What a Shout-Out!

Back in October a wonderful thing happened. The Florida Supreme Court releasd its opinions (finally!) in two very important cases: Jews for Jesus, Inc. v. Rapp and Anderson v. Gannett Company, Inc. I had been waiting for these opinions patiently - and at times, not-so-patiently - for months. Seven months to be exact. You'd think that the highest court in the state would be more efficient.

But let's back up. Last summer, my interim project report at work was analyzing the cause of action for false light. It was a very intriguing piece if I do say so myself. Yes, I'm sure I'm the only one who would say so. Anyway, if anyone is interested in reading said piece, here ya go: http://www.flsenate.gov/data/Publications/2008/Senate/reports/interim_reports/pdf/2008-144ju.pdf After my report was finished, I attended the oral arguments for the two cases listed above...in March! Then I religiously checked the Supreme Court's website every Friday to see if an opinion was released. I was about to give up all hope of ever seeing the resolution to this issue when on October 23 I was greeted with great excitement: the opinions were posted!

Justice Pariente is one hell of a judge and I enjoyed her opinion immensely. Maybe it was because I felt along the same lines as her throughout writing my interim report. Or perhaps it is because she gave a shout-out to my report on the bottom of page 28 of the Rapp case. Seriously, check it out:

http://www.floridasupremecourt.org/decisions/2008/sc06-2491.pdf Remember, page 28. I realize my name never personally appears on the report or the opinion, but that matters not. I know I wrote the report. Everyone at work knows I wrote the report. And everyone I know knows I wrote the report. So I'm doing the happy dance:

Because I will take whatever recognition I can.

SEC Championship Weekend Photos

I wanted to supplement my previous post with photos, but figured the post was already long enough. So I am posting them here.

We shall start off with the most important photo of all: the dedicated Alabama fans!

Moving on to Laura and her roommate Jules. Even in a house divided, we can all get along. Notice something Jules and I have in common? Yah, Laura can't live without her redheads!

The Trolls, aka, my good friend Michele (the biggest Gator I know) and me, showing school pride:

And the Beasts, Jen and Laura, doing the same:

Now, moving on to the more incriminating photos of the weekend: Friday night wine tasting! What a fun evening!! We went over to Laura's friend's house (Kim) and the idea was everyone brings a bottle of wine and then you cover up the label so no one knows what they are tasting. They then rate the wines. Tons of fun... and total debauchery. I can't wait to try it at home!

The beginning of the evening. Before things went downhill.....

The girls loved to get silly!

And then the dancing began .......

Well, as you can see, a good time was had by all. And by some, a little TOO much of a good time! LOL

SEC Championship Adventure

With my beloved Alabama making it to the SEC Championship for the first time since 1999, I felt an obligation to try and go to the game. Unfortunately, tickets were unbelievably priced - with you know, this being the TRUE National Championship game (every Southern football fan knows it's true!). And as much as I love my team and wanted to go to the game I had trouble spending almost 2 car payments on a ticket. But I thought I would head to Atlanta anyway, stay with my good friend Sal, and we would try and scalp tickets the day of. Good plan right? For any other game it might have been. But not this one. Saturday morning we get ready: Sal and me in our Alabama attire and her roommate Jules in her Gator gear. Yes, we were a divided household. (Betsy, you remember being a divided household right?!). Anyway, after stopping off at Einstein's for some breakfast and then what seemed like forever of a ride on the Marta, we arrive downtown. We kindly asked some nice looking people if we could see their REAL tickets so we knew what we were on the prowl for. Thank goodness we did! There were SO many people selling fake tickets. And they just didn't get it when we were like "Nope, sorry, the hologram is wrong." We'd get a "Whatcha mean??" Anyway, those nice people saved us some cash! So we literally just walk around the block multiple times trying to find tickets. During this trek, we ran into some very literal "Jesus Freaks" who give all Christians a bad name. I can't even go into the craziness they were shouting. But needless to say, the cops had to get involved. Like I said, bad name. I mean, Jesus' whole message is to not judge others. But I won't get into scripture in this post. Moving on. When we found ligitimate tickets, they were still selling for $350 or more. I know my Northern friends are like "WTF?!? Why would you ever pay that for a ticket???" Well, like I said earlier, this was no ordinary game people. For all intensive purposes it WAS the National Championship. We Southerners take our football very, VERY, seriously.

Anyway, it's getting close to kickoff and still no tickets. At this point we are getting sad and frustrated. But like all good fans, we figure that prices have to go down after kickoff right? Right??? NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! Ten minutes after kickoff people were still selling their tickets for $400. I was in shock...and awe actually. And then, as quickly as they were there, all the scalpers were gone. And we were left on the sidewalk next to a very crowded bar wondering what to do. As we are making this decision, we barely see that Florida scores a TD from the bar TVs. Well this was not going to do. We had to find someplace to watch the game! So we head into the CNN Center. They have big TVs everywhere .... they MUST be playing the game, right? THEY WERE PLAYING FREAKING CNN!!!!!!!! Who the hell cares about CNN when you've got arguably the two best teams in the nation playing like 1,000 feet away??? I was literally in shock. This is something I would expect up North. But down here? In the South? It was blasphemy I tell you. Well luckily there was a nice little Mexican restaurant/bar inside the CNN Center and we pushed our way through and found an area by the bar behind these two very nice Florida fans and we had a perfect viewline of the TV. So it all worked out. As sad as I was to not make it inside the Dome, I still had very good seats for it on TV. And we had a blast....maybe a little too much fun. But what happens in Atlanta, shall stay in Atanta .....

Moving on to the game. I know, we lost. I'm very sad and a tad disappointed. But, in the grand scheme of things I can not be mad at my boys. I am VERY proud in fact. I will list my reasons below:

1. No one expected Alabama to be this good this year. Saban was still supposed to need at least 1, if not 2, more years to get Alabama up to this level.

2. We were undefeated in the regular season.

3. We made it to the SEC Championship Game.

4. We were ranked #1 in the BCS poll for 5 weeks in a row (before that we were #2 for 5 weeks in the AP Poll and BCS). We started the season barely in the top 25 - ranked #24.

5. Bitch all you want that we didn't play anyone good this year, but when we played and beat our opponents, several of them were ranked: Clemson #9; Georgia #3; LSU #16. Plus, let's not forget that we beat Ole Miss who turned out to be a very good team (Hell, they beat Florida!) and in general, no matter the rankings, you can never "expect" a win in the SEC. It's just too good of a conference. I mean, look at good ole' Vandy! To all of those ACC fans out there who like to point out that this year the ACC technically was a better conference than the SEC, I have one thing to tell you: No one cares how many times you beat Duke! One year means nothing. Go count how many National Championships the SEC has won and then come talk to me.

6. Even after the SEC loss, Alabama and Florida are on equal ground: both 1 loss teams. We lost to the AP ranked #2 team (BCS #4) in the SEC Championship Game - Florida lost to Ole Miss. Please, I do not want any Gator out there claiming they are "so much better" than Alabama. It just ain't so.

7. Shoulder-backing off of the last one, we barely lost to Florida. They did not come out and score 40+ points over us like every other team they've played. In fact, Alabama had it won until the 4th quarter. A few mistakes cost us - because Florida is a team you can't make mistakes on or they capitalize. But until then, they did not have us beat. In fact, in the SEC game Florida TRAILED for the first time since September 27. I'd say that's saying something for how Alabama played.

8. We held Florida to a field goal when they were in the 5 yard line. Has any other team done that this year? No. If Florida is within 10 yards of the goal line, they get a TD. But not against Alabama.

Ok, I guess I'm done. But I just want to reiterate the fact that Alabama kicked some major ass this year and I am proud.

Just one last thing: New Orleans, you better watch out, because the Tide is rolling in!

ROLL TIDE!

I'm a slacker - Iron Bowl 2008 recap

I know that my loyal, faithful fans are wondering why I never posted my thoughts on the Iron Bowl game. Well I'd like to say it's because I was coming up with a wonderfully funny, in-your-face post.... but sadly, no, I'm just a slacker.

However, now that I have a moment I would like to comment on that game. It was FREAKING spectacular! Say all you want about "6 in a row." WHATEVER! None of those wins were by more than 10 points and none were a shutout. Let's just face it, we whooped Auburn's ASS and I loved every second of it! Let's just look at some stats shall we:

1. It was the biggest win in 46 years. To be specific, it was the most "lopsided Iron Bowl since Bear Bryant's 1962 group won 38-0."


2. It was Alabama's first shutout of Auburn since 1992 (where we won 17-0).


3. It was the first time Alabama beat Auburn in Tuscaloosa (but in Bama's defense, they haven't played that many years in Tuscaloosa - six to be exact).


4. Auburn only had 170 total yards.


5. Auburn only had 8 first downs the entire game.


6. Auburn had 3 turnovers.

Shall we look at some photos now? Yes, I think that's a great idea!

Ouch! That's gonna leave a mark:

What an interesting position:

You gotta love Mount Cody:

Is that enough? Nah, I didn't think so either!!!

You must respect #8! What an amazing player.

Ingram was never even touched!

Who doesn't love Coffee??

Celebrate good times, come on!

Ok, I know, now I'm being obnoxious. But that's ok. Because I'm not nearly as obnoxious as this:

One of my nice Auburn friends sent me an email after the SEC Championship Game (which I shall discuss in a moment) that said "Go Gators. Gators are #1!" To which I sadly shook my head and thought "It's sad you needed to change your team alliance just to be able to claim a win over Alabama this year." But instead I wrote something else. Something that I would like to say to all of my Auburn friends - because I know they can handle it and our friendship can prevail:

"All I have to say is 36-0 baby!"

Happy Turkey Day!

So did everyone have a good turkey day? I know I did! I stuffed my face with lots of yummy turkey and mashed potatoes with lots of butter, and green bean casserole, and corn casserole and cornbread stuffing ...... Oh yes, there was some button undoing!

But to make myself feel better about all of this indulging, I ran the Turkey Trot Thanksgiving morning. Bright-eyed and bushy tailed, mom, Jeremy and I head down to Eatz to begin my first race. I stretched, I jumped up and down, and I took my runner's lunge. Ok, who am I kidding? But I did stretch and then chatted with some friends before the big bang and we were off. So since I am not a big runner and it was my first race, I only had 2 goals: (1) to finish in under an hour and .... ok, really only one goal! LOL I did have another goal once I saw the race course. I wanted to run to a certain location that I picked ahead of time. Well, after all was said and done: I DID IT! I ran to my set location, which just happened to be a little over 2 miles. Then I walked up the hill and then finished running the rest of the way. After all was said and done, I finished the race in 35:20 minutes! I was very very proud of myself if I am allowed to brag!

So after all of this exercise, I was ready for a feast. And I thoroughly enjoyed every single bite!

Catching up on past recipes

Ok, ok, I know I am completely behind. So in an attempt to catch up I am going to just post some of my past recipes here and then I can start from scratch!

Chicken Marsala
Serves 4

2 Tablespoons all purpose flour
Salt and pepper
4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves (6 to 8 ounces each)
1 tablespoon olive oil
10 ounces cremini mushrooms, trimmed and thinly sliced
1 shallot, minced
1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh sage, plus more for garnish
1/2 cup sweet Marsala wine
1/4 cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon butter

Place flour in a shallow bowl; season generously with salt and pepper. Dredge each piece of chicken in flour.

In a large skillet, heat oil over medium Add chicken and cook until golden on the outside and opaque throughout, about 8 to 10 minutes per side. Transfer to a plate, and cover to keep warm.

Add mushrooms, shallot, sage, and 1/4 cup water to skillet; season with salt and pepper. Cook, tossing frequently, until mushrooms are tender, about 3 to 5 minutes. Add wine and cream; simmer over medium-high until slightly thickened, around 3 to 5 minutes. Remove from heat, and stir in butter.

Top chicken with mushroom sauce and garnish with sage.

**I did not use any sage and it still turned out delicious! Also, Publix did not have cremini mushrooms so I used shitaki.





Italian Beef Florentine with Savory Pasta
Serves 4

1/4 cup flour
2 eggs or 1/2 cup egg substitute
1 1/2 cups panko bread crumbs
2 teaspoons Italian seasoning
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
4 beef chuck patties (1 lb)
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 packet garlic and herb sauce mix (about 1.5 oz)
1 1/2 cups reduced fat milk
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 cups baby spinach leaves (about 3 oz)

1. Place flour on plate. Beat eggs gently, in a shallow bowl, until blended. Combine in second shallow bowl, bread crumbs, Italian seasoning, salt and pepper.
2. Preheat large saute pan on medium-high 2-3 minutes. Dip patties in flour (coating on both sides) then dip into egg mixture. Finally, dip into bred crumb mixture.
3. Place oil in pan; swirl to coat. Add patties to pan; cook 2-3 minutes on each side to brown.
4. Reduce heat to medium; cook 2-3 more minutes on each side until internal temp. reaches 160 degrees.
5. Meanwhile, combine sauce mix and milk in medium saucepan. Bring to a boil on medium-high.
6. Reduce heat on sauce to low; stir in butter and spinach. Cook 2-3 minutes, stirring often, or until spinach is wilted. Serve sauce over patties.

Savory Pasta
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 (19.4 oz) package frozen pasta with cream sauce
1 (14.5 oz) can herb/garlic diced tomatoes (drained)

1. Place oil and pasta mixture in large pan. Cover and cook on medium 8- minutes, stirring occasionally, or until pasta is hot and sauce is dissolved.
2. Stir in tomatoes; cook 1-2 more minutes. Serve.



Best Chili Ever
Serves approx. 8

1 onion
1 1/2 lb ground chuck (I have used lean ground beef and it turns out just as well)
3 tablespoons chili powder
1/2 teaspoon seasoned salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 (10.75 oz) can condensed tomato soup
1 (14.5 oz) can diced tomatoes/sweet onions (undrained)
1 (10 oz) can milder diced tomatoes/green chilies (undrained) (I think I used a 14.5 oz can)
1 (16 oz) can chili beans in mild sauce (undrained)
1 (15 oz) can black beans (drained)

**I have also added 1 can Great Northern Beans or an additional can of Black Beans.

1. Remove ends and peel from onion; chop onion coarsely and divide in half.



2. Preheat large saucepan on medium-high 2-3 minutes. Place beef, chili powder, seasoned salt, pepper, and 1/2 of the onions in pan. Cook 4-5 minutes, stirring to crumble meat, or until meat is brown and no pink remains.


3. Stir in remaining ingredients, including remaining 1/2 onions. Bring to a boil, stirring often.


4. Reduce heat to low; cook 10 more minutes, stirring occasionally, to blend flavors. Serve.
**Top with cheese and eat with Fritos. It's a great dish for a football Saturday!

Oh My Yummy Breakfast Pizzas

I tested these out on my good friend Laura (Hey Sal!) a few weeks ago and I received 2 thumbs up. So I decided to try my hand at them again on both sets of parents the day after Thanksgiving. Again, a crowd pleaser! They are just delicious! So that you too may impress your guests, I will post the recipe:

Fried Egg and Sausage Ciabatta Breakfast Pizzas
serves 8

1 loaf ciabatta bread*
1 cup chopped green onions
8 tablespoons olive oil*
8 ounces sliced hot pepper Moneterey Jack cheese
1 pound spicy or sweet Italian sausages, casings removed
8 large eggs

Preheat oven to 450. Cut bread horizontally in half. Place bread halves, cut side up, on baking sheet. Mix onions and 6 tablespoons oil in small bowl. Season with salt and pepper. Spread oil and onion mixture over bread. Top with cheese.

Saute sausages in large nonstick sillet over medium-high heat until cooked through, breaking up with spoon, about 7 minutes. Divide sausage among bread halves. Bake pizzas until cheese melts and bread begins to crisp, about 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, heat 1 tablespoon oil in skillet over medium-high heat. Crack an egg into skillet. Cook until white is solid and yellow is runny. Arrange 1 egg on top of each bread slice. Serve.

* Publix did not have Ciabatta bread, so I tried it with Asiago Cheese Bread and it was DELICIOUS! I will continue to make it with the Asiago Cheese bread instead.
* I did not use a full 8 tablespoons of oil. You don't need this much.

You can easily make this to serve as many people as you need.

Enjoy!