Rags to Riches and Roller Coasters

From plate-sized slices of pizza and sketchy 2nd floor back hallway offices to obscene people at an amusement park, today was an interestingly enjoyable day.

It started out right.

This guy had the right idea:

I then met Quinn (the almost Wayward Gringo) at Pizza 51. I had never eaten there before, and neither had he. But he had come on strong recommendation. So we stood outside and creeped on the menu, stalker style. When we had finally (finally) decided on what we'd order (we were each going to order our own 14" pizza), we stepped inside. We opted for the pizza instead of the single slice, but upon reaching the counter, we spotted a display of how big a single slice is. We immediately turned back around and returned to our creeper stance. After some more deliberation, we decided to each get a single slice with 5 toppings. This was a special, and as such was less than half the size of a 14" pizza with several toppings.

What resulted from my order was nothing short of surprising.

It may be hard to judge the size of this slice, so here's a better picture.

Yes, it really is that big. It's so big that it was party cut into squares to make it easier to eat. This slice, we estimated was 13" from point to crust, which would make a full pizza of these slices 26" in diameter, which is actually the largest pizza they make. We then wondered if we could eat 8 of these things, which would equal a full 26" pizza. That didn't last long, though, because we had more important things to do (read: eat).

I'll go over a rundown of what was on my pizza.

First, Pizza 51 specializes in thin crust pizza. Now, this wasn't really all that thin, unless of course you compare it to a Chicago-style deep dish. But it was still good. As for the toppings, there was the standard pizza sauce and mozzarella. For my 5 additional toppings, I chose Italian sausage, bacon, onions, and a double shot of cream cheese. Here's a more detailed shot:

It was really, really good. I'm going so far as to say it's my second favorite pizza place to date. But nothing will ever surpass Leo's in my books. Up next, Fat Freddy's. I'll update the standings after this has been sampled.

But after Quinn and I were done eating, we had some business to attend to. Without going into too much detail, I'll just say that we traversed many a great stores, felt belittled a few times, lied to more than once, and confused several more. But after a mighty great struggle, when all hope seemed lost, we made it. Just know that we made it.

After these tribulations and eventual success, we parted ways as victors.

I then took my car back to my house, where my dad and I then took it to a mechanic to get the HVAC system checked.

Later, Sidney came by my house and we headed to Worlds of Fun. On the way, to avoid overpriced amusement park food, we stopped at a Taco Bell and Sidney ordered a chalupa. Once back on the road, she offered me a bite. I agreed to this, provided there were no tomatoes anywhere near where I would bite. This was arranged, and I took my bite. The next thing I noticed was the feeling of warm food running down my shirt and onto my shorts. Apparently, Sidney had forgotten that she was holding said chalupa, because when the empty paper bag had begun to fall, she dropped the chalupa to save the bag. I was now moderately covered in ground beef and shredded lettuce, but fortunately she was able to salvage about 90% of the chalupa. She cleaned me off nice and good, and I only had moderate food stains from the taco meat. Now the people at WoF would just think I was an average slob instead of a Grade A Level 100 ragamuffin.

But that's alright.

We still had a good time. Unfortunately, the one ride we wanted to ride the most (the Mamba) was closed for maintenance. But we made the best of it. We started off with Fury of the Nile, so Sidney could walk around in wet shoes the rest of the night. Then we road the Prowler.

We then headed to the Zulu, which is terrifying to think about in light of a power failure.

We then headed back to check on the Mamba, but it was still closed. We decided to head over towards the Patriot, with a stop at the Detonator along the way.

After the Patriot, we decided to take it easy and ride the Skyliner Ferris wheel.

After this relaxing intermission, we decided to ride Spinning Dragons. For anyone wanting to ride this: the breaks are awful. They jerk your head around like no other.

We then wanted to end the night with a ride on Sea Dragon, but it was closed down. We settled for one of my favorites, and actually the first ride I ever rode at Worlds of Fun, the Scrambler.

With the park now officially closed, we headed for the gate. When we got there, we noticed that a Dippin' Dots stand was still open. Sidney decided to get the cookies and cream flavor.

Of course I had to have a few bites.

When I got home, I had some chicken thighs that my parents had cooked.

And a splash of honey mustard.

It was a really good day. I ate some great food, got a lot accomplished, and had a blast at Worlds of Fun with Sidney. It's going to be tough to top this one.

Triple C

Chipotle, Cookies, and Chicken.

But the day started with a B, a double B: brotein bar.

I then headed to the gym to do some cycling.

But this ain't yo momma's cycling. This is high intensity interval training. HIIT is a combination of slow and fast intervals where you go all out for a little while then reduce intensity for a little while then repeat. Some BroScience behind this says that this will burn more fat than traditional steady state cardio and in less time, so I'm in! I did 10 intervals each of 30 seconds of sprinting and 30 seconds of slower pedaling.

After this, for some idiotic reason, I went back downstairs and decided to do legs. I ran 2.4 miles yesterday, pedaled my butt off today, and now I thought I'd do legs. Brilliant!

And actually it wasn't that bad. I started of with some back extensions. How is this legs, you ask? When doing back extensions, it's important that you focus on squeezing your glutes. Glutes = butt, and butt is near enough to legs that I'm counting it.

I then did some quad extensions, which were tough. Then I was persuaded by Scott to squat. I didn't want to, but he made me. I ended up doing too heavy of a squat and my right hip flexor started hurting again. So I did a couple reps with lighter weight.

Then he convinced me to do some RDLs. This was actually pretty fun, since I was able to one-up him with every set. And after this we were done.

Scott had a coupon for Chipotle, so that's where we went for a post-workout meal. My free burrito bowl consisted of double black beans, fajita vegetables, chicken, medium tomatillo green chile salsa, sour cream, cheese, and lettuce.

After this, I went back to Scott's place and sampled a Red Velvet Oreo with cream cheese in the middle.

It was pretty good, although it took awhile to taste the cream cheesiness.

Then I tried a s'mores Oreo. It was also pretty good.

Then I decided to show Scott how to make some real cookies. He's been struggling with store-bought cookies for a while, and since Sidney has taught me the art of cookie making, I thought I'd pass on my knowledge. After quite a few runs to local stores, we finally had everything we needed to get going. A short while later, we had these:

A total of 18 cookies later and we were done. I only had half of one cookie since these are fairly caloric. Scott, on the other hand...

After smashing two cookies, he decided he'd make an ice cream cookie sandwich with two more. I was pretty envious, so I plopped a dollop of ice cream on my half of a cookie.

I'll say that this cookie dough-flavored ice cream made the cookie better.

Final conclusion: Scott loved the cookies, but Sidney is still the Cookie Queen.

When I got back to Sidney's house, she explained to me that I hadn't cooked them thoroughly and that the insides were still too doughy. I don't know how to fix this, because the outsides were borderline crispy. The cookies overall were soft and chewy, though, so they were still good. Oh well, I just heated up 3 pieces of my grilled chicken leftovers from Friday night and reflected on how to perfect my cookie making.

Bacon and Eggs (and Shakers)

Last night, my mom and I made plans to run around the block. This particular block is 2.4 miles in circumference. This morning I awoke at about 0530 for waste excretion purposes. I then fell back asleep until about 0700, at which point I decided to get up. At 0830, I got up. I had involuntarily fallen back asleep and was awoken by my mother asking me if I wanted to sleep or join her on the run. Of course, I wanted to join her. I hurriedly got up, got dressed, and went outside. It was a beautiful morning, but something was missing. I quickly realized that there was no way that I was going to run 2.4 miles on an empty stomach. I needed some brotein, stat! I searched, but it was an elusive little bugger. I settled for a spoonful of peanut butter. 

Every time I eat a spoonful of peanut butter, I ask myself why I don't do so more often. It just tastes so good. But I always seem to shy away from peanut flavors (in ice cream, for instance). Oh well, peanut butter was a good fuel for the run. 

After completing the run, we got down to breakfast matters. It was slated to be a breakfast heavy on the brotein, easy on the carbs. 

First, there was bacon.

Cooking bacon on an open fire is mysteriously satisfying.

Especially when it's right next to a lake!

And then, there were eggs.

It was shaping up to be a very happy breakfast.

And since I had eaten quite a bit throughout most of the week, this was all I ate all day until dinner at around 1800. But it was well worth the wait.

We went to Shakers, which is just a little ice cream stand and finger food shack in Mound City, MO. But they have some seriously good food. I got what I always get.

Boneless Buffalo wings (really just small tenders) with fries, Texas toast, and ranch. For some reason, this admittedly basic food just tastes so good, and I can't exactly describe why. It just does.

And for dessert, and since this place is an ice cream place after all, I got my usual Black Raspberry Sundae.

This is the perfect way to end a weekend at Big Lake. I get this same food every time I'm here. It really is just the perfect ending to a good weekend.

Big Lake

Up early again for the Market, and that means one thing:

After the Market, I had some of that chicken that I grilled up last night.

10 ounces, to be exact.

But throughout this past semester of school, I had developed a longing to get back up to Big Lake. Every time I smelled a fire, I thought of Big Lake. Every time I saw a boat, I thought of Big Lake. I just wanted to go up to the lake, smell a bonfire, go for a boat ride, and just simply relax. I wanted to relax knowing I didn't have an exam next week or any homework due. I just wanted to relax, and now that school is temporarily over, that is exactly what I did.

For dinner, we grilled some brats.

I also had another leftover taco burger patty with some Velveeta cheese.

It just felt nice to be back at the lake again.

Mi Piace il Formaggio!

Yes, it's true. I like cheese. Today, I ate cheese. It was good.

But let's start at square one on the day. I had the best breakfast in the world.

This brotein burst got me through my 2-hour volunteer shift.

When I got back home, Sidney was just starting to bake her cookies for the market. I was just in time to help her. My job is usually to mix up all the cookie dough, and today was no different. I'm becoming an expert in cookie dough mixing, but if I ever have to bake them, I'm in trouble. Actually, I think I could do it. Unless, of course, I just ate all the cookie dough before it had a chance to bake. Anyway, I was plugging along, happily mixing dough in a kitchen kemistry extravaganza. There was sodium bicarbonate here, monocalcium phosphate there. Everything was going swimmingly, and then Sidney tapped me on my shoulder. I whipped around to see what this interruption should warrant, and there she was, looking adorable in her poofy hairnet, holding out a piece of surplus cookie dough. After a very brief inner battle, I accepted the cookie dough ball and consumed it rather quickly, all the while enjoying and savoring the absolute wonderfulness that is a Sidney cookie (even though I had just mixed the dough up not 5 minutes prior). 

Anyway, I told myself that that would be the only carby, tasty, wonderful dough I would accept. I am, after all, trying to limit my carbs and calories while maximizing brotein. Cookies don't have much brotein, so cookies don't have much of a place in my diet. 

To make a short story shorter, I failed miserably in my attempt to resist. It was just too hard to turn down Sidney in all her adorableness, especially when she was holding unbelievably great-tasting cookie dough. All in all, I think I had 4 moderately-sized balls of cookie dough. But hey, at least they had eggs in them!

After we were all done baking, Sidney used up the last little bit of dough cake dough.

Quite literally, I ate dough. Not a pancake, not a crepe, no. Dough. Just dough. Dough with strawberries. But mostly dough. Plain and honest dough. Carby dough. Dough.

Having eating my year's quota of carbs in just a few short minutes, I decided that I wanted to try a new recipe. I originally found this recipe on YouTube via Laura in the Kitchen, with the actual recipe written out here. I've had several past successes following her recipes, so I was pretty excited about this one.

It was Fettuccine Alfredo with Chicken, because why not more carbs? I followed the recipe to the letter, doubling everything so to have more (hopeful) deliciousness. We seasoned the chicken with garlic and onion powders, cooked them in a colossal amount of butter, then added the cream, then cheese, then chicken back in, then noodles.

It was starting to look really good, and it was smelling quite fantastic. It was almost time to taste!

In the past year I've found myself to be quite the Fettuccine Alfredo connoisseur, with my initial favorite being the Fettuccine Alfredo with Grilled Chicken at La Strada Italian Grill in Lake Lure, North Carolina. The sauce in that particular interpretation was absolutely incredible. Since then, I've tried many different Fettuccine Alfredos, always comparing them to La Strada. It wasn't until about a month ago that I found another Fettuccine Alfredo that I deemed to even compete with La Strada, and that was Anthony's in downtown Kansas City.

So I had high hopes for this recipe. Just imagine if this recipe produced Fettuccine Alfredo to rival those greats. I wouldn't have to leave home to indulge. I could make it anytime I wanted it, and I could eat so much more and for so much cheaper, too! I was beginning to get really excited. But the proof is in the puddi...rather, Alfredo.

After the initial taste test, the consensus was... we have a winner!! While not duplicating perfectly the taste of either La Strada's nor Anthony's Fettuccine Alfredo, this recipe produced such a cheesy, buttery, creamy, garlicky, oniony, wonderfully, tasty-y, yummy-y, goody, excellenty, fhafkldyy, ajkladayy, ejfjcbsyy, EIOEOOE, EOIEOIOIE, EIOOOIEIEIOOOIOEE...

This was simply great. It was one of the best edible things I've ever had a part in making. It was just so rich and creamy, and the Parmigiano-Reggiano brilliantly shone through. I would make this stuff every day if I was on a high-carb diet. But I'm not. I'm on a high brotein diet. So I only ate a little bit. 

Admittedly, I did have a couple extra pieces of chicken and some more noodles, but I left about 90% in the pan. It's now in the fridge, cold and alone. But I must persevere. After eating all these carbs and fat (read: mucho calorias), I thought I was done eating for the day.

Oh how the day was plotting against me. 

I then had to attend a graduation party for a friend of Sidney's sister. This party was in a hotel convention center, and was shared by 5 other graduates. This meant a lot of people. And a lot of people meant a lot of food. I was done in for when I spotted the chicken strips.

I then determined that, for the second time today, my will power would falter. A few seconds later, I was sitting at a table with a plate that looked like this:

It had pita and hummus from Aladdin Cafe, there were a couple bacon-wrapped lil' smokies, there was a roll, there was some pulled pork, there was some cheesy pasta, and there were the chicken strips with ranch. I was feeling rather adventurous, so I dipped a chicken strip in some hummus. 

It was actually really good. But when you combine two foods that are really good, the result is probably going to be really good, too.

Sidney grabbed me a chocolate cupcake with peanut butter frosting for good measure. 

On the way out, I saw that the candy table had a thing full of Sour Patch Kids. Of course I had to grab some. 

I threw in a Swedish Fish just because.

When I got back home, I resolved to eat only chicken for the next few days.

I seasoned some more chicken with ample amounts of garlic and onion powder, then grilled it. I did sample a couple pieces, but only to assure they tasted good. I put the rest straight into the fridge. 

And that was it.