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

Last night we had a nice dinner for Greg’s company holiday party. Not sure which holiday we were celebrating. I guess it was President’s Day.

We went to Kincaid’s. I was expecting great things because I’d read somewhere that this is the restaurant to “go to when someone else is paying�. Boy is it! I thought they just meant the food was expensive, which it is. But it’s totally NOT worth the money.

We started with some appetizers, which were all OK. The shrimp I had was pretty good. Butterflied and garlicky. Greg liked the one he had; it was in a heavy-on-the-horseradish sauce. I didn’t try that one. The teriyaki beef was good. The artichoke dip was very heavy on the cream and light on the artichoke. I like mine better. The crab dip was good.

Onto the entrees. I had the scallops. They were breaded in almonds, seared and served with a potato gratin and Beurre Blanc sauce. Sounds yummy right? Well, the first couple bites were good. But then I realized that it was super salty and sweet even. I know that they used sweet onions and they were delicious, but there had to have been sugar on the scallops, probably to help brown them. They were also a little rubbery, which usually means overcooked. They reminded me of the Cap’n Crunch chicken tenders I had at Planet Hollywood many years ago. The first bite is interesting, and then you just think it’s kind of gross.

The potatoes were really greasy but tasty, so I ate them. The portions were large. I was not expecting that. But for some reason even though I ate only a little I felt really stuffed and icky. I had a stomach ache for…well, what time is it? I still feel kind of icky and that was at least 18 hours ago.

Greg had the prime rib. It looked pretty good. He liked it. But said that he’s had better at other places for much less.

Mine was $24.95 and his was $33.95. So yeah, I’m glad I wasn’t paying for it. I would say mine was worth maybe $10 and his, well, we had prime rib at Rossi’s and it was $25.00 but that included tickets to a live music show. Now that was a great meal.

Everyone else at the table enjoyed their orders. I liked mine, but didn’t love it, would not order it again, and would certainly not pay that price for it. I’ll stick with my Chino and Independent…and my favorite, Giorgio!

Posted under Cooking

Directed by Robert Schwentke Starring Jodie Foster, Peter Sarsgaard, Sean Bean

I love Jodie Foster. I do. I was so hoping for good things from this film. I’d heard it wasn’t very good, but I tend to like stuff others don’t so it went on our Netflix list. It is the story of a woman (Foster) who boards a plane (with her daughter?) to bring her dead husband’s body from Germany, where they live, to New York where they are from originally.

We already see from the first scene that she might be losing her marbles as she’s walking through the streets with her dead husband, but is really alone. Are you with me?

She gets on the plane and the little girl is scared of flying to mom has to hide her under her coat to get her on. What?

The plane is unbelievably empty so they take two rows in the back to sleep. Mom wakes up, daughter is gone. Mom looks all over for her, can’t find her. She’s sure someone stole her and tries to get the crew to help. They are semi-helpful until they start believing that she’s crazy. We’re supposed to as well.

I don’t want to say too much for fear of giving away anything for those of you who have not seen it. So if you don’t want to see spoilers stop reading now and just know, I caution you to rent it. See it only if you don’t mind LARGE plot holes and just want look at Jodie Foster or Peter Sarsgaard (he is kind of cute, but has a really femmy voice much like Malkovich). If you’ve seen it, or don’t care about spoilers, go ahead and click below.

Read More…

Posted under Movie Reviews, Mystery/Suspense

I dreamed last night that I was at my mom’s house…all my weird and bad dreams take place in her house. Make what you will out of that!

Anyway, Greg’s boss was there and there was some kind of informal dinner going on. His boss asked me to step outside with him and we each had a mug of coffee or something like that. Now my mother’s backyard is really a forest, but in the dream it was a short forest that over looked a pond. In actuality she does have a pond, but it’s to the side of the house, not the back. It was fenced in and Greg had let Murphy out there so I was looking around to make sure there were no holes in the fence for him to escape.

Anyway…so we’re outside talking and a large giraffe comes out of the water and heads toward us. I am standing right by the door and I said, “Should I be worried? Should I go in?� and Boss says, “Naw, they don’t bite people. Sometimes they nudge them on the butt…� and just then the giraffe wound up and head butted Boss in the ass.

Now I’m scared so I go inside and call to Greg that he’s got to come see this! I was going to take a picture with my phone but then realized I don’t have a camera phone.

So I’m hollering, to Greg who comes running. Just then the giraffe is slams her head into the door and busts right through it. As I peek out the hole she’s left I see that there’s a baby giraffe there too (which is why I assumed the large one was female). I think Boss has now run to the front of the house. At any rate, I’m not too worried about him.

Then this middle-aged couple comes to the door and asks to be let in. As I’m letting them in, they’re saying that they live nearby but up higher on the hill so they never have to worry about this. So apparently this is a common occurrence…funny my mom never mentioned it before. Next I see their teenaged son outside asking to come in to get away from the giraffe and it was right around then I woke up.

Any of you armchair psychologists like to take a stab at this?

Here’s what I get:

1. Living at my mom’s was stressful. So when I have stress dreams, they take place there.
2. We just had dinner with Greg’s boss last night. He does seem like he knows everything and someone got him really good with a playful jab last night.
3. Sometimes I want to kick him in the ass
4. I really want a camera phone

Posted under Dreams

I made this for lunch today. The noodles got so hard that I hurt my tooth on one. Seriously, like it shot pain up to my brain. It was also extremely oily. I would not use cheddar.

Crusty Macaroni and Cheese
Serving Size : 8

Amount Measure Ingredient — Preparation Method
——– ———— ——————————–
3 tablespoons butter — divided
12 ounces extra-sharp Cheddar cheese — coarsely grated
12 ounces American cheese or Cheddar cheese — coarsely grated
1 pound elbow pasta — boiled in salted water until just tender, drained, and rinsed under cold water
1/8 teaspoon cayenne — optional
Salt
2/3 cup whole milk

Heat oven to 375 degrees. Use 1 tablespoon butter to thickly grease a 9-by-13-inch baking dish. Combine grated cheeses and set aside 2 heaping cups for topping.

In a large bowl, toss together the pasta, cheeses, cayenne and salt to taste.

Place in prepared pan and evenly pour milk over surface.

Sprinkle reserved cheese on top, dot with remaining butter and bake, uncovered, 45 minutes.

Raise heat to 400 degrees and bake 15 to 20 minutes more, until crusty on top and bottom.

Source:“Star Tribune January 11, 2006

Posted under Cooking, Pasta, Vegetarian

For reasons I will explain in person if you wish, I have built my own blog. I am using WordPress which so far is great! Now I just have to figure out how to import all my stuff from the “other blog”

Update: I did it!! Well, *I* didn’t. But I found a program that did. This is so slick!!

Posted under Uncategorized

I did a Johari Window thing-a-ma-bob and asked people I know to fill it out. These sef-discovery things can be scary, but I love doing them anyway. It’s always amazing to see how other people perceive you and how even their ideas about you differ. For instance, I must act totally different around the friend who thinks I am “self-assertive” vs. the one who thinks I am “self-conscious”. Very interesting!!

Have a look see (but please don’t go randomly filling it out if you don’t know me, I want it to be accurate.)

Dominant Traits

57% of people think that ecalos is friendly

All Percentages

able (28%) accepting (28%) adaptable (0%) bold (0%) brave (0%) calm (0%) caring (28%) cheerful (0%) clever (0%) complex (14%) confident (0%) dependable (0%) dignified (0%) energetic (14%) extroverted (0%) friendly (57%) giving (28%) happy (28%) helpful (0%) idealistic (0%) independent (0%) ingenious (0%) intelligent (42%) introverted (0%) kind (14%) knowledgeable (28%) logical (0%) loving (0%) mature (0%) modest (14%) nervous (0%) observant (0%) organised (14%) patient (14%) powerful (0%) proud (0%) quiet (0%) reflective (0%) relaxed (0%) religious (0%) responsive (0%) searching (0%) self-assertive (14%) self-conscious (28%) sensible (0%) sentimental (0%) shy (0%) silly (0%) spontaneous (0%) sympathetic (0%) tense (0%) trustworthy (28%) warm (28%) wise (0%) witty (42%)

Please let me know if you did one too and I’ll play along on yours. If this comes up blank, or it does when you try to go to it, it’s because it’s very popular and their server is getting swamped!

Posted under fun/games

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – A teenage guitarist got so carried away while bouncing up and down on his bed mimicking a rock star that he flew out of a third floor window to his death, a Singapore newspaper reported Wednesday.

[Read Full Story]

Kid’s please don’t jump around near windows unless you live on the first floor.

Posted under Uncategorized

This was originally found in a Gourmet magazine, but I’ve changed so much about it, it’s mine now.

Thai Shrimp And Spinach Curry

Original Recipe found in Gourmet – 1993 – But revised.
Serving Size : 4 Preparation Time :0:20

Amount Measure Ingredient — Preparation Method
——– ———— ——————————–
14 ounces coconut milk
1 tablespoon Thai green curry paste
1 pound shrimp – cooked, shelled, deveined
1 tablespoons naam pla (fish sauce)
1 red bell pepper – chopped into ½” squares
3/4 pound spinach — stems removed
¼ cup fresh cilantro — chopped
cooked rice
1 cup basmati rice – uncooked
2 cups water

Bring the water to a boil while you rinse the basmati rice in water in a strainer.
Add the rice to the water and bring back to boil. Reduce heat and let simmer about 10 minutes. You can begin to make the shrimp sauce when the rice is almost done.

Spoon about 1/3 cup of the coconut milk and in a large heavy skillet cook it over moderate heat, stirring, for 2 to 3 minutes, or until it is thickened slightly.

Add the curry paste and cook the mixture, whisking, for 1 minute.

Add the remaining coconut milk and the naam pla and simmer the mixture, uncovered, stirring occasionally, for 1 minute.

Add the shrimp and the bell pepper; simmer the mixture over moderately high heat, stirring, for 5 minutes until the sauce thickens a little and the shrimp are heated through. Add the spinach, stirring until it is wilted. Add the cilantro.

(this is what it looks like before you add the rice)

Add the cooked rice to the shrimp sauce and mix well. Serve.

Posted under Cooking, Seafood

Thanks to the Nerina Pallot mailing list I’ve just learned about a new Internet radio station that I think is pretty cool. It’s called Chill. It’s actually a satellite radio station, but you can listen online. The only problem is it doesn’t work in Mozilla. So load up your computer with Spyware Blaster , Ad-Aware and Spybot and then open IE and go to: http://www.helpmechill.com/

Note: I’m not saying the web page puts Spyware on your system, I’m saying that IE is not safe. I don’t use it unless I absolutely have to.

Posted under Music

So it has been the routine on Monday nights lately to make some drinks and watch “Skating with Celebrities�. We’ve had a great time watching that show. I’ve never really been that into skating, but it’s fun to watch these people who are not skaters actually try this. It’s very hard and they’re doing so well. I started watching because I wanted to see celebrities fall on their asses and now I’m rooting for them.

My favorite moment so far has to be last week when Kristy and Lloyd thought they’d lost because they weren’t sure which score was theirs and which one was the other pair’s. They were all sad and ready to walk off the stage when the host said, “you’re not going home!� and they were both like, “huh?�

Even better was on The Soup when they showed that clip Joel says, “Next Kristy Swanson will be appearing on “Which Number is Higher with Celebrities�. Oh god I still laugh at that. Seriously, I’m laughing right now. I love The Soup. Did anyone else see, “Oh snap! Did you hear that? Hottie went to college!� But I digresss….

So Greg has a pretty bad cold so last night he did not want drinks with his show so we had to watch it completely sober. I must say, it’s not quite as entertaining. Maybe because we’re not as snarky when we’ve not been imbibing. It was still fun though. It’s down to two couples so we’ve only got one week left. I’m rooting for Kristy and Lloyd…even though they can’t count.

Posted under tv/movies