Tuesday, September 30, 2008

hi !!!!!!!!

Hey All!!

I'm alive! Husband and I were Up North for a week! I will tell you all about it on Wendesday because I am tired now and tomorrow I work!

Exclamation points!!! I guess I love them a lot today!

Sunday, September 14, 2008

Foodie Meme

Trevor and I consider ourselves to be foodies. Before I met him I wasn't much of one though...I didn't like mustard or onions or asparagus or medium rare meat, or sushi. I didn't know the names of more than 10 spices. I remember sitting across from him at dinner when we first met...he was TALKING about his food. In depth. Asking me QUESTIONS about the flavors I was experiencing....asking my opinion on the TEXTURE and richness of an onion pearl (which i hated but was trying for him). I remember wanting to slam his face against the table and tell him to shut the f**k up and just let me eat already. Really. I felt that irritated by it. My mom was, and still is, a great cook...but in a different way. In a home cooked MOM way. Trevor introduced me to a wild and crazy world of flavors and textures. After a few months of being forced to talk about my food, I actually began to enjoy and learn from it. I began to try a whirlwind of new things and understand the complexity of food. Now....we love to talk about food together. I no longer want to cause him physical harm while we dine. The pinnacle of my foodie experience was with Trevor....at Charlie Trotters last December. I had just finished nursing school and to celebrate he took me to experience food ecstasy. Charlie Trotters printed up a special menu with a message of congratulations just for me....and then we got a tour of the kitchen. The food was more that just food...it was art...it was transcendant....it was heaven. The evening was a pure delight. I'll never forget it.

So...the point of this post is....I saw this Meme over at Green Style Mom....thought it was a good way to get a blog entry in this week!

1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.

2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.

3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating. (I don't know what command crosses out...so I'll use and exclamation point)

4) Optional extra: Post a comment here at http://www.verygoodtaste.co.uk/uncategorised/the-omnivores-hundred/ linking to your results.


1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. !!Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes (some berry and dandelion...GROSS)
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. !!Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters

29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo

40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu Nah
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut. (best warm!)
50. 50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV (PISGAH BREWERY!! HELLLLLAAA!!)59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads (had them in a NYC restaurant years ago... I didn't know what I was ordering!)
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette.
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. !!Roadkill
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict

83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant.(No...a dream of ours)
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers

89. !!Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam (I can't believe I've never tried Spam...)
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa (no, but sounds really interesting)
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee (back in my Prescott College days...)
100. Snake

Thursday, September 4, 2008

Home is where my sanity is. Most of the time.

Major lesson learned from husband falling from 3 story balcony and having to stay in a hospital bed for 5 weeks at his parents house:

I LOVE my little house and all its cramped spaces and disorganization and tiny 1940's closets with no room and not-so-perfect drapes and dog hair tumble weeds and deck with chipped paint.

We do not need to live with my in-laws for a year to save money for a bigger house.

I am perfectly content in staying here and saving as much money as we comfortably can each month. I feel happier knowing that our first child will be with us in our first home where we humbly began...they will share in that togetherness with us. Maybe not REMEMBER, but they'll know that they slept under our little roof and ate veggies from our little garden and swung in our striped hammock with us. I remember feeling a sad pit in my stomach when we made the decision to move in with my in-laws...not because I don't like them or felt it would be particularly difficult, but because I really wanted a BABY in THIS house....in our little yellow room with lots of light. In my mind it has always been "the nursery".

So, now we can do that....with confidence and without wonder.

Living with my in-laws these last 5 weeks because of Trevor's injury was a blessing in disguise. We learned that while it's great to have a Mom and Dad cook and clean for you, pay the cable bill, walk the dog, offer to do laundry, load the dishwasher, and have a hot meal waiting for you at 8pm after a 14 hour day....it ultimately feels WAY better to do those things on your own...at your own speed, on your own terms. I think it was after the first 2 weeks when we just looked at each other a blurted out almost simultaneously that we couldn't wait to get back to our little house.

So here we are. Back home. Piles of laundry and dishes. Doors off the hinges so Trevor can maneuver easily. A 3 foot pile of paperwork to shuffle through. Barely any food in the fridge.

And it feels so damn good.