I must be butter

I'm making cilantro and lime marinated steak with either Trader Joes garlic fries or roasted potatoes. I'm finding my wanting to experiment more in the kitchen is costing me more money at the grocery, but I think it's worth it. My pork chops the other night were really good. I'm making rosemary pork loin on Saturday for a bunch of people who are coming over. I hope it's good.

I'm starting to feel like a woman always blogging about food. My brother got me a Tyler Florence cookbook, a strainer, and a peeler for Christmas. We already had a peeler, but it's the thought that counts; plus, this one is a lot nicer than the one someone had given us before I moved down here.

I think I like to cook good food because it makes both me and other people happy. It's kind of an instant reward competition type thing for me I guess. If I can make something really good, where I know it's good and other people like it, too, then I'm going to feel gratification for my efforts right away; almost a sense a of victory.

I recently purchased an XBOX 360 with NCAA Basketball '09 and a few other games. Having never really played any of this generations, or even lasts', gaming systems, I initially started the game on its easiest setting. I struggled at first to figure out the two joysticks and eight buttons, but got the hang of it after a few games and was quickly winning easily. Of course I picked Indiana State as my dynasty team, which was a good and a bad choice. It was good because I had a fairly easy schedule; it was bad because I had pretty bad players. Thankfully the ease of difficulty along with my ability to run the same play repeatedly made the game a lot easier than it really is. To make a long story short, I ran off 39 victories on my way to a perfect season and a National Title.

I decided I would start the next season on the medium difficulty level. My first couple games were against pretty good teams, but no one extraordinary. Keep in mind, at this point I was used to blowing everyone out by 20-30, and sometimes more, points in 26 minute games. My third game was against Syracuse at the Maui Invitational. Nothing I did in this game worked. They were the 12th ranked team, I think, and absolutely destroyed me. I ended up losing by 18 or 20. I constantly yelled at the television almost the entire game. I couldn't figure anything out to beat them or even chip into their lead. By the end of the game I was so mad I couldn't handle it. I had to put my mp3 player on and do the freaking dishes (which needed done anyways) to get my mind off it and cool off. My brother was ready to kill me at this point.

The moral of the story is I absolutely can not stand to lose. For example, I told a 16 year old I was going to punch him in the face if he didn't stop cheating during ultimate frisbee this summer. I would never punch a 16 year old in the face unless it were in self-defense or in defense of a friend or family member in trouble, let's make that very clear. That was just an example of my competitive drive.

So maybe this is why I like to cook. It's something I can gain a sense of reward and pride from without really doing anything. And my lack of physical ability has nothing to do with it. I can't imagine how bad I would be if I were in really good shape and had real talent at a sport I loved. Even if a sports team I rooted for were dynastically-victorious (that might be the coolest thing I've ever said), I'd be overly arrogant and annoying about them.

So why the crap am I a Cubs fan?

Good question. I gave a speech in college about why being a Cubs fan is the best thing in the world. It was in a sales class, so I had to pitch it to the class like a product. Most of them thought it was funny so they went along with it and I got an A. I think losing keeps me humble. If I were a Yankees fan or a Red Sox fan, I would definately be a different person that I am today. Watching my team lose year after year has made me a better person. I can't remember the other points of my speech, but that was the main one.

People from TN don't know what real cold is (says the kid from Indiana),
B