It’s Saturday night. The kids are asleep. Joe’s asleep. The dogs are asleep. I can’t sleep.

I’m turning on the TV.

First stop: Roseanne… the domestic goddess. Funny, but no.

Second stop: Iron Chef. What’s the secret ingredient? The smoke is flowing on the stage. The majestic music crescendos. What could it be? Shark Fin? Sea Urchin? Oh. They went to commercial.

Wow. JC PENNEY is having a sale. Excedrin now has a medicine specifically for tension headaches. Great.  Oh. Richard Marx is coming out with a new CD. Available now. Swiffer Wet Jet now has a “scrubbing head”. I’ve got to write that down. Oh. I just did.

But, when you’re done you can just throw the pad away. Go to www.swiffer.com for more info.

Back to Iron Chef. What’s the ingredient????  Kaga says, “LLLLLAAAAAAAMMMMMBBBBB!!!!!!!!”

Boring.

Ooh. Tavis Smiley. We love him.

Naw.

Weather Channel.  It’s going to be hot here. Yup.

The Simpsons. Wow. Must be an old one. It’s grainy.

Good background for writing.

So, getting back to my midterm, my mushroom cups needed to be kicked up a notch (as Emeril would say). I was obsessing on it.

My first thought is always Bleu Cheese. So that’s the first thing I tasted. Bad pairing. The Bleu was Pt. Reyes Original Blue, my favorite. It’s from Farmstead Cheese Co. in Marin.

Try to find it and simply spread it on a piece of bread. You’ll cry. However, it was so powerful, it  just wiped away all trace of flavor from the mushrooms and Madeira. Not going to work.

I stared at the mushrooms almost begging them to tell me what they want.

Suddenly the spoke to me…

Well, actually, since mushrooms can’t talk, I decided on the only failsafe thing in the world of food.

Parmesan!

Parmigiana Reggiano. If it helped the dates, maybe it would be kind to the mushrooms, too.

I pulled a wedge from the fridge and grabbed the OXO veggie peeler.

Marge and Homer are kissing and Mo is crying.

A crisp clean shave of Parm on top of a spoonful of the mushrooms. Was it going to be enough?

I took a taste.

Oh yeah! That is good.

0% Financing on a new Jetta. Wow. That’s a great deal.

Oh crap. Now it’s Drew Carey. I need to scan. Celebrity Justice. No. Will and Grace. Jesus! Can’t that show just go into cable syndication and leave us alone? How many fag hag jokes are there?

Oh. I found it. The Rockford Files.

A show that makes us all want to live in a trailer in Malibu.

The parm/mushroom pairing was perfect, but it needed garnish. I was thinking some thyme from the garden might work.

Phyllo cups with wild mushrooms in a Madeira reduction garnished with Parmagiana  and a sprig of fresh thyme.

Perfect! I finally knew what I was going to present to the wine tasting class. I felt relieved and fell asleep.