Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Week 7 & and Week 8 All at Once

On Saturday I picked up the shares from week 7 and week 8. Since I missed my share last week, I was given the option to double up or exchange Week 7 for a box of peaches or tomatoes. And since I don't know what to do with a whole box of peaches or tomatoes (other than canning) I decided to double up. And let me tell you....it was a lot of food.

Week 7
a bouquet of flowers
12 eggs
1 loaf of bread
1 lb of sage sausage
1 lb of French Roasted coffee
2 bags of Dragonfly Loose Tea
1 lb of honey
2 lbs of green beans
4 cucumbers
4 peaches
2 heads of broccoli
1 yellow onion
1 pint of currants
1 lb of green wine grapes
1 bunch of Red Russian Kale
6 small shallots
1 bunch of scallions
1 big, 1 medium and 1 small zucchini
2 large portabello mushrooms
1 Cayenne pepper
1 anaheim pepper
8 plums
1/2 pint of blueberries
2 tomatoes

Week 8
 a bouquet of flowers
12 eggs
1 loaf of bread
2 heads of broccoli
1 med bunch of dinosaur kale
1 extra large zucchini
1 lb green wine grapes
4 peaches
1 yellow onion
3 shallots
6 small patty pans
2 tomatoes
13 cucumbers (2 big and 11small)
9 plums
1/2 pint blueberries
1 Cayenne pepper
1 anaheim pepper
1/2 lb of green beans
1 bunch of scallions

Now that is a lot of food for one week. So I gave over a lb of green beans, 1/2 of the green wine grapes, 1 loaf of bread and some of the blueberry muffin I made with the blueberries.

The Menu:
Broccoli & Pesto pasta

Portobello Burgers with Baked Cucumbers and Chard with Shallots and Walnuts
Crispy Haddock with Zucchini Fries and Spicy Parmesan Green Beans and Kale
Broccoli Red Pepper Quiche with Sautéed Zucchini and tomato and Peach Cobbler
Roasted Chicken with Green Bean Casserole and Red Russian Salad

Extras:
Glitter grapes (grapes rolled in Melon Fusion Jello powder)
Blueberry Muffins
Zucchini bread
Currant scones

Wish me luck....its going to be a tough but yummy week.


Coming Soon...Week 7 & 8

I promised to post my weekly share inventory the day or the day after picking it up but alas, I have broken that promise.

Please be patient. The weekly inventory for Week 7 & 8 should be posted by this evening.

*fingers crossed*

But for tuning in to this almost non-post here is a little TV trivia:

JAG originally aired on NBC but was cancelled after its first season. CBS decided to gamble and ordered JAG’s second season for its fall lineup. It proved to be worth the gamble because JAG went on to have 10 full seasons. It was nominated for 8 Emmys and won 3. JAG produced two hugely popular TV show spinoffs, NCIS and NCIS: LA. JAG is the perfect example of a failure success story. If a show isn’t popular its first season it doesn’t mean it won’t make a lot of money. TV Networks would be wise to remember “The Cinderella Story of JAG”.

Thursday, July 5, 2012

Two Best New Shows on Summer TV

I always look forward to Summer’s TV lineup. Summer TV use to be for reruns and TV movies but a few years ago the broadcast channels (the cable channels soon followed), learned they could get good ratings during the summer too. The first summer TV show I watched and then loved was The O.C. Yup, The O.C. first aired on FOX in the summer. After being a smash hit, FOX moved it to the regular season. Many summer shows have come, won audiences and moved to the regular season or were cancelled. Today, there are shows which only air during the summer. One of those shows is Rookie Blue, which I am totally in love with. I look forward to the summer so I can catch up on the drama filled lives of the Toronto rookies.

After May’s Upfronts, networks start their summer seasons. And there are always I few shows I am excited about. This year they were: True Blood, The Glades, the final season of The Closer and Rookie Blue. But something unexpected happened. There were two late minute additions to my lineup…and they are awesome.

First is Longmire on A&E Sundays at 10:00pm.

I knew this show was premiering this summer. I had read the one paragraph write-up and seen the promos and I was not interested. Honestly it looked lame and I was tired of seeing the promos. Then when Dave and I went to the movie theater to see The Avengers, there was an in dept preview for Longmire, I ignored it at first and then…..I saw Katee Sackhoff, who I love from Battlestar Galactica.

Let me stop the story here. There are many reasons why I decide to watch one show over another. But there are two sure fire ways that will make me watch:

1. The show is produced by someone I like
3. An actor/actress I like is on the show
As soon as I saw that Katee was a regular on Longmire, I was interested. And I am so glad I watched it. It is soooo good and really hard to explain why. For me I love a show with a non-typical setting. I have seen enough shows based in NY, and LA or CA. I like it when the setting is somewhere I have never seen before. And Longmire’s setting is in Absaroka County, Wyoming. And character development. When you watch a show because you love the characters and you want to watch them live their lives (think soap operas) you are hooked. And Longmire had me hooked on Sheriff Walt Longmire’s character development from the first episode. You have to check it out.

Second is Bunheads on ABC Family Mondays at 9:00pm

This one I didn’t know about until a week before it aired. But the second I heard the show is produced by one of my absolute favorite producers, Amy Sherman-Palladino, I was in. In case you are not familiar with her work. She was the executive producer of Gilmore Girls. GG is one of my all-time favorite shows. Amy Sherman-Palladino trademark is the fast witted banter scripts, which the lead in Bunheads delivers with truth and pizzazz. For me Bunheads fills the void left in my heart when GG retired.

So two shows won my heart and my faithful viewership this summer. Longmire was renewed for a second season. I am still waiting for season two news for Bunheads.


Short Synopsizes

Longmire
Recently widowed Sheriff Walt Longmire enforces the law for Absaroka County, Wyoming. Being a sheriff in Wyoming is a lot different than your regular metropolis. In Wyoming everything is bigger and not just the wide open spaces. The series follows the Sheriff and local deputies as they encounter drug busts, the murders, mob hit man, child abductions, animal attacks and of course politics.

Bunheads
Michelle Simms is a trained ballerina working as a showgirl in Las Vegas. As she realizes her career as a professional dancer is ending, marries her long time admirer Hubbell Flowers (with the help of a little too much alcohol). The show follows Michelle as she adjusts to Hubbell’s small home town, Paradise. And where she renews her passion for dancing with the family’s dancing school.

Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Week 7 and Week 6 Round-Up

The derecho, aka Derechonundrum, not only knocked out the AC, it also made it so I couldn’t pickup and store my share for Week 7. Dave, Draco, Bella and I decided to leave our hot and muggy house for the cool and spacious house of Jeff and Krista in Leesburg.

When we returned around 5:00 pm on Sunday, our power had been restored. But since we were out of power for over 12 hours most of the perishable food in the fridge was a goner.

But I hardly believe this is my fault. So I don’t believe it should count against me in my round up grade.  Right?

Here is the breakdown:

What I started with:
3 dozen eggs
1 loaf of rye bread
½ loaf of wheat sourdough bread
1 small bunch of kale
½ head of romaine lettuce
1 head of boston lettuce
12 radishes
1 small head of broccoli
1 med-large onion
1 patty pan squash
4 shallots
Tons of scallions
3 tomatoes
1/2 pint of blueberries
1/2 sour cherries
1/2 sweet cherries
1 bag of green beans
1 cucumber
½ of the sausage
½ escarole
2 carrots
½ bag of spinach

What I used:
Half of the Boston Lettuce
All of the cherries
All of the Blueberries
Patty pan
All of the kale
All of the radishes
Cucumber
onion
tomatoes
½ of the rye bread
2 shallot
the rest of the sausage
the rest of the escarole
2 carrots
½ bag of spinach

What was left before the fridge purge:
Less than half of the Boston Lettuce
Half of the Romanie (which I would have thrown away anyway)
A ton of scallions
2 shallots
2 ½ dozen eggs
Small head of broccoli
½ of the green beans

What I threw away (damn derecho):
Less than half of the Boston Lettuce
Half of the Romanie (which I would have thrown away anyway)
A ton of scallions
2 ½ dozen eggs
The last slice of Cherry pie

What is left after the fridge purge:
Small head of broccoli
½ of the green beans
2 shallots

Grade: How can I grade myself when I had to throw things away unwillingly? How will I know if would have used them? I was on a role for this week. I cooked all morning on my birthday so I could get ahead.

But what about Week 7?

Dragonfly Farms will deliver a “double” share on Saturday. I am not sure what that means and Dave told me not to ask for a double share since we have a hard time eating everything we get anyway. But I paid for it and I would like to receive it and either try to use it all or give it away.

I am really enjoying the CSA experience and I was really bummed when I missed out this week.

Unforgettable...Uncanceled?

So the rumor around tinsel-town is CBS uncanceled Unforgettable.

Yup you read that right. Uncanceled.

You might be wondering how does that happen? Or can that happen?

The answer is yes and here is how it could happen...

Sony pitched their idea for a show back in 2011 or 2010 to CBS. CBS liked it and added it to their schedule for the 2011-2012 season. They originally ordered 13 episodes. After 5-8 episodes aired CBS decided to order the back half of the season (the last 13 episodes). In April or May CBS evaluated the numbers to decide whether they should order another season or to cancel it.

Now that is how almost all new shows get through their first season. Here is what rarely happens:

CBS decided they didn't like the number for the show and left it off the 2012-2013 season's schedule. Sony cut the cost of the show and re-pitched it. CBS decided for the new price they would pick it up for a shorter summer season.

So Unforgettable will be added to the Summer 2013 schedule.

Now for some trivia:

How many shows have been uncanceled?

How many shows were uncanceled by the network it originally aired on?