Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Wake up, little sparrow.

This week I have more work than I thought I would have, and on the one hand I love it because I'm having a streak of insomnia and I can at least be entertained by doing things ... but on the other ... I need sleep!

Also, I wanted to tell you that last Tuesday I made the exposition of the photos of my work, and seems to have liked in general. So, as I know you like them, I leave the pictures of looks that had not previously uploaded to the blog for you to enjoy them; and please, give me your opinion!


 

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
 


And now, to try to sleep!

My New Old Car, or is it a My OId New Car??? Anyways its MINE =)


Many of you will know that I’m a biker type of guy (not from the looks) because i own motorbikes and not a car. Well I do enjoy riding, it gives you that happy feeling with the wing in your face and open view (must have)

still there are some days that i just wish I was not on a bike, Like when its super Rainy and your rushing to somewhere (getting wet is not always fun). and those times when you wanted to bring more than 1 person out with you... not all a good thing to have a bike.. only.

That is why i when out SHOPPING.... not what you will expect to do in a mall, but more to checking websites for a well price, good looking (2door) and road worthy car. A car is another Bike with extra 2 more wheels and many more steel panels around it with doors and a much bigger engine.. not that much different to a bike right... yeah right (HEHE)

 So after so so so .... sososososo..sososososos...soooooooooooooooooo (you get the point) long.. I finally got one. 



This here is a Mitsubishi Cordia 1.6, a 4 speed Manual (this means its only have 4 gears) and a special thing about the gears are also it has a high speed gear and a economy gear (like a turbo stick or something). it’s a front wheel drive and its older then me by a year (1984). Even with the age of this car, body is still pretty good and the engine is running great. The air-conditioning is super cold (thanks to dad for helping me with that, I was super busy with work). 


What are the future plans for this car???
- 1st will be to make sure all is well with the car so doing a service for the engine will be good
- not sure but next will be to get the suspensions check out and maybe change all 4 sides to have a comfortable ride with still great stability.
- Will need to send the car for bodywork, to get the rust parts out and make sure the undercarriage is well protected..
- Colour for the car, Ya'tze like's the old colour (abit of gold-ish like that)
- maybe even put somebody kit on it and make it look pimp-out!!! yeah man!


- yeah, maybe add in a DVD player with some speakers to enjoy some radio time (it’s been so long) hehe

Well, it’s going to be a work in progress.... will update more when more work was done. till then thanks for reading.

Google Search: "Sarah Palin" restaurant

March 3


We in the trade media can be pretty self-satisfied sometimes, because we don't cover the same stories everyone else covers. Tiger Woods gets decked by his wife for messing around? We don’t care.

A kid goes up in a runaway balloon but not really? We don’t care.

Kim Kardashian — well, I don’t even know enough about Kim Kardashian to finish this sentence.

So we sit in our offices on Park Avenue and wonder a bit smugly why those people — those consumer journalists — insist on all reporting on the same things, and on things that, quite frankly, are not germane to the interests of their audience.

Of course we know why — we might be smug but we’re not stupid. It builds their audiences. It’s what the public responds to.

We wondered if we could experiment with this. Was there some way we could connect Sarah Palin, say, with restaurants in a newsy way and report on it? Would that increase our readership?

I did a quick Google search for “ “Sarah Palin" restaurant” and was rewarded with the video I have embedded here for your amusement.

It’s not newsy. It's from the 2008 election campaign and was posted to YouTube.com on September 28 of that year. It's a visit by Mrs. Palin to Tony Luke’s, which from what I understand is generally the third place for food tourists in Philadelphia to visit for cheese steaks. The first two are, of course, Pat’s and Geno’s.

I think the Geno’s crowd is probably a better fit for the former vice-presidential candidate.

Anyway, this blog entry is just a test to see if writing about Sarah Palin will increase readership.

It’s not a perfect test, but what test is? Even the landmark study indicating that oatmeal lowered cholesterol was flawed.

Seriously so, in fact: Test subjects were either given oatmeal for breakfast or bacon and eggs. Did the study show that oatmeal lowered cholesterol or that not eating bacon and eggs every single day for breakfast lowered cholesterol?

See? Even though I’m acting like consumer media and writing blog entries to try to drive traffic, I’m still able to educate my readers.

Thanks for stopping by.

Warm Food on a Cold Night

Remember what I said in the last blog about spring?  Well, FUGEDABOUTIT!  It snowed here today and it is freakin' cold.  Even I (the Hot Flash Queen) can't seem to get warm.

So did I need a better excuse to stay home and test recipes all day?  Umm - maybe not.

I thought about hanging out in my pj's (well, for me that would be an oversized T-shirt), but I couldn't quite bring myself to do that.  I compromised.  Did not wash my hair, did put on make-up (why, Liz?), put on a pair of jeans instead of my beloved ripped up chef's pants, opted for a pair of warm socks instead of shoes and did not wear a bra.  Enough info?

I then proceeded to spend the better part of the day in my kitchen.  All the while listening to an audio version of  "The Help." 

I'll post later about the Meyer lemon cake I made.  For now, you need to know about the lentil gratin.  SO GOOD.  It (along with a bottle of inexpensive, but decent red wine) was exactly the comfort food we needed.


LENTIL GRATIN

2 T. extra virgin olive oil
1 sweet onion, chopped
5 carrots, cut into small dice
1 teaspoon dried thyme
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
3 bay leaves
6 cups chicken (or vegetable) stock
2 1/2 cups green lentils
1 cup chopped fresh Italian parsley
1/2 cup Dijon mustard
2 T. red wine vinegar
1/4 t. crushed red pepper (or more to taste)
1/2 cup Panko crumbs (I used whole wheat)
1/2 cup Parmigiano Reggiano, grated
1 t. kosher salt
1 T extra-virgin olive oil

Preheat oven to 350-degrees.

Heat olive oil in a large saute pan.  Add onion and cook for 5 minutes until translucent.  Add carrots, thyme and salt and pepper (be VERY generous) to taste.  Reduce heat to low, cover pan and cook for 10 minutes or until carrots are barely tender.

Add bay leaves and chicken stock.  Bring to a boil over high heat.  Add lentils, reduce heat to simmer, cover and cook until lentils are almost done, about 30 minutes.

What you are looking for here are lentils that are almost done, but still "soupy."  (The reason for this is because when you add the breadcrumb topping before baking, it will soak up all of the liquid and leave the lentils dry.  So make sure your lentils have enough leftover liquid before baking).

Once you get to that point, remove the bay leaves and stir the parsley, mustard, vinegar and red pepper into lentils.  Taste to adjust seasonings and turn into a greased 13x9-inch baking dish.

Combine bread crumbs, Reggiano and salt in a small bowl.  Stir to blend, then add olive oil and stir again.  Sprinkle over lentils.

Bake for 30 minutes until just warmed through and top is browned.  Do not overbake.


Yield:  at least 10 servings.

Just remember to save enough for those of us who would happily eat this for breakfast the next day.