Misa

Oh my. That looks like a wonderful breakfast.

That sounds like a lot of money for one process. I wonder if it really is true. Considering that library budgets are often run on shoestrings, it doesn't sound exactly right but who knows. Awaiting photos. ← I actually changed libraries because one of the librarians was being really rude to me about my interlibrary loans and my "large" amount of holds (I was informed she had to "use another shelf" because I was "hogging space"). She then told me there was no way I'd be able to read all those books before they were due. But, see, it was nearing the holidays and the library, which had been suffering from budget problems, was going to be closed for a week and a half, and UGH I needed to find some cool new stuff to cook (well, bake, mostly, but you know...). Grr. Still makes me mad a few years later.

Breakfast was oatmeal with mango.

Amante is opening in the cursed spot on Capitol Hill... where the Red Line used to be. Has anybody ever eaten at an Amante? Are they any good? Worth the price?

... I will never again attempt to use "the safe way" to chop Romaine right after being handed a just-sharpened knife. I am more comfortable, and cautious, with "my way". What happens with "the safe way"? (Warning: This is kinda gross. If you squick easily, don't look.) Ouch. Of course... I didn't go to the ER or anything. I mean, what was there to sew up? It was a chunk - gone.

My husband ordered a Grand Salami with Salumi pepperoni on it (instead of the regular pepperoni)... I snagged a slice. It was mighty tasty. I almost wished that I'd ordered that instead of the Chicken Primo, which I had on my half of the pizza.

I've had lots of really good food, but two distinct bites stand out for me. 1. One Halloween night - I would have had to have been somewhere between 6 and 8, based on where we lived at the time - my mother made chicken dumpling soup. I still remember how wonderful that first bite was. (And I was glad to have warm soup in my belly - it was quite cold out that year.) 2. After having been vegetarian for quite some time, I "broke" for my mother's homemade chicken noodle soup (made with egg noodles). Amazing. Most of my other food experiences have not been so much about the bite, but the dish. These two... the first bite made a wonderful impression.

"Raisins...they taste sweet, but really they're just humilliated grapes." That doesn't mean I don't love them! I think one of my favorite ways to eat raisins is with warmed pumpkin, a tiny bit of sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Yum!

Sadly, I do this all the time. Mostly, I tell myself that I do it because I grew up in a household with six to eight people in it every night for dinner and now I only have to cook (at home) for two of us. I always think "No way will this feed us," so make a larger amount, but, of course, the original amount probably would have been fine. But, as a kid, I did it a lot, too. Once, I was making PB cookies to take to school and worried that there wouldn't be enough, so I doubled the recipe. And then, I doubled THAT. Unfortunately, I was using my mother's copy of the recipe and she had already doubled it. Apparently, it was a large recipe to begin with. I was able to watch the entire original Star Wars trilogy on a USA marathon. I didn't sleep that night... my mother was a little upset when she woke up to find me *still* baking cookies. I pulled out my last batch ten minutes before I left for school. There was still dough left. I still laugh every time I think about that.

I had a hard time deciding, but in the end, I came up with my "Top 5 to Have Forever", in order: 1. My mother's potato salad. She uses a mayo/sour cream combo that tastes absolutely wonderful. We both cook for the same place and it sells extremely well - everybody's excited when she makes it. 2. Caprese salad. My husband wouldn't be very grateful for this, though - he's allergic to raw tomatoes. So, I generally only get to have it in restaurants. Oh, sure, I COULD buy it and make it for me only, but... hey I might have to do that soon. 3. That jello-cool-whip salad, which is pretty nostalgic for me. 4. Fruit salad, made with whipped cream. Because Thanksgiving would be pretty sad without it. 5. Buffalo chicken salad, with blue cheese dressing. Yum! But, truth be told, I'd be really sad if we had to limit it to only kind (or even 5 kinds) of salad. Salad is such a wonderous and varied food.

I consider myself a "foodie" but I still like some foods that elitists would never eat. To put it in the most basic terms, I like good food. In this case, good = tasty. That can be a wide range of foods. While I enjoy eating foods that my friends consider "snobby", a lot of my favorite foods would definitely not be considered "high class". The key is that they all need to be delicious. I don't think that you need to spend a lot of money to eat well or to be a foodie. Myself, I enjoy good food. I like to talk about food, especially with others as passionate about it as I am. I enjoy making good food and teaching others how to make new-to-them foods (or even "I don't know how to cook, can you teach me?").

Hrm... I love pie, but I also love frosting. I mean, of course I enjoy cake, but it's the frosting that makes it or breaks it for me (unless it's a really really really FANTASTIC chocolate cake). So, pie, I guess. With frosting. ;o)

I had a baked potato this morning, with butter, sea salt, and black pepper. I've been pretty bad about (not) eating breakfast for quite a while now, but that was pretty tasty... even if it was WAY too early in the morning.

I also forgot... Ritz mock apple pie. My own mother never made this, but some friends' parents did.

Aside from things mentioned already... Cook packet of ramen, add chili. Tada! When really, really broke: slice a potato. Fry in skillet. Have with ketchup or barbecue sauce if available. Cook up some white rice. Slice an onion (or half of an onion), fry. Add a sprinkle of brown sugar, if you've got it. More if you want something sweetish. If you have soy sauce, add that. Dump on top of rice. When we had visitations with my father, every Sunday night was the same meal: mac'n'cheese, hot dogs (no bun - sometimes, they got creative and sliced these), and corn. And every week, my mother would complain that we were having two starches for dinner. Ha. Also pretty ghetto was when they'd freeze/refrigerate McDonald's hamburgers/cheeseburgers to have later... bought on sale. Oh... and they had canned beef stew that still looked like a can when removed from the can. That was okay, but only the first 500 times. After that, it was scary.

I should think you'd be able to do that, but let it melt down completely, then refreeze.

No, no, no. Don't do that, unless you really don't like tomatoes very much. I can live with the rest of that rule breaking stuff, but please don't put 'maters in the fridge. It sucks the flavor right out of them. ← The problem is... when I'm not cooking the tomatoes, I want 'em very cold.

I had a caprese salad for lunch. It was divine.

At home, I drink tap water, sometimes filtered. Rarely right from the tap, though... I usually let it sit in the fridge for a while, and don't drink the very bottom. (I know, it probably makes no difference... but I like the water cold. Very cold.) At school, I drink filtered water just because it's there. And at my mother's... I always drink bottled water. Her water tastes very metal-y. She says that she thinks she has lead pipes and that the pipes affect the taste. It's only been in the past few years that she has started buying bottled. When I was younger, we used a filter. And before that, we just didn't drink much water because it tasted so gross!! There are some bottled waters that I absolutely hate, and few that I know I enjoy enough to buy repeatedly. So, if I'm getting water from a vending machine, I tend to pick Dasani, because I like how it tastes (and that's fairly easy to find in a vending machine). I say bottled water is only worth it if you don't really like the stuff coming from your tap or think there's some "issues" with it.

Enchiladas. And, as a child, I loved my mom's American Goulash.

Bushey, if you do get something fairly close, please let us know what worked! That's the number one thing that I buy at Starbucks.

One thing that needs to be taken into consideration, however, is that if you've not heard from a soldier that you've "adopted" then you should not send them a care package with homemade goodies in them, as it will probably be thrown out, due to fears of poisoning, etc.

Oh my. That sounds very tasty!

It depends on what the item in question is. When I invite people over, I ask if they have any food allergies or other dietary restrictions. Then, I ask if there's anything that they really don't like. If there's something they do not like, I won't serve it to them, though I may serve it to other people if I'm having a large group over, but I always tell the person first, letting them know that I'm serving several things, and I don't expect them to eat the item they don't like, but I wanted to let them know it contained the ingredient. I let vegetarians know if I'll be serving meat. After that, I pretty much make whatever I want. However, I do take the person into account. My sisters, for example, would be horrified if I served them rabbit or horse because I'm certain that they'd think it was cruel, even though none of them has ever said that to me. They wouldn't, however, think to say "I don't like horse." But, if it's just a weird combination, I might tell the person what it was afterward. No harm done there. I'd probably even go so far as to say if I think they'll like it, but would object to the food if I told them ahead of time, I'd tell them afterward.

That pudding looks gorgeous! I love the bright color.