Unsure... Cooking Class!

Well, I feel that it has been so long since I've last posted that I'm not sure of what to post.  I've still been cooking about once a week, keeping records in my Journal.  Of at least most things I've been experimenting with alone with...
A few things that I've already made once I try to repeat so as to 'master' the dish.

When I was in school I definitely had an easier time writing.  Amazing how that is.  I can write that I won't be blogging about everything...  That kinda makes me sad.

Speaking of school! I tried to register for a Cooking Class.


Ethnic/Regional Foods

CRN: 3194B
Instructor: JONES, J

Class Description

Prepare and serve a variety of ethnic and regional foods. Compare ingredients, cooking techniques and traditions of differing cultures. Ideas for nutritious family meals and affordable entertaining included, as well as recipe adaptation methods to achieve maximum nutrition.
Introduction to a variety of Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Thai and other ethnic cuisines. Student friendly, hands-on, cook and taste recipes and cooking demonstrations vary with each weekly lesson. Students share food costs.

Start Date	End Date	Weeks	Days	Start Time	End Time
1/28/2011	6/3/2011	18	F	9:00 AM	2:00 PM

 I showed up to the first class right after working a 10 hour shift afraid that I would be too early.  Notice the time of the class.  I walk to the classroom after finishing my smoke and using the rest room.  
The class was packed.  I mean shoulder to shoulder, people practically sitting on top of each other packed.  It was quite a sight.
I was met by some guy holding a clip board and a crowd of people trying to get in.  The guy holding the clip board with what I learned was a waiting list said that he arrived at 0630 and almost did not get in the class.  People were lining up for the class at 0400.  That is 5 hours before class starts! Crazy! 5 hours! Full at 0630! That's 2.5 hours before class starts!
Who would have thought that going to school would be that popular!

Apparently the in thing is not to ditch, it's to show up 5 hours early!
Geez.  So much for the ideal that someone could always go back to school.  Wow.

The Chocolate Cherry Honey Yogurt Pancake Disaster

My apologies, sometimes it takes me a while to write...

Taken from my Journal where incidentally has been where I've been taking my cooking notes.  I edited the format a bit so that it could fit the blog format as well as included writing it as a story so that it translates better.

Sunday January 9th, 2011 at Scarlett's 0952 unmedicated (on Dextroamphetamine for A.D.D.)

Been up for a few hours now & think I want to make breakfast.

Yogurt Pancakes
Recipe adapted from 1generation.elementsintime.com/?p=377

.5 Cup All Purpose Flour
1.5 Tbs Sugar
1 tsp Salt
.5 tsp Baking Soda
.5 tsp Baking Powder
2 Large Eggs
1 Cup Yogurt
1 tsp Vanilla
1 Cup Fresh or Frozen Fruit

Whisk dry ingredients and make a well for wet ingredients.
Mix dry and wet ingredients till just mixed, leave lumpy.
Let sit at least 5 mins.
Add Fruit (fold in).
Let sit again.

Last Sunday I had this wild idea of making Chocolate Cherry Honey Yogurt Pancakes from scratch.

Two weekends ago I had made Blueberry Maple Pancakes and Hotlink and Cheese Scrambled Eggs for a Sunday Breakfast.  I did not write about it because I forgot the details and I made the meal before I created the blog.  I did discover how I could make Pancakes that come out similar to Mc Donalds Mc Griddle Buns.  Add B Grade Maple Syrup to the batter.  I couldn't tell you the ratios but I did use a little less water then the back of the Blueberry Pancake Mix box called for, to compensate for using the syrup.  Or maybe I used no water at all...  On second thought I guess I don't know how to make Blueberry McGriddle Buns....

The Fetuchini I blogged about was the meal that finalized my decision to create a cooking blog.

Mostly what inspired me to make the pancakes was having a lot of individual cups of flavored yogurts.

I started at 1003 medicated.

Instead of 1 Cup of plain or vanilla yogurt I used .5 Cup of Wallaby Organic Dark Chocolate (fruit on the bottom type of yogurt, but obviously chocolate is not fruit... Maybe it's processed bean?...) and .5 Cup of Voskos Greek Non Fat Honey Blend.
I also used only 1tsp of Sugar because of the Honey in the Yogurt and .5tsp and 1 drop of Vanilla Extract.  I reduced the Vanilla because I thought it would be too many distracting flavors.  Chocolate, Honey, Cherries.  I added 3 individual Dove snack sized or grab bag sized Milk Chocolate thingies.
By 1030 I cut myself with with a butter knife...  That's what I get for using a butter knife for cutting up chocolate that was already in tiny size.  Thus me learning that yes, Kurt and everyone else is right about good knives making a difference.  I should have trusted myself to use the good stuff and not be lazy about making use of a chopping board.
Chopped the Cherries in half.  Fresh Cherries.  They bleed.  I thought it was appropriate.
Smoked at 1047 frustrated.  I knew that this experiment would not be in my favor.  Smoking saved me from trashing everything I did.
1100 back to work.  Ingredients mixed as suggested, minus the chocolate and cherries.  Smoking allowed for the batter to double the size.
In with the cherries.
The batter deflated.  
I played some games on my ipod for a while.
The batter never returned to how it was before I put the cherries in.

I used a Emeril Lagasse Non Stick Frying Pan for the Pancakes.  The extra weight in the higher end pans does make a difference.  If it wasn't for Scarlett teaching me the properties of the pan, I would have burned everything it ever touched.  The heavier pans retain and keep heat better.  The problem with that is that it takes a long time for them to cool.  For the impatient, it would seem that one needs to turn up the heat.  I've learned that often times it's time not heat that's needed.  I also learned that because the pan keeps the heat more constant, I can control cooking better.  Why? Well I don't have to beat the fire and deal with inconsistent temperatures, which I realize now was a huge problem with cooking before.  I could time things a little better.

At the same time of cooking the Pancakes I made a Hot Link Spinich and Cheese Scramble.  Scarlett doesn't understand how I could have 2 pans going at the same time, but I can't stand staring at one pan waiting.  Most of my food turns out to not be edible when I do that.  I'm to impatient.  A lot about cooking has to do with timing.  I want everything at the proper temperature and I also want things to be cooked right.  Doing multiple things at the same time while keeps me from ruining a dish because of impatience.

I won't go into much detail about the Scramble because I'm tired and lazy and made the scramble once previous, minus the spinach.  Cooking the 2 Hot Links, cut into .5cm thick slices in butter.  I forgot that the butter was not necessary.  The Hot Links contain enough fat and it oozes out while cooking.  I had to drain some oil and it seemed that the butter made the scramble gross over all.  So I scrambled/beat some eggs and .5tsp of water, season with salt and pepper.  Drained oil in the pan.  If I didn't I would have been making Oil and Hot Links Scramble with some egg.  So in the scrambled egg (used a fork).  Put spinach from the salad bag in the picture (we used some of the salad for Kurt's Salad Recipe) in the eggs, about 20 leaves of I believe baby Spinach.  Dumped the eggs in to the pan with the nearly burned hot links.  Turned the heat to a 2 (Fetuchini Blog talks about my scale) slowly Folding the eggs around the pan till they were cooked.  I added some sort of already shreaded cheese on top of the eggs once the eggs were no longer liquidy and covered with a pan cover.

With the Pancakes I made the mistake of using butter in the pan.  Burned butter.  I never knew that butter could evaporate or something.  It did for me that day, but it left it's poop trail ruining the pancakes.  After I added the butter I remember Scarlett telling me not to butter the pan for pancakes, at least not for a beginner with that sort of pan.  That's what the non stick is for.  After 2 pancakes I wiped the butter off but there was no saving things.  Burnt outside, soggy seeming inside.  I kept telling myself that chocolate is brown, so it will look burned but to not be alarmed go by feel.  The pancakes just wouldn't turn well.  Even cooking just one pancake at a time didn't seem to help. 
My method was this.  Put .25 Cup of batter at a time in pan, add a few chunks of chocolate in pancake to be, wait till bubbles form through out pancake, flip...  Or scramble them around, which I kinda did for the first and second one because flipping seemed impossible.  Wait 30secs to 1 min, feel to make sure they are not doughy.  Then flip or leave it.  The bubbles and form was not telling me anything about doneness so I alternated, pretending that I could hear the pancake tell me what needed to be done.
To me, all the pancakes tasted slightly burned.  They weren't bad, just off a bit.  Slightly acrid or something.  They tasted burnt, salty, or baking soda tasting, I don't know.  I added more sugar half way through cooking them, but it didn't help.
Scarlett told me that the taste might be because of the Chocolate.  Chocolate burns very easily.  She reassured me that it was not my fault.  I did not know that the pancakes would not be done before the chocolate burned.  Scarlett mainly believed that the main issue was that the chocolate from the pancake before would have melted onto the pan, which would burn onto the next pancake.  She was able to distinguish the first pancakes from the lasts just based on the way they tasted.  I think that I just burned the chocolate on every pancake.  When I thought of it, I never saw chocolate pancakes with chocolate batter.  Chocolate chips within, sometimes, but not chocolate batter.  Now I know why.
Oh well.  I ate one pancake.  Scarlett ate the rest so I guess they weren't too bad.
The fresh fruit was also an issue for me.  Maybe halves or thirds on some of the cherries really needed to be quarters sliced.  I'm not sure if I was supposed to account for the liquid in the fruit or what.  I forget what Scarlett said about the batter exactly, but she said that it seemed the batter didn't rise.

All in all I could have done worst.  They were edible.

Conversations with Kurt

Shortly after posting about my Blog a good friend of mine, Kurt, emailed me.
It has to deal with cooking stuff so I decided to post it up.
This is what he wrote.
 

Thu, Jan 6, 2011 at 5:01 PM

So, my dear, you seem to be on a new journey yourself with your cooking blog. I love it! I'll send along some fun recipes I hope you take a crack at. Do you have a food processor? It will be your best friend someday. Also a good set of cooking knives, makes a huge difference.

You'll get the hang of what spices you like and the chemistry they have with different foods, just cook, cook, cook. Mistakes are good learning. My worst experiment was a pork roast that called for Thyme and I swapped out for oregano since I didn't have thyme. I almost killed three friends that night, yuk. Just buy one spice every month and build your spice rack. Also be careful of Tumeric, I made a near-poison pasta one night by using way too much of that stuff.

When are you at Cheers the next few days? I'll drop by for a drink and a hug.

XXOO

Kurt

 This is what I wrote back. 

Friday, January 07, 2011 12:09 AM

Yes the cooking thing is a new obstacle of enjoyment at this point of my journey in life.  I am excited and scared to death!  Thank you for your input, words of wisdom, and encouragement!  I'm glad you love the blog!  And if you don't and you were just being kind, thank you anyways! Lol. 

I think I have a kind of cheapo food processor.  I think that's what I picked up at "Home Goods" for $16.  It was advertised as some sort of electronic chopper/mixer or something.  I haven't taken it out of the box yet.  Scarlett has a food processor though, she busted it out when I tried to buy her one and yes it is pretty cool. 

She also has a good set of cooking knives.  I was on the market for mine and did a lot of research, but she gave me 1 big and 1 small Santoku type knives from her set to start with and told me that she mainly uses her chef knife, so having a whole set might not be necessary for a beginner.  It's one of the popular expensive German brands or something.  Henkels, I believe.  She said she had a better set before, a more expensive brand, but to me what she has is the best I've ever worked with.  "Kitchen Aid" cooking supplies are top of the line to my family.  Scarlett's into cooking and baking big time, really good at it too.  I've coached her on how to make some of the dishes I grew up with.
A lot of the more sophisticated 'adult foods', cooking techniques, and so forth are new to me.  Mostly because of my up bringing.  At the same time, because of my upbringing, I could coach Scarlett on how to make dishes she did not know how to make.  She was amazed to find out that of the two dishes I 'taught' her to make, I only made one of them once and it actually turned out edible, but no where near being the delicious creations she makes. 

Of the 'sophisticated adult foods' I did not know what a Tender Loin was until Scarlett cooked one or a Rudabeger, or that roasting meant oven cooking, etc.  And Turmeric?  Sounds like a really bad tumor.  Is it really poisonous? 
I had no idea that a damn pan was worth buying only if it was in the past $50 range. 
There seems to be A LOT I don't know, so I'm finding that I need to learn about new foods too.  That is probably what makes things difficult.  I'm not well versed on food in general. 

You know what?  Using Scarlett's cooking stuff, I seem to be doing better than when I was using the cheapo stuff I tried cooking on previous.  All of that is perhaps making a huge difference...  The right tools are necessary for some to do a good job I suppose.  But man what an expensive investment!
You know what was really nice?  Making a meal for Scarlett and Kimi (my ex, now platonic partner).  They've made many for me for years and it was surreal and nice to be on the other side for once.  I'm a b!tch in the kitchen now and want everyone out of my way, but they both still can't believe I made a meal that was not only edible but delicious!   
So can I copy and paste what you wrote me in reguards to cooking for my blog?  And give you credit for it?
Oh and also what I wrote you?

I'll be at Cheers Friday night, but not until 9pm.
9pm - however long it takes us to clean up after closing @ 2am.

Hugs and Best Wishes again,
Mickey

I have yet to find out about Tumeric, but I did find out about how and why having a set of good knives does make a huge difference.

I cut myself with a butter knife attempting to make breakfast last Sunday...  You'll find out all about it in my next blog.

I found out a lot about myself in context to food and cooking when I wrote back to Kurt.

On top of not being 'well versed with food,' I am not well versed in cooking techniques.  I have probably used a stove or oven cumulatively only 40 times in my life time, if that.  That's almost equivalent to how many movies I might have seen in my life time.  I might had seen more movies than cooked or baked.  Although I might despise sitting to watch a movie for hours as much as I despise prepping to cook and cooking, prepping to watch a movie and watching it is far easier than the whole cooking thing.  I just have to sit there to watch a movie and that is not as frustrating as cooking can be.

I think I'm changing though.  I feel that cooking might be much like when I was learning to drive.   When learning it was scary at first.  Once I understood how to operate a vehicle, I wanted to master doing it so I wanted to do the driving anytime driving was needed and I was present.
That's how cooking seems to be for me now.

So Kurt and Ben came by Cheers Friday night.  
Yes, Cheers is a Bar, but not the bar in the TV Series Cheers.  Usually I Barback for a good friend of mine and the Senior Bartender at Cheers, Josh.  Josh enjoys cooking and in my opinion he's a pretty good home chef, but he won't accept the title of Chef.  Josh prefers I call him "Sir".  Lol.  He claims that Rachel Ray taught him how to cook.  It was actually reasuring to know that considering that Rachel Ray has not been around a while, so Josh learned how to cook later in his life, much like me.  Knowing that gives me hope.  But I digress.

Accompanying Kurt and Ben Friday night was a Snowman Holiday Gift Bag, amusing white tissue wrapping paper with black polka dots sticking out the top of the bag.  It was a gift, for me!
After a bit of debating with Kurt, I opened the gift at Cheers to discover he had gifted me a book, "The 1997 Joy of Cooking" by Irma S Rombauer, Marion Rombauer Becker, and Ethan Becker! Josh and many of the patrons noticed right away chiming in about how great the book is and claiming that the book is perhaps the bible of cooking.  Between the patrons and staff at Cheers, there are a few cooking groups that gather together taking turns at who cooks for the group on a particular night.  Many 'regulars' bring food to the bar to share and we serve food almost every day at Cheers for free!  When I think about it, food, good food that is, cooking and company with meals is perhaps just as important to Cheers as a good drink.  I don't know if any other bar does potlucks at all let alone as often as Cheers does.  
Back to the book! Jeanne, a fill in Barteder at Cheers, was just as excited as I was that the book has a red ribbon place holder.  Josh told me that he uses his roommates book as a reference guide.  I understand that as I have mostly looked up recipes online.  In the book are techniques that recipes do not include such as how to fillet a fish or butcher a whole chicken, how to dice vegetables, etc.  Although many of the recipes in the book require I read them first in order to make a list of ingredients, I appreciate that the recipes are written in a step by step manner much similar to how I blogged about making the Fettuccine.  Kurt told me that he was gifted with the book himself, has used it time and time again making the book invaluable, and that the pages of his book pretty much wear food particles as much as ink.  I am very touched by this gift, not only that because the book is expensive, but because of the time and care he puts into my life.  Kurt is one of the favorite people in my life and I hope to make him a scrumptious meal someday!
Kurt wrote in the book,  

" 1-7-11  Mickey- Cook, Cook, Cook! I hope this brings you joy & memories of meals you've prepared for friends & loved ones.  Love, Kurt."

Kurt also gave me a great Salad recipe which was enjoyed by many at Friends Christmas 2010.  [Friends Christmas is an annual tradition created by Randy Vidal, a close friend and beloved Leather Man well known in San Diego and Los Angeles.  No longer with us, the tradition that Randy started carried on and hopefully will continue for a very long time.  Randy Bartended at the San Diego Eagle for, I believe, over 13 years.  He started the tradition of Friends Christmas as a way to ensure that friends still spent time with each other in the months when most were too busy to hit the bars to check in with each other...  And now I'm getting emotional again...  So here is the Recipe]

I'm not sure what the Salad is called...  I just call it Gooood.  It seemed like not many ate much of it, but a few people asked me for the recipe, so here it is! I myself do not favor rabbit food, but I enjoyed it and wanted seconds but there was so much else I had to try.  Maybe my palate is changing...

Recipe below for 12, cut in half for small group. I skipped the cheddar and substituted ¾ to 1 cup Feta and I also added about ½ - ¾ cup sunflower seeds for crunch. I used Ken's Steakhouse Raspberry-Pomegranate vinaigrette.

Ingredients

• 1 (10 ounce) package Italian-blend salad greens
• 1 (5 ounce) package spring mix salad greens
• 2 (11 ounce) cans mandarin oranges, drained, dried in a paper towel
• 1 1/2 cups dried cranberries
• 1 medium red apple, cored and diced
• 1 cup chopped walnuts
• 1/3 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
• ½ bottle (8 oz) raspberry vinaigrette or less to taste (can sub Balsamic Vinaigrette to make it less sweet)

Directions: In a large salad bowl, toss the greens, oranges, cranberries, apple, walnuts and cheese. Drizzle with vinaigrette just before serving; toss to coat.

 

Scarlett and I made it Saturday for a dinner, but it wasn't exactly the same.  The thing is the store only had the dressing in Lite, we had to use Cashew's instead of Walnut's, and Dried Cherries instead of Cranberries because Scarlett thought the recipe called for Cherries.

Separately, I enjoy Cashew's more than Walnut's, and Cherries more than Cranberries, but despite that our salad substituted ingredients that I usually I prefer, I think I liked Kurt's version at Friends Christmas over the salad Scarlett and I made Saturday.

Scarlett's told me once that food is more enjoyable when someone else makes it...  Considering that she ate all the pancakes I made from scratch Sunday after I ate only one, there might be some truth to that.  For me personally I think I'll eat more of and enjoy what I like, no matter who makes it.  I just hope that I will like what I make more often than not.

Shrimp (Cocktail) Fettuccine Alfredo

So Tuesday night I made Fettuccine Alfredo from scratch.  I still can't believe that I made it, let alone that it tasted good.
I seriously took a bite of it and almost cried, it was amazing.  Not perfect, but still amazing.
Considering the last time I made a noodle dish it consisted of Top Ramen style noodles, Chicken Breast, and a Hard Boiled Egg; I definately leveled up.  Especially since the end result of that concoction was soggy and burned, and I destroyed a pot.  I was able to fix the pot many months later with "Bar Keepers Friend".  But the dish was beyond repair.  It was flavorless, unless you consider over cooked soggy noodle watered down artificial beef packet seasoning burn taste, a flavor.  I made the top ramen style noodles from an Asian top ramen package as per instructed on the package.  Yet I managed to burn the noodles and make them soggy.  The already cooked Chicken Breast I managed to char the outside yet the inside was still very cold.  And the egg which was already hard boiled, I sliced it and it turned to broken and burned bits of hard boiled egg through out the dish.  I wish I was exaggerating with the description, but I am not.



Reading what I just wrote in that last paragraph, I am amazed that I even tried to cook again.  That pot was smoking so badly.  It's interesting that I remember all that, which happened years ago, but hardly remember what I did last night to make the Fettuccine Alfredo.  What I mean is that last night felt more like an out of body experience when I tasted the dish, I suppose.  It tasted almost restaurant quality.


I got the recipe off of youtube.com



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pHoOhkbosY

Basically the ingredients are
1 Part Butter
2 Parts Heavy Cream
1.5 Parts Finely Chopped Parmesan Cheese
In the video Cajun Spice is used.  I did not have Cajun Spice so I used
Salt and Pepper to taste and a Pinch of Garlic Salt (Mc Cormick Brand, the other brands you can see in the picture)

I also used one garlic clove smashed and sliced

I looked up the recipe because Scarlett and I had left over Cocktail Shrimp from the night before.  The shrimp was from Albertsons, and since it was Cocktail Shrimp it was already cooked.


The pan I used to cook in was a All Clad Saucie Pan.  Obviously Scarlett's and not mine.


It took me a bit to get organized and prep so keep in mind that the ingredients were sitting on the counter and fairly close to room temperature while cooking.  I was told that it makes a difference and that the temperature of the ingredients, especially the dairy should be close to the same temperature.

Because the Shrimp was already cooked, I melted 1 pat (1 Tablespoon aka TBS) of butter in the pan over low heat (a 2 out of 10, 1 being the lowest the burner goes, 10 being the highest). 
Then added garlic once the pat of butter was half way melted being careful not to burn the garlic. 
I added the shrimp after the butter melted stirred them around to coat them in butter, added 3 shakes of salt and 3 of pepper stirring the shrimp till they were luke warm.  Then I removed the shrimp and garlic and set them aside.


In the same pan I added the 1 Part butter, in my case 1 stick (.5 cup).
Let that melt.
The I added the 2 parts of Heavy Cream, 1 cup of Heavy Cream.
Stirring gently till warm stopping only to add salt and pepper. About 3 shakes of salt and 4 of pepper.
Once the cream seemed warm (it was showing the signs that steam gives off when liquid heats to a warm point), I sprinkled the 1.5 parts Fine Chopped Parmasian Cheese in, stirring while adding it.  I continued to stir making sure to scrap the whole pan that was under the liquid so that the pan would not be coated too badly with burned sauce on it's surface.  I continued to stir gently not allowing the sauce to bubble until the cheese had mostly melted.  I thought the cheese melted all the way, but it didn't.  I got impatient and realized later that I could have let the sauce cook more before I added the shrimp back.  Because I had the heat on low, 20 minutes of stirring in that phase was all I could handle.  15 minutes into it I added a pinch of Garlic Salt.  A few stirs after that, I added 2 shakes of salt and 2 shakes of pepper.  Stirred about 5 more minutes.  I realized later not all of the Parmesan Cheese melted.  That's what I get for using the food processor to pulse the cheese instead of grating it to a consistent size.
Either way, Scarlett liked it.  I was just surprised that it tasted good once finish like it was made in a restaurant.
Because I could not gauge ratios correctly I added the shrimp in and turned off the heat, instead of turning off the heat adding the noodles then the shrimp as the video suggested.  The sauce itself seemed a bit salty for me, but with the noodles and shrimp the sauce was amazingly balanced.

And that was it.
First time making it from scratch.

Another quick version I made which more or less started my cooking quests consisted of Cream Cheese and Milk instead of Heavy Cream.  Scarlett liked that sauce for Broccoli.
There is a major difference between the two sauces.  They cannot compare.  It does seem that these white sauces are what initiated attempting to cook for me.
I over cooked the shrimp slightly, but not too badly considering.
I'm still surprised that I did not burn the kitchen down.  On top of that, my food was edible.  I must be dreaming.

Introduction

I'm sure I'm not the only one.  The only one that truly sucks at cooking.

I've messed up box mac and cheese, making mac and cheese soup.  I've messed up jello, the center being frozen slushy like and the rest remaining liquid.  I've made eggs explode on 3 different occasions, once not while cooking but consuming after I cooked them.  I think I still have some of the burn marks from that experience.  Hell, I've messed up Popsicle's and Kool-Aid!

My blogs are going to be detailed, too detailed for the average cook that can manage to boil water with out setting the stove on fire.

The reason I want to be detailed though is because once upon a time ago I was the best cook in Home Economics Class and somewhere down the line I became worst than where I initially started.  With my track record, a toddler could cook better than me on their plastic toy stove.  So I need to be able to have a source to go back to.  I cannot depend on being successful every time just because I was able to pull it off once.  That's the negative reasoning.  The positive being that this blog might actually help with maintaining confidence.  I'm afraid that at some point I will screw up and give up again.
Finally, I know that I wanted exact details in recipes.  Exact.  For going back and reviewing that is also what I need to see.  Each time, for my own sake, I have to explain things as if I am a 3 year old, otherwise I probably won't understand and execute properly.

It sux that the smell of food I crave, which I have particular frozen or processed food cravings perhaps more that any other kind (i.e. I'm craving Tina's Beef, Cheese and Green Chili Burrito), makes me physically ill.  But I am glad that I'm excited about this new desire I have.