This is too a blog

After I asked him who he thought the next leader of the free world would be, my friend Seamus produced the most totally awesome 2008 presidential picks at his Totally Awesome Rangelife Blog. 

He predicted W (though not the way W would slither past the 2000 Florida voting debacle and into the oval office), which gives him mad cred in my book.

Combining my love of old-timey products and my deep-rooted immaturity, I could not pass up Zim's Crack Creme when I saw it at a local pharmacy today. It's too soon to tell if the website's glowing testimonials are accurate, but it does have a pleasant feel and not unpleasant clove-y scent.

This is another regular feature at Le Supermarche (aka my and Daltron's apartment). It is much better reheated the next day.

1 26 oz jar marinara sauce (I like Walnut Acres, although my use of any jarred sauce no doubt causes my grandmother consternation, even posthumously)

1 cup chopped frozen spinach, thawed

1 cup thawed Boca Ground Burger

1 11 oz can corn, drained

2 ounces fresh mozzarella, chopped

1 16 oz tube polenta, cut into 18 slices

salt and pepper to taste
1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Spoon 1/2 cup of the sauce over an 8 inch square pan to cover bottom. Set aside.

3. In a large bowl, stir together remaining sauce and next three ingredients. Add salt and pepper.

5. Arrange 9 polenta slices over sauce in baking dish, and top evenly with half the vegetable mixture. Sprinkle with half the cheese. Arrange remaining polenta slices over cheese. Top polenta with remaining vegetable mixture and sprinkle with remaining cheese.

6. Cover and bake at 350 for 30 minutes. Uncover and bake an additional 15 minutes. Let stand 5 minutes before serving.

Yield: 6 servings.

My aunt and uncle are visiting from Italy, so I thought they might enjoy my favorite holiday. My uncle was too worn out from his trip to the Intrepid, but my aunt was game.  On the walk there we ran into a happy little boy licking a cone. My aunt, who knows very little English, said "Free?" to him. "Yeah!" he gleefully replied. But then he turned a bit serious: "There's a REALLY long line."

The line was, in fact, quite short for free cone day (25 minutes of waiting, tops). Mesmerized (Baffled?) by the  flavor choices, my aunt settled on the exotic-to-her butter pecan, which she proclaimed  "saporito!' (tasty). I had the very delicious half baked frozen yogurt, which did not have anything yogurt-y anywhere in its DNA, but it seemed less likely to immediately give me an arterial blockage. 

Maybe I'm getting too old for free cone day… 

I was not terribly enamored of Nicole Holofcener's sophomore effort, Lovely and Amazing . Much to my delight Friends With Money picks up, style-wise, where her debut Walking and Talking left off.

Catherine Keener, Joan Cusack and Frances McDormand have money. Jennifer Aniston, as a former private high school teacher who cracked under the stress of rich teens tossing quarters at her in a "ha-ha, your car sucks" kind of way, does not. I imagined the lot meeting in college, where everyone at least pretends to be broke, and remaining friends afterwards.

Watching the movie gave me the same feeling I had ten years ago with Walking and Talking: I had license to gawk and eaves-drop for an hour and a half, and none of the self-involved people I spied on was bothered, if they noticed. The turns of plot are all slight and ordinary, which makes the snooping feel all the more real.

This Tuesday is free cone day at Ben and Jerry’s! That takes a bit of the sting out of my having to suffer the indignity of returning to work tomorrow.

Yes, it's been open since November and everyone has gushed about it already, but Daltron and I just got around to seeing it today. 

It was indeed fabulous, from the spare stage set to the multi-tasking actor/musicians (Patti LuPone plays the tuba!)  to the always-fun themes of murder, baking, and cannibalism.

I could have done without the high-pitched noise that signalled a killing, but Michael Cerveris' creepy Sweeney Todd more than made up for it.

I was shocked to find a MICROWAVE risotto recipe on the arborio rice package, but eating is believing. Here it goes:

1 cup uncooked arborio rice
3 cups chicken broth
1 tbs olive oil
1/2 tsp dried basil
1/4 cup grated parmesan
2 1/2 ounces crumbled feta
1 cup cooked spinach

Place rice, broth, olive oil and basil in covered bowl. Nuke for 18 to 20 minutes, stopping every 6 or 7 minutes to give it a stir.

Let stand 5 minutes, covered. Stir in cheeses and spinach.

Eat.

One of the best things about being on break is being able to listen to all of The Brian Lehrer Show live rather than settling for whatever snippet they’ve put on the podcast. While it’s always a little disappointing when there’s a guest host, the one today did a more than competent job.

While moderating the open phones about the potential doorman strike, said host was treated to a call from a rich New Yorker who either hadn’t taken his medication or who was acting tough behind the relative anonymity of the radio call-in.

“These guys [doormen] are nothing but a bunch of public school nobodies…” Unmedicated Superiorman began, going on to declaim how lucky the doormen are to have the opportunity to do his bidding, being such PUBLIC SCHOOL NOBODIES after all.

It was refreshing to hear such candor from a New Yorker on the winning side of the city’s ever-widening class divide. I wonder if he’d be as forthright face to face with some such nobodies.

Let’s hope he doesn’t get his well-off, privately-schooled ass kicked by some more coarsely educated urban dweller when the doormen he holds in such contempt aren’t there to keep the riffraff at bay.

Somehow, however far afield we stray, we are always drawn to the familiar.
We stayed at the Hotel Atlantica, which was far enough from the madness of 8th and Ocean to keep us sane, but close enough so we could gawk.

Our restaurant experiences ranged from the spectacular Shoji Sushi, the yummy Puerto Sagua, the super cute 11th Street Diner (which bucked the typical Miami Beach terrible service trend), Tapas y Tintos (which did not), and, though I blush to admit it, a stop at both Senor Frog's and Friday's.

We also enjoyed the low key bar the room, a soothing balm after the sensory overload of the outdoor cocktail on Ocean Drive.

We kept seeing pizzerias everywhere, which, not wanting to repeat the mistake of leaving Montreal without eating a local bagel, inspired us to go to Rustica Pizzeria for lunch one day. We were not disappointed by the huge, thin four-cheese squares.

Shopping mostly felt outdoor mall-y, except for Pop Collectibles, which not only satisfied on a consumer level, but also gave us an eavesdropper's take on the catty gay bar drink ticket politics of South Beach. Me-ow!

Despite the constant siren lure of the gorgeous beach, we managed to sneak in a bit of culture: The Wolfsonian has an interesting permanent collection, and featured two shows - one on the american hotel, and one on political posters - that were both worth seeing.

We also caught a showing of the documentary short oscar nominees at the Miami Beach Film Society (we saw two out of four. Attention spans shorten in South Beach).

Other than that, my one complaint is about my unwanted souvenirs: The 10,000 mosquito bites I got (Daltron, being less delicious, got three). My left hand and foot swelled so much that I could only wear flip-flops and had to wear my wedding ring on my right hand. Itchy and ouchie.

It's nice to be back in the real Brooklyn, where we have at least a few more weeks till skeeter season.