Tag: cooking

Y, tho?

I have upset myself once again.

Driving down the main road the other day in my town I see that the only restaurant we had is up for sale. That particular restaurant has been here, being the only place to grab a quick bite, for years. The individual that owned it, last year, decided they were tired, and wanted to retire. They shut it down and it sat there for about a year without a for sale sign out front, I wasn’t even sure if they were going to sale, it or not.

Ever since I saw the sign, it’s all I can think about. At first when I saw the sings, I looked up the website && it wasn’t there on there yet. Yesterday, however, when I looked it up, there is was: $275,000 – full restaurant with kitchen still attached – it needs work, though.

So, how did I upset myself again?

I don’t understand how people get the money/funds to open a restaurant when they don’t have anything to begin with. Where do they get the money? It’s literally… LITERALLY… all I can think about. It made it worse when I saw the pictures of the inside. At that point, I had never even entered that building, so I didn’t know what it looked like. I do now.

I have fallen in love with the bar.

I see other things for sale, but I never actually look at them. But the thought of that restaurant, being empty, for sale, && if I just had the money. I could own it.

I know it’s going to sale quickly. It probably won’t be on the market for a month before someone swoops in && buys it. I don’t blame them. It’s an ideal location in a small town that used to not have anything but that building. We now have a Sonic (who in Oklahoma don’t have a Sonic?), a Mexican restaurant (heard nothing good about them, but I haven’t eaten there), && an Indian place (this one is terrific!). Then of course, if you want to calculate the places inside the casino, we have a few more. But I don’t count them.

I would make a killing. Now you’re thinking a little cocky, aren’t we? Yes, yes I am. Through the years I have been trying to figure out what I’m good at. (Most will tell me writing, but I’m not so sure anymore. Yeah, I can write an essay && get an A, but that’s not that hard.) Cooking. COOKING. That’s my thing. That’s the thing that I feel I was meant to do.

But… where do they get the money from?

I know the ones who come from money get it there. But the ones who don’t? The ones who struggle? The ones who have a full-time job, && still can barely make ends meet, where do they get the money to just go out && open a restaurant? Because they do it. All the time.

Then there is me.

That’s how I upset myself again.

Frozen Can-Can

I haven’t always known how to cook – some might even say I still don’t know how to cook, which is fine. I like my cooking – so does Boyfriend, so that’s all that matters. I learned how to cook by watching food television shows, which also include food competitions. Normally when they cook on them, they explain what they are doing, what they are expecting, what it should look like – you end up learning a lot.

For example, I have been watching “Guys Grocery Games” on Max a lot lately. I learned that the reason mushrooms get slimy is because you don’t remove the ribs in the back of the mushroom. That has stuck with me since Guy mentioned it. I didn’t realize that – don’t get me wrong, I’ve always removed the ribs, so my mushrooms aren’t slimy, but it was something I learned on a cooking competition show.

So, basically, I have taught myself to cook. Normally people say my mother or grandmother, or aunt taught me how to cook. I didn’t get that luxury. I taught myself. Honestly, it’s fine, just means it took me a little longer to learn things, so I used cookbooks (yes, I honestly have read cookbooks), and television shows. Rachael Ray was a huge one I would use, through the years, though, it has changed. I don’t miss any show of Gordon Ramsay.

Back to Guy’s Grocery Games: for anyone who doesn’t watch it – he picks three to four people and put them in his grocery store, give them games, and they cook – the winner will win 10,000 dollars if they can get all the ingredients at the end. If you don’t watch it, but like fun and goofy game shows, you would enjoy it.

He has one game, my favorite to watch, called “Frozen Can-Can”. The rules are simple, you can only shop in the frozen section and anything in a can. && every time they end up playing this game everyone starts freaking out. I’m not talking like a little freak out then calm down, through the whole episode they do nothing but complain about not having fresh foods, how canned foods are gross, how frozen foods are nasty.

Here’s my thing.

All kinds of different people watch these shows. People who can afford to go out and buy fresh foods, people who have to use frozen foods, people who have to buy canned foods. Some people don’t have the luxury of being able to purchase fresh foods all the time. Then there are people who don’t know how to cook with fresh foods – which seems strange to anyone who knows how to cook fresh foods, but I didn’t at the beginning of my journey. I have had to google, read cookbooks, watch television programs, ask a lot of questions. I still have a few fresh items I have never cooked with && wouldn’t know where to begin.

I think what bothers me the most watching them freak out is the people that are watching the show that have no choice but to stop in canned or frozen food. Families on food stamps, for example, have to buy canned or frozen so it lasts longer. My household is just Boyfriend and me and I tend to stay away fresh (I’m not talking about meat just fruits and vegetables) because fresh food goes bad very quickly. I can buy $100 worth of cans and fresh food that last me months. Fresh vegetables would last me about three days, just long enough for them to go bad.

Basically, stop food shaming people. You’re making the people who have no choice but to purchase cans and frozen items feel bad when they shouldn’t be. Because frozen items are just as good as fresh items if prepared correctly.

Stop. Food. Shaming. People.

That includes talking about what people eat. Just because you don’t like canned tuna, doesn’t mean the woman next to you needs to hear about your hatred. && I’ll never understand people who don’t like vegetables.

Welcome to 2025!

Happy New Year!

It’s been a little bit, I think I began an entry a few weeks ago, but I never finished it. Then forgot. So, I haven’t posted in a bit. That’s okay.

It’s 2025, January, and here I sit. Normally I would do a recap of the previous year and tell what my resolutions are, but let’s be serious, no one ever keeps their resolutions – so, why make them?

I will at least update on my progress. It has been two months and three days since surgery. I have lost 49 pounds. A BMI change of 8.9 – which the paperwork they gave me at preop says in three months I should be down 10 points on the BMI charts. I guess I’m just grooving along.

Luckly, I haven’t had any complications. I prayed hard before surgery not to have complications – that was my biggest fear. I read stories of individuals who have had this surgery previously and they talk about all of their issues. One – that a lot seem to have – is puking for the first 4 months, every time they eat. Or having foods that they try not settle well and they end up with excruciating pains from gas. I have been lucky so far, I will say so far, I’m only two months in, but I haven’t had anything horrible. I have had raw vegetables and cooked – they settle well. A lot of people talk about lettuce and cabbage not settling well and that they give them horrible gas pains – I did get gas from the cabbage, but let’s be honest here – y0u and me both get gassy from cabbage.

I think if I pick any type of issue that I have would have to be not hitting protein or water on my days off. You’d think being at home it would be easier to hit but for some reason I am more religious about stuff at work. I have put a lot of reminders on my cell phone for “drink water”, “vitamins”, && “protein drinks”. So far, they have been working.

I would like to say that I am going to write more this year, but I attempted that last year. && as y’all know, that didn’t work. Although, I did a wonderful job starting out last year but then fell off the wagon.

I think if I pick any resolutions this year would be to write more, read more and not get overwhelmed with planning my wedding. Yeah! That’s this year. July of this year! Right now, every time I think about it I feel like my head is going to explode because I have never done this.

I have never helped anyone plan a wedding.
I never had thoughts about a wedding because I didn’t think I would be getting married.

The only things I have made decisions about is who is making the cupcakes, the officiant (which is going to get ordained just for us), the DJ, the food, and the location. That seems like a lot, but now it’s to the part that involves money – the only thing I am close to having is the money for the DJ.

&& I still kind of, sort of, a little bit of me, wants to turn this blog into a food blog. Even if the other day I told Boyfriend that people don’t make the money off food blogs anymore because it is so popular to do. The only question I ask myself, will I do a huge life story before I put anything about the food?

People do that.

Just for one day.

What’s a job you would like to do for just one day?

This is silly. But I would like to work in a Chinese restaurant for just one day.

My reasoning? I really, really, really want to know how Chinese restaurants make their egg drop soup.

I have found a few recipes I like. One more than the others. But it still doesn’t taste or feel like theirs. Theirs is creamy, thick && oh so delicious. Mine comes out good, but doesn’t have that creamy factor that the restaurants have.

Or… a bakery.

I try to do a side hustle of making desserts – who doesn’t love or buy desserts. (Besides me). But I can’t make icing and would love to work in a bakery just to learn how to make it properly.

Fun Foods.

What’s your favorite thing to cook?

I didn’t write yesterday. I have no excuse. I just didn’t want to. Instead, I just went to bed. Today is a new day. We’ll start again.

I don’t think I have a favorite thing to cook. Boyfriend would probably say pasta. But when it comes to cooking, I just enjoy every part of it. Everything I cook I enjoy cooking. 

I have mentioned before how much I love cooking. Anything and everything. I love finding new recipes and trying something that I have never tried before. 

************I started this a couple of days ago && I was looking at drafts I had so I figured I would clear them out.****************

Lately, I would probably say my favorite thing to cook is any form of soup. That’s because lately, all I crave is soup. Chicken soup. Egg drop soup. Wonton soup. I just cannot seem to get enough soup. I had soup last night for dinner && then I had some for breakfast today. I have been going to the local Chinese restaurant a lot lately just to get some egg-drop soup. Yes, I can make it, but as I’ve said in the past, it just doesn’t taste as good as theirs. Sometimes I think I just need to go work part-time at a Chinese restaurant so I can learn to make it properly. I don’t think I use enough cornstarch.

Normally I want to try && make anything I can possibly make. But the funds haven’t been there to do that. So, I end up just making what I can afford. I have been enjoying a buffalo chicken and cheesy cauliflower. I take chicken thighs and pan fry them with some buffalo seasoning, pepper, garlic && onion powder in butter. I take cauliflower and cut it up into bite sized pieces and bake it until it’s fork tender with some of the buffalo seasoning, pepper, onion && garlic powder with extra virgin olive oil. The last step is a creamy cheese I found at Wal-Mart, I usually use two boxes of it (we really like cheese), I pour some buffalo sauce into the cheese and warm it up. I don’t measure when I cook, so I just pour the buffalo sauce into the cheese until my ancestors tell me no more. Once everything is finished – I put the cauliflower onto the plate, put some cheese, top it with the chicken, and add a tad bit more cheese. It’s so delicious. && if you’re low carb, there you go.

I cook a lot of chicken and pork – they are both extremely cheap. So, I can afford that. My next chicken dish I’m going to figure out is the chicken on a stick you get at Chinese restaurants.

Oh! I can’t forget the kimchi and tofu stew that I LOVE to make. It has an actual name… let me google it… “Kimchi jjigae”. Now, before someone comes at me saying “you’re white, you can’t cook that stuff”. Yes, I am white. Yes, I know I am not Korean, and it’ll never taste the same. But when I make things like this I never… NEVER say it’s authentic. Nothing I make is technically “authentic”. You’re probably wondering why. America is a boiling pot of different people. Different foods. America shares food – you can go north and taste something, south and taste something different. Other than a hot dog and hamburger (which might not even have started here), what is “American”. && I personally find Korean dishes interesting. Most, I’ve noticed, seem to be into Japanese food more, but me… bring me the Korean dishes. Then of course the Americanized Chinese food. Or is it called Westernized Chinese food? I just know what we have here in America that we call “Chinese food” isn’t what the people of China eat.

So, see! I am a huge fan of trying different foods and making different styles of food. My big thing though, I want to find actual restaurants that serves these foods, so I know what they are supposed to taste like. Let’s use the kimchi jjigae for an example. I know the recipe calls for tuna – I have gout, and I’m scared to eat tuna – so I use pork ribs. That’s not how it’s made. But it’s how I make it. Plus, I don’t have a Korean market close by me – sadly – so I buy kimchi at Wal-Mart in the vegetable section. That will make it taste different too. I know where a Korean market is – there is an H-Mart in Carrollton, Texas – however, that’s nearly two hours away from me. Then there is one north of me in Norman, Oklahoma, but that is also two hours away from me. I’m just in a horrible spot to live in for my creative taste buds.

But boyfriend really loves it when I make chicken fried steaks. Which is an Oklahoma favorite – which I actually love making those too. But with diabetes it’s hard to really enjoy them because in the back of my mind all I’m thinking about it how high is my blood sugar going to get tonight. Having the issues I have, it’s hard to do much when it comes to food. Rice. Pasta. Breaded foods. Some of my favorite things && I just can’t do it. && yes, I do know after the weight loss surgery they’ll still be off limits. But to be honest, I don’t think they’ll be quite as off limits as they are right now. But still off limits.

So, I’ve been trying to do a lot more cauliflower-based dishes. I enjoy me some cauliflower. I have another favorite that I may share with you on another day for another post.

Worlds.

Trying to break into worlds is hard.

No, this isn’t about me trying to find a way into another galaxy or proving that there is life in space. What I’m stating, is facts, that when you try to break into worlds it’s hard.

The writing community is huge. A lot of book worms, writers, authors, agents, editors, etc. && trying to get welcomed into it is like trying to sit at the popular table in high school. Sadly, I was never invited.

I have never been good at popularity contests && I wasn’t part of the “in crowd” && thinking that the writing community makes me feel like that is a harsh reality. I honestly know it’s not a popularity contest… but I feel like that. I also feel if you don’t have the money to spend you’ll never be published.

I figured the best way for an unknown is to publish it myself. Which is totally fine – I don’t mind doing the hard work. But I really wanted a professional editor to read through it, find the errors but unless I can poop out nearly $3,000 that will never happen. &&& I know they are worth the money, I just don’t have it to spend.

Then I think ‘okay, let’s skip the professional editing.’ Knowing that it’s self published, “most” readers will look over a lot of them. I will just edit the crap out of it.

Next hurdle. To self-publish, you need extra money. Thousands. I found a company that helps self publish but as I began reading I realized that not only do they request thousands of dollars they also keep 80¢ on every dollar for themselves so I would only get 20¢ of every dollar sold. Whereas, if I do it all myself and use Amazon, I get 70% of the royalties.

But then I think about going with my other passion but breaking into the food world is just as hard – if not harder. I guess when they say “you need money to make money” they weren’t kidding. But sadly, here I am with no money.

I did upload a couple chapters of the book. I figured if it gets enough notice that either that company will want to publish it or it shows that if I was to save the money, step-by-step it, that people would be interested in purchasing the book.

Bacon.

I googled today “blog topics”.

I really wanted to write a something but I didn’t have anything in mind to write about. So I pulled up the internet and googled it. Some of them were interesting but I came across one that made me laugh. Out of everything that you could possibly write about, the website said:

“Bacon. Who doesn’t love bacon?”

I laughed. I thought who would actually take the time to write a full blog about bacon? I understand that people do enjoy a good piece of bacon – alone, with something, in something, wrapped around something. But would someone actually read a full blog that was based on the popular breakfast food?

But the question more is – what could I say about bacon, that others haven’t already? Bacon. Pork Bacon.

I actually didn’t used to eat a lot of bacon as it upset my stomach, sometimes it still does. Then for awhile it gave me kidney stones because of the salt – although I found the underlying cause of that, so it wasn’t bacon. Recently, after the diabetes and such, I began cooking with bacon a little more. Not a lot of bacon, just enough to give a taste and probably a crunch since I overcook it (I tend to zone out).

I do enjoy the bacon jokes when people say they will take their bacon with a side of bacon, covered in bacon, and bacon on the side to dip their bacon in. When I still worked overnights && my job still has an employee dining room – I’d go get bacon, crumple it && put it in white gravy. Then I’d eat it with a spoon. Told that to the boyfriend && he said it sounded gross. Maybe not gross, but it could explain why I’m 9,000,000 pounds. (That might be a slight exaggeration.)

Bacon isn’t what will kill me. Butter is.

The websites also said to share a recipe with your readers. &&& since I chose bacon – I’ll share a bacon recipe with you. I call it warm corn and cabbage salad.

I first take a head of cabbage and chop it up.
Chop up an onion. I use white, but I’m sure it would be good with whatever kind you want to use.
Fresh corn on the cob – I cut the corn off.
Chop bacon into small pieces.

I first cook the bacon. I toss in the onions, and cabbage. Mmm-mm. After they cook a bit I add in the cabbage – season with your favorites (I tend to use pepper, onion powder, & garlic powder). Cook it a bit until you get the texture of the cabbage you want. Serve.

Well, I guess it is possible to write a blog about bacon.

Thanksgiving 2019: A Success!

This year seemed to be the same thing all around with most people “we didn’t have a lot of people and everything was pretty chill”. I am basically on that boat. We ended up having Thanksgiving a few days late (I had to work Thanksgiving) and I wanted to do a day everyone was off but that never seems to work out for me. So Tuesday, December 3rd it was.

Most years I find holidays annoying (yes, I seriously just said that). I have my reasons but if I put it here, someone reads it, now I have complications on my hands. Let’s just say that this year was enjoyable. Boyfriend & I started making dinner around ten in the morning – we put on the turkey, ham, && duck. Yes, I said duck; I wanted to try something new this year and I figured I’d give duck a shot. Basically, I gave it a shot && probably will never give it a shot again. Unless I go somewhere fancy and give it one cooked by professionals. Mine felt like tofu… it was weird.

Our day was so chill that I was basically finished with dinner by two o’clock && still had to wait for the Brother to show up. So, instead of fretting, and worrying, and freaking out, and flipping my girly wits! I took a nap in my chair as Boyfriend played on the xBox in the living room. I feel that’s what terrorizes people on holidays – the freaking out. I decided not to.

Naps are better.

By around six when the Brother showed up (this is the time he was supposed to arrive, he wasn’t late) dinner was ready and everyone could enjoy the labor of my cooking. We sat and ate, talked, and watched television. It was nice. Lots of laughter and food.

Now I just have to get ready for Christmas dinner in a few weeks – now to decide what I will cook for that day. Maybe something different? Christmas Spaghetti?

Just let me mope…

I have spend years trying to think of that one thing in life that brings me joy. I narrowed it down to writing and cooking – writing first, cooking second. It’s how it has been for the last few years. You know, it’s not like I don’t talk about it enough.

But lately – neither of them give me thrills like they use to. I don’t feel like cooking and when I do cook I’m grump, and uncomfortable. I haven’t made anything new or interesting – it’s basically what’s quick and easy. Writing has been worse. When I sit and try to write I barely get anything wrote. In fact, this is the longest thing I have written in months. I can’t edit Frost, and I can’t seem to write anything new.

I thought maybe I had a writing slump – sometimes that happens. Then I thought I had a cooking slump. I’m afraid, however, that I am in a life slump. I just don’t have the oomph to do anything and it shows. Lately, I don’t even want to go to work. Give me short term and just let me mope about at home. &&& what makes it worse, I have no idea what’s wrong.

The last time I felt like this my brother ended up shipping me off to Texas to stay with my grandfather for months. &&& now we can’t. I can’t go anywhere. I can’t do anything. I’m just blah and have to keep trudging forward. I just wish I’d stop taking it out on the boyfriend before he gets sick of it. Although, I did tell him beforehand, that I get moody for no reasons && usually can’t figure out how to fix it.

I need a vacation. Doesn’t everyone, right? Or maybe just a harmonica and I can play the blues. Does that actually fix anything? Probably not…