Beer Beer Beer...

I am not a big drinker by any means if measured and compared to many other people. I have no moral objections to drinking except I would not recommend any person drinking and driving. I do enjoy ice cold beer after cutting grass, and I guess you could call me well informed about the science of wine. I rarely drink when we go out to eat.

With all of this said, I have found my new favorite beer. I am not a Bud guy or a Miller man; go for the speciality or micro brews because of the flavors and character they bring to the bottle or mug. My new favorite beer is Magic Hat #9 "not quite pale ale". This beef has a smooth bite and tons of character with apricot flavors finishing off this amazing beer. I first tasted this on tap at Three Little Pigs in Daleville and was just blown away. I did find the beer in bottles at the Towers Kroger but that is the only place I have looked for it. Am glad I found this on my first look.

As I said before, I am just not a big drinker but this beer is a pleasure to sip on these warm, late spring evenings. On another note about alcohol, we ate at a major chain a few weeks ago and had a pina colada and I would estimate there was ZERO rum in this drink. The wife is hyper sensitive to alcohol, usually feeling a buzz after just a few sips. She felt nothing after drinking just about the whole thing. I could not detect any presence of rum at all. I hate to name drop so I will just give a hint of which restaurant we ate at. It begins with "Red" and ends with "Lobster". Does that give it away?? I hate getting ripped off!!

Cheers!

Vacation, Chocolate, Baseball, and Dogs...

I am on "staycation" this week! Much needed time off (2 years since substantial and true time off) and looking forward to a week of not really doing much at all. Inflation and high gas prices have really forced us as well as just about everyone else to evaluate how we do thing so we are staying close to home. Maybe we can get a little work around the house taken care of?

Last night, we went to the local AA pro baseball game and it was very cool. It is a fun time and not really that expensive. Our team is not all that great right now but we still root for them all of the same!

Today, we went to WoofStock, a festival celebrating "Mans Best Friend" in downtown Roanoke. Every breed of dog you can think of every where you look. Monies collected go to a good cause hopefully and we did take our little pooch down there for some fun in the sun. Elmo seemed pretty disinterested and like some other dogs, would of liked to stay home in the AC!!

I am teaching a class on Chocolate soon at my church. It is free to anyone who wishes to attend but we do ask that people coming help provide product so I do not have to cover all of the expenses. A donation can be made if you like but it is not required. As soon as we have the date set, I will let everyone know here and on my web site. We are going to cover some hopefully interesting topics like the history of chocolate, and we will make some savory as well as sweet creations. I am going to keep everything kind of basic and simple. Yes, I did say "Savory" chocolate dishes so we will see how that goes.

You can catch me on the Weekend Diner on June 8 at 8:00 on WDBJ 7 right here in Roanoke. Nothing much more of consequence to speak about for now. Have some fun and if you are not on vacation, think about me and I will try and work in a little relaxation for you as well!

What would you do?

Have you seen this 20/20 series on ABC? Is pretty interesting and quite thought provoking at times. Was watching last night and there was a situation where young kids were on the street in obvious distress and very few people stopped to help. Pretty scary actually.

Last Saturday morning, the wife and myself were grocery shopping and close to being done when a very uncomfortable situation transformed right in front of our eyes. There was a couple shopping and the woman was becoming irritated with her mate to the point where profanity and F-bombs were flying from her mouth; all because the man wanted a package of chicken. It got to the point that we made the effort just to leave the immediate area, just in case something really started to happen. Besides being incredibly embarrassed for this couple, I really felt sorry for this man. I would never put up with something one speaking to me in this manner, married and in love or not. All he wanted was some chicken.

So we were shopping again this morning and I thought about last weekend and what had happened. It is so easy to become cynical in the society we are living. I really feel like I should of said something of comfort to the man. But then these thoughts start to creep in: "What if she has a gun, and she is already this mad over a package of chicken?" "What if I do say something to this man, and he takes offense to me saying something negative about his mate, even though she is treating him below a third class citizen?"

What would you do?

This takes me back 15 years ago. I was driving home from work very early on a Sunday morning, 2:00 am to be specific. A car is parked in the middle of the road and a man and woman are standing in the middle of the street yelling and screaming at each other, waving arms, and something just did not feel right. I kept on driving past. Never even looked back. I have always wondered, was this a set up? Or was there a real situation going on here and he or she needed help? Did some one else stop and get robbed or car jacked? This happened in Richmond in a not so nice neighborhood.

What would you do?

After some discussion about the show last night and what happened last weekend, the wife said, "maybe we should of acted last weekend and said something; we need to have faith and the understanding that everything will work out and we can not just sit by and while something is happening and do NOTHING." What would you do?

Chef Philanthropist?

Not Really! I am not trying to save the world! I do like to do good things when I can though and this has been a good week for helping out. The main event was participating in a dinner for Saint Francis Service Dogs here in Roanoke, Virginia. This organization trains service dogs which assist people with physical handicaps. These dogs change lives and make a difference for people who struggle for independence every day.

So here is the great thing: I was one of 7 featured chefs at this fundraising event at the Roanoke country Club on April 17. Each chef prepared a course served to 180 attendees, all in support of this service dog program. I was in charge of the hoers d' oeuvres (that is the most misspelled word in the English dictionary) and got to help serve guests from platters, explaining what I had put together. I did 4 different canapes: Roasted Fig stuffed with Mascarpone Cheese wrapped in Prosciutto ham with an blood orange balsamic glaze, Black and Blue Beef Tenderloin with Blue Cheese Mousse, Tuna Tartar on Endive with Wasabi Cream, and a Salmon BLT, Salmon Bacon with Heirloom Tomatoes and Micro Greens. All extremely simple but some great flavors going on in there! It was an honor to be associated with such an event and in company with some really great chefs! I was not worthy! But it was still great and very much fun!

My wife and I also helped out a little with Oprah's "Big Give" today. I have been promoting Earth Day all month on my web site as well as at my work place. I do believe we need to start taking steps to help preserve our planet and if all of us can start doing little things right now, BIG changes can happen in a short period of time!

"Highly Paid Teachers"

I have all of the respect for teachers!! I taught high school for a year and a half. I got this from a teacher board and thought it was great!!

Aren't You All Sick Of Those Highly Paid Teachers? Their hefty salaries are driving up taxes, and they only work nine or ten months a year! It's time we put things in perspective and pay them for what they do... baby-sit!

We can get that for less than minimum wage. That is right. I would give them $3.00 dollars an hour and only the hours they worked, not any of that silly planning time. That would be $19.50 a day (7:45 AM to 4:00 PM with 45 min. off for lunch). Each parent should pay $19.50 a day for these teachers to baby-sit their children.

Now, how many do they teach in a day... maybe 30? So that's 19.5 X 30 =$585.00 a day. However, remember they only work 180 days a year! I am not going to pay them for any vacations. Let's see . . .. that's $585 x 180 = $105,300 per year. (Hold on! My calculator must need batteries!)

What about those special teachers and the ones with master's degrees? Well, we could pay them minimum wage just to be fair, round it off to $7.00 an hour. That would be $7 times 6-1/2 hours times 30 children times 180 days =$245,700.00 per year. Wait a minute, there is something wrong here!

There sure is, duh! (Average teacher salary $50,000/180 days = $277 per day/30 students =$9.23/6.5 hours = $1.42 per hour per student.) Very inexpensive babysitter and they even educate your kids! Crazy!

The high cost of Wind...

Global warming is going to be the doom of us all! Maybe or maybe not, I guess they are finding more and more evidence of this each and every day so I say lets go and have a beer, watch the sun set, and listen to some great music! I guess the conversation is coming about because it has been extremely windy here over the past few weeks. Power outages, trees falling down, forest fires, and my shed is gone.

About one month ago on a Sunday, the winds really picked up to the point where it was becoming scary. Gusts over 70 miles per hour, sustained winds of 20 to 40 mph. YIKES is all I can say. About 3:30 that afternoon, my wife took a peak out of the back door and said, " UT OH, UT OH, UT OH, UT OH, UT OH, we have a big mess"!

I asked what are you talking about and she said the shed is gone. And it was gone! The wind had lifted it off of the foundation, blown it to the neighbors fence, and crumpled it up like a beer can at a kegger on a Saturday night! I will attest to the fact that it was heavy! I had to take it apart and get ride of it my self! What a pain in the hind parts!

Granted, this old shed was well past her prime, being made of Aluminum with some steel support, but I was hoping to get one more year out of her. A similar replacement will cost about $300 and I will have to put it together my self. All I can think of is the next big wind storm! The one I really want is around the $1,500 mark (double yikes) and that is about the same amount of cash I am lacking right now. So I go on with no shed for the time being, hoping for the mother of all shed sales to happen very soon!!

In addition to all of this, I got a wonderful case of laryngitis. With the power out at the house for 4 days, and all of the right elements coming together, it has been a struggle to talk over the past month, but my co-workers have loved the break from my talking! It is almost 100% back.

HA!!

You know you have arrived when...

A co-worker came to me the other day and told me an interesting little story. She had gone to her daughters house where there was a new fish with the name, "Chef Jeff". She asked how this came about and was told this: We had purchased a fish from the local pet shop and could not decide on a name for the little one. We happened to be watching a segment on a local television station and saw Chef Jeff doing a cooking segment. So we decided to name the fish, "Chef Jeff".
I have finally made it to the big time!

Am dealing with laryngitis for the fist time in my life. I mean I really can barely even whisper. This really is a hard thing when you lively hood depends on verbal communication! I guess this came about from a fierce wind storm that whipped through here 2 weeks ago. We had forest fires, electricity was out for 4 days, and our shed literally blew away. Many others had it worse off than we did so can not really complain very much. It does stink not being able to talk!
I think my coworkers are enjoying this a little too much!

So that is about it for now. Try and have some fun and do not work so hard. Take a load off and enjoy an adult beverage or a soda if you wish. Go and cook something great!