Having watched numerous seasons of Hell's Kitchen and seeing many of the chef's get torn a new one over Risotto, I was curious as to what all the fuss was about.  Why would Gordon go on such a rampage about this dish.  Is it nearly impossible to make? 

Then more recently, while in San Diego for Comicon, I was able to experience the true awesomeness of this dish at Croce's Restaurant. 

So, I got home and decided I just had to make this.  After a bit of internet investigation and shopping, I was ready to give it try.  There were tons of variations to try, but since I had tried the mushroom risotto, that was the recipe I tried to duplicate.

After about an hour of prep, this is where things stood...(and yes that's two huge mounds of fungi surrounding the wine bottle!)



I had no idea how long it would take me to thinly slice 2 pounds of mushrooms.  Come on, 2 pounds, really?!  You can see I needed some liquid libations to get me through the process.  Actually the wine glass does contain the wine on the counter, however it was nasty, so I added a little blood orange flavoring to spruce it up.  Ewww, but it served it's purpose.  I'm not a white wine drinker, much less a dry white wine drinker, but the recipe called for it, and well the bottle was open, so you know.  Bottoms up.



Twenty minutes of CONSTANT stirring and broth adding later, and I had RISOTTO!  I paired it with Filet Mignon and had a truly wonderful meal on my hands.  One thing I did learn:  I'm not that huge of a fan of fungus.  Don't get me wrong, it was very good, but I think I could have squeaked by with about a pound less mushrooms. 



Anyway, aside from reading comic books (huge backlog) and painting miniatures, that was about all I did this weekend.  I hope you guys had a great one too!

Well I hope everybody had a happy Turkey day.  We spent T-Day at super_sean's dad's house where I think there was a pumpkin pie for every person there.  The food and company was a lot of fun and we all feasted like it was end of days.  After lunch, we headed to my folks' place in Lafayette, LA to begin our grand adventure across the SE US to get to DISNEY WORLD!

Squee!  (exclamation du jour)
super_sean and I spent the entirety of yesterday on the road.  We would normally take I-10 out of Lafayette, but because of some gas well explosion, the bridge over the atchafalaya basin was closed.  So instead of following the detoured route, we found our own way south along hwy 90.  It was very scenic.  The farmers were pulling in their sugar cane harvests and the mills were churning at full capacity.  We wanted to pick up some cane to chew on, but all we could find were old brown sticks.  I was a bit surprised though by some of the signage down in south Louisiana.  We did actually pass two or three of the Bear Xing signs as the one posted here.  I'm guessing as a warning for Swamp Bears. 

The route was actually a good decision as we got to see the sights as well as make real good time.  Wound up going through New Orleans - I hadn't been there since Katrina and I was still surprised by all the damage that was still evident.  From there we continued on through Biloxi, Mobile, Pensacola, Tallahassee, and finally Gainesville.  By the time we got there, 10:30pm, we decided to call it a night.  We were both pooped and looking forward to some sleepy time. 

'poke' 'poke' 'poke' <crack of dawn>  "are you up yet - huh huh - you up?  are you still sleeping?  It's time to get up!!!!" 
super_sean is VERY excited to start his day.  And while I am excited too, I'm a bit sleepy.  I'm not such the morning person!  I can't blame him - and well his is so adorable when he gets this excited.

Well we're about to hit the road again.  Today we are headed to Orlando for some fun and games at Universal Studios!  Hope everyone out there is having a great day too!

What a great weekend. Thursday, my better half started teasing me by email at work that he had a SURPRISE for me. I was told that we had plans for Friday night. Well immediately, I had to know just what that was. He kept teasing me all day with little hints. It was driving me NUTS I say. Well later that night the surprise was revealed. He got us tickets to the Video Games Live concert at Jones Hall (www.videogameslive.com)!!! For those of you non-geeks - it is essentially a night at the symphony playing homage to video game music. There was a 70 piece orchestra and a chorus of sixty folks! Above the performers was a video monitor. The show started off with a tribute to the video games of yesteryear. As the various clips flashed on the monitor the symphony played the music associated with that title. It was really awesome. At two parts of the concert, they called a couple of audience members up to play space invaders and frogger while the symphony backed them up. Overall - a great night. They closed the show with Halo - awesome music and the chorus just made it kind of haunting. The only downside, one the companies - Square - wouldn't let them show video game footage of their intellectual properties. Unfortunately that included Final Fantasy and there were like 3 songs of the night that featured that music. That was a little boring - especially since I'm not that familiar with their games. The pre-concert activities were fun too. We showed up about 2 hours early and got to play a series of video games, people watch (some folks were participating in a costume contest), and shop at the t-shirt gallery. By the end of the evening we were pooped, but I got to fall asleep to sounds of Sean purring and the theme to mario boppin around my head. Great and unexpected evening. Thank you sweetheart!

Woke up late Saturday - I love to sleep in. It was a blissfully lazy Saturday. We had a few folks show up latter in the evening to help us finish off some of our supplies from the Kilt and Toga party. Doug, Texwriterbear, Chad, and Matt came over. We had brews, snacks, played a bit of Wii bowling then closed out the evening watching Not Another Gay Movie. Ha!

Well as I sit here typing, Sean is cussing at Mario World and I'm eyeing another great day of R-E-L-A-X-A-T-I-O-N and battery recharge. I hope everyone else is so lucky.

Have a great rest of your weekend and I'm curious to see who else develops gonorrhea on tonights Big Brother!

So last night we had Sean's folks over for dinner. Everytime we get together I try and make an awesome desert. First time, I made some really cool chocolate mini bundt cakes that I served up with ice cream, whipped cream, and fresh berries. Last night, I had to out do myself, and I think I did. I made tahitian vanilla, key lime creme brulee. Awesome. The white chocolate so balanced the tartness of the key limes. It keeps getting harder to raise the bar. I think next time I'm gonna go for shock value. Below is a pick of a dessert I made for the office a couple of months ago. And despite itself it was awesome.

I told everyone my cat made it for them...

So a couple of weeks ago, Sean and I innocently decided to head home to Louisiana for a bit of "sport". Anyway one thing lead to another and well...oh I just can't bring myself to speak of it... but here's the photo...

Anyone (aside from Kramer) know what this is and what we were doing?

Can you guess who the birthday boy is in this pic?



A lovely chapeau no? Don't get spanked too much this weekend. :-) Hope we get to see you and drive safely!

Happy post easter everybody. Hope that bunny left a lot of good candy for you. My diet was definitely on hold this weekend, though Texwriterbear doubts I'm on a diet at all. Well phtttb! to you. :-)

I certainly had a different easter. Sean and I drove up to Toledo Bend for a weekend of fishing with my Dad. Well we woke up Saturday morning and it was a bit cold and SNOWING! In Texas?! In April!?! It was awesome. So instead of staying put we all loaded up into the truck and paraded Mom around a bunch of small towns so she could shop with all her boys. We wound up having lunch in Natchadoches (OK you spell it smarty) which for those of who don't know, and I was one of them, the movie Steel Magnolias was filmed. Now drink your juice Shelby. Yeah didn't mean much to me, guess I'm going to have to turn in my card. But the town was actually quite nice and quaint. We even strolled along their walk of fame. I'll have to post pics soon. But got one of Sean laying next to Julia Robert's Star.

Sunday got up and the sun was out - still a bit brisk but we decided to go fishing anyway. My dad just wanted to show off the fact that he could work a worm and pulled out about 6 bass in the span of 3 to 4 hours. I caught one suicidal fish at the end of the trip. They were all too small to keep but fun was had by all anyway. Well maybe not the fish... Also got to see a Bald eagle and a large red-crested woodpecker (sounds like a disease). Got some pics of the Eagle too, hopefully they aren't too blurry.

Anyway, that was our trip, what was the strangest thing that happened to you this past weekend?

I can't wait, I can't wait, I can't wait. super_sean is helping me build a new computer and most of the fancy components should be delivered any day now! I'm giddy with anticipation. I want to tear into the boxes and fondle the pieces (hopefully I won't break anything in all my excitement). And my luck, I'm supposed to leave for London for work next weekend, so probably won't get anything put together until I get back.

This will be my first new desktop since 1999 - I felt it was time for an upgrade. I'm pimpin' this baby out, now if only I could get a spinner for the side of the case, a few ground effects and maybe a hydraulics lift kit, it'd scare 50-pennies or whatever his name is.

I'm betting this new system will be able to process por...ahem data faster than ever! Woohoo!

YOU'RE NOT THE BOSS OF ME MR. KILT!!! Well OK, he almost was. This past Saturday, July 1, Super_Sean and myself threw a Kilt and Toga Party at his home. It was a hoot and we had a great turnout. I was really surprised - happily - that everyone came in costume. Why a Kilt and Toga Party - why not? We figured we'd be competing with other 4th of July parties and we wanted ours to stand out.

As for Kilts, both of us had been considering getting kilts for sometime, but my they are a bit pricey for what is essentially 6 yards of fabric wrapped around yourself. So I decided to sew our own. Surprisingly easy to do, but still took about 3 half days to complete - each one (I wound up making 3 and still need to make one for Texwriterbear). But I'll admit all the measuring and trying on was fun. Sometimes I wasn't even sure I'd need a certain measurement, but I'd try and take it anyway :-) Call me thorough. I finally finished my Toga 5 minutes after the party started.

As for Togas, well a lot of our buds went to a recent bear festival and had togas made for that occassion. The others, well bedsheets and safety pins made good makeshift Toga/Kilts.

Boy our guests looked good in their outfits, I don't know why people don't still wear that stuff. Could you imagine commando kilt Fridays in the office. OK could be spooky, but I'm sure someone out there works with some good looking coworkers. "Why's your sporan all wrinkly - OMG that's not a sporan, that's... that's... eww (or WOW!)" :-)

Finally went to bed at 3am, but had a great time and I hope all the guests did too. We even had a few folks stay over and had a really pleasant Sunday morning visiting.

Well it's been a while, but I'm back. Got back from my vacation to Colorado with super_sean last Sunday, then rested at home on Monday and just been running ever since. The trip was awesome. I'll be posting a detailed day by day log once I actually finish it. You know saving the good memories for posterior and good they definitely were! In summary: Hiking, camping, snow, cold star filled nights, snuggling in the tent, and just FUN!

As for this week, been busy making a Kilt for our upcoming Kilt and Toga party. Super_sean and I decided we both wanted Kilts but didn't have the extra funds to purchase one. So after snooping around at various Kilt patterns online, I decided to take the plunge and make my own. Having a sewing machine is a big bonus. After studying the instruction manual for about an hour, I got the bobbin loaded with thread and managed to actually finagle the spooled thread correctly too. From there it was "smoothe" sailing baby. After 3 long evenings - I have a Kilt to show for it! And it actually looks kiltish. I was very concerned that I was going to end up with a catholic school girl looking skirt. I actually wore it regimental-style to super_sean's last night. He like it too. Looks like I'll be making at least one more kilt before the party!

Tonight, we are cooking dinner for his mom and step-dad, then heading out to meet our friends at the Ripcord. All in all a good day. Hope everyone else is having a good one too!