Heidi and Seek

On hiatus

Heidi — Sat, 13 Nov 2010 01:52:40 +0000

This blog is on hiatus until further notice. Please continue to browse around and leave comments but there won’t be any new content for the time being.

Filed under: Uncategorized

The Texas State Fair: A veritable smorgasbord

Heidi — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 02:23:56 +0000

The one thing I knew about Texas before moving here was that the State Fair is known for its crazy fried foods. Texans, it seemed, are willing to fry anything and everything. I’m sure you’ve heard of the fried twinkie and the fried snickers bars and these amazing treats are exactly what filled with my dreams with not sugarplums, but just good old fashioned sugar…and lots of it.

I have a lot of diet restrictions on a day to day basis so I figured as long as I am living in Texas, I will give myself one day to go hog wild.

On top of my must try list were the fried beer and the fried butter. Why? Well with the novelty of fried beer it just seemed like a must do. And the fried butter? Well, yes I was that little girl that was caught eating a stick of butter out of the refrigerator. I was sure this was karma coming back around to give me a treat. Added to this fried foods fever, I mean taste test, were the deep fried pop tarts (unfortunately s’more flavored, hello cinnamon fans??) and the fried guacamole bites. So how did these fine foods fare?

In order from least appealing to omg I’ve died and gone to food heaven:

Fried beer – all I could taste was the ravioli shell that covered the beer. I know a lot of Italians in New England that can fry a ravioli better than this. Don’t waste your time.

Fried guacamole bites – a bite of these bites tastes just like eating guac and chips, but what was amazing was that it was served with ranch dressing. At first it sounds gross, but I dare you to try it. And I bet you don’t even have to get to a State Fair for this combo!

Fried butter – the fried butter actually came in a variety of flavors. A connoisseur was in line behind me and urged me to get the garlic. These simply tasted like garlic knots/garlic bread/etc. Nothing new or different about the fried butter but I hadn’t had butter in a very long time and this was like taking a bath in a carefree childhood. I think next year I would try the cinnamon and sugar.

And the absolute must-try-this-in-your-lifetime winner was the deep fried s’more. The inside of the poptart because all cinnamon-y or maybe even pecan pie-y. It was hot and melty with cool whip cream smothered on top. It was crunchy yet savory. It was pure amazingness.

Then even the normal numbness in my stomach was surpassed and I felt full. So next year (if I am still here), then topping the list will be the fried peanut butter and jelly sandwich (a la monte cristo) and the fried margarita (hopefully much better than the fried beer).

For the rest of the pictures from the day, click on the deep fried pop tart above. Bon appetit!

Filed under: Life Tagged: State Fair, Texas

Capturing the perfect sunset

Heidi — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 01:31:45 +0000

I don’t think it was until I moved to Arizona that I realized how beautiful sunsets could be. In NYC, my apartment faced north so I didn’t catch my sunsets, but in Texas this apartment faces south again. Now I know the sun sets in the east, but I don’t know what it is that makes a sunset so much more visible when you face south. Anyway, these sunsets aren’t as colorful as those in Arizona but they are dramatic enough to catch my wannabe-photographer’s-eye. Click the picture below to see the rest of the set on my Flickr page:

Filed under: Life

Girl’s Guide to Fantasy Football: Week 5 Review

Heidi — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 02:10:15 +0000

Fantasy football lesson of the week: In every league there is one player who knows everything about football. He’ll report stats about second and even third tier players, he knows the predictions for every match up in the upcoming week and knows every piece of NFL trivia. How do you beat such a player? Well first, as we discussed in preparing for the draft stats don’t mean anything. You must have confidence in your team. Don’t make any last minute trades that are done out of pure adrenaline. And with any trash talking done towards you, simply reply: “Well, we’ll see what happens on the field.”

2010 League

And we did see what happened on the field as I won!! By 25 whole points little old me, beat the Commissioner 97.2 to 72.2. The Commish humbly wrote the following recap:

In Heidi’s matchup, she squarely put it to the Men In Tights with a total team effort, beating GM Henry by 25 points. A much-needed win, Heidi stays just one game behind the large pack of teams at 3-2. Following the victory, GM Heidi was quoted as saying, “I had to stay up all night to watch the MNF game! Even when my eyes were watering and my body told me to go to sleep, I had to reach down and find the strength to make it through the 4th quarter. It was a good win, and I am happy with my player’s performance.” Let’s see if she can keep the momentum next week when she heads to the land of Team Irvine.

Week 5 Ranking: 2-3, 8 out of 12 (+2 from prior week)

No Punt Intended League

Another win as I stay atop this league. This match up was closer than I thought as I didn’t realize my opponent still had a player in the MNF game. Oops. Oh well, didn’t seem to matter!

Week 5 Ranking: 4-1, 1 out of 12 (no change from Week 4, still number 1!)

Filed under: Fantasy Football Tagged: Fantasy Football, NFL

Acid Reflux Diet

Heidi — Sat, 16 Oct 2010 15:17:07 +0000

Let’s add more food I can’t eat to my already restricted diet – cuz that’ll be super fun – k? Let’s review: Yes, its my choice to be vegetarian, but I also seem to have intolerances to both gluten and dairy.

Enter now…the restrictions caused by acid reflux. The first thing the doctor said to me after I woke up from Friday’s endoscopy was an announcement about how much inflammation and damage the acid reflux is causing. I promised myself that after this endoscopy I would do whatever it would take to get myself happy. So here it is: first thing I need to do is eat less acid causing foods.

A quick search on the internet indicates a quorum on the advice:

Less coffee
Less alcohol (specifically red wine)
Less tomatoes
Less fats
Less citric fruits (pineapples, oranges, etc)

My question for all you Heidi and Seekers – do these recommendations work? I thought I once remember hearing that the citric fruit tip is a myth because although the fruits are citric on the tree/vine/etc this changes once they are chewed/consumed. So if that is true then are the rest of these true as well?

If you have any experience dealing with an Acid Reflux diet – would love to hear your story!

Filed under: Gluten Free Veg Tagged: Gastroesophageal reflux disease, Health