Sunday, April 19, 2009
La Oaxacena, Jonesboro, go!
OK it would be helpful to take a Spanish speaker with you but the menu is in English. The only person at La Oaxacena, off of Mount Zion Road right below where it splits at I-75, is pretty damn authentic. The corn tortillas are handmade, the carnitas are for real, the carne asada is for real, real chorizo, and almost nobody else but Latinos. I went with a Cuban and a gringo and we created immediate diversity by walking in. Very friendly service, cheap, really good menu. Cheryl and Eric raved about the melon fresca. The soups come in gigantic bowls. They also serve breakfast, real flautas, and some odd corn-cob-on-a-stick-covered-in-lard-parmesan-cheese-and-cayenne thing that negated any health benefits from the corn. The salsa bar has cactus, mole, guac and regular salsa. This is not Tex Mex - closer to Baja, but probably even closer to the real Mex.
Sunday, March 8, 2009
eels
No I haven't eaten eels this week. That would have been the healthiest thing I've eaten if it were true. I ate at Zaxby's, Popeye's, Los Arcos (twice!), and Chick-Fil-A this week. Ugh. One night I had a smoothie and popcorn for dinner. That was probably the healthiest dinner I ate all week. blech. Very busy week at work, dogs are getting friskier coz the weather is nicer and my allergies are kicking in something fierce. Yard work is kicking my butt this weekend but I also managed to take down my old, sparky fan in my living room and buy a new one. I found a giant dead roach in the fan so that may have been what was causing the sparks. Also, gross.
Eels refers to the band headed by Mark Oliver Everett. I just watched the documentary Parallel Worlds, Parallel Lives in which he got to explore his quantum physicist father's past professional life after not really knowing much about him while he was alive. His dad died when he was 18 or 19 and wasn't the most communicative of people. Apparently his dad was a super genius in the world of quantum physics and came up with the Many Worlds theory which, even after watching the documentary which gave the most basic, layperson way to explain it, I still can't paraphrase. Anyway, it was very interesting and he seemed like a cool guy so I looked him up and bought his book on line, Things the Grandchildren Should Know. Aside from his dad dying when he was young, his older sister committed suicide not long after their father died and their mother died of cancer around the same time. One of his cousins, a flight attendant, died in the 9/11 attack on the Pentagon. He was buddies with Elliott Smith. But he has an interesting perspective on it all. Any one of these things would have killed me. I will probably die a long slow death from bad cholesterol. If I'm lucky.
Eels refers to the band headed by Mark Oliver Everett. I just watched the documentary Parallel Worlds, Parallel Lives in which he got to explore his quantum physicist father's past professional life after not really knowing much about him while he was alive. His dad died when he was 18 or 19 and wasn't the most communicative of people. Apparently his dad was a super genius in the world of quantum physics and came up with the Many Worlds theory which, even after watching the documentary which gave the most basic, layperson way to explain it, I still can't paraphrase. Anyway, it was very interesting and he seemed like a cool guy so I looked him up and bought his book on line, Things the Grandchildren Should Know. Aside from his dad dying when he was young, his older sister committed suicide not long after their father died and their mother died of cancer around the same time. One of his cousins, a flight attendant, died in the 9/11 attack on the Pentagon. He was buddies with Elliott Smith. But he has an interesting perspective on it all. Any one of these things would have killed me. I will probably die a long slow death from bad cholesterol. If I'm lucky.
Sunday, February 8, 2009
Sunday, February 1, 2009
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.
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.
Monday, January 19, 2009
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!).
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!).
Saturday, January 10, 2009
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.
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.
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