Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

Let start by saying I think Lisa is the Mike of a few seasons ago. How can someone so inept, unorginal, and lacking in any kind of skill still be in the competition at this stage of the game? She really is a snake who has little to no talent. If the trend continues the finale is really going be anticlimactic as Richard will pound the other finalist(s) into creative submission. I don't see how this won't be a Richard, Antonia, and Stephanie final. Some people may want a female Top Chef, but Stephanie has a severe confidence problem and Antonia can only seem to cook food that her daughter likes. I think Richard is thinking on a completely different level than the other two.

The only way they win is if Richard gets kicked off before the final. Judging by the last couple of weeks that may soon happen. It's shaped up so far to be "Top Finger Pointer".

Way back when I first started cooking at home, my wife and I made a recipe out of Fine Cooking magazine. It was a pretty simple pasta dish with cheese, crushed tomatoes, garlic, italian sausage, and pasta. Pretty simple stuff.

This time I decide I'm going to make it myself and surprise her after a hard day at work. I survey the recipe, make at the grocery list and procure the said items.

All fired up, I start measuring out all of the ingredients. Took the sausage out of the casing, get the water ready for the pasta, open up the crushed tomatoes, and mince four cloves of garlic.

So I'm mincing, and mincing, and mincing. True, I was very new to the kitchen so my knife skills weren't that good. Dude, this is taking forever! How do these old Italian women stand this? No wonder they spend all day in the kitchen, they're mincing garlic! I bet you this operation took an hour. My eyes are on fire, my fingers stink, and I'm wondering why I even embarked on this ill-conceived journey.

I finally get everything combined and it looks just like the picture in the magazine. With a bag of iceburg lettuce and the best frozen garlic bread $2 could buy, dinner was now served. My wife was pleasantly surprised by my motivation to cook dinner. We sit down and eat.

I take a bite.

She takes a bite.

"Whoah! What in the hell is that?" she said (and I thought).

"That's got some serious garlic in it! How much did the recipe call for?", she asked.

"Four cloves, and it took forever to mince.", I replied.

"What took so long?", she wondered.

I go over to the garbage I show her the leftover garlic skins.

"Oh, wait a minute.", I said

I will conclude this story by saying the whole dinner went in the trash and I now know the difference between a clove and bulb of garlic.

Weekdays is usually comprised of quick "old standby's) or eating out. Saturday is eating out, Sunday is my experimental day finished with a large dinner.

There's a place here in Cleveland (Lakewood) called "Melt" that has been open about a year. I absolutely love this place. A large selection of different types of grilled cheese combinations as well as cheeseburgers. There is an absolutely huge selection of beers. The beer list is to Melt as the menu is to Cheesecake factory. They also offer an inventive selection of sides, that aren't fries. The only criticism I have is that they only use one kind of bread. I wish Bourdain would have went here when he cam with No Reservations.

My wife is allergic to chicken, citrus, alcohol, and to a small degree tomatoes. Can it sometimes be a drag? Yes. But I do think that it does lead to me trying new recipes (that I normally wouldn't have tried) or modifying existing ones to accomodate her.

As far as vegetarians and vegans go, the few I know don't really make a huge deal about it. They steer their way through a meal the best they can and get on with it. As for the militants? I've not met one, and hope not to.