Completely un-food related, but such a memorable experience that I had to share!

This is Stumpy.  He’s been a fixture in my yard for a year now. Sort of like an unwelcome relative who’s overstayed their welcome, Stumpy has been cluttering the corner of my front lawn, constantly reminding me of just how badly I wanted him gone.

This week was it.  I decided Stumpy and I finally had to go our separate ways. My lawn needed to be a place of joy, serenity and a lack of stumps, so I started digging stumpy out.

It was a long process and was progressing little by little and day by day.  My boys and I would dig, chop and muck for an hour or two, satisfied in the knowledge that Stumpy was just a little closer to gone.  I was at it again on Friday morning, about 40 minutes in, and at the three-quarter finished mark when something randomly wonderful occurred.

A delivery driver with a massive forklift stopped in front of the house and offered to give stumpy a boost.  Mind you, this was happy news to the sweaty guy with axe in-hand who was whacking away at yet another huge root.  Even if the man only got the tree a little looser, life would be a LOT easier, so I said sure!

I mean really; How often does someone with a very expensive piece of equipment stop and offer to help you with a really nasty project out of the kindness of their heart, at no cost, when they should just be getting back to the office?  It isn’t an offer I’m going to pass up.

So massive forklift met massive tree in a fairly epic battle.  For a few minutes it looked like Stumpy would come out the winner, but he eventually succumbed to the sheer might of the two-tined tree killer.  But not without getting some measure of vengeance on us for the audacity of clearing him out.  He took my water main with him. Read more…

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It’s that time of the Apocalypse calendar again.  Zombie outbreaks loom on the horizon and here at CbsoP, we take these things seriously.  In this edition I’m going to give you a few pointers for ways that common pantry items could help save you and your family during a possible zombie outbreak.  Read carefully, this information could save your life.

This information is presented in no specific order of importance.  I know that not all pantries contain the same ingredients, so I’ll try to be as general as possible, hoping that I can cover at least a few of the items that you might already have at hand during a trying time like this…

Read more…

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If you’ve been wondering whether or not I’ve taken off for a lovely all-inclusive vacation on some lovely Caribbean island, or perhaps joined a very exclusive internet free monastery you would be wrong on both counts.  I do have to say though, that either one of these things would have been far preferable to the reality of my life over the past 6 weeks or so.

Unfortunately, I’ve been ill.  first there was a staph infection and 10 days of antibiotics that laid me out on the sofa for a full 11 days.  fast forward 4 days and the infection was back, but this time it came with friends.

This put me on another round of antibiotics, plus a pretty severe regimen of  doctor visits and other unpleasantries all of which kept me from particularly caring one way or the other about eating.  My focus was sleep.  As much as I could get and as often as possible.

with the second round finally declared a success, I began making my way slowly back into life as normal, with step one being the aftermath of a semi-detached parent who has been ill for nearly a full month and-a-half.  I needed to get the house in order and that was a week long job on legs that weren’t all that steady yet.

Then, as if to add insult to injury, round three hit in the form of a rather nasty flu that’s been running around my kids’ schools for the past few weeks.  With an immune system depressed by two rounds of antibiotic treatments, I was no match for it and it took me down somewhere in the middle of last week.

As of today, I’m hopeful that I’ve licked that issue as well.  At the very least I’m excited about cooking again, so it’s a great start.  Recipes will start flowing from CbsoP’s tiny and rather outdated kitchen very soon.

It’s good to be back.

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We all love top ten lists. As a society we’re obsessed by them. We gravitate towards sites with lists of the most famous, the best dressed (and worst dressed), the most influential and lists of biggest mishaps that have happened to celebrities. All we have to give is “The top ten reasons” for anything and there’s an audience for it somewhere. (Which reminds me.  I need to do a few more list posts…)

Lists are great when they are done correctly but can quickly become a reputation train wreck if implemented poorly.  You have to be sure to quantify the list you are presenting in the right manner.  Failure to do so can result in reader confusion, blatant disregard for the information or worse, out-and-out revolt over the information you so laboriously gathered.

The reason for this cautionary tale is a list posted on slashfood.com titled The Ten Hottest Women in the Food Industry. In concept the post would be fine.  It’s actually a pretty neat list as far as lists go.  Sure, some will balk at the beauty pageant aspect of it, but hey, it’s good for a few comments and a light read, right? Read more…

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Now that we’re in the new year, I thought I’d talk a little about the direction that Cooking by the seat of my Pants will be taking this year. For this blog the theme of the year is “back to basics”.

In all my writing here I have neclected the simpler items that grace our family table, this is completely wrong, and needs to be stopped.  Who am I tho assume that everyone in the world knows how to make brown gravy, or a bechamel?

It is sometimes hard to remember what it was like when I was just starting out, when I was hungry for new methods, new basics, new tools.  I have not adequately been covering these.  In failing to do so I may have been alienating a large segment of readers.  This year I intend to correct that.

It may very well be the year that CBSOP begins a series of videos on topics as well.  I’m hoping that it is, but I’m going to have to push myself to get the first one made, then see if Y’all don’t just laugh me out of the food blogging community.

don’t get me wrong.  There will still be a bevvy of dishes that were created on-they-fly, just as there have always been.  I am, after all, the cooking by the seat of his pants guy.  I’m not going to stop throwing goodness together on a whim.  If I did that, I’d be giving all the winging it cred to No Recipes, and we can’t have that!

Having said all this, I’m currently in the middle of a super hush-hush cooking marathon that must be completed tomorrow, so expect my year-in-review posts a bit later this week. (They’re compulsory… Who am I to argue that?)

For now, Peace. I’m out.

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I’m in agreement with my good friend Peter this year.  No long speeches, no resolutions, no fuss.  Just wishes to you and yours for a very happy and safe new year.

Enjoy your celebrations and time off if you have it.  Tell your family that you love them and appreciate what you have.

One last thing from me: a very heartfelt thank you to each and every one of you for making the past year a wonderful, warm and dizzying year.  This blog would not exist without you and I never forget that.  I just don’t mention it often enough.

Happy, Happy New Year to all.

Peace. I’m Out.

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It doesn’t matter that your cell phone, PDA, or toaster can keep the time.  Regardless of the ability of these multitasking machines that today’s technology provides us, everyone still loves a humble and simple uni-tasker; the simple yet invaluable watch

Your watch may not be able to collect your email, surf the web or balance your checkbook, but what they do they do with an unfailing and sometimes comforting degree of accuracy.  They tell the time and keep your day on track.

I’ve been thinking hard about what to get the women in my life as gifts this year.  All are savvy in the ways of their modern toys.  Each one carries at least three different devices that can give them the time in several different timezones to within a millisecond of precision.  Regardless of that, each one still wears or carries a watch, so what better way to say I was thinking of you than to get them a new, trendy watch.

Michele Watches capture a stunning design philosophy fusing timeless elegance with contemporary art. The designs are whimsical, classic and to be honest, just a little funky.  They are perfectfor the more eclectic women in my life.  Not because they are currently the most sought after “must have” by celebs and the well-to-do, but because a gift that helps to make your life predictable is worth the additional cost. After all, a watch shouldn’t just look good.  It should be expected to work perfectly at all times….

Well, it should look good, too.

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As a kid I was, as are most children, a huge fan of October 31st.  I find that as I got older, I don’t care for the holiday as much, but I was wondering…  What are your Halloween traditions?

Do you celebrate Halloween? If so, is it trick-or-treating or just watching a bunch of scary movies throughout the month?  do you look forward to costume parties and get-togethers or are you more the sit-home and pass out candy type? Are you involved at all, or do you just turn off the porch light and pray you don’t get T-P’ed or, like my sister, do you deck the yard with everything you can imagine to frighten the youn-ones that will invariably be passing your way on October 31st?

Just wondering.  Leave a comment and share in the discussion.

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I mentioned in an earlier post that I was completely disenchanted with the new theme I designed for Cooking, by the seat of my Pants!  After just a few weeks of looking at This:

I had determined that it simply wasn’t going to work for this blog, no matter what I did.  I couldn’t stand it.  So yesterday I unveiled the New-New cbsop.  The current design (which, if you’re reading this blog a few years down the line and thigs have changed, looks like this:)

Hearkens back to the original design of Cooking by the seat of my Pants!, which unfortunately I do not have an image for.

I think this layout works perfectly to show off what this blog is all about.  The food.  The theme is designed specifically to always show a the latest recipe posted at the top of the page, with all other posts following, which makes certain that there is no strange content at the top of the lo when someone visits. (Paid posts, contests, personal ramblings like this one, etc.)

I hope Y’All enjoy the new look and remember: You can access Cooking by the seat of my Pants! via www.cbsop.com as well!

Have a great day everyone!

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OK, this isn’t at all involved with food, but it’s interesting enough that I felt it had to be shared, so please allow a short digression.  I promise it will make you think for a minute, if nothing else.

Watch the video before reading on, if you please.  You won’t understand the rest of the post if you don’t…

Makes you think, doesn’t it?  But what does it make you think? I mean, I knew it probably wasn’t about what it sounded like, but did the end catch you by surprise, too?

Talbot’s is working hard to change their image and their clientele to a more trendy and modern crowd, the video is proof of that. It’s fun, it’s slightly naughty and it definitely made me do a double-take.  My wife shot straight over to their site and picked out a slew of things that she wanted form their inventory. (most notably in the shoe department.)

Is Talbot’s right for you?  Why not visit the Talbots site and take a look around.  If there’s something there that you love, leave a comment and share what it was and what you liked about it. It’ll be fun!

If you like, I’ll post my wife’s list as well, but be warned, it’s long!

You may also want to run over to Red Chair Confessions and watch more of these videos, including the progression that led up to this one. I have to admit that I found it interesting as well, though I’m not in their target audience. (I do hang at woman’s fashion sites though. It helps me pick the right gift for my wife!)

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