Chicken, avocado, and tomato soup (p. 135) and Cold avocado soup (p. 146)

For some mysterious reason, I went through a month of not wanting to cook at all. I honestly don't know what my problem was. I went home to Iowa for a few weeks but that usually makes me cook more--mom will happily eat foods that neither Josh nor I like. But I just couldn't motivate myself.

Until mom came home with a pile of avocados that she found on the sale shelf at Dahl's. Josh HATES avocados, which I don't understand. I decided to make Chicken, avocado, and tomato soup (p. 135). The recipe was simple--I boiled some homemade chicken stock and then added diced chicken, a diced avocado, some tomatoes, and some onion.



Nothing attractive about the picture but the soup was delicious! It was one of those mixtures of ingredients that just melds really well. The crisp onion, creamy avocado, and tangy tomato mix amazingly well--it was almost like a deconstructed guacamole with chicken in soup form. I really recommend this soup as another use for leftover rotisserie chicken.

I thought this would be the perfect time to make Cold avocado soup (p. 146). I don't think I like cold soups--I just don't like the idea.

I processed two avocados and a garlic clove in mom's tiny food processor.



I then added buttermilk, lemon juice (rather than lime juice--I didn't think it would matter), salt, and a bit of red pepper. It all fit in the food processor--just barely.



The recipe says to cool it in the fridge but it was already cold so mom and I just ate it. The slightly sour taste of buttermilk was extremely well complimented by the creamy avocado. It was pretty damn good and would be terrific on a hot, humid summer day.

Well I was eating this soup I realized a few things:

1. I had never actually eaten cold soup. I just didn't like the idea of it. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be but I still prefer my soup hot.

2. Cold soup is reminiscent of dip. I felt like I should be dipping chips in it.

3. I may need to add avocados to my allergy list (which already includes my nemesis kiwi, along with papaya, pineapple, and mango). I felt the tell-tale tingling that precedes the burning, swelling, and bleeding that eventually shows up. NOT AVOCADOS! I LOVE AVOCADOS!

The infamous Mc1035

I will warn you in advance--this is a non-TJOC post.

I was in my hometown of Des Moines, Iowa for a few weeks in March. While I was there my friend Jimmy told me about the infamous Mc10:35. It's a secret menu item at McDonalds (specifically in San Fransisco) that is only avaliable during the switch from breakfast to lunch (hence the 10:35) because it's essentially a breakfast sandwich (a McMuffin) shoved into a McDouble (or, in our case, a double cheeseburger). Since The Consumerist said it was perfect hangover food, I made sure to go hungover (...it was totally on purpose...right...).

Jimmy and I scouted McDonalds online and picked one near my mom's house. At about 10:15 we went and asked about it, using visual aids. and the manager seemed excited about the prospect, pointing out that we would have to wait until the shift between breakfast and lunch (obviously!).

Here is a picture of me with the giant burger:



It was amazing! I couldn't finish the whole thing but Jimmy had no problem with his. I would have preferred if it didn't have any condiments on it though--the pickles and mustard from the double cheeseburger were really strange. That being said, the egg was amazing with the burger and I think I'm going to eat hamburgers on english muffins from now on. Has anyone else eaten one of these?

And it was terrific hangover food. But it will never replace my favorite hangover food--chicken fried steak covered in that horrible white gravy.