Donny is as Donny does…

Every now and then, I get the urge to cook something. Well, not just cook something, but go above and beyond in the kitchen. This time I really outdid myself! Time and time again I’ve tried to get the perfect sear on a piece of fish and I finally came, cooked, and kicked it’s ass! I used all fresh ingredients too! I present to you a pan seared salmon, sauteed green beans, and a cheesy parsnip puree! But first, the process!

Here we have a nice cut of salmon which I took the skin off of already. A lot of people like to leave the skin on, and maybe I’ll try it like that next time, but I’m used to NOT having the skin left on my salmon! At this point, I have not seasoned it or anything, just got it ready…looks good!

I tossed the pasnips in some water with some fresh parsley and a little bit of salt. For those of you who aren’t all that familiar with parsnips, they are a distant cousin to the carrot I believe. But they end up having a very potato consistency. I never actually had them before now, but they turned out to be very easy to work with. I go the idea from passed seasons of Hell’s Kitchen lol. Anyway, I brought them to a boil and kept them in there for a ten minutes or so.

For those of you that know me (and those of you that don’t for that matter), I am not a fan of white wine–not even Moscato! Cooking with it, however, can really help bring out some special kind of flavors. This wine was especially sweet which is probably why women seem to love it so much. Give me a bottle of scotch and I’m just fine. Well, this is what ended up in the skillet in a minute.

 There are a lot of different oils and whatnot you can use, but I’m a fan of extra virgin olive oil. Make sure the pan is covered and hot before you drop in the fish. Never put it in a pan that’s not hot enough unless you just want it to soak up all the oil for no reason lol. You can see the salmon starting to cook and the color start to rise. You only want to flip this thing once! So wait till it cooks to about the middle before you turn it over. Once I turned it over, I added just a bit of butter to make sure the pan was nice and greased. Then after taking a swig, I poured in the wine! MMM!!! At this point I’m kind of cooking a bit seriously so I had to jump right to the finished product!

Voila! Looks delicious, don’t it?

Well believe me, it was! I can taste it just looking at it again! I can’t say it enough, I love salmon! So tell me, what’s your favorite fish?

“Someday, someone is gonna think I’m the best guy ever.” That’s the thought I keep repeating to myself over and over in my head. Of course, I’ll have to prove it to her. But I’m sure that won’t be hard. If there’s one thing I love…it’s love. Heh, even though it always seems I am fighting a losing battle with it. Those are ther best battles! They build character and chicks dig scars, y’know? They love to ask where you got em! Even emotional scars! ”Where’d you get this one from?” “Oh, that? That came from this chick who ripped out my heart, set it on fire, put it back in my chest, then stomped it out.”

Not so suddenly, I think I have figured out one of my fatal flaws. Well really I don’t know if it’s a good thing or a bad thing. The thing is, I always cling to the idea that I can fix things or that things aren’t over. What I’ve learned is that turning back the hands of fate is not one of my skill sets. I guess fighting fate is like trying to stop time from moving. It’s just not possible. However, it is a sweet, and romantic idea, isn’t it? There is always the one that got away, the one you screwed up, or the one you just didn’t try hard enough to get. I don’t make a habit of living with regrets, but I do make a habit of wishing things could be different. This all ties into my biggest vice–having a thing for women who don’t feel the same way about me. I don’t know what it is. I would hate to admit there could be some truth in the age old “We always want what we can’t have,” thing. So…I don’t. It’s not that I want what I can’t have. I…I just want what I want. The heart wants what it wants. What can anyone really say about the ones we let slip by? I guess Rick Blaine in Casablanca said it best. “We’ll always have paris.” Who knew a 68 year old movie would have such timeless insight!

In the end, I’m not worried. Great love, great times, great stories and even greater memories are headed my way. Till then…it’s an up and down rollercoaster of romantic disappointment and disillusionment. The ride is worthwhile though. I guess I’m just at the lull where nothing is really happening. Once I get to the top, however, it’ll be along exciting fall and the word “love” will never be the same.

Take it in...it always goes down smooth

Chicago…the windy city! No matter what, and no matter how brief, a trip to Chicago always makes me feel like a million bucks. It’s a beautiful city, isn’t it? It’s my favorite city in the world, I tell ya. Maybe I haven’t traveled a lot, but I will always love this town. The sights, the sounds, the people, the food…where else in the world? Where else!? This is the place to be! 

I visited my friend Nichole a couple of weeks ago and had a blast. It was very spur of the moment. Kinda just up and decided to go, hopped in the car and drove the 4-5 hrs to get there. It was not a bad drive! Audiobooks kept me company. Anyway, what she had in store for the weekend was a bit different. We spent most of Saturday looking at clothes! Girl clothes! lol. We went to two different Forever 21 locations and spent a shit ton of time in each. Suffice it to say, I was full of wise cracks the entire time! We had lots of fun though. But I will never understand how women’s feet don’t start hurting when they are shopping. An hour or so and I’m ready to sit down!

Lunch was amazing. We ate at the Grand Lux Cafe (pictures below) and the word “yum” doesn’t even cut it! I had some kind of veal and prosciutto dish that was to die for. The sauce could have used some work, but it was yummy nonetheless. Nichole had…umm…hmmm…I should have written this when it was fresh in my mind. Well her and her friend each had two different chicken dishes. Oh, but before that, we had duck triangles that weren’t bad! They tasted like the gyoza I usually order from sushi joints.

Keepin' it veal!

Afterward, we saw a street performer, took some pictures, and walked a ton more. If I would have known there would be so much walking, I would have brought skates or something! Geez! A little warning next time, Nikki lol.

The next afternoon, we went to Ann Sather and had a freakin’ awesome breakfast. Trips are a lot about food, aren’t they? Sometimes the new things you get to eat are the most memorable part of a vacation and they help spark other memories. Anyway, she had a salmon omlette. Sounds gross, right? Well it was extremely good. I had some awesome waffles but I wish I would have had the omlette. It was hot!

Gotta say, I was a little sad when I had to hit the road and head back to real life. Chicago makes me smile–always has, always will. I’ve got good memories there. Every trip a new adventure, every adventure a fonder memory. Good times! I’ll leave you with some more pictures from the journey!

Always the goofball

Nichole being pretty and silly lol

Chicago

What happened to the guy who couldn’t go a day without writing something new and exciting, crazy and creative? Part of me feels lost and abandoned…like the random sock you see laying on the sidewalk in Downtown Detroit. I refuse to let a beautiful mind go to waste. In the days of Xanga, I would write three-four times a week! It was like clockwork. Words just spilled from my brain, flowed from my fingertips! But what now? What now, huh?

I’m on screwdriver number two and I am feeling great. Nothing much to talk about really, but that’s kind of the point, isn’t it? I keep talk ing about how I never write, well this is me writing. Whether I have something to talk about or not. You ever think of how amazing your brain is? I am typing this and not looking at the keyboard in the least bit and typing really fast! Of couse, I don’t know what the industry standard is but last time I took a test, I type approx. 44 words a minute. That’s not bad seeing as how Mavis Becon used to tell me 30 was very good! How in the world did I go from talkin’ about the screwdriver I’m having to Mavis Becon? Beacon? I don’t remember which and I couldn’t care less to google it right now.

Anyway, I’m going to keep this short–this entry anyway. I’ve been thinkin’ about changing around the format of my blog. I love the way it looks but I am leaning towards making the layout a little closer to the average blog. Story after story on one page. Formatting issues with pictures and such have been getting on my nerves and frankly I just want to see something new. So be prepared to see a few changes around here and let me know what you think.

Well, I am off. I am batting around the idea of going to Chicago to visit a dear, dear friend of mine, Nikki. It’s always good to have someone you can talk to and someone who can really understand the trials and tribulations you’re going through…although she’s not aware of any at the moment lol. But let’s just say I’m not having the best of luck in the love department to put it lightly. Go forth my wonderful readers and have a wonderful evening!

So I’ve ha d a long day…well a long week. I don’t know why, but this picture fit my mood…that is all for now.

It seems no matter how hard I try to blog everyday, there’s no way I can do it. This is no doubt because I feel every post has to be soooo meaningful. Even a small update would be nice I’m sure. The whole original point of a blog was just to get out ones thoughts. With that being said, let me just talk about my week so far.

Jonah Hex wasn’t very good to say the least. I hadn’t expected much of it, but I’d already seen just about every movie in theatres and wanted to see something, y’know? I went with Tara, who thought it was no more than okay as well. Never been a Jonah Hex fan anyway! Oh, but I saw Toy Story 3 and that was great! It was everything the final Toy Story movie needed to be. Oh, and Pixar out did themselves with the short “Night & Day” before the movie. They always make fantastic short films, but this one was really well done. If you can find it online, watch it!

Wanna hear something weird? I was leaving the house the other day and saw a bald squirrel! Kinda gross and creepy! I’ll see if I can put up pictures or video! Yikes!

Here’s a video too…

Okay, that’s an update for now, http://twitter.com/yuntoitoi can’t say I didn’t keep my word and post something new now lol.