Food Porn, South African Style

Of course, no trip is complete without at least ONE meal being photographed so here's lunch.

First, here is Tom's bruschetta:

 

 

And now Mary's:

 

 

Mary describes this as

"Egg, avocado, feta cheese, arugula and tomato on really good bread"



 

 

Mary did not photograph Dave's lunch because all he had was a ham sandwich -- but I would have liked to have seen this simple, rustic ham sandwich. Meanwhile, Michelle had pate.

 

 

What Arrived Today

Got two great presents delivered today. The first was from Michelle and Tom and the box was labeled "cake." I opened the carton, to find a styrofoam inner carton with an ice pack and inside was not a whole cake but "cake balls" -- Austin (Texas) cake balls in this pretty copper colored metal box:

OK, so the two empty spaces weren't empty when I opened the box but I had to sample, right? To make sure the cake balls arrived in good shape....

So there are six cake balls -- or rather there WERE six cake balls, about the size of an egg.  One I ate was like a spice cake with cream cheese frosting. The other was dark chocolate with chocolate frosting that had a spicy, pepper kick as an aftertaste. Both were great. I ate one more, and saved the rest.

Then I got this big bouquet of flowers from Lane. The container they're in is something I had bought on Ebay years ago and I'm not sure why I bought it. It's an antique maple syrup bucket that syrup makers would hang from trees to gather the maple sap. It has the green original pain and is rusty and there's something about it that I like. It's usually too deep for flowers, but it was perfect for this bouquet.

Didn't arrange much; just put them in the syrup bucket.

These smell so good, and I think Lane said she wanted something bright and cheerful and these are. Thanks!

Happy Birthday, Stephanie!

 

Happy Birthday to my dear friend Stephanie. I miss you and miss our birthday dinners -- well, I miss you and the queso fundido! Best wishes for a happy, healthy year and all good things should come your way.

Scary or Good?

I went to Google for the first time today just now and the illustration was birthday cake, candles, etc. and I thought what a coincidence -- it's the birthday of something... I ran my cursor over the illustration and it read, "Happy Birthday, Patricia" -- Wow... Google knows my birthday and changed the illustration just for me and my computer?? A whole new world out there!

Lovely Lunch with Judy

You know I'm a creature of habit when it comes to food, so when my friend Judy joined me for lunch, I had her stop at Tal Bagels for a repeat of the pickle/chicken salad sandwich.

I know I'm not pregnant, but I've had a pickle craving lately.

This is chicken salad and shredded lettuce on an everything bagel. You can see the nice hunks of chicken. Plus every so often, you get a nice bit of salt from the everything bagel. Mmmmmmmm.

So I knew Judy likes all that deli fish and she got a whitefish salad on a bagel. She also asked for both our bagels to be toasted.



She added tomato to hers which looks like a sesame bagel.

And some juicy fruit salad on the side...

Judy bought herself this green smoothie thing that looked horrid, like some fluid you wouldn't want to see coming out of your body, but it is a HEALTHY DRINK!

Judy and I were in kindergarten together so we reminisced. Post-lunch, we started talking about Girl Scout camp which we both adored. Camp Blue Bay! We want a time machine -- just the details we remember about that place. It was heaven. I said I even remember the camp songs and we had a singalong of Camp Blue Bay songs -- how come I can remember every lyric to Camp Blue Bay songs and can't remember Mary's phone number at times? Anyway, it was a great lunch and a fun time.

Oh I've got bites on my fingers
and cuts on my toes
sticks and stones to sleep on
and a red, red sunburned nose
but oh my dear family
I'm writing home to say
I'm having such a jolly time at Camp Blue Bay!!!!

Jet Setters Selfie

Do people even use that expression any more? Anyway, here are Michelle and Mary at Atlanta airport with two hours to go until they depart for South Africa. This date was set months ago when October 6 seemed like a world away, and now it's here... Bon Voyage, Ladies!

Loose Change/Pickle/Sandwich

Marilyn was here today and I have a jar of loose change -- I'd say it was about a year in the making. I was not religious about putting change in there, but just when I'd have too many coins in my wallet or find a coin on the floor. How do they get on the floor anyway?

I don't think anyone rolls coins any more, but Marilyn said TD Bank takes them for a fee. As it turns out, I had $96 in coins, less the fee, to net me $88. I put it in my at-home cash emergency fund (for when ebola, terrorists, tsunamis or the entire system of ATMs goes down). It really is a painless way to save some money.

I also had her bring me a whole pickle (among other things) from a deli and it reminded me of a story from when I worked in an office and would go to a deli for lunch and they'd give you a slice of pickle, along with your sandwich, which I loved. One day I say to the deli guy, "Give me a big one." I was just joking around, not realizing I was being the perfect straight(wo)man. He said, "Oh you like the big ones?"

"Oh yes," I say, talking about pickles. "I like the big ones."

He said, "I'll give you a big one."

"Great, thanks," I say, still thinking about pickles when some brain cells aligned and I realized what I was saying and turned purple.

But back to the present. Had a fantastic sandwich -- really fresh chicken salad with identifiable pieces of chicken with shredded lettuce on an everything bagel. A sandwich fit for a queen.