“Makin’ Bacon”; or “My God, Saturdays are Wonderful”; or “I’m So Freaking Happy Right Now”

I made breakfast this morning. I didn’t make bacon, but I couldn’t think of a pun involving the word “chorizo.”

Here’s the menu:

Eggs

Chorizo sausage

Hash browns*

Buttermilk biscuits*

Orange-banana-pineapple juice*

Coffee

*Ok, you caught me. Bob Evans brown & serve hash browns, buttermilk biscuits from a tube, and orange-banana-pineapple juice from frozen concentrate. It’s not that I don’t know how to make these things, but I was hungry darn it. Also, I have no buttermilk.

It’s been a busy couple of weeks (as you can imagine.) A musical for which I was playing percussion just closed last weekend, then Christmas, there hasn’t been much time for me to just stand around and relax lately. As the hash browns were experiencing a little Maillard mayhem, I was leaning against the counter and drinking coffee.  A wave of relaxation ran over me.

I’ve been kind of stressing out over other life-related stuff lately, too, and the sudden and unexpected calm was really nice. I guess sometimes you just have to chill the hell out before life can get calmer (as opposed to waiting until life gets calmer before you chill the hell out.)

Anyway, back to breakfast….

Delicious.  Over-easy eggs (or dippy eggs for younger readers.)  The hash browns were fantastic.  And I’ve found chorizo to be an excellent breakfast sausage.  Nice little kick to it.  The juice is excellent.  And the best manual drip coffee I’ve made in a while.

That’s all.  Have a great day.

I will NOT relinquish my Foodie Card.

I am currently enjoying a bowl of stovetop macaroni and cheese. I’m not referring to a great recipe for easy, convenient stovetop macaroni and cheese with real cheddar. I’m not even referring to Kraft Macaroni and Cheese.

No, I’m referring to the uber-cheap, uber-unhealthy, uber-off-brand macaroni and cheese from a box. (33 cents a box at Aldi’s!!) You know the stuff. It’s the one with the gooey cheese sauce that’s mostly butter, salt, butter, salt, butter, salt, and orange dye number nine. Did I mention the butter and the salt?

I don’t know what it is, but every now and then, I just crave some cheap, instant mac and cheese. Or a vendoburger. (When I was in college, the vending machines sold these microwave cheese burgers that were freaking awesome. Not awesome in terms of a burger, but in terms of a tasty snack food that happens to be vaguely burgerlike.) Or a banquet chicken pot pie. Or a burger from White Castle. (Yes, really.) You get the idea.

I know it’s not high quality food. I know it’s not even medium quality food. (Honestly, in many cases even “low quality” would be high praise. Vendoburgers probably don’t have any meat in them.) What can I say? Once in a while, it really hits the spot.

My quest for the holy grail

(of coffee mugs.)

As you’ve no doubt gleaned from past blog entries, I’m a big fan of coffee. I love it. I love the way it smells, I love the way it tastes, I love the way it looks, and I love all things that have to do with coffee, as well. Percolators, carafes, presses, coffee cake, you name it.

This blog is about a coffee mug. For me it exists as a sort of Platonian Form of a coffee mug, because I have yet to find it.

This isn’t about me being a snob, or me being picky, this is about comfort. You see, there are few things more relaxing for me than sitting back with a cup of coffee. Is it such a crime that I have an ideal vessel from which I’d like to drink it?

It has to be an average sized mug, about four and a half to five inches tall, and about three and a half to four inches across. The handle must be large enough to accommodate all four fingers on my hand comfortably (none of that pinky squishing crap.) When holding the mug, my fingers must be parallel to the cup (perpendicular to the ground.)

That’s it. Seems simple enough, but you wouldn’t believe the trouble I’ve had finding it. Or how many cups I’ve found that fit all the criteria but one or two. I’ll find it someday.

Trying a new theme.

It kind of reminds me of a menu.  Whaddaya think?

On reheating rice…

I said in one of my first entries on this blog that a rice cooker was the only contraption that could truly deliver on reheating rice without turning each grain into an impenetrable fortress of non-yummy food crappiness.  (Ok, not in so many words, but you get the idea.) I was just rereading it and I thought I’d share my more commonly used method of reheating rice:

First put the rice on a plate or bowl (a bowl works best,) and add some water to it.  Then completely saturate a paper towel.  (If it’s not dripping, it’s not wet enough.  Don’t wring it out.)  Cover the rice with the paper towel and tuck it under the rice around the sides forming a pouch.  Microwave as you would anything else.

When the water you added turns to steam it is trapped by the saturated paper towel (which is largely moisture-tight.)

This works well with fried as well as plain rice.