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I’ve decided to quit smoking- again.

I’ve made up my mind, but as an added boost, I bought a pack of what I thought were cheap, nasty cigarettes.

Turns out they’re cheap, nasty cigars.  I swear they taste like they were soaked in turpentine.  Every time I want a cigarette, I light one of those little bad boys up.

It’s working.  I feel rather bilious and I’m finding myself wanting a smoke less & less.

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I’m also finding out that either I’m getting cranky & hard to please, restaurant food is not as good as it used to be, or my over-inflated self-worth as a cook is becoming more pronounced.

A few weeks ago, the husband and I ate at Red Lobster.  I’ve always been a huge fan of their scampi and their garlic cheese biscuits.

I wasn’t impressed.

I found shrimp on sale last week and set to making scampi today.  Scampi, pasta, slaw & garlic cheese biscuits, with banana pudding for dessert.  The entire meal cost about $25, not including the wine for the scampi.  At Red Lobster, the same meal would have been roughly $75 PLUS $3/cup of coffee and the tip.  Not to mention, I would have had to have driven 65 miles both ways, took time to get semi-gussied up with makeup, etc…

$25 v/s $110ish and the best part- mine tasted better.

I’m finding that to be the case more and more, too.  I cannot eat at a “country cooking” restaurant anymore.  Those folks don’t know “country cooking” from squat.  And I’ve figured out why people are all too willing to pour the praise on mediocre “country cooking” restaurants- they don’t cook that sorta food on a regular basis, if they cook at all.

While I was doing clinicals we ate at Jane’s Old Fashioned Buffet.  Everyone else raved about the wonderful food.  It was okay, but mainly, it was just food.  The vegetables were all canned, but had a piece of salt pork floating around here and there.  The meats were all dripping with grease.  The bread was from a mix.  The “homemade” cakes were all from cake mixes and had artificial vanilla flavoring in them.  The squash casserole tasted like cheese only.

There was no flavor to the food and if that is “country cooking”, I’m doing it wrong.

Anyway, rant over.  I’m heading to my recliner.  I ate too much actually *good* food and need to let it digest quietly. 😉

Looks & Sounds about right