Jackpot Recipes!

I got this pic by googling the word 'jackpot'. Who else thinks that this might have been drawn by the same person who illustrated every Encyclopedia Brown book? Just me... well okay.

Let's talk about Jackpot Recipes.

Well first let's talk about what Jackpot Recipes are and where I got the idea to call them Jackpot Recipes.

I love to cook. I especially love to bake. I also like to knit and watch re-runs of Wings. I also might be a 55 year old school marm.

Anyways, I have some recipes that I make over and over... that people have begun to associate with me ,and think of as my recipes even though I've probably stolen them from someone on the internet. And I'm okay with that. I call these my Jackpot Recipes.

Where did I get the name Jackpot Recipes? Well I stole it from the same place that I get all of my best ideas: Amy Sedaris.

So here is a small selection of my favorite Jackpot Recipes on the Internet Machine.

The Best Lasagna Ever from Ree at The Pioneer Woman Cooks

Vicki's Chicken Pot Pie from Trashy Eats

Marinated Cheese from Allrecipes

Cocktail Meatballs from Allrecipes (If you are delightfully white trash like me you will just use a bag of frozen meatballs and add a 1/4 cup of barbecue sauce to this)

The Best Banana Bread Ever from someone at Livejournal (I think it was posted in the Food Porn community there... also please take note of the very last two comments... Is it just me or WHOA did that just come out of nowhere?)

Peter!

I know it might be a little early for most people to start thinking about Christmas, but I start thinking about Christmas on or about December 27th every year.

Yep... I love it.

And one thing that starts getting me really excited about Christmas is when I start seeing Christmas commercials popping up here and there on television.

Yep... it doesn't take much to get me excited.

My favorite Christmas commercial of all time is the classic Folger's commercial where Peter comes home for Christmas and makes coffee.

Oh man is it great.

I dare anyone to watch that commercial and not want to put up a Christmas tree right that second. It's just not possible.

So anyways... Enjoy!

Jarring Something Loose

So I've got a teeny tiny, weeny wootie case of writer's block currently rocking my world.

Usually when this happens I just throw my hands up in the air, whistle and read magazines until it goes away.

This weekend I decided to be proactive about it.

The first thing I did was to spend $50 at a craft/hobby store buying construction paper, glitter, colored pencils, sketch pads and fancy scissors that cut zig-zags and wavy lines.

My thinking was that any act of creativity, no matter how small or ridiculous the attempt, might jar something loose.

The second thing I did was read How To Be Creative at Gaping Void.

Gaping Void is possibly one of my favorite websites/blogs on the whole internet machine. It's clever, it's funny and it's much smarter than me. Hugh, the author, spends a lot of time talking about the internet and blogs and marketing and what it all means, and, to be honest, for the most part I have no idea what he's talking about... but, hey, he draws some great cartoons (on the back of business cards), and it makes me feel smarter just for having tried to be so engaged.

Here's to you Hugh MacLeod... and your marvelous blog.

I name you The Awesome Blog Internet Person of October 2007.

Fattoush Salad

Holy God do I love Fattoush salad.

Fattoush, if you've never experienced it, is a salad made of romaine, tomatoes, cucumbers, red peppers (sometimes), olives (sometimes), feta (sometimes) and these ridiculously delicious broken up pita chips and is all smothered in this super delicious lemon vinaigrette that is seasoned with something called sumac.

It is incredible.

What a lot of people don't know is that my hometown (Wichita) has a ton of great Lebanese restaurants. Totally random, right? I mean most people would expect us to have nothing but ground beef and cream of mushroom soup or a big pot of beef scraps from the butcher boiling away, but it's really not true. Since there isn't a whole lot else going on (i.e. concerts, theatre, or culture in general) what most people do for fun is go to restaurants... so we have a lot of restaurants. And a lot of them are Lebanese... or if not specifically serving Lebanese food they are, at least, owned by Lebanese people.

But the Lebanese restaurants aren't even my favorite places to get Lebanese food.

Nope... that's because every year in October a local church ( St. George Orthodox Cathedral) has this giant fundraiser where they serve a Lebanese meal for $15 a person. It's pretty much the highlight of my year outside of my birthday and Christmas... in fact, it's like Lebanese Food Christmas.

Anyways... this year my mom got me 3 tickets.

That's 3 tickets... JUST FOR ME. I'll be eating cabbage rolls and kibbe and pita bread and baklava morning, noon, and night this weekend.


I'm so effing jacked.

Jess' Guide to Great Lebanese food in the Wichita Area

1. Bella Luna Cafe (the best fattoush ever)

2. N & J's Cafe (authentic and they have belly dancers!)

3. Nouvelle Cafe

4. Cafe le Monde

5. M.I.F Deli

6. Po Boy Pizza (this place doesn't serve Lebanese food, but it's a pizza place owned by the nicest (Lebanese) people in the entire world. Try the pizza roll... it'll probably change your life.)

Anti-Awesome

Here we encounter an Awesome phenomenon.... a dichotomy, if you will, wherein something that is awesome (Henry) does something that is incredibly not at all awesome (peeing on my leg).

My mother thinks it's sign of his love and devotion for me... that he is, in fact, marking his beloved territory.

I think he's still pissed about the bee costume I made him wear on Saturday (don't worry... there will be photos... oh my will there ever be photos).

Claw Money, You Guys!

I am pretty much in love with Claw Money.

What is Claw Money you ask?

Well, the simple answer is that Claw Money is a lot of things.

It is a person... a girl, actually.

This girl is a revolutionary graffiti artist known for her signature three-toed claw tag.


She is also a clothing designer who makes awesome shit that all of the pseudo-hipster kids will be wearing very soon.

How do I know this?


I know this because, as I have previously stated, I am awesome. Also because of a recent incident reported in the celebrity gossip columns that super crazy awesome rapper M.I.A was bummed because she lost her favorite pair of Claw Money sunglasses during a performance.

And if M.I.A. is doing it, then it's only a matter of time before those crazy kids start doing it.

My favorite thing that she does is taking something very high-brow and make it very street.


My personal faves are the Claw Aviator sunglasses, but M.I.A's Nugget sunglasses are pretty sweet too.



To be honest, there are about 20 things I want off of the Claw Money website. So if anyone has a spare $250 dollars lying around maybe keep me in mind because I'm in the market for a new pair of shades ;)

Internet Fun

So I dare anyone to visit LJ Images and not hit refresh 750 times.

LJ Images is a deceptively simple concept. Every time you refresh the page it shows the latest 50 images uploaded onto Livejournal.

I don't know what it is... I guess it's voyeuristic, but it's also kind of like a treasure hunt and a freak show all wrapped into one... but it is scarily addictive.

Maybe don't be a fool (like me) and look at it at work, because the chances of seeing something highly inappropriate are very very high.

Awesome Movie - Inside Man

I'm positive that I am absolutely last to the party on this, but Inside Man is a fucking awesome movie.

Who doesn't love a fucking heist movie?

One of my greatest wishes in life is to be involved in a heist... and I felt this way long before Dane Cook happened to bring it up.

The Thomas Crown Affair (both the Steve McQueen and Pierce Brosnan versions) is one of my favorite heist movies ever... and this is, like, just as good except that it also has a moral or something.

I also love a movie that has a plot tricky enough that I have to watch it twice to fully get it... not everyone loves this (which I totally understand), but to me it is super fun... and to be honest I can tell this is going to be one of those movies that I can watch over and over and over like a mental patient.

My Current Mental Patient Movies - 2007
What About Bob
Ocean's 11 and 12
Inside Man
National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation
M*A*S*H