Examinations of Gustatory Response

Today marked our long awaited (2 weeks) return to the Market. You know what that means!!!

Gotcha! This wasn't a breakfast burrito. Unfortunately, that guy wasn't at the Market today. Luckily, there was another delicious option:

This polish sausage was really very good. It should be too, let me tell you.

Sidney went the more frugal route and got a cinnamon roll from the church.

It was really really good.

Also, this week Sidney discontinued her double chocolate banana muffins in favor of lemon poppy seed muffins. Of course, we had to sample one, of course for quality assurance purposes.

It was very very good as well! It's just a given that anything Sidney makes, especially if it's baked, is going to be amazing. Take, for instance, this week's Frankencookie.

Since I wasn't around yesterday to share this cookie with her, Sidney saved it for today. It was a little bit chocolate chip walnut oatmeal, a little bit breakfast cookie, and a little bit Devil's chocolate.

Again, it was very very good.

When we got back from the Market, I had some baking to do myself. Without completely spoiling the surprise, I'll give you a little sneak peak:

Of course, when undertaking projects such as these, there will inevitably be instances of:

These weren't the only two examples either. There were quite a few more.

Sidney and I then headed to my parents' house. When we got there, my mom recommended some tortilla chips that were extremely "fluffy" and delicious, for lack of a better word. I tried one with some salsa.

Then we started on dinner. We decided on burgers tonight, so I fired up the grill and broke out the cast iron skillets.

After the buns were toasted, it was time for burger assembly. I started with my secret weapon for today's burgers:

Then on went a patty with cheese and some onions.

This was followed by another cheesy patty and some mayonnaise on the top bun.

Instead of fries, I hit up the tortilla chips and salsa to complement my burger.

I also had a yogurt and poppy seed salad.

At this point, I was surely artificially intoxicated with all the poppy seeds I had today. But just look at this burger:

It was very very good (the theme of the day). It may have even been as good as griddle burgers. Granted, using cast iron skillets is really very similar to using a cast iron skillet, but these weren't smashed quite as thinly. But, again, they were still really good.

After everyone had eaten, there was still one patty left. I decided that not only would I eat it, but that I would also make something I've been wanting to try.

For months now I've been wanting to try to make a homemade version of Freddy's now famous Fry Sauce. I knew it was essentially mayonnaise and ketchup, but I had recently found a recipe online that looked pretty promising. So I pulled that recipe up and whipped it all together really quick.

 
I plopped a generous amount on the bottom bun and placed the burger on top.

It was actually better than I expected it to be, and I had high hopes for this. It was interesting, though, when I considered that the main ingredients in this sauce were all things that are already very common to find on burgers. These ingredients are mayonnaise, ketchup, and pickles (juice, in this case). At any rate, it tasted really good.

I also tried the sauce with some potato chips, and this was quite good as well. I think this homemade sauce would be excellent on fries. Hmmm, fry sauce good on fries...brilliant!!

My dad then proceeded to belt junk food at me, so I obliged in carrying out an unbiased and purely scientific examination of gustatory response. The test subject: Suzie Q.

Results: Decent, but the cake was a little dry.

A little while later, my abilities in gustatory response examination were again required. This time, the test subject was chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream.

Results: Very very good (as if it could be anything else).

I FORGOT To Eat!

In accordance with my plan to sort of make up for the previous week's appalling eating, I actually forgot to eat breakfast this morning. I know, I'm as shocked as you. I mean, how could I actually forget to eat? I don't know, but it happened. What's worse is that I didn't realize this until I got to school, at which time I realized that not only did I forget to eat breakfast, I also forgot to pack lunch! I'm going to be seriously lacking in brotein on my last day of summer classes. Oh well, at least I'm not eating as much as I have been! It looks like I'll be lean in no time. After all, not eating is the fastest way to getting lean. I should know. 

But I carried on, finishing all my Western Civ coursework once and for all. I was now officially done with my summer coursework! Now I've got 7 more classes staring me in the face, but that's not for another 3 weeks. I won't think about that right now. 

After leaving the computer lab, I spotted the MetLife blimp floating above the KU campus. It was just on a leisurely cruise about the eastern Kansas skies.   

When I got home, I walked into the backyard to find our old silver maple completely chopped up.

It needed it though. It was in bad shape. It was crippled and leaning towards the house. I'd rather lose the tree than lose the house. So bye bye tree. I hardly knew ye.

Now I had some mowing to do. This is no small task. Our yard is a little over 3 acres, which may not sound like a lot, but with only one 54" mower it can take awhile. With this in mind, I finally ate my first food of the day. For that, there was nothing better than a good ole' brotein bar!

This powered me through the mowing I did, but now I was getting ready to help a friend move a bunch of stuff from one office to another. For this physical labor, I needed another brotein bar. Then I headed in to town and did much moving. Afterward, it was nearing 2030, and I still hadn't eaten anything other than a couple of brotein bars. At this point I was getting super lean super quickly, but I still needed some substantial food. When I finally got home, I warmed up leftovers from yesterday. Essentially I had exactly the same dinner as last night, but with three chicken thighs instead of two.

There was the salad...

...and there was the chicken and potatoes.

Same as yesterday, but still just as good. The potatoes may have even been better today since I broiled them when I warmed them up. Overall, today was a pretty lean day!

Did I eat enough candy?!

After the last week of eating with reckless abandon, I needed a return to my disciplined way of eating. To get this started again, I made the long-awaited return to my beautiful brotein bars. 

I had another for lunch. It was a good day so far!

Then it happened. Sidney broke out the gummi worms, and since these are the best gummi worms ever, I had to have one.

Well, even though Sidney put the remaining gummi worms away, I was no hooked on sugar yet again. Since I respected her right to her gummi worms, I dug back in to the Sour Patch Kids.

And since I was cooking dinner, I was in the kitchen, also known as the room with Sour Patch Kids. With the bag in plain sight, I couldn't resist.

I even succumbed to one of the remaining cookies. I just wanted to finish them off once and for all.

Then dinner was ready! We had some potatoes,

...some chicken,

...and some corn and salad.

The salad was a bagged Caesar, and it was good. Simple and delicious, just the way it should be.

That them was continued in the rest of dinner.

The corn was microwaved, the chicken was marinated and baked, and the potatoes were microwaved then pan fried.

A little later, I again had a bout of Sour Patch consumption. This time, though, I ended up finishing up the rest of the bag. There wasn't a small amount left.

Worth it. Someday, I'll stop eating so much. Someday.

Return Travel Day, Part 2: Slightly less huge

Sidney had just mentioned that she wished that Reese's would make a peanut butter cup with crunchy peanut butter, BOOM! Her mom emerged from a gas station with this in tow:

Sidney was kind enough to share this with me, so I had one and she had one.

Sure enough, it had actual peanuts in it.

She also had some McDonald's chocolate milk from last night, and she again so kindly donated a sip to me.

For actual breakfast, we found a diner in some far-west Indiana town.

I ordered the 2+2+2+2, which included 2 eggs (over easy), 2 strips of bacon, 2 sausage links, and two pancakes.

The eggs were farm fresh, and the bacon and sausage were also good.

I threw caution to the wind and ordered my pancakes with chocolate chips. After some butter and moderate amounts of syrup, I was ready to dig in.

Okay, so this was kind of a huge breakfast, but still not as bad as yesterday's buffet. Let's see if I can keep it that way.

A few hours later, we stopped at a Wendy's. I can't describe to you how real the urge to order a quadruple Baconator was. It was very, very enticing. But did I give in?

Nope!

I ordered a single spicy chicken go wrap with ranch. This had a few less calories than the Baconator.

After this stop, I snacked modestly on Sour Patch Kids.

I had a the equivalent of probably a few handfuls, and that was it.

Many hours later, we finally returned home sweet home. I took the pleasure of indulging in what was now a 1-week old cookie.

It was crunchy. Still good, but crunchy. Overall, though, I got far less huge today than yesterday. After all, I didn't feel as though I was going to explode at any point today. Success!