Hot dog roots
By Carrie | July 1, 2009
I’ve had an on again/off again relationship with hot dogs. When I was young, I loved them. Then something happened (maybe too many burned dogs on the grill?) that made me not so excited about them during my teens. Well, it’s pretty obvious that the relationship is back.
One of my life’s goals is now the pursuit of the perfect hot dog. We’ve had the Chicago dog, the Pink’s Hollywood dog, the Carolina dog (mustard, chili, onions, bright red hot dog), the Nathan’s dirty-water dog (Oak has perfected the famous red onion sauce at home! ding), so I felt it was finally time to go back to my hot dog roots, the Zweigles dog.
Zweigles are a uniquely Rochesterian brand of hot dog - I’ve never seen them outside that region until we discovered that a Wegman’s is now open off the Woodbridge/Potomac Mills Mall exit on I-95. So, when we found them, of course we had to get some (along with the delicious Chinese food buffet! mm! ).
Now, one of the charms of the Zweigles dog is that they are a “pop-open hot” (oh yeah, in R-town you call it a “hot” instead of a “hot dog”). For some reason, I had remembered a vision of a hot dog splitting clear down the middle, but when Oak cooked them they were more like blistery split open. Maybe we got the wrong kind? Or, my parents cut my hot dog in half? I have no idea.
Either way, that was a good dog. We even had some Nick Tahou-esque hot sauce on them (which, is basically the “chili” that is put on hot dogs in the South, but more spicy). Next we need to try to make a Chicago dog at home… any sources on neon green relish??
Topics: food | No Comments »
Hot-lanta
By Carrie | May 26, 2009
Well, ever since moving to the South, we’ve talked about visiting Atlanta. Because it’s a little bit of a lengthy drive (about 8 hours, including stops - maybe actually 6 hours of drive time), we decided to save it for a holiday weekend. Memorial Day weekend 2009, it is then!
We went camping, of course. I chose Red Top Mountain from the list of state parks for its cheapo price and proximity to Atlanta (about 45 minutes or so). It was a pretty nice park, which we definitely would have taken more advantage of had the weather been nicer - “Hot-lanta” did not live up to its name this weekend, and we ran into a lot of rain and highs of about 70 degrees. (Though, we did partake in going to a bluegrass concert one of the nights - that’s a whole other story!) Definitely not lake and hiking weather now is it? Luckily our fancy tent held up well to the elements and I never woke up in a puddle.
So, Atlanta. First thing was the Coke Museum, which was pretty neat. It had a bunch of Coke memorabilia, a “4-d” ride on the pursuit of the Coke secret recipe, a recreation of a Coke bottling plant, and a tasting room where you can drink different soft drinks from around the world. Overall the museum was pretty well done, but the content was a little self-promotional and lacking in history and information. I felt myself being brainwashed to drink Coke every 5 minutes. Apparently the SPAM museum has set a pretty high standard on food history museums. However, we really did enjoy tasting all the different sodas, and the free coke at the end of the tour!
The only other really “toursity” thing we did was go to a battlefield. Yawn. I mistakenly admitted to Oak that I fell asleep during the informational movie (luckily he is a kind and forgiving husband). A demonstration of Civil War artillery was frighteningly similar to one we saw at a fort in Savannah (the round versus bullet-shaped canons, etc) - am I actually RETAINING INFORMATION?! Surely this must be stopped. Other than that - uuh, it’s a FIELD. (PS Yes I do realize it was Memorial day and dutifully paid my respects, but now I get to complain a little! 
)
I really wanted to go to a plantation house, a la Tara in Gone with the Wind, but it appears that the real plantation area of Georgia is about 3 hours south of Atlanta. Durn it! There were some GWTW museums but they did not look very “worth it”! Sighs. The author of GWTW was from Jonesboro, which we briefly visited, and let me just say - there ain’t much goin’ on there.
We did a mini “Good Eats” tour - which included visiting popular Alton Brown hangouts such as Cooks Warehouse and Harry’s Farmers Market. Both were cool. The equipment specialist “W” and the creepy vampire guy in the beef section of Harry’s were nowhere to be seen. Apparently they took off for the weekend.
In other foodie finds, we did have to go to the Varsity for its status as an Atlanta institution. It was good but not mind-blowing (luckily one of our friends that went to Georgia Tech warned us not to be “wowed” !) I also trolled Chowhound a bit and came upon this place in Marietta called Tasty China, which is supposedly ranked as one of the top Sichwan restaurants on the East Coast. It was really pretty amazing. My favorite dish was almost like a pressed tofu salad with peanuts, scallions, and garlic. I’ll have to find a recipe. It was my first time eating Sichwan food (YUM!) and we’ll have to pursue it some more in our travels to other major cities.
We also wandered Your Dekalb Farmers Market, which wasn’t really a farmer’s market but more of a global food marketplace. However, it was like 20 times bigger than any other ethnic market I’ve seen. It had a bunch of crazy vegetables, its own bakery, an entire fish section where you could pick your own fish and they’d clean it for you, a restaurant, a deli.. plus the regular groceries like dried goods, etc. Holy moly. Too bad we are trying to clean out our pantry! Because of the holiday it was SUPER crowded. The low prices bring everyone and their mothers there apparently.
The State Farmer’s market paled in comparison - it was pretty dead compared to the NC one. However the food at the attached restaurant was very good. Here’s my “Rachael-Ray $40 a day-esque” dining out tip: ALWAYS check out restaurants or eateries that are associated with the farmers markets in the areas that you visit. You are always guaranteed tasty food at a great price! (Proof in point: both restaurants at the NC farmers market, and the Moose Cafe near the market in Asheville.)
We also did some wandering of local neighborhoods when we had enough sun - Marietta had a cute square with some shops, and we went to an art festival type deal in Decatur. We weren’t wowed enough by anything down there to feel a need to go back any time soon, but we enjoyed our stay. Bye Atlanta!
Topics: blog | 2 Comments »
Clever cleaning tips from Carrie, the “stager”
By Carrie | May 20, 2009
All I can say, is when you sell your house, listen to everything they tell you on HGTV. Remove all personal belongings (photos etc), paint your walls beige, and keep it IMMACULATE! We’ve been busy the past few weeks repainting some of the crazy colors I chose - sigh. It upset me a little to see my colors go, but I’m pretty much used to the Beige now.
Every time we leave the house now, it has to be ready should Someone (ie potential buyer) call for a showing while we are out. If you have your underwear hanging out to dry, that WILL be the day someone decides to make an appointment. Trust me. Yesterday we were about to start making dinner and we got a call that someone would be there in 15 MINUTES! Geez Louise! Good thing we hadn’t started already!
So, I’ve developed my own special house staging routine. I fully realize that for some people, this might be a NORMAL cleaning routine, but let’s just say I’m not all that fond of cleaning. I read Martha Stewart’s homekeeping handbook (took it out from the library) and thought — who ACTUALLY DOES THIS STUFF? Well, now me, apparently. Here we go:
- Divide up the responsibility with your loved ones. Oak is in charge of the kitchen only - it requires the most day-to-day maintenance, so it’s pretty much equal if I take care of the rest of the house.
- Once a week, vaccuum and mop all floors. Throughout the week, wipe up spills and pick up large pieces off the floor. Also do some dusting and clean the toilets once a week. Fun stuff.
- Develop a “before we leave the house” checklist. Ours includes:
- Open all blinds and curtains.
- Make the bed.
- Ensure that all bathroom surfaces are wiped clean. (Clorox wipes are GREAT for this!!! I don’t care if they cost a little extra money)
- Hide all personal items - mail, books, magazines, random pieces of clothing, shoes, etc. in the closets or under the bed.
- Verify that the garbage doesn’t have anything funky-smelling in it. If it does, take out the garbage.
- Make sure there are no dirty dishes in the sink, and that all kitchen surfaces are clean.
- Spray a room-scenting spray throughout the house. You never notice the smells of your own home after you’re inside for awhile, so better to be safe than sorry!
Needless to say, I’ll be a little relieved when we don’t have to do this stuff anymore! It’s also inhibiting my scrappy chica creativity because I don’t want to make a mess in the craft room (mon dieu!). Here’s hoping 
Topics: blog | 3 Comments »
Midwestern food tour
By Carrie | April 27, 2009
So, we went on a tour of the Midwest after Belinda’s wedding last month. We hit many destinations in Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Minnesota and had lots of tasty tidbits along the way (actual destinations will have to be in another post.. haha) :
- Cheese curds. Tasty! Apparently they are something only to be found in Wisconsin (and in Minnesota, a little bit). They are basically a “young cheese”, sold in bags of different flavors. We had a bag of cheddar and dill curds. Also, they are uber tasty deep-fried, which is done as an appetizer in a lot of restaurants. Think extra-fresh mozarella sticks! Mmm! I’m already having curd withdrawal.
- While we were at Psycho Suzi’s Motor Lounge in Minneapolis, there was no seating for two available so we ended up sitting with this group of people about our age for dinner. It was fun! We discussed all the midwestern food items and learned about something called hotdish. I was pretty confused until we figured out it basically meant a casserole. I tried to find out if there was a restaurant that served it, but apparently it’s an at-home thing to make. I’m intrigued by the tater tot hotdish.. must try making that soon! The item that we had at Suzi’s that I’d like to try making at home is sort of a sushi roll made out of pickle, cream cheese, and ham. Sounds gross but it was tasty.
- In Minneapolis we also compared the Jucy lucy hamburger from both Matt’s Bar and the 5-8 club. Yes, we had happened to have seen the episode of Man vs. Food the week before we left, where we got this idea. Good timing. If you’re too lazy to click to see what a Jucy Lucy is, it’s a burger with a molten cheese center. Genius!!! We both agreed that we enjoyed the 5-8 club Jucy Lucy for its “doggy nougat” cheese.
- Northern Iowa has absolutely no tasty food. We tried. We failed. We ate dinner at a Taco Bell at 9pm one night. And it was hopping!
- Desperate to find something tasty we did some internet research and stopped at the Motley cow cafe in Iowa City. Oak and I both got fairly simple egg dishes - mine was a spicy omelet, but they used fresh fancy eggs in them, so the eggs came out almost a dark golden yellow. I think it was the best egg I’ve ever had. Now I understand that passage in Martha’s Pies and Tarts book where she compares a tart made with supermarket eggs to one made “with eggs from my hens.” Oh, brother.
- In Chicago, we did the Hot dog Tour. Key places visited: Hot Doug’s and Superdawg. Both were good - I do have to say, even though it did not seem appealing to me, the Chicago hot dog (which includes: “mustard, onion, sweet pickle relish, a dill pickle spear, tomato slices or wedges, pickled sport peppers, and a dash of celery salt”-Wikipedia) is on the top of my list as far as hot dogs go now. Even without the ketchup. Apparently the higher authorities of Chicago will kick you out of town if you put ketchup on your hot dog. There’s enough other stuff on there that you don’t really miss it. Hot Doug’s has the edge for french fries and overall food quality, but Superdawg had serious style.
- Finally had a deep dish pizza at Giordano’s. I’ve actually never been to the Pizzeria Uno so it was a new experience. Talk about heavy! Sorry Chicago-ites, I love your hot dogs but I’m not sure I need to experience that pizza any time again soon. And I heart cheese!!!
- Dried meats are all the rage in the midwest. Stop at any gas station, and you have an array of slim-jim esque sausages to choose from. These, with many varieties of root beer and cheese curds, were our “driving food.” De-lish!
- We also have like 4 different pictures of me with giant mice eating cheese statues around Wisconsin. Apparently Wisconsians (?) enjoy Badgers (the U of W mascot) and mice.
- Had the best bubble tea ever at Joy Yee, where all the juices for the tea are fresh-squeezed/blended. Of course, we knew Belinda would not steer us wrong. If you get the huge bubble tea plan not to be hungry for several hours…. apparently the bubbles expand in your tummy!
- Another Chi-town stop was Kuma’s Corner, land of strangely dressed burgers named after Metal bands. I got a burger that had a pear and Gorgonzola cheese on it; but to be fair this was eaten on the same day we had the deep dish pizza so I think my heart just wasn’t in it. Fruit plus hamburger meat is a weird combination. Oak had a “greek burger” that was very good!
- On our last day, we got the Mother in Law sandwich that Anthony Bourdain had. It’s basically a tamale in a hot dog bun covered with chili. I got the “Father in law” which added cheese to the monstrosity. It was, while extremely messy to eat, quite satisfying.
So, after gaining about 30 pounds, we returned home. Luckily our CSA is in full swing now and I can at least pretend that I’m eating healthier now! More soon (and, hopefully some pictures!)
Topics: food, travel | 4 Comments »
Free peep show
By Carrie | April 8, 2009
No, I haven’t suddenly turned this into an adult website. We came across this window display while walking down the Magnificent Mile on our trip to Chicago:
Of course, we had to look and see what it was about. Surely in the elite designer-shop filled neighborhood they couldn’t possibly have an actual peep show, could they? Oh, yes, they could… Take a look at the very risque contents of one of the little holes!
Scandalous, no? Did that get you all hot and bothered? Well, let me feed your addiction with this site full of naughty little tidbits. In the words of my old friend Austin Powers, “oh behave!”
Topics: blog | 2 Comments »
Anthony Bourdain in Durham
By Carrie | February 26, 2009
Anthony Bourdain came for a lecture at the new Durham Performing Arts Center last week. The new center is pretty darn swank; and much more convenient to get to than the auditorium in Raleigh (I-40 rush hour traffic anyone?). Oak and I also saved over $40 in Ticketmaster fees (for 8 show tickets) by going to pick up the tickets at the box office after going to the farmer’s market one Satuday morning. Hellow. Ticketmaster is SUCH a rip-off. They even charge you to print tickets at home!
Bourdain pretty much delivered what I was expecting. Though, to some extent I really had no idea what to expect. We heard his opinons of celebrity chefs - which ones he likes and doesn’t like. Surprisingly he enjoys Ina Garten, Giada DeLaurentis, and Martha Stewart. As we all know, he does not enjoy the Rachael Ray, Sandra Lee, or that Robin Miller chick. He wonders why all of them have oversized heads and never blink. haha. Apparently there was a time in which he and Rachael Ray had to be in the same photo together. Quel Horreur! However, he says he is is done making fun of her because now she “has too much power. She’s teamed up with Oprah!”
Even though he enjoys Ina and Martha, he would “never want to hang out with their creepy friends to eat their food.” I do have to say, Ina’s gatherings do usually look uber awkward slash scripted, unless it’s just her and Geoffery (the hubby).. aww. And even then, poor Geoffery is not the most convincing actor … “Oh Ina, you’ve cooked me a surprise dinner? I’m so surprised!!” hahaha.
There were also tales of travel, most that we had seen on TV, but interesting nonetheless. He says, to make friends in foreign countries, drink whatever booze they give you. And, apparently, the thing fans most write in to request for the show is to see him get sick from food on TV. Obviously, Bourdain does whatever he can to avoid this situation, as it’s not only insulting to his hosts but completely disgusting! Apparently most Russian women can drink any non-Russian man under the table. Noted - before traveling to Russia, to try to increase alcohol tolerance.
There was also a question and answer section, for which they asked for questions before the show, but the questions were really dumb and were things we kind of already knew the answer to (ie… what do you think of molecular gastronomy?). I was also disappointed that he didn’t say anything about the local food - either what he had eaten already or was planning to eat; not sure if he hadn’t been in the area long or was staying less than 24 hours.. I’m sure that’s possible.
What - no Durham epsiode of No Reservations ?? We could even hook Bourdain up with Oak and his coworker, who frequent every shady food establishment in Durham; including all the taquerias, burger joints, trucks, and an especially interesting-sounding establishment called “Wings and Things” that serves chicken wings AND chinese food. What a combo!
Topics: blog | 2 Comments »
How to have style
By Carrie | January 29, 2009
How to have style is Isaac Mizrahi’s fashion bible and another find from the local library. While the book claims that it is “not a makeover book”, it pretty much is. He profiles a bunch of different women of different sizes, ages, coloring, etc. and helps them find a style.
The first interesting that Isaac suggests doing is keeping a style board. This is not just ripping stuff out of fashion magazines (though can be part of it), but anything you find inspiring - fabric swatches, tickets, etc. He had each lady in the book create one on a bulletin board to help inspire her fashion sense. However, I think this board could help inspire art projects, interior decorations, etc. I think I want one for my craft room!
Going through this book for me was picking women with whom I could relate to and reading their sections. Obviously I’m not feeling the style of an older woman who wears tribal prints! haha. I most enjoyed reading about Lara. Isaac suggested dying her hair platinum blonde (which looked, interesting.. haha) and he put her in very brightly colored clothes. Hotness. See, my pastel purple pants can’t be an entire fashion no-no, right? haha.
Isaac’s fashion illustration is all throughout the book, and is very fun. My favorite segment of his talk show, when it was on TV, was when he would sketch outfits for women and then give them the sketch! That’s worth framing!!! :) So, overall I would say the book is worth a skim through if you can get it from the library or at the bookstore. Find the looks that are you and see if there’s anything new and different you can try. My new resolution is to try 2 bright colors together with a neutral. This was done on Lara with turquoise pants + white top + yellow scarf. Tres hot! Will report back soon.
Topics: blog, fashion | 7 Comments »
Delicious trip-planning
By Carrie | January 26, 2009
Figured I’d share how I use delicious to plan trips. Like anyone else, I surf the web and come across interesting places that I want to visit one day. I save them to my delicious links so they are in one place online that’s independent of which computer I’m on. No duh, right?
Well, what I do when I am planning a particular trip is to create a tag that is a specific name for that trip. For example, we’re going to Chicago for Belinda’s wedding in March. We’re also planning on doing a little bit of travelling after the wedding around Wisconsin. So, I’ve created a tag called “midwest2009” for all the links I am saving for that trip.
That’s all fine and good, right? Well, how this really becomes handy is to copy and paste the addresses and phone numbers of the places into each delicious entry. You can then print out a list of all of the places you’ve bookmarked with the trip tag you chose, with addresses all ready to put in your GPS unit before you leave for your trip! Ding!
Happy travels!
Topics: travel | 1 Comment »
Carmindy
By Carrie | January 23, 2009
OK, well somehow I had found out that Carmindy from What Not to Wear had a book. And, believe it or not, our local library actually carries it. So, I requested it and it was reserved for me way faster than I thought it actually would be! Our library is awesome.
This book is as much of a book about building your self-confidence as it is makeup tips. I read through mostly the whole thing last night (OK, some of it I skimmed), and there were a few good tips. I was more interested in the how-to stuff than the “being happy about yourself” stuff, because I’m already pretty happy. However, I can see that stuff being inspiring to some people.
However, if you’re a regular What Not to Wear watcher, you probably already know a lot of it. Here are some of the things I learned:
- Carmindy was an awkward teenager! I couldn’t believe it until I saw the picture. I always kind of figured she was one of those girls that everyone looked up to in high school.
- A review of the signature “Carmindy eye” is white highlighter on the inside of your eye and just under the eyebrows. (I have tried this and the eyebrow part still looks weird to me.) There are some helpful “maps” in the book for applying eyeshadow for different eye shapes (also for other things like blush, etc). Though, I’m not really sure what shape my eyes are - sigh!
- Blotting papers. Who knew there was such a thing? I guess I will pick some up to combat my mid-day shine. She says to use them and then apply powder over to refresh your look.
- There are 3 things to carry in your purse make-up wise: the aforementioned blotting papers, a powder compact with a mirror, and lip gloss or lipstick. Nice to know it’s not very much, but still more than I normally carry… haha.
- There’s something called “primer” that you can use to prepare your face to hold onto makeup better. I’ve never seen it before.
- I like that she finally shares with us some of the products she uses in the last chapter. They are listed at several price points, though many are clever product-placements for her Sally Hansen Natural Beauty line (I’m planning on checking out the videos on here, maybe it will help to see this stuff actually done in person). I actually purchased the “fast-fix concealer” a few months ago and have been super happy with it, so I might try some more of the product line. However, the “all-over brightener” was weird.. who wants to have lavender under their eyes? Luckily Ulta has a very nice return policy.
Topics: fashion | 1 Comment »
Digital photos
By Carrie | January 20, 2009
So, I discovered there’s now a Picasa plug-in for Dotphoto, which is the service I use to get my pictures printed. Then.. I discovered Picasa can do Web galleries and can directly FTP to my personal site! Hellow hotness.
Therefore, many of the digital galleries have been updated. I still have to put a bunch of stuff from mid-2008 up there, but that’s all on our not-currently-set-up desktop configuration. I also never posted our India photos (other than a few in blog posts), but I’m thinking whenever I get the India scrapbook done, I’ll take pictures of those pages and post them that way. Tricky.
In other news, I finally learned my Project 365 kit was backordered. What-ever!! They had already charged my credit card so I was falsely led to believe that I was receiving a kit this month. Apparently there’s another shipment coming in mid-February, and my kit should ship then. Geez louise. It better come! Luckily those that didn’t even have as much luck as I did have come up with a bunch of ideas to make your own. I’m already finding Project 365 a handy way to journal those photos that I might not normally make a scrapbook layout about - a meal out, some new-to-me shoes, dinner with family, etc. Those everyday occurrences. That’s what the project is all about!
So, what do you do with your photos? Please share!
Topics: blog | 1 Comment »