Nothing But The Best

Sometimes even the gourmet, foodie, culinary enthusiast – whatever name you want to call them – that person we all know (or in some cases are ourselves), the one with the ever prepared kitchen ready to launch into a meal at a moments notice, sometimes even that person just plain runs out of stuff. A situation all the more complicated when the “stuff” we are out of happens to be, well, something to drink after a hard day’s work.

Simple as Salsa

It’s that time, towards the end of summer, when the garden really begins to give up it’s bounty. Around here that means it’s salsa time. In Kentucky it’s not until late August that the hotter variety of chile peppers start to flourish. Convential wisdom is you never plant anything you want to keep before Derby Day (the first Saturday in May). Even then, it’s a race to bring in a harvest of some of the hotter chile’s (like Tabasco’s) before the cold night air starts to cut off the plants’ fruiting. This summer with it’s unusually cool nights has been a particular challenge in the old chile pepper patch.

Real time blogging during “No Reservations – Sardinia” tonight at 10pm EDT

Tony Bourdain in season 1. Will season 5 mean the end of snark and the beginning of, gasp, respectability?

The fun starts tonight at 10pm EDT for the final episode of the summer season.

Bourdain’s blog earlier this week was interesting.  The thumb ring, one of the more potent symbols of the man Tony once was, is gone.  Dropped into the abyss to spend the rest of eternity in Davey Jones’ locker.   It went, as he wrote, ”…the way of my earring, joining—in one sense or another—my Dead Boys T-shirt, my telescoping billyclub and my crack pipe.”  On the heels of that posting comes tonight season 5 ending episode where we meet, at last on camera, the Bourdain family.  His brother we know already, but to the image of the little sibling so at odds with his more famous older, more adventurous brother, we know add… Mrs. Bourdain.  Along with all of her Sardinian relatives.    Has Tony turned over a new leaf?  Has the snark finally gone to the way of Dead Boy’s t-shirt? 

Dinner on the fly…

I am blessed to have friends that love food and cooking, while at the same time being reasonably tolerant of me. 

I have said often on these pages that the best dinners are sometimes those involving the least amount of planning. A few ingredients picked fresh that morning, maybe a quick trip to the butcher, and everything else already present and accounted for in the kitchen or pantry – nothing more is required. Saturday was one such dinner, and I should hasten to point out that I had very little to do with making it happen.

Real Time blogging during “No Reservations – Burning Questions” tonight at 10pm EDT

I fell into a burning ring of fire
I went down, down, down
And the flame went higher
And it burns, burns, burns
The ring of fire
“Ring of Fire” by Johnny Cash

Ah yes, burning questions. I had a friend in the Marine Corps once come back from leave with a bad case of those, but hey that’s what penicillin’s for, right?

Tonight’s show is based, God forbid, on a Travel Channel online poll.  Tony answers the top questions from viewers, complete with illustrative scenes gleaned from previous episodes.  Now clip shows can be scary enough (anyone remember the NR Labor Day Special from last year?) Shudder.  I’m already incredulous going in, but the No Reservation’s Facebook page promises much hilarity and a Zamir highlight reel, so maybe it will all work out in the end.  I mean, Facebook wouldn’t lie.  Would it?