Yes, that’s right I did two paid posts in a row.  At this point of my blogging paid posts are my quickest way to make some cash.  So you’ve probably been wondering what I’ve been up to since the end of volleyball season and the whole big bee incident.  Well I’ve mostly been working that real world job that allows me to spend some of my time as a beach bum. 

But now that the bee situation seems to be taken care of I now have an woodpecker that thinks a corner of my house would make a good place to live.  So back to Google to find a way to keep old Woody away. Tomorrow I’ll be running to Meijer to purchase a couple of concave mirrors to place on the house.  They are suppose to make Woody think twice about pecking on my house.  Wish me luck!

You may have seen advertisements for the Great American Seafood cook off on the Food Network.  It is brought to you by the Louisiana Seafood Promotion Board.

I visited the site and reviewed the recipes.  Since I’m partial to creole cooking I selected the Mississippi Redfish Courtboullion with Seafood Dirty Rice.  The recipe was created by Chef John Currence of Mississippi. The picture makes the recipe look yummy…I’m hungry just thinking about it.  Or maybe I’m hungry because I skipped breakfast this morning.  It still looks yummy though.

There is one thing that I would change about the recipe.  I would replace the Top Shock beer in the dirty rice portion of the recipe with Bell’s Oberon beer.  Oberon is a local favorite and would give the dirty rice more of a Michigan flair.  Hmm I’m thinking of giving the recipe a try this weekend.

All the recipes include domestic seafood. This means that the seafood is both fresh and locally caught.  Of course fresh seafood has better taste and texture than seafood that has been sitting in a container ship of days.  Buying seafood caught locally helps our economy and this year the economy needs the help.

Due to regulations that apply to domestic fishing our seafood is a sustainable resource.  There is no need to worry about over fishing that could create a shortage that could lead to higher seafood prices.

So check out the contest and the recipes at www.GreatAmericanSeafoodCookOff.com.  If you enter and vote you could even win a trip to New Orleans!

As with every other year Labor Day is the bookend to summer in Michigan.  The season of Michigan’s beach bums has expired.  Truly a sad day for me because I know a long cold winter will keep me from the beach.

Labor Day brings what is usually the final day of beach volleyball.  This year my partner and I made it to the “Club Finals.”  Although it is not actually a country club or even a yacht club this is what we call it. We divide the contestants into teams of two and play single elimination until only one team remains.  I had the advantage of being paired with this years tallest player.

We played well through the rounds and felt confident going into the finals.  The team that we faced consisted of our gracious host and top notch regular so we expected a good game.  It ended up being a good match although we had a hard time sealing the deal.  Yes we won!

Now it is time to morn summers passing.  Cheers!