i'm a proud glutton

though not an epicurian one. yesterday i think i had about 10 slices of pizza. six at erins house that abi made and then like 4 at home that dave made. well, dave didn't make them, the red baron made them. we ate the shit out of them though. abis pizza's were all homeade, crust etc. first one had pear and gorgonzola, muy tasty. had about 2 slices of that, the next had a bunch of like broccoli and onions and green peppers, the next has spinach and lil grape tomatoes and stuff and the last had atrichike haerts and peppers and onions and shrooms. come to think of it , i need to up the count. i probably ate 10 slices just at abis and annother 6 or 7 at home. so probably had 16-17 slices of pizza yesterday. this is good because its supposed to get cold and i need a better layer of blubber. after we ate pizza at erin and abi's we watched the oscars. there isn't much to talk about. fancy people trying to be funny. sadly enough jack black was the funniest person on the show last night. i know, right? he really isn't that funny! will smith made a joke about av nerds and then called benjamin button a garden gnome. wolverine and etta james really screwed up a musical number and the sound guy for the whole show should be fired. and the saddest part was for half the show we watched it in non HD and it ruled because all the women were curvy and had had nice nornal wide hips. i was so excited and started having some faith in hollywood. then someone remembered we could watch it in HD. lame, all the women went back to being bony and skinny. i'd rather have non HD curves.

pizza diet

kinda back on it. 3 times this week so far. no signs of slowing.

salmon wednesdays

so ryan cason gets this deal on salmon somewhere up in alpine. he brings it, i cook it, everyone eats it. the salmon club has begun. wednesday nights. if you wanna come bring some extra food. get in touch if you wanna know what to bring. i'm gonna try to change up the way i cook it every week. i think this coming wednesday its going to be indian. (dot not feather)

jambalaya

about 20 feet to my left is a pot of jambalaya of my own make. i haven't made it in a while. i think its about time. and i made it with shrimp this time, because, certain whiny people wouldn't eat shrimp when i used to make it. those people can kiss my ass now.

travelling chef

from time to time i turn my house into a makeshift venue. we host bands of all sorts from all different places. it gives me an excuse to have a band and it gives other local bands a place to play in an unpretentious forum. a few days ago some dudes from omaha nebraska rolled through town on their way to california. they're called the box elders. this is the second tme they've played at my house. they came back because apparently they had a good time. the night of the show we all went out for pizza at nicolitalia, which is always a treat for any band. nick loves travelling bands and hams it up a little more than usual. we got some pizza and wings and breadsticks and salad and pasta. everyone loves nicks. so we get back and everyone is happy and full and we get everything set up for the show. from start to finish the show was a blast. all good vibes and everyone had a party. and those who wanted to party harder did. and it ruled. after the show we had a low scale dance party and everyone hung out all night. the next day the dudes kicked it at the compund resting up from the show and long drive from NEB and gettng ready to head out to sacramento. i called them around 3:00 that next day to see if they had left, but to my surprise they'd decided to hang around one more night. it was cool with me so i was like, yo dudes, lets make dinner, and i started thinking of things i could make that the box elders would dig. so i got home and dave, the drummer/keyboardist was, like , hey , i'm making dinner for everyone. wordz. so we hit up many lands market and got fixins for pad thai. and the box elders got to talk to the crazy man who runs the place. i love that guy. he's so wierd. he was complaining about james taylor, wondering why he kept being a singer since he was so horrible. we then went to smiths to get the veggies etc we needed. after we got back dave goldberg got to work on some appetizers: spring rolls. delicious. everyone dug on them. even ned. then he went to work on the pad thai. my house hasn't smelled that good in a while. and it tasted just as good as it smelled. everyone got enough and we all set up to chill the rest of the night. the dudes left this morning and i can't wait to kick it with them again soon. best dudes ever.

taking back the kitchen

so i got this little roomate kid who is always making food. he doesn't know how to cook, always making like ramen and soup and stuff you only make when you can't figure out how to put a few things together in a pot or skillet and make it taste good with your favorite spices and seasonings. one of his favorite things to make is eggs. apparently no one has ever told him about what happens when a raw egg hits hot metal. to be able to eat most of the egg when its cooked requires some sort of lubricant, which he never found out about. so, we usually end up with about 5 or 6 skillets with a few eggs worth of crusty leftover egg. i don't know if he keeps cooking new eggs over the old eggs or what, but me and dave got tired of it. so, we cleaned the kitchen and washed dishes, in the past we didn't care, but after a while we kinda gave up because his dirty dishes were so overwhelming, but now we're taking the kitchen back with a vengeance. if he leaves dirty egg crust in any more skillets, hes sleeping with them. hopefully he'll get the message. for his sake. so as part of our reclamation project, i decided to start cooking again.
sunday i decided i wantd to break out the old crock pot and make apot roast, which i did. but as i was buying the stuff for the roast i realized my crock pot wasn't big enough so i upgraded. now i gots two crock pots. dual crocking. i found a pretty good marbly roast on sale and got some red potatoes because russets are flavorless and bland. i also threw in an onion and some carrots. i was gonna use celery too but smiths decided not to have any, so celery flakes were used instead. also included were some of my staples:
red wine vinegar, fresh garlic, granulated garlic, onion powder, bay leaves, greek seasoning, and rosemary in varying porportions.
it was super tasty. i ate it with dave and jesse and charley and bryan and jen and cath. fun time.
i decided i was on a roll and i that i needed to cook again, and for anyone who doesn't know, the only question i have about food is this:
DOES IT TASTE GOOD?
i could really care less where it came or who made it or what, none of that matters. if it doesn't taste good i don't wanna eat it.
so, my buddy ryan was telling me he had gotten a hold of some fresh salmon and wanted to cook it up, and we planned to meet on monday and cook that shit up. which we did. and guess what, it tasted good. marni came over too and ate some with us. on the salmon, i grilled it in my kick-ass cast iron skillett (which i had to re-season because some dumbass don't know how to use a cast iron skillett).
most people really like salmon with lemons, but guess what, lemons on salmon suck. i use lime. lime on salmon is good because it doesn't have the shitty lemon aftertaste and it still kills the fishy taste that seems to turn most people off to salmon. so i start by taking a fork to the salmon fillets (no steaks, the steaks usually got bones in 'em and i don't do fishbones) and poking a ton of holes in it then squeezing the lime in and rubbing the juice and pulp down into the meat fibers, then i seal it off with some olive oil (which blends pretty well with the lime juice). after that i hit it with my favorite spice blends, usually some basil and greek seasoning (its my seasonall) and black pepper garlic and onion powder. i pretty much use the same compliment on every thing i eat. but guess what? it all tastes good. so by this time my cast iron skillet was piping hot and it was oiled nicely and i put the salmon scale side down, get the nice salmon fat hot and let it hang out for a bit then flip it. after i flip it i get the butter i'm gonna put on it all melted. once i flip it, the seasonings are nice and crusted and then i brush butter over the top and let the butter hang out with the crustieez and the lime and olive oil. by this time the fillets is pretty much done. if you over cook salmon it gets mushy and no one likes a mushy salmon fillet. when you eat this salmon you can pull the fibers apart layer by layer and while the outside is grilled and buttery, the inside is steamed with lime. so tasty.
i even tried some of the scale. it was pretty good too.
so later on monday night i was getting hungry again, and dave was around, so we decided to hit up smiths and find some snacks. we decided that for our late night snack we needed some bacon cheeseburgers. so we got some black angus patties and some pepper bacon, cheddar and a tomato and i bought some sweet bread and butter pickles. dave thinks he knows whats up, but he don't like sweet bread and butter pickles. sucker. so we busted the cast iron skillet back out and whipped them cheeseburgers up. talk about a winner. hit the damn spot y'all.
i guess what i'm trying to say is that i'm gonna be cooking all the time and if you suckers want some of it get your ass to my house and eat up.