Movie Review: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

Summary: Clint Eastwood, the west, and cowboys shooting the hats off of other cowboys.

Rating: 9.5 out of 10

Review: I know. How have I not seen this movie until now? Beats me. Anyway, Clint Eastwood is a bad ass. He really is. I think he said about 5 words in the whole 3 hour movie. He didn't need to. He could just look at you and you would give up. Classic movie. A must see.

Cooking Class at Jungle Jim's

For my birthday, Justin got the both of us a cooking class at Jungle Jim's. This was the Whole Grain Cooking class with Stephen Lee (the HerbMiester). Jungle Jim's has some great cooking classes. I would recommend them to anyone. This was Justin's first class and my fourth. We got there and sat down in our seats and noticed that the average age seemed to be slightly high. I think all the whole grains talk appealed to the older crowd and the health concience. Little did they know...

So, Stephen Lee is a great cooking teacher. He was funny and quirky. His claim to fame was that he developed the current KFC green bean recipe. That's kind of cool, n'est pas? Anyway, we started with the Forest Mushroom and Millet Soup. It was pretty good. Needed more salt. You know what millet is? Bird seed. Seriously. Our "salad" was Barley, Corn, and Brown Rice Salad. This had a simple olive oil and lemon juice dressing and was actually very good. I was surprised. Not my normal good eats, but I liked it.

The main course was Shrimp and Broccoli in a Cream Sauce over .... get ready for it .... you're not going to believe it .... .... waffles. Yes, over waffles. Buckwheat waffles. I know, weird. But, very good. On the side we had some rye cornbread that was excellent. The best thing of the night. Simple to make, just buttermilk, rye, cornmeal, eggs and shortening. Oh, yeah. Shortening. He used lots of shortening. I think a lot of the people in there thought it would be a "low fat" class. They were wrong. He used lots of the good stuff.

Finally, we made it to the best course. Dessert! We had Steamed Oatmeal Pudding with a Hard Cider Sauce. Very good. The sauce was more of a whipped cream and the pudding was more of a fruit cake, but they were tasty.

Overall, a very good class. Thanks Justin. I will have to go back. :-)

P.S. Oh, and I got Stephen Lee's signed cookbook "Go Withs". Excellent.

Jacob Update: What pacifier?

Jacob is 40 hours into his binky (pacifier) - free lifestyle. All is going well. The reason for the cold turkey method: he bit off the rubber piece on three of his pacifiers.

Wii Update!!

I've got my Wii!! Sarah found out that Circuit City had some at lunchtime on Tuesday in Dayton. So, I left work and rushed over there to get one. There were zero on the shelves and no sign that they had any. I walked up to a salesman and asked it they had any. He said yes. "I'll take one," I smirked. I then had to wait the rest of the work day to play. The agony.

No time to talk. I have to go beat up Sarah. (Wii Boxing)

Jacob Update: The Couch

Ok, he can now get up on the couch by himself. He also tries to climb over the back.

Great.

Movie Review: Thank You For Smoking

Summary: Satirical comedy follows the machinations of Big Tobacco's chief spokesman, Nick Naylor, who spins on behalf of cigarettes.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10

Review: Good movie. Is it wrong when you relate to the "bad guy" of the movie? That guy could convince anybody to believe anything.

Anyone seen a wii?

Guess what Alan and Julie got me for my birthday? A Wii!!!!



Sort of....

They couldn't actually find one. So, I'm on the search. So far I've personally checked 6 stores today. I also called 7 more. No luck, yet.

Must. Have. Now.

Jacob Update: Can of Mushrooms + Big Toe + Gravity = Big Booboo

Needless to say, Jacob and a can of mushrooms had an encounter. The mushrooms won. At least they got in the first punch. A few tears later and we have a black toe.

Birthday at Mesh

So, for my birthday, Sarah and I went to a relatively new restaurant called Mesh. This was one of the fanciest restaurant that I have ever been to! I would call the interior modern-contemporary. On the back wall was a glass case surrounding a 15 foot wall of wines (I assume for temperature control). The food at Mesh was contemporary American with emphasis on presentation. The fancier the better. They go for lots of little plates of food. So, on with our meal!

When we first arrived, the chef brought us a small, bite-size appetizer. This changes day to day and was not bad. Small piece of crisp bread with goat cheese and a tomato/olive stuff on top. Not bad, but not my thing. (Sarah actually tried this!) For an appetizer, we got the potato poppers. Little egg shaped fried mashed potatoes with a hint of chili oil and salt. Sarah really liked these a lot. I got the tomato bisque soup. It was served to me in a bowl that didn't have soup in it. It had a few pine nuts, a small blob of red paste, and a small blob of green paste. That was all that was in the bowl. I was slightly confused for a second. Then, she brought out a small metal pitcher that had the soup in it and poured the broth into my bowl. Very fancy. Let me tell you, that was probably the best soup I have ever eaten. Oh, the red blob was tomato paste and the green blob was some kind of basil stuff.

On to the main course. Sarah got the redskin potato ravioli. She says, "it was really good". I got the scallops on top of some kind of potato stuff on top of tomato. The scallops were excellent. (I know. I didn't get the lamb. I was just in a scallop mood.) Here's a camera phone pic of the scallops:



For dessert, Sarah got the "cheesecake". It wasn't quite what we were expecting. It was a Bailey's chocolate cake with a layer of cheesecake in the center. This was topped with a very light buttercream frosting. Very yummy. I got the raspberry, chocolate terrine. This is apparently a very dense, chocolate, fudgy-like torte. The chocolate had a very good raspberry flavor with some sauce drizzled all over it. Not only that, but it also had sugar encrusted cashews with it. Excellent dessert. I was just too full to fully enjoy it.


Overall, this was a fantastic place. The kind of place where the waiters stand at attention on the wall waiting for someone to need something. Every time my silverware was dirty, they replaced it. They served the food on your left side and removed the plate from your right.

Definatly NOT kid friendly; but I can't wait to go back. The only problem is that it is kind of pricey. We spent $71 without drinks. So, i would recommend this as a special occasion place.

Jacob Update: Warcraft

Jacob, my future World of Warcraft buddy. What do you think, Blood Elf?

Movie Review: The Prestige (2006)

Summary: A mysterious story of two magicians whose intense rivalry leads them on a life-long battle for supremacy. Set against the backdrop of turn-of-the-century London, the duo compete to perform the ultimate magic trick.

Rating: 9 out of 10

Review: This was an excellent movie! The whole movie keeps you guessing about what's going on. One magician trying to outdo one another, going back and forth. Plus, the movie keeps throwing twists at the audience. You never know what to believe or how the tricks are being performed. The movie is presented as a magic trick. The audience sees something they can't understand. Not because they couldn't figure it out; they have all the evidence. They just don't want to believe. Great movie. See it.