Tag / Food

by Greg

SuperCaliFragiGenerous

A couple weeks ago, we were arranging to spend a kidless evening with some friends of ours, and they ended up offering to take us out for a special dinner. They know that’s rare for us, and wanted to treat us to that. That was super generous. We had it planned for a while, so we had time to really look forward to it.

Well, as the day approached, they also learned that we are in a really tough spot financially. Business has been slower than ever, and we’re trying to figure out what to do with all of the bills that remain at a steady pace, despite the decreased pace of our income. They offered to just have us over for dinner, and make a donation to our overdue bills fund! That was super-duper generous! But I figured, the night out with them would be special for Jen (and hopefully them, too!) and whatever they might be able to give us wouldn’t cover the bills we owe anyway… so… we stuck to our original plan.

Well lemme tell you… it was a fun night!

We went to the Outback Steakhouse, and we got… you guessed it… STEAK! Lots of it! It was a fantastic meal! Great time with our friends. Super fun. But we weren’t done!! They treated us to dessert at Champps, a sports bar/restaurant that has an ENORMOUS ice cream cake/pie dessert. The Mile High Ice Cream Pie, or something like that. So we finished off that tower of frozen greatness (well, mostly I did…) and that was all just fantastic. We love hanging out with these friends, and they were just being super-dee-duper generous… it was so crazy and cool.

THEN…

They topped off the night by saying they would still like to help us out with some money! Seriously. That was SuperCaliFragiGenerous!! I mean… not only did they treat us to one of the biggest eating-out feasts we have ever had (maybe THE biggest!), but then they gave us a check!?? They don’t have a ton of money either… they are also paying down debt. Amazing.

It was so cool, I made up the word SuperCaliFragiGenerous for it. 🙂 (Well, mostly made up…)

So thanks to you, generous friends. Your kindness and generosity made for a super fun memory, and will certainly help us in paying our bills. Muchas gracias!

by Greg

It’s Tea Time Again

My new brown teapot!
When my Mom (who is not an avid reader of GregsHead.net…) heard the story of my recent teapot neglect, she asked if I had gotten a new teapot. I had scoped out the options at Wal-Mart, but they were either more pricey than I had anticipated, or too cheap. So, as of yet, I had not. That was the answer she was looking for. 🙂

Surprisingly enough… she actually had an extra teapot. Yes, if you know my Mom… that is really not a surprise. 🙂 She really has an “extra” everything I think. It’s quite fascinating. And quite cool for me!

So now, the teapot you see above is sitting on my stove, and has made my first cup of Earl Grey (sipping as I type now, actually)…

Jen’s favorite part? It’s brown. For some reason, Brown is the new favorite around here.

So, all are happy that a new teapot has come to our home!

by Greg

Dolled-Up Food

Strawberries with Chocolate and Whipped Cream
It really just started out as an attempt to get a nice healthy snack around midnight. I had some carrots, with a nice dill dip I made. Then tried some potato chips in that dip, too. (OK, that wasn’t healthy…) Then I just really wanted something sweet…

Fruit! We have grapes! So, I got some of those, then noticed the strawberries. Mmmmm… strawberries. So, I got out the container, and decided to cut some up.

Here’s where it got interesting. 😉

So, since I was already preparing the snack (instead of just eating it) I decided to spruce it up a bit. I got out a little plate for my beheaded strawberries. Then I remembered the hot fudge in the fridge!!! So I got out a little bowl, and popped the jar of fudge in the microwave. Less than a minute later, I had some warm, flowing fudge!

After pouring the hot fudge in the little bowl, it still needed something more. Oh yeah!!! I remembered that whipped cream in the fridge!!!!

So, after I whipped up the Cool Whip and put a nice little dollop on top of the hot fudge, I realized that I had made quite a little creation here. 🙂 I do love to make my food look good!

Not the best photo, but wanted to share what I saw before I devoured it. They were tasty!!!

by Greg

Ice Cream Update – Final Edition

Ice Cream MonthIf you can believe it… July has come to an end! It has been quite a run of ice cream consumption for me! Much of it has been enjoyed with my family, and many friends. Here’s the final rundown of the places when and where said treats were consumed…

  • 7/22 – I am pretty certain that we ate at Chill & Grill with friends on this day…
  • 7/23 – I may have gotten more Chill & Grill this day. And, continued to enjoy the ice cream in our freezer!
  • 7/24 – Probably just ice cream from the freezer this day…
  • 7/25 – Bought up several containers of Edy’s Grand Ice Cream, including one of my favorites, Cherry Chocolate Chip!
  • 7/26 – Got some ice cream from Chill & Grill again, and this time free of charge! Thanks, Jeff!
  • 7/27 – We ate some Abbott’s Frozen Custard at Bill Gray’s in Henrietta, NY this day. With the Drakes!
  • 7/28 – Got some more Chill & Grill with LOTS of friends on Saturday night!
  • 7/29 – Chill & Grill in the afternoon with some new friends, and then plenty of Edy’s from the freezer!!
  • 7/30 – Finished off the Cherry Chocolate Chip ice cream… several helpings of ice cream on this day! (Month is almost over!!!)
  • 7/31 – Had ice cream with the Shimps at Dari-an in Farmington, NY. Got banana ice cream on a cone. A perfect ending to a perfect 31 days of ice cream!

Believe it or not, I am not in the least bit sick of ice cream. This was not a hard thing for me to do! In fact, I’m looking forward to our next visit to Chill & Grill, or the grocery for some good ice cream. I am hoping we are one of the eleven luck folks who will win some free ice cream from Turkey Hill!!! One person gets a year’s supply… ten people get a month’s supply! Fantastic!

Of course, I will let you know here at GH if we are selected as one of the winners! 🙂

Thanks for following along on my ice cream journey this month! I’m sure it’s the beginning of a long-standing tradition! 🙂

by Greg

The Weekend That Was, Is, And Is To Come

Usually I don’t tell about a busy weekend in the middle of it, but I thought I’d make an exception today. I told a friend via e-mail (actually, it was on Facebook) that this weekend was going to be packed full… and I just wanted to write it down so I could remember what a crazy weekend the fifth weekend of July 2007 was. (And I can use this as a sort of “To Do” list for the things that we have yet to do …) 🙂

Last night I stayed up pretty late working on the song set for Sunday morning (read below) and chatting with various folks on the internet. (Why was everyone else on so late??) I was also doing a little prep work for a possible interview with Brian Moorman, the Buffalo Bills punter. All of this while knowing the day today would begin quite early. It didn’t matter… something kept me going. The tasks, yes, but somehow I was just awake.

I finally hit the sack around 3:45 or so, and just felt really awake. So, sometime after 4:00 I finally drifted off to sleep, only to hear the shrill sound of my alarm at 8:00am. It seemed like mere moments. 🙂

I think I hit snooze. 🙂 Then I rolled out of bed around 8:15 or so and tried to wake myself up with some tea and reading emails and blogs. (Yes, believe it or not, some had been updated between 4:00am and 8:00am…) I did a little more prep for the potential interview with the Bills punter, and got a call around 8:50am from our friends for whom I had so early arisen. They needed help moving, so I offered to help before training camp began that afternoon.

Well, turns out they had packed their computers already, but had forgotten to check the emails for where to get the moving truck. 🙂 So, my friend joined me at our breakfast table for a quick check of his email, and then was off to get the truck with his wife. Good thing we were running a little behind, though. I had a few errands to run.

At 9:30 am, I headed out on foot to get the song sheet prepared the night before to the church on the corner. I delivered that, then headed to our library to drop off a video. Off to the post office next (a few blocks away) to check for a hosting payment that has STILL not arrived. Box was empty. (Except for a decent Pizza Hut coupon…) So, scratch that trip to the bank I had planned.

Instead I just headed straight over to our friends’ house to start loading up the truck. Except… no truck. They hadn’t left right when I thought they had, so it was going to be a while. Already 10:00, I decided to walk back and check on Jen. That was probably good as when I got back, I was able to reply to a phone message regarding a meeting later on that day to get our new Buffalo Bills Review t-shirts!

(Are you still with me?) 🙂

So after about 30 minutes at home, I headed back to the moving house and the truck was there! We managed to move a decent amount of boxes and firmly entrenched furniture. So, even though I had to leave around noon, I felt like my time had been at least slightly useful to them. That was nice.

When I got home, I helped get lunch ready (at least helped Jen decide what to warm up from the fridge!) and showered, then checked on the interview one more time. It just felt rushed in the middle of everything else we were trying to do – so I decided to postpone it. I eventually e-mailed my Bills contact and asked to set it up for later.

But we still had plenty to do.

1:30pm, all are fed, most is ready for the trip to BILLS TRAINING CAMP!!! We were to meet our friends the Drakes there (he co-hosts the Buffalo Bills Review with me) as well as that t-shirt delivery guy. That all went off without (much of) a hitch. We ended up even parking in the VIP parking lot, since we looked sort of official. Yes, it was a bending of the rules (I need an official pass to do that) but we were treated kindly by an understanding parking lot attendant.

Bills camp was fun! Weather was decent (not too hot!) and it was just SO FUN to see the Buffalo Bills right in FRONT of us again!!!! It was a relatively light workout, but was still fun to watch. Some good plays made.

In addition to the football, I was there on official business. A friend loaned me his iPod recording device (you stick it in your iPod) and so I went around to various fans asking them if they’d like to be on our show. A few politely declined, but most said, “Sure!” It was a lot of fun. Really perfect stuff for our show, which we say is “The Show By Bills Fans, For Bills Fans”. It even says that on our shirts. 🙂

After camp was over we headed out for some dinner together at a nearby McDonald’s. It has a great PlayPlace, so that was the perfect choice. I had a fantastic Asian salad, by the way. Hadn’t ever had their fancy salads. Marie got one, and it looked good… so I did too 🙂 Thanks, Marie! 🙂

The PlayPlace was a good idea… but… it got WAY too loud. So we decided to hang out a bit more, and finish the afternoon/evening with some ice cream!!! (Yes, in fact, it IS National Ice Cream Month…) We got some Abbott’s custard (a Rochester favorite) at Bill Gray’s (add that to the ice cream list for the month!) and then finally parted ways as all of our children were just about completely exhausted.

I was getting there, too!

But one of the coolest parts of the day happened AFTER all of the other cool stuff! As we left the restaurant, it had just finished raining, and the sun was coming out again. Looking toward the eastern sky, there was a humongous FULL rainbow from one side of the sky to the other. Even a bit of a double rainbow on the left side. It was just fantastic!

BUT WE WEREN’T DONE!

As we drove home… another rainbow appeared in the Eastern sky… this one WAY more colorful, brighter, or whatever the proper description is. It was a full rainbow across the sky in front of us. It as quite bold, and just really amazingly beautiful. There was definitely a double rainbow this time. In fact, the double was almost complete! Simply incredible! I think the best rainbow I have ever seen. Certainly none top it. Could only equal it.

After the spectacular shows in the sky, we finally were home… and just got everyone ready for bed. We watched a quick episode of the Little Einsteins, then did baths/showers/etc. Once everyone was in bed, it was time for Dad to make Skyline for tomorrow’s lunch, so, Jen & I spent a little time in the kitchen, listening to this week’s God Journey podcast as I cooked and cleaned up a bit.

Oh yeah.. did the laundry in there too… 🙂

Whew. Glad Friday is over. But there are TWO MORE DAYS!

Quick preview…

  • Our friends are bringing their girls over tomorrow so they can have a kidless day to get some final preparations done for a trip to the Dominican Republic coming up soon. We can’t support their trip financially, but we can make their prep a bit easier by taking their kids! Plus, we love having them come over and visit… 🙂
  • Speaking of visits… our friends the Falkes will be dropping by for lunch (SKYLINE CHILI!!) in the late morning. They head to Canada fairly soon to begin working with a church there… so it’s one last good-bye before they head about 3000 miles to our west. 🙂
  • After a day with our friends’ girls, we’ll head over to Chill & Grill together before they all go back home. Haven’t gotten to do that all Ice Cream Month with them, so that will be very nice. 🙂
  • Sunday morning we’ll be providing the music for the “Worship In The Park” service put on by First Baptist Church in Palmyra. They asked us if we’d do that, and we happily agreed. Nice folks. Will be kinda cool singing outside and stuff. Plus… they’re feeding us, so… it was pretty much a no-brainer. 😉
  • Sunday afternoon we’ll be meeting some clients/friends of mine who are on a tour of the northeast from their home in Texas. It’s a New England vacation, and we are one of the stops! 🙂 It will be great to meet them, even if it’s only a brief visit. I designed the site EzzoTruth.com for them. It will be nice to finally meet them. 🙂

Oh my goodness golly this is long! I think I will stop for now. I’ll of course share any stories that deviate from the planned activities listed above. 🙂

by Greg

Ice Cream Update – Week 3

A friend asked yesterday what we’ve been up to this summer. I feel like we’ve been busy, but for whatever reason when he asked that was all I could remember… being busy. The only specifics I could remember were hanging out with friends and eating ice cream!!! Ha! That has kinda been a theme of this month…

Here’s an update on the ice cream consumption for week three of July. I have eaten ice cream every day, but I’ll just do the highlights here. If there’s no highlight, I just had some ice cream from the freezer, homemade or store bought.

  • 7/15 – We only ate once at Chill & Grill with the Chis. The first time did us in! Oh, well, maybe those homemade chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwiches, too? 🙂
  • 7/16 – I tried Perry’s White Lightning for the first time on Monday night. One of my new top five favorites!!
  • 7/17 – SUPER FUN homemade ice cream party with friends. I made a gallon of vanilla, and a half gallon of strawberry on Monday night, and then Tuesday night we ate a lot! There were tons of great toppings too! It was a feast! I had three and a half bowls!!!
  • 7/18 & 7/19 – Just a little ice cream from the freezer was the treat for these days!
  • 7/20 – An impromptu trip to Dari-an in Farmington, NY followed a nice dinner with some friends at our house. I had mango dole-whip (a sort of soft-serve sherbet). Tasty!
  • 7/21 – Our first visit to Coldstone Creamery in Pittsford, NY was the ice cream treat for yesterday! (Though I did finish off some of the homemade strawberry later that night…) Coldstone has some great inclusions (the stuff you mix into your ice cream). I had mint mint chocolate chocolate chip. And it really was that. 🙂

Believe it or not, I really have eaten ice cream (and sometimes a LOT of it) every day this month! 21 days and counting!

by Greg

Ice Cream Celebrations…

It’s probably starting to feel like all I do around here is talk about ICE CREAM! Well, for this month, I guess that’s true 🙂 It is National Ice Cream Month, and I have had ice cream EVERY DAY this month. 19 days in a row, and counting!

For tonight, we made a gallon of vanilla ice cream, and about half a gallon of strawberry last night. We’ll be bringing the finished product over to our friends’ house and enjoying that with them (and some other friends) and using the rest of the strawberry “base”? in a little kids hand-crank ice cream maker to make the rest! Should be fun. 🙂

Speaking of fun, I meant to give a little update on how our 10th anniversary of our decision to wed went. It was a nice two day, for the most part. On the 16th, I arranged to take Jen out for a nice lunch, and got her 10 roses in a nice vase for our 10 years. She loves flowers, and we are hardly ever able to get them, so I think that was really special. Cool part was, the flowers arrived at almost the same time as the babysitter! Couldn’t have timed it any better!

Previously I had arranged with some other friends to get a little extended time out for the night of the 17th. We got to spend about four hours eating at Olive Garden, doing a little grocery shopping (WITH NO KIDS), and even stopped by a favorite coffee house on the way back to get our kids. It was a nice end to the two-day celebration.

I think it’s really cool that Jen and I get to be married. I think it’s also cool that we decided to do that in the month of July… NATIONAL ICE CREAM MONTH! Now every year, we can celebrate that anniversary with one of the best foods ever invented! 🙂

Time to head over to the party. More ice cream!!! 🙂

by Greg

Ice Cream Personality?

Chocolate Chip Ice CreamI took one of the ice cream quizzes linked from the ice cream blog today, and here are the top two results:

Mixed flavors
You are a negotiator. You’ll do anything you can to avoid open conflict so you never start quarrels. You will give in when you think it’s appropriate but you can be doggedly persistent when you know that justice is on your side.

Chocolate chip
You sincerely believe that everything around you is beautiful, even though other people may not notice. You are a determined person and set high goals for your life.

Jen (and I agree) thinks that the second one is probably more accurate, but I don’t just like Chocolate Chip Ice Cream… I like lots of flavors WITH chocolate chips in it!! 🙂 (As you’ll notice from my post yesterday…)

Anyway, take the test yourself if you’d like! And don’t forget to comment on the ice cream blog. One lucky July commenter will win a year’s supply of Turkey Hill ice cream!! Whoohooo!

by Greg

Favorite Flavors

Perry's White Lightning Ice CreamOur grocery store had Perry’s ice cream (from Akron, NY) on sale last week, so we picked up a couple half gallons. One was a new flavor, White Lightning. It’s dark chocolate ice cream, with streaks of white mint goo throughout. I had a dish of it for the first time last night and, it’s instantly in my top five favorite flavors! If you have access to Perry’s, and your store carries that flavor… go get some!

That got me to thinking about what my favorite flavors are… here’s a quick list I came up with: (In no particular order, because really… I like ALL flavors!!!)

  • White Lightning from Perrys
  • White Chocolate Raspberry Swirl from Young’s. (White chocolate ice cream, with swirls of raspberry goo (what else do you call it?) and chunks of chocolate. It’s fantastic!)
  • Cherry Chocolate Chip from Edy’s. With Raspberry Chip Royale a close second!
  • Cherry Panda Paws from Perry’s. (Little chocolate/cherry cups with swirls of fudge in cherry ice cream!)
  • And I do like a variety of specialty flavors… Perry’s Sabres Sundae, Bills Stampede Sundae from Turkey Hill, and any of Edy’s specialty flavors (like the Loaded Butterfingers one!!! Awesome!

There’s a lot more, but that’ll have to do for now. Gotta get outside and get to work! More on that later…

Enjoy your ice cream!

by Greg

Ice Cream Update: Week 2

The Chis are here. We have already had homemade ice cream and Chill & Grill. (It’s National Ice Cream Day, ya know???!!) And I think we’re planning to have a bit more before they leave… 🙂

Wanted to give you an update on the ice cream consumption for week two of July. Let’s see…

  • 7/8 – We stopped at Dairy Queen in Medina, Ohio on our trip back from visiting my family. Hawaiian Blizzard!
  • 7/9 – We were tired from our trip, so the best I could do was some Breyer’s from the freezer!
  • 7/10 – We had ice cream with some friends at Dairy Ann in Farmington, NY
  • 7/11 – Again, a little ice cream from the freezer was the treat for the day!
  • 7/12 – A tiny treat from Chill & Grill did the trick on Thursday… but of course, had some more from the freezer a bit later!
  • 7/13 – Had some ice cream with fresh raspberries for lunch on Friday!!!
  • 7/14 – Enjoyed some ice cream at Chill & Grill with Friends, and then came home and made about a half-gallon of homemade vanilla ice cream!!!
  • 7/15 – The Chis came over from Buffalo to eat at CHILL & GRILL and we had some home made ice cream cookie sandwiches. (I made the chocolate chip cookies yesterday, and we squeezed some of the homemade ice cream in between two cookies using the ice cream sandwich maker from Pampered Chef. And, I’m thinking we’re not DONE!

More to come! There’s an entire 16 days left in NATIONAL ICE CREAM MONTH!!!!!