Cookies!

We're (actually my wife is, I'm providing moral support) making cookies! We're trying out the Lundberg rice syrup as a sugar substitute, and adding white chocolate, craisins, almonds, and walnuts.



The rice malt made the cookies stickier and more fragile, so they wer hard to get off the pan. The second batch used non-stick spray which made it easier to take them off the pan.

Where do white and brown eggs come from?

My wife just asked - "Do brown eggs come from brown chickens?"

A quick web search confirms that she was right!

Dear Mr Breakfast, Why are some eggs white and others brown?

The article includes a method of predicting egg color by chicken earlobe color. I didn't even know chickens had earlobes. The real question is whether they wobble to-and-fro.

Mr. Breakfast goes on to say that brown and white eggs are equals when it comes to nutritional value, quality, and flavor, but that brown eggs cost more due to brown chickens being larger and eating more.

Good to know! If you like eggs, good! They are full of nutrition, are affordable, and easy to make. If you have high cholesterol, consider just using the egg white, and tossing the yolk.

The Cost of a Cup of Tea

Some might feel that $1+ for a cup of tea is expensive, but when you consider that you have to heat up the water with energy, the price isn't bad.

The water heater we use for tea uses around 900 watts of power, and takes about 1 to 2 minutes to boil the water. So that would be 1kW / 60 = 0.02 kW hours. And since energy costs about $0.50 / kW (roughly), it costs $0.01 to heat up the tea. OK I guess it isn't that much! :-)

The meter pictured here is the P3 International Kill-a-Watt Electricity Usage Monitor. It costs about $25 and in my opinion, well worth it.

Buy one right now!

Weber Grill

We had grilled chicked at my folks house tonight, cooked OUTSIDE on the grill! Yes - it's starting to get warm out.

French Press Coffee

French press coffee is really tasty! What's also good is that I get to use my gas stove to heat the hot water instead of using electric heat.

Where'd I get this french press? From amazon.com - only $10! They were having a buy three get one free sale, so it was actually cheaper. More details here at the "Are you going to buy that?" blog:

Amazon.com Appliance Sale

Apples

Apples rule!

IKEA Swedish Meatballs

I bought some Swedish meatballs at IKEA yesterday and they were pretty tasty. Not a bad snack for the price, about $8 for two and a half pounds. We cooked them with some canned potatoes and frozen green beans for a quick and easy meal.

Free iced coffee day!

Dunkies was giving away free iced coffees today so I picked one up on my way back from BNI. I like iced coffee but only when its free, because 90% of it is ice.

Nature's Path Cereal

I hope we like these kinds of cereal, I bought 12 boxes!!!

"Nature's Path Heritage Granola Cereal, 11.5-Ounce Boxes (Pack of 6)"

"Nature's Path Peanut Butter Granola Cereal, 11.5-Ounce Box (Pack of 6)"

Computer Cake

My awesome wife baked me this totally awesome computer cake for my birthday:

Stoneforge Restaurant in Foxboro MA

Last night my family took me to the Stoneforge restaurant in Foxboro MA for a birthday meal. The atmosphere is terrific, and its an impressive layout. I think we were all surprised by the size of the place. It is right down the street from Gillette Stadium, so it has a "sport-sy" feel to it, plenty of large screen TVs, a big bar, and a billiard hall.

However, someone was not quite right during our meal. We had a reservation for 5:30PM, and didn't receive our food until 8:00PM. Some of it was cold, some undercooked, and some overcooked. We politely shared our discomfort with the waitstaff and they were very accommodating in return. In fact the waitstaff was in general very pleasant and professional, though their visits were way too infrequent. It was obvious that they were understaffed, which I believe led to the disastrous delay. In the end, my dinner was quite good, but it was difficult to enjoy due to the awkward delay.

Although the length of the meal was not too problematic because we were all glad to see each other, over three hours for a single course dinner is unacceptable. If it were not for the gracious waitstaff, I would never consider returning.

Welcome Firefly's!

Firefly's BBQ is coming to Quincy! After Red Sauce closed down months ago and was temporarily replaced with a fly-by-night "tavern", the place has seemed haunted. If you ever watch the Phantom Gourmet, you'll know Firefly's has a lot of personality. I hope they are affordable, or I don't think they'll succeed there.

Rice Syrup

Awesome. My wife has gotten me some Lundberg Rice Syrup for my birthday. Yummy! Its good stuff, with 3 types of sugar for distributed absorbtion into the blood stream. :-)