Bagels and Used Clothing

Seven years ago I moved to Massachusetts to go to school and I've pretty much never looked back. I knew immediately that this was the place for me (or at least that Maine would never be "home" again). There are, however, two shining examples of awesomeness in Bangor, Maine that I have yet to find even a passable substitution for. They are obligatory stops when we go back to visit family.

1) Bagel Central, 33 Central St., Bangor, ME.

The bagels here are simply great. Chewy but soft, salty but not too much. I blame the dreaded Dunks for Massachusetts' serious lack of good bagel shops. I tried searching Google Maps once for "bagel shops" in "Lowell, MA" and the first three or four entire pages were exclusively Dunkin' Donuts. Ugh.

Anyone have any good hidden-gem suggestions?

2) Goodwill Retail Store, 805 Stillwater Ave., Bangor, ME

I get the feeling that most of the people I know around here, even people who are exceptionally thrifty, have a bad vibe about thrift store clothing. I can really see why. The used clothing stores that I have sampled in the area are lame, lame, lame, dirty, and lame.

Goodwill in Bangor is huge, has an ever cycling selection, and it's super clean. The patrons are not overwhelmingly sketchy. It's okay for the average person to walk into the store and shop. Almost every time I go there I walk away with exciting amounts of clothes that actually fit me.

Where's the secret spot for great thrift shopping around here? Let me know. We'll go together.

Vegan Pancakes

Kimberly got this cookbook last week called My Sweet Vegan full of vegan desserts. She's made a couple of things from it that have turned out awesomely, so I was inspired when I found myself awake first on Saturday morning.

I cleaned up the kitchen and wanted to make something good for breakfast, so I brought the computer into the kitchen and searched for vegan pancakes. I found a good recipe, modified it to my liking, and came up with:

They were quite a bit like normal pancakes with milk, eggs, and oil, but slightly sweeter and smoother in texture. We were both surprised by how deliciously they turned out.

a shot of my plate, complete with some maple syrup (Green Mountain coffee not shown)

Recipe:

1 cup flour
2 tsp. baking soda
1 tbsp. sugar
1/8 tsp. salt
1 cup soy milk
2 tbsp. apple sauce

Combine dry ingredients. Add soy milk and apple sauce and then whisk until smooth. Cook in a skillet (or pancake maker, like I did).

UPDATE:

I forgot that one of the reasons Kimberly suggested that I blog about these was that I knew how many calories they are. If you make four pancakes with the recipe above, each pancake will be approximately 140 calories.

French Fries and Relatives

Last night we watched "Super Size Me," a documentary in which the director decides to eat only McDonalds for three meals a day for 30 days. He starts the endeavour in better than average health (he has three doctors and a nutrition specialist monitoring his progress from start to finish) and ends up in about as ghastly a state as you would imagine. It was very entertaining and somewhat enlightening. As someone who could do without fast food again for the rest of my life anyway, it stands only as an affirmation.

In other news, Kimberly's parents and her brother Ben are in town for the rest of the week. Ben is flying out of Logan Friday afternoon to embark on a nine month trip to Copenhagen. It should be a fun change of pace having guests around for a few days. Ben is probably even going to accompany me to the gym. It'll be good to have a running partner.

Work is going very well. I've started testing the software of a home theater processor and will be doing so for the foreseeable future. It's interesting work that is never the same from day to day, and I get a lot accomplished. What a difference my job change has made in my life!