Cooking To Impress

It might be more subtle, but we can cook to impress just as we dress to impress. Although I and others are often too proud to admit it, we carefully calculate our outfits for big, impressionable, events. Your clothes say a lot about you. Even if you think it is vain to wear the latest fashions, it does have the practical purpose of showing acquaintances that you care about your appearance and observant enough, and keep your head of the clouds long enough, to know what currently looks suave. There are many other indicators that ones outfit can have, but remarkably so can food. Head Chef's blog said she decided to cook meat and potatoes because the new in-laws were traditional. She wanted show the in-laws through the type of food she prepared that they have traditional values in common. Now if this is the only time she has ever prepared meat and potatoes this is deceptive to the in-laws who just assume it is a common meal of their hosts. If my newly married sister had the desire to show her new dinner guests how "yuppie" a couple her and her husband are, she is not going to prepare a tossed salad with ranch dressing. Rather she would likely prepare a "fashionable" salad (I know this sounds asinine!), perhaps a blue cheese walnut salad with cranberries. The former salad is banal, while the latter is hip. You know, nothing says you are down with it than a cool salad--not even apple bottom jeans. Ha!

Picking the Right Restaurant

Why is picking a restaurant such a challenge? I come from Phoenix, the fith largest city in the U.S., and there is no shortage of variety of restaurants. However, when it comes time for my family to go out it is a lofty task to pick a restaurant. After much rumination on all our possibilites we end up eating at the same place we always do--Serranos Mexican Grill. I am sick of it. There needs to be a psychological study on why we eat where we eat. Maybe we have a penchant for the familiar? This phenomana expressed itself again when in our group we tried to find a restaurant to critique. We failed and postponed the paramount decision to Thursday.

What is the Deal With Rachael Ray?

Rachael Ray is the ubiquitous face on the cracker boxes. Some how through her quirky phrases, acronyms, and accent she has managed to crawl out of the provincial realm of cable T.V. and become an American icon. Aside from being the face of Nabisco, she has even landed her own day time network T.V. program. Never before has a food personality gone as far as she, not even Emeril. Correct me if I am wrong, but i dont think it is because the quality of her recipes are proportional to her star power. I guess hse has found the magic formula utilized by other day time personalities like Opera and Ellen. She is someone American Women can relate to, and spending a half hour with Rachael has been added to millions of Women's daily routines.