Wick's Weblog

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I was having a deep conversation without actually having a deep conversation the other evening. Talking about what makes people tick. That struck up a thought provoking day for me most of today. Have I ever sat down and tried to figure out what makes me tick.? Are there people out there that know how I tick? There are a couple things right there that should strike your fancy. What makes me tick at work, at home, when I’m out, or even while I sleep? After some reflection I noticed a few things that make me tick and I have also noticed I denied myself some things that made me tick for some time. After much deliberation on my part I have found things that make help me survive day after day lets say emotionally. Not that this is emotional, its non-physical. When I went home for lunch today I was thinking about this. Was doing some things around my house and I came to this huge epiphany. The satisfaction of accomplishment at home is the exact feeling I get when I accomplish a project at work. For instance, I installed some shelves and a hand towel rack in my bathroom. After I completely finished those things, I felt like I had completed that task. Ok, so you think a task is a task and both of them reap reward, right? Yes to me, they both reap the same reward, that feeling of you can do things on your own. As you are growing up, you are seeing what your parents are capable of, and now have that feeling of accomplishing the feat on your own. How does that feel? I remember seeing my dad do so many things around the house, my mom take care of the family things and now living on my own, I see both parts of that in myself. I wonder if they felt that way when completing a task? Now when I finally finish this project at work what will I feel? Hopefully that feeling of reaping rewards of accomplishments.

Now that I have explained this “emotional” part, I move to a more physical part. Gadgets, I do love me some gadgets. Most guys love themselves some gadgets. I say most, because there are a few who do not care for them. My new gadget love is my iPhone, but that is another story later. But anywhere from a lighted drill, to the entire set of Rock Band, to a Swiss Army Knife, gadgets rule the world, in my mind that is. I see gadgets all over my life, my iPhone, my laptop, my awesome pizza cutter, my ginger grater, my tailgating tent, the list can go on and on and on. I’m thinking these things are awesome.

So passion is another thing that makes people go. I have always had a passion for food. Right? Is this why I was 350+ pounds at one point in my life? No not really, I didn’t eat good food, I ate crap, fast food, prepared food and so on. It wasn’t until I started losing weight when I got a true passion for food. I started buying fresh meat, fresh vegetables and so on. I try my best to stay on the outside of the grocery store. But I do need to buy a few things in the middle. But anyways, cooking has become a passion, so what comes with cooking is eating. I have tried more recipes in the past 3 months than have I total ever in my life. Made three types of sausage last week, prosciutto wrapped asparagus, the list will go on in another blog. I still have more parts to my adventures in eating blogs. Yes, I really need to think of another title for that. Another passion I have is music. Music has been the driving force of me for many years. What people speak in music hits that nerve. Speaking not so much lyrics, but in the way its performed, the musicians enjoyment in it and so on. I could dwell more into it, but I want to mention one more thing. The weight room. The weight room has been a play room. The weight room has brought me strength. The weight room brought me confidence. The weight room brought me positive light. The weight room has saved my life. So this is a passion of mine.

So as I conclude this, what makes you tick? What are your passions? What do you live for? Hopefully everyone lives for theirself and the enjoyment that can bring. I have learned a whole lot about myself in the past couple years and I want to continue to learn.

Well where do I start here. Do I list everything that I’ve prepared, then talk about it or do I just start and I’ll end up where I’ll end up. I’m a random type of person, lists aren’t totally my style, so I’ll just ramble along here and try to process my thoughts. Ha! What a feat that willll be!

After a few days of letting this brew in by head, I’m gonna list all this stuff out and then talk about each one individually.

Smoked turkey. I’ve smoked a some meat in my day, but nothing like this. Plus this was for Christmas dinner, so it was all important that I didn’t screw of up. I must say, this was one good turkey. It had lots of flavor from the smoke and the cajun butter that I injected it with. Cajun butter I made by throwing some spices into some melted butter. Let the spices flavor the butter for a lil while. Tasty.

Green beans with a lemon tahini sauce. Found this recipe in an Eating Fresh magazine/cookbook type deal. You know one of those they keep on the shelves for a few months. But anyways, I was flipping threw it and came across this. I’m all about trying to keep things fresh. Had some left over fresh green beans from Christmas and decided to try this. It was an interesting flavor. Lemon, tahini and garlic. Now once the beans got cold, it wasn’t tasty, but it was an interesting take on some green beans and made them mighty tasty.

I have had this blog in draft for 15 days. I have decided that I am going to break it up into multiple blogs.

In my next entry, you’ll see what we did to create the following creations:

• Italian sausage
• Breakfast sausage
• Apple cheddar garlic sausage
• Black bean soup
• Whole wheat pasta
• Carbonara
• Roasted red peppers.
• Sun dried tomatoes
• Hummus
• Whole Wheat Rosemary Biscuits

So be on the lookout. Sorry for the long delay in posts.

Well, been away from work for almost two weeks and this has been a lovely Christmas vacation. What I want to write about mainly is the food I have either created myself or tried at various restaurants.

Well, I’m going to start off on all the tasty food that I didn’t have the luxury to prepare. On a recommendation by a friend, went to a little hole in the wall in Memphis called Gus’s Fried Chicken. Ok, first I must say I had a cold coming on, so my tasters wasn’t totally there, but this as the best fried chicken that I have ever put in my mouth. Yeah, this does not follow the food ethics I’ve imposed on myself, but it was highly suggested to try it and I am totally not regretting it one bit. Ok, everyone has had KFC before, right? In NO way am I comparing Gus’s to KFC, I just want you to get this mental image. Ok, think a good cross between original recipe and extra crispy. The skin of the chicken was a firm crisp with a nice heat that was there and you didn’t really get into it. One day when I eat some good down home fried chicken again I want to try to recreate the batter. I do believe I cannot get the oil hot enough that will crisp the batter/skin of the chicken to that consistency. It was probably the best fried chicken I’ve had. Meat was tender and juicy. Oh my, it was goodness.

Well, I’ve mentioned the Little Building Cafe a time or two on here. Talking with Ted (the chef), he has spoken about his father’s carbonara recipe that was the first thing he learned to cook. So of course this was his specialty dish. On day during my vacation we journeyed to LBC for lunch and to our luck he was making carbonara. Well this wasn’t on the menu, but him talking about it all the time, he said he would make one day for lunch during the vacation time. Well I must say that this was a nice fresh simple dish he threw together for lunch. Yes, I will adventure to learn to make a carbonara soon, check back later on the blog, because I will be trying it out.

The Veranda has been a favorite restaurant of mine in Starkville, one for the bar that they have created there and two for the decenty quality foods that they serve. I wanted some fish, but I wanted some steak. Well, I opted for the steak. The strip to be exact. Got the gorganzola salad which was light a fresh and prepped me for my nice hunk of meat I was going to dig into later. I always order my meat medium, and this was by far the tastiest steak I’ve gotten at a restaurant in a while. I will recommend!

Now the last resturaunt that I wish to mention here, yes it is a chain. I have tried to veer away from “chain” restaurants because I am trying to support more local people than support corporations, mainly because with our grocery options here in town, I sorta have to support corportations. I digress, I ate some lunch at the Olive Garden. I must say what I ordered was very good. Here is what their site says at http://www.olivegarden.com about the dish, which was pretty much on the menu.