A Question About Tipping

Posted on March 23, 2016 by brent

Despite never working a day in the restaurant business, I am very appreciative and intrigued by the serving profession. Besides the candid look at human nature they receive each shift, I feel waiters and waitresses have a thankless job. I love to hear the stories but I hate to hear about the hardships.

Although I feel I am on the conservative side when it comes to spending my money in general, people tell me I am a good tipper. Chalk that tendency up to the respect I have for the service industry. But when I receive this comment it is usually just regarding the percentage I tack on, not necessarily the way I leave it. With that said, I would like to ask restaurant people and non-restaurant people alike a basic question:

When you leave a tip, should you make it a flat dollar amount or should you leave it in a way that will result in flat dollar amount for the entire bill?

Let me quickly explain. When I tip (90% of the time I am using a debit card), I leave a round amount such as $10 or $15. Other restaurant customers will leave an amount that will round out the total bill, such as leaving a $9.14 tip that will adjust a pre-gratuity meal of $30.86 to $40. Or, for the sake of clarity, leaving a $4.22 tip on a pre-gratuity meal bill of $15.78, thus rounding it to $20.

This is my thinking: It must be much easier for a server to add a flat tip amount to his/her earnings at the end of the night. Isn’t it simpler in life to add up amounts of $8, $14, $17, etc. as opposed to $7.89, $11.13, $15.83, etc.? I have thought this way for the past 10 years. But lately I have started to think that my brain might be back in the 1960s.

Fueling my action of always giving a round gratuity amount was the vision in my head of servers crunching the numbers on their tips from card transactions and adding it to the cash tips they received. After going through the headache of adding up a bunch of random amounts, they leave for the evening with a dollar amount plus 67 cents in change. Who wants a couple quarters, a dime, a nickel, and two pennies? If everyone tipped like me, he/she would be taking home 33 cents more and thus hauling out just paper instead of some annoying metal mixed in!

But then I realized that maybe the process doesn’t really work that way. Are tips recorded electronically and then just applied to a paycheck? Do servers really not even have to deal with non-round dollar amounts? Are they saved from taking home pennies at the end of the night?

I want to get this down straight for the sake of servers because one thing is sure for someone like me: it doesn’t matter either way.

As someone who almost always pays with my card, it doesn’t matter if I leave a $9 tip or a $8.67 tip. It isn’t the end of the world if my bank transaction for my dinner at the Olive Garden was $50.89 as opposed to $51. I am not worried about my transactions looking messy, and, although I try to do my best to save money, I am not sweating over a couple coins at lunch.

So let me have it, everyone. Besides the basic requirement that the tip itself is actually a good one, would you prefer it to be a round amount or an amount that raises the total bill of the meal to a round amount? Check please! Don’t Blink.

The Best Foodie Twitter Account

Posted on March 22, 2016 by brent

My current favorite Twitter account definitely deserves a follow from you. Don’t worry, it doesn’t have to do with sports, social media, or Donald Trump. Rather, its focus is squarely on something we all love.

Food.

Excuse the questionable name of the account, but I think everyone who has a Twitter account should follow @ItsFoodPorn. If you enjoy fun, ridiculous, and delicious images of food there isn’t anything better in the social media space than FoodPorn*.

The FoodPorn Twitter account specializes in tweeting out photos of pizza, ice cream, cookies, cakes, fast food meals, pastas, pastries, and comfort food. You will never find a vegetable or organic item on @ItsFoodPorn. Everything is served over the top and with a side of nostalgia.

This is what a basic tweet looks like from @ItsFoodPorn

Just three very quick reasons on why this account is so good.

1. Tempting Selections – You will never have any trouble finding something you like. In the past week I have retweeted chocolate chip ice cream sandwiches, stuffed pepperoni bites, chocolate and peanut butter brownies, sweet and sour chicken, funnel cake, black bottom banana peanut butter cup blondies, Oreo ice cream cake, Butterfinger peanut butter pie, mac and grilled cheese (two pieces of grilled bread with macaroni and cheese in the middle), and Reeses s’mores.

Some of the dishes from @ItsFoodPorn that I have retweeted in the past week….grilled mac and cheese sandwiches, chocolate and peanut butter brownies, Oreo ice cream cake, and black bottom banana peanut butter cup blondies.

2. Constant Content – Some people have given me the nickname of Content King but I think whoever is behind the FoodPorn account is the real MVP. Tweets flow from @ItsFoodPorn at a ridiculous rate. Just looking through the past hour I have counted over 20 tweets. If you are like me and look at the account about four times a day you never have to worry about encountering content you have already looked at. Sometimes before going to sleep I will relax in bed and watch as new dishes are rapidly tweeted out. Talk about sweet dreams!

3. Great Ideas – Although I don’t cook, I have found several great ideas from FoodPorn for Sidney to cook. Where else would I have discovered Lucky Charms cookie sandwiches, pizza cake, or spicy bacon wrapped meatballs?

Oh how I would love for Sidney to cook bacon wrapped meatballs, Lucky Charm cookie sandwiches, and pizza cake!

I don’t know if you all understand how much I love this account. My passion for FoodPorn caused me to be rebuked by my brother in front of our whole group message. Routinely I will tag Glen and Sidney in my @ItsFoodPorn retweets. I guess I did it one time too many:

Glen was starting to get a little tired of me including him in all my @ItsFoodPorn retweets.

Although this post is an unquestionable affirmation of the awesomeness of @ItsFoodPorn, I must bring up one tiny quirk. While 95% of the time the account showcases mouth-watering dishes, every now and then it will tweet out something not as appetizing. If you are a diehard follower of FoodPorn you will occasionally see some very generic photos (along with generic captions) of items such as pizza, fries, and macaroni and cheese. It doesn’t take a foodie to come to the conclusion that some of the images look as if they came out of the 1980s.

Sometimes, however, the food tweeted out looks very average and…old.

But come on, no Twitter account is perfect. I highly recommend that you follow @ItsFoodPorn. For those of us who want an occasional break on our Twitter timelines from news networks, subtweets, and score updates, there is nothing better than FoodPorn. Don’t Blink.

* FoodPorn is the Twitter display name of the account. The Twitter handle is @ItsFoodPorn.

An Excellent Rehearsal Dinner Preview

Posted on March 21, 2016 by brent

I could have kept this story for Wedding Update #25 on this week’s Thursday Rundown but I decided otherwise. Instead of relegating it to the bottom portion of my end-of-the-week blog post, I wanted to shed some extra light on it tonight.

I mentioned on this blog once or twice that it took Sidney and I much time and research to finally identify a venue for our rehearsal dinner. After doing our due diligence, we selected Thoroughbreds Chophouse and Seafood Grille, a well-respected restaurant on Kings Highway in Myrtle Beach.

I corresponded with the general manager back and forth as we set the date, menu, and party size. With most of the logistics completed, we only needed to decide on one final arrangement: Where at in the restaurant we would actually have the dinner.

At Thoroughbreds they have multiple private rooms available for occasions such as rehearsal dinners. On Saturday night, Sidney and I went to the restaurant to scope out our options. Mind you, showing up at a popular restaurant’s lobby on its busiest evening of the week for a tour isn’t the most courteous thing to do, but the staff didn’t act like they minded at all. The receptionist greeted us and called management right away to help us.

A minute after the call I was shaking hands with David Amend, the general manager of Thoroughbreds, the same guy I had chatted on the phone and engaged in e-mail correspondence with over the past couple months. He was always so unbelievably nice over the phone/e-mail that it was great to finally meet him in person.

David took us through the restaurant and showed us the three private rooms available for our special dinner. Along the way he assured us that his staff would make the evening perfect and do whatever they could to accommodate our needs.

This was one of the rooms we had the option of choosing for our rehearsal dinner at Throughbreds.

“I don’t care if you want us to configure these tables into a big heart, we will get it done,” David explained as he gestured at the different tables laid out in one of the rooms.

Although all the rooms would have sufficed, we decided on the ultra-private option located upstairs. There was just something about the pageantry and seclusion of the space that made Sidney and I both instantly agree on it.

We ended up selection this room that is located upstairs at Thoroughbreds.

With the business part of the evening out of the way, Sidney and I were actually going to enjoy our first ever dinner at Throughbreds. Before we met with David, we had made a reservation with the receptionist. But don’t think we were going to wait in the lobby! David escorted us right to the bar and graciously took our own drink order. We sat back and sipped on our drinks while chatting with the pleasant bartender. About 15 minutes later David was back to seat us for dinner. We attempted to close our bill at the bar but the bartender said the drinks were on David.

We were seated in the intimate and comfortable dining room. From the moment we sat down, it was a special dinner. Our server treated us like gold as she tended to our every need. Sidney ordered the chicken Dijon and I selected the 12 oz cut of prime rib. Everything from the salad to the bread to the meat was fantastic. We ordered additional drinks and truly enjoyed a romantic meal.

Beautiful Sidney with her dinner at Thoroughbreds.

After our plates were cleared and the decision made to pass on dessert, our server came by to drop off what I thought would be the bill. However, the only thing she dropped off were two after dinner mints.

Knowing what had just occurred, we tried to be as polite and respectful as possible.

“Excuse me ma’am, aren’t you going to drop off the check?” I softly said.

“David has this one,” she confidently said.

My prime rib dinner I enjoyed at Throughbreds.

We humbly thanked our server and ordered a dessert to-go so we could at least take care of her (I didn’t have cash to leave a gratuity so I needed to make a transaction). We walked out of the doors of the restaurant blown away by our experience.

It is so comforting to know that we have made a great decision regarding our rehearsal dinner plans. We can’t wait to have our families celebrate with us at Throughbred’s in June. To David and his staff…THANK YOU. Don’t Blink.

The Memes of Teaching

Posted on March 20, 2016 by brent

Note: This evening, Sidney takes over Don’t Blink. After Brent treated us to the memes of his profession, Sidney is excited to showcase the memes of her profession.

I am a sucker for a good meme. Better yet, I am a HUGE sucker for a good TEACHER-meme. Sometimes I will happen upon a satirically captioned photograph that perfectly illustrates the day-to-day blunders of a classroom teacher. And, no doubt, when I see one, I immediately screen-capture the photo and text blast it to all of my teacher friends. So today I want to share with you my five all-time favorite teacher memes!

5. Kids and Center Work
When kids are supposed to be working independently on their work in centers, you’ll always have a few that don’t comply. Here’s what we teachers look like when we catch them off task.

4. Indoor Recess = Unruly Children
Children have lots of energy. Unfortunately, the area inside the four walls of a classroom does not lend itself to expelling this energy. So when recess is brought indoors, instead of expelling their own energy, they slowly suck the energy from the teacher.

3. I’m gonna let you finish and all….but first….
What Kanye did to Taylor will go down in history…but let’s be real….we teachers have been doing this for YEARS!!

2. Phone Calls In The Classroom
There are spans of time when my classroom phone won’t ring for weeks. But you know how they say “when it rains, it pours”? My classroom phone is no different. With the third call, you can guarantee a dramatic sigh and eye roll.

1. You is a teacher
My all time favorite meme speaks for itself. If you’re an educator you can bet your-bottom-dollar that you’ll spend most of your days broke and tired.

So there you have it! My five most favorite teacher memes! I hope you enjoyed them, and that they elicited even the smallest of smiles. And if you didn’t find them funny, then here are a few honorable mentions.

Thanks for reading. And as always….DON’T BLINK

March Madness Rundown

Posted on March 17, 2016 by brent

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! As I paid homage to the holiday yesterday, tonight’s blog post will be all about the Thursday Rundown. Let’s get started…

Favorite TV Shows – I am turning more and more into a TV guy. I am currently watching two shows. The first one is a program that I am watching with Sidney called “The Family.” This series focuses on a prominent family that has a son abducted at a political rally for the mom. Ten years later, the son resurfaces. Only, is it really him? The ABC series has several other interesting mini plots interwoven into it. It is worth a watch.

CNN recently debuted a series titled “Race for the White House.” Each episode chronicles a presidential election. The first one covered Kennedy-Nixon and the one this past Sunday took a look at Lincoln-Douglas. The show does a great job of explaining the personalities and tactics of both candidates. If you are intrigued with the 2016 presidential showdown, watch “Race for the White House” and enjoy both the differences and similarities.

Funny Perspective – I thought this Pickles comic strip that ran earlier in the week put age into an interesting perspective. When we get down on how old we are I think it is important to think like the grandpa character. No matter what, today (I am talking March 17, 2016), is the youngest we will ever be again. Better make the most out of it!

This Pickles strip ran on Monday. Grandpa definitely has a point!

Our Own Geofilter – For a work project I was researching geofilters and I discovered that just very recently Snapchat added a program called On-Demand Geofilters. Instead of going through the long process of submitting and waiting for Snapchat to approve/activate your community geofilter, users can now get almost instant gratification…for a price of course.

Wanting to test out On-Demand Geofilters on a personal level before I ever did it for Coastal, I hastily made one for Sidney and I on Tuesday night. I had it activated for a single hour and made sure the geo-fence only went around the block that Sidney lives on. I arrived at her house last night and told her to check the geofilter offerings available to her. When our personal one popped up she was very surprised and of course asked how did you do that? We had a fun 60 minutes using it as much as possible. It was definitely $5 well spent.

I slapped this Geofilter together on Tuesday night and it was live on Wednesday night (we love Curious George).

Vanilla Brown Sugar Hand Soap – One of my sillier blog posts I wrote was about my proposed idea for exotic hand soap scents. While vanilla brown sugar isn’t necessarily an exotic scent, it certainly is more interesting than some of what lines the shelves these days. So when I saw this option I didn’t hesitate in giving it a try. Sadly enough, I didn’t really smell a hint of brown sugar or vanilla in the soap. To me, it just smells like cinnamon. Yep, I was a little disappointed.

The vanilla brown sugar hand soap that I purchased resting on my kitchen counter.

Wedding Update #24 – These updates just keep getting more and more significant! This past Saturday, Sidney and I went to Jos A Bank and picked out the tuxes for me and my groomsmen. Even when it comes to details such as what the guys will wear, I still claim complete ignorance. Luckily I had Sid there to run the show and pick out what would look the best. In an additional development, Sidney’s mom received our wedding stamps yesterday. I have never had my name on postage before so I definitely think they look pretty cool.

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I am off to concentrate on the NCAA Tournament games. Thankfully there is no presidential debate on tonight so my complete attention can be focused on college basketball. The contest I am looking forward to is the Gonzaga-Seton Hall game a little later this evening. As Sidney will be guest blogging on Sunday, I will get back in touch with you all on Monday. Have a great weekend. Don’t Blink.

What I Like Most About St. Patrick’s Day

Posted on March 16, 2016 by brent

Please let me wish you an early happy St. Patrick’s Day. Ideally I would save this blog post for tomorrow but we all know what happens with Don’t Blink on Thursdays. So, to preserve the tradition of the Thursday Rundown, I am writing my short St. Patrick’s Day post tonight.

I am a fan of St. Patrick’s Day. I like the patron saint for who the holiday is in honor of, I enjoy Irish accents, and I admire how most people make an honest effort to wear green. The day of March 17 brings out unity from everyone, not just the Irish, and I respect that. You can also never go wrong with a green beer.

Me sporting a St. Pat’s shirt. My parents’ trip to Myrtle Beach coincided with the weekend before St. Patrick’s Day 2015.

But there is one aspect of St. Patrick’s Day I like the most. Strangely enough it isn’t a particular event, food, or symbol. Rather, it is a sound.

I don’t think there is anything more beautiful, respectful, and stoic than the sound of bagpipes. Not only is the music pleasing to the ear, it is just so distinctive. To me, there isn’t anything that screams Irish heritage more than bagpipes. The instrument is completely one of a kind.

I guess I do get a little nostalgic when I hear bagpipes. I immediately think of St. Patrick’s Day parades with my dad and siblings back when I was a kid. I am on the sidewalk of downtown Walla Walla and I see the green colors, I smell the horses, and I hear that powerful sound cut through the cold morning air like a knife through warm butter. Please take me back…

So while I have pleasant memories of bagpipes I don’t base my love solely on that. Even if I didn’t hear the unique sound on an annual basis through my early childhood, I would have been immediately drawn to it the moment I heard it as an adult. There just isn’t anything like those mournful notes. If there was a bagpipes radio station I would seriously listen to it during my 20 minute commute to work. Frankly, it just makes me feel some type of way.

Remember to wear green tomorrow! To all my Irish friends, take time to enjoy your well-deserved day and if you know someone who plays the bagpipes, please send her/him my way. Don’t Blink.

Games We Played Outside

Posted on March 15, 2016 by brent

I have said in several past blog posts that my parents didn’t believe in gaming systems. Growing up, despite asking several times at Christmas, we never had a Nintendo or Sega. This stance my parents took was a big reason why we spent so much time playing outside. Looking back on it now, I am glad we were raised that way.

We grew up on a street with a bunch of other kids. Although we had a park across the street from us, it seemed like most of the summer fun took place right in our yard! For tonight’s blog post I want to share the five games/activities we played the most while living in our house on Guinevere Drive.

Whiffle Ball – No doubt about, whiffle ball was the signature game played at the Reser household. For several years growing up, we played every single day during the summer. Our front lawn provided us a large square of immaculately cut grass to play on. A fence dividing our house from the next door neighbor’s home served as our home run barrier. Our whiffle ball games consistently brought together about ten kids and we took it so seriously that we kept track of our stats over the summer. Although my dad despised it that we roughed up his prized lawn, we still always managed to get our games in.

I can’t stop writing about this without mentioning one other thing. Our neighbors had a huge pine tree in their yard (over the left field fence). We lost countless whiffle balls by hitting home runs into that tree. While it was very frustrating buying a whole new package of balls in the morning and losing them all by the afternoon, it was definitely a distinguishable quirk of our mini ballpark.

I am using this photo to show you the field, the fence, and the tree that helped to comprise our whiffle ball playground.

I am using this photo to show you the field (half of it), the fence, and the tree that helped to comprise our whiffle ball playground.

Hide-And-Seek – While some might equate hide-and-seek as a game for toddlers, a group of us neighbor kids spanning in age from 6-14 years old thought it was the greatest thing ever. During those long summer Spokane nights we would get a big group together and play a game that had boundary lines stretched around several different houses. However, home base was always the large maple tree in our front yard. We would hide in bushes, garages, and back yards. When we thought the coast was clear we would then make a mad dash to the sanctuary of the maple tree where we would slap the trunk to save us from being “it” the next round.

Basketball – My mom calls the basketball hoop my dad and his friends installed in our driveway as “the best investment we ever made.” The hoop was retractable so we could set it to regulation height and play serious pickup games or we could lower it to eight feet and throw down monster dunks. It was also a superb set up for one-on-one games as well, giving my brother and I an outlet to always compete against each other. It wasn’t always peaceful on that court as occasional arguments did break out but we had so many great memories on that hoop. Over 20 years since the installation, it still stands there to this day with the hand prints of the Reser kids still clearly visible in the cement that was poured to secure the structure.

This was the basketball hoop that received hours and hours and hours of use. The cement around the bottom of the pole has our handprints on it (thanks mom for taking this photo).

Croquet – In middle school I bought a very well-used croquet set from a yard sale. My friend had one and we enjoyed it so much that I wanted to get one for when we were over at my house. We would set up the course and swing away. Before I made the purchase it was a rare site for neighbors to see a croquet game going on in our lovely neighborhood but we changed all that after the yard sale. We drew up tournaments and played for money. It got pretty tense but it was certainly a great summer activity.

Snow Games – Everything we did outside wasn’t always when the grass was green and the weather warm. Living in Spokane we got our fair share of heavy snow. Because we lived on the busiest street of our neighborhood, we knew whatever snow creations we made would receive optimal exposure via car traffic and the constant stream of kids walking by with their sleds to get to the park. With this in mind, we made many snow people, putting in our best effort. Aside from Frosty we used the snow for other fun purposes. One year we had so much of the white stuff that my dad was able to carve out a human maze for us to go through in our front yard! Additionally, my mom was responsible for a snow activity I loved to do when I was a little bit younger. She would pour water into a spray bottle and mix it with food coloring. She would then send me outside to shoot the colored liquid at the snow.

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We had such a ball (pun semi intended) growing up outside. Neighbors I never met before have told my parents that they enjoyed watching us grow up outside as they walked or drove by! I am thankful that I had a safe place to enjoy some of the finer parts of my childhood and I will always cherish the memories. Don’t Blink.

A Forgettable Selection Show

Posted on March 14, 2016 by brent

When I learned over the weekend that the CBS Selection Show would change to a two-hour format, I groaned. In fact, before the program even started I tweeted out this:

This was my initial reaction to the two-hour selection show.

But I wasn’t going to get too bent out of shape about it. Sadly, this year I had no dog in the race. In the past I was at Selection Sunday events with the universities I worked for doing all I could to capture reaction/content the moment we heard the names “Montana” or “Coastal Carolina.” This season there was no such pressure. I told myself I would just relax and hope the show would go by fast. If I was lucky, the only team I cared about in this year’s tournament, Gonzaga, would get called quickly. It couldn’t be too bad, could it?

Little did I realize what a train wreck it was going to be.

By now we all know what transpired. The first 38 minutes or so of the show was a complete gimmick. After the slow announcement of the #1 seeds and too many commercials, a quarter of the field was finally announced. After those 16 teams were revealed, the broadcast went to another commercial. Then the wheels really started to come off…

When the show returned, the NBA on TNT guys started to make picks on who would come out of the quadrant that was just revealed. Never mind waiting for the whole field to be announced, the producers obviously had an interest in predictions for just the partial bracket.

If the snail paced flow of the show and the questionable decision to pick teams before the whole field was announced didn’t ruffle enough feathers, the mishaps that followed brought out the social media venom in many. Charles Barkley couldn’t work the touchscreen technology when attempting to make his picks. Ernie Johnson tried to help him along while Kenny Smith and Seth Davis just laughed. It was a very uncomfortable and unprepared segment in the show.

I don’t think the show was taken seriously enough.

With the program now running nearly an hour long, the second region of the bracket was finally revealed. As I shook my head at the monstrosity on my TV screen I couldn’t help but feel sorry for the bubble teams who were being held hostage as they waited to hear whether they were in or out.

I couldn’t help but feel bad for the bubble teams.

The moment I tweeted that out, a swift wind of justice swept through Twitter. For the first time EVER, the NCAA tournament bracket was hijacked and made available to millions before CBS could reveal the entire field. The nervous student-athletes gathered together for their watch parties at team meeting rooms, restaurants, and campus locations no longer had to depend on Ernie and Charles and the two hour CBS greed fest.

With one of the biggest spoilers in the history of sports television circulating around the internet, CBS did what they had to do. Ditching the painfully slow plan, the network picked up the speed and quickly revealed the rest of the bracket. With at least 35 minutes of the show to go, the tournament field had been “officially” announced (and of course, Gonzaga was the last team to be revealed).

What happened yesterday was unfortunate. While I dislike 120 minute selection shows, I also dislike the foiling of the greatest surprise in sports. While I was glad the bracket leaked for the sake of the student-athletes, as a fan I found it a little disappointing. With that said, the whole snafu wasn’t something that kept me up last night. It was a lesson and I hope CBS adjusts next year. In the past, the CBS Selection Show has been very well done. Because of the excellence of the previous 34 selection shows, I am giving the network a pass this year. Time to move on and enjoy some great basketball. Don’t Blink.

Judging the Surf Dreams Foundation Mac-N-Cheese Cook Off

Posted on March 13, 2016 by brent

This weekend a bucket list item was realized for me as I attended a macaroni and cheese contest. Making this life goal even sweeter was the fact that I just didn’t merely walk around as a spectator; rather, I served as a judge.

The Surf Dreams Foundation Mac-N-Cheese Cook Off was held today in Surfside, South Carolina. Many area restaurants, organizations, and neighborhood chefs participated by serving up their special macaroni and cheese recipes. The event was staged to raise funds for the Surf Dreams Foundation so they can continue to serve their mission of helping local children enjoy the sport of surfing. With the event occurring on a Sunday and with a terrific local organization benefitting, I made sure not to miss it. After earning the privilege of judging the cook off via a social media contest, I knew it was going to be a fun day.

I was selected to judge based partly on this corny (“cheesy” is actually a better word) graphic I made up.

Although I didn’t need to arrive at the site to begin my judging duties until noon, Sidney and I made sure to show up right when the cook off started at 11 a.m. I mean come on, what better date is there than attending a mac and cheese contest?! Romance aside, I wanted to make sure to arrive early so I could have an eating partner who would help me pace myself and so I could also do my small part to support the Surf Dreams Foundation.

Sid and I at the Surf Dreams Foundation Mac-N-Cheese Cook Off.

With sample tickets $2 each, we entered Macaroni and Cheese Heaven by paying the mere price of $20. With the tickets in hand, we ate ourselves silly visiting ten different vendor booths while tasting a diverse array of mac and cheese dishes. As we consumed spoonful after spoonful of my favorite food, we took short breaks visiting the tents of non-mac and cheese vendors. You see, the Surf Dreams Foundation Mac-N-Cheese Cook Off had more than just cheesy pasta. On site you also had crafts, jewelry, kids entertainment, music, a dude on giant stilts, and much more.

Just one glimpse of a potion of the Surf Dreams Foundation Mac-N-Cheese Cook Off. You can see some of the macaroni and cheese vendors on the left and some of the non-mac and cheese vendors on the right.

But don’t get me wrong, this was a day that was all about the macaroni and cheese. While Sid and I walked around, we enjoyed quite the selection. Bacon mac and cheese. Jerky mac and cheese. Crab mac and cheese. Collared greens mac and cheese. Breaded mac and cheese. Fried chicken mac and cheese. We even enjoyed macaroni and cheese egg rolls topped with a delicious tangy sauce!

Here are some of the macaroni and cheese samples I tried at the Surf Foundation Dreams Mac-N-Cheese Cook Off including the mac and cheese egg roll and the fried chicken mac and cheese.

Here are some of the macaroni and cheese samples I tried at the Surf Dreams Foundation Mac-N-Cheese Cook Off including the mac and cheese egg roll and the fried chicken mac and cheese.

But for Sidney, her favorite was the booth serving macaroni and cheese balls! This particular vendor rolled up yummy mac and cheese, enclosed it in a deep friend shell, and topped it with a cheese sauce. For most of that first hour we politely took turns eating the samples but when it came to the macaroni and cheese ball she was rapidly stabbing it with her fork getting as much as possible as I gripped the container it came in.

This was the mac and cheese ball that Sidney liked the most at the Surf Dreams Foundation Mac-N-Cheese Cook Off

Noon arrived and it was time for me to judge. The event organizers gathered samples from all the vendors and ushered us judges into a private location, which just so happened to be a car wash garage. We were presented with three big tubs that had the top of the lids covered with white cups containing the samples. We were then given the go-ahead to start fulfilling our judging duties. The six of us started to take the cups off the lids and going to work.

The Surf Dreams Foundation Mac-N-Cheese samples ready to go in the judging quarters.

I did my best to carefully taste and thoughtfully contemplate each entry. My fellow judges chatted aloud about what they were tasting and their feedback mostly helped to cement what I was thinking myself. With so much macaroni and cheese in front of you, it is impossible not to get full. To ease the stress on your stomach, it is wise to only eat a couple bites of each sample. However, a couple entries tasted so incredible that I betrayed what my belly was telling me and I ate the whole thing. Those would be my personal winners.

Us judges plus event director Phil Jackson trying to get to the bottom of who made the best macaroni and cheese at the Surf Dream Foundation Mac-N-Cheese Cook Off.

As judges we were told to pick our two favorite macaroni and cheese dishes. With that said, here are my top choices…

One of the samples that I ate to the last bite was a macaroni and cheese dish that was cooked on a grill. When you took a bite, it had that flame grilled magical taste you would expect to enjoy on a steak or a piece of chicken. Believe me, it tasted just as good on that macaroni and cheese as it did on those two pieces of meat I just mentioned. I had never experienced mac and cheese like that before and I rewarded it as my favorite dish.

Although it might look like ordinary mac and cheese, this version was anything but typical. It was cooked on a grill and was definitely my favorite macaroni dish at the Surf Dream Foundation Mac-N-Cheese Cook Off.

Coming in a very, very close second for me was a chicken macaroni and cheese dish. Not only did it have chicken but it also had a perfect combination of seasonings and spices. To me, it almost tasted like there was a kick of pesto in it. Just like with the other dish I recognized, the flavor was so distinctive. I was pleased to recognize the chicken mac and cheese as my second favorite dish.

This chicken mac and cheese was incredible. It had terrific seasoning and was one of my favorites at the Surf Dreams Foundation Mac-N-Cheese Cook Off

After we gave our feedback, we were released to go out and enjoy the rest of the day. Because of this, I did not stay long enough to hear which dish was crowned the Surf Dreams Foundation Mac-N-Cheese Cook Off CHAMP. However, if word gets back to me after I publish this blog post I will let you know.

One last thing: Remember how I mentioned we performed our judging duties in a car wash garage? That was because the event director was Phil Jackson, owner of Surfside Shine Car Wash. The event took place in the parking lot of his business. I want to congratulate Phil for running a spectacular event and thank him for choosing me to judge. It was great to meet him and I admire how he organized and executed such a fun day.

Some of the judges mentioned they probably won’t be able to eat macaroni and cheese for the rest of the year. Not me! Hey Sid, I got an idea for dinner tonight… 🙂

Don’t Blink.

A Thursday Rundown in Your Future

Posted on March 10, 2016 by brent

Thank you for making the choice to read another Thursday Rundown blog post. Here we go with this evening’s five topics…

Appointed as a Judge – This Sunday I will do something I have always dreamed of doing by judging a macaroni and cheese contest. Last night I was selected to serve on the panel of judges for the Surf Dreams Foundation Mac-N-Cheese Cook Off. How did I manage to pull this off? The event’s Facebook page, which I had been stalking for three weeks with anticipation for Sunday, opened up a few judging spots to its social media users. In a post, the page presented this: Please tell us why you would be a great judge. Have some fun and be creative. I took the last sentence seriously and it paid off. I will tell you all about my mac and cheese judging experience in Monday’s blog post.

Besides writing a lengthy plea on why I would make a good judge, I also created this “cheesy” graphic to drive the point home.

From the Archives – Exactly two years ago today, I wrote my first of two blog posts focused on fortune cookies. Doing all I could to investigate one of my curiosities, I eventually found myself traveling all around Missoula to different Chinese restaurants pleading for fortune cookies. Although mildly embarrassing, I learned a lot about the contents of the popular ethnic dessert. My fortune cookie investigation was so memorable and so popular that the second post I did on the subject made my Top Ten Blog Posts of 2014.

In 2014, I had a lot of fun with fortune cookies.

Pop-Tart Cheesecake Truffles – Just a couple days after I wrote about some of the best treats I ate growing up, I can honestly say I wish this idea was around 20 years ago so it could have made the list. My love for Pop-Tarts is well-documented but the Pop-Tart cheesecake truffle recipe takes it to the next level. In this video, several Pop-Tarts are put under the rolling pin and crushed to pieces. The Pop-Tart crumbles are then mixed with cream cheese. Next, this concoction is rolled into balls and dipped in chocolate. Oh my, doesn’t that sound wonderful? My only suggestion would be to crush up Cap’n Crunch or Cinnamon Toast Crunch and coat the outside with sugary cereal. Talk about an unbelievable breakfast combination.

This is what a Pop-Tart cheesecake truffle looks like.

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot – It was another “Sunday at the Movies” for Sidney and I this past weekend. We went and saw the war/comedy film “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot.” I am not a Tina Fey fan by any stretch of the imagination but I actually enjoyed the film. The movie tells the story of a bored news copywriter who volunteers to work as a reporter in Afghanistan. I have an interest in both the media and war conflicts so “WTF” was right down my alley. I found it very interesting how the film portrayed Afghanistan, both from a visual and cultural standpoint. The authenticity I got from it reminded me of how I felt about the way Iran was portrayed in “Argo.” As is usually the case, Sidney and I didn’t come away with the same review. She thought the movie was boring.

I saw “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot” on Sunday.

Wedding Update #23 – Lots of fun things are happening! My dad mailed us back all the invites he addressed and they look beautiful. Additionally, Sidney, her mom, and I chose the type of stamp we will use (I never knew the Postal Service offered so many options!). With so much fun getting the invitations ready to go, Sidney was a little disappointed when her mom gently reminded her that we still have several weeks to go before we actually mail them out.

However, Sidney was feeling anything but disappointed when she was able to bring her wedding dress home this past Saturday! After her final fitting, the ensemble was released into her possession. Adding even more excitement to this loaded wedding update, Sidney and her mom also met with the florist we will use for that big Saturday in June. Just 92 days to go.

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As is custom with my Thursday Rundown blog posts, I would like to thank all of you for reading. Have a terrific weekend and enjoy Selection Sunday. Don’t Blink.

Don't Blink

By Brent Reser

Author Archives: brent