The Great Hamloaf Rebellion
Due to circumstances out of my control, I will be attending a meal at a friend's house this weekend where the main course will be hamloaf. To say I'm not…
Relief Shopper
I try to help around the house as much as I can. My limited skills (and interest) disqualify me from many chores, but I still like to think I contribute to the common good.
The other night I could see that my wife just needed a break. She had a busy week. I needed to step up my game.
Lucky for me, the task Maria needed help with ranked up there as one of my favorites – grocery shopping.
Revenge of the Bean Burger
I have to give my wife credit. She only wanted to try something different and make dinner a little more healthy.
A month or so ago, Maria found a recipe for bean burgers. When I saw it laying around the kitchen, I started to laugh.
Bean burgers sounded like something a group of people in a mountain commune would eat for a special occasion. That didn’t fit my profile.
But the more I thought about it, the more it made sense. As we get older, we do have to pay more attention to the things we eat.
I already try to limit the amount of red meat I eat. Every once in a while, I will go for turkey burgers to try and mix things up. Why not bean burgers?
Souper Discussion
About a year ago, my wife and I had a spirited discussion about the boundaries of soup season. To boil things down, I think outdoor temperature, not the calendar, should determine when soup fits on the menu.
Of course, we had soup the other day when the weather during the day made me think about breaking out my shorts so I have obviously lost this whole battle.
But the topic of soup has gotten me in hot water in another area of my life. My feelings on the topic may have cost me a few friends.
The Forbidden Question
The question did not seem all that controversial. I did not mean to stir up any deep emotions in my wife. I just had a simple inquiry.
But apparently, you can cause a huge uproar in our house just by asking “What’s for dinner?”
I need to provide a little background first. The incident happened on a Saturday night after my wife came home from work. She got a few things out to make dinner, and my curiosity got the best of me.
Earlier in the week, I noticed she had bought a six-pack of sub rolls. They caught my eye because she usually doesn’t buy something like that. I was intrigued and asked what she would use them for.
I got a one word answer: “Dinner.” She likes to do that to me.
Snacking Dilemma
I love our basement. Even though it is unfinished, has cold concrete floors in the winter and leaks sometimes when it rains, I love the place.
Because of the way our house is laid out, the basement is one of the only places I get to myself. Not even the whole basement because half is the laundry room, but the other half is my Man Cave with a TV, computer and recliner.
OK, not totally half because half of my half used to be dedicated to an area where my daughter could play, but she doesn’t go down there much anymore so I’m claiming that space as mine now.
The important thing is that I have a place to retreat and unleash the obsessed teenage sports fan which lives inside of me. I have a place to turn on the game, crack open a beer and have a few snacks.
That last part there poses the biggest problem. While the emotional maturity I bring to my interest in sports may remain in my teens, I still have the metabolism of a 43-year-old.
Peppered Out
My commute drives me crazy sometimes. In order to avoid highways until the last possible second, I spend a lot of time on windy two-lane roads. I like this because…
Soup Season Is Over
Like most adults, my life basically revolves around calendars. I have many of these I need to follow with varying degrees of importance.
At the top of the heap sits the calendar on the side of the refrigerator. That carries all the important information I need to make sure I end up in the right place at the right time.
Because of that, I need to check this calendar regularly. Just because something shows up on there does not mean I already knew about the event. Such is the life of the only male in the house.
But that calendar also drives the calendar I keep. This one has important sporting events on it or other key events that really only matter to me. I keep this calendar online so I can make sure I have continuous access to this information.
So keeping the two calendars – plus any work events which might affect my plans – in sync can provide a tremendous challenge. I have managed to handle this task, but now find myself vexed by a different problem: unwritten calendars.
Win Some, Lose Some
Sometimes I think we have progressed as far as we possibly can as humans. We have sent astronauts to the moon. We have built vehicles to explore other planets. We continue to seek the outer reaches of the galaxy.
As far as I am concerned, I thought our technological advancements had reached an end. Then I went to the grocery store the other week.
Peanut Butter Burger
One summer in college, I went to Los Angeles to spend the week with a few friends. One of them helped open my eyes to the many wonderful uses of peanut butter.
I had only believed that you could use peanut butter for sandwiches and crackers until this point. Shawn showed me that it could really jazz up a bagel, an apple or even a banana.
Not all of these uses appealed to me, but it definitely made me open my mind a little. I thought back to that week the other day as I sat at a bar in Indianapolis.
I had to travel there for work. Before I left, I asked some friends who knew the city for dining recommendations. One pub showed up on almost every reply I received.
After settling into my seat on Wednesday night, just a few hours after my arrival, I began to peruse their extensive menu. I kept flipping back to one page, the one with all of their burger selections.
They had a burger special which a friend of a friend highly recommended. He worked at the newspaper in Indianapolis for a number of years, and I try to always trust suggestions from fellow journalists.
But this burger – the Shewman Special – had a unique combination. They topped the thing with bacon, cheddar, lettuce, tomato and onion. They also mixed jalapenos in with the cheese. Those aren’t my favorite, but I could survive.
The final ingredient kept me both interested and worried as I considered my order. The burger had peanut butter on it.
I had mulled this situation over ever since I found out about the burger a day or so before I left. I love burgers. I love peanut butter. Would I love them together?