a99kitten's Musings

Last Sunday I missed my weekly day of football to go to a champagne tasting event. While I hated missing my football, the event was very, very fun. I meant to note my favorites earlier so will do so now while watching Sunday Night Football :)

We were able to taste some very nice bottles. Some of the “fancier” names/labels (for easy name recognition) were:

2002 Louis Roederer Cristal Brut
Pommery Brut Royal
2000 Moet & Chandon Cuvee Dom Perignon Brut
NV Veuve Clicquot Brut
NV Veuve Clicquot Rose
1998 La Grand Dame
Krug Grand Cuvee Brut
NV Taittinger

Now, there were many other but these are the names most people recognize. Sadly, the pourers for Cristal and Dom both said how people flocked to their tables and only tasted the “stars” and didn’t do the entire table tasting. Stupid. Yes, Cristal is delicious. One of my all time favorites for sure. But I am not going to open a bottle of Cristal on just any ol’ day. It’s a nice/special occasion bottle. So since you are here, and have the opportunity to taste over 50 champagnes, why not take advantage to taste and find new ones that can be opened any ol’ time? Find a good value. Or find a new favorite. Or try something you would have never tried before. It’s why I am here!

Now, my rating system for bubbly tasting is great, good and OK :) And I’ll have to say I only tried one that I wouldn’t buy a bottle of. And that’s only because I just don’t like super sweet ones. So some roses and extra drys don’t fit me.

My favorite was the Cristal. Yes – to me – it is *that* good. I was given a couple bottles years ago and opened one of them a couple years back. Yes – it really is that good. Still need to open my other bottle. But it’s not inexpensive. So for a nice, affordable “daily” drinker (OK, not really “daily” but you know what I mean) try the Taittinger line-up. And more specifically the NV Taittinger La Francaise. All 3 that they were pouring at the table were great. Plus the guy at that table was awesome – very funny and informative. Loved him. Plus they work with/own Domaine Carneros in Napa and I LOVE all of their bubblies (bubblys?) as well. Such a beautiful place to visit. I would highly suggest their flight from the day:

NV Taittinger La Francaise
Taittinger Prestige Brut Rose
2002 Taittinger Millesime

My second affordable favorite was the Moet & Chandon Imperial Brut. This was re-branded to this name this year. It used to be called Moet & Chandon White Star. Guess they didn’t want to be associated with the Titanic anymore :) I served this as the only bubbly at my wedding reception. So I know I like it. Very yummy. And fairly priced.

Obviously the big, established houses have great stuff. They have been in business since the 1700-1800s for a reason. I loved all of the tastes at Veuve. And Taittinger. And Moet. The widow’s is one of the only roses I actually *really**really* like.

The guy at the Pommery table sabered the bottle. He didn’t actually use a saber. But he used a glass. A regular champagne flute. Wha?? It was quite fun to watch! Interestingly, the POP was my least favorite at that table. I have 3 mini-bottles on my desk at work for those *really* stressful days ;) The art on these little bottles is GREAT! My good friend Helen has given all of them to me for various reasons/occasions. Enabler? What? :) They have fun with the art – that’s for sure. But it was a bit sweet for me. But not so sweet that I will turn it down :) Their Brut Royal was my favorite though.

The Nicholas Feuillatte “Blue Label” Brut was very good. And one of the least expensive bottles there. Their 1998 Palmes d’Or was also quite tasty. And the bottle is very pretty :)

Also one of the least expensive bottles was the Gosset Brut Excellence. Very yummy.

K&L Wines did a great job. Each table had a good amount of bottles, no one ran out, and the pourers were very interesting and knowledgeable. The entire parking lot was tented and they had, what looked to be, very tasty apps being served. I had eaten brunch prior to arrival so wasn’t hungry and didn’t try them. But they sure smelled and looked yummy! The huskies would have been very happy to be there :)

They also had an auction to benefit Pets N Need, a local animal shelter. A portion of the ticket sales went to them as well as all of the auction proceeds, which were donated. Husband and I bid on 2 and won them both. A guy tried to snake me on my bid – I smacked him down in literally the last second :) Silly man. I love bubbly and animals even more. So really, the best kind of charity auction for me :)

Tonight I am watching the NYG/ARI Sunday Night game and opening a bottle of Toques et Clochers Cremant de Limoux after a day of football & chores. I found this bubbly last year and really like it!

I won my fantasy week this week (unlike last week where I lost horribly!) I played my husband this week. He was out of town this past week/weekend and this was best for today…usually I do root for him to win but well…I’m competitive too :) I survived Survivor (NE). Only 2 of us left! Two girls might I add :) And tied in the weekly pool – I need a high scoring game in MNF! I used the line as my score/tie breaker so we need 38 or higher by PHI and WAS combined :)

Oh and p.s. my Gators won too!

Wheee!!! My Gators won!!!! Great game! And I got a football fix :) And having 3 TVs on in the house to make sure I don’t miss anything while doing chores is NOT an overkill :)

So I’ve just finished setting my Fantasy team (although will make a check Sunday AM as well), made my Survivor pick and made all my pool picks. I did all of this early because…dundundun….I will not be home to watch football tomorrow…ARGH!!!!! I will be able to catch Fox pre-game stuff and maybe 45 minutes or so of the morning games but made plans for an event on Sunday (while thinking it was on a Saturday – doh!) Plus we have to leave the house early due to our local Pumpkin Festival taking place this weekend and the 2 ways in and out of our little coast side hamlet become clogged with insane tourists looking for pumpkins, crafts, pumpkin-themed food and photo ops for their kids. They do have live bands all day long too.

Don’t get me wrong – I love the festival actually. It is quite fun once you brave the drive. But man…the traffic is actually mind-boggling. If you are coming over the hill from the peninsula or south bay, you are looking at a 2 hour sit in your car on 92 at the peak (12-2) to get into downtown to park. For pumpkins. And ponies. And arts & crafts. Yikes. But a lot of pumpkin-themed food which is quite good…

Anyway – due to this, locals usually either bike,  stay ensconced in their homes with provisions procured on the Friday before the festival, or they leave and are over the hill by 10:30-11:00am AT THE LATEST before the masses really clog the place up. And no coming back home until after 6:00pm (festival ends at 5pm on both Sat and Sun.)

BUT – on Sunday we are going to a very fun sounding event! The Champagne Tent Event at K&L Wine. And it benefits Pets N’Need – YAY! Here is a sample of what we will be tasting:

2003 Louis Roederer Vintage Brut Rosé Champagne
Fleury “Carte Rouge” from Magnum
Pascal Lallement Reserve (being shown in the USA for the first time)
1998 Pommery Brut ‘Cuvee Louise’ Champagne
Ariston Aspasie Cepages d’Antan Champagne (being shown in the USA for the first time)
Gosset Grand Reserve
Phillippe Gonet 3210 (being shown in the USA for the first time)
2002 Taittinger Millesime
Bruno Michel 2002 Vintage (being shown in the USA for the first time)
2000 Moet & Chandon Cuvée Dom Pérignon Brut
Ruinart Blanc de Blanc
Baron Fuente 1996 Vintage (being shown in the USA for the first time)
1998 La Grand Dame
Bonville Belles Voyes
Charles Heidsieck Brut 2000
2000 Cazals (being shown in the USA for the first time)
Tarlant Cuvee Louis
Krug Grand Cuvee

With producers direct from Champagne, France here (yes, I will be polite about the whole champagne/sparkling wine thing…unless they are snooty first:) ) Here is what sold me on the event (besides the above list)…

“We hope that you will join us in welcoming eight great producers from Champagne along with representatives from ten other houses at this exciting event. We will taste well over 40 different Champagnes (including eight for the first time in the USA) at what we promise will be the Champagne event of the year. Joining us from Champagne will be Paul Vincent and Caroline Ariston of Champagne Aspasie, Bruno Lemoine of Fleury and Pascal Lallement, Chantal Gonet of Champagne Philippe Gonet, Bruno Michel of Champagne Bruno Michel, Eric De Brisis of Champagne Baron Fuente, Olivier Bonville of Champagne Franck Bonville, Delphine Cazals of Champagne Claude Cazals and Melanie Tarlant of Champagne Tarlant. Representatives of Krug, Pommery, Gosset, Feuillatte, Ruinart, Veuve-Clicquot, Moet & Chandon, Roederer, Charles Heidsieck and Taittinger will also be on hand to pour their Champagne (many of which are rarely poured at events!) and answer your questions. A portion of ticket sales will benefit Pets N’Need. The event will also feature a silent auction with 100% of the proceeds going directly to this worthwhile charity.“

I’m going to try another slow-cooking chicken dish for Sunday as well.  I’ll start it before I leave so I do not have to cook when I get home and can watch the night game! I’ll see how I like it and post the recipe tomorrow night or Monday if I like it :) Will also depend how sleepy I am after bubbly tasting all day ;-)

I am quite excited for it. Very, very sad to miss my football and RedZone Channel though. But I should make it home for most of the night game. All but 2 of my FF players are in the 10:00am games so oh well…what are you going to do :) If I’m losing that badly – I’ll know early to drink more bubbly :)

I went into my Sunday morning very stressed about my fantasy team. Of course, I always go in to my football Sundays like this :) Drew Brees is on his BYE week so I had to pick up a QB. There were a few decent ones to choose from – Eli Manning (but injured), Carson Palmer (but playing in BAL), Matt Ryan (but playing against my 49ers!) and possibly Matt Hasselbeck (coming off of injury.) I wanted Matt H. but his injury was stressing me out – what if he got injured again in the first quarter and I got cheesed?!

Now, this was on Wednesday AM. Our league puts all free agents on waivers starting at 10am PT Sunday until Tuesday at midnight (so early Wednesday AM.) I had originally wanted David Garrard actually but when I went in to pick him up, I saw that someone else already picked hm up. Dang! So this sent me on my QB deliberations. I ended taking Matt Ryan. He is a good QB but I was a bit stressed about the choice.

Then on Friday I saw that they were saying Matt Hasselbeck would be playing. He was still listed as probable but he had been practicing all week and would play. So I went with my gut and dropped Ryan and grabbed Hasselbeck. Apparently – I just needed a “Matt” in my line up this week :) Although I was still stressed about the injury. Even this morning, I almost dropped him and picked Eli but just said to myself – go with your gut. Whew…worked out well :) Now, Matt Ryan or Eli would have done almost as well for me too. But thank goodness someone else picked up David Garrard ahead of me! :) I got 69 points from Hasselbeck! Very nice indeed. He made up for the very (barely) average performances by my RBs.

Once again Yahoo projected Brandon Jacobs to get 45 points. All I read all week was how the NYG running game would open and Jacobs would go off. Well…they were half right. The running game DID open up…for Jacobs’ back-up Bradshaw! The reason this really sticks in my craw is that years ago I had Tiki Barber as one of my RBs. 2 years in a row actually. I love Tiki! BUT, our league awarded points for TDs and barely any for yards. So Tiki would run and run and run the ball but they would give it to the much bigger back Jacobs to punch in for the TD. GRRRRRRRR.

So then we changed the scoring in our league to reward yards run and not just TD hawks. And then Tiki retired. Boo :( So this year I drafted Jacobs, who stole numerous TDs from me in seasons past, and now HIS runs AND TDs are getting stolen from me! GRRRRRRR…

But anyway, Jacobs got me 18 points today. Far cry from 47. But my PIT Def finally showed up after choking every week since Week 1 (and losing Troy Polamalu.) 7 sacks! Very nice. They got me 40 points today. And Hines Ward did decently.

I replaced my old kicker, Bironas (TEN) with Scobee (JAX). JAX had 0 points today. No kicks. Zeeee-ro. Genius team maneuvering by me :)

In the meantime, I have been slow-cooking Kalua Pork since last night. 20 hours! This morning I woke up to both huskies upstairs by the kitchen. I think they were lobbying for Kalua pork for breakfast :)

The recipe for this is VERY simple. Anyone can cook this – anyone with a slow cooker/crockpot:

Ingredients:
1 4-6lb pork butt roast (so this is actually shoulder – the butcher thought I was funny)
1 1/2 tablespoons Hawaiian sea salt (yes, you need this and not just regular salt)
1 tablespoon liquid smoke flavoring

1. Pierce pork all over with a fork. Rub salt then the liquid smoke over meat. Place roast in the slow cooker.

2. Cover, and cook on low for 16-20 hours (I do 20), turning once during cooking time.

3. Remove meat from slow cooker, and shred, adding drippings as needed to moisten. The meat falls off the bone. Takes barely any effort at all.

I serve this over sticky rice with some Sriracha (rooster sauce!) for spice. Very, very delicious! And easy :)

My Gators won last night – very pleased. I’m sure the Gator Haters will have their usual crap to say but we won so *sticking tongue out* :) I also survived Survivor Football – I chose NYG at home over OAK this week – that was a very stressful pick ;) But no one else dropped out either. We’ve only lost 1 person so far. We all keep picking well!

And I am winning our weekly pool this week! My DEN over NE pick paid off!! I almost chose CIN too but chickened out – doh! Oh well. It all comes down to MNF. I chose MIA and everyone else has NYJ. If NYJ wins, then I tie with 3 others but I have the lowest score (for tie-breaking purposes) so we need 34 as the highest combined score! So send me your low-scoring, MIA winning karma please :)

So a full weekend of long, fun husky beach walks, good football, plus 2 nights of slow-cooking yummy food. I haven’t slept well but that’s fairly normal nowadays. And I baked some chocolate chip cookies during Sunday Night Football. AND finally finished Season 2 of Mad Men! Now can start watching the DVRed episodes of Season 3.

And I did win FF this week :) Beat my opponent 236 to 132. So I am now 4-1. Not so bad. But next week is a very, very tough (has AP, Wayne, Mendenhall) opponent – boo :( New week of football stress….

Well, it was not quite the relaxing Tahoe weekend I had hoped for…

Saturday AM I took the huskies on their morning walk (in the 24 degree weather!!) and they had a good time. Storm wanted to come back after about 30-40 minutes so I dropped him off at home and took Angelus back out. Angelus always wants to be out investigating!

About an hour later as we were walking down our drive-way back to the house, I see that I have 2 missed calls from home.  Weird. Call husband and he answers the phone saying he needs to rush Storm to the vet. WHAT?  Storm apparently got up on the kitchen counter and found his Cushing’s Disease medication. His current daily dose is 20mg and he ate the entire pack of pills equaling of 150 mg.

My husband wanted to know how could *I* be so dumb. Hmm…it was pushed back next to all of their treats (which were untouched.) If I answer you, I will yell at you. So I choose to ignore this stupid question, and your “anger” at this, and work to find a vet for Storm right now.  It was early (8ish on a Saturday) so our “normal” vet in Truckee (actually only been there once but they were great) wasn’t open yet.  But the nearest one was 40 minutes away in Reno so we just went to the regular one, who opened at 8:30am, and were there as they opened.

Got him to the vet and explained what happened. They gave Storm medicine to vomit it all up and wanted to monitor his vitals for a bit.  When we went back to pick him up, the doctor said that in addition to vomiting up his breakfast and the medicine he stole, he vomited up 3 peach pits. We had a box of peaches in the office kitchen this past Thursday and Friday so apparently Storm stole the pits out of people’s garbage cans. I’ve asked people not to throw food away in their desk trash cans because one of the symptoms of Cushing’s is the dog thinks they are completely starving to death. So Storm searches out trash cans every day. I put them on up people’s desks when I see they are gone for the day but during the day, people just forget. I might have to reconsider bringing the buds in. First the box of truffles (that was a scare) a few months ago and now this. Who knows what else he is getting or could get. Sucks though – they have been coming in to work for 9 years (Angelus) and 7.5 years (Storm) with no incident.

Anyway, the vet said it’s a good thing we got those peach pits out as they will clog up a dog’s system and then surgery is required as they are not small enough for them to “pass”.  Hopefully those 3 were all he ate :( I guess we will see over the next few days…but I saw this as the silver lining or upside on the morning as we wouldn’t have known about the peach pits.

By the time we got home, I was tired. I didn’t get to bed till late the night before and woke up early. Then throw in some upset and stress…pretty much took my energy for the day. So I bagged my plan of a hike and did a couple things around the house and watched an episode of Bones (David Boreanz can always cheer me up!) Did go out to our favorite sushi place for dinner. Was very yummy as always. And a very nice family wanted to sit at the bar so we offered to move down a seat so they could squeeze in. The father sat closest to us and was very funny to chat with. He loved his sushi :) The best part though was when we left it was snowing! I was very excited :)  Went home, took the dogs out in the snow fall for a bit, then turned the fireplace on (LOVE gas fireplaces) and read more of “The Lost Symbol” and went to bed.

Sunday morning means football!!! Got up early and took the buds out into the snow. They both had a great time! The snow left a thin cover over everything – certainly not a ton. But enough for the buds to enjoy it! Along with the 22 degree air. They were finally not “baking hot”. And Mom had 3 layers of North Face on :)

Then it was home and football time!!! I made a couple changes to my team this past week with BYEs and injuries happening. Dropped Jamal Lewis (CLE sucks – period) and picked up Glen Coffee (RB-SF). According to the fantasy “experts” this was the genius move of the week. Eh – I guess so. He got me 26 points which is OK but not great for an RB. I should have picked up Mendenhall. That was just dumb on my part not to. At the end of the day, I do not have any RBs that just break out and go crazy and rack up points. Plus as soon as the fantasy columns praised Coffee as the best thing this week, I knew he wouldn’t be. Somehow it always works that way.

But I did drop my non-performing WR Berrian and picked up the SF Defense. My PIT defense hasn’t been playing well at all this year (Troy Polamalu is out and apparently they can’t get anything done without him) and SF was at home playing STL. The fantasy “experts” ranked other available defenses higher for the week but I went with my gut here and it paid off – I got 85 points from them!! YAY! If I would have been able to pull out a win this week, it would have been due solely to these guys. I would have worn my Montana jersey to work tomorrow! But nope, no jersey-wearing. But they kicked ass :)

My gut betrayed me with my WR move though. I benched Hines Ward as he was up against the SD D (what D?) plus he hasn’t done much this year. I also had other WR’s up against more “pourous” defenses. Uhh…yeah. Hines got 38 points for my bench compared to 8 for Colston, 10 for Walter and 17 for Cotchery. I. Am. Idgit.

My top-rated QB? 20 points.  :( Sigh…oh well. I finished the night with 213 points. Not bad but not great. My FF opponent this week finished with 126 points but has his QB, a WR and DEF still to play tomorrow in MNF (writing this Sun night but will post/update after MNF.) So I am pretty much sunk this week. I would have had a 50/50 shot but the PIT Defense that I rightfully benched couldn’t stop Antonio Gates (my opponent’s TE) from scoring a trillion points (and SD STILL lost?!?! Ugh) He got 61 points from his Tight End. Ridiculous. Serves me right for barely winning with (my TE) Dallas Clark in MNF 2 weeks ago I guess.

Mostly sad in my losing because in looking at my team – they kinda suck. No one is a solid points getter. Don’t get me wrong – they are all good real life football players but fantasy-wise they are inconsistent.  So week to week – they are undependable. And now I am playing the much harder/well built FF teams in our league. So I am anticipating losing at least the next 2 weeks as well :( Brees is on a BYE next week (along with Colston) so I have to add waiver wire fill-ins. I haven’t even looked beyond that yet.

So…I was highly stressed about my Stormy, didn’t buy the purse or shoes I was going to get (was debating which), am sad about my fantasy football team BUT very happy the Niners won so handily! :) And I survived one more week in Survivor with my HOU pick (but everyone else survived too!) My weekly picks…ummm…we don’t need to talk about that…I had 10 correct picks (along with 4 other people.) But the winner had 11 so 10 just means 2nd place loser.

Oh well…on to week 5…at least the Gators will be playing (LSU!) on Saturday. I sure hope Tebow is cleared (and healthy!) to play by Saturday….

Oh look…going into the Colts/Cardinal game I seem to have already won :) I will revel in this relaxed win as a fluke. My opponent has no more players to play (plus left Westbrook in when he was out to due to injury!!!) and I have Dallas Clark and Tim Hightower in tonight’s game and I am 12 points ahead already. Whew…

This makes me 3-0 in our fantasy league. And #2 in our 10 person/team league. And so far (fingers AND toes crossed) the #1 is losing this week – darn…

BUT – I am praying for an ARI win so that I am tie for our pool picks going into MNF. I have 48 points. So it is a looooong shot that I win but I don’t give up :)

Won my Survivor pick. I chose BAL. And so did everyone else but 1 person (husband) who chose them last week. So we all survived. Darn. Only 1 person out in this league (the admin – hehe) since it started.

So a good NFL week for me…

Week 2 of the NFL, and my fantasy season, was VERY stressful!!! I actually thought I lost for sure as of last night. Watching Brandon Jacobs get stuffed by the DAL defense was painful. I was playing someone with TEN’s Chris Johnson who got him 111 points! WTH????

Drew Brees was awesome as usual. Got me double what Yahoo projected. But my #1 rated defense? SUCK IT! Apparently Troy Polamalu is the #1 rated defense. And with him sidelined with an injury, they suck. 5 points I got from them….

All of my WRs and RBs got less than projected. I put in Jamal Lewis who was highly rated this week. Guess what? A good player on a suck team still doesn’t do much…I should have left Hightower in.

So my Fantasy Week 2 was riding on my tight end in MNF, Dallas Clark getting 50+ points. True, my opponent didn’t have any players in the IND/MIA game but still…over 50 points from a tight end? Right…so I basically gave up.

And then Peyton Manning to Dallas Clark for an 80 point TD pass!!! 30 points in the first drive of the game for me!!! All of a sudden – I was alive! Dallas ended up getting me 65.75 points. My highest point getter of the week was Brees at 65.85 points. Ho-le-mo-lee!

This is my 4th year with Dallas Clark as my TE.  He was injured most of (was it?) last year but I do always draft him. I never get a TE in time for Gonzalez or Gates but after those 2 – Dallas is the man. Total WR/TE.

So yay! I won my week 2!! With my opponent getting 111 points from 1 player!! That’s insane. And some Irish luck shined on me :) And boy – that was some stress. But ended up getting some good total points on the week after all. So for all of my previous complaining about tight ends being a worthless roster spot – I owe my week to mine :)

I of course love my Fantasy QB. Brees gave me a lot of points last year and is having a stellar year so far. Love him and drafted him as my 2nd pick. But I will always love Peyton.  He was my QB a couple of years ago and I think he is the best QB in the NFL right now (and my favorite QB of all time is Montana.) But besides that, he seems like a great guy. And really  – who cannot love him on SNL :)

OR

These make me cry from laughing every time I watch them :) And frankly, he was better than most actors/entertainers that I have seen appear on the show. I think as a highly competitive athlete, he made sure he knew his lines and was professional. And damn funny :)

My first week of football was all crazy! I had 3 players in my Fantasy team playing in Thursday’s game. I HATE that! Because then I have to stress going into Sunday’s games that I didn’t build up enough of a cushion. I also hate when all of my players finish up on Sunday but my opponent has a player left in the MNF game. Stress!!

Yahoo Sports projected 51 points for my 3 players (DEF, K and WR) and I got 62.75. Although I was stressing going into overtime as Ward got his 100yd bonus in OT! Whew..although Santonio Holmes stole some of my points! :) Yahoo! also projected 62 points for Brees which I felt was optimistic of them even against the DET defense. Turns out – Drew rules again this year :) 100 points! I needed that since a lot of my other players didn’t do as well as projected. I ended up with 273.05 in total points. The person I am playing has 211.40 at the half. I just need Aaron Rodgers to throw the ball and not run it with Ryan Grant to win my week since neither of us has players in tomorrow’s games!!

Also made it through week 1 of Survivor Football. First week I generally take a “sure thing” as I haven’t seen what the teams are playing like (pre-season games simply don’t count.) So I chose New Orleans at home over Detroit. Big gambler eh? :) Hey! Anything can happen, right? Any Given Sunday…But yes… I survived Week 1! Whew…

My weekly pool picks choked. I decided to get a little crazy and pick TB and CAR who were both underdogs…and they played like it. Although TB did a MUCH better job against DAL than CAR against PHI. What the heck happened to Jake Delhomme?? And the dominating CAR D from a couple years ago?? Whoa..Although they did take McNabb out. Not good though. I actually like him (even though my FF opponent was playing him!) so do not want to see him hurt. Especially with Vick salivating in the wings for Week 3.

So I won my FF week and survived Survivor week 1. Tanked on my weekly picks. Not so bad for Week 1. And now on to stressing about week 2!! :)

In honor of the first NFL weekend, I decided to make some homemade mac & cheese to go with a grilled ribeye! I chose an easier one – “Today’s Macaroni and Cheese” by Rick Bayless (chef and owner of Chicago’s Frontera Grill and Topolobampo.)

It’s actually a fairly simple recipe. All basic ingredients:

Ingredients

Just a few add this, stir in that’s for the cheese mixture:

Cheese mixture

And it has some spice so that’s different for mac&cheese! Once you finish boiling the pasta till al dente you mix it all together and then put in baking dish and top with a melted butter and bread crumb mixture. I used a bit more butter than called for in this part of recipe but cut it back on buttering the dish. I was channeling my inner Julia!

Ready to bake and brown!

And voila! Baked, yummy “Today’s Macaroni and Cheese” brought to you by Rick Bayless and me :) The cheese and butter are bubbling…oh yeah baby…

bayless mac&cheese

Husband grilled the ribeye. Yum. Along with a glass of bubbly…a perfect dinner :)

Yum

My mac&cheese cookbook was quite a purchase for me. Very happy with it. If you are a fan of macaroni and cheese, I highly recommend it:

Angelus wondered where his was…

Don't I get some?

and Storm was attempting the Jedi mind trick…

This is the puppy you want to feed...

It’s a gorgeous night out. After dinner the sun has set but not dark yet. The sky has some dark clouds, and blue sky and these create a great color mixture. It’s chilly out which reminds me of fall. You can smell forest and maybe a hint of fireplace (?) in the air. I LOVE that. Autumn technically doesn’t start until 9/22 but between chilly weather and football, it makes a nice start to fall for me! Maybe I’ll break out the pumpkin/fall/Halloween stuff…

All in all, a good first NFL Sunday :)

I am a Gator fan. Have been for years. I didn’t go to UF but grew up in Florida. You were either a Gator or a Seminole. Period. Florida takes its sports seriously. They didn’t have pro baseball or hockey teams while I was growing up/living there so football, both pro and college, were the biggest sports.

The Gators have been good for some years now but have really become an excellent team in the past few years. University of Florida is a sports school so attracts great talent but there are plenty of great sports schools. Their basketball team is also a shining star for the state. What I don’t understand or like is that when the Gators get ranked #1, I end up reading all sorts of negative stuff about them. Mostly from whiny fans of other teams but even from some sports commentators/reporters.

I remember when the Gators were playing in the BCS Championship game against Ohio a couple years ago. SO much press was about how they shouldn’t have even been in the game, didn’t deserve the spot and will lose to the much superior Ohio. I took all of the $5 bets that people at work or friends made against Florida. And happily won them all. Florida dominated that game.

That was Tim Tebow’s freshman year and he shared QB duties with Chris Leak. They were an outstanding offense backed up by an outstanding defense. Ohio puked all over that field so I am not sure what teams the sports reporters were watching prior to that game to write their superior pieces on how Florida would lose and didn’t even belong on the field with Ohio. They proved they belonged.

Same thing happened last year. Blah, blah, blah how the Gators didn’t belong in the BCS Championship game. Even the President, Senators and Congressmen were talking about how the system needed to be changed. Guys – stay the hell out of it. Pretty sure you have bigger things to think and worry about. Your endless baseball/steroid investigation/hearings hasn’t really done anything too big other than make noise. So glad you have so much free time but we don’t need government interference in college sports now too…

Anyway, Tim Tebow is an outstanding leader for that team. Obviously the entire team is great and Urban Meyer deserves kudos heaped on him for coaching. But having a team member who the team reacts to as a leader (like a Peyton Manning or Tom Brady) does a LOT of good. And he is the kind of guy off the field who deserves the respect. Someone who I would like my kid looking up to. He cares about his role as a leader for the team but also cares about his academics, about his future, his family, charity work. A very well-rounded person. Not someone I expect to see holding out after the draft for a bigger contract because he feels he is worth $25 million dollars straight out of college (yes, talking to you Michael Crabtree.) With all of the guys in professional sports who act like entitled, whiny babies or worse – idiot criminals – it’s nice to see a guy like Tim Tebow have great character on and off the field.

I guess it’s human nature to want to tear down whoever is #1. But when the Sooners were ranked #1 I didn’t hear how they didn’t deserve it. Or whenever USC is ranked high, it’s like it’s a given. Like they should always be #1?

Or how about the Patriots. Nothing gave me more pleasure than watching Eli and his guys take that game from the Patriots. But that’s because I hated their entitled attitude to being there. Before the game, I would read how they would dominate the Giants, and the interviews with the players (pre-game) were all so haughty and “we deserve this”. One of the pre-game shows was all about the awesomeness of Tom Brady and the Patriots perfect season. Plus throw in the alleged coaching/cheating junk that year. Laughed out loud when they lost!!! BUT – I’ve always preferred the NFC :)

I haven’t seen any Gator interviews – with players or coaches – giving off that kind of attitude. I’m glad. They are trying to stay humble, at least in the public eye, which is a good thing. Because so many people are waiting for them to stumble. I read many tweets on twitter Saturday about how the Gators played a high school team. How it was ridiculous. How they needed to play a real team to “show them”. Ummm…last I checked, the Gators don’t actually make their schedule. And theirs wasn’t the only lop-sided game. Kansas/N. Colorado, Nebraska/Fla Alt, USC/SJ State, Notre Dame/Nevada (my poor Wolf Pack)…all of these games were very high-scoring – by one team. Yet the Gators get all the negative tongue-wagging. Why? And really…they didn’t beat the spread (73 pts!) so a good bet was on Charleston :)

Whatever…I’m hoping they win every game gloriously and shut everyone up. But if they don’t – I will still root for them, will still proudly wear my Gator gear and I still say they deserve the accolades they get. They are a great team. CHOMP CHOMP!

It’s that time of the year…when kids go back to school, the leaves will start changing colors (ok, not really where I live but I like to think about it happening), weather cools off (umm..see prior note), and people start thinking what to dress up as for Halloween. But most importantly – IT’S FOOTBALL SEASON!!!!

Now, I wasn’t always this into football. My Dad made me watch Sunday games with him all the time. We had football parties, definitely play-off parties and of course a Super Bowl party. It was OK, but I have to admit I didn’t care all that much until play-offs and the Super Bowl.

I grew up in Buffalo, NY and then moved when about 11 to the Tampa Bay area. BUF has gotten close to winning a Super Bowl…4 times actually. But alas, they are still first place losers in all 4.

TB won a Super Bowl! But not until years after I moved away. Growing up – they were the worst team there was. Awesome. Plus they had the most hideous uniforms of ALL time. But I have been rooting for them for years and now that they are decent AND have better colors and uniforms – it’s not embarrassing to say that out loud :) I was actually the ONLY person in our office pool who picked them to beat the Oakland Raiders and win the 2003 Super Bowl. And I was the only person at the Super Bowl party that year rooting for them. That was super fun :)

I definitely got more into football when I moved to the SF Bay Area. We had the 80s/90s San Francisco Forty-Niners. And Joe Montana. And Jerry Rice. And then Steve Young. You had to be a pinko dirty hippie to not care about SF football back then :) I went to plenty of games, went to and threw plenty of football parties and play-off and Super Bowl parties (ah…back when the Niners were good…)

But not until I got into Fantasy Football did I REALLY get into football. And boy – I am hooked! The great thing about fantasy football is that you get into other teams and players that you wouldn’t normally even know existed or care about. Typically you root for teams from places you have lived or do live, where you grew up, etc. But now I root for so many teams and players!! I have never been to Indiana. Can’t say I’ve ever given it much thought other than knowing where it is on the map. But I LOVE Peyton Manning!! So I care about the Colts. I cared when Tony Dungy’s son died and when he retired last year. And I’ve had Dallas Clark on almost all of my fantasy teams since I started playing. And I loved watching Peyton beat the Bears when everyone was screaming “Defense wins Super Bowls” and I loved watching Peyton be a proud big brother when Eli beat Tom (yes, I was rooting for the Giants HARD!)

A couple years ago I got the Season Ticket package offered by DirecTV so I can watch ALL the games and not just the 2 broadcast in my area (and we always get stuck with the OAK game and that’s just a waste of broadcast space.) And of course with the season ticket package you need the Red Zone Channel. I swear, this channel is made by and for people with ADD. But I love it!! This will be my 3rd season with the package and I cannot live without it.

On football season Sundays I have a ritual: wake up early, take the huskies out for a good walk, come back and do a last minute check on my fantasy team, my weekly pool picks and my Survivor pick. The stress this causes is both ridiculous and insanely fun :)

While I do this, Fox Sports is on and no one is allowed to touch the TV. And I watch all the games and yell at the TV and scream at my laptop which has my Yahoo Stat Tracker (free this year-yay!) up along with my leagues and pools. I’ll do laundry, pay bills, do my stepper/exercise, chores around the house, etc. But nothing that takes me out of the house. If I didn’t get to shower before the games started, then I turn the bedroom TV on and take a quick shower during morning game half-time!

At the tail-end of the afternoon batch of games, I take the dogs out for another walk (unless I have players in and it’s an exciting/close game – then they have to wait!) This is a brief respite before the NBC Sunday Night game. I will usually make dinner right as the game is starting and settle in to watch the game. Unless I have no players in, have no hope of winning the weekly pool and it’s 2 teams that I am not all that jazzed about…then we can watch or do something else :)

And this occurs every Sunday. Without fail. There is no socializing on Sundays during football season. My husband is a football widow.

Very importantly, I just finished my live draft for this year’s office Fantasy league!! In order of my drafting – here is who will help The Running Huskies (always my team name) win this year :)

Brandon Jacobs
Drew Brees
Marques Colston
Derrick Ward (always need 1 Bucs player!!)
Hines Ward
Dallas Clark
Kevin Walter
PIT
Rob Bironas
Bernard Berrian
Jerricho Cotchery
Jamal Lewis
Tim Hightower

So, I will likely blog more about football. Although with all my yelling at the TV and computer (and they HAVE to have a good iPhone app I need to find!) maybe I’ll just be too tuckered out to talk anymore about football…….Nah!! :)