Chicago & Chocolate Walking Tour II

Last weekend was a whirlwind trip to the windy city, Chicago to participate in the walking Chocolate tour.  Three of us went and had a fabulous time!

We met some great people from the waiter at Frontera Grill, Rick Bayless' restaurant.  We had a great time and D being the huge R.B. fan was beyond ecstatic when he made a quick appearance by walking into the restaurant!  The train ride home was fun after meeting the cousins that were heading home to Columbus, Indiana.  We even talked about a road trip to visit them in upcoming months!  Of course there was the initiated contact I had with an officer for directions who later found our girlfriend and asked her if she would stay the night and entertain him! 

We had some fantastic food and great chocolate!  Fortunately with all the walking we did, we offset the great treats!  Here are some that we managed to take pictures of before devouring:


Frontera Grill: Appetizer Plate for three



More: Double Chocolate Mini Cupcakes

Cityscape: Grilled Seafood Salad (octopus & calamari w/arugula & fennel)

Cityscape: Scallop & Shrimp Ceviche

Cityscape: Ricotta Cheesecake (amaretto, strawberries & raspberries)

Cityscape: Dark Chocolate w/macaroons

Frontera Grill: Duo De Flanes (dark chocolate w/red chili bacon and vanilla) & Homemade Ice Cream (Vanilla & Coffee with goat milk caramel and hot fudge)

Valentine Goodie Part III

Last night I posted about my brownie debacle here.  After cutting out the two hearts, I called it a night and went to bed.

I do have to admit, I am a pretty tough critic, especially on myself.  This morning while my son was making his lunch for school I asked him if he tried the brownies. 

He said, "Why didn't you use the peanut butter chips?  It doesn't taste peanut buttery." 

Well that's because I had to default and make the brownies as I was missing the heavy cream for the fudge.  So I inquired as to what he thought.  He said, "I didn't really get a good piece and using the cookie cutter was hard as it was so thick!  It tasted like a brownie.  It's pretty good."

So I sampled them again.  And true to fact, they were actually pretty good.  The brownie is still a little soft but definitely not as easy to cut into heart shapes with the cutter!  Fortunately I was able to mold them into the cutters and push them out. 

Needless to say, after getting on the scale, I ate quite a few of the brownies that couldn't mold into the cutters!  I even brought one in for my co-worker and gave it to her with a note. 

But don't think that I won't be getting a box of Betty Crocker or Duncan Hines to add to the box of sweets.  Afterall, foolproof and 1/10th the cost!  Speaking of foolproof, did I mention that's what the fudge is called?  Can't wait for the story on that baking adventure, Can You?

Valentine Goodie Part II: EPIC FAIL

So before the final baking debacle was complete, I posted this.  Of course part of the reason for wanting to get the Valentine baking out of the way tonight was I wanted to bring in a small goodie bag for a co-worker that had a rough day.  I figured she would enjoy something sweet.  My honest intention wasn't to kill her!

Brownies right from the oven

So as you can see, my brownies don't look like the picture on the recipe card. Not even remotely.  As I mentioned, the filling was swimming!  Then with the difference of the baking pan, I added five minutes more bake time, but as you can see the sides were beginning to brown.  While the toothpick wasn't completely clean, I was afraid I would end up with burnt brownies if I baked much longer.  I attempted to be patient to let them cool.

Then I used my new cookie cutter for the large heart and a small one I already had.  The brownie was still very warm and didn't come out of the "prepared pan" as well as I hoped as it was pretty soft.  The smaller heart almost looks like the recipe picture, but the larger one, not so much.
 

Heart Shaped Surprise Brownies (Just like the picture - NOT)

 While they look good enough to eat, the taste?  Ummm...yeah, I think I'll buy the boxed stuff afterall.  I broke my vow to not eat anything after 9p.m. because I can't give out brownies that taste terrible, Can I? 

Sometimes it's the thought that counts right?  Yeah I'm sure my co-worker will totally get that I attempted to make her fudge but couldn't without the heavy cream so I wanted to make her a brownie.  And yeah, I f'd that up too.  But here's pictures to prove I attempted?  Yeah, that will go over like a ton of flying bricks. 

Or better yet...A ton of flying brownies! 

(On a completely random side note - I'm still LOVING my dishes that MS gave me for Christmas!)

Valentines (Not So) Goodie...

Two years ago was the first time I was creative and managed to give a Valentine gift.  I went all out, let me tell you, as can be witnessed here.  But for those that don't want to check it out, in summary, I decorated brownie bites (that I purchased at Sams Club) with chocolate and strawberry frosting and put a hug or kiss on the top.  Not very creative for most, but most impressive for ME.

This year I had this great idea in my mind (damn mind, never a good thing to use, always a good thing to waste!) of what I wanted to do this year.  I wanted to make sweets that were peanut butter and chocolate and put them in a decorated box of some sort.  Similar to two years earlier, but with actual baking and more effort.  (Note to self: Not a Good Idea)

Many years ago I made some awesome peanut butter chocolate fudge.  I don't recall the recipe being extremely easy and somewhat labor intensive, but well worth the work!  Of course I can't find the recipe.  I remembered it was with a cluster of recipes I had from a magazine and I still had a few left.  So I searched for recipes and found one that seems very simplistic, so figured I could try it (Note to self: Try is NOT a good idea when hoping to have the perfect final result the FIRST time). So I printed the recipe - twice - since who knows what happened the first time around (of course I assumed it printed and closed out of the search engine).  I made a list of the ingredients that I would need.

I even purchased cutesy heart cookie/brownie cutters and tiny ones for the fudge the night before.  Pre-planning, yep, that's me!  I went to the store on my lunch hour and purchased everything I needed to make Double Chocolate Surprise Brownies and Chocolate Peanut Butter Fudge.

That is, until I decided at 10:15p.m. to actually make the fudge and realized I missed the ingredient of heavy cream that was in the narrative of modification to make chocolate peanut butter glaze.  Sigh. OK, onto making the brownies instead.

I had all the ingredients.  I followed the directions exactly, because that's how I roll. Of course I struggled with the definition of beat and mix. So does mix mean not with the beaters or do I mix it in and use the beaters?  Where is my bake by numbers already?

Direction 5 reads: "Reserve 1 cup of chocolate mixture. Pour remaining mixture into prepared 9-inch square pan."

Issues so far: How am I suppose to "prepare" the pan?  So I sprayed it and lightly dusted it with flour because that seemed "prepared".  I pulled out the tape measure to measure the pan and I think mine is 8", so I'll adjust the cooking time.

Next I make the "filling".  Again I have issues with the definition of whip and mix. Ah what the hell?  I'll beat it all up with the mixer.  So after the filling is mixed I move on to the next step.

Direction 7 reads: "Pour the cream cheese mixture over the chocolate mixture, by tablespoon.  Swirl to marble." (8 reads: Bake at 350...blah blah blah.)

Anyone else seeing my next issue?  What the hell happened to the reserve cup?  Was I suppose to pour the filling over the reserve cup and swirl?  If so, then what was I suppose to do with it?  If I poured it over the mixture in the prepared pan, when was I suppose to add the reserve cup?

Seriously, who the hell writes recipes?  Do they ever proof read them?  Besides the fact that a finger test tasted extremely salty and I wonder if it should have really been 1/4 tsp. of salt. 

So, I put the filling on the prepared pan chocolate by tablespoon until I realized how ridiculous that was as there was so much filling it covered the entire pan!  So then I took the reserve cup of chocolate and by tablespoon added that onto the filling and attempted to swirl; however, there was so much filling, it was practically swimming.

Yes, I understand now whey they are called Double Chocolate SURPRISE Brownies.  The surprise is on me!

So pretty sure when they finish baking and cooling, they may be headed for the garbage.  And tomorrow, I will be heading to get heavy cream and a box of Betty Crocker brownies and cookies which cost mere pennies to all the ingredients necessary to botch (I mean bake) my own!

Another reason why I have no reason to embrace Valentine's Day...

Happy Valentines Day to you and yours!

Oatmeal Optimism

I am not an oatmeal fan.  Occasionally I will have a bowl of oatmeal if I feel the urge, which is very infrequently.  Something about the texture and the way it feels on my tongue.

I am also not a fan of McDonald's; however, I do like the egg McMuffin. 

This morning after a hellacious commute from the bf's house to the office (an extra hour) I decided to swing into McD's and grab an egg McMuffin.  Nerves shot and no desire to head into work I was swayed to try the fruit and maple syrup oatmeal as the picture looked so enticing.

I have to say that I was not disappointed.  While a little sweeter than I would have preferred, I did like the mix of apples, raisins and cranberries. I am pretty sure I will be finding myself grabbing some oatmeal again in the near future! 

Meijer Muse

I love Meijer.  I have a Meijer credit card.  I use it for almost everything (unless I have a department store card elsewhere).  I noticed yesterday that they raised my limit 3+ times higher than my requested lowered limit.  Sigh...

I love saving .05 on every gallon of gas at Meijer gas stations.

I love special sale days for Meijer card holders:  15% off G. Merchandise,  5% off Grocery.       November 8, 2010 will be the next sale day!

Increased love for Meijer occurred tonight. I learned that all pre-cut deli meat is 50% off an hour before deli closing!  Clearly they don't advertise this, or I would have known!  While I don't frequent the deli counter often and have no idea what the deli hours are, tonight we scored some serious sandwich fixings: salami, honey baked ham, mesquite bbq chicken and honey roasted turkey!  Looking forward to some great sandwiches this weekend with cheese, lettuce and tomato...

Oh how I love my Meijer!

Irish Dinner Photos

The Irish Dinner was fabulous. The people that I met were entertaining and it was a good time by all. I was more than pleasantly surprised that I liked everything that we made too! Here are a few of the pictures of our meal:




Started the evening off with Guinness. I didn't pull out the camera until the dinner was almost completely made, which meant the appetizers were already primarily devoured!

Guinness Fondue with bread pieces

Apple Slices with Irish Cheeses

Irish soda bread (was brought so one less thing we had to make!)

Shepherd's pie with lamb

Corned beef with a stone ground mustard crust & cabbage, Orange-Pineapple marmalade glazed carrots, Atlantic Cod with a cheese scone topping and Mashed potatoes with butter and scallions

Irish bread pudding with a Caramel Whiskey Sauce and Irish Cream cheesecake

Comfort Food

There are very foods that I really crave that I find comforting, with the exception of chocolate.

Sometimes I crave a bowl of tomato soup and an extra gooey cheesy grilled cheese sandwich. Other times I love to have a fabulous greek salad and fantastic breadsticks from my favorite restaurant. On Fridays I often crave a terrific extra hot bowl of New England Clam Chowder. But more often than not, I really don't have a specific comfort food that I really crave.

However, having said that, there is one food with modifications that I do love on rare occasions. I love a great chili dog! I grew up on the distant outskirts of Detroit, I prefer to say near Brighton/Novi area, but several times during baseball season we would watch the Tigers play at Tiger Stadium and go to Lafayette Coney Island and get fabulous coney dogs. Several years ago, my uncle and I went back to Lafayette and I was...disappointed.

Maybe because great memories are hard to replace. Or maybe because I have over the years revised my coney island to something slightly more healthy. I've even stopped eating the Koegel's that were my mom's favorite growing up.

My chili dog consists of Oscar Mayer 98% fat free wieners, Hormel turkey chili 98% fat free, mustard and light onions. Not only is it a healthier option, I don't feel so guilty or lethargic after eating two!

T's Dinner

T's favorite meal...is anything that can be made in 15 minutes or less. He does have some favorites, but for the most part, when he's hungry, he wants to eat NOW.

For Thanksgiving, I didn't host or cook. I haven't really been cooking much of anything lately. I seem to be in a funk, again just with the idea of cooking anything more than convenience for T and I seems like a waste. A few weeks ago I made a fabulous turkey vegetable lasagna that could have fed a small army. We had lasagna for dinner, lunch, dinner and even gave some away. Other than that I haven't really bothered to make anything that was even remotely labor intensive. And I still haven't.

T loves ham. Other than on a deli sandwich or with pineapple on a pizza, I prefer to avoid ham. I do much better with ham in things rather than by itself with sides.

My parents are coming for Christmas. I will make Christmas dinner, which personally, I do enjoy cooking. I like making several things in addition to the mess. Multi-tasking for a reason is really something I enjoy. Dinner will be rather easy and seeing that I'll be heading out of town for a week, leftovers aren't much of an option but a waste. My parents are bringing steak, which T refuses to eat. T wants ham.

To pacify T, I told him that I wouldn't cook ham for Christmas Eve dinner, but we could have it tonight so that he could have leftovers. In the spirit, I picked up a 6.75 pound ham, way more than we can fathom, but it was definitely more cost effective. I picked up T and brought him home today during a late lunch and threw the ham into the oven. T's responsibility due to his strong fear of the stove and oven, was to turn it on!

The ham actually smelled good when I walked in the door. Much better than the lingering ham smell on my hands from putting it into the roasting pan and oven before I headed back to work. T made his favorite cheesy mashed potatoes (another ugh for me!) while I cut up veggies for a salad. Within fifteen minutes of walking in the door, we had carved ham, instant cheesy mashed potatoes and a greek salad. Less than an hour later from walking in the door, we ate, dishes are done and we have the night ahead of us.

T is completely happy. He had his favorites in a short amount of time and I have enough ham left over for him to have for Christmas Eve dinner and enough to make ham and cheese breakfast casserole for Christmas morning. Win Win. And the best part, the ham actually was pretty good!

Blackberries

I love berries. I didn't think that there was a berry that I didn't like. Until...I had blackberries...plain.

In researching blackberries this morning, http://www.antioxidants-guide.com/health_benefit_of_blackberries.html Blackberries help prevent cancer and heart disease and are extremely high on the anti-oxidant list, one of the top ten in fact.

What I also learned, it isn't a great idea to eat them plain. Mix them with other berries - raspberries, strawberries, cranberries...eating a pint of them plain, not so fabulous. Actually, I should correct myself. Eating them they weren't bad.

The after taste? It ranks up there with the taste of cigarette ashes. So what is it in blackberries that leaves such a nasty taste in the mouth?

Lava Heaven

Since I just posted about SOBE lifewater, I thought I would tell you about another latest fondness of mine. Actually, I've only had them on one occasion (so far), last night. Domino's Lava Cakes...YUMMY!

Last night since I was still more than half dead, the idea of making chicken and pasta and either hacking up a lung or dribbling snot in the sauce didn't sound too appetizing, T and I agreed on pizza. I had just received the latest coupons to Domino's and we decided on "The Family Feast", two-two topping pizzas, bread sticks and two lava cakes. Seeing that all of the bread sticks - regular, cheese and cinna sticks were the same price, I asked if they could be cheese bread sticks. I told the man on the phone I had a coupon. He told me it would be $23.02, although the coupon said $16.99 (+ tax). I said, WHAT? I informed him of the coupon and he then corrected the amount to $18.01 and said it would be ready in 15 minutes. We stopped by Speedway to grab some SOBE lifewater and then headed to pick up the pizza. We went to pay and were told it was $14.83. Ummm...OK. So who knows what our order was going to be!

The order came up and it was two pizzas and cheese bread sticks. A different man said it was $18.01, so I paid the difference and then asked for the lava cakes. Now it was his turn to say, WHAT?

Apparently, pizza employees have absolutely no idea what coupons are sent out to patrons. They have no idea what they include or entail and rather than inquire when a caller calls, they expect the caller to inform the pizza phone operator of exactly what they are ordering. So, in my half dead state I was more than a little annoyed that I was suppose to identify the lava cakes when I wasn't special ordering them - not adding toppings, not adding cheese, etc. So we had to wait another 7 minutes for them to be cooked. 28 minutes from the time we placed the order, we walked out the door. No special discount, apparently it was MY FAULT.

BUT...the lava cakes...let me tell you, they were SO WORTH WAITING FOR! The small chocolate molten cakes were warm and filled with hot thick fudge of just the perfect amount. The cakes were covered with powdered sugar. They were the perfect bit of crispy and crunchy combined with melty and oozing to taste nothing but warm, thick, fudgy chocolate. Yes, they were that fabulous. T and I split one, which was the perfect amount without self-indulgence and gorging after eating pizza and cheese bread! We saved the other for later which we split and didn't warm up and it was still super yummy.

I think I found a new little bit of heaven and I never would have thought it would have been at Domino's!

Orange Issues

It seems like far too long since I've posted about any of my "issues". I'm pretty sure I still have them, as they seem to surface themselves typically at the most in opportune moments.

As of now, my most recent "issue" is I am now the proud owner of orange...teeth. Yes, it is true.

If it wasn't annoying enough for my co-workers to listen to me crunch endlessly on my baby carrots, I am now noticing that my teeth appear to be permanently orange!

At what point does eating healthy become EASY?

Chocolate Bubble Gum

I'm craving chocolate. Wait, craving would be inaccurate as I'm actually inhaling chocolate today! Then I had this thought, why isn't there chocolate gum? Of course I imagined that there must be, so I entrusted my good friend, google.com and learned the truth.

In fact, there was a Chocolate Bubble Gum back in the 80's manufactured by Bubble Yum. Additionally, Cadbury and a couple other companies intended on creating chocolate gum in the middle of 2008. One flavor being a mint chocolate gum.

Granted, I'm not a huge gum fan and when I am, it's more as a breath freshener than for the sheer desire of curbing hunger or a sweet tooth. If I was craving chocolate, I would eat chocolate. The thought of chocolate gum has never crossed my mind before today. I'm not sure that I would be a big fan of it, but if it did in fact curb the sweet tooth and the nagging, raging curse of devouring chocolate on a whim, sure I'd be game!

Chocolate gum...here I come!

Healthy Apple Dip

Along the lines of recipes, another of our long-time favorite snack came from a presentation on Healthy Snacks over 10 years ago.

While I do not agree with the comparison, "If you like caramel apple dip, here's a healthy alternative.", it has become a staple snack throughout the years in our home. I do have to admit that when I first heard the recipe, I thought it sounded rather...disgusting.

Apple Dip:
Peanut Butter
Yogurt (Vanilla or any flavor)
Apple Slices

Like the fluff recipe, we switch this up every time as well. The directions call for equal amounts of peanut butter to yogurt. Feel free to experiment if you want it creamier, add more yogurt. My favorite is adding vanilla yogurt, but for variations, add any flavored yogurt.

A healthy simple snack that kids and adults love!

Fluff

My son loves Fluff. Not the traditional pistachio fluff that many have for holidays or Watergate salad as it is often called, you know, the fluffy stuff with marshmallows and/or nuts...

The fluff my son loves, is a quick and easy recipe that I was introduced to about 6 years ago. One that due to my crude directions, is slightly different every time I make it. In addition to the directions, or lack thereof, it's different due to the variety and experimental change. The fluff recipe that I have came from Cindy R. and Weight Watchers.

For the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday I decided that maybe I would try a cranberry fluff. Seeing that I am not a fan of cranberries, I thought adding my favorite - chocolate - would make it pretty yummy. I have to admit that this is one of my favorite fluff concoctions, so far. It reminds me of a melted Wendy's frosty. Or maybe it's because it's not completely fat free! Prior to my cranberry attempts, one of my favorites is raspberry with pineapple, but I've tried a good dozen if not more variations over the years.

Pretty much the recipe is fool proof.

Chocolate Cran-Ras Fluff:
1 pkg. Sugar Free Cranberry Jello (Use any flavor/sugar free or not)
1 pkg. Sugar Free Chocolate Fudge Pudding (Use any flavor/sugar free or not)
1 Cup Raspberries (Use any fruit/frozen or fresh - drain juice)
1 8oz. Chocolate Cool Whip (Use any flavor/fat free or not)

Here's where the crude part comes in, since I think I believed at the time that I did short-hand directions I would actually remember what they meant!

Make the jello and refrigerate. When the jello begins to solidify, beat in the pudding (just the dry package - not prepared jello). Refrigerate. Fold in fruit. Mix in the Cool Whip. DONE.

I've refrigerated longer and shorter and the results do not appear to make much of a difference. Be sure that the jello is starting to thicken before adding the pudding, but short of being jello.

Feel free to explore. From healthier options to not so much. While this can be considered a "salad" or a dessert, clearly by adding the chocolate cool whip it is a dessert.

My son LOVES fluff and he enjoys switching up all of the ingredients for a different treat, every time!

Enjoy!

Baby Meat

Tonight I celebrated my 34th birthday. To some that may be young. To others maybe they will say 34 years young or others yet will claim not a day over 29. I'm completely OK with the truth. Maybe because as of now, I'm not a day over 34.


Anyway, digressing, JN and I went out to a "new" bistro in town. I happened to drive by the bistro a few months back so I decided maybe we should check it out. In reality, the bistro has been open since January! I met her there after my meeting. We were both very impressed with the bistro and the food.


Our conversation was filled with laughs and entertainment. And...I learned again how truly dumb (err naive, uneducated, or?) I am.


Here's the thing, I ordered veal.







For the past 34 years...I had no idea what veal was! I was especially confused when the waitress asked how I would like my veal prepared, recommending medium rare. What???

Isn't veal like the sister white meat to pork? Maybe it's the ugly step-sister to pork. (Yeah, that's it.)


So seriously, for the first time in my short 34 years, I've learned that veal is...Baby Cow!

I have to say that the food was delicious. But my new confirmation of baby cow led to further discussion:

Cow = Beef
Pig = Pork
Deer = Venison
Lamb = ?

I thought it was veal. Probably because when people say would you like lamb chops or veal chops, I assumed that they were one in the same. Maybe a slightly different shank. So I also learned that lamb is Mutton. In my mind lamb was vuitton.

What in the world is vuitton? Is it French for lamb?

Ok, well my search shows Louis Vuitton, designer. Yeah, not exactly what I had in mind.

Tomato Bros & Greek Salad

I love the Greek salad dressing at a local establishment near where I grew up. Nothing compares. There are several restaurants by the same owner: Tomato Bros., Gus', and Highland House (may even be a few others).

Whenever I head back "home", I am always sure to stop by one of the restaurants and grab a large Greek salad (serves 10-12) and bread sticks. Sometimes we dine in and add a pizza to the order, always making sure that there is plenty of salad to last throughout the weekend.

Comfort food, is there anything in the world quite like it?

Eating Crap

I'm not sure if it's stress, but eating crap consumed the better portion of my entire day. It wasn't my intention when I left for work today, but lack of time had a great deal of impact on my lack of healthy choices.

Thinking that the issue of notarization of the letter was under control, I arrived at work to find numerous emails with the most recent being marked "critical" that my co-worker would not notarize the letter without me being present in the office. After begging and pleading and owing her big time, she agreed this time only she would do it. Meanwhile though, I did my best to find a color copier to have a notary in my other office notarized the "copy" of the emailed document.

Racing against time I finished up a few projects at my office and then headed back across state to sit through the third training presentation. I occupied my time by watching trainees nod off and found myself drawn to an arrogant, single guy that sat in the back that was beyond rude and disrespectful. I was quick to judge him thinking that he partied too hard over the weekend and that his time and energy was too valuable than to listen to a 2-hour presentation of a new program. He fell asleep during one point and then made several loud sighs and mumbled comments that weren't so mumbled to me. I just find it hard to understand how others can be so disrespectful, regardless.

I had about five minutes to get gas and hit a drive thru. My first choice was Schlotsky's, but the drive thru was set back off the road and their was a line, clearly not imperative for the few minutes I had. So I did the unthinkable for me. I drove through McDonald's.

I met Mr. Date at his work and we went to a nearby park. When he left, I went through the second drive through of the day, Taco Bell. I figured why not, I had already managed to eat poorly once. Then as if to put the icing on the cake, while purchasing chocolate M&M's to repay my co-worker, I bought a medium bag of the peanut butter M&M's and proceeded to eat those during my drive home.

Yep, when it rains, it pours. I don't think there are enough hours in the night to exercise off today!

Plum Tree

There is a beautiful plum tree in my yard. It is actually planted on the city property, between the street and sidewalk, where "my" yard technically begins. Of course, I'm completely responsible for the city lot's maintenance and upkeep. The city has two trees planted on every lot, although they are getting older and many have been cut down. My lot only had one and it was cut down after I purchased the house. The city could have planted another tree, but I decided to purchase and plant one myself.

I can't tell you when I planted the tree. It must have been, seven years ago or so. Prior to two years ago, I couldn't have told you it was a plum tree either. All I know is I love the dark purple/blood red color of the leaves and the pretty flowers in the springtime. Two years ago when EB helped me landscape my yard, he asked me if I ever eat the plums. "What plums?"

I've never done anything to the tree. I've never used insecticides or pesticides or anything else to encourage the plant to bear fruit and flourish. I don't even know if they are edible. So tonight, after a mile walk, my son jumped and pulled one off the tree. I wiped it clean and tentatively, I ate it. I even allowed my son to taste it all the while with thoughts of snow white (if I could link I would to my animal stories) racing through my mind and that I/we might become terribly sick. The plum actually wasn't too bad, a little sour, but still good. I would eat them again.

See Mr. Date is giving me a hard time that I'm going to get sick from dehydration and sun poisoning. So I guess I decided to add a third option, food poisoning to the realm. If I'm going to get sick - why not go for the gusto?

Cooking

There are some things that I can do and some things that I can't. Then there are things that I can do that I don't always acknowledge. Because once people know what you are capable of, they usually expect it. Of course this usually applies more to dating than to friendships, but not always.

Taking cooking for example. I can cook. I really can. I use to tell people that I can cook. And...then they expected me to cook for them.

I'm not stupid. I quickly learned to say that I can't cook. That way no one expects anything and if and when I desire to cook, surprise I must have learned it online or found time to watch a good food channel. Yeah, that's it.

I'm a no kind of frills cook though. It's all about the basics, unless of course I'm trying to impress...which is almost never, so yah, it's all about the basics. Pretty much anything I cook, should be done in around 15 minutes. I hate slaving over a stove, oven and kitchen for hours to inhale the food and then be stuck cleaning. I want good food done fast...oh wait, is that the new Wendy's slogan, I know it's close to someone's slogan.

I think I've spoiled my son. Seriously. He HATES going out to dinner. He hates having to wait. He wants his food and wants it now, when he's hungry that is. Occasionally, I prefer to go out to eat, but I almost have to pay him off to get him to go. How does that happen? I use to love going out to dinner as a child, which was so seldom.

Typically we eat dinner rather late. I always offer lots of choices to my son, whatever. There are times where I don't since I have something on my mind or meat in the refrigerator that needs to be cooked. So at 4p.m. I asked my son if he was hungry since I was pretty much starving. He said that he was.

Within 15 minutes, I had cooked corn on the cob, pork chops and made a greek salad (with peppers, cucumbers, beets, feta, mushrooms and tomatoes). The dinner was on the table and I was ready to eat. My son was questioning me while I was still in the kitchen for each item if I had made it yet. Then he was shocked and claimed it had only been 10 minutes!

A healthy cooked meal. We are stuffed and the kitchen is clean and it wasn't even 50 minutes from start to finish. Now that's my kind of cooking!