Sunday, September 19, 2010

Food Blogging...

There are several things I will never be in life and one of them is a food blogger. However because I often find myself looking at whatever I'm making and thinking: "Wow, if I was a food blogger I would take a picture of this because all those peppers are so pretty!" I just so happen to have a collection of random food pictures I will probably never post. So this morning, because it is approximately 4:51 am and I have no idea why I'm awake, here are those pictures.

The beginnings of Asian Chicken Salad, formally called Oriental Chicken Salad on the recipe card, but now with an updated name change because the word Oriental is awkward in too many ways to begin blogging about and should be discussed in a private conversation amongst ourselves.


The completed salad...

Ok, so I didn't make this. But if I truly were a food blogger then I am entitled to also take pictures of delicious things I've ordered at hip restaurants where I eat. In this case the restaurant is only hip in that 5 out 6 of the foreigner families agree it's delicious and the picture was taken because we had a good laugh after we thought we ordered fried tofu and ended up with fried potatoes.


Oh, the cookie making...and the cookie cut-outs! Thanks KF...I love the little duckies!


Sushi night. I love you Sushi night. Please, please, please foreign import store...restock your cream cheese! I am missing me some fake crab, cucumber, cream cheese rolls. Oh, one more reason I'm not a food blogger...do you see my coffee cup in the far right hand corner with the sushi...why coffee cup, oh why are you in the sushi picture?


Now this picture was taken originally not to comment so much on the curry and rice, but to comment on the plastic wrap. I know, it's the little things in life, but seriously this plastic wrap is amazing! Do you remember the commercials when people would hold a bowl of soup upside down and the plastic wrap would be so strong that not a single drop would spill? This plastic wrap is like that...and I know that because I turned this bowl of curry upside down to test it's strength!

What may or may not have happened next includes my husband walking into the kitchen and scolding me for being so careless with a bowl of curry. And what may or may not have happened after that includes me turning the bowl upside down again just to see if it would work a second time. By the way...it did.


This picture is what happens to your rice maker when you decide to try and make black beans and rice with cilantro using an Asian rice maker. It is gravely offended.


It seemed like a good idea in the beginning. Pretty harmless right? By the way, don't try this with oatmeal either.


Salsa, how I love you...how I wish you lasted longer then three days and didn't cause such a stink that disturbs all other leftovers inside the fridge. How I wish you were the kind from Chili's that comes with unlimited chips and a side of ranch dressing if you ask sweetly.


Snickerdoodles. The irony is that before I had an oven tempreature I was baking these cookies for 10 minutes at about 100 degrees F and they tasted great! Chewy, soft and delicious. After my oven thermometer I baked these cookies at 350 degrees F as called for and they have come out like little rocks.


This is the best stuffing I've ever made that didn't come out of a box! Thanks Ree!


I'm laughing right now at myself because I recently read a blog post about becoming a morning person and how much you can achieve in the early morning hours. I guess it's true. In one morning I blogged my entire collection of food pictures from one year. Somehow I think the author had something different in mind when he wrote.

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

I would like to sing the praises of...Amazon.com

I go to Amazon daily. I check it like I check a blog. This strange habit started when I became a Kindle owner. I'm not too worried, yet, mainly because I live overseas and treat Amazon like a bookstore or a small shop I can drop into on the way home from work before making dinner just to see if anything new is going on. And also because I don't buy grocery items from Amazon in bulk that I may or may not need just because they are on sale that day...not that my husband ever had a roommate who did this.

There are so many things I love about Amazon:
I love the Kindle...
I love the free books section on the Kindle page...
I love how Amazon is attempting to reduce the amount of ridiculous packaging in the world...
I love to shop for lotion, sheets, vitamins, electronics, books and pretty much everything else on Amazon...
I've thought about shopping for clothing, but am just not there yet...
I love returning things...it's really easy...
I love buying gifts for other's on Amazon...again...it's really easy...

I love browsing the book pages...
I just love Amazon...

Now, I could comment on how I am slightly annoyed at times by how my views, which I try to steer clear of the romance, sci-fi or strange book genres are impacted by the views of others who also view the same books or other items that I view, but I'll keep that complaint tucked away for now because what I really want to comment on is why I love reading the book reviews.

Tonight I read a review of a book I was considering reading, only because I had been given the author's previous book for free on preview, when I found this sentence written in a review: "There are some solid sentences; there are some points to ponder; the author is just not half as interesting or deep as she finds herself."


And then I remembered exactly why I hated the first book in the first place, even though I wanted to love it because of it's cute cover and catchy title. And so I was reminded that just because the second book has an even cuter cover and even catchier title I would once again be disappointed. I'm not sure who this book reviewer is, I'm sure she's just your average girl, but I'd like to have coffee with her...because she said almost the exact same thing I did about the exact same writer. Me and this reviewer, we might be friends.

So thank you Amazon tonight you have: thwarted an evil purchase, given me my 15 minutes of book browsing pleasure and also connected me to another human being who feels the same way about a book that I do. All of this and your motto is to be "Earth's largest store." Maybe you should change your motto to: "Don't be evil." I've heard that one might be up for grabs.