Before I get to the topic of this post,
I must share with you
some pictures Xmaskatie sent me.
She cut into her store-bought tomato
the other day
and just guess what she found.
The tomato seeds are sprouting
INSIDE
the tomato.
Is this not wild?

In all my years of eating tomatoes,
I have never seen
seeds sprouting
inside a tomato.
Mr. Xmaskatie planted them.
Thanks for sharing, Xmaskatie.
Now, I know everyone out there has been wondering,
"Gee, I wonder what else the Hawthornes have been
eating lately."
Well, today for lunch,
I wanted to try out my
homemade tortillas
and decided on a
Cheese Steak Tortilla.
I thinly sliced the rest of the roast beef
I had in the fridge, along with some
green pepper, onion, and Swiss cheese.
Sauteed the veggies in butter
for a few minutes.
Tossed in the meat,
just to heat through,
and added salt and pepper.
Piled the meat and onions and peppers
on top of my tortilla.
Poured a little gravy on it
and topped with the cheese.
Then back in the butter until
nicely browned all over.
May not look like much
since I really stuffed the tortilla
with the filling,
but it tasted mighty good.

A very enjoyable meal.
On Sunday,
when I was searing batches and batches
of meat and the grease and oil
were splattering all over
my newly cleaned
stove top
plus popping onto my bare arms
which felt like hundreds of little pin pricks,
Mr. Hawthorne got out a pan
and a portobella mushroom
and came over to the stove to start on his lunch,
situating himself right between me and my work area.
Could he not just wait until I was done
doing what I was doing?
Did he not think that he would
be in my way?
Did he not know
I was on a mission?
Anyways, he grilled his mushroom
and his whole wheat bun,
melted cheese on it,
and his portobella burger was delicious.

Here's the other half of the shroom
in the pan.
Now this mushroom reminds me
of the local restaurant reviewer
for the Virginian Pilot's weekend section,
The Coast.
The woman has admitted she is a VEGETARIAN.
Whiskey. Tango. Foxtrot?
Why on earth would a VEGETARIAN
be hired to review restaurants?
This makes no sense to me.
In fact, it has STOOPID written all over it.
I read her reviews every week
and the woman has never been to a restaurant
she didn't like.
Every place she goes to,
she gives glowing reviews.
They should hire me to do restaurant reviews.
Of course, they'd probably lose a lot of
their advertising revenue
when the restaurants I was honestly reviewing
would pull their ads out of the Pilot
because of me telling the truth.
But really,
can you put a price on honesty?
I think not.
But back to why the mushroom
made me think of her:
She likes to order portobella mushrooms a lot
because, she says, "They taste like MEAT."
BWAH!!!!!!