breakfast

I ate cold Popeye's fried chicken for breakfast. It is now only 10:03am.

Egg salad and nostalgia

Nostalgia has been the name of the game this year. I blame this mainly on finding elementary and high school friends on Facebook but also on the New York Times.

Today was a beautiful day so I grabbed all the newspapers in the house and dragged them to the backyard to sit out and enjoy the unusually warm-for-January-even-in-Georgia weather. I came across an article about malls failing in the horrible economy and they mentioned a website called deadmalls.com.

I got online to check it out and was transported back to all kinds of bizarre retail memories. I also got wind of the fact that many people are obsessed with old retail. Lots of blogs devoted to old malls, old discount chains, Howard Johnsons, strip malls, grocery stores. My favorite blogs that I've found so far have been
mallhistory.com, labelscar.com and mallsofamerica.blogspot.com.

I learned some interesting info about the history of malls in Atlanta, where I live now, but I also checked out info on malls in Maryland, where I'm from. I desperately tried to register at groceteria.com so I could answer somebody's question on the message board about where a Memco in Rockville used to be located. I loved Memco as a kid. My parents felt safe enough to leave me and my brothers in the toy or record sections by ourselves while they went grocery shopping. It was a wonderland of furniture, clothes, groceries, toys, etc - really similar to Wal-Mart but not as tacky (in my hazy, rose-colored memories, it was a wonderland but it probably was just as tacky as Wal-Mart).

Anyway, dead mall internet surfing led me to some websites on old tea rooms which led me to desire tea sandwiches and tea - thus, egg salad on toast for dinner. I suggest raspberry tea with Serenbe honey (in the unmarked jar, available at Serenbe, pay whatever they ask - it is that good).

This site: victualling.wordpress.com has some interesting links to tearoom sites.

Celebrate Obama - real dinner on a Monday

Monday night is usually scrounge something out of the freezer night but tonight I managed to roast up some ruby red potatoes, toss them with olive oil, rosemary and garlic and eat with lamb tips from Trader Joe's. Yum! BTW, this is the third or fourth meal I've gotten from one of those packages of Burgundy lamb tips from TJ's. You throw it in a hot pan, sear it for a few minutes, cook for another 5 minutes or so on each side, done. So easy and so good. Oh yeah, and I'm having apple crisp and ice cream for dessert. I NEVER eat dessert. And I already did the dishes! Hail Obama! I feel the change already

apple crisp for dinner and breakfast and possible dinner again....

MLK Day confessions:
1) I got up early so I could check my work e-mail so I could re-check the 2009 holiday calendar to re-assure/piss myself off that I had to work today. Boo.
2) Last night, I made an apple crisp and had that instead of dinner. It was too ugly to be bloggable in a photo but it is quite de-lish.
3) I also had apple crisp for breakfast. Yum.
4) I bought vanilla ice cream at the grocery store at lunchtime so I can eat it with my apple crisp at home for dessert.
5) I'm glad I'm not in DC for the Inauguration but I'm sad I'm not in DC for the Inauguration. It's hard to get a sense of the enormity of the situation from down here in Atlanta.
6) I'm still thinking about my apple crisp. I think what makes it particularly good is the almonds I added to the topping.
7) I'm still mad at my dog Cosmo for eating an entire loaf of pumpernickel bread on Sunday. I left the house for an hour and he managed to pull the table cloth off of my kitchen table and consume an entire loaf of bread. I have bread up there all the time and he's never shown any interest. I don't know what gets into him sometimes (other than food!).

kitchen armageddon

I am trying to psych myself up to clean the house but this involves moving lots of inert objects that I haven't thought about doing anything with probably since I moved here. I am sitting here thinking about the fact that I've just eaten my second meal of Popeye's fried chicken since the beginning of the year. Obviously, no New Year's resolutions have been resolved. One resolution is to eat fried chicken at establishments that are not Popeye's. This being Georgia, there are plenty of these places. I think Popeye's draws me back, time and again by, a) drive-thru convenience, b) combo meals, c) mashed potatoes and gravy. This is the only fast-food establishment I frequent where I eschew french fries for another side. The gravy at Popeye's is mysterious, full of pork, and irresistible. If it weren't for this, I might find my fried chicken craving satisfied elsewhere.

I've been threatening kitchen armageddon all week. My kitchen is being taken over by dishes, plasticware, skewers (why do I have hundreds of metal and wood skewers, yet no barbecue?), appliances, lids with no mates and containers of dog-related paraphernalia. To rectify this I feel like I need to empty containers full of crap I will never use (snowglobes? stationery I've owned since I was in kindergarten? receipts?) so I can put plasticware in them in an organized fashion. Why? Why?? Another issue is that this problem is endemic in every area of my home. The laundry room is full of half-empty (or half-full?) paint cans, cabinet doors that will never be used, a make-your-own-soap kit, orphaned clothing that I have tentatively (in my head) saved for "art projects" (ha!!!)

So more accurately, house armageddon is about to commence. I will reward myself with some delicious lamb later.

Ooh, I have to point out that the Doc Green's that closed up in East Cobb near my job has re-opened as a Willy's Mexican Grill - equally overpriced for mediocre food and even worse, inadequate seating. I've previously blogged about the head-scratching success of Doc Green's but watched with glee as the one near where I worked failed, which I don't understand since they were always packed. They will not get any more of my green.

empty fork

I am starting this blog anew because I was sick of the old format and it's now 2009.

January 1, 2009 - first meal consisted of frozen tater tots and coffee.
- New Year's Day Gongora "pig" party eating consisted of cupcakes, yum yum cake (cakey cookies covered in powdered sugar), various snacks, chicken fingers, greens, corn pudding, homemade beer "pig". I wasn't able to stay for the pig to continue cooking at 4 degrees per hour to reach 187 degrees since I had to work today but I will return on Saturday to eat the cooked pig.
- dinner consisted of a can of cream of mushroom soup zhushed up with real portabello mushrooms and garlic.