Shower Thoughts

So since my once a week second wind decided to hit me at 11:30 on Wednesday night, I figured why not get ahead of the game. Nothing helps late night blogging like some tunes. Tell that one to iTunes though. Never there for you in a pinch. Every single time I think, Hey I'd like to listen to some tunes to help my calm, BAM, time for another useless iTunes download update. I'm sure version 9.0.2 is groundbreaking. Thanks for your hardwork champ.

Anyhow, my advice for the week isn't advice so much as it is rambling. The advice would be to ramble more often. Utilize your stream of consciousness. No better time to do that than after a long shower. How many of us have had some excellent ideas in that shower to only throw them away by heading off to bed? Well I'm going to buck that trend and spew them onto the worldwideweb, so I can use them at a later date. Another bit of advice: don't force shower thoughts. If you're preoccupied and already thinking about something, you're not going to come up with any good ideas.

I got to thinking about the chili recipe, then I thought what if I just did the ground beef and pulled out a few other ingredients. I could add some Open Pit bbq sauce, ground mustard, brown sugar, and spice rub to make one hell of a hot dog topping. That right there is a new summer party idea. Get some jumbo roasties from the grand champions over at Ream's, make some "coney" sauce if you will, get some nice aged cheddar, then instead of raw onion, make some cracker breaded vidalia straws for a topping. That covers the hot dog entry, so what about the burger.

Why not put together a homemade burger bar. Do an all natural 80/20 ground beef burger with just kosher salt and cracked black pepper, a ground sirloin burger soaked with worchestershire sauce and garlic herb rub, and a lamb burger with mediterranean seasoning. Make some fire roasted cherry tomato topping with balsamic and thyme for the ketchup substitute, grilled buttered vidalia onions, multiple cheeses like gouda, havarti, and swiss, fresh dilled cucumbers, nice bibb lettuce, and red wine/shallot/garlic reduction/steak sauce. Take some feta and create a feta-laced tzatziki sauce for the lamb burger along with some pitted fresh olives and cured lemon confit. Now that's a burger bar with options that takes advantage of the garden freshness. I'd take some fire roasted sweet and spicy peppers too.

What about getting a little crazy and making a crabcake burger grilled on a plank? Serve than openfaced with a slice of lettuce on brioche and a spritz of lemon? That's living right there. How about the porktastic "burger." A split hunk of smoked sausage, topped with some fresh pulled pork slathered in bbq sauce, then topped with two perfect strips of applewood bacon. That is sandwich heaven.

That's what I came up with tonight in my shower. I wasn't hungry and it wasn't a long shower. My stream of consciousness just moves faster than spawning salmon. Something tells me that I might have a few more attendees to my next shindig next summer after posting this potential menu. Anybody else come up with anything good in the shower lately? I think this complete menu would be served on opening night of my future restaurant. A small place with about ten tables open five days per week serving a different menu every day. Call it Today's Special. Yes, I stole that from my favorite Nickelodeon cartoon when I was a wee lad. We're talking early 80s with this one. Place your future orders now.

Ode to Nader

This will be a pretty random endorsement, but not insignificant. I'm a proud eater of Terra Chips. Danielle loves the beets and sweets along with the mixed vegetables, but I would say try the new regional flavors. In particular, I go for the Chesapeake Bay and Beer seasoned kettle chips. Don't be afraid to kill a whole bag the first time around. You don't know what you're getting yourself into. A little bit of spice, a nice sweet finish, and beautiful beer flavor is what awaits you inside this perfect bag of goodness.

Don't worry now that I'm done, iTunes is updated. F'in sweet. Hey look, it's Carrie Underwood week. Yippee. So let me get this straight, they decide to make it Carrie Underwood week, yet fail to litter the entire site with pictures of Carrie Underwood. Shame on you iTunes, shame on you.