What I do when I'm not ranting about food...

For those who care to know I don't blog about food professionally. I'm actually an amateur reporter working on a degree in telecommunications from the university of florida and this is all for a class. If you'd like to to know a little more regarding the mystic and culinary prowess that is Clint Holzapfel have a look. It's not entirely impressive as of yet, but food and television go together like Giada De Laurentiis and strange Italian inflections. So maybe some day I'll be the next Anthony Bourdain (fingers crossed).

So you want to look like a bad ass on the grill....

Summer is almost upon us, well in Florida anyway, and that means pool parties, bikinis, corona and lime and my favorite, grilling out. Not everyone is a natural on the grill and that's understandable but it's easier than it looks to be the cool guy with the spatula and tongs. First off don't just make burgers and hot dogs, save that for game day "bro". I'm not knocking the great american past time of flipping patties and dogs on a hot day but they don't exactly wow anyone. If you want to show off your skills you gotta spend a little extra money and you gotta go big, steak big. There's nothing quite like a well seasoned steak grilled to perfection on a charcoal grill and you can be the creator of said deliciousness if you believe, and listen to me. Now I'm no Iron Chef Bobby Flay but i can give you a Food Network worthy steak.

 First off you're going to o need... 4-6 eight ounce steaks (filets are cheap at Sam's club)
Montreal Steak seasoning
Course black pepper
Cayenne pepper
1/2 cup of bleu cheese crumbles
1/2 stick of butter 1 glove of garlic
A small bowl
Whisk or egg beater
A charcoal grill
Charcoal

 First, light your charcoal so it gets heated up.
Start cooking by seasoning your steaks.Sprinkle the montreal seasoning on both sides sparingly and do the same with the cayenne depending on how much spice you'd like (remember you're adding black pepper as well).
Next take the course black pepper and rub it into each side of every steak. This gives the steak a dry rub that can cook flavor into the meat.
Now let the dry rubbed steaks sit at room temperature until you put them on the grill.

Next take the butter and bleu cheese out of the fridge to get them closer to room temperature.
Now mince the garlic finely and throw it in the small bowl.
Take the softened bleu cheese and butter and add them in as well.
Whip all of the ingredients together until they are thoroughly mixed into a thick clumpy paste.
Toss the bowl in the fridge and grab the steaks, its time to grill.

Arrange the steaks on the grill where there's even heat.
Cook the steaks for 3 minutes on each side or longer if your homies don't like optimal flavor.
Finally throw some of that sweet sweet bleu cheese and garlic butter on those steaks for one last minute and serve em up.

 If meaty bleu cheese deliciousness isn't your think check out some of my pervious entries.

 Now grab some sunglasses and grill your ass off cool guy!

Valentine's day dessert

Wether you're planning on going out to dinner or staying in and cooking for two dessert is a must have end to any valentines day meal. You could get whatever the restaurant has for the occasion, take them to ice cream or you could make a more romantic treat. Chocolate covered strawberries are synonymous with V-day. They scream romance. If the movies say its romantic it's gotta be.



What you'll need

-1 pound of fresh strawberries

-16 ounces of milk chocolate

-2 tablespoons of shortening



If you want your Valentines day evening to end the right way follow this video. Some flowers couldn't hurt either.

So you forgot to make reservations on Valentine's day...

First off, don't panic. Second go to the grocery store and pick up what you'll need to prove your love via food. In this case with steak.



You'll need-

-Two 4 ounce filet mignon steaks

- 1/4th cup of balsamic vinegar

- 1/4th cup red wine

- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper

- salt to taste



So hit up Publix or any of the lesser grocers, follow this video and avert the crisis you've gotten yourself in to.

Food for thought - "Don't Make Me Think" by Steve Krug.

Unfortunately this isn’t food related but it is internet related so it’s only slightly less important. Most people who surf the interwebs on a regular basis rarely realize how easy and seamless the travel from site to site or link to link is. You can travel into the depths of reddit with a few clicks or a convenient search bar and be right back on the front page with a finger stroke. I myself never really considered this or what it would be like if the websites and blogs I loved so much weren’t so user friendly until I read “Don’t Make Me Think” by Steve Krug. In the short read is a basic guide with tips and tricks to optimizing your website or blog. I found the psychology and break down of web user behavior very interesting. Krug describes people like myself and others who waste hours on the internet to actually be quite carful with what we waste that time on. I hadn’t really considered this but as I scrolled through an article on Gizmodo and another on Buzzfeed I realized his observation was spot on. I barely paid any mind to the article on Buzzfeed because it had a video you had to watch along with text. On Gizmodo the site designers had a similar article but with embedded GIF’s that played over and over automatically to accompany the text. So I could simply read, look up and continue reading and get all the info that the article had to offer. This kind of thing sounded ridiculous when I first considered it and kind of sad at the same time but its true. I don’t want to waste the time I’m wasting. I want to waste time on the Internet efficiently. The main thing I think I took away from the book though was how accurate the title was and what it meant. “Don’t Make Me Think” literally means do not make me think about browsing the internet. Do not make me think about how to navigate this website. If I went on Facebook and it took me more than 3 clicks to get to my profile I would be frustrated, sadly. It’s a little pathetic but very true. This blog is of my own content but not my own design. The people who created the template’s had feasibility in mind every single step of the way. The internet is an invaluable tool and outlet to share information but no one would want to read any of it if it wasn’t easy enough to do while walking to class or (hopefully not) driving a car. Krug illustrates that a good website or blog has solid content that can be experienced almost mindlessly. That may sound derogatory but it goes back to how he describes people and the way we all value our time. When I do decide to make a website of my own I will keep that in mind. Because who wants to read about food if it takes them 2 minutes to figure out how to get to the articles.