It snowed a little Friday night into Saturday morning. Then there was some freezing rain. It was the perfect excuse to do nothing yesterday. A couple of times I considered doing some productive thing around the house, but I rejected the idea each time.
But I did decide to break into my raffle winnings and eat some cheese. Mmm… cheese… The basket contained Jarlsberg and Beemster X-O. They are both delicious. Jarlsberg is soft and mild and sweet and fresh-tasting. Beemster X-O is hard and intense and full of flavor. After sampling them, it was decided: I would put them on pieces of bread and bake until the bread was crispy and the cheese was bubbly. I buttered the bread, chopped up a clove of garlic (from my garden!), and arranged mixed pieces of cheese on the bread. It took longer to bake than I expected. I was thinking five minutes. It was more like twenty.
It tasted so good. I may actually do it again.
Since I had determined that I like Twinings Irish Breakfast Tea, I decided to go to the grocery store for a full box of it. I stopped yesterday on my way to school. At first, I only saw decaffeinated, but that was okay, because I’m trying to keep my caffeine intake low. I took a box. Then I saw a different brand of Irish tea. Hmmm… Maybe that would taste good. I grabbed a box of that too. Then I saw the non-decaffeinated Twinings Irish Breakfast Tea. I got a box of that too. Now I had two new kinds of tea to try and one kind I knew for sure I liked.
I was able to try both new kinds yesterday. Here are my results:
Barry’s – Sweet aroma, but a sharpness or bitterness in drinking. Milk or sugar may remove the edge. This might make a nice “Thai Tea” or “tea latte” kind of concoction.
Twinings Irish Breakfast Decaf – Weaker taste than regular. Not much aroma. Breathing in as I tilt the tea toward my lips brings a hint of the sweet smell of pencil shavings into my sinus cavity, but the flavor is only a very slight tea taste.
So I have two teas I will not drink any more of… But I did get a box of regular Twinings Irish Breakfast Tea, which I really really like. It is interesting to note that whatever the decaffeination process is for tea, it alters the flavor. I noticed it with Lipton as well. Decaffeinated tea tastes empty and flat to me.
I love breakfast cereal. I eat it all the time. It’s a good meal. It’s fortified with vitamins and minerals. It often has pretty good fiber content. And most importantly, it doesn’t give me an acid stomach.
I classify breakfast cereals into four categories: blonde, chocolate, fruity, and healthy. The “healthy” category includes cereals like Cheerios and Life. In order to eat them, I must put extra sugar on them. Fruity and chocolate cereals are self-explanatory. Blonde cereals are all shades of yellow or brown, including Honeycomb, Peanut Butter Crunch, Waffle-O’s, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, and the like.
I usually have all four categories represented in my cabinet at any one time. Yesterday, I was surprised to realize that all my cereals were blonde. I think it might have to do with my acid stomach. Cereal is really easy on my stomach. And the easiest of the easies is blonde cereal. I’ve got all blondes. And I don’t mind a bit.
YouthQuake really wiped me out. I was kind of fuzzy-headed when I got home. I watched some TV, then napped, then watched some more TV. I think I should be mostly recovered by the time I go back to school. Today we’re out for MLKjr Day. Tomorrow we have an inservice day.
Because of my laziness, I might not have had much food to eat yesterday, but I had a couple of fortuitous food finds.
As we were packing up in the hotel room yesterday, there was a bag of snacks that got left behind. I carried them out and put them with the boys’ luggage. But when it was time to go, the boy who brought them intentionally left them behind. So I brought the bag home. And what was in it? Vanilla wafers and apples!
After snacking on fruit and cookies all day, I wanted some meat for dinner. Looking in the freezer, I discovered some frozen bacon. Mmmm…. I toasted up some bread, and had a kingly dinner.
It was a great day of recuperation. Now if I can just shake this stupid sore throat…
I’m at YouthQuake right now! Woo hoo! I don’t know if it’s January that causes it or if it’s YouthQuake itself, but I seem to be developing a sore throat. This happened last year too. Last year, I chose to get Cold-Eze for my impending sickness. This year I just got some good ol’ Luden’s cherry cough drops. Mmm…
I stopped at the drug store on the way to the hotel. I got cough drops, lip stuff, deodorant, and granola bars. As I was checking out, I was excited to see a new flavor of Tic Tacs: strawberry. I love strawberry, so of course I got a pack.
It has two colors in it. I don’t know if they’re supposed to both be strawberry, or if one is actually something else. The lighter pink color is really sweet and full of artificial strawberry flavor. I love it. The darker pink is something else. It seemed… sour? …burny? I’m not really sure. I didn’t like it as much. But I still liked it. I think this flavor is a keeper.
