Warm Gooey Cheese Fondue 4 Cold Nights

From Denny: The Olympics food and recipes are still posting and this one is divine! There are three secrets to great cheese fondue.

1 - Prepare in a saucepan on the stove. Leave the official showy fondue pot for when the dish is ready to be served. You will be doing a lot of stirring as the cheese melts and it's just easier to control the heat temperature on the stove.

2 - Rub the inside of the saucepan with raw garlic to flavor the final dish. Then you pour in the wine and other ingredients.

3 - Place some cornstarch water in the saucepan after the garlic rub. What this does is prevent the cheese from separating into ugly unappetizing lumps. This simple little trick is a winner for keeping the cheese properly bound and smooth in the final product.

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Pierre's fondue recipe

From: Jean-Georges Vongerichten, chef and owner Market Restaurant: Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Serves: 4

INGREDIENTS

• 3 1/3 c Gruyere cheese, grated
• 3 1/3 c Fribourg Vacherin cheese, grated (or Comte if not available)
• 3 1/3 c dry white wine
• 2 tsp cornstarch
• 3 Tbsp kirsch
• 1 pc crushed garlic
• 1 each baguette, cut into 1" cubes with crust
• 1 each Gala apple, cut into 1" cubes
• 1 1/2 c red grapes, washed
• 4 oz Bresaola, thinly sliced
• Cornichons
• Pickled onions

DIRECTIONS

Rub inside of a heatproof casserole with the garlic. Add the wine and cornstarch and heat until liquid is steaming but not boiling. Slowly add the cheese and bring just under the boiling point, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon. Once the mixture is completely melted and velvety in texture, mix in the kirsch and continue stirring until it comes back together. Remove from the heat, season with fresh ground pepper and nutmeg. Serve tableside on a burner. Arrange all the garnish on a plate and serve.


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Funny Quirky Video: The Busy Desk of the Animator

From Denny: If you have ever wondered exactly how the animators do it this tutorial is for you! :) Entertaining and delightful while it explains the world of illusion.

From the creators of this video:

A neat making-of video to explain the trickery behind the interactive video exhibit, DanseDance.

Each day, we are surrounded by seemingly insignificant objects, taking them from one place to the other, or leaving them on a table for weeks, without paying any attention to them. We ignore or forget them, using things only when we need to, making sure they don’t interfere or inhabit our space. But what if they were not so stable and subservient? What if they could swivel, bounce or even fly. And what if they did so all at the same time?

This experiment is about re-discovering our daily surroundings.

DanseDance from Julien Vallée on Vimeo.

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Technorati claim

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7 Funny Little Sillies 4 a Grin

From Denny: Found these quick little grinners and they are a perfect pick-me-up for the weekend!




A man in Orange County Municipal Court had been ticketed for driving alone in the carpool lane.

He claimed that the four frozen cadavers in the mortuary van he was driving should be counted.

The judge ruled that passengers must be alive to qualify.





A co-worker tells me about his son and his son's new under-wear with superheroes on it:

One morning the child comes running into the bedroom, grabs the front of his pants and announces proudly, "Ive got Superman in my pants, Daddy. What have you got in yours?"

Before checking, I turned to my wife, "Well, how should I answer him?" She was too busy laughing.





Tech Support: "OK Bob, let's press the control and escape
keys at the same time. That brings up a task list in the
middle of the screen. Now type the letter 'P' to bring up
the Program Manager."

Customer: "I don't have a 'P'."

Tech Support: "On your keyboard, Bob."

Customer: "What do you mean?"

Tech Support: "'P' on your keyboard, Bob."

Customer: "I'm not going to do that!"





Uh, oh... arriving blonde joke...

Harlan says there's a Judi who works at his place. Our receptionist, (yes, she is a blonde), often takes orders to call out for pizza on nights we work late.

One night, after placing an order for two pizza's from around the corner, we asked her how long it would be before they arrived.

She said she was told 40 minutes. When we commented to her that we thought that was a long time, she responded "That seems about right. It takes 20 minutes to cook
a pizza and we ordered 2 of them."





England: A German "tourist," supposedly on a golf holiday, shows up at customs with his golf bag.

While making idle chatter about golf, the customs official realizes that the tourist does not know what a "handicap" is.

The customs official asks the tourist to demonstrate his swing, which he does, only he did it backwards!

Turns out a substantial amount of narcotics was found in the golf bag.





Total groaner:

Did you hear about the disaster at a major U.S. University?

The scientists were cloning monkeys and one of them blew up.
The scientist are trying to determine what went wrong by sifting
through the Rhesus' pieces.

(For anyone outside America: they are referencing the American candy peanut butter and chocolate Reece's Pieces)





Back in the old days my Uncle Bucky bought a new Model A Ford.The next morning he was on his way to work and crashed into a car pulling out from a side street.

Being the witty person that he is, he wrote a letter to the Ford Motor Company..

"I blew my horn, it did no good. And now I have a busted hood". Two days later a delivery truck arrived at his residence with a brand new hood.





*** For more fun, check out the Saturday cartoons:

Cartoonists Cajun Whoop A$$ on Everyone - 40 Funny Political Cartoons - 13 Mar 2010


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Best Time Waster, Funny Video: Procrastination

From Denny: This wildly funny little video has great fun as they explore all the things we humans do when we are procrastinating, trying to avoid the inevitable.

From the creators of all this fun, here is their write-up:

An investigative and exploratory hands-on gloves-off study into the practice of putting things ‘off”. Sometimes the only way to get something done is to do two dozen other things first.

Procrastination refers to the deferment of actions or tasks to a later time. Psychologists often cite such behavior as a mechanism for coping with the anxiety associated with starting and/or completing any task or decision. There are three criteria for a behavior to be classified as procrastination: it must be counterproductive, needless, and delaying.

Story, Animation, Direction: Johnny Kelly

Graduation film from the Royal College of Art, 2007.





*** Special thanks to Best On Tube for posting it!

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Saint Patricks Day Funnies Sampler

From Denny: Every Wednesday there is Cheeky Quote Day over at the flagship blog, The Social Poets, my funny quirky place that spun off 12 blogs. Here's a little sampling of what I found for Saint Patrick's Day, even some serious stuff - like the guy's real name.

Quotes

In order to find his equal, an Irishman is forced to talk to God. - Stephen Braveheart

An Irishman is never drunk as long as he can hold onto one blade of grass to keep from falling off the earth. - Irish Saying

Never iron a four-leaf clover, because you don't want to press your luck. - Anonymous





This is an excerpt from the history of the man and his experiences.

Snakes Legend

OK, moving right along to the snakes legend of driving them all out of Ireland for which he is so famous. The word is on that story that he stood on a hill and with his wooden staff like some Irish Moses he commanded the snakes to leave town and drown in the sea, banishing them forever from Ireland. It is true that Ireland has no snakes.

Another version of the legend is a bit cheeky as those storytellers like more conflict and spice to their stories. They tell it that the snakes resisted Patrick. So, Patrick tricked the snakes into entering a small box that he then threw into the garbage dump of the sea.

OK, but the snake symbolism still bothers you? Yeah, me too, so I looked into it further. Turns out in Celtic thought that snakes represent esoteric knowledge much like in the Egyptian culture. Because of this snakes were sacred to the Druids.

Snakes are also associated with the Celtic father god called The Dagda, "the good god" who is the god of good and plenty. It's what we now today call the spiritual energy of abundance. OK, that was the family friendly version. For more on this particular peculiar god, go here.





Of course, Guinness Beer has to get into the act with some cheeky ads:









*** To view the already popular full post, including a funny comedy video of a succession of stand-up comics telling Irish jokes, go here.

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Unusual Outrageous New Food: Breast Milk Cheese

From Denny: When I saw this posted over at The Today Show site I have to admit it really was an Ewwwww! factor. My second thought was, "Who the hell would do something this crazy? A chef?" Turns out it isn't Hannibal Lector peddling human cheese. That's a relief. It is a chef though, by the name of Daniel Angerer of haute cuisine Klee Brasserie in New York city.

Hey, a good chef never wastes a good resource. In his case, his freezer was overflowing with his wife's breast milk by the time their daughter, Arabella, was four weeks old. “We are fortunate to have plenty of pumped mommy’s milk on hand, and we even freeze a good amount of it,” Angerer wrote on his Web site. “Our small freezer ran out of space. To throw it out would be like wasting gold.”

After talking his wife, Lori Mason, into his weird experiment, Angerer began experimenting with the breast milk. With two gallons of breast milk, some curdling and then aging for a few weeks he ended up with a cheese product very similar in taste to cow's milk cheese. OK, so now we have adjusted to this level of strange.

Up to the next level of strange and Angerer posted a recipe on his site for “My Spouse’s Mommy’s Milk Cheese.” Of course, the incredibly curious - or Momma's Boys who never grew up - started calling asking to sample the new cheese product.

Now flying high on the weird meter, Angerer was emboldened to offer an appetizer of breast-milk cheese with figs and Hungarian pepper at his restaurant, Klee Brasserie. The reactions are mixed. Some are generally positive. Read that as too polite to tell him the truth. The others are disgusted and can't get past the Ewwww! factor and are completely turned off. He never did say how the reactions divided down the gender line.

Guess who else is simply not amused? The New York City Health Department that states, "Angerer would be well-advised to stop offering his wife’s milk to the general public, even though there is no specific law on the books prohibiting it."

At this point I guess the breast milk wife is game for anything. She said the breast milk is about to dry up - so how about creating a recipe for breast milk gelato?

For the vote: Would you try breast milk cheese? To vote, go here.

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*** THANKS for visiting, come back often, feel welcome to drop a comment or opinion, a big shout out to awesome current subscribers - and if you are new to this blog, please subscribe in a reader or by email!

48 Post Roundup: Dennys Blogs 7 Mar 2010

From Denny: Here are the best links from the blogs this past week to help get you caught up, enjoy. OK, get ready... start grinning! :) By the way, have revamped the look of most of the blogs. Spring is in the air and change is good.


From The Social Poets:

Strike Outs: Bunning, Health Care, Chile, Toyota: 44 Funny Political Cartoons, 6 Feb 2010

Honoring Ourselves poem - Libations Friday 5 Mar 2010

Students Now Stand 4 Famous Math Teacher in Stand and Deliver Movie

Funny Psychic Groundhog Phil Blessed Us With More Winter - Cheeky Quote Day 3 Mar 2010

Republican Senator Flips Off Middle Finger to Families: Takes Food Off Kids Plates

Dick Cheney Fakes Heart Attacks, Glenn Beck Lies on Stage, CPAC Hate Mongering, Colorado Gunslingers - Funny Roundup of Late Night Comedy 1 March 2010



From Dennys Global Politics:

Hissy Fit Over Controversial Armenian Genocide Vote

Speaker Pelosi Grades the Republicans on Lack of Governing

Update: Republican Senator Flips Off Middle Finger to Families: Takes Food Off Kids Plates



From The Soul Calendar:

Chilean Earthquake Shortened Earths Day

8.8 Chilean Earthquake 500 Times More Powerful than Haiti



From the food blogs:

From Comfort Food From Louisiana:

Enjoy Louisiana Culture: Love Those Eggplant Recipes

Chef Jamie Oliver Discovers American Kids Dont Know Veggies

Cold Weather: Real Deal Hearty Beef Stroganoff, Beef Ribs, Pineapple Cake


From Romancing The Chocolate:

7 Easy Recipes for Relaxed Weekend Food

Tasty Creative Oyster Stew Recipes

Warm Soups 4 Cold Rainy or Snowy Days

Stop That Cold in Its Tracks: Illness Fighting Foods

Does it Get Any Better? Funny Curtis Stones Healthy Pasta, Chocolate Recipes



From Unusual 2 Tasty:

Ming Tsai’s Chinese New Year Feast: Year of the Tiger

Olympics Seafood Dish: Pan Roasted Black Cod, Sunchokes, Lentils and Mushrooms

Vancouver Olympics Indian Veggies Recipe, Coconut and Curry

Try Vancouver Olympics Food at Home



From Beautiful Illustrated Quotations:

Uplifting Soul Quote: What is Your Power in the World?

Spiritual Energy: Can Simple Words Add to Our Quality of Life?

Where is the Best Place to Rivet Our Focus?

What Are Your Impediments to Success?

Do You Know Your Failures as Your Best Successes?

Do You Treat Your Ideas Like Beautiful Magic?

How is Your Dream Vision Impacted by Life Challenges

What One Attitude is the Pivotal Point of Achieving Success?

Evidence of the Afterlife: New Book Offers Proof

7 Greatest Peace Quotes Ever

What Was Your Epiphany Moment?



From The Healing Waters:

7 Quick Tips to Happiness: Banish Late Winter Blues

90 Second Health Boost Tips

8 Funny Advice Quotes About Sleeping

Are You Sleep Deprived? Smart Tips 4 Sound Sleep

Unlocking Foods Healing Powers

6 Good Friends You Need to Live a Long Life

Cinderella Makeup Artist Lauren Luke Goes Viral

Springs New Ruffle Loose and Sophisticated: 4 Ways to Wear It



From the humor and photo blogs:

Outrageous Funny Video: Procrastination

30 Funny Creative Animal Ads

Funny Talented Dancing Traffic Cop

16 Funny Blissful Sleepers Photos

10 Make You Think Fantasy Photos

Check Out Funny Fat Tuesday Afterglow Photos and Quotes


And a couple more that published while I was putting together this post that took two hours. Read that as I forgot... :)

Check Out Statistics 4 Real Cost of Fast Food vs. Whole


Funny Tutorial Video: The Busy Desk of the Animator


Photo by d u y q u @ flickr

*** THANKS for visiting the blogs this year and for your support, come back often, feel welcome to drop a comment or opinon, a big shout out to awesome current subscribers - and if you are new to this blog, please subscribe in a reader or by email updates!

Check Out Statistics 4 Real Cost of Fast Food vs. Whole

From Denny: This short video clip really brings it home how America has devolved downward on the food culture scale. We have added excessive calories and dumbed down our nutrition in only one generation. Take a look as this is really something to consider:





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Chef Jamie Oliver Discovers American Kids Dont Know Veggies

From Denny: Chef Jamie Oliver recently discovered that America's first graders cannot identify even the most common vegetables and fruits like tomatoes and potatoes.

The British chef is on a mission to improve the diets of America's school kids. He entered a first grade classroom and queried the children as he held up each vegetable from a table display. They did not know one. All they knew was they didn't like vegetables when he first uncovered the display as audible gasps were heard throughout the classroom.

His first stop on Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution - celebrity chef of Naked Chef fame - was to visit what is known as the unhealthiest city in America: Huntington, West Virginia. Chef Oliver is determined to improve America's ingrained bad eating habits and turn us away from the alarming rising rate of obesity. He is hoping this new series will be the catalyst for a healthy food reaction across America.

Take a look at these cute kids who clearly did not know what was on their plate or have any idea of the connection from farms or gardens to their lunch plate:





*** Almost every time I go to the grocery store the cashier asks me what those fruits and veggies are called. Hmmmm... maybe I should start memorizing those bar codes? :)

*** Please visit these food and health blogs:

The Healing Waters

Romancing The Chocolate

Comfort Food From Louisiana


*** THANKS for visiting, come back often, feel welcome to drop a comment or opinion, a big shout out to awesome current subscribers - and if you are new to this blog, please subscribe in a reader or by email!