Food

I love to eat. I guess most people enjoy eating but there is something about the way a nice Filet melts in your mouth like butter, or the crisp, crunch as you bite into an apple that I just truly enjoy. It can be at home or at a restaurant it doesnt matter as I love to cook, too.

I watch Food Network shows to get ideas. We have cookbooks from at least 3 Food Network chefs, too. Food Network has definitely helped me with my prep and cooking skills. I have a salt cellar filled with kosher salt thanks to Alton Brown's pimping of the products and I cant think of the last time I have used iodized salt. I can say "bam" while adding spices, I use EVOO, and I know that if make a Paula Deen recipe that I need to cut the butter in half or my arteries will be closed up.

One thing that bothers me immensely from Food TV is things that they forget to show; namely washing of hands. Seriously. How many times have you watched a cooking show and seen the host handle RAW meats (especially chicken) and not wash their hands before handling something else? Or they mention how they need to wash their hands and they turn on the water but dont use soap? Unfortunately people in their homes see this lack of common sense hygiene and dont do it either. People like me with weakened immune systems, thanks to post transplant prescriptions, would really appreciate this being corrected like yesterday.

And speaking of raw chicken... recently I was at a work related luncheon. One of those meetings where you have a set menu (usually poultry) to gobble down [pun intended] while listening to
a speaker/s discuss something for an hour or so. I cut into the chicken and see that is severely undercooked. I politely and quietly get the servers attention and ask for another plate. No problem. My next plate I cut into the thickest part of the chicken and see that it is cooked. I eat for a while until I noticed that at the thin end of the chicken breast it is raw. Not undercooked, but RAW. Not really something I wanted to see.

To me when dining out, the environment is sometimes just as important as the food. Can you go to a baseball game and not crave a hot dog? I smell kabobs with Mediterranean spices and I immediately start searching for the belly dancer. BBQ demands blues to be played in the background. A soft pretzel with cinnamon and sugar requires a group of people to yell "Hey Goalie you suck!"

Lastly, when dining out here is a lesson for current or potential waiters: learn to make change. Not just how to add and subtract but also to think while making change. Say my bill is $14.37 and I hand you a $20, dont give me a $5 bill and 63 cents unless you possess jedi skills that will force me to give you the $5 back as a tip (if you have jedi skills you shouldnt be wasting your powers waiting tables). I tip well but 30%+ is something that I, or most people, don't do. And if I decide to give you $5 it is just as easy for me to do it in 5 ones as it as a $5 with the above mentioned hypothetical dinner.

You Cant Go Home

Several months ago my parents realized that they weren't getting any younger and would prefer a smaller yard and a house with fewer steps. So they started looking around and found a house they liked and bought it. That was followed by putting there house up for sale. In less than a week of it being listed, my parents had an offer and closed on it in less than a month (who says the market is getting soft?).

We moved into that house when I was 5, maybe 6. Loading up the moving van, I was flooded with memories. I know it was bound to happen but it is kind a weird when it does happen.

Not long after my wife and I were engaged, I drove her by the area of where the first house I remember living in was. I lived there from when I was 2 until I was 5 or 6. It is now a parking lot for a strip mall. I couldn't show her where the swingset used to be or where I learned to ride a bike.

When we moved into my parents' last house the people that had built it were constantly driving by to see what we were doing to "their" house. They would slow down almost to a stop in front of our house, turn around and drive real slow past it again. They did this until several years ago when they moved a couple of states away. I now know how they felt... I just won't stop in the middle of the road.