The Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Ordinary Time, meaning ordered or numbered time, is celebrated in two segments: from the Monday following the Baptism of Our Lord up to Ash Wednesday; and from Pentecost Monday to the First Sunday of Advent. This makes it the largest season of the Liturgical Year.
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The Young Jesus among the Doctors
Albrecht Dürer
1506
Fundacion Coleccion Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid

From the Gospel of Saint Mark
Then they came to Capernaum,
and on the sabbath Jesus entered the synagogue and taught.
The people were astonished at his teaching,
for he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes.
In their synagogue was a man with an unclean spirit;
he cried out, "What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth?
Have you come to destroy us?
I know who you are—the Holy One of God!"
Jesus rebuked him and said,
"Quiet! Come out of him!"
The unclean spirit convulsed him and with a loud cry came out of him.
All were amazed and asked one another,
"What is this?
A new teaching with authority.
He commands even the unclean spirits and they obey him."
His fame spread everywhere throughout the whole region of Galilee.

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Mass times in the Catholic Diocese of Fort Worth: http://www.fwdioc.org
Picture from Art and the Bible: http://www.artbible.info/
Quote on Ordinary Time from Catholic Culture: www.catholicculture.org

Television Cooking: On the Road Again

I have enjoyed cooking shows since the days of Julia Child and the Galloping Gourmet. When they first came on the television scene they were associated almost entirely with Public Television. And PBS had a bunch of them, Justin Wilson from Louisiana, Julia Child, Jacques Pepin, the Galloping Gourmet, and Yan Can Cook (I still use a big cleaver for a knife because of him) - I watched them all. My favorite was Justin Wilson.

Then came cable television and the possibilty of more stations than the broadcast television's bandwidth allowed. Enter Food Network, and the cook show personality hit the bigtime. Rachel Ray was as popular as Oprah for a while.

Now, the genre is changing again. Reality TV has folded in with Food TV. Top Chef has been around for 4 years but I'm still not on board yet. I do like some of the competition shows like Iron Chef.

My favorite food shows haven't changed in the last few years: Good Eats because host Alton Brown explains what happens in the cooking and ingredient mixing process, America's Test Kitchen on PBS (the same people that do the Cook's Illustrated Magazine) and anywhere Sara Moulton shows up.

One new favorite: Mark Bittman and Mario Batali tour Spain and its many food dishes with friends and actresses Gwenyth Paltrow and Claudia Bassols. It is a good show if you like European scenery and cuisine. Here's the website: spainontheroadagain

Some I don't care for: Emeril annoys me. Bam this, Emeril. The lady from Louisiana has a voice that is like fingernails on a chalkboard to me. And her two boys need to cut the apron string sometime before they turn 50. Barefoot Contessa is a little too Hamptons, although she seems a likable person. The Cake Show with the Goth, Gen X'ers is way too hip for me, plus I can't watch anyone cook with tattoos on their neck.

Remember the Two Fat Ladies cooking show on BBC? That was an all time favorite because they were real bluebloods with the 1960's upperclass disdain for pretention.

So here's the question: what is your favorite cooking show?

While I'm At It . . .

May I mention a couple of local websites and blogs?

The first has nothing to do with food, necessarily. Littlelizzie is a weblog spotlighting Liz's line of children's clothing, accessories, and now, her photography. Liz is creative, talented, and a lifelong friend of our family. Her weblog is one of three or four knitting/sewing/craft type blogs whose authors visit and join in the comment page. Now, I have never "crafted" in my life. When I was a boy we did build model navy ships and set them on fire as they floated down the creek. But I don't think that counts. But if you like quality creative products for children, you will like her site.

I have mentioned this blog before, but I think Eat This Fort Worth continues to excellently review Fort Worth food and drink spots and weekend activities. It takes a lot of time to do this well. Her most recent is on Tim Love's, Love Shack, in the Stockyards.

Hole in the Wall is another site that does frequent and detailed restaurant reviews, almost all of which I agree with. His latest is on Zambrano's, a place I like.

RJG (Regular Joe's Guide) : Same thing. good, detailed reviews, especially in the greater Fort Worth area.

FortWorthology is stilling doing the yeoman's job of photographing all the new construction downtown and the occasional mention of a new restaurant. His website/blog is as good as they get. He mentioned a few days ago that a Jake's Hamburgers was going to fill the spot Chile's is leaving behind, downtown. I hope that is true.

I add local weblogs and websites to the "locally written" sidebar of this blog on a loosely interpreted combination of the following conditions: that the author visits here, posts on their own blog frequently, and lists this blog.

Special thanks to Jake and BeccaWest for their post contributions; they always draw the most comments. And to Lynn, for her frequent and thoughtful comments, and Rambler for the same (although I am not so sure about the non-euphemistic use of a "house of ill-repute").

Thanks to all.