Sometimes, I hate having neighbors.

OK, I just woke up from the sound of the neighbors running toilet water. He works at Home Depot. Can't he fix anything? How annoying. Anyway...

I woke up from a dream. I was either at or running an "Express Choice" fast food restaurant. They serve food that it's last step is to be kept hot on heated rollers. So think all-beef hotdogs, vegan dogs, chicken taquitos, pizza rollups, burritos, loaded baked potatoes, cheesy bites, deep-fried tofu logs, stuff like that. Any condiments come in a cup. So that would be like ketchup, mustard, green chili salsa, cheese and salsa, garlic sauce, ranch, guac, etc.

The other thing about this restaurant concept is that there is little to no contact with the customer so it's highly secure. They first pay the fee for the food, taxes are included in the fee, and it's served through a passthrough door. The stainless steel door is configured as such where it's locked in place when the hole is open to the restaurant "server", then when the order is ready, the food is placed in the access area, then the hole's opening access point is moved, changed from the server to the restaurant area where the customer retrieves the food they ordered themselves. When this occurs, the area is locked out from the server.

The restaurant doesn't handle money because the fees are collected via app or atm in whole dollar amounts. There's no change. There are no fountain drinks. All beverages are served in aluminum cans. All food is wrapped in paper with ads for the restaurant on it.

Now it's 2:30AM and instead of sleeping, I'm typing this blog entry and listening to the dulcet sounds of a toilet running on repeat next door. Ug.

Thanksgiving 2013

It feels like the longest short week ever. So much to do and so little time. I ran around town last weekend with my list of things to buy before the big cooking day tomorrow, Thursday. People who don't know or live in the US... Thanksgiving is a feast, a meal to share with family and friends of supposedly traditional foodstuffs the Pilgrims consumed in celebration of life in the new world after their 1st year.

This Year's Menu:

Roasted turkey breast (because it's not worth getting a skinny bird. There's hardly any meat on them!)
stuffing ( go go Mrs. Cubbinson's traditional variety. I make it with extra poultry seasoning. Yum.)
cranberry sauce (sometimes sauce, sometimes gel. I like mine with bits of tangerine in it. It's a sweet/sour juxtaposition my taste buds go nuts over against the stuffing's savory contrast.)
turkey gravy (Cambell's makes it with no dairy, thank you)
yams (I usually omit yams, but this year I felt like having them. I'll serve them with brown sugar, cinnamon and margarine.)
roasted carrots (in olive oil with rosemary. I already bought a rosemary plant and killed it. So sad.)
scalloped potatoes (specifically for Stephen because I don't consume dairy)
Brown Irish Soda Bread (making this recipe for the first time this year instead of going the easy route buying brown and serve pull-a-part rolls)
spiced pumpkin & carrot cake (because it's a must to have pumpkin flavored something at Thanksgiving.)

Recipes for the Brown Irish Soda Bread and Spiced Pumpkin and Carrot Cake can be found on my recipe website My Red Recipe Book .