sorry, no recipe updates... but my recent eating adventures nonetheless

I've hardly been cooking! I haven't had it together enough to identify recipes, make it to the store with a list, and find a time to actually cook. Plus my apartment is currently so overwhelmed with stuff - all the contents of the office I moved out of in November, house stuff, wedding stuff, now boxes... its a mess. I did make turkey burgers Sunday night that were nothing to sneeze at, but also really nothing to brag about.

Monday night - I had my usual Vietnamese Chicken Salad Rolls from Pei Wei. They are so yummy! I regularly pick them up after step class to take with me to Girls' Bible Study on Monday nights. Pei Wei (pronounced "pay way" although R pronounces it "pee wee" to be difficult) is really good, but no one loves it as much as Richard. He would eat there every day if I didn't need a little more variety.

Tuesday night - I had yummy (ground) turkey enchiladas at Audra's (boyfriend's) house for Book Club. She gives credit to "The Pioneer Woman". I should post here a bit more about book club. My good friend Eva had been talking for a while about starting a book club with some girls she knows. I like to read, and I like Eva so I was agreeable. We started meeting last June and it has been so much fun! Gives me a reason to read at least one book every month - which I enjoy so much, but for whatever reason find lots of reasons not to - and enjoy the company of ladies I wouldn't know otherwise. Plus there is usually wine involved! This month we read a book called The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox. The storyline was very compelling, plus there were no chapter breaks, so I read through the 256 pages in less than 2 days. The basic premise of the story is about an odd teenage girl who gets committed to a psychiatric hospital for 61 years. If you're a reader, pick it up... and better yet, join our book club! Next month we're reading Firefly Lane by Kristen Hannah... sounds like a winner to me! Will let you know how it goes...

Wednesday night - Richard and I took our engagement pictures! Due to the "golden hours of photography" we met the photographer, Melissa, at 6:15 in the Heights. We took a bunch of pictures, hopefully some came out that I will be happy with! Mr. Photogenic loves having his picture taken and had a lot of fun. After a couple hours of playing model, we were STARVING! We debated where to go and finally decided to try Genghis Grill at Bunker Hill and I-10, this Mongolian stirfry place. Sounded interesting. Big fat mistake. We got there, and first of all, being hungry makes me CRANKY, and it was really loud. But we were there, and hungry so weren't going to leave. The hostess eventually sat us at a table and told us our waitress would be there to explain how it worked since we had never been there. Eventually the waitress showed up and took our drink orders and then scooted off without giving us any explanation for the little silver bowls we were sitting there staring at. We continued to sit there, assuming she'd be back with our drinks and tell us the procedure. We sat there for what felt like 30 minutes, but was probably more like 10, no sign of the waitress in sight, just watching 4 idiotic 18 year olds who worked there being obnoxious and noisy at the hostess table, probably 30 feet from where we were sitting. Finally the waitress reappeared - bussing a table a few feet away. She made eye contact with us and the realization that she had forgotten our drinks came over her. I managed to ask her before she ran away again what we needed to do to get food. She very sweetly, to her credit, walked us over to the line and told us how to pick out what we wanted and what to do. We did this and when we got to the point where we dropped off our food to be cooked, the guy asked me "what kind do you want?" I was like "Huh?" He said "It's on the wall" and pointed to a list - you get to choose white rice, fried rice, brown rice, noodles, tortillas, or something else. I took it to be rude and defensively said "I didn't know! I was just asking!" for which R reprimanded me, saying he wasn't being rude and its never smart to piss off the person responsible for cooking your food. Truth. So we went back to sit down. Still no drinks. A couple minutes later, she came down and handed R his beer. (What's up with servers showing so much favoritism when you BUY a drink versus when you order water?) I was practically in tears that she didn't bring my water. She did come back, a few more minutes later, with my water and I couldn't even look her in the eye, I was so irritated and at the same time embarassed for being so mad about the horrible service. Thankfully, it didn't take long for our food to come out and I ignored any ideas of food contamination and it was actually good. However, not worth the price (9.99 for a bowl) in my opinion. Especially for the lousy service. Sometimes being in a customer service driven industry makes me more sensitive to the people doing the work and sometimes it just makes me extra mad because I have the expectation that people should try to make the customer happy!

Tonight - I had dinner with my work buddy Cristina at Cyclone Anaya's... it was a margarita kind of day, and Cyclone Anaya's does not disappoint in this respect. My chicken soft tacos were decent, too. They were served more like enchiladas, which was a little weird, but still tasty. They are horrible, however, with large groups of people! Seems like as soon as they realize they're going to get their obligatory 18% gratuity for a group over 6, they don't care at all if you have your food or drinks. Plus, they won't split checks at all, so imagine the chaos of 18 people after multiple drinks trying to figure out the tab. Why are people so cheap about this? I have never had a problem remembering how many drinks I've had and giving the proper amount of money, but other people who make more than me with multiple college degrees are at times quick to forget... grr! So it's no longer a happy hour spot for the VW crew, but it served well for our party of 2!

Yeah, so this is a random post about my eating habits... maybe its just a confession because I feel guilty for eating out so much this week. Or maybe I'm just obsessed with food... considering my profession and love of the Food Network. I do always think what people eat is interesting, but not as much as my friend C who is very quick to quiz you on what you, your mom, dad, and brother had at a meal... and then can recall it weeks later! Great party trick ;)

Love, B