What's Cooking Detroit?

I took my family (Grandmother, mother, and step-sister) to the What's Cooking Detroit food expo to at the Palace of Auburn Hills. Overall it was a pretty cool day, but we were all a bit disappointed with the cooking demonstration my celebrity chef Buddy Velastro. Buddy is the "Cake Boss" yet he made potatoes and lamb chops rather than any cake related things.   Here are a couple of videos from the day. The first one is just footage from some of the booths, the second is most of Buddy's presentation.

CULTURE CAST: Episode One, Star Wars style

In this first episode of the 'Culture Cast, our heroes talk to Craig Derrick, the lead producer for Kinect Star Wars.



This is the first episode of my newly created podcast. Co-starring, David Komer. Sorry for the messed up audio levels, it' s a work in progress nailing this thing down exactly.

MOVIE REVIEW: The Three Stooges

I didn't give this one a star rating in the review, but overall, I'd say a solid 4 of 5 for The Three Stooges

CAST (in credits order)

	Sean Hayes	...	Larry
	Will Sasso	...	Curly
	Chris Diamantopoulos	...	Moe
	Jane Lynch	...	Mother Superior
	Sofía Vergara	...	Lydia
	Jennifer Hudson	...	Sister Rosemary
	Craig Bierko	...	Mac
	Stephen Collins	...	Mr. Harter
	Larry David	...	Sister Mary-Mengele
	Kirby Heyborne	...	Teddy
	Carly Craig	...	Mrs. Harter
	Kate Upton	...	Sister Bernice
	Marianne Leone	...	Sister Ricarda
	Brian Doyle-Murray	...	Monsignor Ratliffe
	Mike 'The Situation' Sorrentino	...	The Situation (as Michael Sorrentino)
	Nicole 'Snooki' Polizzi	...	Snooki (as Nicole Polizzi)
	Jenni Farley	...	JWoww (as Jenni 'JWoww' Farley)
	Ronnie Ortiz-Magro	...	Ronnie (as Ronnie Magro)
	Sammi 'Sweetheart' Giancola	...	Sammi (as Samantha Giancola)
	Avalon Robbins	...	Murph
	Max Charles	...	Peezer

Directed by the Farrelly Brothers.

Isn't it great when things Kinect?

Ok so today was an odd day at work to say the least, I won't go into it in detail as I'm sure most of you don't care. Everyone has good and bad days at work, lets just say today was a bad one, until about 4 p.m. that is.

You see faithful readers, what happened at 4 p.m. was one of the cooler things that I have had a chance to do since joining the News-Herald almost a year ago.

I got to interview a local Trenton high graduate, Craig Derrick, yeah I know that doesn't sound all that interesting right off the top, but this particular 1991 THS grad moved on to work in the video game field, and just recently had his first game released through LucasArts, it's a part of a tiny little franchise, maybe you've heard of it. Star Wars? Yeah I thought so.

I got to invite a co-worker, David Komer into the phone interview, and we recorded it for the first episode of what will become a weekly, or at least biweekly podcast about pop culture and the like. Hopefully we'll have it available for you in the near future. In another piece of multi-tasking, we'll also be combining to produce a print article for all of the Downriver denizens as well as anyone else that may want to read about Craig or Star Wars. I hope you all enjoy, and make sure to tune in a bit later when the 'Culture Cast is released.

Chicken Parmesan Casserole

This looks good, hopefully it turns out better than the last recipe that I tried.

Ingredients: 
2 tbsp olive oil 
2 cloves garlic, crushed 
hot red pepper flakes, to taste 
6 boneless skinless chicken breasts (I used 5, but they were huge!) 
2 cups marinara sauce 
1/4 cup chopped basil 
8 oz mozzarella, shredded 
4 oz Parmesan, grated 
1 (5-oz) package garlic croutons

My racecar mouse is better than yours!

A few months ago, I was browsing an online Avon catalog that belonged to a friend and co-worker. Normally I wouldn't shop through Avon, but figured I could find something to buy to help her out.

After a bit of searching, I found what I consider to be the greatest invention in the history of mankind. A red race car mouse. The only bad thing is that it's not wireless, but I'll manage.

I ordered it, and then quickly forgot about it as life happened and it didn't come right away. Well last week it was finally delivered to me at the office, and boy let me tell you, it was even better than advertised, when it's plugged in the headlights and tail lights both light up.


I know my co-workers are jealous, I can tell when I'm sitting at my desk making racecar noises and playing with my mouse.

Gak is back (and so is Floam)

As a kid growing up in the 90's, (Yes I get to count myself as both an 80's and a 90's kid having grown up during at least five years of each decade.) I got to go through many of the crazy toy phases. Not the least of which was Gak and Floam. Yes I had both, as did all of my friends.

At least as far as I can remember, Gak came first. Now it was fun. Basically just a more liquefied version of silly putty. But everyone had to have it. Even if all you did with it was to squish it together and feel it ooze through your fingers.  Gak was quickly outpaced however by Floam, which was fun and practical.

Now Floam was sticky, and messy and smelled terrible, but it was great to play with as it was fun to squish in your hands as well, or you could shape it into just about anything you wanted and then tear it apart. If you liked whatever you made you could leave it out overnight and have a toy for life in that shape.

I've never managed to grow up though, so the other night while I was watching the cartoons that I have on my DVR, I saw commercials for both Floam and Gak, so apparently they are 'back' if they had ever went anywhere in the first place.

Which do you like better? Did you have both?

Top 10 Easter movies with a little something for everyone

10.  The Passion of the Christ — While it’s a bit violent for the younger crowd, it’s a pretty accurate description of the final 12 hours of Jesus’ life. Not for casual viewers as it is completely in Aramaic with subtitles.

9. Yogi the Easter Bear — Yeah, it’s more of a kids movie than for the adults, but those of us that were kids when this special was originally released can now relive our youth while infecting a whole new generation with Yogi Bear.

8. Bug Bunny’s Easter Funnies — The Easter bunny is ill, Granny needs to find a replacement for him, after watching several cartoons from the past. A very eager Daffy Duck keeps appearing, in the end he dresses up as the Easter bunny and Granny and Bugs have been cheated but find it funny.

7. Jesus: The Complete Story — an award-winning British documentary series that chronicles the life of Jesus Christ using scientific and contemporary historical evidence.

6. The Last Temptation of Christ — The film contains many elements not found within the texts of the four Gospel writers in the New Testament, and not supported by any teachings of the major traditions of Christianity. This has been a source of contention and controversy despite the disclaimer stating that it is "not based on the gospels".

One of the dominant sources of controversy stems from an "alternate reality" near the end of the movie in which Jesus is depicted as marrying Mary Magdalene instead of dying on the cross. The rationale behind this scene is that embracing his full humanity represents the true last temptation of Christ; that is, the temptation to forego the cross and lead a life of a normal man, free from the burden of being crucified and of being the salvation of mankind. In the image of a beautiful, androgynous child, Satan suggests to Jesus that there is no real reason to die, and that he should come down from the cross and lead a normal human life, telling Jesus he is in fact not the Messiah. In this dreamscape, Jesus marries and raises a family, and lives through many other experiences considered part of a normal human existence.

5. The Eater Bunny is coming to town — A little known Bankin & Rass film about Easter. They are well known for the stop motion animated Christmas films such as Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.

4. Hop — Kaley Cuoco and an anthropomorphic Easter Bunny star in this film. What more could audiences of all ages ask for?

3. The Greatest Story Ever Told — the life and times of Jesus Christ. Max von Sydow plays Jesus. 

2. Dogma — Jay & Silent Bob meet there maker during some wacky adventures. Not for the younger audiences as the there is a lot of foul language, nudity and violence. Doesn’t really deal with “Easter” per se, but god and Jesus both appear either in dialogue or on screen.

1. It’s the Easter Beagle Charlie Brown — While most of the Peanuts Gang is getting ready for Easter, Linus, certain it is all a waste of time, tries convincing everyone the Easter Beagle will take care of everything, but his pleas fall on deaf ears. Only Sally believes him, though she still has some suspicions after the Halloween fiasco.