Nice!
We met another couple at Duke’s Upper Deck Cafe in Homestead for dinner before heading over to see Don McLean in concert.
I had fish tacos and a few Two Hearted Ales, but the cool part about Duke’s is that they offer tater tots as a side.
Is that the brand name, or is there clover 
somehow involved?
It’s a standard classification system for balsamic vinegar. One-leaf balsamic is tart and mainly useful for salad dressing. Two- and three-leaf balsamics are smoother and sweeter and used in marinades, cooking, and drizzling directly on food. Four-leaf balsamic is the smoothest and sweetest of all, and is used in gourmet cooking and desserts, especially over vanilla ice cream and fruit.
Tonight we’re making Spam fried rice again. Mmmm, will eat on it for a couple of days.
I roasted a turkey breast the other day, gonna turn what’s left into turkey-tortellini soup. I think I’ll make a bunch of broth, then separate out 1 serving+ and cook the tortellini in that. I hate when pasta stays in soup and gets huge.
How do commercial soups avoid that? Same with barley soups.
Thank you! I learned a thing today.
Same, and that is a damn good question.
I made orange tofu with vegetables. Cubed up some extra firm tofu, coated the cubes in seasoned potato starch, put them in the air fryer for 5 minutes, sprayed them with some vegetable oil, let them air fry another 10 minutes. Stir fried some vegetables, made the orange sauce, mixed it all together, and served over jasmine rice. Came out pretty good. Tofu stayed crispy even doused in sauce, just like from the takeout joint.
Last night, kind of a Cajun twist on chicken alfredo – Chicken, Cajun seasoning, scallions, sun dried tomatoes, and cream, over linguine.
Tonight, Texas style chili.
I grilled spinach/feta salmon burgers. I always talk with the lady at the fish counter and she helps me out. The salmon burgers are great, and they allow the store to use up salmon that hasn’t sold. The fish lady will make me burgers out of nice, fresh salmon filets that I pick out.
I melted Borgonzola, a triple cream blue cheese from ALDIs on the burgers then added sliced tomatoes, the charred sweet peppers, and arugula.
My gf found butternut squash soup from last xmas in the freezer. Exactly two servings and wow, it was delicious.
Tonight was rouladen with mashed potatoes and some baby carrots. Cheap red wine for me and beer for the hub.
Leftover chicken-fried chicken chicken Schnitzel, leftover mashed red potatoes with garlic, and a cold knob of last night’s meatloaf. The Wife had some salami and some Swiss cheese.
Sauteed beef liver, some vegetable-sausage-rice stir fry, and a small roasted sweet potato.
Teriyaki marinated turkey breast kabobs skewered and grilled with pineapple, peppers, and onions. I had some nice cherry tomatoes and forgot them!
I baked a meatloaf Sunday, so that was dinner last night. Sides were mashed taters and doctored up niblet corn. Redwood Empire bourbon to wash it down.
A local boutique grocery does excellent meatloaf. Always BOGO, so there is usually one in the freezer for whatever I get a hankering. Just have to plan ahead, because it takes 48 hours to thaw and meatloaf is always better the day AFTER you cook it.
Tonight was whole wheat linguine with feta cheese and red onions sauteed in Meyer-lemon infused olive oil and marjoram.
I made a Greek-ish salad to go with, and opened a tin of anchovies I got at a market in Greece when I was there last month. And Hole-ee-crap, are those some stellar anchovies. Plump, firm, delicate flavor, lightly seasoned with oregano. I wanted to eat the whole damn tin, but held off since I wanted to have enough to make a lunch with tomorrow.
Yikes! I see that my post about ravioli and bauletti was made on November 10! This is significant because today is November 18, so the half-jar of Rao’s has been sitting in the fridge for 8 days. So has the bauletti, but that’s fine because it’s good until December 10. The 8 days for the pasta sauce should be fine, but it’s starting to push it so I’m having the bauletti tonight, even though I’d kinda prefer General Tao chicken, wings, or pizza instead.
If I was a billionaire with a dedicated kitchen staff I wouldn’t have to deal with this sort of thing, and could capriciously change my mind about what I wanted at the last minute. This of course would soon cause my kitchen staff to quit, which just proves the old adage that there is no God. 
Chicken saltimbocca tonight, which I Frenchified by adding mushrooms and a knob of butter to the reduced broth after the chicken was done cooking. Mixed roasted veg to go with, and cornbread and blackberries on the side. Rhubarb pie for dessert.
I’ve got enough rhubarb for one more pie, and then we’ll probably have to wait until next spring/summer to get more.
Last night was a scrap-sashimi party. What’s scrap-sashimi? A friend has a sushi food truck. He has hooked me up with some great fish when he makes a big purchase. Because he’s ordering more weight, his price comes down a bit. In turn I’ve gotten two friends involved, bumping up the weight even more.
Last night we all got together along with our wives to divvy up a fish purchase. The fish begins as huge slabs, and a sharp knife and kitchen scale are used to create usable portions which are then wrapped in plastic. Each person pays for their share.
In the process there are bits & pieces that end up in the scrap pile. We each also practice cutting some of our purchases with the sushi truck guy critiquing our work. Eventually we all sat down and had sashimi, along with the beer everyone brought to share.
This year’s rhubarb crop is long gone. I can’t wait for the spring, so I buy bags of frozen rhubarb.