Saturday, February 4, 2012

Hodge Podge

Well, hello! I know I shouldn’t be doing this, but I have a hodge podge of goodies to type about today.  This blog thing is a little tricky – I mean, I occasionally think about potential status updates (who doesn’t, right?! Ehheh….), but those are just fragments….these are actual chunks of thought.  Which makes me wonder how our kids and next generations will communicate thanks to text messages, abbreviations, and intentional misspellings, but I digress…

As some of you know, I am terribly susceptible to weird food obsessions.  Rarely are they revisited, thank goodness, but it’s unknown how long they will last.  They normally involve foods of unknown substance, meaning they are in the gray area between a solid and a liquid (i.e. sugar free jell-o pudding, reduced fat Cool-Whip, mixed PB&J, Odwalla Superfood, Arden’s Garden Complete Recovery, and cream pies). 

On the way home from work one night this week, I stopped by Publix to keep my exposure to non-accountants in line.  I love a good, long stroll down the cereal aisle.  I guess it’s the carbs that get me all giddy?  Anyway, they had a BOGO on these lovely pieces of love that I couldn’t resist.  And yes, it’s the big box, so yes, I have two big boxes to demolish…or, have demolished...ish

I seriously can’t stop.  I’m actually eating an abnormal sized bowl of it between chunk-typing here.  So, I solute you, Kellogg’s for exploring different options with carbs and various processed foods for making these tiny pebbles of joy.

On another note, I made some crème brulee last weekend using a recipe from The Joy of Cooking (PS: I got The Joy with a Groupon for $12…..$12. Just had to say it twice in case you were stunned by the deal I got the first time I told you).  I don’t have a blow torch, nor would I like one in my house (as I have a bad track record with lighters (wax on the carpet) scissors (cut my eyelashes off), and safety pins (any skin crevice I can find)), but The Joy said I could broil with some brown sugar on top.  It worked great up to the point of the brown sugar topping.  As you know, it gets a little chunky or balled up - It wasn’t flat like a “commercial” crème brulee cup.  I put the cups on the top rack on broil for about 8 minutes.  One was definitely on fire when I took it out of the oven.  Obvi, the topping was not good.  In the future, I will only use a sprinkling of white sugar on top of the “crackle” caramel crust.  Second, the custard was awesome – I recommend the recipe to anybody.  Come over sometime and I’ll make it for you (disclaimer to potential randos: invitation is not applicable to you).

We’re always looking for “lower-key” good places to eat around town.  There are two ATL restaurants that I think deserve a little spotlight: Café Agora (next door to Buckhead Bottle Bar) and Bell Street Burritos (one location downtown, the other across the street from Chattahoochee road off of Howell Mill).  Café Agora has some legit Mediterranean fare, and as the name suggests, Bell street burritos has fun twists on burritos, tacos, quesadillas, and nachos.  Very yummy.  Last night I had a shrimp and broccoli quesadilla (*Note: weird taste in food is fully evident here).

On a non-food related “flavor of life”, I love my pink highlighter this week.  As you can tell, it’s the little things these days: Rice Krispies and highlighters… 

Enjoy all of your flavors this week!

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