Foodmomiac

Motivate Me Internet!!!

The garage sale is over - we made nearly $900! This meets my goal of earning enough money to cover most of the moving costs.

Now it's time to prepare for the auction. My mom is here for another seven hours, and has vowed to watch the kids while I get the house in order (Michael is doing homework - he finishes his MBA in 7 days.).

I really just want to sit outside and read a magazine while drinking beer.

Any motivating comments are welcome - I'll be checking back. PLEASE, keep me from slacking folks. I need to get this done.

Motivation for you: A prize to the commenter with the most inspirational comment. I have some very pretty candlesticks that didn't sell because I didn't want to come down on the price. They are from Illuminations. It is a set of three at varying heights. They hold pillar candles. Maybe on my next break I'll post a pic.

Sunburn, cold sores and hives - fun times.

I am fucking tired. Here's why:
(I do bullets when I'm fucking tired)

- Today was day five of my mom's visit. I love her, but, day five. FIVE.
- Today was day one of our garage sale. Actually, the sale itself is quite lovely, as it involves sitting around with beer. The prep for the sale sucked though. We have ridiculous amounts of crap.
- I was at the ER last night from 3:30am until 5:30 am. Dylan developed hives Tuesday afternoon, and they will not go away. She couldn't sleep at all due to the itching, so we went to the hospital. After two hours, they told us that there was nothing they could do. Nice.
- I'm sunburnt. My cheeks look cute and rosy, but sunburns make me tired.
- I have the mother of all cold sores on my lower lip. I look like Rocky. Like a creepy, scabby Rocky.
- We had the Ann Arbor house inspected on Tuesday and are in the process of getting estimates for all the things that need to be fixed.

I'm off to sleep. Next week should be more normal. I hope! (oh wait, the auction is next week. ACK!)

Let the Craziness Commence

My mom is arriving in about five hours. ACK!

We are spending the week preparing for my garage sale, which is scheduled for Friday and Saturday. Oh, and Saturday's forecast calls for rain, lightning, winds, etc. Nice.

My mom is very different from me. She is organized and neat. She is emotional. She loves having deep, tearful conversations about "feelings". Oh God. I'm just thankful that I have a well-stocked bar. I can sometimes deal with the discussions about "feelings" when I'm drunk. Sometimes.

But, anyway, today marks for me the beginning of our house selling madness. This past weekend we found a house. (Yay!) Our offer was accepted yesterday, contigent on the successful auction of this beast. This means that in less than two weeks, this residential nightmare might be over. It was in March of 2004 that we first began our quest to sell this house. Could it really ever end? I'm just besides myself.

So.... the new house? I LOVE IT. And it is in Ann Arbor. Yay yay yay YAYYYYY!

We spent Saturday morning looking at new construction. The houses were lovely. They had big kitchens, and great rooms, and finished basements. They had nice decks. They had jacuzzi tubs in master bedroom suites. And we were prepared to buy one of these homes. But then we drove into our old, beloved neighborhood. (We moved from Ann Arbor six years ago.)  And, we pulled into the driveway of a house that is just two blocks from our old one. We knew the house! It's the house that always had the crazy RV parked out front.

It was built in 1954 and has been owned by the current owners since 1974. It is not updated at all. But, when I walked in the front door, it smelled like home. And it felt like home. The kids' bathroom has aquamarine tile - just like my bathroom had when I was a kid! And, the kitchen is the perfect layout. It needs some new appliances, and new countertops, but it is exactly what I want. And there is even a Florida room. I had a Florida room when I was a kid! Oh, and it's on 1.35 acres. In the middle of Ann Arbor! The cool thing about the acreage is that it's all wooded. There's nothing for us to do to maintain it. No mowing ,etc.

Can you tell I'm excited? I am all about the exclamation points this morning.

OK, time to motivate and get this crazy week started. I'll try to check in as frequently as I can.

Huitlacoche - i finally tried it

I've read quite a bit about Huitlacoche. This corn fungus is considered a blight by most US farmers, but is a delicacy in Mexico. In recent years, however, it has made headway into US restaurants. Not in Toleod, however.

But, luckily, I'm in Chicago tonight! I'm here on a quick business trip. We are attending the Kitchen and Bath Show tomorrow. Today was filled with eating, drinking, shopping, and walking in the delightful spring sun. This is an awesome city.

Where was I? Oh yes, fungus. The client we wined and dined tonight is a huge fan of Mexican food, so we thought it would be fun to take him someplace very authentic. We went to Salpicon. I was very impressed.

The huitlacoche, though, wasn't as mindblowing as I expected. From the descriptions I've read, I was expecting something more like a truffle. I wanted muskiness and richness and that sexy earthlike flavor. What I got was something with a light vegetal flavor. It was tasty, but more like eggplant than like truffle.

Photo courtesty of Wikipedia.

Technorati Tags: huitlacoche, corn smut

Something I'll Miss When We Leave Toledo

  Greek Pizza at Calvino's 
  Originally uploaded by Foodmomiac.

Michael and Dylan are pizza fiends. I enjoy pizza, but it's never been one of my favorite things. The problem, you see, is the sauce. I don't really care for sauce on pizza. Which is why the Greek Pizza at Calvino's rocks my world.

Here you see the Greek Pizza in all its glory. Chunks of salty feta, oozing mozzarella, succulent black olives (subbed for the strangely sour sundried tomatoes), tons of fresh spinach, a touch of fresh basil, way too much chopped garlic and a healthy sprinkling of pine nuts. Glorious, just glorious.

We were talking last night about our move, and we realized that we don't have a favorite pizza place in either one of the areas we are looking (Royal Oak / Huntington Woods or Ann Arbor). There is decent pizza in both areas, to be sure, but no place that qualifies as a weekly pizza joint for the foodmomiac family. Suggestions from any local readers would certainly be appreciated!

Technorati Tags: Pizza, Toledo

Madly and Desperately in Love

Meet the object of my affection; The Dyson.

Despite my fine taste in cleaning music, I am a horrible, horrible housekeeper. I live in a somewhat permanent state of dust and clutter, and though I wish I could be different, I've been this way forever, so I just do the best I can.

But, BUT!!! Oh man. This Dyson. Sigh.

My mother-in-law got it for Christmas from her boyfriend, and since she is on vacation this week, I snuck into her apartment and borrowed it for a day or two. I have been trying to vacuum my house more frequently now that Max is crawling, and I noticed that no matter how many times I went over my living room rug with my Oreck, there was still a ton of dog hair.

Oh baby. I went over that rug with the Dyson, and it is spotless. And you should have SEEN the dirt in the receptacle. CRAZY. But then, I went up to the bedroom. And I vacuumed the rug in there. Oh. My. God. We filled the ENTIRE receptacle with dirt from this one rug. Michael and I were speechless. I must have one of these machines. 1. I am sure that I will become absolutely addicted to vacuuming, and, 2. Michael and I both agreed that vacuuming (and watching the vacuuming) was an almost erotic experience. This thing is THAT powerful.

Anyone want to buy me one?

Technorati Tags: Vacuum, Dyson

Brats

  Brats 
  Originally uploaded by Foodmomiac.

I didn't have brats (bratwurst) growing up on Long Island. Kosher franks, yes. Brats, never heard of 'em. They are very popular here in the midwest though, but when I first moved here, I didn't like them.

It was at a Bunco party that my opinion of brats was altered. God, were those good. I can still taste them. The secret is to first boil them in beer. An easy way to do this is in a crockpot, on low all day. Yesterday, though, we didn't think ahead, so we did a quick boil on the stove. Once boiled, the brats need to be seared, either on a hot grill or in a cast iron skillet. Last night we chose the grill, which added a lovely charred flavor. The brats get topped with green peppers and onions. These can either be cooked in the beer along with the brats or in a skillet alongside. Either way, they are awesome. You'll notice that the bun isn't toasted. I think these taste best on a soft bun that soaks up the juices.

We ate the brats with leftover potato salad from Easter.

Technorati Tags: Bratwurst

My Crazy iMix is up on Parent Hacks

I love making mixes. When I was in high school and college, I made mix tapes. I then, of course, moved on to mix CDs. And now, I make playlists on my iTunes. Playlists can be uploaded to iTunes store as an iMix for other people to download. How cool is that?? Asha over at Parent Hacks asked her readers to submit some of their favorite mixes, and I sent her my Dancing/Cleaning mix. It's up there right now over on the right hand side. I love her commentary. As I told her via email, it makes me sound WAY hipper (and like a better housekeeper) than I actually am:

Danielle, aka Foodmomiac, is in da house...and she's cleaning it. According to her, these songs make housecleaning a little more bearable. A few contain explicit lyrics, but then again, I often curse while cleaning house, too. (You'll need iTunes to be able to listen to this iMix.)

Please check it out and let me know what you think!

Ingredient of the Week - Fage Total 0% Yogurt

Now that decent berries are once again showing up at my local markets, I've gotten back into the swing of healthy breakfasts. In spring and summer, I love eating cereal or yogurt topped with lots of fresh berries. This week, I'm eating my blueberries over a bowl of thick Fage Total yogurt.

If you have never tried this stuff, you are going to be blown away. Unless you live in Europe or the Middle East, or are a descendant of one of those areas, you are probably not familiar with a strained yogurt. The first thing you'll notice is the thickness. This stuff is nearly as thick as cream cheese. And the flavor is so pure, so delicious. Dylan eats it plain, with a spoon.

When I eat Fage with berries, I like to drizzle it with some honey. However, this stuff is also amazing mixed into savory dishes, including curries, butternut squash soup, and Moroccan rice dishes. Because the whey is strained out, you can heat up Fage yogurt and it won't separate like other yogurts are wont to do.

I  also like to use it in place of sour cream, on baked potatoes or on my chili. It's certainly thick enough! And though Fage sells a full fat and a low fat version of their yogurt, I try to buy the 0%. I can't taste much of a difference, and the texture is still great. I'd rather save up my fat calories for cake, or cookies, or cheese.

So, the million dollar question: where can you buy this stuff? Well, I'm not sure what to tell you. It's certainly available at Trader Joe's. I've also seen it at some of my smaller local groceries, though the availability there is more erratic. In the Toledo area, I've seen it at Churchill's and Kazmeier's. Please feel free to post in my comments any local stores (or big chains) that carry this stuff.

Proselytizers Need Coupons Too!

Earlier this afternoon, I had Maxie in the Napsack and was vacuuming when the dog started to bark like mad. I can usually figure out her barks. She has a cat bark, a squirrel bark, a dog being walked past my damn house bark, and then her most vicious bark of all; SOMEONE IS APPROACHING THE HOUSE! ALERT! ALERT!

Since it was the latter bark, I shut off the vacuum, and hustled to the front door in time to see a lady get into her van with my coupons! We cancelled our subscription to the Toledo Blade a few months ago (it's all online, for the most part), but they deliver a little packet of coupons to us for free every Sunday. This packet was sitting on our front steps, and I guess this lady decided that it would be better off with her than with us.

And then I realized what she was REALLY doing at our house. She had thumbtacked two religious pamphlets to the tree at the front of our walkway! Neatly enclosed in plastic, the headline on the pamphlets read, "Does God Love You?"

I have come to expect stuff like this around Easter. What is surprising is that this God-fearing woman who was so desperate to save our souls had no shame in stealing our frickin' coupons!!