new year's eve '21

 if you've had a bad year i hope the next one is better. if you had a good year, i hope the next one is just as good.

if you drink tonight, please don't drive. and remember that buzzed driving is just as bad as drunk driving.

christmas '21

 if you celebrate, hope you had a nice holiday.

hopefully you can find some stuff on sale tomorrow. 

sadly, taget & wal-mart don't put the candy for the holidays on clearance like they used to.

gingerbread bread

another one from the aldi store brand.

not as good as the previous one, but smells really nice though.

orange cranberry bread

 it is the aldi's store brand and is described as a breakfast bread.

it's not too bad. kind notice the orange more than the cranberry.

crazy weather

 this week there were days where they high was in the 30s F with bits of snow blowing around. as you would expect for late fall.

but next week there will be days of high 50s F & sunshine.

and it's hard to figure out if you need a jacket or not. yes, the temps are higher & there is sun. but what if there is a cold wind blowing?

gingerbread flavored kit kats

 one of their season flavors (new this year?).

not good at all and absolutely would not get again.

it makes me mourn the lack of gingerbread that is not hard pieces that are part of a gingerbread house building kit.

aldi has some chocolate covered gingerbread shapes that are OK, but that's it.

thanksgiving 2021

 nothing really special today.

for thanksgiving dinner we're having ham (he hates turkey) mashed potatoes, mashed sweet potatoes (he like those), stuffing, brussels sprouts (him again), canned cranberry sauce (jelled) & some sort of rolls. we have 3 pies from Target & will randomly pick one later.

i've been recalling the one time my family (mom, dad, me & brother) we to a fancy hotel buffet for thanksgiving. oh! so much stuff. turkey and ham, all kinds of stuff for salads, 2-3 kind of potatoes, all sorts of breads a large selection of cheese and of course all kinds of desserts. with ice sculptures on the buffet tables too. *sigh* will probably never go to anything like that again.

s'mores dessert pizza

it's a dessert pizza from the screamin' sicilian brand.

just like the previous one it is very meh & we will not get again.

chocolate chip cookie dough & brownie bite pizza

 

it's a dessert pizza from the screamin' sicilian brand.

not bad, but not good either. very meh.

will not get again.

taco pizza

it was from the screamin' sicilian brand. it was OK.

it had olives, which i didn't know were something that's included in a taco. 

certainly not something i've had on a taco pizza before.

 i've found out that olives are sometimes included in americanized tacos. something to file away for the future.

i kind of miss thrift stores

 i used to go with my parents a lot before the big economic downturn in 2008, we'd hit up flea markets and sometimes yard sales too. mostly got books, sometimes clothes & housewares.

money isn't what it used to be and my brother hates going to those kind of places, so i have to live vicariously looking at r/thriftstonehauls.

aldi's eggplant pizza

 technically it's eggplant & grana panano cheese flatbread. from their specially selected line.

i do not like eggplant & vegetable pizzas are always weird with how much the vegetables cook down and get kind of mushy.

not terrible, but not good. will not get again.

but i will say this; if you want "unusual" pizza toppings, check out aldi. lidl might be the same way, i don't know.

halloween 2021

 i'm mostly thinking it's a bummer that a lot of stores these past few years don't have holiday candy on clearance like they used to. 

now they rush out the next holiday's stuff 3-4 days before the holiday. these corporations want all of the money they can get off of stuff are not looking for 50% or 70% less. but a little bit of something is better than a whole lot of nothing.

also; pumpkin carving is overrated.

fall weather

 just in time for halloween.

there may be a few days of warmer temperatures, but it seems like the fall weather is happening now.

target plant-baised patties

 they're from their good & gather brand.

not terrible. kind of tasted like cheap hamburgers and cheap hamburgers are mostly filler (breadcrumbs?) anyway, so that could be it.

not anything to get again.

wal-mart chocolate chip pie

 another one from the bakery section. not good, barely tasted the chocolate chips. the top crust kind of tasted like it was supposed to. but the bottom crust was just regular pie crust & wasn't good.

another one we will not get again.

wal-mart brownie batter pie

 it's from their bakery section & was not very good.

rather gooey, not very chocolatey. the crust was dray and pretty much tasteless. depsite looking like it should taste like chocolate. 

obviously not getting again.

impossible chicken nuggets

 the latest thing in plant-based meat technology, available only at wal-mart.

my brother & i had them with arby's brand frozen curly fries.

they were nothing special. kind of tasted like cheap chicken nuggets (it's probaly the spices).

not anything we'd get again.

mexican hot chocolate bunt cake

 it's from wal-mart and my brother and i were debating for a couple of weeks on whether or not to get it.

it is not horrible. there is some spiciness, which we expected. but overall not too bad in that regard.

would not get again though.

chocolaty churro pop tarts

 got them other other day & they're very meh. you can't really taste the chocolate and there's not any churro flavor, which is probably a good thing (cinnamon from those kind of things can be too much). at least the printing they have on them now doesn't smell like chemicals when you heat it up. unlike the sugar cookie ones from several years back.

we also got a box of pumpkin pie pop tarts and those are still fairly good, like they were when we first had them a couple of years ago.

mom's birthday 2021

 now that blogthings is gone, i don't know what to say in these kind of posts.

time really has no meaning. things from years ago seem more recent. next month feels longer away.

can you help out?

 i do on-line survey things & could use some help with referrals.

all of these have gift cards as rewards (amazon, starbucks, target and more), are free to join & can be used with a smartphone, laptop or desktop. 

so if you have extra time & want a little something extra please consider using the following links to sign up.

https://www.prizerebel.com/index.php?r=Trekfann

https://us.tgm.link/IKzF403740

https://www.swagbucks.com/lp-savings-button?cmp=695&cxid=swagbuttonref&rb=50255359&extRefCmp=1&extRb=50255359

mochi ice cream

 it's some kind of japan thing where they wrap rice dough around globs of ice cream. this kind of thing came out a few years ago and we have been meaning to try it, but never got around to it.

it was from the my mochi brand, cookies & cream flavor and  was not that great.

the dough seemed like it wasn't baked, the rice flour kind of tasted like cornstarch & you really couldn't tell that it was cookies & cream.

it some we will not be getting, if we should ever visit japan. along with mayo on pizza.

Cinnamon Roll Frosted Mini Wheats

 it's something new from kellog's, don't know if it's just a limited time thing or not.

they're not too bad. very subtle cinnamon taste, don't need that to be overpowering.

would probably get again for something different.

la croix key lime

 someone we know had some & offered it to us. la croix is something we'd never buy for ourselves, so we decided to see what the hype was about.

terrible stuff. not as bad as that beverly drink we had at world of coke in atlanta when we were there for dragon-con. but it reminded me of it.

it smelled strongly of something, not sure what. not lime though.

as for the key lime taste. it was as if someone who had a key lime 20 years ago described the taste to a 6 year old who then tried to draw the taste using a key lime scented marker that was nearly dried out.

glad we didn't pay for this.

dad's birthday 2021

 well, blogthings is apparently dead, i can't find anything when i google it now. i guess no one does blog stuff anymore. or blogs like this in general really. (R.I.P)

may or may not do something for this day.

wal-mart garlic bread

 i've had a craving for garlic bread on & off for awhile, but my brother hates garlic so i figured we never have it. but after mentioning it to him he was like: sure, why not? so i decided to get some.

it was from the bakery area & has no name. just the white label wal-mart bakery items have that says freshness guaranteed.

it was quite possibly the worse garlic bread i've never had. worse then the homemade stuff we use to do with softened butter that had garlic powder added & put on toasted hot dog buns.

it smelled like garlic, but did not taste like it. and it left an oily taste and residue on lips, teeth and tongue. my brother suggested a do-over later on. maybe i'll get one of the frozen ones.

the heat of summer

 ....continues on.

not as bad as in some places. but i'm just not good at handling the heat.

some thunder storms too, but that's to be expected.

jersey mike's subs

 one opened here a few months ago & they sent out buy one, get one free coupons. so my brother & i decided to give it a try.

1. they are expensive. $9.45 for a 7 inch sub sandwich. i had looked up prices on-line one one of those menus for a bunch of restaurants sites & they're info is out of date or something. they said the most expensive sandwiches were $7.95. with coupon, & because of the tax, we payed $10.02 for 2 sandwiches.

2. they put too much lettuce on them. i've had salads with less lettuce. the mayo on mine was so-so. or as my brother said; "it's no hellman's."

3. if you have the cold subs "mike's way" you get lettuce (too much) tomatoes, onion, spices and oil & vinegar. they douse the sandwich in oil & vinegar. my brother & i split our sandwiches (he had the italian & had the club supreme), he had the mike's way thing & the bread was wet from it. i told him to to get it, but he did not listen. they also have pickles & banana peppers.

4. it's a small place & they did not have all of the sandwiches listed on their web site. we had looked it it before going & settled on a few we were interested in, but they didn't have like 3/4 of them.

over all better then subway, more on less on the same level as jimmy john's (without the loud music) they say the 7 inch is good for 2 people & i believe it. they have an 14 inch & they could be 2 meals for a person. they also have a 5 inch one. they have chips, cookies as well had pepsi fountain drinks and i don't see how you can get any of that if you get anything bigger then the 5 inch. the sandwiches would be about $1 cheaper if they cut back on the lettuce, oil & vinegar.

if it wasn't for the cost, i'd go again. i would try a hot sub or a cookie maybe even the different brand of root beer they have in the self serve fountain. if someone offered to pay for it, i would not say no. i'd ask for about half the lettuce though.

aldi's bbq beast pizza

 it's a frozen pizza with bbq sauce, pepperoni, beef topping, sausage, bacon, uncured bacon, mozzarella & cheddar cheese.

the bbq sauce was kind of sweet & there were only like 8 pieces of pepperoni. i feel for a pizza with "beast" in its name there should be at least 20.

overall not bad.

fruit cereal kit kat

 sadly, still not one of those we were supposed to be in 2020 (another thing that year messed up for people). 

my brother discovered them at wal-mart & at first all we could find were the mini ones in like a 10 pack, which we've never seen with the other limited time flavors. but then we came across the desplay of the normal-size candy bars.

not bad, not really good. like the fruity pebbles bar, it smells quite like what it is supposed to be. however, the taste is not as strong as the fruity pebbles bar. but maybe that's a good thing.

brother's birthday

 well it looks like blogthings is shut down. so....now what?

for his day the junior member of this sibling pair wants steak and shrimp. so there's that to look forward to.

i most likely will us too much steak and shrimp sauce. but what can you do?

fruity pebbles candy bar

 picked this up at wal-mart because it looked interesting. not

it was not too bad. fruity pebbles in a white chocolate base.

there's a coco pebbles one too, with milk chocolate, but chocolate in candy bars is not what they used to be.

fourth of july 2021

 not as hot as it has been around here. which is a very good thing.

stay safe with the fireworks & BBQ-ing and hopefully you find something good at the sales.

better oats, organic bare

 (contains oats, barley, wheat, quinoa & rye. also flax somewhere.)

not very good. even with sugar on it something was sour tasting. the flax maybe?

according to their site, they have one with maple & brown sugar. which might be better, although i doubt it.

raised & rooted plant-based chicken nugets

 not good at all.

the coating was tough and we had to drown them in BBQ sauce just to eat them.

summer-like heat

 it's getting to be that time of year again, where it is far too hot, humid and sunny for my liking.

ugh & yuck!

my birthday 2021

 i've been doing birthday posts since i started this blog & been doing blogthing quizzes since 2009 (except for a couple of years were i found stuff from other sites), but can't access that site right now. either it's just have temporary issues or is shut down completely. if it comes back up, i might tack on something here.

doing nothing special, unless you count a cheese cake sampler from wal-mart which will be dessert for the next few days.

graeter's ice cream

it's from some company in cincinnati, ohio, the want to be fancy supermarket had them on sale so we got 3.

sea salt caramel, peanut butter chocolate chip & s'mores (most of the flavors had chocolate chips).

not one was any good, could not tase any PB, barely tasted caramel & gram cracker, plus the marshmallows in the s'mores had an odd texture. the chocolate was bleh.

ben & jerry's on it's most mediocre day is better.

aldi's mac & cheese pizza

 it really is macaroni, not shells, bow tie or cavatappi.

it was from their refrigerated section, not frozen and was kind ofinteresting, crust was thinner than i expected. and it was kind of odd to run across apiece or two of unflavored pasta along the edges. while not bad, would not get again.

another fancy german cake from aldi

 this time it's bienenstich indulgent cake, it's golden cake topped with vanilla flavored mousse & caramelized almond flakes.

much better then the one with cherries, but the caramelized almond flake top is impossible to cut through, so you end up squishing the mousse out of the sides. would not get again for that reason.

i miss stargate: sg-1

 not only the episodes, but the old five things community on love journal.

that's the problem when a tv show or movie series is over, most of that kind of things just dries up.

but with stuff like star trek & star wars, even where they wasn't a lot of new visual content (shows or movies) there where still novels. and with star trek there was enough variety with the shows and movies that people were doing fan fic in between movies and tv series. in fact fan fic is the big thing it is because of star trek.

Pillsbury Soft Baked Cookies

 these are already baked things you can get on the store shelf.

we got 3; butterscotch & chocolate chip, sugar drizzled with icing, and peanut butter with chocolaty drizzle.

none are any good. all taste like chemical crap.

we need to learn where something is new, just get one to try. but then if it's good, we regret not getting the other varieties we wanted to try. really, we can't win.

fancy german cake thing from aldi

 it was donauwelle indulgent cake with morello cherries on a yellow cake, topped with cream and some kind of chocolare icing.

well, the cherries were very sour & the chocolate icing was not great. i don't even like cherries, but we got it because my brother does. not getting again.

key lime pie kit kat

 not one of those that we were supposed to get last year. (still not sure if i missed those, or they just didn't have them.)

somewhat seasonal, i guess. although i consider limes, lemons & even oranges to be more of a summer thing.

not bad, i guess, very light lime flavor. which i better than a heavy flavor that lingers. not something to get again though.

spring weather

 we are no getting some of it.

but can still have frost until like april 21, with the latest ever being may something.

what flavor macroon are you?

You Are a Pistachio Macaroon

You are individualistic and determined to live your life as uniquely as you see fit. You know who you are, and you're proud of your uniqueness. You have no desire to hide who you are. You love exotic and novel things. You like to be around others who seek out new experiences and ideas. You like being distinctive, and you believe that you are special. There's no one quite like you.

quiz link

BTW i hate it when people on baking shows pronounce it mac-a-rune & not mac-a-ron. the first is the coconut glob cooke, the second is the fancy french pastry.

easter 2021

 hope everyone  is have a nice hilday, if you cleerbrate it. a nice sunday if not.

i hope for 50% off (or better) easter candy tomorrow. but wal-mart got rid of all of their valentine's candy like 3 days before feb. 14th this year, so i don't know.

cotton candy twinkies

 something new for spring apparently. the wrappers have butterflies.

the filling is very pink. like the unicorn pink different companies push toward girls ages 4-12. 

the taste is more bubblegum than cotton candy & not very good. definitely will not be getting again.

first day of spring

 which means it will be getting warmer and sunnier, neither of which i care for. bleh.

but they days are getting longer, so it's not dark at 5 pm. despite my dislike of sunshine, it's not right that it gets dark that early.

st patrick's day 2021

hopefully you won't drink too much green beer. but this year, if you do it's probably going to be at home. 

so if you do drink too much, you won't be a nuisance to others. but if you puke, you have to clean it up yourself.

oreo mousse

 got this oreo mousse stuff from wal-mart & it's pretty good.

they say "the grey stuff" mentioned in beauty & the beast and offered at certain disneyland and/or disney world restaurants is a cookies & cream mousse. it's a very popular item and if it tastes like this oreo mousse, i can see why.

Marie Callender's Plant-Based Be'f Pot Pie

made from gardein plant-based stuff and not very good.

beef, on in this case be'f, stuff always wrecks our stomachs. i can only imagine how worse it would've been if we had not had a Ciabatta role along with it that acted as something to absorb the pot pie.

needless to say, we will not get it again.

lara bar cereal

 got the cashew cookie & the peanut butter chocolate chip. the PB chocolate chip was slightly better. not worth the $6+ dollars wal-mart is charging for it.

if you got the actual lara bars they'd probably be better.

valentine's day 2021

whether or not you have a special someone enjoy the candy and whatnot today.

or try for the sales tomorrow.

too cold

 it's way too cold lately. that polar vortex thing that i'm sure they said is not a real thing a few years ago.

more snow than is necessary.

super bowl 2021

 normally i don't care about who is playing but i really want tampa bay to loose. mostly because of t. brady.

i remember his first super bowl way back in 2001 and new england were the underdogs. i guess it's true that you either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain.

in other SB news the commercials well be different this year. it might be interesting. it might not.

Sidral Mundet Soda (apple)

 tried this the other day from wal-mart's mexican (tex-mex?) section.

has a faint apple taste whe you first stiff it and when you first drink it.

not good. would not get again.

Jarritos Mandarin Soda

 not good.

it had a brief taste of what might have been orange, but basically tasted like very carbonated water. my brother called it spicy, but that could be the carbonation being really sharp.

California Pizza Kitchen Mindful Chik'n BBQ Pizza

 the chicken pieces are kind of rubbery and have a vague "chicken" flavor. not something i'd want to get again.

target also as a meatless monday supreme pizza from digiorno with meat substitute from sweet earth brand. it was slightly better.

Jarritos Tamarind Soda

 something we picked up from the mexican section (tex-mex?) at wal-mart.

according to wikipedia; Tamarind is a leguminous tree bearing edible fruit that is indigenous to tropical Africa. The genus Tamarindus is monotypic, meaning that it contains only this species. The tamarind tree produces brown, pod-like fruits that contain a sweet, tangy pulp, which is used in cuisines around the world.

it is not very good. we also got a mandarin orange soda from the same brand, hopefully it is better.