mojito slushes from Rachael Ray

ok, so I have the 30-minute get-together book from Rachael Ray and I tried out this recipe this weekend and it was well-received. It's so easy, which could be a problem. Take a can of frozen limeade, light rum, fresh mint leaves, and ice and put it in the blender. It was frightening to see how much rum could be added to this without anybody noticing. Very tasty for the heat of Florida.

Florida the freaky place

So as Jason has said from Day 1, really strange stuff happens in Florida. Apparently he went to see Kathy Griffin do comedy on Friday and she started with, "can you all just own the fact that Florida is a freaky state where freaky shit happens?"

I notice that the third person has been killed by an alligator in Florida this week. It's where pedophiles flock to, crazy people, old people, pushy people, and plain old strangeness goes on. There are huge fires that shut down interstates. We have hurricanes.

Republicans dominate the state legislature and the governor's mansion and they can't make much happen other than prohibiting gays from adopting and having 9th graders choose majors. We pay college tuition for kids who can afford it and then can't seem to figure out why we have no money.

That all said, I like living where I live in Florida. There just aren't many other places in Florida where I can go to live.

if it wasn't for Katherine Harris...

Al Gore would have been president. Oh well. Saturday Night Live did a good job of poling fun at the horrid approval ratings of Bush--by having Al Gore give a speech. This link is to the video on You Tube. Note that the last time I put a link to this site for an SNL clip, it was eventually taken down due to copyright issues. It's not up on the NBC site yet.

cool short films about cool places

since all of you know I like to travel, I thought you might enjoy this site
to see short films made about cool places. The link I was sent was specifically about one of my favorite places, Athens (of course), but I also watched a few about Pittsfield and the Berkshires. Nobody has made a film about Gainesville yet. and of course the section "foodie havens" is fun fun fun!

nola foodie, I feel your pain

so I read a really cool article in the New York Times about a guy who was a big foodie in New Orleans and for obvious Katrina-related reasons had to move to Tampa. He even has a blog: New Orleans Foodie...In Exile.

Now he is stuck living in Tampa, of all godforsaken places, and I really laughed when he complained about how everyone likes boring chain restaurants.

From the article:

"Like that of many rapidly growing American cities, Tampa's dining scene is dominated by row upon row of chain restaurants, many with a theme, turning major streets into strip malls of faux world-food adventures. Many chains, in fact, use the city as an important test market.

It is the headquarters of Outback Steakhouse Inc., which operates seven chains, and the Melting Pot, a chain of fondue places.

One of Outback's chains serves Hawaiian fusion food; another focuses on "soul-satisfying comfort food"; another emulates the Olive Garden's my-grandma-just-flew-in-from-Sicily-and-she's-in-the-back-cooking-now-just-for-you atmosphere.

Many smaller eateries emulate the city as a whole: lovely to look at, but lacking a certain vernacular style. A bakery often mentioned on Tampa food blogs has the right touches — hip counter staff in heavy black glasses — but its chicken salad is pale and without seasoning, and cocoa powder dominates its celebrated espresso cookies."

Dude, I share your pain. When I see the HUGE line at the Macaroni Grill, or Carrabba's, or Outback, I always think "oh my god who are these people? and why would any of them wait for so long?"

Side note: Dragonfly's wait has gotten totally out of control. If it doesn't improve this summer with the students gone, I am going to have to stop going there.