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Mayfest Cancelled?

Cartoon by Dave Granlund
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One could make a case that all times are considered strange by those living in them. But in my 56 years this year has to rank up there with the strangest.

GM and Chrysler going, or close to going, bankrupt.

Merrill Lynch, the very image of Wall Street investing -- gone, and now dragging buyer Bank of America with it.

Now this -- a possible flu epidemic closing Mayfest?

Wild and wacky it is, I tell you.
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How to Make Tomato Bruschetta Properly.

(And why I hate recipes . . .)

I love bruschetta. I was looking over a recipe yesterday, not to make bruschetta, but to see how they made it, and it hit me that most tomato based recipes for Italian food make one big mistake. They usually suggest using Roma tomatoes.

Here's my suggestion: Never use Roma tomatoes for anything. They have been so re-engineered that, at this point, they look good and taste terrible ( kind of like Episcopalians) ( okay that's a joke, don't send me nasty email).

Which then brought to mind the reason most (not all) recipes are unreliable. Because they make suggestions like the to one use Roma tomatoes; they equate cooking with alchemy, that is, if you mix certain ingredients and cook them a certain way, you can make gold out of lead. The opposite is true, get good ingredients, treat them right, and they are going to taste good. They'll love you back.

Anyway, if you want good bruschetta ,you need four ingredients definitely, and one optionally, all of which need to be fresh.

The following is not the recipe, but more importantly, the ingredients for the recipe:

1. Buy fresh tomatoes, preferably cherry because they are sweet. In the winter, buy quality, canned, diced tomatoes. Do not buy super market tomatoes from the produce department in the winter unless you are using them as display only.

2. Bread. Italian loaf preferably. It's chewy on the inside, the correct width, not tangy like sourdough, which I don't like for bruschetta, and toasts nicely. Most recipes suggest focaccio which, in my opinion, overwhelms the other flavors. The bread is the canvas not the painting.

3. Olive oil. Fresh. Virgin. If it has been sitting on your counter for six months it is not fresh.

4. Course-grain salt and fresh ground pepper.

5. Red onions. Optional, but I think they go nicely with the sweet tomatoes.

Here is their recipe, a good one, except I like the Italian loaf bread toasted both sides, lightly. And the bread cut about 1 - 1.5 inches thick. It should lightly crunch, but not like a crouton.

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views

Earth Humans . . .

Yes, you.

Please refrain from the following:

1. Any use of the phrase: "You go girl." As sympathetic as I am to the fairer sex and their desire for sororal identification -- this has got to stop. Any male use of the phrase will trigger immediate vaporization.

2. Physically uncoordinated white people should not give the high-five after every minor successful moment. You look stupid. Actually, the high-fiving needs to stop all together, but persons with no eye-hand coordination should have never started. By the way, persons of color stopped high-fiving in the 80's.

3. Please stop using cell phone text language in common speech. Someone called me a " b f f " the other day. I assumed any word abbreviation with an " f " must be a reference of the unrepeatable kind. Apparently not. Please stop anyway. At least to anyone over 50 years of age.

(Older humans, it means: "best friend forever.")

Thank you.

(Your suggestions gladly accepted)

Great Wolf Lodge, Grapevine. Fantastic!

guest post by Rebecca

We took the kids to the Great Wolf Lodge in Grapevine, Monday, for a little Easter Octave vacation. Great Wolf Lodge is a resort hotel geared toward families -- and it does very well.

We thought it would be a fun mini-vacation reminiscent of the trips to the Airport Marriott my parents did with my brothers and me.
(editors note: they were fun)

We drove up to the large Lodge entrance and the kids were coming out of their seats with excitement. As you walk in, there is a huge fireplace in the lobby with fantasy-land caricatures that make you feel like you are in an enchanted wood. And then you see the immense indoor water park . . . and this is only the beginning!

We went to our cabin-themed room which had a smaller room for the kids with bunk beds, twin bed and their own TV -- it looked like a log cabin. I think we would have been apoplectic if we had been to something like this as kids -- the closest memory I have to being this excited about somewhere we stayed is of an Embassy Suite in San Antonio and riding the glass elevators up and down. The kids were out of their heads with excitement which was worth the trip in itself.

After getting settled in the room, we visited to the water park. I was worried it would have an overwhelming chlorine smell because it is indoors. But it didn't, it was great! They must have good ventilation because it didn't smell like chlorine at all. There was a kiddie pool, where we spent most of our time, that resembles an enormous playground. It has large slides, water guns and a very large bucket of water that dumps water every 15 minutes or so. The water park also has large tube slides, appropriate for an adult or teenager, a lazy river, and a wave pool.

It was great. I was very pleased with the number of lifeguards, free use of tubes, and life jackets for the kids. The water park is only for guests so it makes for a great atmosphere -- everyone is on vacation.

There are many other indoor activities available and activities geared for the "tween" crowd, such as an arcade and a magic quest game that can be played throughout the hotel like a scavenger hunt. I think you compete with other guests.

The only thing that we would have liked was room service because the kids ate pizza and we were wanting something to enjoy after they went to bed. There are restaurants in the hotel, but they are expensive and not very good, so we ordered PF Changs to eat in the room.

All in all I would definitely recommend it especially if your kids are between 6 and 14. Our kids were a little young to enjoy all that they had to offer, but we will definitely be back!