Fine dining II

Since I didn't post anything last month I have been trying to be extra active this month. Today I am doing my second "fine dining". Last time I didn't really pay much attention to the steps involved so this time instaed of doing a full meal I am simply doing a single item, Eggplant parmesan. now I know that there are a bunch of diffrent ways to do this, but personally I like this one, mostly because it's easy and tastes good. SO... without further "adu", (or however you spell it), here are step by step instructions on how to make yummy eggplant parmesan.

The first step is of course to wash and cut your eggplant. I try to cut my eggplant close to, but less than half an inch.

The second step is to dip each slice of eggplant into beaten eggs.

After dipping the eggplant into egg, lightly powder both sides with flour

Then fry the eggplant in oil. make sure you lightly season the eggplant at this point with salt and pepper at least. Any other spices should be added at this time as well.

Here is an example of what your eggplant should and shoulden't look like. Actually I got distracted while I was cooking and accidently over cooked one.

Once you have battered and fried all of the eggplant that you want, put the peices on a cookie sheet. There really dosen't need to be a lot of room between them.

Put some of your favorite spaghetti sauce on each eggplant. You can use as much or little as you like. Personally, I like lots of sauce on mine.

Next you should top it with your favorite grated cheese. It dosen't have to be parmesan, mozzarella and provolone taste great too.

Bake your tasty little eggplants for about 15 minutes in a 350 degree oven, or until the cheese is melted and slightly brown. take them out of the oven and let them cool. Personally I like to eat them after they have cooled down.

So there you have it. Easy to make and extra yummy. Now last time I had a special visitor give a critique and this time a tried to get Big foot to do the critique but when I confronted him he simply sniffed the eggplant parmesan and turned up his nose. After relentlessly following him and trying to get him to taste my dish he finally turned and gave a horrific, saliva spewing, bad breath bellow that made the cheese jump off the eggplant and run away. I followed suit and needless to say I have no critique this month. Oh well, I guess you can't have everything.

The lizard

My senior year of college was one of many blurs. I probably couldn't tell you what my schedule was and I 'm actualy kind of glad that I don't remember it. There was one thing that I vividly do remember though that took place during the fall semester. I can remember that it was just starting to get a tad cool in Florida and it was a favorite pastime of mine to eat a hot cup of roast chicken ramen soup in the chilly evenings while I played video... I mean... "studied". On this particular night my good friend Tsung-yen Haung (affectionally known as Thomas) was sitting in my room "studying" with me. I decided to get my usual cup of soup and of course gave him one. We walked down stairs to the dorm kitchen, to cook our little treasures in a cup. Seriously, the person who decided to combine oriental noodle soup with styrofam was a genious. While I was filling my cup exactly to the little line with water, I noticed a lizard stuck in the kitchen sink. Now here I am going to explain that unbeknownst to me the faucet was somewhat broken and would only spew out flesh poaching water. So as you can imagine, I decided to fill the sink with water to see if the lizzard would swim. This little plan went terribly wrong though because the moment that hot water touched the little reptile he siezed up as stiff as a board. I could pick him up and his tail was like a little toothpick. Of course I felt horrible. I couldn't believe that these little lizards that sit on the scalding hot sidewalk and eat ants couldn't even stand a little hot water. And as you could probably guess, Thomas continued to bombard me with guilt as he talked about me not having respect for God's creatures, and how could I not know that a tiny animal wouldn't be hurt by scalding hot water. The little guy was tough though and I could tell that he was still barely breathing. So I took him up to my room after cooking my soup and massaged his little stiff body. He continued to be stiff but the more I rubbed him and worked his little muscles, the more he seemed to breath and blink his little eyes. All of my friends scoffed and told me to give up but I kept it up. Now you must understand that I like to let my soup set for a good five to ten minutes before I consume it. It just tastes better to me like that. Well, I kind of forgot about my soup with all of the excitement and it sat there on my desk as I worked with the lizard. It was about the time that the lizard started moving his head from side to side and wiggle his little feet that it happened. I was poking him to get him to move and right as I was just about to poke his nose he regained control of his mouth and bit the tip of my finger. Now lizard bites don't hurt, but when you're not expecting it they can startle the heck out of you. I flailed my hand back and sent my cup of soup flying across my room where it hit the opposite wall and landed on my bed emptying the remaining contents. I was so angry about losing my precious cup of soup and having such a beast of a mess to clean up that I took the stiff little lizard and chucked him out the window. The moral to this story? Never massage a lizard. Or was it don't torment little creatures? Eh, either way, lesson learned.

So... Busy!

Well folks, It's that time again. Summer. Now I know that it has been a while but I happen to have a perfect excuse. In the past month I have been doing... uh... Undercover work. Yes! That's it! Undercover work for the Peruvian Government! And... uh... I had to stop a Brazillian spy from stealing... uh... it's top secret I can't tell you any more. Any way, Yes. Very busy. *Ahem*. Back to my original topic, Summer. Work work work. everyone who is still in college and highschool is doing some summer job and those of us who are teachers are out in the hot sun digging 6 foot wide holes, 4 feet deep. Oh wait, thats just me. Thats right. when I'm not spending my time behind a counter, dishing out generous amounts of my fake smile, I'm out in the hot sun working like a Mexican. You all get my point though. Its summer work time. Have fun and I hope I will start being a little more faithful to my blog. Ta~

Classic Game Review

As you know I have been on a dry spell recently. I just can't seem to think of anything interesting to post so I decided to do somthing easy, a game review!

Game: Mole Mania

Type: Puzzle
Age: 9+
Dificulty: Very hard

Story:

One day while Muddy Mole was at work, his wife was going about her daily chores while grandpa mole was watching the baby moles play... When suddenly Jinbe the farmer showed up and grabbed Muddys wife and all of his kids, shoved them into his big farmers bag and then left. But not befor leaving a note for Muddy. "Youe wife and kids are mine! If you want them back I'll be waiting in Jinbe land! -Jinbe" Muddy was furious he vowed to get back his wife and children and then set off on his adventure.

Description:

Make it through the 8 worlds of Jinbe land and rescue your kids along the way. The object is to use your puzzle solving skills and muddys super fast digging claws to get through each world. Each world introduces new aspects of the game, from digging holes to get past an obsticle, to throwing a big iron ball into big rock walls to make it to the next puzzle. each new puzzle is harder than the last. To add a little more challenge to the game you must find and steal 20 cabbages, play a frantic Minigame and find all items in each world.

My opinion:

I like Mole Mania because it's very hard. not only do you have fun playing the game but you have a sence of pride upon completing a world with a shining 100%. As far as I'm concerned, the story is ok but its really the puzzles that challenge your very sanity that get me. I can remember there was one level that was so hard that I always had to use my "surrender" to get past. Of course the day I finally figured it out I felt like the smartest man alive.

Rateing:

fun: 8.5/10
story/setting: 6/10
controls: 10/10
replayability: 9/10
Overall: 8.4

Fine Dining

Todays post is about somthing I cooked this month and I am going to try and do this at least once a month. So, Saturday Miriam and I were wondering what we should have for supper and we really didn't have anything in the house that was easy and quick to whip up. Upon inspecting the fridge we came up with the idea that all we needed were some simple additions, obtainable at the local grocery store and we could make shish kebabs. Fortunatly Miriam had thrown some chicken breast meat along with a few left over chunks of raw beef round, into a bowl with some italian dressing to marinade. So, Miriam and I went to Winn-Dixie and got some baby portabella mushrooms, green peppers and some green and yellow squash. After returning home we cut the meat into bite size chunks and skewered them on sticks. Then we grilled the shish kebabs on our nice big George forman grill (thank you Uncle Rod and Aunt Beth) untill they smelled so good we could not stand to wait any longer. Whilst I was fussing with stabbing chunks of meat and various vegetables, Miriam was whipping up some amazingly tasty butter, garlic and parmesan pasta. Here is the finished product try not to drool on your keyboard.


I also took a picture with some pretty things to make you guys even more hungry (notice the pretty candle, and NO I didn't steal it from my next door neighbor). In case your wondering thats Coke Zero in my cup. All things considered I would give this meal a 98%. I think I might have enjoyed it a tad more if I had had some lemon juice to squeeze on my pasta but we just didn't think of it while we were at the store. The after effects of this meal were catastrophic on our breath and I woulden't recomend it if you are trying to impress a date. (Please note that no real Shish Kebabs were hurt during the making of this meal)

And finally! A word from a professional food Critic! Now since this is our first time I thought I might do somthing special. As it turned out however, the only person I could find was a wierd pirate person thingy. So without further adu... or however you spell it, I give you Wierd Beard the pirate!

Arrrr! First I just wanna say that back in me day we hadda KILL our kebab veggies! there was none O' this shoppin at the "Store" for 'em. Yessir, I member the firs time I chased down a wild green squash... I harpooned the beaut right off port bough. Those were the days! None 'O this "Store" shoppin stuff! Yer can have it! Give me fresh killed veggies any day. And as fer yer measely little excuse fer a meal, it woulden't satisfy me hunger when I was a wee boy let alone a grown glorious pirate! Me advice to ye would be ta triple the portions and lay off the garlic. Yer breath could wipe out Black Beard 'imself... Arrrrrrrr!