Why I Oughta...

This is what our French Pussy Willow looks like right now:  plenty of new red growth and these big red bulbs ready to burst open full of furry little dots.   We planted it this past season, so I'm not sure if this is what these things look like normally at this point in the season or if the plant is confused due to the unseasonably warm weather a week back. When Nat and I were driving around over the weekend, we spotted a few little flowers springing up, figuring they were just confused.  Sad to think that everyone might be loosing some spring growth because it is going to come up too early only to be killed by the certain frost left this winter. It's early February.  Does anyone have any experience with this type of plant/bush?  Are we on track and this is normal?  Or if not, is there something we can do to help it along and maybe slow down the spring awakening? BTW...looking through the analytics account for this site and the above-linked French Pussy Willow plant po

Hide your kids, hide your wife.  There's big news afoot!  Attention Chicago and Suburban folks:  Shamrock Shakes are NOW available at area McDonald's.  The Babe had her first one EVER yesterday and loved every drop of it. Stop what you are doing and get out to McDonald's RIGHT NOW. What's that?  Giving our daughter a milkshake while she mindlessly watches tv?  Sweet parenting! P.S.  Hide your husband, too!

I just renewed my driver's license via the Illinois Secretary of State's website.  No visit to the dreaded DMV.  No dealing with cranky civil servants.  Just a few keystrokes and in a few weeks a sticker will show up that I can stick on the back of my license that keeps me legal. Thanks, Jesse White.  No wonder he keeps getting re-elected by huge margins.  This is how government is *supposed* to work.

Spotted this SSID in Downtown Elmhurst last week.  Pree-tay cute.

Yesterday, the three of us spent part of the morning up in Bensenville, watching my nephew play in one of his first full-ice hockey games.  He's only 5, but he's already part of the Elmhurst Chiefs Hockey program and lovin' every minute of it.  They played well, but on this day were outmatched by the visiting team. Youth hockey is so foreign to me - mostly because I didn't see a second of ice time during my childhood.  In fact, I'm not sure there was a rink that was within 30 miles of my folk's house.  With this rink being so close and hockey being a 'big deal' in the neighborhood - based on the other kids on the team including one girl - I'm wondering if the hockey bug will catch on in our house?

Here's my latest pre-baked Detroit-style pizza pie.  You'll note the seasoned blue steel pizza pan and the 'signature' diagonal lines of sauce.  Although this pic may not make your mouth water , jt turned out pretty great, aside from the 2 spots that stuck to the bottom of the new pans.  They just need a big more seasoning, I guess.  Off to the kitchen laboratory!

After suffering through a few weeks of trial and error with my Detroit-style pizza recipe, I finally decided to get serious and order *REAL* Detroit-style Blue Steel pans - directly from Michigan.  Actually...turns out they're made in Mexico, but sold from a restaurant supply shop *in* Michigan ! So, why special pans?  Well, the lore around Detroit-style pizza is that these pans were originally intended for the automotive world:  they're pans that auto repair/assembly works put the various pieces/parts that they're working on.  Detroit being an Auto-Town, the transition to using them in a pizza joint seems quite fitting.  They have a higher lip than standard pans and are even a bit taller than my deep-dish pans. They are Blue Steel 10" x 14" pans and come with a weird grease on them - that I'm assuming is food grade?  I seasoned them as best as I could by coating them with corn oil (olive oil won't work for this because it has too low of a burning/sm

See those four Arborvitae trees starting in the middle of the photo and heading to the right?  They're leaner than the ones on the far left side.  And 2 years younger. The older ones are strong and I know they'll be coming back this year to grow bigger.  But these?  I dunno. I planted these four in the Spring of 2011 after having the same four die from the previous year.  As you can see, these four aren't dark green, but aren't that much lighter than the ones on the left.  There are some little orange/brown bits on them, but the bulk of the trees (Are they trees?  Or bushes?) are mostly green. What do you think?  Will they survive?

Well, well, well.  Look at what arrived in the mail yesterday:  the logistical details for the Babe's upcoming trip to "Mickey's House".  Can't wait to make even more memories with her and Nat (and just about my entire family).

Over the weekend I had plans to make some Detroit-style pizza so we went out to Angelo Caputo's to pick up a ingredients.  After putting 5 cans of 6-in-1's , I spotted these Pagliacci cans and couldn't pass them up.   Between the cute can (great colors that don't totally come through in my ratty photo) and the Seinfeld (Crazy Joe Davola!) connection, I had to give them a try. I didn't have enough energy to make 2 pies (nor the audience to eat them), so ended up not using these just yet.  They'll have their chance this coming weekend.  I'll report back if they topple my 6-in-1's and these end up being my tomatoes of choice.