Ian's 8th Birthday

Ian recently brought it to my attention that I failed to document his 8th birthday party on the internets. So, here are some pictures from Ian's 8th birthday extravaganza! (His birthday was in November. That's why you'll see some Christmas decorations in a few on the pics)


Bowling with his brother and his best friend from school!


Pizza and cake at home with family and friends!


Making a wish...


Opening gifts at the party!



Two days later, on Ian's actual birth date... Hanging with the dogs and waiting for more gifts.


More presents!



Birthday breakfast at one of Ian's favorite places - Abner's in Hilliard. We love this place. It's cheap and the food is always great.

i'm baaaaack!

Here are some random things that we've had to eat since I last posted. Enjoy.

breakfast

My breakfast - An omelet with 3 egg whites, one yolk, and a little bit of sharp cheddar. And two slices of bacon.

Tony's breakfast - two eggs over easy and bacon.

What happens in Tennessee should stay in Tennessee

I recently made a short trip to Tennessee for a family event of sorts. My cousin Olivia and I drove down together and this was our hotel room. It wasn't exactly dirty but also wasn't exactly nice either.

I have huge issues with hotel blankets and pillows due to a bad experience at a HoJo when I was in High School. The Dateline special using a black light to expose all of the filth and bodily fluids that are in even the nicest hotels only made matters worse. Much worse. Now I always travel with my own blankets, sheets, and pillows. I also wear socks at all times. Our room was much improved after I re-made my bed. For maximum comfort, I also brought my leopard printed Snuggie.

We stayed in a small town called Camden, population 3,800. My maternal grandmother grew up here and we used to visit my great-grandparents here every summer. I have childhood memories of there being nothing at all to do in Camden, and nothing has changed. There is a diner in town that serves breakfast all day, so we stopped by there for a meal. I did not order the frog legs.

My grandmother grew up eating scrambled brains and eggs and my mom tells horror stories of being fed them as a child. I also took a pass on this particular menu item.

I had two eggs over-easy, toasted white bread, sausage, and hashbrowns cooked in butter. Normally I would ask for whole wheat toast and turkey sausage but something told me that was not an option at the Downhome Diner. Breakfast was really good! That fact is probably directly related to the fact that everything was probably cooked in butter.

Olivia and my uncle Chuck had omelets and a side of bacon. Look carefully at the bacon. Do you notice anything unusual about it? It's not very flat... It's almost curly. As if it had been deep fried, which it probably was.

Eggs

Scrambled organic eggs with whole milk, sea salt, and cracked black pepper. Some of the best foods are the most simple.

Is it crazy to haul a backpack full of bagels back from vacation?

Question: Is it crazy to buy one dozen genuine NYC bagels while in Manhattan and haul them back to Columbus Ohio in your child's carry-on luggage?

Answer: No. If you have ever tasted a Columbus bagel and a NYC bagel, then you know that there is no comparison.



Here is a bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich that I made on a David's whole wheat bagel. Delicious! If you are in the East Village of Manhattan, stop by and try one for yourself. There are located on 1st Avenue near 20th street.

Parting is such sweet sorrow...

Hi all. We are heading off on vacation for a week and I will only be posting at my leisure, which likely means that I won't post anything at all until I get back.

In the meantime, I would like to leave you with these images to hold you over for a while.



Frozen Kung Pao chicken from Trader Joe's. It wasn't bad and it wasn't great.






Not food related at all, but I still wanted to share this picture. This handsome fellow was given to me two very good friends before they moved. I keep him safe and sound in my home office and say "good morning" to him every day before I begin work. Connor's Lego collection also resides in my office.





This isn't just a regular egg, sausage, and cheese sandwich... It's an egg, vegetarian sausage, and cheese sandwich. I love Morningstar farm's veggie sausage.




Good night, good night! Parting is such sweet sorrow,
That I shall say good night till it be morrow.

Vegas Baby!

On Sunday, I headed out to Vegas for an industry conference. I was joined by co-worker and partner-in-crime, Melissa. Despite the ungodly heat and several wardrobe malfunctions (broken shoe heels and busted shoe buckles - nothing of the Janet Jackson variety), we had a great time and got a lot of work done. We also ate some food.


The highlight of the trip (food wise) is pictured above... We had this at the Terrace Cafe at the Wynn Hotel. This bacon and cheese omelet was spectacular. I can't put my finger on exactly why it was so extraordinary, but it was. There was even something special about the hash browns. And do you see that little muffin on my plate? It is some sort of cheesy muffin, savory and not sweet, perhaps made with whole wheat. Whatever the ingredients, I loved it.



And here's the lowlight. This was lunch at day 2 of the conference. It wasn't horrible, but it wasn't good either. I think that an all Asian buffet is an odd choice when feeding a large crowd, but it wasn't the cuisine that I had an issue with. The fact that many of the dishes were served almost cold and poorly seasoned was my issue.



Here is our late night dinner from Monday. This was from the Sugar and Ice Cafe (at least I think that was the name). I had a giant sized Cobb salad with chicken, eggs, bacon, and blue cheese. My cohort had Kobe beef sliders with fries.



Here's the view from our conference booth... Seriously, we didn't have a booth at the actual conference but we did hold several meetings at the Wynn poolside bar.

We are big fans of breakfast

Breakfast for lunch, at Scrambler Marie's. Or Marie Scrambler's... I forget which it is.

Connor is a grown up now. He only orders off of the adult menu, as demonstrated by the giant sized pancakes in front of him. He's also taken to dressing like my dad - Hawaiian shirts and baseball caps.



A few days later, at Frisch's. Tony had the breakfast bar, or the "endless bacon bar" as he calls it.



Pancakes....




And more pancakes.




My standard breakfast order. Frisch's doesn't have turkey bacon or turkey sausage, which is a major whammy.

Dublin Independence Day Parade - 07.04.2009

On Saturday, the kids and I got up early and headed out to my dad's house for breakfast and the Dublin Independence Day parade. He lives near downtown Dublin, so it's an easy walk to the parade.




My dad isn't necessarily known for his culinary skills, but he's pretty handy on the grill and with breakfast. The kids really enjoyed his pancakes.




I was in charge of the scrambled eggs.



After breakfast, we walked to the parade. The kids were armed with bags and ready to collect any candy that was thrown out during the parade. They made out like it was Halloween and each collected a big bag of candy and fliers for various churches and soccer leagues.



Connor is like a teenager. He's too cool to let his mom take his picture in public.

We stood about 4' from AJ Hawk, of the Green Bay Packers and formerly with the OSU Buckeyes, during the entire parade. He was with his wife Laura, who is Brady Quinn's sister. I somehow manage to take a picture of everything I eat, but I was too chicken shit to get a picture of AJ Hawk. Whammy.

O'Charley's is no longer permanently banned - Father's Day

I have hated O'Charley's every since we ate there 9 years ago when I was very pregnant. It took me forever to get a soda, despite the fact that everyone else at the table had their beers served to them already. Everyone at the table got their meals served well ahead of mine. AND they had chicken parmesan topped with SWISS cheese on their menu. That's three strikes against them and that's all that it takes to get a restaurant placed on my "permanently banned" list.

On Father's Day, we tried to go to Frisch's for breakfast with my mom and stepdad. The line was too long and Steve and Tony suggested O'Charley's. It was their day, so I agreed.




I hate to admit it, but the food was good and the service was fine. I had a southwest chicken salad. I liked it.




Tony had a black & blue salad. It was enormous.




Ian ordered pancakes AND chicken tenders with french fries. I knew that there was no way in hell that he could eat that much food, but it was easier to let him order both than to hear him whine.




Connor had a waffle.




My mom had an omelet. This picture cracks me up. My mom looks like she's working her ass off just to cut her eggs. MOM - use a knife next time!




Steve had two eggs over easy, a double order of bacon, toast, and potatoes. One strike for O'Charley's - the server forgot to bring his extra bacon. He got it eventually, but was still charged for it.




My kids have this great scam going. Every time that they spend the night with my mom and Steve, she either buys them a toy or gives them money so that I can take them to get a toy. It's a win/win! I get to offload my spawn for a night AND they get paid! Here is Ian with his $12 from Grammy that he "earned" by spending the previous night at her place.

Kickin It Old School with Nachos - 05.11.2009 and 05.12.2009

I'm not a food snob. I will always hold boxed mac & cheese, Ramen noodles, and microwaved nachos near and dear to my heart.



Here are some tortilla chips topped with sharp cheddar and monterey jack cheeses and zapped in the microwave for 20 seconds.



At some point on Thursday, I went down in to the basement for about 45 minutes and left Ian to his own devices upstairs. When I came upstairs, Ian had constructed this tower made of dvds, books, a tissue box, and drink coasters.


He was visibly upset that tower wasn't tall enough and that the structure wouldn't work for the movie that he was filming. After a couple minutes of quizzing Ian as to exactly what the hell he was trying to accomplish, I finally figured out that he was trying to build a stand that was table height to set the video camera on. Apparently, he wanted to pretend that he was filming a movie with his table full of LEGO toys.




Connor had cheese and crackers for a snack yesterday. He opted to stack all 5 crackers and slices of cheese together and consume them sandwich style.




Here's my breakfast from this morning. I really was craving breakfast so I made some hashbrowns, two eggs over easy, and turkey sausage. The meal was good, but it's always better to go out to breakfast and save the time it takes to cook it all yourself and cleanup the dishes and the kitchen.