2010 Olympic Feast-It’s a Long Ride and been a long time!

I’ve never, EVER, been a huge sports fan. And this blog may be a bit off topic for most of those wanting to see what I cook next, but this past week the Olympics have taken a higher priority to me. I have actually surprised myself, with my attention to the winter sports this year. Though I will admit it my appreciation for winter sports really started 4 years ago during the 2006 Torino events and Snowboarding was the culprit.

But to keep this post a little bit about food…In honor of the Olympics, I am gearing up to make my famous cheesecake this weekend. Call this past week a preliminary round, as I have been mentally preparing for what I know is my best recipe of all time, as this one recipe took me about 17 years to master the perfect cheesecake. I’ve gone to the market to get all my ingredients, including my secret one and now I must decide how I want to prepare…Not sure if I want to go the full cake or in individual form, which will ultimately decide how the cake is presented. Either way could win the Gold, but you never know! Plus, I think I will be eliminating the expected Graham Cracker crust for something more subtle but extremely flavorful, with an unexpected twist for my topping.

So, I’ve never been a person to “follow” the big Olympic stories and any other sports story for that matter, with the one exception; When the Red Sox finally broke the curse and won the World Series many years back. I actually watched the final game, almost scared to watch them screw up again, but they didn’t and I cried when they won. I cried, not only because they were my original hometown team, but for Massachusetts, all the diehard fans and the fact that none of us gave up during all those long hard years of supporting them. I also cried in joy for my family’s closest friends who moved to AZ, that love the Boston RS more than I ever will. A shout to Pat, Beth, Scott, Hank, Shenta and Max for their love of the game and the RS!

Unfortunately since then, I have not really paid attention to what the Boston RS and Baseball in general are doing and came to a realization, that since they broke the curse, I am done rooting for them. Baseball has become just another sport I don’t care about. I hate football, still after all these years never could understand the rules and even the excitement of the game. I do like hockey, but only if the Boston Bruins are in the Stanley cup.

VANCOUVER OLYMPICS: I want to give major shout outs to the following sports that I have fallen for: Snowboarding-All Competitions, Speed Skating (short and long)-All Competitions, Alpine Skiing- All Competitions, FreeStyle Skiing- All Competitions, Ski Jumping- All Competitions and finally Curling…This is a great sport/game to watch!

I am particularly excited about the Snowboarding competitions, as Torino really opened my eyes on the sport, not just Shaun White, even though he is an amazing athlete in his sport and was a factor in my liking of the sport. I must admit, I love to watch this sport and the true innovators that are changing the game day by day, like Shaun White, Seth Wescott and Kelly Clark amongst a few other talented athletes in the US and Worldwide.

Snowboarding is an American born sport and most incredibly something we as Americans should support more than anything, just as we would Baseball and Football. We should support this sport with more pride than we do right now. It’s not just an “X” games sport… It is a World Wide Olympic Sport that originated in Vermont, which we should all be proud of and support with the same pride we have for Football and Baseball.

RANT: So NBC is covering this year’s winter Olympics and I am so frustrated with the coverage. This is one of the main reasons I have gone off topic in my blog. For the sports that I am interested in watching, they save until primetime and have to wait until hours after the event to really see what’s going on. I’ve had to resort to the Official Olympic site to watch the results as they happen live, with no live streaming. I hope that ABC fights to get it back! I miss ABC’s Wide World of Sports!

PROUD PROPS: I know that there are more medals to be given (Apolo-I hope you break the medal record!), but I have to give a shout out to all those Americans that have won medals of any kind so far! You all ROCK! Canada-I love you and also congratulate those that won medals for their country…After all, you are our best neighbor and deserve US Support.

As of 2/19/2010 US Medal Honors:

GOLD

Figure Skating - Men - LYSACEK Evan
Snowboard - Men's Halfpipe - WHITE Shaun
Speed Skating - Men's 1000 m - DAVIS Shani
Alpine Skiing - Ladies' Downhill - VONN Lindsey
Snowboard - Men's Snowboard Cross - WESCOTT Seth
Freestyle Skiing - Ladies' Moguls - KEARNEY Hannah

SILVER

Alpine Skiing - Men's Super-G - MILLER Bode
Snowboard - Ladies' Halfpipe - TETER Hannah
Alpine Skiing - Ladies' Super Combined - MANCUSO Julia
Alpine Skiing - Ladies' Downhill - MANCUSO Julia
Nordic Combined - Individual NH/10 km CC - SPILLANE Johnny
Short Track Speed Skating - Men's 1500 m - OHNO Apolo Anton

BRONZ

Alpine Skiing - Men's Super-G - WEIBRECHT Andrew
Snowboard - Ladies' Halfpipe - CLARK Kelly
Snowboard - Men's Halfpipe - LAGO Scott
Speed Skating - Men's 1000 m - HEDRICK Chad
Alpine Skiing - Men's Downhill - MILLER Bode
Freestyle Skiing - Men's Moguls - WILSON Bryon
Freestyle Skiing - Ladies' Moguls - BAHRKE Shannon
Short Track Speed Skating - Men's 1500 m - CELSKI J.R.