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Looking for the ultimate in blenders? Check out these videos from Blendtec’s TotalBlender.

I want one, but not sure $400 is worth making the perfect Margarita once a month.

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Yesterday was Thanksgiving. As our tradition, the whole family got together at my Grandmother’s house. She has cooked holiday meals for years (and hopefully will be able to continue for a while longer). Tuesday afternoon I was asked to provide a dessert.

Of course, my first reaction was to peruse the recipe sites on the Internet and find an appetizing concotion that didn’t appear too hard to make. I Googled the term ‘Thanksgiving Dessert Recipes’ and found this likely candidate, which I will discuss further here, from the first Google result, a site named Razzle Dazzle Recipes.

I bookmarked the link, and that evening as I was preparing for my Thanksgiving Eve trip to the grocery store I attempted to pull the page up again. I was shocked to see Razzle Dazzle Recipes was not available. My guess is that EVERYONE was looking for Thanksgiving Dessert Recipes and Razzle Dazzle exceeded their bandwidth. What a missed opportunity this is? It’s the biggest day to search for Thanksgiving related recipes, your site is at the top of the Google results and your site goes down. In fact, I’m not sure if the site was even running any advertisements prior to it’s failure - I don’t remember any (It definitely is now). I don’t know if the poor Razzle Dazzle people even made any money off their site prior to the server melting down.

Fortunately, for me, Razzle Dazzle weren’t the only ones with this particular recipe, so I was able to find it elsewhere and avert a Thanksgiving disaster.

The moral of the story is, if you operate a website, it’s always good to be prepared. Be sure you are prepared to handle, and if it’s your goal, to monetize the unexpected traffic. There is nothing worse than getting thousands or millions of hits and not being ready.

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While there are hundreds (maybe thousands) of recipe sites on the Internet, most of them don’t have much for commentary or reviews. I’m going to start a new category of this blog dedicated to my recipe creations and reactions to the recipes themselves. This particular post is going to be dedicated to Thanksgiving themed recipes - if you made anything new for Thanksgiving, let me know how it went and I’ll add it.

Here is my 2006 Thanksgiving Recipe

Chocolate Truffle Loaf with Raspberry Sauce

2 cups heavy cream, divided
3 egg yolks, slightly beaten
2 (8 ounce) packages Baker’s Semi Sweet Chocolate
1/2 cup Karo Light or Dark corn Syrup
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup confectioners’ sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Raspberry Sauce

In blender puree raspberries. Stir in corn syrup.

Now, just as a bit of background, I have a somewhat philisophical approach to cooking. One of my culinary philosophies is that a dish is only as good as it’s ingredients. My mother has a fantastic Pecan Pie recipe, best I’ve EVER had, and it is made with Karo syrup and (of course) pecans. One year a relative wanted the recipe and at the next family function she brought a pie. She was dissappointed when it wasn’t as well recieved as Mom’s generally is. Later she confessed that instead of Karo she used maple syrup and instead of pecans she used walnuts. While substitution is a perfectly valid, and often creative, technique when cooking, one should never be surprised when use of substandard or incorrect ingredients results in a less than desired outcome.

In keeping with this philosphy I visited the local grocery store that I felt had the best selection for Gourmet type ingredients. I was in search of an excellent chocolate for my creation. Unfortunately, the story I chose didn’t have any significant selection. The only chocolates in the baking supplies aisle were Bakers and Ghirardelli. Now there is nothing wrong with Ghirardelli, but it is a mainstream brand which I could have purchased in any local store. Dissappointed I continued to scour the store for the other ingredients (including a loaf pan which I strangely didn’t own). During my search I also found a selection of Nestle baking chocolate. On a whim I decided to purchase semisweet Ghiradelli and a package of dark Nestle baking chocolate, which I later combined to give the loaf a bit more flavor.

Once all the ingredients were purchased I headed home to make the dessert. Unfortunately I didn’t get this done as expidiciously as I would have liked and a prior commitment forced me to put the dessert making off until Thanksgiving morning.

I got up early yesterday morning and began my dessert construction. Everything went smoothly until I reached the raspberry sauce part. I didn’t realize I needed light Karo syrup, and of course didn’t have any in the house. I completed the loaf per instructions, stuck it in the freezer and headed off to the store, again. Thanksgiving morning grocery shopping was amusing. The store was full of men, most of whom were obviously not bachelors like me. Most of these guys were wandering around the store looking completely lost. I’m fairly confident that the only time these guys even see the inside of the supermarket is on holidays when they are ushered off to get last minute items and (more importantly) get themselves and the children out of Mom’s way so she can finish getting ready. Finally, armed with my Karo and a strainer (which I also didn’t have) I headed home.

The final step was to make the raspberry sauce. Blending the raspberries wasn’t a problem, but straining them was largely unsuccessful. I don’t know if there’s a strategy to this, maybe cheesecloth would have worked better, but I didn’t have that kind of time. Eventually I just called it good enough and headed out to celebrate Thanksgiving.

Conclusions

The Chocolate Truffle Loaf with Raspberry Sauce was generally well received. The sauce still had a few seeds in it, not sure what to do about this. The loaf itself had great flavor, but didn’t ever seem to setup. It was almost runny. I’m not sure if I didn’t beat the whipping cream long enough, or if the recipe just makes a kind of gooey desert. Perhaps if it had been in the freezer overnight there would have been an improvement.

Overall, I would recommend this recipe, but definitely don’t wait until the last minute, beat the whipping cream untill it’s pretty stiff and use a cheescloth if you want a nice smoothe raspberry sauce.

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Alexander Litvinenko, a former KGB agent turned Kremlin critic died on Thursday night under unusual circumstances in London.

On November 1st Litvenko became sick with an unknown illness that caused his hair to fall out and his throat to swell up. 23 days later he died of heart failure. On his deathbed Litvinenko accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of poisoning him. Now British officials have found the radioactive element polonium-210 in his urine.

If you are like me, and grew up on the cold war themed works of men like Ian Fleming, Tom Clancy, John Milius and Robert Ludlum then you will find this incredibly fascinating. The whole idea of poisoning someone with a radioactive isotope is straight out of a spy novel. If these accusations are true (which we will probably never know for sure) it just proves the old adage that truth IS stranger than fiction.

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Last wednesday long time Greeley restaurant Bubba’s Bar-B-Que closed. The IRS seized Bubba’s due to unpaid taxes. To many local residents this wasn’t a surprise. Bubba’s had been trying to re-invent itself for some time with a redecorated interior and a bar.

For me there were three reasons why Bubba’s ultimately failed. The first was pricing. Bubba’s was a buffet and not particularly cheap. The problem was nothing on the menu was much cheaper than the buffet. It wasn’t a place where I could stop and get a $5.00 quick lunch. In fact, everytime I ever went to Bubba’s I came out stuffed - which brings us to the second cause for failure. Bubba’s encouraged patrons to partake in their ‘all-you-can-eat’ buffet. For many of us who are attempting to watch our wieght, buffets are a large temptation. Personally, I avoided Bubba’s for that very reason. The final reason fo Bubba’s demise was the food. I love BBQ and used to love Bubba’s, but over the last few years the quality of the food just wasn’t there. It wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t great. The combination of (at least percieved) higher prices, lower quality and the temptation to gorge myself made me avoid Bubba’s. I probably hadn’t been in there twice over the last 12 months and appearantly most Greeley residents hadn’t either.

So, while Bubba’s is gone, but RJ’s is back!

RJ’s BBQ opened last spring in the old Dunkin Donuts building on 10th St. While the Barbeque was good, and the prices OK, the parking, seating and service languished. A couple months ago they closed, but last week they re-opened. Now they are across the street in the old Qdoba location. Not only that, but they also have a lunch sandwich special with a 10 minute guarantee. Looks like they are trying to fix some problems.

I hear many Greeley residents complain about big chains moving in and small businesses being pushed out. While this is true to a degree, sometimes it’s also just time for businesses to change. The BBQ restaurants in Greeley are in flux right now, and while we’ve lost Bubba’s we have gained RJ’s. Let’s all get out and support them.

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During tonight’s Denver/San Diego game John Madden made an amusing statement. He made a comment about Ladainian Tomlinson’s childhood affinity for a game where the ball is thrown up in the air and the other kids attempt to tackle the boy that catches the ball. The funny thing was Madden’s need to describe the game and not call it by the name that every red-blooded American boy knows it by - Smear the Queer.

The man who popularized the Turducken is too afraid of offending the gay community to mention a popluar childhood game by name. In fact, I’m fairly confident that the usage of queer in Smear the Queer has nothing to do with homosexuals. Webster defines queer as

differing in some odd way from what is usual or normal

and this definition more appropriately fits the way the game is played. The boy who has the football is unsual. He is unlike the rest (who don’t have a football) and the others attempt to tackle or ’smear’ him. The 8 year old boys who play this game are not emulating hate crimes or learning how to ban gay marriage, they are chasing each other around a grassy field.

Political correctness in the broadcast booth has been with us ever since Howard Cosell’s famous “Look at that little monkey run!” comment in 1983 but it is usually hard to notice. Tonight, Madden’s pre-meditated discussion about the enjoyment Tomlinson used to get from being the Queer was just a bit more obvious than usual.

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I can’t add this to my quotes database yet since it’s unverified, but I will post it here where I can edit it easily.

Of course freedom is free, if it wasn’t it would be called expensivedom! - Cindy Sheehan

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This is an amazing story
The one remaining WWI vet in Florida gets a medal.

Ernest Charles Pusey is 111 years old and finally gets a medal from a war he fought in 90 years ago. Imagine how much the guys on the USS Wyoming teased him about his name. The thought that there are still guys alive that fought in 1919 is just amazing to me.

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It’s old news now, but Britney is giving Kfed (now Fed-Ex) the boot. How could he let this happen? Back in 2004 Kevin Federline hit the lottery. He managed to convince Britney to marry him. From that point on he had ONE job - keep her happy.

Let’s break it down. Britney is

• Smokin’ Hot
• Talented (at least enough to sell LOTS of records)
• Seriously filthy rich - net worth around $150 MILLION
• Smarter than Jessica Simpson
• Mostly white trash - so you know she’s fun

All this former backup dancer had to do was make the marriage work, so what does he do? He tries to become a rap star. Who does he think he is? Dr. Dre? You don’t have to be a huge music exec to see this guy isn’t the next Marshall Mathers. Hope his HUGE album “Playing with Fire” with it’s 6,000 sales and his appearance on WWE RAW were worth losing his marriage and future. Moron.

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Not sure how much I’ve written about my hounds, but just to recap I’ll give everyone a review.

I have two dogs. Lucy is my Beagle, and she’s 4 years old. She was a birthday present from my sister back in 2002 and she’s been a great dog. She has some of the normal Beagle issues, but overall she is a great companion.

After a couple years I started to realize that I just couldn’t spend as much time with Lucy as I would like, so I decided to get her a friend. After extensive pondering I settled on a Basset Hound. This conclusion was based on two things, first I wanted to keep with the naming scheme and get her an Ethel. A Basset named Ethel seemed like a logical choice (no disrespect to Vivian Vance intended). The other determining factor was the fictional Basset Hound, Flash, from the Dukes of Hazzard. My childhood memories of the Dukes gave me the perception that Basset Hounds were lazy dogs that would just lay around and be no trouble. At the time, I had no idea how wrong this idea was.

My Brother-in-Law’s mother found me a Basset Hound from her neighbor out in Kearny Nebraska. She acquired a Basset for me, we drove halfway to Nebraska and thus Ethel joined my family.

Ethel wasn’t quite what I expected. I expected her to be laid back and sleepy, quite the opposite she has been a ball of fire. She is likes to chew, craves attention, never sits still and is constantly in to everything - which brings me to today’s story.

Sunday afternoons are a good time for me to watch the football game and get a few things done around the house. While cleaning the kitchen I found some chocolate brownies from a couple weeks ago that didn’t get eaten and threw them in the trash. A few minutes later, after catching a few minutes of the game on the downstairs TV, I discovered the empty pan on the floor. Of course, Ethel was the prime suspect, but I wanted to be sure. I grabbed Lucy and smelled her breath - normal dog. Ethel, on the other hand, smelled like she had just had dinner at the Hershey factory.

Being the good parent I am, I was immediately concerned. The toxicity of chocolate to dogs is well known. I turned to the best reference source in the house, my computer, and did a little Internet research. Ethel’s about 40 lbs and there probably wasn’t enough chocolate in the brownies to do her any damage, but how could I take a chance.

When a dog eats chocolate there is a time window of 1-4 hours where the worst of the poisoning can be averted by causing the dog to puke. The way to do this is create a Hydrogen Peroxide solution and give it to the dog - this will induce vomiting. The reference site I found suggested using a Turkey Baster, but being a bachelor that has only cooked a couple Turkeys in my whole life, a Turkey Baster isn’t in my arsenal of kitchen utensils. I wisely decided it shouldn’t be too hard to just us a measuring cup and pour the solution in her mouth. I proceeded to make this solution, usher her outside and attempt to administer the medication. Unfortunately, this didn’t work as well as planned. Attempting to hold down a 40lb Basset and pour hydrogen peroxide down her throat is neither fun nor advisable. Many scratches later most of the tonic was on the ground and Ethel was not puking. Undeterred (but irritated because I was missing the Bronocos beating up on the stealers) I came up with plan B. I grabbed a funnel that I keep for kitchen use thinking that getting a funnel in her mouth would be easier than holding it open and pouring out of a measuring cup. This turned out to be a much better plan and the recommended 4 tbsp dosage (or a close approximation) was successfully introduced to Ethel’s gullet.

The poor dog got to run around the back yard and dry heave for the next 15 minutes, but, much to my chagrin, didn’t vomit any significant portion of the brownies. All out of ideas I finally turned to final resort (which probably should have been my first move) , the local emergency Vet clinic. A girl named Ally answered the phone and reassured me that the brownies likely did not contain enough chocolat to cause any permanent damage. The worst symptom she suspected would be some diarrhea.

In the end, Ethel has not experienced any ill effects from the brownies and I’m recovering from the wounds inflicted by her claws. I guess this crazy Basset will be with me for a while yet.

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