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The Real Kato
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Recent Comments
| On Today's Frozen Meal: Lean Cuisine Tortilla Crusted... Jennifer Hudspeth* said: |
| Eww. |
| On Asian Sesame Chicken Salad Crystal* said: |
| I hate that I'm so late to the Asian Sesame dressing party, but I love this dressing so much, that I... |
| On Asian Sesame Chicken Salad liz* said: |
| I don't want to go to buy bottles of this dressing at Supertarget - I want to make it myself. Bec... |
| On The Finduslove Scam Revealed! PJE* said: |
| ATTENTION everyone who is on this comment chain. There are more Peter Ericksons in MN than the creep... |
| On It's Just (a) Lunch (Scam) Annonymous* said: |
| Everyone please READ THIS BEFORE YOU WASTE YOUR MONEY!!!! I currently work for IJL and I HATE it! ... |
Articles
Page 1 | Page 2 | ... | Page 34| Apple Watch: New iMac, Mac Pro models today | Tuesday, 2010 July 27 - 7:17 pm |
| Also: new giant trackpad for use with desktops, and a new 27" Cinema Display. Read more... |
Permalink Comment
Posted by Ken in: techwatch |
| Today's Frozen Meal: Lean Cuisine Tortilla Crusted Fish | Friday, 2010 July 23 - 4:56 pm |
"With rice, poblano peppers & corn in a sour cream sauce". Note that they carefully avoid telling you exactly what kind of fish it is. Read more... |
| Permalink Comment (1)
Posted by Ken in: food |
| Wednesday's Frozen Meal: Lean Cuisine Chicken and Vegetables | Friday, 2010 July 23 - 4:38 pm |
"Roasted chicken tenderloins, garden vegetables & parmesan cheese with vermicelli".  Read more... |
| Permalink Comment
Posted by Ken in: food |
| Today's Frozen Meal: Healthy Choice Honey Ginger Chicken | Monday, 2010 July 19 - 2:11 pm |
"Chicken Tenderloins with an Asian Style Vegetable Blend in Honey Ginger Sauce over Whole Grain Rice". Read more... |
| Permalink Comment
Posted by Ken in: food |
| Friday's Frozen Meal: Healthy Choice Classic Meat Loaf | Monday, 2010 July 19 - 12:54 pm |
"Meat Loaf with Rich Brown Gravy, Mashed Potatoes, Sweet Corn Blend & Apple Cranberry Multigrain Crisp". I find the spelling of "Meat Loaf" (as two capitalized words) odd, like they're referring to the singer instead of the dish. Read more... |
| Permalink Comment
Posted by Ken in: food |
| Thursday's Frozen Meal: Healthy Choice Lobster Cheese Ravioli | Monday, 2010 July 19 - 12:46 pm |
"Ricotta cheese and lobster filled ravioli, with green and yellow zucchini, in a vodka sauce, topped with parmesan cheese". Read more... |
| Permalink Comment
Posted by Ken in: food |
| Today's Frozen Meal: Healthy Choice Roasted Sesame Chicken | Wednesday, 2010 July 14 - 4:52 pm |
"Chicken Tenderloins in Roasted Sesame Sauce, Brown Rice, Vegetables & Gingersnap Peach Crisp". Wait, so the sesame is what's roasted, not the chicken? Read more... |
| Permalink Comment
Posted by Ken in: food |
| Last Thursday's Frozen Meal: Healthy Choice Manicotti Formaggio | Monday, 2010 July 12 - 4:46 pm |
"Whole Grain Pasta with Four Cheeses in Marinara Sauce, Broccoli & Caramel Apple Multigrain Crisp". Read more... |
| Permalink Comment
Posted by Ken in: food |
| Today's Frozen Meal: Marie Callender's Penne Garlic Chicken | Tuesday, 2010 July 6 - 6:19 pm |
"Penne and Roasted Garlic Sauce with White Meat Chicken, Artichokes and Roma Tomatoes". Read more... |
| Permalink Comment
Posted by Ken in: food |
| Last Friday's Frozen Meal: Healthy Choice Sweet and Tangy Chicken BBQ | Tuesday, 2010 July 6 - 12:22 pm |
"Chicken Tenderloins in a BBQ Sauce, Sweet Corn Blend, Red Skin Potatoes & Caramel Apple Multigrain Crisp." Note that it's "BBQ", not "barbecue". Read more... |
| Permalink Comment
Posted by Ken in: food |
| Last Fortnight's Frozen Meal: Lean Cuisine Bacon Alfredo Pizza | Tuesday, 2010 July 6 - 12:15 pm |
It's "Wood Fire Style"! (No actual wood or fire used in the making of this product.) "Spinach, tomatoes, bacon & reduced fat mozzarella cheese with a creamy alfredo sauce on a thin crust." Read more... |
| Permalink Comment
Posted by Ken in: food |
| Last Fortnight's Frozen Meal: Kashi Southwest Style Chicken | Tuesday, 2010 July 6 - 12:04 pm |
Not actually southwest; just "southwest style". "Grilled Chicken Breast Seasoned with Lime, Cumin & a Hint of Chipotle; Fire Roasted Onions & Corn, Red & Green Peppers; Kashi 7 Whole Grains & Sesame Pilaf." Read more... |
| Permalink Comment
Posted by Ken in: food |
| Apple News Roundup | Tuesday, 2010 June 22 - 1:00 pm |
| I'm behind on reporting about some Apple events. Apple released iOS 4 as a free upgrade for the iPhone and iPod Touch yesterday. I won't go through all the new features; Rene Ritchie has posted a thorough walkthrough. (HT: Daring Fireball) Apple came out with a new Mac mini last week. It's about half the height of the previous model, but a little bit wider and deeper. Impressively, it now includes the GeForce 320M GPU for greatly improved graphics performance. The bummer is that the starting price is now $699, which is starting to move it out of the "entry-level" category. Apple announced today that iPad sales have topped 3 million. The funny thing is that a week ago, Forrester Research projected that industry-wide tablet sales for the year would be 3.5 million. They might need to revise that figure somewhat. Apple stock is currently at $274.85. The stock was boosted last week by news of 600,000 iPhone 4 pre-orders in one day; today it jumped again on the iPad sales numbers. |
| Permalink Comment
Posted by Ken in: techwatch |
| Today's Frozen Meal: Lean Cuisine Swedish Meatballs | Monday, 2010 June 21 - 5:50 pm |
"With pasta in a savory sauce." Read more... |
| Permalink Comment
Posted by Ken in: food |
| Friday's Frozen Meal: Healthy Choice Oven Roasted Chicken | Monday, 2010 June 21 - 5:44 pm |
"Chicken Tenderloins in Homestyle Gravy, Vegetables, Whipped Potatoes & Peach Multigrain Crisp." Read more... |
| Permalink Comment
Posted by Ken in: food |
| Thursday's Frozen Meal: Healthy Choice Pineapple Chicken | Monday, 2010 June 21 - 5:32 pm |
"Fried Chicken Breast, with Carrots, Pineapple and Red Peppers, in a Sweet Glaze, Over a Bed of Whole Grain Rice." What's with the random commas? It's, madness! Read more... |
| Permalink Comment
Posted by Ken in: food |
| Today's Frozen Meal: Healthy Choice Pumpkin Squash Ravioli | Tuesday, 2010 June 15 - 2:28 pm |
"Pumpkin filled ravioli with a butter-sage sauce, asparagus and butternut squash." Read more... |
| Permalink Comment
Posted by Ken in: food |
| Today's Frozen Meal: Lean Cuisine Philly-Style Steak and Cheese | Friday, 2010 June 11 - 2:02 pm |
"Beef steak, red & green peppers, onions & cheddar cheese sauce on sourdough bread". I'm sure Philadelphia residents would have a good laugh about the "Philly-Style" claim. Read more... |
| Permalink Comment
Posted by Ken in: food |
| Today's Frozen Meal: Lean Cuisine Grilled Chicken Primavera | Thursday, 2010 June 10 - 1:29 pm |
"Grilled white meat chicken with asparagus, tomatoes and whole wheat pasta in a creamy garlic sauce." Read more... |
| Permalink Comment
Posted by Ken in: food |
| Today's Frozen Meal: Healthy Choice Lemon Pepper Fish | Tuesday, 2010 June 8 - 1:41 pm |
"Breaded White Fish Fillet with Whole Grain Rice Pilaf, Broccoli Florets & Caramel Apple Multigrain Crisp." Read more... |
| Permalink Comment
Posted by Ken in: food |
| Yesterday's Frozen Meal: Stouffer's Vegetable Lasagna | Tuesday, 2010 June 8 - 1:13 pm |
"Lasagna layered with a colorful medley of carrots, spinach, broccoli and onions, with a parmesan and romano cheese sauce." So, vegetable lasagna, then. Read more... |
| Permalink Comment
Posted by Ken in: food |
| Last Fortnight's Frozen Meal: Lean Cuisine Alfredo Pasta with Chicken and Broccoli | Tuesday, 2010 June 8 - 1:00 pm |
"Grilled white meat chicken, broccoli & pasta in a creamy alfredo sauce". If you thought there were only a finite number of ways to combine chicken, pasta, a green vegetable, and cream sauce, apparently you'd be mistaken. Read more... |
| Permalink Comment
Posted by Ken in: food |
| iPhone 4 in Brief | Tuesday, 2010 June 8 - 12:16 am |
| Quick rundown on Apple's iPhone announcements today. Read more... |
| Permalink Comment
Posted by Ken in: techwatch |
| Panera Bread Now Selling Asian Sesame Dressing in Bottles | Sunday, 2010 May 30 - 2:11 pm |
| Thanks to my high ranking in search engine results for "panera asian sesame dressing recipe", I'm up on all the latest developments in America's never-ending quest to duplicate Panera Bread's Asian Sesame Chicken Salad dressing at home. Recently, commenter Mellannie noted that she found the dressing, bottled, at SuperTarget. So I went to our local SuperTarget and checked for myself, and sure enough, there was the bottle, right in the bagged salad section as Mellannie had said. Price: $4.49.  Read more... |
| Permalink Comment (1)
Posted by Ken in: food |
| Skirt Chaser 2010 | Sunday, 2010 May 30 - 1:20 pm |
| Remember the Skirt Chaser race I ran last year? Well, I ran it again this year, and this time, my official time was 28:09. I was 395th out of 715, but the women had a three minute head start. If not for that, I would have been 285th. Among all men, I was 172nd out of 276. I need to improve my time by about another minute to climb above the median. But I'm happy with my effort. Here's me running, near the end of the race.  |
| Permalink Comment (1)
Posted by Ken in: life |
| CPK Small Cravings Menu | Sunday, 2010 May 30 - 12:58 pm |
A few weeks ago I got an email from the director of "Social Media and Grassroots Marketing" for a marketing company: My name is Jon and I’m working with California Pizza Kitchen to help promote their new Small Cravings menu. I noticed on your blog that you’re a fan of CPK and I wanted to share this video we created that documents CPK diners’ first impression of the new Small Cravings menu. I’d like to invite you to visit CPK in hopes that you’d document your experience and write about your own reaction.. I can offer you $50 in CPK Dough so that you can head out to your local CPK on us.Well, hey: a paying gig. I imagine this came about because of this review I did earlier. So, I took Jon up on the offer; sure enough, after a couple of weeks, $50 in "CPK dough" arrived in the mail. Last weekend Amy and I went to CPK, and we ordered one of each item on the Small Cravings menu. That, coupled with the fact that I was photographing everything, probably had the waitstaff thinking I was some kind of Actual Journalist or something. Anyway, here are the results. Read more... |
| Permalink Comment
Posted by Ken in: food |
| American Idol Week 11: Finale | Tuesday, 2010 May 25 - 9:11 pm |
| It's the final competition, between Lee and Crystal. They each sing their favorite song from the season, then one chosen by the producer, then the always-bad pre-written single that the winner will record. Read more... |
| Permalink Comment
Posted by Ken in: music, television |
| The LOST Finale | Tuesday, 2010 May 25 - 10:22 am |
| If you haven't watched it yet, don't click through... there are spoilers within. Read more... |
| Permalink Comment
Posted by Ken in: television |
| Today's Frozen Meal: Healthy Choice Chicken Alfredo Florentine | Monday, 2010 May 24 - 2:14 pm |
"Chicken Tenderloins in Alfredo Sauce with Spinach and Tomatoes over Whole Grain Penne". Read more... |
| Permalink Comment
Posted by Ken in: food |
| Thursday's Frozen Meal: Healthy Choice Lemon Garlic Chicken and Shrimp | Monday, 2010 May 24 - 2:09 pm |
From the "Café Steamers" Mediterranean-inspired collection: "Chicken Tenderloins and Shrimp, with Whole Grain Pasta, Spinach, Onions, Tomatoes and Olive Oil, in a Lemon Garlic Sauce". Read more... |
| Permalink Comment
Posted by Ken in: food |
| Tuesday's Frozen Meal: Smart Option Supreme Pizza | Monday, 2010 May 24 - 2:02 pm |
"Crispy thin crust SUPREME sausage, pepperoni, red & green peppers and onions PIZZA". Read more... |
| Permalink Comment
Posted by Ken in: food |
| Yesterday's Frozen Meal: Lean Cuisine Meatloaf with Gravy and Whipped Potatoes | Tuesday, 2010 May 18 - 9:59 pm |
It's meatloaf. No other description necessary, I guess. Read more... |
| Permalink Comment
Posted by Ken in: food |
| Sous Vide | Tuesday, 2010 May 18 - 9:43 pm |
| Yeah. Until recently I didn't even know about sous vide cooking. My foodie friend Eileen gave me some well-deserved crap about it. But now I get my revenge: I am doing my own sous vide cooking at home, using my $80 home-built contraption. How many people can say that? So I already had a vacuum sealer. That's half of this technique ("sous vide" means "under vacuum"). Here are a couple of steaks I vacuumed-sealed with a basic marinade (just lemon juice, Worcestershire sauce, and pepper).  The other half is a temperature controlled water bath for precision cooking. I took a $20 crock pot, a $50 temperature controller, and a $10 thermistor, and made this thing:  132°F for a little over an hour, and then seasoned and marked on the grill. Here's the amazing result.  It's a perfect medium-rare, juicy and tender. It's fantastic and foolproof. I am a happy happy man. |
| Permalink Comment (1)
Posted by Ken in: food |
| Apple Watch: New Macbooks | Tuesday, 2010 May 18 - 9:03 pm |
| Briefly: better battery life (10 hours), slightly faster CPU (2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo), better graphics (NVidia GeForce 320M). Still $999; still a good value. If you get it, get the 4GB upgrade for $100. |
| Permalink Comment (1)
Posted by Ken in: techwatch |
| American Idol Week 10: Top 3 | Tuesday, 2010 May 18 - 8:56 pm |
| Michael went home last week, as expected. Tonight: two songs from each contestant, one of their own choosing and one judges' choice. Read more... |
| Permalink Comment
Posted by Ken in: music, television |
| Today's Frozen Meal: Smart Ones Pasta Primavera | Friday, 2010 May 14 - 3:15 pm |
"Tender bow tie pasta with broccoli florets and julienne-cut carrots in a creamy parmesan sauce." Read more... |
| Permalink Comment
Posted by Ken in: food |
| Yesterday's Frozen Meal: Healthy Choice Slow Roasted Turkey Medallions | Friday, 2010 May 14 - 3:02 pm |
"Turkey Medallions in Savory Gravy with Red Skinned Potatoes, Butternut Squash, Apples & Cranberries."  Read more... |
| Permalink Comment
Posted by Ken in: food |
| Monday's Frozen Meal: Michelina's Lean Gourmet Creamy Rigatoni with Broccoli and Chicken | Wednesday, 2010 May 12 - 4:04 pm |
"Creamy sauce and pasta with broccoli and WHITE chicken."  Read more... |
| Permalink Comment
Posted by Ken in: food |
| American Idol Week 9: Top 4 | Tuesday, 2010 May 11 - 8:56 pm |
| Aaron finally went home last week. Tonight: Jamie Foxx mentors the singers through movie songs. Also: duets. Read more... |
| Permalink Comment
Posted by Ken in: music, television |
| Today's Frozen Meal: Lean Cuisine Roasted Honey Chicken | Friday, 2010 May 7 - 5:59 pm |
"Roasted white meat chicken in a sweet honey sauce with snap peas, yellow beans & whole wheat pilaf." Yes, a sweet honey, as opposed to that other kind. Read more... |
| Permalink Comment
Posted by Ken in: food |
| Health Note | Friday, 2010 May 7 - 12:10 pm |
| So, remember back in the day, when I was running frequently and posting my two-mile times? And then I stopped running for a while, and ate poorly a lot, and my blood pressure skyrocketed? Yeah, that was scary. I haven't talked about it much, but I'm running regularly again. I've got the Nike+ thing for my iPhone now, which is a lot of fun. There's a decent route for running near where I work. So I'm running 5 kilometers two or three times a week. I've broken the 30-minute mark twice. And all those frozen lunches I've been eating... yeah, you can decry all the preservatives, but there's no denying that they're significantly lower in calories, fat, and sodium than just about any fast food or restaurant meal I can get. I used to eat out for lunch a lot. Replacing all those burgers and subs with these little frozen meals has made a difference. How much of a difference? Since the start of the year, I've lost eight pounds. My blood pressure this morning: 113 over 77. And no, I'm not planning on eating those frozen lunches forever; this is just an experiment. The next phase will involve cooking healthy low-calorie meals from scratch. I'm even planning to make my own cheese. I have a lot of motivation to stay healthy... the main one is that I want to be around a long time to take care of my lovely wife. That's the thought that keeps my legs moving when I'm out there on a long uphill stretch. I think I'm doing okay. |
| Permalink Comment
Posted by Ken in: food, life |
| Yesterday's Frozen Meal: Healthy Choice Chicken Pad Thai | Friday, 2010 May 7 - 11:23 am |
From the "Café Steamers" collection: "Chicken Tenderloin with Whole Grain Pasta and Vegetables in a Sweet and Mild Curry Sauce". Read more... |
| Permalink Comment
Posted by Ken in: food |
| Yesterday's Frozen Meal: Lean Cuisine Thai-Style Chicken with Noodles | Thursday, 2010 May 6 - 11:45 am |
"Roasted white meat chicken, whole wheat noodles, green beans & carrots in a creamy chili peanut sauce." Read more... |
| Permalink Comment
Posted by Ken in: food |
| Tuesday's Frozen Meal: Michelina's Lean Gourmet Chicken Alfredo Florentine | Thursday, 2010 May 6 - 11:34 am |
Is this new? I didn't know Michelina had "lean" meals. "Creamy alfredo sauce with white chicken & spinach with fettuccine". Note the emphasis on WHITE chicken. Damn chicken racists. Read more... |
| Permalink Comment
Posted by Ken in: food |
| American Idol Week 8: Top 5 | Tuesday, 2010 May 4 - 9:05 pm |
| Siobhan went out last week; a small upset but not a shocker given her performance. This week's theme is Frank Sinatra, also known as "an invitation to butcher classics once again". Harry Connick Jr. is the mentor; he's even helping to write arrangements and playing along during the performances. Read more... |
| Permalink Comment
Posted by Ken in: music |
| So, This Happened | Sunday, 2010 May 2 - 10:19 pm |
Okay, let me be clear: I wasn't actually part of this; it just happened right in front of me. Read more... |
| Permalink Comments (2)
Posted by Ken in: life |
| Tech Stuff | Friday, 2010 April 30 - 2:41 pm |
| So a brief interlude between all the lunch reviews and American Idol recaps... there are a few tidbits in the tech world that I need to comment on today. Amy's iPad 3G arrived today. I'll post unboxing photos and a full overview of it later this weekend. As I noted in my Facebook status: the FedEx guy asked me, "What is this thing? We've had THOUSANDS of them being delivered today." For all the naysayers who figured it would bomb... there's a web site with a running tally of the estimated number of iPads online. As of this moment: over 1.1 million. Some estimates have Apple selling 7 million in 2010. Meanwhile, Microsoft this week admitted that it would not be releasing its rumored "Courier" device. This thing made a splash a while back when the oh-so-reliable "We Buy Stolen Prototypes" Gizmodo web site claimed that Courier was a real device, in the "late prototype" stage of development. The basis for this was a completely artificial marketing concept video. My guess is that "Courier" had never gone much past the drawing board before Microsoft's developers realized there was no way they'd ever deliver such a device. And also meanwhile, today HP announced that they were ceasing development on their "Slate" tablet device. Remember this? Microsoftians were certain that this vaporware product, hyped by Steve Ballmer, would easily trump the iPad. Microsoft likes to talk about how they were pioneers in tablet computing... funny how that never translated into any decent products. I hope this is a lesson for people who are so quickly dismissive of Apple: there is an immense amount of engineering effort that goes into an Apple product, and it's really not easy for other companies to copy them, much less surpass them. Next time Apple comes up with a groundbreaking new device, and you start listing reasons why you'd rather stick with your outdated Creative Nomad MP3 player, your Palm Treo, or your Dell netbook... maybe you'll look back on this week's events and you'll open your mind just a bit. |
| Permalink Comment
Posted by Ken in: techwatch |
| Wednesday's Frozen Meal: Healthy Choice Sweet and Spicy Orange Zest Chicken | Friday, 2010 April 30 - 11:23 am |
From the "Café Steamers" collection: "Chicken Tenderloin with Rice and Vegetables in a Spicy Orange Peel Sauce". Read more... |
| Permalink Comment
Posted by Ken in: food |
| American Idol Week 7: Top 6 | Tuesday, 2010 April 27 - 9:41 pm |
| It's Shania Twain week. Woo, uh, hoo. Tim finally went out last week. As it turns out, Tim had been the longest-running "VoteForTheWorst.com" contestant in history. Read more... |
| Permalink Comment
Posted by Ken in: music, television |
| Yesterday's Frozen Meal: Smart Ones Orange Sesame Chicken | Tuesday, 2010 April 27 - 10:21 am |
From their "Fruit Inspirations" collection. "Breaded chicken tenderloins in a zesty sesame orange sauce with rice." Read more... |
| Permalink Comment
Posted by Ken in: food |
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