The Care and Feeding of a Domestic Diva

It all started with Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares. The promos on BBCAmerica led me to believe he's a horrible, foul-mouthed jerk who managed to get his own reality show. So, I never watched. Then one night, after sitting through Top Chef, I flipped to where Kitchen Nighmares was just starting. It was fun. In all the promos, the ranting and raving parts were outtakes from Ramsay trying to give his proteges a backbone. In one show, he has the chef make the specialty and subsequently gets poisoned by a bad scallop. Everyone who's had a sample, barfs, avoiding the food poisoning. Plus, a lot of those kitchens are filthy. Never in my life, not even when the mouse came over to visit, has our kitchen been as bad. "So?" you say? WE don't feed the general public, nor do we get inspected by the health department. I'm wondering how much the chefs have had to pay off the inspectors. Sheesh.

So anyway, when I was loitering about in Barnes and Noble a couple weeks ago, I found this:


Could I pass it up? Oh heck no! It has the pursuit of perfection on it, how could I? This is one of those books, like Tis and Angela's Ashes, that I want to totally focus on, with no TV or computer in the background. I'll have to set up a stack o' books in the living room near a window for a read-o-rama.

What WAS I looking for in the cookbook rack? This, actually:


It's sooo goood. The recipes are just hard enough to be challenging without being so exotic my family won't eat them. What else is wonderful is that it gives the reason to the rhyme. It's a keeper. Currently, I'm going through my cookbooks to see what stays and what goes. If I've never used a recipe from a book, out it goes. No mercy. On the endangered list is the Dean and Deluca, the Three Ingredient cookbook, and the Heart Healthy Recipes for all seasons. They're all good, but not something I use. If it's not useful to me and I need the counter space, out it goes.

In keeping with the You: On a Diet, I found:


The Ramsay's cookbook is great for the once a week treat, since there's no nutritional values given for anything. Otherwise, the Cooking the RealAge way is great for building a healthy menu for the week. For some strange reason, I enjoy cooking and am getting better at it all the time. Practice really does make perfect, who knew?

Funny Fry conversation:
Me, holding out my new emerald ring: Someday, when I croak, you can give this to your kids.
Fry, a mule-ish expression on her sweet little face: My kids ain't getting squat!

I think the little booger expects to keep every bit of jewelry I own for herself. Ha!

In fiber news, I've finished a sleeve for the grey sweater. Joy oh joy! I'm a third of the way on the second sleeve, planning to be done with that this afternoon sometime. Then, it's yoke city all the way. It'll be a lovely dance of light to dark greys to the neck. I really can't wait. After that, it's a harsh choice to make on what sock pair to knit up next.

I suppose sometime I'll have to publish 'The List'. All the projects I've planned that not only I have the pattern for, but I also have the yarn to complete them. The List is three pages long, so I'll probably type it up in Word, first.

Fry and I are having a Python-a-thon today. It's so nice, no commercials, and the box set is still on sale. There's hours of shows and if you work it up, it's totally worth the cost. Especially when Fry giggles over something funny.

There's not much about 'The Man' this post because he's at drill this weekend. We love it when he comes home. We girls love on him, make sure he has root beer to drink and comfy clothes, and he tells us about his Army adventures for the weekend. Lots of fun.