The Good Rabbi's Blog

Well, I've successfully completed my first week of culinary school. While it's a LOT of work, I am having a great time. We've started actually getting into the cooking now, and it's starting to get pretty exciting! In other news, I managed to do well on my knife skills practice test (the real one is this coming Monday). We're getting into sauces and soups now, so stay tuned for for more details!

Out here in California, there has been extensive coverage (as nationally, I would imagine) of the Michael Jackson trial. There's been a lot of talk around town about the mother of the accused, and her lack of credibility as a witness. Some people have claimed that she should never have allowed her child to stay at the Neverland ranch alone with someone that has been accused of child molestation before.

All of this is well and good, but I don't find that it's relevant. Put in slightly more legal terms, I don't find it probitive (in other words, it doesn't establish guilt, or lack of guilt). The real question here is whether or not a crime was perpetrated by Michael Jackson, not whether or not the mother was at fault for leaving her kid there.

There's no question that Michael Jackson is just plain weird, even if he did not molest this child, or the child that accused him in 1993. So my question is, why do people constantly try to do this at trials? Why argue simply to discredit people, and not to actually show that actions are appropriate? Is Michael Jackson the new OJ?

Earlier this week, Steve Fosset once again felt the need to set a Guiness record by being the first to travel around the world without refueling his plane. With all the media focus on this, one question burns in everyone's mind:

Who cares?

My writing this post to my weblog has advanced modern aviation more than his little stunt. Why do they keep talking about him on the news? I didn't care when he flew around the world in a hot-air balloon, and I don't care now. Why does he keep trying to make me think he's doing something of any relevance?

I apologise for the delay in getting some updates on. This past week was very heavy. I had my knife skills final on Monday (where I sacrificed a portion of my thumb due to a dumbass that couldn't say "excuse me"), and my written skills mid-term and practical exams on Thursday. My practical exam consisted of two soups (Potato Leek, and consommé) as well as three sauces (Mornay, which is a modified béchamel, Bordelaise, and Hollandaise). I scored pretty well on all fronts. Next week I move into egg cookery, where we do everything from omelets, to pasta, to flans and custards. Stay tuned... :-)

Well, it's here again. That great period of reality television I call March Madness. Today is selection Sunday. It should be interesting to see how stupid the seeding process is this year. I swear the NCAA peeps just get hammered and say things like "ok, I've got it, we'll put Baylor in as the number one seed. That should keep people guessing.." More details will be coming soon. Go Heels!

Well, this weekend has definitely proven to be a bracket-busting weekend for me. My final four predictions were not impacted at all until today, but this is what makes things so exciting.

First, the Kansas Jayhawks were downed by Bucknell (I admit, I've never heard of Bucknell either, and I follow college basketball). If that wasn't enough, Syracuse was brought down by Vermont. Of course, this was entirely due to the fact that Syracuse was playing at the high-school level.

This week is protein week in skills. We're doing a series of "Iron Chef" competitions. The competitions are not quite the same as what the show has, as we know what the ingredients will be (although we're not quite sure of the cuts), and we theoretically have more time to plan.

For those of you that know me, you all know that this is hands-down one of my favourite chicken recipes. I've literally made this recipe hundreds of times, and while this recipe is meant for the grill (well, a charcoal grill), I've developed this into an oven-roasted version, (as I can't run my charcoal grill inside my apartment) that is just as tasty.

The New York Times has an article (subscription may be required) today regarding how the Supreme Court heard arguments about the File-Sharing lawsuits. Specifically, the case focuses on lawsuits against Grokster, and Kazaa for fostering file sharing technology that encourages people to steal.

This past week the girlfriend came out to visit, which provided me with the first real opportunity (other than take-out) to try out some of the restaurants in town. The first stop on my culinary tour (well, it was actually the second stop, but it's the first review I'm writing) is The Stinking Rose.