She should be glad to have a job!

I haven’t blogged much about soaps in a while, mostly because I haven’t had much time to watch them.  Mike hates them, so we watched other stuff when he was in the hospital, and now at home.  Hopefully he will be going back to work soon, and I’ll be able to get back to watching.

Anyhoo, I keep up with what’s going on over at a site called SoapCentral.com.  The big news over at the Young & the Restless is that Melody Thomas Scott, who has played leading lady Nikki Newman for 30 years, is leaving the show.  Apparently, Ms. Scott could not come to an agreement with the show, who asked her to take a pay cut.

Dan J. Kroll, the founder of SoapCenral.com, wrote a piece about this in his In The Bubble blog.  Fans are invited to leave comments.

Some said that Ms. Scott was right to leave, that she should be paid what she is worth.  Some argued that it looked as if the show was only asking FEMALE stars to take pay cuts…Jess Walton, who plays Jill Abbott, alsmot walked, but in the end decided to take the pay cut, saying that “a job is a job”.

But if they asked top male stars, such as Eric Braeden (Victor Newman) or Peter Bergman (Jack Abbott) to take pay cuts, we haven’t heard about it.  I’d like to hope that the show was fair, asked the guys, too, and maybe they just took it with no dramatics.  But we don’t really know.

Other fans who posted on Dan’s blog said that Ms. Scott should just suck it up and take the pay cut, as Ms. Walton did.  Many soap fans have lots of time to watch now, live, not recording them, because they are out of work.  It sort of rubs you the wrong way when you see someone who has a job , probably a very highly-paid job, not accept a pay cut in order to keep said job.

Soaps are getting to be a dying genre on TV.  There have been so many budget cuts, and sadly, it often shows in the finished episodes.  They hire a lot of young kids who will work for cheap, and don’t give stories to beloved veteran characters because it would involve paying them too much money.

You see it in the sets, too.  Over on As The World Turns, half the characters live in the Lakeview Hotel, because the show can’t afford sets for each major character’s home.  For a time, the other half of the town lived on Emma Snyder’s farm.  Thank goodness they finally made a new set for Lily & Holden’s house, so they all moved off of the farm.  But still, Holden and Lily are of only a small handful of Oakdale residents who have their own homes.  The others are Brad and Katie Snyder, Paul Ryan, and Tom & Margo Hughes.  Luke and Noah were supposed to get their own place, have they shown it yet?  As I said, I haven’t watched in a while.  They lived on Emma’s farm for a while, but then moved into Holden & Lily’s house when they finally made a set for that.

But I digress.  The fact is, anyone who still has a job working on a soap should be grateful for it.  As you may know, the longest-running soap ever, Guiding Light, has been canceled due to low ratings and budget cuts.  Some of their actors will be lucky to land gigs on other shows, but there is not room for all of them.  Some of the minor players may have to  go back to waiting tables, or go on an admin job search. In these tough economic times, we all gotta do what we gotta do in order to keep rooves over our heads and food on the table, yanno?

Perhaps Melody Thomas Scott could get signed by another soap.  But honestly, she’s been Nikki for so long, will fans accept her as any other character?  And would another soap offer her the same salary she was getting from Y&R?

I doubt it.  NOBODY in the soap opera industry has tons of money to spend these days.  Right now they are struggling to maintain a budget and somehow not get canceled, as GL was.

Culinary school doth NOT make you a celebrity chef!

As some you you may know, I have had formal culinary training, and worked in the restaurant biz for a time.  So I have plenty of knowledge about the reality of this business.

I see ads on TV for various culinary schools, and too many of them try to make it look very glamorous…as in, go to our school, and you can be the next Emeril and have your own cooking show and a restaurant/merchandise empire.  So, many starry-eyed kids sign up, only to find that it really doesn’t work that way.

The restaurant business is HARD.  Very freakin’ hard.  Even if you get top grades in culinary school, and graduate at the top of your class, that doesn’t make you qualified for celebrity chef-dom.  Nope, far from it!  You still have to work your ass off for years before anyone even lets you run a kitchen, never mind give you a cooking show on PBS or the Food Network.

I went to Newbury College in Brookline, MA for my culinary training.  They are not one of the schools that advertise on daytime TV offering you false promises.  I found them to be very realistic as to what you can expect job-wise after graduation.  You are lucky if you get a job cooking on the line, which is hard, grueling work, and if you work had and are any good, you might eventually get to be a sous chef.  Only after many years of busting your hump will you ever get to really be a *chef*, as in , running your own kitchen.  Okay, so Emeril got to be executive chef of Commander’s Palace in New Orleans just four years after he graduated from Johnson & Wales in Providence, RI.  But this is the exception, not the rule.  And even with this prestigious job, he still had to work very long hours.

If you are thinking of going to culinary school, I urge you to first get a copy of Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain, and read it.  Twice.  I read this book years after I left the biz, and I had to nod my head many times over most of the stuff he talked about.  It’s a difficult, stressful job in a restaurant kitchen, and I can tell you from experience that many of my co-workers have had serious problems with alcohol and drugs.  I always liked to toss back some beers after work, but things never got as bad for me as they had for some people I worked with.  I haven’t kept up with most of them, but I would not be surprised if some of them ended up in drug rehab.

Don’t get me wrong, you can make a decent living at this…just realize that it’s hard work, you work all sorts of hours, most of your time is not your own, and you may hardly ever see your spouse/SO, kids, or pets if you have any.

I gave it all up when I married Mike, because it was just too much.  He makes enough money for the both of us, but still, I now have a happy little work-at-home gig that brings in some extra cash.  I’m happy to just be a home cook again, and write about it sometimes, right here on this blog.

Go to culinary school if you really want to, but please be sure that this is what you really want to do, and if so, do it with your eyes wide open!

Christmas Dinner

I think we will have a ham again this year.  Still not sure about the sides, though.  But I still have time to decide.

Ham has the advantage of being easy, especially if you buy one of those spiral-sliced hams. They come fully-cooked, all you have to do is re-heat and them glaze them.  Some hams come with a package of a powdered glaze mix, at my house, that goes right into the trash. I opened one up to check it out once, it smelled nasty. So I prefer to make my own glaze.

Here is one of my favorite recipes:

Ham with Apple-Mustard Glaze

1/2 cup (6 ounces) apple jelly
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon bourbon (optional)
1 1/2 teaspoons lemon juice
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
———-
1 (7-9 pounds) shank portion spiral-sliced ham
For garnish, if desired: pineapple slices

To make the glaze: Melt the jelly in a saucepan or in the microwave. Remove from heat, and whisk in mustard, bourbon (if using), lemon juice, and cloves. Set aside, let cool to room temp.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Place the ham in a roasting pan, cut side down (to keep the slices from fanning apart in the oven). Baking time is 8 minutes per pound of ham, about an hour, more or less.

Remove the ham from the oven, and raise the oven temp to 450 degrees F. Brush the ham with the glaze, and return to the oven for 5-7 minutes, or until nice and glazed. Remove, let stand for 10 minutes. To serve, place the ham on its side on a serving platter, fan out the slices, and garnish with pineapple slices if desired. Serves 12 with leftovers.

In other news, I have tried unsuccessfully to burn all of my “23 Days of Christmas” songs to CD…but my CD burner has not been cooperating. I’d love to be able to play them during our holiday dinner. So I will create a new playlist on my iPod and put them all there. I have one of those speaker things that you can hook up to MP3 players, so everyone can listen.

I still wish I could get the stoopid CD burner on this computer to work, though. Wanted to make one for Mike to enjoy in the car!

Meet the cast of America’s Test Kitchen

Here in the Boston area, on Wednesday, December 10, 6-7 PM at the  Coolidge Corner Theatre in Brookline, MA.  This will be followed by books signings across the street at the Brookline Booksmith.  You will need to reserve tickets by calling 617-566-6660 or by emailing events@brooklinebooksmith.com.

As you may know, America’s Test Kitchen is a long-running cooking show on PBS, from the editors of Cook’s Illustrated magazine.  In the pic, left to right:  Jack Bishop of the Tasting Lab, Adam Ried of the Equipment Corner, Chris Kimball, show host and founder of Cook’s, Julia Collin-Davison and Bridget Lancaster, on-air test kitchen chefs.

The last time I went to one of their events, only Chris and Adam were there.  I got both of their autographs on books.  I got to talk to Adam a little bit, he was really nice.  I have actually bought a lot of my kitchen stuff based on his recommendations on the show and in the magazine, and have never been disappointed.  he was very happy to hear from a veiwer/reader that he was doing a good job.

This time, I hope that everybody will be there…we shall see!

The only thing is that I have to take the T to get there, and I have to go alone, because Mike has to work.  For some reason, I am one of those freak and weirdo magnets…loser guys who try to hit on me, even though I show them my wedding rings and tell them flat out that I’m married and therefore not interested.  One guy actually asked me why my husband would “let” me go out alone.  What a jerk!  Even if I were single, I would not be interested in any of these morons.  Why would I want a guy who thinks that a wife needs permission to go anywhere or do anything?  But somehow, guys like this think that being in charge of their women makes them more “manly”.  I think it just makes them stupid.

I’m still going to go anyway, weird guys on the train/bus or not.  But Mike can come to the T station and pick me up, so I don’t have to sit there with the weirdos and wait for the bus to get home.  He’ll be home by then.  I just need to make sur he remembers to turn his phone on so that I can call and let him know when I’ll be on my way.

Anyhoo, I am looking forward to this event!

Warnings, warning, warnings everywhere!

We’ve already read all about the diet pill warnings and such. And this week, we’ve been warned about how most kids’ meals at fast-food joints have too many calories.  Well, that’s not exactly rocket science…remember how people would eat at these places, and then are shocked, SHOCKED to discover that this food made them fat?  D’oh!

But here’s another warning that is NOT so well-publicized:  if you have food allergies, don’t eat at Olive Garden.  In a discussion on a private board I go to, they were talking about whether or not restaurants should be required to disclose nutrition info upon request.  One woman asked about certain ingredients in a dish that she wanted to order at OG, only to be told that they won’t disclose ANY ingredients, they are *secret*.  And she was told the thing about if you have food allergies, don’t eat here.

She says that she and her party of 15 left to dine elsewhere.  And I agree.  This is just plain unacceptable.  WTF is so secret about Olive Garden’s dishes, anyway?  I’ve never eaten in one, I admit, but I’ve never WANTED to.  We live in the Boston area, we can find REAL Italian food in the North End or in other Italian neighborhoods.  Olive Garden is probably as about as Italian as I am.

DECENT restaurants are more than happy to tell you what is in something, so that you can make an informed choice as to whether to order it or not.  And not just because of food allergies, but how about likes and dislikes?  Mike HATES coconut, for instance.  We like to go to a place called the Naked Fish, which has a lot of tropical themed dishes.  Many of them contain coconut.  But it says on the menu if they contain it or not, and if he isn’t sure, he asks, and they will tell him.  It’s not like Mike would get sick or die from eating coconut, he just doesn’t like it.  If he were served a dish that contained coconut after not being told that was in it, he’d be pissed, and not return to this restaurant.

I think that customers DO have the right to ask what is in the food, and if the staff can’t/won’t tell them, said customers should dine elsewhere.

States such as New York and California are now requiring chain restaurants to put nutrition info ON THE MENUS.  Although I agree that this info should be made available to those who want it, I don’t think they should be forced to make new, ginormous menus for this.  Just a not, “nutrition info available upon request”.  You request, they bring you a sheet of paper with said info on it.  Fair enough to all.

People need to be allowed to know exactly what they are eating, right?