This mother truckin’ Inuit knife and breadboard bowl set drops it like it’s hot and then crushes it! Did you club a seal today and need to skin it? Did your redneck neighbor pass out on your front porch again and it’s time to cut off his mullet? Or hey, maybe you just got some fresh strawberries from Trader Joe’s and you’re looking to make some shortcake, yum! Brother this is THE knife and breadboard set for you, because it’s been doing all that and more for a couple millenia. That knife warns you too, DON’T MESS WITH ME, I’LL CUT YOU. Look at those eyes. Those are not teddy bears, friend. Those bears mean business. Now it’s about time to chop those carrots and olives into oblivion, but don’t worry, they’re gonna keep safe in this bowl. No rolling around gonna happen. All in all these tools will make your chopping a breeze, and they might even protect you from a home invasion.

I’m super jealous. Kansas River here I come!

(my future book cover)

My aunt asked me to make a dish of Beef Wellington for my Grandmother’s birthday.  So because I’ve never even seen it before, I said “hell yes” plus I’ll even take some pictures as I go (for the insurance company, when I set the oven on fire again).  So here’s how it went:

Start off with a 3 pound beef tenderloin, lots of mushrooms (I had baby portabellas and a dried northwoods blend) some red wine, about 12 slices of prosciutto,  and two sheets of puff pastry.  Spices to follow along later.  SO PAY ATTENTION!

Grab your loin and rub it down with some oil.  Yep.  Ok, enough!  Just a little bit!  Now salt and pepper it, put it in the pan, (you should have preheated your oven to 400 by now) and stick it in the oven for approximately 35 minutes.  When it’s done cooking, stick it in the fridge.  Chop up the mushrooms into tiny bits.  You can use the food processor, but just make sure to pulse them so that you don’t end up with a mess.  Side note here, those dried mushrooms, you can put them in a warm pot with about half cup of  wine and half cup of water till they soak up everything, only then chop them up.  Now put all the mushrooms in a hot pan with some butter, a generous amount of thyme and a little garlic, cook for about 10 minutes.  Pour some wine in there and cook it down for another 10 minutes.  When you’re done they look like braaaaaaains…

Now you need to lay out a sheet of plastic wrap on the counter, then lay the prosciutto down on it, then the mushrooms, then the beef, then cover the loin with the rest of the mushrooms, and roll the whole log of it up in the plastic wrap again.  Kinda like this, but with more mushrooms on top of it.

After that chilled for a while, you can flatten out the puff pastry sheets, and roll out the log onto them.  Wrap it all up so that it’s like a burrito, and then put it in the pan and back in the oven for another 30-35 minutes.  Whenever that pastry looks good.  OK PARTY PEOPLE, LET’S EAT THIS MEAT CAKE!

I just found this awesome video and thought I’d share it.

It’s amazing to see on such a crazy scale, just how insignificant we really are compared to everything else in the universe?!  Blows my mind every time.

(Since I was born there I’m actually the coolest. )

My new shirt - from the Flying J, of course!!!

Found on the door of the bathroom in a kindergarten class I was working in today:

Look, I’m no Phil Collins fan.  I have but one song from his entire catalog that I think is worthy of my ears, but I gotta give it to him, he really rocks this song.  Actually I think most of the credit has to go to Phillip Bailey.  So for your listening pleasure today:

You’re welcome, readers!

Sometimes you just can’t find the right card for the situation.

Long story short, Ben’s co-worker has a baby that his mom accidentally dropped on a counter-top.  Now lots of bad things have happened since then, and now he won’t stop talking about it, on the phone, in the lab, in front of everyone.  So Ben has created his own very special card for the situation.

So in the most passive-aggressive way to get a personal message across ever, it’s posted here.

Actually, there’s another story the same guy’s got going now about his newly-blind dog, so I made this one for hanging around the lab.

I think they both work well.  Feel free to post them around your office for those over-sharers.

I like to think that if I was young and in Aspen in the 70’s, I would have been great friends with Hunter S. Thompson - hanging out at Owl Farm, romping around with guns and dropping acid in agrestic chaos…  I’ve always been a sucker for the handsome bad boys.  Hey, a girl can dream.

So with that in mind, here’s the trailer for Gonzo, a biography of Hunter S. Thompson:

I saw it earlier today, and it was a really great step into the life of a person that I’ve always wished I could have met.  I loved the interviews with his first wife Sondi; I have major respect for George McGovern; and everything about Thompson just made him look more badass than before.  It was like a condensed version of the feeling you get when you read his books.  Essentially it was condensed versions of his books, along with their back story.  I had a hard time getting back to reality after it was over, and like his friends said, I wish there was more.