Labor Day weekend festivities do NOT include a post on Monday. That day is for swimming and running. See you on Tuesday morning, bright and early. There will be a test on camera stuff. Come prepared and bring your own coffee.

 Lara Wright as Akela, leader of the wolf pack.

In the ZachTheatre.org production of JUNGALBOOK.

My big plans for the weekend start in an hour (6pm). I went to Whole Foods grocery store today and got a couple of "bone in" Rib Eye steaks to offset the pervasive vegan influences wending their way through the web like an opportunistic virus. I'm pulling out the big, cast iron pan to cook them with. I fire it up pretty hot and sear the seasoned steaks for about 90 seconds per side and then slide the pan into a pre-heated, 425 degree oven. The cooking time for a moderately thick cut, assuming medium rare, is about 12-18 minutes. It's not exact so you have to perfect your technique of poking the steak with your finger to see how much "give" or "spring" it offers. The springier the steak the more "well done" it is. But friends don't let friends or family eat well done steaks. Especially not organic, grass fed, free range beef. YMMV but I won't be cooking your steak well done no matter how plaintively you ask...

I'm also making a roasted, multi-color, fingerling potato side dish that's simple and fun. The only ingredients beyond the potatoes are olive oil and sea salt. Yes, I'm also making a salad and will be making my own balsamic vinaigrette dressing. 

I'm taking my turn to cook dinner tonight because I see it as an enticement to get Ben over to the house for a visit. And studio dog really likes a nicely done ribeye. It's her favorite cut. 

I only hope I raised the boy well enough so that he'll bring a decent bottle of red wine to share. If not, we still have lots of the Stag's Leap Merlot left....

Please, don't worry about my diet. I'll choke down a handful of Lipitor pills before bedtime to offset the big dose of saturated fat. I'm sure everything will work out just fine.... After all, what could go wrong?

I was talking to a swimmer friend yesterday, we were discussing the very, very spartan diet plan one of our famous swimmers has written extensively about. It requires that adherents reject anything with meat, fat, including nuts, oils, and, well, anything else fun. Recent, large scale studies show that adherents to the plan "might" live about 90 days longer than the general public. If they don't die from gustatory boredom beforehand. At any rate, my non-compliant friend mentioned that he thought any diet that had to be forced on humans and animals, in general, was highly suspect. He tossed out this: If you threw a big, fresh head of broccoli into your backyard one evening you would be able to go out and retrieve it the next morning and find that it would be no worse for wear; untouched by the woodland animals. Not even surveyed by ants. He also say that you may notice that no one has to fence kale plants off from the multitudinous deer here in central Texas as they won't touch the stuff unless it's the last green plant in the ecosystem and they have no other choice. 

But hey, toss a burger onto the back lawn and the possums and raccoon will square off over it....unless the hawks get it first. But they all better use dispatch because the ants are surely heading that way in force. 

Before you go into full attack mode,  please be aware that I'm mostly just kidding around and offering a different opinion from another more popular photo blogger turned health food maven. Belinda and I eat meat very infrequently and are prone to eat kale more often than I would really like. I'm actually researching single origin kale in order to start a whole line of kale-based coffees, which I think will take the world by storm. (again, kidding).

On the other hand I guess I should stick to the two things I know anything about: photography and swimming. I guess I'll leave the diet debates to the cardiologists and the nice folks at Archer Daniels Midland...