Meanwhile..

Survived many a potluck (okay just 2 - didn't attend Kim's or the 3rd work version).

Highlights:
- Herring-free herring salad @ MRD potluck
- pulled vension asian stirfry @ Fingarson potluck
- date balls leftover from some other potluck

Xmas brought us the BEST COOKIES EVER.. cinnamon stars. We have pictures on picasa.

- nice gingerbread recipe (picked the one w. more molasses, no disappointment there)
- actually having herring @ the Robelia's (I like it!)
- sweet potato from my mom
- endless supply of bean salad we have sitting in the fridge
- chipotle tabasco in our fridge!!
- pumpkin roll in wisconsin
- Bobbi's pomegranite martini
- the huge raisins in Ruth's spice bread
- silknog
- real meat at the Loranger's.
- the largest Qcumbers gift certificate in the world.
- Chrissy made a good bean dip.

Outings:
Matt Kim's wedding - Coconut curry vegetables. eh. Jon's chicken thing - 3 of 4 stars.

Tea House Buffet - As good as a chinese buffet could be, I suppose. Good fish and good from-a-can vanilla pudding. Jon likes the soup.

Taco John's - yes, seriously. We like it. The one in TRF was recently revised to include a salsa bar (yay). I looked @ the menu before leaving the house, so I knew to have a chix softshell taco & mexican rice. "what's in mexican rice". 'uh, mexican rice'.. (okay boo). My parents also ventured to a new section - ordering refried beans there. You can eat way too many refried beans, mexican rice, and all the salsa you want for a whopping $1.99. Make your OWN extra value menu! (that's almost healthy, but not really).

CAKE for Jennifer turning 30.

La Mixteca. We had a gordita. I don't like shredded pork there. Plus - Guarachas are better.

David made cinnamon rolls that were warm. =)

We are supposedly going to pazzaluna tonight..

We might go to holy land tomorrow. We'll see.

Weight a minute!

So I've been going to the doctor a lot lately.. whatdayaknow.

I have seen the inside & outside of my stomach, as well as my heart. Soon I will see my bowel in action. In honor of this, it's the holiday season, so let's start eating!

Last night for our monthiversary Jon & I ate at Highland Grill (sort of on a whim). It was really tasty. Jon had "the best burger in the twin cities" .. voted on year, 199x. It was a turkey burger.. spiced VERY nicely (awesome spicy aftertaste).. and came with decent fries. Looked a lot like McDonalds, in a good way. Thin & done, not chewy & greasy. I had 3! That's the most fries I've had in like.. 5 years.

I ate a smoked salmon scramble. Scrambled eggs w.smoked salmon, red onions, cream cheese, dill (or maybe parsely, but it was pretty & green), and spinach. The spinach wasn't supposed to be there, but I didn't want hash browns so the waitress came up w.an awesome compromise.. I told her they should add that regularly.. it was phenomonal (possible for scrambled eggs, now yes). Came w.english muffin that I was able to splatter w.all the extra cream cheese from the omelet (there was still extra) and honey. Divine. on the way to Sound of Music (which was AWESOME), we stopped at Bravo. It was packed, so we ate our green tea cake in the car. Frosting tasted as if it had been sitting around a while (no doubt it had been), as did the bottom layer of cake. BUT -- the middle.. oh so devine and reaffirmed my love of Bravo. Even Jon said, 'ya know, that is really good'. I have recently been informed he doesn't like cake as much as I - no big surprise, though.

TODAY is Thursday. Our department couldn't f'ing decide where to go eat, and finally we ended up at QCumbers b/c I speak the loudest. I like it there. A lot. Today they had something new -- chicken lettuce wraps. Trendy, but good! I love their salsa best. And their soup today, wow it was nice. Tuscan white bean. Lots of onions in a thick veggie broth (Did I mention lots of onions). A few tomatoes, carrots, potatoes, and.. white beans. I was totally craving white beans last night. I also wanted beets, but it was so cold that I couldn't order a cold salad. Sooo today I had my standard beets, spinach, egg, onion, balsamic concoction.. as well as my banana/pineapple/ice cream. They also had non-burnt oatmeal cookies (must have gotten a new baker). All in all, solid, and nothing but soup and ice cream needed to be seconded, so I don't feel completely miserable (yet), although I did steal and extra muffin on the way out just to put myself over the edge -- as always. =)

Tomorrow is a potluck here (wish me luck) and a potluck at Kim's. Saturday is Matt's wedding, and Sunday is a potluck at church. Luckily I won't be eating Sunday night or Monday morning.. but I imagine I"ll be a glutton at lunch on Monday -- decisions, decisions).

Adios.

Campus

YUMMYYUMMY IS CLOSED.
Over the 25c wings chosen by Jon, I picked: Sushi Express-Cheap, effective. My new favorite grocery store / seagate sushi combo is the inari (tofu around the rice - thank you wipa) + california roll set.

Guess we need to go to Pagoda some other time.

fake teeth

who said it wouldn't be worth it.

www.allcandyexpo.com

watch out for this.

Name: Twizzlers Pull n Peel Cinnamon Fire Candy
Brand: Hershey’s
Description: You’ll be sizzling and twizzling
Release Date: February 29, 2008
Notes: I’m not sure they’ll get as much sizzle in there as I want (I find Twizzlers a little bland), but I’m certain to give them a whirl.

placeholder for duplex

all right.

our last b1g1 free on my MPR card :( (new cards coming soon.. not so many discounts, boo.).. duplex!

it was a cool place. they were so pleasant in the entry, and let us run into the bar for happy hour (turns out we couldn't use the discount after all, lesson learned). since we won't have the MPR card deal anymore, we will totally have to go there for HH instead. their drinks are all $2 off.. and there were so many drinks that were just 4-5 bucks that it'd be worth it to come back & have some apps. the bar was fun because you are essentially overlooking the 2 chefs in the kitchen.. and listening to them talk together. fun =)

the servers & hostess, again.. so nice. not really overly sappy, but commended me for using the MPR card "it's a great way to learn new places!" jon had some cool-ass looking gnocchi. huge pastas, like 6 blanched tomatoes, huge buffalo mozz.. quite fun. tasted kinda bland to me, but he liked it. i had something totally new for me. black barley risotto. it was nice! i like black barley, and learned risotto doesn't have to be creamy goo. it had chicken in it that wasn't so tasty, but the mushroom, carrots & chevre were good. a good texture, but needed some ZIP (= spicy or sour). i did have the server give me about 1/2 c (exaggeration) of pepper before starting, which i am happy to have done.

would we go back? maybe for apps or soup. i do want to see the pork w. prunes & brussel sprouts, but jon wasn't in because it was a t-bone pork thingy, which i probably wouldn't enjoy either.

btw. bravobakery.net - view cakes. please.

Cute food.

Yes, I should have taken a picture of the 3 seed sandwich, it was beautiful. To make up for it, I have NOT forgotten to take a picture of the coolest thing to show up on my desk in a while.

Last night I was chatting w.my BFF @ work (BK), and he was trying to allure me w.a donut or cinnamon roll. Although those are lovely, I have a weakness for cookies & cake. He informed me he was going to get some 'pastries' (ie donuts & junk) for a morning meeting, and asked if I had special requests.

I told him exactly what I wanted. A white cookie w.white frosting decorated like Santa Claus. Or something baked that was not fried and had brown fruit in or on it. He said they may not have cookies, and to this I said I want nothing but that.

Well well.. what do you know. BFF came through with a BIG BANG. After perusing the decorated cookies, he came up with a sock & this kick-ass santa. You may not be able to tell from the pic, but the Santa cookie is filled with something.. it's totally 3D puffy-ized, and not a fried pastry. BFF has no idea what it is, and I think it's too cute to eat.



We'll see how long it lasts.

It reminds me of my last year's favorite baked good. The TURKEY CAKE @ Byerly's. It was my turning point into deciding, yes I really DO want to work here.

I totally didn't see them this year, although I did forget to make a special trip pre-Thanksgiving :( This is still pretty damn cool in my eyes.


sugar.

Stuffed

So goes the weekend of eating.

Wednesday: Chicken Parsnip Apple Soup (yay).

Thanksgiving food was fabulous!
Offering:
Turkey
Stuffing
Mashed potatoes w.gravy
**Sweet potatoes w.applesauce
**Green salad w.orange and red peppers
Cranberries
Cornmeal rolls

Elderberry pie
Pumpkin pie sans crust


..and later:
Leftovers.. w.a new addition:
Blackberry pie w. ff plain yogurt (hooray)

It was fun to have the family together, cooking. I hope Ruth doesn't mind me helping in the kitchen, or at least standing in the way.. :/ Went for a walk w.Quick, and then played some Sequence.

The next day was my Endo. What a drag.. sitting around. At least Jon got to see Press Your Luck before eating a crappy hospital sandwich.

Enjoyed some food @ David & Judie's later on. Highlight - our lefse? PICKLES!

Saturday we FINALLY made it to Aribel's. It was really fun.. my family was all adventurous and tried every section of the menu.

We enjoyed: Shrimp fried rice (my dad orders at every restaurant as sort of his trademark.. he said this is the BEST shrimp fried rice he has ever ever had (and he has had a lot).. but it may not be fair because it was SO different and good); beef pepper pot (I normally do not enjoy eating beef.. but this was NOT normal beef.. the owner/chef/only guy working explained it was flavored with molasses.. yum!); jerk chicken lo mein (also, very fresh and different taste), and the snapper curry (what an interesting, tasty (saltyfish) flavor) with extra veggies by request. Everything was so unique and tasty as can be... and very very reasonably priced.

reminder for next time: Keep asking for extra veggies.. they'll do it!

Sunday.. ate and ate and ate again. Breakfast of oatmeal, then breakfast #2 at Church ;)
Lunch -- um, did you know we like Quang? A lot? Yeah.
Seafood & Pork soup - it was great.. but I guess I was really in the mood for it. The veggie soup is just as good.. gosh it's so hard to order there.
even Jon's wontons w.red pork was also really nice... probably a more managable feat to finish up.

Dinner was pancakes of all sizes. Banana, cranberry orange, and apple pumpkin..hooray.