Eric

11:17 am: More 'bout Jen - food
Let's move on to some other random thoughts and memories of Jen
because, let's face it, if they aren't documented somewhere, how
will we remember her?

FOOD

I'm going to list, in no particular order, things Jen (and I)
came to love to eat. Some were her favorites, some were mine,
all were shared. We really loved food. As a waitress, Jen
had an intimate involvement, including turning me on to some
great dishes at Houlihan's like the gigantic ice cream pie
dessert, the oriental chicken salad, and I still need to try
the salmon...

Here are some things I remember enjoying with Jen:

Frozen soft pretzels - you know the kind that you microwave and sprinkle
salt onto. What a delicious snack while watching TV

Cran-raspberry juice - for breakfast, a huge glassful. Before bed. Any time. If the glass isn't finished, it's in the refrigerator for
morning.

Frozen Diaquris - strawberry diaquri mix, another treat. The secret
ingredient in Jen's diaquris is pucker schnapps.

Chex party mix - this was something I inherited from my dad. We
make it with sesame sticks instead of pretzels, and sometimes add
extra butter or Worchestershire sauce. This became such an addictive
snack that the two of us would team up to make a batch as quickly
as possible, one person getting the ingredients and measuring, the
other stirring, melting, seasoning. They went into the microwave
(to make even faster) then onto cookie sheets to cool. We sometimes
couldn't wait for the mix to cool, and would eat right off the
cookie sheet in front of the TV

Panera bagels - Jen loved the asiago cheese bagel, I favored the
cinnamon crunch. Both were great with cream cheese, or for fun we
would make pizza bagels, adding our own sauce, cheese, and pepperoni.
I loved to show up at Jen's apartment with a dozen box of Panera
bagels, which we would spend the weekend trying to finish, if not
freeze for later.

Chips - Jen always had snack chips over the refrigerator. These
included pretzels, potato chips, corn chips. What better to go
with a beer or maragrita, which leads me to my next item.

Beer - Jen has a gourmet palate when it comes to beer, not so much
about the brand, but about the freshness. There was always a case
of beer in the refrigerator, or on the way there, usually
Yuengling, which just happens to be my favorite.

Kolbassi and sauer kraut - this was something we started to make
in the slow cooker. Nothing was better than letting the kolbassi
(or hot/sweet sausage) cook all day - the aroma that filled the
apartment was wonderful. And we almost always went back for seconds,
served on a nice firm sausage roll.

Hummus - I'm not sure why we decided to try hummus. Then it became
an obsession. Buying the fresh-made stuff at the super market.
Then making our own bagel chips for dipping. Then trying different
flatbreads, and coming up with the ultimate: warm, toasted flatbread.
The yummiest!

'Special Coffee' - French roasted (so the taste is not masked by
additives) Coffee with sweetened condensed milk. Or espresso and
the same. This stuff can be mixed to the point where it tastes like
chocolate. Or rather coffee flavored chocolate. Or what chocolate
would taste like if it were made with coffee beans instead of cocoa.
The problem with this is, what kind of pastry would you have with
your coffee if it's already so sweet and candylike, it doesn't NEED
any pastry?!

Pop Tarts - since I mentioned it. Ok, maybe this was not so much a
Jen thing as a Me thing, but I came to love these silly toasted
treats. Maybe because they are a simplified, bastardized version of:
pie. Speaking of pie, the best I've ever had was a Peach pie from
the Trax Farms market. The kind with sugar crystals on top of the
crust. Anyhow pop tarts were the perfect complement to coffee, and I
made sure we had the very best available to drink at all times. Or
at least some Starbuck's! :)

Jelly Beans - I had forgotten about these but now that Easter is coming,
the store shelves have reminded me. We loved the Smucker's Puckers sour
jellies the most, and Starburst second to that, followed by Smucker's
regular jellies. I also had a fondness for candy corn that was partly shared.
Similar to sour jellies would have to be sour patch kids, a perfect
complement to the night's entertainment - a rented DVD, and possibly takeout
if we were feeling especially indulgent. But it was more fun to cook food
from Giant Eagle. It is so much more fun to shop for two.

=========== more food to come ===========

Furniture

We got to go furniture shopping at a few places, and settled on
Roomful Express for a green sofa and matching chair. It became
quite an adventure when my buddy Paul and I went to the store to
pick up the furniture to bring to Jen's. First of all the store
people were very reluctant to hand over the stuff, even though
Jen had called that day to tell them we were coming. Apparently
the person who took the message only wrote Jen's name, no other
info. So it took some convincing (and some waiting) for us to
convince the store manager that we were really the right folks
and authorized to pick up the sofa.

We had no problem fitting the sofa into Paul's work truck, in
fact the dockworker commented on how smooth it fit...
"Just like downtown." he said. It was funny at the time. On
the way back we stopped at McDonald's for some takeout. While
driving to Jen's, Paul was reaching for some french fries in
the bag and practically drove into an oncoming car. I saw what
was happening and shouted "Steer! Steer!" to get his attention.

After that scare, we safely got the sofa to Jen's and then came
the challenge of fitting it into the apartment. We tried the front
door and realized a railing was in the way. So we carried the
sofa all the way around the back entrance and realized the very
same setup was there... so we somehow lifted the sofa over the
railing and got it inside. But then the real challenge:
getting it around the corner. It was stuck. We tried pushing,
we tried cajoling, but it was just plain stuck. Finally we tried
removing some of the cardboard corners that were protecting it,
and with some addition of brute force, got it around the corner
and into the living room.

What a relief!

So that's our furniture story. I'll have to write more about the
fact that until then, while I visited Jen's place, there was no
furniture, and so we had to make do with a beanbag chair. And so
now I am writing that:

There was no furniture at Jen's place until I brought a beanbag.
But it was rather limp, and so one day I decided to fix it with
styrofoam peanuts - packing materials from another present, I'm
sure. Maybe the shipping container from Spain, maybe the one from
Holland, I'm not sure. Anyhow, I had the darnedest time getting the
zipper on the beanbag chair to open, but finally with much effort
was able to declare success, dump those styrofoam peanuts in, and
voila! Comfy couch for one. Though we did our best to fit in it
together, this is not someone can do without gymnastic abilities or
at least a touch of contortionist in them. Pardon that phrase.