All Abooooooooard!!!!!

I'm not exactly sure what the Rally for Sanity/Rally for Fear was supposed to accomplish, tho John Stewart's parting words were spot-on and made me a bit weepy and wistful. 

(Seriously, why are reasonability, sanity, compassion and kindness so difficult to practice?)

But if nothing else, the rally made for one truly wonderful moment.

I tried to crop Ozzy's gut out of this screen capture...

I have sung Ozzy Osbourne's "Crazy Train" many times.

Growing up, I listened to a lot of Cat Stevens/Yusuf, including "Peace Train".

Seeing them "battle" on stage and leave arm in arm was, in a word, FANTASTIC!

And yes, following that with "Love Train" basically had me dancing in my living room.

Good messages.

Good feelings.

Hope.

End Selfishness.

Fettuccine with Leeks & Prosciutto

Have you ever spent too much of one afternoon like a sloth on the couch watching Cooking Channel and Travel Channel shows and suddenly desiring whatever you've been staring at for the past hour? And then you realize that you don't have homemade pasta that is light as air, or a perfectly cooked loin of venison, or wild boar ragú, or the best Pressed Duck in NYC, or... or... or...
Because that happens to me frequently.
And it really frustrates me.

On this particular occasion I was craving pasta, and upon scrounging through investigating my refrigerator I found the following:
one medium leek
half a package of diced prosciutto
fresh thyme
open box of chicken stock
white wine

Score.
And of course, I had dried pasta and garlic on hand. Dinner was in the offing.

One sliced leek, one clove of garlic, and a bit shy of a tablespoon of chopped fresh thyme.

Sautée the leek in olive oil until soft and just starting to brown, and add minced/grated garlic clove.

Add cubetti to get a bit of color on them as well.

Season with salt (not too much because of the prosciutto) and throw in chopped thyme.

Use about 1/4 cup white wine to deglaze, and a couple glugs of chicken stock.

Cook to reduce.

Add pasta.

Garnish with a bit of grated cheese and devour.

Note: This did not make the thickest or richest of sauces, but it was lovely and delicate in flavor, and you should try it with a short pasta such as orecchiette, fusilli (which I loved as a kid), or cavatappi. I happened to only have long ribbons in my pantry at the time, hence the fettuccine.

"Chuck" has a direct connection to "Awesome"

Ok, random plugging of random TV show.

(You will understand my attempt at humor in the title of this post if you have seen the show.)

If you know Mike or me, you know we love both "Firefly" and the subsequent movie Serenity. In fact, we are fans of most Joss Whedon created entertainment..."Buffy", "Angel", and even the GOD AWFUL "Dollhouse" which sucked solely because of Eliza Douchebag who is such a horrid freaking actress. Great. We get it. You have zero body fat and YET are still really buff. Very admirable. Go be a gymnast and get off my TV screen. (Although, the rest of the cast of "Dollhouse" was fairly awesome, including "Angel's" Fred and "Serenity's" Wash, only as a waaaaaaaaay more interesting character.) Plus I'm a Wesleyan alum, so it's kind of required that I be a fan of Joss Whedon. Hell, his younger brother ran out to get me some Pepto before an Ionesco show I sucked in and that I thought I was going to vomit during, so both brothers get props from me.

Mike and I watched Season 1 of "Chuck" when it first aired, and instantly liked it. And we mostly watched it because Jayne from "Firefly" was playing the same character, only smart and NSA.
"You wanna run this ship?"
"Yes!"
"Well... you can't!"
Only this time, he can. Because he's freaking NSA. And he does the Jayne-grunt a lot. Which is fantastic. I've never heard a man who could make so many variations on a grunt. It's truly impressive.

*This is also why we watch "Castle" every week. What can we say? We're suckers for "Firefly" alumni.


So Season 1 was quite good (Hi, his best friend Morgan is such a frightening clone of Seth Green it's kind of astounding they are both in television) and we just Netflix-ed Season 2. The end of which was so fun that I literally did the Flailing Kermit Arms and HURT MYSELF hitting the bowl of popcorn I made for the season finale viewing. I have BRUISES people! It actually has hurt me to type all of these updates since Thursday night. I'm just that much of a spazz/special.

We have only just started watching Season 3 tonight (Snow Day and all...) and other than the fun of Chuck "flashing" on various skills instead of just information, and Armand Assante, they have FINALLY DE-GEEKED CHUCK'S HAIR!!! So hold-out kiddies. The forward-combed nerd-hair will eventually go away when The Asset goes 2.0.

*Amendment - Apparently Mike wanted to start watching this show NOT because of "Jayne" but because it was written by the same guy who did "O.C." and now "Gossip Girl"... I am so ashamed. Tho he giggles like a little girl every time "Jayne"/Adam Baldwin (NOT one of those Baldwins) grunts or insults Chuck in any way. 

So, while there are a number of shows that we enjoy (Lost, Bones, House, How I Met Your Mother (more Wesleyan connections) Castle, Top Gear (which will SO be blogged about soon), Burn Notice...) this is the current one we are really enjoying. Maybe you'll find a reason to discover it too!