Catching Up

Let me lead off by saying I think I've become the poker player I've always avoided trying to become; the weak-tight nit. There's a big difference between playing a solid conservative game and being afraid of making a move or playing back with anything but the nuts. I've played a few SNG's this past week after a long stretch involving no poker and my play has been....scared. I need to shake this off and soon.

I'm heading to Vegas in two weeks and I plan on drinking, playing poker, drinking, hitting the sports book for some NFL action, drinking and maybe a little drinking thrown in. My goal in playing poker will be twofold: winning some money and tilting the table. I'm heading to vegas with some friends and I really need to blow off some steam I've been building up at work the past few months and nothing will help me release it like pissing off some local rocks and tourists. Hell, the winning part is only secondary at this point. We're staying at the Hooters Hotel because we got such a great deal, but I think the MGM across the street is where the major action will happen.

Onto the cooking front: I've done a couple of recipes from "The Way to Cook" or TWTC on my journey to completing them all. The first was "Chicken Simmered in White Wine" which Julia calls one of her very favorite stews. Sorry Julia, I love you and all but this was ok an everything but nothing I'll rush to ever make again. On a side note I used a white table wine from California called Menage a Trois for this dish and it's a decent, low cost wine. The second recipe was sauted beefsteak, otherwise known as something I've done a hundred times in my life but hey, it still counts. I used strip steak and made a pan glaze and it was delish as ever.

Speaking of steaks, I'm going to share a recipe I developed that I'm quite proud of. The basis of this steak recipe is that sauteeing steak has a distict advantage over grilling in that you can make a wonderful pan sauce with the 'fond', otherwise known as brown bits left over on the bottom of the pan. Grilling steak has a distinct advantage over sauteed steaks because of the smokey grilled taste that adds an incredible depth of flavor. SO, I combine the two techniques and you have Steak Canfield! The way it's done is thusly: get a cast iron or other pan (NOT non-stick!) scortching hot and brown on both sides for about two minutes, then immediately transfer to a hot grill and finish cooking to desired doneness (medium rare for me, medium well for the wife). Deglaze the pan with some red wine or beef stock (or both) and let reduce to a syrup consistency. Remove pan from heat and swirl in a pat of butter, taste and correct seasonings if necessary and server over steaks. AWESOME!

Why Americans are Fat

So I just got back home after a week visiting our corporate HQ for a tech conference and I hate myself. I generally eat a pretty healthy diet that looks something like this during the work week:

Breakfast:
1 Balance Bar
2 cups of black coffee

Lunch:
Subway Sandwich (6 inch, no mayo, generally one of their "healthy" subs)
Baked Chips
Lo Cal lemonade (like the only diet pop I'll drink because it doesn't make me want to puke)

Dinner:
Whatever the hell I want to eat in moderation
2-3 beers / glasses of wine
some chocolate of some sort

Here is what my typical diet consisted of the past five days:

Breakfast (catered in):
Pecan Roll / Bagel with cream cheese / Bacon egg and cheese biscuit/ Jumbo Muffin etc...
Coffee

Lunch(catered in):
Shitloads of Mexican/Chinese/whatever
Coke
Dessert of some sort

Afternoon Snack (catered in):
Cookies or Rice Crispy treats or some other crap

Happy Hour (Restaurant):
2-3 beers / Cocktails

Dinner (Restaurant):
Assorted fried appetizers
Assorted crappy food
2-3 beers / glasses of wine

After Dinner Drinks (Hotel Bar):
2-6 Beers / shots

So as you can see I ate probably about three weeks' worth of food this week and I really wish I had some magical power where I could just purge it all up right now onto my keyboard so I can feel better. Americans are fat because WE EAT TOO DAMN MUCH. I am one of those people who can avoid temptation at the store by not buying junk food but put it front of my face I'll shovel it in like the rest of the herd. I hate it when my feeling of superiorty over the common man is trashed like this. Excuse me while I put my finger down my throat...

The Way to Cook...a Challenge.

OK, so the whole cooking every recipe from a Julia Child cookbook has been done already; by a better writer I might add. I, however, have no desire to quit my job and become a foodie, ala Julie Powell who had the whole Julie/Julia thing going for her. Besides, she did Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume 1 and my challenge involves cooking EVERY recipe from Julia's Way to Cook book. To me (and her), this is her true Magnum Opus. It has what my wife would call "normal" food like pizza and pasta and not just french "Foo Foo" food. I have not started cooking yet and in fact I'm having frozen french bread pizza for dinner (so sue me) but it's ON. I won't promise daily updates, but I'll at least try.

The rules are simple: I'll cook every recipe from the book at least once. I'm not including a timeframe because that's really not practical or even necessary; the entire goal of this boils down to getting my family and I to eat some new things and hopefully to discover some unknown treasures that would have otherwise passed us by. I don't know how many recipes are in the book and I'm unsure how I'll mark the ones I've completed but that will work itself out. And if there's something I JUST know will be disgusting? I'll make a small portion for myself just to say I did it.

Why Stars Rocks

Hey, so Pokerstars heard my plea and let me register for the Blogger's tourney...thanks Stars! You ARE the best; actions like a freeroll for a bunch of bloggers only proves it.

I need to get my tournament game up to speed. It's been a LONG time since I've played in a big multi-table game. I'm also supposed to be out of town this weekend but I WILL not miss this. In fact, my intention is to LIVE BLOG the event so I can relive my glorious victory (or shameful defeat) over and over again. Stay tuned...

Please, Please Pokerstars!

OK, I'm trying to register for the WBCOOP (World Blogger Championship of Online Poker) on Poker Stars and one requirement is that the blog is regularly updated...which I admit I haven't been the best at but have recently committed to improving. C'mon Stars, you know I love you guys, show some love back and let me play!

Bacon tastes good...

Jules Winnfield: Pigs are filthy animals. I don't eat filthy animals.
Vincent Vega: Yeah but bacon tastes good. Pork chops taste good.
Jules Winnfield: Hey, sewer rat may taste like pumpkin pie, but I'd never know 'cause I wouldn't eat the filthy mother-fuckers. Pigs sleep and root in shit. That's a filthy animal. I ain't eating nothing that ain't got sense enough to disregard his own feces.
Vincent Vega: How 'bout a dog? Dog eats his own feces.
Jules Winnfield: I don't eat dog either.
Vincent Vega: Yeah, but do you consider a dog to be a filthy animal?
Jules Winnfield: I wouldn't go so far as to call a dog filthy, but they definitely dirty. But, dog's got personality; personality goes a long way.
Vincent Vega: Ahh, so by that rational, if a pig had a better personality, he would cease to be a filthy animal. Is that true?
Jules Winnfield: Well, we'd have to be talking one charming mother-fucking pig.

So anyway, the 5 lbs of bacon I made turned out GREAT. My wife even commented that she never wants to eat supermarket bacon again. It's easy, cheap and it friggin rocks! If sewer rat tasted like this I'd DEFINITELY eat the filthy mother fuckers!