Not How I Pictured It

One of those examples about how life isn't always what your 10-year old self thought it would be...

Elizabeth and I are efficient with our food. We plan the week's meals, and we strategically plan meals that will provide leftovers that can easily be taken to work the next day. A few weeks back, we made a potato & vegetable stew. We made a lot of it, and it was more than what the two of us could finish off in a couple of days. So, we took half of the stew and froze it. The smart way to freeze something like stew is to line your storage container with aluminum foil before adding the stew. Then, after it's been in your freezer for a day, pop out the foil-wrapped stew and wash your storage container. Now you can use that container for other things in the intervening time.

So that's what we did.

Now this week, stew is one of the meals on the agenda. It's great, because all we have to do is pull the frozen block of stew out of the foil, put it back into a storage container, and let it thaw in the fridge overnight. Tomorrow's meal takes no work at all except to re-heat the stew in the microwave.

But there was a problem.

Somehow a good chunk of the foil fused itself to the stew while in the freezer. I think it had to do with some stew leaking between the container and the foil when it was originally frozen, and now there are places with a thin layer of frozen stew on the outside of the foil.

Anyway, we just spent the last 20 minutes using a butter knife to chisel away at the frozen block of stew trying to make sure we got every last piece of foil removed (it's not fun to eat foil). Obviously, what we should have done was let the stew thaw in a storage container in the fridge with the foil still on. Then, when it was liquid again, we could just pull the foil out in one piece.

Chiseling aluminum foil off of tomorrow's lunch. Now how I pictured it.

Chinese food

Elizabeth and I have a favorite local Chinese restaurant right down the street. For Christmas, Elizabeth all but demanded a gift card to this restaurant, so I obliged. Why? Not to enjoy a night out having a good Chinese meal, but because Elizabeth wanted $20-worth of egg rolls. Today she bought four egg rolls, and I don't know if much has made her happier in the last month than eating those four egg rolls.

She's kind of a weirdo.

A whole lotta dough

There's an Oroweat (bakery) outlet store nearby that we just discovered about a month ago. It's super cheap. Today we went back for just the second time. They have a "punch card" where when you spend $25 you basically get three items for free. On Tuesdays, apparently, it's "double-punch day," so for spending $12.50, this is what we got...

Also, since we used Elizabeth's Old Navy credit card for something other than Old Navy, we also get a $20 Old Navy giftcard... so for twelve and a half bucks we got TONS of bread, buns and bagels, and twenty bucks to Old Navy. Not a bad shopping trip.

Recipe

THIS is a recipe for "chili beans and turkey sausage" that Elizabeth and I have had twice. We love it. It's really good. And really easy. We don't do the tomato and cucumber salad that it mentions at the end. Also, it has you prepare rice, but it doesn't instruct you on how to serve the rice (I assume it means to pour the chili over the rice on your plate), but we've actually found that eating the chili out of a bowl works best (it's thinner than a real "chili" -- more like a soup), and we add the cooked rice to the bowl. The rice thickens it up and adds some flavor.

Good stuff!

That's all.

YAY!

Family's here! We love it when stuff like this happens. Mom, Dad, Jaron, and the five younger kids have all stopped off here to hang out with us for a few hours while they refresh themselves from a long day and night of driving, as they prepare for another long night of driving.

It's really wonderful having them all here, but it always ends up being a challenge too. Our little one-bedroom place isn't fit for 10 people. We grilled burgers, hot dogs, and italian sausages for supper. It was all really really tasty (I was quite proud of my grilling-for-a-huge-group-of-people skills). It was also really fun to do. I like being able to prepare meals for my family... but as I shared with my parents tonight, it's sort of like going through a tornado. There's some normal preparation work, and then when things start coming off the grill it's complete chaos for about 10 minutes while the food hits the table and all the kids need a hot dog, a hamburger, ketchup/mustard, apple juice, silverware, corn, and whatever else it takes to eat their meal. Then as quickly as it started, it's over, and there's a huge mess to clean up (and if they're lucky, adults get to eat). I know that this is nothing new, and all of you with kids probably think I'm a moron for thinking this is a topic worthy of blogging about, but it is, so back off. My blog. Not yours.

We ate at Tuesday... on a Sunday

Last weekend Elizabeth and I wanted to go out to eat to celebrate Valentine's Day. We discovered that there's not really a decent restaurant in the Denver area that has really good options for people who are being careful about the calories they eat.

Today a nice couple from church invited us out to lunch and we went to Ruby Tuesday. Turns out Ruby Tuesday is a GREAT place to eat if you're trying to eat healthy. They have a lot of (good-tasting) options in the 500-calorie range, and their salad bar is about as good as you'll find in casual dining restaurants.

A year ago if you'd told me that I'd someday write a blog post in which the dominant topic is the calorie count of food I would have had you committed to a looney bin.

ROOT BEER FUN!!

A few weeks back while on campus we ran into our friend, Lisa, who was drinking a brand of root beer I'd never heard of before. I know there's some kinds of pop with which I'm not familiar, but I didn't know there was a whole niche market devoted to manufacturing root beer. I've lived my life drinking Mug, A&W, Dad's, Barq's, and when I get really lucky, IBC. Lisa told me that there are a lot of root beers that are MUCH better than those I listed above, so we decided to hold a root beer party. Lisa shopped around for some lesser-known brands at specialty stores, and Elizabeth and I showed up today to partake of 8 different root beers.

The Lineup. (To the left of the bottles of root beer you can see the shot glasses we used to sample each different drink. I know it looks like the counter of an alcoholic, but I promise, it is ROOT beer.)

A couple of the brands were particularly nasty. The one Lisa is holding is a generic organic brand from a grocery chain. Until I'd tried some of these other, very good, kinds of root beer, I would have just considered it sort of "cheap" tasting. The one I'm holding is sweetened with agave nectar (rather than sugar or honey), and it's GROSS. It tastes really bad. I don't recommend it.

This is another picture of the eight contestants before we began trying them, and again, our shot glasses for sampling. We had a really good time trying out new kinds of root beer. A couple of them are FABULOUS. Better than I ever thought root beer could be (and it's my favorite kind of pop). After the tasting we watched Willy Wonka, because it has a scene involving fizzy lifting drinks... which are sort of like root beer.

An open letter to Whitey's Ice Cream

Dear Whitey's,

I don't know how you do it, but your ice cream is simply better than any other brand I've ever tasted. For the first twenty-two years of my life I lived in close proximity to a few of your locations and I was able to get it whenever I wanted. Sadly, over time I began to take it for granted. For the last three years I've lived in areas completely devoid of the sweet, tasty, creamy goodness that only you can provide. Not only am I unable to partake, but none of the people who live in my city even know what Whitey's ice cream is! This fact has been terribly difficult to cope with.

On a recent vacation to eastern Iowa I made it clear to my travel partners that one of the things I just HAD to do while I was in town was stop by a Whitey's location for a double-scoop cone of the world's greatest sweet treat (since I'm sure you're wondering, Moose Tracks is the flavor I simply can't live without). My cone was every bit as delicious as I remembered, which only served to deepen the sadness I felt that I cannot get it at home. Please consider the deprived tastebuds of millions of Americans and expand your service to all areas of the country. If you've been looking to expand and you just can't find the right place, let me suggest Denver, Colorado as a great place to start. The people are friendly, and good ice cream is hard to come by.

With all sincerity and hope,

Jake Rohde

A tasty omelet

The other day on a show called "Man vs. Food" I watched a guy try to finish off a 12-egg omelet that was filled with cheese, salsa, chile, and sour cream. He also had to eat a helping of toast and a side of hashbrowns. He didn't make it.

I was inspired, because I LOVE eggs. So I made myself a 5-egg omelet with a bunch of cheese. It looked like this. It tasted fantastic. I might make another one this week sometime.

25

Today was (is, technically) my birthday. I'm now 25 years old, which is kinda weird.

My wife treated me very well today. We had an AMAZING special breakfast this morning of eggs, biscuits, and gravy (after which SHE did all the clean-up). Then she took me to the bookstore to buy me a puzzle book that I've been desperately wanting (my old puzzle book is pretty much finished... so I needed a new one). Then we got Starbucks -- a special treat for us. After work I checked the mail where I had a letter from Elizabeth that was extremely sweet and touching (thanks, dear!) (I also had a card from my grandfolks... how they manage to make sure stuff gets here on the EXACT day that it should I'll never know). Then we ate at Red Robin with my free birthday burger (if you're not signed up to get a free Red Robin burger on your birthday, you're missing out), and even though I've said it before I'll say it again: Whoever decided that a fried egg should be put on a bacon cheeseburger should be given a raise and a brand new BMW, because it's AMAZING. After Red Robin, Elizabeth had another surprise for me. We went downtown and saw an improv comedy show! There were three different improv groups that performed. The first one was kinda lame, the second one was hilarious, and the third was a little of both. It was a great treat, though. Elizabeth did a great job.

Now we're home and we're tired, but not so tired that we can't watch a West Wing and eat some birthday cake and ice cream (are you EVER too tired for that?)...

Pizza and donuts -- heavenly

Yesterday Elizabeth and I helped a friend move. For hours. He moved from the second floor of one apartment complex to the third floor of another one about 40 minutes away. So, we spent all of Sunday afternoon carrying heavy things up and down stairs. Today we've felt aches and pains all day long because of it.

But, we were well compensated. We got to eat pizza and donuts and drink gatorade and soda. That's my kind of food.

On another note, I read a note a friend posted on facebook recently that was called "You know you're from Iowa if..." The only one that really made me laugh was, "You can name all five seasons: almost winter, winter, still winter, road construction, and DAMN HOT! I'd say that's pretty accurate. It's entirely possible that one day I'll be living in Iowa again, and if that's true, I'm well aware that my mild Denver winters are going to be sorely missed. I haven't worn anything heavier than a spring jacket in over a month. Weathermen call it "bone-chilling" when the temperature is 35 or below. Our average highs are in the 40s, and it must have been 65 today. I know that this is nothing to brag about to my California-based readers, but for a 4-season kind of place at the foot of the Rockies, I've just come to realize that the climate here is much milder than most people think.