Day 365: Champagne

This is it! No more. We almost had sparkling white wine, but Liz stepped it up a notch and got Andre Clouet.  Still hate it.

As for the tab on this whole project. It depends how you count. If we only count the food/drink in question: $2653.07. And that is with a few kickbacks and a 20% discount at New Seasons. If we include. Mind you this doesn't include ingredients we already owned. Like sugar or vanilla, unless we had to buy more. As for a total that includes all the food and any other expenses like tip, Liz's meal, pans, or cooking wear: $4563.09. It really hard to gauge if any of that is expensive or not. I never really think about cost in anything past a monthly sense.
As for most expensive things: Filet Mignon was the most expensive at $46.00 and $125.00 total. The most expensive month was March for just the items ($290.93) and August for the whole shebang ($479.36).  The least expensive month was June in both respects ($163.69 and $227.97).
Well that's it. I'm out.  I had fun, but glad to be done!

Day 364: Bicarbonate of Soda

Bicarbonate of Soda, a.k.a. Sodium Bicarbonate, a.k.a Baking Soda. I could have baked something, but it would have had the same baking soda taste. Club soda was the first thing I thought of that still tastes like baking soda. I actually like it too.

I think I only would have thought of it because of this skit:

Day 363: Pepper Pot

The last of the weird food that I'll regret eating and takes forethought to make. I found the recipe from Food Network. It was one of the few recipes without tripe. I didn't want to scour Portland for that.

Liz put it all together using her sister's pressure cooker that I picked up the night before. I hated it. So wrong. Probably better than the tripe version.

Day 362: Chocolate Candy

Went with simple today: plain M&M's. I filled up my candy machine. I could have done See's candies which I got as Christmas present, but I did need to fill the candy machine.

Day 361: Fruit Cake

I have never had this. I've always heard of it. It gets a really bad rap. Like Creed bad. I got this at New Seasons. I don't hate it. I'm not sure where the crap talk comes from. I'm not a fan though, but I'm not a fan of a lot of things. I can see normal people loving this.

Day 360: Candy Cane

More slobbering on a stick. I don't mind the mini candy canes so much, but the normal ones are just annoying.

Day 359: Pumpkin Pie

Nobody is sure why today, Christmas Day, is Pumpkin Pie day. Anyway, here we are:

Happy Christmas, everyone...(why couldn't we do plum pudding or mincemeat pie today???).

Day 358: Egg Nog

My favorite drink at Christmas. Blog nog! I'm gonna shut up now and enjoy all the Xmas to come. I also need to top myself off again.

Day 357: Pfeffernuesse

I had never heard of this before. It's just iced gingerbread cookies. They are soft and tasty. Just the perfect amount of sweet. I even love the little dome shape too.

Day 356: Puppy Chow

This isn't really true. But I am making it true. This probably needs further explanation. Let me backtrack a little.
Today is actually National Date-Nut Bread Day. Oddly, it is also National Date-Nut Bread Day on September 8th. Which I did already. This brings us to the main problem with this whole project. People constantly ask me where I "get this list" from. There is no official list. A number of them are government declarations that are for light ceremony and other are just made by a company or complete rando. They have as much weight as an astrological sign. Some of the days were only meant for a particular year. If you'd like to know more about the bunkness of food holidays this article is a good read.
So why did I do this project? What's the point? Well, It's fun... in someways at least. It also gives me a project, which I tend to latch myself onto. Liz can attest to that. Adding to that point, I come up with ideas all the time and am stubborn enough to follow through on it. This leads to my final reason. Most people know or have figured out by now that I am a picky eater. Liz says I "only eat 10 things". This year-long escapade has been a small nudge to get me over some of my stubborn eating paranoias. It can't be said I don't try new or old things. I'm just picky.
This bring me back to today. I could have done date-nut bread again, but that seemed a little silly and against some of the point in doing Eat Me. I did a ton of research to find a different listed day. There was nothing. I thought maybe Feast Day would work, but it's one of many and has nothing to do with food.

I resolved to just make my own day. The first thing that came to mind was Puppy Chow. It's great and I tend to think of it as a winter snack. I looked around Google a bit more and saw that Puppy Chow was not assigned a day. No point in making this another doubled up day. I was set. Some of you might think this bullhonky, but it's just as bullhonky as the other days (see rant above). In my mind, as long as it is celebrated on this day every year it's true for me. So for me (and if you want to too) December 22nd is Puppy Chow Day. I can live with that.

Day 355: Hamburger

Sadly, Stanich's is closed on Sundays, so we went instead to Little Big Burger on Division. Yum, tiny burgers and truffle fries! Alex also had a root beer float.

So, so good! Despite the reggae version of Silver Bells, it was lovely (It's Christmas time ON the island...Really??).

Day 354: Sangria

We went to Nuestra Cocina.  The food was good, but drink me no likey.

Day 353: Hard Candy

Liz picked up some hard candy for the "As Seen On TV" gift exchange. It's the foldy ribbon kind. I don't ever see the point in having hard candy that doesn't all fit in your mouth at once. Give me a root beer barrel to pop and not some block that I get to slobber on for a while before I get tired and start crunching away. When I did bite into it I felt like I might cut my tongue. At least most lollipop have a stick to keep my hands relatively sugar free.

not a Michael Bay film

Day 352: I Love Honey

It's a bit odd that I have two days in a row where I drink a topping.  I didn't even know what I would put it on. I rarely think about honey. It's so much better in things than on things. Now I want some Honey-Comb.

Day 351: Maple Syrup

Liz asked if she should get me Eggo waffles for me to have the maple syrup on. I declined since I didn't want to ruin an Eggo waffle with maple syrup. I much prefer high fructose corn syrup with butter flavor. I just drank it straight. Still bad.

Day 350: Chocolate Covered Anything

I seriously considered covering something in chocolate to eat: an orange or a hot dog. I passed on that since today is Tuesday and I roll on Tuesdays.

I got some Flipz chocolate covered pretzel. I almost got Whoppers, but It's been so much longer since I've had the chocolate covered pretzel. It was my favorite type of M&M, but they shut that down. If you're curious, there is nothing mutant about the chocolate, unless it was milk harvested from mutants.

Day 349: Cupcake

Simple Hostess cupcakes. I considered making confetti cupcakes, but change my mind when I decided to make porcupine meatballs.

Is it me or is this a little Elton John-esk?

I wish I could have gotten a two pack at Safeway rather than the 8 box. I have so many more sweets to eat for the rest of the year.

Day 348: Bouillabaisse

We tried real hard to just get a small serving of Bouillabaisse, (I LOVE French, but WTF is going on with this word?!) but we had to order a full serving of this seafood stew. We went to Serrato in NW Portland, which was listed as a top Bouillabaisse outlet.

Poor Alex. He looks so wounded. We ate a very small amount of Bouillabaisse and left the rest as a hobo treat in NW Portland. We will be super glad when we can actually order and eat stuff that we want and like. Only 17 days to go!

Day 347: Ice Cream and Violins

Blue Bunny Banana Split and Vivaldi: The Four Seasons, Op. 8/1, "Spring" - 1. Allegro by Vanessa-Mae.

Day 346: Cocoa

I didn't make this too hot because I burned my tongue a few weeks ago on hot cocoa. I also passed on the Swiss Miss we have in favor of Silly Cow so I could finish it off.

I definitely like Swiss Miss better. It's sweeter. The Silly stuff has an odd flavor. It's not bad, just not my brand I guess. Liz loves the stuff.

Day 345: Noodle Ring

What is this? I made it. I ate it. and I still don't see its purpose. I had hopes for it, but the first bite was so wrong. It was like sweet noodle bread. So bad. So weird. How did this get a day?

Day 344: Lager

We went to HUB. We got HUB Lager. Ingenious name.

Day 343: Pastry

I was looking in the breads and pastry aisle of Safeway after I got yesterdays brownies to find something for today. I wanted something I didn't do and didn't mind eating all of. I was in a hurry. I was sick of debating in my head and looking up the precise definition of pastry. I gave up and got in the self-checkout aisle. The aisle line overflowed into the breakfast area and I saw Pop Tarts: a toaster pastry. Bought!

I got strawberry and fired them up in the morning which is why the photo is so horrible. I'm actually crying from the flash.  The pastry was great. Too bad it made me super hungry by 9:30.

Day 342: Chocolate Brownie

I wanted something quick and simple after I locked myself out of the apartment. I got some Cosmic Brownies at Safeway. They didn't have the regular Little Debbie brownies. I always picked off the walnuts as a kid. I felt a little disappointed at missing a nostalgic opportunity.

I still enjoyed the cosmic treat. I don't understand the indentation. It's only in the frosting so it doesn't really aid in brownie splitting. And who the hell would split one?

Day 341: Cotton Candy

I got this at the Dollar Tree. It's s'more flavored. Probably not the best thing to have in the morning. It still was tasty. I feel a like sick now, but I'm sure a shower will fix that.

Day 340: Gazpacho

We decided to make the gazpacho in our VitaMix (the best appliance ever). So easy. Tomato juice, red wine vinegar, olive oil, tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, green bell peppers, a dash of hot sauce and salt and pepper: Just dump it all in the VitaMix.

It turned out super good. Just pure, raw vegetables- so healthy! Alex despised it.

He does hate soup, I guess. It was like a Bloody Mary sans alcohol. Delicious.

Day 339: Sacher Torte

This took a crap load of time to make on Wednesday. I used this recipe. Even before eating it I knew I would never make it again.

It tastes really good. The apricot glaze makes the torte shine. Without it the torte would be pretty bland. The texture is quite thick, but the taste makes up for any of that. I left it in the fridge so that may be making it thicker. If I could go back in time to fix things, I would have cooked the apricot glaze a little less to make it more spreadable and let the chocolate glaze cool long to that it was less spreadable. Again, notice this is if I could time travel since I'm never making this again. Great tasting, but not worth it.

Day 338: Cookie

I was in the mood for Oreos and today was the perfect day for them. I'm a fan of the classic stuff. Liz also pick up Oreo minis and Mega stuff. I'm looking forward to trying Hydrox whenever that comes back on the market.

Yes this is how I eat my Oreos: drowning in milk. Love it! It's also how I eat my Chips Ahoy.

Day 337: Apple Pie

Another pie. Really? Can we be done with pie?

Alex looks exhausted and slightly crazy here because he has spent hours preparing Friday's food. Tune in then for the goodness.

Day 336: Fritter

After stopping by Sesame Donuts on the way to bowling, Alex was hankering to eat his giant apple fritter. So much so that at a stoplight, I had to climb in the way back of the car to get the camera for this picture.

I didn't mind. He's cute.

Day 335: Pie

Another general day. I had to look at what I had done and still had left to do. When checking out the pies available at Safeway, I cross referenced them with my list. The only one I could get was chocolate cream pie.

It's chocolate pudding in a pie really. Lovely. If I wasn't so sleepy, I'd eat a third slice.

Day 334: Mousse

We already did chocolate mousse. Well, at least I did. We needed something a little different. I was planning on making some vanilla mousse, but Liz texted me that she could pick up some key lime mousse from New Seasons.

It was nice and cool. Liz liked it, but thought it too sugary. I think it had the perfect amount of sugar.

Day 333: Lemon Cream Pie

Although I am not a fan of lemon meringue pie and Alex is not a fan of anything lemon, this dessert turned out very lovely. Alex made it today and did a fantastic job

Fluffy on top, tart in the middle and sort of crisp at the bottom (our cooling time was severely limited), the Lemon Cream Pie was delicious.

After half the slice, I had sugar overload and Alex had a slice of birthday cake.

Day 332: French Toast

Definitely not a common breakfast food for us- Alex thinks it's too eggy. I enjoy it, but I prefer a savory breakfast. I think this is maybe the second time we've had French Toast for as long as Alex and I have known each other.

He made the toast; I made the sausage

It was yummy. We should have put some cinnamon in the batter.

Day 331: Bavarian Cream Pie

If we could have picked this one up we would have, but Bavarian cream pie isn't something you see around much. We made it the night before. It was pretty involved. Those Bavarians know how to make a pie complicated.

Hiding in an office to sneak a quick picture.

It has a very light vanilla flavor. It's a bit like if you wanted a vanilla ice cream pie. If we had had chocolate shavings to put on top, it would have made a lovely accent.

Day 330: Cake

It's so much easier when they are general foods. I have a large selection. I went to Safeway to see what I could get and not have to buy an entire cake.  I was intreged by the slice of marble cake.

It has a layer of chocolate frosting or gnash on the inside. Genius! I love this cake. This should be done with every cake.

Day 329: Parfait

I wanted this to be different than the chocolate and strawberry parfaits. I decided to make a yogurt parfait. I made it with vanilla yogurt, cherry granola and raspberries.

In all honesty, I would have much preferred the ice cream parfait. I feel like these ingredients are okay together, but do so much better apart. Doin' their own things. Lone wolves.

Day 328: Sardines

This is not one of the foods I was looking forward to. I opted for sardines in a can since that's the way they always come in the cartoons.  The presentation of these things are awful.  They pretty much taste like tuna though. Salty tuna.

Day 327: Espresso

Of course we went to an Italian restaurant. Alex hates all things coffee, so I chose A Cena, a small place in Sellwood that has real espresso (not the robot espresso, like Starbucks). We dined on tortellini and then ordered Affogato, which is vanilla gelato, chocolate sauce, pizelles and a shot of espresso. The waitress almost poured the espresso over the entire dish of gelato, but we stopped her in time.

Alex hated it. I loved it. I couldn't drink the whole shot because I want to go to sleep soon, but I would have. Soooo good. EspreSSOOOOO good!

Day 326: Cashew

My favorite of the nut/nut-like things. I always eat to many and get a bit of a headache. Almost worth it.

Day 325: Stuffing

Rather than prepare stuffing so close to Thanksgiving, we opted for Stovetop Stuffing (for your microwave oven!). This reminds me of middle school, a lot. We used to get the canisters of Stovetop Stuffing and make 'snacks' after school. Other snacks included Ramen. A lot of Ramen.

It was just as sodium-laden as I remember. Delicious. Alex was wary but ate the whole bowl.

Day 324: Peanut Butter Fudge

I stopped by the Lloyd Center after work to go to See's Candies. Unfortunately, they don't have or make peanut butter fudge at this time. Damn!  At least I got a free sample. They suggested I try next door at Made In Oregon. They were baron of my treat as well. I booked it home and just looked up a recipe.

It took almost no time to work on, mostly waiting for it to cool. Worth it. Very creamy and peanut buttery. If you like peanut butter this is for you. It's still good if you're okay with peanut butter, but you might just stick with a bar of it.

Day 323: Carbonated Beverage with Caffeine

Liz asked me which drink I planned on using for today and without even thinking I answered Dr. Pepper. By far the best carbonated beverage with caffeine. I rarely drink soda anymore. I mostly stick with soda water. The few times I do splurge (e.g. drive thru, movies) I get this every time it's an option.

Pinky out!

I got one with lunch at work. Loved it. I don't know when they started supplying us with the bottles instead of the cans, but I like it.

Day 322: Vichyssoise

Vichyssoise is one of those things that sounds super fancy. I mean, Vichyssoise. So French. So many occurrences of the letter S. But it's really just potatoes, leeks, onions and heavy cream. So simple. The VitaMix made the pureeing a dream. Unfortunately, Alex hates soup (I feel like everyone should know this by now). So a cold, oniony soup might be the worst thing he could imagine (as far as soup goes).

Yup. He hates it. I really wish I had just retained the puree before I added the heavy cream, because that was yummalicious. It's still good, I guess. But not as good.

Day 321: Baklava

We originally planned to pick some baklava up at Sesame Donuts. I called ahead and they didn't have any but said their sister store should. I called them and it seems like their sister store didn't even know what baklava was. I ended up calling two Nicolas restaurants to get the needed treat.

I think my three favorite words are balalaika, balaclava, and baklava. I've heard a balalaika and worn a balaclava, but I've never had baklava. It was pretty good. Very sweet. It reminded me a little of French toast. I'm not a fan of French toast, true, but that's mostly due to the egg and sogginess. The flavor works better with the crisp flaky dough.

Day 320: Fast Food

On our way home from a night of board games we decided to get this out of the way in the wee hours.  We stopped by Taco Bell and picked up a few things.

I got a beef quesorito, a fiery cheesy gordita crunch, and crunch wrap supreme.  Loved it!

Day 319: Raisin Bran

Instead of the traditional Kellogg's Raisin Bran, Alex purchased General Mills Raisin Nut Bran, which was a great choice. He had it immediately after he woke up. That's why he looks like a little kid, I think.

The raisins were coated with some sugary substance, which was great until you had too many. I think we'll finish the box. Go fiber!

Day 318: Pickle

Liz pick up some pickles for me when she went to get spinach. I requested whole pickles that weren't sweet. There is no better pickle really.

They really hit the spot. I've nearly eaten the entire jar. I gots to get me more of them.

Day 317: Indian Pudding

This is a weird treat. It looks a little like pudding and is mostly milk and cornmeal. To be honest I think I may have burnt it in the oven a bit. The site said to serve it with ice cream. That suggestion was essential.

It has a thick consistency and was almost bread like. It was a touch sweet, which the ice cream made up for the rest of the sweetness. I ate the bowl, but will definitely dump the rest.