Taco Bell breakfast

I love Mexican breakfast. From Pepito's weekend brunch, to The Uptown Cafe's Tex-Mex breakfast, I can eat them until I'm sick. Calling Taco Bell Mexican is like calling a Croissan'wich French, but Taco Bell started serving breakfast this week, and Megan and I looked forward to this morning when we're both off work and could try it. 

I thought there might be a monkey wrench in the plan when she was called into work last night at midnight. I went to bed shortly after she left for work. I felt so bad for her when I woke up at 6:00 and she was still at work. I had a full night's sleep while she worked all night, and I didn't know how long she'd have to stay today. 

She was out of work at about 6:30. She came home and slept while I tended to Ozzie and our weekend morning routine, which now includes me following him crawling all over the house. It's fun to watch where he decides to go, and what he decides to play with. Rest assured that if there's a scrap of paper under the hutch, or a piece of sand in the wall/floor crevice, he finds it immediately and it goes toward his mouth. I usually catch it in time. Usually. 

After he ate breakfast and tired himself out, he went down for a nap, and mom woke up for breakfast. Taco Bell breakfast. I stayed home with baby while she drove through and brought it home for us to try. We put the dog outside and sampled Taco Bell's breakfast. 

A.M. Grilled Taco

The A.M. Grilled Taco was the weakest of the bunch. It's just eggs and cheese (there may have been sausage somewhere in there) in a "grilled," but soggy, tortilla. You could easily make this at home, and it would be better because it wouldn't be sog-meister. 

Breakfast Burrito (Not our image)

You can choose bacon or sausage with anything. We got everything with sausage because we imagine their bacon to be fatty and rubbery. The breakfast burrito was good, but nothing to write home about. It does the job, and tastes good. Nothing special, but if you think you want one more item, go with this. 

Waffle Taco

If you've heard about Taco Bell's breakfast, you've heard about the Waffle Taco. It is a funny mixture of a waffle, sausage, eggs, and cheese. It is smaller than we both imagined. I'm not a fan of sausage in syrup (what Megan calls "the test of a true man"), and this comes with syrup to dip it into. You know what? It works with this. Like the breakfast burrito, it's not going to get me back there, but I can see having one again sometime to change it up. I don't know how they list it at only 370 calories. I have a feeling that you could rub it on the wall and see through the wall (like the fast food fish sandwich on The Simpson's). 

A.M. Crunchwrap

This, my friends, is a thing of beauty. This is the reason to get breakfast at Taco Bell. This has eggs, cheese, sausage, a hash brown, and this delicious southwest sauce. The hash brown is what gives it its very light crunch. I put Taco Bell hot sauce (packets) on it too, which I recommend. The A.M. Crunchwrap. Without this, Taco Bell's breakfast would end up in pop culture history with Clear Pepsi; but this item will make Taco Bell a player in the fast food breakfast wars. I'm embarrassed to tell you the nutrition content, but I'm sure it's why it tastes so good.

My fast food breakfast stand-bys are McDonalds sausage biscuits with cheese, and Burger King's sausage Croissan'wich. Now I'll have to add the A.M. Crunchwrap to my arsenal of choices when cereal and a banana aren't going to cut it. 

Now I'm going into a food coma until Ozzie wakes up. 

Who watches American Idol anymore?

Before this season I hadn't watched American Idol in seven years. Megan and I watched it in 2005 and 2006. We watched every show, and it was a great reason to drink during the week. We actually used to call in votes for contestants back then. You're welcome Taylor Hicks. Also, Hr. Hicks, if you're wondering who bought the one album you sold, it was Megan. I'm sure you remember it was sold in a Best Buy in Minnetonka. We used to live in St. Louis Park, see?

I'm surprised the show is still chugging along. I know Harry Connick Jr. is a judge now, and I don't know who the other two are, but sometimes this season I'll flip it on as I fold laundry, or feed Ozzie. Randy Jackson is still running around on there, but he's not a judge anymore. I've seriously only seen about 23 minutes total of this season, but from what I've seen, they have kept up with the times pretty well.

It looks like you can vote for contestants up to 50 times now from your phone, Facebook, or Twitter. That's pretty cool. Also it looks like you can vote during the show, and they have up date reports of who is where in the live voting. Then on the results show they flash Facebook pictures of the people who voted for the person they're talking about. In my drunken days I'd have been obsessed with having my picture flashed on screen. (Who am I kidding? If I watched this year, I'd be obsessed with it now)

I've been underwhelmed by the singing I've seen from the contestants. Mind you, I've only seen about three of the top 12 sing, but they miss notes, and after the performance the judges don't call them on it. I was a production assistant for The Voice when they had a cattle call come through here, and the singers who made it passed the cattle call were all excellent.

I worked the cattle call at the River Centre in St. Paul. I got to work in "the yes room." It was where the contestants who the judges put through went to sign the necessary paperwork to advance to more auditions. It was awesome being in that room all day. Everyone who came in the room was having the best day of their lives. They'd waited in line for hours, made it to the judges, and then made it to call backs. Parents of minors were beaming with pride, calling the other parent (in Iowa, or Wisconsin, or Michigan!) with the good news that they had to stay in town until the call back on Wednesday. American Idol season five-4th runner up Paris Bennett came through the room. I watched that season and recognized her. That was cool. She was really shy.

I also worked two of the three call backs days. Day three would have been the call backs from the cattle call, but the people I heard were singers who show researchers found in and near Minnesota with websites of their music. I sat on the other side of the door of the audition room. Other P.A.'s would send singers to me and we'd wait for the person in the room to finish before the next one could go in. We could hear the auditions through the door. 

Sometimes 5-6 people would be hanging out with me waiting to go in. I met some cool people, some of whom gave me their CD. I told them that I didn't have anything to do with the selections, but they gave them to me anyway. Some were nervous, some kept to themselves, and I felt like a couple were old friends the way we got along. I would just try to relax everyone by telling then exactly what was going to happen when they got in the room.

One guy (who looked like Wolverine) didn't make the cut in the Memphis audition and drove all the way here for another try. I was in the bathroom when he came in after his audition to relieve himself. I hate when people talk to me when I'm "going" in public bathrooms, so I left him alone; despite the friendship we formed out in the hall before he sang. I was washing my hands and I could feel him looking at me from the urinal. I looked over at him, and with a sigh of relief he said "I made it." I was really happy for him, but I didn't shake his hand. 

My point is, all of these people could really sing, and I didn't recognize any of them on the show when it aired. None of the tremendous talent I heard who made it to the next round of auditions made it to TV. Either The Voice has incredible standards, or American Idol isn't taking the cream of the crop from their auditions. 

P.S. 

A lot of the singers I met doing The Voice had also auditioned for American Idol, and they said The Voice auditions were run a lot better. They said that auditioning for AI they were cut off after singing for just a few seconds. The Voice (callbacks) let them sing at least a full song, and a lot of times 2-3 full songs.

P.P.S.

Does Ryan Seacrest still end the show with "Seacrest out?"

Turtle Bread Company

The other night we found ourselves near our old neighborhood in south Minneapolis. We were hungry, and thought about going to one of our old haunts. We would usually go to Pepitos over there, but decided to go a little further down the block and try Turtle Bread Company (TBC). It was also dinner time for Ozzie, and we had a package of baby green beans for him, so we got him a high chair for the first time at a restaurant and we were all set.

Megan is a "soup person." I like soup, but she almost always gets soup if it's an option. At TBC they only serve soup and sandwiches after 2:30. The sandwiches are ones they made that day that are in the counter with a whole bunch of delicious looking desserts. I'm not eating chocolate during lent, but I think I have to go back once my self imposed chocolate ban is lifted.

Most places give you 2-3 soup choices. TBC gave is about nine that night. I wish I had a picture of the selections. I don't even remember them all, but Megan got pea soup, and I got brocolli cheddar. The soup is served with a hard crusted roll.

 Here you can see Megan's soup as Ozzie dives for anything out of reach

The soup was good, but it was just soup, you know? Here's where my sticking point comes. Two bowls of soup, and the red velvet cupcake I got came to $14.08. The cupcake was $2-soumething. That's a lot for soup. As I was paying, I saw their advertisement for poutine (poo-teen) on the register, served only after 5:00. I had poutine once at the state fair, and it's awesome. It's french fries topped with gravy, beef, cheese curds and onions. I think it's Canadian. I've been to Canada for an improv festival, and everyone there is delightful. The improvisers are seriously some of the nicest people I've ever met. I know Canada for how nice they are, and poutine. I love it.

I thought about getting it as I ate my soup and mom fed Ozzie. It was $8.99. I thought about how we probably won't be back for quite some time, if at all, so I better get it while I had the chance. Megan said she'd help me eat it, so when I finished my brocolli cheddar amalgamation,  I went back to the register and ordered the second poutine I'd ever have. And you know what? It was awesome. 

It's really salty and delicious. The fries soak in the gravy, and the beef is TBC's short ribs they serve for lunch until 2:30. The cheese curds are melted over the top, and when you get a bite with everything, you want to sing Oh Canada. Megan had a few bites and remarked that the fries are the star of the dish. 

The cupcake was fine. The cream cheese frosting was the best part of it.

$8.99 is a little steep for the poutine. All of the prices at TBC should be a few dollars cheaper. It's too bad that their prices are what they are. The dessert prices actually seemed to be quite fair, and I'll be back to sample them, but if the rest of the prices were reasonable, I would go there almost all the time. 

No chocolate for 40 days

I haven't drank for over three years, and have been off cigarrettes for over a year and a half. I can give up chocolate for 40 days, can't I? Today is day one, and it's easier said than done. I keep finding myself reaching for the peanut M&Ms, or a quick ice cream sandwich. I haven't eaten any yet, and I don't plan to, today anyways.

Today is the first day of Lent. I don't know why people give something up for the 40 days of Lent, but every year around the middle of it, I think "I should have tried to give something up." I am doing it for the challenge. I just want to see if I can do it. I didn't realize how addictive chocolate is.

I figured that I was just a pig, stuffing fistfuls of M&Ms into my gob at my desk after lunch. I mean, I am a pig, but today showed me that it is addictive. Quitting smoking was a lot easier on the first day than this. It says in Alcoholics Anonymous's Big Book on page 133 that "[a doctor] thought that all alcoholics should constantly have chocolate available for its quick energy value at times of fatigue." I guess I took that to heart, because I seem to always have chocolate around, and eat it after most meals. 

Often when I don't have chocolate at work (or even if I do), I'll get a pudding cup. They're only $1.69, and feed my need. I got this with lunch yesterday knowing it was my last chocolate hurrah for a while. It went down smooth. 

I hope to lose some weight in these 40 days, and that's what I'll focus on when the urge is strong. "Nothing tastes as good as being thin feels," right? I know it will get easier with time, but all day I've been fantasizing about the chocolate binge I'm going to have on Easter. 

My stash on 8/1/13. It almost lasted 2 months.