Chronicles of a Curly Head: Chef Black in the house!!

Hellooooo everyone!!

Why does this picture give me the feeling that I love my dog a lot more than she loves me? I am very aware of the fact that I'm going to grow up to be one of those crazy dog ladies. You know, the ones with 15 dogs running around a teeny tiny house? Yep. That's going to be me for sure.

How are you doing on this fine day? I hope you're well fed and warm! How am I? Well I'm doing just splendid thank you!

(Today's view from my bedroom window)

I'm just freaking freeeeezing my buns off here in Ohio. Don't get me wrong, I adore the snow - but each year that passes I become increasingly more annoyed by the constant shivering.... and shoveling... and falling down... and scraping my windows... and sweeping the snow off my car... and having soaking wet clothes... and sliding all over the road in my car... and having to dry my dogs off every time they come inside... and feeling like my fingers are going to fall off...

but most of that is counter balanced by things such as: driving around and looking at the lights... playing in the snow... doing donuts in cars with friends in empty parking lots... watching the snow fall (from a safe distance, preferably inside my house with a warm cup of coffeecocoa) ... wearing sweaters, coats, and hats... having a "white Christmas" like all of the holiday songs blabber on about... listening to those holiday blabbering songs that I love so much...

I suppose us "midwesterners" have a pretty healthy love hate relationship with the weathery weather....at least this curlyheaded midwesterner does.

Remember the 10 question survey I BEGGED you guys to fill out......?

Well the results are in! I have finally read and analyzed each and every one of your answers! Here is what I've gathered from those of you who partook in this "survey" experience:

-First: the percentages-

- 80% of you came across Chronicles of a Curly Head because a friend told you about it.

- 60% of you are frequent readers.

- 10% are "obsessive readers"... I'm going to be watching you guys VERY closely from now on..creeps....lol jk.

- over 90% of you say that your favorite section of CCH is the beginning monologue :) followed by recipes, kitchen gadgets, the random section, and restaurants...

- 46% of you eat at home 4-6 days a week, 28% eat at home every day, and 25% eat at home 1-3 days a week.

- 85% of you eat at a restaurant 1-3 days a week, 10% eat at a restaurant 4-6 days a week, and 3 percent never eat out!

-Almost 50% of you say that dinner is your favorite meal, 17% breakfast, 10% dessert, 7% lunch, and 17% said you don't have a favorite meal!

- There is a 3 way tie for "favorite type of cuisine" The tie is between Mexican, Italian, and American cuisine. Three of my favorites :)

-Second: Write ins-

- When asked if you had any tips on how I can better your CCH experience, some reoccurring answers i came across include: Blogging more often, keeping things short and simple, and allowing visitors to post on comments...I do have my blog set to where comments can be posted soooo- i'm not sure why it's not allowing you guys to!! I'm so sorry:/

-When asked if there is a specific dish you'd like me to feature on CCH there were answers such as: More desserts, chicken and dumplings, rack of lamb, indian recipes, italian recipes, a deconstructed sushi dish, french dishes, a dish including halloumi cheese, and spicy chicken pasta...such wonderful and creative ideas you have!! :)

-Third: What am I going to do with all of this information?:

1. I'm going to blog more often (which may be hard because I'm a busy girl...but i'll do my best!)

2. I'm going to post more recipes - and really focus on the specific recipes you suggested...

3. I'm going to keep some of my posts short and simple...and be sure not make every single one of the posts so extravagant. Cramming so much information into one single post is very exhausting for me, and i'm sure it wears you out just as much by simply reading them!

4. I'm going to put more emphasis and effort into the specific sections on my blog that you guys enjoy the most (i.e. beginning monologue, restaurants, recipes, etc) and less emphasis on the sections you guys don't care much for (i.e. art, food clips, and news). I will not exterminate the sections you guys enjoy less, I will just refrain from beating myself up over them and putting so much effort and time into those particular ones.

5. No, I will not improve my punctuation. I am sorry to those of you who find it annoying lol. I have terrible MUGS (Mechanics, usage, grammar, and spelling) and I am well aware of it. I have been terrible at sentence structure and such since I even knew what sentence structure was...I'm a chef, not a professional writer. I refuse to give a damn lol. Perhaps that kind of attitude makes some of you view me as a lesser person or something, but once again...I refuse to give a damn lol. A comma never put anyone in a coma now did it?

5. I'm going to figure out why some of you guys are able to post comments and others aren't! Grrrr this is so frustrating! I had no idea it was such a problem for you guys! I shal get to the bottom of this flustering mystery ASAP.

6. I'm going to keep being myself! :) I received A LOT of positive feedback in reference the way I conduct my blog. Most of you said things such as "No suggestions, your blog is great!", "Keep up the good work", "You've got everything you need" and "Keep everything just the way it is". Positive reinforcement such as this really makes my day :) Seriously. You have no idea how happy it makes me to be told that I'm doing such a good job. I work very very hard on my blog, so knowing that it's paying off is a RELIEF.

All in all I believe this was a VERY good experience for us all :)

(To those of you who took the time to fill out this survey THANK YOU VERY MUCH. Your point of view and helpful suggestions will make a difference in many posts to come! So once again, THANK YOU!!)

GUESS WHO IS OFFICIALLY A CHEF!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

This girl right here! CHEF BLACK IN THE HOUSE!!!!!

I can't get enough of this "Chef Black" and "Chef Jenna" stuff :D

Finally - I'm a member of the American Culinary Federation! Not to mention I am just a small bit of paperwork away from being a "certified culinarian". Being a CC basically means that I am legit, that I have a degree, that I went to school, and that I should be hired before other people because I'm awesome....ok I added in that last part for fun lol.

But being a "certified culinarian" sounds A LOT fancier than "chef" don't you think? Plus - anyone can be called a chef, but only us highly trained individuals can call ourselves "certified culinarians";)

Who am I kidding? There are thousands of cooks all over the world who don't have a single drop of culinary school within them but are WAAAAAAY more qualified than I am. More power to them! I can only dream that one day I am as good as some of the chefs i look up to....until then - Im just happy to be in the same realm as them...the "chef" realm that is :)

My good friend Ally will be on world news with Diane Sawyer Friday night! !!

First of all, who is Ally? Allyson Townsend is a very talented and cute little lady from Texas who posts YouTube videos of herself providing American Sign Language translations of popular songs for the deaf and hearing impaired! The two songs below are my favorite :)

So exactly where does Diane Sawyer come into play????

Last month YouTube took away her youtube channel/account claiming some lame "copyright violation" of songs she translated in ASL. When a producer from ABC News 'World News with Diane Sawyer' caught wind of this ridiculous extravaganza they e-mailed Ally and asked to do a story on her! Of course she said yes :)

If you are free Friday evening you should definitely tune in to ABC! And if you enjoy her videos you can find more here: YouTube - allyballybabe's Channel

Well it is time I bid you fair well...

I hope each and every one of you have an amazing weekend.

Make sure to eat well, and always save room for dessert :)

Let us begin...

[[Today’s music]]

(1) DARWIN DEEZ – RADAR DETECTOR

Can you say CURLTASTIC???

This is my favorite song right now. I've listened to it on repeat this entire week. Probably close to 30 times a day. No shame in that lol. This fella is one of the most unique curly heads I’ve ever seen, and I think he is just adorable and a half for that.

This song makes me so happy.

(2) COLDPLAY – CHRISTMAS LIGHTS

I'm absolutely in love with this song. It is so beautiful.

Coldplay never lets me down.

[[Today’s restaurant]]

TOMMY’S JOYNT – SAN FRANCISCO CA

[[Today's blog findings]]

While going through my daily "blog check" (which is where I peruse through the many blogs I follow) today I came across a lot of pictures that I find interesting, funny, cool, beautiful, and/or wonderful in one way or another:

[[Today's kitchen gadget]]

(1) MASTRAD SILICONE CAKE PAN

(2) SURPRISE ANIMAL MUGS

(3) AVACADO SALT AND PEPPER SHAKER

[[Today’s news]]

(1) CHEF CLAIMS TO MAKE WORLDS HEALTHIEST MEAL

"When you sit down to food you usually don't think about the antioxidant quotient of a plate, but what if the food not only tastes good but is good for you? One chef claims to have made the world's healthiest meal.

"The meal has an antioxidant value of 23,000 ORAC units, so that's Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity. So that would be equivalent to eating 23 bunches of grapes," said Gurpareet Bains, chef and author of "Indian Superfood."

http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=news/food_coach&id=7844732

(2) MEDICAL MYTHBUSTERS DEBUNK WINE AS FONDUE ANTIDOTE

"They discovered that, in fact, alcohol doesn't help people digest cheese. To the contrary, they found it slows the process down. Considerably. As the scientists noted dryly, "An inverse dose-response relation between alcohol intake and gastric emptying was evident."

Tea proved a better choice. Or, to put it a bit more colorfully, as one researcher put it in an accompanying video, if you drink tea with your fondue rather than wine, "the stomach will empty considerably faster and it’s much less likely that you’ll wake up during the night with the so-called 'cheese-baby' syndrome; that sensation of a lump of undigested cheese just sitting in your stomach."

Then again, the researchers did find that those who drank larger amounts of alcohol ate somewhat less overall. So, as they say, pick your poison."

Medical Mythbusters Debunk Wine As Fondue Antidote : Shots - Health News Blog : NPR

(3) MAYA ANGELOU'S COOKING ADVICE: IGNORE THE RULES

"When it comes to America's approach to food, poet Maya Angelou says too much rushing around — and too many rules — are enough to crush good cooking. Eating good food, she says, should be a time to enlighten the spirit.

Talking with Morning Edition guest host Don Gonyea about the food of her childhood in Stamps, Ark., Angelou says her family always ate vegetables from her grandmother's garden. "Dinner time was generally boiled; meats were smoked meats," she says. "If there was an old rooster, it might get boiled. And we'd have boiled chicken, and maybe dumplings."

Yet that dinner table was much more than a place to break bread. "I'm concerned that Americans are losing that place of meeting," she says. "There are very few times we can be more intimate as to share food together." Angelou has worked that spirit into her new cookbook, Great Food, All Day Long: Cook Splendidly, Eat Smart.

Want to read more?

Maya Angelou's Cooking Advice: Ignore The Rules : NPR

[[Today's random]]

(1) THESE ARE CAKES? GREAT EXAMPLES OF A CREATIVE BAKERY

At the
Highland Bakery in Atlanta GA these amazingly detailed cakes are made by Karen Portaleo. She got inspiration to be a cake decorator one day when she noticed that the cakes in her friend’s bakery didn’t have any creations. With a background in clay sculpturing she taught herself how to create spectacular decorations for cakes.
Portaelo has made cakes that look like a giant octopus, Darth Vader, a rhino and many other. Speaking of being creative with food, check out how food can be transformed into landscapes for tiny
These are cakes? Great examples of creative bakery » This Blog Rules | Why go elsewhere?

(2) FRAMED

I may not know much about cycling.

But I know this shit is nuts lol.

What an amazing video.

(3) WOOD WHALE - DESK ORGANIZER

(4) INTEGRAL HOUSE, TORONTO – CANADA

"Math professor Dr. James Stewart, who is also a former violinist with the Hamilton Symphony Orchestra near Toronto, Ontario, has made millions writing calculus textbooks. When he decided to spend most of his fortune on a residence, he could have used any architect anywhere in the world.

Instead of an international star, he selected the then-relatively unknown pair, Brigitte Shim and Howard Sutcliffe of Shim Sutcliffe to create his residence in a ravine in the posh Toronto neighborhood of Rosedale.

Stewart was not looking to build just a residence, though. He also wanted a private concert hall and lots of curves. Other than that, he gave the architects unprecedented and probably never-to-be-repeated freedom. No schedule, and no design restrictions.

A decade after the initial discussions with Shim and Sutcliffe, the $24 million US, 18,000-square-foot Integral House was completed. It does, indeed, have a multitude of seductive curves, massive amounts of floor to ceiling glass and a spectacular staircase. And, Dr. Stewart now gives concerts and throws parties and costume balls in his 150-seat concert hall.

The house exudes a patina, a classic semi-Scandinavian simplicity that makes it seem older, more established and mature than a brash, brand-new house. There’s a lovely sense of dynamism as well, as if the building were in motion, rolling along ever so slowly, or perhaps just coming to stillness after a long architectural journey.

The fantastic staircase is really a commissioned work of art, a collaboration between the architects, glass artist Mimi Gellman, and structural engineer David Bowick. It is constructed of hand-blown blue glass rectangles that are supported by cast bronze clips and stainless steel cables.

The house has already been on the Architectural Digest annual Toronto tour and it has become a part of the city’s must-see architecture. In a Wall Street Journal article, Glenn D. Lowry, director of New York's Museum of Modern Art, was quoted as saying: "I think it's one of the most important private houses built in North America in a long time. Tuija Seipell"

http://www.thecoolhunter.net/article/detail/1848/integral-house-toronto--canada

[[Today’s food clip]]

(1) MAN V. FOOD – SONORAN DOG IN TUCSON