Happy Memorial Day

Well, technically Happy Day Before Memorial Day. That just doesn't have the same ring to it though.

And what shows your patriotism better than eating a cheeseburger? Probably a lot of things, but I chose to express myself through the consumption of a pair of burgers. Actually they were twins, and will be described in all their glory momentarily.

Chris and Lindsay were around for the weekend, and Kate and the pugs were invited as well, so there was a whole lot of wackiness going on. Specifically as a result of Odin and Patches. Those two are crazy! Odin will probably be exhausted for the next 48 hours. The menu was burgers and hot dogs, along with Bill's baked beans, some pasta salad and I believe regular salad, although there wasn't nearly enough room on my plate for everything. I decided to focus on burgers and beans.

My burgers were both made with onions inside, and topped with bacon under cheddar and American cheese and served on a bun with sauteed mushrooms and onions. That is a hefty burger, and I easily could have been more than satisfied with just one of them. I decided to eat 2 though, which meant that by the end, my stomach was approximately 40% larger than its normal size and if you had poked me with anything sharp, I would have flown around the room like a cartoon. Luckily that did not happen.

That was a nice day.

-Jon

I Used to Eat More Burgers...

I don't eat nearly enough of them these days.

But I did eat one today! And that is cause for celebration. Or at least cause for a post.

After a long day of being a PE substitute and telling pugs to stop barking at dogs/cats/people/birds/things-in-their-minds-that-aren't-really-there-but-they-bark-at-anyways, a burger seemed like just the thing for dinner. Especially after I saw them in the fridge and predicted that they would be cooked soon thereafter.

This one was cooked perfectly! It was pink like a salmon, and I think there might have been two slices of cheese. And there was bacon! And BBQ sauce. Oh man, I wish I was eating another one right now. There was also some fries on the side along with potato chips and some delicious cheddar and bacon dip. What a delightful dinner!

-Jon

Burgers Were the Bright Spot

Today started off ok, except that a certain pair of pugs wanted to get up earlier than I did. I was going to be subbing for a half day, and it was the second half, which meant I didn't have to get up at 6. Then I had a productive morning. I did some laundry, washed some dishes, neatened up my Pau Gasol-esque neckbeard, ate a breakfast sandwich and bacon. . . things were looking up. And then I went outside, and found yet another flat tire. How is this even possible!?

But luckily, dinner ended up being a cheeseburger and waffle fries. On a sidenote, what's the deal with waffle fries? How are they like a waffle? Waffles don't have holes in them, and waffle fries do. Case closed. Time to rename those bad boys. Since I did most of the work of coming up with the difficult idea to change the name, you're responsible for the easy part of deciding on what that name will be. I'll be expecting it by 2011. Thanks.

Back to the burger. Nice and rare, American cheese, lettuce and tomato. And barbecue sauce! Yeah, I threw a curveball in there today. And it was a pretty delicious one. If you've never substituted BBQ sauce for ketchup, give it a try sometime. It may rock your world.

Now I'm off to set up a webcam since someone is obviously sabotaging my precious automobile.

-Jon

It's Like a Time Warp

But not like that really weird song from whatever movie it was in that some group of seniors did a wacky dance to in one of the Senior Shows, possibly '06. Yeah, that was a strange opening to this post.

Kathryn and I went back to the Gill Tavern, much as I stated I would do given the opportunity. Unfortunately, we were unable to get a table this time. However, we were able to sit at the bar, which means we didn't drive the whole 15 minutes to get there for nothing. Sitting at the bar has the added advantage of letting us talk to the cook/chef, which possibly got us our food faster. I am not sure if there is a difference between a cook and a chef, but I bet there is and I bet it's related to those awesome hats the Swedish Chef wears.

I obviously went with the burger again, but this time I got bacon on it in addition to my cheddar cheese, lettuce, tomato and onion. I also got more Pied pIPA, even though my glass clearly says "Farmer Brown" on it. See? I made a point of turning the pint glass so that you could see the false advertising.

This time I made sure to let the meat juice soak into the bun before I started eating it, and it made all the difference. The burger was cooked nicely again, although Kathryn noticed that it wasn't perfectly pink like last time. It was still pretty pink, and it was nice and juicy, which is all that really matters. That's the real reason I don't like well-done burgers: they are just way too dry. Well, that and they taste like charcoal mixed with feet.

There was no apple crisp this time, so we passed on dessert and then went home so I could drink my nice bottle of Lefty's Irish-Style Stout while listening to the calming snores of two sleepy pugs. What a life.

-Jon

Home Cooking Is the Solution

The solution to what? To not having the cheese left off your burger. Because that is truly an almost unforgivable offense. Sort of like being a Jets fan.

It was burger night over at Mom and Chuck's, and they were burgers hand-made out of ground beef. That's generally going to give you the best burger, although I think they need to be seasoned a little more before they hit the grill. I put a little bit of garlic salt on them, but it wasn't quite enough. I'll be tweaking my seasoning attempts whenever people aren't paying attention over there, which is frequently.

The burgers came out nicely, with a lovely pink hue. And, far more importantly, mine had cheese on it! And also onions and tomatoes. But the main focus is the cheese. This blog could have been more appropriately titled Mmmm, cheeseburgers, but that was too long. We also had tater tots like it was middle school, fries, salad and zucchini. One of those things definitely does not fit in with the rest of the meal.

For the humourous part of this story, Odin had to spend the meal outside on the deck being sad because he doesn't know how to behave himself around Patches. He's like Jojo the Indian circus boy with a pretty new pet. And Chloe spent part of it sitting on the single step up into the kitchen, and crying because apparently it was too high for her to climb down. Pugs: nature's joke.

-Jon

Puppy Pool Acquired!

Wait. You don't know about the extensive search for a puppy pool? You are slacking. These blogs are required reading for anyone who has any sort of interaction with me. Well, the story has a happy ending in that I got one at Christmas Tree Shops (which was suspiciously lacking in actual trees). Odin will be rocking out in style next time he comes to pug camp.

The trip to Christmas Tree Shops was preceded by a trip to Northampton for lunch with Kathryn at the Northampton Brewery. I was seriously considering ordering a non-burger meal, but then I thought that would be irresponsible, so I ended up going with the Blackened Blue Burger, mostly because its name was alliterative. If something has a funny name or an alliterative name, I am almost helpless to resist it. This is why I was so upset when Whistling Pig was actually not available, contrary to previously posted information. You can't tell me about something with such an awesome name and then make it unavailable. Man, that's just mean.

The Blackened Blue Burger was a giant monster with cajun spices, blue cheese and caramelized onions along with the standard lettuce, tomato and onion. It also came with a delightful pickle and some good French fries, made even better by the Tabasco ketchup I used. Actually, I used way too much Tabasco, so the fries were incredibly hot. The burger itself was really good, and actually cooked medium rare. I know, I was shocked too. The blue cheese was great, but I wish there had been a little more. Some of mine escaped due to faulty burger holding, but there still wasn't enough. More cheese is always a good thing.

Kathryn had ordered a couple of pretzels with some kind of beer cheese sauce for dipping. The pretzels were the saltiest things I ever ate, but if you scraped off some of the extra salt and dipped them in the sauce, they were fantastic. I don't know which kind of cheese it was, but it tasted kind of like a cheddar. You should go there and get the recipe so that I can make it at home. It will be delicious! I'll even invite you over when I'm making it.

I also tried 2 of their beers. You can't go to a brewery/restaurant and not try what they've got going on tap. Unless you're Dave, in which case you'd probably still order a Bud Light. I had a Weizenheimer, which was a wheat beer that tasted a little summery, and a Northampton Pale Ale, which tasted like a pale ale. The Weizenheimer was great, and the NPA was ok. Pale ales are always a mystery going in, and this one was right in the middle for deliciousness.

Now I've got a big afternoon ahead of me of making ribs. This could end up messy.

-Jon

Let's Try Something New

It's actually not really that new, but it's the first time that I've tried it here. Frank's Red Hot Burgers!! It's time to kick things up a little.

We decided to have a little cookout here, so the menu was going to be burgers, hot dogs, baked beans and fries. But not just boring, pre-formed burgers. That would be disgraceful to all the people eating AND the people reading. We got some quality 80/20 meat and made burgers out of that. I also seasoned them with a little salt, pepper, garlic powder and onion powder. Hey, if you're going to do burgers, you might as well do them right. Then I formed some lovely burgers and put the little divots in the top to make sure they cook right.

Now for the spice. Kathryn and Matt didn't want any, but Bill and I went with a little Frank's & bleu cheese combination to top the burgers. Then we all used some pepperjack cheese for a little extra zip. Plus we had lettuce and tomato to make everything all fancy. I probably could have taken the burgers off the grill a couple minutes earlier, but all it did was make the cheese melt too much instead of overdoing the meat. I can live with that.

The burgers came out pretty well. And the beans were good as always. The fries were ok, but I guess our oven takes a lot longer to cook them than the package would suggest. It's probably because the oven is lazy. There was actually too much food, so I ended up not finishing the second burger. That makes me a little sad.

I also managed to drop a hot dog on my foot. It turns out that they come off the grill a little hot, which was unpleasant. Apparently I have the only grill that slopes forward. Probably not the greatest design. I need one of those super grills they have on the cooking shows.

-Jon

Happy Memorial Day

Ok, I keep forgetting to take pictures of my burgers, and this time it is really unfortunate. Kathryn and I went to her mother's house for a Memorial Day cookout, and there were some burgers and hot dogs since I think it might be the law that you have to serve them at any Memorial Day activity. Unfortunately, Chloe and Odin were not invited, even though Odin would have loved the yard there. It was completely fenced in and probably close to 3/4 of an acre. Plus there are some snakes that live in part of the wall. I feel like those would have entertained him for hours. Then I would have either a story about Odin running around carrying a snake, or a story about us taking Odin to the vet to treat some snakebites. Win-win really.

Back to the burgers. These were not your everyday, run-of-the-mill burgers though. Due to whatever combination of factors caused it, the burgers ended up being super tiny once they were cooked. We're talking like maybe and inch and a half across. They were like sliders! That means I ended up eating 4 burgers, but I am not counting it as a tie for the record due to the minimum size requirements. That title still goes to Amy and Scott's cookout from last June. In addition to the burger medallions, we also had fruit salad, baked beans, some salmon and beers. I imagine my stomach is going to be upset with me within the next 12 hours.

So the short version is that I really dropped the ball on the picture taking today. I apologize profusely. And also about the length of this story. I used up all my words yesterday typing about the beer tasting. Go read that if you need more Jon-based journalism.

-Jon

A Nice Day for Burgers

Tuesday was a terrible day. I don't know what my students' problem was, but they were absolutely awful. Wednesday was a slight improvement, but still not great. Then somehow, today turned out to be fine, even though it was basically a Friday in the kids' minds. Oh well. Life is funny sometimes.

Then the day turned even better! Burgers for dinner!! And we also had Kelly's tomato salad, which only makes things even more awesome. In addition, Dad was doing the grilling, so you know you're actually getting a medium rare burger instead of whatever foolishness is currently passing for medium rare at your local establishments.

After school, I made yet another attempt to mow the disaster I currently call a lawn. I managed to do the majority of it before I lost my patience (and will finish the stupid project tomorrow so I can return the lawnmower to its proper owner), but I still dumped the extra clippings all over the place because 1) I am lazy and 2) I don't know what else to do with them. My lawn looks like a grass genocide took place.

After that, Kathryn and I walked over to Dad & Kelly's with Chloe and MonstrO to hopefully wear that little black beast out a bit before bed time. It turns out that all he needs is to run around like a nut for 2+ hours to turn him from a tiny black demon into a normal, calm puppy. He still makes it very difficult to type on a laptop when he decides you are a pug-bed though. For example, he is attempting to sleep on me right now, but can't find a comfortable place. Silly pup.

The burgers were obviously awesome, and the tomato salad was also awesome. And the chocolate milk I drank with it was awesome too. Hopefully tomorrow's prosciutto-wrapped pork can live up to my currently raised expectations.

Ewwww! There are pug boogers on my shorts! Dammit, Odin!

-Jon

A Return to Form

Wow! Two posts in one day!! Looks like I am officially back!

Since James and Nicole closed on their house and officially moved out, I have been quite busy with what basically amounts to re-moving in to the exact same place I have been living for the past year. It turns out that most of the important things for day-to-day life were not mine, just as they were not mine when I lived at Munsing. But no more!

I am now the proud (?) owner of such exciting things as a TV stand, plates, bowls, silverware, a knife set and a whole host of other kitchen items (see the post 2 below this one for the details of my unmanly excursions). And all of these things need to be washed first before you can use them, which is a lot of work in itself even if you don't include the gargantuan task of trying to eliminate all the husky hair that took over the house.

Enter Kathryn, Queen of the Vacuum.

While I did all the boring stuff that needed to happen, Kathryn let loose the fury of her crazy, animal-hair seeking, pug-scaring super vacuum on the many carpets of the house. All told, she filled and emptied that thing 5 times of dog hair before she was satisfied with her work. I think she also cleaned the bathroom, not to mention the delivery of all sorts of unmanly things like candles and fancy hand soaps. I suppose this place will need a woman's influence once my brothers move in.

After all that cleaning, we decided to grab dinner at Ruby Tuesday and then look at rugs at Ocean State Job Lot. Actually I decided on the dinner part, and Kathryn was the only one who looked at rugs because I hate Ocean State Job Lot with a passion due to the many "quick" trips I've been subjected to at the hands of my mother, but I went there with Kathryn anyways because obviously I owe her one.

The funny part of dinner is that since there was a short wait, I put us on the list and then loudly said to Kathryn, "Do you want to wait outside since it's nice?" to avoid them thinking we were leaving. Except that they still thought we were leaving, and then skipped over my name on the list. Stupid ball lickers. We did quickly get a seat after they realized the error of their ways, but it was not enough to avoid mention in this tale.

I ordered the Brewmaster Burger, which tasted like something I had eaten before. I really have to go back through all these stories and update the tags at some point so I can actually look this kind of stuff up. Maybe after 100 posts. Familiar or not, it was still very tasty, especially when combined with my new side of French fries with Tabasco ketchup. I would tell you the recipe for Tabasco ketchup, but it's a closely guarded family secret. (Hint: the name of the recipe is the whole recipe!) If you like spicy and you like ketchup, I would give it a try. Take a look. The picture sucks because of the weird-ass plates that they have at Ruby Tuesday, but as a bonus you get to see Kathryn's Avocado Turkey "burger."

More important than the ketchup though, is the fact that they actually cooked my burger medium rare! It was perfectly done. And just in time, because I was starting to lose hope for a decently cooked burger in a western Mass restaurant. Thanks for bringing back my faith, Ruby Tuesday!

-Jon

That Was a Fun Day

Since we got the tickets way back in November, I have been pretty excited about the Mark Knopfler concert for a much longer time than is probably safe. Finally, the big day arrived, roughly 6 months after Kathryn got the tickets and we got our free copy of Get Lucky.

The concert was over at the new MGM Grand at Foxwoods, so we decided that it would be even more fun if we met up with Scott & Amy and Alex & Erica beforehand. This turned into a barbecue that I was unaware of ahead of time, and that turned into surprise burgers!

Scott came up with some kind of crazy concoction for the meat that started with a bunch of diced up vegetables (mushrooms, green peppers and onions), the huge hunks of burger, and then "Burger Seasoning." I believe this may be the same seasoning that was previously documented at a different cookout hosted by Scott and Amy. Those beasts looked something like this:

I am not sure if you can pick up on the enormity of them from the pictures, but they were massive. Maybe this one will give you a better idea of what was going on.

And yes, I ate 2 of them.

After that, it was time to lock up the pups in pug jail and head over to Foxwoods. Side note - I am not a fan of the new road system around Foxwoods, which causes me to freak out unnecessarily and frequently end up going in the wrong direction. Stupid Foxwoods.

Did you know that the MGM Grand and the normal Foxwoods are not connected to each other by any kind of walkway and are actually quite far apart? I know that now. It is a good thing that we arrived with ample time before the show and are excellent Foxwoods navigators, because we got the shuttle and arrived at the MGM way before concert time. In fact, there was plenty of time for us to wander the slot machines and find out that the one Kathryn likes is apparently very popular.

The show was awesome. Not so much the girl who opened, because she kept using the word beautiful over and over and played music that was a little too country for me. I may be imagining the second part though, as the guy who accompanied her had a cowboy hat on, which means I was going to hear country music no matter what he played. However, the Mark Knopfler part was fantastic. The only negative was that he did not wear a headband or wrist bands or a sports coat with weird pants, but his voice was exactly the same as I remember it from those old CDs. It was kind of weird, but it really crushed my memories of 1980s Dire Straits. I hope that Tom Petty doesn't do the same thing in August.

-Jon

This Actually Didn't Happen Today

For reasons that shall go unsaid, the following stories all happened on a different day that is definitely not Tuesday, April 13th. Let's go with Sunday.

I have a long list of things to obtain in anticipation of Nicole and James moving out with all their stuff and Matt and Bill moving in with not any stuff. Some of these things make me sad, like pots and pans, silverware, etc., because that means I am probably going to be a grown-up soon. I decided to check on some prices today (which is Sunday), so I headed over to the Holyoke Mall. This of course, can only mean one thing.

Wendy's.

Since pretty much anyone who has ever eaten at Wendy's knows what a burger from Wendy's tastes like, I will instead list a bunch of random thoughts I had while walking around the mall. Also, I will show you what my bag from Wendy's said.

Nerds.

I bet this post will be popular with Michelle Sagan Gonçalves.

-I can't wait until I don't have to work and can walk around the mall before there are many customers. When you're the only customer in the store, you sure get a lot of attention! I am also excited about reaching that age where you stop caring about your appearance in public. I have to assume that many of those people do not have mirrors in their homes/mobile homes/vans that double as homes.

-If you walk around the mall taking pictures of products and writing down the UPC numbers so that you can look up the prices later, people are going to look at you funny. But no one will say anything to you, which means you don't have to stop doing it.

-Children + shopping = misery. I cannot figure out why people even try to have a normal life while they have children under the age of 10. Unless their kids are crate-trained, so they can leave them home while they have fun.

-A lot of people who work at the Holyoke Mall speak Spanish. It makes me miss the ridiculous times we had in Sra. Bennett's Spanish II, III and IV classes. And also that study I had in her class senior year. Poor Sra. Bennett. . .

-I bet when people order food at restaurants and all the employees are speaking another language, the more racist people think the employees are saying things about them. When Bill and I open a restaurant, I think we should learn Greek just to mess with people. I bet that not many people around here know Greek.

-For some reason, walking around with a Starbuck's cup made retail people take me a lot more seriously. Haha! Joke's on you, suckers!! It was hot chocolate, not coffee!

-I feel really awkward looking at things in the housewares section. I think the employees there know that I do not belong. I am going to have to bring Kathryn next time.

-Why is Target so huge? And why don't they have CD racks? These are the questions that will keep me up tonight.

-I should probably stop going in the "sad puppies" store next to Macy's. At least until I win the lottery and can actually buy some of those poor pups. Also, did you know that they make white pugs? There was one at that store, but I bet it won't be there next time I go, since I've never seen the same dog twice. She is either doing an amazing business, or it's a kill-shelter. I really hope it's the first option.

-I am going to say that if someone pulls up to you in the parking lot of Dick's Sporting Goods and offers to sell you a surround sound system and projection TV, there is probably a 99.9% to 100% chance that those items are stolen. I couldn't even make this story up.

-What kind of store is Kohl's? I thought it was a clothing store, but apparently, they also sell this:

I am so confused right now.

-Kohl's really needs to be 2 floors. At Macy's, I know I belong upstairs. At JCPenney, I know I belong downstairs. At Kohl's, I got completely lost and ended up in a section of clocks. This is a problem.

-I don't know much about vacuum cleaners, but I know I definitely do not need one that costs $549.99. For that price, it better vacuum my house for me while I'm gone!

-One of my shoes squeaks when I walk. I keep thinking that I've stepped on a mouse.

-If there is a (non-food or drink) product I like, there is also a really good chance that if I ever want another one, it will be impossible to find. Like that CD rack Melissa gave me. That thing is great. Too bad I am completely unable to locate another one like it. Now I have stacks and stacks of CD cases that are homeless.

-Baystate Medical Center is clearly a maze. I think I rode 5 different elevators and ended up on at least 3 different floors before I found Kathryn. Then I put a tracking device on her in case I ever need to find her there again. I am not repeating that navigatory disaster. I hope she doesn't read this and find it. Also, apparently "navigatory" is not the adjective form of navigation. I'm leaving it there anyways.

-If someone you don't know tells you they recognize you from Facebook, it may cause you to panic. Or maybe that was just me.

-If you are driving, and there is not a stop sign, it is a good idea not to stop. Otherwise you may aggravate me and end up being referenced in a blog that 5-10 people read. Yeah that's right, Stupid-Old-Lady-Driving-a-VW-Golf, I'm talking about you. Why were you stopping!?

-Have you seen the guy who walks around Ludlow with the crazy white beard? That must have taken a long time to grow. I bet it's really itchy.

-For some reason, when I am halfway done cleaning my room, it looks worse than when I started. I think I'm doing something wrong.

-Some people are really intense about their lawn. And other people don't seem to care at all. I am in group 2. Sometimes I worry that the people in the intense group see my "lawn" and are secretly judging me. Hey, lawn care cuts into my Sam Adams time.

-If you pay $13 for a shoe rack, you are definitely getting what you paid for. I am pretty sure that I could break this thing by sneezing too hard.

-Why is the packaging on this shoe rack so hard to open? Were there a lot of people opening the packages at the store and running off with the racks? This seems a little extreme.

-I have way more shoes than a normal man needs. Waaaaaaaaay more.

-That was a lot of thoughts about shoes. I hope I don't have a foot fetish.

-Jon

Second Verse, Same As the First

It would appear that even though I write down a detailed description and story about all of my cheeseburgers, it is still not enough to remember which ones I have tried when I revisit restaurants. Maybe I should start reading my own posts.

Nah.

Kathryn and I went to Fitz Willy's for a late lunch after her day of clinical instruction and my day of pug-filled shenanigans. More on that later. It pretty much doesn't matter what they do to my meal, as they have gorgonzola & garlic bread, which is probably the world's greatest appetizer. Also, I would have to guess that it has somewhere around 15,000 calories, so it is definitely a meal for bulimics. Additionally, I got a parking space at a meter with an hour and 10 minutes already on it! Score!!

I went for the Jack & Meunster Burger, and then sadly realized that I have already eaten it. So pretty much everything I said last time still applies, except that this time they overcooked it. Why is it so hard to get a medium-rare burger these days?

Now, I told you that story so I could tell you this one; it has less burgers, but more of me getting locked out of a house.

While Kathryn went to clinical, I went to Dunkin' Donuts, lay on the couch with pugs, read, and basically was a bum. The thing about pugs is that they tend to, like other dogs, need to be let out from time to time to do various digestive system related things. The thing about Kathryn's house is that I don't have a key to it, so when I go out to get a Vanilla Chai, bagel and coffee roll, I may forget to put the spare key back.

I suspect you can tell where this is going.

Sometime around noon, Chloe started whining, so she, Odin, Angelo and I went outside to take care of our respective businesses. No, I did not break any public urination laws. My business was making sure that pugs did not get hit by cars. Unfortunately, it would seem that I did not unlock the door, so when Giles jumped up at it all angrily since I didn't let him out, he actually pushed it shut and locked us out. For like 45 minutes. Now, pugs do not deal well with cold as it is, so the fact that Chloe romped through the yards of pretty much every house within 100 feet of Kathryn's meant that she was freezing. At the same time, Odin was jumping around like a mad-man, which meant that I couldn't even think. Also, Angelo just kept meowing at me. How is that helpful, Angelo!?

Finally I scooped up the pups and put them in a recycling bin, found a window whose latch looked different from the rest of the windows, and basically made a mess while breaking into the house. Go me! And yes, I let the pugs out of the recycling bin. I should have taken a picture though, because they looked so ridiculous.

I now owe Kathryn a new screen.

-Jon

A Brilliant Switch

After finding out that pretty much everyone I know thinks that Chili's has excellent food, and that there is now a Chili's just up the road basically, I figured I would peer pressure people into going to Chili's next time an opportunity presented itself. And after a long afternoon of enjoying some Coffeehouse Porter and #9 and watching the Olympics while listening to Nicky talk about Apolo Ohno and laughing at Odin relentlessly harassing Remy, this opportunity arrived.

Now, I have been to Chili's once before and thoroughly enjoyed their fajitas. However, I have been craving burgers lately, even though I just had one on Thursday. Thus, after about 10 minutes of looking at the menu and not really reading any of the foods, I decided to go with the Jalapeño Smokehouse Bacon Burger. However, I was not especially excited about the jalapeño-ranch sauce that was scheduled to come on said burger. The more I am exposed to it, the less I like ranch flavoring. I don't even eat those Doritos any more, and they used to be my favorite! Thus, I came up with a brilliant plan!

I asked the waitress to bring me the ancho-chile BBQ sauce from the Southern Smokehouse Bacon Burger instead. And, as Melissa will attest, that sauce was fantastic. It was delicious on the burger AND on the french fries. I am pretty pleased with the decision.

As for the burger itself, I have mixed reviews. Everything on the burger was really good, but they just did not manage to cook the burger appropriately. I have a very general expectation for a medium rare burger: it should be a little bit pink. This burger was not pink at all! Luckily, the bacon was about a quarter inch thick, and there were just enough jalapeños to make it a little spicy. I will give them another chance at some point in the future. But they better not overcook my burger again! I have very little patience for that nonsense.

-Jon

More Carside To Go

This is a sequel post to 2 other posts. See if you can figure out which ones. First correct answer wins nothing.

I went up to the Great North a little early to hang out with the animals and see how many different allergy pills I could take in a single day without having some sort of synergistic effect that knocked me unconscious (the current record is 3: CVS Generic, Claritin and Zyrtec). I was also tasked with the picking of the dinner. Since I don't really know any of the places around there, and I didn't want to put much effort into it, I went with Applebee's because I thought it would be easiest for Kathryn to pick up on the way home, as she has to pass it.

Even though my version of the menu was given to me within 2 hours of placing my order, I somehow did not have an up-to-date copy. This resulted in my original order not actually being on the "real" menu and also in me feeling incredibly foolish for not having a backup plan. I just went with an easy standby. A cheeseburger! The Fire Pit Bacon Burger to be more specific. And it was good, even as takeout. I was pretty surprised. I think that place may have to be visited more frequently. Especially if they actually make the Fire Pit a little spicier.

After the burger I enjoyed a nice Winter Warmer and then fell asleep covered in pug and cats while watching the Celtics stage an impressive comeback over the Pacers. That is a good night.

-Jon