Out of step

I grew up loving newspapers. I remember as a very young child, walking barefoot down our long gravel driveway to get the paper in the morning so I could read it with my breakfast. I remember how wonderful I always thought the Memphis Commercial Appeal was (and still is, especially as long as they are smart enough to employ my friend Zack McMillin) -- strong, varied reporting, great sports section, not corporate.

And when I was in college, I was on the school newspaper staff. Hell, I ate, lived and breathed ink for 3 years while I was there, from second semester freshman year through Christmas my senior year. It was one of the best things I ever did, working 40 hours a week, most of it in the middle of the night, while going to school full-time. I learned so much I couldn't begin to tell you unless you had 3 years yourself.

So I'm set up to love newspapers. I'm a slam dunk.

Wrong.

I think there is no industry, as a whole, that has more wasted its resources and talent that the newspaper industry. When I was coming out of school and interviewing for jobs, I shied away from the local paper. It frankly was past its heyday then -- and it has a past worth remembering. Today it's a Gannett machine. I haven't subscribed in a long time. I get frustrated with its lack of vision just checking the website in the morning.

And it pains me to say all that, because I have several friends -- talented, bright folks -- who work there. But the world is passing the newspaper industry by.

OK OK, what inspired my rant? It had nothing to do with food. :) I saw a post on TransomBlog that just really hit home. Rob rightly takes the St. Louis Post Dispatch to task. In an ad of theirs, the Post Dispatch mocked up a help-wanted sign on the St. Louis arch to promote their classified section. Now, it's not that I think the paper, a private company, has any duty to promote the city like the Chamber of Commerce. But good grief. Let's not make it look like the city is falling apart. Seems like the first motto of journalism -- and yes, the ad department of the paper -- should also be "First do no harm."

They just don't get it.

Ever so much much more unlucky than you

If you have never heard me explain before, I practically never go to the movie theater. This is part of the ongoing theme, "Laura has no social life." However, you name it and I've seen it on Netflix. I have been a Netflix customer since December 2001 and I've rented hundreds and hundreds of movies from them.

I'm finally watching March of the Penguins tonight, and I'm stunned to discover that it's a food movie. No one told me this. About the baby penguins, they told me. About what an overall incredible movie it is, they mentioned. But not the food part.

You may now be going, huh? But think about it: these emperor penguins, they walk SEVENTY MILES inland, meet and lay an egg. There is no food there. So the dad stays there and sits on the egg. The mother, nearly starving from the work of laying the egg, then walks SEVENTY MILES back to the sea. Meanwhile, dad sits on the ice for more than four months, sans food, hatching the egg. Once the mothers are rejuvenated, they trudge the seventy miles BACK just in time (we hope) to feed the babies and -- you guessed it -- let the fathers walk seventy miles back to the sea so THEY can eat.

Low-Carb Call-Out

Now that I've finally redone my blog, I want to send a shout-out to a friend I've been meaning to spotlight for a long time. My high-school classmate Jimmy Moore has really been through a lot since we graduated from Bolivar Central in 1989 -- but I am so proud to call him a friend and classmate and hope he can say the same about me. Jimmy had gotten to be quite overweight -- a problem many people struggle with today. But in 2004, he lost 180 pounds! Here's a clip from his blog, Livin' La Vida Low-Carb:

My mission here is to encourage and educate people about the healthy benefits of the low-carb lifestyle. After losing over 180 pounds in 2004 by following the Atkins diet, I released a book about my experience called "Livin' La Vida Low-Carb" in October 2005. This blog was birthed out of a desire to help people combat the daily lies that permeate throughout much of the media and from so-called "health experts" about low-carb and to provide encouragement to those who desire weight loss.

Jimmy, I am so proud of you! I feel certain that most of what I talk about on Fixin' Supper won't qualify as low-carb. :) But eating better is something we can all feel good about, and I applaud you for your work encouraging others on a daily basis. Keep up the good work yourself, and keep sharing your healthy outlook.

Food history TV

I am on record as a hater of food TV. But this new show on the History Channel looks really interesting. #1, I don't think it's about anyone's ego. #2, the website shows pictures of one of my all-time favorite drinks, Tab.

The George Bush of mashed potatoes

Fool me twice, people.

I have been making mashed potatoes since I was 12 years old. Let's not do the math but suffice to say, that's plenty long enough to know how. Lately I have been looking up recipes for this very very basic dish because mine are not coming out close enough to the ones I grew up with.

Now, I'll start by saying, I already know what's wrong with the way I make them. [This is not the fool me twice part. Please be more patient.] Back where I come from, to steal a phrase, we did not make our mashed potatoes with 1% milk. And we used more butter. So my goal here is, make them so as they won't kill me, but still taste awesome. I know this is possible. I just know it.

So, I have been doing that which I NEVER do, and I have been actually FOLLOWING recipes. And both times, it has bitten me in the butt. Last time, they were so soupy, I literally made them into potato soup [7yo refused to touch] because they were unredeemable as mashed potatoes.

This time around, I knew the instant I poured the milk in that it had happened again [different recipe, same result], though a tad less soup-like. You just couldn't quite see the potatoes for all that milk. I was able to cook the milk down and return them to mashed potatoes, albeit really soupy ones. Cooking the milk out of your mashed potatoes is not where you want to be, in case you're wondering.

Next time? Screw the cookbooks. I think I'll buy some whole milk and use my regular fbtsomp* recipe.

*Fly by the seat of my pants

New BBQ joint

Well I've apparently let my blog really lapse since the 10mo came home in March. Frankly, in my head I still post all the time so I had no idea I was falling down on the job so badly. I apologize, if there is in fact anyone still reading. Besides my mom. (Hi, Mom!)

I ran across a new BBQ joint on the web today. Sounds funny but it's true. I haven't even had a chance to check it out yet but this guy is blogging his restaurant, so how can you go wrong?

I will report back as soon as I know more. Meanwhile, check out Mothership BBQ!