Foodie

The San Francisco Treat

2 Comments / Daily Dose, Family Funk, Foodie, Memories /

When I was a kid, I loved loved loved loved LOVED Rice a Roni Spanish Rice. There was no better lunch or dinner (I don’t think I ever tried it for breakfast) than Rice a Roni Spanish Rice. OK maybe my grandmother’s beef and noodles but otherwise, it was Rice a Roni Spanish Rice for me. I do not know why my mother did not serve this nightly. Oh yes I do – ’cause mothers do not like to make their children happy, they live to torment them with foods like beef stroganoff, tuna noodle casserole and pork chops and spaghetti and stuff like that.

When I grew up, moved out and cooked all of my own food, I tried to eat Rice a Roni Spanish Rice every night but my ex husband and then my children complained. A lot. Hmph. I’m sure my mother paid them to SAY they didn’t like it just to continue to annoy me. Mothers do that kind of stuff. I should know since I’m a mom.

A few minutes ago, TW asked me what I wanted for dinner. I answered as I always do, “I dunno. Nothing.” But now… now that I’m in mourning for the creator of my beloved Rice a Roni Spanish Rice… do you think she’ll run to Publix and grab a box? **Updated** The answer to that question is yes. She just walked out the door. Heh. I’m lucky.

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Fine Charleston Dining – Part 2

1 Comment / Daily Dose, Family Funk, Foodie, Travel Log /

I don’t know what in the heck is going on with my template all of a sudden – do any of you in firefox see weirdness? I pulled the last post because I know it was fine yesterday, before I published. But pulling that didn’t seem to solve the issue. And I don’t think I did any fiddling with the template yesterday. Weird. Anyway, what was I talking about? Oh yes, more Charleston dining experiences. Last weekend we hit two more restaurants that were new to all of us. Both were very good and worthy of future visits.

First, we hit the Sunfire Grill & Bistro for dinner on Saturday evening. It’s just over the old Ashley River Bridge if you’re coming in from the North Area. I believe it is in the old Steak & Ale building. We arrived at 6pm and it wasn’t the least bit crowded, but it wasn’t empty either. It’s a dark restaurant, “date atmosphere” but there were quite a few large groups and just a few couples.

Jenn ordered Shrimp & Grits and seemed to enjoy it quite a bit. She ordered a chocolate something or other cheesecake for dessert and ate almost the whole thing. Which means it was good since she was stuffed from the main course. Michelle ordered some sort of seafood combination platter with Tilapia and shrimp and she ate a surprising amount (Michelle rarely does more than pick at her food at a restaurant), TW ordered the crap crab soup as a starter and was pleasantly surprised by it and a grilled cheese for her main dish – unfortunately they brought her the child’s grilled cheese instead of the special gourmet grilled cheese but she was happy with it. For dessert she ordered some sort of chocolate chip cake that she liked very much. I ordered a black bean burger and potato salad and both were very, very good. TW forced me to order a slice of strawberry cake and everyone enjoyed it. There was some mango syrup drizzled around the plate and it was a nice touch.

For breakfast on Sunday, we drove around the corner from Jenn’s apartment (and when I say around the corner, I mean it – she could walk there almost as quickly as we drove) to the Sunflower Cafe. Typical breakfast fare and everyone seemed to enjoy what they ordered – everything from Beignets and country ham to pancakes to omelettes. (One thing to mention – when they say something is dusted with powdered sugar, they don’t mean dusted – they mean coated. If that troubles you, then you should consider asking them to go easy on the powdered sugar or leave it off entirely.)

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Some stuff

5 Comments / Books in Bed, Daily Dose, Foodie, Harry Potter, Health and Wellness, Questions and Answers, Sights & Sounds /

Alright Modest Mouse! (Not that I don’t like Joss Stone, but still, it’s Modest Mouse! Totally cool.)

I have a knitting question for you knitters, obviously since non-knitters like me wouldn’t know the answer. So. You know how people take reading material into the bathroom, if they’re going to be there awhile – heh – do y’all take your knitting in there with you?

I am not fond of the new HP cover. Too cartoony. The characters look “Edge Chronicle-like”.

I think sassymonkey really could get lucky with Ami McKay. Would y’all like to help me encourage her to give it a go?

Yesterday was Diabetes Alert Day. You didn’t miss it did you? I missed it here, and at Blogher, but managed to get it up at work. Not that anyone noticed. Diabetes does not seem to be the “hot disease” at the moment. Go Colorectal Cancer!

OK that’s enough stuff for now. I’ll be back later with a book post. Goodie!

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Back to work, but first….

3 Comments / Cupcake Toppers, Family Funk, Foodie, Friends & Family, Memories, Travel Log /

Some tidbits from the trip home to Charleston:

Jenn’s new apartment is nice. Fewer stairs but too many for my taste (and my knee.) She’s following in her aunt’s footsteps and has a bedroom for the cat.

Riverview Holiday Inn was fun to stay in since I’ve wanted to stay there since I was tiny, tiny, tiny. (It’s a round Holiday Inn and it makes me think of Melissa and “North Carolina” now, which kind of messes with my head.)

The restaurant in the Riverview Holiday Inn, not so good since most people actually like to enjoy their food when they eat. I think they should go back to the old name (which was Prioleau’s) and maybe that will help the quality of the food.

Business sure is booming over there in West Ashley. Sheesh. It’s almost as “bad” as the north area! I do not like getting lost in my own home town, or feeling like I’m lost because NOTHING looks the same.

Cupcake was cute and interesting and fun to FINALLY find but my goodness what a lot of icing! I don’t really LIKE icing anyway, heh. If you like icing and a really sweet cupcake then you must track them down when you are in Charleston. (wrong end of King St! Don’t walk toward Broad, walk away from Broad) Pst… to the owners of Cupcake, your website is too hard to find. Whoever created it for you needs to do something about that.

I successfully avoided the dumb new bridge, though I did have to look at it from the hotel restaurant several times. And, I had to listen to a lot of touristy people and my dumb ex husband talk about it.

Jenn living West of the Ashley is going to cut our driving time. Taking 17 is much faster than going all of the way up to 26. If I can just avoid having to stop at my ex inlaw’s house… ah well, at least it will cut the trip in one direction. A visit to the lake is a requirement, my ex mil would be sad if she didn’t get to hang out with TW for a bit.

My new nephew (OK fine, ex nephew) is damn cute but his mother should not be old enough to have a baby. That stuff makes me feel old and people need to stop doing it. No more babies! No more nephews growing up. None of that. I’m done with it.

Gas is too damn expensive in Florida. I’m considering forcing Michelle to go to college in either Georgia or SC just for the gas prices.

Yarn shops are fascinating places. Even if they have very social dogs wandering around inside of them. If you’re a knitter and you are in Charleston, go to Knit. They’re nice people and the yarn is interesting. (I never thought I’d be talking about yarn shops on MY blog.) FYI there’s a parking garage right next door. How convenient is THAT?

OK enough with the Charleston recap, back to the real world.

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I’m pregnant!

5 Comments / Daily Dose, Foodie, Health and Wellness /

Go ahead and congratulate me.

It’s the only explanation I can come up with for why I have had this weird queasy thing going on yesterday and today.  Then, out of the blue, I am craving Kentucky Fried Chicken.

A baby, cool! I was planning on adopting but this is much better. Now about that KFC… would it be wrong of me to end my boycott due to the Papal Fish Sandwich Blessing issue?

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Boycott KFC!

Daily Dose, Foodie, Pet Peeves /

I’ve tried to give KFC the benefit of the doubt. But I just can’t turn my head any longer.

My children have all waved signs outside of KFC, and flexitarian that I am, I still ate a bit of original chicken every now and then.

I see my son’s yukky PETA KFC bumper sticker everyday and still I occasionally crave some of their excellent cole slaw.

Those disgusting bowl dishes that look like you know who’s vomit, I just pretended those were never invented and went on my merry way smiling at Colonel Sanders everyday.

But this, I cannot tolerate this. KFC should not be selling fish sandwiches. It’s wrong on so many levels. It’s even more wrong for them to request the Pope’s blessing for their fish sandwich. Wrong, wrong, wrong. Hell I wouldn’t support them even if they were calling it something interesting like TW’s suggested “Popecorn Fish”. Wrong, wrong, wrong.

I am officially boycotting KFC until they remove fish from their menu AND apologize for making such an idiotic Papal request.

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I do not heart chocolate

2 Comments / Foodie /

I don’t really HEART anything, as you may or may not remember. But chocolate is high on my list of things I don’t heart – or even really like all that much. That does not mean I do not eat chocolate, because I do. Like last night. I made a pan of brownies and I ate two brownies. And I did not dislike them.


On Saturday, I ate chocolate – twice! Cocoa Via chocolate to be exact. You know, that “heart healthy” chocolate. Once again, food products sent to us by a friend, purchased at Trader Joe’s. (though you can get some Cocoa Via chocolate at our Publix, so this is not a really rare only at TJs product)


First, the Chocolate Almond Snack bars. Not great for this non-chocolate non-almond lover. There’s a lot of texture happening in those little bars. And for once, I can say I understand people who say they don’t like something because of the texture. Way too busy for me to even come close to enjoying.


Next, the Milk Chocolate Covered Raisins. Now you’re talking! Chocolate I actually like, quite a bit. I’m a chocolate covered raisin fan and these I liked. I did share them with TW but I was pretty pleased when she only took a couple and left me the rest. Heh.


If you were wondering about chocolate with “natural plant extracts” and all sorts of interesting “heart health” claims, then I can tell you it totally does taste like chocolate. Which is either good, or bad, depending on your point of view.

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Feel Better Tea Fiasco

Coffee & Tea, Foodie, Friends & Family, Health and Wellness /

OK it wasn’t a fiasco, nobody died or anything, but I think I have proven to everyone in the house (who is awake) that I am not a foodie.

See, we’re sick.  All of us who are awake.  Russian plague sort of sick.  The kind that sneaks up on you and hits you when you aren’t expecting it.  The kind that doesn’t give you a fever but makes you wish you had one so you’d have a valid reason for going to the hospital and just dying. 

I thought I’d be brill (can you tell I’ve been reading a lot of English books set in the 70’s?) and make a pot of "feel better tea".  Ha.  We didn’t have most of the ingredients so I substituted.  It’s not great.  In fact it’s not good.  And TW is laughing because I thought a can of crushed pineapple would do pretty much the same thing as a few tiny cans of pineapple juice.  She’s laughing more because I didn’t add any cloves (do we even have cloves) or any sugar. 

Well she can keep laughing, laughter is good medicine and I’m sure it will help her feel well enough to spend her day driving kids around town and playing with all of the games Santa appears to have delivered today.  Not to mention those puzzles that still aren’t quite finished.  And there’s the laundromat to visit. 

Oh if she keeps on laughing this way, I’ll be able to stay in bed with my really bitter non-feel better tea while she plays superwoman and knocks out 6 dozen cookies and makes those two quiches tonight for dinner.

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