Water water everywhere

I guess I'm a bit of a water snob. I'll drink most any water available, but definitely notice differences in taste and have my preferences. Volvic water is fantastic and feels wetter than many other brands. Still don't know what the big deal over Fiji water is, but am glad it's the go-to water for many conferences. For frizzante water nothing yet tops Pellegrino. But then there's BLK Water.

 

Yes, I partly bought this water because it is naturally black. But it's also the only water I've seen with a pH of 9.0. I was curious how it tasted since bases usually aren't appetizing. I also wondered if it would have any effect on my body based on articles I've read about alkaline diets. It tasted slightly strange, but less unusual than I was expecting. It felt very slick and wet (I know that sounds stupid since we're talking about water, but I mean more than normal H2O). Apparently the fulvic acid in it improves water absorption, and maybe it was noticeable even in the mouth? I don't know that it had any affect on me, but it did take me 2 days to drink the whole bottle. After a few ounces it got hard to keep drinking it.

The only negative is that it can be a pain if you have a Ted Striker-style drinking problem. It didn't permanently stain anything, but wasn't pretty. Final review: Would buy again.

Fooddities

The words Food and Oddities should meld together seamlessly, but when you put them together it just doesn't look or sound quite right. Well, neither does this next picture:

I seem to be missing a key component from my peanut butter cup. Just for a lark I think I might email this picture to the Reese's company to see what their response is. It would be hilarious if they sent me a single mini Reese's cup to replace this one.

On a lighter note, I recently baked a very happy batch of blueberry muffins.

Amazing Fruit Trick

Have you ever heard something that seemed totally unbelievable, yet it's so ridiculous you have to think it might be true? D told me he heard you could split a banana into 3 equal parts just by pressing on the end of it. He didn't quite believe it, but really, would someone make up something like that? So I grabbed a banana, peeled it and we went all Mythbusters on it.

I found out it works better if you break off the tip naturally, rather than cut it.

 I pressed my fingertip straight down into the broken end and almost immediately it started to blossom apart into 3 segments! If you don't want to use your finger, I heard a chopstick also works.

I traced down each split with my finger and ended up with a shocking pile of 3 equal strips of banana. It was really fun to eat the strips, and cut up they're the perfect size for topping a bowl of cereal.

 Awesome! I wonder if I'll ever be able to eat a banana again without doing this to it first.

From cool to disturbing

Recent trips have laid me over in Detroit - wait that sounds really wrong. Ahem, recent trips have been routed through Detroit as my connecting airport rather than Atlanta. Now before you uggh in sympathetic dismay, let me say that the Detroit airport is relatively new, clean, and fairly easy to navigate. And closer to the Northeast as a layover than Atlanta. Plus they have a super cool walkway between the main terminals. It has continually changing muted lights and synth music playing. Which is nice, because without that it would be a painfully long hallway to traverse underground. Also an interesting bit about Detroit is the Delta SkyClub lounge has an open bar. And by open I mean you walk up to the shelves of liquor and pour your own drink, or pull a beer from the tap.

 

However, not everything is cool in the airports. I noticed this incredibly disturbing sign in Atlanta in very highly trafficked area.

"Did you SEE something suspicious commuting 

to work or grabbing a bite to eat?

Then SAY something to local authorities

to make it right.

Report suspicious activity. Call 9-1-1"

Now, I'm not one to jump on the Nazi bandwagon, but really in this case I think you can't help see the similarity. How many Hitler Youth turned in neighbors and community members to the authorities for "something suspicious"? Let's all spy on our neighbors! Turn them in and "make it right"! Classic 1984. Also, did you notice the phone number to use? My first thought was oh, they have a 9/11 phone number for this. Then I realized it's the freakin emergency number they're telling you to call!! Like 911 Emergency Response has the time to handle every overzealous person who calls in because they think someone is behaving suspiciously while they're grabbing a bite to eat. I'm also disturbed that the motto is trademarked.

And to go from the seriously disturbing and trademarked to the mildly disturbing and slightly trademark infringing:

What in the hell is this? No, it's not Splenda. It's not even a generic form of Splenda's ingredients. I know the color yellow can't be trademarked, but I was about to put this in my tea when I saw the name and then the ingredient list. Which would have sucked, as this is essentially the pink packet sweetener with some extra chemicals added. If I use artificial sweetener at all, I want real yellow packets. Or blue if I have to. Never pink. And don't be putting pink stuff in a yellow packet and pulling the wool over our eyes.

Weird food experiments

A couple people have mentioned Kale Chips or Crispy Kale recently, going on about how un-healthy it tastes and how it's the perfect substitute for potato chips. It sounded easy enough to make - rip up kale and toss with olive oil and salt, then bake on a cookie sheet about 20 min. I bought a bag of curly kale at the farmers market this weekend to try. I got the garnish-style kale, rather than the somewhat scary dinosaur kale - just look at this picture and tell me it doesn't creep you out.

It was easy to make, although the kale tended to leap out of my bowl as I tossed it with oil. Perhaps because of the hyperbolic potential energy in the leaves? I baked it at 325 for 20 min, which turned out to be a touch too long. Still, it came out super crispy and instantly addictive. I ate probably a quart size bag without thinking.   The only problem I found is that it was too light and airy crispy. Once you bit a piece it exploded in your mouth into a puff of nothingness. As scary as the dinosaur kale looks, it might pack more tooth-wallop than the dainty-textured curly kale. But I'm definitely going to make it again, and if I ever go to a potluck I'll have to bring it as a snack for people. I think it would also be really good with spices instead of the salt. So, 3 cheers for food experimentation!

This has gone too far

I went to the store.
I went to the store to buy some Oreos.
(Do not talk to me about what's actually in an Oreo.  All I know is it's a dark chocolately cookie stuffed with crack)
I went to the store to buy some Oreos and really wanted the normal basic kind.
I went to the store to buy some normal basic Oreos and encountered a problem.

Where the hell are the normal Oreos?
There are dozen varieties in this photo, and NONE are the regular kind. Until this moment I had no idea how out of hand things had gotten.
1. I don't want Golden Oreos.
2. I don't want Golden Double Stuf Oreos
3. I don't want Golden Chocolate Oreos.
4. I don't want Chocolate Oreos
5. I don't want Peanut Butter Oreos.
6. I don't want Oreo Fudgees
7. I don't want Cool Mint Oreos.
Well, wait, those actually sound pretty good.

8. I don't want Sugar Free Oreos (how is that even possible?)
9. I don't want Candy Cane Oreos (It's February, why are these on the shelves?)
10. I don't want Reduced Fat Oreos (If I'm going for terribly artificial, I want it all!)
11. I don't want Double Stuf Oreos
12. I don't want Great Value brand chocolate sandwich cookies.

I did finally find the normal kind, on the very bottom shelf. And damned tasty they were!

Something new I learned about myself

I'm indecisive. No, really! But I've learned tricks to overcome it, like noting the first thing on the menu that catches my attention and ordering that if the waitress comes back before I make a real decision. It's all part of a method to not annoy everyone around me. Of course when I'm by myself it's a bit harder. I'm also impulsive. When I was in CA decided to get sushi and was walking to the restaurant, then saw a Sprouts store and decided to pop in. Lots of tasty whole food things, bought a few snacks (dark chocolate covered berries & nuts - OMG!). Ok, back to finding the sushi restaurant.

So what I learned is that my indecisiveness is WAY WAY worse when I'm tired. I was trying to figure out if I really wanted sushi (and when do I say no to good sushi?) or did I want to go back to Sprouts and get a random assortment of stuff - like the Icelandic skyr yogurt I saw - for dinner instead. I'm not kidding it took me about 20 minutes to decide. Like even pretending someone was waiting for me I still was paralyzed with indecision. I kept going back and forth (physically!) trying to figure out what I wanted. I finally gave up and went back to Sprouts. It was really tired after an early flight and busy day and 3 hour time change, and figured that maybe yogurt and strawberries and some spanakopita was all I could really handle.

It turned out to be a good dinner, and now I know that my friend makes better yogurt than even the pricey Icelandic kind, and I brew better Kombucha than the pro stuff that's finally back on the shelves. I wonder if the returned Kombucha is different than before - maybe the FDA made them get new scobys. It's not much more flavorful than water and is uncomfortably fizzy. Speaking of scobys, mine grew exponentially while I was gone. Seriously, it's almost an inch thick right now. I'm kind of afraid to taste the brew.

Maine Meal

One thing I love about traveling is finding unusual places to eat with foods out of the ordinary.  So we're up in Portland, Maine for work.  I've had lobster, and clam cakes.  Maine blueberries and blueberry soda.  Sampled several microbreweries (yay beer flights!).  Had a great lunch sandwich of smoked turkey, brie, smoked bacon, and granny smith apple slices all toasted together with a microbrewery fresh root beer.  But I never expected to have one of the best meals of my life here.  Someone recommended a funky out-of-the-way restaurant called The Pepper Club.  The menu was a slate with the day's entrees written in colored chalk.  They brought a cute baseball-sized loaf of molasses-oatmeal bread to the table and told us they were having an anniversary 4-course special that essentially was "pick 4 courses off the menu" for 2 bucks more than an entree alone.  I started with baked brie with apricots and almonds (shared with my friend).  Then a wonderfully diverse salad with the kind of dressing you want to drink by the bottle.
But it was the entree - fresh seared scallops in thai coconut curry with jasmine rice and vegetables - that took my breath away. The vegetables were absolutely perfect - fresh and juicy with just the right amount of tooth, firm yet tender.  The sauce was well balanced, enough heat without overpowering the flavors.  But the scallops, oh my.  They were beyond description.  I can still recall the sublime taste and texture.  The dish was so good it wasn't possible to talk while eating, as it might distract from the enjoyment of the food.  I'm really at a loss for words thinking about this dish, it's truly stunning.
The meal ended with their signature chocolate pepper cake, a dark chocolate cake that had a quick hint of pepper on the first taste and a lingering heat in your throat as you ate.  Dark dark chocolate ganache was swirled over the plate and the cake was dusted with a spicy cocoa powder. 

Color in the Winter

I know I'm all the time complaining about produce in the winter. That we've sacrificed quality and flavor just to have an item available at an unnatural time. Plus I like to revel in enjoying a seasonal item when it's actually available. Clementines used to only be out at christmas, and it was an old-fashioned treat to have a "Christmas Orange" again. But now they're available all the time, and their magic is diminished.

BUT, there is a Fresh Market store nearby that has "Jet Fresh" Produce that is flown in twice a week from South America. I couldn't resist picking up a few things, they are all so gorgeous and I'm sure will be tasty if Fresh Market is willing to sell them. And there is a certain magic to have such gloriously colored foods in the middle of the biggest blizzard in over a decade. The orange was labeled as an heirloom variety, as was the tomato. Haven't encountered heirloom oranges yet...I will report back once I eat it.
The photo takes away some perspective - it's actually a good sized tomato, small pepper, and stupidly large orange. I've started thinking about our garden this year. Now that I'm set up in the house I'll finally be able to do some canning this summer!

All the new things

We moved last weekend to our beautiful new house. Last Fri was quite the roller coaster. I met at 5:30am with my bootcamp gym crew for a final workout (yes I know it's ridiculous to put yourself through that much physical work the day before you move, but my brain needed the break). At noon (heh, I originally wrote newn) we headed up for the closing, only to be called by the seller asking if we were closing that day. Um, YES, wouldn't she like to come down to the lawyer's office to sign the papers? We sign a bazillion pieces of paper - I was glad when the stack was down to just an inch thick.

At about 11pm we were almost done boxing everything up when we ran out of boxes. Now, you all known my feelings about Wal-Mart (if you don't, just watch the Southpark episode about it and you'll understand). BUT, after last week I found WalMart is good for something - late night desperation shopping. I knew they restocked at night and hoped to find enough boxes to finish packing. I was overjoyed (and obviously exhausted) to find a plethora of broken-down boxes free for the taking in nearly every aisle. I knew we still had to pack up the entertainment center, so of course I found VCR boxes in the electronics section. I wheeled an overstuffed cart of boxes and a roll of packing tape back to the car and we finished packing in time to fall into bed before we had to get up again. The actual move went quite well. We had some great help, and 2 trips took care of it all.

I took the week off work to unpack and set up house, and I'm so glad I did. I had no idea being a housewife could be so exhausting! I looked forward to returning to work, so at least I could spend the day in the same place, rather than frantically trying to fulfill my list of errands before it expanded again. I remember asking at Target where the Home Depot was. "Do you know where Big Lots is?" No. "How about Burlington?" No. "Umm...I don't know how to tell you how to get there". Then I ask a woman in line, who says "Turn left out of here and you'll see it up ahead".

We do love our new house, and are amazed how much room we have, now that things like our shopvac are in the basement and not the linen closet. The dogs love their yard, although they're hysterically poor-footed on the wood flooring. It's been an adventure learning the area, where the stores are, etc. Ever notice how much more you find in a new grocery store that makes you go up and down every aisle? For instance, I never would've noticed this item in our old store:


Nom nom nom. Notice it's the SPICY flavor! And yes, I do use words like plethora in everyday speech.

Jewelry - nom nom nom

So the Pub has these fabulous onion rings. The kind that even people who don't like rings will devour. Reminds me of this restaurant my parents used to take us to as little kids. I feel like we went there somewhat often, but all I remember are 3 things: Dipping lemon wedges in sugar packets when we were getting fussy because the food was late (How cool Mom was for teaching us that!). Peeling the bubbly cheese off the outside of bowls of french onion soup. And the onion rings. I didn't like the onion itself so would break the ring and pull out the wriggly onion and put it on Mom's plate, then eat the savory crispy batter. The Pub's rings are like that, but I'm happy I enjoy the onion part now as well. In fact I always root around in the basket for the endcaps that have a high onion ratio. Juicy, sweet, crunchy, soft inside - so fantastic. One night the onions they used were particularly large, and turned into Oniony Bangles. I wore them a few minutes, then the silly got a hold of me and it came time to eat them. Cell phone photography in a dark bar - Brilliant!

Tasty foods from travels

I took all sorts of random photos from my trip to Southern FL. I figured it's the odd ones that make you smile later. Going through them when I got home, I apparently took a lot of photos of food. You already saw the steak pic, and I thought I'd share some others.

This Gingerbread house was actually the coffee shop in the lobby of the hotel. It was made out of real gingerbread and icing, and there was a continual parade of people mugging for the camera pretending to eat pieces. I probably would've done it too, but alas was by myself and too embarrassed to ask a stranger to take a picture of me doing it.They were giving out these juice drinks along with the sodas and water, and I picked up a couple to try. They are basically just pressed fruits and juice with no added ingredients, thick like a smoothie but not pulpy. Mixed really nicely with fizzy water. Very tasty and filling, made me wish I'd grabbed a couple more. Great to take the morning hunger edge off before getting down to the conference and your real breakfast.And for the piece de resistance - the scariest piece of sushi you'll ever eat. Sorry for the bad image quality, I took the pic with my phone. I'd never had a spider roll before, and wondered if there would really be legs hanging out. Boy it did not disappoint. It looked disturbingly like the face suckers from the Aliens movies, and I made it scrabble across the plate while making scary noises. I played with it for several minutes before getting up the courage to eat it. I bit the sushi part off, and was left with the legs, which I planted in a wad of wasabi at the prow of the serving boat. There was one other piece with slightly less scary legs, and later in the evening I ate it in one bite, feet first. It was damn tasty, and next time I'm at a good sushi restaurant I'm going to order it again. Although after doing a GIS for spider rolls, I think mine might be one of the scariest presentations I've seen. Hope I'm not disappointed in the future ones.

The terrorists won - here's proof

Just returned from a trip that included several airports. I've grown to accept the 3 oz. toiletries in their magic ziploc bag. Having to take off my shoes and go barefoot through security. The inability to bring a drink through. I do appreciate the airports that have the segregated lines for "black diamond" travelers who know what their doing. And being allowed to carry scissors and knitting needles again. Overall these "security measures" are pretty ridiculous and certainly don't make us any safer.

But having dinner during a layover I encountered the final straw. I ordered a steak at TGIFridays. I somehow never eat red meat on business trips, and usually by the end really crave it. See, I'm not really a vegetarian, I just play one on TV. A lot of meals are sponsored and usually chicken or veg., and we always seem to eat sushi as our late night supper. Anyway, I get my steak and silverware. Instead of the normal big steak knife I'm used to seeing, I get this instead:A cheap plastic picnic knife. Not even a high duty one, just the crap that would come with a fast food salad. It was a pretty thick steak cooked medium-rare. I almost called the server over about it, but then realized I was already through security and could have stolen my steak knife and done nefarious things with it on the plane. No point in complaining. I started cutting my steak. No, I started sawing at it, shredding the meat. Each stroke of the "knife" got through about a millimeter of it, and it made a horrid sound of muscle fibers tearing. It took almost a minute LITERALLY to cut off a couple pieces. I kept at it, rapidly losing my appetite and thinking this is the type of meal that makes me lean towards going veg. It wasn't long before my knife broke and I gave up.

So now, 7 years later, the response to the terror attacks are still far-reaching. The point of terrorists is to cause terror and disrupt normal life. And they've succeeded. They prevented a tired American traveler from enjoying a grilled steak as her last meal before heading home. And made her worry about using buzzwords like 'terrorist' in an innocuous blog post. Really, I have a slight nervous feeling, like the PATRIOT police are gonna come get me. Tsk tsk.

Damn those binges

Remember a while back I posted a line that was something like: Any story that starts with "so I was binge eating pickled beets" can't have a good ending?

Yep, it happened again. Thank goodness they were store bought and not my home-canned ones. The homemade ones are so dark red they remind me of deoxygenated blood. I may have a chance of cleaning this mess up. Not sure how, but I got it on my back too. And in my hair.

Who needs teflon?

I've made some fancy meals, or desserts that take a lot of manipulation, like baklava. But they don't give the same satisfaction as perfectly preparing a basic down-home recipe, the kind that everyone's grandma or mom makes better than anyone else. Tonight's conquest was sausage gravy cooked in my cast iron skillet. I'm sure you're thinking, what's the big deal? But really, it's one of those dishes that women around here have spent decades preparing, so when you get it right, it's a great thing. And my cast iron pan finally has that fantastic teflon-like coating to it. Check out how clean the pan bottom is where I dragged the spoon through it. (The color in the photo is a bit off because of the light we have over the stove.) A quick wipedown with hot water and it's ready for use again.

Speaking of cast iron, I need to season the bake kettle (dutch oven) I got for camping. It's got the little feet underneath and the raised rim on the lid for coals, and is wide enough to bake a pie in.
It was used, but I removed the years of gunky buildup (lye-based oven cleaner, spray and leave in a trashbag for 2-3 days) and now it's back to bare metal and ready for seasoning. Thankfully I have a half-pint of cooled bacon grease ready for the job. Hmm...I wonder how this is going to smell?