we were REALLY hungry

HOW hungry were we?

SO HUNGRY we each had a monstrous hamburger and then we fell over dead.

Ya gotta love how my eyebrows make me look like a mad scientist who's just discovered that this hamburger thing has to be eaten before WE ALL BLOW UP.

It was deee-licious.

cupcakes, part II

My colleagues/friends Cheryl, Katherine, and I have a routine on Tuesdays after we eat lunch together: we eat cookies. Yummers. This week we were really full from the pizza, and we skipped going to the Garlic Press because it was in the opposite direction. But when we passed the new Medici bakery, Cheryl let out a little whine and pointed to the door, so we went in.

The first thing that caught our eyes was a row of BEAUTIFUL cupcakes decorated to look like sunflowers. The yellow frosting was expertly applied to look like leaves, and there were tiny chocolate chips in the middle made to look like the brown center of a sunflower. Have I mentioned that they were beautiful? I wish I'd taken a picture of them.

Me, to the person behind the counter: Are they muffins or cupcakes?

She: They're chocolate cupcakes.

We three, collectively: Yummmmm.

We decided to share one because they were HUGE and, well, they were three bucks a piece. Cheryl treated.

We walked back to school gawking at it in its to-go container. I kept saying how I wanted to just stick my finger in that frosting and do a big swish across the top. I restrained myself until we got back to our offices. Katherine opened the container and I stuck my finger in. The frosting was hard. I couldn't do a big swish. I pushed at it and some frosting stuck to my finger. I put it to my lips. "It tastes like...nothing."

Cheryl: WHAT?

She takes a swish and agrees that it tastes like nothing.

I run down the hall for a potty break (as I am wont to do at the most interesting times) and when I come back, Katherine has taken a bite out of it. "It practically broke my fork," she said.

It was not a chocolate cupcake. It was a burnt, hard yellow cupcake and did I mention that it was hard. I lifted the entire thing with my fork and no crumbs fell on my desk.

We were pissed. Katherine takes a bite of the chocolate chips in the middle and declares that they are not semi-sweet; they're BAKING chocolate.

We begin imagining possible reasons why it could be so bad. The bakers had to practice making sunflowers for some competition they'd be entering. Or they had LOTS of yellow "frosting" left and they had to do something with it, so why not put it on the burnt yellow cupcakes?

In the midst of all this, I say, "If my honey had bought something that he thought was a chocolate cupcake and he got this, he would've had a little breakdown."

Cheryl decides she's gonna call them and tell them how horrible it was. We would've returned it, but we all had things we had to do soon and it was a little bit of a walk. So Cheryl calls and says, "I was just in there and I bought one of those sunflower cupcakes and I wanted to tell you that it's....terrible." I'm in the background, reminding her to tell them it's hard as a rock and don't forget about the chocolate chips and the frosting had no taste. I'm helpful that way.

She's listening to the person on the other end and says, "Oh, I seeeeee." She hangs up and tells us she's the SECOND PERSON who's called today to complain about the cupcakes. They're taking them out of the case.

And I'm left wondering why they left them in the case after the first person complained. And even more, what kind of person calls to complain about a cupcake? Not just us, evidently.

It was, after all, a $3 cupcake. That's almost a gallon of gas!

winter comfort

I made this bread bowl from a small round loaf of sourdough. Filled it with chili, topped it with cheese, and had a yummy winter meal. S. didn't get one. He has fears of soggy bread. This is also why he doesn't like stuffing on Thanksgiving and Christmas. I love it. Yummers.

Proofing the book today. Tomorrow S. and I are headed up to Chicago to the Diamond Headache Clinic for the day. I haven't posted much about S.'s migraines because they're so upsetting and there's really not much to say except that he needs better help. His appointment's at 1:00, but the first appointment usually takes 3-4 hours. Wish us luck.

antonyms

I've really been not hungry lately. This is a majorly new experience for me, as it has always been that I can eat. And that I have to stop myself from overeating. This morning S. and I made pancakes again. There were two medium-sized pancakes on my plate, and I finished maybe 1/2 of one and was completely full. Like the kind of full that makes you unable to walk. This has been going on for at least a week. I eat because I like the taste of the food, not because I'm hungry.

At the park this morning, I was telling my friend Neecy about this. Neecy's a nurse, so I figured she might have a reasonable explanation for what's happening to me.

Me: What's the opposite of having a tapeworm?

Neecy: Not having a tapeworm?

peppermint reigns

'tis the season for peppermint. It's so fresh and invigorating and, well, yummy. For some reason, I love candy canes this time of year, but the rest of the year I could take or leave peppermint starlight candies.

Other peppermint-themed items currently in my life:

1. peppermint swirl body wash from Bath & Body Works. I step out of the shower every day smelling like a candy cane. Not just like peppermint, people, but like a candy cane.

2. Edy's peppermint ice cream, the reduced fat version. LOVE it.

3. Brach's peppermint nougats. I could eat an entire bag in one sitting. But I don't. I try to remain human about the whole thing.

4. peppermint bark. I actually don't have any of this in my life, but would love some. Perhaps Santa reads my blog, I dunno.

ode to the frother

One of my fantabulous birthday gifts--from S.'s cousins up in Chicago--was a milk frother for my coffee. I can't even begin to describe what a difference this thing makes for my mornings. It's like I'm drinking a fancy coffee at Starbucks, but I still have that $4 in my pocket. Did you know that when you froth milk, it naturally becomes sweeter? I didn't know this either, but that explains part of the fun.

Makes for a yummy coffee experience. And a superlicious chai tea experience. Yummers.

weekend recap

Game night here was a lovely success. S. and I cleaned the house ALL DAY on Saturday, so by the time people came over at 7:00, everything was sparking clean. And yesterday we splurged and bought a dustbuster, which has made me immeasurably happy because now I don't have to lug out the huge vacuum everytime a dustbunny of dog hair threatens to drift away with my sanity.

We played the music version of Catchphrase, which I'm notoriously horrible at, but this time I was okay. Then we played couples Password, and S. and I kicked butt in the first round then fell apart for a while after that. For part of the night Bill and Cherlyn were there with their not-quite-one-year-old baby girl Brooklyn. She has got to be, hands down, the happiest baby on earth. She makes me want to go get pregnant. Her little rosy cheeks and her pants pulled up to her chest, Belly sniffing her butt, and Mulder licking her face--and all the while she's laughing laughing laughing. Delectable.

For the party I'd bought a package of little pumpkin and pecan tarts. I put out 12 of each for the guests, but of course there were many left. S. nearly had a breakdown when he saw me empty the platter into the trash. We're of two different mindsets. Mine (the correct one) is that if the bad food is in the house, we will eat it. We don't need to eat it. We need to cut down on the sugar. His is that it's a sin to throw away food. People are starving in other parts of the world. To which I respond: our eating them is not going to help any starving people anywhere. So, the next time your mom tells you to clean your plate because people in China are starving, a good response would be something like, yes, but people in America are obese. Heh. Not long after I threw the tarts away, I emptied the salsa dish into the trash so that neither of us would be tempted to go into the trash to rescue those cute little tarts.

Issues with food, anyone? Naaaaah.

I spent about 2 1/2 hours yesterday working on a talk for the departments Sigma Tau Delta initiation ceremony on Tuesday night. I'm the faculty speaker. For the STD initiation. Heh. Cuz that joke's never been made. Anyway, I'm pretty happy with what I ended up with, in part because of the two epigraphs I chose for it:

"The world is made for people who aren’t cursed with self-awareness."
-- Annie Savoy in Bull Durham

"There are too many ideas and too many people. And too many directions to go. I was starting to believe that the reason it matters to care passionately about something is that it whittles the world down to a more manageable size."
--Susan Orlean’s character in Adaptation

I can give no more away.

I've got only 3 episodes left of Season 1 of Friday Night Lights, and I'm kinda sad about it. I'm getting all attached to these characters, and we didn't record the first 2 episodes from this season, though S. watched them. I've been recording Cold Case for weeks now and have yet to watch a single one. Ah well. No time.

the things I'll do to find these chips

I should be getting paid to say all this, btw.

I love Snyder's flaxseed gold multigrain tortilla chips. Love them very much. Deeee-licious and good for you, too. I first found them at the pricey grocery store in town--Schnuck's--but they haven't had them for a while. Last night I went to Schnuck's for burgers and buns and, specifically, these chips, but they didn't have them and I was very very sad. When I got to S.'s house, I went to the Snyder's website to see if I could buy them online (they're that good). Well, turns out you can, but only in cases of 12. Will we EAT 12 bags of chips this summer? Probably, but just to be sure we can't find them anywhere in town, I went on a journey. I had some time on my hands while S. was mowing the lawn, so I went to Jewel first. Nope. They carry the line, but not the flaxseed gold for some reason. Then I went to Cub. Nope. I already knew Kroger didn't carry them, so I didn't bother going there.

And then.

Horror of horrors. I just wanted to run through all of my options before spending $39.99 on a case of chips. I went to the Evil Empire. Wal-mart. Thinking for sure they'd have them and they'd probably be 50 cents cheaper per bag. I found the chip aisle. I tried not to look at all the stuff in the Evil Empire for so cheap. As I walked to the chip aisle, I found myself understanding the draw of the place. It's so huge. And bright. And shiny. And cheap.

And I reminded myself of their business practices.

I got to the chip aisle. Three quarters of the aisle was taken up by Frito Lay products. No Snyder's anything. Not pretzels. Not tortilla chips. And somewhere inside I breathed a little sigh of relief. Snyder's doesn't do business with Wal-mart, I'm assuming. This is why a case of chips is $39.99.

I returned home to find S. still mowing. I had no flaxseed gold tortilla chips. I won't order my case now because we're leaving for NC tomorrow. There's always the chance that I'll find them in a store there and can just carry back three or four bags on the plane. But if not, I'm hoping Belly doesn't yell too much at the UPS man when he comes. After all, he'll be delivering a box of gold.

oh, a little clarification

That's all.

1. I am not, nor do I ever plan to be, pregnant. COOKING for two, not EATING for two. Let it be known to all who read this that no offspring shall ever sprout from this body with its depressed, overweight, mildly obsessive genes.

2. S. and I are not living together. We're eating dinner together more because I've had time last week and this week to cook things more complex than a frozen pizza. I'm actually reading recipes and using spices in interesting ways--something I've never really done.

3. I don't really know how two people live together. I mean, I understand the logistics, but I don't really get the day-to-day stuff. That'll take some working on. It's the merging of two very separate lives that I can't envision. This isn't to say that it's never gonna happen, just that it's gonna be all completely new to me. Which brings me to a reflection on one of the things that holds me and my oldest friends together: none of us had any kind of model for what a healthy marriage looks like.

4. I've found the cleanest coffee pot in the whole world. You know how the plastic gets stained so easily and the pot itself always has streaks of brown (no, not your underwear, the coffee pot)? Well, this weekend I bought a new coffeemaker at Macy's--a brand I'd never heard of: Russell Hobbs. And there's something about the plastic on this thing that makes it sparkling clean every time. No stains here. I'm loving it.

5. I love babies. Anyone who knows me also knows this. I just don't want them to live with me (see 3, above).

6. I'm kinda happy. If I could just get those two damn articles published, I'd be even happier. Dang.

7. Tonight's dinner is filet mignon with a dee-licious tomato sauce topping. I know it's dee-licious because we had it last week and I couldn't stop exclaiming how good it was with each bite. Yummers.