Food, glorious food!

I finally decided that I should prepare a weekly menu and stick with it. The first week was relatively easy. I had 2 freezers full of food, so I went through, picked items, and added them the the menu. I was basically picking meat items, and then creating a shopping list around
what I didn't already have to complete the meals.
The second week was a bit more difficult, I didn't have as much meat, and I was also down on side dish ingredients. It was then I really discovered that my brain is more visual than linear.
If I saw one food item, I could complete a dinner in my mind almost instantly, but if the basic
element of the meal wasn't there for me to build on, I was a little lost.
I used to go to the grocery store daily and create a meal by cruising the aisles, so with nothing tangible in front of me, I now had to roam the store in my mind, and create the shopping list for the week.
Then my friend Maria introduced "meatless Mondays" into our lives.
Now, I'm all for saving the planet, and that what the concept of "meatless Monday" is all about, but I've based almost every meal, and menu
in my life around meat, so this presented yet another difficulty in what started out as a very simple process.
The internet was, of course, the solution. We were able to choose from any number of meatless recipes, and found a suitable dinner plan almost instantly.
Meatless jambalaya went on our planner for Monday, and the ingredients we didn't have went on the shopping list.
Next week, we're going to try a tofu stirfry, so tofu will definitely have to go on the list, because I'm not sure we've ever had it in the house.
I love to watch cooking shows, mostly because I enjoy seeing the different kitchen lay-outs, plus the wide variety of appliances available for a modern kitchen. It's rare, though, for me to see a dish, or meal prepared on TV that I'll try to duplicate. I think it's because the cook/chef will tell you the exact measurements to add to the recipe, and then turn around and toss in what looks like twice as much. I like to invent off the top of my head, or else have a recipe taped to the kitchen cupboard for quick, and frequent reference.
One thing I have learned so far from this experience is that it costs a lot less to shop weekly than it does to shop daily.
That's what I think, anyway

What has happened to the English language?

Ever notice that people are tossing in unnecessary phrases into their everyday speech?
I hear it at work, a bit on the radio, at some meetings I've attended, but most often on any HGTV show on their network. (some on Food Network too)
"go ahead and..." is one of the ones I notice most often, as in "I'm going to go ahead and finish sanding this table top" or "Now, I'm going to go ahead and add the sauce to this dish"
The time at work I hear it most often is when someone wants something sent to them, I ask whether they want if faxed or emailed. They tell me to go ahead and fax it.
What purpose does that phrase serve?
There is another one I've noticed creeping in, it's "sort of"
"We wanted to make the room feel sort of cozy" or "I envisioned a sort of dining area for this space" What does that actually add to the point you're trying to make? Either you're making the space cozy, or you're not. Is it a dining area, or is it a bathroom?
One guy particularly good at tossing these phrases in to anything he says is Peter Felico from
"Home to go", or "Home to Stay", or "Flip this House" Apparently exaggerated hand gestures go along with unnecessary phrases to complete the package.
Then, there's the people (and there are a lot of them) who can't, or won't differentiate between there, their, and they're. They will simply use "there" in any circumstance.
"There going to see there lawyer the find out if there being sued"
Of course I realize this is a losing battle, texting is destroying our language at a pace unprecedented. I also realize that it's more of an evolution than a destruction, because we certainly don't speak the same way people did 200 years ago. It's just that it's happening much too fast.
That's what I think, anyway.

Being sick sucks

I caught a bug of some sort, and am home sick, so I decided to start a blog.
The thing about being sick is, one minute you're hot and sweating, and the next you're cold and shaking.
You can take medication to make it stop, but it's actually the way your body is fighting the illness, so you
should put up with it if you can.
I remember being really sick as a kid, and I ended up in the hospital because my temperature was so high.
I think I was hallucinating, because my head seemed to swell to twice it's size, and I kept hearing
sergeant Carter from Gomer Pyle USMC. It could have been the nurse though, she did have a bit of a deep voice.
So, stuck at home with daytime TV isn't the best way to spend the day, there isn't much good on, well, except
for The Golden Girls......kidding, I'm kidding.......
At least I'll have time to prepare tonight's meatless Monday dish, we're having meatless jambalaya. Tomatoes, rice, peppers, squash, spices ,and black eyed peas.
The recipe seems easy enough, so it should be good, if I'm able to eat.
That's another thing about being sick. Sometimes you can't even stand to look at food, and other times your appetite's normal. Hopefully this is just a 12 hour thing, because I don't do sick very well.
It's OK though, because I also don't get sick very often, so it works out pretty fairly.
That's what I think, anyway.