A little while ago, I had thought about trying Peach or Cherry flavored Schnapps. I was coming back through Lillington, NC today, and turned around to go the the ABC store there. I went in and walked up and down the isles looking for Schnapps. I didn’t see any, and finally asked a clerk. The Schnapps was almost at the front of the first isle that I walked down. They only had peach flavored Schnapps.

Surprisingly, this bottle of Schnapps cost less than $6 (OK a little over with tax).

I didn’t try it when I first got home. I did make myself a couple of Smoked Ham & Jalapeno Pepper Jack Cheese with Horseradish Mustard on a Miami Onion Roll from Wegman’s.

I had stopped in Whole Foods before going to Wegmans. As I came out of Whole Foods, I headed out onto the 440 Beltline. I got up to 70 mph pretty quickly and had some traffic a short distance behind me. But, very soon (I think before the exit for Crabtree Valley Mall) the 440 traffic ground to almost a halt. I quickly decided to get off at the Mall exit and head away from the Mall back toward downtown Raleigh. This ended up being a great decision. I googled on my phone for directions to Wegmans and saw that the proposed route did not take me back onto 440, almost but not quite. And I ended up very soon coming to the area where Wegmans was located and turning in to the parking lot.

*I see from WRAL that there as an accident on 440 that resulted in someone dying, so that is what caused the traffic backup.

At Wegmans I carried in my bright yellow shopping bag that I had gotten a few years ago in Asheville at the Farmer’s Market. Wegmans really does a great job of presenting their vegetables. Everything is, fat, bright in color and fresh looking. I walked around to my left and found the Rolls section. They had a couple of Miami Onion Rolls, and I asked the female baker for some more. I bought 4 of the onion rolls and one other roll (with salt & seeds on top). Bought some more Castelvetrano Olives (with pits), a container of Smoked Ham, a small container of Wasabi Powder, and another bottle of Creamy Horseradish Sauce (this I had used mixed with yellow mustard).

So I finally tried the Peach Schnapps at home. I googled for how to drink Schnapps. The suggestion was a small amount, in a small glass, at room temperature. Perfect, for what I had already poured. I smelled the drink. It was sweet and peachy in smell. It was also sweet and peachy in flavor. I like this as much as I liked Disaronno;

I tried some with Half-n-Half and it was good. Maybe Peach Egg Nog would be good.

The Onion Roll that launched a thousand trips is on the bottom right of the image gallery shown above. The images at the top were taken about a week later. I was disappointed in the difference in the way the rolls looked on my second trip. They looked anemic, although maybe the first roll I had would be considered overdone.

On this trip to Raleigh, I also bought a jar of creamy Horseradish Sauce and a block of smoked Jalapeno Pepper Jack cheese. Not sure of what I had in mind exactly, but it came together well later. I mixed some horseradish sauce and some sweetened yellow mustard (Agave Nectar & Splenda) at home later. Cut an onion roll, put some horseradish mustard on the sliced bread, added a couple of slices of the smoked Pepper Jack cheese and some slices of hickory smoked ham. The horseradish was very spicy and gave a real kick to the brain. But, it was soooo good! The Pepper Jack cheese wasn’t anything special, but it did pair well with the onion roll and the ham. *So much so, that I later made another half sandwich using the white mountain bread. It was also good, but I do like the Onion Roll better.

I also was in the mood for pizza and made an effort to get to the Pizza Hut in Lillington before their buffet closed at 1:30. I also found an empty cup in my car and carried in a cup of ice. They have a broken ice machine and are having a difficult time getting a replacement part. The ice makes the Diet Pepsi so much better.

They have good flavored pizza. I think there is one that includes chicken, BBQ sauce and Ranch Dressing. The lettuce on their salad bar looked awful. Brown on the edges, not just a few, but almost all of it in a large bowl.

NOTE [01/14/23]: I made a small amount of the creamy horseradish and sweet yellow mustard in one of the small Tupperware containers and put in the the refrigerator.

I just fixed me a couple of hot dogs (microwaved), chopped some sweet onion, and put some of the horseradish/mustard on a slice of the white mountain bread. I added the onion & some ketchup. This was very pleasant. For now, I am liking the burn of the horseradish sauce. * Just thought, that I might try some creamy horseradish sauce with the asparagus & mashed potatoes. I did get Yukon Gold potatoes this time. My old standard, before Covid. But, the Russet potatoes may work better for mashed potatoes.

Not sure if I have ever put asparagus and mashed potatoes together, other than if they were both separately on a plate. But, I peeled three medium Irish potatoes, cut them up into relatively small dice, and then boiled them. I diced about 12 stalks of asparagus (normally I cook asparagus as single stalks) and steamed them, knowing I was going to add them to the mashed potatoes.

Once the potatoes were done, I mashed them adding both lots of margarine and some Half-n-Half. I thought the potatoes were smoother, but actually ended up liking the semi-chunkiness of the finished product. The asparagus worked really well mixed into the mashed potatoes. Good flavor!

I had this with a re-heated lamb round-bone chop, some pickled beets and cabbage slaw. The potatoes would also go good with beef liver or maybe even a hamburger patty.

I have some spaghetti sauce, curried chicken and Mexican Salsa Chicken in the refrigerator. I bought a wedge of Parmigiano Reggiano at Wegmans the other day, and grated some on what I don’t recall. I still had some of the Publix Roasted Chicken that I had pulled the meat off the bone and had in a Tupperware container in the fridge. I put half of the chicken in a curry dish, and the other half in the Mexican dish.

In the past I have started with chicken thighs or breast meat and cubed it. The basic ingredients are the same, the main difference is whether I add curry powder & paste, or Herdez Salsa Ranchera (along with pepper flakes, Chipotle & Cayenne powder, jalapeno and/or Poblano). The other common ingredients to the two dishes are “fire roasted” diced tomatoes, carrots, onion, and sweet (yellow, orange or red) bell pepper.

Whether the curry or salsa dishes, both go well with rice… or a baked sweet potato (with sweetener, margarine and sour cream).

I’ve mentioned this previously, probably several times, but for years I used either Delmonte or Hunts Spaghetti Sauce starter. The cans got smaller through the years, but basically were about $1 each, until Covid. I’m not sure when I started adding a can of diced “fire roasted” cubed tomatoes, but that is now a necessity. I will also add ground beef & onion and brown them. *For years I added a small can of mushrooms, but don’t find that necessary any longer.

I’ll cut up some sweet (red. yellow) bell pepper. Some red pepper flakes. *I also started adding fennel seeds several years ago. I had bought some Italian sausage (which I found included fennel seeds) and found the liquorish flavor pleasant. Once, I bought pork sausage & some ground lamb, and added that with the ground beef. I can’t say there was a great difference, and especially for the extra money, it wasn’t worth it.

Within the last year, I was watching ATK or Cook’s Country and they mentioned RAO’s spaghetti sauce started. I looked for this some time later and I think I found it in WalMart, then saw it in Food Lion also. A jar of Rao’s costs about $8. So when I opened the jar of Rao’s Marinara sauce, I decided to only use half of it at a time.

I was completely surprised at how good my spaghetti sauce was when I used the Rao’s. *Through the years I had come to make spaghetti sauce about every couple of weeks. One “batch” of sauce normally would provide 3 or 4 meals. Lately, I only feel like making spaghetti sauce at home about once a month.

Oh, I normally like to use Angel Hair pasta (because it cooks much quicker), but have tried various shapes of pasta through the years. Farfalle (is that bow tie) doesn’t cook evenly. The pasta fans cook quicker than where they are pinched together. I like pasta shells, but normally like them for other dishes. *The pasta shells (small/medium) work well for my shrimp/kielbasa/zucchini dish. They soak up the sauce. I have used the egg noodle pasta, but that does not sit well on the fork. They fall off too easily.

I stopped at Wegman’s in Raleigh today. I recalled hearing that they were going to start charging for grocery bags, unless you brought your own. I decided to only buy what I could carry, but ended up paying a nickel for one paper bag.

You enter the store near the vegetable section and the vegetables looked so vibrant and good. Deep green broccoli and thick stalked asparagus. But, I wasn’t interested in veggies.

I turned to my left and headed through the bakery section. Almost immediately I noticed an assortment of rolls. One type that caught my eye was an Onion Roll. Note the beautiful crust above. And they were shiny. I went online to try and figure out what the other roll was, but don’t see it, or don’t recognize it. They were each $1 but I only bought two.

The onion roll was really good, and the other one also.

I found the dried Chorizo that I had bought there before. Then there were some Castelvetrano olives. I saw some Mirin style sauce and bought it. Never bought Mirin before and “style” means it’s not actually Mirin. Sweet, corn syrupy… I think I would just use some Agave Nectar if I wanted to sweeten an Asian type meal. *Not too long ago, I found that “toasted sesame oil” is the flavor that I associate with “fried rice”.

I have found that I can order the “Thai Basil Chicken” lunch special at Maguro’s, eat half, and take the rest home. I then sauté some onion and sweet bell peppers, add a little more toasted sesame oil and add that to my lunch leftovers. I actually think that my addition makes the dish better. And having done this several times, and thinking the same thought, this is true for me.

I haven’t used the electric wok that Yvonne gave me in a long while, but have always thought it was really easy to use. Cut up some chicken into cubes, cut up onion, carrot, colorful sweet bell pepper, add some sugar snap peas, flavor with toasted sesame oil, and/or soy sauce, und viola. And cleanup is a breeze… if you do it immediately after.

Bought a small wedge of the “1924 Bleu” Cheese. I think the first time I bought this was within the last 3 years. Bought it at Whole Foods in Raleigh, and when I tried it, it was the best blue cheese I ever had. It is a good flavored blue cheese. *Haven’t tried this yet.

I boiled a couple of eggs this morning (9 minutes). Cooked some bacon in the microwave (about 4 minutes). Made some egg salad with a little margarine, some Dukes mayo, a little ground Long Pepper… salt, regular pepper, powdered garlic. Warmed a slice of bread in the microwave for 12 seconds. I think I warmed left over coffee, from yesterday, with a little Half-n-Half, some Splenda, Agave Nectar and a little Coconut Sugar. *The coconut sugar doesn’t have a coconut flavor, to me, but a cocoa flavor which I like with the coffee.

I’ve written about this type of breakfast before, but what I don’t understand is that this morning, when I sat down in my easy chair and took my first bite of the egg salad… it was delicious! And the bacon was delicious! And the bread went well with the egg salad and bacon. From the first bite, I knew this was special, but I couldn’t tell you why. I’ve used the same steps above on many mornings, but everything came together today. A real “comfort food” meal!

I continued to organize my Christmas presents for Mary Ann, Jamie, Raymond and Lawrence (and Jeff Mitchell) and decided to use the little glass jars for the replacement nib for the Everlasting Pencils. I saw advertising on one website that said one of these pens is equivalent to 22 No. 2 pencils. You don’t have to sharpen them. They never grow shorter with use. So, a pen, with a replacement nib would be equivalent of 44 No. 2 pencils.

I’ve got just enough Murray River Salt and Long Peppers to give all a good sampling, if they want to sample (or just throw them away). The Murray River Salt is in small flakes, so you might use some of this as a “finishing touch” on some food. The Indian Long Peppers have to be ground, and I have a nice little “mortar -n- pestle” and I grind just one pepper piece at a time. Of course, if you have a little coffee grinder, that should work well for grinding the Long Pepper. I’ve included a small amount of the Coconut Sugar, if someone wants to try it with their coffee or Egg Nog.

I’ve included “Lady Cream Peas”, Green Split Peas, and a little Country Ham bits. If they want to try, then it won’t cost them anything… a little onion, chicken stock, a carrot and/or leek (maybe).

I had noted to myself earlier in the day, that I might not want to drive to Southern Pines to Maguro’s since I would be driving up tomorrow (Saturday) for Christmas dinner with the Mitchells. Planning on Christmas dinner, on Christmas, in Hubert this year. And, later it came to me that I could go down to Lumberton, NC to Pier 41 (seafood restaurant) and I wouldn’t have to prepare any Hot Mustard (for the egg rolls) or Toasted Sesame Oil (for their fried rice).

So, in the afternoon, I headed out to I95 and south toward Lumberton. It was windy, and the Interstate had digital signage warning about the wind. A lot of traffic heading south, which began to periodically grind to almost a halt. No accidents, but just some many people that I guess someone would slow down unexpectedly and that would cause a chair reaction for all. I decided early on to try and get on Hwy. 301 as soon as I could… but that ended up being the off ramp to St. Pauls. But, that was perfect. It took about 15 minutes to get on the other side of St. Pauls past the traffic light for their “Main” Street. *I asked my phone to show me the “fastest route to Pier 41 Restaurant” and it didn’t direct me back to I95. I actually think it took into account the unusually high traffic on I95 which was causing major slow downs. I was to stay on Hwy. 301 for a short distance and then veer off on a road, with “Siding” in it’s name. I was hoping that the app was directing me to the restaurant, and not something else with 41 in it’s title.

And, sure enough, after a few turns… and I actually ran a Stop sign. I can’t remember ever running a Stop sign but I was on it so quickly, and the actual Stop sign was low and in the shadows before I saw it. If someone had been crossing the intersection, I could not have stopped, and did not stop before I was mostly across the intersection and fading to the left. Very glad the intersection was in the ‘country’ and no one in sight on the cross road.

I finally came to a section of the country road with which I was familiar. I was coming from the opposite direction, but this was the route that I had used many times to go to the Mitchell’s house when they lived in Lumberton. And, sure enough, I had been directed in the fastest route, even coming up on Pier 41 from the opposite direction on Hwy. 41.

The Google Timeline segment above shows that I came through St. Pauls on the way down, but because there was a lot of traffic on Hwy. 301 heading north through St. Pauls, I decided to check I95 on the app after lunch and saw that heading north on I95 there was only a little section at St. Pauls where the route showed “red” for warning. And, sure enough, heading north on I95, it only became really congested at St. Pauls.

Okay, I finally proved to myself… Smithfield’s Chicken N BBQ has really good sweet tea… has awful unsweet tea! I would normally not order sweet tea at Smithfields. I’m Type 2 Diabetic and don’t need the easy sugar, so I did order unsweet tea, and then I had some really lousy unsweet tea at Smithfields. I have had really bad unsweet tea there several times, not just one location but many. I’ve sent emails to the company, and no reply.

When I say the unsweet tea tastes like someone put cigarette ashes in water, that is genau (exactly) what it tastes like to me. It is no exaggeration. And, no amount of sweetener is going to make it taste good. I’ve told this to friends, and have even said several times, “I used to love the tea at Smithfields, before I had to switch to their unsweet tea.” I didn’t think to actually try their sweet tea again, until yesterday. Damn, what a surprise. Their sweet tea was fantastic! It had a distinctive flavor, and it was sweet… and even the remainder, this morning was still a good flavored sweet tea.

Why would Smithfields intentionally make good sweet tea and intentionally make awful unsweet tea? Well, cigarette ashes are probably much cheaper than tea.

So, I had a stack of frozen beef liver (Skylark) that I had for some time. The liver slices were packed neatly as a solid frozen block, but slices individually wrapped also. But I just never seemed to have the desire to unthaw some of it and cook it… and I love beef liver. Get it sometimes at the Rainbow.

So, when I finally take the package out, each slice is also packed in a sealed plastic package. I take two out to thaw in the refrigerator. A couple of days, and now I am ready to try to cook this at home. I finally decide to peel a couple of potatoes and boil them and make some descent mashed potatoes, with margarine and half-n-half. They turn out well. I also open a can of garden peas, put some margarine in them and they heat well. When I slice the packages of liver, I pour out a little blood, and then the slices, which now appear as very thinly cut, ooze out into the pan. I don’t add any flour. A little olive oil in the pan, and oh yeah, I’ve also sauteed a small onion which I now add back to the liver in the pan.

Bottom line is that the liver turned out okay. The mashed potatoes with a little more margarine were good, and the garden peas were also good. I would say however, that although none of the four items mentioned (onion included) had any off flavor or bad taste, the whole experience wasn’t a super positive. Not really negative either. Let’s just chalk this up to my old age, and my taste buds not serving me as well as they have most of my life.

I think this thin sliced liver will make an excellent sandwich, with maybe some sweet mustard. Susssenf.

Here was another day trip to Goldsboro, North Carolina. I like the Longhorn Restaurant, which is in the Berkeley Mall parking lot. Although Longhorn is part of a chain of restaurants, their Crab & Lobster Chowder has better flavor than two others of this chain (Fayetteville & Southern Pines). Mistakenly, I asked for my burger to be “medium rare” where I normally just want a little pink in the middle. A good portion of this burger was too raw for me.

So, I normally go up Hwy. 13 which passes through Newton Grove. If I have the time, I will go around the circle in Newton Grove fully so that I can see all of the destinations.

I drove down to Mount Olive to get a small chocolate Frosty at Wendy’s. The price, and I was surprised, was about $2.34 cents. Now, the small cup was slightly larger than the size of the small cup when Wendy’s had a 50 cents special, but I’m not sure that four times as much for maybe a third larger container is actually worth it.

There is a dead end road which ends near the runway fence at Seymour Johnson AFB. I found it, and like to return to see if I can see some jets taking off or landing. I’ve missed them at least twice. Yesterday I saw a couple of jets that looked like they were on approach to land (passing nearly over Wilber’s BBQ Restaurant), but by the time I got around to my dead-end vantage point they were nowhere to be seen. Another thought was that they might be practicing approaches, and didn’t actually land that time.

The above three images were taken on a different visit to my “dead end vantage point for SJAB”. I’m guessing that the large airplane is a “tanker” used to refuel the smaller jets. It was landing. There were several smaller “fighter” jets that were taking off.

After SJAB, I headed back into town and stopped at the Library. The article regarding Margot Robbie wasn’t very interesting, although I think she, in the character of Harley Quinn looks a good deal like Jamie Pressly.

The picture of the Crab & Lobster Chowder shown above was actually the second one they brought to my table. I had already finished the first one, before the burger came. I didn’t eat the second bowl of soup, but the first was good. I love the bread they give as an appetizer.

I saw that the vessel San Alberto was travelling down the Cape Fear River toward the Atlantic Ocean. I wanted to see if the web cam at Southport would be able to capture the passing of the San Alberto. This web cam has a set of positions that it cycles through of various points of the Southport waterfront. You can’t control where or when the camera focuses in on a certain location, so I had to hope that it would capture the passing of the San Alberto, and you can see that it did.

I think the app says that the San Alberto is next destined for Norfolk, Virginia.

Web cams:

Downtown Wilmington [Surfchex]

Southport Waterfront Park [Surfchex] Should be able to see some ocean going vessels as they pass by (as San Alberton above).

Taco Bell is my “go to” place for a simple, comforting meal. I would like a beef burrito supreme, a bean burrito and a crunchy taco (regular). I might leave off the crunchy taco, or the burrito supreme sometimes.

I’ve spoken elsewhere about spiffing up my beets. I buy a cheap can of beets, sliced or whole, and pour off the canned liquid. I then add back some balsamic and red wine vinegar, with some sweetener (Equal). *Yesterday I was spiffing up some sliced beets and before pouring off the liquid, I tasted it. Surprisingly, the canned juice was both sweet and vinegary. I actually thought that if beets came in this sweet vinegar, I wouldn’t need to spiff them up myself. I then looked at the can and it said, “Pickled Beets”. I checked some other cans, and they didn’t say “pickled” but just sliced beets. These beets were bought at Walmart. If I can buy the beets with the sweet vinegar at a price close to the regular beets, I will. *I also thought that I might use the pickled beet juice to try and pickle some cauliflower. The white cauliflower would just soak up that reddish beet juice.

Late night, I decided to make some spinach dip. I checked and had a couple of packs of frozen spinach in the freezer. Just need one of those. Had the cream cheese, the Ranch Dressing packet, and some sour cream. Chopped up some yellow bell pepper and sweet onion, and a can of water chestnuts. Defrosted the frozen spinach and squeezed out most of the moisture. Mixed it all together and found some wheat crackers. It was good. I did not use a recipe for the amounts, and it might have been better if the ingredient portions were in the correct amounts.