Lights, Camera, Action

I got this idea a week ago about posting what it takes to get my Sunday Dinner Episodes on my blog. I never gave it much thought but I put in a lot of time to get these done. It may be time better spent elsewhere but it is my time and I can use it anyway I want.

1. Either early in the week or close to the weekend I try to come up with an menu or recipe I haven't done yet. As weeks go by this gets more and more difficult to do. I have grilling cook books, past recipes I have saved and the internet to search but it still takes time. I also have to find recipes both the wife and I like.


2. I will normally decide what I am cooking and then I decide how I am going to cook it. Just because I might find rack of lamb in a recipe book doesn't necessarily mean I am going to cook it according to that recipe. Now I have to search for the way I want to cook it or the way I think I or the wife might like it best. This takes time and I normally do this on Saturday morning before we go shopping so we only make one trip to the store. Going to the store around here can be a bit frustrating too. When we lived in Virginia we could find almost anything we needed for the recipes I use. Around here some items you would think should be easy to find isn't always necessarily so. I do try to use recipes with simple ingredients because the last thing I want to do is buy $5 ingredient and use it once.

3. When Sunday rolls around I figure out how much time I will need to cook the meal. I usually end up late because I never alot enough time. Once this if figured out I have to have get the camera set up to take pictures.

I never use a flash inside anymore I only use my tripod for still shots. This has made a big improvement in my pictures and I recommend it to anybody taking still shots inside.

4. Ingredients need to be lined up for their photo session but I always seem to miss an ingredient.

This actually helps because now everything is already out for me to use. As I use the ingredients I put them away so I don't use them twice.

5. At some point while I am preparing the meal of the week I have to go out and start the charcoal.

It will normally take anywhere from 20 to 30 minutes to have good hot coals to cook from.

Now it is time to decide do I cook over direct or indirect heat and do I need hot or medium coals to cook with. What I am cooking for the week will decide what heat or method I cook over. By now I have dragged the camera outside to start taking pictures of the cooking operation.


6. Time to start cooking.

By this time I am normally rushing around trying to take pictures while the food is cooking and also not letting to much heat escape by leaving the lid off to long.

7. Once everything is cooked it is time to eat. Not so fast my friend before we can eat pictures need to be taken of the final plating of the meal.

Now we can sit down and enjoy the meal.

Now you may be thinking to yourself "That doesn't seem to bad." Well to be honest I am only half done now. For me that is the easy part the hard part is still coming up.

8. By this time all the pictures have been taken. I normally will take between 40 and 50 pictures by the time I am done. Thank goodness for digital photography. The pictures get uploaded into the computer and I sort through them all getting rid of pictures I don't like. I try to save the best of the pictures and also try to get down to less then 10 for posting.


9. Once I have chosen the pictures I want it is time to Photshop them. That's right I use Photoshop on all my pictures thanks to my much older sister. This takes time cropping, adjusting contrast, sharping, adjusting colors, etc. I think it's worth it because it will take an average picture (one of my average pictures) and turn it into a good picture.

10. After the Photoshopping has been done I upload all my pictures to the Photobucket website. Why do I do this? I discovered you can control the size of the pictures much easier. Plus it gives a backup place for my pictures. I discovered the Photobucket website from older sister again. I couldn't figure out how she was able to get those nice big pictures on her blog until one day I noticed if you double click on the picture it would take you to her Photobucket site where she stores her pictures. Well I'll be a monkeys Uncle that is how she does it. I have been doing it ever since I discovered this. If you double click on one of my pictures it will now take you to my Photobucket site where all my pictures reside that goes onto my blog. If you ever see a picture you want from my blog you can go here and get it. And to let you in on a little secret every now and then if you go there you can get a sneak preview of upcoming posts. Sometimes I upload my pictures a couple of days before I post them on my blog.


11. This is the hard part for me. This is the part I wish I had paid more attention in English class. This is the part where I must write the Sunday Dinner Episode. Sometimes I think I would be better off letting the pictures tell the story. It takes me anywhere from 1-2 hours to write an episode. I will write, edit, write, edit, write some more, edit some more and when I finally think I am done I hit preview and so I can view what it looks like before it goes on my blog. I normally will find mistakes and correct them and then hit preview one more time and check it again. I still make mistakes that get onto the blog but oh well, I knew when I started it wouldn't be perfect.


12. Finally I feel comfortable enough to hit the little orange button that says "Publish Post" at the bottom of the screen and let the whole world see what I am up to on Sunday.


There you go, this is what I do every week to get Sunday Dinners on my blog. This is why every now and then it takes a few extra days to get the Sunday Dinner Episode on my blog. I enjoy doing it because if I didn't I wouldn't do it.


Enjoy your Sunday Dinner this week.

Week 1 - Lions vs Falcons

After my rousing success last week predicting the Michigan vs Utah game I thought I might as well try with the Detroit Lions too. I have been a long time Lions fan in fact just about as long as I can remember. I'm not one of these people who lived in the state of Michigan and for some ungodly reason roots for some other team. I'm also not one of those people that left the state and turned into a fan of the local team. Nope, I am a fan of the Lions through thick and thin and believe me there has been a lot of thin since I have been watching them.

Since I have been a fan of the Lions I have endured through Wayne Fonts "Deer in the headlight" comment and Daryl Rogers "What does someone have to do to get fired around here?" There have been so many quarterbacks it's hard to keep track of them all. The first quarterback I can remember for the Lions is Bill Munson and the latest Jon Kitna.

But the Lions have had their bright spots too. How about Lem Barney? He was a great cornerback and my favorite Lion along with Charlie Sanders when I was a kid. I got to see these favorites of mine along with Altie Taylor when they used to tour the state in the winter playing basketball in the local high school gyms. There have been others since like Barry Sanders, Robert Porche, and Chris Spielman.

I know the last few years have not been kind to Lions fans but one of these years, one of these years they will surprise everyone and turn it around. I am hoping it will be this year as I do every year.

I was thinking about doing a week by week prediction on the Lions season in one posting but I think I will do a prediction every week instead. My predictions will not be based on emotions, at least I will try not to let it, but I will try to honestly give my assessment of the upcoming game as best I can. I will warn you however I don't have the time to research the other team so most of my predictions will be based on how I think the Lions are playing at the moment, what they have done in the past, and the 3 win and lose rule. What is the 3 win and lose rule? Well for some reason most NFL teams won't win 3 games in a row or loose 3 games in row. It happens but more often and then not the 3 win or lose rule works.

Let's get on with this weeks game. This week the Lions go down to the Georgia Dome to take on the Atlanta Falcons. If there is one team in worse shape then the Lions it is the Falcons. The Falcons bring in a rookie quarterback and a new coach. The Lions finished the preseason 4-0 but that doesn't mean a thing right now because everyone starts over when the real season starts. But one thing I did see during the preseason games I was able to watch was a defense that is tackling better than I have seen them tackle in years. They led the entire NFL in defense in preseason and when is the last time this happened? It is the defense that gives me some hope this season. They revamped the secondary and if they can get a little pressure on the quarterback this year the defense will be just fine. That's why I think the Lions defense will handle the offense of the Falcons.

The offensive of the Lions will be interesting this year. I don't think they are as good as they looked during preseason because after all Jon Kitna is still their quarterback. I have never been a Kitna fan but with the two receivers he has all he has to do is throw the football up in the air and let someone run under it. This is the recipe the Minnesota Vikings used years ago when they had Randy Moss and Cris Carter playing receiver for them. But we are talking about Kitna here and who knows what we will get from week to week from him. There are reasons he has been let go by other teams and if you watch him you can see why. He doesn't always make the right decision and sometimes he can't make a decision. That is one reason he takes so many sacks during a game. Which brings me to the main problem the Lions may have this year. The same problem they have had in prior years, they just don't have a good offensive line. Oh they will be fine this week against Atlanta and people will be persuaded into thinking the Lions have finally turned the corner but as the season mounts and injuries start to take their toll on the thin offensive line the offense will start to sputter.

Just not this week. The Lions will play a great defensive game and the offense will look like a bonafide NFL offense. The Lions receivers will have great games and the running game will get their yards this week. I also think the Falcons will struggle on offense with their rookie quarterback. Final prediction Lions 24 Atlanta 13. Lions 1-0.

Sunday Dinner - 31 August 2008

Well well look at this the Sunday Dinner Episode posted the next day. How efficient is that? It helps to have Monday off and the only thing I really need to do today is read some more for my upcoming test. Oh I better not forget to go pick up the wife either since she will be arriving on the boat around noon today. And speaking about the wife since she is gone this is my chance to make a Sunday Dinner I have been looking forward to for a long time. Since she doesn't like seafood or mushrooms can you guess what this dinner will be all about? If you guessed seafood and mushrooms you would be correct.

Shrimp and seafood skewers with a portabella and roasted pepper salad. Mmmm good.

Let's get started.

First let's introduce the cast of charcters for the Portabella and Roasted Pepper Salad:

Lots of flavors going on here but first thing we must do to make this salad is "FIRE UP THE GRILL!!!"

Roast the peppers.........


Mix a marinade up with the ingrediants in the above pic and apply to the portabella mushrooms..........

From here is is pretty simple cut up the peppers and mushrooms, mix together with some capers and some of the marinade that was reserved from the mushrooms and let set for an hour or so at room temperature.

Enough about salads though let's get to the real stars of this episode:

Scallops, shrimp and anduille sausage.

First thing that needed to be done was to make the marinades for both the scallops and shrimp. The scallop marinade is a little more involved because it starts with browning the anduille sausage on the stove top with onions, EVOO and water. Once the water evaporates and the little brown bits form on the bottom of the pan the pan gets deglazed with the white wine vinegar. Dump what is left over from the pan into a bowl and add oregano, a little more EVOO, salt and pepper. Add the scallops and let marinade.


For the shrimp mix together lemon juice, EVOO, paprika, granulated garlic, salt and pepper. Pour over the shrimp and let set for a half hour or so.

Once this is done it is time to go outside and one more time "FIRE UP THE GRILL!!!!" Yeah the original fire wasn't hot enough to use again.

Once the fire is hot enough it is time to fix up the skewers.....

....and head out on put them on the grill.


Aren't they looking good?

Just wait until they are done. Oh wait through the magic of pictures they are already done.

How about a closer look....

Oh my don't those look good but before I can sample one I must, as hard as this is, get the entire meal on a plate to take the final picture.


The salad will get a 4 out of 5 forks. It could have used more mushrooms in it but it had good flavor. Definitely a keeper.

I will give the shrimp a 4.5 out of 5 forks and the scallops a 4.75 out of 5 forks. The marinade on the scallops was great. I wasn't to sure about marinading the the scallops but it turned out the be the way to do it. I might have to put the wife on a boat more often so I can enjoy my seafood. I must admit I think it is my favorite type of food. And what a better way to top off a meal of this caliber then with this.....


That will do it for the summer portion of Sunday Dinners cooked on the grill. Oh I will still be using the grill into the fall for some Sunday Dinners but it is time to do something new for the fall. I am still not sure what I am going to do so I was hoping for some suggestions. I am leaning towards doing some tailgating episodes but that takes me right back to the grill and I would like to wean myself off from the grill before winter gets here.

Regardless what happens stayed tuned because Sunday Episodes will continue.