Time flies . . .

Well, Bike Week was a blast. It also was a month ago, so I'm not really sure what I've done since then. I started my master's degree in teaching technology. I got a cat, got bitten by the cat, no longer have the cat. Ummmmm . . . I know I've done more than that, but that's all that is coming to mind.

Food-wise
Judy and I ate at some chain seafood place. I wanna say the Fish Grill or something that sounds like that. I really wanna crucify the place so I'll have to get the name correct and post a scathing review. We also went to an herb festival so I picked up some mint, rosemary, a datil pepper, some catnip ( I guess I can give that away now), lemon balm, pineapple sage and some lavender.

Ooooooooh, a new gourmet deli/store, called Noah's Market, opened about 6 blocks from my place in Ormond Beach. (Don't judge them on their web site.) They have fresh cut meat, imports and microbrews, produce, about 15 different kinds of gelato, two different kinds or riceballs, cheeses, all kinds of desserts . . . I'm getting overstimulated just thinking about the place. I went in with my friend, Greg (aka Dufus), on Sunday. We got some wonderful rib eyes, tirimisu and coconut gelato, stuffed mushrooms, a Sicilian riceball, and an orzo pasta salad. The only thing that didn't thrill me was the stuffed mushrooms. The stuffing was really bready, if that's a word. Greg liked them, but he also drinks Bud Lite so I wouldn't say he necessarily has good taste. And he has been insinuating that my good taste is pretentious. I'm not pretentious. I just like expensive shit.

There is a big Italian Festival here on April 17. At least I think that's the date. Maybe I'll get drunk and make a jackass out of myself like at the Greek Festival.

BTW
While I was looking for a food snob graphic on Google, (typed in "food snob") I came across a picture of a guy screwing a rotisserie chicken. It's a sad world, isn't it?

I'm a dufus

All the pics of the pig roast that were emailed to me just weren't usable. They had a lot of faces in them and I didn't feel comfortable putting them up. Oh well. But am I a dufus or what? I get invited to a food event and I don't bring my camera.

Ricky and I have something planned for the blog during Bike Week. Nobody else really cares, but we'll have fun.

Piggy

My fat pants are tight on me. It's at the point where I have to DO something so it looks like it's back to low carb. So for two weeks I can't eat cereal, pasta, fruit, potatoes, sugar . . . and on and on. There isn't too much I can eat besides meat, fish, and veggies.

So I'm sitting here trying to think of what to buy on my Sunday trip to Publix. I'm having steak on the grill for dinner. I don't know if it's gonna be salad or brussel sprouts as an accompaniment. I'm gonna grill a shitload of red peppers with the steaks. I found a recipe for a red pepper gratin and I can eat it.

I went to a pig roast last night in New Smryna with a woman I work with, Marilyn. They did the pig in a pit. (They actually killed it themselves too, but that's another story) Marilyn stuffed it with rice and pineapple. I forgot my freakin' camera and I could have gotten some great pics. They had massive amounts of food. I had baked beans with bacon, a very tasty broccoli casserole ( I have to ask for the recipe), homemade cole slaw, and so much other stuff. The dessert table wasn't too shabby either. I had something called sex cake which was delectable and another cake called a Harvey Wallbanger cake. I also tasted some smooth moonshine.

I spent a good amount of time talking to a woman who was taking pics and she said she'll email me some, so hopefully I'll have a pic of the piggy.

Insanity

I spent over $100 freaking dollars today on cookie shit. And I forgot some stuff. And I need to buy a few more cookie sheets and a few cooling racks too since I left all my crappy disgusting ones in Pennsylvania when I moved.

Xma$ Cookies

I will soon begin my yearly ritual of baking hundreds of cookies so that I can give them away. I've wanted to start since Saturday but I bought a bike and edited and designed a newsletter so I didn't have a lot of time. So here it is . . . Monday. And I still haven't started. I swear I'm gonna make one type a nite from now on.

But anyway . . .

Here are some pics from years gone by.

I'll post recipes and pics as I bake.

Oh no!!!!

I'm not quite sure what is up with me. On Thursday night I made rice pudding. My salt was refusing to come out of the cannister. So I shook it really hard, but I made the mistake of holding the measuring spoon over the rest of my dry ingredients. I obviously didn't notice that a lot of additional salt kinda went in too. So my rice pudding was inedible because i t was too damn salty.

Last night, I decided to make corn bread bites from a recipe in "Cooking Light" magazine. I was yakking on the phone with a friend while combining the ingredients. And I kinda forgot the egg. So I ended up with sort of but not quite cornmeal hush puppies. I dunno. I really didn't like the taste of them though, although I sure the lack of egg could have played a part in that. They were more savory than sweet and I think I like my cornbread on the sweet side rather than the savory side.

Today I'm not making ANYTHING. Instead I'm heading down to the 31st Annual Greek Festival here in Daytona with a friend.

Cleaning House; Recipe-wise that is

Last night, I spent about two hours going through my recipe "collection". I have one of those little binder book with transparent sleeve in which you can place recipes. I never, of course, put my recipes in those sleeves. I just shoved pages ripped from magazine, little recipe booklets, and recipes given to me by friends in it until it became a large unwieldy mess. It was next to impossible to find anything in it.

So I ripped it apart. I threw away all the recipes that I have never made and that I don't think I ever will make. I got rid of those that just didn't seem that special or different.

Now I want to type all of those that are left and have them on the computer so I can find them more readily. I want to try all those that I have tried and if they don't thrill me, they are gone too.

School started today and I'm not working. I plan on moving to Florida as soon as I get a job down there so I decided not to take a contracted position here, but I never realized how I would feel when school started. I'll do day to day subbing until I make the move, but I won't get any calls for a few days I'm sure. That will keep me busy and I'll have some money coming in.

I have so many other things I could be doing, like filling out applications, packing stuff, getting rid of stuff, and just talking care of odds and ends, but right now I feel so blah that I can't do any of it so I'll just waste time with my blogging and the internet and become even more behind and overwhelmed.

Ugh.

Leftover Hell

I went on a massive cooking spree this week. I made a sausage/potato chowder, chicken pot pie (homemade stock and I hand rolled the dough), and a large ass roast. My fridge is packed and I can no longer stand the sight of any of the above dishes.

I cannot cook for one. Instead, I cook enough for marauding armies. None of it will freeze well and I'll probably end up throwing a lot of it out. I am a food waster and should be flogged accordingly.

Bitch's Brew

Last evening, when I made my post about my recent beer purchases, I attempted to link to the brewery sites so that if you wanted more information on the beer, you could check it out yourself. That didn't work out so well. Why?

Blue Point Blueberry Ale
Slick, but click on a large number of links and all you'll get is an "authorization required" message. It's beer, man, not homeland security.

Buffalo Bill's Orange Blossom Cream Ale
Their site is is online but it's just a "Our website is currently in re-development" page. That's kind of ridiculous. Why didn't they leave the old site up while they were "redeveloping"?

Smuttynose Portsmouth Lager
Lots of info on the Smuttynose site, but when you go the the Portsmouth site, don't expect to find anything out on Portsmouth Lager, because it is a broken link.

Blue Moon Harvest Moon Pumpkin Ale
Brewed by Coors. Ick. Slick, slick, slick. Too bad it's not user friendly. Extremely slow loading. Downright freakin' annoying. I had to supply my date of birth three times too. Not worth the effort.

Abita Brewery - Abita Strawberry Harvest Ale, and Abita Turbo Dog.
The easiest to navigate but nothing on the Strawberry Harvest Ale.

Ham Shank Shortage and Beer Shopping

I've been to three freakin' grocery stores today looking in vain for ham shanks. I've come to the conclusion that there is some kind of ham shank shortage (say that three times fast) in east central Pennsylvania. It's 54 degrees and and I want ham and bean soup. Dammit.

But anyway . . . I went to my favorite beer store. I got Blue Point Blueberry Ale, Buffalo Bill's Orange Blossom Cream Ale, Smuttynose Portsmouth Lager, Blue Moon Harvest Moon Pumpkin Ale, Abita Strawberry Harvest Ale, and Abita Turbo Dog. No Aegean (a recomendation from a friend) to be found and the owner wasn't there so I couldn't ask him about it. He had some Beavis and Butthead clone working the register.

Screw the bean soup. I have beer now. I'm drinking the Blue Point.

Tomorrow I'm going to review the web sites of the above beers and I'm pretty much gonna crucify all of them. Just because I have beer doesn't mean I won't be bitchy.