I am going to get fat at this rate

I am not fat yet, but this past week is certainly pushing me in that direction.

Last weekend I took in the the Festival of Nations with my parents. They had small booths setup with food from all over the world, plus entertainment and things to buy.

Tuesday was free pizza lunch put on by the design patterns group (dependency injection and pepperoni!) plus a ice cream social to celebrate fiscal year '07 at work.

Wednesday was free doughnuts and bagels at a morning meeting, lunch in the cafeteria where large sandwiches plus inhouse made chips are $4.00, and cake for someone's birthday (I didn't partake, but it was offered) To top it all off Em made a wonderful batch of sauce.

Today we had a multi-team picnic offsite (that the contractors get to bill for since it was work related ;-) ) where they had Bandana's BBQ, and cookies/cake.

This weekend is Labor Day Weekend, so I am sure there will be BBQs galore, plus there is a Greek festival in town and possibly a Japanese one. And there is a Scotish one around October.

Hurray for Tums!

Kolache Friday!

Did you know that today was Kolache Friday? As it turns out, the past 3 Fridays have been Kolache Fridays at my work (although I was only here for 2 of them).

What is a Kolache? you ask ... Simply, yummyness wrapped in a bun.

According the wikipedia (don't freak out mom), Kolaches are originally an eastern European dish. They are small sweet rolls filled with any number of sweet and/or savory ingredients. Today, I was lucky enough to have an egg+potato+cheese kolache as well as a sausage+cheese+jalepeno kolache. Other options were various egg mixes, spinache and cheese, and a few fruit ones.

You may ask, Are they only a breakfast food? No. According to the KolacheFactory.com website, they are not. They have many that are filled with traditional breakfast fillings (cheeses, eggs, fruits, etc) but they also have ones that are much more lunch/dinner type fillings (e.g. chicken and vegtables). I can only suspect that they would be yummy at any time of day.

My bosses boss is in love with the things and is quickly making sure that everyone else in our wing of the building is as well. The wednesday before Emily and I went to Chicago, he stopped by our team room to inform everyone that we were in for a Kolache Friday coming up and that we should all be prepared and get in early. When he realized I knew nothing of their traditions, he proceeded to describe these lovely pillows of goodness as best he could (as if words can describe them) and informed us all that no matter what we are doing, when you see the email come out saying they are here, tell whoever you are on the phone with you will call them back and RUN. Don't walk, RUN .... and get them while they are hot.

Good advice in my book.

Well, the last 3 weeks have all turned out to be Kolache Fridays and I am all for it. They are delicious. According to wikipedia several random small towns across the midwest lay claim as being Kolache capitals of ____. One may need to be added to the yet to be finalized BBQ tour of America.

If you in an area that happens to have a Kolache Factory bakery, or ever see them on the menu ... I highly recommend picking a few dozen up. Think hot pocket without the artificial flavors, texture and preservatives. Don't get me wrong, I love hot pockets, but these things got them beat.

[picture taken from the Kolache Factory website]

The Uncrusting of America: Mallow Fries

Em and I found these gems at our local Kwik-E Mart (Walgreens). For $0.59 I was sucked into buying them ... purely for their blogg-ability and absurdity-factor.

Now, to be fair, I have seen similar candies before in my life. Hell, my grandfather loved to eat the chewy marshmallow circus peanuts which I am pretty sure had 0 peanut, marshmallow, or chew in them and were in fact surplus government rubber from WWII. But I digress.

These wonderful joys of a snack came in a small plastic bag touting their exception flavor and left me wondering if alarms went off and confetti shot into the air when they added the millionth ingredient.

I have to say, the fries themselves were not all that bad. Same surplus rubber as the peanuts. The problem was the "Kandy Ketchup". It was Horrible! I guess you get what you pay for. :-p

This last pic is from a recent trip to Ted Drewes here in STL. Oh, how its good to be back home. (The massive lines, which actually move very quickly, are nothing compared to the site that is TDs after a Cards game lets out). :-D If you ever have the opportunity, there are few things better in this world than a TD's banana and peanut butter cup concrete.