Heather let me borrow a book called The Fat Girl’s Guide to Life by Wendy Shanker and it’s been a nice reality check for me. I was looking at a YouTube clip of Aimee Mann’s song “Save Me” to decide if I wanted to go to the show at Variety tomorrow night (I do and we are) and remembered Tyra Banks’s rant about being called fat which I watched again. Inspirational.
Enjoy who you are. Always strive to be better, but enjoy the skin you’re in. Something we all need to remember. :-)
Ugh. What a totally unsatisfying day. Everything I tried to do was thwarted by the Universe. I wanted to mow the lawn – NOPE, no gas. I wanted to get rid of some plastics – NOPE, they are not here. I wanted to see what was in the attic, then the damn door came apart and I couldn’t close it. Which blocked my next task, which was to go Buford Hwy shopping. NOPE! Had to stay here and wait for Nick to come home so we could fix the damn attic door. Grrr.
By this time I had a headache and couldn’t even think about doing graphics, so I gave up and read all afternoon. WTF ever.
Some days it doesn’t pay to chew through the straps, I tell you.
On another note, I saw a blurb in the paper last Thursday about Target settling ($6 million) with some blind people in California who had started a class action suit about their Flash based, unusable website. It’s about time! I’m sick to death of large corporate websites being so user UNfriendly.
I’ve ranted about this before and I’ll stick to my guns on this one: if you have a site that is very busy, you’d BEST make it usable. Usability means that it will display on ANY browser, not just Exploder. It will also have text for the screen readers to read (which is what Target got sued over). It will have an alternative to Flash. This is why I make plain old websites that have text and graphics. They get crawled, they get indexed and they are usable by everyone. Flash is fine in VERY VERY small doses, only for video delivery, IMO.
I’m old skool that way.
Well, I’ve got to feed my varmints their wet fud and then go sit on the deck. It’s been a bitch of a day.
Perhaps some kegerator goodness will lift my spirits.
I am sitting in the Sheraton waiting for the Miss Klingon Pageant to start. The boys went over the Hyatt to check the art room and see Brian’s booth. It’s just too damned hot for me to traipse up there and back. Bleh.
But, anyway, the dejà vu part is that this time 3 years ago we were dealing with Katrina and this year we’re on pins and needles waiting for Gustav. I tell you, the Universe has it out for NOLA. I don’t think it’ll stop till there’s nothing but a greasy spot left.
I hope that the storm bears west and spares NOLA the brunt. I hope everyone evacuates this time as instructed and there is no loss of life. Stuff can be rebuilt – although I think rebuilding anything in the low areas is folly at this point. You can’t hold back Mother Nature forever. She’s simply reclaiming what was hers before. Let her have it.
It’s a Con Sunday. Not having a room has been grand. We’ve been IN the Con rather than hanging out in the room and we’ve seen SO many people. Big Shout Out to Miss Scarlet oh, MY it was good to see you!
So, onward to finish the Con. I hope everyone in NOLA is safely on their way to somewhere else. ::hugs::
The line moved well this year for a change! It took one hour 10 minutes to get our badges. Shoutout to Jonathan for grabbing us and shoving us ahead of 2 dozen people or so! Thanks, dude!
We went to the Hyatt Bar smoking deck and hung out for a little while. It was much tamer this year than last. Peter Mayhew was out there drinking and smoking with everyone. That is the advantage of this con: seeing various and sundry “famous” folk milling around with the masses. But overall, not much was happening. We then went over to check out the newly renovated Marriott. It’s very nice with a really great bar, but I sorely miss the art that used to hang in the middle. It’s very bare now. I hate that! I wonder what they did with the huge piece that they took down? It’s sad, I really liked that art a lot.
We scoped out the area and then decided to call it a night. We’re back home plotting our attack since we are roomless for the first time in a very long time. It’s nice, actually, to not have to worry with it. The load-ins had gotten way out of control and we spent too much time in the room as opposed to trolling the con. Not this year! We plan to be out and about most of the time. We are not planning to stay over tomorrow night, but probably will Saturday night. Tomorrow night is the Comics Track reception at 9:30pm over at the Sheraton, I think. That’s all we have planned.
All we have to load in is a cooler for Taylor, our cooler, the air mattress and a change of clothes for Saturday. Nice! We’re only doing a cooler tomorrow since we won’t know where the room is until Taylor checks in late in the day. We’ll bring our crap on Saturday and be there for the long haul.
We hope to meet new peeps and see more of the Con that we have in years. It’s exciting!
See you there! :-)
Bourbon Salmon with Wild Mushroom Sauce
Comment: since all these dishes cook quickly, timing is key. This whole meal was prepared in about 30 minutes. I’ve tried to put the recipes in order of how I’d prepare them. Read over the whole process before you start.
Fresh Mussels
16 fresh, closed mussels (8 per person)
2 cloves garlic, chopped
5-6 sprigs fresh lemon thyme if you have it, otherwise use dried thyme or any herb you like.
1 green onion, sliced (or shallot, or regular onion)
Dry sherry or white wine
olive oil
Clean and debeard the mussels. If you need to hold them for more than 30 minutes, put a wet paper towel on them and keep in the fridge.
Stop here and get the salmon into the marinade, below.
Start your garlic and onions in the oil in a deep pot over med high flame. When your aromatics are sizzling, toss in your mussels. Put in a couple of splashes of sherry and toss the herbs on top. Put the lid on and DO NOT look at them. When the steam comes from under the lid, let them go for 5 minutes then kill the heat. Let them stand for 5 minutes and serve in bowls with the cooking liquid. Serve with crusty bread if you like.
Bourbon Salmon
approx. 1# King Salmon fillet (for 2 servings)
bourbon
brown sugar
mirin (sweet rice wine)
Mix about 1/2 cup bourbon, 1/4 cup mirin and 2-3 Tbl of brown sugar in a shallow dish. Place salmon fillet skin side UP and let marinate while you cook and eat the mussels if you are doing the appetizer. If you are not doing the mussels, marinate for 15-30 minutes. Heads up, you will retain this marinade for the sauce so don’t toss it!
Sautéed Spinach with Pancetta
1 bag fresh spinach
1 Tbl diced pancetta (bacon will work, too, one slice)
2 cloves garlic
olive oil
balsamic vinegar
shredded parmesan for garnish
Start pancetta and garlic with some olive oil in a good sized skillet over med high flame. When the pancetta starts to brown, start putting in your spinach. It looks like a lot, but it will cook down to 2 servings. Really. Keep working in all the spinach by putting fresh on top and turning it under with tongs. When all the spinach has cooked down, splash with balsamic vinegar. It will have the parmesan sprinkled on when you plate it.
Now is the time to take the salmon and put it on a broiling pan. Put the fish skin side DOWN, put a little butter on top and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Stick it under the broiler. The fish will take about 15 minutes for a 1# fillet. You’ll need more thyme (or any herb) to dress this when it’s done. I strongly recommend lemon thyme if you can find it. It is delicious with the sauce!
Cous Cous
I use Near East brand. Follow package instructions. It will take about 10 minutes. Rice is fine with this dish, too, but it takes 25-30 minutes, so start it first.
Wild Mushroom and Bourbon sauce
1/2 package of wild mushroom mix available at most groceries (for 2 servings)
2 cloves garlic, chopped
mirin
sherry
olive oil
1Tbl butter
flour
the reserved marinade from step 1
In a nonstick skillet over a med high flame, start the garlic in olive oil, about 4 turns of the pan. When the garlic starts to sizzle, toss in the shrooms. Put in the butter and when it is melted and everything is sizzly, sprinkle in about 1Tbl flour. Stir until the flour becomes pasty. Pour in about half of the reserved marinade (about 2/3 to 1 cup) and turn up the flame to high. Don’t worry about cross contamination, this liquid is being boiled for the sauce. When the liquid starts to boil and thicken, add a splash of mirin and a splash of sherry. When the sauce is almost the thickness you want, turn off the heat and it will continue to thicken. If it goes too far, you can add chicken stock, more sherry or water to adjust the consistency.
Check the salmon. It should be about 5 minutes away from being done. You are looking for a nice brown color – which is created by the butter and the sugar in the marinade.
At this point, your dishes are all about to finish, so get your plates ready.
To plate: start with about 2/3 c cous cous. Place 1/2 the large fillet (cut longways, without skin) on top of the cous cous. Put about 2/3 cup of spinach (about half of what you have) along side the fish. Spoon half the sauce over the fish. Garnish the spinach with parmesan and the sauce with lemon thyme (or whatever you’re using). Voilà!
We served this with a med body Spanish red wine, but a strong chardonnay would work. Enjoy!
