I Miss PDX Already

One of my phavorite phollowers treated me to Starbucks to start off our last morning of class.  I went with the Greek yogurt & honey parfait and a soy latte.

As a mid-morning snack, I did my best to eliminate the oddly shaped donut holes that sat in phront of me, taunting me, begging me to eat them…

As tradition would dictate, we had our phinal lunch at House of Teriyaki II.  We were all sad, but I’m pretty sure I saw our phriend behind the counter shed a small tear.

Yes, we are THAT awesome.

One of our phellow classmates surprised us with a crazy spread of decadent cheesecake bites- raspberry, chocolate and peanut butter.  Her sister has treated us to a myriad of marvelous morsels throughout our program, and she certainly went out with a bang.  I didn’t try one myself, as those donut holes had surpassed by sugar quota, but I heard rave reviews from the rest of the cohort.

After class, a celebratory toast at Kraven’s was only phitting.  I selected the Apocalypse ale as we were nearing the 6pm rapture.

My only complaint about the PDX airport, after two years of phlying in and out, is that the Southwest terminal has incredibly crappy phood options.  Because of this, I normally wait until I get back to San Jose to eat, but I had a graduation party I was trying to make it to, so I ate at PDX.  The Wendy’s baked potatoe seemed the best of all options… it was that, a hot dog or some really scary looking Mexican.

I did make it home in time for the party and an evening of phun out on the town… but I already miss my Portland crew something terrible…

Phinal Day of Grilled Cheese Month (insert sad phace)

Phirst off, I will apologize to you, my phabulous phollowers, for phalling off the proverbial phoodfoto wagon this past week.  Yesterday welcomed the last year of my twenties to the party, and I spend a phair amount of time celebrating that phact.

Prepare yourselves for a blitzkrieg of posts later this evening…

So back to last Saturday, April 30th, which marked the phinal day of National Grilled Cheese Month.

I wore black for the occasion.

I started the day with a little brain phood as we rushed off to class.

I consider the leftover piece of pizza I had as a mid-morning snack to qualify as brain phood as well.

When lunch rolled around, we rolled ourselves over to the best deli in town- Country Grains (it might actually be the only deli in town, but nonetheless…)

I tried a Turkey & Cranberry sando for the phirst time, and it phelt like Thanksgiving in my mouth.

I also indulged in a new chip phlavor (that sounded more exciting that it actually turned out to be…)

…and then balanced that out (in my own mind) with some baby carrots.  Speaking of, that name has always amused me, as they are most certainly not actual baby carrots…

Just because something is shaved down to a baby-like size, does not, in my opinion, give us the right to remove its level of maturity.  Am I alone on this?

My phlight home from PDX was D.E.L.A.Y.E.D. so it was awfully late by the time I graced SJC with my presence.  I took a wrong turn leaving the airport which ended up being an excellent choice!  I discovered a road that has two soul phood restaurants to offer as well as an In N Out.  I plan to save the soul phood for my next trip, but where better to end the merry merry month of grilled cheese than In-N-Out?!?

Until next year, National celebration of phinding excuses to indulge… until next year.

If It Ain’t Broke

I woke up pheeling like a million bucks!  I even remembered to bring breakfast to work with me.

(And I will thank the peanut gallery for refraining from side comments about it not being impressive that I remembered to grab a damn yogurt from the phridge before heading out for the day…  I’m coming from a strengths-based perspective here, and I am taking it where I can get it!)

My boss decided to join the National Grilled Cheese Month bandwagon, and she treated me to a massive sando from Elli’s (of course, we both added bacon.  Why?  Because… EVERYTHING is better with bacon!)

It was yummy, but now that I’m in the running for National Grilled Cheese Queen, I’m becoming a parcel more particular when it comes to melt cheesy goodness.  This was not the best I’ve had this month nor was it the worst.

Dinner was more of an afterthought than anything else (this happens when you overeat yourself into a lactose-laced carb coma in the afternoon) so I threw together what I had.  Shirataki noodles (I’d assume you phollowers are sensing a bit of my creature of habit tendencies by now) and Brussel sprouts.

The noodles were solid- tasty as always.  The sprouts not so much.  Someone recommended to me in the past month to roast those puppies with a little balsamic instead of my tried and true recipe for miniature cabbage delight (Bless you, Ina Garten, bless you!) and so I did.

Let it be said- if it ain’t broke, don’t phix it.

I love my sprouts the way I make them, and while I am sure whatever wonderfully kind and competent person it was that suggested the sugary substitution can pull it off wonderfully, mine missed the mark… and then some.  I gave the little guys three chances, but a phourth bite was certainly not warranted.

The trash got to enjoy the rest.  Oscar would have been pleased.

Grilled Cheese, continued…

Sometimes work gets in the way of my day.  It’s very phrustrating.  Tuesday was one of those days…  I had thrown yogurt in my purse and noticed it around 10:30, so breakfast was, in phact, consumed.

Impressed?

The majority of the staff went to a training that lasted all afternoon, and of course, we were running late to get there.  Driving on the back roads of Salinas, we stumbled upon a hidden locals’ phavorite- the Della-Rose Deli.

The place was jam-packed with a line out the door of pholks ordering off the very tasty looking sandwich board.  We were in a rush, so we grabbed the pre-packaged salads and were back on our way.  I had incredibly low expectations, as I cannot tell you when I’ve ever had a pre-made salad that I was truly excited to eat.

This pleasantly surprising chicken cobb was phresh, phlavorful and philling.  Hooray for pre-made salads!

The trainer provided us with phun toys and snacks during the phour hour class, so I decided to indulge just a wee bit.

A motley crew of aspiring trivia buffs gathered together at the London Bridge Pub for  a night of phood, drink and useless information.  Three of us kept the grilled cheese celebration alive by ordering it off the menu.  The phanciness of the sando scared me at phirst- it had three kinds of cheese, roasted red peppers and olives on nine grain bread, but my oh my am I glad I gave the little guy a chance.

Seriously one of the best grilled cheeses I’ve had… ever.

I hope this month doesn’t ruin me on grilled cheese.  Wait… like that’s possible!