Peter's Cooking Diary #1

Well this is an idea that I had pop into my head, write a little bit about my cooking, and other things related to cooking, with some pictures worked in as well, as always I would love feedback on this. Its just me looking for something to write about, and this is something I enjoy quite a bit. Not sure if this will be a weekly thing, or maybe a little bit less often, when I have something interesting to write, I guess as it is right now, it is a work in progress.

The first thing I wanted to mention is how much I like the products available at Aldi, you can't always get everything on the grocery list there, but I really like what they do have, and the prices are usually much cheaper that other grocery stores, just make sure you bring a quarter for the cart!

They really have great products for parties, summer sausage, some great quality cheeses which are very cheap (I got a $2.99 gouda this last weekend and it is great), cheap dips and hummus as well. Most canned goods that they have most canned goods regularly as well as staples like milk and eggs. There are also cheap frozen foods, but I don't but too much from that area. They also have a variety of more upscale products, an example of that from this week was the whole wheat gnocchi that I got this week for $1.50 for a similar product that would cost about $4 at a different grocery store.

I cooked the gnocchi and it was really quite good, just a little bit of whole wheat flavor which I don't mind at all, they cooked up really quickly as the instructions indicated, they would be good just in some butter with some Parmesan, but I made some sauce that I will mention below to go on them. I just think Aldi is a good place to find some new ingredients to try to cook with, I am all about experimenting with making food.

Today was a big day of cooking for me, as Sundays usually are.

The first thing I started this morning was a modified version of an Italian pot roast recipe from my favorite cooking book Slow Cooker Revolution

I also took an element learned from my favorite cooking show, Good Eats with Alton Brown, and I browned the roast on both sides, which the recipe in the book does not say to. I tried a little bit of the roast this evening, and it sure was delicious, if there is one thing I know how to do, its cook for my tastes. I liked the recipe because it does not have potatoes, while I enjoy eating potatoes, I am trying to go back to my low carb roots and lose some more weight.

The next thing I made was my version of Puttanesca sauce, which I think I may have learned from my days of watching Rachel Ray's 30 Minute Meals, which is full of good ideas for quick cooking. The sauce consists of crushed tomatoes(I am lucky enough to have a mother who grows her own, and turns extras into sauce. i am sure she will read this, thanks mom!), onion, garlic, dried oregano, dried parsley(also from my mother), red pepper flake, some tomato paste for a little sweetness, kalamata olives that I hand crush into the sauce the vinegar adds a little bit of acidity to the dish, and the final ingredient is canned tuna. The sauce if made in an authentic way would likely have capers and anchovies in it as well. I don't really care for capers, and I completely forgot to add a little anchovy paste that I bought. I like the sauce pretty chunky, with a lot of the liquid evaporated out. Gnocchi might not be the best pasta for the sauce, but I really enjoyed it a lot.

The final thing I cooked today was some roasted cauliflower and carrots. I did the 2 veggies on separate pans, at separate times, the carrots were supposed to cook at a lower temperature, I believe it is because they have a higher sugar content and can burn a little easier. Roasting them is very simple, the cauliflower was with olive oil, salt, pepper, and garlic. The carrots were with olive oil, salt, pepper, and parsley. I thought of this while I was sprinkling the parsley on, its kind of weird to season carrots with their close relative parsley, strange thought to have. The veggies are going with the pot roast, with a little bit of the pot roast juice with them.

I tasted a little bit of everything for dinner tonight, and it was all good! Well this is the end of the first installment of my cooking diary, please provide some feedback if you have any, ideas for things to talk about on here are always welcome as well.

Life Update 04/18/2013

Well it sure have been a long time since I have written anything on here, but I have recently felt the urge, even if it is a short post, I will likely be writing a bit more frequently in the near future.

Well the first thing to update on here, I am no longer in a relationship. I still feel like I am transitioning into my own place, but that is only because I haven't been here long enough. I don't really want to get into this too much, but if you know me personally I will gladly discuss it that way.

Anyway, so since the breakup I have been allowing myself to indulge with food, which of course has always been my biggest weakness. I do feel that I need to really establish some plan, especially one that does not have as much sugar in it. I guess I just felt that writing it out on here would help me stick to it more.

The main exclusions from this plan are no white starches, no bread, no potatoes, no rice. Now there are some exceptions to these exclusions that will be made occasionally. I am planning to make pot roast over the weekend, and I think that pot roast should have some potatoes along with it. I am planning lean protein and vegetables, similar to what I had done before, but I would also include fruit and yogurt on top of that. I don't think I need sweets on a day to day basis, especially if I incorporate a few natural sweets on my own. I really just need to recommit myself to this type of thing. Exceptions will be made, but I need to get out of the attitude of being able to eat junk all of the time, I need to focus on something that is sustainable.

Its not that I am desperate to lose weight or anything like that. I like the feeling of progress, and the feeling of being able to lose some weight, I would love to get down below 300 lbs by the end of the year, so that is the goal I am setting right now. I want to keep going in the positive direction. I really wish this weather would be better outside, so I could go running outside, but the weather this "spring" has just been lousy. I have been walking a lot at work, and I will be playing on a softball team this spring, but there is just something about running outside that is so therapeutic for me.

I guess just post is less about my life, and more about me recommitting to cutting down on the sweets, and trying to continue to improve myself.

Thanks for reading, I am planning to get this thing up and running more frequently again soon.

My Disdain for Politics

I am writing this on election night, but before having seen any kind of information about the results. I also am going to try  to keep my personal political beliefs out of this. If you know me, you likely can guess which direction I lean. If you want to discuss politics, I am up for that, but this is not the forum I would like to do that in.

I guess the title is a little bit misleading, my disdain is not completely for politics, but also for the business that has been created around politics. There are billions of dollar spent on politics, that could go towards many better causes. I just don't like that people who have more money than others have more say than others. Everyone should have the same impact. I know this has never been the case, but I guess I am just dreaming of a better world, politically.

I really hate the mailings and the pamphlets left on doors, and all of those other scraps of paper that are sent out during the campaign. We definitely got a piece or two of political mail every day. I don't know about other people, but I didn't even bother to read the pieces we received, other than to notice that opposing candidates pretty much using the exact same attacks on each other. I can only imagine how many tons of paper are sent out for elections, and I would imagine lots of that ends up as litter, or with people just throwing them in the garbage, because what we really need is more litter and trash in the world.

Nothing drives me crazier during this time than the attack ads that are everywhere. Nothing is really more discouraging about politics than the negativity. I want to know why you are better than the other candidate(s) not why they are the worst thing ever. You have to take the negativity you see in politics in general with a grain of salt. If you really believe every word you hear from politicians you really need a reality check. I am not saying either side is worse than the other, but can we act like adults about this stuff? After all politics is something that kids aren't allowed to participate in.

This kind of leads in to yet another thing, cherry picking of facts, or even just stating things that are not true. This was especially something that really bothered me during the debates, which I watched. There really needs to be some way to verify the information during the actual debates, and there also needs to be some accountability, getting votes for flat out lying about things during the debates seems like one of the most unsavory things of all.

I will be honest, I am very sick of being pigeonholed into a 2 party system. There need to be more option, that are actually serious options. I would prefer to have the options that are available in Europe, there is room for more than just the 2 parties. I guess I save my stand on that soapbox for another time.

I just hope that everyone went out and voted.

I will see you all on the other side.

Pete Holmes

I have been wanting to write a post about my love for standup comedy for a long time, but I really have not gotten around to it, maybe some other day. I have been to a few standup shows in the last year, prior to that my knowledge of standup had been from tv and from comedy albums, not live. This is really a post about the most recent visit to a comedy club.

The headlining comedian of the night was Pete Holmes. When he had first announced that he would be coming to Appleton, probably about 4 months beforehand, I told my girlfriend that we had to go! I would normally have preferred to go to a Friday or Saturday show, but we had items conflicting with both of those days, so we went to the Thursday show with some friends. I really wasn't sure what the club would be like on a Thursday night.

The club was not completely full, but was mostly full. We got there pretty early and got seated at the front, something you normally have to pay extra for. I think the crowd was really into the show, which always helps, and I was very excited for the show. I had only seen a few of Pete Holmes' bits, but really love his podcast, You Made it Weird, which you can find on iTunes.

I really enjoyed all of the comedians that were on that night. I had seen the host/emcee do his act a few times before, but I could tell that he had been working on his bits, and his act had become more polished. The comedians did a great job of getting the crowd going, when Pete came out, I think he could tell that the crowd was into it.

Now for those of your who may not know me in person, I really love to laugh. I think it is really easy to make me laugh, and my sense of humor encompasses just about all aspect of humor. I am a bit of a laugh slut, I give up my laughs pretty easily, what can I say? I just love to laugh.

As I knew from listening to Pete's podcast, he and I really have similar senses of humor, even when he is riffing he makes me laugh a lot. His set was no different, I was with him from the first joke, laughing very very hard, and enjoying every moment of his set. He noticed how hard I was laughing, asked me my name during the set, and went on a riff out of that, he called my King Peter, and made some other nice comments about how I am just living life and enjoying it. When he was starting into a bit he asked for my help in guiding the people with my laughs. In the end it was my favorite set of comedy that I have seen in person. My expectations were pretty high, but he just blew them out of the water.

When he got of stage he had to go behind me, he tapped me on the shoulder, stuck out his had for me to shake it, and said thank you. A comedian who made me laugh harder than I can ever remember laughing, thanked me personally after his set. How awesome of a guy is he? Well it gets better!

Went to talk to him for a few minutes in the lobby after the show, he actually didn't recognize me right away, I would guess the lights are pretty bright on stage. Once I identified myself, he got really excited, called me King Peter again, I got my picture taken with him, and the best part of all was that he said anytime he was in town he would put me on his guest list and I could get in for free!!! How awesome could this guy be?

It was my first real interaction with someone that I am a fan of, and boy did Pete Holmes not let me down. I really was, and still am, blown away. I would gladly pay to see him do his set anytime he is in the area. I honestly don't know what else I can really say other than how amazing of a guy he is?

After the show I was really on a laugh high, it took me quite a while to come down from it, also something I have never really had to deal with before.

I will say that I know he is recording an hour long special for Comedy Central in a little over a week, I hope him the best with that, I will definitely be watching it when it comes on. He also made a pilot for a show that would follow Conan, which I think would be awesome to see. I really hope it gets picked up, Pete Holmes deserves to get more notoriety.

I guess the point of this post is really to say how awesome it can be when you have high expectations, and when those expectations are exceeded. I will always appreciate when someone is so nice and well just all around awesome. He was able to turn a big fan into an even bigger fan.

Pitch Perfect

Well for those of you who know me, you wouldn't think that this would be the kind of movie that I would enjoy, I was interested in seeing seeing it because of Anna Kendrick and Rebel Wilson. I went in with modest expectations and was impressed with the overall movie.

There were several big laughs throughout the movie. I was impressed by how funny the movie was overall. Kendrick and Wilson both had some great laughs. I thought the cast overall was was good in the movie. Adam Devine, who is on Comedy Central's show Workaholics, is kind of the villain in the movie and does a good job being unlikable in the movie as well.

The movie kept me interested, while also not really breaking new ground. The story is fairly predictable, but the characters are very interesting, and the songs are fun. It would have really taken me out of it if the singing was used for plot points, or to tell the story, but thankfully it isn't.

This was a cute movie, there really weren't any parts that I didn't enjoy. It was a good date movie, which is what my girlfriend and I used it for. You don't have to think too much about it, but still get some laughs and a sweet story.

I will say this as a disclaimer, there are a few gross out scenes in the movie, didn't bother me, but might bother some people.

If you have any interest in this movie, I would definitely recommend seeing it. It really left me satisfied, even if the story was not all that complicated.

I will add that I had never seen an episode of Glee before seeing this movie, but I passively listened to one after the movie, and the movie is quite a bit different. The singing plot points that I saw in Glee definitely annoyed me, but my girlfriend enjoys Glee and liked Pitch Perfect as well.

First Thoughts on The Dark Knight Rises

This is not my full post on The Dark Knight Rises, just some comments right after having seen it. I might need to see it again before posting my full thoughts.

Not sure if this is a common issue that people are having in the theaters, but the sound was really messed up with the showing I saw. Either the sound mixing and editing was the worst I have ever heard on a movie, or the audio was being played on the wrong setting. I missed quite a bit of the dialogue because it was inaudible over the backing music. I am willing to see it again, but I have never been this angry over the audio for a movie. I am trying to not let it alter my opinion of the movie, but I have to agree with my girlfriend that it is truly impossible to really know how I feel about the movie without having heard the dialogue completely.

I will say that I enjoyed the movie as a whole. It was actually quite close to what I imagined it would be, now I don't mean that as something negative. I read a lot up on the comic books, and I did a lot of thinking about what would happen in the movie, and I liked what they included in the movie. I did think that some of the performances left something to be desired, but can anyone live up to Heath Ledger's performance in The Dark Knight?

The Avengers

I literally just got home from watching the movie, I still have thoughts swirling in my head about the movie. I don't think I could have dreamed up a way of doing that movie better. I guess there is a reason i am not a screen writer huh? Although I think Joss Whedon is above the game in that respect as well. He has written what are my 2 favorite movies so far this year, The Cabin in the Woods is the other.

There is so much to say about this movie. I really do not think there is not a moment in the movie that is dull. There is action, there is tension, there is laughter to break the tension, and there is great dialogue. All of those things put together in one movie is why I really want to give credit to Joss Whedon and Zak Penn.

Beyond the good writing, I also think just about everyone had a good performance in this movie. I did not notice any poor performances. I still think Tom Hiddleston does a great job as Loki, with such an evil smile. I think there was good chemistry between all of the stars, and some great tension in the movie between the Avengers as well.

The movie does an amazing job of painting each of the characters in their own lights, with their own strengths and imperfections. The movie is so balanced and, with its ensemble cast, does an amazing job of keeping balance. No one character shines above the others, it is a true team effort. The team of course is even larger now with the addition of The Black Widow and Hawkeye. Jeremy Renner is in everything these days!

I really think what makes the movie a cut above the rest is how it combines all of these things together. There are several large laughs which are not what you would normally expect out of action movies. I definitely tend to enjoy action movies that can include a decent amount of humor, it might have actually been my biggest issue with Transformers 2, there was not much humor, and it is not hard at all to make me laugh, run on sentence much?

I think it is awesome what they were able to do with a movie like this, every single person knows how this movie will end going in, yet it is very compelling the whole way through. The movie takes a wonderful course to its conclusion.

In all honesty, I highly doubt my words are going to get anyone to see the movie. If you saw and liked the other Marvel movies of recent times, then definitely go see this. If that is not your cup of tea, then I highly doubt you have read this far. There is of course another scene after the credits that, for me, was worth a big laugh. There is also a reference to the villain who will be in the next movie, but I am uncertain who that character is at this time.

I really was hoping for some sort of reference to Ant Man or the Wasp, but alas there was none. I hope Edgar Wright is still signed up to write that movie, which would make it a must see movie for me personally.

I wanted to post an updated ranking of the recent generation of marvel movies:

The Avengers
X-Men First Class
Iron Man
Captain America
The Incredible Hulk
Thor
Iron Man 2
X-Men Origins: Wolverine