The Prickly Pineapple

Question of the day

2008-01-01T19:28:00.001-06:00

Where do old songs go to die?

Objet du Jour

2007-12-30T17:12:00.000-06:00

Today's featured object is the enemy of my life.

Behold the TV tray.

Note how it was one of the first items gracing my home.

I heap upon my TV tray a hefty helping of my iniquities. It is an enabling item. How, you ask? Excellent question, dear friend. It has enabled me to conduct my daily activities from the couch and in front of the television.

Enough said, people. I have looked the enemy in the eye, and now, so have you.

Holiday truths

2007-12-21T09:37:00.001-06:00

When it comes to this time of year, there are people who are quite vocal about the importance of focusing on the truths about the holidays. In keeping with this spirit is my question of the day/season.

True or False, people:

Trans-Siberian Orchestra is the new Mannheim Steamroller.

What do you think?

Happy Christmas, everyone. Happy birthday, Jesus.

Question of the day

2007-11-03T02:00:00.001-05:00

Innie, or outie?

Question of the day

2007-09-19T19:02:00.001-05:00

If you are cooking a potato in the microwave,

what happens if you don't poke holes in it beforehand?

Have I already asked this question before?

Craving

2007-09-02T23:48:00.003-05:00

Suddenly I am taken with the idea of scrambled eggs with ketchup.

What?

What's cookin'

2007-08-19T13:16:00.000-05:00

A new group of friends. Hot, humid weather. Lack of time. The overwhelming temptation to just go to the store and buy something. Enough pride not to allow me to do that. All these factors led to me busting an old, old, old "recipe" for tonight's potluck.

PEANUT BUTTER NOODLES

Ingredients:

A blob of peanut butter
A couple of counts of soy sauce
Sugar to taste
Sesame oil
A splash of vinegar (optional)
Chicken, cooked and torn into shreds
Cucumber, julienne
Green onions, diced for sprinkling
Chopped peanuts for sprinkling
Noodles of your choice

Directions:

Mix peanut butter, soy sauce, and sugar. Add hot water for desired consistency. Add a little bit of sesame oil and, if desired, vinegar. It's a beautiful brown sauce with a bit of a thicker consistency; if it's too thick, put it in the microwave for a few seconds or add more hot water.

Cook the noodles al dente. Toss with a bit of sesame oil, then add cucumbers and chicken and toss until mixed. The last steps are to add sauce and mix until coated, then sprinkle with green onions and peanuts. Save those last steps until immediately before devouring.

Enjoy!

Late entry

2007-07-30T21:43:00.001-05:00

Remember contest #4?

I forgot to mention an answer.

Velveeta.

What is that stuff, anyway?

Object of the day

2007-04-06T10:47:00.000-05:00

Hello, friends of the Prickly!

I promise I was planning on posting some lovely new photographs of another Chihuly piece.

On that day, the tourists, all of them except for one couple, Camodidi, and me, bumbled around the gift shop of the museum and completely ignored the art piece. I took some photos of which I was rather proud. (Imagine that. The Prickly Pineapple, proud?) The next day, the digital demons deleted the entire contents of my camera's memory card. I lost some irreplacable photos.

Oh well. What can I do, besides consider going back to using a camera with film in it?

In other news, on the same day I was introduced to Chihuly's Fern Green Tower I also became acquainted with the concept of the Klein bottle. The maths of it escapes my interest, but it's an interesting puzzlement in that its inside is also its outside. Think about that one. I couldn't find any excellent photos of it on the web, so here is a fair one.

And that is all.

Confessions of a food addict.

2007-03-07T09:42:00.000-06:00

I don't know, folks.

Is it wrong that I'm enthralled, captivated, put into a daze by shows like this?

Featured website

2007-02-08T15:04:00.000-06:00

I've decided to make February the month during which I celebrate my love for food.

I know I've mentioned it before, but you've gotta check out the Samurai Delicatessen.

Looking at that site makes me feel better about life. This is why we at the Prickly want to share it with you.

Party!

2007-02-07T19:59:00.000-06:00

Okay people.

No one else seems to be stepping up, so I'm having a Chinese New Year party. Aw, yeah! You're all invited.

But what to make? I'm not sure I can create a menu that everyone will enjoy. Don't want to go too authentic, as the masses won't be able to handle that (nian gao? Classic and easy to make, but not popular).

Here's my menu. Let me know if you think there's anything I should add or subtract:

Dishes:

Potstickers, pork and vegetarian, with my own homemade special sauce.
Egg rolls or spring rolls. I don't think I'll have time to make these in mass quantity, so I'll have to visit Sam's or Costco I guess. So much for food snobbery.
Shu mai, probably shrimp. Classic dim sum fare, and I want to use my steamer.
Lettuce wraps. This actually is a traditional snack, please don't give P.F. Chang's any credit for it! (p= poser, f= fake)

Small snacks:

Wasabi peas. Eeee hee hee hee!
Japanese rice snack mix.
Wait, why are all my snacks Japanese?! Fine. Let's add some Taiwanese sausage with garlic on a table water cracker or toast points or some other carb vector.
Veggie tray. Eh? Just in case. I'll make a Thai (Thailand, not Taiwan) style peanut butter & soy based sauce for dipping, along with the traditional ranch dressing.
Kim chee. Maybe.
Shrimp chips. For some color. Maybe.

Beverages:

Soda. Duh. Maybe some Apple Sidra, if my guests prove they deserve to try it.
Wine, one red, one white, just 'cause.
Beer. Kirin and Tsingtao, and some ghetto Taiwan Beer if I can find it. Ha! And some Blue Moon of course, and maybe something more mainstream, but I don't know what.
Tea. I have no idea how I'm going to serve it to people though. Making a big pot of it and pouring it into styrofoam seems so wrong.

So what do you think? Should I fry up some rice? Should I make noodles (a CNY food representing long life)? Or fish? Or black-eyed peas? I think I'm already too ambitious as it is. I don't knoooooow!

Al dente

2007-02-07T19:45:00.000-06:00

Hmm.

So I got some pasta from a restaurant the other day, and though the flavor was good, the pasta was soft. Really soft. Soft enough that I didn't enjoy the dish.

This led me to consider the idea that I am spoiled. I am, I suppose. I cook pasta quite often, and it's always al dente. It's also always the same brand. And the parmesean (or romano) cheese I put on top is never powdered; it's grated. I don't eat the powdered stuff out of the slender green can, or from the shaker on the table. Not that I look down on it; I just don't eat it.

And sushi? It's so popular right now, and so many of my coworkers want to go out for it all the time. I daren't tell them that some of the places we go make dishes that seem rather mediocre to me, despite their trendy and mod ambience. Don't get me wrong, I adore sushi; I've just had so many lacklustre pieces lately. (Compared to what? I guess the sushi I had in Japan and Taiwan. Not a fair comparison.)

As I careen into maturity, am I becoming a snob? (Or, as I get long in the tooth, am I a snob for "firm to the tooth"?) Does this make me high-maintenance, and therefore difficult to be around or spend time with/go out to eat with? After all, when I look back on my life and the friends I've had, the friends I've been closest to have been the friends with whom I share meals. The last thing I need to do is become more fussy about my food.

Sprinkles

2007-01-21T23:16:00.000-06:00

So what's the deal with sprinkles? They make your ice cream or cupcake nice and colorful, but they don't really add flavor, do they? In fact, they're kind of chalky and not good, and when they melt they leave really ugly runny color. I don't think I'm pro-sprinkles. Anybody sprinkles fans out there care to explain the appeal?

Song for the day

2007-01-06T12:07:00.000-06:00

Pickled eggs in the corner store
Candy, pops, chips, counter JAAAAR!
Eyes bright, mouth watering
Reach in with hands, not tongue
Fingers wading in vinegar and brine
Grab me a pickled egg
Pickled eggs, pickled eggs, pickled eggs!
Oh how I love to eat
Piiiicklllled eeeeeeggs...

Food

2007-01-02T23:38:00.000-06:00

Wah.

I haven't posted here in, like, a really long time.

Like, so long that I'm reading the posts on this front page and not recognizing them! I'm learning interesting things about myself.

Scary.

But thanks for continuing to come by!

Part of the reason I haven't posted here in so long is that this was meant to be a coffeehouse discussion forum type place (notice that many or most of the posts involve questions for you to answer) (see Puffintoad and Eschemo Survivor's dialogue below) and people don't participate. All the other posts are about food, because I love it so.

So.

But.

The other day I came home from the grocery store as excited as a kid on Christmas morning (and it wasn't even Christmas— it was two days after). Why? Because I'd just bought a bunch of my favorite comfort foods, and I had all afternoon and evening off to EAT THEM! I tore into that stuff like a-- well, like a kid on Christmas morning... but I already said that.

Ninety minutes into my glut on salt and vinegar potato chips, mallomars (new one), parmesean slices on table water crackers plus and minus sopressata sausage slices, granny smith apple dipped in caramel, sushi, pasta, etc. all with an incidental (i.e. not typically my favorite) sauvignon blanc, I wondered to myself, how do other people do this?

So. What are your favorite comfort foods?

Theme music

2006-09-06T23:20:00.000-05:00

Yes. You know that I am all about themes.

If you had a theme song, what would it be?

(Mine is Short Skirt, Long Jacket by Cake.)

Skillz

2006-08-12T16:50:00.000-05:00

I used to have mad skillz. I'm not so sure anymore. But it makes me wonder,

What mad skillz do you have?

Just curious.

By request

2006-08-05T20:07:00.000-05:00

If anyone has some suggested reading material for the coffee tables at the Prickly, your comments are welcome*. And I request that any links to my blogs be associated with my pseudonym and not my real name, please.

Addendum: By "anyone" I meant "not internet marketers". And by "welcome" I meant "this is a play on the Prickly-Pineapple-as-a-hospitable-establishment theme," not "come and advertise on my blog." Just to clear things up.

And now here's this thing 'cause I got tagged.

1. One book that changed your life:
L’Etranger, by Albert Camus. I guess.

2. One book that you’ve read more than once:
Graham Greene’s A Burnt Out Case. There are several books that fall into this category, but I mention this one because I have read it maybe three times, and still I can’t remember a thing about it. I keep thinking I might like it, but I don’t think I do.

3. One book you’d want on a desert island:
A magically neverending blank book in which I could write. A pen that never runs dry would be nice to go along with that.

4. One book that made you laugh:
Message in a Bottle, by Nicholas Sparks. Because it was awful, awful! Horrible, cheesy, gag me with a spoon awful! I was reading it because my boyfriend at the time asked me to. (cough, snicker) THAT should have been a huge clue that he and I weren’t meant to be.

5. One book that made you cry:
The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini. I cried all the way through the book, for hours straight after I finished the book, and off and on for days after I finished it. I grieved for about three weeks thereafter.

6. One book that you wish had been written:
How to Forget

7. One book that you wish had never been written:
The Rules. That stupid dating book. I haven’t read it, but I’m pretty sure it’s messed things up for us all.

8. One book you’re currently reading:
Moss and Adams’ Heart Disease in Infants, Children, and Adolescents (Including the Fetus and Young Adult). The two volume set. Of course.

9. One book you’ve been meaning to read:
The Holy Bible in its entirety. I confess I haven’t read it all yet.

10. Now tag five people:
Saara
D
Thérèse
KiltedJedi
Puffintoad

Question of the day

2006-08-05T12:38:00.000-05:00

Is it true that if you don't poke holes in it, a potato will explode when you cook it in the microwave?

What do you think?

I want...

2006-07-31T22:24:00.000-05:00

Pocky.

Gimme.

Fruit

2006-07-18T16:50:00.000-05:00

Fruit is a good thing.

It's sweet. It's small. It's portable (for the most part). It's a little dessert in its own little serving size, with its own little packaging.

It's got fiber and vitamins.

Why don't we all eat more fruit? I mean, really. It's such an ideal food.

If you were a fruit, what fruit would you be?

Gasp! Did someone say durian?

A sad day at the Prickly

2006-07-15T19:27:00.000-05:00

Life hands me lemons left and right, and yet I am out of lemon juice.

Public Service Announcements

2006-06-28T22:42:00.000-05:00

Because we at the Prickly Pineapple are concerned over your health and well-being, we take this break to inform you of the following.

1) A child can drown in as little as two inches of water. July is the peak month for water-related morbidity and mortality. Flotation devices such as water wings and other floaty toys do not decrease the incidence of submersion events. It takes less than one minute of submersion for brain damage to begin. Please limit your family's activities wisely and accordingly.

2) Bats carry rabies more frequently than any other animal. If you see one, call animal control. Do not attempt to capture it yourself. If you see one in the daytime, it is most likely a sick one. Bat scratches/bites are often not apparent on children. If you have children and find a bat in your house, seek medical attention for them immediately.

That is all.

Just for fun

2006-06-24T16:27:00.000-05:00