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I think if you did, you’d never eat at a restaurant again!

I went to a local steakhouse to buy some salad dressing. Sound odd? Well, I don’t like the bottled dressings you get at the grocery store and the homemade never comes out quite right. I ate at this particular steakhouse once and their Italian salad dressing was really good, and they told me it was homemade. I took some home and now I buy it all the time. It’s much more expensive than store bought but well worth the extra cost.

So, I have to wait a while as they package it up for me, so I view the open kitchen. First a chef took a steak out of a refrigerator, then sprinkled it HEAVILY with whatever type of seasoning they use on their steaks, but one would assume it contained a healthy dose of sodium. Then he salted the other side … and then took a brush full of oil, brushed it on the grill, and slapped on the steak. Over the next few minutes he poked and prodded the piece of meat rather than just letting it cook.

He turned it several times, then put it on the open flame grill. He moved it around a bit, poked it with a fork (NEVER DO THAT TO MEAT!) and then finally put it on a plate.

So, you have a greasy salty heavily seasoned piece of steak that should have been unmolested, but instead was ruined.

Then I watched them making rolls, putting the dough into a massive mixer, then kneading the dough. A pan came out of a proofer and were brushed with oil/butter and put into the oven. A pan was removed from the oven and again, painted with oil/butter.

I would say that meal, sans veggie, has more fat in one meal than I eat in several days!

I C K!!!

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So, it’s over and I thought I’d critique this season. First, it wasn’t exciting to me. The auditions featured mostly horrific singers with one or two surprises thrown in. There were a lot of what I felt were good singers who were overlooked.

When it came down to the 20, there really weren’t any men who stood out. Personally I liked Sundance Head and felt he’d go far. For the women, I felt Melinda Doolittle and LaKisha Jones would be the top 2 women.

HA.

Sundance was voted off and yet that kid Sanjaya Malakar was allowed to stay for much too long. He really didn’t have a great voice, so I’m not even sure why he went past the judges to the top 20. Yes, he was cute with a great smile and great hair (until he cut it) but he was talentless.

Melinda was consistently the best performer and outshone everyone. Her voice is exquisite and she’s the consumate professional. However, Melinda was not an attractive woman, not sexy by her own admission, and she was 29, and I think all those factors worked against her since the “my bff Jill” crowd seems to be the ones voting on American Idol.

I’m sure she’ll have a record deal and will still do well.

LaKisha Jones started off very strong but seemed to lose a lot of steam midway through the competition. She never smiled during a performance and was wooden and didn’t connect with the audience at all. Simon liked her, despite her large size or maybe in spite of it!

There was the controversy with Antonella, who posed semi-nude for friends and the photos were circulated all over the Internet.

This year was boring. Last year we had Chris Daughtry, Elliot Yamin, Taylor Hicks, Kelly “salmon” Pickler, Bucky Covington, etc .. they had talent, they were fun, they were exciting. We all tuned in to see what stupid thing Kelly would say, to see what dance Taylor would do, to see how Ace would wear his hair.

Near the end of season six, when it was Blake Lewis and Jordin Sparks, I lost interest. Jordin was a decent singer but never made me say “ooh” like others had done. Blake was fun when he did his beat boxing (I’d never heard of it before that!) but I don’t think he’s a great singer.

They say the ratings for this season are down and I have to believe it was the lack of exceptional talent this year.

What will next year bring?

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