Blog O’ Obscurity

Now I’ve never been a big fan of the old green bean casserole, but this looks like the absolute best recipe for the stuff that I’ve ever come across. The best part about the website by far is the ability to post and save your recipes and also to access the saved recipes that others have left on the site. So find the best and most used three-by-five cards in your old recipe holder, post them on this site, and let me try out your tastiest treat.

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I’ve always been a fan of Sizzler. When I was a kid, I loved to get the All-You-Can-Eat Shrimp plate. For years I’ve not lived near a Sizzler (possible because of too many visits for the shrimp plate).

On a recent trip to California, my family and I stopped by the Sizzler in Barstow. I should have turned around as soon as I saw four tour buses in the parking lot, but we pushed in anyways.

At the intersection of I-40 and I-15, the Barstow Sizzler must specifically cater to tour buses headed from LA to Vegas and back. The restaurant started all of their customers in a line to order food and then brought the plates to the tables. I ordered shrimp (of course) but it turned out to be fishy, bland, and chewy. My kids got grilled cheese which was cold and disgusting.

Needless to say that on the way back through Barstow we didn’t even eat at a restaurant near that Sizzler.

Warning! Avoid at all costs.

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Now that my kids are in school, I have to worry about all sorts of things.  Are they going to be on time?  Are they clean enough?  Is their homework done?  And of course, What am I going to get their teachers for Christmas?

When I was a kid we didn’t tip the paper boy and we picked up our own milk so we didn’t tip the milk man but we did send a gift to the teacher each year at Christmas so I know it is basically a requirement.  My mom would bake banana bread or make cookies or create elaborate gift baskets for each of our 7 teachers.  I remember a late night dash to the store to buy more cellophane paper to wrap the baskets in.

To be honest, I don’t even remember what I got for my son’s teacher last year.  I got a bit fed up when I got a note from a parent at the end of the year asking for donations to an end of year gift as well.  I’d done my duty and I have enough bills to pay without donating to an end of year cause.  (I felt a little cranky about it.)

I never thought I’d reach the point at Christmas where it was a real possibility that I might forget somebody, but now I think I have.

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For those of you in the Phoenix area looking for a good place to go get breakfast I have to highly recommend Over Easy. The prices are good, the food is good and they have REAL maple syrup sitting on the table - no extra charge! When they bring the food to your table it’s as if they cooked and brought it to you without setting it under warming lamps.

When you compare my pancakes to a regular restaurant’s pancakes, mine win because they’re less rubbery. But at Over Easy mine lose because you can actually cut their pancakes.

It’s on 40th st just south of Indian School. If you’re old enough, you’ll remember the place they’re in as an old Taco Bell. It can get busy so get there early if you want indoor seating (they open at 6:30 but I think you’d be safe even at 7:30).

Enjoy.

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You ever wonder who was the first to put certain things together? Or do you ever wonder who managed to look at something that tastes disgusting and find just the right way to make it taste wonderful?

For example. Peanut butter and jelly. French fries and ketchup. Seriously, who would have thought at the beginning of time that these things would work.

“Yeah, take some of those nuts over there and smash them. Then take some of that fruit over there and smash it.”

“You just like smashing things.”

“Then take some of that wheat stuff over there and smash it, and then bake it. Spread the nut and fruit stuff on the cooked stuff and voila!”

“Fine. Dig up the roots over there, slice it and drop it into boiling fat. Then smash up some fruit.”

“Again with the smashing.”

“Dip the former into the latter and enjoy.”

“What, no smashing?”

Or who was the guy that figured out how to make chocolate taste good? Have you ever seen the nuts that chocolate comes from? I bet they taste nasty. Even smashed up into a powder it’s not too appetizing.

Makes me wonder what kinds of delicious combinations and preparations await the world of the future. Hopefully, the future is tasty.

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The British do have some strange food issues, but a recent court decision has declared that Pringles are not potato chips. Evidently they only contain 42% potato product, so they are not a potato chip and cannot be taxed as a potato chip.

I’m not sure which is the most amazing fact. That Pringles are less than half potato. that the company argued that these chips, which are marketed as less greasy and less crumbly potato chips, are not potato chips. Or that there is actually a British tax on potato chips. Those crazy Brits will tax anything. No wonder we fought for our independence.

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Stage One of The Great Move of ‘08 is complete.  We’ve gotten everything out of the house and into the storage shed….and my father in law’s place….and my parent’s place. 

Who would have thought that we are such good packrats that our one house of stuff would necesitate the use of not one, but two additional houses to store it?

This was AFTER the world’s biggest trip to the local trash cans.  We managed to downsixe by 30 or 40 bags of garbage and still couldn’t fit everything into one place.  I’ve got to say that this is mostly my husband’s fault.  I had to ridicule him viciously for more than a week before he finally devided we didn’t need to bring half empty cans of paint with us.  At the same time, I was forced to give up an extra medicine cabinet that we’ll never use.

Wish us luck for the next three weeks while we live with my parents. 

Maybe you should pray….

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Tonight we went out for dinner in Mesa to Organ Stop Pizza. It’s the third time I’ve made the trip out to this particular restaurant, yet I’m amazed every time. They serve decent pizza along with assorted bread, pasta, and salad. The main attraction is the immense organ that takes up one whole wall of the two-story building. The organist plays a variety of songs from traditional organ style music to patriotic songs to the theme from Star Wars. Dozens of baffles control the air flow to the scores of pipes behind a plexiglass wall which opens and closes to allow more or less sound into the room. The organ itself rises from under the floor and turns to give everyone a view of the musician as he plays the songs and controls all of the effects including drums, pipes, cowbells, pianos, flags, bubbles, and lights. It is truly an amazing experience to all of your senses.

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In the world of energy drinks, I find they’re pretty much all the same - inconvenient. Why would I hold a can for as long as it takes me to drink the thing while it gets warmer and warmer (I like all my drinks ice cold even when it’s not appropriate right down to my iced hot chocolate)?

I want something that will help me keep going that I doesn’t require that I type on my blog one handed. I can get that from the MAXXED Energy Pop. I just eneterd the You Make My Energy Pop Contest on their web site and now I’m hoping to win the XBox 360 Elite Bundle and $100 Gift Certificate. The energy pops will help me stay up late to play the video games and wake up early to get my real job done.

Don’t worry, I still plan on finding time to sleep.

If you’ve got a blog you can enter too. If you don’t then try entering the Keep Going Sweepstakes where you could win a XBox 360 Elite Bundle just like the rest of us.

If you would, please take a moment now to click on my energy meter and help give me a little energy.

Thanks!

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My wife’s family has some strange traditions. Some, like the birthday parade, are cute and I quietly endure them, while others are just kind of weird.

Around the holidays my in-laws house is full to the rim with all sorts of strange sweets. Unfortunately, there are few that I find appetizing. The chocolate-covered orange peel is just a strange mixture of wonderful chocolate surrounding something that should have been thrown out. The maple sugar candy has a flavor better suited to breakfast, not dessert.

The worst is halva. A strange Middle Eastern dessert that combines crushed sesame seeds, honey, and chocolate. You may be saying to yourself that all of those ingredients sound good. It just goes to show that some things just shouldn’t be combined.

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