Not Just A Hat Rack

Hungry?

Now that they've asked the four-week senator from Illinois to resign, the Chicago Tribune has turned its focus to a meatier subject.

Who claims the original recipe for Chicago's own deep-dish pizza?

They actually paid some reporter named James Janega to get to the bottom of this historical conundrum... is it a Malnati? An owner of Uno's? Louisa?

We've perfected the Malnati's recipe here in Salt Lake City. Stop by sometime...we've got just the right combination of flour, corn meal, butter, Italian tomatoes, Boar's Head pepperoni and a mix of cheeses.

Oh, and to settle a debate raging in the 'Hat Rack household, note that it confirms, "the tomatoes go on top, not the cheese."

A Perplexing Lunch

Huh?!

So I had lunch with an old friend (strictly business!) who was able to put the meal on his University of Utah expense account credit card... which is clearly marked that he/it/our lunch is tax-exempt. He forgot to tell the waitress, so he had to send the bill back the first time. Now, if we'd had a beer, it's not tax-exempt, but food is.

I can't quite fathom why this meal should not be subject to the same 6-ish% tax that the rest of us pay when we have Salt Lake's best pizza at Settebella, but I'm not complaining. My tax money supports the U, but when they take me out to lunch, we don't pay sales tax and support the U.

Ok, lots to cover, we move on.

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How about those Seattle Dancing Pandas! In addition to reaching out to Asia and the world with a dodeca-lingual website, the new MLS team in Seattle is pushing all the right buttons.

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1) 3,000 season ticket deposits already.
2) A celeb owner in Drew Carey (who was very funny, and very serious on Monday Night Football when talking about the fans having the opportunity to vote out the GM every four years).
3) And a glib GM/minority owner in Adrian Hanauer who brought up the Dancing Panda idea when asked what he would name his team.

I like these guys. By the way, I wonder if I would have had a better shot if the fans were voting on my future at RSL...

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Michael Castner is out at KSL? That didn't take long. I wondered how long ultra-conservative (I'm sorry, is "off-the-charts, hate-filled, right-wing" taken?) KSL would put up with Castner and his band of hip, saracastic, dare-I-say-liberal evening talk hosts ... so I guess I'm not surprised. As much as I respect Ethan of SLC SPIN fame, I'm not sure he nor the rest of the ensemble has enough to carry the show. Maybe they'll import the guy who looks like Chris Elliott who stole the show at Plan-B Theatre's Exposed?

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Barry Bonds indicted for obstruction of justice? That's all they could come up with? Pathetic. I don't even like Bonds, but I think for all that MLB has gone through in the past 15 years, someone could produce an outcome with more excitement than this...

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My good friend Peter Wilt ended his somewhat Quixotic journey to bring Major League Soccer to Wisconsin. As expected, he said and did all the right things in his exit. Peter, the way you put your heart and soul into everything you do inspires many! I hope you live to see the "Green Bay Packers" of MLS in Wisconsin some day!

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Newsflash - Change on the horizon at RSL! Ok, that in itself, given the team's 37-month tenure is not news. After all, nothing can help that organization more than about 24 months of stability. The clock hasn't started yet.

Scene from My Italian Kitchen

Merry Christmas & Buon Natale,

I'll rank cooking next to running as two of my all-time favorite pastimes.  Both allow time to focus on a short-term goal, while at the same time being an excellent avenue to clear one's mind.  My family seems to recognize my appreciation of good food, especially the Italian variety.  After all, they offered Christmas gifts bearing the brand names Illy (Italian espresso), Molinari (San Francisco salame), Reggiano (parmesan cheese - is that a brand name?), Pan Ducale (biscotti), Ghirardelli (chocolate) and a new-and-improved pasta pot.  I'm in trattoria heaven.

(Warning: this is a bit of a long post, but if you're starving for some good, real, Italian minestrone, read to the end!)

I am fortunate the kitchen always smelled so delicious as a kid - and Mom let me linger, taste, touch, experiment whenever I wanted.  To this day, no kitchen smells better than Mom's when she's making spaghetti sauce.