So it has been a while since my last blog. It has been hectic around the ol' Hampton house. My grandparents and Uncle Gregg came into town the day before Easter for a visit. It was nice having them out here. We cooked them dinner almost every night from our list of successful recipes. Good food, lots of wine, and good company. The only problem was our schedules are really different. They get up later in the day then us then eat lunch around 2 or 3 o'clock and we try to have dinner about 5:30 or 6:00 so that we can be done and cleaned up from dinner by 7 so we can get the kids ready for school the next day. Because of the different schedules, we were eating anywhere from 6:30-7:30. Oh well, it was nice having them out here for a while, but I am glad that things are back to normal now. Dad finally went off to work yesterday. It has been since mid January since he has worked. He got the flu which turned into bronchitus. You can't fly sick so he has been off since then. He flew out yesterday and won't be back until Saturday. So I am sitting in a quiet house.........the silence is great. Carrie Underwood is on the TV right now.....life is good.
I have been playing online a little bit in the last couple of weeks. I am trying to qualify for the WSOP main event on Full Tilt. They have these freerolls running constantly. If you win one of the .net sit n go's or place 1st or 2nd on the .com sit n go's you move on to round 2. If you place 1st or 2nd in one of the round 2's then you go to the finals. Once you get into the finals you have to place in the top 3 and you win a seat. A lot of work, but someone's going to win those seats, why not me?! The round 1 tourney's are funny. There is no play what so ever. That's why we call them donkaments. It is a turbo structure so the blinds go up really fast, so everyone tries to get a lot of chips early. They are also starting new tourney's every couple of minutes so if you get knocked out you can just go get into another one.
I have been working on the business plan for the personal chef business and that is going well. I have started the menu and have been testing new recipes, so that is moving forward pretty well. Not as fast as I would like it, but hopefully this week with the quiet house during the day I can get on a little faster pace. I have had a couple of people contact me about using my services once I am up and running so that is a positive motivation for me to get it done.
Other than that, everything is going well. I'll give an update later on in the week. Talk at ya'll later.
Monday, March 31, 2008
Monday, March 17, 2008
Spring break is over!!!
This past week was spring break for the kids. UGH!!! Thank god it is over. Today is Monday and they have gone back so that means I can get back to the Personal Chef Business Plan. I have talked to a few more people about my plans, and I have been getting pretty good feedback on it. I even have a friend at the real estate office that has a house cleaning company and he said he was going to mention it to some of his clients. This week I have to get going pretty quick.
We cooked six times this past week. Monday we had pasta with meat sauce. This time Kim decided to change the recipe and add some of the spicy italian sausage and some other seasonings to the sauce which made it really good and of course our homemade garlic-cheesy bread. Wednesday we had the herb crusted pork tenderloin with the red potatoes, shallot wine sauce and asparagus (quickly becoming one of our favorites). Thursday was personal pizza's. We made the dough from scratch and everyone got to create their own masterpieces. Friday was beer brats and onion rings. This was a Paula Dean recipe that we just watched her and her son make on Paula's Party. The brats were pretty good and the onion rings were really good. The only problem is we don't have an exhaust hood over the stove so we have to open the windows and doors to help get the smoke out. The smell of the cooking onion rings filled the house and didn't leave until we started cooking on Saturday. Mexican pulled pork (Tinga Pueblana) is what we made on saturday. The recipe sounded so good....garlic, chorizo, onion, chipotle chiles in adobo....... It just sounded really good. We made homemade guacamole and when the pork dish was done..........it was just okay, kinda boring actually. Don't get me wrong, it was good, but it was boring. Then last night was Chinese 5 spice beef and peppers with Jasmine rice. Again, it was good, but boring. Tonight we are trying a Jambalaya....the recipe looks good so hopefully it isn't boring also.
Played in the Casino Arizona tourney on Friday. It started off pretty good. Raised in middle position with 55 and had three callers. Flop came 10-5-4 rainbow and bet 400 into a pot of 600, the guy after me raised to 800 the other guy folded and I put the raiser all in. He called and said "Do you have AK?" He turned over A10o and thought he had the best hand. LOL. I turned over my set and after the J on the turn I had him drawing dead. That table broke not too long after that and moved to my second of three tables for the day. I stole a couple of small pots after that and at the first break was at about 4500 and the average was 3100. After the break I went card dead. Made a couple of moves and got caught once keeping me at about 4500. The problem with the second table was a guy that took FOREVER to act on his hand. He would get his cards, squeeze them out to look at them. Each time it took in 10 seconds to look at his cards, he would then cap them, look at the table for another 10 seconds, and then fold. He litterally took 30 to 45 seconds to act on his hand everytime. He tried playing the Chris Ferguson style and it really got annoying. The blinds are only 20 minutes long and he is wasting so much time on each hand. Then another guy thought that he was Daniel Negreanu. Talk talk talk talk talk. Daniel can talk about hands and figure them out seemingly with ease. This guy was talking, trying to do the same thing and was failing miserably. Everytime he tried to call out someone else's hand, he was waaaay off. He would flop bottom pair with a crappy kicker and drag it out when he and everyone else at the table knew he was completely dominated if not drawing dead. So brutal. The hands per hour went down by half. When the blinds go up so quickly, my style of game depends on playing as many hands an hour as I can. We finally broke that table, but it was too late for me. I had dropped to 3000 in chips and a couple of hands into my third table the blinds were 300-600. A guy raised to 1500 in mid position and I looked down at AK and shipped it in. He insta called with JJ and hit a J on the flop to make me go runner runner for the str8, but it didn't come and I was out. Oh well. I feel I played well and am really confident in my live game right now.
Now online poker this weekend was BRUTAL!!! Brian and I have a standing last longer bet going on. Every tourney that we are in together the bet is on. Coming into this weekend I was up by 1. I had been up by as many as 3 at one point, but he battled back and won twice. I am not going to give all the horendous details, but the short of it is I am down by 4 right now. In the 8 tourney's we played, the first 5 I was knocked out by flopping top set or top two pair and loosing to runner runner str8's. The 6th I lost top pair to bottom two pair on the river, the 7th was flopped set lost to runner runner str8, and the 8th was a set beat by runner runner flush. So brutal!!! Oh well, I always got it in with the best of it.
Time to get back to work. Talk at ya'll later.
We cooked six times this past week. Monday we had pasta with meat sauce. This time Kim decided to change the recipe and add some of the spicy italian sausage and some other seasonings to the sauce which made it really good and of course our homemade garlic-cheesy bread. Wednesday we had the herb crusted pork tenderloin with the red potatoes, shallot wine sauce and asparagus (quickly becoming one of our favorites). Thursday was personal pizza's. We made the dough from scratch and everyone got to create their own masterpieces. Friday was beer brats and onion rings. This was a Paula Dean recipe that we just watched her and her son make on Paula's Party. The brats were pretty good and the onion rings were really good. The only problem is we don't have an exhaust hood over the stove so we have to open the windows and doors to help get the smoke out. The smell of the cooking onion rings filled the house and didn't leave until we started cooking on Saturday. Mexican pulled pork (Tinga Pueblana) is what we made on saturday. The recipe sounded so good....garlic, chorizo, onion, chipotle chiles in adobo....... It just sounded really good. We made homemade guacamole and when the pork dish was done..........it was just okay, kinda boring actually. Don't get me wrong, it was good, but it was boring. Then last night was Chinese 5 spice beef and peppers with Jasmine rice. Again, it was good, but boring. Tonight we are trying a Jambalaya....the recipe looks good so hopefully it isn't boring also.
Played in the Casino Arizona tourney on Friday. It started off pretty good. Raised in middle position with 55 and had three callers. Flop came 10-5-4 rainbow and bet 400 into a pot of 600, the guy after me raised to 800 the other guy folded and I put the raiser all in. He called and said "Do you have AK?" He turned over A10o and thought he had the best hand. LOL. I turned over my set and after the J on the turn I had him drawing dead. That table broke not too long after that and moved to my second of three tables for the day. I stole a couple of small pots after that and at the first break was at about 4500 and the average was 3100. After the break I went card dead. Made a couple of moves and got caught once keeping me at about 4500. The problem with the second table was a guy that took FOREVER to act on his hand. He would get his cards, squeeze them out to look at them. Each time it took in 10 seconds to look at his cards, he would then cap them, look at the table for another 10 seconds, and then fold. He litterally took 30 to 45 seconds to act on his hand everytime. He tried playing the Chris Ferguson style and it really got annoying. The blinds are only 20 minutes long and he is wasting so much time on each hand. Then another guy thought that he was Daniel Negreanu. Talk talk talk talk talk. Daniel can talk about hands and figure them out seemingly with ease. This guy was talking, trying to do the same thing and was failing miserably. Everytime he tried to call out someone else's hand, he was waaaay off. He would flop bottom pair with a crappy kicker and drag it out when he and everyone else at the table knew he was completely dominated if not drawing dead. So brutal. The hands per hour went down by half. When the blinds go up so quickly, my style of game depends on playing as many hands an hour as I can. We finally broke that table, but it was too late for me. I had dropped to 3000 in chips and a couple of hands into my third table the blinds were 300-600. A guy raised to 1500 in mid position and I looked down at AK and shipped it in. He insta called with JJ and hit a J on the flop to make me go runner runner for the str8, but it didn't come and I was out. Oh well. I feel I played well and am really confident in my live game right now.
Now online poker this weekend was BRUTAL!!! Brian and I have a standing last longer bet going on. Every tourney that we are in together the bet is on. Coming into this weekend I was up by 1. I had been up by as many as 3 at one point, but he battled back and won twice. I am not going to give all the horendous details, but the short of it is I am down by 4 right now. In the 8 tourney's we played, the first 5 I was knocked out by flopping top set or top two pair and loosing to runner runner str8's. The 6th I lost top pair to bottom two pair on the river, the 7th was flopped set lost to runner runner str8, and the 8th was a set beat by runner runner flush. So brutal!!! Oh well, I always got it in with the best of it.
Time to get back to work. Talk at ya'll later.
Sunday, March 9, 2008
Food, Poker, and business stuff
Didn't play much online poker this week. Played one night and qualified for the Sunday $1000 freeroll, and played some last night but didn't have anything too exciting happen. I have really been concentrating on gathering information on this Personal Chef business. Instead of playing live poker on Friday, Kim and I went to some restaurant supply stores and let me tell ya, we were like two kids in a candy store. It was a ton of fun. We bought some black aprons, squeeze bottles for the EVOO and other oils, some flexible cutting boards (don't really like the ones that we got, they slide around the counter too much) some individual pizza pans for everyone in the house since we all like different toppings, we can all make our own, some spoonula's, and a couple of big square bowls primarily for garbage bowls (they were on clearance for a buck). The main reason we went down there is to find a Jaccard. If you don't know what that is, it is a meat tenderizer that has multiple small blades that you push into the meat. http://jaccard.com/Home-Product-WTender-16B.asp?group=R if you want to take a look at it. I really wanted the 48 blade model, but it costs $42 in the store. I thought when I was researching it online I saw that model for $22. I ended up get the 16 blade model just because we needed to have it for the flank steak fajitas that we ate last night. Probably should have bought the one I wanted, but oh well. The Jaccard does an amazing job with the meat. We had tried a tequila marinaded fajita recipe a couple of weeks ago and found the marinade a little too sweet and the flank steak a little too chewy and tough. Last night we tried a new recipe for the marinade and used the Jaccard on the meat before we put it in the marinade, and it turned out REALLY GOOD. You basically put lots of little holes in the meat to help break it down, then the marinade gets into all the little holes and just flavors the meat beautifully. I highly recommend the Jaccard to anyone who works with tougher pieces of meat. Don't use the normal metal mallet tenderizer, those things are worthless.
As far as the Personal Chef business goes, I have been putting together a ton of info and it is really coming together nicely. Kim had an idea for the name. I found some really nice yellow towels at COSTCO that we use in the kitchen to wipe our hands with, put under cutting boards, and clean up afterwards with. Then we bought these black aprons. I put my apron on and tucked my yellow towel in the front of the apron and Kim giggled and said I looked like a bumble bee. For what ever reason, that has stuck with me and all I can think about is using that as the name of the company. Not bumble bee but Busy Bee. The marketing, advertising, tag lines, uniforms, and even a possible logo design keep going through my head. I looked online for some possible website URLs and it seems to be a possibility. I don't know, it could be really cheesy, or it could work really well. I have a list of possible names, so I added it to the list, we shall see.
Well it is just about time to start getting ready for the race and some online poker. Talk at ya later.
As far as the Personal Chef business goes, I have been putting together a ton of info and it is really coming together nicely. Kim had an idea for the name. I found some really nice yellow towels at COSTCO that we use in the kitchen to wipe our hands with, put under cutting boards, and clean up afterwards with. Then we bought these black aprons. I put my apron on and tucked my yellow towel in the front of the apron and Kim giggled and said I looked like a bumble bee. For what ever reason, that has stuck with me and all I can think about is using that as the name of the company. Not bumble bee but Busy Bee. The marketing, advertising, tag lines, uniforms, and even a possible logo design keep going through my head. I looked online for some possible website URLs and it seems to be a possibility. I don't know, it could be really cheesy, or it could work really well. I have a list of possible names, so I added it to the list, we shall see.
Well it is just about time to start getting ready for the race and some online poker. Talk at ya later.
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
Food, New Business Venture, Poker, and random thoughts
As most of you know, the real estate market has slowed down a little and the money isn't coming in as quickly as it use to. It's all part of the cycle and was to be expected. Since the slow down I have been on about a dozen listing presentations and every single one went the same with the client saying "I have the best house, the most upgrades, the best views.........so we need to get top dollar for our home!" Or my personal favorite " We just bought this house two years ago and put ten's of thousands of dollars upgrading this home and now we want to recoup all the money we spent AND make a profit so we can buy our next home!" I am sorry but when you bought the house two years ago, the market was at one of it's highest, most inflated points in history. The market finally started to correct itself, all the people that got band aid loans with adjustable rates are now getting burned because those rates are now adjusting and raising their monthly payments way above what they can afford, tons of homes are being foreclosed on, the banks are having to sell them for less than is owed and the value of the houses are coming down. They can't seem to get that through their heads. I have turned down every single listing because people aren't being realistic. They need to be the best house and with the most competitive price. Oh and then the best part is they want me to do ALL my normal marketing and advertising, and want me to do it for 4% commission!!! Are you out of your freakin mind?! I put over $200 into marketing and advertising in the first week alone (depending on the price of the home it could be much higher). So needless to say, I am looking for other streams of income. I will be keeping my license for my referral and past clients so that I can continue working with them, but I am not going to advertise for new clients, I am going to be on a referral only basis. That's what I was getting at before my little rant started, sorry about that. Anyway, I have been in the restaurant industry all my life (before real estate), and that is what I am good at. I have applied at quite a few restaurants in the past couple of months, OK, 16 in all. Unfortunately for me, it seems like I have been out of the game for too long and apparently there is a lot of people out there looking for jobs as restaurant managers right now. I guess that is good for me because I am the type of person that likes to be my own boss. So, after racking my brain for a loooooooong time, I think I have finally figured it out. I am going to start a personal chef business. I am doing a ton of research right now and am going to start putting a business plan together soon. I am going to use this blog as a record of the progress that I am making.
One of the reasons for this idea has been because we have been cooking a lot more at home lately. I believe my passion for cooking and for the industry has been rediscovered since we started trying new recipes and styles at home. I have been very lucky to be the "stay at home dad" and I realize that not everyone has that luxury. After taking a closer look at my neighbors and the lives that they live, this business just makes perfect sense. Most of them have both parents working to support the kids and pay the bills, married couples and single people that have careers that keep them at work for most of the day, and most of them would kill to have a little extra time in the day to relax and not have to worry about dinner. Hell, until a couple of months ago, Kim and I would still have that conversation, "What do you want for dinner? I don't know, what do you want?" And I was at home!!! Granted, I am pretty lazy, but you get my point. There is such a great market out there for this kind of business, and it is more affordable than you would think. So that is what is going on in the business front.
We have made some really AWESOME meals in the past week or so. First we had Bacon wrapped pork tenderloin medallions with a port cherry reduction sauce and asparagus-wild mushroom risotto with Parmesan. Let me tell ya, the pork and the port cherry sauce was soooooo tasty. The risotto on the other hand was another story. It sounds good, but the recipe that we have calls for PRE-COOKED Arborio rice. I guess this is the quick version of risotto. A true risotto is when you do not pre cook the rice. It was very bland and starchy, thick and pasty. Next time we make it we will have to have Brian, our personal stirrer come help us. We watched Emril Live last night and he made a risotto and said that you have to put the raw rice in the pot to cook and stir constantly for 20 minutes. Of course his turned out looking great, so maybe we will have to try it his way next time. Speaking of Brian, we made a meal on Sunday that we had when he was out here last month, Spinach and meat stuffed shells with homemade garlic cheesy bread. YUM. We also made a Shrimp and Scallop Paella. After the risotto disaster, I was kind of leery about this recipe, but it turned out really good. It made a huge portion, so I took some over to my neighbors house for them to try, and they said they really liked it too. Now tonight, we had Penne a La Vodka Casserole. Holy moly cannoly. Now when Kim brought out this recipe out last week, I have to admit, I wasn't feelin it (and trust me, she won't let me forget it, LOL). The ingredients seemed good, but I couldn't see it in my mind or taste it. It has 1lb of sweet Italian sausage, 1lb spicy Italian sausage, onions, garlic, other herbs and spices, 1/2 cup of vodka, crushed tomato's, heavy cream, ricotta, parmigiano-Reggiano, and then topped with mozzarella cheese. You cook all the non dairy ingredients on the stove for a total of 50 minutes. While that is cooking, you get your penne al dente, add half the ricotta and parmigiano-regiano to the penne, toss to coat the noodles evenly, add the other pan with all the other goodies in it, mix that together, then add the 2nd half of ricotta and parmigiano-reggiano, mix that up real good, put it in a baking dish, put the mozzarella cheese on top of it and bake it in the oven at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes and BAM!!!! (BTW, it is an Emril recipe) We made the garlic cheesy bread and this time used french bread instead of the crusty semolina bread. The semolina bread is really good, but the crust is quite thick and hard to get through sometimes, and we found that the french bread is a little easier to eat. Since that recipe made a huge portion also, I took some over to the neighbors again. I told them that they were going to be my guinea pigs for the new recipes, and they have NOOOOOOOO problem with that. I haven't gotten any feedback on the dish yet, but we didn't sit down for dinner until almost 7.
Poker....... I played at Casino Arizona last Friday in the 11:15am tourney. 129 people played. I played pretty well. No pressure, just sat down and played my game. From the start to the first break was a roller coaster ride for my chip count. My first of five tables that day played for about a level and a half before breaking, had a couple of "grizzly ole vets of the game" playing at the table and boy was that entertaining. One guy got hit by the deck, but no one else got anything to play against him so he was getting frustrated. Another guy came late and played really loose-aggressive and took a decent sized pot off of him with 5/6 off suit. The old man didn't like that too much. The the loose-aggressive guy raised preflop 4x, and another guy min raised him, the first guy went all in and the min raiser went into the tank for probably 3 minutes. He had almost 55% of his chips in the pot already. He finally called with KK and the loose-aggressive guy had A9d. Man the table gave this guy hell about taking so long with his decision. I just sat back and laughed at everyone. The KK held up and we continued. I played two hands at the first table. The first was AQo on the button. I raised 5x since there were two limpers before me. The small blind called and the two limpers called. Flop came KKJ two clubs. Checked around to me and I bet about just under half the pot to see if I could flush out the King and everyone calls. I figure at least one of these limpers had a K. The turn was a rag. Now the small blind bets out about 3/4 of the pot. One limper calls, the other limper and I fold. The river is another rag that doesn't complete the flush and the small blind bets again just about a pot sized bet. The limpers asks "what did you do, flop a boat? No you have a busted flush draw don't you?" He folded and the small blind turns over his flopped boat!!! On my next button, I had A9d and raise 4x since their was one limper already in the pot. Everyone calls and the flop was A94 with one diamond. Checks to me and I bet just under half the pot again. Calls all the way around. Turn is the 10d. Checks to me and I bet about the size of the pot and get the limper to call. River was a rag and I bet the pot again and he folds showing me the K2d. DOH!!! If that diamond would have hit I would have felted him. I muck my cards and two hands later the table broke. Moved to my next table. First hand under the gun +1 I have AKd, raise 3x and everyone folds. I show my cards to start my table image. Next hand I am under the gun and have pocket 10's. Raise 3x and everyone folds. I show that hand also. A few hands go by and I didn't play unless I had to, and the guy in the 10 seat makes a comment that I haven't played anything for a while so you must play ABC poker. Good, I want them to think that I only play strong starting hands. The next hand after his comment, it gets folded to me and I raise 3x again and again everyone folds. I show my 93o and look at him and say "No, I play XYZ poker." The table got a kick out of that comment and the guy laughed and gave me a high five. This really worked to my advantage because a couple of hands later I was in a pot with him and bet after the turn with a flush draw and an open ended straight draw and he had no clue what I had. He showed me top pair and top kicker and mucked. Then I got into another hand with the guy in the one seat where he raised 4x or 5x and I re raised him most of his stack. It folded back to him and he reluctantly went all in with his AQo. I called with my pocket Jacks and they held up. The guy in the ten seat then said, "you had a set earlier didn't you?!" Like he figured me out. That was very satisfying. I had made a couple of plays, got re raised and had to fold a couple of times to knock my stack back down a little bit. Then the last hand before the break I had JJ again and the blinds were 150-300. One limper before me so I raised to 1500. Folded to the big blind and he thinks about it for about a minute and finally calls. The original limper folded and we were heads up. The flop came A-K-10 rainbow, we both checked. Turn was a rag, check - check, and the river was a rag, check - check again. He turned over KQ for a pair of Kings to take the pot. I asked him if I would have bet at the pot would he have folded. He said yes, but I have a feeling he would have gone all the way to show down if I kept betting at him. After break and until the next break I went card dead and table change happy. Went to my third table just after I went through the blinds at the second table, and had one hand before I went into the blinds again. No cards, no table image nothin. Went through two rounds of blinds then that table broke. Now on to table number four. This time I had 2 hands before I was the big blind. YAY!!! Again, no cards, no table image, nothin. Two my left was a retired special forces marine and to his left was......... I'll call him Mr. TILT. Mr TILT was already steaming when I walked up to the table to sit down. He called a raise with 8-10 off (he did have position and they were heads up) and got even madder than he already was when the flop of 9-J-Q came. His opponent min bet and he just called. The turn was a 10 and his opponent bet pot and he re raised all in and the opponent called with AK for Broadway. Then he had AA and got a guy all in pre flop with AQ, and the AQ guy pushed all his chips in the middle and splashed the pot obviously upset with the situation. The flop came two queens and I thought Mr. TILT was going to explode!!! Calling the guy a donkey and that he splashed the pot because he was stupid and didn't know how to play the game......just went off on the guy. I get in the big blind and I am down to about 4 big bets total. Mr. TILT limped and the small blind limped. I looked down at A8o and go all in. Mr. TILT splashes the pot with the call and the small blind folded. He turns over KJo. He doesn't hit and I take the pot. "I can't believe that I can't win a race even when I am behind." ???? Ooooookaaaaaaaaaay?! The retired marine leaned over to him and needed some change for his big blind. Mr. TILT looks at him and says, "I don't take orders from anyone!!! Why don't you ask me nicely instead of ordering me to give you what you need?!" This is how I found out that he is a retired special forces Marine. He says back to Mr. TILT " BOY you better watch your mouth. You're cocky ass mouth is going to get you in trouble if you don't watch it. You have no clue who you shooting your mouth off to. You may just run into a retired special forces Marine that wants to sit down and have a good time playing poker and suddenly decide to take care of some foul mouth idiot sitting next to him!" Let me tell you Mr. TILT started to back peddle faster than anyone I have ever seen before. A few minutes later I got moved to my fifth and last table just before the second break. I was down to 2 1/2 big bets once we start again after break and I had 4 hands to find one I liked and go with it. Folded the first hand and shipped it with AQ on the second hand and ran into AK. Out in 32 or 33rd. Not bad, not great, just okay. I am happy with the way I played. I just wish I didn't get moved so much. Oh well, what can you do.
I did work out a deal this past weekend to get some backing for poker. I am basically selling a portion of myself in any tourney that I play in. My backer will buy me into the tourney and then get a percentage of my profits. It's not a huge deal money wise. It's not like I can go to the WSOP and play, but it is for a few tourney's around here that I would normally play in anyway. Now this doesn't mean that it can't grow into some bigger buy-in tourney's in the future, but it is a good start. I'll keep everyone updated on how that goes.
I played some online over the past couple of days. Sunday went pretty deep in a $100 freeroll, nothing too exciting during the tourney until the hand I got knocked out on. I limped with 6-8 with two other players and flop came 8Q8. BINGO right? I bet pot both call. Turn is a J, I bet pot, next guy raises, next guy goes all in for about a min re raise. Well hell I have about double his re raise amount, so I go all in also and the guy calls. I put one of them on QJ for two pair and one of them on 9-10 for the straight draw. Well at least I got one of them right. The short stack had the 9-10, but the big stack had QQ for a flopped boat. Oh well. Haven't played since then, too busy doing other research and stuff. Might play tomorrow night, we will see.
Well it is now 12:33 in the morning and I have been writing for a long time. Didn't I say that I was going to do this more often and have shorter posts? I did. Well maybe next time.
One of the reasons for this idea has been because we have been cooking a lot more at home lately. I believe my passion for cooking and for the industry has been rediscovered since we started trying new recipes and styles at home. I have been very lucky to be the "stay at home dad" and I realize that not everyone has that luxury. After taking a closer look at my neighbors and the lives that they live, this business just makes perfect sense. Most of them have both parents working to support the kids and pay the bills, married couples and single people that have careers that keep them at work for most of the day, and most of them would kill to have a little extra time in the day to relax and not have to worry about dinner. Hell, until a couple of months ago, Kim and I would still have that conversation, "What do you want for dinner? I don't know, what do you want?" And I was at home!!! Granted, I am pretty lazy, but you get my point. There is such a great market out there for this kind of business, and it is more affordable than you would think. So that is what is going on in the business front.
We have made some really AWESOME meals in the past week or so. First we had Bacon wrapped pork tenderloin medallions with a port cherry reduction sauce and asparagus-wild mushroom risotto with Parmesan. Let me tell ya, the pork and the port cherry sauce was soooooo tasty. The risotto on the other hand was another story. It sounds good, but the recipe that we have calls for PRE-COOKED Arborio rice. I guess this is the quick version of risotto. A true risotto is when you do not pre cook the rice. It was very bland and starchy, thick and pasty. Next time we make it we will have to have Brian, our personal stirrer come help us. We watched Emril Live last night and he made a risotto and said that you have to put the raw rice in the pot to cook and stir constantly for 20 minutes. Of course his turned out looking great, so maybe we will have to try it his way next time. Speaking of Brian, we made a meal on Sunday that we had when he was out here last month, Spinach and meat stuffed shells with homemade garlic cheesy bread. YUM. We also made a Shrimp and Scallop Paella. After the risotto disaster, I was kind of leery about this recipe, but it turned out really good. It made a huge portion, so I took some over to my neighbors house for them to try, and they said they really liked it too. Now tonight, we had Penne a La Vodka Casserole. Holy moly cannoly. Now when Kim brought out this recipe out last week, I have to admit, I wasn't feelin it (and trust me, she won't let me forget it, LOL). The ingredients seemed good, but I couldn't see it in my mind or taste it. It has 1lb of sweet Italian sausage, 1lb spicy Italian sausage, onions, garlic, other herbs and spices, 1/2 cup of vodka, crushed tomato's, heavy cream, ricotta, parmigiano-Reggiano, and then topped with mozzarella cheese. You cook all the non dairy ingredients on the stove for a total of 50 minutes. While that is cooking, you get your penne al dente, add half the ricotta and parmigiano-regiano to the penne, toss to coat the noodles evenly, add the other pan with all the other goodies in it, mix that together, then add the 2nd half of ricotta and parmigiano-reggiano, mix that up real good, put it in a baking dish, put the mozzarella cheese on top of it and bake it in the oven at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes and BAM!!!! (BTW, it is an Emril recipe) We made the garlic cheesy bread and this time used french bread instead of the crusty semolina bread. The semolina bread is really good, but the crust is quite thick and hard to get through sometimes, and we found that the french bread is a little easier to eat. Since that recipe made a huge portion also, I took some over to the neighbors again. I told them that they were going to be my guinea pigs for the new recipes, and they have NOOOOOOOO problem with that. I haven't gotten any feedback on the dish yet, but we didn't sit down for dinner until almost 7.
Poker....... I played at Casino Arizona last Friday in the 11:15am tourney. 129 people played. I played pretty well. No pressure, just sat down and played my game. From the start to the first break was a roller coaster ride for my chip count. My first of five tables that day played for about a level and a half before breaking, had a couple of "grizzly ole vets of the game" playing at the table and boy was that entertaining. One guy got hit by the deck, but no one else got anything to play against him so he was getting frustrated. Another guy came late and played really loose-aggressive and took a decent sized pot off of him with 5/6 off suit. The old man didn't like that too much. The the loose-aggressive guy raised preflop 4x, and another guy min raised him, the first guy went all in and the min raiser went into the tank for probably 3 minutes. He had almost 55% of his chips in the pot already. He finally called with KK and the loose-aggressive guy had A9d. Man the table gave this guy hell about taking so long with his decision. I just sat back and laughed at everyone. The KK held up and we continued. I played two hands at the first table. The first was AQo on the button. I raised 5x since there were two limpers before me. The small blind called and the two limpers called. Flop came KKJ two clubs. Checked around to me and I bet about just under half the pot to see if I could flush out the King and everyone calls. I figure at least one of these limpers had a K. The turn was a rag. Now the small blind bets out about 3/4 of the pot. One limper calls, the other limper and I fold. The river is another rag that doesn't complete the flush and the small blind bets again just about a pot sized bet. The limpers asks "what did you do, flop a boat? No you have a busted flush draw don't you?" He folded and the small blind turns over his flopped boat!!! On my next button, I had A9d and raise 4x since their was one limper already in the pot. Everyone calls and the flop was A94 with one diamond. Checks to me and I bet just under half the pot again. Calls all the way around. Turn is the 10d. Checks to me and I bet about the size of the pot and get the limper to call. River was a rag and I bet the pot again and he folds showing me the K2d. DOH!!! If that diamond would have hit I would have felted him. I muck my cards and two hands later the table broke. Moved to my next table. First hand under the gun +1 I have AKd, raise 3x and everyone folds. I show my cards to start my table image. Next hand I am under the gun and have pocket 10's. Raise 3x and everyone folds. I show that hand also. A few hands go by and I didn't play unless I had to, and the guy in the 10 seat makes a comment that I haven't played anything for a while so you must play ABC poker. Good, I want them to think that I only play strong starting hands. The next hand after his comment, it gets folded to me and I raise 3x again and again everyone folds. I show my 93o and look at him and say "No, I play XYZ poker." The table got a kick out of that comment and the guy laughed and gave me a high five. This really worked to my advantage because a couple of hands later I was in a pot with him and bet after the turn with a flush draw and an open ended straight draw and he had no clue what I had. He showed me top pair and top kicker and mucked. Then I got into another hand with the guy in the one seat where he raised 4x or 5x and I re raised him most of his stack. It folded back to him and he reluctantly went all in with his AQo. I called with my pocket Jacks and they held up. The guy in the ten seat then said, "you had a set earlier didn't you?!" Like he figured me out. That was very satisfying. I had made a couple of plays, got re raised and had to fold a couple of times to knock my stack back down a little bit. Then the last hand before the break I had JJ again and the blinds were 150-300. One limper before me so I raised to 1500. Folded to the big blind and he thinks about it for about a minute and finally calls. The original limper folded and we were heads up. The flop came A-K-10 rainbow, we both checked. Turn was a rag, check - check, and the river was a rag, check - check again. He turned over KQ for a pair of Kings to take the pot. I asked him if I would have bet at the pot would he have folded. He said yes, but I have a feeling he would have gone all the way to show down if I kept betting at him. After break and until the next break I went card dead and table change happy. Went to my third table just after I went through the blinds at the second table, and had one hand before I went into the blinds again. No cards, no table image nothin. Went through two rounds of blinds then that table broke. Now on to table number four. This time I had 2 hands before I was the big blind. YAY!!! Again, no cards, no table image, nothin. Two my left was a retired special forces marine and to his left was......... I'll call him Mr. TILT. Mr TILT was already steaming when I walked up to the table to sit down. He called a raise with 8-10 off (he did have position and they were heads up) and got even madder than he already was when the flop of 9-J-Q came. His opponent min bet and he just called. The turn was a 10 and his opponent bet pot and he re raised all in and the opponent called with AK for Broadway. Then he had AA and got a guy all in pre flop with AQ, and the AQ guy pushed all his chips in the middle and splashed the pot obviously upset with the situation. The flop came two queens and I thought Mr. TILT was going to explode!!! Calling the guy a donkey and that he splashed the pot because he was stupid and didn't know how to play the game......just went off on the guy. I get in the big blind and I am down to about 4 big bets total. Mr. TILT limped and the small blind limped. I looked down at A8o and go all in. Mr. TILT splashes the pot with the call and the small blind folded. He turns over KJo. He doesn't hit and I take the pot. "I can't believe that I can't win a race even when I am behind." ???? Ooooookaaaaaaaaaay?! The retired marine leaned over to him and needed some change for his big blind. Mr. TILT looks at him and says, "I don't take orders from anyone!!! Why don't you ask me nicely instead of ordering me to give you what you need?!" This is how I found out that he is a retired special forces Marine. He says back to Mr. TILT " BOY you better watch your mouth. You're cocky ass mouth is going to get you in trouble if you don't watch it. You have no clue who you shooting your mouth off to. You may just run into a retired special forces Marine that wants to sit down and have a good time playing poker and suddenly decide to take care of some foul mouth idiot sitting next to him!" Let me tell you Mr. TILT started to back peddle faster than anyone I have ever seen before. A few minutes later I got moved to my fifth and last table just before the second break. I was down to 2 1/2 big bets once we start again after break and I had 4 hands to find one I liked and go with it. Folded the first hand and shipped it with AQ on the second hand and ran into AK. Out in 32 or 33rd. Not bad, not great, just okay. I am happy with the way I played. I just wish I didn't get moved so much. Oh well, what can you do.
I did work out a deal this past weekend to get some backing for poker. I am basically selling a portion of myself in any tourney that I play in. My backer will buy me into the tourney and then get a percentage of my profits. It's not a huge deal money wise. It's not like I can go to the WSOP and play, but it is for a few tourney's around here that I would normally play in anyway. Now this doesn't mean that it can't grow into some bigger buy-in tourney's in the future, but it is a good start. I'll keep everyone updated on how that goes.
I played some online over the past couple of days. Sunday went pretty deep in a $100 freeroll, nothing too exciting during the tourney until the hand I got knocked out on. I limped with 6-8 with two other players and flop came 8Q8. BINGO right? I bet pot both call. Turn is a J, I bet pot, next guy raises, next guy goes all in for about a min re raise. Well hell I have about double his re raise amount, so I go all in also and the guy calls. I put one of them on QJ for two pair and one of them on 9-10 for the straight draw. Well at least I got one of them right. The short stack had the 9-10, but the big stack had QQ for a flopped boat. Oh well. Haven't played since then, too busy doing other research and stuff. Might play tomorrow night, we will see.
Well it is now 12:33 in the morning and I have been writing for a long time. Didn't I say that I was going to do this more often and have shorter posts? I did. Well maybe next time.
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