Blake is old.

Just kidding.  He's not old.  He did, however, turn 25 this week.

People, the only way I could have made that cake more chocolatey would have been to cram Hershey bars in the top.  I used dark cocoa powder for the frosting.  Heaven!  Why haven't I made friends with dark cocoa before?  Seriously, changed my life.

I put a lot of thought and care into Blake's birthday present.  So much so that he came up with the idea and researched it himself.

Usually when I ask what he wants he shrugs.  If he wants it, he'll get it.

Not so this time.  Ever since he got his bike, he's been reluctant to shell out the dough for a bike stand.  It's well over a hundred bucks so I understand the hesitation.  Anyway, his birthday was a good excuse.

I had no idea Blake could do research.  Usually, I'm the one scouring review sites and Amazon.com for hours before we make a purchase, but when it comes to the bike, all bets are off.  He's a man obsessed.

Luckily, the one he wanted was in stock (and amazingly on sale), at a hardware store not far from where we live.

Happy Birthday Blake, may you easily lube your chain from now on.

Great Day

Had more Thai today. Met four other ladies from the CinC boards (three of us had met before). So nice! I love how our little group is growing. Except I forgot to take a picture, grrrr! I had my camera and everything. FYI: The Siam Thai lunch buffet is only $8.55, including tax. Unfortunately, I could only eat one plate of food (and a side of 5 pieces of sushi rolls). Tasty indeed.

It's nice to have some women to commiserate with sometimes. Mostly, my husband is my sounding board. *Cliche alert* My husband is my best friend. It's true because it said so on our wedding invitations. He's a great listener. He lets me complain and then smirks and says, "you're such a whiner." I know that should make me feel worse, but it makes me laugh every single time. He's good at breaking tension. It's one of the reasons we never fight. One of us inevitably says something funny and neither of us can resist a good laugh. Hope it's always like that.

The girls and I laughed a lot today. Which feels better than sitting home eating a 9X13" pan of brownies alone and watching "Legally Blonde" one and two.

Free Food

Someone (BMurphy) reminded me that I have a blog and haven't written on it in a very long time. Whoops. So thanks for the reminder!
So here goes:

Free Food is one of the best things on Earth.

A few years ago, I interned at the Cooperstown Chamber of Commerce. Lots of happy baseball people and opera-loving men in rumpled linen suits. One of my very favorite things about working there was the food. B&Bs are EVERYWHERE in that town, and in all of Upstate NY for that matter. The Chamber members would bring in amazing pastries and breakfast and just... pure goodness on a plate. And we would all dig in. There was bacon. And it was good.

In college, my bestest friend, Rae, and I worked in the Alumni & Donor Records Office. Free food abounded there, too. Mostly donuts and cookies. Our boss insisted we eat whatever food was there. She was Italian, that explains it all. Lorae and I did justice to many a fruit and cookie platter in our years there.

I'm temping this week at an insurance office full of very nice, extremely civic-minded, charity-loving individuals. Come to find out, these people are good about everything, including their diets. There were five people here yesterday. Guess how many eat sweets? One. Guess who that one was? Me.

I had a bite of what amounted to two chocolate bars wrapped in bread, but didn't finish it as I have no desire to develop Type 2 Diabetes. I brought it home to my husband. The man can eat anything and he still has 0% bodyfat. I told him this and he informed that if he had 0% bodyfat he would be dead. Smart Alec. I had half a shortbread cookie instead. Before I even bit down I could tell the shortbread was pure fat. Whether it be crisco or butter, it was oh so good. Shortbread is magical. So versatile and you don't even need eggs.

My husband had quite a culinary adventure over the weekend. I wasn't feeling well and he decided to make his grandmother's brownies. Somewhere between warm the oil and bake at 375, something went horribly, terribly wrong and they came out this crumbly, grainy mess of ickiness.

The better I get at cooking, the worse he gets. When we were first dating (which makes me sound old, I know), he impressed me with his culinary acumen and presentation of a butter-slathered hot and spicy shrimp dish that made me want to marry him on the spot. Since 11th grade is a bad time to get married, we postponed. Now that we live together and I temp, which is code for "work once a month," I do all the cooking. I've heard him say several times that he can't cook. Which is just silly. He can remember ridiculous amounts of information, learn how to fly planes, and can't make a simple casserole?

May I present: Cooking for Engineers. Recipes and cooking tips for people with minds like my husband. That is, science-y and technical-y and precise-y. I was raised with the "pinch of this, pinch of that" method.

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I didn't set out to write entirely about food. Can you tell that my lunch was dissatisfying? Can you tell I wish I had more than a PB&J and a peach to eat? What I wouldn't give for Cape Cod potato chips right about now.

A Guest!... or show a civi to work day (sort of)

So, as previously mentioned, Blake's cousin is coming down to visit. Very fun guy. We've had to reschedule his trip twice because of... well... what else? The Navy. Anyway, he's coming tomorrow, and the Navy can't stop him.

As part of the military, there are SO many opportunities. Lots of free or cheap things to do to entertain out-of-towners. True, every day won't be Mardi Gras, but we've got some fun things lined up.

As with Blake's sister's visit, we have a list of awesome, free things to do. Luckily, it's nice weather out and warm enough to visit the beaches on base. I could spend entire days lounging in the sand. Of course, the Aviation Museum at NAS Pensacola is not to be missed. I mean, it's fascinating and 100% free! Also, the Blue Angels are once again practicing. On certain mornings, free of charge, you can sit in the bleachers and watch. There's also an autograph session after.

As for things we'll have to pay for, we're going canoeing at NAS Whiting Field, courtesy of the MWR over there. There's a small fee for that, but it's less than renting from other companies along the Blackwater river.

Pensacola beach, which is $1 (to get across the bridge). I'd never even seen a picture of it before we moved here. I'd heard the sand was white, but I never expected it to be so pristine and the water is the most beautiful, tropical blue color.

The annual Elberta German Sausage Festival is free to attend, but they charge for food. It's kind of like a town fair. It will also allow my husband and his cousin a few day's worth of sausage-related humor. As you can imagine, that is the part I'm most looking forward to....

It's nice to have company, just another person to chill out with, sit on the sun porch and have a beer.

Ah, Sunday

Another blissfully uneventful day in Pensacola, FL. What did I do all day? I can't say for sure... I know I watched "Sex and the City," and therefore, saw Cynthia Nixon's baby pillows. I watched "Up Close and Personal" yet again, though I don't know why I do that to myself. If you haven't seen it, please don't, because you will cry your freaking eyes out (like I do). Blake was very concerned when he saw I was almost sobbing by my computer. No, no, honey, don't worry, it's just Michelle Pfieffer and Robert Redford.

Blake and I made pizza dough last night. I couldn't for the life of me find pre-made pizza dough in the commissary or Wal-Mart (seriously, what gives, Florida?). So, I got home and decided to make a yeast-less crust. I'll admit, I was kind of grumpy. I blame PMS. Blake was tolerating it with wonderful patience.

So, I wrote down the recipe and we went to the kitchen and I wasn't really paying attention because, you know, I had to nurse the thundercloud over my head (not nurse like... nurse... but... whatever, you know what I mean). So I put in a tablespoon and a half of baking soda. Blake said, "how much baking soda?" and I said, "a tablespoon and a half" and he said, "oh." Into the oven it went. WOW. Have you ever tasted something with too much baking soda in it?

worst . taste . ever

So, I took the toppings off it and put it on top of tortilla chips. It was pretty good, but I felt bad for screwing things up. Blake told me he probably wouldn't have liked it anyway because he doesn't like "bready" pizzas. For some reason, it only made me feel worse that I screwed up something he wouldn't have liked. The mind is so perverse.

Today, Blake said, "if you were a pizza, what would you be? I would be a thin crust, white pizza and you would be... oh what do they call it? A personal pan."

Rainy, but Beautiful

or... Because of Winn-Dixie, not the dog, not the book, but the grocery store

Wonderful day today. It started with the mood-brightening sleeping in. True, it was only until 9:00, but it felt good.

Next, lunch at Quizno's. For those of you who don't know, they recently did the Million Sub Giveaway. Basically, if you didn't register for it within the first four or five days, you missed out. A free small sub. So, Blake and I headed down to our local shop and got our free subs, which were extremely tasty. May I just say that Quizno's is a million times better than Subway? Their food quality if so much better.

Then, I went to the library, which is one of my favorite things ever. The one closest to me is a branch library on the Pensacola Junior College campus. It's not very large, but books are books! I spent an hour in there, just perusing the shelves. It was great... and I got seven books out. They do four weeks, which is just plain awesome.

Then, I went to Wal-Mart for Blake and then, to Winn-Dixie.

I'm from New York State. We do not have Winn-Dixie grocery stores. Our best stores are Wegman's... and what stores they are. *sigh* I do love Wegman's and I miss them terribly, truth be told. Well, today I did my first serious shopping at Winn-Dixie and I am very impressed. The prices, the food, not that much different from Shaw's or Publix (which we also don't have in the north), but the deals! The deals were absolutely astronomically, orgasmically, beautifully beautiful.

Their buy one, get one deals were the best I have ever seen. I got eight jars of Classico pasta sauce , two packages of pork chops, two packages of chicken thighs, two bundles of broccolli, two bags of tilapia, pasta on sale, cheap tuna, sale milk, and cheap Parm-Romano cheese.

I saved $35 with all my sale items. I was in heaven.

To round out the day, last night, Blake and I made chocolate-chip-oatmeal-raisin-cookies. I found a recipe that is hands down, the best cookie recipe I've ever found. Yes, like all other recipes, it could use a little tweaking of amounts, but they're tasty. They also look like a picture in a book, like those expensive cookies they charge you four bucks a pop for at Starbucks.

Now, I'm going to play video games until I make myself motion sick (approx. 30 mins) and then read. Yes, I am having a very good day indeed

p.s.
This motion-sickness thing is creepy. I used to be very, very sensitive to first-person video games when I first started playing, though I've never been sick on anything but a roller coaster in my life. After awhile, my body learned to deal with the video game movements. Then, I received Quantum of Solace and man, it's like being a noob again... thirty minutes tops.

Adventures in Bread

Frugality, epicurean snobbery, living through my stomach/taste buds... yes, yes and definitely yes.

Sunday is baking day. Here is what I did:



Meet my bread. Three loaves, all from my now-beloved sourdough starter. The two outside loaves are plain sandwich bread. The inside one is cinnamon raisin. Behold!



I didn't put in enough raisins... or enough cinnamon. As I was putting it in the loaf pan I thought to myself, "oh crap, this rises again." Meaning: I put in enough extras after I kneaded it, but before it bakes, it rises again until doubled, which means that technically, I have to put in twice as many raisins and stuff. That being said, it's still ultra-tasty and makes awesome breakfast toast.

There is only one more bagel left and Blake loves cinnamon raisin toast. Bread is easier than bagels... trust me. Oh, here's a picture of the bagels I made last weekend:




They were tasty. Though by the end of the week, I was bagel-ed out. Actually, I think I was just sick of all the chewing that went into consuming them. Bagels are so dense.

Bread is easier to chew... and today's loaves made the apartment smell amazing!