I can think of few gifts from a friend that are better than “the wrong gift.” Why would I be happy to get the wrong gift from a friend? Well, isn’t it obvious?
It shows that they were thinking of you and wanting to please you and get you something special. How much more of a gift could you want?
I have given many gifts in my life and most of those gifts were probably the “wrong” item. They probably weren’t appreciated because what I placed value upon wasn’t necessarily what “they” thought was of value. “My bad!” I guess I’ve waited about 40 years to say that phrase willingly, “my bad.” I made a mistake, but it doesn’t mean I love you any less. Or cherish our friendship any less. You’re special to me, and I am very thankful for all our years of knowing each other and you welcoming me into your home and life. I hope there will be many more, although neither of us are “spring chickens.”
So, I’m going to be looking up recipes that use Wasabi Powder… a lot of frigging, stinking Wasabi Powder;-)
It is Friday, January 3rd, 2025. This year seems to be starting off fast.
I just tried mixing fenugreek, turmeric, red wine vinegar and some Splenda sweetener. The taste is pleasant and the fenugreek adds a little quirkiness. I’ve seen a warning of using fenugreek with those who are also using a blood thinner. But fenugreek is supposed to help with maintaining blood sugar levels.
I just found some old pictures of mine on Flickr and liked the one above. This was my Dodge Ram 1500, and I am, more than likely, parked on one of the overlooks on the Blue Ridge Parkway below Asheville.
Get rid of the bacon, and think about reduced fat dairy. Get rid of dried fruits but add fresh fruits.
NOTE [05/12/25]: I reduced the amount of bacon from 3 to 2 slices per breakfast, and I’ve started drinking 2% Milk with no problem. I still eat some dried fruit like prunes, Turkish apricots & a few dates. I don’t eat much fresh fruit. [end NOTE]
Black beans, salsa, *Funny, but at some point I found a recipe for “Black Beans & Quinoa.” It’s a simple recipe that includes yellow corn & cilantro leaf and comes out perfectly after about 20 minutes of cooking time. I’ve made it a couple of times. It goes great with homemade salsa and guacamole.
It has been a while since I made any bean soup using dried beans. I had several plastic bags from which I had used at least some of the dried beans. Some green split peas, some baby limas and maybe some black eyed peas. So, I was in the mood for some green split pea soup with country ham. I got the half bag off the shelf and almost immediately noted that the bottom had peas that had disintegrated. I thought they might still be good so I dumped a small portion out into a white bowl and went back to get something else. To my surprise when I returned there were quite a few black mealy bugs coming out of the dried peas. I threw them out and then checked the several other bags. All were compromised so I threw them out also. It was then that I knew where the mealy bugs had come from that had ruined my Bisquick. Not sure if they can get into a glass jar with a tight lid, but I have bought one and put a new box of Bisquick in it. *This is a large glass jar, perhaps 1/2 or 1 gallon in size.
[NOTE 08/12/25]: I like the idea of putting dry beans in plastic jars instead of the glass ones. I ordered a 12 pak of plastic storage jars, with metal lids & bands from Amazon. I probably got the idea of the plastic jars from the reused Dukes Mayo jars. But I see that the 12 pak of plastic jars do not fit the yellow Dukes Mayo lids. [end NOTE]
Plastic Dukes / Glass Ball Both holding dry Lima beans.
If I buy any new bags of dried beans, I’ll have to put them in glass jars with tight lids.
I have a bunch of Rubbermaid Easy Find containers with lids, but I’ve also used quite a few Ball glass jars but I put the yellow plastic Duke’s Mayo lid on them when I have those. The plastic lids will eventually break, but it saves having to keep the canning jar lids (which have two parts). *Not too long ago I bought a foam noodle and cut it to put the canning jar bands on. They fit almost perfectly and it makes them more organized when I put them in a plastic storage shoebox.
*A note. I prefer the taste of Duke’s Mayo to Hellmans and now I also have another reason to stick with Dukes. The Dukes plastic lids fit the canning jars perfectly, but the Hellmans lids do not.
“It [isn’t] defamatory to say someone watches pornography, which is a lawful activity for adults,” CNN said in its filing. “While some may disagree about the propriety of such conduct, the simple fact is that statements that someone engaged in a lawful activity are not defamatory.” CNN wants federal court to take up Robinson defamation case (WRAL5)
What a simple legal response. I like it. You can’t defame someone, “if you are not saying anything defamatory about them.” You are just stating a fact, and even if that fact is incorrect, it isn’t defamatory. It was reported that “he picked his nose and ate the bugger.” Well, even if he did, that can’t be defamatory because picking your nose and/or eating the bugger isn’t illegal. It’s probably not even morally reprehensible. And it sounds so much worse when someone else is accused of the activity, but much less offensive when done in the privacy of your own home or car. It may be offensive sounding, but not defamatory. And if you reported incorrectly? Maybe he didn’t pick his nose. Or maybe he didn’t consume the bugger. Just mistakes, that require a retraction.
However, if you can find an email, something in writing, or a recorded phone conversation that states that CNN’s purpose of the report was to hinder the candidate’s run for office, that might be another matter.
I think abortion IS killing a child, and shouldn’t be done, but I also know there is wisdom in how you deliver the message, and Mark Robinson was SO WRONG in his method of delivery. I don’t actually care about Mark Robinson or his wife (at least to a normal degree), but think about what he said, on video, and what his political opponent replayed for the public repeatedly… Robinson accused women who had an abortion, of “not being able to keep your legs together,” or “wanting to keep going to the club on Friday nights.” Don’t you think if you and your wife had an abortion, and the candidate admitted that they had publicly, you would choose to tone down your delivery? After all, the thinking person might eventually ask the question, “are you speaking from experience.” Did your wife have an abortion because she couldn’t keep her legs together, and did you both have your abortion because you both wanted to keep going out the “the club on Friday nights?” What is the old saying, “those that live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones?”
I’m not saying you can’t learn from your mistakes. Okay, you and your wife had an abortion, and you thought you had good reasons at the time, but now you’ve changed your mind and you are vehemently against abortion. Doesn’t decorum, or at least sensitivity to your spouse, tell you not to angrily spew your beliefs to others? That angry delivery isn’t going to change anyone’s mind regarding abortion. Get a clue.
DA Carl Fox, who became an NC Judge in 2005, tried a case involving a “hit” and “run” that happened in October 2003.
A young man, Stephen Gates, who at the time was employed by UNC-Chapel Hill as a sports reporter, was changing a tire on an “On Ramp” of I40. A young woman driver, her boy friend (Rabah Samara) and another couple were in a Cadillac SUV, all apparently asleep except for the driver. As they came up the ramp the SUV struck Gates as he was attempting to change his tire. She apparently was not aware that she had struck someone so she continued along I40. **One report said that other drivers had seen the accident (and reported that the SUV was dragging Gate’s body and his car door beneath it) and attempted to get her to stop or pull over, which she did a few miles down I40.
She woke her boyfriend (a manager of a pizza shop in Raleigh, and of Middle Eastern descent), and when they pulled over, he got under the wheel and drove them back to Raleigh. The three asleep passengers were unaware of the accident. And apparently all had been drinking that day and were returning from “the beach” (maybe). ***It was determined that Gates was ‘in the road’ and that the driver (the young woman) was not at fault.
But, I always thought there were “hinky” parts of this event and trial (short as it was, since it never should have happened). There was some kind of deal struck with the young woman driver in which she would not be held responsible and would testify (to what I don’t know), but a case was still brought to court and the young woman’s boyfriend was charged. With what I don’t know. He wasn’t driving at the time of the accident, so why even waste the State’s time and money with a case of “hit and run” when he didn’t hit, but he did drive all away from the area? I mentioned that the man was “Middle Eastern,” and I think that was important to the case even coming to trial. You’ve got to remember that this was just a couple of years after 9-11.
Shouldn’t the DA have asked who was driving at the time of the accident and then immediately dropped that case against the pizza manager/boyfriend (who WASN’T driving)? But no. The case went to trial and lasted, I heard about 30 minutes, and the charges were dropped. What does the judge (not Fox at the time, he was the DA) say? Well since you weren’t driving at the time of the accident, I guess we can’t convict you of “hit and run” because you didn’t hit.
I would say that this was a major ‘faux pas’ by the DA. But how do you reward a misstep? Yeah, make the DA a State judge a couple of years later.
Now they did enact NC legislation (appending the name of the victim, calling it “Stephen’s Law”) to make it a crime regarding “hit and run” for anyone, other than an officer of the law or a “first responder” (not what they called them back then) to drive someone “who was driving at the time” – a ‘hitter’ away from the scene. ****Now this legislation occurred about 2003 and it seemed ‘ludicrous’ (this is one of those times when using that word is appropriate) that after all the years of “hit and run” cases, legislation would have to specifically state that you had to package “hit and run” not as “hit and be driven away by someone else.” If you “hit” you couldn’t leave the scene (except if an officer of the law took you somewhere, or a ‘first responder’ put you in an ambulance and you went to the hospital, for instance), without being charged with the “run.”
I’m not sure if the person, who drives you away (or maybe has a helicopter or boat nearby) and helps remove you from the accident, can be charged in a separate “illegal removal crime.” If it’s not in that legislation, I guess more specific legislation is needed.
The seared scallops and mashed minted garden peas was something I saw online, and immediately purchased the book it came from. I made the meal from a recipe online, but added the red cabbage & corn slaw and served on polenta. However, it looked much better than it tasted. It may have need more mint. Also I googled and the smushed garden peas classically go with taragon flavoring. *I was captivated by the original image I saw of the scallops & smushed peas, but the actual product failed to produce satisfying results.
Love the spicy seafood chowder with bay scallops, cod fish, shrimp & chopped clams. Has hot peppers and corn. Couldn’t get the flavorful hot peppers I had last year this year. Trinidad Perfume, Brazillian ???
[NOTE 11/11/24]: I had bought a filet of Tilapia some time ago and had frozen it. I defrosted it and got online to find some ideas. I ended up baking it at 400 degrees for about 10 minutes. I used some garlic butter to drizzle over it, but also used Paprika, Oregano, Thyme and S&P. It was better than expected, but not necessarily something that I would repeat, so…
I bought another filet a day later and ended up cooking it later that day. This time I googled to see if I could bake and season Tilapia like you do Flounder. Sure enough the AI (I think that is what is giving more complete answers when you google.) said that because both fish are flakey that seasoning & cooking both the same would be okay.
It has been years since I had a baked flounder, but I recalled using bacon and onion in the baking dish to flavor the flounder. I also wanted to use Smoked Paprika and some garlic powder (instead of raw garlic). S&P and some Marjoram.
I started the oven and then put the baking dish in, without the tilapia, but only some oil, sliced onion & bacon. The bacon is never going to end up crispy. It will be limp, but will add some flavor to the onion and fish. I sprinkled some Smoked Paprika on half of the tilapia. About ten minutes later I looked in on the fish and it seemed to be done. Still moist and whitened by the heat.
I cut the filet so that I could eat the part with the Smoked Paprika. I also baked a Russet potato in the microwave, and already had some cabbage slaw (mayo, red bell pepper, sweet onion, sweetener). This turned out better, and it is something that I would put in the rotation of the other things I cook. Not as regular as some of the other things I like, but definitely worth trying again. [end NOTE]
The past few days spent mostly down and around Hubert, NC was interesting. I jumped off of an “out of control” golf cart and rolled on the ground rather than wait for it to crash into something or go into a deep ditch. I was unhurt, and not sore later, but I had to ask Ray to help me get up. *Oh, they have a large mirror that covers most of the wall in their bathroom and it is usually there that I realize how grossly fat I am, and have been for many years. And, that is even after I’ve lost about 15 pounds in the last year and have been hovering just about the 250 lbs. mark for several months.
Switching to Ozempic has corralled my rising resting blood sugar levels. I had taken Trulicity for several years and then at a point about a year ago, I could no longer get my prescription filled in a timely manner, and eventually after two months unfilled, I considered “couldn’t get it filled at all.” I attributed the lack of this medication to all those persons who are beginning to use it to keep their weight under control. However, I still feel I should have had “first dibbs” on this medication because I had been taking it, as I said, for several years. But now, I wouldn’t want to return to Trulicity. Ozempic appears to be slightly better in controlling my blood sugar. **However, the injection mechanism is slightly less sophisticated that Trulicity. But, you also reuse the Ozempic pen for several injections, replacing the needles several times until all the fluid has been used up. Last week I completed my first rotation of six injections. I started with four, once a week, injections at .25 dosage, followed by two more weeks at .5 dosage. The needle is small and does not hurt going in. You just have to count to six after the dosage counter has reached “0”.
I think I eat reasonably healthily most of the time. I like brussels sprouts (with balsamic vinegar, dijon mustard and agave nectar as a sauce). They prepare and cook quickly and it is an excellent side dish for something like a pork chop. But, I’ve also fixed some delicious chicken gizzards and had them with rice, once, and with mashed potatoes several times.
Oddly for me, I found myself without much food “in the house” Saturday night. At least food that wouldn’t be bad for me. There were hotdogs and some baloney, and potato salad, a loaf of white bread, some peanut butter & nuts chocolate fudge, cinnamon candy and ginger ale (not sugar free). I had one hotdog, and a slice of baloney on one slice of bread, some potato salad, I ate a few olives and one small piece of fudge, and no ginger ale, just ice water. I don’t know what happened to the pork roast, but I didn’t see it in the fridge. I went to Burger King on Sunday morning, the one that stands on the spot where the old Morton Family home stood on the corner of Queens Creek Road and Highway 24. I told the young woman who took my order that I had lived on this spot and that the first day they were opened, a Sunday, I had come in and sat over in one of the booths thinking about where the old kitchen had been located. *I had a Ham, Egg and Cheese Croissandwich, some tater tots, and coffee. I also had one container of honey mustard, catchup and I went out to the car and got a couple of containers of the curry mixture I make that works good on potatoes. It was starting to sprinkle a little. I hadn’t had this breakfast in quite a while, but have had it many times in the past.
Looking out the Burger King Drive-Thru last week, and my kitchen from 64 years ago.
As the inside of Burger King looked last week.
Above:Note how clean and straight the lines on the edge of the wooden porch are. This porch probably hadn’t been replaced too long because as the wood ages, and wears, the edges break off and become slightly ragged, but that’s not the case here. Also, the chain is off the bike. We were trying to remove the rear tail of the bike and this loosened the chain. The front of the car is of a Chevy painted beige, which was probably a Marine Base relic. Uncle Bob had a Ford approximately the same age as the Chevy and the same color. The little house off the back of the porch was what Lyde had stayed in because she suffered from Tuberculosis. Because I was around it, I still “show positive” for TB and I guess if I had a weakened condition, TB might become a problem for me. The little house formerly had been a logger’s cabin. No bathroom, just room for a bed and a table and a place for a hot plate or coffee pot. The mule, with his tail to us is just across the ditch, and between him and the tobacco barn past him is Queens Creek Road. The tobacco barn burned down not too many years later, and the mule was sold also.
I did stop briefly on the Swansboro waterfront to read a small portion of “Becoming” the Michelle Obama memoir, and later in Jacksonville at a park by the river, I also read a little more. A page or three at a time and eventually, if I live so long, I will finish this book too. Too, as I have about 30 Michael Connelly novels (mostly Bosch), a memoir of JFK, Jr., and a tribute by friends of Tim Russert during the past year. This reading started after I had snagged the Matthew Perry memoir from a nearby Little Lending Library at the end of last October. The “hinkey” thing about the Perry tome was that I got it, not because I was interested in him, but because I was going to move it to another LLL, but several days later, I saw a picture of Perry on a celebrity tribute web site and said to myself, “I didn’t know he was dead,” and shortly thereafter found that he had actually died about three days after I had got his book. I though this was hinkey and then said to myself, “I guess I’ll have to read this now,” and I did. Three pages into his memoir he makes the statement, “I should be dead by now,” and then he goes on to explain about the “Big Terrible Thing.” The “Thing” being his almost life long drug addition. After reading this book, I would be much more lenient on those persons that provided him with those last illegal drugs. Matthew Perry did this to himself. The others may have overdosed him, but with his inner weakness, he basically committed suicide. **After I finished the Perry memoir, I was in a reading mode and so, because I had a bunch of the Michael Connelly Bosch novels that I had bought to add to various LLLs, I started reading them. I didn’t start reading in order. Connelly started publishing these in 1992 with “The Black Echo.” I probably started with “Echo Park” and then at some point jumped back to the first five or six novels. ***I’ve told a few people that I learned to despise Harry Bosch from reading these novels. I liked the Harry Bosch character that I came to know from the TV series, but by the second novel, “Black Ice,” I came to describe Harry Bosch as, “that lying piece of dog shit, that shouldn’t be trusted and should step to the back of the line, instead of getting special “cut to the front” privileges.
ADDENDUM[09/30/25]:I was in Harris Teeter yesterday getting ready to pay for my lunch salad and I looked at a magazine cover. It had Charlie Sheen on the cover. His big head, similar to Matthew Perry’s on his book cover. But what jostled my memory of the Perry book was that Sheen’s cover said, “I should be dead by now.” Now that’s the statement that Perry said in his memoir about three pages into it. I got the Perry book at a LLL, and about 3 days later he died of a drug overdose. *Read his book and there is no surprise. He couldn’t control his addiction, and finally it did him in. But oh, the suffering he put himself and others through until the final conclusion. I almost said to the checkout clerk, “He’s going to be dead soon,” but I didn’t. [end]
I rode around to different areas in and around Swansboro, Stella, Sneads Ferry, and then quickly down to Wilmington where I was planning to eat at a KFC buffet. However, the KFC I visited on Market Street had no buffet so I just used their bathroom. I thought that the Arby’s I have eaten at many times over many visits to Wilmington would be nearby, and it was. Just a few blocks further down, I turned into the Arby’s parking lot. There is a Miller-Mott Education site in the back. But, there was yellow caution tape across the drive-thru entrance, and then I noted work trucks and an industrial waste dumpster, and then the cuss word as I realized that this Arby’s location was closed for renovations. Damn, what is it with no food?
I decided not to hang around Wilmington, mildly hungry, so I started back for Fayetteville but with the idea of stopping at Elizabethtown to see if they had a KFC buffet. They had a KFC, but no buffet. I didn’t want to eat more Mexican because we had eaten at El Catrin in Swansboro on Friday. Finally made it back home and made some mashed potatoes and warmed up a helping of chicken gizzards. They were good again. *But, for dinner I really didn’t know what I wanted, maybe kielbasa & lentils? I finally just ate some Neuske’s Smoked Liver Pate with some Whole Foods Black Sesame Rice crackers. As I write this, I’m still wrestling with what to either fix for breakfast, or if I should scrounge up enough paper money to go out for breakfast.
The pears I had bought at Pate’s had all gone bad, but the tangerines were still delicious. I have found that I can use my boxcutter tool with the blade just slightly out to slice the peeling of oranges or tangerines. Years ago Tupperware gave away a peel slicer as a promotional gift. I had gotten several of these when I worked at the Hem of His Garment Thrift Store. Using the boxcutter is basically doing what the Tupperware tools did.
I wanted to focus on a few things that I saw in the images of the devastation in the Biltmore Village area. Before I watched the Carpetbagger’s video of Asheville, I had seen an image on WRAL TV 5 that showed a very large oil drum that had come to rest on Brook Street beside the White Lotus Boutique and a small tree. This drum was wedged snuggly but it hadn’t bent the tree at all. This meant it had to float to where it was and then be gently lowered into its current position. *I later thought to look for where it had actually come from, and I’m pretty sure I’ve found it. I’ll show the location from Google Maps at the bottom.
So the drum had floated about a block away from where it was originally located, and then made a sharp right turn and started up Brook Street before coming to rest. And the giant oil tank with the spiral staircase had been turned on its side and was a short distance from where it was originally located.
[NOTE 10/09/24]: I was just watching another Asheville Disaster Aftermath video and there was another picture of a bridge that had been destroyed. My thought was, would it be worth it to redirect flooding around both ends of a bridge so that the bridge wouldn’t be destroyed but both ends would be washed out? Rebuilding a bridge takes a really long time, but bringing in fill dirt to repair a road would take less effort. So, how could you do that? Maybe like a cow catcher that comes down into the river or stream and then it redirects the water to both sides of the bridge. Might work for a small/short bridge. *Another thought would be to build drawbridges that could be raised not to let shipping pass through, but to let rushing water and garbage have free flow.
Why come up with an idea like this? Well, it’s not that this is a “once in a lifetime” event. Granted that floods occur not that often, but when they do mountain folk are devastated by the destruction. You’ve got to protect your infrastructure to make for a speedier recovery. It’s not that flooding isn’t going to happen anytime soon, but that it is going to happen. [end NOTE]
I googled and found that I’m not the first, or only one to have come up with the idea of minimizing potential loss. Better to lose the road on either side of a bridge rather than lose the bridge.
I can get to Lee’s Fresh Market in Benson, NC in about 37 minutes, traveling mostly “back roads.” This butcher shop is a couple of miles outside of the town of Benson, so if I go into town after visiting this market, my GPS shows that returning home is shorter by going back on I95.
There is a Lee’s Market in Benson that is not related to the butcher shop. This is a vegetable market just about a block down from the IGA. But, this Lee’s Market is related to the Lee’s Market which is located at the State Farmers’ Market in Raleigh. I have been going to that vendor in Raleigh for about 13 years, and I found a picture that I took 13 years ago of some Anaheim & Jalapeno peppers at their stand. *These are just green peppers, but at some point they mostly have not-green peppers, reds, oranges and yellows.
But, I went to the butcher shop to especially buy some more Pepper Bacon. This is really good flavored bacon and I’ve even given some as a present to my relatives down in Hubert, NC. They only had one package of peppered bacon. They come in packages weighing approximately two pounds and the cost is about $14. I asked a nearby staff person if they had any more of the bacon. He said he was a “chicken” expert, but he would go back and check about more bacon. When he returned they had just gotten the bacon they season with pepper and he said it would take about a day for more pepper bacon to be available.
I walked down one isle and around to the next isle. Almost immediately I saw a package of thick cut pork chops, two to a package. I normally do not buy thick cut pork chops because I only need about 3 or 4 ounces of meat per meal. But, these looked good and I then noticed that they only cost $2.92 for this package which I then noticed weighed 1.63 lbs. *I had to do the math at home the next day to see how many ounces I could get from each chop. They were just too big. I was going to have to cut each chop in three parts because cut in two parts there were just too many ounces of protein.
I cooked one chop in my large frying pan that is all metal so that I can put it in the oven. I set the oven to Broil on LO. Normally I cook steak or lamb on HI but those are not usually thick cut. I really only like the Round Bone Lamb Chop because I think it’s flavor tastes better. I figured that the thick cut pork chop would burn to a crisp before the inside was done if I set the Broil to HI. The LO setting worked and I flipped the chop after the top started to crisp up. And, this chop was delicious and tender. I only cut off about a third of the chop and that was enough. I had some fried okra & onion, and an ear of corn on the cob, and some corn chips with guacamole.
[NOTE 10/03/24]: I was just watching an episode of “Diners Drive Inns and Dives” and one of the chefs used some Crunchy Garlic Crisp in one of his recipes. I think it went in a sauce that was used on a sandwich. I’ve only used the Garlic Crisp in my stir fry. There are expensive brands of this, but I get a cheap brand at Walmart and it does the job.
I had a little guacamole left from yesterday and find that with a few salty corn tortilla chips this is a decent side with various meals. It’s not just for Mexican anymore.
[end NOTE]
I don’t recall if the first brussels sprouts that I enjoyed included Balsamic Vinegar, but I recall the waiter said that they had honey. That was at Fatz Restaurant in Cheraw, South Carolina. That Fatz location has been closed a few years. There was another location in Rockingham, North Carolina, but I’m not sure if it is still there.
I did not follow the exact quantities above since I was only making enough for one helping. I cut five sprouts in half. At first I started to fry these on the stove top, but then I realized that the tops probably wouldn’t be cooked through, so I put them in a bowl, covered it and put them in the microwave for three minutes. After these looked tender and I put them back in the frying pan on the stove top and finished cooking them. *I did not add the condiments directly to the pan, but after they were cooked and had a dark brown bottom, I put them in a bowl and added the condiment mixture. I didn’t have enough honey (unless I put some of the crystalized honey in the microwave) so I added some Agave Nectar. Oh, and I added some Splenda to the mix also.
I enjoyed these brussels sprouts that I fixed the rest the next day, and they were just as good the second time. But, I hadn’t refrigerated those left from the first day and by the second day, one of them had actually started to rot. I had to cut the rotten part off before using the rest.
This turned out great! They were tender and sickeningly sweet and went well with the pork chop that I fixed on the stove top. *I’ve found that adding some Amchur (mango) powder and Tamarind powder, with some vinegar, lime juice and Equal (and/or Agave Nectar) makes a delicious flavored pork chop. The sweet vinegar flavors are echoed between the pork chop & the brussels sprouts. I also cut some grape tomatoes to go with this and they were a perfect balance for this meal. **I probably could have had cabbage slaw or maybe even some guacamole to balance the flavors of this meal out.
ADDENDUM [12/28/24]: I had driven up to Raleigh yesterday. I wanted to get another French Baguette (LaFarm) sold at Whole Foods, and then go to Wegman’s and see if they had Bigelow’s Raspberry Royale tea. Yes they did, and I bought two boxes (20 bags each). *Amazon wants to charge a little over $7 for just one 20 bag count box and Wegman’s only charged a little over $3 for the same. A few years ago I did buy the 6 pack of 20 count boxes from Amazon and gave them away as presents, but I didn’t want to buy that much again, if I didn’t have to. Fortunately I checked online at the Wegman’s site and to my surprise it said they they did have it in stock.
A black woman clerk had come to me in line and ushered me over to the Service Desk where she was working and checked me out there. We started talking and I mentioned that I had come to buy the Bigelow’s Raspberry Royale tea and she then told me the story about how her daughter who had been pregnant said that raspberry tea would force labor. The daughter had drank some raspberry tea and had her baby the next day. I told the lady that the Raspberry Royale had never forced me into labor, and she agreed that it had not forced herself into labor either. She was old enough that she more than likely shouldn’t be having any children. The woman said she had never tried the Bigelow Raspberry Royale. I paid for my few groceries and walked out to my car. There was a slight cold rainy mist, but as I sat in my car and opened one of the Raspberry Royale boxes it came to me, “why didn’t I open the box and give her a couple of bags to try.” So, I took out two bags of tea, still in their pouches, and headed back inside. When I got to the counter the woman was no longer there. There was a younger man, another clerk that asked if he could help me. I asked the whereabouts of the black woman clerk, and he looked around and said he thought she might have just gone to lunch. I handed him the two packets of tea and asked that he give them to the woman when she returned, then I left.
I ate at the Redneck BBQ Lab at McGee’s Crossroads (Exit 319 off of I40) and afterward headed to Lee’s Fresh Market just outside of Benson. It was after 3 pm when I got to Lee’s, but there were still several cars parked outside. I grabbed a red plastic shopping basket as I walked inside the sliding glass door and headed around to where the pork chops were located. A man and wife were standing in front of the “thick cut” pork chops, but they were looking at other cuts of pork. I waited briefly and then said, “Excuse me,” and reached for one of the 2 chop packages of Thick Cut Pork Chops. I saw the price was only $1.79 per pound, so I reached over and got a second package.
I fixed two of the pork chops for lunch today. I’m using my new “oven safe” VinChef wok to broil them. It does an excellent job and cooks them quickly. This wok is beautifully ornate on the inside and on the bottom! As I’ve said elsewhere, I can make two or three meals out of each thick cut chop. Each chop is about a pound (16 oz.) so quartering it would mean each serving would be about 4 oz. And 4oz. would be perfect. The chop was good again, and the grease/gravy left in the pan is delicious also.
Bill Gibson, II 