Omnivore's 100

I found this posted on several other TWD blogs. It seemed like an interesting experiment. I've eaten 2/3 of the list, and only ruled out a few foods that I really wouldn't want to try. As food often makes the memory, I've commented to myself where applicable.

If you'd like to play along:1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2) Bold or Italicize all the items you’ve eaten.
3) Highlight in red the foods that you would never consider eating.
4) Optional extra: Post a comment at www.verygoodtaste.co.uk linking to your results.
Without further ado...The VGT Omnivore’s Hundred:
1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros: a weeknight staple
4. Steak tartare: My mom used to make it with plain ground beef from the store – very 1970’s
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht: USSR, 1988. It was so much tastier than the “American” food that Intourist tried to serve.
10. Baba ghanoush: With Marieke at the Starving Chef, Exeter NH. No one’s made it better since.
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich: Once, as a toddler. I’d have to be a contestant on Survivor to consider it again.
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns: From Phil’s, in college
20. Pistachio ice cream: Ah, spumoni
21. Heirloom tomatoes: the best of summer…
22. Fresh wild berries: I have memories of Portland last summer
23. Foie gras: Le Cirque 2000, Feb 2001
24. Rice and beans: Another weeknight staple
25. Brawn, or head cheese: I see it in the case weekly. Never tried it.
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper: yes, but not a whole one
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters: I grew up in the SC Lowcountry
29. Baklava: I now live not far from Dearborn, MI
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi
34. Saurkraut: For good luck in the new year.
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel: Unagi
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut : hot from glaze line
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi: They go really well in the Japanese rice porridge
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips: Beegee’s mom used to offer them for dessert
61. S’mores: It wouldn’t be a camping trip without them
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis: For breakfast in the diner outside Edinburgh. Never made to Burns night at the St. Louis Brewery
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho: It’s chillin’ in the fridge right now
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant.
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake

Daring Bakers: Chocolate Eclairs

I made the eclairs -- with a cointreau pastry cream filling. I sure don't feel like writing about them, though. Funny thing... I enjoyed each of the parts alone more than the completed project.

TGIF

I SO need this weekend. I went directly from my Olympic hangover to my DNC hangover. I don't think that I've watched this much TV in say...4 years. Thankfully I have the weekend to decide whether I think Palin is Hillary-enough to consider watching. In my mind, Biden is a hard act to follow to the VP stage.
But I digress. It's cloudy. It's muggy. Only members of my house were actually in my house. I desperately wanted a nap. After 15 minutes of relative silence, it was broken. There is currently a large fly in my house and he's capable of inducing sleep-ending hysteria.

TWD: Banded Ice Cream Torte

Note to self: This is not the recipe to make for a camping trip.

Since ice cream doesn't travel well for tent camping. This is obvious. I can't wait to give this one a try, but it will have to be another week.

Relationship Troubles

During a momentary hallucination of true cash liquidity in June, A. and I decided that we would have someone else come and restain our deck this year. Three+ years ago, I stained the flat surfaces. We haven't touched the railings or the 10ft high arbor that spans 250 sq. feet in the four years that we've lived here. For me to take on that project, I'd end up essentially ignoring the kids for a week.

Normally, we are DIYers. Tile or Pergo? check. Landscaping? check. Painting? check. Plumbing? of course. We don't do electrical, because as A. puts it "risk of death is too high."

Now deck staining isn't rocket science. It shouldn't cost as much as a vacation to contract it out either. Through mutual acquaintance, I found my man. Our relationship proceeds as follows:
day 1: time to power wash. Deck-man arrives on time, but power washer breaks and needs to be repaired.
day 4: Power washer still isn't repaired, but deck-man borrows from a pal and cleans off the old paint.
day 5: Car trouble
day 6: More car trouble - needs to buy new car
day 7: Needs to register new car
day 8: Stains some of deck. After one hour, needs to take child to doctor appt.
day 9: Tries to stain arbor. tells me that the stain isn't right. I go and buy new stain.
day 10: It might rain. It doesn't rain.
day 11: Ditto.
day 12: Against our agreement, he tries to spray the arbor. Of course, gray stain splatters everywhere-- on the siding, the already stained deck, the BBQ grill cover.
day 13: I alert deck-man to the splatter problems. He agrees to come and fix them.
day 14: He arrives to try and fix problem. Stain comes off of house no problem. Gray stain doesn't pressure wash off of natural stain colored deck.
day 15: Deck-man needs to rent a sander.
At this point I head out of town. It doesn't surprise me to return home after three weeks and find that nothing has changed in deck-land.

Week 6: We break up. Deck-man tells me he's working a new job. Offers to return the portion of the job already paid for in installments.

Day 41: Kids in basement watching second movie of the morning. I'm finishing up the sanding and staining of the deck. I sanded off all of the large gray blotches. A. and I have decided that the spray splatter gives the deck "character."

When I do the job myself, at least I can take responsibility for my own mistakes. I'm back to DIY.

(Left) Deck with character.

Mom of the Year?

5:56pm
At one point today, there were 7 kids at my house: 6 boys, 1 girl -- ages 9,9,8,4,4,4,3 -- and me.
They all got along really well.
Interestingly enough, the mess level in the house is about the same now as it is when just three of us are home.
I've already cracked open a beer (Lagunitas IPA, to be precise, hoppy yumminess) and discovered in the process that one of MY children left the remainder of the milk gallon inside the tupperware cabinet for the past 3+hours.
I haven't much thought about dinner other than to concede that it needs to be made and that it won't contain milk.
My children are hiding because they might be asked to empty the dishwasher or set the table.

TWD: Granola Grabbers

Dorie thought of these cookies as the ultimate afterschool cookie. While my southern friends send their kids off to school, backpacks in hand as early as the 7th of August, my kids don't start until September 2nd and 15th. For now, though I'll grab a cookie and dream of a bit of peace and quiet. Come the first week of October, I'll bake another batch and think longingly back to the "lazy days" of summer, when I didn't spend so much time in carpool.

These cookies, chosen by Bad Girl Baking, were just awesome. I found some granola flavored with some orange oil at the grocery store and it added a really nice aroma to the cookies. Since I'm not a fan of peanuts, I left them out, adding some extra almonds and golden raisins. There is a sad looking half bag of chocolate chips in the pantry, which I thought of including, but forgot by the time I started mixing the chunks together. These cookies didn't miss the chocolate.

I had two cookies for breakfast, and given their addictive nature, sent most of the remaining ones with A. to work.

TWD:Blueberry Sour Cream Ice Cream

I'm often hesitant of ice cream recipes. The 5 to 7 egg yolks often included are just too rich for me. This one, which I made for the second time this week, has no eggs. The creamy texture and tang from the sour cream are reminiscent of cheesecake.

While in the mountains, I made some blueberry lime jam. The opening steps of this recipe made me wonder whether I could add a bit of jam to the dairy and blend away. I'm also debating other flavoring options -- fruits? chocolate? I'm going to play with this one a bit in the future.

It's a keeper!