It would appear that MySpace's new Local service is for Corporate restaurants only. I tried to review an independently-owned Mexican restaurant closer to where I live, and it pretty much said no. It did, however, give me the option to suggest a restaurant, so I suggested it, and I will copy this there when, and if, they decide to add it. If not, well, I'll have reviewed it here anyway, and that's fine.
Washington's El Tapatio restaurant, conveniently located on Highway 17 in Washington, next to Taco Bell, is the best place Jen and I have found for Mexican food in Beaufort County. In fact, I asked her, and we both agree that if we lived in Greenville, it would be worth it to drive 25 miles or so to Washington for El Tapatio if we were craving Mexican. In fact, when we're craving Mexican, El Tapatio is automatically assumed.
When you see the place, it's not impressive at all. It could be anything, and in fact used to be a Golden Corral before GC moved to the Walmart shopping center, just a quarter-mile to the north. Two cheesy fake palm trees (which light up at night) stand between the restaurant and Hwy. 17, but the parking lot is spacious and easily accessed from either the northbound or southbound lanes, even in rush hour, as the nearby McDonald's light (yes, Washington has a dedicated traffic light for McDonald's) often provides cover. The building exterior could use a paint job, and the little lobby is littered with fliers advertising mostly local Mexican music and wrestling/fighting events.
Once you come inside, it's much nicer. Murals inside show Mexican revolutionaries, and are nicely done. They have one of those new Internet jukeboxes which can download all kinds of songs, and you're liable to hear just about anything in there. Oftentimes it's Mexican music, but a lot of times it isn't. Either way, it isn't loud, so you can hear it, but it won't overwhelm you. I haven't sat at their tables, but their booths are all pretty nice, and they can be moved if you need more or less room, depending on your size. From the door, the entire right side is non-smoking, and the entire left side, with the bar and jukebox, is for smokers, so it's well separated.
I cannot stress how fast the service is. As soon as you're seated, you'll be asked what you want to drink. Drinks are brought out very promptly with freshly made tortilla chips and homemade salsa, both of which are very good. Once you order, they can have your meal out in as little as five minutes. We have fast food restaurants out here that can't serve you in five minutes (mostly Hardee's). You can't make a decent meal at home in five minutes, but El Tapatio can have good, hot Mexican food in front of you in five minutes. Unless you are extremely impatient, and they are very busy, you will not find yourself wondering when your food will arrive.
The food itself is great. It's served hot, and you'll often be advised not to touch the plate. The portions are generous, even when ordering side items. When I'm not very hungry, I just order three enchiladas. They come covered in sauce and the ground beef just falls out of them, no shortage of food. When I'm really hungry, I order their special nachos without guacamole (I'm allergic to avocados) and it's always more than enough. I have never once finished it. Jen usually orders lunch or dinner specials, of which they have a couple dozen. Chances are they'll have a combination you'll like, otherwise you can improvise with the sides. Neither of us have ever been disappointed with their food.
The service is also very good. Everyone we've seen there speaks fluent English. We never feel like they don't understand us, and everyone is friendly. After our food comes, within 5 minutes, the server will return and ask if everything's alright. After that, however, they tend to leave you alone for a while, so if you need a drink refill or more salsa, you might have to flag somebody down, and Jen said I should note that, but at the same time, I like to be left alone when I eat. Plus, I order my soft drinks without ice, so they don't get diluted and they fill the glass. I really don't need a refill - the cups hold 16-20 ounces. They are shy about bringing the check, but have no problem finding your order in their computer if you just walk up to the register to pay. We've never paid more than $20, including a good tip, for both of us to eat and have soft drinks. We have drank beer and/or mixed drinks there once before, and I don't recall the prices, but I do recall that they were fair.
All in all, El Tapatio offers a great Mexican dining experience; the best we've found in eastern North Carolina. If you're in New Bern, Williamston, or Greenville, or anywhere in between, and want something good that won't break your wallet, give them a try. If you're near Hwy. 17, just head up/down the road. Look for the Taco Bell; they're right next door. If you're in Greenville, take 264 to Washington, turn left on 17 (there's a Kangaroo Express gas station on your left) and it's about a mile up the road on your left. Here's a map:
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Showing posts with label Food. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Food. Show all posts
Friday, April 17, 2009
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Review: The Olive Garden, Greenville, NC
This week, MySpace launched a new service called MySpace Local. There doesn't seem to be anything for my neck of the woods, so as a project, I'm going to review restaurants in and around Greenville, North Carolina (including Washington and Chocowinity) to represent my (current) part of the world. From this blog you can read all of my reviews (though, this is just the first one) by browsing my labels and looking under Review. The review follows:
Greenville's Olive Garden restaurant, on Greenville Blvd., is nice, but the overall experience is not all that spectacular.
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The building itself is very nice to look at, and it's nice and cozy inside. The waitstaff are all clean and sharp, and I've never seen anything damaged or worn inside. However, as it's very close to the mall, plus it's in a badly designed parking lot, the lot immediately surrounding the restaurant is almost always full. If it's cold, don't forget your jacket, you might have a fair walk to and from. If it's raining, forget about it. (And it rains hard in North Carolina.)
The service is well organized, but it's not good for handling large loads. On Valentines' Day, for instance, customers were asked to wait outside in near-freezing temperatures. They were telling people 2 hours. (In the cold. With no offer of breadsticks or anything. We waited about 50-55 minutes. Not quite an hour. On a given Friday or Saturday night, you can expect a wait of 15-30 minutes, and they have those coasters which double as pagers, and you can usually wait inside.
Seating is conservative, meaning they will try to seat you at a table first. The chairs are not very comfortable; I've sat in worse but also much better. Upon request they'll seat you in a booth, but as these are in higher demand, you'll have to wait a few minutes.
Once you're seated, you can expect to get your drinks in relative short order, provided you know what you want when you sit down. If so, they'll ask as soon as you sit, and they get them out quickly. That's for soda and sweet tea, anyway - for fancy beverages, your mileage may vary.
One of Olive Garden's "big things" is the free breadsticks. They are quite good (if a little salty) but you have to ask for them sometimes. You can usually get them soon after you get your drinks if you have a nice server, but most likely you'll have to wait until you have your soup and/or salad.
I have only tried one soup at Olive Garden, and it's the single best thing on their menu. I'm not lying. I can't say enough good things about their Zuppa Toscana soup. It's potatoes, sausage, and spinach in a broth. As we sometimes say on the Internet, it's made of pure win. My wife has never complained about their salad, however.
Olive Garden has two menus. The first is their regular menu, subject to change but almost always the same stuff. The second is the seasonal menu; this changes every month or two. Their regular menu doesn't offer much variety. Their seasonal menu, however, will often have at least one good thing on it, but that depends if you like the theme. Last time we went, it was seafood, and I'm not a seafood person, so I wasn't attracted to a single thing on that menu.
Mostly, their food is as good as you can expect for Italian food. It's hot, just the right amount of spice, and very flavorful. The portions are generous; if you're not a big eater, after the soup and breadsticks, you'll be likely asking for a to-go box. As such, we don't often try the dessert, but last time, I got a tiramisu, and it was good. Not great, but good. The white chocolate cake (cheesecake?) with the raspberry drizzle is also very good.
The prices are high, but not unfair. Two people can expect to run up a $40-45 bill between two soft drinks and an entree each plus the breadsticks and soup or salad, and that usually comes to $50-55 after the tip. So we go to Olive Garden and plan to spend "about sixty bucks". As such, we don't go often, but we do go a few times a year when we can.
This Olive Garden can't help its location, at least not in the present, but if there's one thing it can do, it's increase accuracy. The servers pride themselves on remembering your order (at least until they get to the back, and can jot it down for the kitchen) but this doesn't always work. It doesn't happen every time, but when it does, it's kind of annoying considering what we pay to eat there. When we say something, they're good about fixing it, though.
This review came out a little longer than expected, but that's fine, I gave a lot of good information that I hope helps you, the reader and restaurant seeker, make a better choice about where you want to eat in Greenville, NC. I do recommend this Olive Garden, but I'm not hesitant to point out the caveats. I give them an 8/10; or in school grades, an A-.
Greenville's Olive Garden restaurant, on Greenville Blvd., is nice, but the overall experience is not all that spectacular.
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The building itself is very nice to look at, and it's nice and cozy inside. The waitstaff are all clean and sharp, and I've never seen anything damaged or worn inside. However, as it's very close to the mall, plus it's in a badly designed parking lot, the lot immediately surrounding the restaurant is almost always full. If it's cold, don't forget your jacket, you might have a fair walk to and from. If it's raining, forget about it. (And it rains hard in North Carolina.)
The service is well organized, but it's not good for handling large loads. On Valentines' Day, for instance, customers were asked to wait outside in near-freezing temperatures. They were telling people 2 hours. (In the cold. With no offer of breadsticks or anything. We waited about 50-55 minutes. Not quite an hour. On a given Friday or Saturday night, you can expect a wait of 15-30 minutes, and they have those coasters which double as pagers, and you can usually wait inside.
Seating is conservative, meaning they will try to seat you at a table first. The chairs are not very comfortable; I've sat in worse but also much better. Upon request they'll seat you in a booth, but as these are in higher demand, you'll have to wait a few minutes.
Once you're seated, you can expect to get your drinks in relative short order, provided you know what you want when you sit down. If so, they'll ask as soon as you sit, and they get them out quickly. That's for soda and sweet tea, anyway - for fancy beverages, your mileage may vary.
One of Olive Garden's "big things" is the free breadsticks. They are quite good (if a little salty) but you have to ask for them sometimes. You can usually get them soon after you get your drinks if you have a nice server, but most likely you'll have to wait until you have your soup and/or salad.
I have only tried one soup at Olive Garden, and it's the single best thing on their menu. I'm not lying. I can't say enough good things about their Zuppa Toscana soup. It's potatoes, sausage, and spinach in a broth. As we sometimes say on the Internet, it's made of pure win. My wife has never complained about their salad, however.
Olive Garden has two menus. The first is their regular menu, subject to change but almost always the same stuff. The second is the seasonal menu; this changes every month or two. Their regular menu doesn't offer much variety. Their seasonal menu, however, will often have at least one good thing on it, but that depends if you like the theme. Last time we went, it was seafood, and I'm not a seafood person, so I wasn't attracted to a single thing on that menu.
Mostly, their food is as good as you can expect for Italian food. It's hot, just the right amount of spice, and very flavorful. The portions are generous; if you're not a big eater, after the soup and breadsticks, you'll be likely asking for a to-go box. As such, we don't often try the dessert, but last time, I got a tiramisu, and it was good. Not great, but good. The white chocolate cake (cheesecake?) with the raspberry drizzle is also very good.
The prices are high, but not unfair. Two people can expect to run up a $40-45 bill between two soft drinks and an entree each plus the breadsticks and soup or salad, and that usually comes to $50-55 after the tip. So we go to Olive Garden and plan to spend "about sixty bucks". As such, we don't go often, but we do go a few times a year when we can.
This Olive Garden can't help its location, at least not in the present, but if there's one thing it can do, it's increase accuracy. The servers pride themselves on remembering your order (at least until they get to the back, and can jot it down for the kitchen) but this doesn't always work. It doesn't happen every time, but when it does, it's kind of annoying considering what we pay to eat there. When we say something, they're good about fixing it, though.
This review came out a little longer than expected, but that's fine, I gave a lot of good information that I hope helps you, the reader and restaurant seeker, make a better choice about where you want to eat in Greenville, NC. I do recommend this Olive Garden, but I'm not hesitant to point out the caveats. I give them an 8/10; or in school grades, an A-.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
My take on the peanut situation
I'm almost ashamed to say, I have to have a laugh when I hear the news that peanuts are killing people now. Of course, I don't intend to make light of any real death; that wouldn't be right, of course, but having been deadly allergic to peanuts my entire life and seeing how little it's been taken seriously these nearly 30 years, it's not even a surprise to me that this peanut factory or the other was found to be dangerous but they kept on, business as usual. It's like tobacco, people know it's not good but many don't care, they just go on doing it for whatever reason. Now some will say that not everybody is allergic to peanuts. Well guess what? Not everyone who smokes cigarettes will get lung cancer, and not everyone who gets lung cancer got it from cigarettes. So it is the same. More or less.
To me, peanuts are highly toxic; they cause my throat to swell to the point where I can't swallow anything or even breathe. Depending on how much I ingest, I must be injected with a powerful antihistamine (epinephrine) and adrenaline to get it into my system faster. This includes other nuts: pine nuts, walnuts, cashews, almonds, pecans, one or two others I'm missing, and their by-products. Once when I was a kid, before school age, to "see what would happen," my father gave me a peanut. Not the kind you break open that holds two or three, but just one half of one of those inside the shell, like from a jar of Planter's (it was his favorite brand). One half of one. It was tiny. And I threw up all night.
The Food and Drug Administration requires that all ingredients be claimed in order of prevalence in the food. For example, this can of Mountain Dew here lists carbonated water first - so it's mostly carbonated water. The last ingredient is Yellow 5, a food coloring; that's what it has the least of. So allergy products must be claimed as well, but not everything has ingredients available. Such as going out to eat, that's the biggest concern, you have to really be smart about what you order, or ask. And then some people won't care, they'll go off and come back and say that yes they asked, and no that doesn't have peanuts in it. Back to ingredient lists however, some companies will be nice and bold all their allergens. Others have a second ingredient list below which lists common allergens so they can be spotted at a glance. Candy companies like to say products are manufactured on equipment that produces peanut products, which is more of liability protection than anything (but this probably wouldn't hold up in court if brought to trial because of the FDA's requirement that ingredients actually be claimed). And Chik-Fil-A, a chicken restaurant run by the Church (or a church, some branch of Christianity) fries their chicken in peanut oil, but at least they (well, one I went into) tell you on the menu board, so it isn't a surprise.
So why is it, now, after almost 30 years of me being allergic to peanuts, and thousands, maybe millions of others, is it all of a sudden a big surprise that peanuts are making people sick or killing people? Peanuts are dangerous; there's something in them that affects a decent percentage of people, and it's no secret. Nor is it new. Now here's a brilliant idea: a cure for nut allergies. Isn't this something that should have been figured out by now, or is it something that stem cell research or something equally or more advanced is required to have before it can be done? Here's another idea that's more practical and already done: Artificial flavoring. I can have hazelnut coffee and coffee creamer; I can have Southern Pecan coffee creamer because they use artificial flavoring. They taste nutty, but they don't have nuts, so I don't get sick. Obviously you can't have artificially flavored peanuts; that'd just be wacky, and while peanut butter is a good candidate (I'd love to try a PB&J sandwich, see what all the fuss is about) the real thing should still be an option; anything where they need to grind the nuts up real fine to where you can't see or taste them - use the artificial flavoring if it's so important. Not hard (shouldn't be), makes sense, and can save lives.
Of course I don't think or believe that the peanut problems are based on allergies. I know it's a salmonella thing, completely unrelated. The thing is though, we've had a peanut health issue for decades and it's been mostly swept under the rug. But now eight people have died, so far. People are starting to take notice. Stupid people don't do anything until half a dozen people die. Until then it's just "oh well" or whatever.
What's ever more important than saving or preserving life? Oh, right... $$$
To me, peanuts are highly toxic; they cause my throat to swell to the point where I can't swallow anything or even breathe. Depending on how much I ingest, I must be injected with a powerful antihistamine (epinephrine) and adrenaline to get it into my system faster. This includes other nuts: pine nuts, walnuts, cashews, almonds, pecans, one or two others I'm missing, and their by-products. Once when I was a kid, before school age, to "see what would happen," my father gave me a peanut. Not the kind you break open that holds two or three, but just one half of one of those inside the shell, like from a jar of Planter's (it was his favorite brand). One half of one. It was tiny. And I threw up all night.
The Food and Drug Administration requires that all ingredients be claimed in order of prevalence in the food. For example, this can of Mountain Dew here lists carbonated water first - so it's mostly carbonated water. The last ingredient is Yellow 5, a food coloring; that's what it has the least of. So allergy products must be claimed as well, but not everything has ingredients available. Such as going out to eat, that's the biggest concern, you have to really be smart about what you order, or ask. And then some people won't care, they'll go off and come back and say that yes they asked, and no that doesn't have peanuts in it. Back to ingredient lists however, some companies will be nice and bold all their allergens. Others have a second ingredient list below which lists common allergens so they can be spotted at a glance. Candy companies like to say products are manufactured on equipment that produces peanut products, which is more of liability protection than anything (but this probably wouldn't hold up in court if brought to trial because of the FDA's requirement that ingredients actually be claimed). And Chik-Fil-A, a chicken restaurant run by the Church (or a church, some branch of Christianity) fries their chicken in peanut oil, but at least they (well, one I went into) tell you on the menu board, so it isn't a surprise.
So why is it, now, after almost 30 years of me being allergic to peanuts, and thousands, maybe millions of others, is it all of a sudden a big surprise that peanuts are making people sick or killing people? Peanuts are dangerous; there's something in them that affects a decent percentage of people, and it's no secret. Nor is it new. Now here's a brilliant idea: a cure for nut allergies. Isn't this something that should have been figured out by now, or is it something that stem cell research or something equally or more advanced is required to have before it can be done? Here's another idea that's more practical and already done: Artificial flavoring. I can have hazelnut coffee and coffee creamer; I can have Southern Pecan coffee creamer because they use artificial flavoring. They taste nutty, but they don't have nuts, so I don't get sick. Obviously you can't have artificially flavored peanuts; that'd just be wacky, and while peanut butter is a good candidate (I'd love to try a PB&J sandwich, see what all the fuss is about) the real thing should still be an option; anything where they need to grind the nuts up real fine to where you can't see or taste them - use the artificial flavoring if it's so important. Not hard (shouldn't be), makes sense, and can save lives.
Of course I don't think or believe that the peanut problems are based on allergies. I know it's a salmonella thing, completely unrelated. The thing is though, we've had a peanut health issue for decades and it's been mostly swept under the rug. But now eight people have died, so far. People are starting to take notice. Stupid people don't do anything until half a dozen people die. Until then it's just "oh well" or whatever.
What's ever more important than saving or preserving life? Oh, right... $$$
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Well, I'm 29 now... (The Rock Band cake post)
But don't all say Happy Birthday all at once. I'm not too thrilled with the prospect of only 365 days until I hit the big three-zero.
I've had a lot of cool birthday presents, but few match the cake Jen made for me this year. As some of you might know, I like to play Rock Band using the Guitar Hero X-Plorer controller to play bass guitar.
Wanna see it? Oh, I know you do...
This is it before it's finished, but the picture also shows the actual Guitar Hero controller for comparison. Here's the finished product:
Body... The D-pad is made up of a ring of chocolate frosting and four M&Ms. The whammy bar is a Pocky stick (Mexican shortbread stick dipped in chocolate), and the strum bar is a Kit-Kat. The green M&M represents the Xbox guide button, and the other two halves represent the Back and Start buttons.
Neck and head... each of the five fret buttons is represented by four M&Ms of the same color. The tuning knobs at the head are represented by four brown M&Ms - we didn't have room for all six.
The whole finished project.
If you want to see more pictures of the cake, for a limited time you can see the topic I made on GameFAQs' Food board. I say limited time because after so long of a post not getting replies, they'll purge it. I can re-post the other pictures here, I just haven't got the time right now.
And as with all pictorial blogs I post, you can click any image to see it full-size, if you'd like a closer look.
Oh yeah... under the frosting, it's a Devil's Food cake... mwa ha ha ha ha. It was good... We served it with Breyers Triple Chocolate ice cream.
I've had a lot of cool birthday presents, but few match the cake Jen made for me this year. As some of you might know, I like to play Rock Band using the Guitar Hero X-Plorer controller to play bass guitar.
Wanna see it? Oh, I know you do...
This is it before it's finished, but the picture also shows the actual Guitar Hero controller for comparison. Here's the finished product:
Body... The D-pad is made up of a ring of chocolate frosting and four M&Ms. The whammy bar is a Pocky stick (Mexican shortbread stick dipped in chocolate), and the strum bar is a Kit-Kat. The green M&M represents the Xbox guide button, and the other two halves represent the Back and Start buttons.
Neck and head... each of the five fret buttons is represented by four M&Ms of the same color. The tuning knobs at the head are represented by four brown M&Ms - we didn't have room for all six.
The whole finished project.
If you want to see more pictures of the cake, for a limited time you can see the topic I made on GameFAQs' Food board. I say limited time because after so long of a post not getting replies, they'll purge it. I can re-post the other pictures here, I just haven't got the time right now.
And as with all pictorial blogs I post, you can click any image to see it full-size, if you'd like a closer look.
Oh yeah... under the frosting, it's a Devil's Food cake... mwa ha ha ha ha. It was good... We served it with Breyers Triple Chocolate ice cream.
Monday, August 4, 2008
Say what you will about Walmart, but...
Jen left me $10 and (later) told me I was to get milk, butter, cat food, and TP. I knew it wasn't enough, but I went to Walmart, and got all of it for $9.77.
While you can get some things on sale cheaper, overall I know it would have been more. For example, a 4-pack of Angel Soft single-roll. $1.18 at Walmart. At Food Lion, it's $1.49 and you can't get plain, it's only the kind with girly prints. (Which I don't mind, but it's rather silly they don't have plain.) Harris-Teeter, $1.79 (and I think they have plain).
I'm usually among the first to criticize Walmart for certain things, but when you're in a bind, they can be really helpful. (Granted, I may have actually spent more considering gas prices, but I don't have to fill up until we get paid again. None of the groceries could really be put off until we get paid.)
Wow, it's been almost 5 weeks since I've wrote anything up here. Damn... I'm gonna have to work on that.
While you can get some things on sale cheaper, overall I know it would have been more. For example, a 4-pack of Angel Soft single-roll. $1.18 at Walmart. At Food Lion, it's $1.49 and you can't get plain, it's only the kind with girly prints. (Which I don't mind, but it's rather silly they don't have plain.) Harris-Teeter, $1.79 (and I think they have plain).
I'm usually among the first to criticize Walmart for certain things, but when you're in a bind, they can be really helpful. (Granted, I may have actually spent more considering gas prices, but I don't have to fill up until we get paid again. None of the groceries could really be put off until we get paid.)
Wow, it's been almost 5 weeks since I've wrote anything up here. Damn... I'm gonna have to work on that.
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Bad water leads to panic, charity
As you all know by now, I sleep all day, so if something "major" happens during the day, I don't usually hear about it until much later, which makes for some really interesting surprises.
So Wednesday night, I go grocery shopping, and I think I noticed the increased traffic. Not sure on that - Greenville can be pretty funny at times. But then I got to the supermarket, and that's when I noticed it. I like to shop at night on weeknights, because usually it's not as busy, but this Wednesday night might as well have been a Friday or Saturday night, or hell, a weekday around 6pm. It was slam packed.
It didn't take long to figure out what was going on. The first clue I got was, I overheard another customer asking an employee if they were giving away any more water. Giving away water? Indeed, the water shelves looked pretty bare - see the pic below - and the store had what looked like at least a dozen pallets of Deer Park 24-packs. What the hell?
Turns out E.Coli was found in the water, and all of Greenville was "infected" with this "bad water". Greenville Utilities has since rescinded their "boil water" alert as of this evening, which was a pretty quick cleanup if you ask me, but if they say the water is now safe, I believe them. (They're in enough hot water (if not legally, in public opinion) as it is, so rushing and botching the cleanup would be even worse.)
Water is all sold out at the 14th St. Harris-Teeter in Greenville, NC.
What I thought was more amazing, though, was that the same grocery store, local to North Carolina, shipped out two truckloads of water within an hour or so of the "epidemic" breaking out. Better yet, the water was to be given away, free of charge, to Greenville residents for whom tap water all of a sudden became unsafe. Read the press release here. Now of course, there are a few cynical ways to spin that, but it's much easier to assume that every now and then, a company does what seems to be the right thing as opposed to just looking at the bottom line. (Of course, they had a killer sale on those Deer Park 24-packs, $3.99 each, and they were flying off the shelves. But still.) I didn't even know they sent out a second load, but there it is on their website.
I don't know if any other stores gave away any water. I didn't even hear about this on the news (the local news only reported the bad water) so naturally I had to come up here and share the good news, since it's bad news that tends to get reported (and read) more.
So Wednesday night, I go grocery shopping, and I think I noticed the increased traffic. Not sure on that - Greenville can be pretty funny at times. But then I got to the supermarket, and that's when I noticed it. I like to shop at night on weeknights, because usually it's not as busy, but this Wednesday night might as well have been a Friday or Saturday night, or hell, a weekday around 6pm. It was slam packed.
It didn't take long to figure out what was going on. The first clue I got was, I overheard another customer asking an employee if they were giving away any more water. Giving away water? Indeed, the water shelves looked pretty bare - see the pic below - and the store had what looked like at least a dozen pallets of Deer Park 24-packs. What the hell?
Turns out E.Coli was found in the water, and all of Greenville was "infected" with this "bad water". Greenville Utilities has since rescinded their "boil water" alert as of this evening, which was a pretty quick cleanup if you ask me, but if they say the water is now safe, I believe them. (They're in enough hot water (if not legally, in public opinion) as it is, so rushing and botching the cleanup would be even worse.)
Water is all sold out at the 14th St. Harris-Teeter in Greenville, NC.
What I thought was more amazing, though, was that the same grocery store, local to North Carolina, shipped out two truckloads of water within an hour or so of the "epidemic" breaking out. Better yet, the water was to be given away, free of charge, to Greenville residents for whom tap water all of a sudden became unsafe. Read the press release here. Now of course, there are a few cynical ways to spin that, but it's much easier to assume that every now and then, a company does what seems to be the right thing as opposed to just looking at the bottom line. (Of course, they had a killer sale on those Deer Park 24-packs, $3.99 each, and they were flying off the shelves. But still.) I didn't even know they sent out a second load, but there it is on their website.
I don't know if any other stores gave away any water. I didn't even hear about this on the news (the local news only reported the bad water) so naturally I had to come up here and share the good news, since it's bad news that tends to get reported (and read) more.
Sunday, September 16, 2007
It's been two years?
Two years ago today, Friday the 16th of September 2005, I arrived in the state of North Carolina, after two prior visits, but this time in my own car with everything I owned then in the back, this time to stay. It doesn't quite seem like two years, but I guess a lot has happened.
First of all, the trip. Five days, California to North Carolina, mostly along Interstate 40. I was riding with Bob, a friend of my mom's from work, an old hippie who had been from one end of the country to the other several times, on trains, in cars, in buses, even on his thumb. I don't think I could have asked for a better travel companion. We left Santa Rosa, CA - my hometown of most of 25 years - around noon on Monday of that week, the 12th I guess it would have been. We traveled south on Highway 101 to San Rafael, took the Richmond Bridge to 540, which we took to I-5, that big main road that runs down the middle of the state. We took that road down to Bakersfield, CA (hometown of the band KoRn, if you care) and took a little detour to Barstow, CA, to catch I-40 there. (Google said to drive into Los Angeles and catch it there. I knew better. Even if the streets of LA would have been empty, I think I still would have saved us time.) We stopped in Kingman, AZ, fulfilling my vow of not stopping until we were out of the Golden State.
We stopped Tuesday night in Santa Rosa, NM - had to, you know, for the gimmick and all. Wednesday night we stayed at my aunt Patty's place in Texas, near Dallas. We had to take a little detour to get down that way, and drove through a heck of a storm. Two tornados, more rain than I'd seen before or since - good thing Bob was driving, for the experience. Thursday, well, the plan was to stop in Memphis, TN, but for some reason we didn't. Against Bob's better advice we pressed on, spending our night crossing the great state of Tennessee, and arriving in North Carolina around noon. We finally got out here at around 10pm.
We got lost only three times. First in Nashville, TN, because construction had obscured a sign we needed. Second, Raleigh, NC, because of the damned beltline system - the way the highway is, it's impossible to get anywhere if you don't know how it works. Third, Greenville, NC, because I was too shortsighted to get a map showing us how to get from there to my new home. Stupid, stupid, stupid. I thought because I had been in the passenger seat for a couple trips to Greenville a year ago for one trip and four months ago for the other, that I would miraculously find my way from anywhere in Greenville, to home. Thing is, we came out by the hospital, and I wasn't even familiar with that part of town. If nothing else, I should have had her sister's number, her mother's number, someone there (here, now) that I could call to get in. I couldn't even tell you how we found our way. What we should have done is found the Cracker Barrel in Greenville and hung out there until they closed, then nearby until Jen got off work, and called her. But we found it 2 hours before she got off, and had most of my stuff unloaded by the time she got home.
Ah, the memories. When I came out here, I was fairly limited in what I could do. Out-of-state registration and insurance is no good, for more than 30 days. The only identification I had was a California drivers license, which didn't mean squat in NC. (Well, it meant I could drive, of course, but it wasn't quite as official.) And I'd lost my Social Security card years ago. First thing we did was go to Jen's insurance company and get me and my car added to her policy. We set it up so I could drive her car and she could drive mine. Then I had to get a new Social Security card, which took a couple weeks itself. Then, my NC drivers license, for which I only had to pass a verbal exam, identifying road signs. Piece of cake. Then registering my car with NC, and getting my NC license plate. By mid-October 2005, my identification and car were all NC registered and licensed.
I've actually had three jobs since I got out here. First was at this place we call Mega Farce. It's really Mega Force, but I don't take them very seriously, despite what may be their best efforts. They're a temp agency, they place people at jobs who need temporary help. The ladies in the office were nice enough. They placed me at the factory Jen works at. Cool deal, except I had to work 12 hour shifts, 3 days a week, 5am to 5pm, and NC doesn't have daily overtime. You can only get overtime if you clear 40 hours in a week, unlike in CA where you can score overtime for working more than 8 hours in a day. I worked my ass off for three or four weeks. I did my job the best I could, and when there wasn't any work, I went looking for work. I cleaned racks. I mopped. I swept. I did my best to keep busy and make a good impression. Then one day they tell me I'm not needed anymore, and send me home maybe 2 hours after I'd gotten there. Couple weeks later, I got another temp assignment with a rent-to-own company. It was only a 3 day gig, but I had a lot of fun, had some good adventures. I assembled only two things, but I moved stuff around, I cleaned the showroom once, but most of my day involved delivering stuff for people, and picking up stuff people were done with or could no longer pay for. I almost dropped an expensive big-screen TV on one such trip. Learned a little about the geography of the local area, too.
Then I called up my old job. Same people I worked for in California. They're out here, too, just not nearby. I ended up talking to the office in Wilmington (which is the very end of Interstate 40 on this side, actually) but as luck would have it, got to fill out paperwork at the Raleigh office, which is a little closer. Three mornings I had to be in the state capital 2 hours away at 8am. The first day I was there all day. The second day I was there an hour and a half. No joke. Third day was a half day, so until about noon or so. Why they couldn't just transfer me from CA is beyond me. I guess it'd been too long, but that's slack to not keep records longer than a couple months. (They said the cutoff time to make it a transfer is 30 days.) And that's what I've been doing ever since.
You're right. I didn't post who I work for. I am intentionally vague about certain details.
The coast to coast trip wasn't my only driving experience. For our holiday vacation in 2005 and 2006 I drove to Connecticut and back, going through Virginia, Maryland/DC (didn't stop and see the White House or anything though), Delaware (no sales tax), New Jersey, and New York (about 22 miles of NYC). For our honeymoon, we drove to Tennessee and back. Parts I hadn't seen on the way out, too. Our first anniversary took us to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina - so now I've been to both Carolinas.
Speaking of a honeymoon and an anniversary, I participated in a wedding - as the groom. It was such a great experience, but I hope I never do it again. Jen's such a good woman, were anything to happen to her, I can't see another woman filling her shoes. For such a shorty, she has some awful big shoes to fill.
Another experience, bizarre sicknesses. Sort of. I don't know if it's because I moved, but I've found myself ailed by a couple things I'd never heard of before but were very familiar to medical personnel out here. First in 2006, I thought I had a giant bruise on my right leg. Turned out to be a skin condition called Cellultis. We're still paying for the treatment - about $1100. Ouch! And that's to get it looked at and the pills to get it taken care of. Then I got what I assumed to be a spider bite, but turned out to be an "ulceration" caused by poor circulation. I'm still getting that taken care of. Now I have something called a plantar wart on my left foot, and I can't even walk now. At least not until it heals.
Can't forget food. My mom's a good cook, but she didn't let me do much in the kitchen. I pretty much watched her, sometimes. All I ever made for myself was macaroni & cheese, and the occasional sandwich. Jen has taken my passion for cooking and let it run wild - when we're both off, I'm the one who cooks. She introduced me to my favorite food - chicken and sausage Jambalaya - and I'm still tweaking the recipe (although I'm quite happy with where it's at now). The next iteration of it will be sausage and shrimp Jambalaya for Jen, her mom, and her mom's boyfriend. I've also developed my own pasta recipe, although I'm not quite happy with it. The taste is fine, but I always make too much. I need to cut back. There are other minor kinks I need to work out. As far as eating, Jen likes Chinese food more than my mom (who liked it, too) so I get a lot of that. Not Jen, but a buddy from work, introduced me to General Tso's chicken, and I'm hooked. And my mom always hated seafood, despite my dad's best intentions. I was raised to believe that seafood was bad for some reason. Well, Jen's a big fan of that, too, so she's exposed me to some good stuff. I still don't like shrimp, but I do like crab legs, lobster, salmon if it's made right, and talapia. I'm no fan of any seafood dish, but I'll eat it.
So what are our plans for the next two years? Well, I'd like to get Jen pregnant. We've been working on that for a while. I want to be a father now more than ever. "Baby fever" is an understatement. Other than that, 2008 will be a year of saving, as I do want to be a homeowner, if not by 30 (I think chances of that are low), then by 35. In any case, our kids won't grow up in this dump. ;)
First of all, the trip. Five days, California to North Carolina, mostly along Interstate 40. I was riding with Bob, a friend of my mom's from work, an old hippie who had been from one end of the country to the other several times, on trains, in cars, in buses, even on his thumb. I don't think I could have asked for a better travel companion. We left Santa Rosa, CA - my hometown of most of 25 years - around noon on Monday of that week, the 12th I guess it would have been. We traveled south on Highway 101 to San Rafael, took the Richmond Bridge to 540, which we took to I-5, that big main road that runs down the middle of the state. We took that road down to Bakersfield, CA (hometown of the band KoRn, if you care) and took a little detour to Barstow, CA, to catch I-40 there. (Google said to drive into Los Angeles and catch it there. I knew better. Even if the streets of LA would have been empty, I think I still would have saved us time.) We stopped in Kingman, AZ, fulfilling my vow of not stopping until we were out of the Golden State.
We stopped Tuesday night in Santa Rosa, NM - had to, you know, for the gimmick and all. Wednesday night we stayed at my aunt Patty's place in Texas, near Dallas. We had to take a little detour to get down that way, and drove through a heck of a storm. Two tornados, more rain than I'd seen before or since - good thing Bob was driving, for the experience. Thursday, well, the plan was to stop in Memphis, TN, but for some reason we didn't. Against Bob's better advice we pressed on, spending our night crossing the great state of Tennessee, and arriving in North Carolina around noon. We finally got out here at around 10pm.
We got lost only three times. First in Nashville, TN, because construction had obscured a sign we needed. Second, Raleigh, NC, because of the damned beltline system - the way the highway is, it's impossible to get anywhere if you don't know how it works. Third, Greenville, NC, because I was too shortsighted to get a map showing us how to get from there to my new home. Stupid, stupid, stupid. I thought because I had been in the passenger seat for a couple trips to Greenville a year ago for one trip and four months ago for the other, that I would miraculously find my way from anywhere in Greenville, to home. Thing is, we came out by the hospital, and I wasn't even familiar with that part of town. If nothing else, I should have had her sister's number, her mother's number, someone there (here, now) that I could call to get in. I couldn't even tell you how we found our way. What we should have done is found the Cracker Barrel in Greenville and hung out there until they closed, then nearby until Jen got off work, and called her. But we found it 2 hours before she got off, and had most of my stuff unloaded by the time she got home.
Ah, the memories. When I came out here, I was fairly limited in what I could do. Out-of-state registration and insurance is no good, for more than 30 days. The only identification I had was a California drivers license, which didn't mean squat in NC. (Well, it meant I could drive, of course, but it wasn't quite as official.) And I'd lost my Social Security card years ago. First thing we did was go to Jen's insurance company and get me and my car added to her policy. We set it up so I could drive her car and she could drive mine. Then I had to get a new Social Security card, which took a couple weeks itself. Then, my NC drivers license, for which I only had to pass a verbal exam, identifying road signs. Piece of cake. Then registering my car with NC, and getting my NC license plate. By mid-October 2005, my identification and car were all NC registered and licensed.
I've actually had three jobs since I got out here. First was at this place we call Mega Farce. It's really Mega Force, but I don't take them very seriously, despite what may be their best efforts. They're a temp agency, they place people at jobs who need temporary help. The ladies in the office were nice enough. They placed me at the factory Jen works at. Cool deal, except I had to work 12 hour shifts, 3 days a week, 5am to 5pm, and NC doesn't have daily overtime. You can only get overtime if you clear 40 hours in a week, unlike in CA where you can score overtime for working more than 8 hours in a day. I worked my ass off for three or four weeks. I did my job the best I could, and when there wasn't any work, I went looking for work. I cleaned racks. I mopped. I swept. I did my best to keep busy and make a good impression. Then one day they tell me I'm not needed anymore, and send me home maybe 2 hours after I'd gotten there. Couple weeks later, I got another temp assignment with a rent-to-own company. It was only a 3 day gig, but I had a lot of fun, had some good adventures. I assembled only two things, but I moved stuff around, I cleaned the showroom once, but most of my day involved delivering stuff for people, and picking up stuff people were done with or could no longer pay for. I almost dropped an expensive big-screen TV on one such trip. Learned a little about the geography of the local area, too.
Then I called up my old job. Same people I worked for in California. They're out here, too, just not nearby. I ended up talking to the office in Wilmington (which is the very end of Interstate 40 on this side, actually) but as luck would have it, got to fill out paperwork at the Raleigh office, which is a little closer. Three mornings I had to be in the state capital 2 hours away at 8am. The first day I was there all day. The second day I was there an hour and a half. No joke. Third day was a half day, so until about noon or so. Why they couldn't just transfer me from CA is beyond me. I guess it'd been too long, but that's slack to not keep records longer than a couple months. (They said the cutoff time to make it a transfer is 30 days.) And that's what I've been doing ever since.
You're right. I didn't post who I work for. I am intentionally vague about certain details.
The coast to coast trip wasn't my only driving experience. For our holiday vacation in 2005 and 2006 I drove to Connecticut and back, going through Virginia, Maryland/DC (didn't stop and see the White House or anything though), Delaware (no sales tax), New Jersey, and New York (about 22 miles of NYC). For our honeymoon, we drove to Tennessee and back. Parts I hadn't seen on the way out, too. Our first anniversary took us to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina - so now I've been to both Carolinas.
Speaking of a honeymoon and an anniversary, I participated in a wedding - as the groom. It was such a great experience, but I hope I never do it again. Jen's such a good woman, were anything to happen to her, I can't see another woman filling her shoes. For such a shorty, she has some awful big shoes to fill.
Another experience, bizarre sicknesses. Sort of. I don't know if it's because I moved, but I've found myself ailed by a couple things I'd never heard of before but were very familiar to medical personnel out here. First in 2006, I thought I had a giant bruise on my right leg. Turned out to be a skin condition called Cellultis. We're still paying for the treatment - about $1100. Ouch! And that's to get it looked at and the pills to get it taken care of. Then I got what I assumed to be a spider bite, but turned out to be an "ulceration" caused by poor circulation. I'm still getting that taken care of. Now I have something called a plantar wart on my left foot, and I can't even walk now. At least not until it heals.
Can't forget food. My mom's a good cook, but she didn't let me do much in the kitchen. I pretty much watched her, sometimes. All I ever made for myself was macaroni & cheese, and the occasional sandwich. Jen has taken my passion for cooking and let it run wild - when we're both off, I'm the one who cooks. She introduced me to my favorite food - chicken and sausage Jambalaya - and I'm still tweaking the recipe (although I'm quite happy with where it's at now). The next iteration of it will be sausage and shrimp Jambalaya for Jen, her mom, and her mom's boyfriend. I've also developed my own pasta recipe, although I'm not quite happy with it. The taste is fine, but I always make too much. I need to cut back. There are other minor kinks I need to work out. As far as eating, Jen likes Chinese food more than my mom (who liked it, too) so I get a lot of that. Not Jen, but a buddy from work, introduced me to General Tso's chicken, and I'm hooked. And my mom always hated seafood, despite my dad's best intentions. I was raised to believe that seafood was bad for some reason. Well, Jen's a big fan of that, too, so she's exposed me to some good stuff. I still don't like shrimp, but I do like crab legs, lobster, salmon if it's made right, and talapia. I'm no fan of any seafood dish, but I'll eat it.
So what are our plans for the next two years? Well, I'd like to get Jen pregnant. We've been working on that for a while. I want to be a father now more than ever. "Baby fever" is an understatement. Other than that, 2008 will be a year of saving, as I do want to be a homeowner, if not by 30 (I think chances of that are low), then by 35. In any case, our kids won't grow up in this dump. ;)
Thursday, July 26, 2007
Punk'd by a damn burger!
I was gonna come up here and write about something else, which I was forming in my mind as I made myself something to eat: a 2/3-3/4lb hamburger, fried. Growing up around my mother's kitchen, I developed a rebellion against the blandness she tends to prefer. In other words, I spice the hell outta my cooking. My favorites include the crushed red pepper, garlic powder, black pepper, Italian seasoning (in small doses)... oh yeah, and Tabasco sauce.
I've fried burgers before, never did too well, until we started getting "logs" of ground beef from both Food Lion and Harris Teeter. It's real easy, cut off how much you want, put the slice flatways on your cutting board, and pound into a patty, rounding the edges with your hands. I could never get this right from ground beef in the trays, and it's actually cheaper this way if you catch the sales - I've gotten 2lb. logs for $2.98. You can't beat that.
Anyway, back to my burger. I've got at least 2/3lb of meat, but not much more than 3/4lb, if that. I hammer it out, and put my usual seasoning mix on the patty. I drop it facedown into the skillet, and then season the other side.
I walk away - no, not like that. I wasn't gone long, not at all. I think my problem was having the heat on too high. It wasn't on High, but it was close enough, and for a patty that thick, you gotta cook it longer, lower. That and maybe the Italian seasoning and/or minced onions, which I don't think I've put on a burger before. Either way, this terrible, horrible smell and there's more smoke than you'd believe coming off the skillet. The fan was on (leads directly outside) but it wasn't pulling enough.
So I run and get our spare fan, a piece of crap I got for under $5. It can push some air, but it won't keep ya cool. Got that set up to aid the wall fan - didn't do much, the smoke detector goes off. So I pull the smoke detector, toss it on the bed in the spare bedroom, and go get the main fan we have in the bedroom, opening the back door along the way. I put it by the front door, opened that too, had to prop it open with my cooler. And I turned the stove off.
Believe it or not, I plan on eating that burger. I don't think there's anything wrong with the meat itself, but I expect with the combination of spices, it may taste funky. Anyway, I checked the burger, put the slices of cheese on it, was about to take it, but thought twice. I cut it clean in half - red and bleeding in the middle. Now some folks would eat it like that, but not me. I don't like my cow to moo when I bite into it, y'know? Now it's cooking again - and not smoking near as much.
Update... It's done, and... Bloody hell, I forgot to put the fries on! I am going to call this the "Hell Burger". It was hell to make and it's gonna be hell to eat, too. And I'm pissed as hell I don't got my fries with it.
Another update, having taken a couple bites... It's not bad. A little chewy because the top and bottom got burned. I see a little pink in the middle, but that isn't bad. As long as meat's medium well - which this is - it's fine. But medium to rare or less cooked, and I just wouldn't be able to hold it down. I think my stomach will reject food that isn't cooked all the way (or maybe it's just a mental thing).
I've fried burgers before, never did too well, until we started getting "logs" of ground beef from both Food Lion and Harris Teeter. It's real easy, cut off how much you want, put the slice flatways on your cutting board, and pound into a patty, rounding the edges with your hands. I could never get this right from ground beef in the trays, and it's actually cheaper this way if you catch the sales - I've gotten 2lb. logs for $2.98. You can't beat that.
Anyway, back to my burger. I've got at least 2/3lb of meat, but not much more than 3/4lb, if that. I hammer it out, and put my usual seasoning mix on the patty. I drop it facedown into the skillet, and then season the other side.
I walk away - no, not like that. I wasn't gone long, not at all. I think my problem was having the heat on too high. It wasn't on High, but it was close enough, and for a patty that thick, you gotta cook it longer, lower. That and maybe the Italian seasoning and/or minced onions, which I don't think I've put on a burger before. Either way, this terrible, horrible smell and there's more smoke than you'd believe coming off the skillet. The fan was on (leads directly outside) but it wasn't pulling enough.
So I run and get our spare fan, a piece of crap I got for under $5. It can push some air, but it won't keep ya cool. Got that set up to aid the wall fan - didn't do much, the smoke detector goes off. So I pull the smoke detector, toss it on the bed in the spare bedroom, and go get the main fan we have in the bedroom, opening the back door along the way. I put it by the front door, opened that too, had to prop it open with my cooler. And I turned the stove off.
Believe it or not, I plan on eating that burger. I don't think there's anything wrong with the meat itself, but I expect with the combination of spices, it may taste funky. Anyway, I checked the burger, put the slices of cheese on it, was about to take it, but thought twice. I cut it clean in half - red and bleeding in the middle. Now some folks would eat it like that, but not me. I don't like my cow to moo when I bite into it, y'know? Now it's cooking again - and not smoking near as much.
Update... It's done, and... Bloody hell, I forgot to put the fries on! I am going to call this the "Hell Burger". It was hell to make and it's gonna be hell to eat, too. And I'm pissed as hell I don't got my fries with it.
Another update, having taken a couple bites... It's not bad. A little chewy because the top and bottom got burned. I see a little pink in the middle, but that isn't bad. As long as meat's medium well - which this is - it's fine. But medium to rare or less cooked, and I just wouldn't be able to hold it down. I think my stomach will reject food that isn't cooked all the way (or maybe it's just a mental thing).
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
First Anniversary Vacation, Day Three (Monday)
MORNING
Checkout time at the Quality Inn & Suites in Myrtle Beach was 11am, a fairly common time, but Jen and I aren't common sleepers by any measure. We'd stayed up at least to 2 or 3 Sunday night, and getting up at 10 just seemed too early. I was having a terrible dream which I won't describe, but it touched on the past and some deep fears, and unfortunately it was a precursor for things to come. No, Monday wasn't our best day by far.
It started out OK, with a shower and getting ready, but we forgot a pillow I'd brought (it was buried under the others, to be fair). I'll miss that pillow. Then we check out, get in the car and Jen realizes she's not wearing her engagement ring, on the right hand. She remembers putting it in the suitcase, checks that, and hears metal on glass or metal, figuring it fell. So she spent about 15 minutes looking for it. So far we have not found it. She was upset about that, but at least it wasn't the wedding band. The engagement ring didn't cost as much as some people spend on theirs, but it did set me back some. Oddly, I wasn't very concerned about it. We knew it wasn't on the ground, so we decided to look for it later.
We went to breakfast at Plantation Pancake House, which was better than Dino's, but to be fair, we didn't order the biscuits and gravy, just pancakes and sausage for me and an omelette for Jen, and grits for both of us. Almost done, Jen said she felt sick. Shortly after, I found myself nauseous, so I got up. I saw an exit door, and ran for it. I made it there, but it was locked - so I hurled. Nothing much came up, but I made a bit of a scene going for the bathroom. I wanted to make more of a scene for them having the door locked, but didn't. We paid and left, and I felt fine as we were going up the road.
Plantation Pancake House in Myrtle Beach, SC.
I think we planned to do the miniature golf today that we'd planned for yesterday, but I instead suggested this place called Barefoot Landing, a bunch of shops on a lake with a few bridges crossing the lake. Real nice place, and this is where the Myrtle Beach House of Blues is located, but we didn't make it that far. We got there, checked out a few shops - and then we just got hit by some real hard rain. We couldn't just get to the car, we had to navigate a course from cover to cover. On a side note, my mother's been looking for any kind of Jack Russel Terrier knickknacks to display as she owns two. The breed was only recently accepted as a pure breed by the AKC, so places that sell dog stuff rarely if ever cater to JRTs - they're considered a mutt, not so common, but one store there did have JRT stuff of all kinds. Unfortunately every single thing they had was 2-4 times what it was worth, and our money was running out, so Mom isn't getting anything from there. We did find a JRT head magnet at a magnet place, but don't tell her - it'll be a surprise.
Jen at Barefoot Landing in SC; shops along the lake.
View to the right of the previous lake/shop picture, and the huge fish everyone was looking at (3-4' long).
We then stopped at a gift shop I had noticed a couple times, but it was completely unimpressive on the inside. We left, and almost got hit by a drunk or otherwise distracted driver.
POISONED
Jen wanted a seafood lunch, but I just wasn't feeling like seafood, so I told her we needed to find a surf n' turf place, maybe somewhere that had burgers. She rejected my first few suggestions, and we settled on this place called Ocean Garden, a Chinese/Seafood place. Once we saw their selection, we should have left. Shoulda, coulda, woulda... Didn't. Nothing was real good. Even their chopsticks were splintery. All of the food had probably been sitting there all day. I tried a piece of shrimp - which I had tried before, elsewhere, with no problems - but spat it up because I just wasn't digging the taste, and it was hard to swallow. Next thing I know, my mouth started to tingle, followed by nausea and a sharp pain in my stomach. Allergic reaction or food poisoning. I asked one of the people who worked there if they cooked their stuff in peanut oil - which would be a problem. The man assured me they only use soybean oil. I didn't ask if they cooked with nuts, but I may have gotten some. I was throwing up in their bathroom for what Jen described as 20-30 minutes, although to me it felt like 10 at most. The employees were a little sympathetic, but were very glad to see us go.
I took a Benadryl pill - it does help - and Jen drove. The pain was still there and I couldn't really get much water down, so I sipped a bottle of water. Later, I opened a Sprite (lemon-lime soda is great for upset stomachs - 7-Up is the best but Sprite tastes better) and sipped that, too. Mostly I kept my eyes closed and rested my head on my free hand. I know Jen was worried, and I missed most of South Carolina. By the time we got to Wilmington, NC, I was doing a little better. By Jacksonville, I was fine - for the most part.
The sign says "Barstow, Calif, 2,554". There's a similar one in Barstow, CA that says "Wilmington, NC" and has a number of about the same. I'm proud to have seen them both - both ends of Interstate 40, that is.
Remember when I said Saturday we stopped at this one gas station, which had great coffee outta their machine? I had told Jen that on the way back I wanted to stop there. She pointed it out but didn't slow down. I told her a couple times to stop, but she ignored me, and then for the next half hour or so wouldn't even look at me. She later claimed she didn't hear me and denied ignoring me, so I guess it was just a misunderstanding. But damn, that was some good coffee.
This guy's lost! As you can see in the insert, he's from California, and the tag is current. I blanked out the number to protect our fellow motorist's privacy.
END OF THE LINE
Anyway, we stopped at a rest stop and got some good pictures. Jen's sister called and wanted us to pick up some beer and cigarettes. We got to her place (with the drugs, lol) just in time to watch Monday Night RAW, which was pretty unimpressive. But then, they're still reeling from the Benoit tragedy and can't use their "McMahon Murdered" storyline, so they're scrambling to come up with something.
And, that's the end of our vacation! It was over much sooner than I'd thought, but we both enjoyed it for the good parts.
Although that is the end of the story, I do intend to post more pictures, so stay tuned for that.
Checkout time at the Quality Inn & Suites in Myrtle Beach was 11am, a fairly common time, but Jen and I aren't common sleepers by any measure. We'd stayed up at least to 2 or 3 Sunday night, and getting up at 10 just seemed too early. I was having a terrible dream which I won't describe, but it touched on the past and some deep fears, and unfortunately it was a precursor for things to come. No, Monday wasn't our best day by far.
It started out OK, with a shower and getting ready, but we forgot a pillow I'd brought (it was buried under the others, to be fair). I'll miss that pillow. Then we check out, get in the car and Jen realizes she's not wearing her engagement ring, on the right hand. She remembers putting it in the suitcase, checks that, and hears metal on glass or metal, figuring it fell. So she spent about 15 minutes looking for it. So far we have not found it. She was upset about that, but at least it wasn't the wedding band. The engagement ring didn't cost as much as some people spend on theirs, but it did set me back some. Oddly, I wasn't very concerned about it. We knew it wasn't on the ground, so we decided to look for it later.
We went to breakfast at Plantation Pancake House, which was better than Dino's, but to be fair, we didn't order the biscuits and gravy, just pancakes and sausage for me and an omelette for Jen, and grits for both of us. Almost done, Jen said she felt sick. Shortly after, I found myself nauseous, so I got up. I saw an exit door, and ran for it. I made it there, but it was locked - so I hurled. Nothing much came up, but I made a bit of a scene going for the bathroom. I wanted to make more of a scene for them having the door locked, but didn't. We paid and left, and I felt fine as we were going up the road.
Plantation Pancake House in Myrtle Beach, SC.
I think we planned to do the miniature golf today that we'd planned for yesterday, but I instead suggested this place called Barefoot Landing, a bunch of shops on a lake with a few bridges crossing the lake. Real nice place, and this is where the Myrtle Beach House of Blues is located, but we didn't make it that far. We got there, checked out a few shops - and then we just got hit by some real hard rain. We couldn't just get to the car, we had to navigate a course from cover to cover. On a side note, my mother's been looking for any kind of Jack Russel Terrier knickknacks to display as she owns two. The breed was only recently accepted as a pure breed by the AKC, so places that sell dog stuff rarely if ever cater to JRTs - they're considered a mutt, not so common, but one store there did have JRT stuff of all kinds. Unfortunately every single thing they had was 2-4 times what it was worth, and our money was running out, so Mom isn't getting anything from there. We did find a JRT head magnet at a magnet place, but don't tell her - it'll be a surprise.
Jen at Barefoot Landing in SC; shops along the lake.
View to the right of the previous lake/shop picture, and the huge fish everyone was looking at (3-4' long).
We then stopped at a gift shop I had noticed a couple times, but it was completely unimpressive on the inside. We left, and almost got hit by a drunk or otherwise distracted driver.
POISONED
Jen wanted a seafood lunch, but I just wasn't feeling like seafood, so I told her we needed to find a surf n' turf place, maybe somewhere that had burgers. She rejected my first few suggestions, and we settled on this place called Ocean Garden, a Chinese/Seafood place. Once we saw their selection, we should have left. Shoulda, coulda, woulda... Didn't. Nothing was real good. Even their chopsticks were splintery. All of the food had probably been sitting there all day. I tried a piece of shrimp - which I had tried before, elsewhere, with no problems - but spat it up because I just wasn't digging the taste, and it was hard to swallow. Next thing I know, my mouth started to tingle, followed by nausea and a sharp pain in my stomach. Allergic reaction or food poisoning. I asked one of the people who worked there if they cooked their stuff in peanut oil - which would be a problem. The man assured me they only use soybean oil. I didn't ask if they cooked with nuts, but I may have gotten some. I was throwing up in their bathroom for what Jen described as 20-30 minutes, although to me it felt like 10 at most. The employees were a little sympathetic, but were very glad to see us go.
I took a Benadryl pill - it does help - and Jen drove. The pain was still there and I couldn't really get much water down, so I sipped a bottle of water. Later, I opened a Sprite (lemon-lime soda is great for upset stomachs - 7-Up is the best but Sprite tastes better) and sipped that, too. Mostly I kept my eyes closed and rested my head on my free hand. I know Jen was worried, and I missed most of South Carolina. By the time we got to Wilmington, NC, I was doing a little better. By Jacksonville, I was fine - for the most part.
The sign says "Barstow, Calif, 2,554". There's a similar one in Barstow, CA that says "Wilmington, NC" and has a number of about the same. I'm proud to have seen them both - both ends of Interstate 40, that is.
Remember when I said Saturday we stopped at this one gas station, which had great coffee outta their machine? I had told Jen that on the way back I wanted to stop there. She pointed it out but didn't slow down. I told her a couple times to stop, but she ignored me, and then for the next half hour or so wouldn't even look at me. She later claimed she didn't hear me and denied ignoring me, so I guess it was just a misunderstanding. But damn, that was some good coffee.
This guy's lost! As you can see in the insert, he's from California, and the tag is current. I blanked out the number to protect our fellow motorist's privacy.
END OF THE LINE
Anyway, we stopped at a rest stop and got some good pictures. Jen's sister called and wanted us to pick up some beer and cigarettes. We got to her place (with the drugs, lol) just in time to watch Monday Night RAW, which was pretty unimpressive. But then, they're still reeling from the Benoit tragedy and can't use their "McMahon Murdered" storyline, so they're scrambling to come up with something.
And, that's the end of our vacation! It was over much sooner than I'd thought, but we both enjoyed it for the good parts.
Although that is the end of the story, I do intend to post more pictures, so stay tuned for that.
First Anniversary Vacation, Day Two (Sunday)
BREAKFAST
We woke up around 11am on Sunday, the "big day" which we were considering the real anniversary celebration, albeit a day late. We had looked through the restaurant directory the night before and all I could get think of was "16 varieties of pancakes". I didn't even remember the name of the place. So I flipped through again, and found Dino's. Oddly enough, despite all those choices, I ended up with buttermilk pancakes I could have gotten anywhere. Mine came with sausage; Jen also got sausage but with a Belgian waffle, which had the place's logo cooked into it - you'd have to see the picture to believe it. We each got grits and we got a plate of biscuits and gravy to share. The pancakes were OK, the sausage and grits average, but the biscuits were a little below average, and the gravy must have been canned. After a couple bites neither of us touched it. Everything else we finished.
Dino's House of Pancakes, and their branded waffle. Click these and other images to see them fullsize.
MID-DAY
Dino's was pretty far from our hotel, but we knew the Planet Hollywood was farther yet, so we pressed on, to see what there was to see. We were surprised to come upon the Colonial Mall of Myrtle Beach, as we have a Colonial Mall in Greenville (NC). We had to check it out - and found it was much, much better. We looked at a couple novelty shops, didn't really find anything there. I found a shoe place, and found myself a nice pair of sandals. The problem with me buying shoes is that the right side of my body is slightly larger than my left side, so my right side needs a half to whole size larger shoe. Since I'm pretty sure you're not allowed to mix and match, I do it on the sly. So my left sandal is size 10 and my right one is size 11, but to look at my feet they both look like a good fit. (They had no half sizes.)
The Colonial Mall in Myrtle Beach.
From there, we headed back to the hotel. The idea was to change into shorts and go play miniature golf, but the rain had let up (it rained most of the trip) so plans changed, I was going to hit the weight room and Jen was going to go swimming. But I didn't want to split us up, so we compromised and settled for the hot tub. It was rather large and I did a bit of playing around in it. After about half an hour (the sign said a max time of 15 minutes) we moved on to the pool, where we were alone at first. Swimming was OK until we got some company. A middle aged couple and what at first appeared to be a good-looking girl, until we got a look at her face. Jen later estimated her age at 16-18, but I was thinking more like 14-16. I love swimming alone or with people I know. I don't like swimming with strangers. It was OK for a bit, but then we headed back to our room.
Me in nothing but shorts and a smile but covered in bubbles.
DINNER
At this point we decided we didn't have time for golf, so we cleaned ourselves up and headed out for dinner. Our destination was the Planet Hollywood in Myrtle Beach, a good ways away. We ate at the Hard Rock Cafe in Gatlinburg, TN, and Hard Rock and Planet Hollywood are supposed to be the coolest places to eat, and I wanted to try both. I made the mistake of thinking a destination like Planet Hollywood would be marked, that there would be signs, that there would be ads in the stuff we had at the hotel. None of that. It was pretty hard to find. We went farther than we should have, had to double back, but we found it eventually.
The outside of Planet Hollywood Myrtle Beach. You go up the covered stairs - then back down more stairs inside. They have a menu so you can decide before you go in. And that's me you can barely see.
The place looked nice from the inside and outside, I'll give them that. On the outside were hand prints from various celebrities - we saw Demi Moore, Charlton Heston, Paul Newman, Bruce Willis, Sylvester Stallone, and Johnny Depp. Their hand prints, anyway. Inside, we were seated right away, but in a side room. My first thought was that it was the nonsmoking area, but I happened to notice that only families were in our area - the main area was reserved, it seemed, for hip, good-looking college kids. (Maybe they were doing photographs, I don't know.) No children or middle-aged folks in sight out there. The waitress did her job, but we kind of felt like the treatment was generic and they were hurrying to close. We got our drinks, but we weren't offered refills. The food was mediocre at best, and we weren't offered dessert. Maybe Planet Hollywood is good elsewhere, but not in Myrtle Beach. Still, I'm glad I experienced it. Someone's getting a shirt from there, but I can't say who because it's a surprise.
The left is me pointing at Rocky's (Sylvester Stallone's) prints; the right, John McClane's (Bruce Willis').
Jen looking up at the Terminator, from back when Arnold was the man.
When we left, Jen acted like she was mad at me, wouldn't talk to me - I thought I'd done something wrong, but I couldn't think of what. Turns out she was just really disappointed with dinner, and to 'thank' them for their 'great' service I spent $25 in their gift shop. Well, I didn't buy anything for us, but I can see where she was coming from. She doesn't hold grudges, and was fine by the time we got to the next place, which I won't post about, but it was a waste of time regardless. Then we stopped at a gift shop and blew about $50 in gifts. I got a laser pointer (always wanted one since my youngest brother got the first one I bought confiscated) but I think the rest was gifts. Oh yeah, we got ourselves Myrtle Beach license plates - the little ones - to go with the Tennessee ones we'd gotten a year before.
After we got back to the hotel, sleep followed shortly. The next day, I would get sick both places we ate in Myrtle Beach, get rained on, and ultimately have a real bad day.
TO BE CONTINUED...
We woke up around 11am on Sunday, the "big day" which we were considering the real anniversary celebration, albeit a day late. We had looked through the restaurant directory the night before and all I could get think of was "16 varieties of pancakes". I didn't even remember the name of the place. So I flipped through again, and found Dino's. Oddly enough, despite all those choices, I ended up with buttermilk pancakes I could have gotten anywhere. Mine came with sausage; Jen also got sausage but with a Belgian waffle, which had the place's logo cooked into it - you'd have to see the picture to believe it. We each got grits and we got a plate of biscuits and gravy to share. The pancakes were OK, the sausage and grits average, but the biscuits were a little below average, and the gravy must have been canned. After a couple bites neither of us touched it. Everything else we finished.
Dino's House of Pancakes, and their branded waffle. Click these and other images to see them fullsize.
MID-DAY
Dino's was pretty far from our hotel, but we knew the Planet Hollywood was farther yet, so we pressed on, to see what there was to see. We were surprised to come upon the Colonial Mall of Myrtle Beach, as we have a Colonial Mall in Greenville (NC). We had to check it out - and found it was much, much better. We looked at a couple novelty shops, didn't really find anything there. I found a shoe place, and found myself a nice pair of sandals. The problem with me buying shoes is that the right side of my body is slightly larger than my left side, so my right side needs a half to whole size larger shoe. Since I'm pretty sure you're not allowed to mix and match, I do it on the sly. So my left sandal is size 10 and my right one is size 11, but to look at my feet they both look like a good fit. (They had no half sizes.)
The Colonial Mall in Myrtle Beach.
From there, we headed back to the hotel. The idea was to change into shorts and go play miniature golf, but the rain had let up (it rained most of the trip) so plans changed, I was going to hit the weight room and Jen was going to go swimming. But I didn't want to split us up, so we compromised and settled for the hot tub. It was rather large and I did a bit of playing around in it. After about half an hour (the sign said a max time of 15 minutes) we moved on to the pool, where we were alone at first. Swimming was OK until we got some company. A middle aged couple and what at first appeared to be a good-looking girl, until we got a look at her face. Jen later estimated her age at 16-18, but I was thinking more like 14-16. I love swimming alone or with people I know. I don't like swimming with strangers. It was OK for a bit, but then we headed back to our room.
Me in nothing but shorts and a smile but covered in bubbles.
DINNER
At this point we decided we didn't have time for golf, so we cleaned ourselves up and headed out for dinner. Our destination was the Planet Hollywood in Myrtle Beach, a good ways away. We ate at the Hard Rock Cafe in Gatlinburg, TN, and Hard Rock and Planet Hollywood are supposed to be the coolest places to eat, and I wanted to try both. I made the mistake of thinking a destination like Planet Hollywood would be marked, that there would be signs, that there would be ads in the stuff we had at the hotel. None of that. It was pretty hard to find. We went farther than we should have, had to double back, but we found it eventually.
The outside of Planet Hollywood Myrtle Beach. You go up the covered stairs - then back down more stairs inside. They have a menu so you can decide before you go in. And that's me you can barely see.
The place looked nice from the inside and outside, I'll give them that. On the outside were hand prints from various celebrities - we saw Demi Moore, Charlton Heston, Paul Newman, Bruce Willis, Sylvester Stallone, and Johnny Depp. Their hand prints, anyway. Inside, we were seated right away, but in a side room. My first thought was that it was the nonsmoking area, but I happened to notice that only families were in our area - the main area was reserved, it seemed, for hip, good-looking college kids. (Maybe they were doing photographs, I don't know.) No children or middle-aged folks in sight out there. The waitress did her job, but we kind of felt like the treatment was generic and they were hurrying to close. We got our drinks, but we weren't offered refills. The food was mediocre at best, and we weren't offered dessert. Maybe Planet Hollywood is good elsewhere, but not in Myrtle Beach. Still, I'm glad I experienced it. Someone's getting a shirt from there, but I can't say who because it's a surprise.
The left is me pointing at Rocky's (Sylvester Stallone's) prints; the right, John McClane's (Bruce Willis').
Jen looking up at the Terminator, from back when Arnold was the man.
When we left, Jen acted like she was mad at me, wouldn't talk to me - I thought I'd done something wrong, but I couldn't think of what. Turns out she was just really disappointed with dinner, and to 'thank' them for their 'great' service I spent $25 in their gift shop. Well, I didn't buy anything for us, but I can see where she was coming from. She doesn't hold grudges, and was fine by the time we got to the next place, which I won't post about, but it was a waste of time regardless. Then we stopped at a gift shop and blew about $50 in gifts. I got a laser pointer (always wanted one since my youngest brother got the first one I bought confiscated) but I think the rest was gifts. Oh yeah, we got ourselves Myrtle Beach license plates - the little ones - to go with the Tennessee ones we'd gotten a year before.
After we got back to the hotel, sleep followed shortly. The next day, I would get sick both places we ate in Myrtle Beach, get rained on, and ultimately have a real bad day.
TO BE CONTINUED...
Wednesday, July 4, 2007
Got drunk last night
Since I have to work the night of July 4th, I figured I'd do my drinking early - as in the first few hours of the day. Jen started out with a couple shots of tequila, and I put the last shot and a half of the last bottle of Captain Morgan's Spiced Rum in a glass of Tahitian Treat (a fruit punch soda). Then we each had a Jagรซrbomb - drop a shot of Jagรซrmeister in a glass of Red Bull. It was OK, nothing real special. (I always heard an Irish Carbomb - 1 Guinness Stout, a shot of Bailey's Irish cream, and a shot of Irish whiskey was good but never tried it.)
Then we sat down to watch the new movie Shooter, but we didn't finish it.
We had just gotten another bottle of Captain Morgans, so Jen cracked it open and took a sip and chased it with whatever fruit drink she had over there. So I went and mixed half cranberry juice, half Sprite, and took a swallow of the rum chased with my carbonated cranberry concoction. We went back and forth for about three rounds but had only killed the neck of the bottle when she gave up. I took one more, and she said I was done - but she went to the bathroom, where she spent the next half hour or so. Meanwhile, I was making macaroni & cheese (love the stuff) and kept hitting the rum. I had finished about half the bottle when Jen stopped me.
The rest is a blur. She said I passed out on the couch and that she brought me a bucket, but I never threw up. I always heard if you take an Asprin and drink water after you drink, you won't get a hangover, so I did, and I didn't. Well, I was a little out of it today, but I didn't have the pounding headache associated with hangover.
Then we sat down to watch the new movie Shooter, but we didn't finish it.
We had just gotten another bottle of Captain Morgans, so Jen cracked it open and took a sip and chased it with whatever fruit drink she had over there. So I went and mixed half cranberry juice, half Sprite, and took a swallow of the rum chased with my carbonated cranberry concoction. We went back and forth for about three rounds but had only killed the neck of the bottle when she gave up. I took one more, and she said I was done - but she went to the bathroom, where she spent the next half hour or so. Meanwhile, I was making macaroni & cheese (love the stuff) and kept hitting the rum. I had finished about half the bottle when Jen stopped me.
The rest is a blur. She said I passed out on the couch and that she brought me a bucket, but I never threw up. I always heard if you take an Asprin and drink water after you drink, you won't get a hangover, so I did, and I didn't. Well, I was a little out of it today, but I didn't have the pounding headache associated with hangover.
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
The practice of water filtration
Now here's one from out in left field.
It's probably been 15 years since it started. No, not that long, but more than 10. I had just moved back in with my mother, maybe within a year or so. My dad's second wife was a health nut, for a while, and had a Brita filter - that's about when I started drinking water - like, often; like, daily; like, how some people drink soda, or beer.
Then I got back home staying with my mother, and started drinking tap water. I got sick, somehow something contaminated the city water and others got sick as well, not really an epidemic but kind of a big thing, I suppose. We got ourselves a contract, I guess it was, with Alhambra, for them to deliver 5-gallon bottles of water, and we leased a dispenser. (What my mom never knew, and I learned later, is you can get your own dispenser, even your own 5-gallon bottles, and doing either or both lowers the bill.) I would keep a gallon or two in the fridge to keep some cold, and more often than not fill my mug with a mixture of cold and warm, call it 40/60. But over the years it just kept getting more and more expensive. What started out as less than $20 a month became over $45 a month. So my mother asked me to find a more efficient solution. We got a Brita filter for around $30, and a 4-pack of filters for just under $20 at Costco, and that $50 investment let us make our own bottled water for close to a year, because a filter can last 2 or 3 months depending on use. (We replaced every 2 months.)
When I came out to North Carolina, the first visit in September 2004 (damn, it's almost been 3 years - and I'm married to her now), I knew I'd have to have filtered water, so I asked her if she had bottled or clean water. She told me about the well water (nasty stuff) so we stopped at Walmart and I bought a Brita filter (only about $20) and one filter. I tried but the water still smelled like crap. (Sorry Jen.) (She doesn't like it too much when I talk bad about the well water.) Now what we do is, we either get gallon jugs of water when we go to Wal-Mart, or we take empty jugs and fill them with tap water at Jen's sister's place. Chocowinity tap water isn't good, either, but at least it can be filtered to make good water. Well water from between Chocowinity and Grimesland - well, that's a different story.
I still buy bottled water, even when we can get it for free. I'll buy the 24-packs of half-liter bottles when they go on sale. Once the store had a deal, buy 1 get 2 free, and it was only about 5 bucks to start with. So you can't tell me you wouldn't take 72 bottles of good water for $5, if you weren't strapped for cash and you were inclined to drink it. (They had the same deal on the store brand ice cream, and pounds of strawberries, too. We took advantage of all three.)
It's probably been 15 years since it started. No, not that long, but more than 10. I had just moved back in with my mother, maybe within a year or so. My dad's second wife was a health nut, for a while, and had a Brita filter - that's about when I started drinking water - like, often; like, daily; like, how some people drink soda, or beer.
Then I got back home staying with my mother, and started drinking tap water. I got sick, somehow something contaminated the city water and others got sick as well, not really an epidemic but kind of a big thing, I suppose. We got ourselves a contract, I guess it was, with Alhambra, for them to deliver 5-gallon bottles of water, and we leased a dispenser. (What my mom never knew, and I learned later, is you can get your own dispenser, even your own 5-gallon bottles, and doing either or both lowers the bill.) I would keep a gallon or two in the fridge to keep some cold, and more often than not fill my mug with a mixture of cold and warm, call it 40/60. But over the years it just kept getting more and more expensive. What started out as less than $20 a month became over $45 a month. So my mother asked me to find a more efficient solution. We got a Brita filter for around $30, and a 4-pack of filters for just under $20 at Costco, and that $50 investment let us make our own bottled water for close to a year, because a filter can last 2 or 3 months depending on use. (We replaced every 2 months.)
When I came out to North Carolina, the first visit in September 2004 (damn, it's almost been 3 years - and I'm married to her now), I knew I'd have to have filtered water, so I asked her if she had bottled or clean water. She told me about the well water (nasty stuff) so we stopped at Walmart and I bought a Brita filter (only about $20) and one filter. I tried but the water still smelled like crap. (Sorry Jen.) (She doesn't like it too much when I talk bad about the well water.) Now what we do is, we either get gallon jugs of water when we go to Wal-Mart, or we take empty jugs and fill them with tap water at Jen's sister's place. Chocowinity tap water isn't good, either, but at least it can be filtered to make good water. Well water from between Chocowinity and Grimesland - well, that's a different story.
I still buy bottled water, even when we can get it for free. I'll buy the 24-packs of half-liter bottles when they go on sale. Once the store had a deal, buy 1 get 2 free, and it was only about 5 bucks to start with. So you can't tell me you wouldn't take 72 bottles of good water for $5, if you weren't strapped for cash and you were inclined to drink it. (They had the same deal on the store brand ice cream, and pounds of strawberries, too. We took advantage of all three.)
Sunday, June 10, 2007
Restaurant review: Fuddruckers
I'm sure you can tell by looking at my picture, I'm a man who loves a good meal. I have pretty broad tastes, but I'm also very picky as to the quality of my food. Being so far from home, I also think as I eat at different places, if someone was visiting from California, and they said they were feeling like, whatever kind of food, would I take them there? Or would I take them somewhere else - or just say I'm not sure about places around here with that kind of food. So far we have Mexican down - Chico's. We have Italian down - Olive Garden is good for Italian food, but they have that in Cali. So I'd take them to Marabella's. It's an independent place that just opened in Washington, NC, real good food for a fair price. Or if it were my favorite cousins, it'd have to be Cici's - pizza buffet. But as for a burger... well, I haven't looked much. As far as fast food, Hardees is the clear winner with the 2/3lb. Monster Thickburger, the best burger you're like to get from a drive-thru window.
I'd always wanted to check out the Fuddrucker's in Greenville, NC, but we just never stopped there. Funny, I always thought "Fuddruckers" was an offensive slang, or a play on one (swap the F with the first R) so I kind of laughed it off as I passed. But the claim on their sign "World's Greatest Hamburgers" always intrigued me, but I'd been craving chicken for so long after I came out here that I never did. But today was different - I'd been craving burgers, so I decided to get trying Fuddrucker's out of the way, and I'm so glad that I did.
When we came in, I did not know what to expect. The place was big to start with, and we couldn't see the counter from where we came in. We could see a secondary counter, where they have drinks and treats. Looking around we saw antique cars hanging from the ceiling and up in the rafters. The walls were lined with rock and other music memorobilia, kind of like a Hard Rock, but much more casual. The antiques gave it an almost Cracker Barrel feel. Oh, and there was a Harley of some significance roped off near the front. And tables everywhere. Basically, imagine a big room with a + shaped divider in the middle - more like crosshairs, as it was open in the center.
So we come over on the right of all that, made our way up front. The cashier was very friendly, and when I mentioned that we had never been to a Fuddrucker's, she happily took the time to go over the menus, simple as they were. The first thing I noticed was in addition to them having more burger choices than most places (fast food or sit-down restaurants), you could choose the size. They were all the same price, really, it was just the choice of size that changed the price. 1/3 lb., 1/2 lb., 2/3 lb., and 1 lb. were the choices. I chose a 1 lb. Three Cheese burger, and Jen went with a 1/3 lb. Portabella Mushroom and Swiss burger. I got fries, she got "Frings" - combination fries and onion rings. They also asked us how we wanted the burgers cooked. We both asked for medium well. They gave us a device, a cross between a pager and a coaster.
This particular Fuddrucker's offers three choices for seating. First, wooden chairs at wooden tables, the most common seating. Second, regular-old booths - they had maybe half a dozen booths. Third, they had three private circular booths that could each sit about 4 or 5. One was dedicated to Elvis Presley. One I didn't get a good look at because it was occupied. We took the third one, dedicated to the Beatles. (Yes, I'd take the Fab Four over the King any day of the week.) These booths were raised up and had a fire station pole between the seat ends, which, I discovered was great for getting up after a full meal. Our booth had at least 2 dozen framed prints of Beatles photographs, mostly from their early days. I imagine the Elvis one was similarly adorned. I can identify Lennon in the more recent pictures, but when they all had those bowl cuts, if you ask me they all looked the same. Anyway, we both messed around in the arcade waiting for our food. I was just getting started on a shooter when our pager went off. I cut my game short - burgers are best hot and fresh. They don't stay edible long. And the game sucked anyway.
So we take our food back over to where you order, because they don't put any condiments or rabbit food (what I jokingly call vegetables) on it. Just the burger as described, the buns, and the fries. On mine I put mayonnaise on the top bun, ketchup on the bottom, and on the burger, 3 jalepeno peppers, two tomatoes, 3-5 onion slices (rings actually), and 2-3 pieces of iceberg lettuce. I didn't see what all Jen put on hers, but I saw her hit the Pico de Gallo up, and they also had pickles, banana peppers, diced onions, shredded lettuce, honey mustard, spicy mustard, BBQ sauce, nacho cheese (!), and various sauces - Tabasco, A1, some other stuff. The soda was all Pepsi products, the one weakness - I love me some Sprite and Sierra Mist just ain't the same. So I made my Pepsi-bar cocktail, Mountain Dew with some Tropical Punch mixed in. Kinda comes out like the Mountain Dew Code Red that Taco Bell used to have.
We get the burgers back to our booth, and mine was simply amazing. Jen liked hers, too, though I didn't ask her about it. Mine was more well than medium well. When I say medium well, I like to see a little pink in the middle. Not red, mind you - I'm afraid of eating undercooked meat - but pink. That way it's still juicy. You order something well done, the outside is burnt and it's tougher than it has any right to be. My burger was juicy enough, but could have and should have been more so. The cheese blend was good, though I think (not sure) Swiss was up there - something was giving it a sour taste. Cheddar, jack, and pepper jack is how I would do a 3-cheese burger. But again, despite a minor complaint about the cheese, the burger was good. I had a good mix of condiments as well, though I would have preferred diced onions to the full ones, down below the burger in the ketchup, McDonalds style (much as I hate Mickey D's). And diced tomatoes would have been preferrable.
I can't fairly say it was the best burger I've had. It beats Ruby Tuesday's, but Bennigan's Big Irish is pretty good. I think the Fuddrucker's burger is a little better. But I know two places out west - Cloverdale's Hamburger Ranch and Healdsburg's Bear Republic. My mother's a fan of Santa Rosa's Heavenly Hamburgers, but I thought they were kind of average. When Jen and I visit in November, I am taking her to both if we have time (Cloverdale and Healdsburg) to see if they're as good as I remember. But as far as Eastern North Carolina goes, I would have to say that Fuddrucker's impressed the hell outta me today. I got a good tasty and filling meal, the atmosphere was really nice, and we only paid like $22 for the two of us. That's about what we pay at Cracker Barrel or Chico's, so it's on par with our other favorite restaurants. For most burgers, it wouldn't be worth it to pay that for burgers, but for burgers of this class, I would say so. (We actually pay more to eat at Quizno's, now that I think on it.)
I'd always wanted to check out the Fuddrucker's in Greenville, NC, but we just never stopped there. Funny, I always thought "Fuddruckers" was an offensive slang, or a play on one (swap the F with the first R) so I kind of laughed it off as I passed. But the claim on their sign "World's Greatest Hamburgers" always intrigued me, but I'd been craving chicken for so long after I came out here that I never did. But today was different - I'd been craving burgers, so I decided to get trying Fuddrucker's out of the way, and I'm so glad that I did.
When we came in, I did not know what to expect. The place was big to start with, and we couldn't see the counter from where we came in. We could see a secondary counter, where they have drinks and treats. Looking around we saw antique cars hanging from the ceiling and up in the rafters. The walls were lined with rock and other music memorobilia, kind of like a Hard Rock, but much more casual. The antiques gave it an almost Cracker Barrel feel. Oh, and there was a Harley of some significance roped off near the front. And tables everywhere. Basically, imagine a big room with a + shaped divider in the middle - more like crosshairs, as it was open in the center.
So we come over on the right of all that, made our way up front. The cashier was very friendly, and when I mentioned that we had never been to a Fuddrucker's, she happily took the time to go over the menus, simple as they were. The first thing I noticed was in addition to them having more burger choices than most places (fast food or sit-down restaurants), you could choose the size. They were all the same price, really, it was just the choice of size that changed the price. 1/3 lb., 1/2 lb., 2/3 lb., and 1 lb. were the choices. I chose a 1 lb. Three Cheese burger, and Jen went with a 1/3 lb. Portabella Mushroom and Swiss burger. I got fries, she got "Frings" - combination fries and onion rings. They also asked us how we wanted the burgers cooked. We both asked for medium well. They gave us a device, a cross between a pager and a coaster.
This particular Fuddrucker's offers three choices for seating. First, wooden chairs at wooden tables, the most common seating. Second, regular-old booths - they had maybe half a dozen booths. Third, they had three private circular booths that could each sit about 4 or 5. One was dedicated to Elvis Presley. One I didn't get a good look at because it was occupied. We took the third one, dedicated to the Beatles. (Yes, I'd take the Fab Four over the King any day of the week.) These booths were raised up and had a fire station pole between the seat ends, which, I discovered was great for getting up after a full meal. Our booth had at least 2 dozen framed prints of Beatles photographs, mostly from their early days. I imagine the Elvis one was similarly adorned. I can identify Lennon in the more recent pictures, but when they all had those bowl cuts, if you ask me they all looked the same. Anyway, we both messed around in the arcade waiting for our food. I was just getting started on a shooter when our pager went off. I cut my game short - burgers are best hot and fresh. They don't stay edible long. And the game sucked anyway.
So we take our food back over to where you order, because they don't put any condiments or rabbit food (what I jokingly call vegetables) on it. Just the burger as described, the buns, and the fries. On mine I put mayonnaise on the top bun, ketchup on the bottom, and on the burger, 3 jalepeno peppers, two tomatoes, 3-5 onion slices (rings actually), and 2-3 pieces of iceberg lettuce. I didn't see what all Jen put on hers, but I saw her hit the Pico de Gallo up, and they also had pickles, banana peppers, diced onions, shredded lettuce, honey mustard, spicy mustard, BBQ sauce, nacho cheese (!), and various sauces - Tabasco, A1, some other stuff. The soda was all Pepsi products, the one weakness - I love me some Sprite and Sierra Mist just ain't the same. So I made my Pepsi-bar cocktail, Mountain Dew with some Tropical Punch mixed in. Kinda comes out like the Mountain Dew Code Red that Taco Bell used to have.
We get the burgers back to our booth, and mine was simply amazing. Jen liked hers, too, though I didn't ask her about it. Mine was more well than medium well. When I say medium well, I like to see a little pink in the middle. Not red, mind you - I'm afraid of eating undercooked meat - but pink. That way it's still juicy. You order something well done, the outside is burnt and it's tougher than it has any right to be. My burger was juicy enough, but could have and should have been more so. The cheese blend was good, though I think (not sure) Swiss was up there - something was giving it a sour taste. Cheddar, jack, and pepper jack is how I would do a 3-cheese burger. But again, despite a minor complaint about the cheese, the burger was good. I had a good mix of condiments as well, though I would have preferred diced onions to the full ones, down below the burger in the ketchup, McDonalds style (much as I hate Mickey D's). And diced tomatoes would have been preferrable.
I can't fairly say it was the best burger I've had. It beats Ruby Tuesday's, but Bennigan's Big Irish is pretty good. I think the Fuddrucker's burger is a little better. But I know two places out west - Cloverdale's Hamburger Ranch and Healdsburg's Bear Republic. My mother's a fan of Santa Rosa's Heavenly Hamburgers, but I thought they were kind of average. When Jen and I visit in November, I am taking her to both if we have time (Cloverdale and Healdsburg) to see if they're as good as I remember. But as far as Eastern North Carolina goes, I would have to say that Fuddrucker's impressed the hell outta me today. I got a good tasty and filling meal, the atmosphere was really nice, and we only paid like $22 for the two of us. That's about what we pay at Cracker Barrel or Chico's, so it's on par with our other favorite restaurants. For most burgers, it wouldn't be worth it to pay that for burgers, but for burgers of this class, I would say so. (We actually pay more to eat at Quizno's, now that I think on it.)
Decadent fudge cake
Of all the scams, mailing lists, and get-rich-quick schemes that my late father's second wife (after my mother) tried, by far the best one (only good one?) was this recipe club or something like that. Every so often they'd send a bunch of recipes to go in this binder they sold, but the recipes they sent were completely random - she'd be throwing away duplicates all the time. One such duplicate was called the Decadent Fudge Cake. I've only had it three times - it's like death by chocolate.
Click the image to make it grow...
Here's how to make it, starting with what you'll need:
One 10-inch Bundt pan, one double boiler (not a steamer!!!), electric mixer
1 cup Butter, softened
4 Eggs
1 1/2 cups Sugar
1/2 teaspoon Baking soda
1 cup Buttermilk
2 1/2 cups Flour
1 1/2 cups Semisweet mini-morsels, divided
2-4oz bars Sweet baking chocolate melted/cooled
1/3 cup Chocolate syrup
2 teaspoon Vanilla extract
4 oz. White chocolate chopped (or chips)
2 tablespoons +2 teaspoons Shortening, divided
Instructions:
Cream Butter in mixing bowl. Gradually add Sugar beating well at medium speed using an electric mixer. Add eggs 1 at a time beating well after each addition. Dissolve Baking soda in Buttermilk stirring well. Add to cream mix alternatively with Flour beginning and ending with Flour. Add 1 cup of the Semisweet mini-morsels, melted, Chocolate syrup, and Vanilla string just until blended but do not overbeat.
Spoon batter into a heavily greased and floured 10" Bundt pan. Bake at 300ยบ for 1 hour 25 to 35 minutes or until cake springs back when touched. Now invert cake immediately onto plate. Let cool.
To make the topping:
Combine the White chocolate (chunks of solid white, or chips) with 2 tablespoons Shortening in top portion of double boiler. Bring water to boil. Reduce heat to low. Cook until it is melted and smooth. Drizzle White chocolate over cooled cake. Now melt 1/2 cup Semisweet mini-morsels with 2 teaspoons Shortening. Stir until smooth. Remove from heat. Let cool. Drizzle over White chocolate.
I've told a couple people about it, been asked about it. Well, there it is. Actually a quick Google search showed it on other sites, but what I posted is pretty much verbatim from the card. I believe I did a thing or two to it, but only in the wording; the recipe itself is unchanged. I would trust this before others.
The first and second times I've had it, I made it. The first time turned out better than the second time, where I did something wrong. The third time I had it, my wife made it for me the first time I visited back in 2004.
Click the image to make it grow...
Here's how to make it, starting with what you'll need:
One 10-inch Bundt pan, one double boiler (not a steamer!!!), electric mixer
1 cup Butter, softened
4 Eggs
1 1/2 cups Sugar
1/2 teaspoon Baking soda
1 cup Buttermilk
2 1/2 cups Flour
1 1/2 cups Semisweet mini-morsels, divided
2-4oz bars Sweet baking chocolate melted/cooled
1/3 cup Chocolate syrup
2 teaspoon Vanilla extract
4 oz. White chocolate chopped (or chips)
2 tablespoons +2 teaspoons Shortening, divided
Instructions:
Cream Butter in mixing bowl. Gradually add Sugar beating well at medium speed using an electric mixer. Add eggs 1 at a time beating well after each addition. Dissolve Baking soda in Buttermilk stirring well. Add to cream mix alternatively with Flour beginning and ending with Flour. Add 1 cup of the Semisweet mini-morsels, melted, Chocolate syrup, and Vanilla string just until blended but do not overbeat.
Spoon batter into a heavily greased and floured 10" Bundt pan. Bake at 300ยบ for 1 hour 25 to 35 minutes or until cake springs back when touched. Now invert cake immediately onto plate. Let cool.
To make the topping:
Combine the White chocolate (chunks of solid white, or chips) with 2 tablespoons Shortening in top portion of double boiler. Bring water to boil. Reduce heat to low. Cook until it is melted and smooth. Drizzle White chocolate over cooled cake. Now melt 1/2 cup Semisweet mini-morsels with 2 teaspoons Shortening. Stir until smooth. Remove from heat. Let cool. Drizzle over White chocolate.
I've told a couple people about it, been asked about it. Well, there it is. Actually a quick Google search showed it on other sites, but what I posted is pretty much verbatim from the card. I believe I did a thing or two to it, but only in the wording; the recipe itself is unchanged. I would trust this before others.
The first and second times I've had it, I made it. The first time turned out better than the second time, where I did something wrong. The third time I had it, my wife made it for me the first time I visited back in 2004.
Thursday, June 7, 2007
Lots'a Soda, 4 new tires
(Click the image to make it grow...)
Let's see what we have here... 10 cases of Sprite (+2 cans), 2 cases of Sprite Zero, 3 cases of Coke Zero, 4 of Cherry Coke Zero, 1 of Dr. Pepper, an 8-pack of Powerade Option, Grape (20 oz. bottles), a 6-pack of half-liter bottles of Sprite Zero and a similar 6-pack of Coke Zero. Oh and a 24-pack of half-liter Deer Park water. And you can catch the edge of some Kingsford charcoal over on the right, I think.
All Coke products, except the Dr. Pepper which is made by 7-Up, and I don't know who makes Deer Park - Daisani is Coke's water. The funny thing is, I used to like Pepsi products. Well, Pepsi and Mountain Dew. But then I went to clear soda almost exclusively - 7-Up and Sprite. Our local Harris-Teeter has some killer deals on the Coke products - this week it's 3/$8.88; it's been $1.89, BOGO (basically 2/$5.49), 4/$10 w/free 6-pack... whenever the deals come around, we stock up. I only drink the Sprite, the water, and the Powerade. The rest is Jen's. She actually has more than I do if you don't count the water, which we share. We both have 10 cases, but she has those two 6-packs, and I just have an 8-pack - which only has 7 - 6 after I leave for work tonight.
Tires... I'd had one tire go bad a month or so ago, so I swapped it for the spare. We have a full-size spare, and it's made a slacker of me. I should have replaced it weeks ago, but we'd been wanting to get new ones. Well, my front driver's side tire almost blew with my wife and her sister in the car. Jen brought it back all tore up. I was afraid driving it to the Washington Wal-Mart (a good 8-10 miles away). Couple hours and $400 later, and Nathan's got 5 brand-new Goodyear Viva2 tires (even replaced the spare) with a 60,000 mile warranty and some roadside thing Wal-Mart offered. Also got a spare key for my wallet should I be a bonehead and lock my keys in the car. I had a spare, but gave it to Jen when I moved out here. Oh and one of those nifty pull-apart rings, so if I start my car and realize I'd forgotten something inside, I can separate the car key and go in and get it without cutting the engine back off.
Oh yeah, while I was waiting, I went over to Taco Bell and tried the new Extreme Beef & Cheese Quesadilla (I think that's the name). $1.29 and it's got their seasoned ground beef and three-cheese blend. It's a little better than I expected, but seems to need something. Maybe see if they'll put their green sauce in it, or ask for a side of sour cream to dip it in. Don't get it to go though, it's kinda messy.
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
Our favorite meal: Jambalaya
I had never even heard of Jambalaya, at least not that I was aware of, until I visited Jen out here, back when I still called California home. One night Jen had to work, and called me on a break, and told me to make her Chicken Jambalaya. I had seen the Chicken Helper box up there and was reluctant, because I had had many bad experiences with Hamburger Helper. It's OK for kids who don't know any better, but if you ask me, the stuff's nasty as anything you can get.
So I made it, followed the instructions to the letter, a point I feel I should make to compare to my current procedure. And it wasn't bad. It was actually pretty good. Jambalaya's a Cajun dish, something you're going to find in New Orleans, but it's not something I've ever seen at any restaurant. And over the last two and a half years, I've developed my own procedure for making it. I still use the box (2 of them, actually) but I ignore their directions and follow my own.
You will need, as far as food goes: 2 boxes Chicken Helper Jambalaya dinner mix, 1.5 pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts, 1.25 pounds Johnsonville Hot Italian sausage, 5.5 cups water, 1/4 cup olive oil, crushed red pepper, Tabasco sauce. As far as kitchen hardware, you should have a big skillet and a good-fitting lid, a cutting board, and a couple decent-sized bowls - and 1/4 cup and 1-5 cup measuring cups.
Start by opening both Chicken Helper boxes, discarding cardboard. In one bowl mix both rice packets and the packets marked Sauce Mix. Well, they don't have to be mixed, but it's nice if they're all in the same bowl. In the other bowl, mix the olive oil (vegetable oil works OK too) with the packets marked Seasoning Mix. (If you're the kind of person who cooks with alcohol, this is probably the place to put it. I've tried 2 shots of Captain Morgan's Spiced Rum, and I think we used some cheap tequila (Toro) once, and as far as I can tell it does nothing. You got something fancy, something with a special flavor, try it on your second time and get back to me if it changes the taste. I do believe it all cooks out.)
Put the first half-cup of water and spices (crushed red pepper and Tabasco to taste) on medium-high in the skillet. Add sausage and cover, simmer for 10 minutes. While waiting, cut the chicken up best you can into 1" cube chunks. More or less, make it interesting. Put the chopped chicken into the oil mix, and stir well. After the 10 minutes, turn the sausage. After 10 more minutes, cut one sausage link at least to the center, to ensure it is cooked thoroughly. If not, cook on each side for a few minutes until you can cut a link and it be cooked all the way through. Set sausage aside when done.
Now it's the chicken's turn. Pour the oil-seasoning-chicken mix into the pan. Bring the temperature up, not to high but just below. Cook the chicken - you can telll when the chicken is cooked, it'll be white and firmer all over, although it is harder to tell with the sauce. Cook it till you think you're sure, then turn the heat down around medium and let it cook some more. But keep on stirring it, since that oil-seasoning mix can burn your pan quick if you let it. While the chicken is cooking, slice the sausage links at least 1/2" thick.
Toss the sausage in with the chicken, and stir. You may have some oil-seasoning mix left over - let the sausage soak it up, let that cook in. But before long, you have to move fast for a little bit. Next add the rice and sauce mix. I like to let the rice soak up the sauces and seasonings before adding the 5 cups of water, so stir the rice in good. Then add the water and stir well. I like to put the first 2 cups in, stir well, then the next cup, stir once or twice, then the remaining 2 cups in. Now turn the heat up to High, and bring it to a boil, stirring occasionally. Give it a good stir, cover it, and cut it down to low-medium. Well, just under medium, like a third of the way to high.
It's gonna have to cook down for at least an hour now. Well, plus or minus 10 minutes depending on some things, so check it every so often, it won't hurt it. You actually want to cut the heat off when there's still some water/sauce in it. Stir it up, it'll soak up, and as it sits there, it'll still cook a little in its own heat, especially if you uncover it only to serve it.
Notes
I cook it with only sausage and chicken, but traditionally it's a surf-and-turf dish, with shrimp and one or both of the other two. It could probably even be done with beef, but that's too tough. I don't personally care for shrimp, though, but Jen loves it. To this day I haven't made Jambalaya with shrimp, but one day I will. For Jen - I won't eat it.
We have a huge skillet. One that's small won't cut it. Our skillet is a little over 12" across (though it looks bigger...) and 3" deep, but the sides are squared off - it's 12" on the bottom, too. As opposed to one of those ones that's only 2/3 as wide on the bottom as the top is. Get a big skillet if you want to do 2 boxes. For a smaller skillet, stick with one box and eliminate either the chicken or sausage, or half both, and refer to the back of the box for simmer time.
The box calls for the 5 cups of water to be hot. Every time but the last time I've done that. I'd put the water in the microwave on like 15 minutes when I prepared everything, and when I needed it, it was still hot. Last time though, the water was at room temperature and it came out just fine. So don't worry about heating the water, it's an unnecessary step.
A friend of mine at work said that he didn't like spicy stuff, so I recommended he use the Johnsonville Mild Italian sausage, but he went with the Sweet Italian sausage. I grilled that one weekend (well, Jen grilled it - I ate some) and I didn't like it. So I didn't think to try it in Jambalaya - and I like it hot - but he said it was good, and it was the best meal out of a box, ever. I love some Kraft Mac & Cheese, but I've found me a new favorite box meal.
Just a warning, though: It's addictive.
So I made it, followed the instructions to the letter, a point I feel I should make to compare to my current procedure. And it wasn't bad. It was actually pretty good. Jambalaya's a Cajun dish, something you're going to find in New Orleans, but it's not something I've ever seen at any restaurant. And over the last two and a half years, I've developed my own procedure for making it. I still use the box (2 of them, actually) but I ignore their directions and follow my own.
You will need, as far as food goes: 2 boxes Chicken Helper Jambalaya dinner mix, 1.5 pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts, 1.25 pounds Johnsonville Hot Italian sausage, 5.5 cups water, 1/4 cup olive oil, crushed red pepper, Tabasco sauce. As far as kitchen hardware, you should have a big skillet and a good-fitting lid, a cutting board, and a couple decent-sized bowls - and 1/4 cup and 1-5 cup measuring cups.
Start by opening both Chicken Helper boxes, discarding cardboard. In one bowl mix both rice packets and the packets marked Sauce Mix. Well, they don't have to be mixed, but it's nice if they're all in the same bowl. In the other bowl, mix the olive oil (vegetable oil works OK too) with the packets marked Seasoning Mix. (If you're the kind of person who cooks with alcohol, this is probably the place to put it. I've tried 2 shots of Captain Morgan's Spiced Rum, and I think we used some cheap tequila (Toro) once, and as far as I can tell it does nothing. You got something fancy, something with a special flavor, try it on your second time and get back to me if it changes the taste. I do believe it all cooks out.)
Put the first half-cup of water and spices (crushed red pepper and Tabasco to taste) on medium-high in the skillet. Add sausage and cover, simmer for 10 minutes. While waiting, cut the chicken up best you can into 1" cube chunks. More or less, make it interesting. Put the chopped chicken into the oil mix, and stir well. After the 10 minutes, turn the sausage. After 10 more minutes, cut one sausage link at least to the center, to ensure it is cooked thoroughly. If not, cook on each side for a few minutes until you can cut a link and it be cooked all the way through. Set sausage aside when done.
Now it's the chicken's turn. Pour the oil-seasoning-chicken mix into the pan. Bring the temperature up, not to high but just below. Cook the chicken - you can telll when the chicken is cooked, it'll be white and firmer all over, although it is harder to tell with the sauce. Cook it till you think you're sure, then turn the heat down around medium and let it cook some more. But keep on stirring it, since that oil-seasoning mix can burn your pan quick if you let it. While the chicken is cooking, slice the sausage links at least 1/2" thick.
Toss the sausage in with the chicken, and stir. You may have some oil-seasoning mix left over - let the sausage soak it up, let that cook in. But before long, you have to move fast for a little bit. Next add the rice and sauce mix. I like to let the rice soak up the sauces and seasonings before adding the 5 cups of water, so stir the rice in good. Then add the water and stir well. I like to put the first 2 cups in, stir well, then the next cup, stir once or twice, then the remaining 2 cups in. Now turn the heat up to High, and bring it to a boil, stirring occasionally. Give it a good stir, cover it, and cut it down to low-medium. Well, just under medium, like a third of the way to high.
It's gonna have to cook down for at least an hour now. Well, plus or minus 10 minutes depending on some things, so check it every so often, it won't hurt it. You actually want to cut the heat off when there's still some water/sauce in it. Stir it up, it'll soak up, and as it sits there, it'll still cook a little in its own heat, especially if you uncover it only to serve it.
Notes
I cook it with only sausage and chicken, but traditionally it's a surf-and-turf dish, with shrimp and one or both of the other two. It could probably even be done with beef, but that's too tough. I don't personally care for shrimp, though, but Jen loves it. To this day I haven't made Jambalaya with shrimp, but one day I will. For Jen - I won't eat it.
We have a huge skillet. One that's small won't cut it. Our skillet is a little over 12" across (though it looks bigger...) and 3" deep, but the sides are squared off - it's 12" on the bottom, too. As opposed to one of those ones that's only 2/3 as wide on the bottom as the top is. Get a big skillet if you want to do 2 boxes. For a smaller skillet, stick with one box and eliminate either the chicken or sausage, or half both, and refer to the back of the box for simmer time.
The box calls for the 5 cups of water to be hot. Every time but the last time I've done that. I'd put the water in the microwave on like 15 minutes when I prepared everything, and when I needed it, it was still hot. Last time though, the water was at room temperature and it came out just fine. So don't worry about heating the water, it's an unnecessary step.
A friend of mine at work said that he didn't like spicy stuff, so I recommended he use the Johnsonville Mild Italian sausage, but he went with the Sweet Italian sausage. I grilled that one weekend (well, Jen grilled it - I ate some) and I didn't like it. So I didn't think to try it in Jambalaya - and I like it hot - but he said it was good, and it was the best meal out of a box, ever. I love some Kraft Mac & Cheese, but I've found me a new favorite box meal.
Just a warning, though: It's addictive.
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
I don't know why this works...
...but it does.
I thought I'd fire off a quickie, just had to use a little piece of kitchen wisdom my mother taught me.
If you have a jar that won't open, turn it upside down and bang it against a hard surface a few times. If it still won't open, repeat.
I believe it works best or only with glass jars that have metal lids - like on jam, or in my case, applesauce. But I seem to remember doing it with a mayonnaise jar or a peanut-butter jar, plastic-on-plastic. So who knows.
As to the possibility of breakage, I've thought that too. But I've never broken a jar or seen one broken doing this. You don't have to hit it very hard.
On the same note, most beverages you're supposed to shake well before drinking (I do this with Sobe drinks) can be stirred up by smacking the bottom of the bottle. But this only works right when the cap is sealed and unbroken.
I think it has something to do with pressure and physics.
Alternatively, if you have a stubborn jar... I don't know that they make them anymore, but antique shops might have them. My mother has this handheld device from the 1950s that you open by turning to the right, you put it on a jar and turn to the left, and its claws close around the lid. When that happens, you keep turning, and it's trying to tighten the claws, so that force plus your own strength opens the jar. That thing never fails, when pounding the lid doesn't work.
Expect more blog posts under this new 'Food' label. I love to cook all kinds of food. My wife and I are both fairly picky, but I'll make something even if I don't feel like eating it, if Jen wants it. Like last night, but that meal deserves a topic of its own - I think it's both of our favorite food...
I thought I'd fire off a quickie, just had to use a little piece of kitchen wisdom my mother taught me.
If you have a jar that won't open, turn it upside down and bang it against a hard surface a few times. If it still won't open, repeat.
I believe it works best or only with glass jars that have metal lids - like on jam, or in my case, applesauce. But I seem to remember doing it with a mayonnaise jar or a peanut-butter jar, plastic-on-plastic. So who knows.
As to the possibility of breakage, I've thought that too. But I've never broken a jar or seen one broken doing this. You don't have to hit it very hard.
On the same note, most beverages you're supposed to shake well before drinking (I do this with Sobe drinks) can be stirred up by smacking the bottom of the bottle. But this only works right when the cap is sealed and unbroken.
I think it has something to do with pressure and physics.
Alternatively, if you have a stubborn jar... I don't know that they make them anymore, but antique shops might have them. My mother has this handheld device from the 1950s that you open by turning to the right, you put it on a jar and turn to the left, and its claws close around the lid. When that happens, you keep turning, and it's trying to tighten the claws, so that force plus your own strength opens the jar. That thing never fails, when pounding the lid doesn't work.
Expect more blog posts under this new 'Food' label. I love to cook all kinds of food. My wife and I are both fairly picky, but I'll make something even if I don't feel like eating it, if Jen wants it. Like last night, but that meal deserves a topic of its own - I think it's both of our favorite food...
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