Month: November 2003

<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/22/national/22HEPA.html?ex=1384923600&amp;en=2a0449698d50caa0&amp;ei=5007&amp;partner=USERLAND">Government Makes It Official: Blame Scallions for Outbreak</a>: &ldquo;Contaminated scallions, chopped up raw in salsa that was served free to every table at a Chi-Chi&rsquo;s restaurant in western Pennsylvania, almost certainly caused the large outbreak of hepatitis A in the region, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said yesterday.&rdquo;



<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/23/national/23FOOD.html?ei=5007&amp;en=f44fd9a945263113&amp;ex=1384923600&amp;partner=USERLAND&amp;pagewanted=all&amp;position=">Produce Becoming Increasing Source for Food Illnesses</a>: &ldquo;To consumers who took nutritionists&rsquo; advice seriously and began eating more fruits and vegetables, word that fresh green onions could carry the hepatitis virus came as a shock.&rdquo;

Breakfast was a fried egg and some hash brown potatoes.



<ins datetime="2003-11-22T16:17:00-05:00">Today was a wonderful sunny warm fall day &mdash; a high of 64&deg;F &mdash; and after we cleaned out the gutters on the barn in preparation for winter, we sat on the porch and had a <a href="http://www.sierra-nevada.com/beers/celebrationale.html" title="Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale">Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale</a>.</ins>



<ins datetime="2003-11-22T17:15:00-05:00">Dinner tonight is the last of the pork roast made into pulled pork sandwiches &mdash; two each &mdash; with coleslaw and a glass of <a href="http://www.bolla.com/view_wine.asp?nWID=6" title="Bolla Wines of Italy - Open Up">Bolla Sangiovese Di Romagna</a>. Afterwards, we are taking an apple pie to the in-laws for an evening around the fire on the porch.</ins>

<a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/news/gossip/story/138837p-123345c.html">Fit for a queen, dicey for W.</a>: &ldquo;Too many cooks spoil the President.



&ldquo;<strong>George W. Bush</strong> has allegedly offended <strong>Queen Elizabeth II</strong> by bringing no fewer than five of his personal chefs to Buckingham Palace.



&ldquo;&lsquo;Her Majesty greeted the news that Bush was coming with his own chefs in absolute silence,&rsquo; a snitch tells London&rsquo;s Daily Telegraph.



&ldquo;&lsquo;That&rsquo;s her general way of expressing disapproval. She&rsquo;s not thought to be [thrilled] about the whole visit anyway, but when you consider that she has excellent cooks herself, you can see why this would be taken as a bit of an insult.&rsquo;



&ldquo;The POTUS with the mostest, who doesn&rsquo;t like to travel abroad, may have been afraid the queen&rsquo;s cooks wouldn&rsquo;t fry pork rinds the way he likes them.



&ldquo;The White House didn&rsquo;t return a call yesterday. But the Telegraph quoted one Bush source saying, &lsquo;He&rsquo;s the President of the United States &mdash; maybe he needs a late-night snack.&rsquo;



&ldquo;Hold the pretzels.&rdquo;

<a href="http://travel.independent.co.uk/americas/central/story.jsp?story=1560">Tijuana: the Big Salad</a>: &ldquo;You may recognise the Hotel del Coronado from the movie <em>Some Like it Hot</em>, which was filmed here in 1958 with Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis and Marilyn Monroe&hellip;



&ldquo;Livio Santini, an Italian immigrant, was a cook at the Hotel del Coronado in the 1920s &mdash; soon after the future Edward VIII had met Mrs Simpson there. His Sicilian mother (Livio&rsquo;s, not Edward&rsquo;s) had one day found herself almost bereft of ingredients for supper &mdash; just a few leaves, a handful of anchovies, an egg and the condiments that no self-respecting Italian housewife would be without. She coerced them into a presentable, tasty combination.



&ldquo;Cut to Signor Santini, who had sought new opportunities in San Diego and was now seeking inspiration to keep customers from drifting south of the border where they could wash dinner down with something stronger than soda. To elaborate on his mother&rsquo;s invention, he introduced strips of char-grilled chicken, and replaced the coddled whole egg with a raw yolk. This increased both the colour spectrum and protein content of the dish. The name, it is said, celebrated the Italian roots of the dish and deflected attention from the fact that the fascist Benito Mussolini had just seized power in Rome.&rdquo;

<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/21/international/europe/21CND-BUSH.html?ex=1384837200&amp;en=541d8c81850cdfff&amp;ei=5007&amp;partner=USERLAND">Bush Ends British Visit With Fish and Chips and Blair</a>: "The Bushes and Blairs placed the same lunch orders &mdash; cream of leek and potato soup to start, a main course of fish and chips and mushy peas, and, for dessert, lemon cr&egrave;me br&ucirc;l&eacute;e."

<a href="http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=465405">US bread makers hold crisis talks over impact of Atkins diet</a>: "In America, Patrick Davis of the National Bread Leadership Council, which organised the summit, said that it was unclear whether the fall in bread sales was a temporary blip or indicative of a more permanent change in eating habits. The average American eats 54 lbs of bread a year, barely a third of the quantity consumed by the French and Italians. But the Italians and the French are not notably obese, Mr Davis said."

Breakfast was a bowl of cold cereal and a glass of orange juice.



<ins datetime="2003-11-21T14:19:15-05:00">Lunch was Panda Buffet&rsquo;s orange chicken on chow mien with hot and sour soup and a small sierra mist. The walk there and back was two miles, round trip.</ins>



<ins datetime="2003-11-21T20:48:00-05:00">Dinner started with an appetizer of mushrooms saut&eacute;ed in garlic butter. Then we had a small Caesar salad and a cup of <a href="http://www.trefethen.com/recipes/soup_ch_1.html" title="Recipe: Butternut Squash Soup with Roasted Red Pepper and Green Basil Coulis">butternut squash soup</a> and two glasses of <a href="http://www.bolla.com/view_wine.asp?nWID=6" title="Bolla Wines of Italy - Open Up">Bolla Sangiovese Di Romagna</a>. The soup was passable, but a little bland. It may be that we did not have <em>enough</em> squash. It is hard to know since this recipe uses weight as its measure. <em>Do you think I have a freaking scale in my kitchen?</em> No! I have a measuring cup, just like everybody else on the planet. Who the heck uses weight at the measure in their recipes?</ins>

<a href="http://students.depaul.edu/~egruenth/final/learnvino/basics/taste/serving.html">LearnVino - How to Taste Wine: Serving Wine</a>: "We recommend serving full-bodied and mature red wines at 60&deg; to 65&deg;F, light-bodied young reds at 55&deg; to 60&deg;, dry whites at 45&deg; to 50&deg; and sweet whites at 40&deg; to 50&deg;. Remember that the wine will warm up in the glass, since most dining rooms are heated to 70&deg; or more, so it's better to serve them a couple of degrees too cold than too warm."

<img src="http://www.personal.psu.edu/staff/m/h/mhl100/images/roaster.jpg" width="150" height="100" alt="Cuisinart Nonstick Stainless-Steel Large Roaster with Cover" />



When Gretchen bought me the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00004SBH4" title="Amazon.com: Kitchen &amp; Housewares: Le Creuset 5-1/2-Quart Round French Oven, Cherry Red">Le Creuset French Oven</a> for my birthday this year, Amazon sent us a promotional certificate for $30 off a &ldquo;future order.&rdquo; Well, I found this <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00006FX97" title="Amazon.com: Kitchen &amp; Housewares: Cuisinart Nonstick Stainless-Steel Large Roaster with Cover">Cuisinart Nonstick Stainless-Steel Large Roaster with Cover</a>. The list price is $100, but Amazon gives 60% off bringing the price down to $39.99. With the promotional certificate the price comes down to $9.99. For some reason, it qualifies for free shipping. So, I end up getting a $100.00 roasting pan for $9.99.

It may not be Thanksgiving yet, but I already <a href="http://www.emailsanta.com/" title="Write &amp; Email Santa Claus a Christmas Letter">sent my letter to Santa</a> and got a reply!

Merry Christmas Mark!

#1, Rudolph Way

North Pole, Canada

HOH OHO

Centre Hall, Pennsylvania

United States

Thursday, November 20, 2003

Hello Mark!!

Thank you for sending me your email all the way from Centre Hall! The Net sure is wonderful because now I never feel lonely all the way up at the North Pole. An email from you, Mark, sure makes my day!

Ho! Ho! Ho! Mark! Are you fibbing to ol’ Santa Claus?!? You can’t possibly be 43 years old already! Why it seems like only yesterday that I was leaving presents for a certain little boy and here you are now, practically one of Santa’s elves! (*grin*)

Sorry the presents the last little while probably haven’t been quite as exciting as they were when you were a little boy but, well, you know how these things go (*wink*). Anyway, Santa’s glad to see some of the “older kids” (not to mention anyone in particular!) still take the time to write. I also hear you’ve been a good boy. (Of course, you won’t mind if I do a little checking, will you? HO!! Ho!! ho!!).

Let’s see what you put in your letter for Christmas wishes:

1. Set of 6, Spiegelau Vino Grande Chardonnay Wine Glasses
2. Silpat baking sheet
3. Set of two individual 12-ounce souffle dishes or two of these larger 16-ounce souffle dishes
4. The Way to Cook by Julia Child
5. Cardigan Sweater
6. Tubular Bells by Mike Oldfield
7. The Best of James Taylor

HO!! Ho!! ho!! That’s exactly what I thought you might like! I’m thinking of putting some of those on my wish list too! Of course, I never get everything I have on my wish list — but then again, it wouldn’t be much fun if I always got everything I asked for. Then there would never be any surprise!

Oops! I guess I shouldn’t have had that last cookie because another button just popped right off my suit! I better go see if Mrs. Claus has any thread left! ho!! Ho!! HO!! Take care Mark and don’t forget to listen for me Christmas Eve!! And remember… only 35 more sleeps until Christmas!!

Have a very Merry Christmas,

P.S. The reindeer say “Thank You!” for the nice treats! I hope you don’t mind, but I had a bit of carrot and celery too. After all, even Santa eats his veggies! (*wink*)