Tonight work took us out to a ramen house for a team dinner. MMMMMmm, Wabi House is a good ramen place. Chicken karaage, excellent corn fritters, spicy edamame, beets and brussels sprouts, and spicy miso ramen. A couple of Hitachino Red Rice ales and and Iwai whisky to go along with them.
Damn, that company spoils me.
Found a hole in the wall tamale place, the very best kind, we had red pork tamales, so good. I have to be careful of masa because it tear up my stomach badly, someone told me it’s the lye they use to remove the corn hull? We suffer for yum.
I made sort of a Panzanella Salad to take to my daughters house. It was very good and we both agree that’s going into the regular line-up.
Used beef tips to make Mongolian Beef which was delicious. Served with steamed broccoli and cauliflower, Tzatziki, and grilled peaches for dessert. Pinot Grigio to drink along with cucumber water.
Dinner out with the local Sherlock Holmes society: a Caesar side salad, salmon stuffed with crabmeat, Spanish rice, a glass of Corona and some ice water. For dessert, a slice of limoncello cake and some decaf.
Just want to say that this was delayed until tonight, but damn! That was a fantastic dinner. I wanted to take a picture but couldn’t be bothered this time (bad lighting at this time of night). The deli coleslaw with yogurt was an ever better complement to fish & chips than I could have imagined, but as usual the beer-battered haddock with chipotle tartar sauce stole the show. 
We’re on a family vacation trip, and stopped by a Longhorn Steakhouse for dinner tonight. I had a small Caesar salad, a half-rack of BBQ pork ribs and a side of mac and cheese, with a glass of ice water. For afters, a piece of cheesecake with caramel drizzle and candied walnuts, and a big ol’ cup o’ decaf.
Last night was chicken tikka masala.
Tonight was ratatouille, with with eggplant, yellow squash, zucchini, tomatoes, onions, and garlic from the local farmers market – all in season right now (well, onions and garlic seem to be available year round here). And basil from the plant on my patio.
Tonight I’m home alone so I dressed up Kraft dinners with some hatch chilies I sauteed in some oil. It was pretty good for what amounted to college food.
Once again chicken breast stuffed with spinach and garlic sausage and fettuccine alfredo is in the offing, and once again I’ll probably divide that into two dinners because it’s just too much food for me. So tomorrow night, stuffed chicken breast with fries and the last of the yogurt coleslaw. The night after, the fettuccine with a Greek salad.
Did I mention that Greek salad is currently my fave? Romaine lettuce, red onions, black olives, cherry tomatoes, green pepper, cucumber, and crumbled feta cheese all tossed in a zesty Greek feta dressing. Yumm! If you look at the typical selection of prepared salads and salad dressings, Caesar seems a lot more popular. I like both but Greek currently gets my vote. Caesar salads are great when tossed with spicy strips of Buffalo roast chicken breast or similar, but then they’re pretty much an entire meal.
At a local Italian restaurant I had veal parmigiana with a side of spaghetti and a salad. Lots of Chianti to drink.
Okra is in season, so last night was homemade shrimp and sausage gumbo. I used the oven method to brown dry flour (as seen on America’s Test Kitchen) as opposed to making a roux, and it worked brilliantly and saved a buttload of work. The gumbo came out extremely well, especially as I was able to find Mexican wild white gulf prawns at the supermarket, and they made a big difference. There’s a dinner’s worth of leftovers in the fridge for tomorrow night.
While serving it, I brought up Hank Williams’s “Jambalaya (On The Bayou)” on youtube as mood music. The video listed the lyrics, and for the first time I saw that he’s singing “Me gotta go pole the pirogue down the bayou”. Never could make out that line before now.
Hurricane Watch, so a chili size seemed like the thing to make.
I grabbed a Quarter Pounder with cheese (no combo, just the burger) on my way home from seeing a movie. Dang, they really have improved that burger in recent years. I mean, it’s still a McDonald’s burger, but it being fresh really goes a long way. It went down tasty with an El Chingon to drink.
Oh, and apropos of my meal, the theater I went to is showing Mac and Me a little over a week from now. I blame that for my choice.
Chicken salad wrap with grapes, lettuce and a blue cheese/garlic dip, a Sauk City microbrew IPA and coleslaw.
Grilled steak salad with blue cheese, toasted farro, apple, kale, corn, and baby lettuce, tossed with lime cilantro dressing. Black Butte Porter to drink.
Chicken … thingies (they’re a recipe I perfected with a now-ex, so I don’t know what to call 'em) roughly golf ball sized pieces of chicken, pocket slit into each, stuffed with picked jalapeño and mozzarella, wrapped in bacon.
When we first started playing around with this recipe, I used so many toothpicks that the poor things looked like hedgehogs. Needless to say, they didn’t cook evenly.
By now, I’ve gotten to where I need one (1) toothpick to secure the whole thing. Plus I’ve mastered the technique for taking each one out about halfway through cooking without the whole damn thing unraveling, so the bacon cooks evenly on every side. . BONUS you can get little discs of cheese fried in spicy bacon fat, and if that doesn’t spark joy for you, then … I dunno what to tell ya.
Also, a few slices of fancy multigrain sourdough topped with canned sardines, plus capers & diced onion (both yellow AND green, because why not gild the lily?) plus fresh lemon.
If I had more ambition & appetite, I’d poach or easy-fry an egg, just cuz that sounds good, too. Maybe tomorrow. I do have more bread.
ETA: I’d post a pic, but Imgur seems to be acting like a butthead or something.
Update: going with smoked herring (kippers?) because the pull tab on the sardines tin BROKE OFF the lid, and I am so disappointed. I tried wrenching the lid off with pliers before deciding that a possible middle-of-the-night injury wasn’t worth a coupla bucks worth of canned fish.
Still.
The kippers are much firmer than the texture I was looking forward to enjoying. Tasty in their own way, to be sure - I do love the flavor of smoked foods.
Loaded a crockpot with carrots, onions, potatoes, green beans, and then topped it off with a ham steak. Before serving I (easily) shredded the meat and mixed everything together.
Everything was from our neighbors’ farm market, including the ham steak.
Attempts are being made. These should be the raw assembled chicken thingies. (I ate the finished product too fast for photographic evidence.)
