"I think I see LBJ's face!"

Family is all about tradition. And not pressing charges. But, it is mostly about tradition.

One such tradition I grew up with was eating breakfast food for dinner on Fat Tuesday. Every year, while I lived at home, Mom would whip up pancakes and such on Fat Tuesday.

It was not until college and after that I learned not everyone shared this custom.

This year, I was determined to have pancakes for dinner on Fat Tuesday. I won’t say where, as I had to resort to a chain restaurant, but it did have racker and arrel in its name.

Pancakes: the Breakfast of Kings. Bow before its fluffiness!

I saw a Twitter update by @gmcalpin (writer and artist of one of my favorite webcomics, Multiplex) about the metal band Mastodon allegedly scoring the upcoming film Jonah Hex (based on a comic). It lead to an article on Ain’t It Cool News (movie rumors and such).

I read the article and was amused, I enjoy Mastodon but realized I don’t own nearly enough of their music. I hopped over to YouTube and watched a few music videos and also listened to some other songs, sampling cuts from the albums Leviathan and Blood Mountain.

Realizing I still had an online gift certificate from my birthday, I decided to buy a Mastodon album (along with Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon on vinyl). But I couldn’t decide which to get–then a friend commented on my Facebook page that Crack the Skye was nothing short of amazing (a friend whose opinions I hold in high regard).

So, I ventured back to YouTube to listen to a few cuts from Crack the Skye and read a few online reviews. I quickly decided on ordering the album–and when it comes to bands like Mastodon, I really prefer having the original CD over .MP3s (because the music is complex and/or layered–things that can get lost when compressing music to .MP3s).

After clicking Finish My Order, I sat back and thought “What the heck just happened?” Over the span of maybe twenty minutes, I went from reading about Mastodon scoring an upcoming film to buying one of their albums, mainly on a whim.

It was an interesting string of events: I read the article, listened to songs online/watched videos, got a recommendation from a friend who lives in another city, read reviews and purchased an album. All without leaving my seat.

I guess this shows you can’t underestimate the advantages of people talking about your stuff on the Internet.

Also: My latest article for Lansing Capital Gains is now online.  It is about the Soup Spoon Cafe, a very tasty restaurant (good coffee too).

This was inspired by a recipe for “Rice Triangles” in the cookbook that came with my Laptop Lunch bento box. I figured, “Hey, that’s just sushi without the fish, I’ll give it a try.” Well, the first few I made weren’t that pretty and were difficult (based on the directions in the recipe), so I said the heck with it and just started doing my own little sushi rolls. I laid the seaweed paper out, spread out the rice and started laying veggies on top. It took a few times to get the hang of it, but I’m glad I decided to experiment (which is what I like most about cooking, just trying whatever I want).

I had a lot of fun! I love cooking and this was certainly a new, fun way to cook. Plus it lets me make healthy stuff for my daily lunches I take to work. My veggie rolls are a neat way to eat some raw veggies, and they are fun to make.

I decided to make more today, so I headed off to the East Lansing Farmer’s Market and picked up a cucumber and a zucchini (and a pint of super yummy blue berries).

Came home, made the rice (making only half of what I had made last week, because it was way too much for just me), added the sushi vinegar (have a bottle of stuff ready to go I got at the store), and the sesame seeds. Then the fun began.

This one has carrot, spinach and zucchini. I think I seasoned it with cilantro, can’t remember (some were seasoned, some weren’t, like I said: I experiment).

I switched some things up with each batch, but they all had some mix of veggies.

This one was spinach, cucumber and zucchini. I also seasoned it with cilantro as well as Two Sisters Gourmet Outrageous Garlic seasoning (dried garlic, onion, etc).

I might pick up some soy meat/tofu to try out next time as well, so I can have some protein in there.

I’m happy with how these turned out. Still need to get the bamboo mat-rolling thing, but I will soon. And I’ll tell ya, they ain’t kidding when they call it ‘sticky rice,’ it is a pain to get off my hands, but that’s part of the fun.

Please let this be true. As a suburban Detroit native, I grew up eating at National Coney Island restaurants. Things got even better when the big 24 hour place went up in Roseville, granting my high school cronies and I great place to hang out.  Then one opened up minutes from my parents’ place and things got even better.

I suffered without my beloved National for too long while on the West side of the State during my Grand Valley State days. It was a sad state of affairs.

Thankfully, Lansing has its fair share of excellent chili dog places, so I have not suffered here. But as good as they are, they still aren’t the same as National. There was always something special about National, even the small place they had at Lansing Mall in the old food court (don’t know if they still have one, I doubt it).

When I was younger and still drank pop, I would always order a Coke in a styrofoam cup go wash down my chili dogs.  Coke always tasted better in their styrofoam cups for some reason. Can’t explain it.

This reminds me, I need to stop at a National next time I’m back in the D. It has been too long. I’ll break my pseudo-diet and get a chili dog. Mmmm. Chili dog.

My only experience with chili cook offs is via the Simpsons episode Homer ingests a freakish chili pepper and has various hallucinations.

Needless to say, I had high hopes for this cook off.

Upon arriving (with a pair of friends in tow), I was thankful I had purchased my ticket in advance–not only did it save me $3, I got to go to the front of the entrance line instead of waiting for a spell, like my friends had to. This was where I first spotted the muffin trays that almost everyone seemed to have.

This sight intrigued me, as that was something totally unexpected (not unlike the Spanish Inquisition). I later found out what the tins were for–stacking multiple cups of chili at once so you could enjoy them at your leisure. A novel concept. I imagine too that you could probably have chili poured in the tray itself if you wanted, to save on waste…but I didn’t really see that happening.

While waiting for my friends to work their way through the line, I enjoyed a couple of chilies. They were quite tasty. After linking up with my pals, we surveyed the mass of people and decided to just pick a spot and start. We had all kinds of chili: cheesy chili, chili made with coffee and even chili made with chocolate.

One chili had a rather amusing name

After enjoying a bunch of chili (as well as a Melting Moments ice cream sandwich for myself), one of our party decided to ride the mechanical bull featured at the cook off.

This was free and it was a riot, watching people of all ages try to tame mechanical beast. Our friends did pretty well, but was eventually tossed.

The crowd was more than I expected and the dueling music stages seemed to take a bit of the focus away (as well as cut down on places to sit, etc), however I had a great time and I’m looking forward to next year.