ARCHIVES: JULY 2004

Tuesday, July 27

Tomorrow is my birthday and I'm not ashamed to say so. I'll be 32. I think i'll start the day with some sort of breakfast treat, if i can get up early enough before work. Lunch will be a work thing and there's no need to talk about that. Dinner will be me and Snail in our natural culinary habitat: UCHI. It's where we went last year for my birthday.

I thought long and hard about going some place new; but i love everything about UCHI. I love ordering tiny meals and like, eight of them. One at a time. I love that the meals come on lovely japanese dishware decorated with fresh flowers and twigs. I love getting to try a little bit of everything. I love that snow crab tempura and they better not be out of it this time.

I will report back with photos.

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Sunday, July 25

I saw Spiderman2 last night. Let me first say that it was the best movie-going experience of the year. The screen was big. The sound was loud. There were no crazy people in there wondering around. No one kicking my chair or chewing in my ear and no crying babies. There were several times during the film where I just had to smile to myself at how enjoyable the evening was. And to compliment the atmosphere was a fun movie. I don't know that there's any other superhero that can top spiderman. Pure entertainment goodness.

In an hour, a friend is picking me up to go eat tater tots and sweet tea at sonic, which sounds delicious but i'm concerned that they may not have enchiladas there. I haven't had nearly enough Mexican food this weekend.

Snail returns tomorrow. He's been in San Diego for a few days. Me and myself have had some really nice times together.

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Thursday, July 22

I went to the video store last night to rent something simple and mindless but not too mindless. Nothing was even slightly catching my interest until I saw season 2 of Six Feet Under. I asked the clerk where season one was. He said they didin't have it, but he recommended Dead Like Me, which I had never heard of. Guess its a showtime series. I followed the advice of the 17-year old and rented it.

It was pretty good and I like watching shows and films that I know nothing about. I only watched the pilot episode (1 1/2 hours).

Can I just say that my nose is going nuts this morning? Itching and running. Man, its annoying.

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Tuesday, July 20

Here is an action shot of the lemonade making from this past weekend, which reminds me that I need a juicer like that if I ever want to make some.

I would like to state that I am turning over a big new leaf around here. I am going to make a super effort to find some new music that I like. Music is something I enjoy but something that takes time to seek out and I always let it fall by the wayside. My music listening is pathetic and sad. And there's no excuse. Do you know how many cds I buy a year? About one. Maybe downloading iTunes and burning some cds will be the answer.

There are moments when I wish buying music was like getting new lipstick. I want to be able to walk up to the counter tell them what I want and then they say, maybe you should try this or this. Thing is it takes time and you have to stay on top of it. And you don't always immediately like something that you might very well like, given some time. And then there's the issue of the purpose of music. If i listen to Prince, I have it turned up and am listening whole-heartedly. What about when I want something in the backdrop, driving home from work when i frequently stare blankly off into space? Does that mean I buy music that I only sorta like? And then, it's like feeding a fire. I mean, can you ever have enough music? Don't you have to just keep buying and buying as you get tired of the stuff you already have. Well, i think that's all true, but just the same I am going to get some new tunes, gosh darnit.

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Sunday, July 18

We were up in Dallas over the weekend. Partly going to the art museums and partly spending time in the county with family. It was hot. Aside from that, there were many wonderful things that I enjoyed: fresh made lemonade with mint (seriously good), sweet pickles, potato chips, home-grown cantalope, giant spiders in the garden, two black pygmy goats, cows, sweet tea. It was a pleasant mini-vacation.

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Wednesday, July 14

See you later, Whole Foods

I'm an angry soldier, back from my crappy lunch at Whole Foods. I got food to-go...from their hot bar. Black beans and Rice. Also got some popcorn and a pint of raspberries. Tried to find some chocolate covered raisins/nuts in the bulk section for our trip this weekend and what do i find? Carob. Yogurt and Grain sweetened (whatever that is). i mean, i hear you people with your extreme healthiness...But no chocolate? Sigh.

So, yeah. My black beans were NOT cooked and they had no salt in them. What exaclty is the problem about cooking beans all the way? I mean, i admit that I can't cook them either, which is why I just buy canned. If you can't cook beans, buy the canned ones! The canning people seem to know how to cook them. And explain to me again, what's so evil about salt? Salt never did anything to me, except make EVERYTHING taste BETTER. Oh, I guess its wrong to have things taste good. That's right. Don't you dare enjoy chocolate OR salt.

So, I'm looking at my receipt to see how much I paid for my uncooked unsalted beans and was scanning my other purchases and noticed that I paid $4.99 for some organic raspberries. This, i admit is my own fault for not paying attention. I mean, its the middle of summer and when I walked in the front door there was a practical title wave of fresh berries. It would only occur to me in the dead of January that raspberries could be five dollars. But, I accidentally bought organic.

OH well. They still have good muffins and scones and I like their applesauce.

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Tuesday, July 13

Today its back to business with food. No more extravagant wheat indulgences or dairy escapades (oh, did i not mention the ice cream that I had with my pie? ) Seriously, I like my regular life of eating salads and mexican food. It works for me.

And because of all the extra eating as of late, I haven't been able to have my one usual indulgence: my friday morning breakfast taco. The place that I stop for that taco is a BBQ place, so I wouldn't say its the best taco. Also, it means I can't ask for my taco with a corn tortilla, which would make my taco entirely legal.

But there's one thing that a bbq place is king over and that's meat and i'm talking about bacon. Yes. There's something special about the way their extra crispy salty bacon tastes. It reminds of the good ol days visiting my aunt and uncle in north carolina. They would pan fry fat back in the morning and eat it in a biscuit. I don't think i could fully appreciate what was going on there and the rind always kinda weirded me out.



As I'm typing up this post, I am laughing at the word 'fat back' and now that I've looked it up, I can see that its one word: fatback. And it means what it says. The back fat of an animal. I think its what they use to make fried pork rinds. When we ate it, it was sliced thin...just like bacon, but no meat. Beige like the color of this room. Salty crunchy pig back.

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Monday, July 12

I baked two more apple pies this past weekend for the benefit of some family members that were in town. The pies came out exactly as tasty as the one before. I am amazed how great the crust on a pie is, when baked in a glass plate (i presume a ceramic pie plate would produce the same results). And to think all these years i've been eating mediocre pies. My main complaint with my years of pie was always about the bottom crust. That bottom crust has to be crunchy and brown. Hurray for pie mastery!

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Tuesday, July 6


Not only did I make this 1978-looking pie for the occasion of the fourth of July, but I ate it too --hot from the oven with a little cheddar cheese melted on top and a small scoop of vanilla ice cream. I ate it and it was the best damn pie i've ever eaten. It had NO raisins and was sweet but NOT too sweet and the crust was crunchy! (even the crust on the bottom). Snail and I ate it with reckless abandon and it was good and I'll make another one and eat that one too. Just watch me.

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