Bacon Quiche

1 Frozen Pie Shell

1 Cup Swiss Cheese

8 Slices of Bacon

3 Eggs Beaten

1 Cup Milk

1/8 Tsp Nutmeg

Onion Powder

Salt and Pepper

Pre-bake pie shell at 350*F for 10 minutes. Fry bacon until crisp; crumble into small pieces to yield 3/4 cup. Combine eggs, milk, nutmeg, onion powder, salt, and pepper. Beat well. Sprinkle pre-baked pie shell with cheese and bacon; pour in egg mixture. Bake at 350*F for 35 minutes or until knife inserted in center comes out clean.

Phoebe was very hopeful I would accidently drop some bacon.

Capitol 501 Draft

Jerome Simpson makes a catch in

exhibition game on August 20, 2009.

David Butler II, US Presswire

So I had my first draft for the 2009 fantasy football season. I had the 4th pick in the first round, and I made a gutsy move when I didn't pick Maurice Jones Drew (ranked 3rd) and went with Chris Johnson (ranked 6th or 7th) from Tennessee instead . Predicting which one will do better is near impossible, and they'll probably have similar numbers in the end. I just didn't have a good feeling about MJD, so I went with my gut. Here's how the first two rounds went:

Round 1:

1) Cybertron Decepticons- Adrian Peterson RB

2) Team Hutson- Michael Turner RB

3) Team Ramrod- Matt Forte RB

**4) Melton Marksmen- Chris Johnson RB

5) Rogue Sheeners- Maurice Jones Drew RB

6) Team Plunkett- DeAngelo Williams RB

7) Team Farley- Steven Jackson RB

8) Team Myers- LaDainian Tomlinson RB

9) Glue Sniffers- Larry Fitzgerald WR

10) Johannesburg Prawns- Drew Brees QB

Round 2:

11) Johannesburg Prawns- Andre Johnson WR

12) Glue Sniffers- Steve Slaton RB

13) Team Myers- Frank Gore RB

14) Team Farley- Randy Moss WR

15) Team Plunkett- Calvin Johnson WR

16) Rogue Sheeners- Aaron Rodgers QB

**17) Melton Marksmen- Steve Smith WR

18) Team Ramrod- Marion Barber RB

19) Team Hutson- Brandon Jacobs RB

20) Cybertron Decepticons- Tom Brady QB

After getting Chris Johnson and Steve Smith in the first two rounds, I felt like I had done fairly well. Steve Smith wasn't my first choice for WR, but I had pick #17 in the second round, so I figured the top 5 or 6 WRs would be gone before it came to me. Instead I got the #5 and #6 WRs by the end of the 3rd round. Not too shabby.

In the 4th round I still didn't have a QB because I didn't realize how quickly the other teams would start drafting them. 5 were gone before I had my pick #37. I felt like I had to take Tony Romo before all the good QBs were gone. Again, it wasn't the safest move according to the pre-draft rankings because I passed up Kurt Warner (who was the #4 QB as compared to Tony Romo who was #7). Warner went to Team Ramrod as the next pick. Again, I didn't have a good feeling about Warner, but my gut might haunt me later in the season. I guess it's the gut feelings that make fantasy football so much fun.

I'm pretty excited I got Antonio Gates as TE again this season, but there are lot of other good TEs this year.

Here's how the Melton Marksmen look:

QBs- Tony Romo (DAL), David Garrard (JAC)

RBs- Chris Johnson (TEN), Derrick Ward (TB), Larry Johnson (KC), Darren Sproles (SD), Donald Brown (IND)

WRs- Steve Smith (CAR), Greg Jennings (GB), Hines Ward (PIT), Lance Moore (NO), Percy Harvin (MIN)

TEs- Antonio Gates (SD), Dustin Keller (NYJ)

D/ST- Dolphins

K- Jason Elam (ATL)

I'm a little worried that my RB lineup is a little weak, but we'll see what happens.

Dijon Potatoes

For the Chicken:

3 Chicken breasts cut into nuggets

Minced garlic

Onion powder

Olive oil

For the Potatoes:

4 Russet potatoes cut into 1” square pieces

Zatarain’s Creole Seasoning

Dijon mustard

1 Tablespoon of butter

1 Cup of shredded Swiss cheese

Minced Garlic

¼ Cup of milk

Boil water in a large pot with the potatoes and lots Zatarain’s Creole Seasoning. Let the potatoes boil for 15 minutes.

Then heat olive oil in a skillet with the minced garlic and onion powder. Add chicken (lately I’ve been soaking the cut chicken in a bowl with garlic and olive oil for a few hours before cooking. I’m not sure if that actually does anything for the chicken, so maybe someone can let me know if that’s a waste of time). When the chicken is thoroughly cooked, put the heat on low and let the chicken brown slightly on all sides.

When the potatoes very tender, drain the boiling water and put the potatoes back in the pot. Add butter, Swiss cheese, sprinkling of garlic, more Zatarain’s Creole Seasoning, milk, and Dijon mustard (I don’t actually know how much to tell you to put in, but maybe the picture below will give you an idea. Start with a little and then add more until they taste spicy enough). Mash until the potatoes are a consistent paste.

Scoop the potatoes onto a plate and put chicken on top. I like to pour more olive oil from the skillet and more Swiss cheese on top of everything.

Serves 3.

Origins: Once again, I developed most of this recipe while living in France, specifically the potatoes. I started putting honey mustard on baked potatoes after I saw someone do that at a McAlister’s in Mississippi. When I moved to France, I used Dijon mustard and emmental (Swiss) cheese on boiled/semi-mashed potatoes along with some other spices. Then I heard they would become real mashed potatoes if I added milk, et voila. I developed the chicken recipe after I moved back to Clinton, Mississippi when I got sick of waiting for a whole chicken breast to cook in the skillet. The chicken was also too dry when I cooked it this way, so I cut it up into nuggets. I loved the results, so I added it to the potatoes.

Châteaux Soup

Ingredients:

3 chicken breasts cut into nuggets

6 cups of extra wide egg noodles

1 can of no salt added corn

1 or 2 chicken bouillon cubes

3 tomatoes cut into quarters

onion powder

garlic powder

olive oil

Zatarain’s Creole Seasoning

shredded Swiss cheese

Pour a little oil into a large pot and heat. Cook chicken in pot and season with garlic and onion powders. When the chicken is still mostly pink, pour corn, tomatoes, noodles, bouillon, hearty amount of Zatarain’s Creole Seasoning, and enough water to cover everything into the pot. Boil for 10 minutes or until chicken is fully cooked and noodles are tender. Use slotted spoon to pour into bowls and sprinkle Swiss cheese on top.

Serves 3

Notes: I started cooking this on a weekly basis while living in Châteauroux, France (hence the name). I’ve never actually measured the exact amount of noodles or spices, so I’ve just guessed on the amounts.

Sam Thacker's Lines

In a previous post I mentioned I saw Sam Thacker open for Corey Smith in Houston. When I bought his CD Lines, a blank CD came in the packaging so that I could burn a copy for a friend. After hearing the album's first track, "Yes", I was optimistic. However, the album was mostly a disappointment.

Every song sounded like he ripped the melody and chords from another song. "Something" = Chris Isaak's "Wicked Games", "Right Where We Want It" = Caedmon's Call's "Not Enough", "Don't Leave Here Tonight" = John Mayer's "No Such Thing", "No One Needs to Know" = Switchfoot's "Meant to Live", "Tonight" = Jimmy Buffet's "Margaritaville", et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. After I realized Thacker's songs sounded like cheap rip offs, I couldn't listen to this CD again.

Know how most Christian music sucks? Usually, these simple songs use the same regurgitated chords (like D, G, C) that all other Christian music uses. I think that's what happened to Thacker's music, so his songs sound cheap and unoriginal.

While listening to this CD, I realized that he might be more successful if he wrote Christian music. Instead of singing about doing shots with his girl at 4 am, he could sing about praying to Jesus at 4 am. Even if the music sucks, Christians are loyal customers as long as the lyrics pay lip service to God. I'm not even sure Sam would have be sincere as long as he appeared religious.

Three Cheers for Gluttony

James Coney Island, a Houston hot dog chain, celebrated it's 86th anniversary today by selling chili cheese dogs for 86 cents each (cheese not included, which is a little odd because the chili should cost more than cheese out of gun). I don't feel like the store advertised it very well because they only had a small sign outside the door you would not have seen unless you were already going inside. The store looked empty, and not many people were eating chili dogs. I heard about the event last time I visited when the lady at the register gave me a flyer. I kept the flyer and wrote the date on my calender, so I've been looking forward to this for about a month. I followed Ryan's lead tonight and got 4 chili dogs. After the tater tots, I had a Crave Cupcake follow the chili dogs. Later, he was hurting. Oddly enough, that wasn't enough for me. I'm now eating a whole bag of butter popcorn as I write this post. I did run/walk 5 miles after dinner, so maybe that makes up for it all.

A wise man (maybe wise isn't the right word) once said, "That would be cool if you could eat a good food with a bad food and the good food would cover for the bad food when it got to your stomach. Like you could eat a carrot with an onion ring and they would travel down to your stomach, then they would get there, and the carrot would say, "It's cool, he's with me." - Mitch Hedberg

House of Blues Excursion

Took this picture from where I watched the concert.

I was surprised my cell phone camera took a fairly

descent picture.

While writing the last post, I saw on Corey Smith's website that he had a concert in Houston on Friday (last night). I normally don't go to concerts, but I thought this one might be cool, especially since I really like his music.

Maybe I should have realized this already, but the House of Blues is basically a bar with a stage. Since I couldn't find anyone to go with me, I went by myself. I've never been to a bar by myself. It was really awkward. I then noticed there were a bunch of high school kids there. That was weird. As the show started, two girls who looked like they were 12 stood next to me. I thought, "You've heard his music (like 'Let Me Love You On a Backroad') and know what he's going to sing about, right? There's a Jonas Brothers concert going on down the street that be more to your liking."

I really enjoyed his show because I knew his music and was able to hear some new music that will come out on his new album (which he just finished recording). The coolest part was meeting him after the show. I told him when I worked in Europe I would listen to his music to remind me of home. We then talked briefly about France and how he spent a semester in Paris. I would have never thought he would have spent time in France.

I'm not sure if the crowd was small or large for a Corey Smith concert. I would think his following is more around Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, and maybe the Carolinas. I really have no clue, but he did mention in the concert how he was happy to see such a friendly crowd so far from home.

After the concert I bought a CD from Sam Thacker, who was the opening act. So far the album is pretty good. As I bought the CD, he told me that there was a blank CD in the packaging so that I could burn a copy for a friend. Apparently, he doesn't care about illegal music sharing (but it's probably not illegal if the artist tells you to do it, right?).