A Heart Attack In A Bowl

As a single person, I don't cook a lot.  In fact, my fridge is usually full of stuff to put on stuff that I don't have.

Well, here in South Texas, they've figured out what to do with all those condiments.  It's called "street corn".  It looks disgusting, but it is addictive!

First you take a huge bowlful of roasted corn, then you top it with a heaping tablespoon of mayonnaise (that's right....mayo!), then you add an equally large tablespoon of butter.  At this point, you can hear your arteries slamming shut.  Then, last but not least, you cover the whole works with parmesan cheese!  Mush it all together and there you have it.... a heart attack in a bowl!  And it's worth every calorie.

Try it - you'll like it.

Project Runway..... for the budget minded

Earlier, I mentioned about the Ropas stores - huge mounds of used clothing, piled to the ceiling, which sell by the pound.  If you wear your name badge (which, by now, we almost always remember to do), you get a discount.  You can buy a pound of clothes for 25 cents (that's $1.80 Canadian).

Although it wasn't immediately apparent to our untrained eyes, apparently these Ropas are a treasure trove of haute couture.  In fact, every year the Park has a two-hour fashion show, with the models wearing the gems they've found at Ropas - everything from nightgowns to ballgowns.  The most expensive thing on the runway was a full-length, fur-trimmed leather coat which cost $10.00.  I guess it was pretty heavy.

Delta Don is all his finery

Note the armpit hair

Not to be outdone by their wives, several of the men dolled themselves up too.... because you just never know when you're going to need a special outfit for one of the nightclubs around here.

Following the fashion show, we had a high stakes auction, with bidding going as high as two or three dollars.  I was going to bid on a hula outfit, but it turns out I already had one.

The Great Annual Thundermug Races are Over!

Another fun day!  And a little bit of deja vu too!

I could hear a lot of cheering and peeked outside just as a man sitting on a blue toilet seat mounted on a cart crashed into a crowd of people over near the rec hall.  The reason he crashed was because the person "driving" the cart was blindfolded and apparently didn't know his left from his right.  There must have been some Canadians in there because others were yelling "hurry hard"!!!

Teams of two took turns racing around a set of pylons.  I'm not sure who won - it was getting too cold to stay outdoors.

 This brought me back my youth. At Queen's University,
 they used to kick off the year with thundermug races on campus streets.  The racers were quite a bit faster but our crowd was just as enthusiastic!

There are going to be some very sore knees and backs tonight!

Hurry Hard!!!

OMG! I'm in the clutches of the Stepford Syndrome

As I mentioned in a much earlier post, there appears to be a dress code at RV parks:  women wear capris, cap-sleeved t-shirts and they cut their hair short and spike it up.  The only variation is in colour (capris, shirts and hair).

I've successfully resisted this for the past 3 years.  My philosophy has always been that if it's hot enough for capris, then it's hot enough for shorts.  And, if it's hot enough for shorts, then it's hot enough for a bathing suit and I head for the beach.

Well, they've worn me down.  I went to KMart the other day and, without even giving it a second thought, I bought 7 pairs of Capris!  I'm still resisting cap-sleeved t-shirts - mostly because the entire winter has been so cold.  I've even given some serious thought to cutting my hair!

Thank heavens we're heading home soon before the Stepford Syndrome really takes effect!

Meanwhile, Tessa has made herself right at home in the RV.  She's even learning to play cribbage.  It keeps her mind off eating, since we've put her on a diet.

Umami this is good...er.... bad.... er.... ummmmm

They say that there are 5 basic tastes:  sweet, sour, salty, bitter and "umami" (pronounced ooo mommy).

On our continuing quest to excite our palates. we took ourselves off to the Candy Jungle today. Actually we came upon it accidentally in our search for a liquor store - an event we've been putting off for 4 months but that's another story.

So there we were, faced with dozens of bins with all sorts of candies in them, most of them appearing to be covered in chili powder.  All of the bins were helpfully labelled - which would have been fortunate for us if only we spoke Spanish.  Luckily, the clerk was also very helpful and told us we could sample. Then, in the face of our overwhelming stupidity, she became an eager ambassador to the joys of Mexican sweets.  We tried Xquinkles (basically chili covered gummy worms), golos (gummy flavored chili cat treats), and something that looked like a catholic communion wafer but with caramel.  The catholic church should pay attention to these - it might improve attendance.

The clerk was an excellent sales person and we bought a lot more than we normally would have because, as she said, everything we tried was "her favorite".  Who are we to ignore such high praise from an expert?  Maybe our first clue should have been that she was skinny.

So we bought dragoncito - tiny packages of powdered something that tastes like, ummm.... nothing.  They are sweet and salty but that's it.

We bought chili covered mango slices which tasted like gummy dragoncito (which tastes like nothing).

We thought we'd be safe with chocolate covered cherries.  I don't know where Mexican cherries come from, but obviously they are grown on the same trees that grow dragoncitos.

Ditto with the chocolate covered cranberries and raisins.  There's texture in your mouth but no taste.  It's like chewing on a wet kleenex.

The chocolate covered pretzels were a whole other experience.  How do you describe crunchy nothing?  It crunches and makes noise so you know something is happening in your mouth but there's nothing there.  You have to check with your tongue to make sure that you've swallowed.

So, that's the definition of Umami..... it's not sweet, salty, bitter or sour.  It's just....nothing.  And ooo mommy it's a very disturbing experience on many levels, not least of which is that you have all of the calories from eating sweets with none of the pleasure.

On a more positive note, Jackie and I have an enormous amount of candy to bring to the next "snacker" event, which should be within the next 24 hours.