Chocolate Goodness

I've been talking with guild members about our October trip to Walt Disney World. We can make food reservations beginning on April 14th so I'm trying to decide where, exactly, I want to eat and to get people who have expressed an interest, committed to coming to the vacation. All this Disney talk put me in the frame of mind for waffles.

This has been a staple of the family since 1990.

I wasn't sure when the last time was that I'd used this. It was quite dusty on the box top, so it has to have been over a year ago.

The interior was a bit dirty so I scrubbed it before plugging it in. The interior is ostensibly non-stick but I need to remember that, after so many years, the non-stick needs help. I forgot with the first waffle.

This wasn't as bad of a mess as it looks. I unplugged the waffle iron and used a fork to peel everything out of the iron.

This tasted good so I put the debris in a freezer bag and I'll use it on ice cream.

The other issue I had was not knowing how much to actually put in the waffle maker.

One-third cup was too much. One-fourth cup was too little. After dirtying two measuring cups, I settled on a bit shy of a third of a cup. What's always the issue is getting the batter into the ears so you get a full ear.

The ears can, with the right amount of batter, fill in, but it's much cooler to have them be the circle.

There was enough batter to make several waffles. I have no idea how long I have had this recipe.

I also don't remember where I got it. Given the paper, probably from a magazine. Shockingly, I have no pancake/waffle syrup in my house. I'm not sure how that slipped from the grocery list. However, this particular waffle does not benefit from maple syrup. These are best served with whipped cream.

I have enough for two meals, assuming I eat two waffles per meal. So, one lunch this week will be waffles at the office. I hope they are all jealous.

Beverage:  Scottish Breakfast tea

Deb

California Food - Part the Second

Here we are, standing in front of the entry to BlizzCon. All the saving. All the sacrificing. All the trips to and from have lead to this. Liz has to work in her capacity as a journalist so she leaves Ashley and I to walk through the doors into the convention center. "Trust me on this," says Liz, as we part. "Eat at the food trucks outside and not at any of the convention spots inside. Convention food is nasty."

With this echoing in our ears, we sit through the opening ceremonies. Ashley is meeting a friend for lunch so I wander off to look around. It's now close to 12:30 and there is a panel discussion coming up I want to hear. Food is everywhere at this convention, everywhere. But remembering Liz's comment, I go outside. Holy food trucks, Batman.

Looking toward the convention center, this is part of the trucks on the left. And here is the same spot on the right.

There were at least a dozen behind me. It is a great way to provide food for the 25,000 convention attendees. Add staff and BlizzCon employees and a small city of close to 30,000 develops. There's just no way to have enough hamburgers and hot dogs inside. If you have any sort of dietary restriction, you could find a food truck catering to that. On Friday, after walking up and down and looking at the dizzying array of choices, I settled for a turkey wrap.

Turkey, bacon, cheese, lettuce and a mild sauce in this flavored tortilla. The size is deceptive in the photo. It was cut in half and was bigger than my hand. It was $12.00 with soda. That's the thing about the food trucks. They were not "cheap" by any means. But the sheer size made the amount of food comparable to, say, my usual lunch fare of a Subway foot-long with chips and drink; $10.00. I don't recall what I had for dinner on Friday night. I don't have a photo record of it.

Onward to Saturday. Liz left early so Ashley and I ate the free buffet at the hotel. It was standard stuff; muffins, waffles, cereal, pastries, yogurt, bacon and beverages. She'd not been able to connect with her friend for lunch on Friday so they arranged to meet on Saturday. We did a couple of things in one of the areas of the center and I wanted to see a program starting at 1 p.m. Ignoring Liz's comment about convention center food, I stopped at a stall selling orange chicken.

You know, this was pretty good. The candy bar was 2.5 times what I'd pay in the store, but the orange chicken was only $6.99. I got a bottle of water and picked at it for the next hour during the program. There was almost too much food in the container.

Ashley and I attended a session at 2 and then we split up again. Three thirty California time is 5:30 my time and my Hawkeyes were playing Indiana. I had asked my Facebook friends and family to post updates on the score, since I knew I would be otherwise occupied. I dashed back to the hotel room, popped on the TV and was able to post an article to my guild's web site while watching the last 5 minutes of the game, which Iowa won.

That respite, where I was able to put up my feet, left me energized for one final pass around the convention. I headed back and decided to try my luck with another food truck. I met Ashley; not planned, we just happened to see each other; and decided we'd eat off this truck. The fare looked good. They had bratwurst. Ohboy ohboy ohboy!

How can you go wrong with a solid hunk of sausage. Ashley got a bacon wrapped hot dog.

We got our sausages and sat down.

I don't like sauerkraut which bratwurst is usually served with. But cover it with a good German mustard and I'm deliriously happy. This was awful. I don't know if it was because I'm used to Wisconsin brats, i.e. Milwaukee made, or what it was, but it was just not good. I could only eat half of it. I hated to throw away what amounted to $6.00 for the half I didn't eat, but I just couldn't finish it. That, really, was the only bad meal I had.

On Sunday, we had reservations at Ariel's Grotto for breakfast.

The meal started with hot cocoa and a fruit and pastry basket. We sort of snarfed them up before I could get a photo of the basket.

Suffice it to say this was a hit.

The menu is fixed. You're handed a card and you order off that. It's not buffet. I had waffles this go 'round of breakfast.

That's a muesli mix at the upper right corner with bacon under my waffles. One thing Liz pointed out which I had not realized, every restaurant we went to did not have water out on the table. That's something we take for granted in the Midwest. You sit down and you're brought a glass of water. With Southern California in a terrible drought, that kind of thing wastes a lot of water because you can't just pour it back into the pitcher for the next guests. So water is provided on demand. We were out on the terrace of the restaurant, overlooking a lagoon. We quipped that the waiter would just take a bucket and drop it over the side to haul up water for us.

This was a lovely breakfast. Various Disney princesses wandered through the meal, including Rapunzel, who is Ashley's favorite. While the food was good and the atmosphere nice, I far preferred Goofy's Kitchen and the buffet. I'm glad we had a chance to do both.

The evening meal was a small affair over by the haunted mansion.

Cafeteria style, you grabbed a tray and walked around selecting items from a variety of stations. I got the kids-size pasta because it came with fruit and veggies, and a chocolate cake. Both were adequate. Later, I got a bag of popcorn and ate that while watching the pyrotechnic show and the fireworks. This was okay and a decent value for the cost, but I was tired at this point so the cake seemed dry and somewhat flavorless even though it was chocolate.

The next day was get away day. I grabbed breakfast at the airport; a large blueberry muffin and tea. My flight was delayed getting out of LAX and I couldn't bring myself to pay the price asked for what seemed like substandard fare aboard the aircraft. When I finally got home, I had soup and a ham and cheese sandwich.

Vacation food can be iffy. All-in-all, I had one lousy meal. That's not too bad of a track record for all the times I ate something. Uninspired meals were breakfast at the hotel, at Starbucks, and the final meal at Disney. Adequate meals were Sunday breakfast and breakfast at both airports. The meals that surprised me were the convention chicken, the sandwich on Friday and Thursday's soup at Rainforest. The other meals, Cafe Orleans, Goofy's Kitchen and good ol' IHOP, were amazing. I think I should try to make that peanut butter and jelly pizza. I'll let you know how that goes.

Beverage:  La Croix sparkling water

Deb

Lifespan Ending

There are a lot of things in life that we don't really give any mind to until they fail. I've had two failures in the past 5 days.

My chair mat at work was the first to go.

Actually, it had been cracked for some time and I'd lost a few small pieces over the past winter. But, in May, it disintegrated. After getting the chair wheels hung up several times, I ordered a new one. Do you know how expensive these are? I was completely astounded. $100 and up for a chunk of heavy plastic. I was able to find one for much less under the "economy" label.

With big items like this, you take them to the hallway and put a "trash" sticker on them so the cleaning staff knows to dispose of them. Along the way, more pieces dropped off the center.

It left a debris trail from my office to the hallway.

I started working here in 2000, so I've been with this company for 13 years now. This chair mat predates me by at least 2 years, possibly more, but 2 is a good assumption. I have no idea what they paid for it back then, but whatever it was, we certainly got a good value out of it. I hope the new one holds up even half as long.

I didn't realize how much I had adapted (there's that word again) to the bumps and holes in the old one until I put this new one on the floor. That new plastic smell usually makes me cough and causes my allergies to flare up but I've been okay. I think my body has other things to worry about than my allergies.

Sunday, I decided waffles were in order.

I have a couple and then freeze the rest, two to a package. These make quick and filling suppers, lunches and, oh yes, breakfasts.

In order to make the batter, you beat the liquid ingredients together, mix the dry ingredients and then mix the dry into the liquid. A whisk is the perfect tool for this. I started mixing the liquid and the dry ingredients together and saw a piece of black in the batter. It took a bit of fishing to find it.

It's the center peg in the whisk and holds the tool together. I tried to stick it back in. It held for a few more minutes but then fell out again and with it came some small pieces of black plastic. This is falling apart.

I remember when I got this. It was summer and Carole and a bunch of her friends invited me to go see Over the Hedge, an animated feature about suburbia and wildlife. Robert Morris College was handing out free whisks to publicize their culinary arts program. It's been a great whisk, able to whip everything from egg whites to pancake batter. But, as with many things, there is a finite life span and it would appear I have reached it. I'm thinking I should look at spending money and buying a good whisk from Williams Sonoma or Crate and Barrel, not just frequenting the Target utensil aisle. I want my next whisk to last as long as this one did.

For the moment, it will be forks and wooden spoons. I'm kind of sad to see this go. Lightweight and easily manipulated, it was easy to mix ingredients using this. We rail about planned obsolescence in so much of what we buy. I didn't even think about how long the chair mat was under my chair or this whisk was in the utensil drawer. Occasionally, something comes along to remind me that some things will last for years and they are things we don't expect.

Beverage:  Lady Gray tea

Deb