i have the power!

that's really all i have to say. i wanted to express my joy.

how is everyone else?

we're back, at least one of us.....

what a crazy week. just checking in here. unfortunately only one of us has power at this moment. what's funny is that i spent just over 48 hours without power and what is the first task i do with electricity? it wasn't watch TV or check my email (ok i admit i had power at work so i wasn't that far removed from worldly events)...... its can. yep that's right. i had originally planned to complete that daunting task on monday. that was a no go. so wednesday evening i ended up canning about 15 jars of either stewed tomatoes or spaghetti sauce. i get this huge feeling of success when its completed. i love sitting there and looking at the jars. the popping (sealing) brings a nice sense of relief too........

during the power outage we did locate a newer restaurant (chain) that i had never been too. we were driving up colerain ave (thinking they would actually have power) looking for lights and hoping for sanity one evening and ended up a logan's roadhouse. its exactly as one would expect. middle of the road prices coupled with middle of the road food. at that point anything might have worked for me, but now i can at least walk away knowing better the second time. eric feels i'm being pretty nice right now and would describe it as a small step above golden corral. words used to describe the food include bland and dull. all i can say is that we won't be returning......

hope everyone else's life is returning to normal and here's to hoping krissy has power restored quickly to her house.......

i wanna play, too

saw this on wine me, dine me, skinny fat chick, and food hussy today. i love reading these!

edit; i'm going to play too in blue.

Coke or Pepsi? one really good fountain coke a month. with good ice. diet coke. everyday.

Thick crust or thin for your Pizza? thin. although pan has it's place, usually in the dead of winter when i need to pack on blubber to stay warm. agreed.

Rare or Well Done for you steak? medium? definitely not rare, but definitely not well done either. i'm a medium-rare sort of girl - i began ordering this way when i kept getting over cooked medium meat.

Hot Dogs or Hamburgers? hamburgers. with cheese. although i do love hot dogs on the grill or at the ball game, the more mustard the better. i tend to do hamburgers as well.

Ketchup or Mustard on your hot dog? see previous. mustard. lots of it.

Cake or Pie? both. preferrably on the same plate. tough. i'm going to go with cake, but feel free to change my mind if its key lime pie.

Brownies with a fine, glossy crust, or soft cake brownies? glossy! agreed.

Nuts in the brownies? is there also caramel? i do love turtle brownies! plain and simple is the way to go.

Vanilla or Chocolate ice cream? vanilla. vanilla with something, chocolate by itself.

Blue cheese or ranch dressing with your Buffalo wings? blue. the chunkier, the better. its a tie i really can't decide. i love them both.

Soup or Salad? salad. and again salad.

Butter on your Popcorn? do people eat it plain? i normally butter it up, but just this week i purchased plain popcorn (natural) and i'm going to give it a try. will report back.

Pork or Beef barbecue? pork. i think. i don't have much barbecue experience. pork.

Coffee or tea? tea. neither, diet coke.

Beer from a can or a bottle? bottle. i'm not in high school. i don't have a preference based on taste, but cans sure save more space. and cheaper.

Oreos or Hydrox? oreos!!! regular, double stuf, chocolate covered, in a parfait, in a blizzard, cookies 'n' cream well put.

Little Debbie or Hostess? little debbie - oatmeal cream pies, zebra cakes, swiss cake rolls, etc. although i do enjoy every one of the 27 grams of fat in the hostess cherry pie. swiss cake rolls every time.

Bacon or Sausage? bacon. very crispy. (obviously, i have something against lightly cooked meat) i like me some crispy bacon as well.

Eggs Scrambled or Fried? if i have to eat eggs, like if i had absolutely nothing else in the house and i was somehow incapacitated to neither be able to drive nor walk to a store but could somehow still use the stove, i would say scrambled. hopefully i also find some moldy cheese in the back of the fridge i can grate on top. the only egg i will eat has to be hard boiled, so the answer is neither.

some things just aren't good

i composed this list while i was parked on 71 earlier today.

i'm a low maintenance diner, an equal opportunity eater. there are a few things i avoid (eggs, peppers, mayonnaise) but i will eat them in the right context (cake, fajitas, tuna salad, respectively). i'll try anything once, the good things twice. however, there are some foods that i will never touch again. like hearing pierce brosnan sing in mamma mia!, these are experiences i would rather not have had.

my top 5 most inedible foods:

- mussels. i'd rather swallow my own tongue.

- raw bacon. in high school, i went on a class trip to paris. at this sandwich shop, i ordered a blt. imagine my surprise when the bacon was raw.

- scrod. alton brown talked about scrod on the food network. it seemed like a harmless little white fish, so when i saw it on the menu at porkopolis, i gave it a try. never again. it is the only entree i have ever sent back and ordered something else.

- this swedish candy i don't even know the name of. when i had the opportunity to study overseas, one of my fellow students was from sweden. she shared this hard candy that is a blend of herbs (cloves and anise?) and apparently very popular. i (tactfully) spit it out.

- rumple minze. i'm not going into it. it knows why.

mmm...cake

this month i am working at p&g. it is the first time in my life i have ever been exposed to the open cubicle work environment. i have a whole other level of appreciation for office space now. and being easily distractable by nature, in this setting i am particularly easily distracted. for instance, at 11:46 today i sent beth the following email: "i smell cake. somewhere in this sea of cubes there are baked goods, dammit."

the smell lingered all afternoon, tantalizing and tormenting me.

these are the times i need a stash of little debbies in my desk drawer.

memories of bacon

i was perusing the internet today at lunch and came across the bacovore's hundred. not only was it hilarious, it also brought back several memories. and since i haven't told a story about my grandparents recently, i figured it was a good time.

this first story is actually about my great-grandmother. she was an excellent cook. excellent, and without any recipes. she could look at a cupboard and a refrigerator containing nothing more than crackers, canned peas, maraschino cherries, and ketchup and somehow come up with a meal. under the kitchen sink she kept a jar that served a special purpose. every time she fried bacon, she poured the hot grease in the jar. it solidified into thick gray-white goo, flecked with charred bits of bacon. my mom still does this. she tells me no one should pour bacon grease down the drain because it will congeal and clog the pipes. my mom throws the jars away. my great-grandmother did not. she used the grease to make pie crust. waste not, want not. my mom swears that crust was the base of the greatest pies in the world.

my grandpa used to let me make bacon in their huge, old microwave when i spent the night over there as a kid. i would line up the strips carefully on the plastic tray, trying to squeeze as many as possible onto it, covering them with a paper towel. he also let me pour the pancake batter on the griddle. and we would have entenmann's coffee cake. the raspberry kind. those sunday morning breakfasts were the best.

for a long time my mom would frequently get sick after she ate. upset stomach, nausea, etc. you know what was the last straw, what led to emergency gall bladder removal shortly before my college graduation? hot bacon dressing.

nothing tastes as good as a blt on toast with crispy bacon.

and yes, i do have a jar of bacon grease under my sink.

a brief history of chinese food and me

childhood: quebec gardens, the classy westside chinese place for fancy nights out with my parents, colored tissue paper in the fluorescent lights giving the room a soft glow. my biggest adventure was getting sweet and sour chicken instead of lemon chicken, which were really both just chicken fingers with different dipping sauces. quebec gardens has, unfortunately, long since gone the way of the dodo.

college: red pepper in clifton, frequently delivered to our pad on vine street. i still think it's the best chinese in cincinnati.

grad school/young professionalism: during this time, i did a brief stint in mt. lookout. i ate whatever chinese delivered or that someone recommended. still visited the red pepper regularly.

current: upon my return to the westside, tragedy struck. i was heart-broken to find no chinese delivery available in this particular zip code. which is why i eat pizza so much. i like wearing my pyjamas way too much to actually leave the house. plus anytime i have gotten take-out or eaten in westside style i have been sorely disappointed.

i had assumed for some time that grand china fit that same mold. i am happy to report, however, that i was pleasantly surprised to find it is actually quite delicious.

first of all, it's decorated super cute. next, the cocktails are served in super cute cups. i had the suffering bastard, cause let's face it, that is an awesome name for a drink. it was a mix of two rums, lime, and unidentified fruit juices. tasted pretty tart.

my favorite chinese junk food is those fried cream cheese puffs. dipped in some spicy mustard. yummy.

the shrimp kow was subtle and loaded with shrimp. sometimes places scrimp on the shrimp, but not grand china. and i really like water chestnuts. they kind of make me happy.brian had the cantonese beef chow mein, which he greatly enjoyed.the meal was finished off with fortune cookies, of course.

i used to save all my fortunes because i guess i had some dream of decoupaging a table or something with all of them. in retrospect, that probably would have been a little sisyphean. i did keep my favorite fortune ever though, which isn't as much a fortune as a philosophy. it's still on my bulletin board.

"the heart is wiser than the intellect"