Happy Hour at Chez Animal Hair Can I get you a drink?

Another all time favorite. My notes say “this is the lower-fat version of the Bon Appetit recipe, cut from 68g to 8g. fat.” But I looked online and can’t find the original recipe. I also show it to be more than 8 g. fat. Whatever, it’s worth it. This has changed so much it’s mine now anyway.

Last night I made my own breadcrumbs. I had some hardened bread crusts from another recipe and just ground them up (food processor) with some Italian seasoning, dried garlic and dried onion and it was perfect.

Company Chicken

Serving Size : 2
Preparation Time :0:15
Start to Finish Time: 0:45

Amount Measure Ingredient — Preparation Method
——– ———— ——————————–
2 whole boneless skinless chicken breast halves
1/2 cup seasoned bread crumbs
1 tablespoon olive oil
4 ounces fresh mushrooms — sliced
2 ounces muenster cheese — sliced
1/2 cup fat-free chicken broth
1/4 cup dry white wine

Heat oven to 350°. Rinse chicken and pat dry. Dredge in breadcrumbs.

Heat oil in large non-stick skillet. Add chicken and cook until just brown, about 3 minutes per side.

Transfer to glass baking dish. In same skillet cook mushrooms (and a little of the broth if needed) until soft, stirring occasionally, about 5 minutes.

Spoon mushrooms over chicken. Top with cheese. Bake until chicken is cooked through, about 20 minutes.

While the chicken is baking, add remaining broth and wine to skillet. Boil scraping up any browned bits in the pan. With about ten minutes left on the chicken take it out of the oven and pour the reduced sauce over the chicken.

- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – -

Per Serving (excluding unknown items): 442 Calories; 18g Fat (37.4% calories from fat); 42g Protein; 25g Carbohydrate; 2g Dietary Fiber; 96mg Cholesterol; 1178mg Sodium. Exchanges: 1 1/2 Grain(Starch); 5 Lean Meat; 1/2 Vegetable; 2 1/2 Fat.

Serving Ideas : Serve with hot steamed rice and asparagus

Posted under Chicken, Cooking, Random Thoughts

This one of Greg’s favorites (mine too). This was originally from Bon Appétit Magazine (February 2002) but it called for lamb shanks and was 6 servings. I used blade lamb chops instead because I was only cooking for two. I later tried this with shanks and it didn’t work nearly as well. Stick with chops. This also works with parsley if you don’t like cilantro.

Lamb Chops With Ginger And Five-Spice

Amount Measure Ingredient — Preparation Method
——– ———— ——————————–
6 dried shiitake mushrooms
1 cups boiling water
1 long piece fresh ginger — peeled, thickly sliced
3 garlic cloves — peeled
3/4 cup fresh cilantro
4 tablespoons black bean sauce
4 teaspoons sesame oil
1 1/2 teaspoons five-spice powder
2 large lamb chop — excess fat trimmed
1/2 cup green onion — thinly sliced
1/2 cup dry Sherry
Steamed white rice

Place mushrooms in bowl. Pour boiling water over; let soak until mushrooms soften, at least 45 minutes and up to 4 hours. Strain mixture, reserving 1 1/2 cups soaking liquid. Cut stems from mushrooms and discard; thinly slice caps.

With food processor running, add ginger and garlic and finely chop. Add cilantro, black bean sauce, 2 teaspoons sesame oil, and five-spice powder. Process until paste forms, occasionally scraping down sides of work bowl. Using sharp knife, cut 5 small shallow slits into each lamb chop, spacing apart; (you can also just stab them with a sharp knife) Rub black bean-cilantro paste into slits and all over surface of each chop. (Mushrooms and lamb shanks can be prepared 6 hours ahead. Cover mushrooms, soaking liquid and shanks separately and chill.)

Preheat oven to 325°F. Cut 2 18-inch squares of aluminum foil; place on work surface. Place green onions and sliced mushroom caps in center of each foil square, dividing equally. Heat remaining 2 teaspoons sesame oil in heavy large skillet over medium-high heat. Add lamb chops and cook until brown on all sides, about 3 minutes per side. Place 1 lamb chop atop green onions and mushrooms on each foil square.

Pour reserved mushroom soaking liquid and Sherry into same skillet. Boil until liquid is reduced to a thick-ish sauce, scraping up any browned bits from bottom of skillet, about 10 minutes. Spoon reduced liquid over each lamb shank, pulling up foil around shanks to prevent liquid from spilling out. Enclose shanks completely in foil, twisting foil to seal; place on large rimmed baking sheet or baking dish.

Bake lamb shanks until very tender, about 25 minutes. Make rice.

When the chops are done open up foil packets; slide the chops out onto a plate of steamed rice.

See the original recipe on Epicurious
- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – -

Posted under Cooking, Lamb

I used to think he was so cute
Leif Garrett falls on hard times

Posted under celebrity news/gossip

We had this last night and it was very tasty. However, the sauce was pretty thick. We even thinned it with rice wine, but it was still pretty sticky. You could try to double the amount of wet stuff in the sauce. I’m not sure where I originally got this recipe but I’ve changed so many things that it’s mine now.

Spicy Bean Curd Stir Fry

Categories : Vegetarian

Amount Measure Ingredient — Preparation Method
——– ———— ——————————–
2 tablespoons dark soy sauce
1 tablespoon rice wine
1 tablespoon creamy peanut butter
1 teaspoon brown sugar
1 tablespoon Sri Racha Sauce
1 pound firm tofu — cut in 2″ cubes
2 tablespoons sesame oil
1 tablespoon fresh ginger — minced
2 tablespoons garlic — finely chopped
1 pint bean sprouts — washed and drained
1 whole green bell pepper — cut in 1″ cubes
4 ounces mushroom — quartered
3 whole green onions — sliced
3 tablespoons peanuts — chopped

In a small bowl combine the soy sauce, rice wine, peanut butter, brown sugar
and hot sauce. Mix well and set aside.

Cut the bean curd into pieces about 1 ½�?. Heat a wok or sauté pan, add the sesame oil and the bean curd and stir-fry until the curd begins brown, approximately 5 minutes. Gently remove the bean curd from the wok or sauté pan and hold in a warm place.

OR

A better way to prepare the tofu is to deep fry it. Toss the cubes of tofu in flour with a little dried lemongrass and then deep fry.

In the wok, stir-fry the ginger and garlic until they start to brown.
Add the soy sauce and rice wine mixture to the pan.

Return the bean curd to the pan. Add the bean sprouts and green onions, green peppers, and mushrooms. Stir-fry just long enough to coat everything with the sauce. Garnish with peanuts and serve.

Copyright Whimsical Prodctions 2006

- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – -

Per Serving (excluding unknown items): 236 Calories; 16g Fat (55.6% calories from fat); 14g Protein; 14g Carbohydrate; 3g Dietary Fiber; 0mg Cholesterol; 18mg Sodium. Exchanges: 1/2 Grain(Starch); 2 1/2 Lean Meat; 1 1/2 Vegetable; 2 1/2 Fat; 0 Other Carbohydrates.

Posted under Cooking, Random Thoughts, Vegetarian

I’ve been doing some research on making money on the internet because we’re po’.

We’ve already done the consolidate loans, home equity loan, etc. I just need to earn money.

I do have a job, and I love it. It just doesn’t pay that much. Of course, it pays more than any other job I’ve had, but that doesn’t say too much. I’m also in such a specialized field that I’m not sure that I would be able to find another job where I’m doing something similar and would make any more money.

It seems that I need to get advertising to my sites. So let me know if you know of anyone who would like to advertise on my websites:

Collected Sounds
Parlor Parties

Or either of my blogs:

collectedsounds.blogspot.com
or my newest one:
amyscookbook.blogspot.comI already use Adsense and that helps a little. But I only make about $2 per day (and that’s a good day) and that don’t pay the mortgage if ya knowwaddamean.

Anyone have any good money making ideas? And Dave, I’m NOT going into Porn as you have suggested many times.

Posted under Uncategorized

While doing some internet research, I came across the term, mesothelioma. Being that I work in the human services/healthcare industry it’s always interesting to me when I hear of a disease I didn’t know about. Because I did actually learn something in my college medical terminology class I knew that “oma” meant cancer.

A simple search lead me to several websites of interest. I learned that mesothelioma is a cancer in the cells of the membrane called the mesothelium that surrounds your organs.

There are three kinds of mesothelioma: Pleural mesothelioma is a cancer of the lining of the lung (pleura), peritoneal mesothelioma is a cancer of the lining of the abdominal cavity (peritoneum), and pericardial mesothelioma.

I also learned that most people who have this cancer got it because they worked in a place that exposed them asbestos. The http://www.mesotheliomaweb.org/ says that “An exposure of as little as one or two months can result in mesothelioma 30 or 40 years later.” Can you imagine? Thinking you’re fine, then getting sick and finding out it’s because of some small exposure you had 40 years ago?

I guess this is why when you search mesothelioma on the web you’ll also get links to mesothelioma lawyers. Seems that there are lawsuits a plenty circulating on behalf of people who have contracted this disease due to poor working conditions.

There is no sure cure for mesothelioma but there are treatment options. The same as any other cancer, surgery, chemotherapy or radiation. The prognosis is better then sooner it’s diagnosed, of course. But how would you even know you had it until it was too late if it can take up to 40 years to show up?

You learn something new everyday!

Some links:

mesotheliomaweb
mesothelioma-lung-cancer.org
mesolawsuit.com/

Posted under Uncategorized

Dave was in town for New Year’s and this year he decided to cook dinner for us. We were really spoiled. Here’s what he served:

Shrimp Cocktail
Broiled Tomatoes with Balsamic and Fresh Mozzarella
Steak Au Poivre (steak with pepper) in a Brandy Parmesan Cream sauce.
Garlic Mashed Potatoes
Berries with Cream

Everything was wonderful. I have the recipes if anyone wants them. Maybe I’ll post them as separate blog entries.

Anyway the highlight might have been when Dave almost set the kitchen on fire. See, when you make a brandy sauce (especially if you are male) you need to set it on fire.

Well, we got the lighter all ready (I was ready with the camera) and Dave poured the brandy, Greg tried to light it. Nothing happened. The lighter wouldn’t go off. So he went and got another lighter. Meanwhile Dave was pretty sure that the brandy had all cooked off so of course, poured some more in.

This time the lighter worked just fine. See?

It only looked like that for a second and wasn’t really as scary as you might think. I’m just glad that the papers on the fridge didn’t catch!

It was a great dinner.

Posted under Cooking

This is my formal/official plea to all of you out there with great comedy taste.

The best comedy show on TV, “Arrested Development� is about to be canceled if more people don’t start watching it. Those of us who love it can understand why it’s not getting the ratings is deserves. I’m sure part of it is that they choose Neilson families that are mentally challenged and watch “Stacked� and “Freddie�, but that’s a completely other issue. (My apologies if you watch either of those shows, but if you do…why?)

I have asked some friends and what they say is something like ‘oh yeah, I love that show, I just forget to watch it’. Well, it can’t afford for us to forget anymore.

This show was nominated for 11 Emmy’s last year (won 7 of them). It’s seriously the funniest, SMARTEST, show on TV. I mean, I love “Earl� as much as the next guy, but this, this is something else completely.

So please please set your VCR or TiVo or watch in real time (gasp! Who does that?!). If enough people watch the show in the coming weeks it might still have a chance. When? Monday nights at 7pm.

Hell, if you want you can come over to our house and watch it on the big screen.

Go here to see video clips and learn more about the show:
http://www.fox.com/arresteddev/

Then you can go here:
http://www.getarrested.com/
and sign the petition (sort of) to keep the show on the air.

More people trying to save this show:
http://the-op.com/saveourbluths/

Here are other petitions:
Petition One
Petition Two
Petition Three

Update: I just learned it might be too late. It’s not on this week. We won’t know until May if it’s canceled or not and they will likely show re-reuns. But you can certainly go to those website and sign the petitions.

Posted under tv/movies

Emily Rose
Directed by
Scott Derrickson
Laura Linney, Tom Wilkinson, Campbell Scott, Jennifer Carpenter

Some of you…OK ONE of you said that you enjoy reading my blog because of the movie reviews. I realized I have not done a lot of them in recent months. So here’s one.

Last night we watched “The Exorcism of Emily Rose�?. First thing to know if you don’t already is that it’s primarily a courtroom drama. But there’s a good dose of ‘holy shit, that’s creepy’ too.

The story (based on true events) is of a young woman who goes away to college for the first time and allegedly becomes possessed. She goes back home to her family’s home where they call the local priest who comes over to exorcise her and she ends up dying. I’m not giving much away; she is dead before the film starts. So the priest is on trial for negligent homicide.

In order to make this film not one sided (or perhaps it was in order to make the trial not one sided) they hire a religious lawyer for “The People�? and an agnostic lawyer to represent the priest.

So the film is basically the trial and the story is being told in flashback. I really liked it. So did Greg. It was much deeper than I expected. The acting was very good. That girl who played Emily…she was kind of odd looking, but she did the possession scenes very well. Ton Wilkinson played the priest and I just love him. He’s great in everything I’ve seen him in. Laura Linney was his lawyer and I adore her too So the cast is wonderful and it’s well, written, nicely shot, etc. Very good.

I don’t believe in god, at least I don’t think I do. Certainly not in the traditional sense. Therefore, I cannot believe in demons and the need for exorcisms. But I do believe that the mind is quite powerful and can kill us if “it�? gets sick.

I believe that the girl was mentally ill and had epilepsy (which explains the contortions of the body, and hallucinations). This is one theory that was brought up in the film, but they made it seem like it wasn’t really a good one. I thought it was.

It’s my belief that the girl wasn’t quite ready to go away from home. She was very sheltered and her family was extremely religious. They didn’t want her to go, etc. So she goes, things are scary/exciting. She meets a boy. Something her parents would have freaked out about. So she’s already feeling like she’s “bad�?. I believe she was subconsciously punishing herself by becoming mentally ill and because she was so religious it manifested itself as a possession of (several) demons.

I am quite sure that if she were not religious she would not have become “possessed�? but simply schizophrenic. Her obsession would have been something else. The reason I think this is that I’ve seen this sort of thing with our clients in the mentally challenged population. Kid believes that Satan is talking to him. Is his family very religious, hell yeah! So they think, maybe he really is conversing with Satan. Those of us who don’t believe in Satan can come up with scientific rational explanation for his behavior. Anyway, I realize this is not so much a review of the film as a dissertation on my views, but I want you to realize that you can enjoy the movie no matter what you believe.

Posted under Drama, Movie Reviews, Mystery/Suspense

Last night we went to Chino for happy hour. There was a woman next to us who ordered food. When you do that, they bring you three bottles of hot sauce, chopsticks and a place setting.

A few minutes later, before the woman’s food came, Emilia (the bartender) pointed to the only two bottles of hot sauce on the bar and said to her, “Is that all I brought you?� and the woman said, “I don’t know�. So she shrugged and set up one more bottle (they are three different kinds). As soon as she set them down and turned her back I saw the woman grab the Sri Racha sauce and put it below the bar. I couldn’t see where she was putting it because Greg was in between us. Emilia came over and I said, “You’re not going crazy, you did give her three bottles the first time and now look.� Greg told her that the bottles were on the floor. So next thing I see is Emilia out from behind the bar holding the two hot sauces up for the woman to see. She said, “I don’t know, I was just walking by here and saw these two bottles on the floor. What’s that all about?� I couldn’t hear what the woman said but Emilia took the bottles and went back behind the bar.

Then when the woman left she wrote a check. Of course Emilia looked at it pretty carefully and the woman got mad! I couldn’t hear anything she said, but Emilia said, “I think your attitude is way out of line. You tried to steal from us!!�

The very sweet bar back (who’s name escapes me) gave the woman $3 and said he was buying her Bloody Mary. That was very nice of him. It became clear that the woman was mentally ill or challenged in some way. But still…she tries to steal from a place and they buy her a drink? That’s not going to prevent her from trying it somewhere else. While we were talking about her the guy next to me said that he used to work at Tonic and they had to kick her out before too. I don’t remember the reason, but sheesh!! So that was our excitement for the evening.

Emilia makes really strong drinks.

Posted under happy hour