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Tag Archives: friends

revenge of the pork belly

20 Sunday Dec 2009

Posted by Jane Bretl in Foodies

≈ 9 Comments

Tags

food hangover, friends, Jane Koenen Bretl, mexican restaurant, pork bellies

Thank goodness good friends still call to invite us out to dinner.  We used to be an active part of a fun dinner group;  just some couples that would gather, once a month on the third Saturday night, whoever could find a sitter, and go to a different restaurant each time.  After years of Saturday nights, it turns out one couple was the glue holding the whole group together, and when they moved away, the group slowly drifted apart, as groups sometimes do.

Now we don’t get out much, as they say.  No particular reason, really just a general feeling of comfortable satisfaction spending the weekends together with our kids, coupled with a marked lack of advance social planning.  But some good friends still call, pick a date, make the reservation and get us back out into the city.

So we found ourselves out and about last night in a fun, noisy, young, hoppin’ restaurant downtown.  We were somewhere close to the oldest people there, or maybe I only saw the youth, I’m not sure.  Not that there is anything wrong with that.  Just that  it felt vaguely like crashing a party of cool kids, with a grateful feeling that they let me in to spend my money.

The concept was eclectic Mexican, with a menu where I could have ordered anything based on the tantalizing descriptions.  One dish jumped off the trendy page though, and when the (very young) waiter stopped by to inquire if we had any questions about the menu, I asked about the dish.  It was delicious, he said, very rich, and if I wanted something lighter, he recommended the mahi mahi tacos.

Fish tacos?  Hello?  I have had those many times, always good, but not splurge-worthy.  I was OUT, and I wanted the Crispy Pork Belly Tacos with guacamole diablo and pickled vegetables, thank you very much.

I must say, this dish was absolutely delicious.  I loved it.  The meat melted in my mouth but had a crispy caramelized crust that was reminiscent of bacon.  The spicy avocado melded perfectly with the richness and was balanced by the sourness of the vegetables.  It surpassed my expectations.

Walking back to the car, the Christmas lights twinkling around the tall buildings and an unusual amount of people all about, I felt full and warm in the drizzly sleety snow and did I mention full?

The night out was fun and refreshingly interesting for a Saturday night, time spent laughing and talking with good friends and good food.  Still, I was happy to arrive back home and change into my flannel pajamas (elastic waist – yeah!) and just be, well, home again.  It did not take long to drift off to sleep.

Around 3:00 am, I woke with an acute awareness that I had consumed the innards of a pig that had been garnished with guacamole diablo (Diablo?  Does that mean hot or devilish?) and those pickled vegetables of Beelzabub.  Really, what was I thinking?  Although I don’t drink, I had clearly been drunken with the out-ness of the evening.  The intoxication of friends and food and youth and twinkly lights was *poof* gone in the dark of the night, and I was left with a food hangover.  As I propped myself up on a pile of pillows to have gravity assist the contents of my stomach back down my esophagus, I recalled how often I heard the farm report in my youth, the one that played on the radio at noon on weekdays and would start the broadcast each day with the price of pork bellies.  I don’t think they were selling those pork bellies to Mexican restaurants back in Wisconsin.  As the long-ago-broadcasted words swirled around in my head, the radio announcer’s voice seemed to mock my culinary choices and asked if I also wanted to eat some feed corn or, perhaps, some silage as an appetizer.

The good news about a food hangover is that the morning still breaks bright and new, and for once I felt no temptation to eat any of the bacon I made for the kids’ breakfast.  Think of all the calories I saved by having nothing but my smoothie. Good thing friendship is a soothing tonic; and rich meals, like childbirth, are seldom remembered in full detail.

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neutered dog pal

10 Tuesday Mar 2009

Posted by Jane Bretl in get along like cats and dogs, Photography

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

dog, friends, neuter

Kenzie has a new friend.  He is very cute.

dog pals

He has a great smile.  And other appealing qualities.

archie smile

They romp and play and get along very, very well.

slirpy smooch

Then, later, it’s nice to kick back and share a stick.

kickin'back

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FB sophomore

24 Saturday Jan 2009

Posted by Jane Bretl in Writing

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Tags

discussion boards, facebook, friends

I now check facebook a lot.  After days spent obsessively snooping at what everyone else was doing, I felt some tentative confidence to make several brief posts.  My first post, to a long ago acquaintance, I hit the wrong button and it took me three days to figure out she never saw my carefully crafted reply on her wall.  OK, I now understand how to reply to someone writing on my wall.  I think.

I spent another week “trolling” for new friends, which I thought was such a clever play on words until my cousin used the exact same phrase. On a facebook post.  So much for my creative way with words.  Perhaps I was mining new veins for gold.  Never mind.

I still find FB nerve-wracking.  It seems unpredictable, what it discloses about people.  It announces status updates of questionable nature.  One friend suddenly came up as “no longer married” .  That freaked me out (did she just announce an impending divorce in such an impersonal and public way?)  Then, of course, I figured out that she is 40-something like me and she just hit the wrong button.  But that begs the question — how many wrong buttons have I already hit and inadvertently sent bizarre updates about myself?  Does it broadcast how often I have changed my profile picture because I thought it made me look old/fat/ridiculous?  Ridiculous as in ridicule-inducing-ousness?  Does the act of changing my profile picture umpteen times in itself broadcast something lacking in my character??

I lay awake at night thinking about these things.  But I have joined a FB writers’ group thing (thanks to Kent for the hook-up) and now check the discussion boards, and even posted something.  About blogging.  Nothing bad happened, that I know about. From that group, I am starting to see the light about how social networking can create and enhance a writer’s platform.  I have yet to join a local writers’ critique group, so social networking provides a viable online alternative for feedback.  Plus, peeking into the lives of all these writers, talking about their elevator pitches and revising chapter 25, helps inspire me to write more every day.

Progress.

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Bumper cars

14 Wednesday Jan 2009

Posted by Jane Bretl in Motherhood

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

football, friends, geeks, Obama, suburbia

I recently heard a comedian riff on bumper stickers as a handy shortcut to life — when he saw one, he automatically knew not to be friends with the driver.

My husband views my new-found bumper sticker interest as a phase, a possible symptom of mid-life crisis that will hopefully pass in less time than it takes to remove the adhesive already applied.

Me, I just looked at my tan minivan one day (Sandtone), youth football team stickers in the windows (not that there is anything wrong with that), bumper scraped from hasty parking jobs, and thought about what I drive as reflection of who I am.

Ouch.

I was also swept up in the fervor of the election and wanted to make a statement.  The minivan remains non-negotiable, no matter how much I want something little and zippy.  So forthwith the Obamamobile was born.

I have lots more bumper stickers to apply, when the time is right.  “Please Lord, let me be the person my dog thinks I am”.   “Coexist”.   “Alternative Energy is Homeland Security”.  “Geek Is The New Cool”.

Funny, my husband doesn’t drive the van much anymore.

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jane, candid

In 2009, I started this blog to share my sometimes thoughtful, sometimes funny, occasionally irreverent thoughts on motherhood, writing for publication and myriad creatures that got along as cats and dogs.

One day, I felt like stepping away from living out loud for awhile. Eh, life happens.

Fast forward five years -- I'll gloss over the details for now -- save to say that lucky for me an unexpected detour has provided some new material.

So here I am, standing at the corner. I've been here before, wondering which way to go. This time I choose living.

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