ZeroMyHero -- Welcome.
Now on to the basic Alton stuff -- just a FYI in case you are like us and pronounced his name "All ton" it's actually "AL ton". I knew I heard that once before on TV and did a double-take when I heard it but they had a person that is a judge on Iron Chef America there doing the Q&A section with him (to which I can't remember her name). and she specifically asked "Is it pronounced ALLton or ALton?"
I have some pictures but they are still in the camera. There were no posed pictures, so you pretty much had to take pictures while in the process of book signings. You couldn't take pictures during the talk & they were pretty strict on that (I saw security go have a chit-chat with people when he saw a flash go off).
We didn't really wait too long to get in. He had his brand new book for sale that isn't even in the bookstores yet. It's related to his Feasting on Asphalt show. It was really weird as they had the host (MSI employee) tell you about the books that you could go buy it now as we had 40 minutes to wait but never told you the title other than it's not out in the stores yet. I only knew it had to do with the Feasting on Asphalt because I saw someone's book quickly. As I had gone out Friday night and just bought his Food + heat = Cooking book & DH really didn't want to get the new book, we passed on it.
The talk went *extremely* fast and unfortunately for ME -- *extremely* over my head scientifically HOWEVER -- the most important part is there was a Disney reference...I nearly fell over laughing. He puts the Mickey symbol up and says "This is the most powerful symbol in the universe" -- Turns out that Mickey is the same symbol for H2O
The head being Oxygen and the ears Hydrogon and then he made a comment about Walt Disney knowing what he was doing when he used that symbol and turned in into a mouse! To which he said "was a good thing".
He basically talked about Glucose, Water, Protein, Fatty Acids? (there was some other part to it but I think my eyes had glazed over by that point). Basically the most I got out of it was if you control water you can do anything because it's water that you are trying to use everything else to control...either holding onto water or letting it evaporate out and the water/oil keeping from mixing.
The best part was that he would ad-lib as he went along. He was talking and literally stopped mid-sentence when he saw someone yawn and do a "Did you just yawn?" and then did a defeated look but we all got him to keep going.
Then he went off on tangents about things regarding his 8 year old daughter, trying to eat his MIL's turkey and lots of other things that are hard to remember because it would only make sense if you were there. OH...he made lots of jokes about him gaining weight and how "black is sliming" since he was wearing a black sweater.
Then it was time for Q&A, so they set that up as some reference to some show I had no idea what they were talking about (so either before my time or I just live under a rock type of thing). Let's see how many questions I can remember --
how many sock puppets they had & if they had names? No, they don't have names except for a few that are intricate ones (they made a special one to use for sticking his tongue on ice, I think he was a bacteria? That one is called "tongue") but usually it's more of a just get me a yeast.
His favorite sound -- is a new one and has nothing to do with food. It's the sound of his DD laughing under water (they just got scuba certified and he did something goofy) he heard her laughing with the regulator on.
His favorite episode so far is the Vampire one on Garlic
Yes, on the Feasting on Asphalt they did go into one place and back out and decided they would NOT film there it was that bad. He didn't necessarily like a lot of the food he ate on that show.
We found out that he doesn't care for Dunkin Donuts but IF he were a Donut he would be a plain Buttermilk one with Glaze. AND he would want to be dunked (this was a weird line of questioning that wasn't even on the cards they handed out for people to write questions on -- it was just another one of those off on a tangent things!!!). He was finished with what kind of donut and the interview person said "If you were a donut would you want to be dunked?"
One question was if he was ever paid to be a chef!
(a lot of these were from kids).
They are constantly researching for shows & I think each show starts with 300? pages of research and they condense it down to about 100 when the show is done.
He also takes big bites at the end because they use real food and he's HUNGRY by the time they put the food out at the end.
He came up with the show because he wanted to explain things in a non-boring way (which he went and made a reference back to the yawner saying "I thought I was doing a good job until now").
Let's see -- I think that's about it. After he was done talking, they had the line for the book signing, which we got into right away. We were probably in the middle for seating and that actually worked to our advantage upon exiting...yeah, we didn't sit right up front but then those people were the last ones out to get in line for the signing too. There was still a HUGE line when we got done.
They had cheese, crackers, fruit platter type things you could munch on afterwards but it was all gone by the time we were done with our line. That was OK, I would rather be done early with the book signing rather than waiting longer to just much on some cheese & crackers.
As we were leaving we each got a goody bag from Dominick's -- It was a black bag that I'm assuming they are now selling like all other stores that you can take in to put your groceries in vs. paper or plastic. In it there was this cool measuring tool, a mini spatula, an energy/focus type canned drink (I got "focus" in my bag but DD got "energy" in hers), Organic Tortilla Chips & Organic crackers. So, now I have 4 measuring things, 4 mini spatulas, 4 bags & 4 bags of chips/crackers (hmm....I'm hosting Easter -- I think they need to come out for then).
We got done before 1:30, so we went and got the tickets for the Glass Experience at 2:00, so we could get lunch. It was funny because you could tell who went to see Alton as they were all walking around with the Dominick's bags!!! I went and took ours to the car as they were HEAVY to carry around.
The Disney Patrol was also there but was going to be there at the exact same time as the talk so we missed them.
Any questions? I'll try to answer them and I will try to get the pictures up (they aren't that great but it's what I could get!).
Just an FYI -- I thought the Glass Experience was neat because they do a glass blowing thing (although it seems really fast -- we were actually there for 2 of them. One was at 2:40 and one was at 3:20). The one at 3:20 is they pick a "You draw it, we make it", they pick one out of the pile of them. It's pre-picked though so I have no idea how they decide. I don't think I would pay to go see it again but it was neat to go see once. So, for
traces7 if you have time you might want to check it out. I don't think it will be horrible if you miss it though, just not something we have seen every day as we don't have the Corning Glass Museum nearby which is where these master glass makers were from. I did learn an interesting tidbit that if you see a glass vase that has a rim of color at the top that is made by hand because a machine can't do that. I believe the guy called it a lip rim. I did not know that before.
, we got there a couple of minutes late and ended up parking 2 blocks away! With it being Palm Sunday it was long too.
, Thursday after gymnastics she met a group of girls from her class at the library to work on a project. They're there again today to finish up. This is her first real solo outing.....ah they grow up so fast 
.
). Anyway, I'm glad to be here with local peeps.
As we are having a brunch next Sunday. I made a ham and au gratin potatoes from scratch!! Man they were good!!! 
Even with a list!!! 
She hasn't questioned it this year.....yet!!
to the Chicago thread!!!
I looked when I got to the mall, and then looked again before I left, and there was nothing I liked
And off he went to do just that!! 
