lists – Page 3 – Life in the Cheese Drawer

straight, white, female

June 12, 2014 kate Comments 1 comment

ran across this list of 100 things straight white females “love”. i thought i’d do a line-by-line analysis.

Greek Yogurt
depends on the greek yogurt. are you talking about that crap chobani? then absolutely not. greek gods’ nectar OF the gods? then absolutely yes. unfortunately, most people are talking about crappy chobani.
Talking about their feelings
NO
Oatmeal
YES
Christmas
who doesn’t like christmas??
Wooden boxes
huh?
Anthropologie
the only reason i know what this is is because one of my straight white female friends talk about it. i doubt they make things that fit me. we’ll go wtih no.
Beards
ok, i’ll give you beards 🙂
Instagram
i use it for work, but don’t see the appeal.
Farmers’ Markets
YES bring me to a farmers’ market!!
Talking about helping the poor
uh, why not help the poor?
Teaching
NO NO NO NONONONONONOOOOO
Renewable Energy
well, this only makes sense. yes.
Froyo
just give me ice cream.
Pretending to be interested in sports
no. i don’t feign interest.
Getting UTIs
who LIKES this??? yuck.
Boots
the boots i like are probably not the kind of boots the article is really talking about. so we’ll say no just on that assumption.
Early-morning, weekend yoga classes
early-morning anything gets the ol’ heave-ho from me.
Their space
yes please
Chardonnay
it’s okaay. not my first choice. meh.
Nutella
yes i’ll take nutella.
Breast cancer awareness
if it’s soley susan g komen, then no.
Going to the bathroom as a group
noooo gross
Bravo
the channel? i don’t get it.
Cake
yes!!
Weird, fuzzy socks
i don’t know about weird, but i like fuzzy socks.
Reading celebrity magazines during Sunday football games
i don’t read celebrity mags and i don’t have sunday football games on any tv near me.
Other people’s baby photos
NO (unless they’re hannah)
Cheese boards
just the board? or does the cheese come with it? if it comes with cheese, shove that down my gullet.
Texting
no necessarily.
Ellipticals
i was hoping this was going to be ellipsis. alas…
Christmas movies
yes!
Homemade jam
not a huge fan of jam
Risotto
depends on the risotto! if it’s yummy, then yes!
Crepes
yes!!
Brunch
breakfast at 11 a.m.? i’ll take it.
Ryan Gosling
no
Titanic
yes!
Stating the obvious
eh
Toms
NO NO NO
Cider
YES YES YES as long as it’s HARD cider. regular cider, no.
Pumpkin-flavored beer
it’s ok. rather have pumpkin bread.
Kale
no
Rom-coms
they’re ok
Puppies
mmm, slobbery, jumpy, stinky puppies? no. maybe from 10 feet away.
Wine bars
no
Pictures
sure?
Moscow Mules
i have no idea what this is
Complaining about cold weather
that’s me!
Mittens
i wear mittens at 50º, so yes.
Hooking up with multiple dudes in same group of Bros
that’s kinda weird…
Sweet potato fries
mmm, these are good. especially with blue cheese dressing.
Reusable grocery bags
when i remember them!
Dressing on the side
no, slather that dressing all over that salad.
Financial stability
what’s that? hahah
Obeying traffic laws
i speed, but otherwise obey most all other laws. not sure what that makes this.
Human rights
why is this even on here?
Throw pillows
they’re ok.
The worst-case scenario
well, things oculd always be worse, right??
Not being able to sleep at night
yuck, i HATE that. who would love that?
Credit-card debt
and who loves CC debt? seriously – this article is messed up.
Occasionally smoking pot
what’s pot? (LOL)
Mosaic tile
not a huge fan.
Complaining about headaches
no. wish they’d go away.
Umbrellas
i do carry one. i wouldnt’ say i LOVE it, but who wants to get soaked during a rainstorm?
Diet Coke
gross!
Sending other girls pictures of dresses they are thinking about buying
maybe?
Cake pops
yummy! yes!
Hefeweisens
don’t know what this is.
Refilling the ice tray
ugh, i hated refilling the ice tray when i had one. such an easy thing to make a huge deal out of.
Stemless wine glasses
meh
Cleaning up during parties
clean up BEFORE the party.
Prosecco
too sweet for me!
Not taking public transportation
if i had the option of public transport, i’d probably take it.
Being sick
once again, who likes being sick?
Claiming they aren’t into sexting
this is dumb. seriously. who wrote this drivel.
The idea of having a fireplace
ok, so this is not so dumb.
Funfetti
no
Organizing shit
when the muse strikes, i’ll clean/organize, but mostly messes are ok.
Spring
YESSSSSS sprummer!
Venting
sometimes. but most times no.
Their birthday
ABSOLUTELY!!
Group photos
they’re ok.
Pic stitch apps
i’m assuming this is a panorama app or something. can’t you just use the panorama option on your phone? this seems redundant.
Posting pictures to Facebook of the DC monuments that are on their jogging routes
what? i don’t jog in DC. i took a pic of the fencepost in front of a field of purple flowers once on my run, but it sure wasn’t a monument.
Starting a new chapter in their life
change is good! but sometimes the same odl same old is just fine.
Charity events
they’re ok. they generally want money i don’t have though.
Beyonce
meh
Trying new recipes
sure!
Tapas
i’ve never had tapas. anthony bourdain thinks they’re ok, so i guess i could say yes.
Planning to do stuff outside
outside is AWESOME!
Changing out of their heels and into flip-flops at weddings
if you had to stand around in 4″ heels at a wedding, you’d love this too, dudes.
Wineries
eh
Kate Spade sales
too expensive
Throwback Thursday
TT is ok…
Koozies
….can koozies? then yes?
Seeing deer
deer are overrated and everywhere. and when you see them bounding across the road right in front of your car, you get a whole different view of them.
Food blogs
i curate one? so therefore yes?
Half marathons
not yet!
Maxi dresses
no
Peonies
yes. 🙂

top ten places in MN i've eaten

June 9, 2014 kate Comments 0 Comment

if i’m going to do one thing this summer with my blog, it will be to counter every single “minnesota” list that’s really a “twin cities” list with a REAL minnesota list. this one, however, is limited to places in MN i’ve actually been, so i’m sorry if there’s an awesome place that i’ve missed because i haven’t been there. (especially sorry to duluth and other northern cities – i need to get up there more and EAT [i get up there, but it’s mostly for family events where food’s provided]! i’d love to get to pizza luce.)
1. for sushi – ichi tokyo in rochester is really good. there’s a reason i get the all you can eat option.
2. the best eggs benedict – EB is my go-to breakfast food. some places do it well; some places really suck; some places don’t even include the hollandaise!! the BEST EB i’ve had was at jerry’s other place in austin (now closed!!).
3. the best crumbly burger – speaking of austin, that’s the home to the best place to get a tendermaid, at the small, old-school tendermaid place with 20 seats around a bar counter.
4. muy bueno fried ice cream – ok, so i KNOW that fargo is not in MN, but it is darn close, so we’ll call it ok. anyway, melissa and i would frequent paradiso, which had pretty darn good mexican food and fried ice cream.
5. the best lemon cream (supreme) pie – kay’s kitchen in st. joe, hands down. they also have awesome hashbrowns that i really miss.
6. the most mouth-drooling tiramisu – ciatti’s in st. cloud is probably the best italian restaurant i’ve eaten at, and their tiramisu is to die for. yum-o.
7. the best chicken – ok, so rochester gets this one. chester’s has the best restaurant chicken i’ve had. they also have a killer chocolate cake. nomg.
8. best pizza (eat-in) – bilotti’s in roch. it’s awesome. love the crust and overzealous cheese.
8.5. best pizza (delivery, pick-up) – jimmy’s pizza, new london, cold spring, st. charles. you can’t beat jimmy’s on a friday night!
9. best bloody mary – i’ve been on a search for the perfect bloody mary ever since drinking my first one. i’ve drank a lot of bloody marys at a lot of places. the best one i’ve ever had is at o’neil’s pub in spicer. nothing even holds a candle.
10. so you just want a burger and fries – i think this is going to be my only big-time chain restaurant recommendation. while i would definitely recommend ANY greasy spoon burger and fries, given a choice, i would go to five guys’ burgers and fries. the only thing that could beat that at this point MIGHT be in-n-out, but that requires some travel.

a real minnesota list

June 3, 2014 kate Comments 0 Comment

every big-time list i read about the top 10 things to do in minnesota or the 10 best restaurants or the 5 most excellent concert venues, or blah blah blah is really a way for the twin cities to affirm its existence. so let’s do a REAL minnesota list.
the best thing about each minnesota region.
northwest- this is true north. home of lake itasca, the headwaters of the mississippi river, and the lakes in the region are awesome. plus, bemidji is in the northwest, and we can’t forget about mr. bunyan and babe.
northland– duluth, boundary waters, lake superior, tons of pine trees. nate’s hometown of international falls.
west central– home to NL-S – represent! (seriously though, the new london-spicer area is a great tourist place.)
central– lake woebegone – need i say more?? nothing beats the st. joe-avon-albany-holdingford area. plus, the colleges in the area bring in a lot of big artsy talent, especially at CSB|SJU, and the the lakes region is awesome.
southwest– i love driving through the southwest part of the state after a long drive through south dakota. it’s so refreshing. anyway, this prairie part of the state has the lutefisk capital of the world in it, the schwann’s headquarters in marshall, and awesome wind power for wind turbines.
southeast– bluff country. check out the root river trail and the little towns all along the rivers. also, this area of minnesota has the most local, small-time farmers willing to sell you their stuff.
metro– moa. that’s all you get.

anything else you’d like to add to outstate?

summertime 10

May 29, 2014 kate Comments 0 Comment

a repost from 2009
1. Days so hot you can’t imagine there being a time when you wore a coat
2. Making an entire meal on the grill
3. The smell of lake
4. Festivals where you can buy mini-doughnuts and corndogs
5. Watching things you planted grow
6. Sun-brewed iced tea
7. Farmers’ markets
8. Frogs croaking and crickets chirping in the evening while sitting on the patio/deck
9. Rolled-down windows
10. Smelling fresh-cut grass while walking though it barefoot

the flip side: southeast mn – a blooming romance?

May 5, 2014 kate Comments 2 comments

my mom and i complain about rochester a lot. i know. it’s bad. i’m sorry. i’m trying; really, i am. so here are some things about southeastern minnesota (and yes, rochester) that i do like and hope to get more into as the summer progresses now that i’m in a house and not cramped.
1. OUTBACK STEAKHOUSE. bring on the cheese fries. the one in st cloud closed over the recession, and it made me sad.
2. trader joe’s! i really like it. i also like the food co-op in rochester and get my bulk foods there. i did go to the roch farmer’s market last summer, and i am going to try out the st. charles market this summer to see if it’s decent.
3. i am really excited to spend some time at whitewater state park this summer.
4. bike trail! going to try to get down to lanesboro, preston, houston, rushford area for some biking and snooping around in antique shops.
5. i like my job! 🙂
6. i like my house!
7. fireflies. for realz. there are no fireflies up in central mn.
8. the pastures and windy little creeks and little snuggy rock hidey-holes all over the countryside. you’ll be driving along and glance out in a pasture, and there’s a little hole through a hummock out in the pasture with a stone arch holding it open.
9. the bluffs and hills, and the drives are nicer with scenery (at least when you’re in the valleys). the farmland, however, is not that scenic.
10. i can’t think of a 10th. nate and i have sat here and couldn’t think of one thing that rochester has that st. cloud has as well. you let me know!

top ten reasons you should stop eating devil's syrup

February 18, 2014 kate Comments 0 Comment

i know i posted a food post yesterday, but i wanted to do another one after trying to think of 10 reasons to stop eating DS.

1. it’s an easy way to reduce support of the overwhelming amount of government subsidies corn receives, especially the huge corporate farms. that money could be used elsewhere. like food for kids.
2. you eat too much corn anyway in all the processed foods we eat and as a byproduct of supermarket meat, so at least getting rid of some of it would be good.
3. you’ll reduce your sugar cravings.
4. monsanto is the devil, and by eliminating GM crops from your diet, you’ll remove money from its pockets.
5. you’ll buy and cook more “whole” foods. devil’s syrup is in so much stuff, that you eliminate practically 2/3 of the grocery store by avoiding it.
6. the processed food you DO buy will generally be better for you and/or organic. support your body and organic farmers! (although do your research on organics – some are just as bad as conventional or don’t make much of a difference compared to conventional.)
7. just using regular old cane or beet sugar tastes 100X better. your tastebuds will thank you. (i have a beef with the sugar industry as well, but one hurdle at a time.)
8. lots of times “low-fat” foods have more sugar and salt in them so they actually taste better. lots of times the sugar is DS. sugar converts into fat. this “low-fat” food is not truly “low-fat.” shhh, don’t tell anyone. they don’t want you to know.
9. another shout out for sugar tastes better! drinking pop with DS has a metallic aftertaste when i drink it now (well, i haven’t had a DS soda in YEARS, but i remember) and cane sugar pop is DEEEEElicious.
10. if everyone would stop eating processed crap with corn and other subsidized foods and started eating better, farmers would grow actual FOOD for HUMAN CONSUMPTION. you know, like stuff we can actually eat straight from the field. what a concept!

growing up in the faux country

February 16, 2014 kate Comments 1 comment

inspired by a thoughtcatalog list on great things about growing up on a farm, i’d like to introduce my top ten things about growing up on a faux farm (a couple of which are duplicated from the article).

1. chasing fireflies

late summer months in southern minnesota means you get to see some fireflies. my sibs and dad and i spent more than our fair share of time capturing the little blinky guys.

2. horse troughs

oh, there is nothing like filling up one of these bad boys with cold water from the hose on a hot summer day. usually the water was so cold that we had to let it sit a day before climbing into the old horse trough we had. poor man’s swimming pool, is what it was. but it was glorious.

3. drinking from a hose in the summertime

yep, there is nothing that beats drinking from a hose in the summertime. or running through a sprinkler. or filling up horse troughs (see above).

4. the space

living on a farm means having a lot of space. we ran around like hooligans on the farm for most of the summer months, not giving two hoots about running on to anyone else’s property because guess what? we had enough space that we didn’t have to worry about anyone else’s property.

5. the smell of springtime

ah, this could be a bit controversial, but in the springtime when the snow begins to melt and things become a bit slushy, you know it’s truly spring when you can start to smell the cow manure melting from the surrounding fields and pastures.

6. privacy

(see space above.) one plus to having the space to run around like hooligans is that we didn’t have to worry about being decent or dressed all the time. ha!

7. bonfires

anytime i want to have a fire these days, i have to drag out my fire pit and set it up in my driveway. in the country, all you have to do is head out on the back forty where all the brush you’ve been throwing in a pile all year has collected and set the pile ablaze. we’d have bonfire parties!

8. the creek running through the pasture

there was a creek that ran through our pasture and also our aunt and uncle’s pasture a mile north of us. those creek times were some of the best times. in the winter, we headed down to the pasture, laced on our ice skates, and took a few turns around the creek. in the summertime, on more than one occasion we headed out to our relatives’ creek (bystepping the cows) and built little waterfalls that flowed down a silty hill and into a shallow area of the creek.

9. barn cats

not much to say here! one can’t have too many barn cats. (my uncle squire was a huge proponent of the barn cat. he got many “schmeichels” from a few of our so-called ferals.)

10. sunsets over the field

you can’t really expound upon perfection.

i would like to say that none of these images are mine EXCEPT the final sunset one.

movies…

December 17, 2013 kate Comments 0 Comment

i am really not doing well on my movie watching this year. i’ll have to kick it up a notch.

charlie brown
the santa clause
maybe a christmas story?
the lion, the witch and the wardrobe
it’s a wonderful life
babe
love actually
home alone
muppet christmas carol

of my previous list, i’ve watched babe, lion witch wardrobe, santa clause, and home alone. well, actually i’m not doing too badly. i also watched die hard, which has lived up to the hype of a good christmas movie.
but there’s a week to christmas! so i’d better get cracking to get my list done.

breakups

November 29, 2013 kate Comments 2 comments

this graph is really interesting. a couple of observations:
1. april fool’s day is probably a spoof – note how it goes right back down. i’d bet most of the “breakups” are april fools’ jokes.
2. apparently people don’t want to spend money on their significant others. breaking up 2 weeks before christmas? before valentine’s day? seems like a cheap way to get out of buying a present.
3. SPRING BREAK! who wants to be weighed down with a bf/gf during the trip that could get you the most tail evah! same with beginning of summer vacay – you want to keep your options open!
4. thank goodness christmas day is the least breakup day. at least humanity has a little sense of decency left.

top ten movie endings

November 18, 2013 kate Comments 1 comment

*inspired by jane’s watching of “the muppet movie”. oh, SPOILERS!!!!
10. 500 days of summer – so what if this is the ultimate hipster movie. i love the end. when you think all is lost, one simple name and a breaking of the 4th wall gives a glimmer of hope.
9. the dark knight rises – we see alfred sitting at a cafe. he looks up and smiles. we KNOW it’s bruce, then it cuts to bruce. (really, nolan, you could have cut the scene where we actually see bruce, and it would have been 10% better, but i digress). and to learn that blake’s first name is ROBIN. ha.
8. wild things – nicely done, third wheel!!! ps – the credits are a must watch.
7. breakfast at tiffany’s – rain. a missing cat. a kiss. can’t beat that.
6. shawshank redemption – i give credit to stephen king on writing an awesome book first and foremost (well, novella). the film adaptation was my first exposure, so i have to include it. music adds a ton to the end when we see how andy circumvented the system and got to that end of the sewer pipe. then sweet, sweet justice when he clears out the bank account. add in red’s parole, and reunification with andy, and awwww yeaaahhh.
5. the usual suspects – brilliant, and you don’t see it coming (well, i didn’t). kevin spacey is a genius
4. beauty and the beast – go belle go! barge through the doors on horseback! fly up the stairs! the moment when you think the beast is dead, then she whispers “i love you” JUST before the last petal takes its deadly descent. aw yeah, getting goosebumps just thinking about it.
3. it’s a wonderful life – when george bailey’s brother calls him the richest man in town, liek if you cry evry tiem.
2. muppet movie – this movie is awesome because it has my favorite beginning as well as a favorite ending. everything crashes down, the roof opens up, life seems hopeless for the muppets, and suddenly, a rainbow filters through the hole in the roof. “life’s like a movie, make your own ending, keep believing, keep pretending, we’ve just done what we set out to do…thanks to the lovers, the dreamers, and you!”
1. fivel goes west – for an animated non-disney kids’ sequel filmed on a low budget in 1991, this movie is AWESOME. if you haven’t seen it, i highly suggest finding it asap. jimmy stewart, dom delouise, john cleese, plus some music by james horner. it’s a funny film, but the ending is perfect. jimmy stewart gives some advice to our young fivel as the sun sets in the out west desert. perfect.