Gravylicious

I was browsing Amazon.com, and came across a great book. I might as well confess. As a true Southerner....

I adore Paula Deen. Simply love her.

For those of you not familiar with Paula, she has a great show on the Food Network (ah, how I miss the Food Network) where she cooks up the tastiest Southern dishes. She started her business as a packed lunch business out of her home in Savannah and now has one of the most successful shows on the Food Network, along with having published a number of cookbooks. You've got to love a woman with a separate recipe section solely devoted to barbecue. Plus, everything she makes has at least one stick of butter. Mmmm...

A few of her recipes include:

Bill Nicholson's Krispy Kreme Bread Pudding (Krispy Kremes are, hands down, the best donuts around)
Country Fried Steak Biscuits and Gravy (Fried? Steak? Biscuits? AND gravy? Sold.)
Paula’s Fried Peanut Butter and Banana Sandwich (I keep trying to talk Matt into making these for dinner one night, but to no avail.)

I remember watching her every Saturday morning, during which I would inevitably call Matt from the other room saying, "Oooh, come look at what she's making now!" You could gain weight and clog your arteries just by watching her. I guess that's one of the reasons I like her (other than the fact that she just seems so darn nice) - you can watch her whip up sinful dishes without subjecting yourself to the 1,000,000 calories that each one contains.

Matt calls her "Deep Fat Fried Mayonnaise Sandwich with Ranch Dressing" lady. (Of course, it's funnier when he does it in his faux Southern twang.)

She's my kind of gal.

American Idol Recap

Finally, it's Wednesday! Time for American Idol in KL. I have been looking forward to this all week. It's Country Week! I was convinced that Sanjaya would entertain us in an outfit from Pauly "Son-In-Law" Shore's House of Rustic Couture. Minus the assless chaps of course. PLEASE.

First, let me say I love Martina McBride. I think she's gorgeous and an amazing singer. And I wish that Paula McSmirnoff would get as drunk as she used to, because that makes the show all the more entertaining. Now that I've gotten that out of the way...

Phil "Scares the Kids" Stacy: He was okay. I didn't think he was as great as the judges did, but he didn't suck. He annoyed me when he said he was a "country boy", since he lived in Wichita, Kansas for a while. Listen, tell that to a girl who grew up in the middle of Texas, in a town of 15,000, with a statue of a Holstein cow in the town square, and she'll laugh. Hahahahahaha.

Jordin "She's 17!" Sparks: I like her, but there's not a lot to make fun of, so I'll move on. I did think she was a bit pitchy in a spot or two. But I will go out on a limb and say that I've thought she was a sleeper to win the whole thing for a few weeks now. I genuinely like her. And she could kick Ryan Seacrest's ass, so that's a bonus.

Sanjaya Malakar: I can't even come up with a nickname for this guy; there's an overabundance of material, and you guys know I'm not good at decisions. The thing about this guy is, he takes each week's theme and turns himself into a caricature of it. That's why I was expecting something along the lines of Pauly Shore's outfit in Son In Law. I mean, last week during Latin Week he turned into a total Latino stereotype. But I did predict that he would break out a bandana this week, I just figured it would be around his neck rather than on his head. He looked like Gerardo this week. Wrong week dude.

Now, usually as bad as his performances are, I can usually pick out a few parts that are decent. But this whole thing was just batshit crazy. I can't decide whether to feel bad for him or give him kudos though. I mean, the whole world is poking fun at him, but man, he is totally riding the wave. He is balls out embracing the limelight and going for it, and I kind of admire him for that.

Oh, and I loved the catfight between Ryan and Simon afterwards. Awesome.

LaKisha "Did I Tell You I Have a Daughter?" Jones: Gold scrunchy boots? Really? Anyway, this performance was not that good. I think the judges told her that she was shouting, but my ears were ringing so I didn't really hear.

Chris "Righty McTimberFake" Richardson: So nicknamed because of his irritating habit of turning his head to the right after he sings a line. Maybe it's a tick, I don't know. He always looks slightly constipated when he sings, which is distracting. He was less so this week, but that didn't help him much. This was pretty cringe-worthy. According to him, "nasally" is a form of singing. Uh....k. Moving on.

Melinda "Am I Really Good???" Doolittle: She can sing the McDonald's menu and it would sound good. I'm glad Simon called her out for her faux modest reactions every time one of the judges compliments her. Have you heard yourself, Melinda? Are you really surprised? You don't exactly sound like shit, you know.

Blake "Fauxhawk" Lewis: This was okay. I think I like the song better than than Blake. He's starting to pick up on Chris' irritating habit of looking to the right after almost every lyric.

All in all, another entertaining week. I'm a bit disappointed that no one broke out the cowboy hat or sang "Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy". Maybe Haley would have if she was still around.

Now nothing to do except wait until the Results Show!

This is American Idol?

I know I'm a couple of days behind, but they don't show American Idol until the following night in Malaysia. That being said....What the hell? What are American Idol voters thinking? I can't believe Sanjaya is STILL in the running! We probably have www.votefortheworst.com to thank for that. I find him unnervingly creepy, not to mention he just can't sing...Oh well, I guess I'll stay tuned just to see what he does with his hair next week.

I'm just not sure what this fragile little thing will do if he stays in. He'll crack under the pressure. Come on, America, for the viewer's sake, for music's sake, for Sanjaya's sake....send him home already.

Say What???

The Husband and I were watching TV this weekend, and we always get such a kick out of studying what is censored and what doesn't make the cut. It's the same puzzlement I have when I see a local Malaysian woman in her traditional dress answering her mobile phone, the ringtone of which is Akon's "Smack That". Something just doesn't quite add up.

Anyway, so we watched Wedding Crashers and kept track of which words were censored and which weren't. I won't bore you with the entire list, but a few comparisons would be: Censored="teet", Not Censored="prick". Oh, and apparently "hooters" is okay to say, as well as several slang terms for homosexuality. However, "sheet" was censored, I guess because it sounds very similar to "sh*t". We just find the whole censorship thing kind of interesting. I've never lived in a place where I just really didn't have the choice on what I did or didn't hear. Given the choice, I typically go for all the colorful words...

Oh, another interesting example...this weekend, we took the ferry from Labuan to Kota Kinabalu (more on that later) and I was absolutely astounded at the movie they showed. Now, this is a country where we get a censored version of Wedding Crashers on HBO, but lo and behold, we saw a completely uncensored version of "Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny", which is the new Jack Black comedy. For those of you who are familiar with Jack Black's band Tenacious D, then you understand why I am amazed they showed that movie. There were women on the ferry that were covering their eyes, parts of it were so offensive.

But the best (or at least, the most interesting) example of censorship I've seen thus far was this morning when we watched The Aviator. During the scene where Howard Hughes and Ava Gardner are getting their car smashed by the other chick (Hughes' girlfriend), Howard tries to appease her by using the term of endearment "Pork Chop". Now, Malaysia is predominantly Muslim, and so pork is forbidden. I certainly respect their religious practices, but I did think it was interesting that the term "Pork chop" was censored and in it's place was... "Chicken". Doesn't have the same ring to it, does it?....