Solano County Fair, yay!

We all know the typical happenings at the fair, whether it be the rides, games, food or barnyard animals—we know what to expect, and that’s fine! I had a blast. I was actually at the fair every single day—EVERY. SINGLE. DAY!—performing improv with the Rats in the Alley. The Solano County Arts Council & Creative Arts Consortium collected all sorts of artists from around the county to perform in the “Fine Arts & Flowers” building by the children’s area. For the shows our slogan was: “Come for the flowers, stay for the improv.”

Meandering about I noticed something rather exciting: A robot! A real-life artificial being! (real + artificial / same sentence = oxymoron?) The bot would roll around greeting people as they approached. Kids would ask it questions and it talked back with relevant answers! I knew something had to be up:

Turns out the man in the back, trying to get out of the picture frame, was controlling the robot from his waistpack and the straw in his beverage cup was concealing a microphone! Brilliant!

After speaking with Dale (the mysterious controller man, also a representative from Atlas Robotics in Santa Rosa) I learned that his robot was actually quite friendly—it even asked me for a hug!

I think I made the robot blush. Can't you tell???

Meandering elsewhere I came across a tank; the last thing I expected to see written on it was Solano County Anything, and yet, there it was:

DON'T MESS WITH SOLANO COUNTY! OR the sheriff. WOW, can you imagine? That's quite a threat being able to tell someone, "If you break the law I'll either arrest you, or shoot you and investigate your body myself." That's ... quite a threat, indeed: Stanton rules!

Then my friend and fellow Rats in the Alley trouper Stewart Evan Smith walked up to the tank and said: “You don’t look so tough!” The tank had news for Stew:

(Don't worry kids, he's faking it. "That's what SHE said!" Hey! Who said that? "SHE did!!!" ... WhAt!?!!!?!??)

Health bits & bites

So, London is just full of interesting news these days. Within the last half-hour, I’ve come across these two stories:

(1) Tanning beds absolutely, positively, definitely can cause cancer. That is, they have been upgraded from a previous classification of  “probable carcinogens.” From the story: “The new classification means tanning beds and ultraviolet radiation are definite causes of cancer, alongside tobacco, the hepatitis B virus and chimney sweeping, among others.”

OK, I get that you need enough evidence to legally/officially/whateverly upgrade something from One Class to Another Class, but the overall notion that your skin being exposed to heavy-duty ultraviolet radiation is harmful is like a big DUH. What happens to bread when you put it in the toaster? You get toast.

Hey, I struggle to remember to reapply my sunscreen just like everyone else, and I’ve had my fair share of burns. But I’d rather be lily-white forever than a baseball mitt by age 50 and/or dead of skin cancer by 60. So there.

The other story is:

(2) Organic foods are no healthier than conventionally grown foods. That is, there’s a negligible difference in terms of nutrient content between the two. However, I noticed that the article seemed to only focus on nutrient content (your vitamins and minerals, etc.) and not considering the fact that organic foods may still be healthier because you’re putting fewer pesticides into your body. I wonder if that’s the second part of the study. As my brother says, Pesticides are preservatives! Anyway, interesting food for thought, no pun intended.

It’s amazing what we are learning about our world and our bodies and our health day by day. Scary, and information overload, but amazing.  Pick and choose your poisons and your causes, and do with it what you will.

Toothache

OK, so here’s my rant about dental insurance: Is there even a point?

I had a root canal last October, when I had no dental insurance whatsoever. I figured, five months of tooth pain and not being able to eat on one side of my mouth was enough–I had to get it done. My endodontist kindly gave me a 5% discount for not having insurance. That amounted to $50 off an $850 bill. (Discover Card, I know you were worried because I’d almost paid you off.)

Well, knowing I’d probably be facing another procedure–not least because this one didn’t solve the tooth pain–I enrolled in an insurance plan with a company that shall remain nameless but does use a word from the Greek alphabet. Now, I know that even the best insurance doesn’t cover everything. But I thought it might cover SOMETHING. When I went to schedule a second root canal, I discovered that of the $1100 the endodontist would charge (it was a molar, hence more expensive), the insurance company would end up paying a total of … $150.

All right. Well. I guess $150 is SOMETHING. [insert eyeroll here] And I guess that when they say they cover 100% of certain procedures, they really just mean 100% of what they deem is an appropriate price for said procedure. So what I want to know is, on what planet is a root canal only $300? Because that’s the planet I want to live on.

I’m not asking for an argument about universal health care vs. the crap system we have now, but seriously? Something’s gotta give. Because I can name friend after friend who is dealing with tooth pain–fragile teeth without the crowns they need, inability to eat or drink anything hot or cold, inability to BITE–because they can’t afford the dentist. Because rent or groceries or kids come first. Nearly everyone knows how overwhelming tooth pain can be on a minute to minute, hour to hour, day to day basis. Imagine dealing with that for MONTHS. And dental health is more than a cosmetic or digestive issue; it can indicate so much about your overall health. (This is a good place to pimp the dental story we’ve got coming up.)

That’s all, the end.

Caramel Popcorn

So one of the great things about being a trained chef is I can whip up pretty much anything I want to eat at anytime with what I have on hand. But, that is also the bad thing. Like a few nights ago. I had a hungry sweet tooth and no sweets in the house. What I did have was popcorn kernels (I don’t buy microwave popcorn. Popping it in a pot tastes better and is cheaper), sugar and butter. What does that equal? Caramel popcorn! That’s right, the childhood favorite can be created in just a few minutes.

Pop your popcorn, microwave or pot.

For the caramel you will need:

2 cups white cane sugar

1 tablespoon heavy cream (in my case, I didn’t have heavy cream but I did have vanilla coffee cream and it was just as good)

1 tablespoon butter

pinch of fleur de sel (French sea salt)

In a saucepan, heat the sugar over high heat. Now it is very VERY important that you do not walk away from the sugar–it will burn in a blink of an eye. Stir the sugar to help it melt. I can’t give you a time frame, but what you are looking for is color. The sugar will be done when it is a caramel color. You will want to take it off the fire before that because the sugar gets so hot that it has serious carryover cooking. OK, so when the sugar is a nice caramel color add the heavy cream. Stir to combine. Add the butter. Stir to combine. Finally, add the fleur del sel. Stir to combine. Be careful how much you add because a little goes a long way. Pour the caramel over the popcorn and stir it all up until the popcorn is coated. The popcorn will have sweet, salty and crunchy all in one. Enjoy.