Psychic Dustbunnies

I thought there would be something inside it

I stopped by the bakery on the way home from work the other evening. Looking for a pumpkin pie since johnny asked why we never have pumpkin pie (he found out during thanksgiving that he actually really liked it).

No pumpkin, no apple, no anything but a chocolate cream pie. I'm not a huge fan of chocolate cream pie but as I had stopped and gone in I felt i couldn't leave empty handed, so I bought one. Now you have to understand, I am on a mission to convince my boys to eat more pie. The reasoning is that Pam cares very little for pie or other deserts (except ben and jerry's and brownies) and if I can swing the boys to the pie side it will mean more pie for me ('more' as opposed to 'none'). So I figured I'd a try with the chocolate cream pie.

Johnny balked and flatly refused to eat any. Tyler, our 5 year old foodie, agreed to try a bite and loved it. So he asked for a slice. About half way through he came over to me and said 'I thought there would be something inside it." I had the same feeling actually - back to the drawing board.

Kentucky Road Trip

Just returned from a road trip with Joe and Dad. It was the kind of road trip where we flew to Nashville, rented a car and drove around for 6 days, about 1600 miles, and we had a great time.

Dad lived in Kentucky, Tennessee, and West Virgina for 2 years about 48 years ago and though this was a good time to head on back and check out the old places. We started in Nashville, drove to Elkton, KY then on to Madisonville, KY and spent the night there. Moved on to Penrod, KY, which I had intended to reclaim until I got there. Now I plan to have Josh reclaim in, renovate it, and wait for me triumphantly return in a couple years. Why Josh? Well he's 6' 7" for one thing, and he wasn't on the trip so it naturally fell to him. The town consisted of a Penrod Baptist Church, a little league field with "Penrod" on the outfield wall, a couple dozen houses, a few trailer homes and a lot of farmland.

From Penrod we moved on to Cynthianna, KY - which seems to have stolen the town plan in it's every detail from Elkton (or Elkton stole from Cynthiana). A main square that is the courthouse or town offices surrounded by the same diner, police station, etc. On to Williamstown and in to Dry Ridge for the night.
Moving on to Masillon, OH to visit Rich and family and spend the night. Then proceeded down through West Virginia and Virginia to Bristol, TN where we stood in 2 states at once. Spent the night in Bristol and next day made a detour to the Cumberland Gap and then on to Gallatin, TN and spent the night there. Out to Nashville and home after that.

We did manage to eat BBQ at Mike's in TN/KY, the Iron Pig or Pig Iron (can't remember which) in Columbus, OH, Buddy's in Bristol, TN and Jack's on Broadway in Nashville. Mike's was the most interesting - just along the county highway, Mike is a former preacher who was 'booted' out for preaching that you would know by the signs you show - and opened the BBQ a couple years ago. We ate and chatted with Mike. BBQ sauce was a TN-style, vinegar-based and not my favorite but the baked beans were the best.

Jones Strawberry Lime Soda

Jones Strawberry Lime Soda is too much strawberry and not enough lime.

Pictures of Ice Kachang

I seem to get a fair amount of folks looking for Ice Kachang pictures - so I decided to post a couple for you. I don't have any recipes - if you have a good one let me know (not like it's so hard to figure out but...). I enjoyed many of these when I lived in Sinagpore:

Carnibals

Today Tyler asked me "Wanna know why I am only in my underwear?" Of course I did. "Because I spilled some soup on my shorts." It's hard to deny that logic -- I told him, "I'm glad no one tried to eat you." To which he responded, "No one eats people, only carnibals do." ME "Carnivores?" Ty "Carnibals" Me "Cannibals?" Ty "Carnibals"

I bow to the new word of a 4 year old.

Durian

For some reason the word Durian popped into my mind today. For those of you unfamiliar with a Durian, it is the "King of Fruit" widely found in SE Asia. Two things come to mind when I think of durians:
1) Taste like heaven, smells like hell
2) I don't think it tastes like heaven.

Ice Kachang Pt. 2

Well the weather here continues to be hot, cooled down from about 104 to 98/99. I'm more of a 75 degree guy -- don't ask how I ended up living in Singapore twice!

So I'm thinking "How can I recreate ice kachang out here?" Anyone have real recipes using ingredients I can get in the states (and not Denver, joe - unless your bringing them to me) post away!

Ice Kachang

It's been in the 100's for a few days now - yesterday was 106!
Joe called from Denver and said he saw the ingredients for Ice Kachang. There is no better way to make it through a hot day than eating an Ice Kachang (or 2 or 3). When I lived in Singapore during my graduate internship at Dentsu, Young & Rubicam I made it through many excursions throughout the city (walking, not driving since I was on a tight budget*) by stopping at one of the many hawker centers and having an Ice Kachang. The best part was you could just hang your face over it and feel the coolness coming up off the ice.