Food and Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving, my dear readers. It's important to stop focusing on food for just a moment and dwell on for what one is thankful. I, for one, am thankful for everything. I think that just about covers it. Moving right along now...

After guitar practice on Friday night, JJ, HB and I went to George's Garage. I had scallops and shrimp over lemon risotto, which was excellent. I'm making up for having thought I disliked scallops for so long. We all ordered the same thing and and then JJ and I both had servings of bread pudding.

The next morning I had brunch with AE at Nosh. I had the Rocket Breakfast again, but I didn't come close to finishing it this time. JJ and JA also unexpectedly showed up, but we had already finished eating. That night had I had dinner with AE and one of her fellow French horn players, S, at The Loop, in Chapel Hill. We had a pork sausage and goat cheese pizza, which was one of the best pizzas I've eaten lately. I love goat cheese.

On Sunday, my dad and I went to the Benson hamfest. I-40 was closed due to sinkholes and we had to a take a detour on 70. Apparently we could have gotten on 42, but it wasn't marked and we ended up going all the way to I-95. The Benson Hamfest, a.k.a. JARSfest, had a very good turnout, possibly due to splendid weather compared to previous years. We saw a bunch of Triangle hams and I bought a whole bunch of resistors to use for making jewelry. Afterwards, DW, JF, JH, my dad and I went to the Cracker Barrel in Garner. It took forever, but my traditional one egg and bacon was awfully good. Most importantly, I got to eat a generous amount of their cornbread. That night, my parents and I went to ACME Food & Beverage Co. I had the fried oyster salad with bacon bourbon vinaigrette again. We also shared a piece of cranberry pecan pie.

On Monday, one highlight of the day was having lunch with AE and NP. I had quiche and a side of scalloped potatoes. We probably laughed the most about an ad for a fake sleeping puppy that has lifelike breathing motions.

Monday night, my parents and I went to the Flying Fish, in downtown Hillsborough, for dinner. It's owned by the same owner as the Flying Burrito, in Chapel Hill, which I've never been to. It's primarily a seafood restaurant and they have delicious oysters. It's unbelievable that they've been there for 14 months and I had no idea they were there. I guess I don't go to downtown very often. I'm certainly going to be visiting more frequently from now on!

Tuesday, we had our holiday potluck lunch at work. We had an incredible spread, with a lot of vegetarian items. A couple of the best things were scallop and tilapia ceviche, made by HC and broccoli lasagna, by KN. I ate so much of everything that I couldn't eat any of the desserts. I took coconut macaroons that I'd baked the night before. I ate a second helping of ceviche before I left for home that night. It was incredibly windy and rainy, so I probably needed the sustenance for the drive home.

Wednesday was the kind of day when you wake up and you actually wish you were sick, because you dread going out in the horrible weather. It was very cold, rainy and windy, because a noreaster had developed off the coast. There were flood warnings and everything was just a mess. In fact, the power was off at my parents' house and my house between about 10:20am and 7:30pm. That was one of many reasons why I ended up being glad that I was at work. KN brought in bagels and I was downright ecstatic about that. SM, one of our new brand new employees, picked up some coffee from Twinnie's for me. Finally, a bunch of us ordered pizza and watched the 1966 Batman movie, which was absolutely hilarious combined with our non-stop heckling. I met my parents at Thai Cafe for dinner and I called the answering machines during dinner and discovered that the power had finally been restored. Despite my getting cold and soaked in the morning, it turned out to be a good day.

At some point recently, I actually registered on facebook. I think it was mainly because I knew that most of the people at work were on it. I'd been resisting signing up for Yet Another Social Networking Thing, but I'm actually impressed with the user interface compared to Orkut and Friendster.

Another recent discovery has been baumhouse.com. It's a Birkenstock store in Germany that has free air shipping if you spend over $192.70. It's a dream come true, because they have all these styles that you can't get in the US in the sizes and widths that fit me best.

Tonight, my parents, AE and I went to ACME Food & Beverage Co. for Thanksgiving dinner. I had a salad with crumbled bleu cheese and cider vinaigrette followed by deep fried turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, mashed sweet potatoes, green beans, collard greens, and oyster stuffing all in one tasty pile with a container of cranberry sauce. For dessert I had cinnamon chocolate cake.