Ain't no low acid, this is fresh-squeezed!

The early bird gets the fresh-squeezed orange juice.

Last week I finally learned a bit more about Iron Hen and found my way there for a simple and filling breakfast.

And because it was me, I couldn’t order a breakfast meal or one biscuit or Danish; I had to make a meal out of sides. I got the fresh-squeezed orange juice* (and I am glad to pay the premium), a biscuit, and some home fries.

I had to resist putting in my Bojangles order of an egg-and-cheese biscuit. Not that I go to Bojangles that often, but I know that it’s that over-the-top combination of eggs and cheese that I will love until the third bite (after which I gottawannaneeda cleansing fast). I’m glad that I got out of the house early enough so I could get lost on Cridland for at least 15 minutes. I’m pretty used to seeing Cridland from driving on E. Wendover but I’ve never ventured past the intersection. Before discovering the location of Iron Hen, Cridland and Wendover’s shining glory for me was the Dunkin’ Donuts. Yet, I have never actually been in that DD location…

I really need to eat more fruits and vegetables.

The biscuit was large and in charge; I couldn't finish the whole thing so it was biscuit for lunch, too! The home fries were amazingly perfect; they weren’t too oily and if I can confirm that they aren’t prepared on the same surface as the bacon, ham, etc., Iron Hen just may need to stock up on the potatoes because I’ll be there.

*I suppose I became addicted to fresh-squeezed orange juice in Macau this summer. I got it as often as I let myself from Hyper Gourmet because, even with the exchange rate in my favor, I thought it cost a pretty pataca.

Beans on Buns

I need to figure out why Summit-anything in Greensboro is called “Summit.” I need to know the origins of such things! That knowledge is my life-force (or is it life-source?).

Oh, and my other motivation to make do every day is a good home-made veggie burger. Ok, not home-made, because though it seems like it would be easy enough, I’m not trying to make any anytime soon. I am still dealing with my cupcake-hangover.

I used to default to the burger section of menus at restaurants because I figured that there would be a veggie burger option. Soon enough, though, I got irritated by the fact that these “burgers” were most likely the Boca or Morningstar Farms variety. Sometimes, the restaurant would point out the brand with no shame. Alright, alright, there shan’t be any shame (oh my goodness I didn’t know that “shan’t” was a real contraction); the restaurant is just trying to cater to that set of customers, right? They gave us something! Um, yeah.

Well, if you do like I do and go to Five Guys and complain that even their grilled cheese sandwich is, um…not good…you really can’t complain. Some places just may not take the initiative to create dishes that are vegetarian or vegan. Now, one often enough finds dishes that happen to be vegetarian or vegan and are also pretty complex, even haute, or just plain great. Is that just being lucky?

Anyhow, before I depress myself too much, I know that what makes me happy is when I see that a restaurant has an in-house made veggie burger. Even if the restaurant used the same basic ingredients or flavors as a Morningstar or Boca mushroom or black bean burger that would be fine with me because those flavors ain’t that bad. Perhaps the worst thing about those frozen patties is just that—they’re patties. They are “veggie burgers” to be categorized with the other burgers on the menu. If we called it anything else, it would just be a sandwich, right? But, who makes sandwiches with patties that aren’t hamburgers? Oh, sure, there are chicken patties, yes, yes. Hmmm…can we just call it flavor-fun on a bun? Because, you know, all good sandwiches come on buns. Of course.

Last week I tried two, count ‘em, two veggie burgers of the house at The Summit Station and from Hogan’s Groovy Gourmet. Both were very different and very flavorful on non-competitive levels. The buns were different, the patty ingredients were different, and the toppings were different. Yes, even the veggie burger can have variety beyond “Grillers,” mushroom, and black bean.

The Pinto Burger at The Summit Station.

Can I have fries with that?

Oh, English.

I just Googled "football cupcakes" for some images to inspire me as I plan a Super Bowl menu for tomorrow. I was a bit confused/peeved that some of the first images were of little soccer balls on the cupcakes and it took me way to long to realize that, oh yeaaaah..."football."

*Sigh* Cupcake-inspiration-searching is serious, people! Every second counts!

Patronizing Greensboro

I'm finally going to go grocery shopping today for what seems like the first time in 2010! I've mostly been stopping in here and there to get one of three things: celery, powdered sugar, or Clif and Full bars.

What well-rounded meals!

In fact, I finally made my way to Harris Teeter this week and bought out the entire shelf stock of one brand of powdered sugar. This, folks, is apparently how I prepare for winter storms.

One of my resolutions--or, let's just say "goals" now--was to eat what I already had at home in the pantry and fridge. So far that's meant a lot of pasta and cupcakes, but, boy, it's been a fun, carbalicious ride.

That's also meant that I haven't eaten out a lot lately, which is great. My main problem was eating out for lunch during the work week. On the one hand, I felt bad for spending so much money on lunch every week that I didn't even realize until the 5 bucks here and 10 bucks there became too-many-bucks at the end of the month. On the other hand, I felt bad because I wanted to try out new restaurants in the area, try something new and pump some of my money into the local economy. I don't know how much my one lunch would help, but it made me feel good to think about patronizing an establishment.

Wow, "patronize" has a bad connotation.

Anyways, I have been craving some Greensboro eats forever but kudos to me for just saying "No!" Here is a list of some things that I yearn for and will at some point reward my self with. Try them out!

1. Salmon sushi and vegetable fried rice from Bamboo Grille.
2. Grilled cheese sandwich and house chips from Jay's Deli.
3. Caprese pasta at Vito's.
4. Vegetable boxty from M'Coul's.
5. Wildflower Witbier from Natty Greene's.

Ok, the last one isn't a food (but I love it) and, honestly, the first two from Bamboo Grille and Jay's Deli are the things I yearn for so much that it hurts.

Well, I'm saving money, really starting to appreciate the art of the grilled cheese sandwich (vegan fail) and "treating" myself to the above.

Oh, great. The Super Bowl is tomorrow. I gotta shop now! All the bean dip in Greensboro is gonna run out!

Good morning!

"La inflamacio'n de precio"

Estoy leyendo este articulo y al terminar esta frase, "Siete años después, las discográficas lloraban por un cambio en la política de precios, una que al menos les permitiese ajustar la inflación," you lei' la u'ltima palabra como "inflamacio'n." Que fuerte. haha At least I know that my vocabulary is that much bigger--cognate or not--and that I remember el vocabulario me'dico que aprendi'...*sigh* Pobrecitos.

¿Qué acento tengo?

I like to think that I make an extraordinary effort to not be lazy and speak foreign languages with my so-called "Valley girl" accent (I've lived on the East coast all my life, by the way).

Please take a moment to listen to a clip of me reading an excerpt from elmundo.es by Fran Marti'nez. Do I just sound like an American speaking Spanish? Am I on my way to sounding more like a hispanohablante de verdad? Let me know in my Comments section or @gsossa.

Here is the link to the article's text.
Here is the link to my reading of the article. (Sorry, I didn't know how to upload audio to the internet before posting this!)

Check out how I try to slip in some German pronunciation in "Brandenburgo." Ha! I crack myself up.

Oh, and please notify me of any other mistakes or oddities you hear. Well, I am reading from a Spanish-language newspaper so I hope there aren't any grammatical errors or anything like that!

Well, I believe I have the guttural down in German, pronounce the "gl" digraph in Italian with some ease, and I try to always stress the first syllable with Finnish words. I still have trouble rolling my "r"s with ease in Spanish which is funny because that is the language I have been learning the longest.

Since about...1998.

I didn't have any particular desire to start learning Spanish other than probably just trying to take the same foreign language class that I thought most people in my high school freshman class were taking. It was a bumpy ride at first but I became shockingly adept at picking up the language once I started my second, consecutive year in high school.

I suppose that my accent influence first came from Eros Ramazzotti. My second-year Spanish teacher played "La cosa mas bella" from his "Donde hay mu'sica" album and I instantly fell in love with the song. I bought the album as soon as possible. Years later, I picked up the Italian version of the album, "Dove c'e' musica." And, so, I came to realize that ol' Eros was un italiano de verdad; I soon wondered how his new accent was affecting mine.

I lived in a dorm all through undergrad and for the most part I lived with a roommate from Ecuador who was always speaking Spanish (often enough, by her suggestion/my request!). At the same time, I lived with a constant flow of international students who spoke many languages, nonetheless many types of Spanish. Though accent and vocabulary differences seemed the most obvious between los hispanohablantes de Espania y los hispanohablantes de every other country, I still realized through all of the chit-chat that there was no such thing as one kind of Spanish.

My method of learning has been a mishmash of strategies and serendipity and one must at some point in the process be happy that so many Spanish-language learning materials--from a local Spanish-language newspaper to a grammar workbooks--are available. All politics aside, they're there, so take advantage if you can!

Thanks!

Though I love a good alphabet...

In case you ever follow me to the letter...via this blog or elsewhere...just know that if I ever make a spelling mistake and catch it later, I explode with shame. Yes, I depend on spellcheck programs when available (in fact, right now, I am being told by a low-key red underline that "spellcheck" is not one word...*sigh*). But, of course, spell-check-ers don't always catch what you mean to say. You meant "cup?" Well, you just typed "up" and that's a real word in my book! Doesn't make sense in your sentence? Too bad!

Many of us have already giggled in self-righteous/self-loathing judgment at The Oatmeal's Ten Words You Need to Stop Misspelling. Well, I honestly make some of those mistakes in typing but mostly because I decided to not take Keyboarding in middle school. Future of technology FAIL.

I have more personal writing/typing snafus that always irk me but, hey, they make me me, right? Perhaps. Or, they just make me a reckless writer.

Ok, and so here are my usual mistakes:
--When typing a word that ends with the letters "th," like "bath," I type an "e" at the end of the word because I think I am in the process of writing "the."
--When I write by hand (which is increasingly awkward and hasty because I do it less and less it seems), I usually cross the "l"s or "h"s instead if the "t"s in a word that contains those letters.
--I don't dot my "i"s or "j"s.
--Sometimes, I don't even attempt to cross my "t"s.
--I almost ALWAYS type the word "just" as "jsut". Christ almighty, that is a pet peeve I've inflicted on myself.
--When connected letters like "m"s, "n"s, and "u"s in handwriting...I usually just let them all run together and the word just ends up looking like the loopty-loop scribble I used to think cursive looked like when I was in first or second grade.

For shame.

Oh, and in case you haven't noticed, I totally overuse the ellipsis but that's a punctuation thing.

Speaking of me and punctuation...