Tag: food

The 1200

I don’t pay much attention to what number of post my (now admittedly very rare) LJ posts are, but I just happened to notice I had 1199 entries under my belt before I started this one up. So, yay for number 1200!

So, what have been up to since I turned 42? Well, Amy got home safe und sound. School’s been pretty normal (though the cold & flu season is going on). I finally got caught up in grading. (The catapult research papers were a bit long in the tooth when I finally graded them.)

Yesterday, we had a sunny & almost warm day – nearly 50F. Dad grilled us New York strip steaks and they were so tender and very tasty. I was able to take half of mine home & tonight sliced up 1/4 of the leftovers to put on my salad. Yummy.

Also yesterday, I did my semi-regular trip down to the Bookery for my Doctor Who magazines. When I went to Jeet India afterwards (as I always do on said trips), the place was GONE. Just an empty space in the strip mall. Very sad. So I decided to get fast food Thai at Tik’s Thai Express. Good pad thai, tasty crab rangoon, and only so-so satay. Had the leftover pad thai for lunch today. (The good news? When I checked at home, it turns out they’ve merely moved locations. Will get to Jeet next time I’m down there!)

Decided to give the 2D version of The Hobbit a try today (before it leaves the theaters). Was surprised to see other folks in the theater. Still a very fun movie, though I think I prefer the high frame rate. Wish they’d do 2D at HFR.

This week is supposed to get bloody cold. Tuesday to get no higher than 11F. (My sister says MN is to have a high that’s -2F tomorrow. Brrrrr!) Wonder if we’ll have a delay on Tuesday with the very low wind chill temp. (It’s happened before.)

At any rate, those of you in the Northern Hemisphere, keep warm & drive safe in the snow/ice. Those of you south of the equator, keep cool! (Dern that climate change!)

Merry Christmas! Happy Tuesday!

Although today is Dec 25, AKA Christmas, I opened no presents. Poor Amy will not be with us until Dec 28, so we’ll open presents after she arrives (Sat morning, if all goes well!)

We also didn’t have a White Christmas today. But that’s OK, because we’re getting a blizzard tomorrow. If the power doesn’t go out, I’m intending to have a lovely day of bread baking, present wrapping, and game playing. Woo! And if it’s not horrible, maybe a walk in the snow. We’ll see!

What mom and I did do today was our annual Baking Day. However, due to me doing Weight Watchers, we didn’t go as overboard on cookies like usual. We did three things from scratch (pecan cookies, Lindy cookies, and ice box cookies) and three things from Market Day (shaped sugar cookies, macadamia nut cookies, and chocolate mint cookies). We watched schmalzy Christmas movies on the Hallmark channel or listened to Christmas music while we baked. It was a good day.

I am now back with the kitties though (and Linus wants some huggings, so I need to get offline shortly for cuddles) and I’m hoping tomorrow will be a good snow-watching day. And I really hope things get cleared up by Friday evening when Amy’s supposed to be flying in!

Hope everyone who celebrated had a wonderful Christmas today!

First Christmas of the season!

Today was our day inside. We started the morning with elsaf making us a breakfast of pancakes & bacon (mmmm, bacon!) and I had whole milk with mine (OMG, whole milk!) Tasty, tasty. Then we didn’t eat at all until supper time, cuz Elsa was making us our Christmas Dinner. (Well, OK, we all had a slice of butter bread from the loaf of bread that Elsa baked.)

I did take a short walk to Jewel (with a stop into Trader Joe’s for grins) to get a few essentials that we needed. Oh, and I took Patty (judiang‘s doggie) out for walkies once. She wanted to get back inside ASAP to watch Elsa cook, so we weren’t out long.

Elsa had e-mailed us last week asking for votes on the dinner. The consensus was rack of lamb, mushroom soup, asparagus, rice pilaf, and lava cakes. She added a red currant & wine sauce, pear salad, and from scratch rolls to that menu.

I think I cleaned the cooking dishes 3 times during the day, it took that much cookware for the meal, but it was worth it when we finally sat down for our meal.

The pear salad was very simple – sliced fresh pears with bleu cheese, walnuts, and a poppy seed dressing (no lettuce). Very tasty. She’s made the mushroom soup (with sherry) before and it was once again very yummy (and I’m not overly fond of mushrooms). The lamb was cooked perfectly and the sauce complimented it well (and was also good on the pilaf). For out-of-season asparagus, they were pretty good. And the lava cakes were spongy and nice, especially with a side of ice cream.

After the meal, we opened presents. I got lots of nifty stuff, including a real surprise – a K’nex roller coaster thingy that Judi got when she was in the studio audience of the Anderson Cooper show. Pretty darn nifty!

I managed to get stuff packed into my bag (and into another bag). I tweeted several photos from the meal tonight, along with a few gift photos. If you visit this lockerz.com page, you should be able to click on the photos that I tweeted tonight.

Tomorrow I fly home for more festivities! Woo!

Fun in Minneapolis (the tl, dr edition)

I’ve been busy having fun & frolic with my family this weekend. This is the main reason I haven’t been updating my journal.

When I last left off, it was still Wednesday and we’d only just had naps. We had a few chores yet to do before Thanksgiving, including a booze run and the search for “real” cranberry sauce (the Ocean Spray variety in a can). Amy showed the folks the cottage they’ll be staying at most of the them they are here (they’re here for another week after I go). We also picked up Rachel at her apartment and got to see her little kitty, Charlotte.

We had Wine Time in lieu of supper where I had a pear hard cider (Fox barrel, so far my favorite pear cider). The cheese assortment was excellent, except for the sheep’s cheese that Amy had gotten from her cheese CSA. Ah well, they can’t all be winners. Amy, Rachel, and mom worked on baking the pies (sweet potato, apple, and pumpkin respectively) and I made my thanksgiving cheeseball. When everyone was back to their respective locations, Amy and I cleaned the turkey & let it soak in brine overnight.

Thursday was Thanksgiving and Amy and I got up at a reasonable hour in order to get things going. The cheeseball was finished, the turkey was prepped & stuffed into the oven, and the stuffings were prepared. Amy picked up mom and Rachel biked over while we were doing all of the rest of the work. Mom got the table set and it looked ecclectic and interesting.

Dad called later, looking for a thanksgiving dinner to be paternal over, so mom picked him up. And by 2pm, Amy’s friends, Jim & Carrie, arrived. Time to EAT!

The food was wonderful, the company excellent. I am very thankful for my family and our friends. And I’m really glad we got to come & visit Amy for the holiday.

The evening was closed with a game of Apples to Apples, which, frankly, is a little boring after playing Cards Against Humanity. Amy won the game. I had only 1 card at the end. Alas!

Rachel spent the night with us that night, and Charlotte was picked up because she’s still very young and hasn’t been alone all night yet. Curtis, my sister’s cat, tolerated his little cousin. He’s probably glad when she finally goes home. 🙂

The girls and I had decided there was one Black Friday sale that we had to attend. A local business had donuts and coffee, 10% off, and a free gift for $20 purchase (a $50 value). So we took advantage of their sale. I had two of their donuts (they kept insisting) and we each bought enough merchandise for the free gift. Rock on! Here’s to small businesses that take care of their customers!

We picked up the folks and then headed to Brit’s Pub for lunch. I had half a BLT and cock-a-leekie soup along with a Strongbow (on tap). We had a great time at the pub and I picked up the tab. It seems appropriate to eat there since it was Doctor Who‘s 49th anniversary.

Our only big box store visited that day was Target for a couple of things that we needed. It wasn’t overly crowded, whih was nice. Then we went to Depth of Field, the futon store that Amy got her futon from. She was determining what fabrics to get her bolsters and pillows in. Dad, meanwhile, investigated what on him kept setting off anti-theft devices in stores. To everyone’s annoyance (and my amusement), he kept removing stuff until he finally discovered it was something in his wallet. He eventually discovered a little RF antenna in it.

Our final shopping spot of the day was Midwest Mountaineering. This allowed us to have our parking ticket validated and both of the girls found useful purchases. Looking at the price of the Smartwool socks, I realized that my $9 Fox River socks weren’t too expensive after all. Heh.

We returned to Amy’s for pie and coffee. We finished off the apple pie (now with ice cream). Then we headed to mom & dad’s cottage in order to watch Brave on the nice TV there. Turkey sammiches were the snack of the night. Then Amy and I dropped Rachel off at her place (Charlotte had been dropped off earlier) and returned home for bed.

Yesterday (Saturday), we had several things planned in advance. To start with, Amy and I made breakfast. She made “refrigerator clean out” eggs in a tortilla wrap and I fried potato cakes from leftover mashed potatos. The breakfast was a success, if we do say so.

Next, we walked to the library so she could return some videos and get her books that were on order. Sadly, we were too late for her to avoid the late fee on the DVDs, but the fee is pretty reasonable.

Then we picked up the parental units and headed to the chicken coop. It was Amy’s day to feed & water the chickens. I helped! Sadly, the outdoor water faucet was frozen, but Amy discovered that after she dumped the water (whoops). So a short trip to Rainbow to buy 2 gallons of drinking water, and she was done with the coop chores.

I have a number of people I’ve known online for years and yesterday had the chance to finally meet one of them. He’s a member of the Greater Midwest Lego Train Club and they had an open house in the Brickmania Toyworks display room. So we went there and were awed by the train displays, and I got to meet Michael. I took lots of photos.

We had hopped to also visit an antique store in that area, but the frozen tap had other ideas. So we just hopped on the 35W and headed south to Bloomington to meet a friend of dad’s at Sawatdee for lunch. The lunch was good (I, of course, had tofu pad thai), and it was nice to see Bill again.

Since we were down in Bloomington, we decided to visit Ikea. I love shopping at Ikea. I think I need to visit my “local” next weekend. Heh. But I managed to refrain from putting stuff in the basket. Amy, meanwhile, scored a number of nice things. A Poang chair, stuff for her soon-to-be remodeled bathroom, and a few other odds and ends.

We dropped the folks off at their cottage, then put Amy’s purchases into her house and got snack foods, and finally picked up Rachel. Then it was Game Time at mom & dad’s cottage. Mom popped popcorn and we munched on that and cheese ball and crackers. We started with Euchre, where Rachel and I won after a slow start. Then we played Rumikub, where I won after a slow start. Heh.

So now Amy and I are relaxing on a fine (but chilly) Sunday morning. NPR is on the radio. We had a cinnamon roll (from Ikea, dad’s purchase) and steel cut oats (I doctored mine with brown sugar, almond slivers, butter, and banana). Tasty tasty. Dunno what we’re doing today other than eventually taking me to the airport. Gonna miss hanging out with the family, but will be glad to see the kitties again.

Long Day is Long

I got up this morning at 3:45am EST. It’s now 11:42pm EST, so I’ve been up for a long time. Why, you ask? Well, this morning the folks and I flew to Minnesota to visit my sister – woohoo!

Our flight took off at 6:45am and we got in early – 7:30am CST. Turns out Amy was mistaken on the arrival time (we were supposed to arrive at 8am, she was thinking 8:40) but she met up with us at the car rental place shortly after we had loaded it up.

We headed to her place of work for K-Day where they were celebrating with kalua, koffee, and kookies. Apparently this is a tradition on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. We got to meet several co-workers (current and former) of hers and it was always fun being introduced as “Amy’s sister” or “Amy’s parents” etc. 🙂

As I’m rather tired, I’m sure I’ll get some of this wrong, but I think we next went to pick up the turkey & last minute items from the co-op. Sadly, the “fresh” turkey was frozen, but we think we’ll be good for tomorrow.

Once back at Amy’s, we figured out where to head for lunch. We went to Herkimer Brewery as mom would get bonus points for her air miles card (or something). I thought the beer battered fish was very good, as was the tartar sauce. Sadly, some of the other things there weren’t quite as good. The fries were no better than ones you’d find in your grocer’s freezer. Ah well, the Strongbow cider was a plus.

We had a couple more things to pick up while out, then we returned home for naps. I didn’t nap, but got caught up on e-mail and twitter. But not LJ, sadly. Or else I wouldn’t be doing this now when I’m too tired to type. I think I’ll finish this for now and continue tomorrow (or whenever I next get to updating. Heh.)

Thanksgiving is tomorrow (minutes away in Ohio!) so y’all have a great day!

Quicky end of month post

Can I get this posted before midnight? Let’s try!

Today the parental units and I went to the Tipp City Mum Festival. Lots of stalls selling things, mostly autumn-themed items. Several stalls with mums and pumpkins too. And of course, the most important stalls, the food vendors!

Dad and I each got gyros (mine lamb, his chicken), mom got a corn dog, and we split an order of spiral fried potatoes (basically, home made potato chips). Good eats. Then for dessert, the folks got a peach cobbler a la mode which was tasty, and I got the deep fried sampler: cheesecake bites, Nutterbutters, and Oreos. Almost too sweet for me (almost). Thankfully, the folks ate almost half of the sampler.

This evening was cards at Aunt Becky’s – probably the last time we’ll play cards at her house as she’ll be moving to a two bedroom apartment in two weeks. And we’ll probably play cards there (as she’s moving into the same complex as another of our regular card players). I came in second during the first game, and came in first during the second – woo!

Oh, and I think Sophie Aldred spoiled tonight’s Doctor Who episode for me. Reading Twitter before you’ve watched the episode can be a bad idea…

Oooh – I think I made the time – woo!

It’s Autumn!

Ah, the Autumnal Equinox! And the promise of autumnal weather (which we’ve been having) and autumnal sights (trees are looking like the trees in model train sets) and autumnal smells (love the smell of decaying leaves). 🙂

Our Grand Adventure today was for the folks and I to go to the Aullwood Apple Festival. Unlike the Troy Strawberry Festival, the featured fruit wasn’t present in most of the booths, which was a bit of a surprise. But the various booths had interesting items and lots of food choices.

Dad and I decided to try the “fish boats” that one tent was selling. And while we waited for our food, mom held up the tent for the folks making our lunch – it was so blustery the tent kept threatening to fall over. The fish was excellent. Mom opted to try the lamb chili that another place was selling – that was tasty too. I also had a lemon shake-up, which was mighty tasty. And just because I could, I had the “hot waffle ice cream sandwich” which is just as described. Interesting.

As we were finishing our lunch, big black storm clouds crept over the festival, so we (and half of the folks there) headed to the inside bits. Thankfully, the clouds blew over without raining, so we returned outside to share an apple dumpling a la mode before heading back.

The rest of my day was spent cleaning house and listening to the latest Big Finish Sylv audio, Gods and Monsters. And halfway through that story, I got to watch the latest TV episode, “The Power of Three.” Quite enjoyable. I’m gonna miss the Ponds!

Tomorrow is laundry day. And hopefully I get a nice walk in to enjoy our lovely weather.

Last Weekend of Summer

The weather feels like autumn (finally into the mid-70s (°F) during the day) and the trees are just starting to turn, but it isn’t actually autumn until late next week. So this is our last weekend of summer for 2012. Woo!

Festival season is ramping up with the Lake Festival tonight (and the rest of the weekend). The folks and I met up at their cottage, then drove separately to the Lake Festival since we were all bringing mums home (and they had the truck which doesn’t really seat 3 people). No white mums this year, so I bought yellow mums. Mom bought some red mums and some yellow mums.

Once we had our mums purchased and returned to our vehicles, we headed to the food area. I had a brat with kraut, Sierra Mist Natural, brownie, and fries (which I split with the folks). Then I succumbed to the fried food vendors (as if the fries weren’t enough) and got a funnel cake. The folks helped a bit with that too, but I still wound up eating most of it. It was very yummy.

We finished off the Festival by walking around the vendor tents. We didn’t really find anything else to buy (except mom bought some pussy willows, which made her easier to spot in a crowd) and were back in our vehicles before it had gotten too dark.

Tomorrow is Taste of Troy, so I’ll be heading to the folks’ place in the morning. We’ll start with the farmer’s markets, then eat our way through that festival. Yum! Sunday I hope to stay home and nurse the cold I’ve developed (though I will need to get into the school at some point this weekend to get caught up on work. Whoops!)

Hope y’all have a nice final week of summer (or for you antipodeans, a nice final week of winter)!

Stress-Free? Could it be?

Perhaps I’m doing something wrong this school year (or perhaps I’m finally doing it right), but these first two weeks of school have been, to the best of my memory, the most stress-free first two weeks I’ve ever had. There’s a small part of me waiting for the other shoe to drop, but the larger part of me has decided that the shoe is a myth. 😉

Apart from my usual “ugh, it’s morning, why doesn’t it go away until after noon!” morning routine, I’m quite pleased to be up & off to teach. I’m hoping the students are having at least half as much fun as I am. Tests/quizzes next week, so that will probably let me know if I’m actually teaching them anything. Heh.

Last weekend was a pleasant Labor Day weekend with a wedding reception & card gaming (different venues to each other) on Saturday, Heritage Festival on Sunday, and just mooching about & relaxing on Monday.

We were at the Heritage Festival for longer than we’ve been in years because we sat & enjoyed the music. Blue Celtic Grass played for awhile (though only half of the guys were from that band – they had 3 others playing with them from another band whose name I don’t recall). The bluegrass got us started, then we munched on foodstuff (with very few folks in line – great for us, not as great for the vendors). I had, throughout the time there, French fries, corn on the cob, strawberry lemon shake-up, bite of sirloin sammich, chicken noodles, and deep fried peaches. I also bought my obligatory saltwater taffy (mostly vanilla with a few mint too) and giant bag o’ kettle corn.

After we’d eaten (but before we bought the kettle corn), we sat and watched Dulahan perform. We’d seen them for the first time this summer at one of the Troy Main Street concerts. It was the best concert this summer, IMO. I immediately purchased five of their albums. Heh. So it was great to hear them live again. They were as fun as they’d been in Troy.

This weekend’s plans are a bit up in the air, though I have decided the theme is “local food.” I had pizza from Indian’s Pizza tonight. Tomorrow morning is pancakes & snausage (& eggs) at the UCC just 2 blocks away. And Sunday, the firehouse is selling barbecue chicken (the folks are coming to join me for that). Yum!

The End of Summer

I know that summer doesn’t really end until September something-or-other, but Labor Day (coming on Monday) is the symbolic end of summer in our neck of the woods. So here we are at the end of summer.

We’ve now been in school a week (well, a 4 day week for the students) and I think it was a good week. Thanks to some diligent work by our new guidance counselor, most of the kids eligible to take the chemistry course for college credit are doing so. (She was still chasing kids and their parents down today – applications had to be faxed by noon.)

This is the start of my 20th year of teaching and the start of my 14th year at Newton. Woo! And I feel like this might be the most stress-free starting week in memory. (Well, I do have a crappy memory, and I know last year had mucho stress with the new chemistry curriculum.) So perhaps I’m getting the hang of this teaching lark!

I was working late today, but I really wanted to get a number of things done before the weekend so I can just enjoy the 3 days without thinking of school. And then the folks and I headed off to Troy Streets Alive to check out the Downtown. We sampled bourbon chicken from LeDoux, looked at the wares of the various artists stationed around the square, bought some olive oil from Olive Oasis, and then headed off to Kuzzinz, a bar & grill I’d not been to before. In honor of my successful first week, I had a woo woo with supper and a brownie sundae for dessert. Very yummy!

This weekend is one of my favorite festivals – the Heritage Festival in Piqua. Dunno when we’ll go other than “not tomorrow.” We’ve got a wedding reception to go to tomorrow. (The wedding was held in another state, so they’re holding a second reception here for family that couldn’t get to it.) That works for me. Wedding receptions are usually much more interesting than weddings. 🙂