This Blog’s Readability Level

Posted on 23 December 2007 under BlogsMonroe, Notes | 13 Comments

Junior High School level. Hmmm. That kinda sucks. Saying so probably won’t help either, especially if I rewrite it as, “Doode … like … that just sucks, man!” I was hoping for at least a Hich School level, or even Community College level. I’ve never used certain phrases like some people have … although I did post about the Old Millington Guys and their elves a few posts back. Yeah, maybe that did it … ;-)

Dealing with ‘Blonde Highlights’

Posted on 15 November 2007 under BlogsMonroe, Notes | 3 Comments

Y’all know I have little-to-no hair. But a new blog on BlogsMonroe.com, Blonde Highlights, doesn’t even have its first actual post yet and has called out ye ol’ Luna Pier Cook in an announcement post simply because of my blog’s popularity (>24,000 page views for October 2007). As the author of that blog is 13abc anchor Rebecca Regnier, I have a sneaking suspicion 13abc reporter and sometime dinner guest Zack Ottenstein is egging her on … ;-)

Blog Weirdness, and PETA Nonsense

Posted on 27 October 2007 under BlogsMonroe, Notes, Rants | 5 Comments

Back on my posting from last week about the Rabbit & Sausage Gumbo, Stephanie left a comment yesterday evening about her guy J (a chef we know) making rabbit dishes at the restaurant he works at. To be honest, looking at that comment from Stephanie, you can’t tell who she is, but Mary and I know who Stephanie is. Because of her work and her specific request to keep her identity a secret, I intentionally help hide her identity in this blog.

But in a second comment from last night, Stephanie wrote:

What’s weird is that someone just delivered some literature about eating animals to my desk about five seconds ago. Did you have something to do with this? I’m going to blog about it right now.

Over in the blog Behind The Headlines, Stephanie continues the story:

One of my coworkers just came back from a game and checked the drop-off box for whatever reason, found some fliers and jokingly said “these must be for you” while delivering them to my desk. There’s no way he could have read the comment since he was at a game all night … The fliers are all about animal cruelty. One asks “Why call some animals ‘pets’ and others ‘pants’?” and then goes on to ask “What if leather shoes were made from cocker spaniels? … The other flier is about KFC and cruelty to chickens with a rendition of the Colonel on the front, smiling, bloodied and holding a knife to a frightened, scalded chicken. Both are from PETA … Did someone read the comment and feel compelled to pass along the literature? Is it just a coincidence? Am I thinking about it way too hard? Is it simply time to go home and instead of doing yet another political brief (as I felt my head may explode) this blog fodder was a twisted gift from the gods?

As I said, because of how Stephanie comments here, there’s no way even coworkers can tell who she is unless they know about the connection with the anonymous Chef J. Of course, I can’t stand PETA so I had nothing to do with it. I’ve actually accepted literature from someone from PETA on a street in Columbus, calmly torn it up, dropped it on the sidewalk, and walked away.

The timing of what happened to Stephanie yesterday is what’s weird, as she wrote, “a twisted gift from the gods”. Those brochures would have likely arrived even if she hadn’t made the initial comment on this blog. There’s a sense of foreshadowing on her part, that she would comment on such a blog entry from over a week ago, as though she somehow knew the brochures were coming. Yeah, Stephanie, you’re using The Force … ;-)

And why would a co-worker “jokingly” think of her that way? I’d be dropping dead chickens on his desk sometime soon.

Here’s my thing about PETA; There are Biblical and other ancient writings regarding the use of animals in food. PETA says animals are not ours to eat. I worship a God who says otherwise. In my life, PETA has no authority over that connection I have with God’s word, and because of this, PETA appears to me as an aetheist organization.

While some methods of animal husbandry are cruel, not all are, especially when it comes to smaller family farms. PETA’s generalizations in this area are irresponsible, especially considering the amount of hunger on this planet. If they had any sense of perspective, they would be attempting to assist in solving this massive human problem rather than harrassing people like Stephanie … even when it’s through a co-worker of hers who thinks it’s supposedly funny to do the same.

I might lose readers because of this. But I’ll tell you what, this is my opinion. If you agree with PETA, go ahead and do so. Just don’t try to force that opnion on me. I’ll tell you how I feel, and if you’re a mature individual, you’ll realize this posting is only about me expressing my opinion, not about my trying to force that opinion on you.

This is where I stand. “That’s all I have to say about that.”

Come to think of it, I think I have some Rabbit & Sausage Gumbo in the freezer. That’d make a nice lunch on a chilly Saturday like this one.

A New Look for This Blog, and A 27-Year-Old Seminarian

Posted on 3 October 2007 under Notes | 2 Comments

Yup, that’s the doode. A 27-year-old seminary student. Do you like the new look of this blog? Many thanks go to Adam Walker Cleaveland for it!

This blog is built on what’s known as WordPress, which is open-source software built for blogging and other community-style web sites. Out of the hundreds of possible drop-in themes available from the WordPress pages, when it came right down to it very few caught my eye. But when I saw this theme, Mr. Cleaveland’s Cleaker 2.1, I immediately saw some possibilities that went along with what I’ve been trying to do here.

After taking most of yesterday getting the theme set up … well, people started commenting almost immediately! Less than 20 minutes after I’d activated the theme, reader Dorothy dropped in with, “by the way I like the new look of your site!” But I hadn’t done anything yet! Calling my wife Mary a few minutes later, I waited for her to pick up the phone … and at the same time, a comment from her popped up; “What the heck happened, I looked at the site an hour ago and it was lime green. Magic, now it is beautiful! It looks good on you!”

After working on the layout throught the day, building things here, tweaking things there, I heard just the right words from Mary; “Honey, it suits you.” That makes the time worth it.

One of the newer features is your being able to subscribe to individual posts and be notified of other comments after you leave. That way, you can feel more like your part of the conversation.

I still have tweaking to do here and there so things might be in-flux for a while. In the meantime, please let me know what you think, and if something’s not working right for you, definitely let me know.

Most of all … Enjoy!

Modern Views of Death … and The Resulting Food

Posted on 3 September 2007 under Notes | No Comments

Mary’s father, John Wojtowicz, passed away this past April. But he didn’t want us to have a sober wake of any kind. Rather, he provided the funds for family and friends to get together at HJ’s Prime-Cut Banquet Hall immediately following the funeral, for a beautiful Polish meal, a few laughs, and just some great conversation.

This past week, an old friend of mine, Doug Irish, also passed away. From Doug’s official obituary:

By request of Mr. Irish, no funeral services will be held.

In talking to Doug’s son Mike yesterday evening, I learned Doug had specifically said he didn’t want anyone to mourn. Still, I’m going to be a bit sad.

You see, Doug began having a gentle influence over my finding a decent direction in my life 30 years ago. I last heard from Doug in late 1989 after Aaron (BlogsMonroe.com blogger Teen Tech) was born. However, to some extent, the direction I received from Doug has continued through the years in so many ways.

Now, something I clearly recall about being with the Irish family so often from 1977 onward was the food! Doug was an incredible, absolutely amazing cook, and was probably responsible for some of the inspiration for how I cook today. He would barbecue in a special rack in the fireplace in their living room. His sauce had a large amount of honey in it, and he would cook chicken or ribs for hour-after-hour, until the meat was just right. There would be a lot of people at that table, it seems like maybe a dozen, and as Mike and I recalled yesterday evening, “just a ton of food!” No one ever left Doug’s table hungry.

So this past Saturday, everyone was at Mike’s house for a barbecue to celebrate Doug’s life, in lieu of a funeral. As Mike described the event, of course there were tears from a few people, which is unavoidable and totally natural. But with “a ton of food”, especially barbecue, along with Doug’s favorite music (A Boy Named Sue, The Gambler, etc.) and some fireworks, it was a true celebration of the life of a wonderful man.

John Wojtowicz and Doug Irish, without ever meeting, agreed that it’s not the funeral that’s important, but rather how we see them and their lives, and how we see each other.

Through food, in large amounts.

As they say, we are what we eat. People are now showing this more prominently in how they pass away, in such noble gestures as these.

For this, we should all be thankful.

Thanks John. Thanks Doug. I’ll see you when I get there myself. And thanks, guys, for your great taste in food!

In my case, those I leave behind will have one, gigantic omelet buffet …

p.s. Yes, Christy, I did finally learn how to scramble eggs!

No, I Didn’t Open a Can of ‘Picture-Be-Gone’

Posted on 29 August 2007 under Notes | No Comments

Sorry for the lack of pics in this blog on occasion folks, but things just aren’t working correctly right now.

If you’ve tried to get to my Michigan Cuisine web site recently and can’t get it to open, it’s not your fault, nor is it your browser’s fault (yes, Wendy & Seantell and those other OS X users up north, Safari works fine with it), nor is it your ISP’s fault. My hosting service is having issues with the server that site runs on, and supposedly, they’re working on it.

They’ve supposedly been working on it since Sunday afternoon.

Take a wild guess where the newer pics for this blog are sitting. No, your first two guesses don’t count … nor does a smarty-pants third guess (that would be Seantell or Madame Squires being a smarty-pants).

Hopefully this will all be fixed soon. I’m just here for the coffee anyway …

Wow … Where Have I Been??

Posted on 27 August 2007 under Notes | 2 Comments

I know, I know, it’s not like me not to blog for one day, let alone two. But I’ll tell you what, I’m a bit happy with the end results of what I’ve been doing.

My new Michigan Cuisine web site is finally finalized. If you tried to get to it yesterday it was down in the afternoon. I spent almost an hour on the phone with the hosting service convincing them that, yes, it was their fault, not something wrong with my computer or my ISP! I can’t stand it when a tech “support” department tries to shift blame like that …

Even more important this weekend was the rough assembly of the beta of a new web site for the Frog Leg Inn. I can’t show you the new version of this web site yet as (ahem!) Chef Tad doesn’t even know it exists yet! He and I have been talking about this off-and-on for about a year now, and it was really just a matter of jumping in with both feet the past two days and knocking something out.

I’m off to browse through this Swedish Cooking book I picked up during an (expensive) visit to IKEA up in Canton yesterday. This recipe for Reindeer with Dill Sauce (Kokt renkött med dillsås) looks pretty darn good …

New Michigan Cuisine Web Site In-The-Works

Posted on 20 August 2007 under Michigan Cuisine, Notes | No Comments

Along with relocating my Michigan Cuisine web site to http://www.micuisine.com, I’m also completely reorganizing it into something a bit more usable. You can watch it come together inside the old site … check it out at:

http://www.micuisine.com/portal/

LunaPierCook, Simpsonized

Posted on 14 August 2007 under Notes | 5 Comments

Over on Steamy Kitchen, Jaden had herself Simpsonized, and concluded that section of this post with, “(Ok you laugh, but let’s see yours)”. For what it’s worth, here’s mine. Yeah, I know, I look as though I should be holding a case of beer or something …

Last Night’s Dinner; Pathetic, But Good!

Posted on 24 July 2007 under Notes | No Comments

As everyone else is out-of-town at the moment and the animals and I are by ourselves, for dinner yesterday evening I ate half a head of cauliflower, and washed it down with ice cold milk.

Geez, I sure can’t stand cooking for one anymore …

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