Comfort food anyone?

I love fall. I love it like I love the beginning, and up to the middle of every season. Fall mornings start off chilly, the days still feel a little like summer, and the nights are back to being a tad chilly. Every season has their benefits, and their downfalls. Now don’t get me wrong, but the downfall for me, for fall, is the fact that it’s the beginning of comfort food season. And comfort food to me, is not the most waistline-friendly type of food for someone who is trying to lose weight. When I was a kid, dinner was totally predictable. Monday, Spaghetti; Tuesday, Tacos; Wednesday, soup; Thursday, Shepherds Pie, (you get the idea). I always loved Spaghetti and taco night, but hated soup night. My point is, dinner was not exciting to me. And I don’t blame my mother, now that I look back, we were truly lucky to have a home cooked meal every night of the week. We never went out, and we never had pizza delivered to our house. To be honest, I only remember our whole family going out to dinner one night. My parents were in the beginning stages of getting divorced (we didn’t know this at the time, but life was not pleasant). We were in Heber, UT of all places, and for whatever reason, my parents took us all to Pizza Hut. At the time, there were six kids. Oi Vey! I remember it being an extremely uncomfortable night, and one that I most likely will always remember. Perhaps this is the reason I hate cheap pizza, and I will not drive to, nor sit at a pizza “restaurant”. Long story short, I moved out at the ripe old age of 17. I learned a lot in a very short amount of time.. one of those things I learned, and to me one of the most important things I learned, was about food. Food from other countries, food made from exotic ingredients, food that I had never had before. It was like a whole new world opened up to me, and I embraced the hell out of it. I still do, and I always will.

As a result of my love for food, my kids either suffer or benefit from it. If you were to ask them, they would probably tell you that they suffer, because I cook most nights of the week, and we rarely go out because I can’t handle the disappointment. Too bad suckas!! Anyway, tonight, I made Shepherds Pie. My oldest daughter Brittanie loves Shepherds Pie. But she loves it because my mom lived with us for a short time, and apparently Brittanie adored my mom’s version of Shepherds Pie. She has asked me to make it before, and I’ve obliged, but she tells me that mine “doesn’t taste like Grandma’s”. Hmmmm. Perhaps that’s why I don’t make it. No offense to my mom, but she didn’t have the pleasure of tasting food that was out of her comfort zone, so when she cooked, she cooked what she knew. Can’t blame her for that. As for me, I put my own twist on EVERYTHING. I try to follow recipes line for line, ingredient for ingredient, but I CAN’T DO IT. Tonight, my version of Shepherds Pie consisted of super lean hamburger, the obligatory canned green beans, tomatoes, garlic, onions, and the addition of toasted pine nuts and cinnamon. And of course, instant garlic mashed potatoes *cringe*, with sharp cheddar cheese on top. But can I tell you? It was divine. I didn’t take a picture, because I don’t care how good your Shepherds Pie is, it really doesn’t photograph well. So, please, tell me YOUR favorite comfort food, and I will come up with my own recipe to butcher the shit out of it!!!

One more thing, in the spirit of the election season, I have been tagged in a video related to the election. Shocked the hell out of me! Please have a look:
I ruined America

Tag I’m it! (a little late, but nonetheless)

I was tagged by Bunnie to post the 4th picture from my 4th folder in my picture gallery. I love this little game and when I figure out how to tag someone else, I sure as hell am going to do it. Here’s my picture, and I love the story behind it:

My niece Lexi was visiting this summer from Michigan, and the night this photo was taken I had thrown a little dinner party at my house in her honor. Earlier that day, I had picked some very pathetic tomatoes from my garden (mind you this was 7/19/08, so it was a tad early for tomato harvesting). These were like tadpoles that should have been sent back to whence they came from, but yeah, since they were ripe, well, I had to keep em. If you look at them closely, they’re in the shape of miniature pumpkins, so what better to do with them than draw faces on them and humiliate them even more! And, to top things off, Lexi decided we ought to put a breath mint next to them, just so you get the full gist of the size of these stupid-ass teeny tomatoes, which were just about all I got this summer

Food Porn

Tonight I made a stir-fry of sorts, which I love to do because I can be very creative, and a stir-fry can actually be healthy if you do it right. Anyhow, I found this recipe that calls for Top Ramen noodles to go in the dish, and normally that wouldn’t appeal to me, but for whatever reason, when I saw the picture I thought it would be a good idea. It also called for pork loin, which now that I mention it, is probably what sold me on the recipe in the first place, because who doesn’t love a good pork loin? Hmmm? Anyway, I julienned the carrots, sliced the red peppers, and chopped the green onions. Then came the pork loin. No biggie, I cut the top of the package, started to squeeze it out, and OH MY, here’s what I saw:

So maybe I’m a total pervert, but OH MY GOD, I couldn’t help but laugh my ass off, and of course take a picture. I had to show Jason, I could hardly contain my inner 13-year-old self, and he seriously looked at me like “What the fuck is your problem?” I still laughed at the picture (although it was a tad awkward at this point) asking, or maybe TELLING HIM, this is FUNNY SHIT!!!

Anyway, I’m still proud of my pork loin porn photo. It makes me laugh, and I hope you find it funny too, because the hubs was simply not amused. My stir-fry turned out pretty damn good, I took a picture of what the poor pork loin penis stir-fry masterpiece turned out to be:

I suck. Well, not literally. Well, sometimes.

Wow, I am really and truly slacking in the bloggie department. I started this blog as a means to brag about and show off the stuff I feed myself and my family on a nearly daily basis, hence the title “What’s for dinner” (temporarily What’s NOT for dinner). I felt this need to do so because Mormon Jesus knows that they sure as hell don’t brag about it, so someone’s gotta do it. The “Among other things” part, naturally is my opportunity to bitch talk about anything else that comes up, and is my out when I don’t have dinner to talk about. So bear with me as I may not be talking food so much until I lose some more weight and figure out a way to make everyone semi-happy. Speaking of losing weight, I went to the fat doc today and I have lost 10 pounds in 4 weeks. Yay me! Here is what my daytime food consumption looks like. Trust me, it could be worse:

So maybe I have a case of paranoid schizophrenia the jitters, but it seems as though I’m still unhappily, but gratefully, employed. Whew. Which is not to say I’m out of the woods, because I’m not and I know that, but for now, for right this minute I still have a job. Oh, and my boss even sent me an instant message the other day (after no contact, NO CONTACT, since 8/28/08), asking if I was going to join a conference call. I immediately messaged him back saying I didn’t have the phone number or the code for the call, and could he could provide it. I got no answer. Nice, huh? Let me just say that I feel like I’m totally on the edge, but for now I will stay there, dangling like a baby about to be dropped from a balcony.