Yep.

I've moved.

Possible move

I'm thinking about moving over to Wordpress. I think it has cooler options and I'd like to blog more this year as part of my resolution to be more creative.

A night like any other

I'm doing nothing special for New Years, except for maybe reflecting on the past years and the changes I want to make in the new year. I was invited to go along to a party but I've grown past my party phase. Which is not to say that I won't participate in the occasional party, but big party holidays are just not my thing anymore. I got out of work early today and have the day off tomorrow. I will likely be in bed reading if not asleep by midnight. Tomorrow I will clean and try to organize my clothes since I want to try to dress better in the new year. So, my New Years resolutions are a little bit of the usual a little bit new.

1. Be Healthier

2. Procrastinate Less

3. Learn To Let Go

4. Be More Creative

5. Be Cleaner

6. Manage Money Better

I have of course expanded and will continue to expand upon these but those are the basics.

Back in the day

Way back when I first moved to Atlanta, transferring from UGA to GSU, one of my first real jobs was at Rainbow Natural Foods in Decatur. Oh Rainbow how I miss thee. Like most of my jobs I'm not really sure how I got hired. But I did. I worked in the deli and cooked for the prepared food section of the store. It is where I learned to cook (aside from home of course) where I learned to like new foods and live without meat. I ate well when I worked there too. There was always something that was being tossed that was still good or "extra" that just didn't quite make it to the shelf. And we cooked for ourselves and each other also. Sometimes those dishes became new offerings. Sometimes they were popular with customers sometimes they weren't. Looking back I really loved working at Rainbow and to some degree miss it. When I left I was ready to leave, needed to leave, it was just time. I gave my two weeks notice when I got a job (with benefits) at Starbucks. I had every intention of copying all the recipes I loved. But they replaced me before I had the chance. Don't think me evil. I had no intention of selling or reproducing in any way the recipes. They would have been for my personal use only. It's just that there were so many tasty recipes!!!!!!!! Bowtie pasta salad, miso dressing, cowboy cookies, greek pasta salad.......the list goes on and on.

On the menu.....A cost comparison

For some strange reason yesterday I started craving BBQ pizza. I've only had BBQ pizza once when, on a whim, I picked up a frozen California Pizza Kitchen BBQ pizza that was on sale. I like CPK frozen pizzas but typically they are just too expensive. Thus was the case tonight. I had planned to pick up a CPK and a few add-ons and have that for dinner tonight. I was aghast when I saw that the small pizza was $6.99. No way could I spend that much one little pizza that I'd only get one meal out of. I'd already put in my basket a block of jack cheese and a red onion to add to the pizza. I already had BBQ sauce at home. So, I headed over to the bakery section and picked up a pizza crust ($3.39) and some chicken ($4.07). I know, I know, I've already spent more than the frozen pizza. But, I will only use a portion of the chicken and freeze the rest for a future use. Also, the crust I bought is going to make a much larger pizza. My pizza stone is (I think) 13" and the boxed kind was probably only 10". So, total cost of the supplies bought tonight for my BBQ pizza, $10.08. Go ahead and subtract about $2.00 since I'll only use 1/2 the chicken. So, about $8.08 for my pizza supplies, just over $1 more than the frozen kind and FAR superior. It will be larger for one. Healthier no doubt since most all packaged foods have preservatives and uncontrolled sodium and other bad for you things. PLUS, I will be able to tailor it to my taste. I will jazz up the bottled sauce I have on hand, shred the chicken instead of chunk it, and of course, pile on the cheese. Perhaps I will jot down a pseudo-recipe to post later

From yesterday....

I was going to post this yesterday, but, well, I didn't.....

I'm starting to get tired of being sick. It started Saturday late in the day with that annoying flem that's just stuck in your throat and you can't get rid of. Sure enough when I woke up Sunday morning I felt craptastic. So I spent most of the day lounging on the sofa. Monday at work sucked, sore throat, congestion and general achyness. Tuesday and Wednesday were much improved and yesterday I felt just fine for Thanksgiving. But I woke up in the middle of the night stuffy and with a sore / dry throat. It's the same sicky I get every year when summer slowly and erraticly changes into fall. I blame it on the crazy hot-cold-warm-cold change in temperature. And every year I only get sick enough to feel bad, never enough to call in to work. Some people I've known get the same thing but lose their voice. Never me. How nice it would be to not be able to talk. It sounds crazy, I know, but my jobs always require lots of talking. So anyway I've spent most of today lounging much like Sunday. Drinking tea and water and taking a nice hot shower. I'm hoping to feel much improved by a good night's sleep tonight and able to get out and about tomorrow and also to do chores around the house. I don't want this to be the second weekend in a row where not much got done.

I'd especially like to get to the Farmer's Market. That was my big plan for this past Sunday. After having gone through on of my phases where I didn't have an appetite for much of anything by last Saturday I'd begun to have a craving for foods again. Real food. I had decided that processed, packaged foods had a bad after taste so I needed to make some good food that was mostly vegetarian. I had a nice list for myself. But that all went out the window when I felt too ill to go to the Farmer's Market. Most of this week I haven't been very hungry and nothing has tasted good either. But I am once again I am starting to crave good home cooked food. I have to keep in mind though that I have Thanksgiving leftovers to work through. I also need to keep in mind that I need to start managing my money better. I spend WAY too much money at the grocery store too many days a week.

It all fell out

Currently I am watching a show on the Travel Channel about burgers. So naturally I am craving White Castle cheeseburgers. Far superior to Krystal but only available here in the south in your grocer's freezer. I probably should have picked some of those up while I was at the store tonight. But my trip to the grocery after work was futile as always. Here's how it happens. I leave the house in the morning purposefully leaving my list and reusable shopping bags at home. I figure I really do not need to go to the grocery store anyhow, I have plenty of food in the house. But by the time the end of the day rolls around I either have a craving for something specific or want to just pick up something quick. And so I end up wandering aimlessly through the grocery store. Now, I almost always have a running grocery list at home. You know, run low on salt, put it on the list, etc. But rarely do I take this list to work. And tonight on my way to the grocery store I made a list in my head as I often do. And, as always happens with ANY shopping experience, the mental list fell right out of my head as soon as I walked though the doors. I did manage to pick up some ham for biscuits in the morning. And 3 different types of cheese. Because one can never have too much cheese on hand. But really, not much else that will keep me from making a similar trip to the store one evening after work.