So Disappointed

I was very disappointed by the Top Chef Finale Part I. Instead of rewarding maturity and leadership ability combined with talent, the judges/producers decided to go with childishness and conflict because, of course, this is a reality show and so should not be based on what's needed in the kitchen in reality but rather what's needed for TV for ratings.

Sam deserved to be the next Top Chef. He consistently demonstrated excellent leadership ability and a calm and confident demeanor, while Ilan and Marcel consistently demonstrated complete self-absorption and a disregard for the needs and well being of others (though admittedly I can forgive Ilan much faster because he is so cute!).

Top Chef is perpetuating the the problem of chefs as egotistical assholes. Judge Tom Colicchio has said on the show on several occasions: "I'm judging the food. I don't care how they behave in the kitchen." Thanks, Tom, from front-of-the-house staff everywhere.

So In Love

I'm completely in love with my new personal blender. I had wanted some kind of something for making smoothies because my food processor just wasn't cutting it. But I didn't want a full size blender due to my future home on a houseboat. I happened to find in Walgreens, of all places, this wonderful appliance (for $15.99!):
The blending container is actually a to-go cup that comes with a to-go lid and a cooler that wraps around the cup.

I'm especially ecstatic about it right now because I just came up with the best smoothie yet:

4 oz. nonfat plain yogurt
4 oz. lowfat milk
one banana
2 tbs. almond butter
Trader Joe's frozen sweet dark cherries to fill up remaining space in glass

Delicious! And a healthy pre-workout snack at just 420 calories and, well, ok, 18 grams of fat but it's good mono-unsaturated fat, from almonds!

Delicious lower-calorie and -fat alternatives can be made with frozen peaches, pineapples, strawberries, blueberries, etc. (all available for cheap at Trader Joe's), with orange juice and yogurt. Yum!

Recovering Waitress Syndrome?

I seem to be addicted to job interviewing. I'm always checking craigslist and sending out my resume, even though I don't want a job.

I'm still figuring it out, but I think Recovering Waitress Syndrome (RWS) has a couple of parts to it (and probably more, but a couple that I'm currently dealing with): 1) inability to work a nine to five job, and 2) a constant desire for more (quick) cash inflow.

I'm happy working as a freelancer, but I have to wait to be paid, often six weeks after I complete a job. While I'm waiting for the money, I feel the need to look for a job. So I do, but even as I'm in the interview, giving it my best, I know that I'm going to turn the job down because I don't want my life to be restricted by being employed.

I think it's very difficult for waiters to adjust to a nine-to-five work schedule and two weeks of vacation time a year. We don't understand why we can't just take an extra day off here and there, even if unpaid. The flexibility is a hard thing to give up, which is why I freelance. But by freelancing, I'm missing out on a steady paycheck, let alone quick nightly cash. Which is why I cater, I suppose, although I usually have to wait for a paycheck from that, as well.

There are many other symptoms of RWS, I'm sure. More to follow as I investigate it.

Not Quite What I Intended

I wanted to post a blog again. I wanted to write about black eyed peas, and how the kind you eat are not to be confused with these black eyed peas, whom I am far too old to know anything about, and how I missed the boat with my black eyed peas and corn bread new year's day dinner ("supper" if you want to get truly southern about it) by not including collard greens, which are supposed to represent green money, while the black eyed peas represent coins. Guess it won't be quite as prosperous a year as it might have been.

And I wanted to write about my new favorite TV show, Top Chef, and how excited it makes me to watch it, and how I was finally able to stop looking down my nose at all those You're the One That I Want commercials when I realized that that show was like Top Chef but for theater people, and really I was only annoyed at the commercials because I hated seeing all those imposters dressed like Sandy and Danny. I felt betrayed.

But I didn't. I'm a lazy, frightened, no-good bum of a blogger. I'm sorry. I'm trying to change.

Jason Webley is So Super Cool

He is the king of the unexpected rhyme. Check out his video for Eleven Saints

Dropping Out

Well, maybe not quite dropping out. I mean, we'll still be on the grid. We'll still have jobs, at least for a while. But we'll be trading our large three-bedroom house in Berkeley for these beautiful, tiny quarters in paradise (a.k.a. Richardson Bay in Sausalito):

http://www.svenartsmedia.com/Sausalito_Houseboat_For_Sale.html

I'm looking forward to the fresh start, to bringing in only the essentials and learning to use less space, and therefore less stuff. To cleaning the clutter out of our lives and minds.

Still Obsessed

I managed to verify that the tongs are indeed from 1913. The A in the hat says that it was made in Amsterdam, and the key next to the lion shows that it was exported. The person who responded to my question on the OESMHMM forum congratulated me on the beautiful piece! But he was unable to read the maker's mark, so I still have not solved the mystery of who made these tongs.

Here is the best picture I can manage of the maker's mark. It looks like it ends with "4C," doesn't it?