toolprincess

Today for lunch I went to Snoopy's Hot Dogs. At Snoopy's you get your hotdogs with mustard, chili and onions UNLESS you specify otherwise. I had 2 hotdogs and fries. Snoopy's serves crinkle cut fries which were crispy and delicious. They do have ketchup packets available (Heinz) if you also want ketchup.

This morning for breakfast I stopped by Chick-fil-aand grabbed a chicken biscuit - as you can infer we do not lack for options of fried chicken here.

Yesterday I persuaded my coworkers to go to the Vietnamese restaurant not too far from my office. I thought Pho would be just the thing to fight a summer cold. We had 2 orders of summer rolls and 1 order of spring rolls. 2 orders of chicken pho and 1 order of beef ball pho. I loaded my pho with peppers and siracha (the better to fight the cold germs). I ended up having the leftovers for dinner last night.

Also I plan to take kitchen photos but things have been in such disarray this week that even with my "this is my life" philosophy I haven't been brave enough to share the photos!

Hiya! I'm still here. Sorry yesterday was s-l-o-w. I am being attacked by a summer cold but fighting the good fight! Also, apparently my work server disapproves of posting attachments on the interwebs so I'm limited during the day. I have pictures but I am behind with the postings. I need you guys to weigh in on these final blogging days. here is what I hope to accomplish: 1- barbeque! 2- a tour of the asian market 3- hit one of the farmers markets 4- cook something at home! 5- Bojangles - Part 2 What else do you want to see? What questions have I missed in this blog? Let me know!

In this area Goodberry's is THE frozen custard place. I couldn't find much info about how it started but apparently there is 1 Goodberry's franchise in Canberra Australia. They don't put any artificial ingredients in their custard and are committed to making ice cream - "Like it used to be." I have seen some frozen custard places in a other areas of NC but it's not that common statewide.

I do hope to get back to Bojangles for dinner (or as I call it Bojangles Part 2).

Can you say more about the coal oven or, more importantly, the results? Nobody cooks with coal anymore where I live, but the elders tell old stories how it cooked the food, heated the house and employed all the men. Well here's a blurb about the oven: About Bella Mia Bella Mia is the only coal-fired pizza restaurant in North Carolina offering authentic Neapolitan-inspired pizzas made with top-quality fresh ingredients. After traveling the country for more than a year sampling the nation's best pies, Long Island natives Rick Guerra and his two sons Louis and Anthony, brought their Northeastern influence to the Triangle and opened Bella Mia in the Arboretum at Weston in Cary. Bella Mia's coal-burning ovens reach temperatures of 900 degrees, twice as hot as a gas oven, allowing the pizza to cook in less than three minutes with a light, airy crust. Read entire article here. The results (my own ineloquent description) - a nicely brown crust, that is puffy in places in air pockets, it is all at once crackery crispy and chewy. The high temps give it a bit of a "char" in spots which I think adds the smoky flavor. And since they use ingredients like fresh buffalo mozzarella or smoked mozzarella and fresh basil and extra virgin olive oil - it comes out very tasty. I'm no pizza expert but it's good stuff! You can also read more here. Bella Mia was named by the local food critic as the Triangle's Best Restaurant 2011.

After dinner we headed to YoPop. I am kind of obsessed with the Original tart flavor (sweet and sour!). This is a self-serve yogurt place where they charge you by the ounce. You have a selection of toppings to choose from and can pile them on as much or little as you wish. they are the only franchise of yogurt shops around that has the plain tart flavor (that I have found so far) and they also have POPPING BOBA in assorted flavors as a topping.

Today's lunch was nonexistent. So tonight after taking care of some wedding business (renting a venue), I was starving. Matt is a huge fan of italian and pizza so we headed over to Bella Mia authentic coalfired pizza. Since I was very hungry I ordered an appetizer - caprese crostini. Very good. I love fresh mozzarella. Their featured appetizer was burrata but by the time we arrived they were sold out. Matt ordered a calzone with fresh mozzarella and sausage and I ordered the Bleecker Street pizza (arugula, mozzarella, extra virgin olive oil, parmagiano regiano and prosciutto di parma. I love that smoky crispy coalfired crust!

It is and it's awesome. Their biscuits are buttery and a perfect foil for the sweet or the savory.

OMG we share so many of the same cookbooks. We are kindred food spirits!

Okay finally moving into today This morning I stopped at Bojangles to pick up some breakfast (lordy blogging is going to have me gaining 20lbs in a week) I picked up a bacon, egg and cheese biscuit (mentioned in the Bojangles thread for its hangover curative properties) and a Bo'berry biscuit - a bo's biscuit with blueberries and drizzled with glaze. Behold!

After dinner we went to Goodberry's. They serve frozen custard and are very popular especially in the summer. Matt had a cup of chocolate custard. I had a "concrete" which is their name for custard with mix-ins. I chose vanilla with strawberries and bananas.

Here's the rest of dinner last night. Salad. And a picture of the Weber.

My work computer is being very ornery about picture posting. Stay tuned....

Steaks - messy plates. I'm calling this my "true life" blog - messy shelves, messy plates, and hit or miss pictures. This is my life!!

Hi everyone. No computer problems (yet) today! Here's dinner last night. sorry for blurry photos and messy plates. I'm calling this my "true life" foodblog. As I mentioned the Fiance cooked last night. We had a simple salad, steaks and baked potato. (man food). For some reason I can only post 1 pic per entry on my work computer. so much for no computer problems. Here is pictured some squash and onions with a bit of S&P and olive oil wrapped in foil and also put on the grill (the feminine touch to the meal)

Thanks everyone for all the positive NC comments. Will have dinner photos from last night up soon and breakfast today (Bojangles Part 1).

Yes I love fiesta! I have a set in the blue and yellow and a number of dishes and bowls in other colors. I finally surrended to a long-held love last year and now have 10 place settings, each in a different color, plus quite a few pieces in Black. SIGH. Now they have introduced Marigold for their 75th anniversary - and I am trying to figure out what I could possibly "need" in that color.... Yes! Collecting Fiesta is indeed a slippery slope....

Fiance is cooking dinner currently (and he never cooks - but if he gets a notion who am I to hold him back?) so here's some cookbook porn to tide you over. As you can see I am treating "y'all" just like family and didn't even straighten up the messy shelves before taking photos.

Yeah! A Carolina foodblog! I grew up in Durham and spent almost 20 years in Morehead City, where they are rightfully proud of their whole hog BBQ. I encourage you to visit the farmers market in downtown Durham........it gets better and better every year. I like your list of in state food products and would add Bojangles Chicken 'n' Biscuits. Looking forward to the rest of the week. Yes a visit to Bojangles is planned!

Yes I love fiesta! I have a set in the blue and yellow and a number of dishes and bowls in other colors.

Unfortunately not much to report so far today. My work computer suffered a "catastrophic" failure and I have spent much of the day waiting at my desk for the computer guys to come and rescue me. Back up and running now (thank goodness). Breakfast was the "go to" of my childhood for a quick snack, on the road breakfast, or afternoon snack for the farmers at the country store..... "NABS" and a soda. In this case a Diet Mountain Dew (I'm looking at you Shelby) Lunch was a Mini Tuna Sandwich from Jersey Mike's which I ended up grabbing at about 3:15 (sorry no pictures).

Kim - small world! A dear friend of my mother's lives in Reidsville so I made quite a few trips there during my childhood. I currently have an aunt who lives in Beaufort, so in the New Bern area.