I Found Love On a Two-Way Street

What we call the $10 deli, where you only have to spend $10 to use your debit card as opposed to the $15 dollar store, well they have added some great new ready made sandwiches. Its sort of a sad lonely walk down the aisle to the back of the store though. It either needs more light or to be moved to the front. Its a bit lonely. Makes you feel like they've been there awhile. But they were super fresh and good. Black Pepper turkey and apple with Swiss. The ham had Russian dressing which was interesting. They're smart to not make a bunch, just a few. But I like this store. They try new things. An Asian market with Mexican produce guys so you get a good mix of fresh vegetables. They just moved a freezer of healthy, some vegetarian frozen food entrees to the front. Nice no brainer choices for the just off work lethargic crowd.
Small markets, bodegas, deli's, corner stores, Git n' Go's, whatever you call these shops, they come to be very important in your life. You run in there needing to find either one item or dinner quickly and it can feel kinda desperate sometimes. The easier they make it for you, the more I like them. I had no food ideas in me this day. I just needed to get something in my stomach with little fanfare. Gourmet Food Market on Lafayette made that possible.
Plus they carry Pop Chips!

Girl, You'll Be a Woman Soon

Remember when being 50 was something you joked about and it was funny because you were no where near 50? Well today is not that day. I'm 50 years old, just like Sally O'Malley!

I'm been half-depressed, half-excited all week just coming up on it. I wasn't sure how to feel. Maybe for women it's different. But there's no way around the over-all theme and that is...now you're old! Not 'little old lady old' but too old for lots of stuff, like dressing a certain way, skirts higher than a certain length, showing too much cleavage now looks desperate and kinda grosses people out. Good thing I don't have any. You will not get looks from young men and if by chance they make a mistake and look at you, they quickly drop that glance once they see your 50! And that's just the superficial part. Where am I in my life? Have I accomplished anything? Let's look at the list of good friends I've managed to whittle away.

Dang, I just want some cake and be done with all this thinkin'. I'm not comfortable focusing on my lack of greatness. I've done the best I could and when I haven't, well sue me. I'm not ready to reconcile my cash drawer yet, I'm just taking my 15 minute break. It's not like it's over right? Hell I just this year finally learned how to properly cook a scrambled egg.

I worked up a real appetite flailing around in all my faults and shortcomings all day. Yes there was quite a stack of mistakes and poor judgement, dumb ideas, bad decisions. A half centuries worth of F ups to keep me company on this special day. Finally P's home! There is a God! And there is nothing sweeter than someone cooking an entire meal just for you. And P did that for me as a gift. First he brought me cheese and crackers with a nice ice cold O'Douls, which I didn't even know they made anymore. I'd given up on trying to order non-alcoholic beer at bars and getting that schmarmy look from the bartenders. Judge me now punk, see you in 15 years! Next a crisp salad with lot of blue cheese and tomato. For the entree, a big juicy steak! A baked potato that he seemed to spend some time on seasoned with green onions, lots of salt and pepper and butter. A ravioli side because its a guilty pleasure of mine.

For dessert little cakes from the Brooklyn Fare Market bakery. Red velvet and carrot. Super cute and delicious!

Happy Birthday old girl!

I'm a 1000 Miles from Nowhere

Superbowl Sunday is here. The NY Giants were playing in Indiana, my home state. Eli Manning is fun to watch and is familiar like the kid down the street that had good parents and you went to smoke out with in his paneled basement. Looks like Hoosier snack time!

I opted to keep a running theme of my Fort Wayne food memories however foggy and completely wrong they might be.

The first dish was a roasted red bell pepper hummus for my Greek nachos. These were so invigorating with the cool tomatoes, feta, Kalamata olives and cucumber atop a generous painting of hummus on crisp toasted pita wedges. Uh... but those were Hungarians, not Greeks in Fort Wayne that I had admired, apparently not that closely. My sister M also made a really great goulash as I recall now.

Fried Pickles seem like a midwestern thing but I'd done those for the last holiday so I made fried pickled jalapeno slices instead and guess what? Even better Yo!! So good and the heat mellows, so you just get that little hit. Dipped in Buttermilk Ranch dip. Do the whole jar. You won't regret it.

I made a refreshing lime-aid with simple syrup and lots of fresh limes on ice.

A baked apple crisp for dessert with vanilla ice cream to honor Johnny Appleseed who I always thought was from there but turns out was just buried in the Fort. We had apple trees all over growing up though, so this wasn't like the Greek thing.

But the main attraction was to be the recreation of the Pete's Pride Pork Fritter! The frozen pork tenderloin patty that my dad used to fry up and put between white buns (fun fact - Sunbeam Bread is a Fort Wayne factory) with mustard, mayo, lettuce, tomato, and onion. These stood equal to beef burgers in our house. And they were cause for celebration. I didn't even realize it but as I read now, this flattened, battered, marinated, fried, pork patty sandwich was a true local food tradition in Indiana.

And that sandwich was such a pleasant surprise. The taste brought me right there to that good memory. My dad was like many fathers of his time, terminally grouchy and your presence never made that any better. But there were these certain times when my dad was very happy and one of them was in his anticipation of this amazing pork sandwich while he was making it. Back from Avy's grocery store, excitement in the kitchen, lots of clanking around. I could sneak a peak at his red face and white teeth as he cracked jokes while he cooked, probably about how skinny my legs were or something of that humiliating nature.

It almost didn't matter though. I was going to eat too!
All in all a good homage to Hoosier cuisine and my sad sack upbringing.