Spinach Pizza Recipe

Spinach & Olive Pizza

1 whole wheat Boboli Pizza crust
1/2 cup fresh chopped baby spinach
1/2-3/4 sliced & pitted Kalamata or Black Olives
2 handfuls Pine Nuts
1/2 cup crumbled goat cheese
Pizza Sauce

Pre-heat oven to 450. Lightly oil cookie sheet, place crust on sheet. Lightly coat crust with pizza sauce. Sprinkle spinach, cheese, olives, and pine nuts on pizza. Cook for 10-12 minutes.

Serve & Enjoy

Say what?

Last week I was in Ottawa on business. Some non-work highlights/observations from the trip:

1. My hotel was walking distance from the Byward Market area. There are a lot of cool restaurants in this area.
   
2. The panhandlers are a bit pushier/more aggressive than in Chicago. There's an air of world-weary defeat in many of the panhandlers in Chicago. In Ottawa they were coming up to me and were quite persistent. I'll give money to street performers and what not, people who do something to "earn it." Accosting me as I'm trying to walk into a pub for a quick pint is NOT the way to get money out of me. This was one of the only downers of the trip.
3. Ottawa is beautiful in the fall. Driving on Colonel By Dr. along the Rideau Canal with the fall foliage was rather breathtaking. I've been to Ottawa several times, but this was the first time I'd ever been there in the fall.
   
4. I tried Haggis for the first time at the Highlander Pub. I absolutely loved it! It helped that it came with a dram of Scotch. And the nice smooth malty Scottish beer (Caledonian 80 Shilling) certainly didn't hurt either.
5. I have a new favorite beer (see above)! Caledonian 80 Shilling is the nectar of the Gods. It was the smoothest beer I've ever had and easily the best tasting as well. Sadly this wonderful brew is not available in the U.S. so I will have to imbibe of it on my visits north of the border.
   
6. I tried Ethiopian cuisine for the first time as well. My friend, Erin, drove over from Montreal and we celebrated our respective birthdays on Wednesday evening-- mine on Thursday hers was on Friday. After dinner we went to the Highlander pub and I introduced her to Caledonian 80 Shilling. Her assessment was similar to mine. Scorpios of a stinger stick together (or something like that), I guess.
   
7. Unrelated to my trip... Over the weekend I was channel surfing and noticed that on ABC Family they'll be showing Poltergeist. Is it just me or is there something peculiar about Poltergeist being a "family film?" Many of the people who starred in the first 2 films died shortly thereafter or even during the filming. And the subject matter isn't exactly what I'd want any kids I know to be exposed to. That being said, it could have been worse, they could have been showing Poltergeist II, which imho is MUCH creepier than the first one (in particular, the late Julian Beck as Kane was far creepier than Freddy or Jason could ever dream of being-- his very brief performance exuded a much greater menacing evil than all of the Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm Street movies COMBINED).
   

My "Dear Ronald" letter

As promised:

Dear Ronald,

While I've always had a thing for redheads, I'm sorry but my heart belongs to another-- and no it's not that pigtailed skank, Wendy. It's the King. With his stylish brown hair, his long flowing cape and that bright constant smile... who could resist!

Besides, Ronald, there's something about you I just don't trust. I'm not a fan of the way you ditch your friends. It's been ages since I've seen Mayor McCheese and the Hamburglar... And Grimace? Just because he's a bit on the obese side and has that rare skin disorder that gives him that soft violet complexion, you can't be his friend any more?! What hypocrisy! You're the one who made him that way! Okay, so maybe not the purple complexion, but the obesity. That's ALL you. All those Big Macs, McNuggets, Milkshakes, and Fries!

And your lack of fashion sense?!? McDonald, isn't that a Scottish surname? Have you ever thought of switching from those bright yellow overalls to a kilt in your family tartan? You could promote fries by tossing giant cabers in the shape of your fries. And what about a McHaggis? Embrace your heritage! Don't ignore it, don't run from it. And trust me you'd do substantially more business if you offered a single malt GlenRonald... I know I'd certainly reconsider my love affair with the King if I could get a nice peaty Scotch on the rocks from your fine dining establishments. It would certainly help wash down all the grease that saturates all of your menu items (except maybe the salads... although I'm sure you're working on ways to make your salads greasier... you're too hooked on the cow to forsake it for the rabbit food).

So if you want me to reconsider you'll have to change your ways you obnoxious redheaded prat!

Best regards,
Perplexio

Austin

So I was in Austin, TX for a couple of days last week helping the store staff prep one of my company's new stores, Follett Intellectual Property. Having only been to Texas once before (this past April, also on business) it was kind of nice to get a little extra time to get a better feel/vibe for the area.

Impressions of Austin:
1) On both trips it was extremely hot. Last April it was "unseasonably hot", and this time-- being August... well August in Texas is not a "cool" prospect by any stretch. That being said, I didn't mind the heat so much this time around. My pasty white ass is NOT used to 90-100 degree weather in April. But living in suburban Chicago, 90-100 degree weather is not at all unusual for August. And it actually was a little less humid there than it gets here when the temperatures get up there. So, if anything, the heat was more bearable there than it is here when it gets that hot. It was just those initial blasts of heat as I'd go outside after being inside a nice climate-controlled A/C blasting environment that would catch me a bit off guard.

2) The food was pretty damn good. We tried to stick with local owned and operated places-- avoiding chains restaurants as much as possible. My coworkers and I arrived just before noon on Wednesday. We found a small Tex-Mex joint a couple miles down the road from the UTA campus. Just when I thought I was done and had cleaned my plate the waiter showed up with a second plate and informed me that it was the rest of my meal. Needless to say it filled me up.

The first night we went to Texas Land & Cattle and I partook of a delicious rack of ribs. Day 2, one of my coworkers and I walked down the street to a Vietnamese joint where I partook of some delicious Pho and some interesting conversation about why and where people of different Asian backgrounds choose to live in the US.

For dinner we went to the Iron Cactus. The food was okay, but there was nothing about it that really set it apart from anything I could just as easily get in downtown Chicago or downtown Naperville-- although the Margaritas were pretty damn good.

Friday for lunch-- Whole Foods. Whole Foods is based in Austin so this was/is their flagship store. I felt like I'd died and gone to hippy heaven (and I'm not a hippy so I was wondering if maybe I'd taken a wrong turn somewhere in the afterlife). There was a faint patchouli odor permeating throughout the store, and the breadth of food selection was incomparable. I had sushi and a pepperoni roll (in hindsight mixing Japanese with Italian/American might not have been the best of decisions).

3) Overall Austin was rather liberal. It was kind of like Burlington, Vermont with a tan. Given that a) it's a college town b) Apple has a campus there c) Dell is HQ'd there (and techie/IT guys are generally of a more liberal political bent) The liberalness was not entirely surprising.

I had a good time and look forward to future trips.

Current Music: Far Corporation - Solitude

Yay

So, here I am in Austin, TX helping to set up one of my company's new stores so it can open on time. And after working several hours to get the store set up, my two fellow co-workers from the home office and I went out for some good Texan food. I had a rack of some of the most delicious ribs I've ever had, a tall glass of delicious dark beer, and a phone call from wifey saying the realtor had called and that we're good to go for the closing on our townhome next Friday! YAY! We have the final walkthrough at 10:15 am, the closing at 11 and our realtor wants to take us out for lunch afterwards to celebrate.

Well 1 1/2 more days in Austin, then back home to Chicago. But it's late and I best be getting to bed, I've been up since 5:45 am and now it's 1:30 am... the next morning.

Current Music: Joseph Williams - Your Song (I love this dude's voice, he could sing the NY Metro White pages and I'd buy it in a heartbeat)