So, we have 3 vending machines at work on my floor. Two of them dispense various sodas (there are 4 buttons for Diet Mountain Dew on the Pepsi machine.. that’s another story), and the other dispenses snacks.
Well, the snack machine does a good job of torturing my soul every time I go to the bathroom or to the break room with new and exciting Reeses products. First there were the White chocolate peanut butter cups. Then the Reese Sticks. Both tasty, but the white chocolate was just – eh. You just need the cocoa with the peanut butter.
Then they started bringing on the baked goods. Oh dear. It all started with a brownie a few weeks ago – but now all of a sudden instead of the brownie, we’ve got the sandwich cookies! Will this ever end? Will the vending machine ever stop trying to seduce me with 500 calorie treats?
Don’t even get me started on the Dorito varietals…
Oak and I attended an Oktoberfest party over the weekend -complete with homemade sausages, spaetzle, and beer, yum!
As I briefly mentioned in my previous post, we went along the Blue Ridge Parkway 2 weekends ago. It’s a lot like Road To Hana in Maui, sans ocean and tropical setting. Oak really enjoys navigating the twisty roads, whereas it just makes me a bit nautious. Luckily, we stopped several times along the way at Linville Falls, Mount Mitchell, and a delicious lunch/dinner at Little Switzerland Cafe. We didn’t get to go gem hunting as I had hoped, but I was promised that we would do that sometime in the future. Now it’s on the record. 
We took the Blue ridge from Linville to Asheville, where we stopped for the night. We stayed in this ultra shady campground for rafters and canoers. We couldn’t find any office, box, etc to pay for our site. So, it was free. The campground we stayed at outside of Linville falls was only $3 a night. The downside of these cheapo campgrounds is that they have absolutely no “facilities” other than an outhouse. Needless to say, I was the opposite of “fresh as a daisy” by the end of the weekend. Haha.
Sunday morning we perused Asheville. Unfortunately most of the retail shops were closed! Bummer. Must remember that for our next visit. I guess that everyone parties hard on Saturday night and sleeps in on Sunday. We had a delicous breakfast at Tupelo Honey Cafe.
See our pictures here.
Silly lunch side addiction of the week: Snap pea crisps.
I can’t exactly say they bear much resemblence to actual snap peas (which I also love), but there’s something addicting about them. I got the Caesar flavor at Greenlife Grocery in Asheville over the weekend and proceeded to eat half the bag in the car on the way home. (Surprisingly, Oak only helped a little bit in this endeavor). But, they are HEALTHY. At least, I can tell myself that they are better for me than the Lime and pepper potato chips. Yes, that sounds like a plan.
Oak and I went to Around the World Market last night to stock up on Heat and eat Indian meals (Nirav can’t cook for us ALL the time ! bummer!).
Well, we spent enough that we got 50 cents off lottery tickets! I won $3 playing Lighthouse Loot! I’m rich!
Anyone who knows Oak knows his passion for pigs – both the oinking kind and the kind that’s barbequed.
So, it was an obvious choice to go to the Cabarrus County Fair to see Robinson’s Racing Pigs. We’d seen them at the NC state fair last year, but my mom was especially excited to see the new-to-us “paddlin’ porkers.”
There were 3 sets of pigs: one pink set, one black and pink set, and an all black set. Apparently they get excited to race because at the finish line, the winner gets a whole Oreo. They also cruble up a few Oreos inside of the trough for the “losers.” Yummy!
Well, I was looking up these famous pigs for this blog entry, and apparently animal rights activists aren’t too happy about it.
What I don’t understand is people have been racing other animals since the beginning of time (horses, dogs, etc.) so how is this any different?
The pigs retire when they reach 50 pounds, so this isn’t a lifetime commitment for them. Plus, I doubt they suffer emotionally like a dejected child star!
After an intense Body Pump session last night, I’ve finally targeted the muscle groups that I obviously am weak in, judged by soreness today – in order of pain from most to least:
I have a hot tan from our Labor day in Myrtle Beach, and our visit to Emerald Isle. It took the whole summer to get it now, but it’s happened! Ding!
Oak has been on a baking kick lately, so I got him a copy of Martha Stewart’s Baking Handbook for his birthday. My original plan was to get him the Cooks Illustrated handbook, but reviews on Amazon revealed that one had many crucial errors. Plus, the Martha book has AMAZING photographs, and really positive reviews.
Anyway, after taking photos of our (well, let’s face it: Mostly Oak’s) attempts at recipes in the book, I decided to create a flickr group dedicated to photos of recipes from the book. It’s so cool to see what other people have been choosing to make.
And, I obviously need a class in food styling and photography.
