Father's Day Recap

Had a great Father's Day. We made Mark a nice breakfast - blueberry mufins, bacon, and eggs - and gave him his gifts. We got him the new Stephen King book, and a collection of sports writings by David Halberstam. We got him a Brian Regan comedy DVD (which we watched last night and hooted over). We also got him a new tool caddy and some new tools (we retired the screw-driver he impaled the bat on, so we figured it was time for some new ones), and lastly, noise-reducing headphones. Then we took him to see the new Hulk movie (two VERY enthusiastic thumbs up - way better than the last one - it was really, really good.) We had his parents over for dinner, and I took the boys to a little league party while he stayed home and watched the US Open. Good day for dad.

Happy Father's Day!

Mark,

Happy Father's Day to a wonderful husband and father! You are a lot of things, but God had you pegged when he made you a dad. Thanks for making our boys all that they are. We love you more than you know!

The World's Best Chocolate Chip Cookies

Rainy Saturday in Tennessee. We've spent the day at home, cleaning and playing Mario Party. And eating chocolate chip cookies. The World's Best Chocolate Chip Cookies.

I got this recipe from the Good Eats episode Three Chips for Sister Martha. AB takes the tollhouse cookie recipe from the back of the chip bag and modifies it for a crispy cookie, a chewy cookie, and one other variety that is escaping me right now. But I make the Chewy. I make them a lot. That might have something to do with my largeness. But I digress.

You will need:

2 sticks butter melted and cooled
1 1/4 cups brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar
1 12 oz bag chocolate chips

Wet ingredients:
1 egg
1 egg yolk
1/2 tablespoon vanilla
2 tablespoons milk

Dry ingredients:
2 1/4 cups bread flour (yes it matters - use bread flour)
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon baking soda

Combine wet ingredients and set aside.
Combine dry ingredients and set aside.
Mix butter and sugars.
Add wet ingredients and mix well.
Add dry ingredients in thirds and mix well.
Add chips.

Drop on a parchment-lined cookie sheet using an ice-cream scoop or smaller disher. You want something in the neighborhood of a golf ball. Limit six per sheet. Bake at 375 for 14 minutes. Cool for five minutes, then move to a cooling rack to cool completely.

When I generously use the ice cream scoop, I get a dozen really big cookies. You can get almost two dozen out of this recipe if you use a smaller disher.

The mack-daddy is to eat them when they're still warm and make ice cream sammies. Mmm-mmm.

I get requests for these cookies all the time. I have been asked to bring them to staff meetings, and have used them to barter for all manner of favors. They're that good.

You Know What I Love?

A good peach.

What I'm Reading Now

Feasting on Asphalt: The River Run, by Alton Brown.

I watched all of the original Feasting on Asphalt, and thoroughly enjoyed it (although, I thought Tennessee got cheated). I missed several episodes of The River Run, but very much enjoyed the episodes I did see (the eating of the Koolickle and the misidentification of the stuffed nutra come to mind). The book follows their antics fairly closely to the TV version - I don't think there's a lot of extra stuff here, but there are recipes, which is a nice bonus. I just read the part where AB makes one of the crew guys put on the Andouille sausage suit and dance by the side of the road.

For those of you who haven't watched, Feasting on Asphalt was a Food Network show that chronicled AB's motorcycle ride across country, the goal of which was to experience all manner of road food. The River Run followed the same goal, but this time up the Mississippi River. Coming soon, AB will be feasting on island food, which means, I think, he'll be boating and not biking.

Happy Birthday Nana!

World Without End Update

Well, I finished World Without End. What a book. Really, really good, although not as good as Pillars. Lots of political intrigue within the church, which makes for very interesting reading. Also, lots of info about the plague in Europe and how devastating that was.

It was good all along, but about halfway through it becomes really, really good.

It definitely was a book to stand on its own - it had some references to characters in Pillars, but you can read it by itself with no problems.

Wicked

So I've been listening to the Wicked soundtrack. I had a passing awareness that there was such a musical, and that it was a big hit and all that. When I was planning the NYC trip, a friend from work had just seen it on Broadway and raved about it. I didn't think it would be up the boys' alley, so we passed on it this time. But I bought The Lion King recording on iTunes when we got back, and Wicked was available as well. So I downloaded it to see what all the fuss was about.

All the fuss is about some very good music, and from what I can tell, a very good story. It's based on a book by the same name, which tells the story before the story of The Wizard of Oz - how the witches came to be witches and what was going on behind the scenes while Dorothy did her thing.

It's kind of funny to listen to a musical soundtrack without seeing the stage production. You have a good idea what's going on, but not exactly, and when you do see it staged, it's always different then what you imagined. I knew the music from Phantom and Les Miz by heart well before I ever saw them on stage.

And so I'm learning the music from Wicked and filling in the gaps as best I can. I hope to see it on stage one day. It's coming to the Fox Theater in Atlanta in October, in case anyone's interested...

NYC - The Outtakes

Some of the less-than-stellar photos from our trip....

NYC Vacation - Odds and Ends

When we went through security at the Statue of Liberty, we had to stand in this machine that blew air on us in concentrated bursts. What the heck was that?

When I was ten, my parents took me to New York and I puked in a taxi. Ben is ten - we take him to New York, and he pukes in a taxi. Worm hole? You decide.

We saw one family three different times while we were there.

I highly recommend the Holiday Inn on West 57th - nice rooms, reasonably priced, and in a quiet area.

While we were waiting for our flight today, we saw the actress who plays Pam on The Office.

Three home runs were hit while we were at Yankee stadium. I left my seat twice - once to go to the bathroom and once to get shirts. I missed the first two bombs.

Mark got separated from us on the way back from the game - we were on the same train, just in two different spots. He discovered he was next to a woman who lives in Kingsport and works at the track. Small world.

We got really confused only once while we were there - the train we were on to get to Yankee Stadium stopped at 145th st and didn't go any further. We had no idea what to do - we're on the platform trying to read the subway map and are helped by some very nice Canadians from Canadia. Fortunately, we were all wearing Jeter jerseys and they knew where we were going. I asked if they were here supporting the Jays - not at all - they were Yankee fans, ay.

I had an attack of vertigo at the Statue of Liberty, climbing the stairs in the monument. I'm not sure what I was expecting it to be like, but certainly not how it was. Certainly not that.

For those of you who have experienced The Lion King - you think anyone ever got beaned with one of those birds?

A 16 oz beer costs $8.50 at Yankee stadium. We estimated that the party in front of us spent approximately $87 on beer.

"A Starbucks on Every Corner" is not just a cute phrase.

If you go to MLB.com and look for video of Stairs's homer for the Jays on Thursday, you can clearly see Ben just to the left and several rows up from where the ball lands. He's in a red PC shirt and is slightly behind another guy in red shirt who is standing and raising his hands. I am, of course, not visible as I was in the can at the time.

NYC - Final Day

Got up early and walked to Central Park - enjoyed a picnic breakfast - then back to the hotel to pack - cab to the airport - flight back to Charlotte and a drive home. Good times.

NYC Day Three

Yankee Stadium. The Yankees hosting the Blue Jays, and the Yankees win! The-uh-uh-uh Yankees win! In dramatic fashion too - the Yanks were down by a run with one man on and two outs in the bottom of the ninth - Giambi came in and went deep - an upper decker that went right above our heads. It was awesome!!!

NYC - Day Two

Breakfast in the hotel....Subway downtown....Ground Zero....Trinity Church....Wall Street....NYSE....Battery Park....Ferry Ride....Statue of Liberty....Lunch on Liberty Island....Pizza and Hot Dogs....Exploding mustard dispenser....Anxiety attack in the statue....Subway uptown....Museum of Natural History....Funny waiter in a diner....Roof top pool closed....Movie in the room....Early night. That about sums it up. We're having a great time!!!

NYC - Day One

We made it! We had an uneventful flight, apart from a delay on the runway, and two in-flight trips to the john by DP. We hit Times Square last night - ate at the Brooklyn Diner (see Mark's leaning tower of potatoes, below) and visited the Toys R Us store - they had a really cool Lego display and, of course, the ferris wheel (which we didn't ride, but did gawk at). And then there was The Lion King. I can't tell you how amazing that was. AMAZING. I cried during the opening, it was so awesome.

Zucchini Bread

So I'm watching the Contessa one afternoon not too long ago, and I'm trying to think of what to cook for supper. Namely, I'm trying to think of something new and exciting to do with some zucchini I have in the fridge that is about to go bad.

The Contessa goes off, and Paula Deen comes on. She's making...you guessed it...zucchini bread! I watch the spot, and sure enough, I have all I need to make the bread.

I had never baked zucchini bread, and really couldn't even think of a time when I had eaten zucchini bread, so I decide to give it a shot.

As you can see from the photos, it didn't rise all that well (but neither did Paula's) and one of the loaves broke in two when I turned it out of the pan, but it was darned tasty. I had it toasted with butter every morning for about a week.

Combine Dry Ingredients:

3 1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon nutmeg

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon cinnamon

3 cups sugar

Combine Wet Ingredients:

1 cup vegetable oil

4 eggs, beaten

1/3 cup water

2 cups grated zucchini (about 2, average-sized)

1 teaspoon lemon juice

Pour wet ingredients into dry and mix. Add:

1 cup chopped walnuts

Pour into two prepared loaf pans, and bake at 350 for one hour.

Don't thank me, thank Paula.