Survivor Gabon-Fang Losers Again

Ok, now I'm getting mad. How long is this losing streak of Fang's going to last? Kota needs to lose and in a big way. I am getting a little tired of their happy soiled little faces, I just want to spit! Matty is missing food, his dog and his girlfriend and in that order. He makes a pact with Ace to go to the merge with him and Sugar and he's keeping to his word. Back at Kota, Dan is being the food hog and everyone is eyeing how much he is eating while the Fang tribe is counting out their merger rations of rice. Sugar gives Ace the idol, why? One word Stupid! The reward challenge is to carry a heavy 240 lb snake around a track, challenge of endurance, which we know Fang has none. Crystal, Matty and Ace make a good fight of it, but Kota with practically all it's members carrying that heavy thing, even Professor Bob was still in there, Fang could not keep up. Kota quickly gobbles up some of the food in front of the Fang tribe sending Crystal into tears of frustration. Yep, I'd be frustrated too! Kota sends Sugar back to her Sugar shack. Now I'm thinking here, isn't there another idol out there? Why doesn't she look for the second idol instead of crying in her pineapple, feeling guilty about eating the fruits of her exile.

At the Kota camp, they manage to catch a turtle. Ok, I don't care how hungry they are, didn't they just win a reward challenge of food? And isn't this just TV and not real life and aren't turtles a protected species? Poor turtle, be free! I can remember when I used to go to Chinatown in San Francisco, I would buy the tiny turtles they were selling as a food product and take them to Ocean beach and let them go. Turtles are just too cute to eat and that stew Kota made looked simply disgusting.

In the immunity challenge, Fang did try to make a heroic effort to win, had not Ace's let me do it attitude at putting the pole together undo them and once again they are sent to tribal council. At camp, Sugar tells gamerboy Kenny that she gave the idol to Ace. How many people has she told? Gamerboy was shocked and told her that she needs to get the idol back from Ace and when she did and told Ace that she took it out of his pack, he just seemed ok with it. Surprise, surprise, I thought he'd want to keep it for his own protection.

If there is one thing at tribal council that I have learned is not to get into Crystal's face because she will z-snap you in a heart beat. And with that Kelly was the next survivor to have her torch snuffed.-Single D

Martha Stewart-Citrus Cornmeal Shortbread

I love cookies, cookies in any form, shape, flavor and size. I do however tire easily over cookies. Like for example, I can't buy a bag of cookies in the grocery store without half the bag getting stale because I never finish it. I'm like a cookie tramp, I get tired of the same cookie after a few days. However, there is one kind of cookie that I really never tire of and that is the shortbread cookie done right. I have tried many shortbread recipes and I have found that the less sweet the better. When we were in Rome, the pastry shops there are crazy fantastic. Why is it that the pastry shops look so much more enticing in Europe than they do here. I do have to mention of a little pastry shop in San Francisco that I used to go to that reminded me of a Paris patisserie, Fantasia Bakery in the Laurel Heights section of town. More old fashion of yesteryear, but definitely European in flavor. I miss those days of buying their hot cross buns at Easter, napoleons and butter cookies. One of my favorite Italian cookie is the buttery shortbread cookie made with cornmeal, really delicious and not very sweet. So when I came across a Martha Stewart recipe for Citrus Cornmeal Shortbread I was in heaven and hoping it would be like the ones in Italy.

Take two sticks of butter out of the fridge and let stand at room temp. I left my two sticks out too long and just the heat of my Las Vegas kitchen made the butter too soft.

Put soften sticks of butter in kitchenaid:

Add 3/4 cup of confectioners' sugar

Add 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract

Grate over the bowl some orange zest mix well in bowl-

Then stir in 2 cups of flour + 2 Tablespoons of yellow cornmeal and 1 teaspoon of salt and mix until well combined.

Dough should be soft (if too soft at this point put in fridge until dough firms somewhat, dough should be nice to handle), flour counter top and take dough out. Halve dough and shape into two logs about 1 1/2 inches in diameter and wrap in plastic and refrigerate until cold, at least an hour.

Take dough out and cut into 1/4" rounds and roll in 1/4 cup of yellow cornmeal. Bake in a 300 oven for 30-35 minutes until golden.

These are delicious, crunchy and tender, and I could eat a hundred and that's saying a mouth full. -Single D

Top Design-Honorable Mentions

I don't know why I am not blogging Top Design. One of my three favorite things to do is design, cook and travel. So why not Top Design? I started watching Top Design because it followed on the sassy high heels of Project Runway. I was thinking just another knock off of HGTV Design Star and I love that show, although I thought this season was pretty lame. I think I actually like Top Design better, oh hush! A few honorable mentions here. First there's designer to Martha Stewart, in all his girlish glory, Eddie. He reminds me of the kid on the playground you would push off the slide just for kicks. He'd go running to the nearest teacher and tattle tale, nose dripping with snot and blood. And can he be more humble? The guy thinks he God's gift to simply everything, "I do it all", design, cook, stage, stumble and fall. I'm wondering what Martha's thinking when she sees her editor in chief say, gee I don't know what you mean, I'm great! Then there was Wisit. What kind of name is Wisit? He reminded me of a Chinese concubine, an operatic Madame Butterfly flitting here and flitting there, uttering rococo this and rococo that. What exactly is rococo? Next there's Nathan. Bald, sour, worm like. Sometimes the camera light accents his deep eye bag, only one though, so that he looks like some kind of weird psycho person, but my best bet for winning this whole thing. Blatant raw talent. The person I liked the best right from the beginning was Andrea, wife of Ricky Schroeder. She just seems so down to earth and ordinary. She has those sleepy bedroom eyes that seem so sweet and innocent. No effectual airs about being married to an actor and not a diva bone in her body. I think her lack of professional experience pitted against the likes of Eddie and Nathan was just too intimidating for her and she actually asked to leave the show last night. When the judges told her that she was not the one out this week and did she still want to leave the show, I think she suffered a moment of why did I open my mouth. But because she is a nice person and it would be plain jane, Ondine to leave, she knew she couldn't back down now. Too bad she didn't reign in her insecurity at least until the judging because she would have made it to the final four and be the last woman standing, which would have been a huge accomplishment on her part. Now I guess it's back to Hollywood, the kids, the Hollywood lifestyle and hiring designers, after all, I'm sure she can afford it.

One mention about the judges here. Jonathan Adler, iconic potter extraordinaire. Who has a title like that? I think might refer to myself as Single D, blogger, mother extraordinaire. Doesn't his face convey it all? He has a mother face, it gets all screwed up when he doesn't like something. You so totally know when he finds a design repulsive and for him, if it's not genius then it's repulsive. Margaret Russell looks like the b!!ch from Hell. Oh boy, would not want to meet her in a dark alley, she's just plain scary. I do like India Hicks but what is she famous for again? And that Kelly Wearstler, I know she's some kind of designer, but does that give her license to wear the quirkiest hats in the universe? My favorite Tim Gunn of this show is Todd Oldman, Oldham. He just seems so nice and has a voice that would calm down a pack of pitbulls. He so knowledgeable and gives kind words of encouragement, unlike Adler's looks of "oh my why did you do that"? -Single D

Amazing Race-Auckland, New Zealand & Phil's Dad

Can I get this off my mind-you know the opening scene of Amazing Race where they show the racers in their hometowns? I just can't stand Starr and Nick, their heads bobbing to the side like they are cheerleaders or something, totally drives me crazy! It's just so goody goody, which is so opposite of what they really are.

The teams leave La Paz, with Ken and Tina leading the way at 12:33 am. I was surprised how many team times were bunched up around the 1:00 hour. I imagine leaving at the wee hours of the morning must make for an exhausting day as it looks like they race straight through till the evening hours the following day. I'm thinking when do they eat, or pee? I guess the lack of sleep are making Ty and Aja grumpy as they are having a blow out at the airport. Once in New Zealand, things don't fare any better for them as they get another blow out this time a flat tire on their way to find the clue. That would be my worst nightmare, is to get a flat tire and Ty looked totally helpless in changing it. He tells Aja to flag someone down.

I don't know how Ken and Tina always make it first to the clue locations barely squeaking past the nerds for the fast forward. Why would the nerds, Andrew and Dan, go for the fast forward when they knew Ken and Tina were on it before them? And tell me this, how did the Southern belles, Marisa and Belle get so far behind?

Ken and Tina get to the fast forward first and have to scale the Skytower the tallest building in New Zealand. That looked scary, I would have definately pooped my pants!

The roadblock proved to be fairly easy as most of the teams were able to match the tattoo picture with the Maori tattoo face. Reminds me of some of my friends in San Francisco. Most of the Maori wanted nose kisses but one Maori did steal a kiss from Ms. Southern Belle. The next challenge is either to make a go-cart or crush kiwis. Of course, I know how mechanically challenging assembling things are so I chose to crush kiwis like the majority of the teams. This seemed to be harder than it looked as there were rocks at the bottom of the kiwi vat. I had to crack up when both female teams, especially, Kelly and Christy view stomping kiwis like it was a day at the foot spa and the rocks didn't seem to bother them at all. See, I guess wearing high heels really do toughen the feet.

Mom and Dallas were the second to arrive at the Kiwis but were not able to finish that challenge, as mom said, it wasn't as fun as Lucy stomping the grapes in Italy, so they decide to do the go-kart challenge instead. Nick and Starr follow their lead, but Starr takes a nasty spill on the track and it looked like for a half second that she broke her arm. She managed to finish her laps between tears and complaints, and then the good brother lets her drive. What was he thinking? They finally switch places because she can't steer let alone drive on the wrong side of the road.

The first to the mat, who else? Ken and Tina. They are quickly becoming a force to be reckoned with. I guess if you think about it, the other teams just don't seem as strong as them. Then again, it's not always about strenght as it is about luck and they've had some good luck. It was cute that Phil's dad was Phil's companion at the mat. I didn't know that Phil was from New Zealand. I have a girl friend from Christchurch. When she came to the states many years ago, she tells the story of how she came to America. She and her husband were going to move to England, only when they landed in London, he got off, she didn't and that's how she came to America without her husband! I love that story!

Anyway, the belles unfortunately were the last ones to reach the mat. I thought for sure this has got to be a non-elimination round, but unfortunately for them it was not. Sweet girls, now go home and put on your pearls.-Single D

Remembering A Memory In Perfect Detail-Ever Have One of Those?

Ever have one of those memories from your childhood that you can recall in perfect detail? The other day on the TMC channel the "Trouble with Angels" was playing. Watching this movie brought me back to the day I went to see this movie with my best friend growing up in Southern California. I think I was in 6th grade. I remember it was playing at the Vogue Theater downtown. It was summer and very hot, not typical for a town close to the beach. I don't know why this particular day in my childhood is so clear. Maybe it was the first time I was able to go to the movies with my girlfriend without being accompanied by my mother. Maybe it was the movie, "The Trouble With Angels", starring Haley Mills and Rosalind Russell as Mother Superior that made it so memorable. I stopped what I was doing the other day and sat down to watch it. It was just as good now as it was then. I remember my mother taking us to the theater and dropping us off and told us she would pick us up promptly when the movie ended. How I was able to go to the movies without my mother is still a mystery to me. I hated going to the movies with my mother, she would always cover my eyes during the romantic parts, how embarrassing! I remember I wore gold capri stretch pants and a black turtle neck that day, even though it was summer outside. My hair was pulled back in a single pony tail. How I felt like Audrey Hepburn in that outfit! I bought Goobers and Terri bought a box of vanilla bon-bon ice cream bites covered in chocolate. I remember sitting through that movie and in the end when the Haley Mills character sees Mother Superior mourn the death of one of the sisters and then decides to join the convent, I was crying in the dark.

In the ensuing years, the Vogue theater converted to showing Spanish films, I lost touch with Terri after junior high school, she went to another school, and I don't know what happened to those gold capri pants.

As I watch my daughter play with her friends on the computer, I'm wondering will she ever have that perfect childhood memory comprised of clear crisp details? What will she have that will make her stop her life, even just for a second, to recall a memory so perfect in detail that one could almost relive the entire wonder of it all? I hope she does, because in the end, isn't the perfect memory all we have?-Single D