Because of all the talk about Reubens in numerous threads, yesterday I went out for dinner and got one. I ate half last night, and the other half for breakfast.
Tonight’s dinner was based off of a Joe Yonan WaPo recipe where you grate a block of extra firm tofu and then brown it in a large pan (along with scallions and garlic. I used onion and garlic). In his recipe, you then add a sauce. I improvised with what was handy - hoisin, soy sauce, black soy sauce, sesame oil, chili crisp, etc, and added a couple of bags of some frozen Thai-style vegetables that Target carries. My daughter had just made up a rice cooker of rice so we ate it with that. It was delicious.
There’s a take-out restaurant in Oak Cliff that does pretty much nothing but great rotisserie chicken, chicken sandwiches, and chicken salads named La Bodega. My sweetie suggested them tonight, I happily agreed. I had a half chicken and fries with a harissa dipping sauce, and she had a pulled chicken sandwich
The place is pretty great, and both were awesome. Pretty much worth dealing with the parking situation down in the Bishop Arts section of Oak Cliff.
The weather was indeed even worse, and the pizza turned out as good as it looked – lots of green pepper, onions, mushroom, pepperoni, and lots and lots of mozzarella. I mention this because it was a big pizza of which I consumed half, and the other half was going to be for dinner tonight.
But alas, it was so yummy that I had a slice for breakfast, two slices for lunch, and now it’s almost all gone. So dinner plans have to be rethought, and I’m not going out due to the snowpocalypse outside.
I believe I’ll start off with herring and sour cream (yes, I actually have some this time!) and then fish & chips – beer-battered haddock and fries sprinkled with malt vinegar, and tartar sauce on the side.
I’m trying to use up some lemons I’ve had around for over a week (the problems of buying a Costco bag of lemons!) so I decided to go with this:
Flour and spice dredged chicken breasts, sliced thinner, pan fried in a mix of butter and olive oil, sauteed garlic, then using up some leftover miso-ginger broth (left over from an earlier dish) instead of broth, lemon juice and slices, and a generous portion of honey all combined in pan for a simmer sauce.
I’m going to serve over mixed greens, and I’ll have enough left over for the same tomorrow or the day after. I had considered serving with some Trader Joe’s potato gnocchi, but I really need to cut the calories and add more greens, so adulting wins.
I might just do that, but I didn’t have any on hand so just had the herring and sour cream by itself. It was one of those times when I had a real craving for it, and it was so very yummy!
Tonight was Jamaican jerk chicken wings (in the air fryer of course, which is the best way to do wings). Wings are traditionally served with raw vegetables like celery and carrots with a dipping sauce, but I paired them with some Greek Acropolis salad that I happened to have on hand, and it was a great combo! Must do that again, but with Buffalo wings next time, which in the long term I think I prefer.
I have a chicken thigh baking on top of a buncha sliced onions, one (1) head of garlic, and a coupla tiny potatoes, halved. Plus butter, and there’ll be a crusty roll or two to soak up all the sauce.
Did the same a couple of nights ago, except with two (2) entire heads of garlic, and the result was … assertive.
Meanwhile, nibbling on a few Carr table water crackers, adorned with thick slabs of butter & tiny dabs of caviar, cuz life is short and a ten-dollar itty bitty jar lasts me quite a while. (Okay, about four days. Still a good ROI in my book. Yum, tasty, salty, fishy dibbits of joy.)
There may be some patent infringement here, as “baking on top of a buncha sliced onions” is a patented proprietary Wolfpup technique, though typically used with sausages, not chicken parts.
Not sure what to have tonight. I trust that a couple of martinis and a Caesar or three will produce inspiration. Spaghetti is an option, with meatballs from a local deli that I froze some time ago, and their thick chunky marinara sauce that is made even better by pureeing in a blender with added water and then simmering.
LOL … a Caesar is indeed nourishing! And in fact I discovered that my habit of ordering one in a restaurant as a before-dinner drink is a bad idea, because it actually does fill you up and suppresses appetite!
ETA: Those are some weird Caesar recipes! The one Great Truth in that article is the statement “The most wondrous of the Caesars was surprisingly the most basic”. That is not, in fact, surprising at all. My current Caesar recipe is simply Mott’s clamato juice, vodka, a few dashes of Lea & Perrins Worcestershire, and a few dashes of Mott’s clamato rimmer (I don’t bother rimming the glass, I just shake some in). Some might like to brighten it up a bit with some lemon juice, but the Worcestershire is essential to give it body.
What’s a restaurant Caesar like, or what has been the most caloric, inspired one you’ve had in a restaurant-- do they approach the over-the-top quality of the Letterkenny-inspired ones in my link?
BTW, Personally, I believe the Skids’ Caesar (Skid Caesar-ha!) is by far the winner- I thinks they wuz robbed, coming in last place in that article. But, I’ms partial to shellfish.
ETA to your ETA: never mind, sounds like real Caesars are not nearly so elaborate IRL.
The Keg makes a decent Caesar, similar in taste to my own except less vodka and it comes with garnishes of celery stick and a skewer of mildly hot peppers.
On a different topic, lemme tell ya what’s for dinner tomorrow night – or, more accurately, what’s not for dinner tomorrow.
My son is bringing a friend over for dinner tomorrow and I thought a prime rib dinner with mashed potatoes and Yorkshire pudding and Hunter gravy would be nice. Holy ever-loving JFC!!
There was no packaged prime rib in the self-serve section where it usually is, so I went over to the butcher counter. There were rib steaks but no roasts. The manager happened to be around and imagine my astonishment when he said that it’s gotten so incredibly expensive that nobody buys it any more – they had some at the back, but the smallest one-bone piece of prime rib they could cut would be at least $70.
$70 isn’t going to bankrupt me, but I just balk at this sort of thing as a matter of principle when there are fine alternatives available. Instead I got three prepared meals that I’ve had before and are really excellent – roast chicken breast stuffed with garlic sausage with a garlic butter glaze, Fettuccine Alfredo, broccoli, and a side of Caesar salad. I may be done with dead cows for awhile.
I feel the same way. I’m willing to go as far down the cow as a well-marbled top sirloin for a steak, and stopped buying THAT when it hit a default of 12.99-14.99 a pound. Sure, there are occasional sales, but a 9.99 top sirloin doesn’t feel like a “deal” to me.
Right now though I’m gently simmering the shells and heads of a bunch of Peruvian shrimp I got frozen at $5.99 a pound to make a heady shrimp broth. I poached two of my $7.69 a dozen eggs ( ) in ponzu infused water and rapidly chilled them. So tonight it’s going to be kicked up shrimp ramen (dry noodles, but they’re good) with cooked shrimp, the eggs, the stock, scallions, ginger and garlic.
) in ponzu infused water and rapidly chilled them. So tonight it’s going to be kicked up shrimp ramen (dry noodles, but they’re good) with cooked shrimp, the eggs, the stock, scallions, ginger and garlic.