Stacerella

It’s been two weeks since I last blogged. In that time, we’ve celebrated Thanksgiving and my husband’s birthday. I have photos on the HD Flip as well as on the new digital camera he won from one of our suppliers, but I haven’t had time to process them. I have some photos (I think) of the delicious dinner rolls I made for our Thanksgiving dinner with Joe’s side of the family. When I get some time this weekend, I will throw them up here along with the shots of the roasted vegetables I brought to dinner that night.

And when I haven’t been cooking and/or baking, I have been consumed with cutting up video footage to make my brother some kick-ass how-to cooking DVDs. And last night I took an hour out to make a tribute photo montage video for the first anniversary of my nephew’s passing at the cruel hands of cancer. So, yeah… I’m bit all over the map these days.

Bare with me, everyone. Tomorrow is a very tough day I need to get over. I will see what I can do for you all after that.

Well, I’ve been here off and on, but busy lately with gearing down from the holiday season, putting stuff away into storage, cleaning up the general mess that comes with Christmas presents and wrapping them up all pretty like, throwing stuff out, reading, beading, baking… the usual.

Also we’ve been dealing with birthdays (mine, Joe’s mum’s, etc.), sick family members as well as a few family deaths. It’s been a bit weird around here lately, but hopefully when the FIL gets out of the hospital at the end of this week, things will start to settle down.

I have yet to read the lovely Marcella Hazan pasta book (Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking) Joe bought me for Christmas. I’m totally dying to dive into that one! In the meantime, I’ve been reading Brain Fuel instead. Almost done that one, as well as another he bought me for Christmas 2007 called Fire And Ice about the social differences between Canada and the USA that I’ve been reading on and off all year. (I don’t get many pockets of reading time. Can you tell? *snort*)

Anyway, I really want to blog about Marcella’s thoughts on pasta making and traditional Italian ricotta pie when I finally do get to read the book. Any great tips will be passed along to you, of course! In due time, kiddies, in due time. Promise.

Addendum: So, I went through my Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking book and there isn’t much mention about ricotta pie. There as a bit about using ricotta in cakes, but it was a mere passing comment - no recipes. Disappointing. Will have to seek out her other cookbooks in the future. As far as her thoughts on pasta making, she definitely perfers to make hers by hand, forks and rolling pin over a mixer and pasta rollers, but concedes both are standards and acceptable methods. The most important factor to her is that the pasta is homemade. She also has a great section on dried pasta and when it’s a better choice over its fresh counterpart, and a whole list of sauces to make and with what pasta. Fabulous! She included her father’s fish recipe that caught my eye, too. Interesting. Must try it sometime soon. This is a must have book for any serious budding Italian cook. I give it two thumbs up for the Cooks Illustrated inspired renderings of how to handle/prep/cook the ingredients, too. That alone makes this book worth its weight in gold in my eyes!

Reminder!!

CSI season… oh, I don’t know - I think it’s 11 or 12 at this point - starts tonight at 9:00 sharp.

Refresher!!

Don’t forget to watch to see if that douche… er, I mean Warrick lives or dies. (D-uh.) Apparently the whiney and unsexy Sarah Suicidal is coming back to help solve the case of who shot him. (Hint: we saw the killer do it during last season’s closer eppy. D-uh.)

Anyway, just watch it if you’re into the show. I hate that Gil Grissom is leaving but love that Morpheus is taking his place in the lab. Loves me some hot Larry (OOPS, I mean Laurence) Fishburne. He’s a sexy beast, isn’t he?

I keep seeing the same tv ad for Kath & Kim, the US version starring Molly Shannen and Selma Blair.

The setup is Kim gets married and moves out. Shortly afterwards, she comes storming home with luggage in hand announcing it’s over and that she didn’t sign up to make someone dinner and ask them how their day was every day while sobbing to Mommy.

I laugh every time I see it because there are many women out there who don’t act like this, but think it. You know they exist. Don’t pretend they don’t! I love when these vaccuous women show up in sitcoms so I can laugh at them ‘cuz lords know I want to smack them all out in real life.

Oh, did I just type that out loud? Whoops!

Hot damn, the debates were fun last night, no? 

*crickets chirping*

A-yeah. I was expecting more… well, debating, to be honest. But, McCain and Obama threw out some zingers and McCain was unintentionally funny throughout, so I guess that’s something for those of us on the edge of our seats, right?

Speaking of which, I loved the pilot for The Mentalist, but after viewing last week’s second episode, I can see why people are placing bets on fast this show will be scrapped. Yikes. It had the same repletion of stinkeousity that a few detective and cop genre shows had back in the early ’80s, only with up-to-date storylines and clothes. Not good, people. Not good at all. Even my beloved Simon Baker can’t save this show. And that’s sad because the pilot showed so much potential. I was hoping they would delve deeper into darker corners with the storylines, but… *sigh* I really do expect too much from my tv shows, don’t I? When will I learn??

Other shows I’m giving up on are Terminator (rumoured to be on the way out anyway), Heroes (don’t get me started on this self-loving, self-congratulatory, self-delusional tv show), Earl (if the season opener is any indication, Alex  Baldwin is spot on with his comment that this show is ready for someone to stick a fork in it already), and there is one more I’m blanking on at the moment. In any case, the void these shows will leave in our viewing schedule will be better served, I’m sure, by a cleaner bathroom, more clean clothes, more sleep, more cooking and baking and more time spent on Twitter. *wink*