A Cheesy Deal

Hello cheese fans. And when I say "cheese fans," I mean those who like/love cheese of all kinds, not those who love cheesy jokes and such. (You know who you are.)

I love cheese. It's one of my favorite food groups, right up there with bacon and chocolate. Any time I make a trip to my local Ingles grocery store, I check out their little gourmet cheese section looking for markdowns. Why markdowns? Have you ever looked at the regular prices of that stuff? Then you shouldn't have to ask.

A few weeks ago, I came across a small block of cheese marked down to .99. It was going out of date the next day, which is of course why it was marked down. How drastic was the markdown? Well, this little block of cheese normally costs $14.99lb. Yep, you read that right. $14.99 for a pound of cheese. Don't know who actually pays that much, but it sure ain't me.   :)

Anyhoo, the cheese I got to try that day was from a German company called Kaseberg, and the cheese is Butterkase. Buttery cheese? Well heck, I knew it had to be good. And for just under a dollar, what have I got to lose?

What indeed? OMG, I was in heaven. This cheese is so creamy and oh-so-freaking-good. And of course, I knew it would be a long time before I could ever get it again. Every trip to Ingles took me over to the gourmet cheese to see if maybe, just maybe, they had more marked down. But alas, it was not to be. Not for weeks and weeks.

Then, there it was. The beautiful image of an orange "Special Today" sticker on several packages of the wonderful cheesy goodness. I immediately rushed over and picked them up, only to find that the "Special" was a markdown to $7.99. There were several days before the sell-by date, and I guess they were trying to get them out of there as fast as they could. But still, $7.99?!?! Not this cheese eater. So I put the packages down, noting the sell-by dated listed. I had a plan.

The day before the sell-by date, I made a trip to Ingles. There were two "Special Today" packages left. Just two. And they were still marked $7.99. I grabbed my booty and approached a deli worker. I explained the situation. The cheeses were going out of date the next day and would not be able to be sold. I had bought some for .99 before and wondered if they might mark these down as well. He took the packages, thought for a moment and proceeded to affix a sticker for .99. I thanked the polite young man profusely and left the store that day a happy camper.

For $1.98 I got two packages of a wonderfully delicious cheese that would normally cost a bit over $11 a piece. Now that is what I call a cheesy great deal. (I did also check the other packages and the next date is mid-August. I will be watching.)

Independence Day

So, today we celebrate our Independence Day. There will be food, fun and fireworks...if your town hasn't had them already the way many have, including mine. That is one of my little frustrations. We should celebrate the holiday ON THE HOLIDAY. But, that's just my opinion, and we know all about opinions, don't we.

Nothing really special going on at the Bell house today. Just another day, although I am going to bake some of my super famous Chocolate Mint Chip cookies and maybe some brownies. Yes, I am baking in the middle of July. Can't help it. I like to bake. And as for it being too hot, well, that's what air conditioners are for.

I would like for everyone to remember something today. We are a great country that has made some mistakes. But in the end, we are all in this together. Our opinions may differ, but that shouldn't matter. Healthy debate is good, compromise is a necessity and name-calling is just plain stupid. Stop it.

Have a great holiday, y'all.

Wordless Wednesday (Floral Edition)

Things to Do

Ah, Tuesday. The week isn't even half over, but at least it's not Monday. Woke up two-and-a-half hours before the alarm was set to go off, and couldn't go back to sleep. Oh well. The morning/early afternoon is filled with a med appointment for the hubs and pet sitting for Jack the Parkway cat, a wonderfully delightful client I must say, then it's back home for.....a nap. Yes, I see a nap in my near future.

Google here has the right idea. But then, he is a cat after all.

Green Bananas

I have a bunch of bananas that just will not get ripe. They sit there, all pretty green,  mocking me. So, I decided to look up recipes using green bananas. Now, I know there are ways to get these things to ripen. For instance, I've read that if I put them in a Ziploc bag with some tomatoes or apples, that will do it. But am I going to do this? No, I'm not. I decided to go the unconventional route of actually using these bananas as they are if possible. Why not? I love to experiment after all.

So, off I went on the great green banana recipe search, and I actually found some interesting sounding dishes. Like Samoan Green Bananas on All Recipes. It contains just 3 ingredients (green bananas, onions and coconut milk), which sounds a bit like an odd combination, but I'm willing to try it. Why not?

Also on All Recipes, I found a recipe for Green Banana Fries. What an idea, to cut green bananas into strips and fry like French Fries. Another interesting sounding one to try.

Then on the Cooks.com site, I found recipes for Green Banana Chips (just like fries only cut into slices), Green Banana Salad, Green Banana Pie and various others that sound equally good....or at least interesting, depending on your tastes.

There are other recipes out there. Just glancing down the search results page shows Green Banana Curry (not too sure about that one), Boiled Green Bananas (sounds kinda dull) and even a Green Banana Smoothie (um, maybe). I've even seen a recipe or Mackerel with Green Bananas (probably NOT).

I'm sure if I keep looking, I'll find a green banana recipe that uses some form of chocolate. Now that one I would definitely try.

365 Project

I've been working on something called the 365 Project. The idea is to take a picture every day for a year to show what you were up do basically. It can be a picture of anything that you happen to see and want to take a picture of. I post the pictures on my Facebook page, and thought it would be nice to share some here with y'all.

This was taken on February 14th. I was driving down the road and when I saw this vertical cloud and how it was casting a shadow on the clouds behind it, I had to stop and take a photo. It looked so cool.

The camera was sitting on top of the truck for this one, which is why it's a bit crooked. This is me with Jack, one of my pet sitting clients. I've been visiting him twice a week since last September while his owner is in Ireland. The owner will be coming back soon, and I'm really going to miss my visits with Jack. He's such a good boy. (Although, you can tell from the picture he is not much for being held, especially when he's outside.)

I just like this one...the bright yellow against the old gray house. Would love to know the story behind that house. Maybe I should just make one up.

I almost always have my camera with me and take several pictures most days, not just the one for this project. The problem is deciding which one to use for this.

Today is day 103.

Going Nuts?

Sometimes I wonder if I'm just plain losing my mind. Today is one of those times.

Last year, I lost one of my little kitties, Yahoo. I swear I remember posting about that. I remember putting up his picture and talking about the loss, etc. I even remember people commenting on that posting. Now, when I look back to March of 2010 in the archives, that post is no longer there. Other posts seem to have disappeared as well.

I find this fact rather disturbing. Could it be my mind is merely making this stuff up, that it never actually happened? Or is Blogger for some reason taking down certain posts? Odd either way.

I have to wonder, have any of you had this experience? Or is it just me? If it's just me, I will simply file it away as one of those odd quirks of the human mind and let it go at that. If it's not "just me," although I'll still be angry about my posts having disappeared, at least I'll know I haven't totally gone off my rocker....

...yet.

Good News

Cat Island was spared. I am happy beyond words. They had a good bit of damage of course, and are in desperate need of supplies for both humans and felines, but the island itself was not submerged as originally feared.

Please continue to keep those affected by this disaster in your thoughts.

Sadness

Today I am feeling especially sad. The earthquake and tsunami in Japan weighs heavily on my mind, but maybe not for the same reason it weighs on the minds of so many others. Yes, I am saddened by the loss of human life, a total number of which we are no where near knowing yet, but I read about a tiny island there yesterday that has my heart breaking.

Tashirojima, or Cat Island as it is also called, is just off the coast of Japan. From what I've read, it is in one of the most vulnerable spots when it comes to the tsunami that rolled in after the devastating earthquake. Many fear it has been totally submerged.

This island is home to around 100 people (83% of them elderly) and a cat population that tops even that. The cats are fed and taken care of by the island inhabitants as it is believed feeding cats brings wealth and good fortune.

My thoughts are with those living on this island, and with the many cats. I keep searching the internet, hoping to find a report that says this place has been miraculously spared, but I'm not getting my hopes up. As heartbreaking as it is, I have to be realistic as well.

My husband calls me the Crazy Cat Lady, and I adore my cats. I know the fear we as humans go through when something horrible is happening, and I can't imagine the fear the animals feel, especially since they have no way of knowing what's going on in the first place.

My thoughts are with everyone in Japan, but especially with the animal citizens. The Rainbow Bridge is very busy today.

(To donate and help the animals affected by this tragedy, go to The American Humane Association. Our furry friends thank you.)

Odd Habits

I wonder how many of my friends have odd and quirky habits. I don't know what brought this thought to mind. Oh wait, yes I do. I was making a glass of chocolate milk earlier this week, and drinking it in my odd and quirky way. Ever since I was a kid, I have had a habit of drinking my chocolate milk with a spoon, like a soup. I don't know why. It's just something I do.

Another thing I like to do is when I use a straw, I blow bubbles in my milk. I used to get fussed at for that one, but I'm an adult now so I can pretty much do what I want. Odd thing is, I never really got in the habit of doing that with chocolate milk. Only plain milk. Weird.

And if I'm eating cookies with my milk, I hold the cookies in the milk until they are nice and soggy. None of that just simply dunking them in real quick. Heck no. When I was a kid, my brother Dennis got mad because he was the one doing dishes and I had dunked my cookie in my milk glass until it got too soggy and part of it broke off into the glass, sitting there in the bottom like a big old clump of mud. He fussed about it, then had to wash it anyway. Poor kid.

My odd and quirky habits don't stop at milk. I also have this odd habit of looking for even numbers in things. If a license plate on the car in front of me doesn't have an even number of letters/numbers on it, I will count the number of lines it takes to make the ones it does have, looking for that even number. I do the same thing with signs, often adding in the signpost if I have to in order to make the number even. If I'm slicing a piece of cheese off a block, I will get two small pieces instead of one larger one so I'll have an even number. If I'm eating M&M's, I like to get a bunch and organize them by color with an even number in each group. (And no, I'm not organized at all where it really matters. I can't find a thing in my purse or in my house for that matter.)

I'm sure I have other odd habits. Could probably ask my husband and get a nice long list of them. But those are the ones that stick out right now. I'm sure more will come to mind as soon as I post this. That's what usually happens.