Websites, Shopping, and Cheesecake

Man, it has been awhile since posting anything here, and for that I am sorry. I have actually started two seperate posts but have quit them half way through and never finished. I think that I am just a little uninspired at the moment. Maybe it is the weather. So maybe I will give you a few random thoughts about a cool website that I found, and some other things.

First, I happened on a website called Chowhound. The address is www.chow.com. For a very long time I have looked at sites like allrecipes.com and epicurious.com, and they have come in handy a whole bunch of times. But when looking at those sites I never really get isnpired to do anything other than the recipe that I am looking for anyways. That and I can't help but sometimes think that the site is just geared towards all of the stay-at-home moms and the women of the home cooking world that it doesn't always pertain to me in the way that I would like.

That is why I think www.chow.com is such a cool site. It has forums that are written by people that actually cook and enjoy good food. Not people that are looking for different ingredients to add to their stovetop macaroni, and think that they are at the top of culinary masterhood. Though as a side, I too love stove top macaroni, and still make it. But the site gives some inspiration and a longing to go and try some new things. So anyways that is a new website that I found that I thought I would share about.

The only other thing that I can think of that I really want to tell you about is my struggle for a decent place to buy groceries. First, let me tell you how much I HATE Walmart. Long lines in the check out aisles aside, they have the worst produce, (if they have the produce you want), the largest people taking up the most amount of aisle space as they can while they talk to their other large friend (that is a rant for another time). And forget it if you are looking for something that you may not find on every grocery store in America. For instance, Panko bread crumbs. Panko bread crumbs are a little different then the traditional ones that you see everywhere (I won't get into how), but a lot of recipes call for them. And frankly, they are just better than the other breadcrumbs. But do you think Walmart carries them. Not my Walmart. I HATE Walmart. That is just one example of many. Plus their micro brew selection is nearly if not all non-existent. I HATE Walmart.

Unfortunately where I live it is an hour and a half to the nearest "gourmet" grocery store, like Whole foods or something like that so I have to make do with what I have. But luckily, within 45 minutes, and even closer from work is a Meijer. Now I know that these are not in many places besides Indiana, and I know that they closely resemble the style of a Walmart. But let me tell you that the selections of produce and meats and seafoods and standard grocery items is so far above and beyond that of stupid Walmart. They have tons of stuff and I love going in there just to get ideas of things to make. So thank you Meijer for being a good grocery store, even if you have all of that other crap in your store as well.

But even as much as I am glad to have a Meijer, i still long for a Trader Joe's, or a Whole Foods that I could do my shopping. You people that live close to them should consider yourselves lucky and take advantage of the food that they have to offer.

Well that is all for this post. I got interupted twice while typing by the phone, and I am not proof reading, so if my thoughts just seem to trail off, or there are huge errors in typing sorry. Now I have to go make a cheesecake.