Saturday, February 27, 2010

Crystal Bowersox

We saw her on the patio of Arnie's last September. It was kinda chilly. I bought her a shot of Kahlua. Brush with fame!

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Stop me before I shop again

Tonight I stopped in at Churchill's for some wine. By the front door, they have these cute new little wheelie baskets! Bigger than a basket, but smaller than a cart. Walt himself came over, looking jovial as usual. He said his only concern was that someone might trip over them in the aisles. I told him I would keep it by my side.



So I bought 2 bottles of wine and some clementines (make sure you don't buy the USA ones, they're small and have seeds) and some Italian sausage links and 3 big cans of Dei Fratelli tomato products for $1 a can and a bag of bird seed. Now I have so much food, I won't need to shop for 2 weeks. Just an occasional stop at Monette's for veg etc.

My daughter called last night, slightly upset because some company VP had come for a walk-through and she did it with them as she was the only manager on duty. They were dumbfounded at the perfectness of her operations reports and sent an email to the entire company about THIS is the way to do it, people. The upsetting part was that when she told the head store manager, that woman wanted to make sure Anne had told them that she got input from the rest of the team, which Anne had not as she did it all herself just like the little red hen. I told her that woman was just jealous. Anne felt she was stealing her glory. F U bitches, I said.

She is still intent on the move to CA in August and that I come visit in NYC one more time before she leaves. So I'll line that up for April. She's going to South By as she calls it, in Austin next month. She still plans to stay here for July.

I stupidly signed up for a free estimate for something at the house and home show and those people have been calling me nonstop from a RESTRICTED number which I refuse to answer.

Next week-- the big first week of the month: radio mtg. Monday, GNO Weds., Big James at Hines Farm Sat. Also I see there's no longer any mention of Phat Noiz at the ClaZel on their website.
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Monday, February 22, 2010

Last week of February

The ice storm overnight did not materialize. It stayed above freezing so we got some slushy snow but no big deal.

Tonight, good job for me. I made chicken enchiladas and chicken salad out of my rotisserie chicken. Did an hour long exercise thing. Did dishes. Again.

Yesterday I made salmon en croute. With baked potatoes and roasted carrots. OMG it was delicious.



And so easy! And cheap. The whole meal cost about $12. I had never worked with that puff pastry before but I'll do it again. Also made the apple galette. Had the other half of my salmon and baked potato for lunch today.

And have half the galette left. Plus it's so easy! Just put a bunch of apple slices on a pie crust and sprinkle on a bunch of butter and sugar and some cinnamon and bake. Yumba.

I also cleaned yesterday. Yeah, that might not sound like much to you, but cleaning is not a weekly activity for me.

Last night, the little kitty is on point in the kitchen, staring at the pantry cabinet. She sat very still, very still and then BAM she springs and comes up with a mouse in her jaws. Dead with one chomp. And this is a cat with no front claws. I must take back everything bad I've ever said about her.

Here's a thing that got carved out of a red pepper.



I'm gonna let it dry out and see what happens.

Plus two nights in a row, I've had to mess with 13abc.com. Thank you work, for paying my cable/internet bill.
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Sunday, February 21, 2010

Shopping

Yesterday Amy and I went to Toledo. After a quick breakfast at the Grill, we went to the house and home show at SeaGate Centre, then to Classic Antiques and Architectural Artifacts in downtown Toledo.

Then we saw Crazy Heart at the Franklin Park cinema. We walked around the mall after, where many people were buying much stuff. Stopped in at Williams Sonoma and Pottery Barn and cruised around Dillard's where I bought a long sleeve t-shirt. Stopped in DSW where Amy got a pair of sensible black shoes and I got a wallet.

Then we went to Kohl's where we each bought a top and I bought a pair of stretch pants and by this time it's time for dinner where we tried to go to Shorty's but the wait was an hour and 15 minutes so we ate at Smedlap's in Waterville where Amy had a perch sandwich and I had a southwest burger that was delicious but gigantic.

That shopping is exhausting.
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The food part

MEAT

Chicken thighs. These are inexpensive, moist, and easy. Put them in a crockpot or the oven and cook. Last week I got 10 thighs for $4. This is plenty for a family of four. Rip off that skin, cook.

Rotisserie chicken. You can get one of these for $6 or so and have chicken breasts one time (for 2) and enchiladas, for example, with the rest. Or it will feed a family of four. And although it's probably high in salt and injected fat, it's easier than baking a chicken yourself and that's my point: easy can be good.

Pork tenderloin. When on sale, these are incredibly inexpensive cuts of meat and once again, just put them in the oven and bake. Done. No bones, no fat and gristle. You can get one for about $7 and it's enough for four.

Sausages. You only need one of these per person in a recipe so a pack of 5 for $4, mixed with some pasta, make a quick and fairly nutritious meal.

Frozen fish fillets. Defrost, bake in about 5 minutes.

VEGETABLES

Salad can become expensive with additives and while everybody thinks salad is diet food, it's not if you add hard-boiled eggs and fried chicken strips and cheese and then drown it in dressing.

Frozen vegetables are great and fast. Just don't get the ones with sauce. A bag of vegetables is less than $2 for about 6 servings. Peas, snap peas, brussel sprouts, broccoli, cauliflower. And a little butter on them makes them tasty.

Fresh vegetables, like carrots, squash, parsnips can be baked to a delicious sweetness. A bag of carrots is about $1 and is enough for a meal for 4.

CARBS

Rice and pasta are quick and easy. Don't buy the ones in packets with sauce and too much salt. Plus they're expensive, serving-wise. Avoid white rice in favor of a combination of brown or arborio or basmati or wild. Even what looks like an expensive buy will last a long time as one cup of dry makes 2.5 cups of cooked and you only need about 3/4 cup a serving. Potatoes are an OK carb as long as you don't deep fry them or slather them with LOTS of butter or sour cream.

SOUP

Homemade soup, including chili, is easy to make and inexpensive and gets you more vegetable servings. Basically soup is broth and ingredients. Like some of that rotisserie chicken and noodles or pasta and beans, which are very filling and full of protein. Canned soup is over-processed so while you think it's a cheap meal, it's not, compared to homemade which is fresher, closer to the bottom of the food chain, etc.

SO TO WRAP UP

  • Plan ahead, take the time to cook. Consider how a fast food meal is about $6 per person and then see what you can make for that $12 for two, $24 (!) for a family of four.
  • You don't have to eat healthy every meal.
  • Cut out the prepared foods that include too much salt, sugar and fat.
  • Although this should go without saying, don't buy chips and cookies and soda. They seem filling and delicious but once again, it's that fat/salt/sugar that you don't need. And don't start with me on the diet soda thing. IT'S BAD.


And I have ignored breakfast here, mainly because so does everybody in America although we've always been told it's the most important meal of the day.

And get over that I-hate-yogurt thing. Toss into some plain yogurt some granola or even a tablespoon of jam and have a piece of whole-grain toast.

Eggs are good for you and a fried egg sandwich is about 200 calories and gets you protein and whole grains. And about high-quality bread. Even if you eat 3 slices a day (one toast, two on a sandwich, say), a loaf that costs $3.50 is 16 slices or about 60 cents a day. My favorite: Brownberry 12-grain.

Good breakfast cereal doesn't have to taste like gravel mixed with sticks.

Doughnuts/pastries/most breakfast bars are bad. I shouldn't even have to say this.
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Friday, February 19, 2010

Eating healthy is not expensive

I heard some guy on TV the other night on one of those 'Why am I so fat?' shows saying how he knows one of his problems is not eating healthy foods but that it's so expensive. I am tired of this excuse, people.

For starters, you can look at This is Why You're Fat, a blog of stuff people eat that they know by just looking at it, they shouldn't be eating it. But it does point up one American view of food that is unhealthy but it's so EASY. Wrap some nutritionless white bread around some meat product and possibly fry it and there's a meal.

So healthy eating is not so much expensive as it is time-consuming compared to the lazy person's way of getting calories into themselves. Plus Americans have come to think that they haven't had a meal if they aren't stuffed and uncomfortable and farting and belching on the couch afterward.

The time spent digesting a bunch of crap AFTER the meal could have been time better spent in conceiving and producing a healthy meal. All that thought! It's so time-consuming!!

And it's not as if healthy eating is depriving yourself of delicious food. It's just adjusting your tastebuds so that you enjoy good food instead of thinking that fat + salt + carbs = delicious.

And it's not as if every single thing you consume has to be fresh-pickt, organic and raw. It just should be prepared as close to the bottom of the food chain as you can. "Prepared foods" have a bad reputation for a reason.

But enough with the chastising. Let's get down to the advice. And the problem with the advice is usually that there's too much of it. Which just makes you bogged down in the details and it all gets so overwhelming and you give up.

(And let me say right off that I am not a dietitian nor do I play one on TV. I just have many years of family and single-person food prep behind me.)

So here we go.

First, figure out some meals. Sit down, possibly with a cookbook (or not, if this is too scary), and decide on some full meals for a week. Or start with 3 days, if this is too much thought.

Think about a meal as a protein, a carb and a vegetable. And remember, if it's got a sauce on it, it probably doesn't need it and is just adding calories/fat/salt.

Eat Healthy America is a good online cookbook, even if it is sponsored by a prepared foods company, General Mills.

Uh oh, gotta go and I didn't even get to the what exactly you should eat yet. More later...

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Monday, February 15, 2010

Long, deep and continuously

This is how JD used to say he would cut somebody. "Three ways. (insert blog post title here)." But I feel this is how February is.

I spent most of the weekend on the couch reading. Two weekends in a row. My own fault, I suppose. Amy and I did go to Hines Farm Saturday night where it was standing room only although we elbowed our way to the dance floor, pretending to dance so we could hear the band. Some 41-year-old youth outside told us a story of how he spent much of his actual youth, traveling around to Grateful Dead concerts selling nitrous oxide. Let's see, the Dead stopped touring in 1995 so that would have made this guy 26 when they stopped.

So as it turns out I did not judge the Eagles chili cook-off, having been preempted by someone who apparently wanted to do it more than I did, Doug Black. Probably just saved my stomach a lot of distress.

Today, after I backed my car out of the garage and got out to close the garage door, a mouse dropped out from under the car and ran into the garage. Hope it wasn't in there eating my car's hoses or something.

Also, even though it's been below freezing for weeks, my garbage can has that vomit smell in it that it had last summer. I don't know how this happens as I bag everything before I toss it in.

I worked today although I did not have to (Presidents Day) so I'll have one more day to take off if it ever becomes nice weather.

At least we have the game night at Amy's on Wednesday to break up the week.

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Thursday, February 11, 2010

Bucking up

OMG February has got me in the downward spiral. So tonight I got on it. I did a Pilates DVD and hooked up that new DVD player I got and did laundry and changed my sheets and did laundry and paid bills. I also synched my iPod which I screwed up the first time and had to do it again but I did it. Dammit.

Also, my mom has sent me a check for $100 in a thank you card for the various cash I have lent her over the last few months. I guess I'll deposit it.

Here's a pic my friend in Dallas sent me.



Yay Friday tomorrow.
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Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Not so much snow

After all. Neither us nor New York City. Although there was a foot at the Toledo airport, we got about 8 which seems like a lot but today when I got home, someone had snow-blowered my driveway. Thank you.

I got all bent out of shape about driving to work today because of the panic induced by the TV stations but it was all for naught and driving home wouldn't have been so bad had I stayed on 75 around Perrysburg and got off at Wooster. 25 was its usual rutted iciness in the windswept spots.

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Tuesday, February 09, 2010

Snow

Left work about 5 so to get home before dark. Parked in the street while I shoveled out enough to get the car in the drive and did and then shoveled more to get it in the garage and then shoveled more. Still snowing, 3 hours later. Wind is supposed to pick up over night bringing "NEAR BLIZZARD CONDITIONS" according to the NWS. I had taken stuff to spend the night at the station but I decided to come home and see how it goes tomorrow. The drive home wasn't too bad, driven worse. Took about 50 minutes, going through Maumee.

New York City is in for the same thing tomorrow.

Just saw Crystal Bowersox on American Idol where she got to go on to the next round. Hey, I bought that girl some Kahlua once. Simon called her "infectious" as if this is a bad thing. Which I guess it is in some cases.
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Saturday, February 06, 2010

Washer: The Finale

I call my mom to finalize the washer pickup for 11 a.m. Saturday. This was before the winter storm warning was issued for Delaware. When I call back Friday to say we will come Sunday instead, NOW the story is that somehow these evil-doers who have the lease on the storage unit have removed the padlock which Karen had apparently the only key to and put on their own padlock which has 2 keys, neither one of which Karen has, although purportedly she could get one from the guy's dad so she calls him and he says he has not been given said key. My mom asked Karen how they got her padlock off if Karen had the only key but she ignored this question.

So Friday night I decide I am done with this washer. I personally believe there is no washer, or at least not the one I bought my mom, in the storage unit. I tell my mom yesterday that I'm not coming ever for the washer so if they want to sell it or whatever, have at it. I tell her my feeling that the washer is MIA, possibly traded away to the evil-doers (who used to be their neighbors at the trailer park)for some debt. Of some kind. My mom of course is incredibly sorry and says so over and over although I keep repeating that it's not her fault.

After I hang up with my mom, my sister calls and tells me the whole story about the key etc. I tell her mom just told me and she said she didn't know I had talked to mom. What a coincidence then! LOL. (she types sarcastically). Also, she adds that some problem with the signing of the papers for the storage unit has cropped up and the storage place owners have changed the secret keypad number so actually nobody can get in there anyway. Then she tells me she fears also that the washer is gone since these people have done her so dirty (her phrase). Although I cannot for the life of me figure out why these evil-doers ever moved that washer out of Karen's trailer in the first place. Or why now they're pissed that for some reason they believe Karen will get some kind of refund on that trailer deal which I just fear is actually going to result in some further indebtedness, no doubt on my mom's part, about the end of the trailer contract, whatever that was.

My mom, bless her heart, stands by Karen's story, fully believing that these bad people took advantage of Karen's generosity to store their stuff at Karen's until they had moved and now continue to screw her over with this storage deal. It makes me wonder how long I would go on believing one of my own children, had they grown up to become lying sociopaths.

Anyway, this has been about the laziest weekend ever. Yesterday I shoveled some snow and went to Meijer and read half a book, the other half of which I read today. Called Miss Annie last night for a couple hours.

Today I am cooking, having already made a quiche, and now have a pot of squash soup simmering and a roast in a pan on the stove, trying to braise it which I feel may turn out to be a giant waste of $8 worth of meat. It's still got almost 2 hours to go (been in about 1.5 hours already) so I'm holding out hope. Why didn't I put this in the crockpot this morning?? Perhaps I will be only having vegetables for dinner.

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Wednesday, February 03, 2010

photos from phone

Flourless chocolate cake at Avenue Bistro



Wall at Bass Pro



Band at Mulvaney's Bunker



Some tatas at the Bunker



Also tonight was GNO which was good fun. Kay is sick with multiple illnesses that seem to require antibiotics. Additional GNO at Amy's Feb. 17 with games, everybody allowed, even boys.

Furthermore, I cannot find any internet advice about how I cannot use the wheel on my iPod once it's plugged into my car stereo system. Hmmmmmmmmm

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Monday, February 01, 2010

radio radio

Tonight was the heinous radio meeting and although it is only once a month during the school year, and not even some of those months, it is only one hour, it is nearly unbearable. Tonight there was barely the quorum needed to hold a meeting and only because us grown-ups were there. Where are all the kid DJs? Isn't there some rule that says miss so many meetings and your show is reassigned?? The woman who is playing GM this year is just a ditz, or playing a ditz, and we experience some power point where each page has one cryptic line about something that might be coming up but we never get any details. Where are the kids who are apparently heisting the equipment and the CDs? Not at the meetings to be chastised. Next time, scotch before AND after the meeting.

I meant to come home tonight and do some cooking for work lunches but alas, after the Fat Burning Ab Attack workout, I lounged around eating cheese and crackers, which no doubt obliterated any attacking of my abs or fat burning that had taken place.

Also the guy who sold me my car was wrong about where the iPod plugs in. He told me it goes in this single prong AUX thing in the dash but the manual says you plug it in the USB port in the console. Neither the manual nor the online docs say nothing about what that AUX thing is even for. It might be for mp3 players that are not iPods. So I guess I'll try the other hookup tomorrow.

So someone has offered to do the washer retrieval which will be happening this Saturday, god willing and the creek don't rise. I hope it is a fun day other than the appliance loading.

I did indeed buy that case of wine from Joseph's, a 2008 Milton Park Shiraz and amazingly enough, there's still some left a week later.

Groundhog Day tomorrow.
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