Since squirrels have wandered into this stream of consciousness, I should mention this story I saw reading the morning news. Scroll down to the last story in the column.
Well, of course we missed you, dangergene! We old farts definitely need somebody who can rachet things up a notch!
Another “Lefty MMPer” here. Hmmmm, I wonder if there’s a relationship here since we are the only ones in our “right” minds…which is actually a falsehood since it’s been determined that we lefties don’t really have a dominant brain side but basically switch hit cause we developed lots of connections between brain hemispheres when we was little bebes.
We are gearing up here for Frances. Mr. Anachi is gonna make a foray for a generator today. We should get delivery of the battry TV today or tomorrow (which would make it a bonus birthday present for me) which reminds me…Mr. Anachi better not think he can pawn off a generator as a birthday present. Nuh, uh! It’s gotta be sumpin shiny that drapes around an appendage. I’m just sayin.
Tupug (Mullin’ her last day of bein’ 55)
I have nothing to add, just that I had lasagna for breakfast today!
Red hair, and lasagna. Are you sure you’re not Garfield?
Are you calling me a pussy?
I made lasagna last night for supper but I had to leave before I could eat ( parent night at school ) so I had a banana for supper and lasagna for breakfast.
I will defend to the death my assertion that lasagna, spaghetti, and the other pasta dishes were created simply to serve as a civilized means of eating Parmesan cheese.
I’m going Ethnic Food Shopping again this afternoon. Fear me! This time it will be Lebanese, Egyptian, and Armenian.
I will come home with much pita, and amusing Arabic pastries. No giant lumps of palm sugar, though. I wonder what one does with palm sugar. No, don’t say, ‘Sugar palms!’.
I need tea.
Welcome back, gene!
Hey, wait a sec - you said in the other thread that you bought all that kitchen stuff in Target, and now you claim that you can’t use kitchen doodads? I smell something fishy…oh, wait - that’s just tuna. Never mind.
Cooking is just about the funnest thing you can do by yourself.
Susan
I have missed the MMP – the posts and the crowd! I’ve been so busy! We bought a house and I’m just about ready to have this baby! All signs point to THIS WEEK. So, this may be my last appearance.
I haven’t read this thread, so sadly I don’t know what’s up with everyone. I just wanted to say 1) Hi; … 2) Motherhood is Imminent; and C) I’ll Miss You Guys!
-Ellen (Who’s planning to have a literal Labor Day this year!)
Let us not forget garlic bread. It also serves as a reason to do something with that bottle of oregano that is mandatory for every spice rack.
Naan is scrumptious. I like to get dishes with a lot of sauce just so I can have extra naan to sop it up.
We’re lucky in that a Loblaw’s is one of the local grocery stores, so PC stuff is easy to get. One of their Superstores is going in even closer to us next year, so there should be even more variety to choose from. I haven’t tried the chocolate cake. Chocolate I can take or leave alone, but Mrs. Bookkeeper, being female and all, loves it, so I’ll probably get one for her to taste test. (I’m surrounded by wimmen - mother, MIL, wife, 3 sisters, 3 SIL, 4 nieces, 4 cats - and haven’t had a non-chocolate cake for years except when I get uppity on my own birthday and ask for something different.)
Lebanese is good too!
Ellen Cherry - Good luck, and don’t forget - we want baby pics!
So, Mrs. Shibb did well enough in the interview that now they are checking her references. The Shibblets are particularly happy with this notion as their mama has promised them dinner at Applebee’s if she gets a new job. I don’t know why they are so excited about Applebee’s except maybe they have good commercials. It’s not like they’ve eaten their more than once AFAIK, and they’ve certainly eaten in better and more fun to eat (as a kid) places.
Last night we went for dinner to a place in Tampa called Side Bern’s, which is a slightly different restaurant than Bern’s, the parent restaurant. We started with the stacked dim sum, which included Thai style beef salad with lime, sesame noodles with fresh papaya, a couple of lightly fried (but not breaded) oysters, with a sauce and green crunchy fish eggs (I think that’s what they were), fish satay with szechuan sauce and sweet potato, and a couple of pan fried dumplings with duck filling and a spicy sauce. We shared a house salad, which had roasted black truffles, field greens, blue cheese and a white wine vineagrette. With the starters and salad we both had a glass of white wine. She had the Woop Woop Verdelho* (S. Australia 2004) and I had the Grange Rouqette “Le Pelican” Marsanne/Viognier (Languedoc 2002).
Her main course was a crispy duck with seared cabbage, a sweet potato and turnip concoction (that was very good) and shallots. I had the herb encrusted NY strip with chanterelles, haricots verte and a sort of Yukon gold potato succotash.
With the main courses I had a glass of Chateau Coudert Pelletan Grand Cru Classe (Saint Emilion, Bordeaux 2000). She had a glass of Cline “Ancient Vine” Cariganne (Contra Costa, California 2002).
Even though we were pretty well stuffed we still managed to share a desert. It was a creme brulee topped with a “cage” filled with blueberries and raspberries. On the side were fresh papaya, strawberries, blackberries and carambola. The cage was made from caramelized sugar. It was beautiful and tasty. I would have loved to have had a nice Bas Armangac for dessert but I needed to drive home. Also there was a ferocious thunderstorm out that lasted for the better part of an hour, although it was done by the time we left.
*I swear I’m not making up the name of that wine.
(Here’s a sample menu. It’s a PDF and is not last night’s menu, since it changes daily with available ingredients, but it will give you an idea.)
Cut me some slack. They were shiny. Besides, even though I don’t know how to use them my girlfriend does, which means more food for me.
We go through so much oregano around here we have to grow our own, swampy. There’s a big Italian-American population in this town and “restaraunt” is usually understood to be modified by “italian” by default. It rubs off. About the only thing I can do in the kitchen is make a kick-ass marinara.
Congrats on the house, Ellen, and best wishes for a healthy delivery.
Ellen, I presume you’ll let us know when Cherry Stone arrives, and everything…
Ellen, please don’t name the baby Frances or Francis. 
EC a new house and the lil’ cherry blossom’s about to be born.
WOOOOOHOOOOOO!!!
Shibb one of my newly revised goals in life is to eat at Side Bern’s. I’ll have to be pretty dang hungry though cause I want everything on the menu except the lobster stuff.
Interesting Swampy Fact:
I don’t like lobster. I don’t like the taste or the texture of lobster. It is ick to me.
Ex I like marinara but I’m not sure if I like well enough to let it kick me in the ass. Besides, there’s enough people willing to do that to me, so I don’t need to expand that to food. 
Congrats, Ellen! I’m not really sure what to say to someone who’s about to have a baby, so, um, have fun?
Swampy, I can’t stand lobster either. I think it comes from helping my uncle harvest lobster for a month when I was younger up in Maine. Nasty creatures. I will second your “ick.”
And congrats to you, scout! Don’t forget, you now get to fix everything that breaks! [inner monolouge]Oh, Ex already said that. Nuts. Think of something else to say. Something funny, and make it MMP-worthy. Um, um…I’m not feeling very original today. Let’s try this:[/im]
SPOON!
[inner monologue]Nope. That wasn’t it. Crap.[/im]
I also want to add that webbernet has become one of my new favorite words, so thanks to dangergene for bringing it up.
Shibb, I loves ya, but if you write any more food porn when I’m stuck at work with only Chex mix, I’m gonna bop ya on your noggin. And a word to the wise; honey nut chex mix tastes a lot like crunchy pancakes but not in a good way. What was I thinking? And yay! for your sweetie, I’m sure she’s got that job in the bag.
For me, lobster is okay, but unlike a lot of wimmin folks I can take or leave chocolate. I like mexican candy best, with chile and tamarind and such. Per swampy’s advice, I will stay away from all candy containing squirrel. And racoon, how could you eat one of them cute little masked bandits? They’ve got thumbs! Don’t they?
Ellen, you soooo have to have your budlet on labor day, that would be too perfect. Just think of waterfalls and rivers. Wait, that’s if you need to tinkle.
Ashes[sup]2[/sup], it’s ok to eat this kind of Squirrel Candy. It’s real good. I don’t know about raccoon candy though, cause I never had none. Who knows? There might be some kinda raccoon nouggat or sumpn out there. Somebody take that as their homework assignment and google for raccoon candy.