Mild Amusement

So, I mentioned last time that I've been put to work as the second in command in the kitchen with the Mild Girlfriend . This has already resulted in a few laughs, and at least a couple of funny social media exchanges with friends of ours. Like I said, it's been fun. Little did I realize, though, there was one other surprise waiting for me. You know how some people can pick out all the ingredients in their food and then try to recreate the dish? Well, I can't do that. I've got too bad a sense of smell for it, for one. Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, I've never really had the motivation or the  appropriate skills  for the task. Other than obvious ingredients like onions or cheese, I don't really play with the underlying items enough to know how they smell or taste by themselves. When you mix them together, it gets even more jumbled up. All I know is that it's "food" and it tastes good. So, I've always been a little amazed when other f...

Lately, the Mild Girlfriend and I have been cooking a lot. I don't usually do tons of cooking on my own (as evidenced by my initial reaction to Ceviche Fest ), but I can cook a few dishes here and there. I know how to make rice, and I can put a few things together on top of the rice. Basically, I cook well enough to stave off starvation. Frankly, that's usually been the goal. However, the Mild Girlfriend really enjoys cooking, so she will sometimes want to try out a recipe. I don't particularly feel right just sitting around the whole time if she's busy in the kitchen, so I usually help out. Remember, I can handle the basics of cooking, so I can chop, slice, and mince just fine. That's the best way for me to be useful, so I end up doing a lot of the prep work. I like to joke that I'm the sous chef . Seeing as how there are only two of us, it's not unreasonable to assume that I'm second in command. It's actually a lot of fun. For one, I get to see...

Let me start this post by saying that ceviche happens to be my favorite food. If you've never had it, it's delicious. There are a bunch of different ways to make it, but the Peruvian version that I grew up with always hits a nostalgic spot in my heart. Keep that little nugget in mind, because it will make the rest of this post just a little more entertaining. That said, a while back, I was joking around with some of my family. I don't quite remember how it started, but someone said something along the lines of, "I wish I had more time to do X." I responded with a smart aleck, "I wish I had ceviche." Well, my brother and sister happened to be part of that conversation, and they also concurred that ceviche would be pretty awesome. We did grow up together, after all. After that, though, a magical thing happened: my brother suggested we make this happen. Do you have certain traditions that you always did with your parents? It doesn't really matter...

Peruvian food and I have an interesting relationship. On the one hand, I really like a lot of it. My favorite food happens to be a Peruvian dish (ceviche), and there is a certain sense of nostalgia whenever I eat certain dishes. However, I don't really eat it all that often, and it occasionally leads to laughter at my expense . There are reasons for this, of course. First of all, cooking Peruvian food usually requires quite a bit of prep work, so my parents got to the point where they'd cook other type of food more often. It's a simple matter of time; when you have to cook dinner every night, you naturally start to gravitate to dishes that won't take up most of the night. In fact, my mom got so much practice with cooking other types of food, that she can make a mean Chinese dinner . I also don't cook Peruvian food all that much (again, lots of prep), so it's more of a delicacy for me than anything else. Secondly, and more importantly, I grew up with some ...

So, a while back, a bunch of folks in my extended family decided they wanted to play fantasy football . If you've never heard of this game, you pretend like you're managing a fake (that's where the "fantasy" part comes in) team of players. You score points based on how well they play, and the point is to score more points than your opponents. It's simple in concept, and it's ridiculously popular. I like watching football , so I joined up. I figured it was all in fun, and it gave us the chance to do some friendly trash talking in the process. Remember, this is the same crew that made up its own vocabulary for a phone game and turned competitive walking into laugh-out-loud jokes . I knew for darn certain that this was going to lead to jokes and hilarity. Sign me up. First things first, we needed to draft our players. Just like in the real NFL, each team in a fantasy league takes a turn to pick the player it wants. It can take a while, since folks can ta...

I have a couple of friends with whom I routinely have dinner. We always go to different restaurants, and try various types of cuisine. None of us are foodies , but we do enjoy each other's company and the idea of breaking bread while we do so. So, we've had a bunch of meals together, and some of those meals have involved ethnic cuisine. That's where the fun of this post comes in. You see, we've had Peruvian food a few times, and they've always asked me what a particular dish was made out of or how something tasted. I am the resident Peruvian in the group, so it makes a ton of sense. For example, if I was going to a Brazilian churrascaria  and I had a Brazilian friend joining me, I'd direct any questions about the menu or the meal to that person. You figure the Brazilian would be more likely to know, right? Anyhow, we were having dinner once, and one of these folks asked what lomo saltado was. I explained it as a beef stir fry type dish, and that sounded app...

You know how guys tend to get crap from women for not noticing details about their significant others? Um, yeah, I have a story about that very subject. As it turns out, so does the Mild Girlfriend. Years back, she kept her hair pretty long, almost down to her waist. It wasn't like she made a big thing of styling it, but it was fairly apparent attribute to most of the people around her. Well, most people. When she chopped off a good chunk of it one day, multiple guys around her couldn't quite figure out what had changed. The way she tells it, many of them said to her, "wait ... did you change something? Something is different ..." The women around her, on the other hand, immediately ran up to her and complimented her on her new hair cut. It wasn't even a question, they just knew. Not only that, but they noticed and they provided feedback about it. Remember, most of the guys were still back in the, "I wonder what changed?" phase. The Mild Girlf...