Random Food Post

5 for $4

Kept seeing the commercials for the new meal deal at Burger King and decided to try it out one evening. Marvin passed on it and got his usual double Whopper with cheese, plain, meal. The special came with a bacon cheeseburger, chicken nuggets, fries, drink and cookie. My hamburger was a tiny one, which I expected, but it had cheese and bacon, so that was great. There were 4 nuggets and they were good as well. Tiny amount of fries (as expected) but they were really good fries. Drink was a small cup, but with free refills, who cares? There was NO COOKIE on my tray. When I went up to ask for my cookie, the gal said they were out of them, but had alternatives. I chose the 4-piece cheesy tots. Awesome! In fact I was so full that I took 2 nuggets and 3 tots home for the next day and let Marv finish my fries. All in all, a good deal for $4.

No trash talk!

I know there are haters out there for what I’m going to say next, but I don’t wanna hear it…

I LOVE CANDY CORN and PINEAPPLE ON MY PIZZA!

*The only time of year to get good candy corn is around Halloween. Don’t know why it’s not around on a regular basis. I’ve tried the candy corn you can get in bulk at Winco, but it’s just not as good. This past autumn I got 2 huge bags of Autumn Mix, which was the regular candy corn, the harvest color candy corn and the cute little pumpkins. I don’t eat a lot of it at one time and I still have a pretty fair amount left. Smart of me to get the 2 bags. This next autumn I might get 3 to last me even longer.

*Pineapple is the perfect accompaniment for pepperoni pizza, IMHO. I’ve had Hawaiian pizza with pineapple and Canadian bacon, but much prefer pepperoni for the meat. When we go to Mt. Mike’s for pizza, I always get the salad bar as well so I can get all the pineapple I want, as well as garlic toast. Plus, eating a healthy salad balances out the guilt of the pizza…

Dead soda

I have always loved dead soda. It goes down better than full carbonated soda. At home, I usually open a can of soda and leave it open in the fridge to die. With 2 liter bottles I put the cap back on, but it takes me a long time to empty a bottle of soda. By the time I’m about halfway through, it’s nice and dead. When we went back to Indiana to visit my brother and his family, I found out that my niece and SIL both prefer dead soda. Kindred spirits!

Chocolate filled marshmallows

I griped about this some time back, after learning something like this was out but couldn’t find it in the stores anywhere. Finally got a bag this past summer and was overjoyed to try it out over a fire. BUMMER! The outside of the marshmallow does just fine, but the chocolate plug in the middle doesn’t melt, it’s too hard. I finally tried cutting one in half and zapping it in the microwave. The chocolate softened up OK but the time it took for that completely melted the marshmallow into a pile of goo. Sweet goo, but goo nonetheless. So I’ll stick to toasting regular marshmallows over a fire and zapping Peeps in the microwave. And eat chocolate separately…

Winter Poem

Reaching dead fingers

     to the sky in supplication

Winter trees bemoan

     their nakedness.

“Send us snow,

     to clothe us in white!

Send us ice,

     to sparkle in the light!”

The evergreens laugh

     and hug their needles

          ever closer.

dljbinder 2020

The End of the Monthly Book Reports

After many years, I’ve decided to stop doing monthly book reports. I got very few readers, but I will not leave the true bibliophiles desolate. When a book hits me hard, I will write about it. I’ve already blogged about my favorite writers/series so won’t belabor the point. I may touch upon a specific writer however. Right now I feel like writing about Marian Babson.

Ruth Marian Stenstreem wrote mysteries under the name Marian Babson. Her books are a joy. Although she was born an American, she has spent most of her life in London. Since she is now 90, I don’t think there will be many more books, as the last one she wrote was in 2012.

A lot of her books have cats in them, so you know the appeal for me. As a real Anglophile AND an ailurophile, these books suit me down to the ground.

She has two series of mysteries and the rest are stand alones. All of them are worth reading. The first series involves Trixie Dolan and Evangeline Sinclair. They are two “friends” who are aging actresses who are a bit past their prime, but can still have a good time. They live and travel together, but don’t necessarily get along. They have several ex-husbands between them, one who was mutual. When the chips are down, however, they stand together. When a man is involved in the mystery, they fight for the right of ownership. A lot of fun. There are 7 in this series.

The second series is about the PR business firm of Perkins & Tate. The books are written in first person from the point of view of Doug Perkins, with a bit of input from his partner Gerry Tate and their secretary Penny. It was the second book in the series (Murder at the Cat Show) that had a LOT of cats in it, and even though Doug was never a fan of cats, he finds himself at the end of the story with a cat of his own, Pandora. She doesn’t feature much in the last two books, but as with all Siamese, she makes her presence known. There are only 4 books in this series and I wish there were more.