I heard something really funny today while on my long trudge to work. A comedian on one of the sirius comedy channels said the following, 'Only in America do we consider the obese to be disabled. If you are missing an arm or a leg, then you are disabled. If you are missing a cheesecake, then you are full!' Heh. I know that isn't politically correct, but the whole missing cheesecake thing really made me laugh. They've been playing a lot of John Pinette too. He is hilarious and one of my favorite comedians.

I avoided the news for the most part today. I don't want to watch it and I don't want to watch some movie that has prompted a whole lot of media coverage. Why would I want to do that? I saw it happen live. I looked up to the sky on the 12th and only saw contrails of our military up there. It was a time of silence.

The morning of September 11th 2001 was a morning like any other. My job was a year and a half past the dreaded Y2K disaster. Things were quite fine. And then it all changed. One of my friends ran over to my desk and told me that a plane had hit the Sears tower. I scoffed because of her source and went to check the news. Nothing worked. The net had simply stopped working. I tried to pull up site after site and then hit bloomberg news which had flames as its video lead in. I thought it was a live cam.

There is a certain comfort in knowing that I didn't see the people jumping to their deaths. I didn't see the first tower collapse. My company wanted us to get back to work like nothing happened. How foolish they were and only recently has that foolishness has come back to bite them in the butt. That's another story though. I'm no longer with the V-Kapow and I'm better for it.

I thought things were going to be locked down and the lessons from my grandparents, who lived through the depression, kicked in and I took out several hundred dollars so I could have liquid cash for a few days at least. That night I watched a video of the second plane that hit the world trade center. I watched it over and over. Each time my eyes blurred with sleeplessness and yet I watched it some more. How could someone do that? I still don't understand.

I heard a clip of Dave Letterman speaking soon after the event and he said he would never understand the religious fervor that caused those people to act that way. I still don't. I have seen beheading videos. Lots of them. I don't look at car wrecks during rush hour, but I could not help but look at those helpless people who died so that a few people could make a statement.

I will never understand how a religion could cause people to hate other people so much.

I promise to return to recipes soon. The new job is taking all of my time and I'm starting at the bottom. There is a great need to make a good impression.

Yes, it has once again been a long time in between posts. I've been busy with the new job at BigGreen, bringing the yard back to life after the summer heat almost killed it off, and spending as much time with the munchkins as I can.

The new job is quite a change from the old place. On my second day I was in a meeting where we were made aware of a problem and the proposed solution. Fine. I immediately went to the code I could access and formulated a plan in around fifteen minutes. When I asked when the fix needed to go in I was told December. Wow. I've been conditioned to answer a problem as fast as possible while at least one person stood over me and screamed. This is a really big change. I'm sure I'll be a better worker for it too.

Because of all the changes around here, I haven't had a chance to do much cooking at all and the items I do make are recycled recipes. Almost nothing new has come out of my kitchen lately. I intend to change that, though, with the latest book I have from the library. The Best Recipes in the World by Mark Bittman is a must read. I saw that without reading anything past the appetizers. The worldly finds are too good to pass up.

BTW, we have a new fence and a new bedroom set. Pics to follow as soon as I can get the digital camera hooked up to the new macbook pro. Can you say debt?

My self imposed hiatus is over. My career with V-Kapow is over. This week I accepted an offer from a new company and ended an eight year reign with my old one. It is going to sound silly, but one of the things I like about the new company is that you see their work every day. Sometimes you might see them on the street and other times you might see them on tv, but you do see them. It was always hard to tell people what V-Kapow did or what I worked on because it wasn't a one sentence answer.

I'm getting a little raise, two extra days off, and a new wardrobe for the new gig. It's been a long time since I've been in the shirt and tie world. I think this is going to work out nicely.

One of the reasons I imposed silent running was so I wouldn't tip anyone off. I never talked about the job search or publicly bad mouthed my current employer like others might do. The one clue that I was looking should have been my beard. I have a very heavy beard that requires an electric shaver and then a multi blade razor. Because it is such a pain, I would normally shave every other day. I've shaved every day except two for the past four weeks. Nobody noticed.

SuperWife is also on the road to a new career. The time she has spent home with the kids is about to end when she steps back into the workplace full time again. She needs it and the kids will be fine with a combination of grandparents, preschool, and a local day care provider.
Good luck to anyone else out there who is currently making a job change.

What's with this crazy weather? Those of you in the STL area know exactly what I am talking about and those of you elsewhere can check drudge or any news source to see that half a million people in the area are without power due to storms that came through a couple of days ago. I joked about the grill taking flight again (this time it hit the air conditioner and bent it up), the fence was blowed away in one section and a few panels in other places, and the tree that was hit by lightning before looks like it was hit again, but I don't recall the crack. We lost power for almost four seconds and then it came back on again.

We are the lucky ones. Most of our utilities are buried deep under ground, so there really isn't much damage when a storm comes through. If we do lose our power, then it is because the bigger grid has gone down. I originally bad mouthed the St. Louis City Mayor, Francis Slay, for engaging in photo ops on any and all available medium. It was only the day after that I realized the power of the storm that ripped through our area. Today another storm hit, but not as bad as the original one. Almost half a million people are again without power tonight. Most have been told that they will get power back my the end of the weekend, but some have been told they won't have service until Thursday of next week. Wow. The ten hours or so we had to spend in the dark seemed like an eternity at the time.

I drove through the dust line twice while running SuperWife's work to her employer. I hit several boxes in mid air on the highway and I even saw part of an Ameren UE property on fire. That was some bad wind. I made it home just before the heavens unleashed their fury on the kids toys and the bbq grill. I might just keep the grill for entertainment. I've never seen a Ducane grill take flight so many times. The thing has been rebuilt many times and it still works. Mother Nature hates it and will take every opportunity to try to destroy it and yet that grill keeps working.

Something tragically humorous happened to me today. At some point I will post about it, but now is not the time. It was the best of times and also the very worst of times today. My newly acknowledged bipolar disorder was kicking in big time today. I can't begin to explain my roller coaster.

Carnival of Recipes 1-0-0

Welcome the 100th installment of the carnival of recipes. Your humble host, me, will try to guide you through the latest rendition of the juggernaut that is the carnival. My basement flooded and took out a lot of the kids' clothes and toys during the last time I hosted, so let's hope this goes a little smother, no? Step on up and take a seat at the counter and let's see what is on the menu of the World this week.

Some of my most favorite recipes from the previous carnivals include:
The Geezer's Huli Huli Chicken. This stuff is heaven and is the most requested recipe I use from the carnival. People just can't get enough of it!

Don't forget AussieWife's Fish Burritos with Cucumber Salad. MMMMM. I actually lifted this, redid it, and submitted the new recipe to a different carnival.

Let us not forget Rory and his what not to cook series.



On to this week's submissions!

Shawn Lea, the most gracious keeper of the carnival starts us off with a birthday cake in honor of the carnival's 100th installment. I dare you to click on that link and not make one yourself.

She would also like to share Chicken and Smoked Sausage Gumbo. Shhhh! Her secret is that she makes it because it's hard, but not too hard. Most people don't make it from scratch anymore, so give it a try. Your patience in making the roux will pay off big time.

Dr. Fuhrman is up next with a couple of healthy goodies- Rice Pudding with Banana/Apricot Sauce and a Tuttie Fruitie Pita Sandwich. Good stuff.

Marsha at A Weight Lifted brings offers up a trio of Summer Smoothies. These sound great on days when the soars into the triple digits.

The next submission comes from down under. Joanne would like to share Home Made Ice Cream. The site is dedicated to guiding people to a life that is nourishing, healthy, wholesome, and wise.

Riannen would like to point out that her submission for Beef and Pork Sauce is not a stew or goulash. It is a sauce to be used over noodles or with potatoes or potato dumplings. I could eat this with just about anything since I agree with her assessment that "beef and pork together produces a magical flavor."

Peggy Hall at Blabber Heads joins me in walking down memory lane with her fond memories of Cheesy Bacon Green Beans and Potatoes - In a Crock. What part of that recipe doesn't sound yummy? This recipe was originally in a carnival on Practigal.

Imagine, if you are the only person who isn't hot right now, that it's a warm day and you have a place of refreshing Tomato and Mango Salsa in front of you. Wow. Thank Bill at World Famous Recipes for this one.

Kathee brings us Cider Vinegar Chicken. Her site dedicated to chicken recipes has more to keep you busy cooking for weeks.

After developing an intolerance for wheat two and a half years ago our next submitter learned to work around her obstacle with Wheatless Pancakes. Check out this link for a picture.

Now I bring the post of my new hero. This blogger created an index of every carnival submission they have made. Count them. 68 submissions. This person loves to cook.

Who wants to turn the oven on in the middle of summer? Now you don't have to if you still want to enjoy a decadent pie. I present Microwave Chocolate Peanut Butter Mousse Pie from KeeWee's Corner.

triticale brings us a recipe from his foster niece. Check out the Easy Cheesy Potatoes. Yum.

Maureen from Trinity Prep School would like everyone to try some Fresh Brushetta. The garlic soup mix sounds like an interesting twist I'll have to try sometime soon.

Finally, Amy at MomAdvice.com brings us some lovely pumpkin pancakes. They sound good and the top left logo brings back all kinds of memories of bathing my two year old twins.

Thanks to everyone who has contributed to this and any of the previous carnivals. Thanks for sharing your time, taste, and words. Check out homerecipes.org next week to continue your fix.

You can send recipes or links to recipe.carnival@gmail.com by noon CST on Saturday. If you wish to host a future Carnival send a message to the same address with the word host in the subject line. For a line-up of future Carnivals, visit our Carnival of the Recipes page on Blog Carnival. (You can also review all past Carnival of the Recipes there too.)

Carnival 1-0-0

The 100th Carnival of Recipes is coming this week. Get your favorite recipes in early, and details regarding which carnival it was posted in would be even an added bonus. Let's make this a big one!

I went from a hero to a pervert in two seconds. The food tour continues. Pirates 2 was a let down. The Carnival or Recipes is here this weekend.

Thursday night I stopped into Victoria's Secret to pick up a couple of things for SuperWife's birthday. I knew the style, shape, color, and so on of what I needed to buy but nothing matched my needs. A sales person came over to offer some assistance, but she was unable to find anything in the either.

When I was checking out the sales person mentioned how nice it was to see a man come in to buy something for a woman because it hardly ever happens. I casually mentioned that it wasn't a big deal for me because I had worked for a different VS store when I was younger. Her look of admiration went to horror in the blink of an eye. It doesn't matter if I only worked there for a few months after my wrist was reconstructed. What could be easier than throwing panties around? The job actually didn't pay well, but it was one of the best jobs I had.

The whirlwind of restaurants continued this weekend. We hit El Maguey on Friday for a quick dinner with the kids. On Saturday we hit Wasabi in Clayton. The food was very good as always and I even went out on a limb and tried the sea urchin. That was the first and last time I'll try that though. Imagine a fishy version of goat cheese. Mmmm.

Last weekend we hit Sidney Street Cafe. The in laws took us, SuperWife's sister and her fiancé, and a former aunt. The steak wasabi was great as always. We've also continue the move to slow food. We hit the farmer's market this weekend- it was the first time in three weeks. My favorite market master, Julie Ridlon, was handing out samples of a yummy peach and tomato salsa, and I was able to quench my foodie thirst.

We also caught Pirates 2 on Saturday night. It was a good swashbuckling comedy, but it didn't really do anything. The end was a mess and it looked like they were just trying to fill time most of the time. That's weird because the movie was over two and a half hours long. How much of a drunken acting Johnny Depp can a person take?

Check back late this weekend for the Carnival of Recipes. I've thrown my hat back into the ring to give something back to all of the wonderful people who contribute to that culinary adventure. If I can only come up with a theme. . .

The gout continues to grip my feet. This time it was caused by a combination of beer, coffee, stress, and a large microwave that landed on my right foot. Instead of going after the big toe, like gout usually does, it went after the entire right hand side of my foot. I'll have pics to post soon, but they are kind of gross. This definitely doesn't fit into the whole food theme I have been using.

BTW, you can get more info on gout here.

The crazy things you people search for. I recently checked the site stats to see who has been dropping by my humble abode and how they came about setting foot here. Take, for example the person from Pande India who came here for the sambar recipe. I'm pretty sure there is a closer resource for that person considering the recipe is from that person's country. Gotta love the internet.

The strangest hit I've received in recent memory came from Iran although I can't seem to find it in the logs. That person googled "lips" in the arabic version of google and it hit here. Hopefully that person was looking for the chicken lips recipe and nothing else.

My heart goes out to the person from Atlanta, GA who came here looking for a mostaccioli recipe. GAH! Save yourself from the traditional St. Louis wedding side dish! No proper wedding in St. Louis can be complete without a steam table buffet of a tossed salad, non descript white rolls, green beans with pearl onions and bacon, mostaccioli, carved turkey in juice, and carved roast beast in juice. The only beer served will also be Bud Light and Busch exclusively.

You can always tell a native St. Louisian because they will say musk-a-cholie.