I am Middle Eastern?

This past week or two, the food I have been making has taken a decidedly Middle Eastern direction, as I have been perfecting hummus and tabbouleh recipes. Growing up, I was taught you are what you eatbut if that's the case, I am beginning to doubt my heritage.

For the past few months, i have been trying to see how many meals I could comfortably eliminate meat from. There's no vegetarian or higher purpose to this goal. (Perish the thought - a life without bacon is simply not one I want to live.) It's more a matter that I am exceedingly lazy and I do not feel like I consume enough vegetables each day. There are two choices, as I see it, to rectify this. First, I could cook more vegetable side items, which is ok but, again, I am lazy. Second, I could simply make the vegetables the entire main course or an interagal part of it. Well, that's how it all started but now it has sort of become a goal. What healthy thing can I make from vegetables? Does fried eggplant count as healthy?

I seem to know how to do lots of things with meat, but now I want to branch out and do more with vegetables. I have to do something to keep myself busy other than working all the time, and clearly, blogging is so not one of those things. Did you see me post twice last week? Me neither and I am not sure this week looks much better. However, I have added two new recipes to my repretoire and as long as I am eating, things cannot be that bad, right?

Candy Man

In junior high, my entrepreneurial spirit took hold and I began selling candy at my school. This was not the sort of sanctioned candy sale put on by one of the school's organizations or at the school book shop. No, this was my own sort of shop, where I wandered around the school with tons of (at the time) kids' favorite candies - Now and Laters, bubble gum, Lemon Heads, Fireballs, etc. The candy was concealed in my long winter coat. Through a twist of fate, the inside pocket of my coat had torn and I was able to use the entire lining of the coat as an enormous pocket for the stashing of my product. Sure, some kids at other schools sold illegal narcotics, but at our school, sugar was our students' drug of choice and I was their supplier.

The profits were enormous, as I was able to markup everything by 100%, and I had no real overhead costs. Sure, in some cases, I had to take the time to repackage everything. For example, when you buy a bag of 100 sticks of gum, you need to break it down into something more palatable to your average junior high consumer, like bags of ten. There was some effort involved, however, as the nearest store from which I could replenish my stash was about 10 miles away - 10 miles of insane, mountainous hills. Fortunately, my mother was supportive of my new found career, once I told her about it.

Unfortunately, my school was not as pleased with my job creation spirit and did not seem to feel I should be aiding the youth of America in their pursuit of a sugar fix and early onset diabetes. I guess they wanted to have the market cornered for themselves. In any event, after much back and forth, and repeated harassment, my budding career was brought to a halt. Mostly as a result of supplier difficulties. I guess the only people more upset with me selling candy to the masses were the ones supplying me with the product. Even though the store that supplied me was in a completely different town and they were incredibly unlikely to be able to sell to these people otherwise, they were somehow outraged that I was able to make such a sweet profit. They probably would have never known I was doing it but I guess sooner or later they got suspicious as to where the seemingly limitless supply of candy I was buying week-in and week-out was going and questions were asked.

Another bright future cut short. In retrospect, however, it was one of my favorite jobs. I set my own prices and my own hours and I never had to worry about someone else slacking off.

Weekend Review

So, as you (my loyal readers - all three of you) know, I went to Orlando this past weekend to attend the Fringe Festival and see my girlfriend's play, and maybe a couple others. Fortunately, I really liked her play. I thought it was funny and thoughtful and discussed things the way they often actually occur in relationships. Unfortunately, a 50-something year old critic with the Orlando Sentinel disagreed, but having been at her show, I think she may have also been deaf or ignoring all of the laughter from the entire audience. (Granted, the first showing had almost all younger people and maybe there is some sort of separation between what appeals to 20 and 30-something year olds and what appeals to a 50-something year old, but it was quite clear to everyone there that there was something funny happening on that stage.) See what I just did there - I just critiqued a critic. Although, it was not just her review of my girlfriend's play that I disagreed with. (So at least I am consistent.) I also tried to see other shows, but the first other show I tried was really not so good and rather disturbing. (Of course Ms. Maupin (that's the critic for those of you not following my links) seemed to almost kind of like it. I tried to comment and lend my opinion on her blog, but she would not accept it unless I gave her my full name. Perhaps I need a new pseudonym for my online presence.) I think that show turned me off from going to more, and I instead focused most of the rest of my trip on reading my book and food.

I am not well versed in theater. That's not an entirely true statement. I grew up going to lots of shows and have seen a variety of productions, but I often find that I am disappointed with the majority of them. I also feel the experience is overpriced ($40 to see a show or something), but I think that likely has to do with the production company trying to re-coupe its costs for renting out the hall and other various costs for sets and payroll. In any event, the Fringe Festival is definitely a great opportunity to get out there and see a lot of cool independent theater that you probably would not get to see elsewhere and it's amazingly inexpensive. I highly encourage everyone to go because I think art and theater are important and did I mention it is really cheap. Of course, lots of you probably do not live anywhere near Orlando and this all probably was a waste of words. However, there may be something like it in your area and I really think it can be a great experience and just because I hated something does not mean you will. (End of lecture on the importance of the arts.)

The food selection in Orlando is very impressive. It can be a little dizzying to take in all of the food options that one has in that city. When my friend and I first arrived on Saturday morning, we were pretty hungry and no one was at the venue yet. So, we happened to turn down the road and see a small eatery surrounded by people with signs proclaiming that they were now serving breakfast. Enter stage right: White Wolf Cafe, which started serving breakfast about a week and a half ago and has an awesome menu. The cinnamon roll really was delicious, but the sugar cured ham and french toast, not to mention the sweet potato home fries, were delightful. It turned out we had found a local spot completely on accident and it was good enough to bring everyone back to for lunch after the show.

Sunday was a little more difficult, as I was too busy reading and napping to make it over to the venue area of town during the day. As such, I was forced to venture out on my own closer to the hotel and stumble upon yet another local favorite, which I think was called Mulligan's Irish Pub. This place was great and completely empty, which made little sense. However, the waitress, Nicole, explained that Sundays generally had little or no turnout, unless there was a football game. So, I was forced - forced I tell you - to enjoy some delicious Guinness and watch an entire soccer game. It was horrible and I can barely bring myself to speak about it. *sniff* I will have to go back.

Of course, next week when I go up to Orlando to see my girlfriend's last show I intend to try out Five Guys Burgers and Fries, which I am told is supposed to be amazing. I am sure if it comes anywhere close to living up to the expectations I now have for it, you will all (all three of you) hear about it next week. However, they appear to be more of a chain that is springing up everywhere and less of a local dining experience, which is both good and bad.

On The Fringe

This weekend, I have to drive to Orlando. I remember when I was younger, I loved to drive and would take every opportunity to drive everywhere - as far and as much as possible. When you live at least a half-hour away from everything, it really is not too hard to find far away places to drive to. However, something happened between then and now. I do not know if it is because more people on the road scare me than ever before or the fact that I have to spend almost as much as I spend in week's worth of groceries for a tank gas, but it no longer holds the same allure it once did. I always find myself wishing I could take a train instead and read a book or something on the way. (Generally, Florida's Highway Patrol frowns on book reading while driving.) Unfortunately, Florida does not really have much of a mass transit system to speak of.

I have no choice this weekend, though. My girlfriend's play opens this weekend at the Orlando Fringe Festival and I cannot wait to see it. In a few months, I will need to go to New York (but I'll at least be flying there) to see it in the New York Fringe Festival. I am so proud of her for accomplishing all of this, all while working at her day job, writing a novel, and participating in all the other things that she does. I look forward to being able to go to the play and see at least some of the fruits of all of her labor. I also think it will be fun to be up there and check out some of the other shows that are happening.

Our trip to Costa Rica is fully planned and booked - even our airport parking. I guess we did not book activities in advance, but mostly because one cannot predict Costa Rican weather. So, it's easier to do all of that, we think, once we arrive. I am so excited, and I know my girlfriend is excited to have this to look forward to after all the stress of the Orlando show is over. This way she can de-stress and relax in-time for stressing out again over the New York show.

Another Year Older

Last week, for my birthday, my girlfriend took me to see This American Life. I know what you are all thinking, how could you see a radio show. (Alright, only the few of you that read this blog, who know what that show is, are thinking that.) Well, the show tried something experimental, which is often the case. They asked their listeners to vote online and tell them if they would be interested in attending a live performance of the This American Life radio show (and their Showtime television show) - this live performance would be held in New York but broadcast live to various movie theaters throughout the country. Evidently, demand was high, and we quickly acquired our tickets. It was really quite a lot of fun - once we located the movie theater it was at, and while the show was two hours, it really did not feel very long at all.

We also went to a restaurant/bar bar we had seen on a Food Network show. (This was after, of course, we got some of the best bagels you can get outside of New York and before we went to see Iron Man.) The restaurant is basically a sports bar that serves unexpected fare. For example, you would not expect to find brie wheels, escargot, and fresh encrusted grouper sandwiches at your everyday watering hole. I did not think the food lived up to the hype provided in the show, but none of it was bad. In fact, the garlic fries and flank steak sandwiches were, by all accounts, delightful. My girlfriend was also quite pleased to learn that morning that quality bagels are closer than New York. Granted, acquiring them requires a trip to Miami, but I think she would consider that a small price to pay.

Finally, we booked our tickets to Costa Rica and will be leaving in about a month. I am still coordinating some of the hotel details but almost all of that is finalized and with a little luck, will be completely sorted out by the end of the day. Then I just have to sort out our travelers insurance and medications and we should be good to go. It was expected that the trip would have to be delayed until November but it all came together at the last minute and the Internet helped make it all much easier to accomplish.