It just hit me...

Getting the Junior Bacon Cheeseburger value meal at Wendy's - even with a bottle of water - costs about half as much as the cheapest featured "value meal" also at Wendy's. Add a hot fudge sundae from the McDonald's across the street (so conveniently located across from each other on Nursery Road in Linthicum) adds a mere $1.06. not exactly good eating, but it is cheap eating.

Preakness Weekend Tidbits...

A few thoughts:

1. If I had to choose between Loco Hombre and Alonso's, I'd choose Alonso's in a heartbeat. That's the conclusion I came to last night with my friend Scott when we went for Mexican. Easily a third of the items on Loco Hombre's menu was from Alonso's (to be fair, you can order several of Loco Hombre's items on the Alonso's side).

But it seemed that Loco Hombre's food was a bit on the, um, charred side for Scott. We ordered their Loco Nachos ($10) as an appetizer. They came out a good while after we ordered them, but they were indeed piping hot, with nice, cold guacamole and cream cheese on top. They can't be faulted on their presentation, and honestly I did like the nachos. But they were, again, a little burnt for Scott's taste.

The main courses were more overall underwhelming. Scott got the chicken fajitas ($14), with lots of chicken, onion and bell pepper - half of which was burned onto the fajita pan. It smelled good to me. Scott couldn't finish it. My tacos ($13) were soft and juicy, but a little dull. On the plus side, the meat was pretty good in those tacos. The chicken was the best, followed by the shrimp - both were juicy and tasty - and then the steak, which was also pretty good. It was the rest of the entrée that underwhelmed me. I wish some salsa had come with them, to at least spice things up - maybe their very different nopal cactus salsa, for example. Also, the tortillas were a little bland, but that's really a failing of flour tortillas in general and I can't blame Loco Hombre for that one (give me corn tortillas any time). The sides were bland to the point of inedibility. I can't remember when I've last had such forgettable rice. The refried beans had an interesting presentation, lumped onto the plate like an ice cream scoop, which did nothing for their flavor. I wouldn't have minded the tacos, despite the problems with the sides, had they not cost as much as they had. But I was still more satisfied than Scott.

Since it was Preakness Day, and since I had just posted about the Black Eyed Susan, I thought I would try one. Scott has made them before, and the recipe I described was completely unfamiliar to him.


What I got for my $7.50 seemed like an orange juice with a kick. Not a hard kick, just a kick. I didn't get much of a buzz off of it. Each of the Yuenglings I had later at the Central was stronger.

Next time I think I'll just stick to Alonso's.

2. Speaking of the Preakness, there was many a woman in a big silly hat coming in for food after the big race. Yes, we are Big Hat Country.

3. Clothes easily add almost five pounds to your total weight, as I found out this morning. Not counting drawers, which weigh nothing:

• Jeans - 2 lbs
• Belt - 0.2 lbs
• Socks - 0 lbs
  
• Tennis shoes - 2 lbs
• T-shirt - 0 lbs
• TOTAL - 4.2 lbs extra

4. On the, ahem, recommendations of friends who read the blog, I have lightened the background graphic. Hopefully that will help with the readability.

5. Oh, and just as I Tweeted yesterday, I have officially passed graduate school!!! Next task: finding a job for the upcoming school year. Now I can officially celebrate.

Black-Eyed Susan - no, not the flower

Since today is, in fact, Preakness day, it seemed appropriate to post this recipe for the traditional drink of the Preakness. Other versions are fancier (there's the Southern Living version I saw in their last issue, and check out this version from DrinksMixer.com), but this simple old recipe on simple old About.com is, apparently, "how it is served at the Alibi Breakfast at Pimlico and also to the fans at the Black-Eyed Susan and Preakness Stakes." It's not the traditional one (the others are closer to that), but it is the current version. All I have at home is the vodka, but maybe y'all have the rest?

This is quoted from the About.com website.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/4 oz. Whiskey
• 3/4 oz. Vodka
• 3 oz. Sweet and Sour Mix
• 2 oz. Orange Juice

Preparation:

Fill a highball glass with shaved ice, add the liquors first, then top off with orange juice and sweet and sour mix. Stir and garnish with an orange slice, cherry, and stirrer.

And that's **HIC** it!

Dangerously Delicious Home Cookin'

Rodney Henry, the Dangerously Delicious Pies guy, is a man after Paula Deen's heart. He is Paula's latest guest on Paula's Best Dishes. The man is no healthy eater (at least not today) judging by what he's just done in Miss Paula's kitchen. In just the last seven minutes, I saw him slather a raw chicken with one or two sticks of butter (I lost count) and a generous amount of kosher salt. Plus, I don't think I've seen so much shortening go into anything in a long time. Paula's eyes were bugging out - and not in a displeased way!

Not criticisms, just observations. And yes, I've eaten stuff like that before...

And now the two of them are going to fry some pie. Oh my goodness.

A match made in Heaven...

Coming Up Next: Paula and Rodney's Down Home Empanadas...

I'm being silly of course, but they are certainly happy about those fried pies

The episode ends with skillet brownies with marshmallow creme frosting, and Rodney playing the guitar for Paula.

Have you noticed that every guest star that Paula brings in from Baltimore ends up in a jam session on one of her shows? First Duff on Paula's Party, now a Dangerously Delicious Def Jam. Just an observation...

Using Twitter to Find Food...

I'm visiting SoCal again in about a week and a half (a little graduation gift to myself). Such divine providence it is that I found this news tidbit on Yahoo. Apparently, foodies in LA are using Twitter to keep track of where their favorite roving food trucks are. As the article says, one of the leaders in this movement, Kogi (they sell Mexican/Korean fusion food), uses Twitter to tell people not only where they are but also what secret items are on today's menu. To wit:

Since Kogi's launch in November, hungry herds of have been following the pair of white trucks that rove the city selling tacos, burritos and other gourmet tidbits steeped in traditional Korean flavors.

In short order, the Kogi name has become recognizable to foodies around the country. No small accomplishment for a pair of taco trucks, says Kate Krader, restaurant editor for Food & Wine magazine. "That's 90 percent thanks to Twitter."

And she thinks the success of food truck Tweets likely will inspire a broader use of Twitter across the food world.

"Chefs will be Tweeting from the farmers market about the mushrooms they just picked up and will be part of their mushroom pasta that evening," she says.

For diners, there are benefits to the Tweets beyond just knowing where to find the eats.

Kogi is using the service to maintain the Californian tradition of restaurants having secret menus one must be in-the-know to order from (such as the hamburger joint In-N-Out). On the side of the truck, Kogi's menu lists a few items, including tacos and burritos stuffed with Korean short ribs, spicy pork, chicken and tofu. But keep up with Kogi's Twitter feed and the options multiply.

"We do that because it's fun to have something different and experimental available every day," says [Kogi brand manager Mike] Prasad, adding that the truck wouldn't have as many followers if it didn't provide new options.

I will have to start following them now so I can find out where they are when i wind up in LA at last. Mmmm, kimchi and bulgogi tacos.

Little Mouse Bastard...

I told y'all I'd be posting more by weeks' end.

Anyway, I woke up this morning with a mouse running around. I have lived in this apartment for about a year and a half, and have so far managed to avoid anything worse than a spider or the occasional bee flying in through the window. But this mouse has gots ta go.

A few things I found today while spending $17 on one of those ultrasonic noise makers that hurts little micey's ears but is imperceptible to people, pets and plants (those things have worked for me before):

• The little buggers are repelled by mint (that I knew) and also by bay leaves (that I did not know). Maybe that's why I haven't found any droppings or remnants of a little "mouse party" in my pantry. Still, I went out and bought large ziploc bags to put all my boxed foods in, just to be proactive.
• They also fear the scent of fox urine. Pyoo, so would I. But it seems that they make mouse-repelling things with the scent of fox - a natural predator of the mouse - pee in it. Can't imagine why I'd want that around me though.
  
• Chili pepper spray does the trick, too.

I still bought one of those "mouse motels" that I put a blob of peanut butter into. It's away from the windows, so that it won't attract that other obnoxious pest, the ant.

I'm on the Internet Wayback Machine!

I love Archive.org. It has links to pages from years past, but more important is that those pages look like they did in the past!

On a hunch, I searched for my site. I found pages from years ago with webpage layouts and links from 2007, 2008, etc. Just have a look at some of these links. Certainly you can find other blogs on there, too.

Tsunami Martini

A friend and I went to Minato tonight to vent about issues each of us has been having lately. It was his first time (I have this habit of introducing people to Minato). He was happy to see the $3 martini special all night on Wednesdays. I don't usually do martinis. I dunno. I just like driving while sober, what can I say? But I was intrigued by the bevy of martinis on the menu. Knowing I'd be sober by the time we finished our meal, I went ahead and ordered the Tsunami Martini, one of their sake martinis. I don't know the proportions, but it contains vodka, sake and plum wine. We eac tried it, and found it intriguing. The next time I have a free Wednesday night I may have to go back for this.

Because it's Mother's Day

Tattoos are from the dev-ell...

It sounds odd but it's actually pretty good...

Starved for a quick snack? Do what I did: take vanilla wafers and scoop them into some low-fat whipped cream cheese. Sounds odd, yes, but it tastes surprisingly good. I used Trader Joe's "Ultimate" Vanilla Wafers, which taste so much different from the Nabisco Nillas. I wonder how a banana pudding would taste with those?

My first photo of the second 1,000 posts. Pardon the mess. It's been a very busy month.