Snake's Weekend Smorgasbord
by Rick "Snake" Arnold
Week 5

Beers to try, a weekly recipe, NFL injury news, games you can't miss, my Safe Bet pick of the week and anything else under the sun I feel like commenting on! Should be fun

Can't Miss Pick of the Week

Beer you should try

New Belgium's Sunshine Wheat Beer

I just spent an entire weekend in Texas consuming enough of this stuff to get an entire NFL team drunk...it's that good. My friend and I hit up Pinkie's Liquor...a very cool place by the way. I was on a Fat Tire mission. Apparently Fat Tire is becoming scarce. We bought 2 cases, destroyed those at a college football pool party and found out there was NO MORE FAT TIRE LEFT IN SAN ANGELO! GASP! I hit the panic button...we decided to try this Sunshine beer and was I impressed! This stuff may be better than Fat Tire! I repeat...BETTER THAN FAT TIRE! It's light, no bitterness and has a nice mellow flavor. The most impressive thing was the 13th one tasted as good as the 1st! Give it a shot if you have it in your area.

Recipe for the Week

Sweet & Sour Chicken Dippers

1 can (8 ounces) crushed pineapple

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 can (14 1/2 ounces) diced tomatoes, undrained

1/2 cup cider vinegar

1/2 cup chopped onion

1/2 cup chopped green pepper

1 tablespoon soy sauce

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

1 tablespoon corn starch

Batter:

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup corn starch

2 teaspoons baking powder

2 teaspoons baking soda

2 teaspoons sugar

1 1/3 cup cold water

Oil for frying

1 1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into chunks

Drain pineapple, reserving juice.  In a large saucepan, combine the sugar, tomatoes, vinegar, onion, green peppers, soy sauce, ginger, and pineapple. Bring to a boil.

Reduce heat: simmer, uncovered, for 20 minutes.

In a bowl, combine corn starch and pineapple juice until smooth; stir into tomato mixture. Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 2 minutes or until slightly thickened. Remove

from the heat; set aside.

In a large bowl, combine flour, corn starch, baking powder, baking soda, sugar and water until smooth. In a deep-fat fryer, heat oil to 375 degrees.  Dip chicken pieces,

a few at a time, in batter, then fry for about 5 minutes or until golden brown and juices run clear.  Remove to paper towels to drain. Serve with sweet & sour sauce. 

Injury News to Watch

Injury News coming Soon!

My  Random Weekend Thought

 This week I get to comment on one of the biggest boneheads to grace the NFL and a franchise that was dumb enough to keep him around far too long:

GM Matt Millen:  Free Agent

Matt Millen was the biggest moron to ever guide an NFL team straight into the dirt. Why the Lions hired him, we'll never know. Why they stuck with him for so long just made them look beyond dumb. Let's look at some of the brilliance that is Matt Millen:

Drafted a WR in the 1st round for 17 years in a row.

Some of those WR's: Mike Williams (fat and slow), Charles Rogers (still high)

Hiring Steve Mariucci who couldn't coach his way out of a Brown Paper Bag

Hiring Mad Mike Martz who couldn't coach his way out of a Wet Brown Paper Bag

Paying Az-Zahir Hakim $16 million dollars when he was worth about $16.00

Chasing the greatest player to ever grace Hawaiin Blue away...we miss you Barry

Joey Harrington.

 If you look back, it's hard to find anything Matt Millen did right. You can build an All-Pro team out of players he passed over in the draft, hell someday probably a Hall of Fame team. There's not one of you fantasy football players out there that hasn't said, "Hell, I could draft better for the Lions than Millen does" (I say it every April). One mistake after another mounted up until the Lions FINALLY let him go.

 Did Matt have some dirt on the owners of the Lions? The Fords must have had some skeletons they didn't want aired. How else do you explain keeping this bafoon around this long? Perhaps to serve as a scapegoat? They didn't want to spend the big money, they knew they weren't going to win, and who better to blame for all of that then a great big donkey's ass with a turd-gobbling smile on his face covered by a 70's disco moustache?

 It's not even all the mistakes Matt made over the years that ticks me off, it's the cocky-ass demeanor with which he carried himself. He would get mad at the drop of a hat about someone criticizing his inadequacies. He actually believed he was doing a great job!  You probably should win more than you lose to act like that Matt...hell, can you even spell playoffs? I'm quite sure the next big Rah-Rah speech Matt delivers will be to his employees at Wal-Mart. He'll be the general manager of a super center and commence to running it right into the ground. Way to go Matt.