Well, look who it is. Yes, it’s writer/director/producer/Golden Boy Martin Gero, recent winner of the 2013 WGC Screenwriting Award for Best Writing in a TV Drama (The LA Complex: “Down in L.A.”). This pic was sent to me via my good friend, Anne-Marie Perrotta (who picked up a Writers Block Award on the same night) who, I’m guessing, orchestrated Martin’s kidnapping and transport from Los Angeles to Toronto for the gala. I see the Writers Guild of Canada spared no expense in the accommodations. That’s an Imperial Cell Suite. It comes with free newspaper and Continental Beating. But I would suggest passing on both.
I also heard from my former Toronto nemesis, Tara Yelland (tarayelland) the other day. She’s been busy of late, working on a series, booking a commercial, and generally missing yours truly. But the most interesting thing about her email was the discovery that her middle name is Ashley. Ashley! My Vancouver nemesis’s first name is Ashleigh! Coincidence? I would say yes but if the internet has taught me anything over the last few days, it’s that there’s a conspiracy in absolutely everything, no matter how asinine the theory.
Over the past couple of months, I’ve attended a number of dining-related events. Most required the purchase of online tickets, usually through Eventbrite,”a provider of online event management and ticketing services”. Today, I received an email from Eventbrite that included some suggested upcoming “Event Picks” chosen just for me. I assume it’s sort of like Amazon recommendations. If you liked THIS novel, you’ll probably enjoy THAT novel. So, given my recent attendance of a foie gras feast and offal dinner, Eventbrite assumed I would be interested in a Women in Mining Annual Cocktail Reception, My Dream Wedding/Spring 2013, and, of course, a Strolling Tour of the Sex Work History in the West End.
Hey, look who’s been cast in the new series Carl Binder is show running: Teryl Rothery Cast in Hallmark’s Cedar Cove
Well this is interesting: Johnny Mnemonic TV Series In Development
Okay, who’s ready to do some cooking? We’ve got eight recipes of YOUR recipes to test out, so let’s get crackin’ – in the case of the desserts, otherwise, choppin’. First up is
Sparrow_hawk’s Chicken Breast with Brown Butter and Fried Sage Leaves
| Step 1. Toasted Pine Nuts
½ cup pine nuts (pignolli) (or more if you love them) Heat a frying pan over a medium high heat. Add the pine nuts and heat for about 5 minutes until lightly browned. Set aside. Hide them so you can’t nibble on them while you cook. Step 2. Fried Sage Leaves 20 sage leaves Rinse and pat dry the fresh sage leaves. When the oil is hot, add the sage leaves and fry until lightly browned. The light flour coating keeps the sage leaves from getting overdone and bitter. Drain on paper towels. Don’t eat them all before you finish cooking the chicken. Step 3. Parmesan Chicken Breast 16 oz boneless Chicken Breasts (about 3) 1. Cut the chicken breast into 4 oz. pieces and pound to about ½ inch thickness. |
Sounds tasty, no? You have all this week to prepare. We’ll compare and discuss the results next Tuesday when I’ll also be posting our next recipe.
That’s some post! Witty, amusing and at the end you had me drooling. 😆
“It comes with free newspaper and Continental Beating.”
Ha! I wonder if you actually get beaten with the newspaper? Bad writer! BAD!
Looking forward to trying this recipe! I hope it keeps fairly well – I’ll probably be bringing the leftovers to lunch for a day or two after.
I hope I can make this sometime this week, but I’ve got my hands full all of a sudden. Gumbo (the old Springer Spaniel) woke up with a swollen face (just one side) over the weekend. I figured it was a tooth, and I was right, so we took him in for a dental and an extraction. I was worried because he is really old and didn’t know how he’d handle the general anesthesia, but really had no choice. He also has had this awful-looking cyst on his neck that fills up with disgusting fluid every so often, then pops open and spills its contents on whatever he’s on, so I asked my vet to get rid of that, as well. He’s a pansy ass about having his nails cut, so I had them do that while he was under, as well. Turns out he’d broken a nail, so they had to repair that, and tonight he’s home with staples in his neck, a bandage on his foot and stitches in his mouth. He’s on antibiotics and plenty of pain meds, so he’s pretty loopy. He already has a hard time getting up (we usually have to help him, and he’s no lightweight), and having him half out of it has been a blast tonight. Meanwhile, my daughter left me with the baby while she went to jiu jitsu, saying he was asleep for the night, I should have to do nothing. I should have known… The kid woke up having a major meltdown at the same time Gumbo decided he wanted to get up (he’s very vocal about his desires, and not in a good way), and nobody else was home. I tried picking the baby up and putting him on my bed while I lifted the dog, but the kid wasn’t having any of that (tomato-faced crying at this point). I got Gumbo halfway up and he went back down (in the dog bed, no worries), and decided I’d just have to wait until I took care of the kid or somebody got home to help with the dog. I fed the baby and got him to bed (FINALLY), Mr. Deni got home, carried the dog out and brought him back in after a long pee. Oh yeah, meanwhile, Cody got into my room and decided to remove Gumbo’s staples (he didn’t). Then, Gumbo got up on his own and pooped in the dining room. The end. 🙂
Teryl is tweeting shoot photos @TerylRothery. One of her subjects may be Elise Levesque (@atleastlevesque).
@ Joey – Deni really needs a blog dedication…SOON!
😉
das
I’ve been thinking about the rapid response teams of asinine theorists. The internet has created a perfect storm for them and previous tragedies have created some clustered organization so that it comes out early and emboldened now. I’m a bit fringey myself so I’ve known enough of them and I’ll tell you an inside secret: it’s the introverted version of narcissism.
I believe as long as personality disorders have a population cap, the most annoying of the asinine theorists will, too.
I don’t put anything past anyone so it’s not that I’m offended by questioning a sacred cow. But if you cringe at the content of what they say, you never get to look them in the eye. You have no idea how dysfunctional the simplest conversations with them are. They don’t either.
Your Vancouver nemesis’s first name was Ashleigh, now you find out your Toronto nemesis, Tara Yelland’s middle name is Ashley. Your world would be complete if you found out your blog nemesis DasNDanger’s real name was Ashlee. Then it would really be a conspiracy. But Das would have confessed by now. Or maybe she is just toying with you…
Well, I put my chicken in the refrigerator to thaw. I’m just wondering why you didn’t start with an appetizer, then salad, then main meal, then dessert. Don’t listen to me. I’ve been watching too much Chopped!
Oh and @ Deni – Hang in there Grandma! Glad the fur baby is doing okay.
Printed it out, will pick up ingredients and give it a whirl! Looks yummy.
Ooh, I WANT to make that recipe, but can’t, since I’m doing the first two weeks of the Mayo Clinic Diet right now. I got the book out of the library, so I have to try the diet out before the book is due back. There’s too much butter in the chicken recipe to qualify for the diet. But only the first two weeks are extra-strict (the “Lose It!” phase of the plan), so I’ll just wait ’til later and make it during the less-stringent “Live It!” phase. It looks like a decent diet (actually, “way of life” would be a more accurate term for what they’re advocating), but one of their rules for this first two weeks is “No eating while watching TV, and no more TV or computer screen time (work doesn’t count) than time you’ve spent exercising.” Uh, excuse me? You want me to do what, now? Needless to say, I’ve been flagrantly disregarding that particular rule. I can exercise an hour a day, but there’s no way I’m watching TV and surfing for just one hour combined! Who can do that???
@Joe on “Event Picks”:
I have the same problem with Amazon. I share a master account with Barbara and the kids, mostly due to the fact that it all comes out of the same bank account anyway, and as a result all of the “suggested especially for you” emails tend to be a strange mix of items.
I’ll see “The collected works of Jane Austen”, followed by “new Goth makeup” (I’m hoping this one was from when Jackie was looking for makeup for Halloween, otherwise I may have to do a surprise inspection on David’s room 😉 ), followed by the latest V8 engine rebuilding guide. If anyone at Amazon ever reviews these selections, I wonder what their overall impression would be? Rocky Horror Toolman?
On your nemesis, an old friend of mine had a “nemesis name” (Rachel); he insisted that he always had problems with women named Rachel. Fortunately, Rachel was not a really common name, so he had only a couple of nemeses to deal with. I don’t think I’ve really had a nemesis (are they really a nemesis if you don’t care?….)
One recipe a week sounds right. I’ll try to make “Sparrow_hawk’s Chicken Breast” (somehow that sounded wrong) sometime in the next week.
And I’m finally off to Chicago today (I’m currently sitting in American’s lounge in Terminal 3 at Heathrow). It will be good to be home; I want a burger! Talk to you all on the other side!
Cheers,
Jeff W.
I could be wrong but this pic was taken in the basement of the SUITE at 1 King… I sleep there every time I go to Toronto…. I would take that sort of Newspaper and Beating anytime…
Sparrow Hawk / Joe: Cannot wait to try that recipe. It’s got three of my favorite things: butter, garlic, sage.
I won’t have time this week unfortunately. I’m in the midst of organizing my annual Jeep club benefit for our favorite animal shelter. Info here: http://www.theanimalorphanage.org/?page_id=323
Also if anyone would like to donate, there are ways here: http://www.theanimalorphanage.org/?page_id=323
The Amazon recommendation program is great. It’s very convenient, and usually spot on. Eventbrite? Apparently not so much. Unless you’re a woman involved in mining and neglected to tell us.
Congratulations to the truly talented Golden Boy, Mr. Martin Gero! (No slipping out sideways through THOSE bars though)
Great to hear that Teryl Rothery is on board Carl’s series. I always found the vignettes that she and Don Davis did on some of the early season SG-1 box-sets to be HILARIUS!
@Joe, I have a film/TV related mailbag question please- In “Monty Python’s Life of Brian” Exec Producer credit goes to George Harrison. Is this EP title sometimes doled out to the financier and not reflective of active participation in making the movie, or generally does it mean Grand Poobah Showrunner?
Cheers!
Fried sage leaves?? Fascinating! Sage is very good for dreaming, so let us know if you have any interesting dreams. I use a lot of sage when I cook and it never fails to give me these long detailed dreams.
So sorry you went through all that yesterday Deni. You are making a huge difference in Anakin’s life though. You know that right? I hope Gumbo is better today too.
Sparrow_hawk: Your recipe looks divine!
I’m trying to LOWER my “meat” fat levels and I made this instead of the chicken dish: http://twitpic.com/clmnas The irony is that my cholesterol levels are probably higher than Mr. M.’s! Can you post the cobbler recipe next? That one looks so good!
The light went out in my fridge. I changed the bulb but it’s still not working. Who knew a light bulb would make such a huge difference? I miss light in my fridge….
Great post Mr. M.! Loved the Ashleigh angle. Ashley/Ashleigh is such a sweet sounding name. Surely, someone with that name can’t be all bad?
Congrats Mr. Binder!
Hi, everyone! I just got back from a 10 day trip to the Netherlands and Belgium. Much beer and chocolate was consumed.
Oh, goodie! You brought back the recipes! I feel honored that you’re starting with mine.
Mmmmm. I haven’t made this recipe in a while but my sage is starting to come back so I’ll join everyone else in making this one. Just in case you aren’t growing your own ;), you can usually find fresh herbs in the supermarket with the veggies. Pine nuts are often in the “Italian” aisle, at least they are in the stores near me.. I hope all of you enjoy it! 😀
Regarding the recipe:
@JeffW: Yeah, that recipe title sounds a little peculiar.
@ Kathode: you can do it with all olive oil if it works better with your diet once you are easing back into fats. It won’t change the overall results except for the fact that you won’t have butter to drizzle over everything. I use a combination of butter and oil for this one because I like the flavor.
@gforce: It makes great leftovers. I always make extra chicken and rice when I do this one so I can bring it to work the next day. Somehow, though, no matter how much sage and pine nuts I start with, there are never any leftovers.
@Joe: Fun post! I missed these while I was away. I had very limited internet access while I was in Europe, but I am looking forward to catching up on them over the next week or so.
@Deni: I hope things are calming down and that Gumbo is back on his feet soon.
Yesterday afternoon I saw Gateworld’s post about a new TV series in development that has Stargate writers attached to it. And then, you link to that story in this post. Hmmm. I can’t believe that none of your regular commenters have picked up on that.
Deni! Have you ever been through it! Sending prayers for sanity and rest. Glad Anakin and Gumbo are okay. I went through a multi-tasking surgery with my older doggie grrrl once. Sending wishes for a speedy recovery for all of you. Or Deni mama might open a can of ju jitsu. 🙂
I don’t think the money for those ingredients will be happening this month. I’m defrosting some chicken tenderloins. I can make gluten-free bread crumbs out of gluten-free crackers and I have some gluten-free flour. I don’t think I’ll be able to come up with the pine nuts and sage which I do realize is probably most of the point.
@for the love of Beckett: Always so sweet, you! The can of jiu jitsu is sitting there, just waiting.;.. 🙂
@das: Either that, or a bottle of good bubbly. 🙂
@ Sparrow_hawk: Olive oil would definitely fit the diet better (after this first two weeks), but I definitely want some butter in there. I don’t think I’ve ever made something with brown butter sauce, so I want to try it out. I’ll probably do a mix of the two, like you said. I have a feeling getting the butter to just the right stage of “brown” is going to be tricky for me. It’s a fine line between “brown” and “burnt”, and I’m not exactly what you’d call an experienced cook. But I’m up for the challenge. 🙂
P.S. – Doggie (Sadie) is dreaming as I type this. I love it when her feeties are “running” in her sleep.
I actually would be interested in the Women of Mining Annual Cocktail Reception. (Need to network in hopes of getting a summer gig in the field.) I’ll have to look into that. Thanks!
(written earlier today…)
Fun blog! 🙂 Wish cable would carry the Hallmark channel again so we could watch Carl’s storytelling. Nice! that Stargate alumna will appear.
Well Joe, there are Conspiracy Theories (for scary stuff), and then there’s Synchronicity, where good things align for no particular reason, and feel right because of it. They’re entertaining, and who knows? For example, two of my friends sharing a birth date, two other friends having nearly identical phone numbers, digits in my number matching a friends,’ my first or last name matching characters in a favorite show or movie, etc. When there are multiple examples with just one other person, it can make your jaw drop! 😀
Take that new Johnny Mnemonic TV show. It just might be written by two Stargate writers whose last names also begin with M. Then I read GW’s article, and had to laugh out loud. The CEO of Seven Arts Entertainment has the same name as my dad. Could be I’ll like the show!
The Coincidence of Ashleigh/Ashleys in your life could be synchronicity. The first was a great dinner pal, co-worker, friend to you and the blog. The second, also was a co-worker who has a fast wit and can keep up with you. Hah. Nemeses for that reason? But you know there IS a third connected Ashleigh, right? That would be Tara’s friend from her blog.
And just a little more synchronicity for me… Today I was e-mailing with my transplanted Italian New Yorker friend. We were hunting a boarding kennel for her dog Pignoli (Yoli) while she’s away. And then I came by to read your blog, only to find Sparrow_hawk’s yummy chicken recipe, sprinkled with, what else? Pignoli!
Synchronicity… It might be a sign that the good things in our lives aren’t so random after all. 🙂
Speaking of Women in Mining, I’d never heard of this mine disaster until today. This (short) video documentary of it is really something to see:
http://boingboing.net/2013/04/24/lake-peigneur-salt-mine-collap.html
Since my fridge is bare I will try to do some shopping these next couple of days and pick up some ingredients like chicken. Oddly though, I have some fresh sage.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hy0M1MxShAI&feature=player_embedded
no idea what the narrator is saying, but I can guess by the action on this one.
G’day
Deni – Hope it all goes better in the next couple of days. get well soon Gumbo. There will be some stories to tell Michael when he is older.
As for sparrow-hawk’s chicken recipe, I am not an adventurous cook. Plus my kids are not adventurous eaters. Will have a good look at it though. Good luck to all who are trying.
Lest We Forget.
I made it home to Chicagoland, thanks for the travel wishes.
@Sparrow_hawk:
I think it was the whole avian cannibalism thing that threw me 😉
@Deni:
I hope today went better for you. We have our own little doggy drama tonight…Barb took our dog Lucy to the vet for a teeth cleaning (during which they knocked her out because she’s a 50lb dog). When I came home, Lucy staggered up to greet me and only whimpered (she usually does a full on Dino jump and bowls me over). Now she’s wandering around in a daze and occasionally passing out on the floor. I wonder how long it will be before the anesthetic wears off completely?
@JeffW: Usually dogs feel much better after 24-48 hours, but it varies a lot. When Elway had his spleen removed, he was groggy for about 12 hours and then got up to go out to pee. Granted, he was in pain and in a bit of a daze, but not that out of it. Gumbo, not so much. He’s been whining most of the day, so we increased his pain meds, which in turn make it impossible to get him to stand up and walk outside for a pee! I’m sure your pup will be fine by morning, you’ll see. 🙂
Thank you @ Janet and @ Ponytail, you’re so sweet. 🙂
I think you should go back and think of all the Ashley’s (or name-spelling variations) and see if they were more nemesis (or would that be nemeses?) or not. Two is hardly a good sampling for a scientific approach to research.
@Deni — Oh wow. You’ve been through a mess. I hope a week out now things are better.
@sparrow_hawk: Welcome back.