Foodie

Dippin’ Dots

1 Comment / Daily Dose, Foodie, Travel Log /

We’re heading to Orlando for Free Play Florida and decided we might as well stay a bit longer and go to Disney World. Except that didn’t work out (don’t ask) and we suddenly found ourselves with Universal Studios season passes.

Since I’ve never been to Universal and TW hasn’t been in a zillion years, we started researching the rides, the shows, the merch, and of course… the food. Turns out, Universal is very different from WDW. Very, very different.

There are a lot fewer blogs dedicated to Universal Studios. There are a lot fewer videos. The quality of both is considerably lower than the blogs and videos about WDW. It’s been kind of confusing and a little frustrating.

Rather than be frustrated, I gave up on the search for blogs and videos and went to the pros — the Lines Chat for Universal Studios. That didn’t quite turn out as expected.

I asked the Liners, “What are your favorite snacks at Universal?” The answers were… not inspiring.
– Popcorn (not because it’s special or exceptional popcorn, either.)
– Ice cream in Diagon Alley (great – but no specific flavors or anything about it except that it’s good ice cream.)
– Potato Jackets (ok now we’re talking… this sees a lot more like something someone would recommend at Disney World.)
– Candy in Harry Potter World (umm, errr, ok. Sure. Fine.)
– Dippin’ Dots!!! (I believe there were a number of !!! added to that recommendation.)

And that was the list. That’s it. Those of you who have been to Disney World immediately understand my confusion, my frustration, and my feeling of dread.

This is not going to be ANYTHING like Disney World if all I’ve got to look forward to is Dippin’ Dots…

Except, I can’t actually remember the last (only?) time I’ve had Dippin’ Dots. Maybe they’re good. Better than I think they are?

We saw a Dippin’ Dots cooler in the little local pharmacy last week, I was tempted to buy some and find out. But no… I’m going to wait until I’m at Universal and I’m going to order those Dippin’ Dots and I’m going to come back and tell y’all what an amazing snack they are. And in December, I’m going to ONLY eat Dippin’ Dots and ignore all of the fancy snacks offered at Disney World. I’m sure of it. There’s a reason Dippin’ Dots are one of the BEST snacks in all of Universal Studios…

* Important: The Liners absolutely provided the information I was looking for (not just about snacks but about rides and shows, too.) If you’re going to Disney World, I highly recommend you subscribe to Touring Plans (it’s not that expensive) and download the Lines app. You might not need it for Universal, but for WDW – it’s a must.

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I Made Toast For Dinner and I Liked It!

Books in Bed, cookbooks, Daily Dose, Foodie /

Remember how I said I don’t really like toasted bread? Well I also said I was going to make something from that cookbook and if it went well, I’d let you know.

I made something. It went well. I’m letting you know.

I made the Nectarine Caprese Toast for dinner last night, except I left out the tomato (which makes it not so much a caprese, right?) I thought the tomato might be too much? Or maybe I was just feeling lazy and unsure of how the dinner was going to go? I couldn’t really wrap my head around the nectarines and the basil and then there was the whole pan toasted bread thing… that freaked me out. Oh, I also used sourdough instead of a baguette because I just felt like having sourdough. And, there were no white nectarines at the grocery store so I used plain ole nectarines.

THIS WAS YUMMY.

I mean really yummy. I over-toasted a slice of sourdough and was annoyed with myself, but it was ok — TW and I just ate extra slices of nectarine, mozzarella and basil without that piece of toast and we were happy.

I will totally make this again. I’m kind of sorry I don’t have more nectarines because we have plenty of cheese and basil and sourdough — it could be an awesome breakfast. Heh.

If I could just remember to take pictures of food I make (and also maybe learn how to take a decent food photo) I could become a food blogger! hahaha.

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Ah, That Brings Back Memories

1 Comment / Daily Dose, Day to Day, Foodie, Memories /

On Saturday, I was scrolling through Instagram, like I do, when I saw a photo of a Cherry Dip cone from Dairy Queen.

Oh! Cherry Dip! I haven’t had Cherry Dip in a zillion years. I want Cherry Dip!

I pushed that last thought away and went about my day. But Cherry Dip kept popping into my head.

Finally, a little after 4pm, I couldn’t take it any longer and I told TW we should just put on pants (pants!) and go to Dairy Queen and get Cherry Dip.

Oddly enough, TW’s response was, “It’s almost 4:30.”

Umm, not her normal response for such things. I figured she didn’t like Cherry Dip or something? So after telling her that they do serve Cherry Dip at 4:30 pm on Saturday, in the summer, and getting not positive response from her, I tried to push Cherry Dip from my mind.

Next thing I know, TW’s making dinner. A very nice dinner. The tater tot waffles were good. Good enough that I didn’t even complain about the mess from the waffle iron. And by the time I’d eaten all my dinner, I pretty much had forgotten about Cherry Dip.

Until a couple of hours later when TW said, “So, are we going to get Cherry Dip or what?”

I tried to ignore her. I had wanted the Cherry Dip hours ago. Not at 8pm, damn it. Didn’t work. I still wanted Cherry Dip.

So we got dressed (it took more than just pants by this time) and drove to the DQ/OJ combo a couple of miles away. The line was long. Very long. The workers were not quick. We ordered our Cherry Dips (and small OJs) and sat at a small table by the door.

A boy behind us in line also ordered Cherry Dip, though he got a large one and we had small ones.

Every time someone came into the DQ, they said, “Oh Cherry Dip! I haven’t had Cherry Dip in years!” or “Oh, I haven’t thought about Cherry Dip since I was a kid!”

Nobody ordered Cherry Dip but it was amusing to hear everyone do that initial gasp of memory when they saw the Cherry Dip. It was also kind of fun to listen to everyone talking about their memories of Dairy Queens from long ago — because that’s what everyone sitting around us did, while they were there.

I don’t know if it was the Cherry Dip that brought on the nostalgia or the old photos on the walls or if it’s just a thing that happens in Dairy Queen. Whatever it was, it was fun and I really enjoyed the Cherry Dip.

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BlogHer Food: Day 2

4 Comments / Daily Dose, Foodie, Travel Log /

Another great day at BlogHer Food.

The morning keynote was excellent. I’m a huge fan of I am Baker, ya know.

We rode the excursion bus to Brickell Village but walked a few blocks to a terrific latin cafe, Tinta y Cafe. We had just gotten our food when Stacy, Julie, Jenny and Jenijen showed up so our lunch hour extended to a two+ hour lunch. That was a lot of unexpected fun.

The after party, hosted by Elise, Jaden and Ree, was terrific (as usual.) The flamenco dancers were great, the venue was gorgeous, the people were fabulous. (Even Melisa, Diane and Liz. lol)

Another great event and I’m so glad I was able to attend #BlogHerFood (even though I’m not a food blogger.)

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BlogHer Food – Day One

2 Comments / Daily Dose, Foodie /

Great day at BlogHer Food.

I didn’t spill coffee on my shirt.

My 20 minute lightning talk on copyright violations and content theft went well.

I saw awesome people.

Amanda, I Am Baker hugged me.

The Wisconsin Cheese folks hosted an awesome event, BloggersByTheBay — I will never eat hummus without blue cheese again. OMG that was amazingly good.

I hugged Elise Bauer. Twice.

I facetimed with Jory’s kids.

Great day and we get to do it all over again tomorrow. After I get some sleep, please.

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Girl Scout Cookie Time

4 Comments / Daily Dose, Day to Day, Foodie, Kid Talk /

It’s Girl Scout Cookie Time and I made sure to have some cash in my pocket today when we ran errands — sure enough, the girls were outside of the Starbucks, which is right next to the Robeks we usually stop at after a trip to the Navy base.

While we waited for our Robeks, I asked TW what kind of cookies she wanted. She said, “I dunno, who is the baker?”

Duh, either Little Brownie Baker or ABC, how the hell did I know? I could have walked out there and looked at the boxes and then come back and asked her again which kinds she wanted but whatever. I’ve never tasted a difference between the two, I think TW is just weird.

She’s also annoying and did not want Samoas (Little Brownie Baker FTW!) so I only bought one box of those to send to Sassymonkey and the Fake Husband. She’s also annoying because she likes Thin Mints — I do not. Thankfully she does like Trefoils and Tagalongs — so I bought those and was happy enough.

This led Elly to be completely 100% annoyed. We bought Trefoils for godsakes and NO SAMOAS? What is WRONG WITH US?

I blamed her mother, rightfully so — there are some things I’ll take the blame for but not buying Samoas, nope. That’s all on TW. (But next year I’ll remember and buy a box of them for Elly and we will make sure TW doesn’t touch them.)

Now I’m off to eat a Trefoil. Or 12.

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Frozen Yogurt for Dinner

Daily Dose, Family Funk, Foodie, Memories /

Last week (or was it the week before) when I read one of those Jennifer Crusie novels, the characters kept eating hot fudge sundaes and I really really wanted one.

Actually, what I wanted was plain ole vanilla ice cream + the chocolate syrup my parents used to sometimes make for us. But, since neither of my parents seemed to show up at my door and I was still craving a hot fudge sundae, we went to Menchies for dinner tonight.

A froyo with bobas and hot fudge sauce is not nearly the same as a hot fudge sundae, but it was good. Or good enough. I’d still like one of my parents to show up and make me some hot fudge. Or maybe I could just figure out how they made it and convince TW to make me some? Now that I think about it some more, I’m kind of still craving that hot fudge sundae.

Gah.

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I’m Still Craving Roast Chicken

4 Comments / Animal Issues, Daily Dose, Day to Day, Foodie /

At some point last weekend? Or maybe it was last Friday? Whatever, I don’t remember exactly when… I started to smell … something … every time I was in the office. Something familiar. Something almost… comforting? What was that odor?

It finally occurred to me that it was something like roast chicken or maybe turkey. Huh. Weird. Was TW roasting a chicken for dinner? That would be nice but why was she roasting a chicken so early? Was something going on that meant she needed to cook early? Or we needed to eat early? Or … oh well. Whatever.

I assumed that’s what it was and went on about my day only to discover much later that TW had not really planned anything for dinner and she was most definitely not roasting a turkey.

Huh. What was that odor?

We ended up having pork chops and dressing and some other vegetables that I don’t really remember now and I kind of half decided that the odor in the office might have been dressing. It kind of smells like that and maybe RJ had found the bag of vegan dressing and made herself a pot earlier in the day? Weird but it could happen. RJ likes dressing.

I went about my business trying very hard to forget that the office STILL smelled like… roast chicken? stuffing/dressing? SOMETHING… but after two days, it was getting harder to forget that the office smelled that way.

On the third day, I was pretty much going nuts and had decided that my subconscious was telling me that I needed to roast a chicken or the scent was NOT going to go away. So I made a note to myself to take a chicken out of the freezer.

Later that evening, the dogs were causing a ruckus at the prairie dog cage. Skeeter and Lola barking, Betty banging on the bars, Buster butt banging on the bars. Total mayhem. I went over to shoo the dogs away only to find Buster trying very hard to remove some stalks of celery from the cage and the odor, the one that I thought was roast chicken or stuffing … it was oh so very strong.

Celery. It was celery. Not a chicken roasting. Not dressing/stuffing. Celery.

I cursed and removed all of the celery from the cage because the girls were certainly not eating it. I removed the celery from the mouths of all three dogs (because by that time Buster had successfully removed several stalks) and threw it all away.

I also forbid TW from ever putting celery in the girls’ cages again. It was bad enough that the office smelled like squash for three days the last time she put a half of a butternut squash in their cage but this was worse. The not knowing what the smell was or WHY it was there was so much worse than that. I really had begun to think I was nuts.

It’s been several days since I solved the mystery and cleared out the celery. The office hasn’t smelled like roast chicken in ages.

But, every time I sit down at my desk I think, “Gosh, roast chicken would be really awesome for dinner.”

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Mmmm, Pie

Daily Dose, Family Funk, Foodie, Memories /

Funny title, coming from me, isn’t it? I don’t like pie. At least that’s what I usually say.

The only real pie that I love is pumpkin pie and I can eat a whole pumpkin pie all by myself, in just a few days. In fact, I prefer it if I’m the only one eating the pumpkin pie. Let the other people eat the other desserts and just leave me the pumpkin pie.

I’ll eat the bottom crust but I never eat the side crust. Ever. Blech.

Which is why I don’t like pie. I don’t like crust.

I will eat a cherry pie but will leave as much of the crust on the plate as possible, which means I really just like the cherry filling. And please. Do not ever put a top crust on a pie. That just pisses me the hell off.

I’ll actually eat all sorts of pie FILLING. Key lime, lemon meringue, banana cream, apple, peach. I just kind of wish people would make crustless pies more often. That would be wonderful.

But…

Today we went to Bakers Square to pick up a holiday silk pie that I ordered for TW’s mom to take to some social event or another (and I ordered a banana cream pie for me and TW… I’ll eat the filling and leave the crust, duh) and all of the pies in the case looked really appealing. But I know I won’t like them. I’ll just like the filling. Seems dumb to buy a pie just for the filling, doesn’t it?

That visit to Bakers Square reminded me of going to Shoney’s when I was a kid and picking up a Strawberry Pie, on special occasions. It didn’t happen often but when it did, oh boy was that awesome. I miss those pies.

Well the filling. And the whipped cream on top.

I’d give pretty much anything for a good ole’ Shoney’s Strawberry Pie right now. Hell, as nostalgic as I’m feeling, I might even eat the crust.

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Yummy Food Cooked In the Ninja

1 Comment / Daily Dose, Foodie /

I’m thankful for grilled cheese sandwiches with cranberry grape sauce, cooked in the Ninja.

Yummy. Very yummy.

And, the clean up took like 2 minutes.

Win, win, win, win, WIN!

If you don’t have a Ninja, you need one. If you don’t have cranberry grape sauce… well… I don’t know what to tell you since we bought our jar in Beloit and I dunno if you can find it anywhere else or how one might make such a thing. Surf the internet — maybe you’ll get lucky and find a recipe you can make IN the Ninja?

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