Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Banana Bac-O-Bake
After Courtney's offer to put bacon on my PB&B I made a mental note: Step 1 is to remove the banana sticker and place it on the end of your nose until you are done cooking. Remove about 10 slices of the bacon from the package. Cut the slices in half. In my recipe I used an old trick I have known for many years: bacon stretching.   Next we need to cut our bananas. First peel the banana, then you cut them with three "steak cuts" producing four banana cylinders. It is best to cut one banana and finish the recipe for that one before cutting another banana to prevent browning. With one slice of bacon cylinder and one slice of banana, carefully wrap the bacon around the banana, securing it with a tooth pick. Place the wrapped banana on a baking sheet. Continue cutting and wrapping all of the bananas with bacon.   The difficulty in this recipe has to do with the bacon wrapping. You don't want too much bacon around the banana or the heat won't cook the bacon all the way through. While rolling the bacon out does thin the bacon, it also results in many more layers of bacon on each banana. I think if you can cut the bacon so it results in only one layer of bacon that would work best. This will require a bit more investigation into the cutting and rolling out of the bacon. The moist banana keeps the bacon from getting really crispy, so if you are a crunchy bacon fan, this may not be your thing. And if you don't eat them soon after they come out of the oven they get brown (not the good kind of brown) and mushy, and then the bananas start to lose moisture and the bacon gets yucky. So eat it while it's hot! Probably the most important thing I learned from this is: just because you HAVE five bananas and a whole package of bacon doesn't mean you have to USE all five bananas. Once I ripped into the package of Bacon I couldn't help myself. I was rolling and cutting bacon and having a grand of time. It was only when I had 20 bacon wrapped banana slices on the tray that I realized the problem: that's a lot of bananas! In the future, perhaps maybe one banana will do. If you are wondering what happened to the leftover bacon I have one simple question: Unless you keep that bacon in your pocket until lunch, the roaming bacon grazers will get to your stash of bacon and it won't make it to your sandwich. That happens all the time around my family. If you placed a plate of home made cookies and home made bacon side by side on the counter, the bacon will disappear before the cookies. After all Bacon is Meat Candy.  |
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Elvis has left the kitchen
| You may recall the entire reason for this week of going ape over bananas was due to my visit with Courtney and my recent discovery that some people find peanut butter and banana sandwiches "icky." Those people are nuts. (Get it? They're nuts?) I do have one question though. When you make your banana sandwich, how do you slice your bananas? From my prior post on banana slicing, there are two basic cuts:  and Steaks  With fillet cuts you have a maximum thickness to your slices. Basically, you can't make slices thicker than half the diameter of the banana. Without either huge slices of bread, a very small banana, or crazy cutting, you can only use 3 quarters of the banana. The remaining quarter has one long exposed cut side and that will be brown in 10 minutes. That really seems wasteful. With steak cuts, your thickness is determined by the LENGTH of the banana, not the width. Though I can't imagine making a sandwich with slices as thick as half the length of a banana, who am I to judge? I chose to arrange my "banana steaks" in the typical 3x3 pattern. It was quick and easy. For those who desire to further optimize their bread coverage, I suggest you investigate the history of the Baker's Dozen. Instead of a basic grid placement, you'll need to go with triangles or hexagonal patterns. Or you'll have to start dividing the banana steaks into wedges. When I want a PB&B, I am usually not up for plane geometry. I keep is simple. In the second picture I am sure you are wondering about those stray mini nilla wafers on the edge of the plate. Well, the other benefit of "steak cut" banana slices is that it allows better placement of "additions." Chocolate chips slide nicely in between the slices, making chocolaty pockets of goodness among the banana. Especially if you briefly microwave the sandwich. I chose to add some crispy crunch with nilla wafers.  As I was putting the lid on my PB&B Courtney wandered into the kitchen to pick up hers and seeing my almost completed sandwich, she opened the fridge and grabbed the Hormel Bacon Bits and asked if I wanted to put some on my sandwich. (You see? She really does understand me!) I opted not to add pork to a PB&B, because I didn't think it needed an additional P (pork) or B (bacon) in the name. While I was making my sandwiches, we also discussed the fabled Peanut Butter and Honey sandwich. We had no honey on hand so we couldn't go there, but we discussed theory. I personally put peanut butter on BOTH halves of the bread, thus forming a "honey pocket" in the bread. Tasty, but messy when you take that first big bit. Courtney goes with peanut butter on only one half, allowing the honey to soak in and "krystallize" (yeah I used a K, so what?) in the other half of the sandwich. It's good but the honey often seeps through the bread to make a rather sticky sandwich. When I returned home to research this post, I discovered the history of the peanut butter and banana sandwich and Elvis. Most people know of his love for peanut butter and banana sandwiches that were then fried in butter. The problem is, for some reason there are now 2 or 3 variations of the "official" recipe, some adding bacon, some adding Honey, some adding both. I have also found one that instead of simply pan frying in butter, they dip it in a french toast batter to fry. Maybe the reason Elvis left the building was because they kept screwing up his sandwich.  |
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
I'm not a one trick pony (or piglet).
| Most of my past few posts have had a running "back story" to them. The problem is, it's a secret back story you don't know yet. I haven't yet figured out how to say what needs to be said, so I dance around it instead. Just like today. Tomorrow is secretary's day. Our department secretary, Ulene, is crafty, so we have no hope of surprising her on Secretary's day. So we got sneaky and did it today! I'd be willing to bet that trick won't work next year. Anyway, starting about a week ago the top secret "who's bringing what?" list started going around in Email. I could feel the unspoken peer pressure:  The picture above is from Chris' Christmas in Conyers. (And yes for those utterly confused by my multiple Chris references in my previous post, I did just say "Chris" Christmas Party.) Sadly, I never got to make one in Macon, but I managed a save by baking a red velvet cheesecake with my mother just after Christmas.  So to please the masses I added my name and "Cheesecake" to the list, and was greeted with great sighs of joy and relief. But in the spirit of being sneaky and crafty, I had a plan. I'd been telling them ever since I brought my first cheesecake that I can make others. I keep telling them "I'm not a one trick pony!" No one seems to care. No one has ever asked for anything else. It's assumed I'll bring in the turtle cheesecake. You know what they say about assuming right? I decided that since they'll always ask for the same thing, it was up to me to force the issue. I decided to go with my original "Reese's Cheesecake" made with Reese's Peanut Butter and Hershey's Chocolate.  Of course there were plenty of confused looks when I opened the cake caddy and there sat a very un-turtlish cheesecake. I then had to explain it was chocolate and peanut butter (no caramel). This was greeted with nods and smiles. Then they attacked my cheesecake, forks, spoons, and knives flying everywhere. I do hope I have shown them I am not a one trick pony. Sadly, it occurred to me later this afternoon that I have probably just convinced them MORE than I am "the cheesecake guy." So next time I think I need to go the complete opposite of cheesecake. And that is where I got stuck for most of today. What is the opposite of cheesecake? The best I could come up with was fish. But I don't eat or cook fish. I was stumped. Then Colby came to the rescue. You may remember Colby, the finder of all things Pork. He introduced me to Chocolate covered bacon. He sent me the link to the Wake-n-Bacon Alarm Clock. The latest example of Porkfection from Colby: Chicken Fried Bacon With Cream Gravy! For your own safety, do NOT read the "Nutrition Facts" on the right hand side! But wait! There's also a video! Oh I can feel my arteries clog up just thinking about it! And maybe we can have cheesecake for desert? What? You don't really feel like cheesecake anymore? GOOD! |
Labels: Bacon, Conyers, Macon, Recipe
Sunday, February 17, 2008
Truth or Koincidences
| The new Chocolate Cherry MilkQuake has caused a couple of people to ask me if I had anything to do with it. I did "invent" the Chocolate Covered Strawberry MilkQuake on January 3rd. Technically I'd had the idea since back in October. However, I'd only told one or two people prior to actually making it, and none of those people work for Krystal. I know that some of the folks up at Krystal HQ read this blog. I don't know how many or how often, so I am fairly certain they read about it the same time you did. But let's face it, it's not really an Earth shattering discovery. I don't know the inner workings of the food industry, but I can only imagine the time line from initial idea to actually arriving in stores is longer than 6 weeks. Now if Krystal does want to get adventurous with their MilkQuakes, I'm here for ya, baby. For example: But there's even more koincidences you don't know about. Three weeks ago, more or less, I went to Just Because Chocolates around the corner for several reasons. I wanted to see if they had any good ideas on what to do with Dulce de Leche, but instead they'd never heard of it, so I gave them the recipe. I asked them about chocolate covered bacon, and as expected, they wrinkled their noses. I also wanted to inquire about buying some chocolate covered cherries for Courtney. Yes. Chocolate Covered Cherries. Three weeks ago. I had been thinking about making them myself, but they seemed to be very complicated and time consuming and I didn't have that much time. I decided I needed outside help on this one. Just Because has chocolate covered cherries. And LOTS of other delicious stuff. In fact they do their cherries two different ways. One they dip in chocolate and another they soak in brandy for a few weeks before they dip them in chocolate. I bought 2 pounds of the brandy soaked cherries to send to Courtney. It's at this point Courtney is now wondering where that other half a pound went. I'm not telling!     |
Saturday, February 09, 2008
More on that.
This just in from the Ever Clever Chris:My suggestion for the new sandwich should've been obvious to everyone: The Angwich!I have but one response: "Pretty Sneaky, Chris!" As Brian pointed out in his comment on my last post, it was a bit of a long winded, rambling post. It was not, however, 5000 words. (It was 986, not including the title.) Now had I left in everything I originally planned for the post it may very well have hit 5000 words. First there was my script proposal for the TV mini series based on the Black Angus brothers, BA and Little Charrlie as they travel across the countryside in search of wonderful (and delicious) friends to join for dinner each week. Friends like: Bacon, Chili, and Mushroom (He's a Fun-guy!) While I kept the reference to Angus Young of AC/DC I left out the possible tie in of this new sandwich with the TV show Chuck. I got hooked on the show while flipping channels one evening a while back I recognized one of the actors. All of the articles written about the show talk about how the cast is made up of unknowns and nobodies. Well that all sounds like a great underdog scenario, but it's not exactly true. Most of the cast is only unknown or unfamiliar to the unobservant. For starters, the character of John Casey is played by none other than Alec Baldwin. No, he's not one of THOSE Baldwins. That would be too easy. You would know him as the big quite loner, Linderman, from his very first film, My Bodyguard (1980). Chuck's sister, Ellie is played by Sarah Lancaster that you might recognize from the TV series Everwood (2003-'05). You may even recognize Vic Sahay From a microscopic role in Good Will Hunting, or Ryan McPartlin AKA Captain Awesome from his role as the young boyfriend of Fran Drescher in the short run series "Living With Fran." As obscure as these actors may be, none of them were the one that caught my eye. Now, the one that caught my eye was Josh Gomez ("Morgan Grimes"). Who the heck is Josh Gomez, you ask? Obviously you are new here. Have you met The Ranch Tooth and his friend Josh Gomez? (check the video clips on the right side of the page.) That's right, everyone's Ranch-challenged buddy landed a TV series gig. Sadly, I don't think there's room in the series for everyone's favorite molar to make a guest appearance. And while Wendy's has thankfully ditched the red head tree kicking lunatic commercials, I doubt they'll be bringing the Ranch Tooth back. (And given the new "Fishing Wendy" commercials I think they may have sunk lower.) So in closing here's another dozen or so links and 475 or so words to include with the previous 1000. |
Saturday, February 02, 2008
The Bee tries to beat the K
| Many years ago when the first Applebees opened in Conyers, it was a great hangout. Lovingly referred to as "The Bee." Then a few years later, a Chili's opened across the street and was immediatly dubbed "Gary's Olde Town Tavern." (If you don't get the joke, you need to watch more Cheers.) I have always been fond of Applebees. When I lived in Macon, there was an Applebees just down the hill from me. Made it easy to stop by on Monday for "Steak Night." Buy a steak and get your first drink free. Sounds like a good deal to me! Unfortunately I had a girlfriend who started working there, met her next boyfriend who tended bar there, and more or less ruined it for me. Thankfully they opened like 3 others Applebees in Macon so I could still get Steak Night. When I moved to Wilmington I didn't see any Applebees. I found it strange for such a big city to be without Your Neighborhood Bar and Grill. Then one day I found it, stuffed in between a Lowes and the Wal Mart. Not at all easy to get to, to say the least. A few months back I made my way up to see if there was anything new going on at the Bee and to my surprise, there was. It appears Applebees is trying to hop on the Mini Burger Express. You might recall that in my last week in Macon I reviewed Rudy Tuesday's mini burgers. I figured it would only be fair to put the Bee to the test. On the menu you'll actually find the "Mini Bacon Cheeseburgers" offered as both an appetizer as well as a full fledged burger dinner.  While we're on the topic of confusing things. Maybe someone can explain to my why, when I go to the Applebees Web Page and click on the "Investors" link in the top center, I am taken to IHOP's Investor Relations page?!?! (Go quick, they may fix it someday.) Is Applebees or IHOP trying to tell us something?   In a strange twist of alphabetical irony, I am going to have to give The Bee a Cee. I awarded bonus points because the onion rings were especially tasty and Krystal let us down this year with no Vidalia Onion Rings OR Onion Petals. The bacon was also a nice plus. But frankly the burger was weak and the bun a disappointment. Given The Bee and Ruby T's attempts, what I think we are slowly dicovering is that the Small Hot Steamed Square burger is an "everyman" kind of burger. When you try to "Glam it up" and make it "high class," you ruin it. Lets face it, when you are going for a tasty delicious mini hamburger and the hostess seats you and hands you silverware wrapped in a cloth napkin, you're so far out of touch with reality, you'll never get back to a good burger. And no, I have no intentions of going to try any mini burgers at Chili's. And yes they have them: BIG MOUTH BITES*That sneaky old Gary is always up to something and I don't want to fall victim to his trickery. |
Labels: Bacon, Cheese, Conyers, Macon, Onions, Wilmington
Friday, January 04, 2008
No Más
| After 18 years of Krystal Thursdays, what would one get on their final official Krystal Thursday. I had almost 2 hours to think about that while I drove down. My poor planning resulted in me hitting Myrtle Beach at 5pm. Rush hour, idiot drivers, and multiple car wrecks made the final 10 miles last forever. For a brief moment I wondered if the Krystal Gods were trying to get me to turn back and reconsider. In reality I didn't need 2 hours to decide what I would have. I didn't need 2 minutes. The decision was one of the easiest ever: Normally I celebrate special occasions by adding Bacon to my cheese Krystals, so that was a given. But then there's the ultra rare delicacy known only to the few people who really know Krystal: the Chili Cheese Krystal. In fact I still remember a debate I had with a manager in Macon over if you could actually add chili to a Krystal. I am not sure he believed me when I told him you can add chili to anything at Krystal. As I turned the corner to pull into the Murrell's Inlet Krystal there in bright shiny glorious color was a sign proclaiming that it was essentially Chili-time! (Can't Touch This!) It was another sign. Chili Cheese Krystals would be mine. I walked in, took a slow deep breath, and firmly placed my order:
 This is what $12.09 can get you   I sat there, staring at the remains scattered across the tray. Spent Krystal shells scattered across the battlefield of my dinner. Barely a crumb from the steamy bread to show what had happened here. The only one who knew of the significance of what had happened was me, and me alone. Which is really how it should be. While I have shared Krystal Thursday with many people over the years, when it gets right down to it, most of the 18 years were a solitary journey. It all started alone, and it is fitting that it ended alone. But I couldn't simply toss it all in the trash and walk away. There had been one last Krystal Kreation I had been thinking of for months, but unable to try due to geography. I decided it was now or never. I walked to the counter and asked the girl if we could get a little creative. Apparently these words signaled to the manager that she might need to get involved so she stepped up to the counter to take my order: "To make the Strawberry Milkquake, you start with vanilla then pour strawberries on top, right?" "Yes, sir, that's right." "Can we do the same thing, but start with a chocolate Milkquake instead?" "That sounds great!" There was never a pause, no hesitation, no complaints. I think she felt that great feeling of excitement and discovery that I felt. She rang it up and jumped right to it. This is why I love Krystal. The cashier came back to the counter and mentioned that she was shocked she'd never thought of it before. We then got to talking of other great things you can do at Krystal. I mentioned the Apple Pie in the Vanilla Milkquake and she said she'd already done that and loved it. She said she'd tried it in all 3 flavors of Milkquake and apparently chocolate is good too. If only I had 3 more stomachs, but sadly I am not a camel. I only had room for mine:  As I said yesterday, I do not know how the end of Krystal Thursdays will impact this blog. I certainly have a lot of Krystal topics left untouched. I have, as a friend once called it, a "Krystal Kloset full of Krystal Krap" that I haven't even mentioned yet. But for right now, for the first time in almost 2 decades, I don't have a unreasonable craving for Krystals. I am happy, and I am satisfied. And when it gets right down to it, isn't that really all we need out of life? I know personally, that the past few years of my life have been missing one or the other. |
Labels: Bacon, Cheese, Chiks, Chili, Macon, Pups
Monday, November 26, 2007
A missing Bible verse
The following is a recently discovered portion of Genesis. It appears to shed some new light on that 7th day thing.In the beginning God created man and pig. The beauty of Corned Ham |
Labels: Bacon
Thursday, October 11, 2007
It's just what I always wanted!
In honor of my dinner tonight (Bacon Cheese Krystals), I have decided to be like every other American and don a rubber bracelet to support a cause. But no ordinary cause will do. I have high standards! My other one says "Canivore" and is, of course, a red band. I'll save that one for special occasions. P.S. Please don't tell Andrea about this. She's vegitarian and rapidly approaching vegan. You lose a lot of street credibility when you get your butt kicked by a vegitarian girl. |
Sunday, September 23, 2007
Chocolate Chips
OK, I told you I'd be back yesterday to finish up with the chocolate dipped fun, but I was a "no show." Well can you blame me? Here's where I was yesterday:  But let me make good on my promise to finish up on my "adventures in melted chocolate." With the chocolate covered bacon (aka "Pigs in mud") cooling in the freezer, I had a small amount of melted chocolate in the double boiler, and couldn't bring myself to waste it. You may have noticed my well stocked Krystal-filled freezer in the last post. I must admit there was about a 3 second period of time I contemplated chocolate covered Krystals. I decided that would be considered Kruelty to Krystals, so I passed. Nothing else in the fridge or freezer seemed like a unique candidate, so it was over to my tiny pantry. When I opened the door, what was the first thing that caught my attention?   Bottom line, it has GOT to be better than chocolate covered ants. Right? |
Labels: Bacon
Friday, September 21, 2007
Cracklin Krackle
| My friend Colby can sniff out a pork product like a pig sniffin out a truffle. You may recall Colby directed me to the "how to make Cracklin" link in a post a while back. He also discovered the Wake-n-Bacon alarm clock. Well Colby's been back at it again. Yesterday at work I had a "milk out the nose" moment. Except I was drinking Coke. Colby forwarded me this link: I decided I simply had to have some. But as you can see from the link above, they're "Sold Out." CURSES!!! How dare you tease me this way Colby! But then. A stroke of brilliance. How hard could it be to make your own chocolate covered bacon? And at $7 for a tiny 3oz box, I knew I could do better. So on my way home I stopped off at the store to buy the finest chocolate and bacon money could buy. Since Harris Teeter was the store, I had to scale down my spending a bit.  As for the chocolate, I had my heart set on Lindt chocolate, perhaps the finest pure milk chocolate you can get without going broke. We do have a Lindt store in the meager mall down the road but it was in the wrong direction, and I had a bacon craving.  If you noticed there seems to be less than a full bar of chocolate in the double boiler, that is because I ate some of if. A good cook will test their ingredients first. Wouldn't want bad chocolate to ruin my expensive, yet slow cooking bacon. Finally the bacon finished cooking and cooling. I broke the strips in half and in they go! Well after I ate 3 of them.     I wonder what the expressions would be on their faces at work if I brought chocolate covered bacon aka "Muddy Pigs" instead of the promised chocolate turtle cheesecake for Boss' day next month. On second though I just got this job, so that's probably not a good idea for now. As for the title of this post, of course you now understand. "Cracklin" is the term for deep fried pig skins. And Hershey has their Krackle candy bar. Not to be confused with Nestle's Crunch bar. And now there's the Crunch Crisp candy bar which seems a bit redundant and a lot retarded. Now if they'd add some bacon to it, then they'd really have something! They could just call it "Crack." Cause everyone would try it once and instantly be hooked! OK, so maybe I'm not good at the whole marketing thing. But darn it have you SEEN the names of all those energy drinks they're making these days? |
Labels: Bacon
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Krystal Wednesday?
 Fear not. I was looking in my freezer tonight, whispering sweet nothings to the eight remaining Krystals in the freezer, when suddenly it hit me. I'll be in Georgia tomorrow evening and can have FRESH HOT Krystals. I don't need my frost bitten Krystals. I couldn't bring myself to just toss those babies out though. And who says you can't have Krystals on Wednesday AND Thursday? I liberated them from thier icy cave and tossed them in the microwave. A little bacon, cheese, and ketsup, and it was looking like it would be a good evening. What's that? Oh, my choice of beverage? Well Krystal doesn't serve alcohol, but boy howdy if they only did?!?!? I still have 4 more Krystals in the freezer (and 3 more Smirnoff's) so if I feel the urge tonight I may go back for seconds. I know I'll be restocking the freezer on Monday. Yes my friends, this weekend is again Dragon Con weekend. Just like this time last year, Krystal Adventure will go quiet for a few days. However unlike last year it is no longer a quick trip up I-75. This year will take more planning and coordination. Current plans are to bolt out of Wilmington ASAP tomorrow arriving in Conyers tomorrow evening (with a quick stop at a Krystal somewhere along the way). Friday it's in to Atlanta for a weekend of insanity and fun, and likely a fair amount of alcohol. Monday morning it is back to Chris' to pick up my truck and then quickly back to Wilmington. There will be a short stop in Augusta to pick up a Steamer pack to last until October 5th, when I am due back in Middle GA. While heading north on I-95 from Florence, SC, I will be driving slow and in the far right hand lane to avoid large metal poles flying up and hitting my truck. Hopefully I arrive home in time to get enough rest to recover from the weekend before class at 8am Tuesday morning. It will be a busy weekend for me. I'll be taking my cell phone along (under protest) just in case chaos should erupt. And chaos usually does erupt when the guys report for Dragon Con every year. Boy, could I tell you some stories, but then someone would get arrested, and it all goes down hill from there. I will have my camera along as always and will take oodles of pictures, most of which I am probably not allowed to post here. Again, someone would probably get arrested, and so on. I suppose that means that this will be my last post for a little while. I may be able to post on Monday when I arrive home but I suspect I'll be too tired to do anything. Thankfully Tuesdays are one of the slower days at work, and when I get done about 3, it's home and straight to bed, without any supper. So until next week, I hope you all have a wonderful Labor Day, and it's best to try and avoid all labor on Labor Day. Find a pool (or a beach) and park your caboose for a while. You've earned it. And if you CAN have Krystals, then you BETTER have Krystals! And a MilkQuake to cure the heat! |
Labels: Bacon, Cheese, Conyers, Wilmington
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
My dogs are barkin'!
| For those not fluent in Southern Redneck, the phrase "My dogs are barkin'" means your feet are sore/tired. Dogs means feet, and you can figure out the rest. I seem to recall my sister in law, Amy, refers to it as "my peats is crackin'!" but you'd have to confirm that with her. I suspect I'll get hit the next time I go visit. So why are my feet sore? Well yesterday I officially got my butt back in the classroom again. And for the record I never sit down while I teach a class. No offense to anyone else who teaches, but I find it rude to "teach" while you sit on your butt. Standing while I teach allows me to roam the room. This keeps sleepy students awake. (Unless they're in class in a roasting hot classroom on an Air Force base but that's another story.) It also allows me to quickly get over to a student who is having a problem to lend a hand if needed. As you might recall I have 3 classes on Mon/Wed. I got my rosters last Friday and the first class had 3 students. Second class had 4 students. Third class had 5 students. Those who know me know that just is NOT my dream class. on the flip side, I have 2 classes on Tue/Thu. First class? 21 students on the roster. Second class? 22 students listed. this is also not my dream class size. I prefer around 10-12 students. So I spend the weekend preparing myself for feast and famine. Yesterday, my first class had 1 student (one) my second class had 2 (two). Apparently a lot of students have't paid for their classes, or have dropped since I got my roster printed. Thankfully the 3rd class yesterday had some walk ins and sits at 6 students. Not great, but better than 1 or 2. Today's classes were around 15 and 18. The roster-run-around is supposed to be done soon. Yesterday was the last day to drop/add. If they haven't come to class at least once by the end of next week they get dropped automatically. While it sounds messy and confusing, it still feels really good to be in a class where I actually hand out a syllabus, review attendance and grading policies, and talk about tests. I've missed this so much! Back to my poor feet... five classes over the past two days wouldn't be too bad except I have had roughly a month off and my dogs aren't used to this kind of abuse. And yes, you know where this is going. In honor of PETA's posterboy, Michael Vick, I decided to go out and abuse a few dogs myself this evening. (For the record, I do not care for the way PETA tries to get their message across, however I do agree in principle with what they stand for.) For dinner this evening I returned to Trolly Stop for dinner. This time I brought my camera along.    Looking at the menu I decided to start near the top and work my way down.  I also got myself a drink and ate in for the free refills. I was unsure if the Surfer dog would go down without a fight, but I was quite sure the All The Way would be a struggle. And as of right now, I can feel that I have a small Michael Vick style dog fight going on in my tummy. Like Mike, I plan to drown them, except with a frosty bottle of Sundrop! In all honesty the Surfer Dog was unremarkable. The Bac-Os only provided minor crunch, but their flavor was overwhelmed by the cheese. Or in the spirit of a SURFER dog, I should say the Bac'Os were wiped out by the tidal wave of cheese. The All The Way dog was just strange. Normally when I eat a hot dog, I bite the toppings off in one bite then get the dog in the second bite. For this reason I usually put some "toppings" under the dog, and some on top. Even condiment distribution is essential for all foods. For the chili slaw dog I had to alter my normal eating style to try and get the "true" taste. I was, and am, less than impressed. Mentally I couldn't get past the idea that there was slaw on my hot dog. Gastronimically, the taste confusion was never resolved. My body was left unsatisfied, having been essentially jipped out of a chili dog, with a side of cole slaw. As you can see from their menu they have no fear of throwing slaw on anything. I can also produce menus from other places around here where they put slaw on hamburgers and barbecue pork sandwiches. For now I refuse to defile my Krystals with slaw to produce a "North Carolina Style Krystal." Slaw is a side dish, not a condiment. Ketchup is a condiment, not a side dish. Apparently they do not understand that up here. I am not against slaw, I happen to love good slaw. In fact this past weekend while visiting my parents, my grandmother made slaw. No one at the table put the slaw on anything and they're all from North Carolina. Must be all these people from out of state moving here and their first real plate of REAL barbebcue accidently got a little slaw on top of their barbecue, so they assume that's "North Carolina Style." I have not yet found a cole slaw pizza, so I hereby trademark and copyright that idea. Knowing my luck, one of those California pizza nuts has already done it. I am also thinking North Carolina should change from being The Tar Heel State and just give in and be The Slaw Heel State.  (I never claimed to be a graphic artist!) |
Labels: Bacon, Cheese, Chili, Onions
