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?

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!

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.

A bear, living on a couch. That’s my lot in life–my day in day out as it were. It’s not bad. Three square meals a day not countin’ all the snacks I nick from the kitchen. I’m no crumb snatcher, but I sure know how to make a mess of things meself. But that’s not why I’m here. Donny’s been runnin’ round here like a chicken with it’s head cut off he has. Some film contest he’s been preparin’ for. I know how to hold a camera. Was me who shot the scene in David the Gnome when Swift got ‘is leg stuck in that bear trap. It took three days of shoo’in in the soddin’ rain to get the shots we needed. That job didn’t last long though. Never joined the bloody union. Steady work wasn’t comin’ in. Anywya, I’ve had the pleaseure of seeing Donny’s vision come together so far. I’ve got no doubt he’ll pull this one off but good.

As for me, I’m gonna have a spot of honey and watch So You Think You Can Dance. Don’t judge me. Dancin’ is a difficult trade. Me cousin is a dancin’ bear for Wringling Bros. in Chicago. He tried the jugglin’ bit but he ended up with a bit of brain damage from gettin’ hit in the head with those heavy pins one too many times. He’s alright though. He was the star attraction before that fire eater singed some of his fur off. Never grew back right. Looks like one of those bald cats. You know? The ones that are all wrinkly and pale and all that. I guess he’s had a run of bad luck. Not everyone can be a Couch Bear.

New video up on my Youtube channel http://youtube.com/DonnyLB it’s just a wrap up of my May

A picture from Astoria Bakery in Downtown Royal Oak, MI

I keep telling myself I’m going to blog more. There are a few blogs I read and they never really talk about much. They talk about their day, what they’ve been up to, any kind of random stuff. I shouldn’t belimited to blogs about important event either! I’m just going to start writing. Besides, I have to keep all my readers at least mildly entertained. So let’s see…what’s new…

I’m all good and registered for the Detroit Winsdor International Film Festival (DWIFF) 48hr film contest. It’s June 11-13th. Not only am I registered, but I’m excited. The only headache I have left is finding acttractive, reliable actors. I don’t need anyone flaking when I only have a day or two to write, shoot, edit and submit a film. I’m sure I’ll keep everyone posted on this a whole lot more as it draws closer. But for now, I’m not going to overdo it by talking about it too much. However, if you’ve got some acting experience and you live in the Metro Detroit area, give me a buzz!

So I’m on Twitter and a friend of mine, Heather (http://twitter.com/HeatherOStudio), just bought some tea and tweeted an image. It’s called Strawberry Paraiso. She got it from http://www.teavana.com . Now it sounded good when she was talking about it, but it looks like some kind of strange, demented trail mix! There’s popcorn in the tea! POPCORN IN THE TEA! I’ll stick with the green tea thank you very much! I’m gonna have to get her final opinion on it when I get a chance.

I’ve always wanted to really get into tea, y’know? But there are very few I’ve tried that I actually like. Come to think of it, I’ve only tried very few period! Maybe I’ll go to a tea house or something some time soon. That would be nice. Get some writing done, relax, maybe meet a nice funny smelling vegan girl with a bachelor’s in Modern Art and an Associate’s in Sexy. Of course the funny smelling part would take away from that I guess…well it is only an associate’s! Anyway, I’m going to try some tea this week, mark my words! (Don’t mark them, chances are I’m not going to #fail hard)

So that’s all I got for right now. I think I’m headed off to watch a little tv. Tonight is the finale of American Idol Season 9. Yes, I watch Idol. It’s a good show, but most people…well SOME people just don’t give it a chance. There is a lot of really great talent and I LOVE music! It’s down to Crystal Bowersox and Lee DeWyze. I’m pretty indifferent as to who I want to win, but I guess if I were to buy an album, it would be Lee’s. Later world!

So anyone who has known me for longer than an hour knows I’ve got a problem when it comes to approaching women. Sure, I can get my Facebook flirt on all day but when it comes down to actually speaking to a woman in person it’s like trying to ice skate up-hill! People always say “The worst thing she could say is ‘no,’ Donny! Just go for it!” This is probably true. But sometimes words hurt! People think I’m this invincible ladies man with all the ladies, and ladies everywhere, Mr. Ladies guy, guy but it’s just not true.  Anyway, let me get to the story I am trying to tell. You just needed to know a little back story for this to be considered a big deal.

Yesterday was a buddy of mine’s birthday. Dewayne, it was Dewayne’s bday. Anywho, dinner was at Ruby Tuesdays–which I love–so I went! Oh, and to celebrate his birthday with him I GUESS. It was raining cats and dogs by the time I showed up at the restaurant. I flipped out an umbrella, strolled to the door, and was greeted by a pretty cute hostess. You know how you can generally tell when a person is nice? Well, she seemed pretty sweet, and we joked briefly about the weather. Upon sitting down with the rest of Dewayne’s group, I told my best friend Gerald about my plans to get the hostesses (hostesses? hostess’?) number. This of course wasn’t out of the ordinary. Usually at any given time, at any given place, there is at least an 8 whose number I wouldn’t mind getting.

Let me get to it. So the night dragged on which helped me procrastinate quite a bit. But there finally came the time when people were starting to leave and I had to take my chance. With a few choice nudges and subliminal gut punches from Gerald, I made my way over to where the Hostess was reassembling menus. If there’s one thing I can be when the mood is right it’s charming. Ol’ DonnyLB lad the charm on thick, she and I had a few laughs and really just talked, y’know? Before the awkward silence could hit, I asked if I could call her some time. Much to my dismay she said she had a boyfriend but thought I was cute and sweet and glad I didn’t come on like some “Hey, baby wassup” kind of jerk. We laughed and joked briefly after that and then I returned to my party…successful!

It wasn’t just getting her number I was interested in. It was stepping up and ASKING for it. One small step for man, a giant leap for DonnyLB! The best part is that I felt GREAT afterward! Adrenaline, accomplishment, and adventure ran through me and I definitely walked away just a little taller. Let’s see if I can take my new found courage and apply it some more in the near future. A small failure and a big win!

Donny Leveled Up!

+1132 XP

Learned COURAGE

Dropped 10 gil