You ever notice how awkward it is when someone sneezes and no one says “bless you”?

I’d like to address an issue that I’ve found affects several women these days.

Jessica Simpson brand shoes.

From Megan McCain to my old boss, I find that lots of women are adversely affected by the stigma of getting shoes with Jessica Simpson’s name on them.  It’s tough to be respectable when the name on your shoes is synonymous with the great Chicken of the Sea debate.  The problem is, some of the shoes are so damn good looking.  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been in the store, see some really great looking pair of shoes, and once I see her name on them, I feel cheap and dirty.  I walk away, checking around to make sure nobody saw me investigating them.

Exhibit A

Good looking shoe, eh?  It’s a little high for me, but it’s not like I wouldn’t wear it.  Except that I can’t justify putting my money in Jessica Simpson’s pocket!

See, this is the kind of shoe that I’m more comfortable with seeing her name on:

Pretty Awful, eh?  Under what situation, exactly, does one wear such a shoe?  Perhaps if you are a geriatric Inuit trying to seduce the newest resident in your wing of the nursing home.

Either way, I’m sticking to my ban on Jessica Simpson shoes.  Over and out!

This weekend I came home to a surprise:

One ripe tomato!!!

There’s another one that’s about to be the same way, but it’s so nice to finally have something that looks like I could eat it.  I am a little disappointed though, because these things are like, the size of a golf ball.  What am I supposed to do with those?

Well spring is coming along and so is the ol’ garden on the balcony.  A southern orientation and decent weather has helped a whole lot with making sure the plants grow up and green instead of down and brown.  It’s pics time:

Box O' Carrots

Basil - I pick it almost every other day, so it's not a full as usual

Little Bit of Lemon Thyme

To-mah-toes

Compost - In the corner for a reason!

I was going to give up on the whole bread making idea, but this video has inspired me to give it another go:

You know you love it.

Does putting my glasses in my mouth make me look smarter?

Anderson Hall

Pictures of my hometown!

The Flint Hills are surely one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen.  I am biased.  But I’m right.

In Centennial Olympic Park today - a live band performing the Warren G classic Regulators with a violin, drums, and a saxophone.

Can’t say that isn’t at least a little awesome!

Hey folks, I made a word puzzle.  It has some awesome stuff in there, so get ready.

Whew!  I just finished making some samosas.  Well, my take on samosas.  The pictures are crappy, but that’s just because I have a crappy camera and I just want to get going… sorry…

Take about 4 medium red potatoes, and boil ‘em down.  It should take you about 25 minutes.  Put the potatoes in a big bowl, and mash ‘em up with a fork.  Meanwhile, get an onion diced, and sautee it in a saucepan, and while you’re doing that, go ahead and throw maybe a cup of some frozen peas in there.  And throw some chopped jalapenos in there too.  Add in some garam masala, some cumin, a little coriander, a little turmeric, and (my own thing here) a little bit of yogurt - just to make it blend a little better, all to taste, and mix it up.

Here’s where I get a little off the traditional path.  Usually people would make their own dough to wrap the filling, but my difficulties with dough have been a little ridiculous lately.  I went ahead and bought wonton wraps, and all you have to do is put a little ball of the filling into them, slap some egg wash on the insides, and pinch them up into delicious little triangles.

Now I’m always weary of frying stuff.  It’s not that I’m bad at the execution, it’s just the idea of all that oil, when I could bake it instead… sorta gross… although it does taste good, I’ll definitely grant you that.  But because I’m cooking it for a big group, I went ahead and did both.  I baked about 20 of them, just pinched up the wontons, sprayed them with a little Pam, sprinkle a little sea salt on top, and pop them in the toaster oven.  With the rest of them, I did a little trick.  I put some vegetable oil in the pan, along with some red pepper flakes, and a little garlic powder.  Now I can’t say I’m an expert on the issue of frying stuff, but this all seemed like a good idea when I started out, and hell’s bells, it actually tasted damn good too - the flavors meld onto the wontons!  So there you have it.

The traditional dip for this is a cilantro and mint chutney.  And because I’m not really crazy about cilantro, (in fact, I hate it) I did a little “research” for good dipping sauces.  It really just involved mixing up different stuff I have in my fridge.  The best I came up with is Sriracha and yogurt.  I know, you’re thinking I’m nuts.  But it’s actually not to bad.  It’s spicy as hell, but it’s also cooling.  My taste buds didn’t know what to do.  Part of them felt like I did earlier when I was chopping the jalapenos and I rubbed my eye (AVOID THIS ACTION AT ALL COSTS), but the rest of my taste buds were nice and cool, like they were listening to Michael McDonald while skiing down a slope of fresh powder.  Anyway, cooking is just an experiment, so do what you want, whatever tastes good.