pumpktoberfest #43 -
treat yoself.

spice up yer nuts.
 

pumpktoberfest 2010!

#195 - links &
drinks 2011.
twitter.

Monday
Apr132009

nosh nook #21 - monday, april 13, 2009

in tough times, restaurants try mini burgers to get a nibble (link)
04.12.09 - usa today - by bruce horovitz

mmm mmm mmm.  tiny burgers.  white castle built an empire on them.  joints such as the now-defunct burger joint (which specialized in tiny burgers) & other like-minded eateries have sprung up in nyc & other locales around the country.  hordes of hip restaurants & bars have added sliders (mini burgers) to their menus, adding a snacking option that's both cute & meaty, making it accessible to both the gals & the guys.  chicks dig cute & guys dig meaty, if you know what i mean.  trust me.

according to the article in usa today (america's favorite hotel newspaper!), the current fascination with mini burgers is a side product of the current economic downturn (tiny = inexpensive), but as the fast-food chains embrace the craze, "(t)hey're putting the best face on it by positioning minis as fun food."  it's true.  burger king has commercials for their minis where slightly uncool dudes, just by possessing bk burger shots, are flocked by hot chicks cooing because their burgers are soooooo cute & tiny & adorable!  yes, burger king has basically replaced babies with tiny burgers.  soylent green is people.

the article goes on to break down the various fast-food minis.  there are the aforementioned burger shots, which, according to the bk marketing chief "scream 'shareability.'"  jack in the box has mini burgers & is testing chicken versions.  mcdonalds has their previously covered mac snack wrap, now available beyond canada.  johnny rockets' mini versions sound the best...mini burgers, hot dogs & chili dogs, available with free chipotle sauce.  mmm.  mmm.  mmm.  free chipotle sauce.

Monday
Apr132009

#83 - candy pants mcgee.

seriously, what would easter be without the bunny?  that rabbit kicks ass, right?  i mean, rabbits in general are pretty important (see bugs, roger, greg, the trix rabbit & the jackalope), but the easter bunny takes those other rabbits' importance, adds it all together & then does something mathematical to it, resulting in a level of importance quite unparalleled in the animal kingdom.  here's why.

he's been more successful in wrestling easter away from jesus than anyone on the planet.  growing up, we usually celebrated easter with a combination of easter mass, candy & treats for the kids and visiting & dinner with the family.  what part was most important?  the part where i got to down an entire tray of single serving reese's easter eggs or consume the entire head of a rich, chocolatey, hollow rabbit the moment the parents weren't paying attention.

SPOILER AHEAD...before i was old enough to figure out space & time and know that there wasn't an actual easter bunny filling the baskets of children all around the world every easter morning in honor of the resurrection of god's son, that bunny ruled.  when it came to easter, he was where it was at holiday wise. he had the candy & he'd give you some.

if only he had a van he could've lured me into in exchange for said candy, we could've left the world behind & gone on all sorts of wacky, candy-filled adventures.  it'd be just like the baby looney tunes' eggs-traordinary adventure, but with less emphasis on the search for the true meaning of easter, since we already know that the true meaning of easter is four.

#83 - candy pants mcgee.

snack: three musketeers raspberry dark chocolate minis
drink: flying dog garde dog ale


tonight, i'm going to down like fitty of these three musketeers raspberry dark chocolate minis.  they're a limited edition version they've brought out for the spring, with a bag that urges consumers to "bring the spring feeling home" and promises "whipped up, fluffy chocolate-on-raspberry taste."  if there isn't a bit of a pornographic feel to that promise, i'm a monkey's uncle...coincidentally, the monkey's uncle is the second awesomest animal in the kingdom, trailing only the easter bunny.

...so the raspberry three musketeers minis taste reminiscient of a chocolate you'd randomly select out of one of those holiday hearts or boxes filled with assorted chocolates.  as far as new three musketeer flavors go, i prefer the mint flavor to the raspberry, but if a tiny japanese guy challenged me to a eating contest involving the raspberry flavor, i wouldn't turn him down...& i'd wipe the floor with him in the process.  u.s.a.!  u.s.a.!

my beer of choice on this sacred easter night is a flying dog garde dog ale, a french "beer de garde."  that's french for "beer for keeping."  i'm not sure why that is exactly, because i'm definitely not keeping it around for very long.  it's flying dog's spring beer & has a light, fruity sort of taste, which is odd when juxtaposed with the snarling, ralph steadman dog on the label, but it's all good.  it has a feel somewhere between a pilsner & a cider, so i'm pretty sure that means i'm getting servings from both my bread & fruit groups all in one beer.  yay nutrition.

so yeah...happy easter, all you pagans.

Saturday
Apr112009

#82 - a wing & a player.

 ...so friday night i met up in the city & spent a few hours in midtown (eek!) having beers & conversation with a college friend who i hadn't seen since we graduated twelve years ago (eek!) & found ourselves out in the non-mtv real world (eek!). with my nh upbringing, back in college, when i first met him, he represented a good portion of my initial experiences with nyc types & dramatic types & literary types.

i originally met him during my sophomore year through his cousin, the only girl who lived in our fraternity house. we're both irish & thus enjoy drinking & were in college & not yet beaten down & around the fraternity & whatnot.  as a result, we shared countless late nights of intellectual/philosophical discussions during our time at b.u.  we're both wicked smaht.

so i haven't seen this guy in over a decade & we met up at a bar located at the bottom of his apartment building.  i showed up after work, around 7pm, but since he's not working, he'd been there since noon & drinking since four.  as such, he already had a bit of the enhanced "everyone here is awesome & you should all know each other" swagger that i remembered of him from our college days.

since we were spending the evening on his block & at his regular bar, during the evening, i got to meet everyone who came within ten feet of us.  during the night, i heard the half-joking phrase "oh, you knew him back in college, huh?  you must have stories!" a ton of times.  i was introduced to all the cute female bartenders.  we spoke to a hot mommy outside of the bar, as she returned with her baby from some sort of hot mommy happy hour event.  in addition, he seems to attract famous people, so he regaled me with sweet stories of all the people he's brushed elbows with over the years, including informing me that a relative of his is soon to be married to one of america's most hip, radical authors.

anyway, he's a blast to hang out with & tends to make every moment interesting & friday night was no exception...a high-roller & a true player.

# 82 - a wing & a player.
snack: buffalo nickel honey mustard horespower wingers
drink: newcastle brown ale


it's been a rainy saturday, so tonight, i'm staying in & chillin' & snacking from a bag of buffalo nickel honey mustard horespower wingers that i picked up at the local bodega.  buffalo nickel makes five versions of their "wingers," each with a number rating denoting their hotness.  from tamest to hottest, the flavors are "no bull barbecue," the honey mustard ones, "nacho chilichanga," "caribbean zing" and "fiery buffalo bleu."  they have a makeup that's similar to bugles, with a light crunch, round shape & hollow inside...and of course, there's the awesome, slightly-winglike, slightly-squashlike shape.

these honey mustard horsepower ones have a flavor that's pleasant enough but sort of off.  i utilize honey mustard quite often in my sandwich-making & pretzel-eating & was initially pretty excited about them, but after eating a few, i felt a bit underwhelmed.  the honey mustard taste occasionally shines through, but the horseradish is almost non-existent & overall, the taste left in my mouth was only tolerable with something to eventually wash it away.

...& my choice of weirdly-tangy wing flavor eradicator is a newcastle brown ale.  back in college, newcastle was my beer of choice, the beer i'd carry around in my backpack at frat parties to avoid having to drink lame keg beer.  it remained my beer of choice for quite some time but over the years, as microbrews have exploded in popularity, i've found myself with many more choices, choices which when compared to newcastle, are way better-tasting.  regardless, for me, i still enjoy the slight-bitterness of a brown ale & it's still a nice, easy-drinking beer, so i continue to return to newcastle every once in a while, if only for the place it holds in my history.

on a college related, player-related note, b.u.'s hockey team totally took the national championship tonight. go sports!   sigh, if only i had cable...then i'd be a player too...until then!

Friday
Apr102009

nosh nook #20 - friday, april 10, 2009

the story of today’s nosh nook heavily involves the story behind today’s nosh nook. since some time yesterday, my apartment’s internet connection has been playing games with me. the modem has started taking its lah-di-dah friggin time before all of its lights start blinking in proper order. i could’ve watched at least an entire episode of clark & michael in the time it has been taking for the connection to properly settle down…that is, if clark & michael wasn’t only on the internet.

when the modem finally started blinking properly, it wasn’t really working properly. i was getting some dial-up like speeds & as a result of this awful connection, i couldn’t log into the ol blog account, which was bad news, considering i had this column unwritten & sitting in the queue, scheduled to post at 8am tomorrow. it would’ve been all “xxx” “xxx – xxx,” so i needed somebody to turn it off…so i calls my sister. she had a “being a doctor” interview wicked early & answered her phone from bed…so i calls my brother. he comes through for me & shuts it off. crisis averted.

…but i start thinking to myself “i wish this internet connection would work. i still need to let the internet know where to go in disparate areas spread throughout the u.s. for their easter egg hunting needs.” every so often, i would check on its status & nothing…but then, in what can only be described as a passover and/or easter miracle, my internet connection mustered enough strength to let me connect & poop out this blog post. i present to you a quick listing of easter egg hunt events around the country…we gotta start those kids hunting as early as possible. hunting for EGGS & CANDY!

easter egg hunt this saturday in fred / the silsbee bee / by gerry l. dickert (link) – from a town in southeast texas, two things that should not be combined: “the easter egg hunt is in fred.” “gerry l. dickert.” my mind is in the gutter.

hop to family easter events / the baltimore sun / by sophia terbush (link) – my favorite event on this list is “skate with the easter bunny” at the shake & bake family fun center. the item jokes “just hope the easter bunny doesn't fall on his cotton tail!” it’s in the upton area & based on what i’ve seen of west baltimore on the wire, that rabbit getting knocked on its ass is highly likely.

this new trend of easter egg drops sounds like trouble to me / WDEF news / by collins parker (link) – out of chattanooga, this article does a great job of covering the phenomena of dropping thousands of easter eggs from a helicopter down to waiting children below.

organizers set rules to keep easter egg hunts sunny side up / the dallas morning news / by katie fairbank (link) – some choice phrases about the physicality of the easter egg hunt…"the people charged like wild animals.” “they add new rules every year to try and keep the fields from becoming big mosh pits.” “in-your-face egg gathering.”  kick ass!

anyway, have a good weekend. happy hunting!

Thursday
Apr092009

nosh nook #19 - thursday, april 9, 2009

men charged in heist of theater safe and snacks (link)
04.08.09 - the salem news (ma) - by julie manganis

beer, snacks stolen in service station break-in (link)
04.08.09 - the cedartown standard (ga) - by todd ollis

criminals often aren't the smartest people on earth. it's always been my thought that if you're going to go all the way & start stealing things, you should a) be smart enough to not get caught and b) be smart enough to steal something worth stealing. as is probably quite apparent, i'm a big fan of snacks. at the same time, snacks do not rank high enough on my list of wants/needs to warrant stealing to get them. after getting caught stealing kid n play's 2 hype during high school, i learned my lesson.

unfortunately, not everyone experiences my superior level of intelligence & since people are stealing stuff all the time, people are getting caught all the time. luckily, we have small town news to keep us up to date with those who commit what i like to call "snacktheivery." yesterday, both the salem news & cedartown standard reported on such incidents.

as julie manganis reports, in salem, mass, a man came up with a brilliant plan to hide inside a movie theater until it closed, sneak a friend in & try to make off with the safe and a basket of candy & soda. the two were caught when a security guard noticed them carrying the safe across the street. wicked smaht.

according to todd ollis' article, in cedartown, ga, police responded to a break-in at a local gas station, where someone had smashed the window & made off with two cases of beer & a bag of chex mix (valued at $21.19). it turns out that the criminal got cold feet & dumped the loot, which police later found. in another part of town, police were called to a local food store after surveillance tapes revealed that a man came in the store & left with “six steaks or items in his jacket.”  as press time, the suspect was still at large & likely full of beefy goodness.