I’d considered giving up TV shows for 40 days because recently I’ve been getting hooked on one after another. It started with Mad Men. I watched to the end of Season 4 and when it ended, I felt so cut-off. I was itching for more and ended up with some Chinese drama that was okay but not Mad Men. After watching all 45 hours of that drama, I was still not satiated. But then I realized if I stop watching TV, I’ll just fill my time with something equally frivolous like playing Sims. So what’s the point? So instead I got heavily addicted to The United States of Tara. It’s about a woman with disassociative identity disorder (what we used to refer to as multiple personality disorder) and how she and her family deal with it. Toni Collette and John Corbett are excellent!
Giving it up
What’d you say?
Starting early on Spring Tossing
It’s not Spring yet but now that I can step out of the office and still enjoy the last remnants of sunlight, it’s starting to feel like it. In honor of that great yearly tradition of throwing crap out, I’ve tossed all of my perfumes and lipsticks. All of it. Used. New. Why? Well, the perfume is because I’ve recently been reading about indoor air quality and ways to improve it. Perfumes and air fresheners release volatile organic compounds into the air which worsens air quality. Away they go.
As for the lipstick, the FDA recently released a list of 400 lipsticks that they found to have lead. Now, lead in lipstick isn’t a new revelation but I’d forgotten about it. Must’ve been all that lead I’ve licked off all these years. In all the excitement, I threw out that E.L.F. eyeshadow palette too. I’m liking it less and less when I compare it to the Estee Lauder’s and Lancome’s I have. The stuff just falls all over my face and has this tinge of white, probably from the talc. Oh well, for $5 it was worth a try.
Happy Valley
We went to Pennsylvania this past weekend for an overnight visit. It snowed almost the whole time we were there and Saturday night felt like our first truly wintry night. Temperatures dipped down to 18 degrees! For dinner, we dined at an Austrian restaurant called Herwig’s which was very tasty.
Their portions were generous so we had leftovers the next day which was even more delicious. The decor there was very casual, they have you order at the front and then assign you a table. You grab your own drinks. The menu is written on a chalkboard at the front. They decorated the walls with random pieces of art and funny jokes, like a complaint button set on a mousetrap. Afterwards, we went to a local pub and had a local beer. At first, I was miffed about the $2/person cover charge. What is this dinky little yahoo town pub doing charging a cover? They’re lucky people even patron them. It wasn’t exactly a hopping place. Later, on our way out, we saw a musician setting up to perform, so that justified the charge. Unless there’s live music or some service or good that customer’s receive, I’m generally not cool enough to be patronizing places that charge a cover, no matter how paltry. At any rate, we didn’t stick around for the show, and instead, went to Penn State’s Berkey Creamery for some ice cream. Apparently, it’s all the rage there. Yes, even in 18 degree weather, there was a line for ice cream. It was decent ice cream but mostly it was just fun to car-tour the campus a bit and see the people. Penn State is a small town, with a pretty homogeneous population. I can’t see myself living there. Not only because of the 18 degree winters, but because their third highest rated Yelp restaurant was Five Guys. I mean, Herwig’s was good but not that good. For breakfast we went to the Waffle Shop which is their local version of IHOP. Their chocolate chip waffle was stupendous! Didn’t last but 5 minutes max, on the plate.
As for things to do there, I spent about an hour and a half at Wally World buying up face wash, laundry baskets, and cereal. I’ve noticed they’re starting to carry some non-MadeinChina items. The glass mixing bowl was made in the USA. Yay! On our way home, we took the Heritage Route and passed by James Buchanan’s birth place. There were also lots of small towns along the way with bona fide log cabins! The highway would go 65 mph, then slow to 25 mph when we went through the towns. Highway 22 was especially stunning. We drove along hugging the mountains on the left with the Juniata River on the right with more mountains beyond that and a railroad track by the river. This is my kind of traveling! Actually, if we stay in a 5 hour driving radius, there are tons of places to visit.
Super Bowl Dinner
For this year’s Super Bowl Sunday, I made chicken wings using this Buttermilk Roast Chicken recipe I had tried a week or so ago.
I had originally done it using drumsticks as the recipe recommended and it was very simple (which is why I attempted it in the first place) and very tasty. The only thing I changed was, I added cayenne pepper to make it a little bit spicy. Result: I tasted the small kick but the spicy-eaters barely detected it. So Sunday, when I decided to make this again with wings, I decided to really kick up the heat with tons of cayenne pepper and Sriracha!
Let the chicken marinate in this buttermilk spice mix for a day or so.
Also, veering from the recipe, I coated it with corn starch mixed with Adobo seasoning
and pre-fried the wings before baking them for about a half hour at 400 degrees.
They came out crispy on the outside and juicy on the inside.
A little bit spicier this time, but again, not very spicy overall. I think buttermilk has a way of cooling off the heat. Next time I make this, if I really want it more spicy, I’ll add cayenne to the seasoned corn starch and try the hot sauce we got from the Virgin Islands.
I got tired of frying them and baked about a third of the wings without pre-frying.
They were good too.
We also had a beef chili going in the slow cooker all day. This dish came out really good, like real chili! Maybe because I didn’t make it. I think in the past, I’d been putting in too much crap in my chili. This had beef, tomato paste, salsa, onions, tons of garlic, salt, mushrooms, kidney beans, scallions, three fresh chili peppers in it and a lot of cayenne. That’s it! It was quite spicy but so yummy. And another sign that I didn’t make it, it actually fits in the Crock Pot!
You know if I had made it, it would’ve grown into a dish big enough to feed us for two weeks. We were going to add tomatoes but Whole Foods forgot to bag our tomatoes at the check out! Boo. I think this is the second time they’ve done this reverse-shoplifting to us.
I can’t say much about the game but the food sure was good.
Pinzimini
We’ve been trying to explore our hometown a little every weekend. Food-wise mainly. Just about every weekend, is a new find and I’m actually getting more and more impressed with the food around here. This surprising find is located in a Westin hotel. Who knew a hotel restaurant would be so good, but it was. It was also very empty and therefore very intimate and the service was attentive, not overbearing though. We got there at 11:40 so we ordered one breakfast entree and then at 11:50 ordered a lunch entree. Technically lunch isn’t available until noon. For breakfast we got a Florentine egg white frittata and potatoes. The potatoes were seasoned well and tasted like fries. Lunch was a spicy Italian sausage panini with a leek and potato soup and a caesar salad. Their caesar salad was really delicious and it had a generous amount of anchovies! Yum! We polished off breakfast and lunch and even splurged on a pear cake with white chocolate shavings and ice cream. We’re definitely coming back here because they have an oyster happy hour on Friday evenings. Come to me little oysters!
Allergies Gone Wild!
I just got back from an allergy specialist who tested me for a list of common allergens. Amongst other things I’m allergic to: mites, peas, rice!!, and trees of every kind. No wonder I’ve been having sneezing fits every morning year round so it’s nice to finally find out the cause, but rice?! When it comes to food allergies, ignorance is bliss. How do I not have rice?! It’s a staple. I’m bummed about every food allergy actually. I don’t intend to give up anything either. Maybe cut back, but never give it up completely. I just can’t imagine not eating any of the listed foods forever.
Groundhog
What do groundhogs know? It feels like spring is right here. I mean, who needs Hawaii? With midday temperatures hitting the 60s, I’ve been able to take walks outside during lunch in a t-shirt and lap up the sun. I’m cured of my winter blahs! Actually, we’ve been having a rather mild winter this year.
Oh and today marks the 5th year of this blog. Who knew I’d still be talking to myself 5 years later?
Nando’s Peri Peri
Good, but eh. I mean, it’s grilled chicken. Consistent, recognizable, done well. If it were down the street from me, maybe, but it’s certainly not worth going out of our way for it like we did last night. We got the butternut squash & couscous salad, and half a chicken with 2 sides, coleslaw and macho peas. The chicken was supposed to be medium hot but it wasn’t hot at all. The garlic sauce helped give it some spiciness but mostly, it reminded me of the Peruvian chicken joints that are popular all around the area, like Crisp & Juicy or Pollo Rico. The salad was quite good though and the sides were pretty decent too, the peas more than the coleslaw. Despite the fact that I wolfed it down because I was hongry, I’d still say, lukewarm, at best. The service was great, staff was very friendly and helpful.
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