(no subject)

[bzarcher]

Comment and I'll give you a letter; then you have to list 10 things you love that begin with that letter. After, post this in your journal, and give out some letters of your own. Let me know if you want a letter.

Mine was "B"

1. Breakfast. I don't get to eat it during the week that often, or sometimes even during the weekends, but there's something really nice about waking up, grabbing something to munch on, and getting to sit at the table and read the morning paper while you get your brain going.

2. Baseball - though only in person. There's a really fun experience in going to the ballpark with friends, figuring out scoring, and all the wierd inter-inning things that you can't understand through a TV.

3. BOOM! It's the best sound ever.

4. Books. My oldest, and truest addiction. There really is nothing better than zoning out with a book on the couch.

5. Barbeque. Mmmm, barbeque. Getting the grill going, cooking stuff up, BSing with friends while we grill and eat, and the usual surrounding mayhem - gorgeous.

6. Bacon - it goes with everything, plus it can be an important component of #1 and #5. Versatile, dangerous, and often eager to please.

7. Bowling. I'm not actually very good at it, but it's another really nice way to go out and be social with people. Nobody usually is that concerned about how well they're playing, and if they are, a few drinks usually loosens them up. Which leads us to...

8. Beer! Even if I'm pretty much a social drinker, and unless someone else is driving or I am at home, I'm a 2 drink maximum guy, I like the almost endless varieties and flavors that beer brings to the table, and how versatile it is. You can cook anything from chili to cakes with it, and if you use it right, it almost always makes things taste better.

9. Bread. Oh, god. Crusty bread. (Is it my fault so many good foods start with B?) Give me thick, flavorful, crusty bread and a big bowl of soup, and I'll probably be in heaven.

10. Blue. I really, really love the color blue. Green's been my favorite since I was a little kid, but blue tends to show up in so many beautiful and unique things that I can't help but love it.



In other news, Crate and Barrel sent me a catalog today, inviting me to "Experience!" Crate and Barrel. It has done little but convince me that the people who go to a store and buy $500 lamps for their $2500 end tables are crazy. Not "amusing" sort of crazy, either. I'm talking "Oh-look-dear, the neighbor is sodomizing himself with a bundt pan" crazy. Especially when I don't see anything in the design or production (at least in the catalog) that makes me think it's any better than the stuff I can get by going to furniture places around town, or hitting some of the bric-a-brac shops around town, where I probably get a car-load or 3 of stuff for the entire house for $3,000, not just a table and lamp.

I suspect it's a lot like the way I felt walking around Whole Foods last night. Some of the stuff looked really attractive, but the majority of it felt like it was meant for someone in a different lifestyle and/or tax bracket. (I don't care -how- organic your milk is, I'll drink WD-40 before I pay $10 for a gallon of 2% milk.)

Comments

[ardaniel]

I'd be wildly amused by bundt-pan sodomy, as long as I wasn't on the receiving end. YMMV, I guess.

[bzarcher.livejournal.com]

It's like a swinger's cruise. The people who you'd really want to see are never the ones you find out are doing it. :D

[browntreesnake.livejournal.com]

I suppose I'll also get a letter for this, though it's unrelated....

We here in the Pacific already pay nearly $10/gallon for 2% milk. That's non-organic regular full-of-hormones milk. Also the flash boiled stuff (which is nast) is pretty close to that too. But at least you don't have to keep it in the fridge!

[bzarcher.livejournal.com]

Naah, only for those who want one.

$10/gallon makes sense for areas with difficulty producing their own dairy products, or with a lack of grazing land.

But for a dairy producing country, and especially one of the biggest agricultural producers, I can't help but feel it's way off the mark.

[womdigo.livejournal.com]

do you have a beer cake recipe? cause that would be something worth baking.

Chocolate Guinness Cake

[bzarcher.livejournal.com]

Cake:
Butter for pan
1 cup Guinness stout
10 Tbs. unsalted butter
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
2 cups superfine sugar
3/4 cup sour cream
2 large eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
2-1/2 tsp. baking soda

Frosting:
1-1/4 cups confectioners’ sugar
8 oz. cream cheese, at room temperature
1/2 cup heavy cream.

Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter a 9-inch springform pan and line with parchment paper. In a large saucepan, combine Guinness and butter. Place over medium-low heat until butter melts, then remove from heat. Add cocoa and superfine sugar, and whisk to blend.

In a small bowl, combine sour cream, eggs, and vanilla; mix well. Add to Guinness mixture. Add flour and baking soda, and whisk again until smooth. Pour into buttered pan, and bake until risen and firm, 45 minutes to one hour. Place pan on a wire rack and cool it in the pan.

For the frosting: Using a food processor or by hand, mix sugar to break up lumps. Add cream cheese and blend until smooth. Add heavy cream, and mix until smooth and spreadable.

Remove cake from pan and ice the top of cake only, so that it resembles a frothy pint of Guinness.

You can also leave the frosting off, top each slice with some strawberries or raspberries, pour a little hot fudge over, and dust with some powdered sugar.

[paradisacorbasi.livejournal.com]

The Whole Foods by me charges going rate for the area for a gallon of 2%.

$10 is just scary.

And no letter. I just wanted to say that.

[bzarcher.livejournal.com]

The funny thing is, before we had gone to Whole Foods, I was grousing a little because the Andersons wanted $3.50 a gallon, and I decided to go over to Krogers where I knew they had it for a dollar less.

Then I saw that and decided that maybe $3.50 wasn't so bad...