Merry Christmas!

First Christmas away from family. First Christmas with my new family; John, Holly, and Baxter. I thought I would be depressed and sad wishing I were at home with all my aunts, uncles, cousins, and second cousins. I definitely wanted to be home, but I wasn't depressed. John wanted to decorate the house to make sure I was in the holiday spirit. Poor guy was afraid I would be grumpy and moping this Christmas. I was afraid of that too. But I wasn't. The sad thing about this is that I never felt the holiday spirit this year. Christmas seemed like just another day off. There wasn't anything to really looked forward to. I tried listening to Christmas music in the car to get me into the spirit. Yes, that is disappointing. Is it because I'm getting older? No way am I a grumpy old holiday hating lady, but this year, I wasn't excited about Christmas. I hope the rest of my family had a wonderful time. I will make sure it make it to the next Christmas. It' s been too long since I've seen the Clans

Food is fun

I've been watching a lot of Travel Channel and Food Network to see where all the hotspot eateries are. Surprisingly there are quite a few featured places that are here in Oklahoma. Eating is something I love. Eating at a famous place that was featured on TV, now that I love even more! My plan is to go to as many of these places as I can. So far I've been to Big Truck Taco. A little taco shack that's packed during lunch hour. It's a bright yellow concrete block that's located in Oklahoma City's "ghetto". Ghetto in parenthesis because this isn't Baltimore City. You know what real ghetto is if you've ever known parts of Baltimore city (or Hyattsville). They have the bestest, greasiest, yummiest soft shell tacos. My favorite was the brisket taco. Now if you've ever had bbq brisket you know how good this stuff is. Imagine that piled high on a tortilla with so much grease it drips down your wrists leaving globs of orange fat stains. Haven't been there in a while since I don't work downtown anymore. But will probably have to make a visit when the cousins come ;)

Next stop: Ingrid's Kitchen. Driving through most of Oklahoma City you start to notice some food trends; Mexican, Tex-mex, bbq, sonic, bbq, tex-mex, more sonic, more bbq, etc. So I was excited to find that there was an authentic German restaurant in town. Being adventurous one Sunday, I convinced John to leave the couch and drive a few minutes up north to try the German Breakfast Buffet. (okay, so not very adventurous, but for me and John, any new place, no matter how close or common, is an adventure. hmm, actually more so true for John than me!). We walked into the cafeteria-like restaurant. Nothing fancy. There was a huge buffet station set out with the usual breakfast food and some lunch items. The only "German" thing on the menu were bratwursts and sauerkraut. Disappointing. I wanted to try some schnitzel and schinkenwurst, and knackwursts. Whatever those are. John loved the food. Keep in mind this is coming from a guy that eats Totino's pizza 6 days out of the week. Don't know if we'd come back to this place for the breakfast, but I would like to try a schnitzel.

A few weekends ago I once again convinced John to drive out even further than before for another Travel Channel driven food adventure. I' ve actually been wanting to try this place for a long time. Get ready for it.... fried chicken and waffles! and soul food! Real soul food that was made by some lady called Mama E! Prior to our trip I had been craving fried chicken like no other. So I was super excited. John, oh John, had total reservations as soon as we spotted the yellow shack, yes another yellow shack, although this one much more ghetto-er than Big Truck Taco. He later told his coworker where he had gone and she asked us what the hell we were doing in that part of town. More ghettoness. If it wasn't for the Travel Channel, I would have never ever thought about eating at this shady place. But hey, good food is good food and I wasn't bothered by the appearance of the place. It kind of reminds me of the tiny food shops at Eden. Steaming silver trays of hot food held behind a glass and the lady behind it scoops up your order into styrofoam plates. I got the wings and waffles with a side of collard greens. All of the food looked and smelled so good. Mac and cheese, roasted chicken, stuffing, neck bones, meatloaf, gravy, catfish. This stuff was no doubt made from scratch by someone who knew what he/she was doing. And for a dollar you get unlimited Koolaid. John was more excited about the Koolaid than anything else. We ate our food in a small dining area with black writing scribbled all over the walls and tables. There was a big old TV that played Rush Hour at the end where the food was being made. My chicken and waffles were good. Nice combo of sweet and salty. But it wasn't as exciting as I thought. John's soul food however was delicious. I don't know of any other place near here that has that type of home-cooked food. I will definitely come back to try more. Almost forgot! There was also free dessert! I had no idea what is was and still have no idea. But it was good. See photo below.

Next stop is a fried chicken place called Eichens. My coworkers have been raving about this place. So we'll be taking a work trip this Saturday. Yay!


Mama E's we're here!

This was where you ordered the food


John. So happy to eat at Mama E's.



"Dessert" I ate it.


Hope this provided you with a nice break from your studying/working/procrastinating :)