Cooking with Rachel Ray

I have become a big Rachel Ray fan. She's on the food network and her claim to fame is 30 minute meals. I like her cooking style cause it's not pretentious, yet not ultra common either. It's for the novice chef,....definitely my catagory. I have three of her cookbooks. The earlier ones have more recipes,....the newer ones have photos of her and the dishes she cooks. I have found that I like having a photo of what the meal will look like,...it draws me in to want to cook. Speaking of dishes,.....this photo is from a pin-up layout that FHM magazine did of R.R. Very well done, yet not overdone, and quite saucy!

Bought a CD at Pier 1 called "Rainy Day",...a compilation of a variety of genres of slow music fit for a rainy day(of course). The first song on the disc was from Blue Merle, a band based in Nashville. Initially, I didn't care for the song, "Burning in the Sun",...but I was just interested in getting to a couple of chillout tunes I had been looking for,...Telepopmusick playing the song "Breathe" and Nightmares on Wax doing "Les Nuits"(both really good and highly recommended by me to lower your blood pressure at least 5 points). After I listened to "Burning" a few times, I started thinking about who the vocalist reminded me of,...it was the vocalist for Counting Crows, then I thought that he had a Coldplay sound. The band is hard to label with a particular muscial genre. They have a fiddle and a mandolin in the background, behind a good rock electric guitar,...when they give the fiddle and mandolin their spotlight on the stage, one might easily think that this is a pseudo bluegrass band, like Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, or Bruce Hornsby who sang "That's just the way it is",...but then when they feature the guitarist or the drummer,...it seems the antithesis of bluegrass. Anyway,...it's worth a listen, go to www.bluemerle.com and you can freely download a concert they gave in Birmingham, AL and burn it to CD. Worth a listen.

I'M BACK, AND HAVE MUSIC!

well,...it's been a while since i blogged. i think i just got burned out. needed a break, sabbatical. many times i thought of something interesting to write, but just couldn't get the energy. i think i was making it my job,....i just need to enjoy this as an outlet to express myself,...nothing else.

the last post was about my quandry between satellite or i pod. i chose satellite. i really have enjoyed it too! since i signed on with xm, they have added several genres to their line up. one was chill out,...which seems to be my default music choice now. can't really hear it on commercial,...only on yahoo launch radio or satellite(i can listen to xm satellite online also). my receiver is the delphi "my fi" that has a memory so you can record up to 5 hours of music. i use this during work outs and my work outs NEVER come close to running past 5 hours,.....4:30, but not 5. i have an antenna for my car and my home. i pick up the signal on an unused radio channel at home. i use the little cassette adapter to play it thru my vehicle speakers. signal is strong, tho sometimes the signal is cut off by wide overpasses,...but it is only momentary. overall,....it has been a nice experience. i have found it to be a worthy investment. i have not fully lewis and clarked all the stations yet,...so there's still intrigue about what all this little unit has to offer.

i will be writing more,....but i have another job that pays the bills. a blog nerd i am not, nor do i think i will be. life's too short. so many satellite channels to hear,....so little time.