Hungry Times Two

Scott and I and our friends B.A. and S.M. raced to Ben & Jerry's last night around 8:25 p.m. after the Team Green mixer at The Big Bang Piano Bar, as B&J's had its free cone day yesterday. Free and ice cream...two words that are pretty much irresistible when you match them up. Sadly, we made it 25 minutes too late. The scoopers and mixers wrapped up their shifts and were tossing out the last remnants of Cherry Garcia and Phish Food as we woefully gazed into the store's glass front. A pity. Luckily, we went to Publix after our amazingly stressless H&R Block session yesterday (tax mishaps, gotta love 'em!!!) and picked up pints of Whole Fruit Sorbet in Strawberry and Mango flavors, as well as some Purity (a Nashville brand) Vanilla Bean. If you like fruity and cold, Whole Fruit is what you need! It wasn't Cherry Garcia, but it helped ease the pain. More later!

My sis-in-law asked an excellent question regarding my camping blog post. She wanted to know what this thing called an ice cream ball is all about. This awesome invention is quite possibly the best thing that ever happened to dairy lovers who love to camp and people who can't have enough stuff to cram in their kitchen cabinets/pantries/closets/cabinets. My mom gave a reddish/orange one to Scott for Christmas and it did pretty well for its inaugural run, despite the impatient shakers. One recommendation: If you take it out in the wilderness, bring a long-handled wooden or metal spoon. A plastic one just doesn't cut it. One day til Friday...thank you, thank you, thank you!

Quick blog before my workday begins... K.G. and I dined at Korea House on Charlotte Pike last night and it was super fine! Alert to all Nashvillians who like Asian food and don't mind trying weird pickled vegetables: Go to Korea House, order #7, the beef barbecue , and enjoy mixing the beef with all the dozen tiny bowls of goodies they bring you and wrapping it into huge fronds of romaine lettuce . If you aren't in Nashville and want something Asian-inspired besides Pad Thai or General Tso's Chicken, give Korean a try. The last time I had it, I was in San Francisco with friends E.H. and V.H. (who's in Indonesia now, BTW, and I am sure is having some great food adventures of her own!), and it was a little shoe leather-tasting bad experience. Happy Wednesday...

Major thanks to sis-in-law M.A. for her persistent urging and request for more blog activity. Let me tell you, when you're dealing with spider bites, allergic reaction to the meds that are supposed to help with the bites, incredibly foolish last-minute taxes, real estate decisions and camping excursions, not to mention a 40-hour workweek, the time to blog narrows to nil. Luckily, Sis-In-Law reminded me how much I do enjoy writing on this speck of the blogosphere and that, miraculously and curiously enough, some people actually do read this thing. Camping in Big South Fork National Recreation Area for our first wedding anniversary was great fun this weekend. After wrestling with the tent and scouring for campfire wood on Friday night, we enjoyed a meal of bratwurst, Kettle Chips, coleslaw and S'mores. Car camping is the way to go, really, as you can pack of cooler of whatever strikes your fancy that can be grilled/kebab-ed/foil-wrapped over an open fire. On Saturday, we made a ...

Not only are his eyes the most lovely of cool blue, Paul Newman's bottled dressings, lemonade and other food products are pretty awesome too. Forget his classic turn in "Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid" - he's earned a star in his crown from his line's take on Oreos , the Newman- O's . Scott picked up a bag of them earlier in the week and somehow they completely disappeared. The mint ones will blow your mind. It's the crispness of the cookie that surpasses the Oreo, and the fact that it's all organic and void of any trans fats or hydrogenated ickiness is just the icing on the cake, I mean, the filling between the cookie. If you're going to go the grocery store and hunt down a sweet treat, go for these. Major thanks to Asheville friend Steve for introducing us to the joy of Paul Newman's cookies.

Check out this great news. Our prayers have been answered - Let the countdown commence!

Hey, it's me again, the slack, lurking co-writer of this blog known as Scott! I had lunch at Z's Deli, a great little sandwich place in East Nashville's 5 Points area today. I know it's no Marche, but hey, more often than not, that's a good thing. For me personally, I seek out food that's tasty, reasonably priced and served without hype or pretension. Z's is just that. Oddly enough, I had dinner in 5 Points too. After arriving home to acrid, burnt-popcorn, Erin and I decided we'd be better off eating dinner outside of the blast-zone. (No offense to you Erin, it was the microwaves fault.) As for microwave popcorn, when they say "Stop the microwave when popping reaches 2-5 second intervals, they are NOT screwing around! : ) Alas, we ate on the patio at The Alley Cat, a Tex-Mex place tucked on the alley behind Battered and Fried. I had fajitas, but I was a bit disappointed in that the cool, big black sizzling pan with peppers, meat, etc. didn...