Maple Bacon & Grilled Cheese Mac and Cheese!!

Riding my wave of renewed eating vigor, Sidney and I repeated our doughnut ventures from yesterday. The selection was slightly different this morning, but that turned out to be in Sidney's favor since chocolate long johns were available this morning. It turned out that the selection was also in my favor as well, because in addition to the chocolate long johns there were maple bacon long johns available. I just had to try one. 

Both varieties of long johns were delicious, and I would definitely eat about 10 more maple bacon ones. But I restrained myself. Correction: at $2.89 a piece, my wallet restrained myself.

We met Sidney's aunt and uncle for lunch at the steakhouse that Sidney's cousin cooks for. We started off with an appetizer of truffle fries with some curry ketchup and garlic aioli for dipping. The fries and the dips were amazingly good.

For my main course, I actually ordered another appetizer. But don't worry; I wasn't getting tiny. I ordered six chicken strips with ranch and more fries.

I quickly discarded the pickle onto Sidney's plate and got to work on the fries. When the fries were almost gone, I realized that my ranch was running low without me having touched my chicken strips. This was a problem. I asked for more ranch, which would become a common theme of this lunch. All told, between my fries and six chicken strips, I went through maybe 4 or 5 things of ranch. It was good ranch. It was ranch well worth it.

Back at the hotel lounge, ice cream from the local university ice cream place was served up in blueberry and vanilla varieties. For whatever reason, I was in the mood for some good ole' fashioned vanilla.

After watching the first half of the 2nd Round KU basketball game, we all went across the street to a bar to get some food and watch the second half of the game. I got a sort of Buffalo chicken sandwich with bacon with a side of fries.

KU won the game and advanced to the Sweet Sixteen. It was a good time.

A little later in the evening, I convinced Sidney to venture out with me in search of the famous food truck that is a staple of late-night Aggieville cuisine. In the past couple days I've heard from multiple people that their supposed grilled cheese mac-and-cheese is simple da bomb (not to be confused with the Sylas and Maddie's flavor of the same name). Well, here goes.

It's basically a panini pressed sandwich with macaroni and cheese between two slices of bread. Simple, I know. But it was extremely tasty and well worth staying up well past my bed time.

And while we were there, and since this food truck is run by the same people that run that doughnut shop that Sidney and I have been patronizing, we got a box of a half-dozen random doughnuts. This is what we drew:

Not a bad haul, especially seeing as how several of these doughnuts are specialties, meaning we got a bargain. Sidney and I each ate one doughnut for dessert. 

Spring Break 2016, The Little Apple: Day 2

Due to a seemingly ongoing additive effect, I again still felt quite full this morning. But the call of the doughnut shop that is within a 3-minute walk of our hotel was not to be denied. Spotted from our window yesterday evening, Varsity Donuts just seemed like the perfect and most logical place for breakfast. We got there, perused the selection, and then made ours. 

I went with their versions of the chocolate frosted classic and the Boston/Bavarian cream doughnut that I so cherish.

The Bavarian cream doughnut was not lacking in the Bavarian cream department.

A couple hours later, we met up with the rest of Sidney's family for lunch. We went to Rock a Belly Bar and Deli. I got the Western sandwich, which was roast beef, ham, cheddar cheese, and lettuce on a sourdough hoagie/sub/hero.

Again, this was quite good.

After lunch, we stopped back by Cold Stone. This was the second time in 24 hours that I had been there, so I got something entirely different than last night. I got "All Lovin', No Oven." It's essentially sweet crean ice cream with cookie dough, fudge, and whipped cream mixed in. Again I got the "Love it" siez, but this time in a waffle "cone." I use cone lightly because it more resembled a bowl tipped on its side. Nonetheless, it was good.

It seemed like a an excessively large amount of ice cream, but I persevered and powered through. After finishing the ice cream and cone, I actually felt extremely full. I was rather perplexed by this, but I just waddled on, too pleased with my hugeness to care.

A little later on, I began feeling better, and just in time. Sidney's aunt, uncle, and cousin joined us for drinks in the hotel lounge. I had a mixed drink, but not the same kind as everyone else. I had a personal favorite of mine, a Shirley Temple.

I'll always love Shirley Temples, and this one was even properly dressed with a cherry. After a while of this merriment, we wandered back across the street, this time to the Keltic Star Public House. This is a wonderful representation of a British public house, or pub as they're more commonly known. After a while of waiting and watching some March Madness, we were seated. For an appetizer, I ordered some Scotch eggs for Sidney and I to share.

They were good, consisting of homemade sausage and being hand breaded and fried.

For the main course, I ordered "The Braveheart" burger. It was an angus burger topped with a homemade banger, bacon, ham, and Swiss and cheddar cheeses. For a side I had some chips.

It was actually a really, really good burger. It wasn't a smashed griddle burger, but it was still very good. The chips were also really good; they were just that right amount of crispy.

For dessert, Sidney ordered the bread pudding. I'm not really much of a bread pudding kind of guy, but I tasted it.

It was alright, although Sidney informed me that the bread had not soaked long enough and that it had been overcooked. Ah well, I still thoroughly enjoyed the food, and I felt I did myself a great service in my pursuit of getting huge.

03.17.2016 Spring Break 2016, The Little Apple: Day 1

For the second half of Spring Break 2016, Sidney's family planned a trip to Manhattan. Not being one to voluntarily enter rival territory for no reason, I could only make this exception since Sidney's dad is a KSU alumnus.

But first, I was still recovering from all the food I had eaten yesterday. My entire breakfast consisted of two Pop-Tarts. The frosted s'mores flavor was actually quite good, and tasted like pretty much every other flavor of Pop-Tarts that I've tried. 

It was good source of 400 calories worth of carbs, though, so I didn't complain.

For lunch, I was on the road with Sidney's family bound for Manhattan. We stopped at a convenience store along the way, and I got a couple of non-brotein bars.

These were also a good source of carbs, but they were also really tasty, so again I didn't complain.

Once we got to Manhattan and settled in to our 5-Star hotel, we went out for dinner. Coco Bolos is literally right across the street from our hotel. I mean, it's less than a 2-minute walk. It feels like a Tex-Mex kind of place, but I ordered pasta anyway. I got the seafood pasta, which consisted of penne, shrimp, and lobster in a creamy Monterrey jack cheese sauce. It was delicious.

It came with a side salad, and for the dressing I opted for the jalapeño ranch, which was also quite delicious.

This all but filled me up, which is surprising, I know. But, again, I was still feeling the effects of yesterday's gluttony and hugeness getting fest.

For dessert, we stopped by the Coldstone that is also within a 5-minute walk of our hotel. I got "Chocolate Devotion" in the "Love it" size (read: medium).

Spring Break 2016 Indian Buffetology: Part II

As promised, this is the follow up to "Spring Break 2016 Indian Buffetology: Part I" from earlier in the week. This time, I wasn't suffering from acute neomuscular atrophitis, so I went light on my breakfast. I had a single pouch of some of the best gummy-thingies in the world. 

I went light in preparation for the feast that was to be my lunch. I would be visiting yet another Indian buffet. This one had a much larger selection than the one earlier this week, so I largely followed the "sample then selection" ideology set forth in Basic Buffetology. I started off with some vegetable korma, methi chicken curry, tandoori chicken, and poori for Plate 1. For Plate 2, I loaded up a healthy serving of paneer naan with a sampling of Chicken 65.

Above is the plate with vegetable korma, methi chicken curry, poori, and tandoori chicken.

Above is the plate with the naan and chicken 65.

Once I had gone through those plates (except all the naan), I contemplated for a brief moment on what I should get for Round 2. My favorites included the methi chicken curry, chicken 65, and poori. I got some plain naan since they had just brought out a fresh batch.

After eating this actually quite large plate, I snacked on my remaining plate of paneer naan. All-in-all, I had more than 10 pieces of naan, some of which were used as sauce soaker uppers; the rest were eaten straight up.

Delighted that gulab jamun was on the buffet, I cheerfully got three to start off with. This is eerily similar to my Epic Buffet Battle with Andrew at Korma Sutra. But, seeing as there was no one present today with whom I could compete, I didn't feel the need to eat until the point of nausea.

I did, however, enjoy these gulab jamun so much that I simply could not stop at three. So I went back and got three more.

I will say that gulab jamun are so heavy and dense that they start wearing on you after about six or so. I could've eaten more, but I was satisfied. At least with the gulab jamun. There was still the ice cream that needed sampling.

The ice cream was of the soft serve variety and was mango flavored. It was actually quite good, but I prefer gulab jamun for dessert at Indian buffets and restaurants.

And it wouldn't be a trip to an Indian buffet without a cup of mango lassi. This mango and yogurt beverage is just so smooth and mango-y that it is impossible to resist.

Another reason I may have been the slightest bit conservative at this Indian buffet is because I knew that I couldn't be done eating for the day. I knew that later in the day, my parents and I would be cooking some special steaks. These incredibly thick prime rib cuts were slated for the cast iron skillet, and there is no way in the Bro Kingdom that I would miss the opportunity to eat that kind of meat candy.

Based on my Bro finger measurement technique, I estimate that these steaks were slightly more than 2 inches thick. That is quite thick.

We pan fried and baked these dudes in a cast iron skillet. First we heated the skillet up to 500 degrees Fahrenheit. Meanwhile, we salted the steaks and coated them in canola oil. Then, we placed the 500-degree skillet on the stove set on high for 5 minutes or so. We dropped two steaks in, and proceeded to fill our house with the greatest amount of smoke that I'm sure has ever been inside those walls. We cooked the steaks for 30 seconds each side, then popped them into the 500-degree oven to cook for an additional 3 minutes per side. This was the result:

The outside had a nice crust on it, but it wasn't "burned" at all. By that I mean that it tasted like steak and not like charred coal.

The inside was perfectly medium-rare. It wasn't still walking around like the filets of Valentine's Day, but they still tasted phenomenally delicious.

With my mom and dad and both Sidney and I, we ate two of the steaks, which was about 2 pounds total. So that left about half a pound for each of us. This is the most meat I've ever eaten, but it was enough, especially considering the lunch I had consumed only a few hours prior.

Just kidding. It's never enough. The third steak, still raw, was still sitting there on the counter, lonely. Not wanting to go through the whole smoke and mirrors (minus the mirrors) again, we opted to grill it on the grill. It still turned out fabulously, although perhaps slightly more done. But if it was at all more done, it was only barely so. All I know is that it tasted delicious as well. With my mom and Sidney not wanting to eat any more, this left a pound of meat to split between my dad and I.

So I ended up with about a pound of steak, and this was on top of the three plates of Indian food I ate for lunch. Needless to say, I fulfilled my goal of getting huge today.

Ferrari or Concession Stand?

I don't know what it was, but I woke up in the middle of the night dying of thirst. And when I woke up this morning, I felt like I weighed a thousand pounds. It felt like I was literally huge. And while this may seem great, I knew I wasn't huge. The real problem is that I didn't feel hungry. How am I, an unhuge bro, supposed to get huge if I don't feel like eating?

I gave myself a couple minutes, and eventually I felt good enough to eat. I had almost the exact same thing for breakfast that I had for dinner last night. The only difference was for breakfast this morning I added a splash of buffalo sauce to the eggs before I scrambled them. I also only had two eggs instead of three. And I also only had one burrito and the rest just loose on a plate. This way I get a higher brotein to carb ration.

After this breakfast, I didn't really feel hungry again until fairly late in the day. When that time came around, take out Chinese food performed the role of gains. I had beef with broccoli with lo mein as a side.

Add to this a spring role and a crab rangoon and I've got myself a tasty dinner.

I added a second rangoon and was done.

Later, Sidney and I met up with a couple of my friends from high school and we all went to watch 10 Cloverfield Lane. Now, I only have one rule when watching a movie in a movie theater. The rule is that I must eat Sour Patch Kids candy during the movie.

Like all rules, it gets broken occasionally. But I follow it when I can.

Sidney wanted a slushy, and she was exuberantly thrilled when she learned that white cherry was a flavor option. She very graciously allowed me to take the occasional sip, so I reciprocated by allowing her to snack on my candy.

The only unfortunate thing about this whole situation is that I could've purchased that Ferrari F430 for sale in town for the price of a small bag of candy and this slushy. Yeah, well, priorities.

Happy Pi Day!!!

On a day named after carbs, it was only fitting to eat carbs! And it was no ordinary pi day. No, this year being March 14, 2016 meant that, if rounded to the nearest ten thousandth place, the value of pi would exactly equal today's date (3.14159 -> 3.1416). How neat is that? That's pretty neat!

But on to more important matters. And by "more important," I mean food. I started off the day with some leftovers from the previous night. I did not eat any of this last night, but leftovers they were. I started this blog more than three months ago with a nice breakfast of biscuits and gravy, and now I've come full circle. I had three biscuits with sausage gravy.

It was such a nice day today, as well. As such, I decided to take a break from my attempts to get some studying done (which is quite difficult during spring break) and sit outside and enjoy the weather. And as nice as the weather really was, I still felt as though there was something missing. Luckily, I had the perfect snack on hand. A miniature peanut butter cup complemented my rest and relaxation to the fullest extent.

Later, back at my parents' house, I found this:

Perfectly fitting, given today's date, but slated for a later consumption. First, I had some gains to burn.

As if running a 5K wasn't enough to make me tiny, I'm also a tennis player at heart. This makes me a non-traditional bro, but hey, it's who I am and what I do. So, I won't sacrifice a session of tennis for fear of losing my gains. The courts my mom and I played on were ones I frequented back in my high school tennis glory days. They now feature several sketchy cracks, one of which is reminiscent of a Californian fault line ready to blow.

But no matter! We played on without much of a hindrance. Upon returning home, however, I wanted to make sure I salvaged as much of my gains as possible. Look, even though I'm a tennis playing bro doesn't mean I don't care about my gains. I do. That being said, I dove right in to some apple pie a la mode while working out what my more substantial gains would come from.

It was eventually determined that my gains would come from ground breakfast sausage, scrambled eggs, shredded cheddar jack cheese, and some big flour tortillas.

I used the plural form of tortilla because:

And although my burrito wrapping level is n00b, they tasted good and filled me with adequate gains.