THRIVING BY SHOPPING ON-LINE

The Internet SHOULD be “the place to shop” for low-carb dieters, diabetics, celiacs, and anyone else on a special diet. The posted prices are well below those in retail stores, variety is greater, you are dealing with firms whose specialty is dealing with your need, and products for sale are described fully in type that is designed to be read (isn’t that a pleasant contrast to packages you see in your local store.) The bad news, of course, is shipping charge that is attached to every order. Shortly after being diagnosed with celiac disease, I ordered a box of breakfast cereal ($4.00) on-line and paid a $7.00 shipping charge. I learned from experience that $11.00 box of cereal. My solution stems from fact that cost of shipping items drops dramatically with size of total order. For example, Gluten-Free Pantry charges $6.85 to ship a single but will ship $499.00 worth of merchandise for less than twice that much. At Bob’s Red Mill, shipping charge depends on weight of total shipment and depends on where you live, but in my particular ZIP code, a single item ships for $7.39. A 34 pound shipment would cost $13.43. You can probably find similar examples by browsing through web sites you would like to patronize.

I've Eaten A Hamdog!

Remember a little while back when I wrote a column about that culinary vision of delight, hamdog? And remember how I told y’all what a hamdog was (a hot dog with a burger patty wrapped around it, deep fried, and then served in a hoagie roll along with bacon, cheese, chili, onions, and topped off with a fried egg)? And remember how I asked one of y’all to please get in contact with Chandler Goff, man who created hamdog? Well, guess what? One of y’all did!

That’s right, someone (who’s asked to remain anonymous) contacted Chandler, he emailed me, and this past weekend I went up to Mulligan’s, Chandler’s bar, to enjoy my first ever hamdog! And believe me, folks, it won’t be my last!

Mulligan’s is a great little neighborhood bar, it’s part of a small shopping center over in Decatur and is a very low keyed place. I arrived there around twelve thirty pm, walked in, and saw some booths, tables, and chairs. It almost reminded me of a small diner, but then I walked up on a platform and entered main bar area. I saw a long bar with plenty of chairs and a couple of pool tables nearby. I could tell that I was gonna like place, and then I noticed someone behind bar, so I walked over and discovered it was Chandler. We shook hands and immediately started talking, and I discovered that Chandler is a really bright, good natured guy. He and bar sort of run each other, if that makes any sense at all.

After a few minutes spent gabbing, Chandler went in back and brought out my hamdog. My mouth gaped open when I saw it - it had to be almost a foot long and six or seven inches high. What really set it off was that fried egg sitting up on top of it. Chandler included a lot of fries with it, and I was glad that I had picked water to drink as it was obvious that I was going to need every bit of room my stomach possessed to conquer it. And conquer it I did - I ate every single bite and did so using just my hands, I didn’t have to resort to cutting it up with a knife or anything. It was pure heaven, fries were great, and for desert Chandler served up a fried Twinkie - I kid y’all not, a fried Twinkie (a regular Twinkie rolled into crushed up Captain Crunch crumbs, fried, and then topped off with chocolate and cherry sauce). It was so good that it made my tongue wiggle around like a fishing lure about to be dropped into a dark part of a pond.