Saturday, July 24, 2010

Fruit FAIL

I'm pretty sure that's not supposed to happen when you cut into a watermelon.

















It reminds me of those pumpkins you see at Halloween. You know the ones.

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

End of a hot dog era

Let's face it, hot dogs are a quick and easy (and tasty) meal. Even tastier when you use a pretzel as a bun.

I don't know if you're familiar with Philadelphia-style soft pretzels, but they're not your typical shape. They're more like two links of a chain. (You'll have to Google it. I'm not sure what the rules are for stealing photos.) I'll wait...

Ok, done?

So you can see that its long thin shape would make a perfect bun for a hot dog. All you have to do is split it and add some mustard. So tasty.

But sadly, the Philly Pretzel Factory near our apartment has closed for good. We actually had to go buy hot dog buns in a bag so we can eat the ones we have in the fridge.

I'm bummed we won't be able to have hot dogs on pretzels anymore. It was really, really good.

Oh, hmm, there's one a few blocks from the train stop in Newark...

Monday, July 12, 2010

Take a look, it's in a book...

Three posts in just a little over a week. It's almost like I'm back in this! (And don't tell me you didn't just hum the Reading Rainbow theme to yourself. We all know you did.)

Anyway, what I wanted to talk about is books. Reading books. I've always been a reader; I read the whole Laura Ingalls Wilder series by the time I was ... oh I don't know ... really young. I'm sure my parents can tell you better.

Lately, I've been having the urge to read, but I've been really busy with other stuff and just haven't taken the time to sit down and amend that. Well, this weekend, I fixed it. I read three books between afternoon Friday and now, which is 2 a.m. Monday morning.

(I suppose you want to know what I read. Nothing earth-shattering. Books from the free bin at work, but here you go: 1) Last Night in Montreal by Emily St. John Mandel [eh, kinda depressing], 2) All Is Forgotten, Nothing Is Lost [better than the first] by Lan Samantha Chang, and 3) April & Oliver by Tess Callahan [just finished 5 minutes ago, so I'm still processing but it was my favorite of the weekend].)

When I sit down to read, I do nothing else until I've finished the book. I know not to start a book in the evening, unless it's short or I plan to be up till the wee hours of the morning. (I mean past my normal wee hours of the morning.) I absolutely cannot STAND to put a book down in the middle. It drives me nuts to have to draw one out over more than a day. I HAVE to finish. Maybe I just get so drawn into the characters that I must know what happens as soon as possible. Maybe I just enjoy losing myself in another world. I'm not really sure why I feel such a draw to read a book in only one sitting, but I do. It just drives me insane to have it drawn out over a period of time. I can't claw my way back fast enough to finish it if I didn't the first time around. Although technically I should be saying "novels," because books I feel I should be learning something from I like to read a little and give it a few days to digest before reading more.

What about you? Do you feel compelled to read an entire book in one sitting? Or are you ok with putting it down every few chapters and picking it up again hours or even days later?

Friday, July 9, 2010

Sweet surprise

On July 4, Scott and I spent the day on an extended date. We're not big into crowds, at least I'm not, and we wanted to be home during the fireworks to make sure our big scaredy-dog was ok during the show.

So we decided that since we weren't attending any cookouts, we'd go get some barbecue of our own (and later we went to go see a movie). There's a place here in the city called Daisy May's BBQ USA. It's been on the Food Network a few times, and recently was featured on "The Best Thing I Ever Ate (Barbecue)."

I'm just gonna cut to the chase. Good barbecue. Even better sides. Really. Fantastic. Amazing. Sweet Tea. I mean like, maybe possibly the best sweet tea I've ever had. And that's saying a lot coming from a Southern girl.

It came in a Ball Mason jar, which is very southern, but it was fresh, had just the right amount of sugar, and something I haven't really experienced much in sweet tea — fresh mint. Which I think was the kicker for me. Man, it was just SO GOOD. I would go there just to get the tea.

Who'd'a thunk I'd find such amazing sweet tea north of the Mason Dixon line?

Sunday, July 4, 2010