Chowhounds: A simple way to mix it up a little bit

If you’re like me (and on several levels, I strongly advise you to pause at least a moment to thank your personal God that you’re not), you enjoy food a great deal. That’s easy enough. For some, cooking is intuitive and easy. Me, not so much. I was blessed by having two excellent cooks for parents, but I don’t think the genes carried over too well. I am a spastic mess in the kitchen. Klutziness, sloppiness and general ill temper mark my periodic kitchen disasters. Well, at the ripe old age of “a lot more than I feel like I am,” I’m fixin’ to fix all of that. For those of you that share the same gastronome and kitchenphobe profile, here’s what we can do:

New Cookbook Sunday

OK, I know damn well that I’m not the first one to think of something like this; New [blank] Sunday concepts are just about everywhere. But screw it…give it a shot. Enjoying food in the age of information overload means that we have an infinite number of recipes at our disposal via the Internet, cookbooks assembled by an ever-increasing cast of celebrity chefs and more traditional sources indigenous to the 20th century. Maybe you have a slew of cookbooks that you’ve looked at but never really got much out of. We may have 30 or 40 such tomes on our dining room bookshelf, yet only a select few have the true mark of honor – pages that are waterlogged or crusty from ingredients and other friendly fire from use of a few select recipes repeatedly. Let’s tap a different one of these once a week to strengthen our chops and rid us of the kitchen anxiety, no? Every week, reach for a cookbook or similar source that you think has been relatively untapped. Pick out a recipe you’re at least a little comfortable with, discuss with your Beautiful Bride or other significant other, shop for the ingredients and let it rip. Start off slow – I picked out a wicked easy shrimp dish myself – but who cares…we all learned the basics on how to ski on the bunny hill, didn’t we? Next week I’ll go for something a little more challenging. While you’re at it, try working out pairings of wine and/or beer with each of your dishes to complete the experience. You can always spend an extra 15-30 minutes in the gym on Monday to work off your newfound culinary success. Good luck and enjoy!

Welcome to The Blog of the Flying Taco

Well, there's the Rime of the Ancient Mariner, so why not the Blog of the Flying Taco?

Welcome and thanks for taking the time to read this, even though most of us experience serious information overload quite frequently. I live just outside of Boston and have extensive interest in the investment management and financial services industry. I may about the markets and investing/trading (disclaimer: I'm not a registered investment adviser, nor do I play one on TV, so no recommendations here; more like observations and insight). But it doesn't end there, by any means!

Brewing & beer
I am a nascent homebrewer (Flying Taco is the working name of my brewing exploits...Flying Taco Brewventures, to be exact). Some, including my Beautiful Bride, may call me a beer obsessive, as I enjoy trying beer from all over the world and of many different styles - so I'll definitely write about beer quite a bit.

More "consumables"
Food, wine...that too! Really anything in the "gastronomic arts" is on the table. I enjoy cooking even though I'm an absolute manic and stressed slob in the kitchen. Really the only thing I haven't managed to splatter all across our kitchen is homemade ice cream. Thankfully our CuisinArt ice cream maker has a very deep bowl to save us all from that indignity.

Sports
I enjoy the hell out of sports. As far as spectator sports go, baseball, hockey (my favorite live sport to watch)...football and basketball, too...and NASCAR. Hey, I even catch rugby on Setanta every once in a while, though not often enough. I don't just sit on the couch and watch 'em on TV, though, I participate too. I bike frequently and enjoyed playing soccer until I left my ACL on the field last June, but hopefully I'll start that up again in limited duty soon. Racquetball is something I must get back into very soon. Baseball, softball, too. I'm a fan of just about all of the Boston pro teams (first and foremost the Red Sox and Bruins). As a former Buffalo resident I continue to suffer alongside the Bills and Sabres, too, and still have solid Chicago ties to the Cubs, da Bearsz and the Hawks. Especially the Cubs, despite what a mess they are.

Music
One of the most useful gifts I ever received was my first iPod from my Beautiful Bride. Wouldn't have bought one on my own, but now I'm lost without it. Once I loaded it up I realized that I had collected a whole lot of music that was all over the place. From my Buffalo days I had a lot of Canadian indie stuff from listening to CFNY 102.1/The Edge in Toronto. Nine Inch Nails, Grateful Dead, southern fried, jazz, classical (Mom's influence as a professional flutist (flautist?) with a couple of Russian ballet companies in the 1960s when she lived in the City), new wave, techno, even some country in there. I've lately been on a big Canadian indie kick; we've caught quite a few Ron Hawkins (formerly with The Lowest of the Low) gigs lately with more coming soon. Also, our son is 5 and he's turning into a Deadhead. His favorite Dead tune is "Sugaree." It's amazing what XM 57 (Sirius 32) in the car has done for child development, apparently.

Many thanks to y'all for stopping by, and enjoy!

Thanks again,

Larry