There I was, chin deep in pierogis....

So I was driving around today, looking for a sandwich and I found a hidden little gem-ski instead.
For You, Taste of Poland Cafe is tucked next to a pancake house and a skateboard shop, but could definitely stand all on it's own. It's small menu has all the favorites like piergogi (many types), bigos (stew served on sauerkraut) , sausages, borscht, galabki (stuffed cabbage)  and pork cutlets.
While waiting for my order to cook, I listened to a news show on t.v. that I couldn't understand because it was in Polish. The staff was yelling orders back and forth in Polish, too.
I had a plate of potato and cheese pierogi with a side of beets.

                            Don't make that face!

I know beets have a dirt-like flavor, but when you mix hot shredded beets with the delicious carrot and cabbage in vinegar salad that is served with the pierogi, you get a literal taste explosion! I added sauteed onions and bacon to my plate and just couldn't sit still. My happy dance was all over the place. According to my waitress, all the food is fresh and homemade. They don't use kraut from a jar or frozen-ready entrees. I truly believe her because there is no way food this delicious could be anything but freshly prepared. The food was so good, that I was mad when I got to the last forkful. Nothing more to tingle my tastebuds. I was stuffed. I wish I had gone with other people so we could all get different dishes and sample everything.
This place has groceries too so you can load up on all your favorites like plum pierogis, cheese blitzes, a variety of coffee and teas and jars of shredded cabbage, beets, and celery. Some nights also offer live music.

If you don't live in Plano, TX, I suggest you make a special trip!

my plate of potato and cheese pierogi topped with sautéed
onions and bacon, served with kraut salad and a side of hot shredded beets.
yummmmy!!

Hot Dish is the new Casserole

click here to watch a scene from the movie Fargo to get you in the mood to read this piece

On my way out of the library today, I noticed they were having a "Friends of the Library" sale. The library in Amarillo used to have these, too. Occasionally they would have a "Brown Bag" sale, where you pay $5 and they give you a large paper bag. Oh, boy did I manage to fill it! All the books I could carry out of there. It was awesome!
Today, though, I only casually browsed at what they had: Harelquin romances - barf- paperbacks of general fiction, magazines. Then I found some cookbooks. For those of you that know me, you know I collect unusual cookbooks, either by appearance or content. These I picked out for the content. One is called "Amana Colony Recipes" and it's all authentic German dishes. I will especially enjoy the kartoffel speisen section (potato dishes).
Now, the fun one. I found one of those cookbooks made for an organization like a ladies auxiliary club or some church. This particular gold nugget is from Cass County Electric Cooperative, Inc in North Dakota. I started flipping the pages and couldn't stop laughing. Seriously, where else can I find, in one book mind you, a recipe for "pickled smelt", "dang good hot chocolate mix" and "ice for ice cream"? I mean, I didn't even know you needed special ice to make ice cream. Five recipes in a row for "tuna hot dish" "best hot dish" and "super easy hot dish". Egads! In case you're wondering what "hot dish" is, it's what the good people up in that neck of the woods (ND, MN and the like) call a casserole. Here's a recipe for hot dish that calls for a can of "Franco American macaroni and cheese". I was unaware macaroni and cheese was produced in a can. I must have missed that aisle at Wal-mart. Another recipe for a hot dish calls for a "number 2 sized can of peas". I don't even know what that means but it sounds funny when you say it like Margie from the movie Fargo.
I can't wait to try some of these.
Not a bad day for fifty cents, eh?

I'm getting better...

Yesterday in my Concept Design class, we used (my favorite program) Adobe Illustrator to create our final pencil sketch of an illustration for an article. Then, we used Adobe InDesign to layout the article and insert our illustration. For anyone who knows how to use these programs, it would have only taken maybe 20-30 minutes at the very most. Then there's me, still struggling with remembering what buttons to push to make it do what I want. I took about 2 1/2 hours to produce these two things: the final drawing in Illustrator and the final layout in InDesign:

Illustrator

layout in InDesign

I thought I did ok, then I looked at what other students did and felt inadequate once again. They had used photos of stuff and traced it in Illustrator. We were allowed to do that, but I wanted to try to "free-hand" (so to speak) my drawing.
The teacher is the one that picked the article and the final drawing. I had four other articles and at least 3-5 drawings to go with each article.
Here is the sketches for the Girl Scout cookie article:

I was the only one to have a cartoon strip. I tried to be serious, but I couldn't! The teacher chose to cut the other girl and set of cookies out of the picture. I would have preferred to keep the comparison.