The Finished Product...

Here it is ladies and gents...the final product from my carbon neutral, organic dinner.  The wife took what I bought (What?  You thought I was going to make something after I rode over a mile to get the supplies?  You've got another thing coming brother!) and made panko crusted wild dover sole, organic greanbeans and onions with thinly sliced shallots, organic wild rice, and organic rosted yams drizzled with Napa Valley extra virgin olive oil.  I paired this entree with a 2009 Sanford Riconada single vineyard Chardonnay...call me fancy, it needed to be done.  To say the dinner was exquisite is an understatement.

If you look at the China plate and think it looks familiar, don't worry, I didn't steal it from your house.  You see, I was married once before and I chose this China pattern for our wedding registry.  Upon my divorce, after writing a check for an insane amount of money, I declared "Fine, but I'm keeping the China!!!" (It was one of the nicest non-bank owned things we had).  For over 12 years I've kept this China like it was some kind of trophy.  Dozens of people have mocked my China, saying its ugly or it looks like something that came from the 1980's, but I stood by my China through thick and thin.  That China was a monument to a tough time in my life, like the ear necklace of some crazy uncle from a foreign war...the China ain't pretty but its a testament to a hard fought battle where the notion of victory is a foggy ideal that only exists in the mind of some far away politician.  Long story short, the victory China served me well up until a couple of years ago when the wife and I were watching TV (current wife that is) and a commercial for Shamwow came on.  To my absolute horror, there, in a low rent commercial for an industrial strength jizz rag, was my beloved victory China.  The shame lingers but the victory and my love of the China lives on.

Just in case you don't believe me...look at the above photo of my victory China and then watch the below Shamwow commercial.  Pay special attention at the 29 second mark.  Life can be so cruel...