Month: April 2004

We did a lot of yardwork today. We planted five Killerny Raspberry bushes, four blueberry bushes — Bluejay, Coville, Elliot, and Blueray — and a gate post. Also, Gretchen planted ten little pine trees along the fence down by the road.

I’m in pain.

• Sunday, April 4, 2004
  • Weight: 155 pounds
  • Breakfast: a mushroom omelette, hash brown potatoes, orange juice, 2 apple muffins, and 2 cups of coffee
  • Lunch: a quesadilla and a glass of 2002 Bella Sera Pinot Grigio
  • Dinner: a balsamic chicken salad, an apple muffin, and a glass of 2002 Bella Sera Pinot Grigio
• Monday, April 5, 2004
  • Weight: 156 pounds
  • Breakfast: toasted oat cereal with banana and milk, orange juice, 2 apple muffins, and coffee
  • Lunch: a Jimmy John’s Vito Sub — Genoa salami, capicola, provolone cheese, lettuce, tomato, onions, and vinaigrette on a homemade, fresh-baked French bread roll (606 calories, 20 from fat) — and half of a small Coke
  • Exercise: 3.39 mile walk (7,182 steps)
  • Dinner: lo mien, a slice of pineapple upside down cake, and two glasses of Foxhorn Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon
• Tuesday, April 6, 2004
  • Weight: 156 pounds
  • Breakfast: a slice of pineapple upside down cake and a cup of coffee
  • Morning Snack: two cups of coffee and a Act II Kettle Corn Flavor Mini Bags Microwave Popcorn
  • Lunch: No lunch… If you can say that.
  • Exercise: 3.26 mile walk (6,917 steps)
  • Afternoon Snack: 6 peanut butter sandwich girl scout cookies (2 servings)
  • Dinner: pan fried flounder, braised escarole, and Indian Harvest sunset blend rice
• Wednesday, April 7, 2004
  • Weight: 155 pounds
  • Breakfast: a fried egg — over easy — and two maple pork/venison sausage links, a glass of orange juice, and a cup of coffee. The eggs and sausages we both courtesy of the lady who runs the dairy farm down the street, I think in exchange for the horse manure we give her for her fields and garden, though she may just be being neighborly.
  • Morning Snack: three peanut butter sandwich girl scout cookies and two cups of coffee
  • Exercise: 2.85 mile walk (6,044 steps)
  • Lunch: a banana and a Act II Kettle Corn Flavor Mini Bags Microwave Popcorn
  • Dinner: a salad, two slices of Italian bread, and a glass of Harvey’s Bristol Cream Sherry afterwards
• Thursday, April 8, 2004
  • Weight: 155 pounds
  • Breakfast: two toasted slices of Italian bread with strawberry jam and coffee
  • Morning Snack: a cup of coffee and a kruller (our group got an ’atta boy for some networking problems we found solutions for recently), later I had a banana
  • Lunch: It is raining today, so no walking. Instead, I drove to Arby’s and had a Super Roast Beef sandwich, Curly Fries, and a Root Beer (Arby’s Nutrition Information)
  • Dinner: a salad, two slices of Italian bread, a hand full of peanuts, and a glass of Harvey’s Bristol Cream Sherry afterwards
• Friday, April 9, 2004
  • Weight: 155 pounds
  • Breakfast: half of a white grapefruit, two pieces of toasted Italian bread, and two cups of coffee
  • Exercise: 2.90 mile walk (6,155 steps)
  • Lunch: Panda Express kung pao chicken with mixed vegetables on chow mein noodles with hot and sour soup, a chicken egg roll, a small sierra mist, and a fortune cookie.

    Today it’s up to you to
    
    created [sic] the peacefulness
    
    you long for.

  • Dinner: Two Smoked Turkey Baked Chimichangas and two Sierra Nevada Pale Ales
• Saturday, April 10, 2004
  • Weight: 157 pounds
  • Breakfast: an over easy fried egg, hash brown potatoes, a glass of orange juice, and three cups of coffee
  • Lunch: a tuna sandwich and a Sierra Nevada Pale Ales
  • Dinner: pan fried flounder, hash brown potatoes, and a Sierra Nevada Pale Ales

Gourmet recently received several James Beard Foundation Journalism Award nominations, based in part on this article wherein the author offers the following advice on how to get seated in a restaurant without reservations.

1. Go. You’d be surprised what you can get just by showing up.
2. Dress appropriately. Your chances improve considerably if you look like you belong.
3. Don’t feel ashamed. They don’t.
4. Have the $$ ready. Prefolded, with the amount showing.
5. Identify the person in charge, even if you have to ask.
6. Isolate the person in charge.
7. Look the person in the eye when you slip him the money. Don’t look at the money.
8. Be specific about what you want.
9. Tip the maître d’ on the way out.
10. Ask for the maître d’s card as you’re leaving. [Feiler]

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Feiler, Bruce. “Pocket Full of Dough.” Epicurious. October 2000. <www.epicurious.com/g_gourmet/g06_feature/james_beard/dough.html> (9 April 2004).

Non Sequitur had a comic hypothesizing the origin of sushi the other day. If you cannot read my thumbnail, go check out the original.

B.C. had a food related comic today. Again, check out the original if you cannot read my thumbnail.

The other night, when both of our sweet teeth (tooths?) were acting up, Gretchen made us a pineapple upside-down cake.

I spotted this plaque mounted on a stone in amongst some shrubbery next to a walkway on campus. It reads:

The Penn State

Honor Code

A good name is earned by fair play,

square dealing and good sportsmanship

in the classroom, on the athletic field

and in all other college relations.

We earnestly desire that this spirit

may become a tradition at Penn State.

The Skull & Bones Senior Honor Society

Founded 1912

Erected 2003

There is no apparently relation between this organization and the one that the two presidential candidates belong to, but it sounds like good advice, anyway.

Gretchen’s camera has been acting up and we just got it working again yesterday and downloaded the pictures that were on it. This balloon went bumping through the farm fields in our valley on February 29th. My guess is that it was colder than they thought and they were unable to heat the air in their balloon enough to keep it aloft.

On my lunchtime walk yesterday, I spotted these daffodils along the side of the road, no house in sight, but showing the ascension of Spring, nonetheless.

• 11.773 Gallons
• $1.699/Gallon
• $20.00
• 285.7 Miles
• 24.3 Miles/Gallon
• 7¢/Mile
• 15 Days

Renee Kho of shiokadelicious! will be hosting version 3 of the Is My Blog Burning? distributed food event, with the theme of A Cake Walk to be held on Sunday, April 18, 2004.

It was a mouthwatering menu. Not that you’d expect less for $2,000 a plate.

Seered [sic] beef tenderloins with golden tomatoes on an herb-encrusted baguette. Grilled garlic chicken with smoked gouda on a honey wheat wrap. Fruits and gourmet olives and crudite. A gourmet luncheon with only one thing missing: something to eat it with.

The explanation was at the bottom of the menus distributed at President Bush’s $1.5 million Charlotte fund-raiser Monday.

“At the request of the White House, silverware will not accompany the table settings,” it said in discreetly fine print.

No silver. No plastic.

The lack of utensils might have been why many plates went virtually untouched.

The reason: So the tinkle of silver wouldn’t disrupt the president’s speech. [Morrill]

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Morrill, Jim. “$2,000 meal, but no utensils.” The Charlotte Observer. 6 April 2004. <www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/news/politics/8364427.htm> (7 April 2004).

This comes to us via The Red Kitchen: Cookin’ With Google

Judy Hourihan came up with the idea of searching Google to figure out what you’re going to have for dinner and [Tara Calishain] turned it into a Google Hack. One of the most popular ones out there. Doesn’t require an API key.

Just type in the ingredients you’ve got in the fridge and click “Grab a Recipe,” and Google will give you some ideas.