food

Random Stream of Consciousness Kinda Sorta

/ food, music, reflection, Uncategorized, weekend

Friday night, I craved Buffalo Wild Wings (aka b-dubs) so much that I went out, at 9:30pm, to get some.

I ordered the 12 mild wings and a side of buffalo chips. Friday night, I ate 6 wings and some of the chips. Yesterday I ate 4 wings and the rest of the chips, and marveled that I had 4 wings left. Apparently, I was given extra, which was fine because I had waited AGES for my food to be ready.

Today, about three hours ago, I ate the last four, along with some Crispy Crowns (insert registered trademark symbol here).

(On a random sidenote, did you know that Tater Tots is a registered trademark? I just found out about that late last year.)

I am craving more mild buffalo wings from b-dubs RIGHT NOW. It may be because the smell from heating up the earlier leftovers is lingering and tempting. Or it may be because I haven’t eaten a whole lot this weekend and they sound really good right now. Or, they’re just so freakin’ good that I can’t help craving them.

Do you know how hard it is not to head out RIGHT NOW?

Mmm, wings.

I didn’t go to the grocery store. I climbed into bed with a book instead. I plan to go tomorrow after work. MUST HAVE BACON.

I wonder if I should buy a bottle of the b-dubs mild sauce to have on hand. Then I can make my own dang wings.

I have to go to the library, too. I have a bunch of things due, and I have some reserves to pick up. Tomorrow is the last day for one of the reserves. So. grocery store, library. Right, then.

I post at the Wisebread forums quite a bit, especially recently, and someone suggested a Web site where one can get free meditation and relaxation music. Go here to check it out. Some of the music is really great. I love that New Age stuff.

The other night, just for shits & giggles, I went to eBay to see if they had the following things:
– a Holly Hobbie oven
– Dolly Pops

They had them both. When I saw the Holly Hobbie oven, I got choked up. You see, they had high demand toys in the 1970s too. And Holly Hobbie ovens were it. I wanted one so badly, but my mother could never find one for me. I think I’ll save the picture of it to my hard drive and look at it from time to time. Obviously, I don’t need a Holly Hobbie oven now, but to see one that I could actually own if I was willing to drop $65 or so is kind of nice.

They had the Dolly Pops fashion show toy I had when I was younger. Dolly Pops were like paper dolls, only plastic. I can’t even describe them except to say they kicked ass. I looked at the pictures of the “outfits” and giggled at the roller skating outfit; I totally had that.

Tonight, I see the Baby Skates doll I used to have. I had one of each–the black one and the white one. Yes, I was a spoiled little girl. The thing is, they weren’t put together well, and the leg always broke off. But she was still an awesome doll, and perfect for me, as I was really into roller skating back then (and I’d gotten roller skates that Christmas, too). I am also looking at some old Barbies. I have most of my old ones, but I lost my Tropical Miko, and there is the Barbie and the Rockers Diva doll I always wanted but never got. (I kind of have a thing for redhead dolls.)

Diva is expensive. I have a feeling she was hard to find then, and she is not that easy to find now.

Oh God. How tempting, to buy the toys I never had. Or toys I had but no longer do. But then that’d be more stuff to pack and move and then pack away in a box. OK, I would play with both of them, I know I would. But still. *trying to behave*

(I just got hit with an incredible urge to play Barbies.)

Speaking of nostalgia and vintage toys…. I want to see if anyone remembers this game. It was one of those games similar to Perfection or Superfection (which no one remembers! It was white, and you had to put pieces together before you could put them on the board!). You had to put a bunch of numbers in order before the thing popped and put them all over the place. The game board was black, the pegs with the numbers on them were green. I can see the game clearly in my mind, but I can’t remember the name of it. Anyone have any ideas?

And does anyone remember when Mr. Mouth had a big yellow face, not that green froggy face?

This is what I hear right now. The upstairs television BLARING. >.< People stomping around in the halls and uptairs. Doors slamming. ARGH. Annoying. Ah, TV just turned down. GOOD. But now there is a random baseline coming from somewhere, but I'm hoping it's quiet in my room. Sundays are so bittersweet. On the one hand, it's still a weekend day, but the evening m eans that Monday is here that much sooner. And twelve hours from now, I'm going to be cranky because it'll only be 9am but it will seem like I've been there for 7 hours. *sigh* C’est la vie.

Signing off, craving b-dubs more than ever now. Maybe I’ll get some for dinner tomorrow. Sike. Not after buying groceries!

Night.

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Food & Aidan & Spinach & Stuff

/ aidan, food, recipe

I’ve discovered that I kinda like cooking things other than spaghetti or Cream of Wheat and bacon. And now that autumn is rolling in and the oven won’t turn the apartment to 38957495 million degrees, I can get back into baking.

Last night, I made chili, and I made enough for lunch today and for lunch or something another day. I sprinkle LOTS of cheddar cheese and crush Fritos on top of it. Yummy. I had spinach as a side.

It’s getting to the point where spinach is a part of almost every meal I prepare. I crave it like I crave spaghetti, and sometimes I have them both in my meal. It’s so good and so good for me.

Tonight, I cut up a chicken breast and sautéed that, and I also sautéed some spinach, made some mashed potatoes, and some corn. What made me very excited about tonight was this:

Aidan willingly ate vegetables. I mean, corn probably doesn’t really count, but hey, it’s a start, right? He ate almost all his chicken, a great deal of his mashed potatoes, and HE EVEN TRIED THE SPINACH. I had some spinach last week and I could tell he was curious, but not quite ready to try it. Tonight, I reminded him that he loved it when he was a baby, and so he said “pretend I’m a baby” and then he tried a bite. I don’t know if he’ll eat it again, but at least he tried it, right?

Anyway, my “recipe” for sautéed spinach is really not a recipe at all. It’s just a way to cook up some yummy goodness really quickly:

Fresh spinach
a bit of olive oil
water

Coat the bottom of the skillet with a bit of olive oil.
Add in some water.
Add spinach.

Sauté until the leaves are bright green.

ENJOY.

I prefer to use organic baby spinach, but as that’s quite expensive and hard to find, I usually end up buying Popeye bagged spinach. At Marc’s, a bag of mature spinach (http://www.popeyefreshfoods.com) costs about $1.78, and it keeps me happily fed for about a week. If I can’t find bagged, I can find Popeye canned spinach, which is just as good, especially if I get the no salt added can. The only problem is that I eat the entire can in one sitting–that’s three servings!

Bedtime for both of us. G’night.

P.S. Sore arm due to a flu shot from this morning. Eeeek!

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Cake (Pictures)

/ food, friends, pictures, wedding

Last night, Tami came over with a cake that served two purposes. One was to congratulate me on the engagement.

The other reason was so I could taste the first wedding cake recipe!

Tami had spent hours making this cake for me. She used fresh lemons, whole milk, and two sticks of butter. The icing is buttercream and also homemade.

IT WAS SO FREAKING YUMMY OMGWOWWOWYES!

The flavor was perfect. It wasn’t too sweet, but it had so much flavor and it was so tasty. I gobbled a small piece down in seconds, and wanted a second bigger piece but I was so full I couldn’t finish it. My mouth was very happy.

THEN she showed me a drawing of what the design will look like:

Could she have done any better? This is freakin’ perfect.
I showed Adam the pix this morning on email, and he approves.
Tami’s doing our cake, YAY!!!!

And the cool thing? She left some of the cake here for me. Guess what I’m having for dessert tonight? Yummm.

Adam’s so cute. He asked me “If you get all the big stuff done now, aren’t you worried that you’ll have nothing to do later?” Oh dear. He has no idea. As long as one is planning a wedding, there is always something to do. But getting the venue secured ASAP will give me a bit of breathing room. Trust me, this bride WANTS to get the big stuff out of the way, then she can have more fun with all the little details.

(Originally published at Anywhere Is…)

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Food Cravings

/ food, ronni, Uncategorized

I keep having repeated, strong cravings for ice cream, Mexican food (good Mexican, not Chipotle or Taco Bell), green vegetables, and KFC. Not necessarily together. They kind of alternate. Like, right now, it’s ice cream. Chocolate with M&M mix-in from Cold Stone Creamery.

I wonder if it’s because July is National Ice Cream Month?

At any rate, I have loads of ice cream in my freezer, simply because I don’t eat it a whole lot, so I have plenty to indulge in. But I know that I can eat an entire pint of Ben & Jerry’s Neopolitan Dynamite and STILL crave that chocolate with M&M mix-in from Cold Stone.

Last time I had these cravings, I found out I was expecting Aidan.

I know for sure nothing like that is the case now.

Still. WEIRD.

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Potluck Entry (Pictures)

/ aidan, food, life, pictures, ronni, work, writing

Writing.
Still hiding from the writing world. It’s really, really, really hard for me to see people getting book deals, multiple book deals, great feedback and moving forward while nothing’s happening for me. I can’t write–I get a mental block every time I try, topping out at about 10,000 words before I give up. My ideas fizzle out. I start thinking that it’s going to suck anyway so why bother. And I file the document away. Another failure.

I keep hoping it’ll happen for me one day, but that hope is seriously diminishing, and I think that maybe it might not be in the stars for me. I know I have talent, but the people who pay don’t want to read what I have to write, even if it is good writing. That’s a very depressing thought. Since I’ve been so shielded from that world, I haven’t had to worry about the bitter feelings and things, but sometimes, someone pulls me in, and I see their successes, and I get that bad feeling in the middle of my torso–like in that hollow in my breastbone or whatever–and I just get reminded of how I’m going nowhere. It’s hard to keep going.

I’m really seriously considering giving up on ever being published. I don’t have the kutzpah to try anymore.

Aidan.
You’ve seen my updates on him. 🙂 He’s so smart. “Mommy, look! This is hilarious!” Except, his Ls are Ws, so he says “This is hiwarius!” He’s overwhelming, though. I’m drained at the end of the day, and as you all know, I spend almost every evening with him. He demands a lot, he doesn’t always listen, and I have a hard time getting him to pick up after himself. Raising a child is HARD.

Aidan & Scooby Doo!

He’s REALLY good at computer games, and memory/concentration type games. I mean, really good. He knows things that most kids don’t know until kindergarten, if I am not mistaken. For example, he knows his left from his right. He knows near and far, short and long. And when he’s not being bratty (which fortunately, isn’t often), he’s very affectionate. He likes to play games and pick the wrong answers on purpose. And there’s this one sound in the Backyardigans game that he knows drives me crazy, and he likes to play it really loudly then laugh at me when I freak out.

Boys.

Work.
We just relocated to a new building. The outside of the building is WEIRD, but the work space is pretty sleek. Too dang COLD for my taste (I need to get an electric heater STAT), but I think it looks very modern and cool. Here’s a picture of where I sit:

Work

Yes, that’s a Barbie lunchbox! Heehee. My United Way one is sticky and gross, so yeah. You can see proofs that I work on, my proofing board, all sorts of things. I like the space–it’s nice and bright. But there is a lot of traffic where I sit which can make it hard to concentrate. Usually I stick on my headphones and get lost in my music, though. And there’s the FREEZING MY BUTT OFF aspect of it. Otherwise, it’s okay, as long as I have plenty of work to do.

Me.
Up until yesterday, I was an emotional wreck. Roller coaster like crazy. But now I feel like ME again, which is a VERY GOOD THING. I don’t like feeling out of control crazy like that.

Preparing for something BIG. Won’t say much more about that for now.

Got my first ever flu shot today!! Oh my. The part I hated was when the nurse was actually injecting the medicine in. I don’t mind the initial prick. I actually rather like it. It’s the other part that sucks. But it’s over. The spot is a little sore, but nothing I can’t handle. And anyway, this is nothing compared to the FLU. Ugh. It’ll be nice not to get it for once.

I’ve been craving Chinese food lately. Beef and snow pea pods, mostly. And rice. Lots of rice. I used to hate Chinese food. I still don’t care for too much of it, so for me to crave it is very strange. Other cravings I’m having:

– Spaghetti w/Eckridge hotdogs (which were buy 1 pack get 2 packs free at Meijer!);
– Japanese Steakhouse (hibachi steak, ginger salad, rice with ginger sauce, bean sprouts);
– Steak, mashed potatoes and gravy, corn, roll with lots of butter;
– Sausage McMuffin w/egg, hashbrown;
– An ice cream soda from Margie’s Candies (or whatever that place in Chicago is called);
– Double chocolatey chunk Rice Krispy treats;
– This:
Thanksgiving Dinner 2005

I should go eat now. Guess which ones on the list I’ll have. Tee hee. ‘Til next time….

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