hot spicy nuts

How is THAT for a title that will get some traffic my way from Google?

;-)

In fact a simple post for this, my 600th (yes!) blog entry. Not too shabby. More than my journal entries for the awkward coming-out years. And more delicious, too.

Sunday night I joined a number of teammates in watching the Oscars, and the mixed nuts shown above were my simple contribution, along with a bottle of red wine. It's a nice, easy recipe that fits well into a lot of parties. Mixed nuts toasted gently, tossed while hot with a mix of butter, cayenne, salt, chopped fresh rosemary, and brown sugar. Serve warm and enjoy. The recipe comes from the Union Square Cafe cookbook, which I rather like.

I also made some ribs that afternoon with the intention of taking them to the party. With Conrad out of town, however, I spent the better part of the afternoon wrestling with how anti-social I felt. Ultimately I went. The ribs, on the other hand, stayed home. Good for a couple of lunches and a dinner.

I'm glad I did go. I didn't win the pool (16 out of 24), but Dan (the host) and Lee (the social director) put together a fun evening for about two-dozen of us. Nice. I'm glad that the Smelts are getting back into events like this.