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Bust Out the Nap Mats
Wednesday, January 27th, 2010 | Author: Erika

So, my post yesterday was not very uplifting, nor was it particularly artistic or well-written.  It was kind of a mess, really.  I’ve decided I’m ok with publishing those every now and again, but no more than that, lest my readers decide to start charging me for therapy services rendered.

I am vastly comforted by the feedback I received on the post, however.  Sometimes you just need people to remind you that the situation is larger than your little monkeybrain can compute at the moment.  My hormone addled monkeybrain and I appreciate your comments and help.

I thought I might celebrate my (temporarily?) recovered sanity by sharing a funny little observation Wes and I made at our birthing class last night.

We have snack time in our birthing class, which is exactly as awesome as it sounds, and every week two of the couples bring in snacks for everyone.  The snack this week was string cheese, Babybel cheese, Ritz crackers, apple slices, and Oreo cookies.  Wes and I grabbed a plate with an assortment and sat down next to another couple.

I said, “I love this snack, it’s very fancy this week.”  I meant it.  Here I was with some cheese, some crackers, and some fruit.  In my mind, it was one glass of Pinot Grigio away from being a sophisticated repast.

The girl sitting next to me laughed and said, “Yes, just like kindergarten!”

And then we realized: Cheese, crackers, and fruit can either be a fancy snack or a kindergarten snack.  It just depends on what you drink with it.  If you add wine, it’s a fancy party.  If you add grape juice, bust out the nap mats and eat some glue because it’s kindergarten hour.

Silly, huh?

Category: Food, Just plain nonsense  | 4 Comments
The Quest for the Great Philly Cheesesteak
Tuesday, December 01st, 2009 | Author: Erika

There’s a good reason this post didn’t go up until almost 10 pm, and it’s not because I’ve suddenly decided sleep is way passé and too boring for the likes of me.

I blame the baby.

I was minding my own business at work when a Craving came over me.  Not a passing-fancy oh-a-brownie-sure-would-be-swell-right-about-now craving, but a Craving.  The kind that ambushes you out of nowhere and takes your mental faculties captive.

This craving?  Was for a Philly cheesesteak sandwich.  Not a namby-pamby slap-some-meat-inside-a-hoagie kind of sandwich, but a proper Philly cheesesteak.  I’ve only ever been to one place that made a proper cheesesteak, and it was in California (Philly’s Best in Lake Forest, if you’re curious).

Here are my qualifications for the perfect cheesesteak sandwich:

  • Hoagie roll must be buttered on the insides and then grilled on the same grilling surface used for the steak.  It must be fresh and soft on the outside but buttery and delicious and toasted on the inside.
  • Steak must be shredded/sliced paper-thin and grilled using skillful spices the likes of which I could never possibly hope to comprehend.
  • Sweet onions and peppers must be likewise grilled in beef fat and delicious spices but they can be sliced a little thicker.
  • Cheese must be melted to near-liquidity and must be full-fat honest cheese.  Not a plastic amalgamation.
  • Must be served with thick french fries and these fries must come with a vat of marinara sauce for dipping.

Wes said he was willing to fly to California for me but I couldn’t bear the wait time so we settled on the closest sandwich approximation we could find: Quizno’s.

Not. The. Same. Thing. At. All.

Unless brined beef counts as steak, this was no cheesesteak sandwich.  Sure, it had beef, and yes, it had cheese, but the bread was toasted with the beef already on it so it didn’t get toasty so much as it got soggy and difficult to eat.

The steak was enough to satisfy the baby, but it was so salty I feel like I made out with a salt lick for a few hours.  I’ve been drinking water like a crazy person to make up for it but I have the feeling tomorrow’s looking swelly with a side of non-fitting wedding rings.

Also, let’s not even look at the fact that the sandwich had 1,000 calories.

So not worth it.

Am I missing something crucial in my Philly cheesesteak demands?

Category: Food, Squishy  | 4 Comments
A Little Mish of Mash
Wednesday, October 07th, 2009 | Author: Erika

I don’t have anything cohesive to write about, so I thought I’d just throw a whole bunch of random thoughts together and see if anyone cares.  It’s like the whole seven quick takes thing, but not nearly so organized.

  • Wes and I saw “Inglourious Basterds” on Friday.  I enjoyed it fairly well, but it was definitely a Quentin Tarantino flick.  Not that that’s a bad thing, but it’s starting to feel a little rote to me.  Wes reminded me in the car on the way home (we discuss every movie we see ad nauseum on the way home) that there were several scenes in the movie that were particularly artful, and I do agree.  It would just be neat to see Quentin plumb the depths of his creativity instead of pacing the rut he’s created for himself.
  • Consignment stores are awesome!  It’s completely hit-or-miss, meaning there’s by far no guarantee that when you stop by to shop you’ll find something that will work, but when you find something that’s perfect?  It’s like the skies open up and the sun itself beams down upon your face.  I found another $5 pair of jeans at a consignment event yesterday.  With finds like this, it’s small wonder I balk at the prospect of paying $30 for jeans, no?
  • Is it just me, or has “Grey’s Anatomy” gone completely off the rails?  Wes and I started last year’s season last night (he watches it to humor me, but in no way has he ever enjoyed it) and I could have sworn I was watching a high-budget soap opera.  I mean, the main character (Meredith) has always been whiny and self-involved, but it appears her malaise has spread to the whole cast.  Even well-developed characters are behaving like complete morons and the plot points have all the authenticity of a fat-free, sugar-free chocolate bar.
  • The new Muse album, “The Resistance”, was a hugely pleasant surprise for me.  I’ve been a rabid fan of the band for years, but I have to admit their last album, “Black Holes and Revelations”, alarmed me a bit.  It was just so synth-heavy, I yearned for that raw, virtuoso sound they had when you could clearly tell there were three men playing a variety of instruments during songs.  With “The Resistance” though?  It’s a really cool new direction that shows that the band has grown and developed (there’s a freaking symphony on this album!) but hasn’t lost sight of what they’re really good at (rocking out and making it sound really good).
  • My grandfather mailed me a book of my Russian great-grandmother’s hand-written recipes two weeks ago and Wes and I tried out our very first one over the weekend.  We made pelmeni (tiny meat-filled dumplings, you boil them and then eat them with sour cream) from scratch and oh my gosh it was a lot of work.  It took us three hours to make them and it’s extremely likely that, unless I have at least three more people helping me, I won’t be making them again soon.  Yes they were delicious, but you can also buy them pre-made and frozen and they taste just as delicious and only take about ten minutes to make.
Category: Food, Opinionated much?  | 2 Comments
All His Eggs In One Basket
Monday, September 21st, 2009 | Author: Erika

This is not normally the kind of thing I blog about, but Wes has made a special request and I feel beholden to honor it.  Help us settle a discussion we had tonight before Wes left for school, won’t you?

So, you’re Wes.  You’re studying at home and take a break to make some lunch.  There are no handy dandy leftovers hanging out in the fridge, so you survey your options.  They are as follows:

  • Mac n’ Cheese
  • Trader Joe’s chicken potstickers (2 mins. in the microwave and SO GOOD)
  • Peanut butter and jelly English muffin sandwich
  • Apples and cottage cheese
  • Eggs

All decent choices, right?  Bear in mind, too, that any and all of these combinations can be eaten in conjunction with a banana or a pickle or each other, so it’s not like he was starving.  It’s no cheeseburger with fries and a lemonade or anything, but it’s also a fairly respectable array of choices.

What did he choose?  Eggs.  Just eggs.  He scrambled four eggs and made them for lunch.  And then ate them.

Now, in my opinion four eggs is just a bit much for one meal.  That’s quite a lot of cholesterol for one, and for another…Four eggs.  That’s a lot of eggs.

He’s of the opinion that four scrambled eggs is a perfectly acceptable repast.

Now, can you help us settle this?

Is four eggs too many in one sitting?

  • I wonder what would happen if you combined all of those options into one dish. Cheesy potstickers served between peanut butter and jelly English muffin halves with a side of scrambled eggs. (13%, 2 Votes)
  • Yes. Unless you want to have a heart attack in a month, maybe replace some of the eggs with some fruit or something. (6%, 1 Votes)
  • No. It's perfectly reasonable. And delicious. (81%, 13 Votes)

Total Voters: 16

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Category: Food  | 5 Comments
Possibly Corrupted by Critters
Monday, July 06th, 2009 | Author: Erika

I’m trying to be healthy.  Well, trying harder than I have before, which is actually saying something seeing as how arguably half of our weekly groceries consist of fruits and veggies.  Still, though, I’m putting forth a little extra effort.

For example, I’m trying to get some walks in at work in an effort to stave off that logy feeling that accumulates from staring at a computer monitor the grand majority of the day.  My favorite place to go walking is down the street where I can smell the food from the different restaurants nearby and browse the wares of the local PCC.  I never buy anything, but I do love to browse and stroll.

Today, I found myself craving an apple with a fierceness I normally reserve for baked goods and créme brûlée.  Not wanting to miss out on this craving for something so healthy, and mentally kicking myself for forgetting my perfectly good apple at home, I grabbed my wallet and phone and set off for a quick walk down to PCC to procure one shiny red(ish) apple.

If you’ve never been inside a PCC, it’s a natural foods store.  Everything in the store is in earth tones (think an overturned vat of urban camoflage paint) and also extraordinarily expensive.  I picked out an organic (of course! Because it wouldn’t be a very good natural foods store if the produce weren’t organic!) Fuji apple, paid an exorbitant sum for it, and walked back to the office.  Cradling that apple in my hands, I felt good.  The world was a healthy place.  I was walking with a healthy snack and the wind was blowing and my mouth was watering to think of the sweet juiciness in store for me once I returned to the office.

Little did I know that the organic apple would turn out to be in dire need of pesticides.  I cut it open at work and found the inside to be brown, and bruised, and what may have been a home for an industrious worm.  Ack!

What a fitting end to my healthy little adventure.  I hopped in my car, drove to the store, and exchanged the apple with no fuss.  The new apple was delicious but I couldn’t help but be struck by the irony of walking to a natural food store to buy a pest-ridden organic apple only to have to get in my car and drive back to exchange it.  It just seems like something went horribly wrong there, doesn’t it?

Category: Food  | 4 Comments
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