Song Obsession of the Week

Clearly, you can tell I heart Ingrid. Can't wait for her upcoming album!

I Like...Wankers

Note to self: Don't friend your boss on Facebook then write crazy I-hate-my-job-my-boss-is-a-wanker status updates. I mean, I'm sure it's easy to forget that the person who controls the fate of your livelihood can see anything you do or say and then go batsnap crazy and put it on the Internet for all to see. To prevent this, you might not add that person, OR you could just not be a psycho. That would PROBABLY be a good idea. Maybe.

Please read this, and let me just say...bahahaha.

I Like...Food Parties

We had the perfect Saturday this weekend: sleeping until we felt like getting up, breakfast and coffee, bought Rock Band for $57, poured through cookbooks, did some leisurely grocery shopping, cooked, and had a fantastic outdoor dinner at the home of some great friends. We cooked up a trio of dips to go with grilled French bread and roasted garlic, and Scott made some of his delicious risotto to go with the pork tenderloin, grapefruit & avocado salad, and sangria that J-Lo made. It was fun to have a variety of apps to snack on, and I thought I'd pass along the recipes:

Lemony-Tarragon Crab Dip

This is an easy but elegant, tasty, and cool summer recipe. Definitely use fresh crab if possible or else the yummy dill, pepper, and cucumber overshadow it.

- 8 oz. fresh crabmeat, well-drained

- 1/4 cup cream cheese @ room temperature

- 2 tbsp mayonnaise

- 3 tbsp chopped red onion

- 3/4 tsp dried tarragon

- 2 tsp chopped, fresh dill

- 1/4 cup chopped cucumber

- 1 tbsp plus 1 and 1/2 tsp fresh lemon juice

- 1/2 tsp lemon zest

Combine cream cheese, red onion, mayonnaise, lemon juice and zest, and chopped herbs in a bowl. Stir in the crab and cucumber. Season with kosher salt, pepper, and additional lemon juice to taste. Note: I added quite a bit of pepper and some extra dill and cucumber to make it extra delish. Chill, and serve later with bread, bagel bites, or salt and vinegar potato chips.

Recipe courtesy of one of my very favorite cookbooks.

Charbroiled Eggplant Dip

Kind of like baba ganoush, but not. A little more summery, especially with the peppery, blackened flavor you get from grilling the eggplant beforehand.

-1 tsp cumin

-2 tbsp olive oil

-1 large eggplant

-1/2 cup plain yogurt (we used Greek yogurt and it was delish)

-juice of one lemon

-2 scallions

Slice the eggplant and coat both sides with cumin and olive oil mixed together, along with salt and pepper on both sides. Grill eggplant until blackened/charred but not burned (duh). This can also be done in the oven/broiler, but the smokey flavor from grilling is yummmyyyy. Mix eggplant (works best if it has cooled down a bit), scallions, lemon juice, and yogurt together, add any extra seasoning you need, and serve on toasted pita.

Recipe from Easy Appetizers.

Artichoke and Green Onion Dip

A yummy twist on traditional artichoke dip...I added extra onions and lots of Parmesan to make it even more flavorful.

-2 cans (14 oz each) water-packed artichoke hearts, well drained, chopped

-1 and 1/2 cups mayonnaise

-1 and 1/2 cups finely grated high quality Parmesan cheese

-1/3 cup, plus 2 tbsp sliced green onions

-2 tsp minced garlic

-1 and 1/2 tsp chopped fresh thyme, or 3/4 tsp dried thyme

-1/4 tsp kosher salt, plus more to taste

-1/4 tsp freshly ground pepper, plus more to taste

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Combine artichoke hearts, mayo, 1 cup of parm, green onions, garlic, thyme, salt, and pepper in a large bowl. Adjust the seasonings if necessary. Transfer the mixture to an 8-inch square glass baking dish or a ceramic dish similar in size. Sprinkle with the remaining 1/2 cup of cheese. Cover and bake until heated through, 10-15 minutes. Increase heat to broil and cook until top is bubbly and golden brown, 2-3 minutes more. Garnish with green onions.

This recipe also courtesy of one of my very favorite cookbooks.

Eat with yummy bread or other carb and ENJOY!

I Like...HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Oh, Oklahoma, you make me laugh.

Apparently, a group of geniuses in Tulsa have decided to enter their city into the bid for...wait for it...the 2020 OLYMPICS. Yep. According to these geniuses, their city is competitive with Chicago, Tokyo, Madrid, Berlin, and all of the other major international cities who have hosted these games. Don't get me wrong, Tulsa is a very nice city - very hilly, green, lots of fun restaurants. But "lots" in Oklahoma terms.

Maybe they don't understand that when a city hosts the Olympics, they get at least 200,000 new people, need an 80,000-seat arena for opening/closing ceremonies, have to have hotel rooms to sleep all of these international tourists and media, should probably have an international AIRPORT, need more than two malls and some cowboy museums to keep said tourists busy while they're not at events, and need public transportation and metropolitan areas for people to eat and get around. But whatever, some of them can stay at Oral Roberts, some can stay at University of Tulsa, some can sleep on the 2 cruise boats they're going to bring onto the river, and they can bring in trailers and tents to sleep the rest.

That's right, Paris ain't got nothin on us. I'm SURE they're going to vote for Tulsa over Rome, Dubai, and Boston. Cuz we have real good fried chicken!

I'm not dissin, I'm just sayin'. Oklahoma, you're great in your own way, but wow.

Funny:

(click here to view)

Bruce Plante Tulsa World Aug 6, 2009 EditorialCartoonists.com

If Sparky McBellKick Wins This Thing, I'm Boycotting

Okay, we all know that I would never actually boycott the best show ever, but I will be pretty upset if Evan pulls this thing out...and I'm not gonna lie, based on the judges (fair, overdue, and accurate) ripping of him last night and the fanatical chanting of his name that occurred shortly afterwards, I won't be shocked tonight if Evan wins. Annoyed and yelling at my TV, yes.

Last night was pretty good as far as finales go, but I must admit I'm tired of seeing the jive (wasn't this Evan's THIRD time?) and Broadway. I was hoping for some crazy hard hitting hip hop (what happened to Krump this season?) or an off-the-wall jazz routine, and we didn't really get much. I did enjoy the opening group number, and Jeanine continued growing on me to the point where I think she might win, and I won't necessarily feel like Kayla got robbed, even though technically Kayla is stronger. Jeanine pulls out stuff that makes you go WOW I wish I could dance that beautifully and creatively that Kayla does not, such as this (skip through the interview portion:


jean 4 @ Yahoo! Video


And my favorite piece of the night was Mia Michaels' "Layers" routine for the two girls - just beautiful:



jandk 4 @ Yahoo! Video


The Paso Doble by Jeanine and Brandon was also a piece worthy of the finale, with a lot of jaw-dropping moves, and I think they definitely pulled off the characters and did it believably. Come to think of it, I actually think the only reason I felt "blah" about this finale was because Evan was in so many of the dances. GRRR. Someone please explain to me the growing annoyance I feel towards this chipmunk-cheeked, fedora-wearing young chap who is probably very nice in real life.


Sooo, here are my final predictions:

For the Win: Jeanine! I really think she's going to pull it off.
Who SHOULD Win: Brandon, because he has the whole combination - he is the best guy (and probably best period) by far technically, he pulls off every character and challenging role he's given, and he does it with a flair (and crazy death-defying leaps and dives) that makes you root for him.
In Fourth: Kayla, because despite her technical superiority, she hasn't connected as well as the others.
In Between: It's hard to say. Like I said, I won't be shocked if Evan wins or even beats out Brandon, but I also wouldn't be shocked if the majority of people watching the show finally realized last night that Evan cannot, in fact, dance as well as the other three on stage with him, and perhaps all will be well. So basically, anyone but Evan and I'm golden.


Hoo-rah for Season 6!

Yikes

Uhhh, so today, a good "friend" of mine (jk, love ya shnavs) informed me that she saw this video and immediately thought of me:

Naturally. I should either be very afraid for Nava's state of mind, or very very afraid of myself. Friends, please stage an intervention immediately if I ever throw myself on the ground screaming in your presence. Kthanks.

Song Obsession of the Week

Last week, I had the privilege of celebrating the end of my summer class at the delicious Norman institution known as Bison Witches. Mmmm. In addition to sandwiches that probably have crack or frog blood or something (is frog blood addictive? I don't know but it sounded good) in them and soups in bread bowls that make you want to chain yourself to your booth and NEVER LEAVE (or is that just me?), they apparently have very good taste in music. This has been on repeat ever since:



Thanks for the sandwich and the new song, witches.