A very exciting medical development that made my day.

Yahoo News: Potential Cure for HIV Discovered

I don’t know why I found this so funny, but I could not stop laughing. This clip is 1 minute, 20 seconds long, and it is sure to amuse. Well, at least it amused me. Safe for work. For some reason, it appeals to my sense of humor more than a lot of other things I have watched/read lately.

I have two new awesome meals for you that you must try this summer - with pictures!

Penne with Creamy Mushrooms

For my birthday, my coworkers showered me with a lot of gifts. I was stunned and flattered and it was an absolutely wonderful gesture. One of the items I received was a book called “Pasta: 40 Wonderful Classic Pasta Recipes” by Suzanna Tee. You can find an older edition on amazon.com, used, for around $5.00. The recipes it contains are absolutely wonderful and of course worth $5.00. If you have a pasta machine, the book has a recipe for a basic pasta dough, but I have not yet tried it. I do have a pasta machine, but I have not yet used it. Of course I keep saying I will…

When I saw the recipe in the book, it reminded me of a dish I had at Macaroni Grill. Granted, the Macaroni Grill dish was never the way I wished it would be but, as I had no close approximation that I could have elsewhere or make at home, I would order it and be as happy as I could eating it. Now I have my own recipe that is everything I wished that canned restaurant dish was.

Some tips: Before you heat up the butter and olive oil, slice up all of your shallots - use them all - and get at least half way through slicing up your cremini mushrooms. This prep is what will be most of your time sink with this recipe. After slicing everything up, you will coast right through to the finished product.

When I made this, I did not have any port. It was still delicious, but I think it needed a little something else so next time I will add it. You can find Penne with Creamy Mushrooms on the recipe site, and it is now listed in the Recipe Index.

Hawaiian Kabobs

This recipe has been on the site for a very long time: It is the second entry of the site. (First entry: the Tom Special. It has been known to cause vomiting. Literally.)

It is called Hawaiian Kabobs because it calls for pineapple. Beyond that, I can’t vouch whether or not it’s Hawaiian, but hey, at least it’s not some freaky fried spam with rice wrapped in seaweed thing.

I love this recipe. If you’re looking for something a little different to throw on the BBQ, try these kabobs. The meat only takes an hour to marinate (I prefer letting it sit for two hours, but it is still good after one) and it is delicious. The marinade is a simple concoction of pineapple juice, soy sauce, vegetable oil and spice. Throw these into the fridge to marinate while you finish making the side dishes.

If you aren’t a big fan of the vegetables listed, pop some different ones on the sticks. For example, zucchini would also work very well. Be creative.

As an aside, if you have kids just take everything off of those sticks and let them have at it. The sticks are very, very pointy - I have the puncture wounds to prove it.

They tried to take my intarwebs and failed, as I knew they would.

I have no idea how the internet works so I won’t lie and say that I do. What I do understand is this: Every so often, some of the sites I read at work will be blocked for whatever reason. After a few weeks or maybe a couple of months, they will be unblocked again. Then after a while, they’ll be blocked. It makes no sense to me and I have no idea who comes up with the list of stuff to block. Is it random? Is it some pesky administrator going through all of my internet logs? Is it the Master Control Program who seeks to destroy my hope by prohibiting me from getting to my user? I don’t know. As long as I can have all of my halffull affiliates (LoO, my blog, my recipe site), Fark, and gmail, I am a happy camper. For a year and a half, all has been well.

Until yesterday, when I felt a disturbance in the Force: My access to LoO and my blog were blocked. Damn you, (Director of IT Security at my workplace)!!!

As you can see, Tom found a workaround. Bitches.