WordPress Phreaking Hates Me

So, this would be attempt number phour to post this post.  WordPress has decided to delete my past three attempts over the last phew days.  So excuse me for my terseness and possible typos (and yes, I know not proofreading is an editor’s cardinal sin, and I am an editor, so this isn’t cool)… although I am so darn behind, I suppose it serves me right somehow.

Long, long ago in a phar away land called Davis (actually it was October 22), we had a Pham reunion.  Paper Bag was already in town, Boot drove in from SF and Dainty, a mere seven or so hours delayed, arrived via plane.  The day started with  more of my homemade tomatoe jam.

After breakfast, Paper Bag, Phooey and I took a long walk around the entire UC Davis campus.  It well justified my leftovers salad I made for lunch, potatoe salad topping and all!

It also justified us going to a bar in the middle of the day and eating pizza, right?  Right.  I knew you’d agree.

This particular bar, housed in one of the Best Westerns in Davis, boasts a phamed drink called the Wicky Wacky Woo.  They had to be ordered, right?  Right.  The 151 they pour into the straw was notable, as was the drink’s ability to magically transport me back to the pheeling of being 19 again.

Thank you, college town, thank you.

Once The Pham (minus Snow White) was reunited, we headed out for dinner at Sophia’s Thai Kitchen, with Boot as our designated driver since she announced that she is preggers once we all got together!  Hooray for a new addition to The Pham!!!  I was too excited by the aforementioned phact to pay attention to what we ate…

Upon return from dining and drinking, we decided to watch UP, the incomparable Disney Pixar collaboration and one of the most beautiful love stories I know.  Paper Bag had never seen it, so we stocked up on tissues and hunkered down… I subbed potatoe salad for tissue.  It needed to be done, right?  Right.  I’m so glad we are on the same page!

Paper Bag did not shed a single tear during the movie, confirming previous suspicions that she may or may not have a soul.  Maybe I should change her nickname to Soulless Wonder?  Just kidding, phriend!  We know you have a soul, it’s just hidden behind layer upon layer of ice and stone, of course. 😉

The next morning, we tried out Delta of Venus, a delightfully odd vegetarian haven littered with grad students and those that embrace counter-culture as a phat kid does cake.  Loved everything about it, and the Adam’s Special (I think I have the name right) was serrano-tastic!

P.S.  If you visit deltaofvenus.com, you get an experience having very little to do with breakfast or vegetarians.  Just sayin’… I phound that out very accidentally.  Oh, the things you learn when you blog…

We met The Phella for post-breakfast phro yo at Sugar Plum.  I went with pumpkin this time (I must say, while I have only sampled three of the eleventy billion phrozen yogurt establishments in this tiny town, I think this place’s phlavors really kick ass… just like unicorns).  The stale marshmallows were not exceptionally enjoyable, but they can’t all be winners, kid.

After The Pham went its separate ways, The Phella and I made dinner at home.  It started with a potatoe salad appetizer, which was highly necessary.

We tried roasting a head of elephant garlic and eating that with an assortment of cheese and more of my tomatoe jam.  Note to self- while bigger is actually better in some situations, it is most certainly not when it comes to garlic.  Bad choice…

We grilled up some tasty steaks and smothered them in horseradish and A-1 Sauce.  Sometimes, I am classy like that.  Don’t even get me started on A-1 Bold & Spicy.  Can you tell when I begin to drool while typing?

I wasn’t ready for Monday to come, so phorgot to make breakfast.  I ate Phriday night’s leftovers for lunch.

My neighbors invited me over for a BBQ dinner.  Will I actually be successful in making some new phriends in this town?  Holy awesome, Batman!  …Especially because these ones can cook!

On Tuesday, I rode the wave of social non-ineptness and actually went out to lunch with a coworker (the one who’s the big Giants phan!)  We had salads at Pluto’s (a spot that had been recommended to me by multiple previous Davisites), and it did not disappoint.  Although, I was so excited to have made a phriend, I could have been eating cardboard and not minded a bit.  Wow, that sentence just sealed the phate on my phuture possible coolness, didn’t it.  Ok, who am I kidding?  Being cool was never in the cards for me.  I’ll cry about it later. 🙂

I attempted to serve up some young coconut as a pre-dinner snack, but that was an impulse buy I should have resisted.  So much work, so little (and so slimy) reward.

Romaine and radish salad…

…and chicken and spaghetti squash for dinner.

Wednesday started with pseudo-sausage.

… and a Reese’s peanut butter cup.

My coworkers invited me to Thai Canteen to celebrate one of their birthdays.  I enjoyed some spicy tofu (not bad but Taste of Thai is still my phavorite Thai spot so phar in the area).

I met the phellow I dined with the weekend before (Boot’s baby brother-in-law, actually) at Mikuni in Sacramento for a phish phiesta.  I let him do the ordering, so I don’t really know what we ate, other than it was all splendid (aside from the chocolate cake, which I phorced myself to eat one bite of to be polite- mind you, I am sure any normal person would tell you that cake was delicious, but we have established my lack of normalcy, have we not?)

On Thursday, I tried to keep the doctor away.

But in doing so, phorgot to eat lunch.  The Phella and I ordered take out from Ding How after I got home from work- won ton soup and pork buns to start (in my awesome new soup bowl/plate combo doohickeys that the kind staff of the Gilroy B&B brought me- have I mentioned lately how much I adore them?)

The soup was super, the pork buns were alright and the mushu was a mistake.  Do those look like mushu pancakes to you, or do they look like store-bought tortillas?  Exactly.

Asian burritos, anyone?  I think I’ll pass…

Phriday was a hectic day, as I spent the morning putting together phinal touches for our Halloween costumes (inspired by the movie, UP), so I ran out of time for breakfast and left my lunch sitting on my kitchen counter.  That made for one starving gal when I got home.

Pepper jack and crack to the rescue!

Another romaine and radish salad.  Thrilling, I know…

Homemade carrot ginger coconut soup (recipe courtesy of Joy the Baker, who just announced she’s coming out with a cookbook!).  Excellent and idiot-proof recipe.  We shall all be seeing more of this soup…

We then headed off into the night to attend our phirst of a phew Halloween parties, looking terrifyingly similar to the characters we wished to portray (and equally embarrassing).  If I allowed human phaces on my blog, I’d had to show you a picture, but I don’t, so I won’t.

Phew!  That was close.  I have a reputation to uphold!

Um, wait…

Seven Ate Nine

In the morning on June 7, before heading back to home, Jimmy Crue and I tried farm:table, a breakfast joint we’d heard good things about (and Paper Bag wanted us to go as guinea pigs).

Choice number one was an open-phaced egg sando with greens, radish and chutney.  Honestly, pretty bland.

Choice number two was another open-phaced sando with phresh cherries, almonds and mascarpone.  The bread was too dry to eat without significant effort, but the cherries were tasty (and apparently Jimmy Crew doesn’t like cherries, so that was an error in my phavor…)

I left Jimmy Crue to get up to no good in the city and headed back to the better bay area.  After work, Alabama and I headed to trivia at London Bridge Pub where I acquainted myself with a BLT sando.

I just realized that I ate nothing but sandos all that day…

On Wednesday, June 8, I spent the day spelunking for phood.  I phound cottage cheese at the liquor store next door and livened it up with a little cayenne pepper.

Someone brought clementines to the office, so I had one as a mid-morning snack.

Sparky and Hard Hat lent me tofu sausage, broccoli and cheese to make myself some lunch.

(Yes, I said lent…  how do you know I didn’t give it back after I ate it!)

Clementine round two in the afternoon.

Had to work late, so grabbed a string cheese from the phridge for a super-exciting and phabulous dinner.

Not exactly the most exciting phood day of my life, but the low carb/high protein approach hopefully balanced out a bit of the sando-phest from the day before…

Thursday, June 9, was a bit of a mind phuck of a day…

I got a call the night before from none other than the ex-phella (of the Sexy Mexican Awkwardness night phame).  He wanted to have dinner, and I’ve never been able to say no to the guy, so of course I spent Wednesday night and Thursday day stressing about what to make (because somehow he convinced me to cook).

Amazingly I actually remembered to have some breakfast!

Lunch looked surprisingly similar to breakfast- hold PB, sub coconut water.

I realized in the afternoon that I still had string cheese in the phridge, so partook of the colby jack.

My nerves started to really set in when staff  meeting came around, so I laid a phinger on a mini-Butterfinger to curb the crazy.

I rushed home after work and started throwing things together.  I was trying a new recipe (recommended by Paper Bag) so went with a simple cheese plate as a pre-meal nibble so I wouldn’t phreak out too much.

I was still cooking when the ex-phella arrived, so that could account for part of why it turned out so bad.

Paper Bag has made this dish with great success, so I know it wasn’t the recipe’s phault…

Dessert was simple… oranges with a red wine reduction.  Not that great either.

In case being unbearably nervous and uncomfortable wasn’t enough, majorly phailing at making a delicious meal really knocked it out of the park in regard to awkwardness.

The ex-phella asking to get back together at the end of the night, however, was akin to a confusion grand slam.

Phan Phood

That phabulous wedding took its toll, making me pheel not so phabulous the majority of the day on June phifth.

(Plus my purse, which contained my camera, went on hiatus.)

I phinally mustered up the courage to eat something around dinner time (and documented it with my phone).

On Monday, June 6, I grabbed a string cheese on my way to work a half day.

Then, armed with a makeshift purse and new memory card for my camera, Jimmy Crue and I ventured to phoggy San Phrancisco and met Paper Bag and Fargo at Pete’s Tavern in preparation for a ball game.

We caught some nuts at the game… 🙂

Jimmy was VERY proud of his sausage placement for this foto…

Normally, I’d have been phull after all that (and the beer helped) but the game ended up going into super-phabulous extra innings (thank God we were already planning to spend the night with Paper Bag or that drive home would have REALLY been the opposite of phun), so we HAD to stop for some late night pizza before heading back to her place…

All in a day’s work for a diehard Giants phan (and for the record, I am not one of those phairweather phans who just started claiming allegiance to black and orange since they became world champions.  I have, in phact, been a passionate supporter since 1989 and I truly miss Candlestick… well, sometimes I do.  Telephone Company Park is pretty hard to beat!)

 

Blogger Phail

Epic phail in the blogging department.  I am admitting my lamentable lameness and hoping to make amends with all of my phabulous phollowers who have sent encouraging/chastising/threatening emails regarding my hiatus.  You are all right in your own ways, and I am inspired by your phervent support of my little project.

I agree, it is pushing the envelope of pathetic-ness to be posting phood I enjoyed months ago, so I will try my very best to catch up week by week in the next phew posts.  Keep the scathing email threats coming though, so I don’t lose phocus! 🙂

Ok, here goes…

Monday, May 30 (Memorial Day)

Enjoyed an incredibly phabulous late breakfast with The Original and Alabama at Toast in Carmel Valley.  Alabama shared some of his Eggs Benny with me, and I devoured ever morsel of my pressed sando.  I sh*t you not, it was one of the best sandos I have ever had… no joke.

In the afternoon, I grubbed on some Giants peanuts while watching the game.  Very thematic and enjoyable… so enjoyable, in phact, I phorgot to eat dinner that night.

Tuesday, May 31

I threw together a quick cheese quesadilla at the office.

Had the special treat of dining at Rancho Cielo for lunch where the Drummond Culinary Academy students catered our Junior League Sustainers luncheon.

Polished off a tasty little treat that was waiting for me when I got back to the office…

Georgia had me over for dinner and introduced me to the world of the phried pork chop.

I always thought I hated pork chops (excluding Pork Chop, the dog, on that phabulous old Nickelodeon cartoon, Doug) but apparently I was wrong.  Actually, I thought I was wrong once, but I was wrong…

Wednesday, June 1

Went with a little Subway breakfast action in the a.m.

Swung over to Salinas’ “gourmet alley”, as I like to call it (others call it Park Row) and picked up Won Ton Soup from Cantonese Express.

I went two rounds with it…

When I got home late that night, I decided it was a good idea to teach myself to make risotto out of the phew ingredients I had in my phridge and pantry.  Oddly, it turned out pretty terrific!

Thursday, June 2

I tried to branch out and try something new for breakfast.  I stopped at the store to pick up some Morningstar “sausage” and was seduced by an interesting phruit that called himself Pepino.  Now, I know phoreign phruits and I don’t normally get along, so I’m not quite sure how I talked myself into a blind date that morning with handsome Mr. Pepino.  Let’s just say it was quite the opposite of love at phirst bite.  Well, now I know what to add to my ever-growing allergy list!

I had a mid-morning snack to help sop up some of the allergy medication phloating around in my tummy…

I then went big and headed to The Bakery Station and thoroughly enjoyed a Road Hog… and yes, I ate the whole darn thing!

I spent the dinner hour at a very special phriend’s house who has been under the weather and been struggling with a very limited diet.  I brought over the goods- chicken, taters, gravy and carrots.  I’m not so sure I’d mind terribly if that was what I had to eat for a prolonged period of time!

Phriday, June 3

Did you know June 3 was National Damn Donut Day?  Neither did I…  so I had this delicious, crisp pear to start off a day of healthy eating choices.

Then some jerk (a.k.a. The Republican) showed up at the office with these…

I started by making myself a small and sensible sampler platter…

Then decided one tiny bite more wouldn’t hurt…

I then COMPLETELY gave up (a.k.a. started being realistic) and ended up eating at least another two donuts… which was completely counter-balanced by the Tuscan Chicken salad I had at First Awakenings with Preggers.  (Hey, a girl can dream!)

Once out of my diabetic coma, I headed to Vesuvio for dinner with some very phun pholks.  I know many of you must be questioning right now why on Earth I wanted to go back to Vesuvio after the night of Sexy Mexican Awkwardness hell.  Why invite PTSD into your life, right?  Well, what can I say other than I like to live on the edge.  I’m crazy like that… and/or I wasn’t the one to pick the restaurant that evening!

We started with a little prosciutto and melon (which I have since learned is a very unhappy combo to put in your tummy at the same time, but I shall spare you the details).

I snagged a bite of buratta from someone as well.

I tried the Ziti Al Forno for my main.  Not really a dish you’d want to take home to mom, but I didn’t kick it out of bed either. 😉

Dinner ended with limoncello… the night continued into a phrenzy of mustaches, karaoke and general ridiculousness.  Good times…

And with that, I have officially hit the quota of uploads I am allowed per blog post, so that’s all for now, pholks!

Whelmed

The last of the Easter leftovers phinally met its demise.

Now, I’d never pretend to consider doing a crazy thing like going vegan on you people, but does anyone else pheel like this ovum is giving me the ol’ yellow eye?

The Big Cheese was in a celebratory mood this morning and brought in homemade cookies (her son phinally picked a college, and if I do say so myself, he made a great choice- my alma mater!)

They were much too chocolaty for my distinctly non-phemale taste buds, but the coconut aspect was unexpected and made it an overall enjoyable experience.

A phavorite lunch buddy of mine (who is also currently nickname-less) accompanied me on my New Restaurant Wednesday exploration.  I’ve noticed the sign outside Sang’s Cafe for years now whose sandwich board says John Steinbeck ate there proudly emblazoned in red and black letters.

Here’s hoping that it was better when he was a patron, otherwise I think the man was a literary genius with no taste buds.

Not to be unkind by any means, but this was, hands down, the worst burger I can remember in my life.  It was unseasoned and overcooked, and the patty was formed into the shape of a hot, hot mess.

From a strengths-based perspective, the bun was very phresh and there was a hefty serving of avocado included atop the sapless sirloin.

I ate a small portion of it and all the bacon.  They didn’t screw the bacon up, so maybe this would be a good breakfast place?

I had a late dinner at a phriend’s house after work, homework and other daily delights.  I stopped by Whole Paycheck to phind something for us to munch on and was pretty hard pressed to phind anything that offered the winning combination of healthy and appealing.

When I got to her house, she had goat cheese and crostini waiting.  Thank you, God, for giving me phriends who pheed me!

I settled on a roast chicken and an oddly wintery kale salad with cranberries, almonds and tomatoes with a citrus vinaigrette.  I think it would have been half decent sans tomatoes, but nobody seems to ask my opinion on these matters.  Odd, really…

I was not overwhelmed by the dinner, nor was I underwhelmed.  So if one can be simply “whelmed”, that is what I was.  My stomach begged to end the evening on a high note, so I revisited the goat cheese (and had two more than were pictured in this shot).

I hope next week’s New Restaurant Wednesday proves more successful.

Side note to Whole Paycheck: I am really not a phan.  I will continue to give you chances (and inappropriate portions of my paycheck for the sake of convenience), but I think you’re kind of lame.  No offense… well, sorta.