Bruce Was Great, but Mady Is The Boss

I spent all last week looking forward to the weekend, and I must say I wasn’t disappointed. From babysitting and spending time with Mady to spending time with my kids to watching an awesome Bruce Springsteen show in Louisville to grocery shopping, I had a great weekend.

I’ve already written about babysitting Mady Friday night, so I won’t rewrite that. We spent the day with Trav, Ashley, and Mady on Saturday until time to head to Louisville for the Springsteen show. We had a great day. When we got to the KFC Yum! Center, we bought a snack of homemade potato chips covered with BBQ pulled pork, green onions, bacon bits, cheese sauce, sour cream, jalapenos, and tomatoes. It may not sound that great, but it’s amazing, and I told Jimmy that we would have to learn to fix those homemade chips so we can make this at home. I can’t wait until a trip to the Yum! Center to get them because those are few and far between.

As for the show itself, Springsteen outdid himself. Jimmy and I have seen him five times together. Jimmy already had numerous Springsteen concerts under his belt before we even met. For me, this was probably the best show, even though we were not by the stage like we were in Nashville. This one seemed to have more energy. He played nonstop for three hours and fifteen minutes, a total of 26 songs. From the moment he took the stage, it was music, music, and more music. He’d go straight from one song into another. He moved all over the stage, as well as through the crowd. Bruce and the E-Street Band are awesome musicians. I wish I could play an instrument half as well as any of them do. This was our first show without The Big Man, Clarence Clemons. In Nashville, we were right in front of Clarence. The moment of silence and the video montage almost made me cry. Clarence’s nephew Jake now plays the saxophone for the band, and he did an excellent job. The thing about this show is that Bruce could have played another hour or longer and the crowd would have been content to keep on rocking.

We finally made it back to Trav’s just as the time was changing, thanks to Daylight Savings Time coming to an end. I was very glad to go to bed. Today after we left Trav’s, we went to pick Nic up so we could spend some time with her. We went to eat at Chili’s, one of her favorite places, and then we just made the rounds doing some grocery shopping at Gordon’s Food Service, Sam’s Club, and Super Wal-Mart. Groceries are so expensive here in Jackson, that we have to do most of our shopping while we are out of town so we can get the best deals. After filling the Explorer with groceries, we took Nic back to her apartment and headed home. It took a while to get all the groceries put away, but now we’re relaxing and watching The Next Iron Chef on Food Network (I’ll be pulling for Alex Guarnashelli in this one).

All in all, it was a good weekend. I’m disappointed that I only got to see Cody for about three minutes for the whole weekend, but next weekend, I should get a lot more time with him. And I get to see Byron every day, but I do prefer the weekends when they are all home and all at my house at the same time. I’m happy that I don’t have to get up and go to work for the next two days. It’d be nice if Jimmy had a day off, too, but I guess we can’t win them all.

As you’re counting your blessings through the month of November, I hope you remember things like family, love, food, and music. Be sure to thank the Provider for all these things.

It’s Hummus vs. Hubris on Next Iron Chef

As you already know, my husband and I are huge Food Network fans. We have particular hosts we love to watch, including Giada de Laurentiis, Bobby Flay, Anne Burrell, Paula Deen, Rachael Ray, Michael Symon, Guy Fieri, the Neeleys, and Robert Irvine, just to name a few. We also enjoy the competition shows, such as Next Food Network Star, Chopped, and Next Iron Chef. So, when this season of Next Iron Chef was being promoted, we anxiously awaitedthe  October 30 premiere of the Super Chefs. Of course, we had our favorite picked out the moment we saw the lineup. We’re for Anne Burrell all the way.

Ideally, I would’ve liked to see it come down to Anne Burrell and Robert Irvine in the final episode, with Anne winning. I like Robert Irvine, but I like Anne better, and I do enjoy watching her beat him, as she did on Worst Cooks in America and Chopped. I was hoping for showdown number 3, with Anne coming out on top again. Last week, when Chef Spike chose to put Anne and Robert together for a team, it was quite funny, especially for those of us who know their history. It was with great relief that we learned that they were not the bottom team and did not have to face off against each other in the premiere episode. There was hope that they still might get the chance to fight it out in the finale.

That hope died tonight when Robert Irvine was eliminated from the competition. I was speechless. Robert manages to complete Dinner: Impossible and Restaurant: Impossible challenges all the time. Robert is very well respected among the chefs employed by the Food Network. How can it be that it is episode 2, and Robert is gone? For what it’s worth, which isn’t really much since he was eliminated, the decision wasn’t unanimous. At least one of the judges wanted Robert to stay. And I’m going to guess that more viewers would have liked for Robert to stay than for Chef Michael Chiarello to stay.

Robert Irvine is such a popular chef, it was startling not just to viewers but also to the other Super Chefs that he was eliminated so early. And as Alton Brown pointed out, because his hummus was too thick. Personally, I thought Chef Chiarello’s attitude was too thick. Of course, since this is Super Chefs, there are going to be some Super Egos to contend with, and while the viewers get to see all the comments the chefs make after their food has been evaluated, I’m guessing that the judges don’t get to see all those comments. And that’s probably a good thing since if I were one of the judges and I heard one of the competitors dissing how I judged, I’d be more likely to eliminate them.

Tonight’s episode was a huge wake-up call to fans and chefs alike. If a chef like Robert can be eliminated so quickly, anybody can. As for this fan, though, I still have a preferred order for elimination, which simply calls for all the chefs I’m not really familiar with or that I just don’t like as well to go first. The next ones I’d like to see go are Michael Chiarello (didn’t like his attitude), Elizabeth Faulkner (just don’t really know anything about her), and Chuck Hughes (don’t really know anything about him). After that, Geoffrey Zakarian, Marcus Samuelsson, and Beau MacMillan would be the next three to go, leaving Anne Burrell and Alex Guarnaschelli to compete for the final spot. Since I can’t have Anne and Robert in the finale, then let’s have Anne and Alex and add a female Super Chef to the prestigious Iron Chef crew.

Of course after tonight, it’s hard to speculate about who will win this competition, but it’s certainly going to be interesting to watch, and it’s not going to be an easy task for the competitors. But since it is Next Iron Chef, it shouldn’t be easy for them. One thing I’m wondering, though. When this is over, will those who serve as Chopped judges be any more sympathetic to those competitors than they were before? That may be as interesting to watch as these episodes are.