Ryan Fields

Scallops for supper tonight

I went to the store today to get some milk and biscuits.  Somehow I found myself down by the seafood area. It’s been a long time since I had scallops for supper, so I decided tonight was the night.  I grabbed about 8 pounds and called a couple of friends on my cell phone to come join me for supper.

On the way out of the store the manager was handing out fliers with several seafood  recipes. I grabbed one of the fliers and headed for home.  I saw that one of the  recipes was almost exactly like mine.  When I got home I jumped on the Internet to see how many variations of MY recipes there were and found nine like mine!

One of the big differences was that my sauce is a little thicker and smoother.  I like to use cream instead of milk in my recipe.  Also I like to use the smaller scallops along with salted crushed Ritz crackers.  While reading on the Internet I came across a site called Great American Seafood Cook off.  It is a contest being held in New Orleans soon.  One of the most exciting things about this cook-off is that the seafood is domestic and sustainable, which I understand to mean that the fish are basically taken from local fish farms instead of drag-netted in the oceans.   Anway, the fish is fresh and local, which is a good thing!  The chefs know what they are cooking.  The winning chef will have the title of King of American seafood.

Well I won’t be entering any cook-offs soon but I sure would like to try anybody’s baked scallop dish they think is the greatest.  I also really enjoy a well prepared Seafood Newburg with extra scallops in it, so I’d love to get your recipe for that too!  Feel free to share your recipes with me by leaving a comment or two!

Moratorium on fast food restaurants

i was reading on the Time.com website that LA has put a one year moratorium on new fast food restaurants in their low income district.  The rationale behind that move is that this particular low income area is overflowing with obese people.  The city council that put this moratorium in place thinks that by putting this restriction in, a better class of restaurants will open in the area, offering healthier foods.

I think that if this is a low income area, the residents will not be able to afford to go to these “better class” of restaurants to eat.  You can go to a fast food restaurant and order healthy foods, such as salads.  These people are choosing to eat unhealthy foods because they can afford it and they want it.  They will get it SOMEWHERE, even if it means going to the grocery store and buying the junk food there. 

I’d be really surprised if any of those “better class” of restaurants even TRY to open up in that area, the target market for that type of restaurant does not exist there.  It would be a losing proposition.

My friends and I enjoy playing paintball

My friends and I enjoy playing paintball quite a bit.  We were sad when the local paintball field closed.  I think they weren’t making enough money because the good weather season is so short around here.  I think that they should have diversified somehow to be able to make money during the winter, too.  So now we have to travel further to get our paintball fun.  We don’t mind too much, it’s an extra fifteen minute drive and the fun is well worth the travel! We’ve been talking about buying some new paintball gear from the Ultimate Paintball website, pntball.com. They are having a sale on Tippmann and Spyder paintball sets right now, and they offer free shipping on all online orders exceeding $99, so this is a good time to be buying new gear!

Japanese zoo troubles

I was just watching a video that I found on the BBC website about the attempt to recapture a chimpanzee that escaped his cage through an unlocked door.  It was rather amusing; the chimpanzee was on a rooftop and two zookeepers were trying to recapture him.  They were trying to shoot him with what I have to guess were tranquilizer darts, but the chimpanzee saw them and rushed them.  The zookeepers tried to escape the rushing chimpanzee, but the chimpanzee actually grabbed one of the dart guns from one of the zookeepers!  Fortunately the chimpanzee just tossed the gun aside - can you imagine an armed chimpanzee?  They finally got the chimpanzee to come off of the roof using bananas as bait, but the video did NOT show the actual recapture scene.  I hope they treated him humanely.

Student drivers

There is a good website called cost u less insurance that is geared towards helping the young driver get ready to start driving.  There is a link that takes the student to a practice driver’s written exam and there are links for parents to click on to get answers to the questions that parents should have when they are considering letting their kid get a license.