Starry Lunch

worked hard on this star shaped menu for isaac's lunch today. it's already worked to trick him into trying a peanut butter sandwich (something he wouldn't even dream of trying in it's native format).

Personalized Pancakes

Maybe I should try to grow some letter shaped vegetables...

christmas cookies, round 2

last saturday, mandy and her girls came over and we finished baking cutout cookies and then decorated them. isaac decorated one cookie, ate it, and ate two undecorated cookies and called it quits. the girls hung in till the bitter end and decorated a zillion cookies. the last is my favorite.

cookie apprentice

isaac and i decided it was time to to a little holiday cooking. he helped make the cookie dough, by reading numbers on the recipe and counting out the ingredients. and by sticking his fingers into sugar and licking them. both were very helpful.

then, we got down to the fun part... cutting out the cookies. it was time for isaac to put all his play doh practice to good use. my only complaint about my young helper was his inability to efficiently use to most dough possible on each rollout. he liked to plop his cookie cutter down in the middle and we only managed a few cookies at a time. that's better than last year, i suppose, when he just ate the dough...

next up... the funnest (i know. that's not a word.) part. frosting the rock hard cardboardy christmas likenesses... hopefully, it goes better than last year...

eat free chikin.

jake, isaac and myself will be dressing up as cows today and heading to chick fil a for some free food today. it's cow appreciation day!

learn all about it at cowappreciationday.com.

definitely NOT germ-free holiday baking...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(and yes, he's still wearing the same shirt from yesterday).

gingerbread skeletons

here are the finished gingerbread men that isaac helped me with.
note: he did not help with the final decor.

 

 

gingerbread helper

isaac helped me make some gingerbread cookie dough tonight.
stay tuned for shots of the finished product...

(licking the beaters is always the best part...)

clearance jelly beans....

....i just ate too many.

Fluffer Nutter.....

....was Kernel Kustard's delicious flavor of the day that Isaac and I sampled on our way home from Target. It's still second in my heart behind Moravian Cookie.

Kernel Kustard

After five visits to the newly opened Kernel Kustard restaurant, Isaac and I would like to publicly give rave reviews. This message was unsolicited.

So far, I have tried the following:
1. Vanilla Kustard with Butterfinger mixin.
2. Lick the Bowl Jumble (Vanilla w/ pb cookie dough, brownie batter, and chocolate chip cookie dough)
3. Brew Nerd's Mocha Almond something or other Kustard.
4. Turtle Cheesecake Kustard (my favorite, so far).
5. Southern Apple Pie Kustard
6. Italian Sausage sandwich.

So far, Isaac has tried all of the above Kustards, although his favorite thing about KK's isn't on the menu. He loves loves loves the fountain on the patio.

So, on top of having delicious food, it's a good escape for a stay at home mom and her adventurous baby. Kudos to the McKies. Word.

Dixie Classic Fair

It's Dixie Classic Fair week!
We tried to go on Saturday, but had a long (and frustrating) encounter at Bank of America that left us a little strapped for time. So, Derek came home early yesterday and we headed there yesterday afternoon. We have some pictures, but they're on Derek's camera, so they'll have to wait.

Yesterday was Lowe's Foods Can Day, so we brought 5 cans each and got in for "free" - compared to the normal $7 fee. We found Steve, Lorena and Josiah and the fun began. First, we went to the petting zoo. Isaac and Josiah fed some goats. And Isaac pulled on some goat fur. He was more interested in trying to climb the railing than the goats, so he wound up back in his stroller. After a scrub down, we headed to "Yesterday Town".

There was a musical act setting up and we watched a chainsaw sculptor work his magic. The boys walked around a little and showed off for the crowd, and then we headed for the food. Derek and Isaac and I would come back later for some of the music.

I had an elephant ear (fried dough) with powdered sugar, although after seeing Steve's cinnamon, sugar and BUTTER topping, I am regretting my decision. :) I later indulged in a frozen lemonade and we got the obligatory cotton candy and candy apples for the road. (I ate them later, after dinner and I still feel sick from it!)
Derek had a polish sausage sandwich and a funnel cake and some frozen lemonade, as well. The eating was good. I had high hopes to get a fried Snickers, but it just wasn't going to happen after the elephant ear.

We walked around for awhile, so Isaac could check things out and then headed home. The boy was worn out! He went to bed early and slept a little bit late and then went down for a semi-early nap.

And that's the story of the fair.

Mix-In Frosty = Ripoff

Isaac and I went to have lunch with Derek today. On the way back, Derek and I decided to get a Frosty. Then, we remembered that Wendy's now offers mix-ins in the form of m&m's and oreo.
I got oreo and traditional frosty.
Derek got m&m's and vanilla frosty.

What a complete RIP!
Why, you ask??
1. The Frosty's came 3/4 of the way up a 12 oz. cup. (For the mathematically challenged, that's a 9 oz. Frosty).
2. The mix-ins were too chunky.
3. The mix-ins were not entirely mixed in, which I think, by definition they should have been.
4. The cups were thin plastic cups which did not provide any insulation from the warm hands of the consumer, thereby melting the Frosty at a rate greater than the consumer's ability to consume said Frosty.
5. The Frosty's cost $2.49 each.

LAME.

Texas Land and Cattle

We went out to eat (w/o the boy) last night.
1. There was no prime rib on the menu so I had to settle for ribeye.
2. The hosts were not very hospitable. Guess that's what you get when you have to hire high school girls.
3. Igot a little sick. I think my body has forgotten how to digest less than medium meats.

Other than that, it was nice to get out, although it felt really weird to be without the monster.

Big Shotz Tavern

A few months ago, a Big Shotz Tavern popped up down the road from us.
Since then, we've almost gone there a few times, but decided against it for various reasons. Finally, last night, we went.

It wasn't very impressive.
We got a French Dip and a Buffalo Chicken Sandwich. Neither were all that impressive. The french dip was on hard crusty bread and was served sans dip. Which is dumb. The chicken sandwich was plain. Derek said he likes TJ's Deli better. And theirs is like half the price. Big Shotz was a little bit pricey for the type of food and atmosphere. There was one other disappointment, that I don't blame on the restaurant, nor do I think happens across the board. That is, our waitress was MIA for a large part of the night. Of course, this happened during the part of our dining experience when we both were out of drinks and were trying to suck the melted ice every two seconds. You'd think one of her coworkers would have noticed and jumped in, or at least found her and told her. But, that was not the case.

Anyhow, our curiosity was satisfied and we can close the book on Big Shotz Tavern.
We'll stick to TJ's I guess.

silver diner

so, derek and i ate at billy bob's silver diner last night. for the last 4ish years, i've been telling him i want to eat there sometime. it's shiny. it's a diner. what more can you want?



well, i'll tell you. better service. and food prepared the way you ask. that's what.

our server was a little slow. maybe we could call her multi-taskingly challenged. she just seemed to be on one track all night. whatever.
i ordered a "carolina cadillac" cheeseburger.... medium well done. not because i like charred meat, but because of the baby. it was served up and looked delicious. my first bite revealed bright red meat inside. so, i had to trade with derek.
the irony is: derek didn't mind because when he asked how big the burgers were, the aforementioned waitress told us about 1/4 pound. so he selected a different menu item, based on this information. well, lo and behold, the burger was quite gigantic, so due to the bloody meat, derek looked to benefit from the situation. so we switched.
derek had ordered a philly cheesesteak sandwich, but it came without tomatoes and mayo. getting our waitress to bring these items proved quite difficult, so derek got up and found her and got some.
besides this, our evening was quite enjoyable.