According to Morning Coffee it's National Coffee Day. I don't really need an excuse to celebrate the wonderful beverage that helps me jumpstart my morning, but I'll take one anyway. Unfortunately all I have available to me at work is that NASTY office coffee, but I started the day with two decent cups at home.

I remember my first espresso. I got it in a little coffeehouse in Raleigh and it took me forever to drink it. I remember consuming 2 espressos and four cups of house blend in my favorite coffehouse in Greenville in the course of an hour and a half and vibrating out to the car. I remember the intoxicating smell of roasting beans from my first batch. I remember working for my grandfather, getting up at 4:30 to get ready and drinking his coffee, thick and bitter from cups stained by years of hard water and harder coffee.

Coffee has been very, very good to me.

A new product from JavaVoo allows you to "pressure brew" a single serving espresso in your microwave. Sounds interesting if it works. And NASTY if it doesn't. Click the pic for a closer look.

In Alaska those famous flying reindeer are being served up for dinner. You can get Caribou steaks, roasts, and reindeer jerky and sausage- in mild and hot versions. Reindeer hot dogs are a summer time treat, as well as being served during the start of the Iditarod dog sled race every year in March. Caribou, also called reindeer, have a very flavorful and lean, healthy meat. To make sausage with it, you actually have to add fat from other sources such as beef and pork. It is sometimes hard to find but Ikea sells it all across Europe. So how about a nice spit roasted reindeer for the Holidays?

- HT to Slashfood

I find food taboos very interesting. In this country you'd probably have some people be upset by this. Or the eating of St. Bernards in certain Asian countries. Personally I think I'd have a problem eating something that I consider to be a pet or that has an association, like this does, with a beloved childhood memory. But meat's meat right? Are there any foods that you'd refuse to try on principal?

If you have a yen for marshmallows and want to make some for yourself, here's an easy recipe. It doesn't involve anything much more complicated than boiling liquid. The only thing I can add to the recommendations is to make sure to LIBERALLY coat the baking dish with powdered sugar. This is some seriously sticky stuff. I made some last week and covered a few in dark chocolate. I also threw bite sized pieces in hot cocoa made with real milk and Hershey's syrup. I honestly don't think I can go back to store bought.

I do so love these interweb quiz thingies, especially when they appeal to my inner (and outer)geek.

This is my new coffee maker and it rocks the hizzy. My old Grind-n-Brew bit the dust and so I dropped some Christmas cash on it. What's the big deal?

No, not like white and nerdy. Tonight I wax poetic about things from which neither light nor your tastebuds will escape.

The contents of any given vending machine are rarely as fresh as they could be, so in spite of the fact that The Wonder Pizza - Pizza Vending Machine sounds like a good idea on the surface, I'm not sure that it would work that well. If I want a slice that bad and nothing is open I think I'd just rather wait.

Words fail me.

SupersizedMeals.com - The Deep Fried Bacon Cheese Dog

I just saw a commercial that painted Hellman's as being good for you because it's all natural. Kudos for the ouevos that that took on the part of the ad agency. Here's a flash, arsenic occurs in nature too.

"Trendy" name aside, zpizza is awesome. I just had lunch there and dined on their Napoli pizza. A great thin crust, just a little chewy, topped with a schmear of garlicky sauce, good mozzarella, tomatoes, and basil hit the spot. The chain (website here) started out in "the art colony of Laguna Beach, California, where creativity and craftsmanship have flourished for almost a century". They have a great mix of old and new pizza offerings and the two slices plus a drink was six bucks, so I will be back. They also have salads, sandwiches, and calzones if your'e into that sort of thing.

It didn't hurt that I topped it off with two scoops of Coffee, Coffee, Buzz, Buzz. Having a Ben and Jerry's store near work is not a good thing. At least not for the old waistline.

So I know you're all waiting with bated breath to hear how my birthday weekend was. Well it was a bit of a mixed bag, but good overall.

My wife picked up four of these Grāpple Brand Apples at the grocery store. She raved about them and told me that when I got home I'd have to try one. I opened the blister pack and was hit with the sweet smell. It was indeed reminiscent of grapes. These start life as Fujis and are infused with grape flavor.

All ingredients are USDA and FDA approved and the process has been licensed by the Washington State Department of Agriculture.

There is nothing but flavor being infused into the Fuji apple. The apple takes on no additional sugars or calories. They are not genetically altered in any way.

The apple is as healthy as ever but now has the new exciting grape flavor.

I mean they were good and all, but I like Fujis as is. And kids that aren't "into fruit", too many by half, probably won't be into fruit flavored like other fruit. I applaud the idea, trying to encourage kids to eat right. At over a buck a piece though this just doesn't make sense to me. Choose good specimens from a store that picks its produce well and you're much better off. Oh and start your kids eating fresh fruits and veggies EARLY. And make them GO OUT AND PLAY!!!

Going to lie down now.

Thanks to Snopes I found FreeRice. You can improve your vocabulary and donate rice to the hungry at the same time.

The rice is paid for by the advertisers whose names you see on the bottom of your vocabulary screen. This is regular advertising for these companies, but it is also something more. Through their advertising at FreeRice, these companies support both learning (free vocabulary for everyone) and reducing hunger (free rice for the hungry). We commend these companies for their participation at FreeRice.

So this Thanksgiving was pretty awesome. There was of course the food:

And so much more.

So yesterday after work I went in search of food. I was originally trying to find some sort of Asian place, preferably Thai, but it was not meant to be. Instead I found East Side Mario's, a Canadian pizza chain. It was pretty awesome from a pizza standpoint. I had an Italian sausage with cherry pepper slices. The best part though was dessert. They served up a funnel cake (a very DENSE funnel cake) with vanilla ice cream, caramel sauce, and strawberries. YUMMM.

Dinner was Tandori Chicken at Gandhi's, a fantastic Indian place. Unfortunately my lunch and a Mochacino and biscotti from Second Cup (Canada's biggest coffee chain) interfered a bit, but I ducked in to get out of the SNOW.

So why the title of this entry? Well breakfast this morning was at a hole in the wall Diner as neither Tim Horton's nor McDonald's took my Amex and I was cashless. It turned out to be okay though. I ordered a western omlette in my best francais and sharing the plate was a little silver cup of navy beans. They were really quite good (as was the omlette, though a smidge dry), but I was all "What the heck? Beans?". I must make inquiries as to whether that's a Canadian thing, a Montreal thing, or just the diner.

Here's hoping they weren't too musical.

Well it's the start of another year. This one was good and some time this week I'll do a little blog year in review hitting the "highlights" of what I've written and share with you what, if anything, I've learned. In the meantime things are settling out. We've made room for the new and gotten rid of quite a bit of the old. In spite of a late night last night (babysitting for Leigh and Bladerunner/Twilight Zone marathon watching for me) we've managed to get quite a lot done.

I go back to work tomorrow wondering where all the time went and looking forward to a busy, but hopefully far less hectic year there. I don't really believe in resolutions. Naturally I'd like to lose a few pounds, edit that first novel and write the second, watch less TV and all that jazz and I think I will, but I always seemed to break my resolutions within the first few days of January, so I don't see the point. So I look forward to the New Year and whatever it brings.

All in all though I think that the following picture well sums up how I feel right now about the whole thing.

Somewhere while tripping through the food-blogosphere I ran into Pure Chocolate: Divine Desserts and Sweets from the Creator of Fran's Chocolates. After I apologized to the book for the nasty bump I immediately added it to my wish list, intending to purchase it. As with most things, that never happened, but I was pleasantly surprised when I unwrapped it as a Christmas present from my mother-in-law (Thanks Mom!). I call this a dangerous book because 1) it makes me want to make everything in it and 2) Fran of Fran's Chocolates doesn't skimp on fat, sugar or the titular ingredient. None of the recipes seem particularly difficult, especially if you are a reader of the English language. Every recipe is well explained and several include pictures and diagrams where necessary. The pictures themselves look good enough to eat.

To date, in the two weeks I've had this I've made three deserts, more than I've made in as many months. A few of the recipes require "special" kitchen implements, like a quarter sheet pan or a tart pan. All of them recommend high quality ingredients (naturally) and she lists some specifics. In addition there are also sections on how chocolate is made and on a few special techniques, like how to temper chocolate. At no point did she talk over my head, so if you've a sweet tooth, particularly a chocolaty one you should go get this.

I made a chocolate torte (a very dense cake), a semisweet chocolate sorbet that was smoother than Bill Clinton's pick up lines, and a white chocolate/key lime/ginger ice cream. And no I'm not sharing.

I'm in Baton Rouge this week on a work assignment. I went in search of something "authentic" and I think I found it. Boutin's advertises itself as a Cajun music and dining experience. It did indeed have Cajun music and food. There were two guys playing just loud enough for the squeezebox to lend some atmosphere. So that was great. The food was the real highlight though. I wasn't absolutely starving so the all you can eat crawdads were out of the picture. So I went with the Half & Half.

Get the best of both worlds with this dish when we serve crawfish etouffee, along with golden fried crawfish tails, with side orders of French fries and corn maque choux'.

For sixteen bucks I got just about all the crawfish I wanted and some AWESOME garlic bread. Everything had a very good spice to it and washed down with Arbita Turbodog it was a total Louisiana experience. There was even some LSU b-ball in the background. If you ever make it this far south, it's the place to eat.

Well day one of my assignment in St. Gabe is going well. The gentleman that’s the representative on site has done a tremendous job of having everything centrally located. The site itself, a building that’s been here since ’91 but that’s been sitting largely vacant for two months or more in the Louisiana warmth and humidity, has the odor of the old country church that my grandparents have attended for the last twenty years or more. The room I’m in is full of old chemistry books and the hum of computers surrendering their data to the randomness generated by killdisk. It’s all a little creepy really; dead tree books long unread and dying electronics in the echo of linoleum covered halls.

On a lighter note, we ate lunch at Roberto’s, a little restaurant on the River Rd. just off of the Mississippi. Thanks to a “mistake” in the kitchen I ended up with two cups of Andouie and chicken gumbo instead of one with my catfish po’ boy. The restaurant used to be a general store. I reckon if one of those has to pass from this world, conversion to a good restaurant is the best possible fate. And I tell you what, this is a bit of a bone of contention. People go all over the country and when a good portion of them go traveling they eat at Applebee’s, Chili’s, et cetera, et cetera. I just do not get it. I mean I understand the need to be able to eat something familiar when everything around you is unfamiliar I suppose, but boy are those folks missing out.

Leigh and I journeyed to nearby Pilot Mountain to partake of the local scenery and to get away from our three lovely children. It was three days well spent.

Every once in a while I'll stumble across a new food item and feel the need to blog about it. Today is one such day. A few weeks ago I saw products from Simply Asia in my local Harris Teeter. Three bucks for a shelf stable mass of noodles seemed like a bit much even if the boxes were pretty. Cut to about a week later and I come home to discover box upon box of the stuff. Apparently Aldi's had bought a truckload and was selling them half price. Thankfully they're good. I'll be eating them for a while.

So here you go-

The Goods - These meals are all natural. There isn't an -ate or a -ide in site. I don't think they claim to be organic and they are made in China but hey what isn't? Some of their meals are even Vegan. You basically get a sizable packet of par-cooked noodles, the sauce du jour, some dehydrated veggies, and an appropos crunchy topping (peanuts, sesame seeds, etc.). Throw it all in the to go style container and zap it for 90 seconds et voila. They actually taste pretty great too. The noodles are al dente if you don't over zap and no need to boil water.

The Bads - Not much bad here. The sodium is a little high. As I said, it is made in China. It's three bucks if it ain't on sale and for that you might get something with some meat (which is a draw for me). The "vegetables" are more than a little skimpy.

If you're like me and just can't see how people can eat out at every luncheon opportunity and you want something fast that doesn't require a refrigerator, then check these out. I've had three varieties and have been happy with them all. I have yet to try the Miso soup but I'll let you know what that's like.

I could blog about the Pisgah Brewing Company where they have some of the best stout I've ever had and an open brewery night on Thursdays from four til eight and where three bucks will get you the freshest liquid bread this side of heaven.

I could blog about Perry's BBQ, a little hole in the wall joint in Montreat, where for seven bucks each our little group (which barely fit in their dining room), got us all the pork, chicken, and brisket we could eat along side hush puppies, slaw, buttered red potatoes, baked beans, and sweet tea that would make any true son of the south cry.

I could blog about My Father's Pizza, or the beauty of the mountains, or the wonderful folks at the Blue Ridge Assembly, or the great ride up and back I had, or the games of Catan played, or the music, or the hornet in my bed, or the hike topped off with cooling my head via a hat dipped in a mountain waterfall.

Oh wait, I sorta just did. More on some of that to come (maybe).

Mainly I want to say this. I went to the mountains hoping desperately that I wouldn't worry about who wasn't there and focusing instead on renewing relationship and hearing the gospel. That happened. Oh I worried a little. I'm a worrier in spite of what some may think. More importantly I connected with guys both old friends and new. We shared our pain and fears, but we also shared our triumphs. Men laughed and cried, some (including myself) who hadn't done enough of either in a long time.

I heard the good news again that the Kingdom of God is here, now and that as screwed up as all of its inhabitants are we can love one another and our wives and our Lord without shame or reservation. That's not something that we do often enough down here in the valley. I for one have resolved to change that. I've been disconnected from some of my brothers. Time is a precious commodity, but I need to refocus on how I've been spending that. There are enough hours in the day if I'm wise.

We talked about loyalty and transparency in our dealings with one another. I'm pretty good at both of those things, but there's always room for improvement. I honestly worshipped for the first time in months, maybe longer. God unlocked some doors and flung others wide open. I pray that they'll stay that way and more importantly that the "mountain top experience" doesn't just happen on the mountain.