Following surgery, I’ve been on a liquid and mushy food (baby food) diet for the past 6 weeks.  During that time I’ve been perusing several food blogs.  Pants off, mouth open.  When all you have is photos to satisfy you, the food at This is Why You’re Fat is totally unappealing (sorry, JOTUS).  Instead, I’ve been enjoying blogs that focus on the healthier, organic, seasonal food.  I think it started with a segment on  60 Minutes last week about Alice Waters, mother of the organic food movement and founder of Chez Panisse in San Francisco (of course).  While I don’t think that any lifestyle should be forced on Americans (even for their own good), I do agree with her food philosophy.  Yes, it’s elitist and, yes, it’s totally inconvenient.  However, there are some tips you can take from  her, like supporting farmer’s markets, eating only seasonal fruits and veggies, skipping fast food, and enjoying the process of cooking and eating your meals.  The recent NY Times Bestseller, Naturally Thin by Bethenny Frankel (my favorite from Housewives of NYC), follows this philosophy.  It’s a great book, but I do have one criticism — THERE ARE NO PHOTOS!

Here are some of the food blogs I’m adding to my Blog Roll:

So Good

Cooking with Trader Joe’s

Cook to Bang

Zesty Cook

DC Foodies

So, what am I cooking for my first non-mushy meal at home?  Salmon and Turkey Bacon Soft Tacos!  Lots of tomatoes, a little sour cream, and a little goat cheese.  Yeah, I’m probably more excited than I should be.  Pants are still on though.

UPDATE: Salmon tacos were good, but I inadvertantly bought low-carb tortillas.  They were kinda gluey.  Boo.

If you haven’t read anything by Jen Lancaster, then we aren’t friends.  However, you could use the excuse that you wanted to read her books in chronological order.  While her other books take place during adulthood, her newest book, Pretty in Plaid is childhood stories from ’80s.  So, you are forgiven if you buy it and immediately start reading it.  I was lucky enough to receive an advanced copy, which I have been saving for my vacation in July.  I don’t know if it will go untouched until then.

For perhaps the first time ever, the New  York Times is totally accurate.  Here’s an excerpt from their review of Pretty in Plaid:

In Pretty in Plaid, Jen Lancaster reveals how she developed the hubris that perpetually gets her into trouble. Using fashion icons of her youth to tell her hilarious and insightful stories, readers will meet the girl she used to be.

Think Jen Lancaster was always “like David Sedaris with pearls and a super-cute handbag?” (Jennifer Coburn) Think again. She was a badge-hungry Junior Girl Scout with a knack for extortion, an aspiring sorority girl who didn’t know her Coach from her Louis Vuitton, and a budding executive who found herself bewildered by her first encounter with a fax machine. In this humorous and touching memoir, Jen Lancaster looks back on her life—and wardrobe—before bitter was the new black and shows us a young woman not so very different than the rest of us.

The author who showed us what it was like to wait in line at the unemployment office with a Prada bag, how living in the city can actually suck, and that losing weight can be fun with a trainer named Barbie and enough Ambien is ready to take you on a hilarious and heartwarming trip down memory lane in her shoes (and very pretty ones at that).

Don’t miss her book signing at a city near you!

(Didn’t that sorta sound like the end of a Reading Rainbow book review?  Da da da dunt!)

Thanks to Buddha Riggs for forwarding me this interesting piece at The Atlantic.  Excerpt:

In the late 1990s, [Sean] Combs made a fascinating gesture toward New York’s high society. He announced his arrival into the circles of the rich and powerful not by crashing their parties, but by inviting them into his own spectacularly over-the-top world. Combs began to stage elaborate annual parties in the Hamptons, not far from where Fitzgerald’s novel takes place. These “white parties”—attendees are required to wear white—quickly became legendary for their opulence (in 2004, Combs showcased a 1776 copy of the Declaration of Independence) as well as for the cultures-colliding quality of Hamptons elites paying their respects to someone so comfortably nouveau riche. Prospective business partners angled to get close to him and praised him as a guru of the lucrative “urban” market, while grateful partygoers hailed him as a modern-day Gatsby.

“Have I read The Great Gatsby?” Combs said to a London newspaper in 2001. “I am the Great Gatsby.”

This is my new favorite show.

A few weeks ago I blogged about Robert Davi’s new movie, The Dukes.  I’ve now seen it three times and just finished a review on it for Townhall.  The Dukes opened in New York on Friday and opens nationally next Friday, November 23.  You must go see it for the following reasons:

1. The main character has the same last name as me.

2. Great story

3. Catchy soundtrack

3. Robert Davi sings

4. Italians are the best filmmakers

5. LOTUS has excellent taste in movies (and music)

I’ve had this music running in my head for the past week and just had to share it.  Yes, you may recognize it from a recent commercial.  Some idiot commented that it’s the “theme song for United.” 

Click here for Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue with Leonard Bernstein at piano.  (Note: There are two parts.)

Since both McCain and Obama’s cookie submissions both left me unsatisfied, I contacted the Bob Barr campaign for a recipe.  I give you Jeri Barr’s Bars!

Chocolate-Toffee Cookie Bars

3/4 cup Sugar

3/4 cup Light Brown Sugar

1 cup Butter-Flavored Crisco

1 teaspoon Vanilla

2 Eggs

2-1/4 cups Flour

1 teaspoon Salt

1 teaspoon Baking Soda

1 cup Semi-sweet Chocolate Chips

1 cup Heath Bar (chopped), approximately 20 miniature bars

1/4 cup Georgia Pecans (chopped)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  In large bowl, cream sugars, Crisco and vanilla.  On low speed, add egg, one at a time.  Set aside.  Sift together flour, salt and baking soda in separate bowl.  Gradually add dry mixture to creamed mixture and beat at medium speech.  Fold in chips and toffee.  Spread entire mixture into lightly greased 13 x 9 pan.  Top with pecans.  Bake for 20-25 minutes or until brown on top.  Cool completely and cut into bars.

These are in the oven right now.  Pictures coming soon.

Since I have some leftover McCain Oatmeal Butterscotch cookies, I’ve decided that we’ll put Barr’s bars up against them tomorrow.  Stay tuned for the results and remember that the cookie contest has predicted the last four presidential elections!

UPDATE: Barr’s bars are currently beating McCain’c Oatmeal Butterscotch Cookies by 6 to 1.  Let me remind me you that this is not a case of Barr taking cookie votes away from McCain.  Any votes that McCain’s cookies don’t receive are because the family did not come up with an adequate recipe.

Well, sort of.  Check out my McCain 2008 line:

T-Shirts — Available in men, women, junior, and plus-size.

Totebags

Notebook — Great for taking notes at Wednesday Meetings

Mousepad

Bumper Stickers

Click here to purchase!

I think I’ve found my sarcasm soul mate (sorry, JOTUS).  Recently, I came across the site I’m Bringing Blogging Back.  To be honest, I haven’t really read much of the site.  I’m just obsessed with the “Harriet Carter” tag.  Each week it features a couple products and photos from the Harriet Carter catalog.  You know, the catalog with the 80s models (by which I mean models with hairdos from 1980 and octogenarians) and kooky products.  The catalog is also a good test for whether or not you’re old.  If you ever see a product and think “Ooooh, that could come in handy!”  you may as well hike up your pants and move to Florida. 

Each week the comments on the featured products are hilarious.   You must read the full Harriet Carter tag archives.  Here’s a taste:

Where’s my t-shirt that says, “No Shit, Ugly.” This sexy beast has a sexified nightgown, or “Sexgown” as I like to call it, that says, “Not Tonight Deer.” Um, yeah. Actually thanks for the night off. No really, thanks. I’m not sure if while you’re doing your hair right now you have access to a mirror or mirror-like substance, but you are wearing a nightgown/sexgown with deers dressed up on it in a bathrobe and slippers. Yeah, you do. Really. Check it out. Oh, and you also have 3 rollers in your hair. Yeah, you do. Look up. They’re in just the front of your hair. Alright! There’s nothing I like more then to have my girl curling her bangs before bed. Hot hot hot! Sexxxxxy. Even better bring that hairdryer with you because I love seeing how knotty your hair is in the wind. Hot. Is that some gum I see in there too? Sweet, bring it into the bedroom with us. Is this chick for real? Don’t flatter yourself you cocky bitch. Wow, did I just get mad at the sexgown model? Hmmm. Interesting. Perhaps I have some resentment issues at the moment. Hmmm. Food for thought. Well, thanks Harriet for helping me to work through some of my issues. Now get your fine ass into that sexgown and swing by my apartment you naughty little douche.

My friend Trevor at Who’s Your Nanny? is a great cook and just started posting his recipe of the week.  I’ve been toying with the same idea, but decided it would be easier to just link to him.  Also, I’m a super picky eater, so anything I post will have half of the ingredients taken out. 

Anyway, this week Trevor is serving up Seared Yellowfin Tuna with Pomegranate Salsa.  For more of Trevor’s recipes, check out his cookbook, 50 Ways to Impress Your Girlfriend’s Parents (When Nothing Else Works).