A cafeteria miracle

I worked on Saturday the 4th. And it was a good thing I did. For the only time our cafeteria does what EVERY OTHER PLACE that does Southern Fried Chicken does normally is on the weekends:

I present to you all: Fried Chicken, mashed potatoes with gravy, and corn on the cob.

EVERY TUESDAY, our cafeteria has Fried Chicken. And NEVER does it do mashed potatoes with their fried chicken on Tuesdays. NEVER. It's always rice, and some kind of odious potato concoction. But, because I wanted to make some hours up, I got lucky and got what everyone should get whenever they go someplace with fried chicken. /end rant

The chicken was pretty good, the flavor was confined to the skin for the most part. The potatoes were tasty, the gravy great as usual. The corn was merely ok, it had a flavor in there I couldn't really identify, as I was really just expecting corn, butter and salt. It definitely needed more butter, which I didn't think to get at the time and we didn't have any in the office fridge.

On the to Greg's, I stopped off at McD's and grabbed some nuggets and fries. The nuggets were really good and the fries were pretty good. I had to add some salt, as apparently that location was going easy on it.

Sunday Burger and Rice

On Sunday, I went to lunch with Mom and Sis. Mom wanted to get a burger from Tops BBQ, and as a fan of burgers, I didn't have a problem with that.

 

As you can see, I forgot to take a picture before digging in. And as I didn't think that this shot gave you a full appreciation on how big this burger is, I took this one to drive it home:

That is a big burger. And I ate it all. It was really good, as you can see in there they salt and peppered it while it was cooking and they don't skimp on the ketchup when you order it on the burger.

I was so stuffed from this lunch, I didn't get hungry till around 9 that night, so I went with the quick and easy fried rice:

Tossed it in the rice cooker, then once it was done in the skillet with some olive oil, garlic powder, onion powder, some butter, and soy sauce. Fried it up while stirring / flipping it a lot, then cracked an egg into it and scrambled it all together while adding in a little salt and a lot of pepper. It was nice and tasty, a good late night dinner to watch The Newsroom with.

Wendy's

On Monday the 16th, I headed over to Wendy's to get some take out lunch:

I went with the usual for me, the #2 combo (double burger, ketchup only), and fries. The burger was really good, they got it right on the first try (a lot of places insist on putting cheese on my HAMBURGERS, especially when I emphasize no cheese) and they actually put ketchup on both buns. The fries were tasty and not too crunchy, which is how I like them.

A Birthday Party

On Saturday, I had some crappy chicken nuggets for a light lunch (didn't eat them all, but it did finish that bag off). The fries were marginally better (we ran out of salt earlier in the week and I kept forgetting to pick some up).

That evening, I attended a birthday party for my friend and supervisor. His parents had it catered by Crepemaker. First time I've had their food, and it was pretty good. I had a ... steak milanese I think is what it was called. I had steak, ham, red onions, romain lettuce and some A-1 in a toasted crepe (I had them hold the tomatoes and cheese). It was good, kinda like a wrap, but the egg flavor of the crepe handily slaps flour tortillas in my opinion. I could've gotten one of their dessert crepes, but I chose to go with the chocolate mousse birthday cake instead. And I found out that night that Pepsi Max is one of the worst tasting soft drinks I've ever had the displeasure to taste.

Fast Food

For lunch on Friday (no movie thanks to Paramount's boneheaded move in delaying G.I. Joe: Retaliation), I had a craving for a corn dog, so I picked one up from the cafeteria. As you may guess from the angle of pic, I forgot to grab the shot before digging in. The corn dog was good, the fries were pretty good, but they do have problems with salt sticking to them:

For dinner that night, I stopped in a the old Arby's. Unlike normal, I was fairly hungry (that corn dog up there was only missing about 2 bites, so not very big) so I went with the #3 combo (max sized roast beef sandwich) and potato cakes:

The sandwich was great, the meat was nice and hot and very juicy. The potato cakes were cooked well and not very greasy.

Picture-less Tuesday

Tuesday didn't have anything that looked particularly appetizing in the cafeteria, so I went with some microwavable chicken and biscuits for a lunch time snack. I'll get a pic of them next time I eat them. They were ok, considering they were microwavable chicken and biscuits.

For dinner, I stopped off at 5 Guys to pick up burgers and fries for Jesse and myself. I went with the usual bacon burger. And as normal for them, the burger was outstanding and the fries were really good also.

A Sunday Cookout

On Sunday, I hung out with the parents for most of the day. That evening Dad cooked some burgers and hot dogs on the grill:

You may be asking, "Where's the beef?!" I assure you, there's some in there. It was a very dense patty, but was pretty good. The hot dog was a bit more charred than I care for, but was still tasty. The fries were perfectly cooked.

Trying to climb out of the hole

So, after Tuesday's wallowing in unhealthy tastiness, I went with a salad for lunch:

We've got 2 types of lettuce, some spinach, carrots, some purple stuff (not sure if it's lettuce or cabbage), ham, chicken, bacon bits and italian dressing. It was pretty good, I didn't get the dressing mixed around enough though.

For dinner, I finished off the chicken strips and supplemented it with a couple of nuggets and fries:

It was ok, the strips were pretty good, the nuggets are passable.

The decline continues

On Tuesday, I just threw out all pretenses and went with what sounded good:

Corn dog and fries for lunch. It was pretty tasty, nice and warm, the cornmeal wasn't too done, but wasn't gooey, and the hot dog in there was nice and warm. Their fries are never salty enough, but unlike the upcoming dinner fries, you can actually get salt to stick to them.

For dinner, I met Jody and Jesse at Huey's, cause I wanted a Huey Burger:

I went with just bacon and ketchup for the toppings (If I hadn't give up for the day I'd have added some lettuce and onion) and fries for the side dish. Huey's has some great steak fries, but the downside of them is the inability to get salt to stick to them. They're just too dry (on the outside). I'm wondering if I could get them to salt mine as soon as they yank them out of the fryer.

The beginning of a decline

For Father's Day, I had planned on taking Dad (and the family) out for dinner. Dad didn't feel like going out, so it's been postponed. As a late lunch/snack that afternoon, I went with some chicken flavored ramen:

It's chicken ramen. It was tasty, for chicken ramen.

Since dinner was a wash, I debated with myself on what to eat on the way home. It ended up being Captain Grease D's. I went with the 3 piece fish dinner, corn on the cob and fries.

The fries were freshly cooked for me, the fish wasn't, but it didn't taste like it had been sitting out for too long. The corn was nice and juicy, the fish was tasty, not quite as salty as I would've liked. But that's probably for the best.

Not a very healthy day

On Saturday, I went in to work, in order to make some of the time I missed for my vacation up. I ended up being there for 11 hours that day. For lunch, the cafeteria had a lot of stuff that didn't look that good, and 2 things that did, beef and potatoes:

The roast was good, and had so much gravy it was almost like a beef stew. The flavor was nice, not too salty but very hearty. The potatoes were actually salted and the gravy just enhanced them, instead of making them just tasty.

For dinner, I was tuckered out, so I just went the easy route and tossed some more chicken tenders and fries in the oven:

Chicken and Salads

For lunch on Wednesday, I went with another salad. After the positive experience with the spinach on Sunday, I added them to the mix in this one. It was their generic salad mix, some spinach mix, eggs, chicken, ham, bacon bits and a drizzling of Italian dressing:

I hope it looks healthier than the last one did, it certainly tasted it.

For dinner that night, I had no idea what to have. So, I went with chicken tenders (not nuggets) and fries:

Burger time

I think I'm about burgered out. On Tuesday, the cafeteria didn't have anything that floated my boat, so I went with 5 Guys for dinner that night. Here's my usual bacon burger and fries from them (double bacon burger to most other places):

As usual, the burger and fries were outstanding.

The trip home

On the trip home, I only stopped to fill the car up. On the first mid trip fill up, it was lunch time, so I hit up old McD's and got some chicken nuggets and fries. No pic of them, as I ate them on the way. The nuggets were really good, and the fries, while tasty and fresh, weren't salted near enough for my taste. Which is probably a good thing for my health.

While we were out Saturday getting stuff for the party, Furey, Ike and I stopped to get the crab for the boil. The crab place also had scallops. I love scallops and have never cooked them, so I bought a couple pound of them. I left them in the freezer while I was there, and got one of those cheap Styrofoam coolers and a bag of ice to keep them frozen on the way home. It worked better than I had hoped, the ice was still mostly there after the 12 hr drive and the scallops were still mostly frozen.

I took the ones that had thawed out and ended up sauteing them as my searing of them didn't work out like I wanted. I prepared them in an olive oil, butter and garlic powdered concoction. As I didn't have any good veggies handy (did this after getting home and didn't feel like stopping to get any or going back out), I went with the instant potatoes (garliced them up too) and some biscuits:

They came out fairly well. Or very well, if you account for a first attempt ever.

What? A burger?

Over the past weekend, I went down to Ormond Beach (just north of Daytona Beach, FL) to visit some friends. Friday was my drive day down there. I stopped off in Alabama to have something we don't get too often, as they don't have a franchise in my neck of the woods, Whataburger:

I went with the double burger, ketchup only and regular fries and a Coke. Burger was outstanding, as usual, and their fries were really good too. I still prefer McD's skinny fries over theirs, but W's is probably second on the skinny fry list.

Memorial Day Cookout

The gang did a Memorial Day cookout, but we did it on Sunday evening. There were hamburgers, hotdogs, chips, fries, potato salad, home made burger buns, and a lot of dessert. I went with a couple of burgers, a hotdog and some fries for my breakfast / lunch /dinner combo:

They were very well cooked, and I managed to not get enough ketchup on the burgers, and then too much. Oh well, they were still tasty.

As for the desserts, here what they looked like:

Kevin brought the pie, I made the yellow cake with chocolate frosting, Dave brought the chocolate pudding cake (in the plastic cover) and Greg brought the super brownie. As for which was on my plate? I went with my own cake.

I tried to be good

I had planned on having a salad for lunch today. But, I kept going past the salad area to the hot food area. And there it was, staring at me. I knew at that point I was doomed, so I got into the stupidly short line there (it's usually the longest and was the shortest today). It was chicken fried steak day.

I've gone on about how good the cafeteria's brown gravy is, and how it enhances whatever it's draped across. Well, their chicken fried steak is almost always good. I think this is only the third or fourth time I've been in there when they've had it, and it's been at least good each time. And then add that stuff to it. Nope, salad never had a chance against this. The potatoes were pretty good today also.

For dinner, there is no picture, not because I forgot, but because I ate it on the way home. I stopped in at Chick-fil-a and got a #1 combo (Chicken sammich no pickles, fries and a Sprite). It was good. I've not been to one in a while, as I had hit that point where you eat something so much, it kinda loses that great taste that made you like it in the first place. I'm happy to report, that didn't happen this time, it had that same great flavor that made me love their chicken in the beginning.

Huey's!

Thursday is one of the game nights, and I didn't feel like BWW (Buffalo Wild Wings) or any other fast food in general, so I talked Jesse into meeting me at Huey's. I also didn't really want a burger (thanks to 5 Guys on Tuesday), so I went with their steak stick dinner. This is basically a steak, cut up and grilled kebab style, minus the veggies. Then they'll bring the three sticks of juicy steak out on a bed of whatever side dish you like, which I (of course) go with fries. About 7 out of 10 times, these are outstanding, but sometimes you'll get some bad cuts of steak and they're almost impossible to chew up (2 of the 3 times) and super rarely it'll just be a bad job on the marinade or cooking and they taste horrible (the remaining 1 time). Luckily, I was in the 7 neighborhood, as they were OUTSTANDING. It was almost as if I was wanting that and didn't even know it. We also had an appetizer of their fried mozzarella cheese sticks, and they were incredibly tasty also.

And I forgot to take a picture of any of it.

Fried Chicken and Five Guys

Tuesdays are Fried Chicken days in the cafeteria. Unfortunately, they NEVER have the proper side dish for fried chicken, which here in the South, is mashed potatoes and gravy. They have rice and gravy, and some kind of au gratin potatoes or something else that just doesn't go well with it, so I usually skip the chicken. However, I was fairly hungry on this Tuesday (see the Dump Day post for my lack of a filling dinner), so I went with a white meat portion, which is a breast and wing. All connected like:

It might not look that great in the pic, but they usually do a pretty good job on their chicken. The breading/crust is VERY flavorful and tasty, and if you get there fairly early, you've got about a 70/30 chance of the meat having gotten the flavor into it, where as if you go later in the afternoon it's more of a 30/70 chance. I was on the upper end of luck today, the meat was just about as tasty as the crust.

Not a very nutritious lunch, I know, but I was treating it more like a snack, as I was going to be having a burger and fries from 5 Guys Burgers and Fries for dinner that night. And not only did I plan to, but I actually stuck with it.

You can make an account on their website and then order early and schedule your pickup, and pay for it online, thereby skipping the (sometimes really long) line. They also have an app for both Android and iDevices. I downloaded that bad boy and tested it out, and I'm happy to report that it worked like a champ. Burgers (picked one up for Jesse also) were ready when I got there and just had to wait a minute or two on the fries to get done, which gave me plenty of time to get the drinks ready. And, as I alluded to in the previous post, I forgot to get pictures of the delicious Bacon Burger and fries. But I assure you, it looked good and tasted even better.

Junk Food

Tuesday was a day of junk food. To give some insight on my lunch selection, let me tell you about my movie watching preference. The theater I usually attend has some really good corn dogs. They also have frozen coke (Coke Icee / Slurpee for those that haven't heard of Frozen Coke). I usually get one of each of these, and eat the corn dog before the movie and work on the Frozen Coke before and during the movie.

This past weekend Marvel's The Avengers opened up to record breaking numbers. I'm part of the reason for that. I knew going in that the movie was two and a half hours long. And lately, my kidneys have been working on overdrive, so I didn't feel like testing them out by having my usual Frozen Coke before the flick started. For in order to get a decent seat, I'd have to be there very early. So, forewent my movie snack. Plus, I saw the flick twice this weekend, on Friday with my friends and took Mom and Sis on Sunday. If that doesn't tell you how much I liked the movie, well, tough luck.

So, today I gave in to half my craving and went with a corn dog for lunch, from the cafeteria:

It's not as good as the ones at the theater, as the cafeteria uses frozen ones that they then deep fry, where as the theaters are freshly made, I think. And by that I mean they're not as uniformly done up as these are, I've seen a LOT of variation in their thickness and overall presentation. But these are pretty good, the deep frying definitely helps the corn dog out, as opposed to baking in the oven or (gasp) nuking it in the microwave. Their fries are pretty good also, but they usually have a hard time keeping salt on them, without flat out wiping them in it.

For dinner, my buddy Jesse was partial to BWW (Buffalo Wild Wings) so I went with some Honey BBQ boneless wings and potato wedges:

They did a good job in dousing the "wings" in sauce and the wedges were cooked pretty well. All in all one of the better dining experiences from them.