Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Random Recommendation: Mama Mary's Pizza Crust

Making a homemade pizza is fun, especially when you don't have to bother with making the crust.

We -- like most people -- love pizza, so what we do, rather than blow $20 for a delivered pizza, or go no frills with a frozen Tombstone, is make our own with the help of the Mama Mary's Pizza Crusts.

I've seen these available in most grocery stores, and we prefer them to Boboli.

We either get the 12 inch regular crust, or the thin crust. Two crusts come in each package. It runs somewhere around $4. Sauce is about $2 if you're buying enough for two pizzas.

We don't always fill up our pizza with a lot of toppings, so it's usually just cheese, onions, and maybe some pepperoni. For the cheese, we buy the chunks of cheese (8 oz. block per pizza) and shred it ourselves. Seems to taste better than using the already shredded cheese.

Quick pepperoni note: Don't buy the 100 slice package for $3-$4, because half of those slices will go to waste. Instead, go to the deli, and ask for about 20-30 slices of pepperoni. You should be able to get those for your two pizzas for less than one dollar.

After the crust is sauced, and the toppings are put on the pizza, we top it with some Italian seasoning, and in the oven it goes for about 15 minutes.

These pizzas cook well on the grill, too. I'd recommend a slightly lower temperature though, so the crust doesn't burn that bad.

And there ya go...homemade pizza without the pain and time needed to make your own crust.

For the record, I'll gladly accept some free crusts from Mama Mary herself if she's reading this.

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Finally A Reason To Watch The WNBA



Alright! A (cat)fight at a WNBA game! Sadly, there was no mud or jello involved.

I think this marks the first time since the league's inception in 1996 that I actively searched for some info -- the youtube clip -- regarding the WNBA.

Remember, there's no such thing as bad publicity.

Funny to see Bill Laimbeer in the clip (coach of the Detroit Shock), certainly no stranger to rough play during his career in the Motor City.

And, how 'bout fellow former Pistons' "Bad Boy" Rick Mahorn (Shock assistant coach) running onto the floor to restore order, only to cause more trouble, although inadvertently.

As mentioned in the Detroit Free Press story...

After a few moments, it appeared things had calmed down, but the Sparks’ Lisa Leslie fell down while Mahorn was trying to restrain her. That prompted the Sparks’ DeLisha Milton-Jones to hit Mahorn in the back.

When reached for comment, Christian Bale was allegedly jealous he couldn't have been a part of it all.

Friday, July 18, 2008

Phillies and Mets: Giddy Up


Now that the Mets have finally decided to join the party atop the NL East, it looks like we're gearing up for another tight race to the finish between the Phightin's and the Amazin's.

With all due respect due to the overachieving Marlins -- in 3rd place 1 1/2 games back -- the division will most likely go to either the Phillies (stumbling along having gone 13-18 since June 8th) or the Mets (winners of 10 straight).

The recent acquisition of Joe Blanton will help the Phillies' starting rotation, but enough to push them into the playoffs? Only time will tell.

The Mutts seem to have new life since relatively lifeless manager Jerry Manuel took over. Good for them. The fact that they've climbed back into the race will make it even sweeter when they collapse again in September.

66 games to go...get your popcorn.

Thursday, July 17, 2008

Rush On Colbert Report


First, Rush gets a feature in Rolling Stone magazine for the first time since the dawn of the Reagan era, then news of the band getting a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and just last night, Rush appeared on The Colbert Report, their first U.S. television appearance since the Philadelphia Flyers last won a Stanley Cup.

Crazy times my friends.

Don't get me wrong, I think the recent swell of publicity is fantastic, and long overdue, but it's just strange that it's happening -- this late in their career!

I don't watch Colbert, so correct me if I'm wrong, but apparently Jimmy, who works on the show, is a big fan of the band, and that helped get them on the show. That, and the fact that there has been a long-running gag about the "confusion" between Rush the band, and Rush Limbaugh.

Anyway, the show featured Rush references throughout, a humorous interview with the band, and a very good rendition of "Tom Sawyer". Viacom pulled the original Youtube clips I had up, so I'm posting the entire episode courtesy of Hulu.

Saturday, July 12, 2008

Favre Back, But Not With Pack?


So, even though it's looking more and more like Brett Favre is coming out of retirement to play this year, the one team he won't be playing for is Green Bay.

Which means, Aaron Rodgers -- on the left in the photo above -- would finally get his chance to take over the Packers offense.

And by the way, which of the two guys above looks like the almost-40-year-old grizzled veteran with well over 200 games of abuse levied against his body, and which one looks like the up-and-comer with a gleam in his eye knowing he's about to become a full-time NFL starter?

Seriously, Rodgers looks like he should be the captain of a Deadliest Catch ship. Has he been shipwrecked for a few years? Could this guy really only be 24 years old??

The main reason I'm blogging about Favre is that back on April Fools' Day, my newsman, Jay Capron, came up with the idea of doing an April Fools' gag on my radio show audience -- a longtime tradition -- of saying that Favre was coming out of retirement...to play for the Bears, the hometown team for my audience.

We took some audio from his farewell press conference, ("It's the perfect place to play...I know I can still play football."), made it sound like it was phone call quality -- as in a late night Favre soundbite, far away from any kind of press conference setting, thus allowing my early morning risers to think that it was decided while they were all sleeping -- and the whole thing actually fooled a fair amount of listeners.

We never went all that deep into the scenario, considering that Favre is still Packers' property, and that barring a trade, the possibility of him coming to the Bears would be slim at best.

So, now Favre has asked that he be released by the Packers, who seem to be ready to now move on without him. Could our April Fools' gag actually come true? Well, if he's released, he'd be free to sign with whatever team wanted to sign him. However, considering the Bears lack of firepower on offense, it would be highly unlikely that Favre would opt for a Chicago comeback.

In fact the odds of Favre signing a deal with the Bears are about as long as the odds of the Blackhawks and Redwings playing at Wrigley Field on New Year's Day.

Oh, wait...

Wednesday, July 09, 2008

Hell's Kitchen

Sorry, Petrozza. I was pulling for you. I have no problem with Christina winning, but "P" (who's first name is actually, Lou) seemed like a really good guy, and deserving of the title, even though he is an admitted slob in the kitchen.

So, Christina is off to start her career as an executive chef at Gordon Ramsay's swanky London West Restaurant in Hollywood, and Petrozza remains as a catering chef at Winthrop University, a job he landed after losing the catering gig that he had when filming of Hell's Kitchen started last fall.

As uneven as this season may have been -- the chefs really seemed incompetent, and it was hard to find a favorite, or anyone that seemed worthy of a win for quite awhile -- for me, it's still one of my favorite shows on television. Anything with Gordon Ramsay is on my "must-watch" list, including Kitchen Nightmares, which returns in September on Fox.

As for Hell's Kitchen, thanks in large part to American Idol as a lead-in, the show enjoyed it's best ratings yet, cracking the top ten several times, and running near the top of the heap in the 18-49 demo.

Word is, they've already completed filming season 5, which will air early next year.

Friday, July 04, 2008

Happy 4th Of July

The Muppets




Schoolhouse Rock




4th Of July Asbury Park (Sandy) - Bruce Springsteen

Wednesday, July 02, 2008

Batting Stances



Hats off to this Dave Attell look-alike, who has posted several videos on Youtube of his imitations of batting stances past and present. He handles Phillies' batting stances in the video above.

His videos first surfaced several months ago, and after taking requests, more have been added lately. The guy is really good, and as good as the current day imitations are, it's always nice to see him go old school with a Cecil Cooper, Rudy Law, or Mickey Tettleton.

I got a kick out of his Brewers video. As a kid that played wiffle ball quite often in the early '80's, I can remember doing my own Cooper stance during games with my friends. Ben Ogilvie, Don Money, and Robin Yount were some of my favorites.

I recall the Dodgers being another team we used during those games. For some reason, the name Ken Landreaux is popping into my head.

The games would consist of me, and a buddy, playing one-on-one wiffle ball, with different spots in the yard representing different things: outs, singles, doubles, etc.

We actually kept a box score, and would put the major league players in order, and imitate their stances.

In an unrealted story, we weren't very popular with girls.