I've never been a fan of the French (with my husband's cousins and uncle as an exception). I could tell you some really ugly stories from my honeymoon trip but I won't focus on the negative.
Aside from my personal opinion they have a universal reputation in history for being a bit of a push-over in war time.
I was flipping through the most recent edition of Smithsonian Magazine and was delighted to find this quote in their cover article:
"In 845, the Viking raider and extortionist extraordinary Ragnar Lothbrok slipped up the Seine with 120 ships—an estimated 5,000 men—to Paris, where King Charles the Bald paid him 7,000 pounds of gold and silver to leave in peace. (A contemporary wrote that "never had [Ragnar] seen, he said, lands so fertile and so rich, nor ever a people so cowardly.")"
I have this theory that Pittsburgh drivers are like an entire city on their learners permit. They drive just at or under the speed limit in most situations, are polite to the point of being dangerous, and slow to 40 miles per hour when entering a freeway tunnel. My boss Debbie always says "when a Pittsburgher dies and the tunnel of light appears, do they slow down?" In another example, when you come to a 4 way stop, everyone just sits there, smiling at each other, waving each other on until someone gets the balls to move on through. It's hard to get mad at that, but you can see the frustration, right?
It occurred to me that I haven't posted a recipe in a while, I apologize for that. I was thinking about what would be a good seasonal recipe, going through my recipe box and googling around. And then I had a revelation and it was right under my own nose.
In the summer, at least twice a week, I make a grilled chicken salad. Veggies are very plentiful so you can use anything you have or like and I have perfected the chicken part. Most grilled chicken is dry and over done, not mine - here's what you need:
Chicken breasts for however many you want
A fat based salad dressing like ranch
Lettuce
Whatever toppings you like
Take a tablespoon of the dressing and smear it all over the chicken breast. This will seal the juices inside yet all the salad dressing fat will basically cook off.
Put a piece of tin foil in your broiler pan, crank up the oven to broil and throw the chicken on. Broil 5 minutes. Flip, broil 8 minutes more. Cut it open, no pink? good.
Now assemble the salad and WAH-LA, better then a restaurant.
Enjoy!
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A woman who says she was hurt by her thong panties when a metal clip flew off and hit her in the eye has sued Victoria's Secret, saying in a TV interview on Thursday that the injury caused her "excruciating pain."
Macrida Patterson, a 52-year-old Los Angeles traffic officer, told NBC's "Today" show that she suffered cuts to her cornea from the small piece of metal that had been used to secure a rhinestone heart onto the blue thong.
"I was putting on my underwear from Victoria's Secret and the metal popped in my eye. It happened really quickly. I was in excruciating pain. I screamed. That's what happened," Patterson told NBC.
But the main question is, why is a 52 year old traffic cop wearing thong undies with plastic heart clips (I know this is a plastic heart, I looked it up)? Maybe because this was LA, she has had enough "work" done that it's ok. I think I'm going to give her the benefit of the doubt.
A 24-year old Jacksonville Beach woman is facing felony child neglect charges Thursday after police say neighbors found her two year old son wandering in the street wearing a soiled diaper carrying a beer bottle.
Why does this always happen in Florida? You never hear of wacky toddler neglect is places like Wisconsin.
Happy Friday!
I have always loved these two images. Monorail and hovercraft! People, it's the wave of the cat transportation future
Last weekend we had the wonderful pleasure of helping with and attending John's sister's wedding. Carrie and Jeff were married at an Episcopal camp for kids on Lake Erie in Ohio. The camp was a very special place to Carrie growing up and it was transformed beautifully for the occasion. It's amazing what floral arrangements, linen and china can do for the dining hall of a church camp.
It's also amazing what you can do when your bridesmaids look like fashion models in JCrew matching dresses and all the guests look like they strolled off their Hampton's front porches. Having people mulling around a camp in Jos. Banks suits and Lilly Pulitzer dresses will make any place charming. A bunch of red necks in hooker shoes and wifebeaters might not have had such a "rustically gracious" effect.
Anywho... since it was a destination wedding of sorts the family was put up in a 4 bedroom cottage rental with a deck overlooking Lake Erie. The location was wonderful and the house, all in all, was fairly spacious and well appointed (aside from the absence of a can opener) but upon further inspection it was filled to the brim with the strangest assortment of really tacky nicknacks.
Imagine having a space for every crappy gift someone ever gave you. Now you can imagine our rental cottage! Lois, the apparent owner, didn't seem to have any overarching theme to her collection (i.e. Nautical or Farm Animals) which made it all the more curious. Just a huge collection of really ugly crap.
Let's take a tour, shall we?
We'll start in the kitchen, where I found this hideous liquid soap dispenser. A brick of stone. With a hole. With a carved tree in it. The thing weighed about what you might imagine it did.
Moving along to the dining room we find many assorted wall hangings. This lovely specimen painted by machine onto plank wood wasn't so bad but I question the caption. Why THE lake trout. Why not just lake trout. Or A lake trout.
This photo of an Eskimo child being sniffed by a wild wolf was very confusing. It was placed inside a china cabinet with nothing else that resembled anything "Eskimo". It's not like this was someone that Lois would have known. Odd.
Over on the mantle we find two teddy bears about to be ripped apart by a wild leopard. Is there anyone out there that would logically ever think to pair these two items together? "I think the bears would look fantastic flanking the Puma... don't you George?"
Upstairs in the bedrooms (speaking of which our bed was two box springs with a thick mattress on top. Why? Who knows. I had to step on John's knee and have him launch me up into it). Hanging from a window frame is this lovely... crucifix? Angel? Country doll spread armed inside a stick wreath? Christmas ornament?
Now this thing was just plain creepy. It was made out of string, you could put your hand through each individual string hole. And the lost eye thread looked positively demonic. I chucked it into the closet as soon as I got there.
As we move on out to the hot tub on the deck we are greeted by these jaunty plastic fellows. Ahoy!
and welcome to the hot tub. Perhaps Lois's 8 year old niece made this sign in art class. Enjoy your stay! Sigh.....
I leave you with this last image of two really, really white people on the dance floor. Cheers!
This really IS Patti LaBelle, Wynonna Judd and Chaka Khan showing up to a charity gala in L.A. last Sunday.
I learned something new today. In English (British) language history, if someone has "Fitz" in their last name, it denotes a male who is illegitimate to the aristocracy.
Fascinating!
Fitz: used in compound names, to indicate illegitimate paternity of the sons of kings and princes of the blood; as, Fitzroy, the son of the king; Fitzclarence, the son of the duke of Clarence.
Happy Friday people. Remember LaToya Jackson?
