup. I thought this was going to be like a Martha Stewart experience:  Kitchen spotless the whole time; dishes magically disappear; not a bead of sweat on her brow.  Not here boy.  I used a ton of dishes.  The counters were a mess.  Bread crumbs all over the floor (first time I've ever used our food processor).  And I was stressed (probably the perfectionist in me).  I guess I am missing all of the minions that create the mis en place and then come behind and clean it all up?  Thank goodness Michael arrived home to help with pre-cleanup and then took care of everything after.

 Here's the recipe if anyone is interested.  I can't have nuts, so I just removed the macadamias.

What's currently recording on the Tivos

Thought I would snapshot the craziness that is our current TV viewing through what is set to record on our Tivos.

So you can understand the seriousness with which we take TV watching, I thought I would start with our AV setup.  We currently have two Series 3 (HD) Tivos with 1 TB drives and two tuners each, so we can record up to four programs at a time and save massive amounts of HD content.  We supplement the Tivos with a Comcast DVR for OnDemand access, MacMini for Hulu and Internet video access and two DVD players for Netflix TV shows on DVD.  Yes.  We are serious.

First, we'll start with that which is being recorded for transfer to my iTouch for gym viewing (this is mostly my trash reality TV that Michael refuses to watch):

• Reality
  • Celebrity Rehab
  • Sober House
  • Real Housewives (entire franchise, but New York is my favorite)
  • Real World (I've watched since the very first season)
  • Real World / Road Rules Challenges
  • Celebrity Fit Club
  • America's Next Top Model
  • Celebrity Apprentice
  • Gene Simmons Family Jewels
  • The Dish
  • The Soup
  • Naughty Chef
• Sitcom
  • Community
  • Parks and Recreation

Here's the rest that we watch together, although because there is so much, we don't watch a number of these regularly:

• Sitcom
  • Big Bang Theory
  • Modern Family
  • Couger Town
  • How I Met Your Mother
  • New Adventures of Old Christine
• Drama
  • Damages
  • Fringe
  • Lost
  • Caprica
  • House
  • Bones
  • White Collar
  • The Closer
  • Desperate Housewives
  • Brothers & Sisters
  • Grey's Anatomy
  • Private Practice
  • Life Unexpected
  • Gossip Girl
  • Castle
  • Leverage
  • 90210
  • Melrose Place
  • Men of a Certain Age
  • NCIS (original)
  • Cold Case
• Reality
  • Project Runway
  • RuPaul's Drag Race
  • Ace of Cakes

And finally, what we watch via Netflix:

• Big Love
• Weeds
• United States of Tara
• Breaking Bad
• Nurse Jackie (coming soon)
• Entourage
• Californication

How do we do it?  1) Multitasking:  we are always at the computer while we watch TV; 2) Lots of Tivo storage so we can catch up during times when there are lots of re-runs. 

Master class in how not to parent your teen

Anyone with a teen should watch season 5 of The Real Housewives of Orange County.   Not for the conspicuous consumption.  Not for the griping and backstabbing.  Not for the marital troubles.  No.  You need to watch this woman, Lynne Curtain and her husband raise their two teenage daughters.  They are a case study in the many things that can go wrong when your teen has been raised their whole life with few boundaries and no consequences.  To the point that one of the daughters even says she is waiting for the day when her mother will ground her for screwing up but knows it won't happen.

Hello Lynne!  Wake UP!  Your teen knows you never follow through on any of your threats.  You want too much to be her friend but that's not your job.  You are the parent!  Now is not the time for you to be liked.  That will happen again when the kid is 20.  Right now you need to set firm boundaries and then make sure that you follow through.  I heard about a report that said that teen brains were not yet wired to logically understand the consequences of their actions, rather they make most of their judgements emotionally.  This is where you come in.  The boundaries and consequences make up for their lack of development.  I believe that this is one of the most important things you can do as a parent.  I've seen too many parents do like Lynne and they are the same parents that have very challenging teen years.  That's not to say that even with boundaries it isn't challenging, just less challenging.

Good luck to all my friends who have the teen years to look forward to.  All I can say is I am glad it is not me.

Why waterboard when you can use this device



This beauty is known as an ultrasonic scaler, used by your dentist or hygienist to "super clean" (my words not theirs) your teeth.  Today I paid for the pleasure of this, the worst kind of water torture.  They tell you up front that if the pain is unbearable while it is being done, they can stop and numb you. 

What??!!  I thought I was just here for a cleaning.  Put some nasty chocolate flavored cement toothpaste on that little super-fast, rotating thingy, polish me up and I will be gone.  Nope.  I evidently don't floss enough to avoid the mind numbing pain that made my eyes water by the end.  Being the typical man, I couldn't possibly ask them to stop and relieve the pain.  I just suffered through it in the name of healthy teeth.

At then end, all I could think of was that I would have given up state secrets to get them to stop.  For your own edification, here is a video I found of some other poor soul receiving the dental equivalent of waterboarding.  This must be dental porn.

Healthcare and Guinness cake

Those who know me well know that I don't cook.  It is not that I can't.  I can follow a recipe like nobody's business.  But I lack all of the creativity that I think is required to be a real cook.  Now baking on the other hand, it's all science!  Fits my personality and goes perfectly with my love of dessert.

Tonight I whipped up this Guinness cake while watching the House healthcare votes on CSPAN.  A little late for St. Paddy's day, but never too late for a baked good, especially one with beer in it.

Michael joked on twitter about my multi-tasking talent as I managed to tweet about the passing of the first bill while still mixing the batter.

It was a great way to mark the passage of legislation that 100 years of presidents have asked for.