Wouldn’t it make more sense if half & half was the same thing as whole milk? I mean, two halves make a whole. What is half & half anyway? What are the two halves? I put it in my coffee but I really have no idea what it is.

I’ve been terrible about packing my lunch lately. We have a full kitchen here at work so what I decided to do is buy groceries and prepare my lunches here. I get an hour long break for lunch so I have plenty of time for it.

I go wild over a well made deli sandwich, and that is something you must eat fresh. You can’t fix the sandwich in the morning and expect it to hold it’s integrity until lunchtime. Now I’m not a total snob when it comes to the ingredients, but I like my meat and cheese to come straight from the deli. (Did you know that cheese sliced fresh from the deli counter is generally cheaper than the pre-sliced fancy packaged stuff?)

Can I tell you about the delicious sandwich I made? Wheat bread (sweetened with molasses only, no high fructose corn syrup), green leaf lettuce, sliced tomatoes, ham, and provolone, mayo (not Miracle Whip), and horseradish mustard. Two years ago you couldn’t have paid me to eat anything with horseradish and four years ago I wouldn’t go near any sort of mustard. But I have since seen the error of my ways. The horseradish mustard totally makes the sandwich!

I think I’m going to go make myself another one…

Luke will eat just about anything, but I learned last weekend that there is one thing he will not eat. Play-Doh. Oh, he gave it the old college try but it did not end well. Here’s how it went down:

Luke and Josiah were playing happily in the living room. I was heavily immersed in a conversation with friends about personal finance so obviously I was not paying attention to the kiddos. Until I heard the gagging noise. I looked over and saw Luke’s face - panic in his eyes and incandescent yellow drool oozing from his mouth. I swooped him up to assess the situation. He was breathing but obviously feeling some discomfort from the gooey mass lodged in his esophagus. I held him up a little to see if any of it was reachable, but it was all too far down his throat.

They call it a gag reflex because it’s an automatic response and doesn’t need to be taught. It’s a good thing because we hadn’t covered that lesson with Luke, yet he did a beautiful job of puking up that Play-Doh all over himself and Mommy’s hand. He makes me feel so proud!

My grandpa told me a few things about the origin of some sayings you hear but always wonder where they came from. For example…

“Bringing home the bacon” came from England way back in the day (around the year 1104 but I found that by googling). He said the custom was for a married couple to return to the church one year after their wedding day. If they could show they had gone the entire year without feeling regret for getting married, they were given a flitch (another google gem) of bacon. Apparently you were free to feel all the regret you want after the first year. As it turns out, some people have been keeping the tradition going. “The Dunmow Flitch Trials exist to award a flitch (a side) of bacon to married couples from anywhere in the world, if they can satisfy the Judge and Jury of 6 maidens and 6 bachelors that in ‘twelvemonth and a day’ they have ‘not wisht themselves unmarried again’.”

Seriously, that would be an awesome custom to revive. I love bacon! Though I think there should be an award for going 10 years without feeling regret. How about lobster, filet mignon, and a good cheesecake?

Mike just brought back some goodies from his grandparents’ house: fresh rhubarb and mint!

I’m not quite sure what to do with the mint. I can make tea with it but what do I do with the other 96% of it? Any ideas? Kari, could you use some fresh mint for your truffles? I don’t know how that works, I just know mint was an ingredient I had to keep stocked back when I owned all those chocolate factories in Chocolatier 2.

I know what to do with the rhubarb and I’m stoked that it came just in time for Memorial Day feasting. I’ll probably be making my favorite rhubarb dessert - rhubarb cream cheese pie. I should have plenty of rhubarb left over and I think I know who may be interested in taking it off my hands. My dad has not baked much with rhubarb but recently he scored a bit of the tart weed and baked a rhubarb cobbler. He knows rhubarb is one of my most favorite things on earth and he was very excited to tell me about the cobbler. He went as far as to say that he made it for me but had to conduct a taste-test because he was nervous about the integrity of it. You could say it passed the taste-test because it never left their kitchen. My dad, stepmom, and the neighbors ate it ALL. Let me just be clear here - it is not the thought that counts. Thoughts do nothing for my taste buds, they only make me salivate for what could have been. Dad, I am bringing you rhubarb. You still owe me a cobbler.

… is that he sends emails to tell me things like this:

your son was showing me how the piggies eat (with grilled cheese sammichez of all things)

Last week he fell asleep in his high chair while drinking his milk. You know Mike got pictures. I’ll try to add them to the post later. They are Super. Cute.

Here we go!

Cute, right? I thought so.

I’m beginning to think I have an allergy to sugar. Seriously. I rarely get headaches (I used to get them all the time, until I chopped off 10 inches of my hair.) so when I do it’s usually for a good reason. Only recently have I discovered a common theme - sugar. I just can’t seem to handle a lot of it without getting sick. Last weekend I drank a Coke and got a headache. Last night I had ice cream with chocolate sauce and felt like crap later. This morning I drank some coffee and it turned my stomach in knots.

Oh wait, I don’t take sugar in my coffee. It was probably the spoiled half-and-half that left me hunched over my knees in the ladies restroom. Of course I didn’t know it was spoiled when I poured it in. Usually when I’m unsure about the integrity of a food I’ll lean on the optimistic side and eat it anyway (my husband hates this about me). I was unsure of how long the half-and-half had been in the fridge but I used it anyway. I have made this sort of decision hundreds of times. This is the first time I have regretted it.

So, a couple things to remember:

1. Lay off the sugar. 
2. Stay away from spoiled milk.

Coca-Cola, that is. I don’t drink pop very often. I just don’t think about it much, but some days it sounds really good. Yesterday was one of those days. I could kick myself. My body can’t handle the delicious sugar-caffeine-bubbly concoction. The last few times I’ve indulged it has resulted in a monster headache and yesterday was no different. Less than an hour after I drank the 20 oz. of Cherry Coke I started developing a headache and it did not go away until I took an Advil this morning. The Advil totally wiped it out and I’m not quite sure why I didn’t think to take one sooner. My martyr tendencies are to blame, I’m sure. If I take something for the pain, then I can’t complain about it.

Next time I’ll try to remember to take the Advil with the Coke. Or maybe I just need to incorporate more sugar and caffeine into my diet. Either of those are fine solutions, don’t you think?

They’ve been remodeling our offices here at work. Yesterday I passed by one of the remodelers taking his lunch break. I see him every day but I’ve never asked his name. I asked him what was for lunch, then I noticed he was eating a Little Debbie Nutty Bar. I said to him, “Oh, Nutty Bars are gooood!” and I must have sounded pretty excited because today he brought me my very own pack of Nutty Bars.

Random acts of kindness will always make my day. Especially when they involve free chocolate.

I hate those traveler mugs that are so hard to clean. Why is that you can wash them and wash them and wash them but then when you fill them with hot coffee, old nasty bits of dried coffee that have been hiding for who knows how long just appear out of nowhere? Creeping Crevice Crap. Ew.

I own an assortment of traveler mugs but my favorite is the one I bought years ago at Sweetwater’s Donut Mill. The top comes apart so you can clean it thoroughly. I never have crevice crap issues with that mug. Plus it holds a lot of coffee and reminds me of my favorite donut place. They have THE BEST apple fritters on the planet. Trust me, I’ve checked. And did you know they were declared one of the Top 10 Donut Shops in the country by MSN.com?

Self-proclaimed peddler of “big, gooey” donuts and known for its rustic, local atmosphere, Sweetwater’s offers traditional flavors alongside more decadent donut fare like New York Cheesecake and Peanut Butter Cup. But the shop’s tendency toward child-like indulgence is best experienced through its obsession with candy bars: check the Heath Crunch, Snickers and Mounds varieties.

If you’re ever in Kalamazoo, Michigan you must go to Sweetwater’s and enjoy a tasty pastry. They are open 24 hours a day, so you have no excuses.