It's Like We Don't Even KNOW You

Oh my God, I'm loving St. Paul! Well, honestly, I don't think it's directly St. Paul, it's just that I live in a house that happens to be situated in St. Paul. That apartment shit is for the birds! If I ever have to go back to sharing a wall with 20- something coke fiends-- shoot me! This is great! The open space, the sunshine filtering in has warmed me and my sagging house plants even in the deadest of this winter that has suddenly beseiged us! As an added bonus, Matt has to wear pants on a regular basis for fear the neighbors think he's a pervert.
Over all, I'd like to make some changes to the house, but I guess that's all part of the nesting process. (OMG, I'm nesting. Like Bob was sailing. I'm nesting!!! I'm nesting!!) The downstairs bedroom is painted like an It's A Boy Harlequin costume and I realized this morning that the color of the bathroom too closely resembles the calling cards left by geese around Lake of the Isles. But still, a house it is, with nary a neighbor in sight, God bless 'em.

The real problem with the house is the stove. It SUUUUCKS. The entire kitchen is painted an interesting mustard color, that somehow, I'm workin' with. I mean, mustard, it's a food tone. That's doable. Harvest gold electric range that's off kilter? Nu'uh. That's really not going to work for me. I've barely attempted to cook in the new kitchen because of this monstrosity. As soon as I figure how to save and blow some pennies on a decent dining room table, I'm focusing my energy on replacing The Thing with something cheap and gas powered. What I did attempt was some simple fried eggs over easy. They kept sliding down and on top of each other. I had to keep taking the pan off the heat to adjust the screaming hot element. Things aren't going to go well in my kitchen until this thing gets fixed. In the mean time, there's been a lot of use of the microwave and the nearby bars.

Things to note: A rueben at Skinners can be made even better by subsituting pepper jack cheese for the Swiss. The Cajun Chicken sandwich is healthy because there's no cheese (ignore that mayo!) And their creamy chicken soup is the first gross thing I've ever eaten there. But for $2.50, I got over it.

J.R. Mack's food should never be ordered by anyone under the age of 80. Unless you lived through the depression, this food is not worth eating.

I tried a (nearly burned, but that wasn't the problem) pepperoni pizza by Target's brand Archer Farms. It tasted, okay. They have the round and the itsy bitsy pepperoni like DiGirono's did back in the day. Then you get to the crust and suddenly you're eating a sugar cookie. Really, it tasted exactly like a sugar cookie without any frosting or extra, cruchy sugar. I purposely didn't read the ingrdients 'cause I know that really cannot be good for me. Sugar, pepperoni pizza?? I've probably added a couple inches around the rotund middle I'm already sporting for the holiday season. I do NOT need to shake like a bowl full of jelly when I do anything.

The greatest thing I've found is that at some stores, Kowalski's for sure, and occassionally Lunds, you can buy the Oaxacan tamales from La Loma. La Loma is located in the Midtown Global Market and Mercado Central. Their tamles are incredible. I haven't had a chance to try anything else on their menu, but I love this things! They are spicy hot chicken tamels wrapped in a bananna leaf and steamed. You can purchse them for $5.99, for two. It seems more expensive than the pork or regular chicken varieties where you get half a dozen for $4.99 and only two of these monsters, but really. They are that good. All you have to do is pierce the plastic and pop them in the microwave for a couple of minutes and Voila! You're in Mexico. (Excuse the mixed phrasing. I don't know the Spanish translation for Voila. Eso si, que es!)