Diasfora
General Category => Food and Drink => Topic started by: 8ullfrog on February 21, 2019, 10:19:58 PM
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I know this section is pretty much me, so I've decided to cut down on threads and just post the meals, unless it's batshit insane, like the mint French toast.
So tonight I used the toaster oven to make hot dogs. They were gross, and I won't do that again.
Specifically, I cooked the hot dogs first, and that LOOKED fine, then I toasted the bun, then put them together for a third light toaster ovening, then added ketchup and mustard-relish. It's like, a jar, and they mixed mustard and relish.
https://www.bgpickles.com/product/hot-dog-relish
WOW that is a big and accurate image. I think I like it? Like I didn't, this time, but it seems like a condiment I would enjoy normally?
It just... sucked. The relish went through the bottom of the toasted hot dog bun and it was messier than a hot dog should be.
I never realized what high standards I have for stupid hot dogs. I mean they're hot dogs.
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I'm eating Crunchmaster crackers.
My grandmother and I made relish once. We went out to the garden and picked green and red bell peppers. If you pour hot water over them after cutting them, it helps draw off the bitterness. You have to change the water a couple of times. Otherwise, it took some chopped onions and pickling spice, vinegar and sugar. The relish was delicious. We canned it. Red peppers are just green peppers that stay on the plant longer. The colors were gorgeous, like some kind of confetti you laid over the hot dogs or as a condiment to be mixed with potato salad.
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That Relish story is fantastic, and I have nothing to compare it to.
Closest I get is grandpa showed me how to load a gallo salami slice and square of cracker barrel on a ritz and shove it in that very same toaster oven. It's the one thing I asked for when my grandma moved back to the east coast. She'd been using it as a plant stand.
I remember those cracker snacks fondly. Funny enough, I can't stand ritz crackers in any other circumstance.
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I'm on a marmalade making binge.
I've never made cucumber pickles, but those sound pretty intriguing. The relish is a sort of pickle. I did make pickled watermelon rind but it didn't turn out so great.
Your ritz concoction sounds lovely, particularly because you have such nice food memories of your grandparents associated with them. My grandmother had me help make cookies and preserves and it was always such a pleasure to hang out with her. She always had cake for visitors. Her pound cake was wonderful. She'd bake two loaves and freeze one so there was always one stashed away in case you got a hankering for some.
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Sadly, El Amigo has disappointed me.
I rarely have the dosh to eat out, so picking up an order of Carne Asada fries is at best, a monthly proposition.
Well, The order has increased by one Dollar, the portion has decreased by I would say one Dollar, and the guac and sour cream are doled out in a stingy amount.
Even the hot sauces have been messed with, and you don't mess with Red or Green sauce.
I guess I'll just go with a Carne Asada burrito in future, but to be honest, the whole experience has soured me on the restaurant. They've been my old reliable since 2015, and it's a damn shame they got greedy.
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There is an excellent Indian restaurant in Berkeley called Ajanta. The chef was Laachu Morjani, a man from the Punjab who nevertheless relished producing a changing menu with dishes from different regions of India. I never had a bad meal in that restaurant. He produced a cookbook that is actually pretty good.
Well, he finally decided it was time to retire. We went there about 6 months ago and many of the same staff were there, but the food had definitely declined in quality. We were so sad. It sounds like maybe your restaurant underwent some kind of change in management. It's sad that you can't depend on much of anything not to change in that regard. I'll sign off because I'm so tired I'm stupid.
Maybe you can learn to make some of those dishes. You appear to have an aptitude for cooking.
p.s. In answer to the thread, I had some homemade pasta sauce for dinner over spaghetti. Mario Batali's basic sauce with grated carrot and fresh thyme. I use lots of garlic. It's pretty reliable and it freezes well.
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I had the opportunity to purchase a home fryer at an obscene discount once. I asked why it was so cheap. Owner died. 'Nuff said, I realized I'd follow the same path if I could fry at home.
There's a pretty good video on youtube about making a California burrito, shows the level of work I just never feel like at home, and why I ever eat fast food (So I don't cook)
Mom also said she saw a Microwave in the place. That's damn near an obituary for a Mexican food place.
This morning we had some stupid Belgian mix pancakes. They were good, but tiny. Better to mix up our own giant flapjacks from scratch.
I don't know what we're gonna do for dinner, I'm fading. I'm thinking grilled cheese at the moment. Isn't Batali the Harvey Weinstein of the cooking world?
I'd say my burrito skills are pretty good, but the office had a great bit where one of the secretaries says she loved working at a taco bell express, but when it turned into a full service taco bell, she couldn't handle the pressure.
Sam the cooking guy also did a pretty good california burrito vid, where he roasts purists by using TATER TOTS!
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Isn't Batali the Harvey Weinstein of the cooking world?
That's my understanding, yes. Our use of his sauce recipe comes from long before this behavior was made public. Tonight we had simple dinner because I was tied to my computer doing homework. Chicken thighs baked with Weber rub, some baked potatoes and a salad. It was easy to prepare and good. I was up working until about 1 when I knocked off to watch some Curb Your Enthusiasm. I'm exhausted so I'll go to sleep.
God I hate the switch between time zones.
p.s. I'm up super early now and get no credit for the extra industriousness because it's now an hour later. Bog-us!!
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Last night was leftover spaghetti, heated on the stove, with the rest of the sauce from the bottle. It was good, obviously not fantastic. Did toaster oven garlic bread, that added about 3 points, so 8/10 (home scale)
Tonight was pulled pork sandwich on those same rolls, once again toaster ovened. That thing is getting a lot of work. About a week ago mom forgot to make a tin foil insert (The tray is lost to the ages) and caused a fire. I thought it would just be a permanent scorch mark on the elements, perhaps slightly reduced performance.
Turns out the "Self Cleaning" label wasn't just advert nonsense. Slowly but surely, the scorch mark is fading away.
The sandwiches were decent, I ate two when I really should have just had one. That dang medication has me all over the place. Hungry, not hungry, FOOD NOW.
Thirsty, not thirsty, god why is my throat so dry, I don't even want to look at liquid right now.
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McVities Digestive Biscuit.
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Sandeman's Port and some walnuts.
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Manwich isn't very good. I usually make sloppy joe's from scratch, but once the meat was cooked, I decided Eff it, went to the dollar hole and bought a can of Manwich.
I am not impressed. I like my sloppy joe's kinda sweet, and it seems like Manwich is aiming for some shitty southwest style, like Arizona. Those weirdos put bell pepper in EVERYTHING.
Anyway, the hamburger buns were stupid small, so I had 3. First one I toasted the bun and tossed some Havarti on. Second one was just the Manwich by itself, and I didn't care for it.
Third one I buried in shredded Mozzarella. I enjoyed the cheese.
Well, lesson learned. Manwich sucks. The Havarti is ok I guess.
Eh, mom liked it. That's a small victory.
Last night I was so lazy I just ate a jar of pickles. Small jar, but still, that's pretty slovenly.
Can't tell if it's allergies or if I'm sick.
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I'm kinda sick of blue bonnet, so I hit my sandwich with a bunch of tapatio to murder the taste. Then Muenster cheese.
Made a pretty decent toasty.
Didn't feel like baking enchiladas tonight.
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Sometimes grilled cheese is all you need.
I'm eating Safeway Open Nature Flatbread with sesame seeds. They're tasty as a late night snack. They have a light dusting of salt. Safeway (Albertsons/Vons) is ending its yearly Monopoly deals this week. They have these crazy giveaways once a year. They give out tickets and you can win all kinds of stuff, money, gift cards, and products like aluminum foil, batteries, potato salad, aspirin, bagels/donuts. The stores have been giving out huge handfuls of the tickets. I don't know that I'll ever have to buy aluminum foil again. It's sort of a big adventure, shopping for free. Since there is a store a couple blocks from my house, I pop in nearly every day, less often when this game isn't going on. Do you have one near you, 8ully?
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We lost our Albertsons a few years back, unsurprisingly. They do like to desert communities. I've actually seen about six Albertsons betrayals.
Vons, is like, I dunno, people made jokes about whole foods being whole paycheck, but I think $6.50 for a pack of hot dogs is like, pants shitting insane, and their intercom system is deeply unpleasant to experience.
I'd say their produce area is nice, but certainly not in the affordable zone.
They used to have the wrapped sandwiches go on sale on Fridays, but they've since kicked them up to around $10, and that's just stupid.
Affordable groceries seem to be a thing of the past. Our dollar hole doesn't sell hotdog buns, and CVS wanted $3.19. I'll go up to $2.50, but $3.19 is a "golly you" price.
Like how whenever gas hits $5, the government "does nothing" but the price somehow lowers.
Pain threshold.
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I think of the local Safeway as a 7-11 with a better selection and similar prices. But there are ways to shop there without spending much.
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I didn't know you could find deals in Cali. The cost of living out there is legendary. How much is hyperbole I wouldn't know.
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Produce is cheap at local markets and you can always have a garden as the mild climate permits a long growing season.
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Produce is cheap at local markets and you can always have a garden as the mild climate permits a long growing season.
I thought all they grew in Cali was marijuana?
On a serious note; if we don't get a week of no rain, our farmers will be growing rice. I hope you like rice.
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They do grow marijuana here as it's legal and a growing industry.
I am not so keen on it. It just makes me tired and I'm not so happy to have the compulsive eating that goes with it. Not my cup of tea, so to speak.
We buy 20 lb of basmati rice each year from a local Indian grocer. We manage to consume it in that time. It stores well in jars.
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Had my last visit with the orthopedic surgeon this morning. I am clear for whatever. Just a pain issue now. Still can't quite climb up into the cab (tried to on Monday; nope). Gettin close. 99% sure, well, 90% sure I'll be back to work next month. I'm starting back up in the gym tomorrow. I stopped at the grocery store on my way home, got lots more stuff for salads. I'm +18 lbs. bless'ed cowpoo! >:( (https://i1266.photobucket.com/albums/jj530/Squonk12/Forum%20Images/icons/pig_zpsa3eabyxe.gif)
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Glad to hear you are healing. Sorry about the continued pain. I'm sure not being able to work isn't helping in the weight dept.
I hurt my heel and now am limping around instead of walking 4 mi/day which was my usual means of getting exercise. I don't really know that going to a doctor is going to change anything.
I just finished SunMaid Raisin toast. It's delicious and on sale for a change so we are indulging. I have a mountain of work to get to so I'll do that now.
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Oh my, how I love rason bread (toast) & coffee. Treats like these will have to go back to being less frequent. I believe my biggest problem has been me feeling sorry for myself; 'I can eat whatever I want'. Yeah, WTG dumbass. >:(
Anyway, just thoroughly enjoyed a loaded salad. Loaded with all good stuffies including a light sprinkling of Kroger's Fat Free Italian Dressing. If you haven't tried this dressing, give it a try. It's WAY better for you (trust me, I've compared them all) and tastes really good. I will also save you some time; stay away from the 'creamy' type salad dressings. ;)
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Eh, as long as you pay it off, why not eat what you want? Mom made Enchiladas, and didn't mix up a single step, I am very proud of her.
Her mom is such a bad cook she microwaves fish and once made mashed potatoes that could (and did) remove fillings. So mom does NOT have a joy of cooking.
She managed this by A) making them in the morning. and B) Long nap after.
She has trouble shredding chicken with the fork method, so she just cooked the chicken then went shreddy with her hands. I usually do the fork thing, but whatever works, works.
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Anymore, I prefer using chicken rather than beef for my Mexican dishes.
I cooked up a bunch of chicken and sliced it up into small pieces to put on my salads. I spiced it up with this Cajun spice I have. Is good. I normally just get the frozen, boneless, skinless breasts for this. Just finished a salad and had a handful of blueberries for dessert.
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Burgers ala foreman.
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Bacon, mushroom, and goat cheese omelette.
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Nice!
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Fishpeople seafood kit with salmon and a pancko bread crumbs/meyer lemon herb topping along with some steamed broccoli.
I'm so snowed under with work that my husband made dinner. I was up till 1 completing work and then went back to tv.
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Frozen chicken patty microwaved.
It was better than the Bonus Jack I had last night.
I mean I liked the Bonus Jack, but once again, my local Jbox serving up the underwhelming.
Did learn the box is el cajon though, that was funny. And their main seller is the tacos, not the burgers. The tacos are super gross.
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We had a salad, combined with some table water crackers and amazing cheese: Brillat Savarin, some aged goat and some very good sheep cheese. There must be something really primal about those fatty molecules with cheese, butter, icecream etc. that activate those pleasure centers.
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Pork shoulders were on sale today. Guess what I got in the slow cooker? With potatoes, carrots, onions, and fresh green beans. Stopped by the bakery and bought some whole wheat bread dough. There will be enough for all. Stop on by.
I'm at MedCheck. I dropped a chef's knife on my foot. LMAO! Good Lord...
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Works pizza, make me one with everything - but no weird poo like fish or carrots.
I wanted ham and Pineapple, but at the same time not, so mom got "the works" And it is just completely fantastic. I've had onion on pizza before, and liked it, but the mixes of flavor on this pizza were fantastic.
And even with Jalepenos I'm not dying of heartburn the next day. It's nice to just be happy for once, without a "but..."
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Guilty pleasure for this 19th week of 2019: PB&J sarnie. OMG did I enjoy that. I knew this girl (God, almost 30 years ago) who, still to this day, made the best (blueberry) jam I have ever had. You know, I bet I could make jam. I really should look into it.
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All you need is fruit, lemon juice and sugar. Plus patience. Put it over medium heat and stir. The thicker it gets the more you have to be vigilant about stirring. You should also use a heavy pan for this.
Put a saucer in the freezer. When the mix seems pretty thick, after about 1/2 hour, spoon a little on the plate and put back in the freezer for 5 min. Push it with your finger. If it wrinkles, it's done. You can freeze it, can it or put it in the fridge and eat it. It's unlikely to go bad soon. Blueberry jam can be great as long as you start with good tasting fruit.
Last batch I made, did this:
9 c. scant blueberries
1 c lemon juice
3.25 c sugar
You can cut this in half if you want. I started with 5 pints. Get 3, eat half of one and halve the other ingredients and you are in business. The less you have the shorter the cooking time.
That wasn't hard, was it?
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I forgot your background. Duh. I could even take it to the next level and get a large pressure cooker, jars and labels. 'Schmoogsley's Blueberry Preserves' (try saying 3 times rapidly). Ooooo, would make excellent holiday gifts. Hmmm.
*fruit is VERY hit or miss around here. :o
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Nonsense. I lived in S. IL for a year and picked gorgeous blueberries at a Pick your own farm. I know you are still recovering, but it's an agreeable pastime that is not very demanding and the blueberry bushes don't have thorns. You can find a list of farms local to you. Take the family. It's really fun. You get to see little kids with faces stained with berry juice.
And you don't need a pressure cooker to can preserves. They have high acidity so water bath canning is fine and not particularly demanding. There's links on the Pick your own site and if you want to be especially safe. This is a good primer freely available online, too.
https://nchfp.uga.edu/publications/publications_usda.html (https://nchfp.uga.edu/publications/publications_usda.html) The one for jams/jellies is here: https://nchfp.uga.edu/publications/usda/GUIDE07_HomeCan_rev0715.pdf (https://nchfp.uga.edu/publications/usda/GUIDE07_HomeCan_rev0715.pdf)
The recipes in the USDA often call for pectin, which is generally unnecessary and they like to throw lots more sugar at the recipes than is necessary.
https://www.pickyourown.org/IN.htm (https://www.pickyourown.org/IN.htm)
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Thanks Six. I will look into this for sure. :D
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I'm marinating chicken thighs to barbeque later today. Here's the basics of most of my dinner.
Here's the marinade:
2 jalapenos, 6 cloves garlic (skin on), 2 T oil, 1/4 c. lime juice, hefty pinch of salt. Borrowed from Rick Bayless.
Take the jalapenos and garlic and blacken them. That means, put them in a skillet (preferably cast iron or something that won't require you scrub the bejesus out of it afterwards) and char those suckers over med/high to high heat. On all sides.
Next, remove skins and stem ends of garlic/jalapenos and if you like it hot, leave the seeds in the jalapenos or otherwise gut them. Throw everything into the food processor and liquidate it. Coat the chicken and let it rest for at least an hour before you cook it. Hooray!
I'm also having potatoes, roasted w/fresh rosemary (dried works too). I am rescuing some wrinkled sprouted potatoes. I cut off anything icky looking and dump the whole potatoes in a big bowl of water. This will allow the shriveled guys to enjoy the potato equivalent of a fountain of youth. The potatoes will get firm and nice again. It's a potato miracle. Praise Jesus! Wait a couple hours and when firm, cut into c. 1 inch cubes. Make sure they're pretty dry or the next step won't be as effective.
Take a plastic bag, or if you don't mind washing yet another bowl, throw them in and toss with a couple generous tablespoons of olive oil until they're coated. Reg. oil will probably work, but hey, use olive oil if you have it because it tastes better. If you have some parchment paper, line a big cookie sheet with it (because who wants to wash dishes if they don't have to) and distribute the potato chunks. Salt & pepper them and then distribute rosemary leaves over the sheet of potatoes. Roast in a 400-450 degree oven, remember to check them after about 10-15 minutes. When they begin to brown, toss them, or whatever to turn them over so they're evenly cooked.
There's 2/3 of a reasonable dinner. Meat & potatoes. The rest is up to you. I'll report back later after we've eaten.
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Sounds yummy. I'm gonna toss some brussel sprouts in some olive oil w/salt and pepper, then, bake in the oven. Is very yummy.
*Changed my mind. It's too hot to run the oven.
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Roasting them makes them really good. A little balsamic vinegar is a nice added touch, as is throwing in some garlic.
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I was lazy, so I let Mr. food processor dice the onions, then I steamed sausage with onion in.
It was pretty good, I've got a nice brown mustard that kicked things up a bit.
Evergood pineapple sausage. Pretty good, but you only get four.
I will say, they are a very juicy, flavor filled sausage. I probably could have skipped the onion and mustard and still would have enjoyed it. Also would be a nice pairing with a light tomato sauce and thin noodles, if you wanted to carb out.
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I pass by the 'foo foo' sausage section at Meijer's all the time. I sometimes stop and have a look, but, get confused and proceed on my way. Next time I am there, I will grow some balls and purchase a selection or two. I just checked, they don't sell that brand (Evergood) here. They have a very large selection, however. Of flavors that is, not sure of the brands. If I remember correctly, the prices are quite steep. But, I remember incorrectly quite often.
*I don't use my food processor much. I don't like cleaning it. Those blades are hella sharp and I am afraid of them.
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eh, aidells are poo. With that smug chef golly on the label, he's celebrating taking your money. You do get more than the evergood though, by one friggin' sausage.
I'm no sophisticate, give me Johnsonville anyday. I also like the cheese filled ones, but can't for the life of me remember the brand. aidells cheese filled were guh. yeah, not even swearworthy, just "guh".
A lot of the so called fancy ones aren't worth the packaging.
Mine is a Ninja. The blender is long gone, but the processor keeps chopping. I've seen video of one taking a finger off, so I'm very careful.
These ones were pretty cheap at the grocery outlet, but one time they wanted $10 for basic ass 8 pack ballpark hotdogs, so go figure.
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Well, I had a longtime addiction to Johnsonville Brats. We used to have a local grocery chain here that went out of business, but, OMG, they had the best inhouse brats. Actually, that's why people would stop by there, for their meats. Their prices on most everything else were hideous. I distinctly remember once a can of salmon for $14.00. Not kidding. Also, the owner of the chain was a notorious drunkard. lol And, his kids hated him as I remember. Anyway, yeah, when I read those specialty sausage labels, I say, "WTF?". - 'Chicken & lamb sausage with pumpkin, cauliflower & blue cheese'. What? Hmmmmm. Like I said, scares me away. Just because you can stuff anything you want into an entrail, doesn't mean you should. But, I also know, you shouldn't knock it till you've tried it.
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Benihanas frozen meals were on sale so I bought one. Just finished it off. What's the big deal? I know some people who go crazy over Benihanas. I've never gone because I was never thrilled to sit at same table as strangers. Anyway, I'm sure I'll never go now. >:(
*And it gave me a tummy ache.
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I don't get Benihanas. Is that the Japanese place where the cook throws food at you?
I don't mind eating with strangers. Not one bit.
In Europe, it's often the case that you share tables with other customers. You meet some interesting people that way.
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jup, never been myself, sounds good.
Binging with Babbish showed me my favorite burger is smash style, and I really do appreciate that. Specifically, he did a big kahuna burger episode.
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Ok, I had to google 'smash burger' AND 'Binging w/Baddish'. Smash burger looks similar to how Steak n Shake cooks their burgers. I always liked Steak n Shake burgers. They also have the best shakes. I normally cook my burgers on the grill, so, smash style might not work for that. Next time I fry them up on the griddle, I will try this method.
Hmmm, Binging w/Baddish looks like a good YouTube channel. I shall add to favorites and start checking out his vids.
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oh, he does the garbage, and then he makes it fancy.
Specifically, I'd say check out the big kahuna burger!
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I don't mind eating with strangers. Not one bit.
It's not something I'm proud of.
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I was just thinking, you appear to be completely comfortable talking to this small group of people whom you've never met in real life. How is that different from sitting at a table next to them? I mean, other than the simple fact of being physically present?
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lol, yeah, that's pretty much the case the past 4 months.
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It's ridiculously hot here so I'm breaking out the hot weather cocktails. Tonight, Ricard with cold water and ice. For some reason anise flavored liqueurs are popular in Europe and especially refreshing when the weather is hot. Sambucca, Ouzo, Pernod, Ricard. I think maybe the latter were formulated to replace absinthe when it was outlawed.
I ran out of Campari yesterday. That's on my shopping list next time I go to Costco. I love bitters.
Do they have big box stores like that (Costco, Sam's Club) in the UK?
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I've been doing pretty bad. Doctor changed my meds, but I've been spending most of my time in bed.
Today to cheer me up, mom got me a Jersey Mike sub, the #9. It's good. Their website is pretty good for getting a look at what you'll get, and I had $4 on an old giftcard. Not the cheapest, but it did raise my spirits a bit.
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Well, I've noticed you've been inactive lately. I'm doing much better physically. Mentally? Up and down. Being idle for 4 months has been tough. Can't wait to get back to work next week.
Jersey Mike's Subs? Hmmm, never heard of them, but, just googled and noticed there's one 4 miles from me. I'll have to check them out. So far, Firehouse Subs is my favorite.
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I'm sorry to hear about the adjustment of your meds being such a drag to get used to. Can the doc tweak the prescriptions a bit?
I'm glad that you had a decent sandwich. Food can do a lot to elevate a mood. We had Aidell's chicken sausage for dinner with some rice and sauteed orange bell pepper. It was good and I didn't have to cook it.
I'm sitting here waiting for the effects of dilating eyedrops to wear off. There's problems with my vision that the opthamologist seems to think putting drops in my eyes and shining bright lights into them will help her figure out. So far, they have no idea. Not good. But I always get a headache from this. I just don't want my vision to get worse and until they figure out why I'm sort of stuck with all these unpleasant tests. It's pretty weird to sit in your living room wearing sunglasses like you're an extra from the cast of the Addams family or something.
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Well, we three are a mess, aren't we? lol Well, I'm pretty much healed up so no more complaining from me. Hope you 2 get better soon. They said my wrist could take a year and a half to completely heal up, but, it's good to go until I try to do something major with it. Just gotta use caution. Did I already mention this? Sorry if I did, I'm gettin old ya know? Did I already mention this as well?
Sitting, having my first cup of joe & toast. (http://www.emoticonr.com/design/yahoo/cup-of-coffee.gif) Watching the local news. Oh goody, the Strawberry Festival is this weekend. :) (Don't narc to my old drinking buddies about my tea totalling activities)
I used to attend fests like the Irish Fest. (https://www.defensivecarry.com/forum/images/smilies/vol_1/beerglass.gif) I was also a member of an Irish Drinking Club. I'm a boring old fart now. That's ok. It's nice to enjoy the simple things in life.(http://www.emoticonr.com/design/yahoo/angel.gif)
*Check this out: They posted a video on the news here of a guy, who walked into a pizza joint and asked to use their phone to make an emergency call. The little prick instead call forwarded their calls to his cell phone to apparently steal peoples credit/debit card numbers. lol Gotta admire that guy's balls.
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Dave's killer bread toasted with some homemade quince jelly and a cup of earl grey.
The nerve of some people who take advantage of others' kindness to further his own gains. What a jerk.
In Brasil they make this stuff called Suco do morango, Juice of strawberry. It's strawberry, ice, milk, and a little sugar thrown into a blender. Delicious. They also have great sandwich shops, churrascurias with super grilled meat and different varieties of fried potatoes, and the juice bars are amazing in the variety of tropical fruits available. I had acerola berries mixed in with other juices. Strange stuff, green cashew juice, passion fruit juice, what a place. Sad that they've elected their own little petty dictator, the local equivalent of Trump. One marvels at the stupidity of people and their ability to vote against their own interests.
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OMG, there is a Brazilian steakhouse here called 'Fogo de Chão Brazilian Steakhouse'. I LOVE that place. Haven't been there in over a decade. They are kinda pricey, so, it's a place you go to every few years. Like St. Elmo's. Man, haven't been there in a long time either. Last time I was there, Peyton Manning walked in with about 20 people. lol Was kinda cool. Not a good place to take a date because they allow cigars. Unless your date likes to smoke cigars. What say you Six? Do you enjoy a good stogie every now and then?
I haven't bought Dave's Killer Bread in awhile either. There is one variety of his I really liked. Wish I could remember.
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I used to smoke cigars back in college, and every now and then when I could get a good cuban cigar, I'd indulge but I haven't in years.
Ground fire is Fogo de Chão. The churrascuria I liked best in Rio was called Majórica in the area known as Praia do Flamengo (Flamengo/Flemish Beach) along the north coast, on Guanabara Bay. Here's a linkhttps://www.majoricario.com.br/ (https://www.majoricario.com.br/). It was not especially cheap but it was wonderful. They had simple salads of hearts of palm, several different varieties of fried potatoes (I like them skinny) and the grilled chicken was to die for. I don't eat red meat, so that was the extent of my adventurousness but I loved the place. So beautiful and such good food. I stayed near there in the Hotel Argentina, a 3 star hotel. Not bad and I had a view of Pão de Azucar from my balcony (Sugarloaf -- it rises out of Guanabara bay). Flamengo beach is a pleasant place to hang out although when I was there the water was too filthy to swim in. (I just checked and found that a great percent of the sewage from local residents flows untreated into the bay, which is not to mention the adjacent oil refineries and their contributions). It's pretty unwholesome, but a lovely stretch of urban landscape. Hopefully, they will make some attempt to clean it up, but I'm not holding out any hopes of quick changes.
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If I remember correctly, their water quality made the news at the 2016 Olympics.
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The municipal water supply was safe to drink as I remember, but it was a while back. They have very good beer there. Antartica and Brahma were two brands I remember drinking.
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Coffee & Soylent Green.
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I made these blueberry muffins this afternoon. I used light sour cream (because I won it at Safeway playing Monopoly) and frozen blueberries.
They were delicious. also some hummus because we were out of it.
It freezes well so I make a big batch and freeze most of it in small containers that we can take out when the mood strikes us.
https://www.geniuskitchen.com/recipe/best-blueberry-muffins-cooks-illustrated-318626 (https://www.geniuskitchen.com/recipe/best-blueberry-muffins-cooks-illustrated-318626)
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I've been a member of Cook's Illustrated for many years. Here is the recent hard copy I got because I recently purchased my first pressure cooker (I think I mentioned this purchase in another thread a while ago). I have a couple other cookbooks around somewhere.
(https://i1266.photobucket.com/albums/jj530/Squonk12/Forum%20Images/Pressure%20Cooker_zpsbnrjeqjb.jpg)
Also, a couple PDF cookbooks.
I also have the recent Christopher Kimball Milk Street Cookbook. Too bad he had a falling out with PBS over America's Test Kitchen that he founded. Funny how, in the entertainment business, you can lose your own show. Careful what you sign. I guess that's true in any industry. Life's a madam...
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Mom has been making meatball subs, and honestly, I don't mind those repeats. The last batch of meatballs she bought were really small, like pizza topping small, and they smelled bad. Tasted fine, but smelled bad.
I'm pretty sure if the dish has melted mozzarella in it, I'll enjoy it. Like Babish says, it's all about that cheese stretch.
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Burritos.
Mom hurt her arm, so she required assistance.
I cooked the meat.
I hit it with garlic, onion salt, paprika, and DROWNED that poo in Worcestershire. I hear it's pronounced Wooster, but mom won't hear that.
Essentially, I spiced it pre-cook, then added the Wooster as I cooked.
Holy poo that meat was too good for burritos.
Like sometimes I feel like I should take it to the next level, learn how to cook fancy meals or something, but that meat was good enough.
Plus now we don't owe the roomie for going for pizza.
Dumbass said filipi's pizza grotto puts too much cheese on their pizza. There is no such animal!
There is "not enough cheese" and "golly I'm drowning on this stretchy Mozzarella". Give me the second!
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Big salad of mixed greens with avocado and persian cucumber. Vinaigrette. Water.
Do I know how to live or what? :D
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A boiled egg.
But that's not why I'm posting.
I have been kind of blase about sandwiches lately, so I decided to step it up a bit.
I made garlic bread (find your own recipe) a packet of au jus, sliced up some mozerella, and folded over some roast beef.
Was a nice step up from a simple sandwich, and didn't take too long to make. Still wish I was anywhere near good fresh RB though.
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That sounds satisfying.
I made some basil pesto, so we had a green salad (with lettuces I grew in a container) and then linguini with the pesto. It turned out surprisingly well. I planted basil but it didn't do much. I had to buy the stuff for the pesto. I guess the seeds were too old. I usually get them discounted at the end of the season but they generally sprout for a couple more years. 10 for a buck at some places. I think Walgreens had them and I stocked up. The lettuce is better. It's pretty reliable. I put in a packet of spinach and got one plant. The bird likes spinach. So I pick him a couple leaves for dinner. He chews it down to a nub. He also likes corn. Funny. He won't eat grapes but jumps down on the floor to have a couple kernels of corn. He acts like the grapes are trying to kill him. Birds can be goofy.
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I'm hungry. It's lunch time so I have to eat something but don't feel much like cooking. I have frozen Quorn burgers. Veggie burgers made with mushrooms. They're really pretty good. I throw one in the oven for 20 min and it's done.
I'll eat it with some potato salad and sliced tomato because I'm tired of sandwiches. I'm too tired to focus much on cooking today. This is easy.
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I had sausages. They were ok. Ran out of spicy brown, and ketchup was spotty, I need to go to the store, but that's so much more a hassle without the car.
I suppose I should whine less, I have a grocery store in walking distance, a lot of people don't even have that.
I want to try new BBQ sauces, but all the ones I see are just Midwest approved high fucktose cocktails. I can't remember the last brand that didn't fall into that rut.
Sweet baby rays did it, Stubbs did it, you'd be better off buying craptastic KC masterpiece or Bulls eye.
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While I know everyone hangs with baited breath to know what products I endorse, I found a good 'un.
Van Camp's no bean chili is FANTASTIC for chili dogs. I toasted up the value brand buns (little small, but you get what you pay for)
Cooked the dogs in water, street cart style, laid on the chili, diced onion, and some pickle chips.
Not a bad dinner, as far as I'm concerned. I'd wanted Pizza earlier in the day, but that probably would have been heavier than I would have liked.
There's always tomorrow for pizza, after all.
Now I'm hoping they make a version with beans, I imagine they'd make some absolutely kickass chili fries. I've got two bags of disappointing French fries from grocery outlet I've been looking to cash out for about two months.
It's like the haircut floor sweepings of other, better French fry companies. I sent the roommate out for one bag, he spent all my money and bought 3 bags. >:(
Fairly sure it was "Do the job wrong so you never get asked again" going on.
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I made scones yesterday so I am having one for breakfast with apricot & plum jams. My tea supply is dwindling, so I need to order more. It should only take about a week to get here. I'm sort of annoyed by the general state of tea. At some point in the last decade or so, I switched from coffee to tea for breakfast. I drink about 250g of loose tea each month. I'm a dull person of regular habits, at least in that respect.
I used to drink Earl Grey made by Jacksons of Picadilly. It was the best Earl Grey on the market. It was not easy to find, but Zabar's had it, on the upper west side of Manhattan, so that was a source. I'd buy it in quantity when I went to visit. Then, if I remember correctly, Twinings turned into corporate octopus, bought them out and discontinued the brand, or at least the sales to the U.S. (in the UK, they still have it in bags--ugh). Note: I am no fan of Twinings. Their Earl Grey might be an effective paint remover, but there's no way I'm drinking that harsh brew.
So then I got some Wilkinson's, which wasn't bad. They're hard to come by as well. I ended up with Fortnum's, which is sold in the U.S. at a 300% markup by Williams Sonoma. That ain't happening. So I get a year's supply at a time from Fortnum's in the UK plus a hefty shipping charge (and it's still cheaper than buying it here). I went mental a few years back because Fortnum's had a sale and had discounted the classic teas because they were changing the packaging and so I bought several years' worth.
A friend bought me a kilo bag last year at Heathrow and that's almost gone. I wrote to the dimwits at their customer service to ask about ordering another kilo. Twice. Crickets. I guess the people now in their CS dept are illiterate or something. Or maybe some toughs stopped by and broke their fingers so they can't type a response to customer inquiries. I'll probably just order a billion tiny 125g bags of loose tea and call it a day.
This falls under the category of is what is now called First World Problems. Oh well. If that's the worst thing that happens to me, I'll consider myself fortunate.
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I never got into tea precisely because it's such a precious industry. I'm also very lazy.
Last night we had broccoli and chicken in peri peri sauce. It was funny because my mom kept commenting on how spicy it was.
I'm not sure this really requires a recipe, but here you go:
1. steam broccoli
2. bake chicken breasts in oven in most lazy way possible (cookie sheet) I don't remember how long I cooked it for, but it was until it's done. Chicken is one of the few foods that scares me, so I'm pretty surgical with the prep.
3. stab chicken with fork until it knows you mean business. My mom HATES doing this step, so I did it. You want the chicken chunks small, but not chicken salad small. Morsels, not to shreds.
4. Apply Peri Peri sauce. Once again, I didn't measure it out, I just added "enough".
5. combine the chicken and broccoli in a bowl. Serve hot.
We went with the dollar store broccoli, and once again, I'm not impressed. I guess the stems did make for good accompaniment, but that's all that was in the bag. I guess they sold the heads to rich people.
About the only fussy bit about this dinner was the chicken prep. I love easy dinners. This one goes in the personal cookbook because it's different from what I usually do.
Still haven't had that pizza I want. But NOT eating pizza is the secret to losing weight. Well, it's not really a secret.
I do admire the effort you put into your foods, you seem to have a respect for it that I deeply, deeply lack. My brain essentially says "NO COOK JUST EAT" pretty much always.
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Is there a Ranch 99 nearby? Their produce is often less expensive than regular stores. Broccoli is good and versatile. We sometimes have it over rice with grated cheese, or with baked potatoes. The chicken breast sounds good with the sauce, although I've never had peri peri sauce.
We don't eat lots of meat. Tonight, nuked a couple of Trader Joe's frozen meals. 2.99 each. Veg. Panang curry with rice. Pretty tasty and cheaper than a Thai restaurant. It took 10 minutes in the microwave. Some days you just don't have the time or energy to cook. I like to keep a couple in the freezer. Those or some Indian entrees. Chana Masala, Butter Chicken and the Saag Paneer are all good.
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The specific sauce is from an English chain called Nando's. 170,000 Scoville units. from five peppers. It's cartoon orange. Tabasco is 30,000 - 50,000.
On probably my favorite interview show, hot ones, they go up to 2 million. They take your typical talk show interview, and torture the guest. It's great fun, and exposed DJ Khaled as a madam.
Even if you're not a big spice fan, I'd recommend the sauce for the flavor. I'm not the biggest fan in the world of chicken, I think it's a great utility hitter, but it's negatives heavily outweigh it's positives. Peri Peri makes it amazing. Even with lousy broccoli.
At the same time, I realize I'm burning resources this world doesn't have to burn with my heavy meat diet. Chickens probably aren't much better. I would gladly welcome Vat Meat, or even Locust reprogrammed to taste like beef. It's the consistency that puts me off eating bugs. If they can fool me, I'd be happy to be fooled. I mean when you really look at it, ground beef doesn't resemble much aside from play-doh.
Crap, it's not my wheelhouse, but I'm wondering if a Peri-Peri infused Peperoni could be used in Pizza. That would wake up the stoners!
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I eat meat (fish or chicken) about twice a month. We'll get 4 chicken thighs and that will be for 2 dinners. Sometimes I'll get turkey for sandwiches or make some tuna salad. We mostly eat vegetables and dairy. There are amazing green grocers near here so plentiful gorgeous cheap produce is readily available.
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JUNE 21st! I KNEW I asked for pizza a month ago, but mom didn't believe me.
Well, I finally got my pizza, but she told them to hold the jalepeno and pineapple on "The Works". That makes me sad, those two get along great on pizza.
I know that makes a lot of people mad, but they're wrong.
My cousin used to pat down his pizza with napkins to remove oil. To remove oil. From Pizza. His first job was at a Pizza Hut.
He also dislikes chocolate and cake. But we still love him, even if he is nearly always wrong.
He's recently had his facebook profile pic taken professionally. It's a night shot, and I noted it REALLY looks like those SNL openings, but he's giving them a look like "Stop the saxophone music, before I feed it to you".
When I mentioned that to him, he said he was going more for a spine ripper look. I do miss hanging out with him.
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Double update, totes boring.
I cooked ground beef. Super bore zone. I hit it with generic heat spices. We're talking Drummond Chili land.
And yeah, that comes out alright
You then fold that in to decent burritos. WUT OH, we had no tortillas.
So we folded it into white rice. Pretty good, won't lie, I had two bowls of it. Wasn't bad.
BUUUUUT... Mom hates this, I always have to twist it, make it different. Peri Peri!
Went light the first night (The yield was high) Kinda spicy, kind of citrusy, good deal. Honestly, I wish I had cucumbers or some form of squash to suck that up. Would have kicked things up impressively. Water chestnut, to be honest, but that's BEYOND ME.
Leftover town, I went heavy on the Peri Peri. It's medium, so don't call me a Spice lord!
With the higher yield, the citrus notes were heavier, made the rice seem better, and the meat seem pedestrian. I have no clue how I'm going to step my nonexistant game up. Because honestly, I was faking it with the drummond. Impress the relatives? TOTES. Complete fabrication? SAME.
So yeah, existential cooking crisis there. MOVING ON
Grilled cheese.
It's hot, it's gross, no one wants to cook. Mom buttered up bread and sliced cheese. Almost as if it were... A CHALLENGE?
I won't lie, I went super pedestrian. Those cheese cuts were fat, so I didn't really have to add poo.
Still did. There is a thick cut ham at grocery outlet, and it is a ROCKSTAR. First wave, went simple. Bread, spread, cheddar, ham.
<gowron> AND IT WAS GOOD. AN HONOR ON YOUR HOUUUUSE.
Second wave - Bottom bread got a hit of thousand island and pickle chips.
I've been craving burgers with the thousand island, pickle chips, and lettuce. This sandwich put it at bay.
But yes, I wish I were more.
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Funny. We had grilled cheese sandwiches yesterday for lunch. My husband had his with a slice of Farmer John's ham (they also sell it at GO but we got ours at Target back when there were coupons that made it free) that I had at the back of the freezer. He was happy. There's one slice left for a separate application, maybe cut up into an omelette?
I made blueberry muffins yesterday. I took a doctored lemon yogurt muffin recipe and just added the blueberries with a little turbinado sugar sprinkled on top. They came out gorgeous and they tasted great. I gave a couple to the neighbors because it's nice to share. I'll make those again. Usually muffins come out less beautiful but for some reason all the stars aligned with these. I had another one today for breakfast. I'm finishing my tea and thinking I'd better get onto to ordering more from Fortnum's as I'm almost out. Sigh.
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Baked chicken and green beans. Been doing the Keto diet for 3 years (excluding the last 3 or 4 months that I've been "cheating").
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I like Binging with Babbish, he does one of my favorite things ever, defictionalization, where you bring the fake into the real world.
He does it through cooking. I'd never have the patience he does though. Several of his recipes require him to make bread from scratch, and while it's fun to watch, it's not something I'd want to do.
One of his dishes took 17 hours to cook.
Anyway, he said that the most overrated cooking gadgets are the all in ones, or anything that promises to do the job for you. He specifically called out the onion dicing apparatuses, which I agree, are hard to clean pieces of poo.
But he also said that you should just practice and get better at a skill with time. I just hate dicing onions. So I throw it in the Ninja food processor. Blender is long gone, but I'm still using that little sucker.
Diced onion is a game changer at any level. Not only is it great for burritos (Tonight's dinner) but it wasn't half bad on the midnight snack (Cold ham sandwich) either.
So here's the late night ham sandwich recipe.
You will need:
1 sandwich roll, use whatever size you like, I'm not a cop.
Mayonaise. I'm using kraft, use whatever brand you like, but kraft isn't half bad. Bottle was stupidly fancy pants, it's mayo kraft.
Spicy Brown Mustard - I'm using Frenches.
1 slice cheese. We're spicing this bad boy up by quartering it, and rotating the squares into diamonds for maximum sandwich coverage. It helps.
1 slice extremely thick cut maple ham. I am a sucker for this ham, but it's grocery outlet, so you might not be able to find it. Since it's so thick, we're slicing it lengthwise, so it fits on the bun. We'll slide that cheese between the two slices, so it seems fancy.
Pickle chips - I like plain dill, but we're working with the dreaded bread and butter here. Beggers can't be choosers, and I didn't do the shopping this time.
Salt, Pepper.
Diced onion was added at the last minute.
SO, this is not a difficult prep. With a butter knife, spread a generous amount of mayo on the top bun, then hit it with the salt and pepper. layer on the pickle chips for full coverage. Next, dust it with as much diced onion as you can stand. It's going to mix together with that mustard for a fantastic hit of flavor.
Slap on the first half slice of ham, then leave a nice zig-zag of spicy brown mustard down the length of the slice.
Move those diamonds of cheese on top of the ham.
Slap your second half ham down on top of that. Assemble the bottom bun, then flip your sandwich. Present however you want to eat it, then enjoy.
Not gonna lie, I don't really remember what I put in the burritos.
Keeping the bottom slice of bread mostly dry is something I picked up at the supermarket deli. Specifically, when you wrap the sandwich up to go, you don't want to soginate that bottom bun, so you don't add condiments. Up until then, I always put mayonnaise and mustard on the bottom. WHOOPS!
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I picked wild blackberries today. Lots. I suited up for the brambles in knee high rubber boots and an extra shirt over another one. Got about 15 pints. They smell amazing. Tomorrow I wash them and run them through a ricer to get rid of the seeds. They make such a fabulous jam. It's a lot of work but the color and flavor make it worth the trouble.
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I had a coworker / roommate who called food network food porn. My mom brought it up after watching a Babish vid.
I liked him best because he gave me money. He got weird one day, said he'd decided to become a misogynist, and moved out.
Like, was that supposed to be an insult towards my mom? Or was he serious? Never really knew with him.
He really liked CIV, and I kept having to order him new AC adapters for his laptop.
Really wish that could have turned out different, he was the reliable sort.
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pornhub, eh?
That reminds me of the time I was walking in Paris one December -- it was freezing cold. I could not have been more covered up had I been wearing a burqa. This crazy woman who lived in the neighborhood walked up to me and called me "putain." I laughed, as it was hard to imagine how I might have been more modestly dressed. I was similarly covered up as I fought thorny brambles that meant business yesterday.
I believe these are known as Himalayan blackberries that were imported by Europeans into California. They have long woody brambles and thorns that can grow to a good half inch long and that are tough and sharp. I suspect the thorns may have an added toxin that adds to the pain upon penetration. They sting when you get poked, so it's important to learn how not to get a million puncture wounds. The thorns grab anything, particularly fabric, so wearing thick clothes is important. The really fat berries like to grow in the protected parts, under other vines and on the shady side of fences or valleys, and god only knows what kinds of interesting fauna one might be disturbing in the process, hence the boots. These are ugly black boots that I wear for gardening so I can hose them off when I'm done. They're thick enough to deal with the brambles.
My husband doesn't much care to wade into these active thickets, so he sort of hovers around while I plunge into the mess. After 3 hours I ended up with about 15 pints. These berries have a flavor that surpasses anything that the nice organic pick-your-own farms with their orderly rows of well behaved berry plants have to offer. And the wild berries cost nothing more than one's own efforts. I'm freezing them now after a triple washing. They have woody seeds that I will remove by running the berries through a ricer. It's one of the most time consuming jams I make, the other is wine grape jam. But that's another story.
If photobucket hadn't gone belly up I'd post a photo of the loot. Food porn it is. These berries even have their own terroir, the flavor varies slightly from one area to the next. The jam is amazing.
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there's imgur, but I never bother with an account there. Just toss the image in, grab the link, then bail. But even imgur pulls stupid poo like putting an "OPEN APP" over every post.
Like, first off, I don't want your bless'ed app to begin with, and the way you're advertising it makes me want to use it less.
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Thanks. I went to the seashore before the berry picking yesterday and saw lots of whales migrating north from off the coast of the Yucatan. One of the whales kept pushing its tail up and slapping the water repeatedly. This went on for 15 minutes. He or she was really having fun. They were California Gray Whales. Lots and lots of them. I've never seen so many at one time. Lots of whales surfacing, blowing spouts and just playing, eating, whatever. We could see them pretty well from shore without binoculars.
A pair of pelicans flew by and a little seal was hanging off the shore for a while. It was nonstop entertainment. The beaches are not for swimming, sadly. Many signs warn about the dangerous surf, rip currents, etc. And it's really cold. You need a wetsuit. Once in a while we see surfers but at another beach. I miss the East Coast where you can actually swim in the Ocean.
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One thing I always found weird about the beach in Northern California, it's so DARK. Like the water looks threatening.
I mean down here we have to worry about border crossing poop, but the water is like, toothpaste blue. I've spent a lot of time on the east coast, but I never caught the beach sunrise I wanted. No one ever wants to go to the beach there, and apparently you have to pay? Like I understand paying for parking, but I guess this stupid California liberal takes free beach access for granted.
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It depends where you are. There are plenty of beaches in Delaware and Maryland that are owned by the state and don't require an admission fee. Same with Massachussetts.
But the water is dark, yes. In MD it was sort of brownish green, most likely due to algae. In Florida, it's much clearer. It's dark up north (MA, ME, NH) but also clear. I remember looking down and seeing starfish on the floor of the harbor at Marblehead. I think the water takes on the color of the sky sometimes, too. I never tire of looking at it. We like to go to the sea anytime we get a free day. It's soothing.
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Sad wannabe Rueben.
Essentially the same thing as the late night ham sandwich, but substitute lame ass square bread for those yummy rolls,
Pastrami in place of the ham, Provolone in place of the swiss, and I didn't have any thousand island. :(
I never realized how important the Thousand Island is in a Rueben. That sandwich was a pale imitation of something so much more tasty. Eh, at least I had all those ingredients on hand.
Still hate the bread and butter pickle chips, they're like pepsi.
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(https://www.dropbox.com/s/9alc7st6qi0mtqv/67909819_719249255167262_6111076478898667520_n.jpg?raw=1)
Thanks for the suggestion. All I can manage is the link to the image, but not the image itself. They've all been triple washed and smashed or frozen now. For some reason, I feel a FatBoy Slim song coming on.
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I need to repack all my stuff, and that picture gives me anxiety at how well you lined everything up. You'd be a tetris champ.
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I moved a lot in school and had to pack lots of books so I had to master the topology of fitting things together economically.
I love Tetris.
BTW, why do you have to repack all your stuff? Housecleaning or moving?
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I feel jammed in. The apartment is pretty small to begin with. We don't really use the dining room because it's full of Rubbermaid boxes.
I honestly should have done this before we moved... four years ago. yikes. I have emptied about four of them so far, but some of the stuff I have will get crushed unless I set up some sort of frame around them. I've been thinking of buying those little shelf things for desks just to use them as dividers.
We used to have a shed, so the problem was much easier to ignore.
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Replace the dl=0 in the link with raw=1, (and use img tags not link tags) and the link will magically turn into a picture:
(https://www.dropbox.com/s/9alc7st6qi0mtqv/67909819_719249255167262_6111076478898667520_n.jpg?raw=1)
Thank you, kind Sir.
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So I spiced up a bunch of meat to add to a box of mac & cheese because the mommy bloggers neutered the crap out of the neon orange.
That traffic cone orange was vital to let you know you'd properly spread the cheese powder!
Anyway, I noticed that the spatula was fighting me, making the cooking process entirely more difficult than it ever should be.
I tossed that politician in the garbage. You should never have to fight your own tools. They are there to help YOU.
More of the spice burned off than I would have liked, feels like a portion was just flat out wasted by that flipper.
The additions are nothing fancy. Paprika, cayenne, chili powder, garlic powder. I did load some L&P over the meat because of how much there was in the pan, I need to split my meat up into smaller bags when I *gasp* freeze it.
I did have some left over burrito meat with onion from a few days ago, so I tossed that in. I'm in a bad mood today, Onion chopping would make it worse.
Like all the videos that say "Just lurn it, hue hue hue" Chopping onions sucks. I don't care how surgical your technique, I don't care if you're using a mono-molecular edge. It SUCKS.
Resulting product is as predicted underwhelming, but I'm not going to up the calorie content 100-200 calories just to add cheese. I guess I could drown the remainder in hot sauce.
OH! Mom made BLT's the other day. Sans lettuce, sans tomato.
So here's her recipe.
1. Open bag of bread, pull two slices.
2. Spread mayonnaise on ONE SIDE of bread.
3.Cook bacon
4. Disable smoke alarm you always forget to disable
5. turn on the stove vent fan that should have been on already
6. add bacon to bread.
7. Close bread (Sandwich and bag if you didn't before)
8. Serve.
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Cold seltzer and some smoked almonds. It's hot and humid here. There are lizards running around and mosquitoes.
There was a handsome exotic cockroach in the bathroom last night. I couldn't bring myself to dispatch it.
The ocean is so blue, but there is Sahara desert sand clouding the humid skies. This is an unusual place. I'm looking forward to some island barbequed chicken.
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toast
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Nothing wrong with toast. I had oatmeal for dinner simply because it's hot as all get out and I'm not cooking anything tonight.
I didn't post it the other night because I didn't want all the posts to be by me, but I took that not so great meat, hit it with spaghetti sauce and it turned into halfway decent sloppy joes. Sometimes solutions are right in front of you.
I have occasional fridge blindness, I'll scan right past ketchup several times before I find it. No clue why.
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This one is pretty pathetic. Wouldn't blame ye if you flame me.
Chicken nuggets. With Peri-Peri.
Honestly, it was a horrible idea. I was on the phone! But mom offered, and I said thank you.
I'm still feeling the pain, five hours later. I got a hiccup on the call.
Still, it was very good. But only for the spice lords. As a regular eat? Not recommended.
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Salad. Third night in a row. The tomatoes are coming on and I throw in a diced apple to give it a little more body. Vinaigrette. I usually have a little cheese and crackers with it. It doesn't take much prep time once you wash the lettuce.
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My mom is using this lemon something vinaigrette, I despise it. I imagine if lemon pledge were edible, it would taste like this crap.
Zesty lime vinaigrette, Kraft.
I wanted to make burritos, too hot. I got this meat that needs cooking, and the sun is like "Eat poo buddy, better do takeout, because I'm using your apartment as an oven"
I finally joined reddit, and was heavily downvoted for saying sometimes I leave takeout pizza in the oven. Like I know I'm violating all the food safety rules and all that, but it's my oven.
Apparently this is one of those underhand overhand toilet paper things, people want to burn you at the stake for not having the correct opinion.
I'm also at like, half mental capacity. Heat sucks.
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I got some kind of citrus vinaigrette version of Newman's Own salad dressing at the Grocery Outlet once. It was hard to choke that stuff down. Nasty.
I get it being too hot to cook. I think the cheese in the pizza and the meat might be a problem if you leave it in the oven at a temp lower than 160 F. I'd expect that in your situation, it might be a relief to eat it out of the fridge. But to each his own. As long as you don't get sick, who cares?
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Oh I've no pizza now. Shame, would have been nice this evening.
More just the complete vehement hatred for "You don't think the way you're supposed to".
Can't really say I'm surprised, I've avoided registering on reddit for years, didn't really want to be counted as one of their number.
I know everything about temperature danger zone, I just don't care. I imagine it's a lot like disregarding automated warnings in a scifi movie. "Never tell me the odds" type crap.
It's more just the pizza box fits in the oven way better than the fridge, and that pizza will be dead by daylight.
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I have Chinese friends who are a good deal more lax about refrigerating food and they don't seem to suffer. I think Americans have a real obsession with refrigeration. There's plenty of food that doesn't really require it that comes with "refrigerate after opening," advisories. I wonder if some of those are to keep the companies from getting sued. We wrap slices of leftover pizza in aluminum foil and refrigerate them so we can pop them in the oven as needed. The box gets discarded pretty much immediately as we don't have room for it.
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I mean, the bacteria thing is true, and also annoying and infuriating. That we're under their rules, when we want to be the boss around here, thank you very much.
The "stop being a joker" moment in training was fairly striking. Our trainer mentioned that quite a few of our customers happen to be pregnant, just a regular hazard of the job.
Then he said that any one of us could kill either the mother or the baby, for being lax or lazy about food safety. He said it wasn't a hypothetical, it's happened.
Like, if I was serving the pizza to others? I probably wouldn't store it in the oven. Totally bad idea.
But me? I'll probably be alright.
I'll never wrap food in aluminum foil again. I'll use it as a cooking surface, I'll use it in baking, but wrapping food? No.
Honestly, I still feel like the training was for a much better job than I ended up in. That guy was fantastic. Like a "Nice" version of Alonzo in training day.
He once made me think that cleaning the grease traps was wearing a bunny suit ala MOPP gear.
In reality, it's like a ghostbuster trap under the fry pit. you just open a hole on the bottom and it drains. He told me it was a container under a manhole and that I would be the one who had to go down there.
And he made me believe it!
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Mom made delicious thin crispy burgers that were unbelievably good.
Guys, I think my mom has been replaced with a pod person. She made mint French toast for god sake, and one time she made a meatloaf that looked like something out of Cronenberg!
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I baked chocolate chunk cookies with pecans & walnuts. I'm going to a potluck so I had to sample them for quality control.
I think they'll pass. I don't expect to bring many home, which is probably a good thing.
I'm glad your mother is moving up on the food quality scale. Eating is one of life's great pleasures.
edit: no cookies to take home from the potluck. all gone. that's probably fortunate.
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Tamale guy is bugging out to Arizona, his wife got deported.
Mom always buys beef, but because I saw him this time, I finally got cheese tamales, and it was as fantastic as I thought they would be. I'll never have the patience or temperament to make Tamales, but I salute the people who do. Eight hours devoted to one dish... I couldn't do it. I'd go nuts.
Like, I could ask my mom to buy chicken, she'd come home with beef tamales. So I took it into my own hands.
I shook his hand, said I'd miss him and his tamales, and wished him luck in the future.
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That's sad. I expect that there has to be someone else making tamales. I get the impression that working the masa is time consuming. I have a tamale steam pot but I use it mostly for hot water bath for canning preserves.
https://www.thespruceeats.com/dough-for-tamales-with-masa-harina-2342680 (https://www.thespruceeats.com/dough-for-tamales-with-masa-harina-2342680)
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Oh no, I'm not falling for the masa harina poo again.
It's flour. Corn flour sure, but getting masa harina is a pain in the ass, and entirely superfluous to good chili.
From what I can tell, cooking tamales is an exercise in patience. I have never been a patient person. Those enchiladas were probably 45 minutes flat, allowing for timers.
I love tamales, but would never cook them.
Dude told me his wife signed and admission of guilt. Same time I wished him luck, I was also thinking "There is no way in golly that woman is getting back in the US without breaking the law".
This may sound glib or flip, but I'd gladly deport walgreens to bring in more tamale ladies.
30 minute prep? that recipe looks like lies.
golly that timecode. I punched it down to zero seconds.
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I must confess, I've never had one. Sometimes a woman sells them from the back of a truck near a greengrocer I frequent, but I've never had one. I suspect they can be delicious.
The fruits are coming on again and I'm up to my eyeballs in tomatoes. So sauce tomorrow and I'll pick quince so that has to be processed along with a bunch of apples. I made applesauce last year. It was amazing. Pippins. Wow. I am hoping there are still more feral pears to be had. There are abandoned orchards around here with pears that look like crap and taste amazing. The deer love them. Deer have good taste. The quince take some doing as they're hard to cut and you have to immerse them in lemon water to keep them from oxidizing.
I made mint apple jelly with some rosemary this week. It has a really interesting flavor. The mint doesn't bash you over the head with its presence, nor does the rosemary. They're more like subtle notes in a really good apple jelly. Now I'm not talking about that crap they put in the little squares of plastic on the tables in diners, that apple jelly is just nasty. No. This is something of a different order. It takes time to be transformed from a juice that is basically very watery to a coral colored tangy substance. I wish I could figure out how not to sleep for a couple weeks so I could catch up with all the cooking and reading projects.
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Tamale ladies tend to have extremely reasonable prices. I think I paid $1.50 for the cheese and chicken, $2.00 for the beef.
And I haven't even had the beef ones yet. I know they're good, mom tends to just buy beef ones regardless of what is requested. They are probably what I would consider "base line" tamale. Instead of ground beef cooked into nuggets, like so much of my dreary cooking, tamales tend to have the consistency of pulled beef or pulled pork, so it's not that boring "burrito meat" I complain about so much.
If you're skittish of people selling out of an ice chest, and I don't blame you, I suggest a restaurant, but Tamales are delicious, and should definitely be enjoyed at least once.
And if you don't like meat, I know that my tamale guy at least did a pineapple, but that's not my speed.
I dunno, I've had tortillas at some Mexican food places I would swear were made out of oatmeal, and they were as good as any place else. Same time, I'll never chase masa harina again. Like it's easy to get in non English speaking markets, but you have to be able to get there.
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I'm not skittish. Just not in the habit of eating out much. Especially when I've just been to buy groceries. I tend to make most of my meals at home. I do keep granola bars in my car so if I get hungry while out, I won't be tempted to spend money. I did go out to lunch today which was a fun treat.
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Oh no, I completely respect that. I mean I had mom go out and get me the impossible whopper, but most of my meals are in house too.
I do have a tip, might be a bit much.
I mean like, morons celebrate what taco bell does to their stomachs...
Don't eat a tamale as a late night snack. I heated up the beef one in the microwave, and while eating it was pleasant, I'd say it's more a lunch item?
Speaking of, what did you go for? I'm not really a restaurant eater, more of a take out kind of guy.
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"The Charlie: Coriander crusted rare Ahi Tuna, House pickled Ginger & Carrot Slaw, Wasabi Aioli, Acme Bun." Acme is a local bakery that makes quite good breads. They serve the sandwich with thin fries that appear to have been dusted with chopped chervil. It's a good lunch. I didn't eat much later in the day as it was pretty filling. It's a tiny place run by two brothers who only serve breakfast and lunch. They have a set menu with daily specials. There are plenty of good little restaurants around here. If we were able, we'd eat out more.
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Have you told Wile-E-Coyote that?
Nope. But he could do a whole lot worse. And it may be the one thing that might successfully distract the bird until he could pounce.
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Raisin toast and earl grey tea.
I made applesauce last night from neighbor's fruit. The pippins were worm eaten, but definitely the best tasting of the bunch. Fabulous flavor. Hopefully I can get some more. I'll make jelly from the juice. It takes hours to distill the essence of that watery substance into a jewel-like coral deliciousness.
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Found out Ramen can go bad. Very unpleasant.
Made a lame Rueben knockoff, then added Cholula to spice it up. I guess you could call it an "Angry Reuben"
You will need a toaster oven with a tray to make it the way I did, the pastrami drips.
Ingredients
Stupid roll - long kind. Preferably bigger than a hot dog bun. Sandwich roll, I think.
Pastrami, four slices
Swiss cheese, two slices
Hellman's burger sauce (Or Thousand Island, pretty much the same thing)
some Mayo.
Cholula sauce.
I actually broke my sandwich procedure, it's more of a mirror thing.
So first you spread the mayo on the bread, then squirt the burger sauce (or thousand island) on top of that. Then you rip the swiss cheese slices in half, longwise. You then shingle the roll so that the cheese covers the sauce. Then you put the pastrami on top of that.
You then realize that you forgot the cholula, peel everything off, and hit the bread with it. Go light with the mayo and burger sauce (or thousand island) you don't want it dripping out of the bun, the pastrami will be doing that anyway.
Reassemble the sandwich and place it on the toaster oven tray, Cook to desired crispiness.
It was good, but I had some heartburn in the morning.
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{Not good sandwich.}
This one was a bit of a loss leader. First, the cheddar was on it's way out, and already didn't taste great, and I honestly should have tossed it out.
The bread, honestly, I can't fault the bread, it was the happiest ingredient in this not good sandwich.
The mayo - This was a mistake. I won't fault the mayo, it's good on it's own, but I made a mistake here
Cholula - much like the mayo, Cholula is fantastic, and is not to be faulted.
Gallo Salame. I love it, it's great, it's a heavy bless'ed mess on this sandwich, and I shouldn't have done this.
The tragedy unfolds...
I thought I had a great idea, I was wrong. I set a tray in the toaster oven to crisp up the salame like bacon, and it did that, just fine. Ate a test piece, got the seal of approval from my end.
I mentioned earlier, the cheddar wasn't doing so hot. I grated it, and tossed it in a container. That... was not a good idea.
Next the bread - buttermilk wheat, I had three pieces left so I decided to do a triple decker sandwich. I don't know why, I'm not a glutton, and I just reminded myself not to be a glutton with those shitty fries. I should have given my poor stomach a rest.
Instead, I made this ode to pain.
So we've got our toasty bread, we've got grated cheese, how can this be bent up? MAYO.
Oddly enough, Mayo can taste great on a hot sandwich. Sadly, this time was not one of those cases. I didn't want to bust out mustard, figured it was too busy.
So I mixed in Cholula, made the mayo pink. Spread it over the bread, NBD. WRONG, IT WAS A BIG DEAL, AND MADE THE SANDWICH SUCK.
I ran this through the toaster oven for 3 cycles, I wanted the bread to be crispy. Not a great plan, but this was not a great sandwich.
Honestly, the porky porkness of this sandwich ruined it, and made it suck. Everything else was a comedy of errors, aside from the cheese, which I choose to throw under the bus, so no one eats it.
Do not make this sandwich.
I figure, if one shares the triumphs of cooking, one should also share the failures. This one was mine. And I'm sorry.
I am now getting reviewed on my cooking skills on reddit because of this garbage sandwich.
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Thanks for the warning. I'm not a big fan of sandwiches. I like to eat bread with a little butter or jam, but I generally prefer to eat the innards alone.
I'm making applesauce. It feels like it's taking forever. A neighbor has some pippins and they taste great, but it takes a long time to cook these. Boil them for a short time, run them through a ricer and cook them again. Then can them in jars. I just don't have the energy today for some reason. I started out all gung ho and then lost momentum. I think I'll go for a walk and enjoy the sunlight while it lasts.
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Last night was just cheese on a rather large brioche bun. I like those, but these ones were too big for a burger.
My tonsils hurt today, but we could never talk a doctor into scooping mine out. My cousin who is younger had hers out.
Maybe I'll do something with rice tonight, you've put that in my head. :P
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Rice is a useful staple to have around. We sometimes sautee a diced onion with chili powder, cumin, some chipotle, and deglaze it with a little cooking sherry before dumping in a can of black beans. We eat it w/grated cheese over rice. Easy, nourishing and tasty. And cheap.
The applesauce turned out really well. We don't eat much so I'll probably give most of it away. I can't pass by free fruit when I know it's really good fruit. A neighbor gives away pippins every fall. I usually come home with a big bag and cook them down, use the juice to make jelly and the pulp for applesauce. The jelly is cooking down now. It's a reduction of a pale whitish fluid to a really nice coral colored jelly that has a great flavor. Apple juice, lemon juice & sugar. And it tastes great. Who knew?
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Got a hard NO on the rice, so I made spaghetti. For once there was enough sauce for my liking. I like a lot of sauce.
Just your standard crappy spaghetti, sauce from a jar, box o noodles, nothing fancy. We've finally got the roommate sufficiently trained that he doesn't "borrow" parmesan anymore, that used to be a problem.
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I like Safeway's Arabbiata sauce. Sometimes it's on sale for around 2 bucks.
Trader Joe's Pecorino Romano is good grated. It's about $10 a pound, but a half pound goes a long way. That's one way to keep the roommate away from it. If he's lazy it's unlikely he's going to grab the chunk and grate it for his pasta. You can just grate enough for the meal so as to remove temptation.
I finished all that jelly and it boiled down to about 7 cups from 22 ½. That's distilling the essence for you. It is a nice color and tastes like apples. I'm tired from all that stirring. We had "shake & bake" chicken thighs (we use Weber's seasoning on the thighs--it's a dry cajun rub--and just bake em for about an hour) and some baked potatoes and salad. I am tired from not sleeping much yesterday so I'll probably kick back, watch French cops chase serial killers for a while and then turn in.
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Dinner tonight was Cheese on fries, but that's not the important part.
I learned that I am a stupid, stupid person. Tortilla pizza is a thing, looks INSANELY easy, and I've NEVER ONCE considered making it. I've got everything I need in my fridge and counter RIGHT NOW.
Like, I'm guessing my attempt at a PB&J in a tortilla just put me off experimenting past "turn them into nachos" but WOW do I feel stupid right now.
Anyway, I'll probably make this tomorrow: https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/258013/easy-tortilla-pizza/
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I'm having regular tea and a scone for breakfast but am steeling myself for pie bake a thon. First: pumpkin. Then, tomorrow, apple tarte using pie crust recipe from Jacques Pepin. We are invited for Thanksgiving dinner at a friend's house.
My oven runs hot. It's a mid century gas range. A great machine but I have to watch baked goods like a hawk so they don't burn. I routinely reduce recommended temps in recipes by 25 degrees. At least I don't have to cook the entire meal.
Other than the usual holidays on the Liturgical calendar, do Brits have similar holiday feasts to Thanksgiving? The Canadians celebrate it. I was just wondering if there are like celebrations across the pond?
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I've got a pumpkin pie, promised myself I wouldn't carve on it until the actual holiday.
Dinner tonight kinda sucked, it was this shredded chicken stuff in a bbq sauce. Sadly, it wasn't a good bbq sauce, really dragged the sandwiches down.
I used these long rolls, and just cut them in half like subway. Hit it with that absolutely fantastic cabot white cheddar on the top half, but it felt like a waste.
Like a shredded beef with a decent bbq sauce and some sliced onion, and dinner would have been fantastic. Why is it I never know what I WANT to eat, but always know exactly what is wrong with what I actually end up eating? It's not great, mentally.
We actually had desert tonight, mom had to pick up meds and rite-aid had 22 cent candy bars. The Reese's Outrageous bar is disgustingly sweet, but utterly fantastic.
Like, I'm a little grossed out I ate that much sugar, but I sure enjoyed eating it.
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I also had a desire for sweets today. I had a couple Halloween M&M fun size bags and after dinner a small dish of ice cream. I have to bake those pies in the morning. Lordy, I hope they turn out alright. I had great plans to bake one tonight but I'm too tired. I'll set the alarm tomorrow and bake away. It will warm up the house, at least.
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We've got a lot of leftovers from our two person thanksgiving, no one wants the turkey leg, I'm considering food processoring it for our six toothed dog. I had the broccoli, and some mashed potatoes with gravy last night.
Tonight I tried to spruce up the leftover mashed potatoes, but... I'm sick of them. I even mixed up new brown gravy for them, such a waste, I should have just dumped the gravy on toast and maybe cooked up the hamburger meat burrito style. True it'd not be chipped beef, but it might have been interesting! I found this weird potato puff recipe with cheese and egg, but realize I'd hash it if I tried, so I didn't. So I just sliced some white cabot cheddar and had a salad. The salad sucked. I don't get how I can buy the same bag salad every time, most of the time it's great, but sometimes it's just lousy. Salad Roulette is not a thing! It was fantastic last!
Meanwhile I've got some defrosted meat, some aging beans, and I really need to just clean the fridge up. But I'm sooo lazy!
Those potato egg things sounded grand, but I'm poo at baking, and I don't think I've got eggs.
Honestly, I wish I had the shredded chicken again, I've got some ideas. Not involving bbq sauce.
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Turkey soup can be delicious. We roasted a big fat old chicken last night. 5 pounds. There was lots of meat and I suspect we will make soup from the remainder after a couple more meals from the meat.
Drumsticks are good for soup and flavoring broth. I usually boil the carcass with leavings from the vegetables (ends of celery, potato peels, onion skins, etc.), strain it and then add to vegs and meat along with more commercial broth if the one I make isn't intense enough. I'm probably making curried lentil soup today. I usually bake buttermilk cornbread to go with it. It doesn't take long and it's good.
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Enchilada bummer.
So, I normally handle the prep, and mom does the cook, this time she wanted more input, so I let her.
And the enchiladas got ruined. Specifically, you're supposed to put the enchilada sauce, 2 cloves of garlic, and 1 cup of onions in a blender, and reduce.
Instead she put onion and garlic in a food processor, and made what I am euphemistically referring to as "onion sauce".
It's gross, I hate it, and it ruined the enchiladas. And enchiladas are effort. Especially chicken, I used two forks to shred the chicken and it was the hardest time I've had at that ever.
Pretty much everything tastes good, but the onion sauce ruins it.
Don't make onion sauce. Just pulse until it's diced, do not go past that point. It's like a bitter, hate flavor.
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I still haven't really fixed those hate filled enchiladas, instead I made cheesy hot dogs by sprinkling cheese over the top, and discovered I don't like my five cheese blend I picked up.
Like, I love jalapenos, I'll try food I don't like if they add jalapenos (The angry whopper was a pain filled experience, but I enjoyed it while eating it)
I think it's like all the bacon flavored poo that got put out, it just... isn't good like the genuine article. I feel the same way about most "bourbon" flavored products that aren't bbq sauce. A bourbon bbq sauce kicks things up a notch.
So yeah, the cheesy dogs are a fairly easy dinner, you shove hot dogs in the toaster oven and let them heat up, then you hit the bun with your shredded cheese blend.
I don't think that really requires a recipe, but you keep it in the toasty mosty until the bread goes golden. Then serve. I don't use condiments on them, I figure the cheese is sufficient window dressing.
I didn't really like it, but it's a dinner option. I wanted to do a salad, but most of the kits right now are on recall because the state can't figure out which of three ingredients is the Russian roulette winner for e-coli.
So, cheesedogs.
Honestly, I was tempted to make gigantic pigs in blanket, but grocery outlet didn't have any dough, and I want to make dough from scratch about as much as I wanted to replace my bathroom sink. God that was a nasty job.
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OK, still had those enchies sitting. So I shocked the poo out of them. Much like a slimy pool, I went nuclear.
First I slit them along the bottom, opening them up wide. I dumped in rice as a neutralizer, Peri Peri sauce to kick the spice level into the stratosphere, reheated the mess in the oven, then topped with sour cream to try and offset the peri peri.
It was pretty good. I mean, next time I'll be more involved and omit onions, but these not good enchiladas were... better than a hot pocket. Honestly, that's the best I can say for them.
I miss you guys riffing off my culinary misadventures, and hope you are all doing well.
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We had basmati rice, fresh spinach sautéed with sliced garlic and some chicken coconut curry (Sukhi's) from Safeway. The latter ain't cheap but it was a nice way to have some convenient decent Indian food.
I appreciate your efforts to doctor what could have been an abysmal meal and elevate it to a palatable level. You seem particularly creative in that regard.
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OK, first one for the new year.
I've been down more than I've been up, but I learned that lining the toaster oven tray with tin foil actually reduces the cooking power.
So I'm just using the wire rack thingy, kind of like the grate on a bbq, and my burritos are crispy and delicious.
I don't think I need to tell anyone how to make a burrito, but here was mine.
1 tortilla. These ones sucked. I like a flaky biscuit, but a flaky tortilla is lousy. I think this one was mission brand. You get what you get. Still, not happy.
2 tablespoons rice-a-roni, dealers choice, I honestly don't know which one I made but it's a white grain one. maybe chicken?
2 tablespoons refried beans - one time I was at chipotle and they asked what beans I wanted. They didn't have "refried" so I stood there like a moron. I think refried are pinto? anyway, these came from a can and are in no way healthy.
Shredded white cheddar. I used a side of the cheese grater I don't usually use, so this was flaky sheets of cheddar, sliced thin. I don't particularly like this brand, it's like someone mixed a sharp with a dull. I just shingled it over the other ingredients.
I usually microwave my burritos open face, then roll them, but that wouldn't fit in the toasty O.
So, lay down the ingredients in a straight line race track, pinch and fold the ends, and roll. (Mom folds them like envelopes, it's funny)
Two cycles on Dark, and I had myself a crispy burrito. I left out sour cream, salsa, and hot sauce because of heartburn.
The result was tasty.
I've pretty much just been eating canned soup lately, nothing great. Toast maybe, I make the main meal dinner, and I'm not much for breakfasts, so Dinner is the most likely shake for this thread.
I'd like to do more with sandwiches, but with budget and effort, I can't do a lot. Vons has gone utterly insane, so I just go to grocery outlet now.
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Vons ain't cheap, but sometimes with sales and coupons, it can be manageable.
Sometimes I am tired and don't feel like cooking. We had one of those nights tonight:
Gorton's Fish sticks, with homemade cocktail sauce, and cooked frozen corn. The fish stix were BOGO last week at Safeway (Vons). It didn't take much of an effort. Hardly gourmet fare, but sort of reminds me of the odd Sunday at my grandmother's when she was beat and didn't have a great idea of what to make for a change.
Tomorrow is my husband's birthday and I will probably bake him some cookies. It's hard to justify buying presents just for the sake of it. He doesn't really want anything, and I'm hard pressed to come up with anything inexpensive for my own wish list, either. He got me pie weights at my request for Xmas. And an inexpensive used book (same deal).
It's been raining like hell all day here and it's cold. Not much fun, but good for sorting through stuff you want to throw out. I've been filling up the recycling and donation bags. So that was useful.
I can't speak to the zillions of guests suddenly on here. Maybe they heard about the anniversary celebrations and were trying to get in on the fun, or maybe Meghan and Harry figured they'd pop in for some tips on how to achieve independence.
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Simple cheeseburgers here, don't really think a recipe is required, they turned out pretty good, I think I'll avoid tomatoes for a bit.
I passed up a complete BSG collection at goodwill because I felt too lousy to do disc checks on that many DVD's, would have been $35, I remember a time when I would have been jumping to get those DVD's.
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I see complete sets on ebay for less. Probably easier to just order from there.
The rain has sapped my energy. I missed my long walk today and that's too bad as it usually gives me more energy. But it was pouring this morning, like torrents. Normally a light rain won't put me off. What a slow day. But the purge continues, and that's a good thing.
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I made snickerdoodles. They're fussy little sugar cookies that are supposed to be a little crunchy on the outside and tender/soft inside. This is not so easy as the temptation is to bake them longer than you should lest you end up with raw dough. They need to be yanked out of the oven as soon as they're cooked through but not browned.
This batch was better than the last one. You roll little balls in sugar & cinnamon and they spread out with a lovely crackly surface in the oven. Not my favorite, but baked by request.
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Mom got her car stolen, this is a real rough kick in the gut, we probably won't have $1700 to spare soon, if ever, in fact the only reason we had this surplus is that social security decided that mom finally deserves social security benefits on dad.
(We've avoided homelessness with his teamster pension in the past).
I mean, that will golly your day right up.
Dinner tonight was chili fries. French fries, canned chili, shaved white cheddar. I'll say I like the shaved cheddar, I decided to use that side of the grater on a whim the other day, and I really like the result. It's very different from your standard string grate.
We switched chili providers, I don't remember the last one, but it was good, Camp something?
This time it was campbells chunky chili. It was actually one of those heat and eat specials, and there was a typo on the label, these things say "Heat for 11 1/2 minutes" And I'm pretty sure it's supposed to be 2 1/2 minutes. Trivial nonsense, but this chili was less stomach churning than stag.
But the dinner is pretty much pre ruined by circumstance.
Once again, I'll recommend NEVER buying Stag Laredo Chili. I imagine there are some people who enjoy Stag Laredo Chili. They are damned. It's like salt and pork. And green pepper.
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Burritos tonight. Nothing fancy, but screw it, I'll share. It's pretty basic.
Leftover refried beans because mom buys the giant cans.
Shredded cheddar. I like to shred my own, pre-shredded has the caked on preservatives. I also like a slightly sweating cheddar, but that's probably because of the elks taco night, and also probably a sign food safety was not the elks #1 concern. Still, sweaty cheddar makes me happy. I feel like more flavor is released that way, and I have absolutely no proof to back that up.
I should have chopped an onion, but these burritos had no onion. hindsight is 20/20.
Hambriger meat, diced up as finely as you feel like. I like a really reduced meat, almost to the point it isn't chewy. Mom doesn't much have the patience, if it's smaller than a meatball, she's good.
Sour cream
Los something green sauce. I don't think the brand here matters all that much, it's a green taco sauce, it raises the spicy a bit, no need to get complicated.
Mission tortillas. Mom made envelopes again. I feel like I'm going to have to do hands on rolling with her to get past this, usually she gets me to roll them, but I pulled a muscle in my neck. Means I'm fine for putting everything away, but I'm poo on detail work right now.
I previously made a disparaging remark about Mission Tortillas breaking up like a crumbly biscuit, I regret that remark, those were Guererro. These mission tortillas were light and fluffy, as always. (They should be, they charge the most).
I gotta say, those chili fries were amazing under the circumstances. I've been watching movies with mom to try and cheer her up, but this has really upset her.
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You are a good son in your efforts at distraction. I'm still sad to know there's nothing to be done about the car. How sucky is that that the cops are doing nothing?
I'm going to make some spaghetti with salad tonight. I have little motivation to cook these days. Made cream scones on Sunday that were very good, but then just had some fish sticks out of the freezer for dinner.
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Tonight we're having quesadillas.
Wheat tortillas, toasted with melted cheese (pepper jack, grated), hot sauce, spiced black beans, fresh cilantro, scallions, tomatoes, avocado heated in a pan and then devoured. One big one is enough for my dinner. We use a wide pan to cook them in, folding them halfway through. They're fun but messy. Easy to customize as everyone makes their own the way they like them. Cheap but good.
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New batch of cream scones with homemade jam. We were hungry and it's nice to have them hot out of the oven.
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Been a while, sorry about that.
Mom picked up a few packs of these: https://www.tetonwatersranch.com/products/dinner-sausages/italian-style-oregano-mozzarella/
First night we had them with regular hot dog buns, and we felt like the hot dog buns were insulting the quality of the sausage.
My first thought was pretzel rolls, because I've had those on some fancy dogs, but realized I have no bless'ed clue how to make those.
Mom came up with wrapping them in Grands biscuits.
Holy crap that was a good call. The cheese and the flaky crust combined into something truly special. Leftovers are easy too, just wrap in tin foil and toss it in the toaster oven when you're ready to eat.
Crap, if they'd had more, I wouldn't mind freezing up a bunch of these for special dinners. Those sausages seriously impressed me. No sauce needed.
Tonight we had crappy pulled chicken on hamburger buns with Muenster on top. The chicken was both underwhelming and undersized. I'm not going to toss the name out, because they deserve to die nameless.
Like, I HATE making pulled chicken. I boil chicken breasts, then use the two fork method to rip it up. Takes forever, you have to be careful not to make a mess, but I honestly think I would have got higher yield out of ONE chicken breast than this stupid pre-shredded pack. Their only positive note is that I really liked their smokey spicy sauce. It wasn't like bbq sauce, it wasn't like salsa, it was it's own thing. Still, golly that noise. Unprepared chicken is cheap compared to these kits.
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Tea and an "English" muffin. Getting ready for work.
8ully, Teton Ranch is a place on the 5 north of Los Angeles, just before Grapevine. I had the impression that it's a working farm. I wonder if the meat came from there.
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Hah, I always wondered what the golly they produced, that place is HUUUUUUUUUUUUUGE.
Mom got me some snack olives, the green ones with pimentos, and they were miserable. I read the label, and sure enough, my old nemesis sea salt was to blame.
Sea salt bless'ed sucks, whenever they substitute decent salt for that garbage, food tastes less good. Also, it doesn't even have iodide in it! So you're just hurting yourself it you eat it!
Like if I wanted my food drowned in ocean water, I could do it my damn self. Not that I would, the water in Imperial Beach has... problems.
I like to imagine our response to our neighbors dumping their garbage and waste into our territorial waters is like, a big ramp. So they dump the waste, it piles up, and then rolls right back into their tourist destinations.
It's cartoon logic, but it amuses me.
EYEBALL REMAINDER SANDWICH
Nothing out of the ordinary here despite the name. I made mom some devilled eggs. I eyeball the yolk mix, so I ended up with quite a bit left over.
So I used it like a spread, on a turkey and swiss sandwich. It's pretty much just a devilled egg filling sandwich, but dang if it wasn't filling.
Been quite a few years since I actually read a devilled egg recipe, so I'll share my less than impressive take:
You will need hard boiled eggs, a spreader knife a bowl, an old fashioned ice cream scoop, a frying pan, Mayonnaise, and yellow mustard.
Place your hard boiled eggs in the frying pan. We're using this to maintain a clean workspace. Slam the egg fat end down on the frying pan, then peel the shell. Discard shell.
With spreader knife, divide the hard boiled eggs into halfs. I pull the yolks by hand, but you could use a spoon I guess. The boiled yolks go in a bowl. Smash them with the fat end of the ice cream scoop, kind of a mortar and pestle thing. Once it's nice and powdery, with as few lumps as possible, add two tablespoons of mayo, and squirt yellow mustard in as desired. Blend with spreader knife. Pour product into egg halves as desire, season to taste.
Use the leftovers of the mixture as a spread on a sandwich. The end.
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That sounds rich. I use egg yolks in the dressing for my potato salad. It's pretty good.
I haven't been cooking much lately. We had fish sticks, cocktail sauce and frozen peas for dinner yesterday. Tonight: grilled cheese sandwiches. How's that for Valentine's Day fare?
I'll probably bake scones tomorrow as we are running out of options, although we have plenty of cereal.
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I wish I could get a grilled cheese like my grandma used to make, but I'd need to make the bread so it's like 4x the size of regular bread, like a giant's bread.
Depending on what you like to eat, a grilled cheese can be the real deal. And it can definitely signify love.
I never thought I'd say this, but I'm over stroganoff.
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Dave's killer bread + dijon mustard + Kerrygold Mild Cheddar slices. butter on the outside to assist in browning in the pan. I can make GC sandwiches, but generally leave this to my husband. He does it the way he likes. I'd probably leave them in the pan longer as I like the cheese really melty, but it was enough to eat and a quick cleanup.
God, I'm tired today. Just doing some picking up around the house with little energy to do much else.
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My roommate was buying, so I got the new seasonal item at Jbox, the "loaded" tiny tacos.
They weren't very loaded, they put some hot sauce and some stadium grade cheese sauce on the very top of the container, but it does not reach past the first layer of tacos.
Other than that, just bite sized, dry AF mini tacos. I liked the size of them, makes for decent snackage, like if I went to a movie I could see this being a good choice if they actually loaded them up with the hot sauce and cheese,
But they were very dry. Other than that, your standard Jbox tacos, filling that may or may not be cat food, a taste that is surprisingly addictive, but nothing here was particularly impressive.
I'd say save yourself a dollar and just load them up with your own hot sauce, or raid the packet bin if your Jbox still has those.
Mine has continued the MARCH TO PROGRESS by putting straws, plastic silverware, and napkins behind the counter. Like I have to ask my state legislature if it's okay if I have a napkin.
They also turned off the customer side coke mixer machine so you have to ask them for the soda you want. I confused the golly out of the counter lady when I asked for a strawberry Barqs. RIP SODA MACHINE, YOU WERE A BEAUTIFUL scallywag, TAKEN BEFORE YOUR TIME!
Like with the single use plastic bans, I wish it was more consumer side, and less big brother telling you what to do. I don't give a flying golly about my carbon footprint, let Lenoardo DiCaprio subsidize me or something.
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One of the local coffee shop chains was ceasing operations temporarily so they were giving away lots of heavy cream. I got a couple half gallons, one for a neighbor. I am getting ready to have the cream scones I made yesterday. They reheat well, and even freeze well.
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My Jack-in-the box is being demolished, whoever came up with the timeframe is a bless'ed wizard.
Mom bought "Chicken chips" and actually cracked a smile and laughed when I pointed out they're just triangle chicken nuggets. Been waiting to post that one for a bit, I try not to double post too much.
Tonight we had a knorr chicken pasta thing, and it went wrong at some point, so mom had me come in and fix it. I used some close to expy sour cream and some tabasco sauce and it firmed it up just fine.
Mom had already stockpiled ground beef and chicken before the pandemic were declared, so we've got options. Oddly enough, we can't find packets of white gravy anywhere.
I know how to make it myself, but two cups of milk feels a bit wasteful when all you need for those packets is two cups of water and some margarine.
Tomorrow, I'm thinking some kind of egg dish with breakfast sausage, perhaps we'll do breakfast for dinner.
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I've found that sour cream will last for several months past its best by date, same with yogurt. We had eggs for dinner and fried potatoes a couple days ago. My husband decided to "oven fry" a package of bacon. He forgot that our oven runs hot and burned the lot of it. That was a less than wonderful dinner. Some nights things are just off. I haven't had much time to cook lately, although at least we have lots of food put by so we won't have trouble whipping something up.
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Bacon is also unpredictable, as much as I subscribe to the "KEEP THE DAMN OVEN SHUT UNTIL IT'S DONE"! method, I'd probably make exception for bacon.
I am so sorry about the ruined meal, that's a morale burster beyond compare, and right now "golly it, we'll go out for dinner" isn't exactly an option.
We had foreman cheeseburgers tonight, they were unimpressive. I did like the provolone, it got nice and gooey. Highlight of the night.
The crescent roll sausages, I call em giant pigs in blankets, are a hit, and will probably remain on the family menu in future.
Still no sour cream. I wonder, with the restrictions stores are doing now, do you think they'd let you buy milk AND sour cream?
I am craving pizza like crazy, but I don't want to risk it. Home made pizza is mostly poo by my reckoning, one of those foods it's best to leave to the professionals.
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We had tuna melts. Toasted english muffins with tuna salad grilled to melt cheese over it. It was easy and satisfying. When shopping regularly is no longer an option, one gets creative with what's in the pantry.
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We have a dwindling supply of English muffins. Safeway can't keep them in stock for some reason. If I had more flour, I'd try to make some. Flour is also dwindling.
I'm making another Quorn veggie burger on a toasted english muffin with barbeque sauce. Sweet Baby Rays. It's ok. It doesn't take much effort. Thrown in the oven for a little less than 20 minutes and, bam. Lunch. Quorn uses mushroom protein for its basic guts. I like to think it's what they'd eat in outer space. They're always talking about fungus curries in The Expanse.
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Something to do with toilet rolls, maybe?
It's funny, but "toilet rolls" is not a common way to refer to "bath tissue" or "toilet paper" over here. I was wondering what you guys call "English Muffins" since they're clearly not called that there. I was in France and found that "French poodles" were simply "caniche." Who can explain these oddities. We struggle with a chief executive who insists on racializing the current epidemic as the "Chinese" or "Wuhan" virus. He's gotten a good deal of pushback on that. One feels deep despair when the guy in charge behaves in ways that would have gotten one punished as a child, and he simply encourages the less enlightened among the populace to follow his example. But I digress...
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We also call them "English Muffins" but whether that's to do with the recipe or elitism, is open to debate.
I also blame the Chinese for this outbreak but that's because I believe they had a chance to contain it, not particularly for the evolution of the virus. I also hate the fact that they torture and eat 20 million dogs a year and torture thousands of bears so they can extract bile, so I am a little prejudiced, I'll admit.
Last 3 days we have eaten dal. This is mainly because it's my favourite meal and I always make enough for 3 days, and also because we have shedloads of it in the "if the zombies attack" bag.
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I love dal. It's like the Indian equivalent of chicken soup. I make a version from Madhur Jaffrey. We often eat homemade Indian food that I've learned to make from the many useful youtube instructional videos.
I'm working on another batch of mint jelly. I had to stop last night and put it in jars. I'll cook it again this afternoon until it gels. It has a promising taste. I'll probably add a little rosemary to it near the end as it gives it a more subtle sweetness. We don't really eat it, but my sister likes to put it on meats, so I send it to her and give it to any of my friends who have an interest. I did dry some of the mint so I can use it in cooking if necessary.
Right now I'm eating warmed over canned soup. Not particularly gourmet of me, but it was easy and quick.
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I know - I was resident over there: you seem to have a thing about not saying "toilet": I was really tickled at the concept of a "half-bath" or "three-quarter" bath.
They used to be called "muffins" when I were a lad. Since you exported the name "muffin" for (roughly) what we called "cup cake", we have been forced to rebrand.
Not all of you struggle, apparently: as I understand it he has never been more popular than he is right now.
I know - I was resident over there: you seem to have a thing about not saying "toilet": I was really tickled at the concept of a "half-bath" or "three-quarter" bath.
They used to be called "muffins" when I were a lad. Since you exported the name "muffin" for (roughly) what we called "cup cake", we have been forced to rebrand.
Not all of you struggle, apparently: as I understand it he has never been more popular than he is right now.
American is an odd branch of English. There are cupcakes and there are muffins. They are identical in form, except that you eat cupcakes as a dessert and muffins, usually for breakfast. And "English" muffins are kind of like crumpets, basically disc shaped savory breakfast items (although Thomases has managed to produce some with raisins that are sweet).
As for the "toilet paper," vs "Bath Tissue" usage, you are also correct in surmising that Americans think the former is vulgar while the other is more polite.
I'm really unable to explain how Donald Trump is popular at all. He's a cruel sociopath. And he's probably going to end up being responsible for many deaths. I just found out that a colleague died from complications of the virus today so it's kind of hard to muster up much of my usual sense of humor regarding the current occupant of the White House.
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I was on a cooking binge yesterday and made tuna salad & garbanzo bean salad.
The garbanzo bean salad was so good that it's what I ate for lunch. Here's the simple recipe:
2 16oz cans of garbanzo beans, drained
1 red bell pepper, cut into small dice.
¼ c shallots minced
½ c small dice celery
¼ c good quality olive oil
¼ c minced fresh parsley (although I expect that dried will also work if you give it enough time to rehydrate, like overnight in the fridge)
¼ c fresh lemon juice
salt & pepper to taste (I used ½ tsp of salt to begin with and added more to individual servings)
This doesn't take long to prepare, makes a decent amount, keeps well in the fridge, and it's nourishing/tasty. It has few ingredients and can often be made with whatever you have in the fridge and pantry. I expect you might be able to substitute mild vinegar for the lemon juice in a pinch.
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I just made choc chunk cookies. Use the general Toll House recipe but substitute about 5 oz of chopped choc instead of choc chips and about a cup of chopped walnuts. Chill the dough for an hour before you bake it.
This is my third batch in the past week. It sort of takes the sting out of the apocalypse.
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Today for lunch, we continued our quest to eat through what's in the house.
Frontera Chicken Tinga Taco Bowls (frozen bowls). I was surprised it was so good. Nuke it on high for a while and add some hot sauce and salt and it will overcome initial blandness. I'd purchased them on closeout at local store anticipating taking them to work. Oh well. It was a nice warm lunch for the two of us and it took very little effort. Rick Bayless is the chef who runs Frontera an L.A. restaurant. He has a tv show explaining how to make nice Mexican inspired food. He takes you on tours of Mexico. He's kind of a doofus with this odd speech pattern in which he tortures every other word, as if he's gasping for breath, but he seems to know what he's doing. 8ully if you manage to find these at GO, you might try them if they're cheap.
There is a manager at the Grocery Outlet chain in Pleasant Hill California who does daily reports of stock and hygiene measures. He's sort of entertaining as he tells you what's in stock, what's not and when they expect more to arrive. It's better than the hit or miss approach to shopping where you have to go to several stores to get stuff. Who wants the exposure? He has a FB page and does daily updates. It's kind of like going to the store while staying home. I'm going back to cleaning the house now. Or maybe I'll take a nap instead...
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Plate of breakfast sausage patties, not even trying honestly.
Enjoyed it.
I do miss Pleasant Hill, that park was spectacular, Blondie's pizza is ace, and there used to be a place with chili cheese fries that justified the entire state's existence.
Much like all good things, it's been gone for decades. It was a dark hole in the wall, and they had puppets, I believe. It was somewhat like the pirates of the Caribbean ride.
I imagine they sold more marijuana than they did chili fries, but that's what I choose to remember.
Last time I was up in Northern California was Tony Hawk Pro Skater... 3? It had an x-man and a star wars guy. Windows Millenium was the OS in vogue, and Star Trek Voyager was still on the air.
Huh, that's where I read fanfiction for the first time. Was some good poo, they adhered to standards, unlike now.
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There was a Blondies on Telegraph Ave in Berkeley. I think I had pizza there once. It was a huge slice and heavy on the cheese. Pleasant Hill is beautiful in the residential sections. The commercial strip along Contra Costa Blvd is less lovely but there are cheaper shops there than in Walnut Creek to the south. I've not been there in months, but sometimes I think about it. I haven't driven my car in 3 weeks. Gas is cheap but going places is risky - even to the parks. Most of the East Bay Parks are closed, no parking lot access and while they can't keep you from walking in, getting there is a bit more problematic.
I made cream scones this morning. Ate them warm with homemade jam. I got up really late. Had trouble sleeping. They're easy to make and I make enough to last us the week as they reheat well. That's breakfast taken care of.
I'll probably make a second batch today. Someone gave us a half gallon of heavy cream and I need to use it before it goes bad. I may make some quiches if the flour holds out. Of course we are running out of cheese. It's hard when going to the grocer's is somewhat akin to Evel Knievel jumping over some semi trucks on a motorcycle.
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Kind of ironic I went from meat pucks for breakfast to meat pucks for dinner, but mom went FANCY meat pucks for dinner.
Recipe from a Lisa Lillien cookbook (I've no clue who she is)
I'll not reproduce the recipe, as you can probably google it, but I was severely confused that mom would hit up a cookbook.
It was "Tex-Mex Meatloaf minis".
There have been... incidents when mom attempted meatloaf in the past. Abominations half oil, half fossil have emerged from the oven, screeching, as abominations do.
This recipe nicely sidesteps that issue by being prepared in a muffin tray! Kind of like little meat muffins, but not horrible, like that would be if taken literally!
It's got meat, cheese, tomatoes, corn, beans, and breadcrumbs.
It was a very nice difference to microwaving some lazily prepared burritos, which have become a bit of a crutch.
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That sounds pretty good.
We've been eating a lot of quesadillas. Heat flour tortilla in a pan. Add grated pepper jack cheese, hot sauce, spiced black beans, sliced green onion, cilantro, tomatoes, avocado. Fold over, heat and eat. The main prep work is in the chopping of vegs, grating of cheese and adding cilantro, chili powder & some chipotle to the beans. It's easy cheap and tasty and you each make your own.
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Neighbors gave us an easter ham, and for test drivesies, I made a standard bean and cheese burrito, then sliced down some thin strips of ham.
It's fantastic. It's a glazed ham, so I was worried it would be overly sweet, but instead it was just buttery ham goodness. I went a bit nuts with the slicing, so there's enough for mom to make one later.
I'm usually not much for ham, but this stuff is tasty.
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What a kind gesture by your neighbors. It sounds delicious.
I made a tofu green bean curry, a thai recipe with coconut milk. We ate it over rice. Not exactly Easter fare, but it turned out well. It's been hard to get motivated to do a good deal lately.
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I had to slice the ham for my roommate, he kept going at a diagonal, which is a long standing argument we've had.
The ham has like, a rind thing? But the rest of it is pre-sliced, so all you have to do is pick a piece, and slice a straight line. Less than an inch.
But yeah, the burrito was fantastic. Buttery and delicious. Which isn't typically something you want in a burrito, but it worked out great.
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Plain Toast and butter :)
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Isn't all toast plain until you butter it?
good point :)
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How about raisin toast? It is anything but plain, butter or not. Butter only makes it even more delicious.
I'm eating recently made garbanzo bean salad. It's cheap, tasty and nutritious.
I posted the recipe on the previous page. My parsley has bolted so this is the last batch unless I buy some at the store, but that's like a foray into enemy territory during wartime.
This will last for a good week in the fridge. I guess I'll whip up some tuna salad for dinner. Baked some cream scones too as they freeze well and my motivation waxes and wanes. Some days I feel like cooking and sometimes I just don't feel like bothering.
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Tonight we're hitting the muffin tins again.
Brunch muffins. It was the first good Ham recipe I saw on the Mccormick website.
Originally I was going to chicken breast strips with baked broccoli with cheese, but then mom reminded me - HAM!
It's a spiral cut ham, if anyone has any favored recipes. It's kind of hard to find recipes for this, most of them are just the initial prep for a spiral ham, not what to do with the leftovers.
Surprisingly, I'm not getting sick of it. This ham was Class A.
Here's the recipe -
https://www.mccormick.com/recipes/breakfast-brunch/ham-and-cheese-egg-cups
Update - golly the Thyme, and sauté the onion.
Honestly, aside from the Thyme, I would say this may be one of my favorite things I've ever ate.
Like, whenever I go to a waffle town or intergalactic house of pancakes, I go for Denver Omelets, and this isn't far off.
Plus, no fold and ruin step!
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Those actually look pretty good, but fattening. But what isn't. Celery maybe...
I'm having tea and cream scones. The ones I baked yesterday afternoon. A couple homemade jams on them. It's hard to complain. The cream scones recipe from Molly O'Neill of the NY Times. They have a good food/recipe section. Just like the BBC.
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A really crappy hamburger helper rice meal. Mom didn't remember buying it, but I understand she was probably more focused on not getting too close to others than what type of hamhelp she was buying. I was already a bit against it as it had the "old el paso" logo on it. The last set of enchiladas came out just fine, but the sauce was crap. I wondered about that, but then realized we bought "old el paso" instead of las palmas.
I don't get the impression you're one much for box meals, but here's an image so you can avoid it:
https://www.bettycrocker.com/products/Helper/mexican-favorites/cheesy-fajita
I was slightly impressed by the yield, the rice packet was tiny, but it plumped up.
Sure enough, it resulted in a bland vaguely unpleasant meal. certainly not a re-buy. The bless'ed sour cream was a liquid too. Mom had some on hers, but I found the consistency alarming and avoided it.
Like, I've seen water on top of an already opened sour cream, it's one of life's little annoyances. You stir it in and then pretend it was never there.
But this poo was like a yogurt drink.
There's always tomorrow! I think I'll make sausages.
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Once in a while we will eat Annie's Mac n Cheese with some frozen potatoes (cooked of course) when we are too tired, or a jar of pasta sauce heated with some pasta, but I am generally not a lazy cook. I often have time to make meals from scratch so I like to make do with the few ingredients in the house so as to be creative. You seem to do well like that as well, based on the posts you make of inventive combinations of ingredients.
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My dad had a way of blending cheese and canned spaghetti, he cooked it really slow, like 3-4 cans of the stuff, and it came out tasting fresh. He lived on a boat, so dry storage was considerably important.
I like to think I'm his pale shadow. One thing I add to a boring or leftover spaghetti is a little red wine vinegar, punches it up. I can't make canned spaghetti taste fresh though, that is beyond me.
I remember he went for the Amerigo brand, I don't think they sell that anymore.
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Merlot and an oatmeal and raisin biscuit.
It's not a bad combination although I think the biscuit could be substituted for just about anything else on the planet.
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Merlot and an oatmeal and raisin biscuit.
It's not a bad combination although I think the biscuit could be substituted for just about anything else on the planet.
Ha. I thought you were tucking into the wine kind of early, as it's 10 a.m. here, but then, I remembered the time difference and realized it's early evening there. I whipped up two batches of cream scones this morning and had one with some earl grey tea. I'll freeze half of them. We are trying to use up a half gallon of heavy cream someone gave us before it goes off. Fortunately, scones freeze quite well.
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The other sour cream was not defective like the first, so we mixed it with the enchilada sauce to make a sort of burrito cream.
Anything to avoid lighting up the oven right now, it's so damned uncomfortable.
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Chef Boyardee classic designs lasagna.
I mean, who are we kidding here? This was never going to hit the standards of an actual lagsagna.
And still, I find myself impressed. The meat sauce does not go overboard, the noodles are by all designs, inoffensive.
Honestly, I'm impressed. I'd eat this again - 2 to 3 times a week in a bomb shelter.
I imagine the chef Boyardee throwback designs hit the market BEFORE the pandemic, because holy poo, last resort is not the metric any brand wants to aim for.
That being said, the light cheese notes, the meaty sauce, and the pre-mentioned inoffensive noodles really make this can a recommend.
Like, I'd probably push this over the spaghetti and meatballs, despite enjoying that option greatly.
This one has more zazz.
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I admire your willingness to sample and review these canned foods.
My husband is scratching his head for things that he can nuke at work that will help him avoid his usual practice of going out for a quick sandwich.
We have been doctoring various Bush's flavored beans with a little sautéed onion and spices, layering it over some rice with grated pepper jack cheese. It's pretty satisfying and wicked cheap. I got about a case of these beans for either free or next to nothing due to promotions/sales. So they have been gathering dust until now. It's nice to have them to fall back on. I've given a bunch to food pantries, but now we are tucking into them ourselves.
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Baked beans is the line for me, any of the bush line makes me want to hurl, and I just ate chef boyardee lasagna! I don't know if it's cilantro, I don't know if it's my aversion to sweet food, but baked beans is one of my least favorite options. (I will eat it to be polite, it's not like seafood where I barf)
Canned beans on the other hand, white or navy beans have been a godsend. I will never make black beans for my mother again. Steel eyes, don't want to talk about it, navy beans mvp.
And I think I've mentioned in past, Knorr rice packets fed me in NJ, simply because you can't just eat them, they require minor prep, even if it is amazingly simple.
Canned soup also worked back then.
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I don't like baked beans, and the beans I'm referring to are various hispanic flavorings. Chili beans and Savory beans. We had a can the other night over rice but we doctored them up. They're nothing to write home about. We just have them and figured we'd try to use them. I generally cook with the simple canned beans, black beans, garbanzo and the like.
I make a lot of hummus, sometimes some garbanzo bean salad, and we use the black beans as an ingredient in quesadillas, but we add spices to them. I also use the garbanzos in Indian recipes like Chana Masala. They're very versatile and nourishing.
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A pickle.
It's like 84 degrees in my room right now, even a burrito seems daunting.
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A pickle.
It's like 84 degrees in my room right now, even a burrito seems daunting.
Coronavirus stands no chance.
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I'm hungry but I don't want any of the poo I have. I guess I'm hungry for freedom.
Unlike the idiot neighbors, I will remain at home for safety. Not just for myself, but for everyone else as well.
(I'm probably craving something fried)
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We had a big salad for dinner. It's too hot to cook. Romaine lettuce, apple, pecans, avocado, cherry tomatoes and Italian dressing.
I can understand being tired of being indoors. I live within walking distance to stores so I amble over there once a week and get lettuce and other perishables to go with the stuff we have stashed away. I sympathize with your not being able to get to the store except via bus.
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Foreman burgers with swiss, then a nice walk.
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I had an "English muffin" for breakfast. Kind of like fancy white bread covered w/a little cornmeal. I've had better breakfast breads. We usually use them for burgers. I should have made some scones but woke up too late to bother.
At least Fortnum's Earl Grey hasn't let me down. I don't know how I'd make it if they went out of business. They're the last man standing after the demise of Jackson's. There are certainly other fine teas in the world, but you get used to one you like and it sucks when they stop making it.
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I'm doing pretty good with bread lately, but my hot dog buns molded before I could use them.
Maybe I should pick up a new toaster oven instead of buying used.
I had chicken triangles, those have lasted me quite a while. I consider that "screw it" food. Mom ate a whole sleeve of ritz crackers around wagon train, and I didn't want to eat a soup.
Anything you're craving that's been hard to get during the pandemic?
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I am filthy with Monopoly coupons for free bagels/donuts, French bread, hamburger & hotdog buns from Vons. If you can get to that store and would like them, I can mail them to you. They do this once a year, hand out tickets at the store and you use them to see if you win prizes. They love to give out bagels. They're not the best bagels, but with some cream cheese, they're lunch.
I haven't really been deprived by the pandemic, food-wise, although there are some restaurants I'd like to pop into for a sandwich or some inexpensive fare that I can not go to because of this, and the related unemployment.
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On reddit someone reminded me of a half ass knockoff of vodka sauce I did, sans vodka. Might be posted here, don't remember.
You take your basic crappy canned spaghetti sauce, and just stir in sour cream until it reaches the pinkness level you prefer. You can doctor it up however you like, but at it's most basic it's just jar o sauce + Sour Cream.
Then you decide if you want pasta or fries. I like penne for this recipe because it really soaks up the sauce nicely, but Vodka fries are insanely good, and I know I've posted them before.
I didn't eat anything awesome like that tonight, I can't even remember what I cooked mom, but I made chicken triangles for myself. Finally used them up.
Also finished up a bbq sauce right on the dot, some nice symmetry.
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Last night was a sad mac and cheese from a box with ham.
I did two remixes, but they're not remotely impressive.
The first bowl, I drowned it in cholula. Spicy, yay. that's yay with a period, not an exclamation point. The ham is dry, the mac is boxed. It was... edible.
Second bowl, no hot sauce, it's kind of a shitty crutch. I hit this one with some red wine vinegar and some Worcestershire sauce.
Honestly, bowl two wasn't bad. I mean it wasn't fantastic, the ham was still poo, but the vinegar and the worcestershire sauce gave it an interesting flavor profile.
I'd love if I could just golly around with food. Like, my dad was fantastic at it. I watch youtube videos like Babbish, who is living the bless'ed dream, or even "Should I" where he's cooking in what looks like an elks lodge, and the answer tends to be "Dear god no, don't make that. No wait, stop, don't pick up that knife!"
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Scrambled eggs w/cottage fries. Cheap quick & tasty.
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I don't know what cottage fries are. But you've made me crave carne asada fries.
OK, so cottage fries are coin cut potatoes?
Still rather have carne asada fries.
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I often have steamed vegs (broccoli, carrots, mushrooms) with baked potatoes for dinner. I will bake more than I need, then keep them in the fridge. When I want eggs, I can scramble a couple in one pan while I fry up the sliced baked potatoes in another. I use a little butter, and they brown nicely. It's so easy and they really help flesh out the egg lunch.
Yeah, I guess you could call cottage fries coin cut potatoes. My grandmother used to make them from scratch. I can't remember if she used Crisco or bacon fat. Some kind of nice fat to fry them up. They were delicious.
We don't eat lots of meat here so this is a way to get some protein and jazz it up with potatoes.
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Have been watching
Italy Unpacked
"Following the series "Sicily Unpacked," art critic Andrew Graham-Dixon and chef Giorgio Locatelli travel to regions of Italy in "Italy Unpacked." On a quest to discover the country's cultural heritage, history, food, art and architecture, Graham-Dixon and Locatelli journey to Bologna, Lombardy and Piedmont, among others. While exploring the art, culinary culture and landscape of Northern Italy, the duo share their expertise and knowledge of the culture and cuisine with viewers and each other."
Love it
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It sounds like the kind of trip I'd like to take. I haven't been to Italy in many years, but there are several cities I have not yet seen, and that would be great to visit. These kinds of shows are even more precious when we can't go anywhere but the grocery store.
I'm having the usual Earl Grey tea and cream scones with jam this morning. I was given a half gallon of cream so I baked and baked and froze a bunch of the scones. They freeze just fine. I heat them up before I eat them. There's nothing quite like using cream in scones for a delicate texture in the end result.
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Wow, this makes what I've been doing seem like finger painting.
I like to boil hot dogs and sausages, but I've been reducing the amount of water I put in the pot, Saturday night I was able to both boil and sear some johnsonville beef dogs. I thought that was neat.
I also mixed up some mayonnaise and ketchup, but the mayo is garbage and I hate it. The Pickle chips were also substandard. (I have no relish)
Mom is on a kick of trying different brands for mayonnaise. Our go-to is "Best food" which on the east coast is called "Hellmans" so they can avoid national taxes.
Another fun one is "Dreyer's" ice cream on the east coast is called "Edy's" Rally's hamburger chain is "checkers" "Carl's Jr." is "Hardees".
Shitty Knorr dinner packets are shitty Knorr dinner packets, N-A-T-I-O-N-W-I-D-E.
I still remember subsisting on knorr packets because my aunt and cousin ate anything that was "ready to eat" regardless of who paid for it. One funny thing, if it wasn't "chunky brand" they avoided the soup. Great Value soup and Chunky Soup taste about the same to me.
I also learned doing research, what I consider "bacon tongs" which are great for boiling sausages, are in fact, called Scissor tongs.
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Lemon pepper tuna n toast, pickles, and pepper Jack cheese.
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Regrettable Cocktail
I didn't have any Worcestershire sauce or horseradish, so I made a giant mistake.
I made a Bloody Mary with bbq sauce.
Do not do this. It was bad.
but here is the recipe if you must suffer -
1 shot vodka
Buch of shakes of black pepper
couple shakes of Cholula hot sauce
1 tablespoon bbq sauce (I used hickory, don't.)
8 ounces V8
a shitload of ice in a tall glass
Seriously, don't do this. I only did it because the v8 was on the edge of expiry.
The only bright point of this recipe is that no one but me suffered. I don't know what the golly I was thinking, but no, you cannot substitute Worcestershire sauce and horseraddish with a lousy bbq sauce.
Honestly, I wouldn't even say the sauce is lousy, it was OK on chicken and burgers. But this drink, ugh.
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Sorry that sounds pretty bad.
V8 might get a little lumpy in the can after a while, but it won't go bad. Just pour it through a wire sieve to take out the lumps. Every few years I get the idea to buy some V8 and then I forget about it. It's usually fine. The worst was one can that probably should have been shaken up more or strained.
Tomato juice is one of my favorite drinks to order on planes. I asked for a Campari and soda once and the flight attendant looked down her nose at me and said, "That's so '80's." I gave up and had a G&T instead. I have a final exam tomorrow and think that, given today has been a real stress fest, I'm going to kick back with a Tanqueray and Tonic right now. It's summer. I'm getting ready to go take care of old people for two months. These are old people that I dearly love, family members who are clever and interesting, but they're falling apart, losing their faculties, and that's tragic. And I have to be away from my home and my garden. Hopefully the neighbors won't kill the tomatoes. I hope the enticement of free food will encourage their stewardship.
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Fiesta bowl.
It started life as a knorr spanish rice packet, I cooked that up as per instructions.
In a second fry pan I made a thing of meat, no exact measurement, it was 1/3 of a tube.
Mixed the two, and the yield was a little low, but I remembered I had some sour cream on the edge, so I folded that in.
It tasted pretty good, but looked horrible, so I put it in some shallow bowls and shredded some cheese over the top. That made it pretty. Not a ton of cheddar, just three swipes with the shredding wand.
Then I realized it was 3:50 PM, decided golly it, and served it up.
Mom liked it.
We did garlic bread around 9:30 because we were both hungry. Mom was worried she had burnt out the toaster oven earlier, she forgot the drip tray, and cheese dropped on the lower heating element.
I managed to clean out the burnt cheese and used the "griddle" tray, to avoid drippage. Then it's just bread, butter, and garlic powder. Nothing fancy.
My bad, "broiler tray" is what it says on the internet.
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Raisin toast and some tea.
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Last night we did an ultra half ass sloppy joe.
Browned some ground beef, doused it in bbq sauce, and hamburger bun. Very reminiscent of school lunches.
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Safeway: Signature Select Frozen Ice Cream Sandwiches, mint chip flavor.
Not particularly good. These were a freebie, so it's hard to complain. I usually share them with the child across the street but the parents think he's getting too chubby, so we are stuck with all 12 of them. They are small and easy to fit into the freezer so they'll go away relatively soon.
I think they would have been a good dessert for your sloppy joe adventure. A perfect way to cleanse the palate.
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Mom made burritos and put a ton of effort in. Mega contrast with last night.
I'm not sure what lit a culinary fire in her heart, but she did a great job. Nothing out of a can, everything was fresh, and it reminded me of how many shortcuts I take when I cook.
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I made the indoor version of this:
Honestly I don't get the outdoor version, just seems to be a smash burger.
Covid meant I had to make a few substitutions, which made me nervous, as substitutions can absolutely ruin a recipe. Hence all the comments on recipes where they go "This was poo! I didn't have X, so I used disgusting substance Y instead, and it ruined it!" (Yeah, no poo)
Anyway the substitutions were as follows.
I didn't have yellow mustard, so I used brown. I think this made the sauce a bit more savory, but thankfully it didn't cross the line to bitter.
I didn't have American cheese, so I mixed some shredded cheddar and some shredded mozzarella, once again I think this cut the "sweet" flavor this sandwich is probably supposed to have.
So it ended up a bit savory instead of sweet. Mom said it reminded her of an in-n-out burger, and I have to agree.
I'd say the biggest surprise here was using mayonnaise instead of butter on the bread. I was shocked at how much better the bread evenly cooked and became golden brown. A lot of the time I've had grilled cheese sandwiches fall apart in the pan because the butter made the bread too soft, the mayo made it hold up nicely.
If I had more time/ingredients, I might have used fresh onion slices instead of the diced and caramelized onions the recipe calls for, I might also stick in a leaf of lettuce to up the crunch factor.
Obviously this isn't a calorie counter's friend, but I figure if I only do this once a month or so, I should be fine. It's always nice to break out of routine and try something else.
During covid I've managed to lose exactly three pounds.
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I feel so lonely here now...
Anyway, I took one of those poo knorr packets, and a velveeta packet from the dollar store, combined them with some steamed chicken and steamed broccoli.
It was disappointingly bland, so I hit it with some soy sauce, and holy poo, soy sauce is apparently a stimulant to me now, because I was up until 8 AM the next day, then crashed like a corpse.
So I guess I'd say I enjoyed the experience while it lasted, and the knorr packets are relatively inoffensive, but I probably spiked the golly out of the sodium content.
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There is low sodium soy sauce. I'm not sure what brand you used. Most traditional soy sauce is not as high in sodium as regular table salt. I put it on lots of stuff: eggs, vegetables, rice, etc.
I had a grilled plantain last night, one that was picked recently, and it was like a party in my mouth. Up until that moment I just didn't get the whole idea of plantains. I had some in the States years ago and in San Juan recently, and they were just bland starchy and basically flavorless. I didn't get what the fuss was about. They are kind of like American supermarket bananas compared to the one I ate in Brazil. The ones in the US are just bland and starchy. The one I had in Brazil was like this burst of complex flavors. There's something to be said for obtaining ingredients near their source.
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Yup, starchy like a less than fantastic tamale. I'm glad you were able to have a proper one.
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golly, I honestly can't remember. We had nice sandwiches for lunch...
oh golly, it was a nasty can of chef boyardee ravioli. I hated it.
And hours later I shoved my face with shredded cheese from a bag.
Honestly, I blame the ravioli. When I eat a can of Chef Boyardee spaghetti, it gets the job done, and I go to bed full.
So yeah, Chef Boyardee ravioli can golly right off.
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golly, I honestly can't remember. We had nice sandwiches for lunch...
oh golly, it was a nasty can of chef boyardee ravioli. I hated it.
And hours later I shoved my face with shredded cheese from a bag.
Honestly, I blame the ravioli. When I eat a can of Chef Boyardee spaghetti, it gets the job done, and I go to bed full.
So yeah, Chef Boyardee ravioli can golly right off.
I'd never hear of Chef Boyardee so I looked it up. This video makes me I wish I hadn't:
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That guy is way overdoing the "cool kids club" youtube personality, holy poo.
Mostly it's bland. Bland pasta, bland meat, bland sauce.
Which is weird because when the dude was alive people went nuts for his sauce. Like they'd show up at his restaurant and just buy jugs of the poo.
Also this idiot is eating it straight out of the can... you have to heat it.
I looked him up, and this guy is a real piece of work.
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I've never been to Buca de beppo. This guy is really annoying. In love with his own adjectives. I agree with your assessment. He really needs a bucket of cold water thrown over him.
Sure you can eat canned pasta, but it ain't all that hard to make in the first place. I guess if you don't have access to cooking facilities, it might make sense if you lacked alternatives.
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honestly it's been a gift with covid.
Making actual pasta is right out with this heat, but microwave up a can of bland spaghetti, and you're done!
The ravioli's on the other hand, are not filling enough.
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Tonight was pretty amazing.
The heat wave dipped enough I was willing to risk the toaster oven, so I rolled out some pastry and a pack of aidells. Roasted garlic and gouda.
Normally the cheese in an accent, but here, it's bursting.
The pastry came in precut triangles, which is less helpful than they think it is. Each sausage got two triangles, and then I budged them together to form a nice barrier coating.
Next, I gave them the listed 11 minutes in a 375 degree toaster oven.
That didn't get the job done, so I gave it another five.
In the meantime, I mixed the same sauce from the patty melt, this time actually measuring it. feel free to adjust.
2 TBS ketchup, 2 TBS Mayo, 2 TBS yellow mustard, 1TBS Worcestershire sauce. Spin it with a spoon until well blended.
Then I used the logo on the paper plate to separate food and condiment, and it was an amazing gooey mess. Didn't even realize I needed this, but I did.
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Tonight we had Aidell's meatballs, and I can't say I'm a fan. It was a whoopsie purchase, mom thought she bought sausage, not meatballs.
We were going to do like a light stroganoff/swedish meatball type thing, sans onions because of the recall, but I've got plenty of garlic and Worcestershire sauce.
Heated them up separately because I wanted to see how they tasted before I ran the demon stove. They were... gross? Like they were chicken, which is divisive. I like chicken sausage, a lot of people I know won't touch it.
I don't actually see the ones we got on the website, or I'd link it as a warning. They had like, spinach in them? I'm sure a cook with more time and a more friendly climate could figure out something to do with that, maybe something greek? some cucumbers on a sandwich, maybe Tzatziki?
Either way, a sour cream and savory sauce just seemed like the wrong lane, so I crap hit it. Meatball sandwich with canned sauce.
The rolls actually turned out amazingly well, and the cheese was nice and gooey, the sauce I could take or leave, but the meatballs, again, were a disappointment.
I probably would have been better off just saucing and cheesing the bread.
Ya live, you learn, some dinners just suck.
Yesterday I think we did cold cut sandwiches? It got up around 96 degrees and just sat there all day. 84 right now and we're creeping up on midnight.
I also had some disappointing ice cream tonight, they overdid it with the chocolate. Like, if you're doing ice cream, I could see going two note with the chocolate, like a chocolate ice cream base with chunks of chocolate in it, but for the third... I dunno, tone? Throw in some caramel, some vanilla cream, something to break up the chocolate overload.
Nope, chocolate chocolate chocolate. Mom ate it happily.
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Some of their meatballs are ok. Some not so much. They make really good caramelized onion burgers (chicken) but the related meatballs are pretty disappointing. It's hard to know why. I often pick up what they have at Grocery Outlet, but it's good to keep an eye on the exp. dates. They freeze well, too.
I am eating lots of good french yogurt and some nice local barbeque. I had some really good fish last night: grouper fried and then smothered in some kind of delicious sauce. It's cheap and they give you a ton of food. It's a hole in the wall local place with no signage and only word of mouth to let you know it's a restaurant. They give you scalloped potatoes with cream, and peas & rice, as well as salad and vegs. I can eat one meal for 3 days. $12 for one of those styrofoam take out containers heaped with food. We eat lots of salads and sandwiches because of the heat. I'm not inclined to cook anything much more adventurous than an omelette, although my skills in that area are improving. Not quite up to the level of Gwen in Gavin and Stacy, though.
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I've had rather a lot of chocolate, beer and crisps today. This is mainly as I have had some loungin' time here and there.
That kind of foodstuff is great while you're eating it, but you invariably feel poo afterwards.
Come back cabbage, all is forgiven!
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I'm back on my keto diet so I had a roast beef/chicken wrap (low-carb tomato tortilla, spinach, mont. jack cheese, and brown mustard). Pretty tasty.
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Mom made a fantastic broccoli/noodle/cheese/chicken dish.
I love when I have no input and she hits it out of the park, it's a delicious surprise. This one started savory, and then kicked me in the ass with spicy, I was truly impressed.
Unfortunately, when I asked for instructions if I want to make this later, it was pretty much a shrug. She used what she had on hand to make dinner.
I figure I've complained about her mistakes enough I owe her some praise here.
As far as I can tell, it was broccoli florets over elbow noodles, chunked up chicken I assume she steamed and seasoned, the cheese sauce and the spicy are a void. We've got cheese, we've got spicy stuff, I think I tasted Worcestershire sauce in there, which kicks broccoli right in the ass, high recommend there.
I think the Worcestershire sauce was a surprise because she usually just uses that for burgers. Her experimenting is heartening. I think I've mentioned it before, but when I came back from NJ, she just ate crappy frozen dinners. It's nice to see her be alive.
As to the sauce, the reason it's a black hole is I KNOW she didn't mix a bechamel. Because I joke about that with her all the time. "First make a bechamel" has led to oven mittens being thrown at my head many a time.
Still, whatever it was, it was nice. And white. Definitely not an alfredo, she DESPISES alfredo.
Either way, it's nice to feel happy after dinner. Times are rough, and any levity is a treat.
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That sounds tasty. I am eating potato chips for the salt. And washing them down with cold seltzer.
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There's a French grocery chain called Super-U and they make some really good Chicken Bolognese pasta sauce.
We are having it over some linguini tonight. Simple to prepare and relatively little fuss over the whole business.
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We stopped by a local barbeque place last night on the way home. They only had fried chicken on the menu, so I ordered some. Wow. Talk about unclear on the concept. It's like they took out some of yesterday's leftover barbeque chicken leg and submerged it in hot oil until it was hard, overcooked and lacking in any flavor besides old greasy chicken. Even on a bad day, KFC beats this hands down.
Normally, fried chicken in the US has some kind of breading on it: usually, it's dipped in egg batter and then rolled in salt & pepper seasoned flour before frying, and it's raw to begin with. Not this stuff.
We'll go to our regular place on Thanksgiving and get a carryout meal. The helpings are more generous and you can actually eat everything you get without wanting to throw it out as soon as possible. So we are grateful that this is an option. The frozen Butterball turkeys here run around $60. So that ain't happening.
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We have found decent frozen quiches in the local supermarket chain. There's leek and another kind: vegetables of the sun. I'm translating from the French. The latter was for dinner tonight. We were too tired for anything else. It's kind of like ratatouille: yellow pepper, onion, zucchini, tomatoes. Very tasty. It's not as overladen with cheese as the quiche (this one is called a tarte).
Anyway, a half hour from frozen solid to the dinner plate. It makes me feel less guilty than a frozen pizza would. The traffic here is a complete nightmare as everyone has to take a few roads to go anywhere. This is exacerbated by the fact that everyone seems to be holiday shopping. And although there are small local buses, it's kind of like a comic movie trying to go anywhere.
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There's a French grocery chain called Super-U and they make some really good Chicken Bolognese pasta sauce.
I remember them from my holidays
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Stopped by a local hole in the wall today and got some fabulous chicken barbeque. The habit is to give you enough to eat for 3 days in a single container under the guise of a meal. Peas and rice, salads, and "dog sauce" (a vinaigrette based onion, pepper, parsley & celery condiment). I barely made a dent in it. There's easily enough for us to have dinner and another meal from this. The price? $13 because I asked for a second piece of chicken. Otherwise, $10. I'll be back. These places have no name, they just have a tiny niche with a food truck (on blocks) and space for a grill and a small steam table.
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I was going to make chili fries tonight but mom is visiting a friend, and I hate both gluttony and food waste. (Also food storage, I hate storing the food)
(Don't much mind opening the containers back up again.)
We have a bunch of hot dogs in the freezer, so I just thawed and cooked two of em in the toaster oven, tossed some mild shredded cheddar on top and some brown mustard.
Nothing fancy but they turned out okay.
I miss Johnsonville bratwurst, those things cook up a lot more nicely than random hot dogs.
Ah well, I can always make the chili fries tomorrow.
On the plus side, I may not know what brand these dogs were, but they were decent, and not disgusting.
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Cup of Yorkshire tea and some nice granary bread with butter and apricot jam. I need the caffeine, but I don't know if it will work. Maybe I should just switch to an I.V.
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Cup of Yorkshire tea and some nice granary bread with butter and apricot jam. I need the caffeine, but I don't know if it will work. Maybe I should just switch to an I.V.
granary bread my fav
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Covid has seriously sapped any food attempts.
I put cheese and tabasco on top of a fairly crap hamburger helper. Woo.
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Covid has seriously sapped any food attempts.
My missus signed up to Oddbox thinking that if it all went tits up again at least we'd have something delivered. She was meant to cancel them at least 3 boxes ago but keeps forgetting, so now every time one arrives I have to create dish upon dish to get rid of the stuff. Last night I did a vegetable bake (potatoes, parsnips, carrots, purple broccoli and courgettes) that was coooked in a gorgonzola sauce. Before I poured the sauce in I fried a leek and a spanish onion in olive oil, paprika and cayenne. I scattered this over the top of the par-boiled veg before adding the sauce and topping it with cheddar before baking. I made the sauce myself with some Italian gorgonzola and added some finely chopped parsley just to lift it a little.
Most of us had seconds and there's half left for tonight.
And only half the Oddbox left for something else I have to invent.
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Turbo carb hell.
Mom bought a five pound bag of tater tots a while back. At the time it seemed prudent, like maybe toss a few in the toaster oven for a snack.
Nah, carb fat overload. Now I'm not saying we ate five friggin pounds of tato, it was more a knockoff of this:
https://www.oldelpaso.com/recipes/tater-taco-casserole
I got it off the facebook. We already had chili made, and I figured this is just the reverse of an old go to dinner, tater tots with chili on top.
We had some frozen corn in the freezer that was begging to be put out of it's misery, so we dumped that in the chili.
So instead of tater tots covered in chili, we had chili covered in tater tots.
And mom made a cake.
So turbo cab hell, and mom says she's never buying tater tots again.
Oh, the cheese was mozzarella instead of cheddar because we had mozzarella, not cheddar.
So I guess if you wanted to reproduce this recipe, you'd make a chili to your own specs, toss some corn in it, top with tots, then top that with a light dusting of mozerella. Tots and Moz was actually pretty good, and we'd probably be a lot less full if we stuck to that.
We completely forgot the sour cream and olives. We had both, but just forgot. That's probably for the best.
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I'm constantly impressed at your penchant for invention given oddball ingredients. You usually manage to rise to the occasion. I don't know about tater tots, though. I love hash browns. I expect they're like that only with a chewy center. Sounds super fattening. I love potatoes.
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Pretty much identical to hash browns, maybe a bit less crispy.
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Double update, and apologies for the double posting.
On cinco de mayo, which was made famous in the US by Corona Brewing Company, mom made beef enchiladas.
We've had arguments before, she likes the green sauce more than the red sauce, but the green sauce requires a lot more prep, and you're "supposed" to use it for chicken.
She had me cook the meat, then took over. We used El Pato red enchilada sauce, which gets an 88% approval rating from some random website. I like El Pato sauces first for their old school duck logo, and secondly because they don't pump that poo full of preservatives. I believe there are nine ingredients, none of them a benzite or sorbate.
I think the only real "trick" to enchiladas is making sure you bake them seam side down. Either way, they are one of the few foods that actually tastes better as leftovers. I don't know how that works, but it does.
Tonight I did a franken-meal, where I mix together what I have, rather than what I want.
One ingredient was a bag of Bird's eye broccoli, shredded carrot, and I forget the third thing, but it wasn't cauliflower. These veggies were underwhelming, and a surprisingly low yield once I got the bag torn open. (You steam it in the bag)
The next ingredient were some frozen pre-prepared chicken slices, which kind of look like fingers. They're un-breaded. Nothing to write home about, I shredded them up with a fork in a bowl. This was actually a bit easier than shredding a chicken breast, and I might steal this method from myself the next time I need to make chicken salad. I HATE shredding chicken. But who likes doing that?
Mom can't have soy sauce, so I gave hers a Tostito's queso cup, which was kind of like a jello cup filled with nacho cheese sauce. It didn't come with heating instructions, and I know not to put foil in the microwave, so I microwaved some water up to scalding, dumped the cup in, and covered it with a temperature sensitive pot lid. (Thermo-something) I gave that a few minutes to heat up, and stirred together the lackluster veggies and unimpressive chicken. It was not a pretty dish, and I would definitely not post it on social media.
Once the sauce was heated up enough, I spooned it into the individual bowls for the meal, and stirred it up. That made it REALLY ugly.
Tasted ok. I put about a teaspoon of soy sauce in mine, that wasn't a great idea, made it really salty.
I'd make the MEAL again, but Bird's eye is bless'ed fired out of the rotation. I'd probably just steam the broccoli myself and run a fresh carrot through a potato peeler. Might even manage to make it look presentable if I cooked the chicken from scratch.
As to the cheese sauce, I'd lazy it up again. Buying a cheese packet means you never have to "First, make a roux" which are words I occasionally say to my mom when we're in a car going somewhere to watch her eyes get all pissed off.
I was going to do a big pancake thing for mothers day, but we're both sick. Sucks.
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I hope you are both feeling better now. We recently discovered Frontera salsas and like all of them. I've scoured the island and they don't seem to have any more in stock, so that's a bummer. I may have to resort to Pace brand, which is mediocre. I doubt there's any Pato brand here.
I'm making the first of a series of big pots of vegetable soup: celery, onion, carrot, tomato, zucchini, cabbage, butter beans, potatoes, with chicken stock seasoned with basil, bay leaves and red pepper flakes. Olive oil to start the cooking. It smells pretty good. It freezes well, too. I'll make two more pots. My feet are sore from chopping enough vegetables for three batches in one go, but it's a good deal easier to put the 2nd and 3rd together. It's for our father, since it's easy to take a serving out of the freezer, thaw and nuke it. I usually fill the freezer every couple of months. We eat simply here.
Today: Quorn (veggie) burger on wheat bread with mustard. Not much excitement going on except that the neighbor's dog is visiting. She's a real sweetie and she chases lizards, which is a plus.
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I botched nachos.
Which was really sad, because the filling came out great.
Problem was the chips. I bought Tapatio Doritos because I figured a hot sauce based chip would make it great, instead the powder coating burned, making the entire tray taste kind of crap.
We've been half heartedly picking at the leftovers, but it wasn't great.
I will reiterate that the filling came out fantastic, and here's the video I followed:
Marrying the onion, garlic, and meat is something I've done many a time for recipes, but mixing in the beans with some water is not something I've done before. I was very pleased with the outcome. I'm also super jealous of her frying pan. I always wondered why some frying pans have that lip, and after watching the video, it's fairly obvious. It makes draining the fat much easier.
I think I might buy another of those onion chopper infomercial things, I really hate dicing onions.
Tonight I made sandwiches. Super boring, super basic. Potato bread, Chipotle chicken, Muenster cheese, brown mustard, some pepper, and a stupidly pretentious mayo because grocery outlet hasn't been stocking mayo. Sir Kensington's Mayonnaise. Can't say I'm a fan, as it uses safflower oil. At least they're upfront about it, there is a picture of a sun flower on the label.
Mom's off at a friends house, so there's no need to fire up stove or oven.
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I laughed at the Sir Kensington's mayo reference. Pretentious for sure. I mean, come on. WTF does some British sounding lord have to do with a sauce more typically associated with the French? I was then intrigued by the issue of where the name originated and so dug into Wikipedia. Here, for your entertainment, is the relevant section.
Before the sauce called Mayonnaise appeared in French cookbooks in the 18th century, several versions of similar sauces existed in Spain and in France.
In 1750, Francesc Roger Gomila, a Valencian friar, published a recipe for a sauce similar to mayonnaise in Art de la Cuina ('The Art of Cooking'). He calls the sauce aioli bo. Earlier recipes of similar emulsified sauces, usually bearing garlic, appear in a number of Spanish recipe books, dating all the way back to the 14th century Llibre de Sent Soví, where it is called all-i-oli, literally 'garlic and oil' in Catalan. This sauce had clearly spread throughout the Crown of Aragon, for Juan de Altamiras gives a recipe for it in his celebrated 1745 recipe book Nuevo Arte de Cocina ('New Art of Cooking').
On April 18, 1756, the Duke of Richelieu invaded Menorca and took the port of Mahon. A theory states that the aioli bo sauce was thereafter adopted by the cook of the Duke of Richelieu, who upon his return to France made the sauce famous in the French court. At that point, the sauce became known as mahonnaise (indicating it was named after the city of Mahon). A number of legends arose relating how the Duke of Richelieu first tried the sauce, including his discovery of the sauce in a local inn of Mahon where he would have allegedly asked the innkeeper to make him some dinner during the siege of Mahon, and even that he invented it himself as a quick garnish.
Other sauces similar to mayonnaise seem to have existed in France prior to the conquest of Mahon by Richelieu. In a book published in 1742, François Marin gives a recipe for a sauce that is close to modern mayonnaise, and inspired by remoulade sauce, and by aioli.
Another version is Grimod de La Reynière's 1808 bayonnaise sauce which is a sort of aspic: "But if one wants to make from this cold chicken, a dish of distinction, one composes a bayonnaise, whose green jelly, of a good consistency, forms the most worthy ornament of poultry and fish salads." The earliest known French recipes of the sauce appear to be recipes for an aspic, not a sauce; Viard's 1806 recipe for "poulets en mayonnaise" describes a sauce involving a velouté, gelatin, vinegar, and an optional egg to thicken it, which gels like an aspic. The word "mayonnaise" is attested to in English in 1815.
Auguste Escoffier wrote that mayonnaise was a French mother sauce of cold sauces, just like Espagnole or Velouté.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayonnaise (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayonnaise)
Menorca is one of the Spanish Balearic islands and Mahon is a port on that island.
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I looked it up, faux snootiness, Sir Kensington's is *GASP* American.
Makes good chicken salad. Like I said before, not a big fan of safflower oil, I really like olive oil mayo. But I had some leftover chicken from that veggies and chicken meal that had one day left on the meter.
I hit the mayo and chicken with some black pepper and mustard, it came out nice. Would have been better with a bit of lemon juice, but I'm fresh out.
Definitely a better use for the chicken than that veggie meal, that was a bomb.
In future I'd probably do something to dry the chicken out a bit, it was way too wet to begin with.
Oh man, their website is hilarious. They talk about being fancy and "Magnifique" but the reviews do not bear that out.
TWO STAR REVIEW:
The new recipe however has the texture of hair products, lardy with almost a white translucency. It feels like the egg yokes/mustard are missing and the taste of the oil reminds me of a stale product. Extremely sad
ONE STAR REVIEW:
There is nothing "improved" about this new recipe. Now it just tastes like any other commercial mayo, maybe even a bit worse, flat with no depth or complexity, and just a smidge of chemicals and plastic. Seriously disappointed.
ANOTHER ONE STAR:
IMPROVED RECIPE" = BLAND FLAVOR
You definitely had quality control issues that needed attention, but now you've gone ahead and changed the formula and ruined what had been a uniquely delicious product! So very disappointed.
At least now I know how Sir Fancypants ended up at grocery outlet.
In one response, they admit they cut two ingredients - mustard flour and black pepper.
I guess that's what made my chicken salad enjoyable. Why would you turf your product like that?
One more one star, because this is bless'ed fun -
TASTES AWFUL... NOT WHAT IT USED TO BE
I have no idea why they thought it was a good idea to throw out a winner. The new recipe is awful. Where their old recipe was soft and creamy, the new one is gelatinous. Where the old one had a wonderful hint of savory seasonings, the new one has a sterile and metallic flavor.
I’m absolutely baffled at how such an abomination made it through the company’s decision process and ruined a good product.
I guess I should give kudos that they left these reviews up on their own website.
Huh, I went and checked. I've got "Original recipe"
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Those reviews are pretty funny. Every now and then ibotta, the rebate app, would have rebates for buying it, but I was never tempted.
I made some very good tuna salad for lunch today: celery, shallot, some dried oregano with Super U tuna (line caught) and Lesieur Mayonnaise (douce made with free range chicken egg yolks) along with a mix of Super U Moutarde Douce (mild) and Super U Moutarde Fine et Forte (fine and strong-packs a punch). This is all stuff off the shelf and most of it store brand. The tuna was, unlike the tinned American stuff, actually generously packed in the can so there wasn't 50% water). The Mayo is basically very good, using huile de colza (rapeseed oil), egg yolks, vinegar (white wine), sugar, salt and a few other odd items. I'll miss this mayo when I go home. But Heinz, Hellmann's are generally fine with me. Not so good as this, but we don't have much choice given the main division between Unilever and Kraft in the food aisles of most American supermarkets. There's stuff I miss here, but not much. There's no Sir Kensington's here, for example. I have a friend who lives in Hungary and his mother made mayo once with sour cream. It was to die for. I've never made it myself, but if you get up a good head of steam with an egg beater or a whisk, I imagine it's not that hard.
Has anyone on here ever made mayo at home?
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... and we Brits refused to recognise that garlic was edible until (at the very earliest) the 1970s. Until then it was filthy foreign muck that made Frenchmen smell. Or maybe Spaniards.
Brits have always made a fine art of xenophobia.
You reminded me of these sketches. Absolutely hilarious!
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Pizza hut now sells a "Sunday Roast" pizza. It's not that great. I don't know what they were smoking when they came up with this. Stick with the pepperoni.
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For the most part, I hate these "novelty" pizzas (Dessert pizzas on the other hand, are awesome). Papa John's has a "Cheeseburger" pizza that I've tried a couple times. Every time, it smells great, but tastes like (what I imagine) vomit (tastes like).
The only novelty pizzas I really like are hot wing pizzas (name varies) and the universally hated ham and pineapple.
BTW TNG, love the avatar, though crossing DC/Marvel could get you in trouble in some circles. ;)
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Cheeseburger pizza is amazing when it's done properly. Unfortunately, a lot of places "wing it". I doubt you'll ever be in Bridgewater NJ, but if you do oddly find yourself there, http://carlospizzaandpasta.com/
Dude was super prickly, but he liked my Uncle.
I hate the smell of a meat lovers pizza, but I enjoy the taste just fine.
I know I'll probably recoil in horror, but what is on a Sunday Roast pizza?
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The only novelty pizzas I really like are hot wing pizzas (name varies) and the universally hated ham and pineapple.
Ham and pineapple is not a novelty, it's the pinnacle of pizza. I was lucky I ordered a ham and pineapple as well because the Sunday roast sure as hell wasn't going to feed me.
BTW TNG, love the avatar, though crossing DC/Marvel could get you in trouble in some circles. ;)
They can try it on, see where it gets them. They don't know what I'm capable of.
I know I'll probably recoil in horror, but what is on a Sunday Roast pizza?
English style roast beef with sage & onion stuffing, roast potato slices and red onions, all on a red wine gravy base (may contain alcohol) - from the pizza hut site.
The beef and stuffing are tasty, and potato on a pizza is also great. Where it goes wrong though is with the "gravy base". The onions are caramelised or something, which are nice with some things, but on this pizza with the gravy is not it chief.
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Pizza is one of my favorite foods. A simple cheese slice, maybe with some mushrooms is fine by me.
Here, the French think that, because their country has 5000 different kinds of cheeses, they should put as many as possible on their pizza. The result is that pizza here sucks, unless your goal is to up your cholesterol count as quickly as possible. Then, you're golden with the local pizzas. A few new pizzerias have opened here in the last month and I might give them a try, just to see if there's been any improvements. On the Dutch side, there's a Dominos, but I avoid them like the plague. Better to eat a bowl of thin gruel and some fruit.
It's hot so I had salad for dinner. I sure would have loved a good slice of pizza, though.
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When in CA you live by a blondies. I am insanely jealous. Have you ever been? Is Rasputin Records next door still in business?
I don't miss much from my childhood. Times were tough. Blondies was a bit of a refuge. I'd go there, play a little Street Fighter 2, which was still there in 2002, and enjoy a slice.
I don't have anything like that here. We have a local pizza place but the owner is mean. And not in a "He'll warm up to you over time" way. Dude is just a surly bottom like Moe Szylak.
I just checked. Blondies is permanently closed. golly. That's gonna make my mom sad when I tell her tomorrow.
Apparently that's happened twice, they've reopened in the same location but apparently it was poo both times it reopened.
Guess it's like blockbuster, something to live fondly in memory, not in the world.
I can't remember the last time I played an arcade game.
To Reorient back on topic, we did basic burritos tonight, nothing fancy. Quite a bit of cheese.
They didn't have tubs of sour cream so we got the daisy squeeze tube. It's quite convenient for putting on a burrito but feels like a giant toothpaste tube in practice.
I re-simmered the already cooked meat in 1/3 cup water, some chili powder and some cayenne pepper. Woke the leftovers up nicely.
Cayenne certainly reminds you once you've eaten it.
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I never ate at Blondies, although the slices looked huge and they used a lot of cheese. I used to shop at Rasputin and Amoeba records. I didn't buy much. They both had great selections.
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I'll always have a soft spot in my heart for Rasputin's. Last time I went in, the clerk was hippy as golly, he looks at me and says "Dude, Bulworth Soundtrack"
I said "Excuse me?"
He said "You want the Bulworth Sondtrack"
So I looked at it, and it was Rap. "I don't listen to rap."
"Just give it a chance man, that's the CD for you."
And god damn if he wasn't right. I mostly listened to punk back then, and those CD's clock in relatively short. Bulworth Soundtrack has some AMAZING STORIES in it's rap tracks, and it is a veritable who's who of 90's rap.
I would not have the deep appreciation I have of the entire Wu-Tang Clan, if not for that weird hippy.
Jesus, that was 1998. Time flies.
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They have a great used section in the basement. I think the last album I bought there was some latin jazz I'd heard on KCSM. Of course they had it in stock.
They have a little of everything. The one thing I really miss about brick and mortar record stores is the expertise of people who take music seriously and listen to lots of it. You could really learn about new recordings that were worthwhile and not something you'd normally pick out on your own. Rasputin is still alive. http://www.rasputinmusic.com/berkeley (http://www.rasputinmusic.com/berkeley)
Radio is the last holdout of places we can find good music. Now you can stream all kinds of stuff.
Food? I am eating French pastries from the grocery store (and they're good) and washing them down with good English tea. Soon, I'll have to go for a couple mile walk to counter the effects.
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coffee and toast with Rose's marmalade on :)
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Farm Rich mozzarella sticks bless'ed suck.
The Broccoli I steamed came out okay.
One weird thing is if you google these lousy cheese sticks, the reviews are universally, pod people positive. Everyone loves them.
Well I didn't!
It was like a crappy mozzarella cheese stick in a breading shell.
I should have bought Jalapeño poppers.
As for the broccoli? I put them in the steamer pot filled with water, and steamed it until it was less tree like, and more food like.
I don't find broccoli particularly complicated.
Honestly, I wish I'd made more Broccoli, and less shitty cheese sticks.
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I often eat steamed broccoli for dinner. Baked potatoes are a good accompaniment. Usually I eat it with plain yogurt (kind of like a sour cream substitute) and a little butter. I can understand the cheese. But there are two different kinds of mozzarella sticks. I am thinking of the plain, refrigerated ones that come individually wrapped in plastic. Do you mean the stuff you put in the oven that's breaded? I prefer my cheese neat, usually. This guy loves them. I think it's telling that he's wearing a t-shirt that says "Tool." That pretty much says it all.
I think the best mozzarella cheese sticks are Galbani full milk mozzarella, but that makes them fattening. I've had Safeway brand and they're not too bad. These are in the refrigerated section. Eat them right out of the wrapper. No oven involved.
This reviewer needs to be madam slapped every time he draws a breath. I had to stop after 5 minutes. Fortunately, he reviews the mozzarella stix first. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bbe0BvRHJek (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bbe0BvRHJek)
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Isn't the second one the bless'ed idiot who eats soup uncooked?
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I made an old standby today, but I twisted it.
Tater tots with chili and cheese. The twist was instead of combining all the ingredients on the stovetop, I did it on the plate.
It was good and it didn't leave me with that heavy gut feeling. Mom made a massive pot of chili a few days back, so we've just been pairing it with different things.
Mixing it all on the plate also led to some instinctive portion control, which is probably a good thing.
Might make chili dogs tomorrow night.
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Isn't the second one the bless'ed idiot who eats soup uncooked?
I skimmed his videos, and I'd characterize them as "Reviews of Food that makes you want to puke." The moral of the story is that you don't have to add value to content to be on youtube, just make a video and upload it. I prefer car repair videos. He's pretty repulsive.
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Breakfast is fresh pineapple and tiny flavor bomb bananas. Earl Grey tea to drink (Taylors of Harrogate shipped via amazon). amazon is an octopus. You can have it shipped pretty much everywhere.
I'm going to attempt a batch of Pikliz today. It's basically Haitian spicy sauerkraut. Shredded cabbage, lime, scotch bonnet peppers, grated carrots, salt, vinegar, a little adobo and some crushed Maggi chicken broth cube. Last time I went to the local Haitian barbeque, they'd run out. I had to wait so long for the new batch that the women took me into the kitchen where I was given a chair. The great part of this was, I could watch them make it. That, alone was a gift. Normally, you let it sit in the fridge for 3 days before eating, but this was fine. I took it home and left it overnight before I had it.
The barbequed chicken is brined and I can't figure out if they use a rub, but it's really good, although it makes you thirsty. I guess it's not advisable for those on low sodium diets.
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To be honest this morning was left-over pizza from watching the game last night. To make it more breakfastey, the missus threw on a couple of fried eggs.
Diet is going poo.
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I made what six made, but way shittier.
The chicken came from a pouch, kind of like tuna fish, but I can't eat seafood. Some switch flipped when I was around six years old and I violently expel any seafood I eat. Makes family dinners at seafood restaurants awkward. (They used to all have one non-fish dish, but noooo)
Mixed that with some mayo, it was super bland so I chopped in some onion and horseradish. The resulting combo tasted pretty good so I put it on some french rolls with some swiss.
The french rolls had expired. The mold taste was... floral? Either way the french rolls went to garbage town.
Thankfully we had fat onion hamburger buns so I just transferred the contents. Pretty good dinner, didn't have to engage any heating elements, was a good one. Oh, and banana pepper rings. I love those suckers.
Kind of reminds me of babish, he used to do one "Basic madam" version of the recipe, like screen accurate big kahuna burgers which were like bargain bin hamburger bun, frozen burger patty, cheapest american cheese in the store, squirt of ketchup.
And then he'd make the bread for the fancy one from scratch, the burger patty would be a blend of fanciful meats, the cheese would be artesinally sourced, the ketchup homemade.
I'm aware I bent up "artesinally" but spellcheck is saying arterial. If you've got arterial cheese, it's time to cut back.
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I think it's artisan, artisanally? Who knows. It's probably even harder to pronounce. Chi Chi cheese. I think "Chi Chis" means "tits" in Mexican Spanish.
I am having some green olives, smoked turkey and sheep milk cheese with some red wine. Time for more tv.
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Artesian wells are a thing, too, but they are unrelated to cheese.
When I was a child I used to go fishing with my family near Wallops Island, VA, near the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay. We would access the boat via a potato farm that opened onto an inlet where the boats were stored. There was an artesian well there. The water came up through the ground via a pipe and it was drinkable. Always cold and refreshing. There were also tiny fiddler crabs that lived in little holes in the mud banks. It was such an interesting place, basically marshland with navigable channels that led out to the sea.
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Red enchiladas.
Pretty sure a generic red enchilada recipe would net you about the same. But this sauce sucked. :(
Which means I now have several days of dinners I won't want to eat. Joy.
Los Mochis red enchilada sauce, for those who would be warned.
Weirdly enough, I think it was including olive oil that ruined it.
https://world.openfoodfacts.org/product/0647878246101/los-mochis-red-enchilada-sauce
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I'm so sorry to hear about this misadventure. There's nothing so frustrating as spending money on a dish and then having it suck, but feeling guilty and obligated to consume the rest of it. I generally try to scarf it down, but there have been times when, despite the cost, I've tossed the lot of it into the compost bin.
I have been buying salsas from Frontera, the Rick Bayless company. They're quite good. He's on tv and often comes across as a pompous twit, but he's the real deal. He knows of what he speaks. I have made recipes from him before to good effects. He has this recipe that seems pretty inexpensive and decent, although it most likely requires a blender or food processor. If you don't have one, maybe Freecycle or craigslist might be a place to pick one up free or cheap. https://www.rickbayless.com/recipe/red-chile-enchiladas-with-chicken-and-melted-cheese/ (https://www.rickbayless.com/recipe/red-chile-enchiladas-with-chicken-and-melted-cheese/)
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I am not a great fan of eating lobster, but I was in Maine with the mrs., and we agreed that one had to eat lobster in Maine, if one was ever to eat it. So, we found a pleasant looking restaurant that advertised lobsters for something like $5 a pop (it was a long time ago). We sat down and they gave me an unpriced list of things to eat, most of which were boiled lobster, but I spotted a dish that looked like I would enjoy it even if I left the lobster, with garlic and mushrooms and stuff (they called it Lobster Thermidor for those that know about these things). It arrived, and it was disgusting. I gagged on the first mouthful and left everything after the second mouthful. The bill was about $80, with the mrs's food contributing $5 and beer $5.
... but I can now honestly say that I have eaten lobster in Maine. Oddly I had a "lobster-burger" in the local (BarHarbor?) MacDonalds and it was ten times better - probably because no lobsters were harmed in its manufacture!
Lobster rolls are delicious. I haven't eaten "Lobster Thermidor" but I generally don't like dishes that mix up crustacean meat with other additives. Crab cakes with a little cracker meal as a binder is about all I'm willing to put up with. Boiled lobster dipped in a little butter is the best. I'm sorry you had such a terrible experience -- that sounds like a tourist trap restaurant. But lobster (which used to be a modest, peasant type food) is one of the pricier items you can order at American restaurants. Most of the time, I've just bought live ones and tortured them to death by boiling. There's nothing pretty or kind about prepping crabs and lobsters. You just have to accept your place in the food chain and get on with it.
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Re: Lobster Thermidor
It's a dish in the sims?
Actually, it's a pretty good dish in the sims, since it makes everyone at your dinner party impressed.
I may have already mentioned my rather explosive aversion to seafood, but I never understood the attraction to shrimp (Poop filter) Clam (Snot) (also poop filter) Lobster (Sea Cockroach) or crab (Sea Spider, carrion eater)
When I was a kid, I'd beg my mom to tell me when she wanted to eat shrimp, so that I could vacate the apartment. That stench was incredible. People who enjoy seafood have no problem with it, to me? Boiling stench.
Lobster Thermidor is essentially a "Stunt food". It's a grilled cheese on stench. I'm wondering if it was the wine sauce or giant bug that repulsed you. And I *like* most wine sauces. I just imagine that one is obnoxious.
A lot of french food is fantastic. But some of it is regurgitated dog woof.
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Both, but the cockroach meat was slightly more palatable than the sauce. Where "more palatable" is not the right phrase at all.
I'm not sure it was a tourist trap, to be honest, but anyone with any sense would have stuck to $5 lobster. I'm just an idiot.
8ully, you sound like you may have an allergy to iodine, which is prevalent in most of those shellfish/crustaceans. I grew up crabbing and fishing, so these foods are highly desirable to me, but it sounds like pure hell to you. chris, we all know that you are far from an idiot, but I felt like quoting that just so it wouldn't disappear.
I'm generally reluctant to spend tons of money in restaurants unless it's a special occasion. Those have occurred much less frequently in the past couple of years, mostly because of COVID. Shelling out a ton of money for a good meal when I could prep one at home makes me reluctant to experiment with unknown restaurants. We spent a good deal in April for a beach side meal that was sort of disappointing. Last time we were in Maine was off season at Bailey Island, which was beautiful although cold.
There was a restaurant like the one you describe there. Not cheap, but at least it was decent. Cheese and seafood seems like a weird combo to me for some reason.
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Ok, I've never had lobster. I cannot take the smell of crab unless its minced and smothered in cream cheese.
I had to spit the sushi out a couple weeks ago. What an appalling flavor of raw fish, 😳
I like breaded processed fish that slightly tasts of fish.
I also like my mothers way to bake tilapia.
I'm sure I've just not had the pleasure of delicious sea food, at least I've had killer fried catfish though.
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Mileage may vary sandwich.
I fully admit to some people this sandwich may be revolting or disgusting. But I very much enjoyed it.
Ingredients:
2 slices potato bread
Some butter (light)
4 Salami slices, quartered. (I used kitchen scissors.)
2 slices swiss cheese, cut in half lengthwise
Some horseradish sauce, not to be confused with jarred horseradish.
Pre-toast the bread slightly in toaster oven so that butter spreads instead of punching a knife through the bread
Take 1/2 slice of swiss cheese lengthwise, place across lightly buttered bread
Place 6 - 8 salami wedges along the bread, festively. Cover with second half slice of swiss.
Repeat on second slice of bread, toast to desired done-ness
Spoon or apply light line of horseradish paste over grilled sandwich to give it a kick, then fold the sandwich shut.
Serve.
I have some butter I need to use up. I've got English Muffins, but decided to toss some salami in the toaster oven for old times sake.
Swiss was just a matter of FIFO (First in, first out), it could have easily been muenster.
I suppose you could gussy the sandwich up to something presentable, but why?
I haven't been mentioning dinners for a while, it's mostly been lazy salads and boiled vegetable. One night mom got a teriyaki sauce to put on the vegetables, that was nice.
She's off for a bit, so Dog and I must fend for ourselves.
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I chopped a bunch of vegs for soup that I'll cook tomorrow.
Made some guacamole to eat with corn chips and, since I was in a veg. chopping mood, I figured I'd procrastinated long enough so I made some Pikliz. I got invited into the kitchen of our fav. Haitian carryout place because they'd run out so I got to watch them make it. I didn't add Adobo, which I saw them sprinkle on it, because we didn't have any. I will see how this works out and make adjustments.
2 c shredded cabbage, a cup of grated carrot, a small shallot minced, juice of a hefty lime, a smashed cube of Maggi chicken broth, a fat half teaspoon of salt and a third of a cup of vinegar. One whole clove (the little tree buds that you buy in the spice section). Oh, and a third of a minced scotch bonnet pepper. That little thing packs a punch. I cut it into tiny pieces and know that any more than a third would send us running for water or milk, so I left it at what could pass for mild pain in the mouth.
Pikliz is basically a pickled Haitian cole slaw that you have to leave sitting in the fridge for a few days before it's done. I'll check in when it's finished. It's usually delicious and refreshing. It's getting hot around here these days so it's a welcome side dish.
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With the Pikliz, are you waiting for enzymes to break down? Or is it like Ceviche, where the citrus "cooks" the other ingredients?
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I expect that the acids (vinegar and lime juice) combined with the salt help to break down the crunchy cabbage and carrot/shallot and infuse the flavors. It's basically a light pickle, so you can eat it right away or let it sit a few days as the recipes suggest.
We had some for lunch today and it was fine. The grater I have here is very fine so the "carrot rapé" was more finely grated that I'd have liked, but it worked. Not bad flavor. It's cheap to make and pretty fresh tasting on a hot day. We had some as a side with a sandwich.
I'm making veg. soup with some cabbage in it. I'm beginning to understand why this inexpensive vegetable has such an appeal to a wide range of cuisines. It keeps well and it lends a richness to soups and is nice and crunchy in a salad.
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I cloned an old quiznos recipe off a promo photo.
Quiznos isn't particularly well documented, and it's vandalized wikia page is hilarious. It contains SCPs, an egg tree, Catboys, and zalgo text.
It was a pretty easy clone, so I'll share it.
First you need a steak roll, or I guess if you want to go authentic, a sub roll.
Next is BBQ sauce. I'm usually picky about this, but I had bulls eye.
Next is pickle chips, I used sliced pickles because the store was out of pickle chips
Then some very thinly sliced strong cheddar
Next is brisket, once again, another substitute, Pastrami
You lay all that on a bed of sliced red onions, you guessed it, I used chopped white
Then the bottom of the steak roll, which is also liberally sauced.
Shove it in the toaster oven until crispy, then enjoy.
I think I probably would have enjoyed this more if I'd done dishes earlier. It's a fairly easy sandwich to slap together.
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Soup.
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Tea and cream scones. I'm dull and predictable.
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nothing dull about scones with the right jam
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I lived a little dangerously last night and swapped the soup for a fish pie.
Only 3 - 4 months left of a soft food diet ...
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"fish" pie? I thought you were anti-meat?
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"fish" pie? I thought you were anti-meat?
Keep up dweezy baby, I'm a pescatarian. Been one for 29 years now which seems pretty surreal to be honest.
Never been "anti" meat and cook it most nights for the fam'. Just choose not to eat it myself.
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My bad. I forgot about the pesky pesca but the "anti-meat" part was just a joke.
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My bad. I forgot about the pesky pesca but the "anti-meat" part was just a joke.
To be honest, TNG has this funky way of cooking his bacon in the morning and looks and smells damn good. I might be tempted if I had functional teeth ...
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Be interested in hearing this method, I've been baking bacon for years because golly the pop sizzle forearm burn.
Last night I really wanted to make eggs (in my dreams) and everywhere I went on my quest for eggs they were all smashed. I was super pissed.
I think at some point I discovered it was Freddy Krueger's fault, he realized he could exist on anger instead of straight up killing people, so he became a nuisance instead of a killer.
The scrambled eggs I made for breakfast tasted like victory.
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Be interested in hearing this method, I've been baking bacon for years because golly the pop sizzle forearm burn.
He microwaves it on tissue which removes all the added water and then grills it and it goes super crispy.
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Cheese and crackers.
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Why is the notify button so close to the reply button? 😁 I go off like a broken record
I male muffins. I drink chobani and keifer milks n greek yogurt. Switched to almond milk, although now they say that's bad for you I dont miss the congestion or the weight I was gaining drinking milk in cereal daily.
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Wild Mike Pizza.
I love the portion sizes. I love the generous dose of peperoni, I love the better than anyone else out there crust.
For a frozen pizza, WM does not golly around.
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Why is the notify button so close to the reply button? 😁 I go off like a broken record
I added the option to add a poll to any topic (was previously just your own) which should spawn a button between "reply" and "notify". Does it?
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Wild Mike Pizza.
I love the portion sizes. I love the generous dose of peperoni, I love the better than anyone else out there crust.
For a frozen pizza, WM does not golly around.
I had to look that up, as at first I though you were referring to Mountain Mike (a name that does not inspire confidence in pizza quality). But, no, it's Wild Mike. The descriptions sound good, especially the crust. Most frozen pizzas offer crusts that are just a tad more tender than corrugated cardboard.
I'm having Earl Grey tea, having just polished off the last of the cream scones. I'll bake some more later today. Right now, I'm debating whether to take a nap as I didn't sleep much.
Hi bea! Almond milk doesn't taste very good to me. And it's terrible for the environment. Why not soy or oat milk? The Blue Diamond people were giving away samples outside a supermarket one day, and I just couldn't finish even the tiny sample cup. I also had some oatmilk yogurt and could not figure that one out either. I think maybe non fat milk might be better. In college, I had friends who regularly drank dried milk, reconstituted with water. It came in a big red box with a large appetizing glass on the front. It had the advantage of being shelf stable and you mixed it up when you needed it.
I think they baked with it, too. I wish I could remember the brand, but it's maybe no longer sold. There's plenty of this kind of product 4 sale on amazon, but not the same brand with the great graphics on the box.
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freezer burned pizza bites.
I preheated the toaster oven to avoid uncooked centers, and the pizza bites were just this side of edible.
I need to go food shopping, but I don't wanna.
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Open Nature (Safeway) plant based burgers (pea protein). These are Safeway's answer to Beyond Meat vegetarian burgers. They are pretty close to the real thing (at least as I remember, not having eaten beef for many years).
They can be grilled or cooked on the stovetop for 8-10 minutes. I had mine on toasted sourdough bread with some Heinz Vintage Spicy Ketchup. It was delicious and satisfying. That was dinner.
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I'm using up the last of a store bought rotisserie chicken to make a tomato basil pasta sauce. Sliced garlic, onion, grated carrot, red pepper flakes, olive oil, a dab of butter, diced tomatoes in their own juice, and about a half cup of fresh sliced basil, with the chicken cut into small pieces, ended up with about 2 cups of chicken bits. This is a rich and satisfying sauce.
We used to go to this great Italian deli in a Boston suburb that had prepared sauces and fresh pasta you could take home. This was one of our favorites. We figured out how to make it after we moved away and couldn't get the real thing. It's really good on a big noodle like pappardelle with some grated dry cheese. It's cooking now and smells great.
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reads nice and expect tastes great
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Basic bureetz, (burritos for everyone else)
Bought a poblano crema sauce, it tastes like overcooked bacon. I am severely disappointed. Least everything else kind of overwhelmed it. Not sure what I expected.
Cooked mom a baked potato first, but that's not particularly exciting. Used the microwave, topped with sour cream and shredded cheese. Not exactly a health conscious selection, but it's what she wanted.
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I love baked potatoes, and will often eat them at Wendy's when on a cross country drive if there are no alternatives. Not a great diet option, but it could be worse.
We usually have them as a side to steamed vegs like broccoli, carrots, mushrooms. I eat them with plain yogurt, butter and salt/pepper. Cheap and satisfying.
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I love baked potatoes, and will often eat them at Wendy's
i lived on them when in Florida
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Carrot sticks and hummos
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Group effort pizza, Mom made the dough (by popping a pillsbury tube) and I did the rest.
Nothing fancy, I put in about the same amount of effort. A couple tablespoons of ragu over the dough, pre-shredded mozzerella for the lazy factor, and some uncured pepperoni.
I enjoyed it more than most frozen pizzas, and the selection at Grolet has been less than inspriring lately, it's freshitty or Cauliflower crust.
I asked why most of their pizza is cauliflower crust, and was told it's a big seller.
One of the things I really liked about this pizza is it was done in 12 minutes flat, you have to pre cook the dough a bit, and then with the toppings on it was just another six in the oven at 450 f.
I'm not doing a very good job at cutting sodium, but the frequent dog walks have me losing weight.
I managed to snag a new variety of soup, but I'll save it for cooler weather.
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I've been making applesauce. Neighbors with trees groaning with worm eaten apples (this is a good thing because it means the fruit hasn't been sprayed with pesticides) often are happy to have one come take them away. It's well worth the stiff neck from picking.
So I cut the wormy bits out, throw the chopped apples in a pot with water and lemon juice (skins on and cores intact), bring to a boil, let it sit overnight and then run them through a ricer to extract the pulp. Spoon off excess juice (for later apple jelly) and cook the pulp with more lemon, cinnamon, cardamon, and the minimum amount of sugar necessary for slight sweetness. It cans well and will last for years. We ate some today with latkes and it was delicious. I have one more batch to make and I'll be done. It's tiring, as one has to stir it pretty often and fuss over the flavor until it is just right.
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Lovely, homemade apple sauce
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I ate an entire tin of bean dip without even realizing it.
We were watching a movie, and I just kept swiping chips through.
9 ounces. I feel like a glutton. :(
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Beans are really good for you. They have protein and minerals and are a good source of fibre. Eat up! And don't feel guilty.
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Got the wrong can of green enchilada sauce. They're near identical aside from a stupid thermometer graphic.
I like the mild, it's got a nice citrus flavor to it, tastes great. I bought the "hot" version, just tastes like capsaicin or green tabasco sauce.
Now I've a tray of enchiladas I don't really enjoy, but don't want to just throw out. Guess I'll have them as lousy lunches for a few days.
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That's annoying. Now you feel like you have to choke down the enchiladas or feel guilty for wasting food.
We had some Trader Joe's frozen Indian entrees for dinner because we were too busy/tired to cook. They were out of our usual favorites so I figured I would try some new ones. Lamb Vindaloo curry with rice and I had Shrimp curry over rice. The sauces were mediocre. We won't buy those again, but at least we checked them out.
The best are the Butter Chicken, Chana Masala, and Saag Paneer. They were out of the first 2. So many stores have large vacant spots on shelves. It's bizarre.
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Stores need to abandon JIT logistics. It was already pantsed by the initial Covid outbreak but is literally unsustainable as covid is not letting up.
JIT logistics only worked with a robust and functional distribution system backing it. That's not even physically possible anymore.
Hell, the fast-food restaurants are adapting to it, I'm seeing reduced menus everywhere.
I kept putting off a particular fast-food burger because it was atrociously unhealthy, but now I don't have the option, as they've cut the entire sub-menu.
I read a particularly bottom-ish interview with some executive from Mcdonalds. He was unconcerned but said that $30-$60 dinners are their target window.
Who in the golly wants to spend $60 at Mcdonalds?
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I give that restaurant a wide berth. I think that with Safeway, part of the problem is that Covid continues to cause interruptions in the supply chain. They have a huge warehouse (with its own wind turbine) about an hour and a half to the southeast so, in theory, we shouldn't suffer from such shortages. But when people get sick who are responsible for the transportation of those goods and there aren't enough substitute drivers, warehouse workers, etc. things don't move.
There were 3 packages, total, of bath tissue in the store yesterday. No canned tomatoes, period. Other banks of shelving completely empty of goods.
The public is partially responsible for not respecting the workers in the stores. I was in line at the Safeway yesterday when the guy behind me in line lowered his mask so he could cough. I laid into him. He told me to mind my own business. I countered, "I AM minding my own business! You are endangering my health."
He continued in a vein that indicated that he was a genuine nutcase. I told him there was something wrong with him and went on to check out. He looked sickly, with a greyish tone to his skin, and was strangely combative in a community where public courtesy is the norm.
Sadly, I only had to put up with this jerk for a short time, but the kind, helpful staff who have to spend 8-10 hours in that environment every day have no option but to deal with it. His behavior affected many more people than me. All I can say is that I'm grateful there are people who come to work every day, no matter what's on the shelves.
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Hot dogs.
Made me retroactively fond of the overly spicy enchiladas.
At least they're used up, no more lackluster hot dogs in the fridge.
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I got some vegan sausages that were on sale. I'm working up the courage to try them.
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compressed bean paste log! So unmarketable, we compare them to meat!
Sorry, that's mean of me. I had a friend who would swap out hot dogs at bbq's for morning star dogs. She stopped being invited to things.
Have you ever had a blooming onion? I haven't, but I've always wanted one. Making one at home seems stupid.
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I'm not so sure it's compressed bean paste. There's all kinds of other stuff, including regular plants in there. It's in a plastic casing, like saran wrap. They have to tell you not to eat that part. Because some people probably would if not told otherwise. No. Haven't had a blooming onion, either, but have made delicious onion quiches before using Julia Child's recipe. Onions get very sweet the more they are cooked.
https://fieldroast.com/product/italian-sausage/ (https://fieldroast.com/product/italian-sausage/)
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This is a stupid fix, but I found out adding 1/2 tablespoon tabasco to easy mac before adding the cheese powder dulls the artificial flavoring and isn't too overwhelmingly spicy.
Not a fennel seed fan here. Honestly any type of seed mixed in with food is an unpleasant surprise.
Just did a web search, I'd never seen an actual fennel before. Looks neat.
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I got some vegan sausages that were on sale. I'm working up the courage to try them.
This (https://getpocket.com/explore/item/plant-based-doesn-t-always-mean-healthy?utm) is an interesting read.
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Thanks, smokes. Yes. Anyone who bothers to read the nutritional information on the back of these products can see that many of them leave a good deal to be desired. I haven't had an Impossible Burger, but didn't realize it was also soy based. My preferred alternative burger is the Beyond Meat Burger, which is delicious, but very high in calories (well 230 per burger) and has 5 g of saturated fat, main ingredient is a form of pea protein https://www.beyondmeat.com/en-US/products/the-beyond-burger (https://www.beyondmeat.com/en-US/products/the-beyond-burger). This is less than half of that in a Big Mac (11g), but I never eat hamburgers anyway. We eat them for lunch occasionally. The Boca burgers and Quorn are also good. Most of them use some kind of bean for protein, while the Quorn is based on some kind of fungus (mycoprotein). The latter makes me think of what kind of diet I'd be eating on an asteroid colony. It's not bad but I don't think I'd want it all the time.
Gardein makes some good alternative dishes like Mandarin Chick'n, good with vegetables and rice; and to my amazement, Crabless Crab Cakes; some of them -- fishless fish sticks and chick'n tenders, are based on meat versions that are not healthy for you in the first place, so we eat them sparingly.
I rarely eat these prepared foods, and usually run the other way when I see Vegan in the name (particularly fake cheese). I eat mostly plants, but also eat most dairy and for flesh, I eat seafood and poultry. We like a range of vegetarian burger substitutes. This fake sausage is not something I'd normally buy, but I was tempted by a variety of marketing discounts. They look really fake, from the saran wrap covering that keeps them in their extruded tubular shape to the various ingredients.
I was wondering if these brands are also marketed in the UK? If not, what do you eat there? There is a long established culture of vegetarianism there so I am curious.
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Long, long ago in a galaxy far, far away I regularly ate blooming onions in RaceRock in Orlando (https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowTopic-g34515-i19-k2130653-What_s_happened_to_the_race_rock_cafe-Orlando_Florida.html): along with gallons of Gin & Tonic. Those were the days.
Isn't blooming onion a fancy alternative to onion rings? G&T is something you need to consume regularly to deal with being in Florida. I'm sure it helps dilute the grease in the onions -- an additional benefit.
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I was wondering if these brands are also marketed in the UK? If not, what do you eat there? There is a long established culture of vegetarianism there so I am curious.
The Linda McCartney range mostly. They are always on a deal somewhere and really quite good regardless of being a vegetarian option. The Mozzarella Burgers are the nuts!
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I've had the Blooming Onion from Outback a few times. It's sort of difficult to handle as you have to tear off each "sprout" and it tends to make the crisp bits fall off. It's also fairly greasy. As christ says, it lingers on the table. My experience, once it gets cold, it's not worth eating.
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I've had the Blooming Onion from Outback a few times. It's sort of difficult to handle as you have to tear off each "sprout" and it tends to make the crisp bits fall off. It's also fairly greasy. As christ says, it lingers on the table. My experience, once it gets cold, it's not worth eating.
That sounds like what I'd expect. Outback is a steak house but it's like an Australian sounding chain. So "Bloomin' Onion" is some sort of Aussie slang, no? I checked Australian outback on Wikipedia and it vaguely reminded me of Nevada. Nevada is beautiful but very sparsely populated. It's a great place to drive through, such gorgeous scenery.
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I had read at one point they were actually thought up in New Jersey, and the Aussie bits were about as legit as fosters.
Wikipedia says Florida.
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I had read at one point they were actually thought up in New Jersey, and the Aussie bits were about as legit as fosters.
Wikipedia says Florida.
Thanks. It kind of sounds like something they'd have thought up in Florida. I have no idea what Australian cuisine is like, if there even is one, but I suspect there has to be: grilled budgerigar or Kangaroo steaks? Maybe salt water crocodile taffy?
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I've only ever eaten them in Florida.
The English view of Australian cuisine is "put another shrimp on the barbie" and cold lager.
I always laughed at the aussie recipe for cooking galah:
build a fire
put a rock on it
put the galah on the rock
when the rock melts the galah is cooked.
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I read somewhere that "budgerigar" is an aboriginal word meaning "good to eat." Here's a video of a woman describing her galah. I recommend that you watch with the sound off as it has a nauseating soundtrack.
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Do like the dodo vids
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French fries with cheese.
Wasn't bad. Ukuleles and whistling should be banned from online videos AND advertising. Leave it in the 2010's/
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very Popular in UK
Chips and cheese
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I read somewhere that "budgerigar" is an aboriginal word meaning "good to eat." Here's a video of a woman describing her galah. I recommend that you watch with the sound off as it has a nauseating soundtrack.
That music reminds of Trini Lopez.
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I thought you needed actual cheese curds for poutine.
I just didn't want the heavy of chili fries, just put shredded cheese on.
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Did I mention my cholesterol. You lot are doing it on purpose!
If someone mentions Black Forest Gateau, they're banned!
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very Popular in UK
Chips and cheese
That sounds like an item from the "eat bad die fast" diet. I'm making chana masala. From a youtube video guy who has yet to fail me. The house smells great. We are having it with spinach sauteed with garlic and some basmati rice. Vegetarian. No cholesterol. Forgive me if I've posted this before; my memory isn't what it used to be.
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wife made a lovely hoisin chicken and noodles, house smelled of take away for ages ( tasted like old fashioned chip shop curry to me) it was very filling and nice though
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I was reading recipes on how to make vanilla coke and they were all so fussy, like "first make your vanilla syrup".
I was not keen to do any of that, so I just hit some regular coke with a few drops of vanilla extract. (approx 5-6 drops)
The result tastes like stale root beer. Do not recommend.
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poutine.
wow so thats the name posh name for cheesy chips
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wife made a lovely hoisin chicken and noodles, house smelled of take away for ages ( tasted like old fashioned chip shop curry to me) it was very filling and nice though
We have a hoisin chicken recipe that we love, although you have to prep the marinade in advance. It's magic coming off the grill. https://www.recipelink.com/msgbrd/board_31/2003/OCT/20962.html (https://www.recipelink.com/msgbrd/board_31/2003/OCT/20962.html)
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Truly sad sloppy joes. I should have gone to the dollar store and bought a can of manwich.
At least the muenster was tasty.
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We have a hoisin chicken recipe that we love, although you have to prep the marinade in advance. It's magic coming off the grill. https://www.recipelink.com/msgbrd/board_31/2003/OCT/20962.html (https://www.recipelink.com/msgbrd/board_31/2003/OCT/20962.html)
thank you will save that for later
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Cream scones with various jams and marmalade. Homemade often tastes better. Earl Grey Tea. Still waking up.
Sorry about the sloppy joes, 8ully.
I recently made a turkey meatloaf. It turned out fine, but I remembered as we were eating it that I basically don't like meatloaf. I gave half of it away, still warm, to a neighbor. They were happy to have it.
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Tree bark.
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Spaghetti and Meatballs.
I do believe this is the first meal I've had this year that I enjoyed. It's mostly been "damnit, it's dinner time again, what can I slap on a plate and choke down"
But the playoff games were exciting, and I had the time, so I made Spaghetti. Frozen meatballs (Gordon ramsay would not approve) that tasted good and not of filler.
I also got to try out a new pasta sauce that I'm sure will never be at grocery outlet again, such is the heartbreak. It did something different with Olive Oil, and it impressed the hell out of me. Usually, my spaghetti soaks up the sauce leaving a rather bland, starchy disappointment, but this sauce seemed to use the oil to coat the noodles, allowing the sauce to be a sauce.
Nothing particularly exciting, but it was quite tasty.
Victoria low sodium Tomato Basil sauce
and
Rosina celentano meatballs
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my sort of meal
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Low cholesterol.
Edit: Don't eat all the way around the trunk or you risk killing the tree.
That's a hard ask with these teeth.
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Read an absolutely strange cooking tip today, going back to the absorbency of pasta.
To prevent bitter pasta salad, it was suggested you soak your cooked pasta noodles in a cup of milk, so the milk is absorbed instead of the dressing.
Seems like a waste of milk to me.
Kind of weird how many people wonder why store bought pasta salad is bitter, but there are no good answers.
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Creamy gouda cheese with some sesame flatbread. Nice late night snack.
I am not a big fan of pasta salad, but haven't noticed it being bitter. But then, I don't buy it at the store, so I know nothing of these issues. Some people insist that you attempt to recreate the Dead Sea with proportions of salt when you cook the stuff.
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Foreman grill burgers with sliced onion and a nice cheddar.
Honestly, I should have cut more onion, it was the highlight.
Good dinner though, very much enjoyed. No sides, but it didn't really need them.
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Turkey sandwich on oatmeal bread with some spicy cornichons on the side. Seltzer.
It's a warm day and that was a quick, easy lunch. I have no idea what we'll eat for dinner.
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Been a while, but I had a screw up and recovery.
I was going to make chili fries from scratch, but after spicing the meat and cooking it with onion it was way too spicy. I didn't think the pinto beans would soak up enough of the heat to be pleasant, but I had a bunch of elbow macaroni (Not really a fan), so I made mac and cheese and added the meat and onion to that.
The cheese and the pasta soaked up the heat better than the beans and fries would have. I feel like if I had forced through the chili fries they would have been bitter and gross.
So I guess I need to scale back a bit on spices and maybe skip the white onion.
The recipe was extremely unmeasured, but here's what I can remember
1lb ground beef, your choice on fat
Paprika, cayenne, chili powder, onion powder, garlic powder to taste (I know, I should have skipped the onion powder, hindsight)
1 diced white onion, small
? cup Elbow noodles. It was in a freezer bag, I think that's a quart?
any bechamel cheese sauce recipe will work, I used mild cheddar. I'm looking at some online and kind of gawking, there are some fancy béchamel out there. Mine was just the basics, margarine (gasp), flour, milk, cheese. I added some of the drained fat, so it might be more of a cheese gravy than a bechamel, but I do weird stuff when I'm at the stove.
The fancy bechamel recipe I found says it's $9.99 in ingredients. LOL
https://www.food.com/recipe/cheddar-cheese-sauce-with-a-bechamel-base-47141
I really don't get why it's fussy. I didn't "scald the milk", I didn't "strain it through a china cap" (I don't even know what that is.)
Plastic wrap never made it into my recipe either. Everything was blended before a skin could form.
Honestly maybe I should just post a basic country gravy recipe, you essentially do that and blend grated cheese in.
https://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/country-gravy/d5294752-1c56-40a7-aca2-1c87d41f393f
Yup, that's way closer.
Anyway, once you've got your cheese sauce mixed up, pour it over your elbow noodles and stir aggressively to make sure it really gets in there.
Add your meat mixture (I call it burrito meat)
I think next time I will do a more basic chili, and might honestly omit the fresh onion entirely. I was mad at myself at the stove, and I hate that.
I've mostly been eating bag salads and frozen crap, this was the first heavy meal I've made since February?
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Tonight, I added bacon bits to a burrito.
Produce has been exceptionally poo lately in the entire area, and bacon bits start to expire the second you open the packet.
Wish I'd known that before I tore it open.
Also, it was "National Burrito day" depending on how much stock you put into such things, so I figured might as well make a burrito.
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Off to the local pub for fathers birthday tonight, Pre order the meal which I shall be having the exciting Burger and chips.
Safe bet in a local pub me thinks
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Here in the US, the safety burger tends to be called the "All American".
Please report back on what the safety burger is called at said pub.
Tonight was boring, hot dogs.
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Here in the US, the safety burger tends to be called the "All American".
Please report back on what the safety burger is called at said pub.
Tonight was boring, hot dogs.
In my local (a publove pub) it's called either a "juicy scallywag" or a "cheesus christ".
Not that I've tried either.
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Our neighbors had us to dinner and made some nice salad and fish with sides. I took what was supposed to be a good expensive bottle of wine and it was meh, so that was disappointing. I made some dessert. Now I'm up & on here.
Looking forward to more sleep and breakfast.
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Last night dinner went from a recipe to "don't have that, don't have that, don't have that"
It actually turned out really good. (Steak sandwiches) but my apartment smelled like onion rings the rest of the night. (I sauteed onions for the sandwich)
Originally it was going to be baked sliders. Then I realized I'd have to go to the store for that kind of rolls, then I went down the recipe and the only items I had from it were the onions and the Worcestershire sauce. :P
Gotta say, the task definitely failed successfully, those sandwiches ended up fantastic. I used sandwich rolls instead of the doofy little slider rolls I have to add to the list to even remember to buy.
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We're having spaghetti with a pesto I made: half cilantro half basil with pignoli and pecorino romano. It freezes well and it's great to whip up a batch, freeze half (without cheese) and then pull it out when you can't think of what else to eat for dinner.
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I had dinner from the "remorse" food category:
steamed broccoli, carrots & mushrooms with baked potato & sour cream. Had to eat some good ice cream for dessert as a corrective.
Now I'm contemplating pouring a glass of alcohol containing wine.
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I had dinner from the "remorse" food category:
steamed broccoli, carrots & mushrooms with baked potato & sour cream. Had to eat some good ice cream for dessert as a corrective.
Now I'm contemplating pouring a glass of alcohol containing wine.
I wondered where you'd gone, 6. I ruled out that you'd gone on a bender but now I'm not so sure ...
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;D
I wondered where you'd gone, 6. I ruled out that you'd gone on a bender but now I'm not so sure ...
I haven't overindulged on alcohol since I was a stupid teenager. Now a couple glasses of wine or whatever, and I'm done. Just had a slice of nice thick crust pizza with eggplant but it was disappointing. They didn't really do anything with it but layer it over some tomato sauce and toss a little cheese on top. Eggplant is a difficult vegetable but it can be magical if cooked well. Next time I'm going back to my regular putanesca slice.
I'd like to learn how to make a good foccacia. I haven't had a great deal of experience working with yeasted breads, but it would be fun to figure out how to do it well. There's a great bakery near here that makes a French foccacia called a fougasse. Their recipe includes rosemary, preserved lemons and duck fat. It doesn't last long after it comes out of the oven as it flies off the shelves. I love duck, but when we cook it we don't really know what to do with the fat. We usually pour it into a jar and stick it in the fridge for a few months and then we throw it away, not having figured out what to do with it.
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Roast potatoes.
Sounds like a great alternative to the usual olive oil. thanks.
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Tonight I made steamed fine beans which are then tossed in a little sweet chilli sauce, chestnut mushrooms in a satay sauce, backed Basa (river cobbler) and some jasmin rice.
I could eat it again if I'd made more!
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That sounds great. I'm having the usual tea and scone for breakfast with jam.
Some days there's not enough caffeine in the world. Got 3 hours of sleep and feel like a zombie.
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I'm not a big pork guy, but my latest favorite "internet cowpoo" recipe is the diablo sandwich.
Some people say it's a sloppy joe, and those liars need a slap in the mouth to wake 'em up.
The pedantry over a throwaway scene in a movie about smuggling coors is just so petty. People are scouring blu-ray copies of smokey and the bandit to get their story straight. The sacred texts!
In the movie, Buford Justice has a hunger, and he hasn't got a GOT DAMNED lot of time to waste.
So he orders a diablo sandwich and a dr pepper.
Honestly, there is another video where a guy goes to the sole remaing hickory house, but that sandwich looked like sawdust, mold, and sadness.
The wikipedia "non notability" deletion is also deliciously bitchy.
here is a delightfully ancient looking blog
https://www.shadeone.com/diablo/
I have not had trappey's mexi-pep hot sauce, but now I want to.
If you don't eat pork, might I interest you in some liars risotto?
Specifically, I watched a bunch of risotto videos and was reminded of the liars creme brule (blowtorch some vanilla pudding)
A liars risotto does require a bit more effort than liars creme brule, but not a lot.
First you heat up some oil in a pan. Then squash and dice garlic (press) and onion (dice finely)
Bring those up to a nice mix, then set aside.
Next, make a box of chicken rice-a-roni. Or knorr, I'm not a cop. The reason you want chicken flavor is that real risotto uses chicken stock.
Next, combine your lovely sauteed veggies to your crapbox rice.
Next, add a tablespoon of sour cream and stir the crap out of it. Next, serve to Gordon Ramsay to see how angry you can make him.
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Someone gave me a honking big zucchini. almost 2 lb. So I gutted the seeds & shredded it, squeezed out the water and am baking muffins from it. I have high hopes. Maybe it will be a delicious afternoon snack, but it sure will be breakfast.
This vegetable is wonderful cut into chunks, slathered in olive oil, skewered and roasted on the grill. But when they get this big, they tend to get tough and the seeds have to be scooped out as they are nearly inedible. So baking is a good way to salvage it.
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I don't like shredding chicken, so I bought some of the Jack Daniels shredded chicken.
I was weirdly disappointed. I thought it would be BBQ, like the diablo, but it was more teriyaki flavored. It was... confusing.
I admire the effort you put in all your meals. When I'm cooking, it's more "Slap poo together randomly and hope taste good"
You take the time to do it right. We're like golly up and gallant. (With you in the gallant role)
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I always admire the ingenuity you put into making the most out of limited ingredients. You have come up with some creative dishes over the years.
Cooking with whatever is on hand is a useful skill.
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I can't find lime juice for poo, I've been buying those little squeeze bottles.
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We only have the shitty acorn looking ones. :(
But I did buy those. It's like you're psychic.
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We only have the shitty acorn looking ones. :(
But I did buy those. It's like you're psychic.
Key limes are wonderful. But they are a pain to squeeze. Use a garlic press. I use one when I make the lime marmalade. Trying to squeeze those little suckers is a great way to get a wrist injury.
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I made vodka fries.
Baked just doesn't do the pie pan of grease justice.
It's a three-ingredient recipe. You need your French fries, then you top it with Vodka sauce. Next you melt mozzarella on top of it and broil it until the mozz goes crispy.
Wikipedia doesn't like it, so you get bitchy yelp reviews when you try to look them up. NO I DON'T MEAN POUTINE WIKIPEDIA, I NEVER MEAN POUTINE!
I remember eating these in New Jersey, we always had it delivered. It came in a takeout pie tin.
OK, turns out the search results are completely contaminated because Arby's put out a French fry flavored vodka.
Vodka sauce is like a creamy marinara. I know that sounds gross, but it isn't, I swear!
Also, a lot of the results make it wrong, they damn near bury the fries in sauce. You want to be light with the sauce, heavy with the Mozz.
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I like poutine.
He's made a right mess of Ukraine.
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I like poutine.
What's not to like about chips and gravy?
Soggy fries.
Good one, smokes.
I'm having half a small panettone with my usual earl grey tea. Breakfast of champions.
8ully, Safeway makes a decent Vodka sauce. Cheap. Someone gave it to us and it was a revelation. I don't know if there's actually any vodka involved in its production. Here's Lidia Bastianich. She puts in about a quarter of a cup. Looks pretty straightforward.
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I went looking online to try and find the actual fast food place we used to get vodka fries from. No dice, but a lot of them do sell their vodka sauce for about $5.00, so I guess there is real vodka in there. Most recipes do call for actual vodka.
Apparently, the reason you booze up the sauce is to make it tangy. The cream is apparently added to make the sauce smooth.
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Tomatoes are pretty tangy. I think the alcohol cooks off from the vodka. We have a bottle of Grey Goose, and I guess I could experiment, but we still have several jars of the Safeway brand stuff in the cupboard. It sometimes goes on sale for a couple bucks.
Lidia smashed the tomatoes up with her hands. I'd better get on to dinner as I'm hungry and all this talk of food isn't helping defray that.
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I think this is a Canadian relation.
Ok.
"He's made a right mess of Ookraine."
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I used taco seasoned meat to make military SOS, and it changed the gravy entirely. Normally it tastes kind of like country gravy, maybe a little Worcestershire sauce.
Nope, turned the gravy dark brown and savory. I can't really explain what flavor it is, but I did enjoy it.
Also every recipe for SOS appears to be different. But most military style versions use ground beef instead of chipped beef. I used my grandpa's version.
Poured it over some biscuits.
https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/14687/army-sos-creamed-ground-beef/
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We had quesadillas tonight with seasoned black beans, grated pepper jack cheese, cilantro, scallions, tomatoes, avocados on heated flour tortillas. Everyone gets to make their own so the amounts of ingredients can be adjusted to personal preference. Once everything is prepped, this can last for several meals. It's pretty cheap and nourishing. Good for hot summer days as it doesn't heat up the house.
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Mom keeps mentioning how much she liked the Vodka fries.
golly you wikipedia, Vodka fries are notable! They should at least be under French Fries as a variant!
They are NOT disco fries or Poutine!
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I tried looking up Vodka fries and all I got was sites that want to discuss how the Arby's fast food chain is selling Vodka flavored like French fries. Say what?
I assume that what your mother likes is fries with tomato/cream based vodka sauce that would also be served over pasta? I like to dip fries in A-1 sauce. I think it's very much like HP Sauce.
I'm having tea, soon will eat scones with some of the jam I've been making lately.
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On my bit of the internets Google gives me:
"What do you call french fries, cheese curd, and vodka sauce? Vladimir Poutine"
Ha! We're not Putin up with that. Soggy fries just can't cut it.
Back to the regular tea and scones.
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Mixing things up a bit. Tea and a banana nut muffin!
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Used the convection oven for a frozen pizza. They've shrunk all of them but red baron, who tend to keep prices down with low quality.
It's passable, but I miss being able to get Wild Mike's.
Our grocery outlet caters to the AB&B set, so beer is pricy, and frozen pizza is cauliflower crust. I tried it once, ghastly stuff. Tastes like a fart smells.
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I was deeply suspicious of cauliflower pizza until I had Open Nature Triple cheese at Safeway. It's really good but kind of pricey. They were giving it away one weekend as their "Saturday Sampler." One pie barely feeds 2 adults, but it's good if you can find it cheap.
I'm eating homemade tabouli. It's pretty good. Leftover from a potluck. I used our mint, tomatoes and lemon juice, so it is probably as good as anything I'd make in that dept. The tomatoes I planted are starting to ripen so I suspect we'll be eating some spaghetti sauce soon.
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made some very basic tacos, just some pre-cooked shredded beef, shreddy cheddar, and hot sauce.
Drop some avocado oil in the frypan, bring it up to low heat, let the tortilla get some color, drop in the cheese, drop the meat, drizzle the sauce, and fold.
Took about 20 seconds each (I had two) and the taste was delicious.
We'll see if my stomach punishes me for using oil.
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Big salad: mixed greens, avocado, garden tomato (Black Krim), pecans, with a vinaigrette. I was going to have it with cold chicken but it wasn't necessary. It's been pretty hot here lately, but now it's back to a more temperate climate.
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I got even lazier. Cooked up a batch of ground beef and onion, slapped it in glassware.
Now I just pull a flour tortilla out of the bag, Squeeze some taco sauce on, tablespoon of meat down the middle, pinch of cheese, 18 seconds in the microwave.
I feel like I'm actually eating less this way than when I used to stuff the crap out of a burrito. We'll see what the scale decrees.
Says "Street tacos" on the bag, which clearly marks it as "white people" food. Totally inauthentic.
https://www.missionfoods.com/products/street-tacos-flour-tortillas/
Honestly, I still prefer flour to corn tortillas.
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Says "Street tacos" on the bag, which clearly marks it as "white people" food. Totally inauthentic.
https://www.missionfoods.com/products/street-tacos-flour-tortillas/
Why on earth does it show a measurement of the product which includes the scrunched opening of the bag? What use is that information?
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I got even lazier. Cooked up a batch of ground beef and onion, slapped it in glassware.
Now I just pull a flour tortilla out of the bag, Squeeze some taco sauce on, tablespoon of meat down the middle, pinch of cheese, 18 seconds in the microwave.
I feel like I'm actually eating less this way than when I used to stuff the crap out of a burrito. We'll see what the scale decrees.
Says "Street tacos" on the bag, which clearly marks it as "white people" food. Totally inauthentic.
https://www.missionfoods.com/products/street-tacos-flour-tortillas/
Honestly, I still prefer flour to corn tortillas.
Good lord. I just clicked on that link and it shows a serving suggestion with Nutella (the popular chocolate hazelnut spread) on them. Gak. White people food for sure. My favorite tortillas (La Finca) are made by a local Oakland company and they are relatively hard to find. There's a couple of FoodMaxx stores that sell them. Guerreros are ok, but they're made by the same company that produces Mission (white guy) tortillas. Gruma. Established by Mexican billionaire, Roberto Gonzalez Barrera (deceased), it's now a multinational corporation. I can't help thinking about Los Pollos Hermanos (Gustavo Fring, owner) when I click on the Forbes profile re Barrera.
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The Lettuce was bad so I made Bruschetta, but not, you know, properly.
I took one of those glass tupperware things and mixed olive oil and balsamic vinegar, bit more balsa than oil. Then I used this stupid sea salt shaker thing that isn't even iodized and just cracked some into the mix. Then I took a tomato and sliced it up into chunks, then rolled that in the mix.
I stuck some hamburger buns in the toaster oven, and it did its job for once, they came out nice, crispy, and not just heated bread.
I drizzled, aka poured the rest of the oil/vine gar mix over the toasted buns and ate the tomato slices separately. The toast was ok, the tomato slices were fantastic.
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Somebody gave me lots and lots of carrots. I roasted some of them and had them with roast potatoes and sausages. Then the rest I grated (in a food processor) and made carrot cake muffins. We had them for breakfast for a week. So that's what I just ate, and am still having tea, because I don't want to face the day without caffeine.
I have given up caffeine for as much as 2 years but I always come back. It seems harmless.
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I made manwich with ground turkey.
I actually don't mind the turkey meat, but the resulting concoction was bland as hell.
So I'm dumping a ton of hot sauce in to make up for the lack of flavor.
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Hot sauce appears to be a running theme lately.
I had a boring pastrami sandwich for lunch, just two slices of pastrami, a wedge of provolone, and some doctored yum yum sauce (I put sriracha in it) with some shredded lettuce. bev was that marshmello's coke. I didn't care for the mello coke.
Dinner was an experiment, I've been making tacos for a while, but decided to follow the directions on one of those premixed spice packets. It's... alright. Not amazing, and I had to add sauce, but it was inoffensive.
Used a brand-new frying pan and it burned in the same spot as the old one. I think I'll have to call maintenance.
One weird thing, my area seems to have experienced a shortage of Ortega sauce, so I've been using dollar store taco sauce... and I prefer the dollar store one. It's more bold than the ortega, which tastes kind of washed out in comparison. Plus with Ortega at $2.98, it doesn't really stack up from a price standpoint either.
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Hot sauce can be good or mediocre.
Don't much like Franks. We usually keep Tapatio in the fridge for when we want it. There are better hot sauces, but they are remote and hard to obtain if they are still in business at all.
If you want something done right, do it yourself. We don't eat enough for it to be worth experimenting with homemade. I suspect it's basically salt, vinegar and peppers, maybe with some water, perhaps garlic. Some people ferment it, some don't. But the ingredients are cheap. Why not take the plunge? You seem curious and willing to experiment with cooking. You might come up with a million dollar recipe.
I'm drinking a cup of tea, trying to wake up and waiting for the muffin to heat so I can put something on top of these antibiotics.
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You got the ingredients spot on.
Cholula is the one that has garlic.
I don't much care for Tapatio, but you can't argue with the price.
Frank's might be more of a hot sauce for chicken, one probably wouldn't use it on tacos.
I want to try Gringo Bandito, Dexter Holland's brand, but can't find it anywhere.
I've actually got a backlog of hot sauces. I'm currently using tabasco, but after that I've got Cholula, Victoria, Crystal's, and Texas Pete's.
They separate, but don't really go bad so long as you keep the neck of the bottle clean and watch out for discoloration. A brown hot sauce has in fact hit it's toss out date.
Taco sauce is a little different than hot sauce, a bit sweeter, less concentrated, and more liquid than paste like.
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Gringo bandito is available via amazon. It's hard to imagine what isn't available via amazon.
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I've never bought food online, closest thing to it is when Walmart was offering $30 off a $100 ticket if you filled in your order online, then picked it up at the store.
I made out like a bandit because they had to make a bunch of substitutions but honored the price of the original items. I'm still surprised we got through a 48-ounce tub of sour cream without it going moldy.
The one downside was the produce. Whoever picked it gave zero shits. Bruised, wilted, nearly unusable.
I did find out why I prefer the dollar store taco sauce to the Ortega. Dollar store uses four different peppers, none of them green.
Ortega uses one, green.
I've never been a fan of bell.
Tonight I made stunt tacos. The taco chain from Demolition Man is trying to get people to use their app to vote on a returning menu item, either the double decker taco or the enchirito.
I've got a ton of taco supplies, so I made the double decker.
Didn't care for it. The double tortilla really carbs the thing out, to an unpleasant degree. I've really been enjoying this taco phase, even if my waistline doesn't, and this one was definitely a pothole.
I might try the enchirito next, I've got a ton of sauces I can try, plus I have the flour tortillas now.
Come to think of it, they're both essentially the same thing, just swap lettuce for onion and drop the corn tortilla.
Crap! I forgot to explain the double decker. Essentially you take a taco in a corn tortilla, and then put refried beans on a second, flour tortilla, then wrap that around the taco.
Enchirito is essentially just a wet burrito with red sauce.
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I don't think I'd like a double tortilla thing as I often have trouble getting through just one.
I only ordered food online from Instacart once because they gave me some crazy discount on my order, but their produce selection was terrible and they went to a great produce store, so how they managed to screw that up is just a mystery.
I sometimes get stuff from amazon that I can't find around here. Like baby butter beans. Nobody sells them locally, so we have to get them from the behemoth. Once they delivered a case that had lots of bent cans so I complained and they sent me another case free of charge. I'm still working my way through those.
I had a turkey sandwich on whole grain bread with some fresh tomato, dijon and mayo. Now I want a nap.
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I don't know who sets these things, but microsoft informs me that it is Grilled Cheese Day.
So I made a spicy grilled cheese. I used the five cheese blend from grocery outlet, some Blue Top Lime Jalepeno creamy hot sauce, and used mayonnaise instead of butter. Surprisingly, it results in a LESS greasy sandwich than if you use butter.
cooking directions are set it open face in a toaster oven and leave it alone until it's golden.
Mayonnaise is an annoying word to remember how to spell, it's the second "n" and the "i" that get me.
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I love a good grilled cheese sandwich, although I don't often indulge, due to the fatty nature of the delicacy.
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Tonight, I made a box dinner, but I cut the meat by half. It was the right choice.
I also added a bag of steamed broccoli.
One funny thing is I was using a plastic measuring cup to work the meal, and ended up eating my dinner out of it, so I got portion control too!
The company messed with the ingredients in their cheese packet, so I won't even name them. Jerks.
Instead of being creamy, it was pasty, like glue. It honestly felt like I was stirring glue into my meal. Who knows what it will do to my insides.
I normally name and shame when products go to poo, but this one will remain nameless.
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Wow. Boxed dinner. Hamburger helper? Other than that, I've got nothing.
Please. The suspense is killing us. Don't make us eat glue.
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fine, I cave like a house of cards.
It was one of the velveeta dinners.
One of my cheat codes for meals has been buying the velveeta cheese packets at the dollar store, but I stopped because they had this issue.
The fact that the packets are nearly identical are unsurprising.
Cutting the meat portion in half made the dish less greasy. Also grocery outlet is now selling 93% / 7%, so the fat is lessened even more.
I'd despair if I was making burgers. You need some fat for a good burger.
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I appreciate that they are striving for convenience, but making cheese sauce is really simple and takes only a few ingredients. Keep a box or two of pasta on hand and combining the other ingredients (meat, vegs) is equally easy. My grandmother used to make mac n cheese with velveeta and I loved it as a child, but I doubt I'd opt for that now. GO often has inexpensive real cheese that keeps for months under refrigeration for pretty reasonable prices. I'd purchased some Kraft blocks from there that were in our fridge for over a year (while we were away) and when we got back, they were still fine. No mold; still perfectly edible. Go figure.
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Mom flips out over Roux, but she's not here, so why not? I've got a lot of cheese. I've also heard you can buy powdered cheese, so you don't have to use the packets that come with the instant boxes. I was recently advertised to by a powdered peanut butter company, but they wanted TWENTY DOLLARS for a jar. No thanks.
Last night and tonight I made enchirito's. Might upload the pics to smokesterbucket later.
First night I did it to spec, which meant red sauce and beef.
Tonight I modified my favorite Las Palmas green enchilada recipe. I don't like cooking chicken, so I got a tube of ground turkey. Didn't realize Turkey takes about 14 minutes to cook, but hey, it's all going in my stomach anyway. I put on Orion and got to stirring.
So, I browned that up and made the enchilada innards sauce.
Essentially for a single burrito it's 2 TBs Sour Cream, 3 oz Green Enchilada sauce, 1/4 cup onion, and stir that up until fully mixed. The resulting mixture is not visually appealing in the slightest, but it is delicious.
Next you spoon the mix into your tortilla, then put it in a glass dish. I use the square ones you can get at grocery outlet. (Original recipe calls for baking pan and specific rolling instructions.)
Top with shredded cheese and another 2 oz of Green Enchilada sauce, microwave 1 minute. Enjoy.
I eyeballed the cheese; it was about four pinches.
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I had some breaded sea bass and beer battered chips. It was quite good but as I've decided to do the sober-October, I feel a little guilty about the batter.
Not.
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That sounds delicious.
We had vegetable soup that I made this afternoon with a nice loaf of olive bread.
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Dirty water dogs.
Grabbed the first recipe off the goog, natch.
I will list the substitutions here.
First, the recipe called for a quart of water, I used 2 Cups, which gives you a nice Solomon cut to all the ingredients. I left the spices as is because I LIKE spices.
So, You've got your pot of water, what are you going to do to it?
2 tablespoons of red wine vinegar
Don't have it, here's 1 TB of Balsalmic. WOW, that looks evil. I like it.
A big pinch (1/8th of a teaspoon) of ground cumin
A big pinch of garlic powder
A big pinch of ground nutmeg
A tiny pinch of curing salt
I used non-iodized salt, because I need to use it up, and I don't have curing salt.
This may be the only time I've used nutmeg outside of baking. I dig it. I boiled the dogs in the dirty water and the result was spicy and tasty.
I've had so many boring hot dogs in my life, it was nice to have one that made my eyes pop open.
Oh, I broiled two hot dog buns and used a garlic aoli and the much derided yum-yum sauce that I put sriracha in. and crumbled some shredded jack cheese over the top leftover from the burritos.
The jack cheese stubbornly reassimilated itself, so I had to peel the damn thing like a cheese stick. This resulted in a lower "yield" which I think actually helped this dish.
I don't really mention salads here, but I had a boring salad with the dogs. It was boring.
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That sounds like a great way to spice up dull hot dogs.
Nutmeg is an underrated spice. I use it in quiches, but imagine it would be nice as a complement to cumin. I guess some cheeses are more amenable to melting than others, but kudos on the experiments.
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Bastardized chopped cheese and tacos. (Can you tell I have a lot of ground beef/turkey?
This one is simple, as it is perplexing. You're NOT supposed to alter it, but I alter everything. Some clap about authenticity to BROOKLYN (I've never been)
Essentially, you're supposed to start with a ground beef burger patty, add onion, and chop it all to hell on a flat grill, essentially just making minced beef with onion.
Next you're supposed to ONLY use a hero roll, I used hot dog buns, the crime. You put mayo and ketchup on the roll.
As you're mixing the meat and onions into a flavorful blend, you stop... but leave the grill going. You hit that with some adobo seasoning and top with AMERICAN CHEESE SLICES. (I actually did this one right.)
Once the cheese is melty, you chop again, hence chopped cheese. (this is messy)
Next, you spatula your mix into your prepped roll, overfilling intentionally, and top it with shredded lettuce and slices of tomato.
I don't have sliced tomato, but I did buy a can of diced tomatoes, so I used that (Blasphemy again)
So that's a chopped cheese. One fun accompaniment was the beverage, a Bloody Mary. I recently read that the tomato juice is more important than the vodka, and I had a LOT of juice from that can.
So I mixed up a bloody mary following some fairly simple instructions
1. get a glass
2. Lemon the rim
3. celery salt the rim
4. Add the ice, crushed is nice, but I went with cubes.
5. 1tsp horseradish (skipped it), 4 drops Worcestershire sauce, 4 drops hot sauce (tabasco) over the ice.
6. one shot Vodak
7.Salt and pepper
8. Tomato juice
9. Blue Cheese filled olive. I bought these on a whim, and they sunk like a stone. I don't really get it, they taste much the same as any canned green olive, just slimier. I guess there's more calories in there.
10. consume
I've always used V8 for my bloody mary's, and I've never quite liked them. From now on I'll use straight tomato juice, but I'll probably skip using the diced ones. :P
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Tomato juice is one of my preferred beverages when I fly. It goes well with nuts, pretzels and any other tiny snack the airlines deign to feed you. It's also more filling than seltzer and helps prevent dehydration as it has a reasonable amount of salt.
I don't know about mixing it with alcohol. Maybe it's due to my misspent youth, but I soon learned to avoid cocktails that might be more acid if the worst case scenario occurred. So orange juice and other mixers were passed over in preference for things like tonic and seltzer.
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They didn't bother serving anything to coach today.
Mom had a hell of a time.
I just brought the chopped cheese mix back to life in the skillet, and steamed the cheese on.
Mom liked it.
I tried it without the mayo or ketchup, instead using a garlic aoli. I liked it better that way, but once again, that's inauthentic.
It was national Taco day, and they pretty much share ingredients like I said. The difference being a hot dog bun instead of a tortilla, and if you put mayo on a taco, you better have a good reason.
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Frozen Jack's pizza. It's not bad.
To fix it up I pulled off all the pep (mom doesn't eat pork) and re-cheesed it with bag cheese (5 cheese blend) and sweet banana pepper rings.
I'm always complaining about how small slices of frozen pizza are, but decided to lean into it for once, cut the slices super thin so they were 2 bites.
One thing I like about this really thin slicing is that I was able to try a variety of sauces on it to see what worked and what didn't. Tabasco bbq sauce worked good, but I know a lot of people think bbq sauce doesn't belong anywhere near a pizza.
That blue top creamy lime jalepeno sauce made for an amazing slice, but mom hated it.
One other tweak I liked was slicing the pepperoni in half. Since I'd pulled it all and tossed it in a container, slicing it was easy.
Red pepper flakes were something I remember she used to really like, but never buys, and it's cheap as poo, so I grabbed some.
She was really happy, I felt very dumb for not buying it sooner.
Speaking of which, she was visiting her old college roommate on the east coast, and apparently, she used to make tacos all the time. Mom has no recollection of this, and she never made tacos when I was growing up. She attributes this to copious use of weed.
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I love a good pizza, but I rarely eat frozen ones. Can't afford the calories, or, to be honest, I have to weigh the consumption of pizza on a scale of deliciousness vs caloric intake. I messed up my knee over a month ago and it's really reduced my ability to exercise, which is pretty frustrating.
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Pizza is so cheap over here, can get a frozen one for about £1. from Morrisons supermarket.
Personally i buy plain margarita an load it myself
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Mostly reruns, but tonight there was cake.
Had quite the time tracking down a can of whipped cream, and ended up giving up on the cheries entirely.
This weird shop austerity that has become the new normal is poo.
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Drinking a cup of tea. Will eat a scone soon. They're almost gone so I'll have to bake some more. I have a big bag of quince that I'll have to clean up and process soon.
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Have you got a runcible spoon?
I do.
Around these parts, the coarser among us refer to them as "sporks."
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I'm reading old racist food copy because I'm bored.
Chinese frozen dinners used the unappetizing name of "Chun King"
Their Chop Suey is more like Blow Chunks.
A presumably midwest publication referred to salsa as "Tomato and pepper relish"
Their faux "authentic" presentation of Enchiladas looks like the whitest blandest boiled meat.
I just keep making tacos, it's too easy. I've been trying to shove some veggies in there, right now it's pretty much onions or lettuce.
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I'm reading old racist food copy because I'm bored.
Chinese frozen dinners used the unappetizing name of "Chun King"
Their Chop Suey is more like Blow Chunks.
A presumably midwest publication referred to salsa as "Tomato and pepper relish"
Their faux "authentic" presentation of Enchiladas looks like the whitest blandest boiled meat.
I just keep making tacos, it's too easy. I've been trying to shove some veggies in there, right now it's pretty much onions or lettuce.
Didnt UNCLE bens rice change its name due to the meaning of the name
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Fresh ripe figs. Wowza.
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Aunt Jemima became pearl mining company.
I shredded some mozzarella over another Jack's pizza. It's easy and today sucked.
Mom really appreciates when I make pizza, it's one of the few dinners where there are zero complaints. I got red pepper flakes for her a few months back, and it's like a magic cheat code.
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Burritos. I'm using a larger and thinner tortilla, and I feel it makes for a more generous burrito.
I understand that's not really the point, the "little burro" if you will is meant to be short and fat, but beefy burritos are popular in San Diego.
Anyway, despite being thinner, these store brand tortillas held together like a champ and didn't spew out the innards as a lower quality tortilla would.
I hesitate on lower quality as these are great value, but I think they honestly beat lizard skin mission on a versus level.
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Glass of red wine. It's been a long day. Not bad, but tiring.
Cheers.
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Glass of red wine. It's been a long day. Not bad, but tiring.
Cheers.
I'm with you. I bought a lovely montepulciano d'abruzzo (Asda's ES range, if anyone is interested) and I knocked off a little early to indulge.
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I'm with you. I bought a lovely montepulciano d'abruzzo (Asda's ES range, if anyone is interested) and I knocked off a little early to indulge.
That sounds delicious.
I slept like a log. Having tea now to wake up. Yay Fortnum's & Mason's!
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I've been doing a lot of the beef quarantine recipes from Sam the cooking guy, if you follow his Meat - Onion - Garlic - Spices mix, you'll never really run out of burrito meat.
Got a lot of push back on the cheese wiz. Specifically, the jar, not the spray can. I can understand the hatred of the spray can, that flavor cannot be forgotten no matter how hard you try.
I also have to watch Sam videos on the headphones, mom hates his voice now.
I might lie and say the cheese wiz is just Queso salsa. She likes that.
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I don't eat red meat, but it sounds like you have been working on some new recipes.
We had green bean red curry tofu for dinner, a thai recipe. Over basmati rice. My dad used to eat Cheez Whiz. It came in a jar and he'd nuke it and make nachos with it.
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ATM Croissant and Emmental cheese with coffee.
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I got the monster tacos at Jbox because they're going away on the 1st.
They're just bigger than usual jack in the box tacos. I'm not sure what I expected.
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I stumbled on a recipe for blueberry muffins via Sally's Baking Addiction and they were delicious. I used frozen blueberries and they are so good. We ate some this afternoon, even though they are intended for breakfast. The house smells great.
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Food timing is a construct, eat what you like, when you like.
I've actually enjoyed omelets more for dinner than I ever have in the morning. I'm not a breakfast guy at all, so eating one for lunch or dinner just feels more comfortable.
"Breakfast is the most important meal of the day" was a marketing line.
I spent most of high school forcing a breakfast down every morning for energy, and I despised it.
The weather has finally shifted in a direction where the oven returns to viability instead of being a cruel device.
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I rarely eat eggs for breakfast. They're too dense. I'll often have them for lunch, and sometimes for dinner. I mostly eat a scone or a muffin for breakfast, and if I've run out of things I've baked, maybe some panettone or an English muffin.
I realize there's not much protein in these high carb breakfasts, but that's what I eat. It's mostly to help keep something on my stomach while I imbibe warm caffeinated beverages such as tea or coffee.
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We keep finding (and not liking) these pilsburry pizza crust things we made about a week ago.
Every time it's the same reaction. "ooh, biscuits"
The mini pizza crust is reheated, buttered, and bit into. "Yuck!" we exclaim "This is that damn pizza crust again".
I haven't made biscuits in over a year. I don't know why I keep thinking they're biscuits. Maybe it's the shape? Either way there are still like six of the gits in a container.
I tried making a sloppy joe on one, that was a mistake.
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Biscuits are so easy to make. Flour, buttermilk, baking soda or baking powder, salt, butter.
There are many recipes online.
You can freeze them, too. They reheat well. Lord only knows what they put into those tubular ones. Pizza crust too, but it usually requires yeast, so it's a slight bit more fussy. Still, it's amazing what you can do with a little flour.
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Who knew that microwavable popcorn packets would make such coveted treats for Trick or Treaters.
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We did lights out headphone time because golly market rate for halloween candy. it's usary.
With the not really biscuits I ended up tearing them up and stirring them into a gravy, then plated it. It was okay.
Essentially a deconstructed not biscuits and gravy.
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Sounds like dumplings of some sort.
I got many of the Halloween items at discounts or as free samples (Safeway/Albertsons/Vons) gives things away as Saturday Samplers -- that's where I got the popcorn. We don't eat microwave popcorn but I've given it away in the past. Some kids were so excited that they stood on our steps shouting about it in excitement. It's pretty funny when such a small gift can elicit such overwhelming approval.
I am about to bake some chicken. It's suddenly gotten cold, like the weather figured it's November so it had better get with the winter program. So it rained a bit and then got cold. By cold, I mean it's in the low 50's. CA has turned me into a total weather wimp.
Not as big a wimp as Bolsonaro, but there you have it. If someone votes me out of office, I'll plan to do something fun instead of having a bug up my tush.
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I'm staring at the frying pan.
I just... don't want to cook tonight. Probably microwave something. Got a bunch of ingredients that are nearing "use by" but I am not feeling it.
Ended up shoving vegetables in taco shells and hitting it with hot sauce. It was alright.
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Chicken sandwiches.
Not all that impressive from a recipe standpoint, but an enjoyable dinner. Veggie medley on the side for accompaniment. Nothing exciting there, just a birds eye bag. Made it yesterday, shoved a bunch of it into tacos? That was a weird choice. Tasty, but weird.
I don't know if it's the season or if I need to go to the doctor but I'm feeling tired a lot around dinner time, makes cooking a bit of a drag.
I made a sauce, but I forgot what I put in it.
The store is now stocking egg nog for the season, but the lucerne one sucks this year. I hate when that happens.
Generally, what it means is the rest of the lucerne for the rest of the season will also suck.
It's like they dice roll the recipe. Either way adding rum made walking the dog easier.
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I've never made egg nog but I know it has eggs, milk and cream along w/sweeteners and other flavorings (nutmeg? cinnamon). I think you have to do something to pasteurize the mix with the raw egg. Then it has to be cooled again. Good egg nog usually has bourbon or rum added. It's a great holiday party drink. I was wondering why egg nog is "nog" and found this:
Nog is the unfamiliar part of eggnog, so qualifying nog with "egg", making eggnog a type of nog, doesn't exactly clear up matters. Nog was a type of strong ale that was mixed with eggs to make the festive drink. These days, there are still eggs in eggnog along with milk, cream and spices like nutmeg.
I doubt I'd bother with Lucerne egg nog. Safeway's dairy prices are higher than Trader Joes' and I think I'd be more likely to trust TJ's egg nog, but maybe there's not one close to you? I regularly trek to TJs to get dairy products because SW is too much even though it's closer.
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Nog means only one thing to Englishmen of a certain age:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noggin_the_Nog
Interesting. I'd never heard of him. In the U.S., "noggin" refers to one's head. Like, "he got hit on the noggin." I also see that Nickelodeon network (via Nick Jr.) has appropriated the name for its "learning app."
We are heating up chicken thighs that were baked a couple days ago along with some steamed long beans that I grew from some mystery plants the garden center was giving away.
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Cream scones just out of the oven with some recent jam. The figs are in season and there are lots of them.
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I did the dirty water dogs again, this time using the red wine vinegar the recipe called for.
Not sure why I did, these are jalepeno sausages and the roof of my mouth is on fire. I infused it with more spice? I am a dumb.
I feel like that treehouse of horror segment when homer poured milk into cereal, and it burst into flames.
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Ha! I watched a Jamie Oliver video today and naively thought I'd make some focaccia that wouldn't suck. It looked ok but tasted terrible. It was so bad I threw it into the compost.
So much for adventures in baking. I think I'll try a different recipe next time.
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I do find it a bit ironic that you found a Jamie Oliver recipe pretty and useless. I know many cooking personalities don't much care for him.
When I was mixing up my sandwich sauce I got a complaint about pepper smell. Considering I was mixing in sriracha, the complaint was valid :P
Still don't have the sandwich sauce locked. I thought it was ranch and sriracha, but that tastes bad.
What's worse is I can't find a clone sauce, both Google and Bing show me results for what they THINK I want, instead of what I actually want.
I know how to make "spread" aka "burger sauce". That isn't what I'm trying to make.
The official ingredients don't help much either, it's mostly soybean oil and "spices".
For reference, I'm trying to replicate Jack in the box's "good good" sauce.
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Here's a big surprise:
tea and a scone.
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Hey, if it works it works!
I was going to do garlic bread tonight but the rolls had molded. I have bad luck with any of the soft rolls from any market down here.
Our kitchen also doesn't have any windows, so I think it's the sink moisture getting in. I've tried putting the bread on the opposing wall, but mom doesn't like that.
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Maybe refrigerate or freeze it until you are ready to use it?
We are having leftover Thai food (I'd call it from a takeaway but it was dropped off by Doordash).
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Tea, scone.
I couldn't sleep so I stayed up reading.
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Raisin toast and tea.
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I made a prawn curry this evening and chopped in a soupcon of fresh mint to make it interesting. My god did it work out well. Definitely have to do that again!
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I got a McRib and since I used the app the fries and drink were on the house.
Which is good because I am not going to pay $2.69 for French fries.
The McRib was not as terrible as the influencer set would have you believe and may actually have been a bit better than I remembered it.
Supposedly this is the real last time they'll be doing it, and judging by shifting tastes and markets, they might mean it this time.
I know in the state of California at least, animal handling rules regarding pigs have all of the fast-food chains up in arms.
I don't much care for the austerity pivot to chicken sandwiches, I've always found them a bit dull, and absolutely never worth $7.
The McRib totaled out to $5.79 with tax. I'd say the meal was worth $5.79, not sure the sandwich on its own would be.
I liked the sauce, which is interesting as that is what reviewers are poo-pooing this go around. They say it is watered down, but that was not my experience. The veggies were crunchy, if spare. I think the onions could have used a bit more chopping, but that's pedantry.
The bun was a bun. I don't care for cornmeal, but that's a personal gripe.
I guess I'd say I wasn't disappointed if this was my last go-round with the McRib.
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I made a prawn curry this evening and chopped in a soupcon of fresh mint to make it interesting. My god did it work out well. Definitely have to do that again!
That sounds delicious. We are having a fake pork bites stir fry tonight (Gardein's porkless pork bites w/sweet & sour sauce) over rice.
8ully, I often have to rely on Carl's Jr. chicken sandwiches when I drive to Southern California as there's not a lot of options in some areas. The 5 is like a long boring trip though a food dessert, which is ironic, given its route through one of the major agricultural areas of the U.S.
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My Grandpa was a road accountant, and he swore by Carl's. We'd go there for lunch occasionally. I believe those were bad days and the visit cheered him up. Most days we would make food at his house.
When he was in hospice care (He actually managed to get out that time) he had us smuggle him in some Carl's. It was poo. I still haven't forgiven them.
It was even our local location. The hospice center was disturbingly across the street from my high school. I never knew because they didn't have any signage.
In high school I had wondered what that building was, as both the high school and the center were public works projects. There is a plaque at the school, dunno about the hospice.
The story of Carl's Jr is an interesting one, if you ever have a rainy day where you're bored, I highly recommend the read.
Tonight was leftover spaghetti. I hit it with a ton of garlic powder as I don't feel fantastic, and garlic has on occasion scared off an illness.
UPDATE! The next day!
Spaghetti again. Mom made the full tall pot, so there's spaghetti for days.
It had soaked in the previous sauce (good riddance, it had bell pepper in it) So I added a second jar and mixed that in on low.
Jarred again, honestly can't remember the last time I made sauce from scratch.
This time it was Spinach Florentine, which considering the dominant elements (the cheese and the spinach) meant no lousy bell pepper.
I honestly can't put into words what I dislike about bell pepper, I can't accurately say what that taste is. It's not bitter, but like, a cousin of bitter? I don't care for it and can taste it in a second.
I honestly wish this was something I could grow out of.
I also made meatballs, but nothing special there. Only made them because the store ones get nastier and nastier all the time. I forgot the Worcestershire sauce, so they were a bit dry, but it's not like I'm cooking for the king here.
Split a long roll and made toaster oven garlic bread as well. Burnt one edge, but it snapped right off. I honestly think we enjoyed the garlic bread more than the spaghetti.
I'm out of parmesan, but that's more of a me problem than anything else :P
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Spaghetti can be wonderful and the leftover sauce can be a nice addition to scrambled eggs or an omelette.
We had Sally's Baking Addiction Blueberry Muffins this morning. Fabulous.
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SHAME TACOS
street taco tortillas (yeah, the ones I made the joke post about)
Sandwich turkey
american cheese slice
sriracha.
I can't recommend this, but three of them satiated the hunger beast.
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There is no shame in using whatever is at hand to satisfy hunger. You do a remarkable job of combining varied ingredients to make meals. Sometimes it's not the best, but, hey, you gotta eat, right?
I'm having tea, soon to be joined by a cream scone.
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Had a lime and coriander with cheese sandwich the other day ( use up food)
Was different
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I've been so pushed for time recently (working late nearly every night), that I've had pan fried salmon and french fries 3 nights on the trot.
Delicious, though.
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Kroger mac and cheese.
I'm essentially quarantined, but the food is good. I think they used egg in the base, which makes for a neat creamy mac. Wish I knew how they did it.
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I suppose you couldn't get any chips. Thinks must be tough up north.
Chips are in abundance but I specifically wanted french fries as my air fryer cooks them in around 5 minutes - which is about the same length of time the salmon has in the pan. See, there is a method to my thinks.
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I have been eating hungry man dinners dropped at my door. My mom is very kind.
I have never liked hungry man. I had a roommate who loved them, and I think mom is confused.
I'm keeping my mouth shut and saying "thank you".
The mexican fiesta meal is particularly vile. I think it's supposed to be enchiladas.
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I have been eating hungry man dinners dropped at my door. My mom is very kind.
I have never liked hungry man. I had a roommate who loved them, and I think mom is confused.
I'm keeping my mouth shut and saying "thank you".
The mexican fiesta meal is particularly vile. I think it's supposed to be enchiladas.
I think I'll pass:
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They should consider "Glutton's Favorite" as a brand name for that stuff.
I'm having tea, soon a zucchini muffin. I had leftover zucchini and had to do something with it. It's not as magical as blueberry muffins, but, it's what we have right now. I need to wake up. And it's raining. The ants are, therefore, deciding that my kitchen is the place to be, since it's cold and wet outside. I am attacking them with Windex, a substance (mostly colored ammonia) that has the dual benefit of killing the little buggers and cleaning the kitchen at the same time.
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They replaced the pudding with a brownie, but the 1470 mg of sodium seems about right.
I would never in a million years buy these things.
Tonight was chili fries.
I was trying to think "what's the opposite of chili"?
Turns out there is no antonym, but I'd say steamed broccoli is about as far from chili as you can get, foodwise. The only similarity is that they are both heated.
My mom swears by borax for ant barriers.
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They should consider "Glutton's Favorite" as a brand name for that stuff.
I'm having tea, soon a zucchini muffin. I had leftover zucchini and had to do something with it. It's not as magical as blueberry muffins, but, it's what we have right now. I need to wake up. And it's raining. The ants are, therefore, deciding that my kitchen is the place to be, since it's cold and wet outside. I am attacking them with Windex, a substance (mostly colored ammonia) that has the dual benefit of killing the little buggers and cleaning the kitchen at the same time.
And the best stuff to unclog your printer.
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A perfect breakfast. Earl Grey tea & cream scones with homemade Seville orange marmalade. That marmalade is magical. The perfect blend of bitter and sweet.
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Suddenly Salad
requires water and olive oil but is insanely easy to make.
This box has been sitting on top of my fridge for a year, but since it's dried pasta it was rated up to August.
I am not a fan of red pepper, but it seems to be in everything now. How It's Made said it's part of the "southwestern flavor profile" but I've never loved it.
Thankfully it was mild.
Added some chicken.
It was inoffensive. Only way I really messed with it is I hit the noodles with some red wine vinegar. That made it better.
I think adding chicken may have been a misstep, it kind of sucked up the flavor from the noodles.
I hope I can get back to more experiments soon.
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I made some curried carrot soup with coconut milk. It was pretty good, but not as good as the first few times I made it. Sometimes you vary one item and it affects the whole thing.
Suddenly Salad sounds like hamburger helper for cold pasta salad, right? I'm not a huge fan of bell peppers, either. Oh well, nothing ventured nothing gained, right?
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I made some curried carrot soup with coconut milk. It was pretty good, but not as good as the first few times I made it. Sometimes you vary one item and it affects the whole thing.
Suddenly Salad sounds like hamburger helper for cold pasta salad, right? I'm not a huge fan of bell peppers, either. Oh well, nothing ventured nothing gained, right?
D0 you grow your won carrots and if so can you eat the seeds, they do have a peppery smell about them ??
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D0 you grow your won carrots and if so can you eat the seeds, they do have a peppery smell about them ??
I am a procrastinating sort of gardener. I planted a bunch of carrot seeds in a window box but they're too crowded to do much so I can't really say. I have been meaning to put them in the ground. Maybe now that the rains have softened the clay soil, I'll make a stab at it. The beets are doing pretty well. The rain and the cold have pretty much killed the tomatoes.
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Here's a surprise: tea and a cream scone with marmalade.
I usually come on here as I'm eating breakfast. Hence the boring predictable list of foods.
Once in a while, just to mix it up, I'll have a muffin.
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I bought supposed sandwich steak sight unseen.
It's the same shitty frozen pucks as every other brand. Made for an okay sandwich but wouldn't put their name out there.
I made a chopped cheese for myself, and a spicy chipotle steak sandwich with provolone for mom.
She was mad I didn't toast the roll, but the toaster oven has royally bent the last few I've put through it.
Not sure what I'm doing wrong with the toaster oven, but I finally got the frying pan back out.
Beats suddenly salad. And yes six, it's essentially hamburger helper in salad form.
I had also bought a jar of chopped pepperoncini, but the cut is too rough to put in sandwiches, so I put them on the side, the way you get a pickle spear in a diner. That got rave reviews.
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I like those small pickled peppers. Best to eat them separately, anyway.
Getting ready to heat my cream scone. Whoopee!
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Made stroganoff, bent up. Sad.
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Why sad re stroganoff? It looks like a tasty cream pasta dish.
What went wrong?
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Having just had a blood test and the doctor, BY PHONE of course due to them not dont working past 1pm >:( >:(.
I have been told I have a rather high cholesterol level of about 11 ish and due to my last blood pressure test was high ( haven't seen doctor for 3 years) can i send them a reading.
I have no idea what I can and shouldn't eat ???
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Cholesterol is found in animal fats, so heavy dairy (butter, cream, cheese) and meats.
Fish is ok. But stay away from partially hydrogenated oils.
Nuts are satisfying and have good fats, avocados, beans are also beneficial.
I'd just switch to a diet of vegetarian curries, avoid meats, and start walking a lot. Or workout most days. It's worrying to get such a diagnosis, but my take on it is that reducing fat intake and upping the movement are key to reducing the cholesterol levels.
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How hard is it over the pond to avoid high fructose corn syrup? It's in damn near every food in America.
I thought the "cake" brouhaha in Ireland over Subway's bread was a tax thing, but it's actually difficult to find breads that aren't sweet.
As to the stroganoff, we have a family recipe that I tend to follow to the letter, but a friend recommended an alternate recipe, said it was "really different"
The sauce never firmed up. If I'd added any more flour, it would have turned to a cement slurry.
Despite not adding salt, it tasted like I'd dropped salt in blindly.
The meat ended up both tough AND mushy, which I don't understand how that happened. I didn't cook it any different than I usually do. It was gross almost to the point of mousse. Needless to say, that recipe can go straight to hell.
Been a while since I've messed up a dinner other than burning it, so this was a serious disappointment.
I swear the recipe looked completely innocent.
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Had another steak sandwich for lunch today, made the mistake of putting relish on it.
Felt gross all afternoon.
Made frozen waffles with legit syrup for dinner, figured I couldn't F eggos up.
It was good.
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We mostly use sugar.
... to the glee of lawmakers, that consider it is their bounden duty to extract tax money from fat people.
Unless they've changed ingredients lately, I was saddened to discover Frank Cooper's Original Oxford Marmalade contained HFCS. I bought it for years, and it was often difficult to find. Then I read the ingredients. I give up. Now I make my own. They call it Glucose-Fructose syrup over there, we call it high fructose corn syrup here. Still, it's a cheaper form of sweetener. I guess if you can lower production costs by using extracts from corn husks, you do. I live in a place where I can buy Seville oranges so I make my own. It isn't all that difficult and the results are better than Frank's.
Who is Frank Cooper anyway? Is he still alive? Or is he like Laura Ashley, dead from a fall, but still cranking out design artefacts for a consumer base willing to overlook the fact that they are buying products from someone designing from the world beyond?
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The first batch of Frank Cooper’s marmalade was made by the wife of Oxford shopkeeper Frank Cooper, Sarah-Jane, in the family kitchen, back in 1874. So I don't think they are still in charge.
So it should be called Sarah-Jane Cooper's, not Frank's but yes - nowadays it does contain sucrose/ fructose rather than sugar.
Thanks for the historical tidbit. If memory serves, James Bond liked it, too. I always thought it was the best commercial marmalade available, and I bought it exclusively, until I learned to make it myself. The Seville oranges are amazing in that they have more seeds than any other citrus I've encountered. And they're too bitter to eat raw. You wonder how somebody thought to cook them with sweetener in the first place...
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Barbacoa tacos. Very difficult to golly up.
Gave mom one task: Buy shredded lettuce.
She brought home a head of lettuce and said she would put it through the cheese grater.
Stunned, I told her I would really like to see that. She tried this once previously, with an onion. That was sad. It came out a mess of watery shavings. Do not recommend.
This time she gave up before making the attempt.
So the tacos were sans lettuce.
I dunno man, I'm really off my game. I'm not even thinking of ways to kick up a recipe now, I'm just kind of sad and confused.
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We eat beans and rice sometimes. Basmati rice, cooked.
Black beans, a couple cans.
An onion, chopped, not a giant onion, medium will do.
Sauté the onion with a little oil, add:
cumin, chili powder, a little chipotle powder.
Stir the lot over medium heat until the onions soften.
Deglaze the pan with a little dry sherry.
Add beans and cook for about 15-20 min. until they take on some of the flavor.
Spoon the beans over the rice and top with grated cheese. Add some hot sauce if you like.
Cheap. Hard to mess up and requires zero shredded lettuce.
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sandwiches, broccoli, and waffles.
Not paired thank god, but one after the other.
(No one wanted to make dinner)
Mom tried to get shredded lettuce again, but it was coleslaw.
When I asked why she bought coleslaw she said "I like coleslaw".
Little hard to argue with that.
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I did some work for the Twickenham Tandoori yesterday and, as usual, they sent me home with enough food to feed the 5000. I have no idea what the particular dishes were as they usually make me something bespoke, but there were shedloads of king prawns dishes, a fish dish, a dhal and many breads.
3 of us ate what they gave us last night, tonight and there was at least another portion left that we had to bin.
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We love Indian food. Some things freeze well: some of the breads (esp. naan) and the dal. I guess that much is overwhelming and grows old after feeling like you have to eat multiple servings. Still, that's a great bonus for your work!
We are about to have some really good pizza for lunch. I guess you'd call it Sicilian style, it's like foccacia with toppings. I'm having putanesca. There's also a very nice one thin slice made with garbanzo bean flour topped with onions. This pizza place replaced an earlier crap pizzaria so we are grateful for it.
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Love Indian food which is abundant here, wife prefers Chinese
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I (sort of) fondly remember Vesta curries. Back when there was no such thing as an Indian restaurant and Tikka Masala hadn't been invented.
Damn! How old ARE you, anyway?
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Enchiladas. Overdid the sour cream in the meat filling, kind of tastes like stroganoff.
A mistake one can be happy with.
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I (sort of) fondly remember Vesta curries. Back when there was no such thing as an Indian restaurant and Tikka Masala hadn't been invented.
Curry in a bag you boiled 8). Yep remember it, never ate it though
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Older than dirt.
That reminds me of something a friend used to say when he heard something he didn't believe:
"I wish I could put some of that on my lawn."
We had steamed vegs with baked potatoes, butter and sour cream. It was tasty and not very difficult to make.
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Last thing I ate was freshly made Veg Samosas, Way prefer the Veg version.
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I started out with Fortnum's earl grey and now am drinking Yorkshire gold.
Had a blueberry muffin that couldn't be beat. Used Sally's Baking Addiction recipe, tweaked to have a smaller amount of sugar. That was fun.
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Mom attempted to steam chicken.
I don't want to talk about it.
We had hot dogs for dinner.
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Mom attempted to steam chicken.
Ikea use to sell steamed chicken.
I don't want to talk about it.
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Mom attempted to steam chicken.
I don't want to talk about it.
We had hot dogs for dinner.
Steamed chicken = rubber chicken.
I've had delicious steamed fish using a Cantonese recipe, but I think that some meats don't really lend themselves to that kind of preparation. Hotdogs are probably a good fallback after such a failure.
We had blackened salmon, baked potato, and a Green Giant spinach that you microwave in a plastic pouch for dinner. The fish and potatoes were fine. The latter was not worth it -- the spinach had become a fibrous soggy mess. I think we have spoiled ourselves by mostly cooking fresh spinach with olive oil and a little garlic & some red pepper flakes. It doesn't take very long to wilt it over high heat and it's delicious. So no more green giant spinach for us.
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Tried to rescue a pizza mom abandoned. Looked like the evil dead necronomicon.
Didn't spread flour before rolling.
I overdid it with the flour to try and recover the dough.
It ended up tasting like raw flour. I bent it up. I'm the donut. Gordon Ramsey snatched my Jacket. It's cold. :(
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I try to roll dough on wax paper or parchment paper. It requires less flour. Sorry it turned out a mess.
My maiden attempt at foccacia sucked so hard that it had to go directly into the compost bin. It was inedible. Thanks, Jamie Oliver!
This morning's breakfast consisted of sliced Panettone that I got half price after Xmas from a drug store chain. It's tasty but I put it in the toaster and it caused it to turn into a brick of carbon that filled the kitchen with acrid smoke. That is also going into the green bin. Our ants are especially well fed and they like to reside there because of the continuous supplements of treats that we keep throwing in there.
Anyway, we sliced more and put it in the oven, which resulted in a more predictable warm toasted slice that wasn't burned. I washed it down with the usual Earl Grey tea..
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Thanks, Jamie Oliver!
I much prefer The Hairy Bikers.
This morning's breakfast consisted of sliced Panettone that I got half price after Xmas from a drug store chain. It's tasty but I put it in the toaster and it caused it to turn into a brick of carbon that filled the kitchen with acrid smoke.
;D ;D not just me burning things in the Kitchen
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I feel really stupid. I was explaining my bean flinging technique for nachos, and mom wasn't getting it.
So I pulled up a video. The cook in the video mixed the beans and meat together.
I could have saved so much time if I had done that.
Instead, I always put down the bottom layer of chips, fling beans at the chips with the edge of a spoon, then spoon the meat over, then the olives, cheese, and sour cream
then the hot sauce.
The amount of time I wasted... golly
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I made turkey chili for the Super Bowl. I threw a few corn chips on top and ate it with a spoon.
It took more labor to make than a pot of vegetable soup. That's why I don't make it often. I do hear it freezes well.
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Nachos. Microwaved 'em.
Normally we have the annual screaming match about nachos, but I decided to preempt it by just making them in the microwave and not letting anyone else have input.
Super Bowl Nachos are pretty much the only tradition we hold to. Started back in 2001. We used to just buy them, but fast food is stupid expensive now.
Forgot to buy chopped jalapeño, but I have a jalapeño sauce pretty much all the time, so I hit the meat and beans with it.
I suppose what I make would technically be "super nachos" but it's nothing grand. Just a plate of burrito mixings on chips.
I think it's sad that such an exciting game was essentially decided by a penalty. I've shut off prior games when things get into what I call a "Ref game".
I'm honestly surprised no one has ever attacked a referee, but I'm more surprised it hasn't happened in baseball. Yelling, yes. But no one ever hauls off and punches one in the mouth.
The "bounty" game... you know what, I think this is more sports criticism than food so I'll just stop there.
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We were also disappointed in the outcome. But I was impressed that all those players from opposing teams were hugging one another at the end.
Earl Grey tea and soon... cream scones that I made after the game last night for today's breakfast. With various citrus marmalades.
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Red Beef Enchiladas instead of Green.
I was put off of red for quite a while because of the old el paso sauce and how gross it was, but the red mild Las Palmas sauce was fantastic. The one substitute I made to the recipe was using white Jack cheese instead of cream cheese. I don't really care for cream cheese, and the Jack had a nice bite.
I think part of what I liked about it was the complete absence of green pepper in the sauce. I also like that the Las Palmas sauce is incredibly simple, I believe there were six ingredients total.
Mom was worried that mild would be boring, but they came out great.
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Glad it worked out for you.
It's been uncommonly cold up here so I made turkey chili tonight. The turkey was on sale and it seemed a good fit for a cold night and it turned out well. It makes a bunch and freezes well so we don't have to eat it forever.
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Hey 8ully, is it snowing down south? We are having annoying rain. It's been cold and damp for over a week and we are all tired of it. At least we are doing away with the drought for now.
I made scones this morning. That was fun. We are having pasta for dinner with a tomato thyme sauce that comes from a recipe from Mario Batali created before his fall from grace. Apparently he has trouble keeping his hands to himself. A pity since it's a good recipe.
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It hasn't hailed here, but it has in the area. The tall areas get snow, but it's still Southern California.
Finished off the enchiladas tonight, last night had hot dogs, but didn't really do anything new.
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It got up to a balmy 50 degrees today and it was a relief to see the sun again. I'm making a big pot of vegetable soup.
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Just got in from walking the dog, 42f. I wore mittens.
Tonight we had meatloaf pucks. They're from a book and I'll post the recipe up tomorrow, but I don't want to look for the book right now.
Essentially you take ground beef, frozen corn, taco seasoning, beans, and diced tomatoes, and form them into pucks. Bake, then top with cheese.
You use a muffin tin to bake them, hence meatloaf cupcakes. One of the reasons we like this recipe is that the one time mom attempted a meatloaf in this apartment, it came out half dessicated, half liquid. David Croenenberg could have designed the thing.
The pucks are easy, relatively quick, and make for kickass leftovers. You can break one up and toss it in a tortilla and you've got pretty much everything but the hot sauce for a burrito.
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Apologies, I have not found the book yet. It fell on my feet that night and I put it up somewhere so it wouldn't do that... and yeah, can't find it.
Did simple tacos tonight, had half a can of diced tomatoes from the meat pucks, turns out that's FANTASTIC in tacos. Kind of like a salsa that isn't spicy. Made the flavors of the tacos pop, which is good because I'm out of taco sauce.
I used sriracha, so they were certainly fiery, but now I'm out of that too.
So, I've learned diced tomatoes make for a great taco accouterment. I know I've seen them on tacos before, but I've never used them. I feel exceptionally stupid.
I made fresh meat for the tacos, but the leftover meat pucks also make for fantastic taco filling.
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Earl Grey tea and cream scones with orange marmalade.
Not original, but reliably good.
I made mushroom risotto: it's good & cheap and enough for 3 meals. That's about the point where you get sick of it. Last night we finished it off. Kind of makes me want to avoid rice for a while.
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nothing and no coffee allowed till Saturday.
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Sorry about the coffee. Are you fasting for a procedure?
I just baked blueberry muffins. Had to have some, so I split one with my husband. I'm looking forward to breakfast when I get to eat a whole one. Now I'm too tired to make dinner. Ha!
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Sorry about the coffee. Are you fasting for a procedure?
No I have disposable stiches in my gum after my tooth was taken out and was advised no hot food/drinks for 48 hrs, also swill with salt water every 2 hrs with salt water :o :o I missed the coffee more than food ;D ;D
I just baked blueberry muffins. Had to have some, so I split one with my husband. I'm looking forward to breakfast when I get to eat a whole one. Now I'm too tired to make dinner. Ha!
Use to bake Muffins but they were mass produced, Blueberry my Favourite even though i'm not a cake person.
Sitting here with my first coffee foe 2 days and some Panettoni to dip into it.
Heaven I'm in heaven,
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Earl Grey tea. Although, technically, it's what I'm drinking.
I'll have a blueberry muffin in a little while, though.
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More tea and a vanilla panettone. Livin' large.
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I've mostly been making meals by rote, not really adding or subtracting anything.
Dinner was fun last night because mom wanted the old perfect tortilla pans. With the toaster oven, they cooked a lot faster than the conventional oven.
Not much to write home about, we had taco bowls. They were... okay. Mom's been on an excercise kick so she's been hungrier than previous, but that's to be expected. Effort out, food in.
Today for lunch I made a Jack's frozen pizza. It's pretty much a tortilla in pizza dough form, covered with a smidgen of red sauce and some cheese. I added an additional layer of pizza sauce and mozzarella. Nothing exciting, but it was decent. I had two pieces.
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We had turkey chili for dinner. It's relatively easy and one batch is enough for 3 dinners for the two of us. It also freezes well, although we have a small freezer. It's a recipe from Pierre Franey in the NY Times. I halve the amount of ground turkey and it's still just fine.
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I've been watching a poor man eat entire menus of fast food restaurants, and his main complaint against Del Taco was their removal of the ground turkey taco.
I mean he savaged everything else on the menu as well, but his main complaint was that they took away his turkey taco.
I can't say I honestly see a decent turkey chili. I'd be willing to try just about any recipe, but ground turkey is fart meat at best.
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We regularly eat turkey burgers (I make those from ground turkey and freeze them) as well as ground turkey in chili. I don't eat red meat so it's the only option for me other than vegetarian chili. I suspect that those who are accustomed to ground beef as a staple might find it less appealing. My regular carnivore husband doesn't find it lacking at all.
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I believe my dislike of turkey burgers stems from the chef - A particular uncle. He made them SO BLAND.
I imagine if he'd just thrown in paprika they would have been ten times better. Let alone the staples, Salt, Pepper, Garlic. One cooking channel I follow calls it SPG, and it took me a while to recognize what he was talking about. He'd say "Toss in your SPG" and I'd wonder what he'd said.
Another chef calls it BFF for Best Fing flavor.
I spent a 20 minute ride of boredom today watching a deli prepare breakfast, it was kind of zen. Plus, I got a slurpee on the way home.
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I use this one.
https://www.delish.com/cooking/recipe-ideas/a19664658/best-turkey-burger-recipe/
I add a little panko bread crumbs as a binder. Add also a quarter cup of minced shallot. I freeze these using a biscuit cutter to shape them and use parchment paper to separate the patties when I freeze them. I can get about 8 burgers out of a pound of ground turkey. I planted some parsley once and it's decided to pop up in random places in my back yard so I usually go there and pinch some to add to this. It's really nice with the fresh parsley.
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Last night I was too tired to cook so resorted to a Safeway store brand cauliflower crust 3 cheese pizza. The crust is basically mushed up cauliflower and rice flour. They are surprisingly tasty and take about 10 min. to bake. I don't really like frozen pizza but this is edible. I think it's gluten free, although that's not a concern for us, but makes it an option for when family members visit.
This morning I'm having a raspberry buttermilk cake slice for breakfast. Frozen raspberries came my way and I was scratching my head as to how to deal with them. I used a streusel topping of ¼ c brown sugar, ¼ c pecans, ¼ tsp cinnamon. I used butter and flour on the baking pan (instead of spray) and dialed back the heat to 350 because I have an oven that heats to just about shy of the Hiroshima bombing temps. Baked 25 min and let cool in the pan for 5 min before I tried to cut it. Damn. It was good.
Non-sticking cooking spray
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 stick unsalted butter, softened
2/3 cup plus 1-1/2 tablespoons granulated sugar (for topping/I used an alternative described above)
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup well-shaken buttermilk
1 cup fresh or frozen raspberries
Cream butter & sugar together, add egg & vanilla. Alternate mixing dry ings into the butter/sugar mix with buttermilk until blended. Spatula the mix into 8 inch square baking dish and distribute the frozen raspberries on top, then the streusel topping. Bake until toothpick comes out clean, about 25 min. If your oven is more normal, they recommend a higher temp. Why ask for trouble is my motto. Be prepared to resist eating the whole thing in one sitting.
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Earl grey tea and a cream scone.
I wonder what ChatGPT could do to mash that one up.
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Earl grey T, very popular
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Whoops I did it again. Earl Grey.
Accompanied by raspberry buttermilk cake. Now I really have to go walking to burn that off.
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Pizza.
Medical appt yesterday did me in pretty good, so I decided this morning I was NOT going to make dinner.
It was good.
There was a pizza I wanted to get at a different location, but those gits have switched to using BBQ sauce instead of pizza sauce.
I can see the novelty on ONE pizza, but all of them? golly that noise. It's like they want to go out of business.
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This is tax season, so I'm eating lots of easy to prep food: microwaveable curries, pizza, pasta with jarred sauce. It would be nice to have a cook. Chicken barbeque pizza is as far as it should go and then, experiment over, knock it off. Get that tomato sauce back. In Berkeley there's a place we call "Commie Pizza Land" but it's really the Cheese Board Collective. You get what they want to put on the pizza that day: corn, onions, whatever. You take what you get. Just like a good comrade. We don't go there much. Sometimes the wacky mix can be good. It's often creative, but that's not necessarily a good thing when it comes to pizza.
Not to diss the place completely. They do have decent onion bialys, and those are hard to come by around here.
I love me a good cheese slice when made well (with tomato sauce). That, and a glass of seltzer is a dream lunch when you are hungry. And it's usually cheap and filling.
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Made two burgers and fries tonight. Mom had already had dinner so I stupidly ate both like I was still 20. I regularly ate two burgers back then, and was fine.
I'm not 20 anymore, and my stomach is angry.
I should have just wrapped it up for next day lunch, but I'm an idiot.
At least I don't put bacon on them anymore, that was constant. I learned to bake bacon because I got tired of dodging snap pops.
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I made a tuna sandwich for lunch on a whole grain bread and cut it in half. After eating the first half, I felt content, so I wrapped up the second half for later. I'll either eat it later this afternoon or tomorrow. It's hard to do that, but helpful to train yourself to pause while eating to figure out if you feel like you are no longer hungry and don't need more. Eating slowly helps. I'm trying to lose a few pounds, so I'm kind of focused on not overeating these days. Walking 4 miles a day on top of that also helps. I think if I had to rely on myself to walk alone, it would be harder, but my husband has been walking with me so I'm grateful for the company. Using an app to keep track of how many flights I've climbed, calories burned and steps taken gives me more of an incentive. That said, I feel like taking a nap.
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The woman I work with as my manager, she is very much into her smart watch telling her all the calories and steps of the day.
I live on chicken, rice, celery, apples and the skatepark in town.
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I made a mistake with dinner last night, too much grease, much discomfort.
So tonight, I just shoved a Swiss cheese sandwich in the toaster oven. Sometimes the basics are exactly what you need.
It seems to have soaked up the residual heartburn nicely.
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I love a good grilled cheese sandwich.
I'm making cream scones and will smear homemade jam on them when they come out in about 10 minutes. Earl Grey tea to bring me back to consciousness.
Bea, it sounds like you have a decent diet, despite your busy life. We look at the health app on our phones to see how many miles/steps/flights we've managed to clock in a day. I don't think I would want the intrusiveness of a smart watch. My phone is bad enough for telling the world what I get up to in any given day.
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Blueberry muffin and earl grey tea. Thank god for Fortnum and Mason.
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muffins, how divine.
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burgers. The burgers were unimpressive, but the onion slices were fantastic.
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Turkey burger on toasted english muffin with dijon mustard. It won't win any awards but it was cheap and filling.
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Yesterday I had quiche (well, you gotta get in the swing of it, eh). I just hope it didn't contain lard ...
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I dug out an old recipe for Coronation Chicken but as my husband doesn't much like mayonnaise, it was a no go. He'd be more amenable to quiche.
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not a fan myself to be honest
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Earl Grey tea. Waiting for the blueberry muffin to finish heating.
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3 Cheese cauliflower crust pizza. Not bad. They grind up cauliflower and mix it w/rice flour. A little brittle, but it tastes decent and takes 8 minutes to bake. Great for those days when you just don't feel like cooking but don't feel like getting take away.
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Guess? tea and soon, cream scone with jam. Not very newsworthy.
Have a good day.
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Doing hot dogs tonight. Wanted to use sriracha but Huy Fong continues to be elusive. (They tried to drive their pepper supplier into bankruptcy and then pick the company up. Problem is, the supplier found out.)
I bought the Tabasco one, which was somewhat stupid. It tastes good, but the base is unsurprisingly... tabasco sauce. A very different taste.
At least it's not like my worcestershire sauce fumble where I bought frenches and was utterly disgusted.
Also managed to pick up some malt vinegar. My area has been in a balsamic craze, and it's not even balsamic! They're buying red wine vinegar adultrated with must!
The balsamic craze continues, there were at least six varieties. With the malt it was pub or Heinz. I went with pub.
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So I was wrong.
A while back Little Caesars did a promotion where they used a pretzel crust. My mom would go on and on about it, but never ordered it. When she finally got around to it, they had discontinued the promotion.
It came around again, and she hemmed and hawed.
I got word from a friend that they were discontinuing it again, so I told her (about a week ago)
Tonight we had the pretzel crust pizza. My review? Don't.
It's like a salt lick
She liked it though, and that's what's important.
She did not like Ford vs. Ferrari. No clue why I suggested that.
She's very much enjoying Cocaine Bear, but the chromecast keeps dying.
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We have been tired from doing other stuff lately so last night I got carryout fried chicken. Safeway grocery deli. It was what you'd expect.
Tonight, jarred pasta sauce over linguine. A local company: Mezzetta, tomato basil sauce.
Sometimes you just don't have the time or inclination to cook.
8ully, I've never gotten the whole pretzel dough for pizza, burger buns, etc. but some people just love it. Wendy's had a Boys 2 Men video about bringing back their pretzel burger. My menu at Wendys is limited to baked potato and salad, so I wouldn't know. I have yet to view Cocaine Bear, but it's a favorite of late night comedians, at least it was before the writers went on strike.
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Freshly baked blueberry muffins. OMG. Recipe from Sally's Baking Addiction. They're really good.
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Again with the Safeway deli chicken. This batch was worse than the last one. We call it "shitty fried chicken." By the time you peel away the greasy crusted skin and remove the bones, there's very little meat left. It's one of those foods that you should know better than to buy, but you keep getting it anyway. Some day maybe I'll learn to leave it alone.
We had a couple pieces as an "appetizer" (not really a good name for it, since it was actually the opposite of appetizing). Main dish will be steamed vegetables. Thank god they aren't deep fried.
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I've been shopping in Lidl lately and they have shedloads of pastries at about half the price of other supermarkets. I know I have high cholesterol and should be eating nothing but low fat dust, but I can't help it.
Pain au raisin and a coffee.
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Ha! I was reminded of the Lidl video. When in St. Martin, I regularly went to SuperU for their wonderful store baked croissants and mini pastries (pains aux raisin, pains aux chocolate). Fortunately, the very good bakeries around here are too expensive for me to do that.
I bake cream scones using heavy cream, which is apparently better for you than butter scones. It's a small improvement, but I like them better. (2c. flour, ⅓ c. sugar, ½ tsp salt, 1 T baking powder, 1 c. heavy cream). I mix them up and let them rest for 20 min. then knead and roll out. Perhaps that's heresy, but they are pretty tender and delicious with jams or marmalades.
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I used to prep those chickens. You might want to try a different location, it sounds like they're selling birds that should have been pulled and rendered into chicken salad. I actually liked that because it meant the chicken didn't just go in the garbage. I never really cared for carcass chicken, but I very much enjoy chicken salad.
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I used to prep those chickens. You might want to try a different location, it sounds like they're selling birds that should have been pulled and rendered into chicken salad. I actually liked that because it meant the chicken didn't just go in the garbage. I never really cared for carcass chicken, but I very much enjoy chicken salad.
I don't think they have the same turnover as the larger store, but I can walk to the dried out birds while I'd have to drive to get the ones that are more likely to be fresh. Best to avoid them altogether since they're not really a healthy option to begin with.
This morning: tea and cream scones. There's no end to the excitement around here.
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Alas too much cheese and meat on Holiday, need to get my blood checked :o
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Pizza 2 nights in a row. This is mainly because it's the easiest thing to decide when falling out of the pub.
I really need a lifestyle change!
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Spent last night treating my parents to a meal and a couple of drinks.
Was lovely tbh. Nothing is cheap though :-\
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Had some wheat tortillas that were getting on in age, and some fresh chicken salad.
I dropped a little horseraddish on the tortilla, some carolina gold on the the chicken salad, and rolled it.
The chicken salad already had relish in it (made it last night) but I feel like the wrap could have used some diced tomato or some dried Chile, make it Hasparat!
https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Hasperat
honestly, making a pepper relish sounds pretty good right now...
My regular chicken salad has onion in the recipe, but I took that out because I had really bad heartburn the last time I made enchiladas. (Was out of white, subbed in red, regretted it.)
The only other thing I've been making is a knockoff of fish and chips. I make plain french fries, popcorn chicken, and hit it with malt vinegar. It's delicious, but the malt vinegar smells pretty bad, so I have to do cleanup quick.
Sorry for not posting much lately, haven't been doing too well, but I always keep [PRIVACY ERROR] in my shortcut bar.
Another short one today, figured I'd edit instead of double posting.
I had some burgers that were cooked and fridgerated. That generally results in unpleasant leftovers, but I watched some youtube videos.
Essentially you take the burger out for three minutes to let it "thaw" from refrigeration, then use a spoon to seperate bun from burg.
Then you scoop off as much of whatever you put on the burger, add fresh cheese, and then bake at 12 minutes at 400f.
But what's the twist? Bannana pepper rings. I loaded up the bun with them, baked the burger, and then scooped them off to eat as a side. This made the burger spicy, but not crunchy, and the pepper rings made for a great snack.
I think that's a keeper.
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We are having baked chicken thighs with fresh corn on the cob. I've been away so not cooking much. Still tired from my trip.
8ully, have you tried soaking raw onions in water for a short time and then draining before using? It's supposed to result in a milder flavor and might be less hard on your stomach. Sorry to hear about those troubles. Hope you feel better.
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Heartburn is occasionally the price you pay for taking chances.
I will say that the large toaster oven has seen a lot more action than the smaller one ever did.
I think it's like how watching movies on a larger screen makes things feel nicer, cooking things in an un-cramped oven helps take away some of the cooking stress.
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Slightly burned panettone. Forgot to set the timer and got busy with other stuff. Oh well. I guess the carbon will absorb toxins or some other health benefit?
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Quite the opposite, really.
Yesterday I scorched some bratwurst, chopped it up and put it in mac and cheese.
I honestly can't say I "enjoy" hot dog mac and cheese, but it is comforting, in a weird way. I found a filipino bakery that does a suitable knockoff of the portal cake for $38, now I just need an occasion.
My mom was wondering why she didn't enjoy her burrito and I had a fun time explaining different hot sauces, and why Cholula didn't taste good on THAT burrito.
I'm not sure she got it, but it was fun to talk about. Specifically, if you've got anything in your burrito that doesn't get along with garlic, it's best to use a different, garlic minus sauce.
Tonight, I had more of the mac and cheese and put in some habanero sauce. (The mac was lacking, and I'm out of charred sausage to toss in.)
I honestly wish the flavor of habenero could be divorced from the heat, but that's not really an option. I've had this lament before with different types of spicy.
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Raspberry buttermilk muffin. Not bad. Probably could tweak the recipe a bit since it was adapted from a cake recipe. Tea.
My grandmother used to make mac n cheese with tomatoes and velveeta. I'm no longer a fan of velveeta, but I always enjoyed it when she served it. She was a good cook. I expect the hot dogs added a nice sweet/salty note to the rich starchy goodness of the mac n cheese.
I like burritos but haven't had one in a long time. I generally like salsa verde heaped onto it in intervals.
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They definitely bent with Velveeta.
Tonight I was feeling rough, so I just chopped up a large bread roll into rounds and put oil and vinegar on.
Mom spit hers out, she was eating in the dark and thought it was peanut butter and jelly!
Talk about subverting expectations.
She's been told to cut back on cheese, which has been my primary ingredient for just about forever.
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On facebook, Taco bell has repeatedly harassed me with a tiktok ad where they make their chile verde fries.
To spare you the video, it's an employee assembling the dish while rapping like a nerd.
"Fries, Fries, Steak, Cheese sauce, Cheese sauce, green sauce, strip thingy's, cheese, and reduced fat sour cream"
Well, I decided to cut it down to fries, green sauce, sour cream, and added cholula.
Mom swapped the cholula for ketchup, but I can't vouch for her. She said it was good.
It was good. The green sauce was herdez guacamole salsa.
I've been trying to cut back. I look back at some of the mashed together things I've posted and shudder at the sheer sodium levels some of those things must have hit.
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They could install a salt lick in my kitchen and I'd be happy, but I tend to have low normal blood pressure. Maybe lemon juice might work to give things a kick without adding salt?
I like my fries simple. Maybe a little ketchup or A-1 sauce for dipping. They have to be crisp and thin.
Strangely, I love to load up baked potatoes with butter and sour cream, so go figure. It's basically the same vegetable.
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I did a spaghetti puttanesca this evening but swapped out the anchovies for mackerel. It worked pretty well and mackerel is also quite strong so it held up to near what it should have been.
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I am also a sucker for shoestring, six.
I was going to do burritos, but cheese has had the unsettling trend of molding in my fridge lately, well before EXP.
So I'm doing elimination cooking, essentially playing tetris with the refigerator. My goal is to clear each shelf, and then give it a solid scrubbing. If that means I have to live off cans and sandwiches, I will live off cans and sandwiches.
Tonight was turkey sandwiches, nothing special.
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I did a spaghetti puttanesca this evening but swapped out the anchovies for mackerel. It worked pretty well and mackerel is also quite strong so it held up to near what it should have been.
sound nice
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It's one of my favorite pasta sauces. My husband isn't a fan so I rarely make it. Anchovies die of loneliness in my fridge.
Right now: cream scones with jam and tea. Good morning.
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Mom bought a bunch of strawberries and they're closer to their exp than she'd like, so we're looking at this:
https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/32352/best-strawberry-daiquiri/
I never thought of adding sprite to a mixed fruit cocktail.
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If you are out of sugar and lemon juice, I guess it will work.
I'd just make jam out of them, but it's a completely different end product. All you really need is sugar and lemon juice, strawberries and some patience. Most people opt for SureJell, but it's not really necessary. You can freeze it or just eat it on toast until it's gone. Have fun.
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I skipped the sugar and just added more sprite.
The resulting flavor is confusing. Watermelon fizzy instead of strawberry.
The effect has been very nice. Marshmallow wrapped brick instead of lemon. I'm sure the brick will appear tomorrow.
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Drinking earl grey tea. Had scones earlier. I have to bake some more as there's only one left. They don't take long to put together.
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Drinking earl grey tea. Had scones earlier. I have to bake some more as there's only one left. They don't take long to put together.
plain or currant scones.
When I was baker I made thousands, but now i cannot eat them.
The flour we used was premixed with "sugar?" and was tinged a faint yellow no idea why but they tasted fantastic and not dry as per a lot of scones today
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Plain.
2 c. flour
1 T baking powder
½ t salt
⅓ c sugar
1 fat cup of heavy cream.
I mix and let rest for 20 minutes before shaping and baking. This is so routine for me now that I don't even have to look at the recipe. They are tender and fluffy. I need something to spread all the jams and marmalades onto, so they function well as such a vehicle.
How long did you work as a baker? Was it for a small bakery or a large commercial one?
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Friend gave me an out of date snack pack, but it looked alright, and sell by is not eat by.
Del Duca Genoa Salami and Provolone.
It's a snack plate, with a bunch of slices of salami, with a bunch of squares of provolone.
It was fantastic. I don't think I'd pay $4.38 for 3 ounces of snack, but I enjoyed it a lot. Shame we can't get such things at a more affordable choice, but I'm aware meat and cheese are both on the inflation train.
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How long did you work as a baker? Was it for a small bakery or a large commercial one?
7 years in a small bakery, then 3 years at a supermarket which wasnt too bad a product
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That sounds like a great way to get in some good experience. Do you bake much now?
I made Sally's Baking Addiction blueberry muffins yesterday so that's what we had for breakfast, along with the usual tea.
8ully, I found small jars of Mezzetta Calabrian chili marinara sauce at Grocery Outlet for 2.99 and we had it on pasta last night. It was the bomb. Well worth the cost. I mention it because you might happen on it and it's really good.
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That sounds like a great way to get in some good experience. Do you bake much now?
I made Sally's Baking Addiction blueberry muffins yesterday so that's what we had for breakfast, along with the usual tea.
8ully, I found small jars of Mezzetta Calabrian chili marinara sauce at Grocery Outlet for 2.99 and we had it on pasta last night. It was the bomb. Well worth the cost. I mention it because you might happen on it and it's really good.
sometimes, but the wife dominated our cake making ;D
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Mom dipped a classico out of the back of the car, looks like murder in the rear-view cam.
I do love a good sauce.
On that topic, we did kraft mac and cheese "hamburger helper style" and found it quite creamier than the box directions.
Specifically, you need two boxes of mac, three cups of water, one cup of milk, 4 TBSB Butter, and additional spicing and cheese to taste.
Also, you need to be a washing machine of stirring. So Much Stirring.
We used a jalepeno cheese packet in addition to the two box packets, and it did indeed produce a creamier mac. Sadly, short-lived though, those greedy noodles sucked up the cream.
I've honestly lost my temper in the past when a spaghetti has inhaled the sauce. Without a good bit of sauce, what is the point even, really?
I need to put in some effort and make a decent Spaghetti. It's been a long time and my skills have likely atrophied. bless'ed summer!
I haven't said it, but we have been living off bread rolls and boars head sandwich oil. Sorry, "Deli Dressing". Is it nutritionally sound? NO. Is it cold? YES.
Is that the point? YES.
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There's always hummos and cucumbers. Best eaten cold.
My tomatoes are slowly beginning to ripen. I get about 1 cherry tomato a day. Soon the speed will pick up. I love raw tomatoes. They also make good sauce when there's enough of them. I often freeze some of it so we can have it in the winter months.
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Cream scones with greengage plum jam and apricot jam (for pudding). They are both delicious.
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Cream scones with greengage plum jam and apricot jam (for pudding). They are both delicious.
To me, that reads that apricot jam was for pudding and cream scones with greengage jam was the main. That's the best main ever.
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Ha! Sleep deprivation strikes again.
We split the scones and have different jams on the two halves. The greengage was the main and the second half was the apricot.
I am reminded of Peep Show where David Mitchell's character regularly has two slices of toast in the morning: wheat bread for main and white bread for "pudding."
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A Instagram reel popped up on my feed about "the seed man" All about growing cheap food from various garden left overs, seeds and what surprised me was that you can eat is Fuchsia flowers and the "berry's" it produces. A decent account
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A Instagram reel popped up on my feed about "the seed man" All about growing cheap food from various garden left overs, seeds and what surprised me was that you can eat is Fuchsia flowers and the "berry's" it produces. A decent account
Yeah, who knew:
https://fuchsietum.com/about-fuchsias/recipes/recipes.html
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I regularly eat nasturtium blossoms, have used violets, lavender and fragrant geranium blossoms in preserves, and pansies in salads. So I was intrigued when I read this. I went out and picked one of the blossoms of the lovely fuschia that grows along my driveway. The hummingbirds regularly visit the flowers, so I figured it was probably fine. But then I ate one and was immediately sorry because it tasted bitter and nasty. I generally don't mind bitter or peppery tasting plants but this was of a different order. I spat it out and rinsed out my mouth. Maybe it's one of the less edible varieties, but not something I'll be adding to my diet.
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Grolet was out of hamburger meat, but they had Kobe. Made for an okay substitute, tastes different, but also tastes good. I like that. Price was comparable but damn if these burgers didn't just weep fat.
Probably wouldn't make it my regular, but it made for a delicious summer dinner. We had some steak fries as the side, did those in the toaster oven as to not heat the apartment.
I do wonder at these cheaper kobes and wagyus. I know it's cowpoo, but I honestly haven't taken the time to figure it out. I know Arby's went the "wagyu plating" route where it's a tiny percentage of wag, and mostly plain Ol' burger.
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Mom bought Budweiser cheesy potato bites.
It was bless'ed horrible. Imagine stale beer batter on oversized tater tots, then stuff it with cheese.
I'd eat cheesy tater tots, it makes sense. Potatoes and cheese pair nicely.
But that bless'ed batter was AWFUL.
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Cheese. Not great cheese. Sliced baby swiss and not very nice baby swiss. I guess it's supposed to go on a sandwich. We are out of nice cheese, so I'm reduced to this. The crackers are better. A glass of red wine helps divert my attention from the general lack of quality. It's late and I felt peckish so this was the limited late night menu.
8ully, I've had "beer battered" fried fish, and made some tasty Welsh Rarebit before with beer as an ingredient, but if I saw a product called "Budweiser cheesy potato bites" I don't think I'd take it home with me. It sounds like a failure as a combo. Baked potatoes are good with butter and sour cream. Fries are good with ketchup. I have also had obscenely delicious potatoes au gratin with cream in the Caribbean, but they are not ideal diet food. At some point, you need to limit the ingredients as the additional ones just don't help.
I have taken the Anheuser Busch brewery tour in Milwaukee and they count Budweiser as a major part of their product line. I think they also sold cigarettes as the parent company owned tobacco, also. They had a German oompah band and served beer at the end. They gave us postcards to fill out and paid to post them for us. We had fun writing to our friends. There were no potatoes involved. EDIT: scratch that. It was the Miller brewery. What do I know? They had Miller and Miller Light and Lowenbrau (the pale ghost of what it used to be on tap). I don't generally drink beer, but a dear friend lived in that city and she felt duty bound to take me there. It was entertaining. I think Anheuser Busch is in St. Louis. The two massive companies make most of the commercially sold beers in America, except for a substantial number of microbreweries. So I blame the weird food combos on the Midwestern diet, which includes such delicacies as breaded deep fried mushrooms -- regarded by my father as a particularly heinous culinary crime.
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Fresh cream scones with homemade jam and some Earl Grey tea. So good...
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Carne asada burrito.
Been a long time since I've had a decent one, and this was actually a circle back to a shop I don't like. The reason I don't like them is that they use pump cheese on their carne asada fries.
I figured "why not give em one more shot?"
The burrito was fantastic. The thing the other shops have been doing wrong for the last five years is the marinade. Good carne asada is juicy and tangy. The other places had decent cuts of meat, but they were cooking it dry. That's just a meat burrito.
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Spaghetti with garden tomato sauce. The tomatoes are good so the sauce turned out well. Some grated pecorino romano on top to give it a little saltiness.
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A home made spaghetti sauce will slay the jarred bell pepper nonsense.
Tonight we had turkey tacos. Mom was hesitant, but she liked it!
Essentially it's turkey meat in taco seasoning, browned as usual for taco meat. You load that in, then your shreddded lettuce, and I suggested a sharper cheddar than was on hand.
success! granted, mom went with a mild sauce, and I went with gringo bandito, but it was a hit. And that's a nice thing these days.
If I can avoid bell pepper, textured soy protein, or yeast extract, I do so with alacrity. I think one reason I haven't had decent chili fries in years is because of that scallywag bell pepper.
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I make turkey chili regularly and really like it. The tacos sound really good.
We stopped at a local fishmonger and got fresh haddock and some scallops. They were amazing. I've been getting previously frozen fish at the supermarket for so long I'd almost forgotten what delicious seafood can taste like.
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The usual earl grey tea and some old panettone that we heated up. Not the best breakfast, but we are traveling and this is the best we can manage on the fly.
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Had a tube of turkey sans taco seasoning, it came out tasting something like white bread. Complete waste of a protein. (I don't like calling meat or poultry protein, but in this case it's warranted, it did not even qualify as a quality poultry!)
I mixed up a garlic and shells noodle mix, and it smelled like the garlic was overpowering. I followed the recipe, so that was honestly surprising.
After combining the two, it tasted like milk and pasta.
Very underwhelming slop.
So I added a shot glass of the Tabasco company sriracha knock off, which I have found grossly oversalty in past. I figured if I'm going to golly up dinner, I might as well swing for the fences.
This awakened all the garlic. Sriracha sauce has garlic in it, and the noodle shells had dormant garlic that fired off into space with this infusion.
The weird thing is the combined dish STILL did not taste overly spicy. Just flavor from the garlic, a little heat, and the turkey remained flavorless.
But afterwards, my nose is running, which usually happens from spicier dishes.
So while not a complete recovery, I'd say this dish stuck the landing. Not enough to post a recipe or anything, I'm still mad about the turkey, but still another frankenstein for the gauntlet.
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I came home to vines filled with tomatoes -- some so ripe they were splitting. I skinned them and am making a couple large batches of pasta sauce. They'll go into the freezer when I'm done, but the kitchen smells great.
So that's dinner, too.
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I came home to vines filled with tomatoes -- some so ripe they were splitting. I skinned them and am making a couple large batches of pasta sauce. They'll go into the freezer when I'm done, but the kitchen smells great.
So that's dinner, too.
We got nada from our tomato plants until September. Then they went into overdrive!
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It's raining so the ripe ones will be splitting again. Yikes. I wish we had more room in the freezer. I don't really have time to can them this year.
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I had to fast on friday, and decided to utterly ruin that with fast food.
So I got a classic buttery jack, medium curly fries, and a witchshake.
The price was enough to make me like the meal less. I grabbed a couple of sauces.
As follows
Curly fries - They're curly fries. Lightly seasoned spiralized French fries. Worth the price? Not really. But they were delicious.
The sauces:
Spicy good-good sauce = Not good. I actually like the good good sauce, but they just added spice to it, not flavor.
good-good sauce = I like it. Little hard to describe, kind of like a buffalo sauce with a bit more heft to it, more buttermilk than ranch, I like it like I don't like ranch.
Secret sauce = Jack in the box is known for being one of the first fast food joints to create a "secret sauce" but it's much like all the others, mostly tastes like Thousand island with yellow mustard. I don't know if it was just the batch I was getting, but mine was unpleasantly oily, like they overmixed it. Maybe I'm just over sunflower oil. Which sucks, because everyone is pivoting to sunflower oil.
Classic buttery Jack - This burger surprised me. The burger patty tasted less like a fast-food patty and more something you would make at home. I checked the website, and this was just their Jumbo patty. Maybe they're just fastidious in that location, it didn't have the greasiness I associate with most fast food burgers.
The butter sauce could easily have been left out, and the lettuce was heavy. I liked the bun, which was apparently the original selling point for the burger. I think they forgot the tomatoes.
Witch shake - Forgettable. I think it's their regular oreo shake with pumpkin syrup spun in. It's a five dollar milkshake and you don't even get bourbon in it.
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When I was a kid, times were occasionally tight, and that meant my least favorite dinner came out of the woodwork. Hotdog sandwiches.
Essentially, the cheapest hot dogs at the supermarket, split in half, on white bread, with ketchup.
Tonight, I decided to see if I could make that palatable.
I used Jalapeno cheese stuffed sausage. I cut them in half, Pan seared them, then split the halves down the middle. I then toasted up some very nice dark rye, and topped the sandwich with fresh shredded mozzarella, and vodka sauce.
The sandwich tasted good, but using those ingredients was definitely cheating.
I got the idea from earles, who split their chili dog down the middle and pan sear it.
short version:
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/1yirYSEBsM0 (https://www.youtube.com/shorts/1yirYSEBsM0)
(The youtube embed doesn't like shorts.)
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Sleep deprived lunch.
Boca Burger Fake chicken burger on toasted English muffin with medium chipotle salsa.
Seltzer.
It was easy to cook and filling. And it tasted pretty good for stuff I didn't fuss with much.
Followed by a nap.
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Tea. Yorkshire Gold. They actually sell it here in some supermarkets for a reasonable price. It's my second cup after the usual Earl Grey.
I had half a small choc chip panettone for breakfast. Normally, I wouldn't buy such a thing to eat for breakfast but my eyesight isn't what it once was and I thought they contained fruit. I should have looked more carefully at the label before I bought them, but they were half price on sale after Xmas. We are slowly getting to the end of them. I'll be glad when they're gone.
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White castle burger bites.
I'm not sure what I expected.
They make hot pockets taste like Michelin star cuisine.
Do not buy this poo under any circumstances.
Oddly enough, the meat and the cheese are inoffensive. It's the PASTRY that comes out nasty. Also bakes poorly and splits, which made for a not fun scrubbing of the baking sheet.
I'm not sure what flavor agent was on the dough, but NASTY is the word that best describes it.
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I tend to make linguine with sea bass quite a lot.
Just cold pressed rapeseed oil in the pan with sliced shallots, asparagus and basil. I lightly pan fry the sea bass first and leave it aside, and then roughly flake it in when the linguine and the sauce above are combined.
It's a bit more-ish.
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That sounds delicious. I need to work on my fish preparation. We usually just blacken it in a cast iron pan and that's about it.
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Wagyu burgers. They were delicious.
I was short brown mustard, but honey mustard subbed in the sauce just fine.
Another missing pantry item was dill pickle chips, accidently bought bread and butter, and I'm not putting that flavor on wagyu.
Other than that, fairly typical burger. I forgot the lettuce that was right on the counter, so it was top bun, special sauce, sliced tomato, sliced onion, Thick slice of American cheese, Wagyu patty, bottom bun.
I also forgot to sauce the bottom bun, but the wagyu did it for me. That burger cried.
I've never really bothered with wagyu, it tends to be over my budget, but this was just a dollar more than regular hamburger. I enjoyed it a lot, it tasted buttery and rich. Would definitely make this again, but I'd remember the forgotten ingredients.
Also might spring for bigger or fancier buns.
The sauce is a fairly common special sauce recipe, equal parts mayo and ketchup, a squirt of mustard, and some dill relish, stirred vigorously.
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Earl G Tea with a cream scone slathered with various homemade jams. It didn't last long. I'll have to bake more in a couple days. They are easy to throw together and one batch makes enough for a week.
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Coffee, cups of as the dog had me up early and feeling poo
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I made applesauce yesterday and put it up in jars, so that's something to look forward to over the winter. I use a variety of apples, but the pippins have the best flavor so far for this. I'll make another batch today. We'll probably have a big salad for dinner.
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ever used crab apples to make a jam,
delicious
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Not yet. I haven't found any supply. Picked some variety of golden delicious yesterday from a neighbor's tree that needs to finish ripening. Someone gave me some galas from a friend's tree that I'll use for a tarte this evening. It's like a flat apple pie, and delicious. I have one more batch of the pippin applesauce to make, and fortunately, it's not especially fussy to make. I just have to run the pulp through a ricer and cook it for a while. The juice will be drained off to make jelly this week. That takes hours. The applesauce makes for nice Xmas gifts.
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Garden tomato sauce over spaghetti. It's easy. It's good. I don't have to do much. Some Sundays I like to make a big complicated meal, but not today.
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Mom is sick and wanted mashed potatoes and gravy.
Mashed potatoes wasn't a problem.
The gravy was nearly a castrophe, mom took the labels off two identical containers. One is flour, one is pancake mix. The only indication was she left the box top of the pancake mix... in the pancake mix. If I hadn't seen it sticking out, that gravy would have been weird.
I mean, not mint french toast weird, but weird.
Honestly, reading that back, I might try it.
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I don't know about mint french toast. It might confuse my taste buds. Sorry your mom feels unwell. I love mashed potatoes. We like to put parsnip in with them. Will probably have that with Thanksgiving dinner. Not sure if we will cook duck or turkey at this point. Turkeys are cheap as usual, although not as cheap as they once were.
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We are getting ready to have a turkey with sides and dessert. I am grateful for having a warm place to live, plenty of food and good friends. I hope you are all enjoying the day.
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!
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Happy thanks giving day to all over the pond :)
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Happy Thanksgiving USA peeps!
Not entirely sure what y'all are celebrating, but if it involves good food and drink, I'm well up for it!
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It was mostly a "golly you" to the south and a call for unity from Lincoln.
They dress it up as being about the pilgrims, but in reality it was a call for unity.
Which is funny because people always talk about their racist uncles being absolute shits at thanksgiving dinner.
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/lincoln-proclaims-official-thanksgiving-holiday
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I always regarded it as an annual gluttony ritual performed with friends and family. We spent all day cooking and had a more elaborate than usual dinner. We'll be eating leftovers for days. It's good to have a microwave.
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Just got the turkey breast instead of the full bird, it turned out fantastic. Cranberry sauce was canned, because cranberry sauce isn't worth 12 hours of waiting.
We did have a minor spillover problem because the breast rolled in its pan. That was fairly unpleasant, but the stove fan took care of it.
I don't think I'll go for a full bird again; this was a lot more convenient.
One substitution we made was because the celery at grocery outlet was terrible, so we sliced carrots razor thin and sauteed that for the stuffing. I think I actually like that better. I mistakenly thought it was part of the cajun trinity, so I knew I could swap it. Turns out it isn't supposed to be carrot, but bell pepper. Whoops!
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I considered a breast but we love dark meat and that kind of excludes it. Glad yours worked out. I make raw cranberry sauce with a food processor. Basically a bag of raw cranberries, a whole orange (a thin skinned one like Valencia works better than Navels because the latter have thicker rinds and so add to bitterness). Some additional orange juice (I tend to grab mandarins and juice them until it tastes right) a cup of sugar and run it until it's minced well. Refrigerate. It's really refreshing. And it freezes well.
Carrots are a great addition to lots of dishes, like spaghetti sauce, grated fine -- their sweetness helps counteract the acidity of the tomatoes. Sometimes if I have any left over, I'll throw them in a salad. We added parsnips to the mashed potatoes. They really do something to make them special.
Right now I'm eating some stale Goldfish crackers. Guess I'll toss the rest in the compost.
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I think the richness of the carrots offset the celery of the celery. :D
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Tonight, we did a bagged chicken/noodles/stirfry bag.
They forgot the chicken.
I know bell pepper is part of Asian cuisine, but there was too much bell pepper here, and the noodles were stiff and lousy.
Sauce was good, but that's damning the meal with faint praise. I guess the broccoli was good too.
I also think it was somewhat stupid to do a chicken dish to break up the monotony of leftovers.
Either way, it's on the no-rebuy list.
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We had a small green salad and are about to have some garden tomato pasta sauce out of the freezer because too much turkey gets old fast and spaghetti is about as different as I can get from the regular Thanksgiving fare.
That's too bad about the bagged Asian dish. There's several of the "Innov-asian" and other freezer meals that I guess you thaw out and toss together with some rice for dinner. Generally, the more someone else has had a hand in food, the more it costs, so I tend to stick to the basics.
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The bag meals are a lot like Campbell's soup. They wax and wane, and hope consumers don't notice the wane.
Last night was shredded up potatoes and mozzarella. Delicious and separate. Mom had spaghetti, but my stomach has been an bottom lately, so it was just potato slices and shredded mozz. I suppose one could make a rather bland charcutier board of things, but I wouldn't bother.
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Since I'm not a burger eater, I'll often just opt for the Baked Potato option at Wendy's when I'm driving on long trips cross country etc. I slather butter and sour cream on it and don't feel a bit guilty since I need the nutrients. If your stomach likes to eat cheese and potatoes go for it.
I'm making mushroom risotto tonight, which is basically rice porridge with some vegs and cheese cooked with wine and chicken broth. It will be a refreshing change from the endless turkey meals, but, boy, did I stretch out that bird to epic proportions.
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A cup of tea. And soon, some coffee cake that my husband orders once a year. It's really rich: cinnamon and walnuts in a bundt cake. I'm going to go cut a slice and try to wake up. Some days, there's just not enough caffeine in the world.
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coffee cake is one of my few sins
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I grilled Andouille sausage on the foreman, chopped it up into pleasantly grilled coins, and mixed it in with a rice packet meal.
Big mistake.
I even forgot to write down the andouille sausage brand. It was supposed to be good until February, but it had me reacting like a rage zombie in 28 days later.
I thought I was going to die.
Turns out, Andouille sausage is intentionally made with back fat, which doesn't break down like regular fat. I don't eat a ton of pork (Mom thinks pigs are cute) so I went in unwarned.
When I threw away the rest of the uncooked sausage, the packaging had become greasy.
I guess this is a word of caution, if you're going to make Andouille sausage, be sure you know what you're doing.
I'd previously had Aidelles andouille, but I guess that's like training wheels andouille.
The part that made me most angry was that I did all the standard food safety checks. Temp probe came back 165f, Meat was visually unalarming, the only clue that something was wrong was that the fat deposits remained solid, despite the casing cracking on the grill.
The rice meal was an unremarkable bag that I've made hundreds of times.
I'm thinking I'm going to have to give up grocery outlet meat in the new year. Probably for the best, I eat too much meat anyway.
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I'm sorry to hear about the ill effects of post prime meat on your innards.
Grocery Outlets around here have suspect cooling displays so I'm not really a big fan of their meat selections. That, plus the fact that they are often more expensive than chain stores like Albertsons, Vons, or whatever subsidiaries you have in SoCal, makes me just avoid their meat altogether. Last week, they had Aidells 2/$5 at Safeway. GO can't beat that with a stick. And I trust SW's meat storage a good deal more. I usually eat Aidells as you described it, cooked, cut into small sections and enjoyed over a bed of rice, usually with a little soy sauce.
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I just did broccoli with soy sauce last night, I'm stomach wary.
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Rice is also good for stomach upset.
I made cream scones again this morning and they were a welcome return to normalcy after all the rich coffee cakes etc. we've been consuming. Someone gave me some Harrod's English Afternoon tea bags and they're not bad but F&M they're not. I'm not complaining. One of the benefits of living in a prosperous neighborhood is that the castoffs tend to be pretty nice. Facebook's BuyNothing group is just great.
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slices of aged white cheddar and nothing.
I'm still food shy, but honestly, I could stand to eat a lot less.
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After yesterday's Christmas dinner, I'm never eating again.
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We did sidesmas. No main, just sides.
We were a bit overfull after thanksgiving, and sidesmas gave us a reprieve from being stuffed.
I mean, afterwards we made tacos, but that's light-ish?
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We had mashed potatoes, steamed green beans and duck breast with cherry sauce. No dessert.
It was fabulous. I made vegs and my better half took over the duck. There are some left over vegs, so we have some light fare for the next few days.
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French coffee and a choccy digestive
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Tea and scone. I did not sleep well and the tea needs to be stronger.
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Alarmingly delicious birria tacos.
Mom hated them. It was an amusing discussion. She likes burritos because they are neat little envelopes.
I don't think anyone can accuse Birria of being "neat".
Turns out she doesn't like tacos... at all.
Her go to order at Mexican restaurants since I'd say... 1993... was fish tacos.
No wonder she was never happy.
One other amusing thing was that my dog tried to fight me for the broth.
Specifically, he saw me at the stove, he could smell the broth, and just trilled at me in anger.
Thankfully he weighs about 30 pounds and is about as threatening as a pillow.
I guess I'll scale back on the birria, since it turns out mom doesn't care for it. Ouch.
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Chicken Nuggets and fries with Bang Bang sauce thanks to sam the cooking guy.
it's as follows:
Oven 450f
half chicken nuggets, half french fries
cook em. conventional wisdom is 20 minutes.
Bang bang sauce:
Sweet chili sauce
sriracha
mayonnaise
To your liking.
I'd not bought sweet chili sauce before, it is a net evil on this world. Overly sweet, and utterly in demand.
The entire time I was blending the bang bang sauce, mom was yelling at me for taking too long. For reference, she things going 90 mph is slow.
How I avoided losing my license as a teen is beyond me, and mom is still a huge jerk.
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We had Quorn chicken cutlets and they sucked. Not a good use of plant protein.
I don't much like sweet sauces in general. Your mom sounds like a real pistol.
I'm on the island again eating breakfast and we had some pain aux raisins from SuperU with my regular earl grey tea. They are not quite as good as the ones from L'Express bakery but they are pretty good for pastries from a supermarket.
Weather report:
Mild with a light breeze. It rained last night.
Today through Monday morning: Partly cloudy with brief showers.
Forecast High: 30°C / 86°F Forecast Low: 23°C / 73°F
Sunset Today: 5:47 P.M. Sunrise Tomorrow: 6:44 A.M.
Synopsis:
A relatively stable atmosphere will prevail across the region. Shallow cloud patches drifting with the gentle winds may trigger a brief shower over the local area. Long-period northeasterly swells will affect local waters today. As a result, small craft operators and sea bathers should exercise caution.
https://www.meteosxm.com/weather/forecast/ (https://www.meteosxm.com/weather/forecast/)
And just so you can avoid being jealous: the water isn't pumping. electric not working to half the house, gas stove not working and animal feces all over the place. It's such a mess that we had to stay elsewhere until we can get the place functioning again and clean it. Like God hates us or something. It was fine when we left.
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Cup of tea that I made last night so it's nice and cool. Store bought croissant that is just fine.
Got a big clamshell of salad greens that we've been eating for days.
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The shadow of the andouille nightmare looms large.
Mom had lentil soup, I had leftover mac and cheese. Also featuring argument about butter chicken.
No need to rehash it, but I'm fairly sure mom thinks butter chicken is a steamed chicken breast with butter as a sauce.
Needless to say this is not at all accurate.
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Butter sauce never sounds good to me. My mother constantly put entire packages of butter into food when I was still in the home, I never quite recovered.
That said, I think I would try butter flavored or butter cooked chicken, of the sorts.
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Trader Joes has really good frozen butter chicken. We tried to make it once but it wasn't as good.
For breakfast I had the last of the french pastries we brought home with us. They had Galettes du Roi (king's cake) which is a puff pastry with frangipane filling. Really nice. Only available during the holidays. Back in the U.S. I'm having weak tea because I packed my large tea ball and god only knows which suitcase it's in.
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Still going coast to coast and different countries Six? I quite forget where you go abroad. Always remember you in California and born in my stomping grounds, possibly Illinois (maybe Wisconsin).
I’ve fried chicken tender chunks in olive oil. It’s good on it’s own with veggies and then I use the leftovers for chicken bean burritos.
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That sounds delicious, Bea, and it's time for lunch. I am from the East Coast but spent time in the midwest, part of time for college and some for work. In Cali for several years, but I was in the Caribbean for a couple weeks recently since my husband's family lived there.
I made scones for breakfast but that was about 4 hours ago. Trying to wait until local lunch time but my stomach keeps saying "FEED ME!" -- still I try to resist. I may just go to the grocery store and get something. We don't have lots of food in the fridge, aside from some carrots and a chunk of cheese.
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I just had the most delicious tiny mandarin orange. Talk about a party in your mouth. So often you go to the store and they are dry and flavorless. Well not this one!
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Tea and scones with some nice marmalade. The flavor lingers on the tongue and that's really pleasant.
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Crumpets + butter and ringtons coffee
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I substituted turkey in a recipe, and after mixing things up in a bowl, saw that the author specifically said not to use turkey.
Meal turned out fine, it's essentially meatloaf in a muffin tin, which helps everything cook evenly, the oven doesn't have to heat a solid mass.
The recipe turned out fine, not sure why the author was set against turkey.
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Finished off a buttermilk coffee cake with cherries. An experiment. It was tasty. The original recipe calls for frozen raspberries. It's a good way to use up fruit, but I prefer scones. Buttermilk is magical as a baking ingredient. I don't know if it's sold in the UK.
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Turkey puck leftovers for lunch, still not sure why the author of the cookbook warned against turkey, reheated it's nearly indistinguishable from its beef counterpart.
I'm sure unseasoned would be a different story.
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I used to get ground turkey on sale and make up a batch of turkey burgers. I'd use biscuit cutters to shape them and separate them with parchment paper. They freeze well so you can just pull out a couple and fry them on medium heat for 10 min. when you feel like having one.
There's probably a couple buried under stuff in my freezer.
We are probably going to have Sukhi's Indian food with rice for dinner. Fresh spinach sauteed with some garlic in olive oil on the side. Sukhi's is expensive but sometimes it goes on sale. Pretty good for mass produced Indian entrees. Trader Joes has good frozen Indian food but I think we have eaten it all. My freezer is good at hiding stuff.
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Made a box cake, it sucked. Lesson for the wise, don't get cute with icing. I bought red vanilla icing to try something new and it tasted like a mix between a crayon and "when was your last dental appointment?"
Scraped that nonsense off and the cake wasn't too bad with some butter, but I'll probably be off cake for a while.
Also recently had a disappointing bag of chips.
On a more pleasant side, I made red el pato enchiladas and they came out amasing. Mild and just the right kind of sweet and savory, without being overly spicy. And there were plenty of leftovers. I think I've found my preferred red enchilada sauce. (Old El Paso owes me an apology)
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tea and scones.
A nice predictable breakfast.
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Welsh rabbit. Got lazy, just broiled and sliced rather than making the sauce. Still pretty good.
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Mac and cheese with turkey sausage. got vetoed. I just wanted to do mac and cheese and run off some of the hot sauce I've got, but turkey introduces a whole different flavor profile. It's not bad, but I wouldn't go for it myself. The mac and cheese was bone standard, but adding any sort of sauce felt like it would be pushing the flavor over the edge, one taste too many.
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Tea and muffin. It's morning again. The crows are outside making a fuss over something.
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Old El Paso bent me again.
Made a perfectly normal tray of nachos, visually. Used old el paso fat free beans. Big mistake.
No bless'ed flavor whatsoever, it's like I mixed paste into perfectly fine nachos.
The previous time they disappointed me was with a similar flyover state enchilada sauce.
They can go golly ohio, I'll never buy their poo again.
I can hear bourdain mocking me from beyond.
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I made a big pot of vegetable soup. Not a bad dinner. It's kind of cold outside.
Sorry I can't bring some over to your house, smokes.
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Making Seville orange marmalade. It's a multi day process. My fingers are super pruny from cutting them up for the past 3 hours. Now they soak in water overnight. Thank god. I think I'm getting a bit old for this. They're only available here in the winter months so I figured I'd better get on with it.
Dinner is nuked Indian food. Trader Joes makes good frozen entrees. Butter chicken is a dish we love but so far haven't figured out how to make it ourselves. It's so much easier to buy a package and hit it with microwaves for a few minutes.
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Making Seville orange marmalade. It's a multi day process. My fingers are super pruny from cutting them up for the past 3 hours. Now they soak in water overnight. Thank god. I think I'm getting a bit old for this. They're only available here in the winter months so I figured I'd better get on with it.
One of the only marmalades I like
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This fruit, like quince, is only edible when it's processed. The oranges have more seeds than any other citrus I've seen, and the rinds are kind of tough, so they soaked last night with the seeds and pulp in a muslin pouch. Later today I'm going to boil them for a few hours. I'll finish the marmalade tomorrow. But I love the bittersweet flavor. I used to get Frank Cooper's Oxford Marmalade, but then I noticed they use high fructose corn syrup and other odd ingredients. This marmalade is just fruit, sugar and a few additions like star anise, vanilla bean or rum. I usually make a couple batches with various flavorings. One recipe called for coffee, but I sort of feel like after 3 hours of chopping these rinds, I'm not about to take the risk of making something I'm not sure I will like.
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A neighbor gave me a bushel of sweet limes after her gardener radically pruned her tree. They look like little lemons. I juiced them yesterday and am making marmalade with them today. They taste a little like a cross between a lemon and a lime. Kind of like if Sprite grew on trees but without the sugar. We'll see how this turns out. There's hundreds of varieties of citrus out here and it's mind boggling.
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Frozen potstickers. I read the ingredients on the included sauce and mixed up my own instead. one part vinegar-based habanero sauce mixed with two parts soy sauce.
It was fantastic, and I'll make the sauce again. I have to be careful with soy sauce though, lotta sodium.
(The original sauce was a soy sauce/sriracha blend with vinegar, so it's pretty close.)
(Low sodium soy sauce is an insult to food.)
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Mom made her go to recipe, it's supposed to be southwest meatloaf pucks or whatever the recipe called it, something obnoxious like meat cupcakes.
I believe I mentioned before the recipe flat out says not to use turkey. It amuses mom to use turkey.
I always thought I got my stubborn and hardheaded nature from my father.
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Botched a pizza, am sad.
Should have just made the crust from scratch instead of trusting a box. Even let it rest overnight. :(
Sauce also sucked, once again, should have done it from scratch.
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On the East Coast where I am once again subject to the desire for "crisps" aka "potato chips" of the Utz variety. I have a potato weakness. I love them. But especially the crispy versions. I try to stay away from these carb heavy snacks but they are so delicious and I love the salt.
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Last night I was going to do burritos but the onion caramelized so pretty I thought it would be a waste, so we did steak sandwiches.
It was good, but I wish I had some shreddice, it would have elevated the sandwich.
I didn't even do anything special, pure luck. Was just trying to brown it and instead almost had onion jam.
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I used to make onion quiches and they require long carmelization of the onions before adding to the pastry shell with filling. They become so sweet. It's been years since I've made one as they're not ideal diet food but they're wonderful.
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Scones with marmalade and tea. So happy.
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I was down to my last box of tea so I ordered more. Took about a week to get to California from London. That takes care of me for another year. I'm drinking it now. Why they can't just sell it here without a huge markup is beyond me, but it's cheaper for me to buy it like this. There used to be stores that sold it here like that, but no longer. Gonna go heat up scones now.
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thats a big box of tea
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I got a case of 12 boxes of loose tea, 200 g each, so that will last me a year since I go through about a box a month.
Just had a toasted "English muffin" with some Trader Joe's curried chicken salad on it. A nice easy lunch but I keep promising myself to make my own. It's not hard, but it does take a little advance planning. I feel like having a cup of espresso as it's a gloomy overcast cold day. Yesterday was ridiculously beautiful, sunny, birds singing, flowers in bloom and warm. I guess the weather gods figured we'd had enough fun for a while so it's back to wintry climes.
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Can't find taco sauce anywhere in town. Also, can't find lettuce or sour cream, but taco sauce was something I could do something about.
Took a half bottle of Texas pete (underwhelming poo) and dumped it in a pot with two cans of tomato sauce.
Still too spicy so I added half a cup of water. Still too spicy, but the yield was already too large.
So, I dumped it over a tray of already made red enchiladas, and it was fantastic. There's something to be said for tasting a sauce in a vacuum.
The sauce was complimented. In future, I'd just use less of the hot sauce. The bottle says it has something like 35 servings, and I feel like 10 servings would have made for a tasty, not over spiced enchilada sauce.
Source: I watched a ton of enchilada sauce videos on YouTube, and didn't want to deal with corn starch slurry. (gross)
Almost went with the base ingredients and flour but felt like that's just a slightly less objectionable corn starch slurry.
I really should just go boot first into flour and get to know it, but lazy.
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You're a creative guy, 8ully. I suspect you could whip up your own taco sauce from scratch and it would be awesome.
I'm having the usual EG tea and scones. Boring and repetitive but delicious just the same.
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I pulled a couple small servings of tomato pasta sauce from the freezer that I made last fall from my homegrown tomatoes. It makes for an easy spaghetti dinner. The number is dwindling, though. I guess it's time to plant more tomatoes.
8ully, do you have a small balcony where you could plant any vegetables?
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I do not. I live at the end of a five-and-a-half-minute hallway.
The "secondary exit" required by California are the windows and would likely be an unpleasant experience.
Tonight was chopped cheese, but it was mom's turn. It was kind of funny, she made a plate of it. She does not like taking advice or critique on cooking, for years an easy way to start a fight was simply mentioning a roux.
Specifically, a chopped cheese is nothing fancy. It's chopped up meat, chopped up cheese, shredded lettuce, mayonaise and ketchup, on a roll.
Mom somehow made something of a salad of it. Not sure how. My contribution was sandwich oil, considering the vegetation.
We both enjoyed it, which is a happy thing.
We've got a new ten-inch stainless skillet, which will make dinner much easier. The frying pan she loves has a dip, which means cooking meat in it was not much fun. The new pan is a bless'ed champ.
The only downside is now I need to buy a bigger lid. I suppose that is a problem TO HAVE. Not sure how to translate that line, imagine it in a new jersey accent. "A problem TO HAVE"
So it's a nice one.
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That sounds like a long hallway. Sorry about the lack of outside access. Will probably roast vegs for dinner tonight. Alternative is warmed up Indian food. For some reason, I couldn't sleep last night, and when I say "couldn't sleep," I mean tried to sleep until around 7 a.m. and then gave up. Now I'm stupid. Oh well. I'll try to go pull some weeds or something that doesn't require a good deal of brain power.
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Made fresh cream scones for breakfast. Someone gave me a quart of heavy cream so I froze it in ziploc bags in amounts called for in the recipe. The fat separates, so I had to add water to the bag to get the rest of the clinging fatty bits out. The dough was a bit wet, but the scones turned out well. Still, they'd probably have been better without frozen cream.
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Packet meat.
I was hoping for something better than canned meat, and was pleasantly surprised.
But holy poo was it spicy.
I feel like if it were seasoned less I'd buy more, but that was a scorcher. Very enjoyable tacos, but I can still feel the burn.
I thought it was going to be more like shredded beef, instead it was beef crumble.
Pleasantly surprised, but I'm not going to make it a staple. A half pound was plenty for dinner.
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I've never heard of it. Does it come shrink wrapped or something?
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Foil packed. Had quite a bit more of it tonight.
I stirred two six ounce packets into sloppy joe mix hoping it would blunt the seasoning. It didn't.
Also bought a can of liquid cheese thinking I was going to do chili cheese dogs. The cheese was HORRID, and I'll never buy pace nacho cheese sauce again.
The chili dogs turned out okay, but very spicy still.
The product is referred to as "Hereford beef crumble" but is sourced from Brazil. I'd say it's about on par with stagg chili. I don't see much stagg on the shelf lately.
https://herefordfoods.com/products/seasoned-beef-crumbles-6oz/
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I'm curious. Why did you buy this instead of just regular ground beef? I suspect you'd have a greater degree of control over the seasoning with the ground beef. It probably takes more work.
I've been mixing my own chili powder and it turns out well. I dug around online and found some recipes for it and since I had most of the ingredients already, I threw it together so I can put it in chili or guacamole. I like that you can control the individual elements and dial down or up flavors that you want to emphasize.
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I'm off to Veeraswamy (https://www.veeraswamy.com/) tonight (it's the first time for me) so whatever I'll be eating, it's bound to be very good.
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That place looks fabulous. Let us know what you thought.
I just had leftover matzoh ball soup from the Seder I attended last night. It is delicious and can't beat the fact that it's so easy to heat and eat. Now -- two matzoh balls later -- I feel like a nap.
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I like to experiment with different foods. For instance, I could make my own refried beans, but instead I've been buying different brands to see which ones I like best.
One interesting technique I saw recently was someone who sheet pan cooks his ground beef, then he breaks it up with gloves. I've never done that before, but I might try it some day.
I don't like walking to the grocery store as I have to cross an artery to get there, and a lot of people make right turns without looking at that corner. I don't want to get hit.
So I buy a lot of weird poo at dollar tree.
I also find this contrast highly amusing. Smokes is hitting up a place that has a century of tradition and innovation. I'm eating packet meat.
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I get why you'd shop there, since it's easier than getting run over by inattentive drivers. They don't have a wide selection of basic foods there, sadly, so much of what's on offer has been messed with by someone else.
I just heated some turkey from last night's dinner and had a can of Green Giant corn. I probably got it for free with some kind of CVS Thanksgiving deal years ago, but I'm trying to use up what's in the pantry. I wish I could drop off some of our excess for you but you might as well be on the moon, given the distance.
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I have good access to canned kernelled corn.
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I was thinking of other food stuffs.
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ah, the shortages I run into are strange and nebulous. For instance, the only tomato juice I've been able to find lately is from the state, and it is some truly vile stuff.
I got some very nice horseradish and had one of the most watery bloody mary's I've ever had.
The lack of decent cheese selection has me reconsidering grocery delivery.
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If it comes to that, Trader Joes has a reasonably good selection with reasonable prices. I used Instacart once. They got me two pears as big as my head. So I wouldn't advise using them for produce, but standardized, off the shelf items are probably ok. If you haven't used them before they do have some introductory discounts, but they charge you for their services. I'm pretty sure TJs doesn't deliver.
I'm having the usual cream scones with new citrus marmalades. They both turned out well.
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Basic turkey sandwiches for dinner, just bread, lunch meat, swiss, onion, shreddice, mayo and mustard, salt and pep.
Normally I'd have sliced tomato on it, but I'm trying to give tomats a break for a bit. Recently had pizza kick my ass with heartburn so I want to apologize to mister stomach.
Honestly, the simple things in life are often the best. Working in the deli only really changed up my sandwich layer choices, and that's about fighting the soggy.
Weird question, but do you have a mandoline you'd recommend? All the ones I look at are that flimsy plastic poo with a razor molded in, and I don't want to risk my hands on one of those pieces of poo.
Looking for a personal rec instead of something off amazon.
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I don't own a mandoline. I have some good sharp knives and when I have tons of slicing to do, like with segments of citrus with rind for marmalade, I cram stuff in a food processor with a slicer blade but it's not fine enough for what you probably want to do with it. We mostly buy presliced lunchmeat so that's not an issue. Everything else we just cut up by hand.
I'd stay away from the cheaper models of mandolines. Sometimes America's test kitchens rate them and that might be a good guide. I'd also check craigslist as sometimes people buy them decide they don't want to use them and then get rid of them for free or lots less than the usual retail price.
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For some reason, large dairy companies like Yoplait (General Mills) and Noosa, have decided that the more weird additives and sweeteners you put into yogurt the more people will like it. Today I got Noosa Delights Key Lime Pie to eat after dinner and it was just sad. Why don't they just make yogurt? This was a pale ghost of key lime with some kind of weird custardy binder that didn't work. Ick. It was on a promotion so I thought I'd take a chance. But it was a total fail.
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Jalepeno poppers.
Turns out mom didn't wipe down the toaster oven tray this morning, so I got to hear the smoke alarm.
Honestly, I should have checked it myself, but I checked it last night!
The Jalepeno poppers were a winner, and might go into regular rotation. They're such a low fuss, high calorie option. And no tomato!
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That place looks fabulous. Let us know what you thought.
Just to go back to this: Veeraswamy was pretty good, but I can honestly say it wasn't memorable. The bill came to nearly 4 figures too, so you'd think I'd be more impressed. However, last night we went to Amaya which is another restaurant owned by the people of Veeraswamy. The food there was absolutely incredible and all served in a Indian tapas way. The bill was again nearly 4 figures, but I do feel it was a unique experience in all ways and that is worth more than money. I think that's something one says when they're older ...
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Thanks for the review. How many of you were dining as that's a pricey bill? When we were last in London the exchange rate was so brutal that we ended up at Pizza Express a good deal. But we both love Indian food, so on the off chance that we are in the market for such an elaborate meal, we'll keep this in mind.
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Jalepeno poppers popped a bless'ed fuse. Thankfully I found it before the freezer defreezed and got the fridge extendo corded.
Got a repair ticket in, but the B&D oven is well hidden now.
Those jalepeno poppers are going to end up expensive.
As to rich people dinners, my favorite take was david cross, and his was much less expensive. "You guys! This isn't worth $250!"
And then he went on the journey of the gold leaf food from the mine to his toilet.
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So, you don't have access to a circuit breaker for your apt? If the circuit gets tripped you have to bother the super? That's kind of short sighted planning and I'm sorry you have to deal with it. Presumably the electricity drawn by the toaster oven (hidden because it's a "forbidden" appliance?) is enough to trip the circuit? Sorry, this sounds like a right pita. You should be able to use a toaster oven without dealing with surges. It's a normal appliance. Sounds like who ever built this structure cut corners on the wiring.
I'm having the usual: a cream scone with jams I made. Today: quince jelly and blackberry. I split the scone and apply different jams to each half so one is main and the other "pudding." I suspect that the cream scones actually have less fat than the ones that require butter and milk. I made these with frozen heavy cream that someone gave me (I froze it as I couldn't use it up in time). They turned out fine.
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Raspberry buttermilk coffeecake with some Earl Grey tea. Gourmet magazine recipe that I modified. It's tender and delicious. The tea is necessary because I have to have my wits about me. Next!
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Raspberry buttermilk coffeecake
That sounds lovely
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It is lovely. Recipe here: http://www.gourmet.com.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/recipes/2000s/2009/06/raspberry-buttermilk-cake.html (http://www.gourmet.com.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/recipes/2000s/2009/06/raspberry-buttermilk-cake.html) I add ¼ c brown sugar + ¼ c chopped walnuts & ½ tsp of cinnamon to the top before I put it in the oven.
It works as a nice coffee cake for breakfast or as a nice afternoon snack. I don't know if you get buttermilk in the U.K. I suspect that substituting an equal amount of plain yogurt will work as well.
I'm having tea and need to go roll out some scone dough.
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I had a salmon Poke bowl from the Asda Panku section. It was damn good and only £6.
Definitely doing that again, sometime.
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That sounds really good. I'm about to go to a party with a big batch of fresh guacamole and some chips. There will be wine, salad and pizza. The guac. was easy to make so I'm looking forward to sitting and relaxing for a while.
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oh man, I feel like a dumbass.
I made enchiladas and I could have just made guac! It was hot today! I even have decent chips!
El Pato has been my go to enchi sauce for a while, their red is divine.
Unfortunately, I went with green. And I didn't strain it, so I got seeds and fibers. No biggie I thought, the sour cream will neutralize that problem.
Reader, it did not neutralize that problem, and now I get to pick at my teeth with dental sticks.
What's even worse is they turned out utterly fantastic, some of the tastiest enchiladas I've made in years.
Well, I've learned my lesson. El Pato for red, Las Palmas for green. (I use their recipe).
The chicken was boring, so I hit it with diced onions and minced garlic. It was still boring, which confused the hell out of me. Onions and garlic fix everything!
I hit that with some tabasco sauce after cutting the heat to the pan. THAT gave it a delightful kick.
I've got a tray of utterly delicious enchiladas that should have a dental warning label.
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El Pato, isn't that "the Duck"? I'd never heard of it but I'm always looking for good sauces.
I made so much guac that I brought half of it home. So I've been eating it pretty much every day. Also, salad. Just nice vegetable/lettuce salads. It's been warm outside. But tonight I might just make something easy, like heat up Indian food. Pasta with jarred sauce would work, too.
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Fresh cream scones and a cup of tea. Not exciting in the way of news, but very satisfying and tasty.
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I've been trying various canned refried beans.
La Sierra are Mexico's #1 canned beans.
Going by the taste, I don't think Mexicans much bother with canned beans, because La Sierra is BLAND. Do they taste like beans? Yup. But the dominant note on these beans is water.
Right now my winners for canned refried are surprisingly the kroger house brand. They taste good without being overpowering, but I suppose I'll have to branch out for others.
I suppose I should give my childhood staple rosarito another shot too.
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Got my free jumbo jack for hamburger day, just had to buy a medium fry to qualify.
I feel like they gave me small vegetables out of spite, but it was still good. I slapped some bbq sauce on it to kick it up a notch.
I always wonder about these "days". Like apparently Taco Day is October 4th and burrito day is the first Thursday of April.
Pizza day is February 9th. Who decides this stuff?
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Hallmark.
Ha! or some marketing company.
I am contemplating a turkey sandwich. Not exciting in the least, but it's what's in the fridge.
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Just to go back to this: Veeraswamy was pretty good, but I can honestly say it wasn't memorable. The bill came to nearly 4 figures too, so you'd think I'd be more impressed. However, last night we went to Amaya which is another restaurant owned by the people of Veeraswamy. The food there was absolutely incredible and all served in a Indian tapas way. The bill was again nearly 4 figures, but I do feel it was a unique experience in all ways and that is worth more than money. I think that's something one says when they're older ...
My husband found an instagram review of Gymkhana -- have you eaten there? The menus look great. 55 pounds for lunch, while pricey, is worth the experiment. I expect there are other fine Indian restaurants in London, but the offerings here look pretty varied and good.
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My husband found an instagram review of Gymkhana -- have you eaten there? The menus look great. 55 pounds for lunch, while pricey, is worth the experiment. I expect there are other fine Indian restaurants in London, but the offerings here look pretty varied and good.
I haven't eaten at Gymkhana, but as a lot of my recent outings were actually more "research", I think that might also be in the offing.
To be honest, I am probably going to part owner of a new Indian restaurant in Twickenham, hence the recent interest in the more haute cuisine side of things. However, the restaurant I would be involved in is actually more a springboard to something more classy, so it wouldn't try and mimic the Michelin starred ones just yet.
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If you're considering going in on a restaurant... don't.
Seriously, I was clearing out my old emails, and one thing I like is Yelp tells me whenever a new restaurant opens in my town.
They all fold. Usually within six months, but almost none hit the year mark. I can understand having a passion for food, I wouldn't have made this thread if I didn't want to catch other peoples love for food, but a restaurant honestly seems like preheat fryer, drop your money in.
On a lighter note, I've always been a bit of a hinge enthusiast as far as sub sandwiches go, and today I learned, I've been doing it wrong all along.
A true hinge cut is not 90, which was my impression. It's 45 degrees. you come in steep, and stop cutting before you go through. This both preserves the hinge AND keeps the veggies in the sandwich.
I found this after reading an article about the old subway V-cut. They used to cut a V into the bread loaf, making something of a bread bowl. That isn't great for speed or condiment retention. And Americans love their condiments. Oil and Vinegar may honestly be the reason I bothered with Subway for so long.
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If you're considering going in on a restaurant... don't.
I appreciate you would have no way of knowing this: but if you are lucky enough to have a restaurant in Twickenham, you can cover your entire year with just the Six Nations (https://www.sixnationsrugby.com/en).
My partners have owned a restaurant on the same street since 1982 and they are standing room only any day of the week. The new restaurant wouldn't be that busy for sure - certainly not in the first year - but it could probably survive on the overspill from it. However, the main aim would be to replicate the Dishoom chain and they just couldn't be any more successful. But that's a plan for the future.
You had better start work on the website now, then.
Next time you and your minions are on a drive out, you should pop past for a curry.
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8ully, our favorite Indian restaurant was run by the same chef for many years and then he retired with others taking over. It's not as magical as it once was, but still going and decent. It's really a bummer when you find a great place and eat there a couple of times only to discover it's been sold to someone who can barely boil water or that it's closed completely.
chrisT, you can always cook! This is the book that Lachu Moorjani wrote and the recipes are delicious. https://www.amazon.com/Ajanta-Regional-Feasts-Lachu-Moorjani/dp/1586857770 (https://www.amazon.com/Ajanta-Regional-Feasts-Lachu-Moorjani/dp/1586857770)
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I don't recall the last time I came up to the smoke.
... and even then it was on the train, because I had to do something that I was being paid for. I'm not good in big cities, I get all nervous and lost. Maybe I could order a take-out - will you do deliveries?
I'm pretty sure I saw the unicorn quite close to the suburbs. Perhaps it was a different unicorn.
Thanks, but that is SWMBO's territory - I don't think I dare touch her cooker - I am only allowed into the kitchen on sufferance!
You're such a bloke.
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The unicorn has been into the ULEZ once, to go to Heathrow.
You see: virtually Twickenham.
When I was younger, that wasn't an insult.
Consider it a compliment.
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It's great to have a rotisserie chicken in the fridge in the summer so if you are hot and tired, you can just slice off a bit and gnaw on that for a while. We are having pasta tonight and that's not so labor intensive. It's threatening to get hot outside in the next few days. Nothing like 90 degrees to make you want to lie in front of a fan with a nice iced drink.
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I went to a place, a small shack on the river yesterday, and we had seafood. A fish sandwich and some fried shrimp. We watched the local boaters zipping around on the water as we sat on picnic benches enjoying our lunch. It was really pleasant. There was a nice breeze and the temperature was perfect.
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I've not been up to much of anything cookingwise, mostly cold cut sandwiches. I have developed an appreciation for Dijon. The brand I can get is called Maille. It's not much like Grey Poupon, I'd say it's closer to a coarse ground mustard, but ground down until it's fine. It's interesting to have that flavor in a smooth mustard, I'm anticipating the seeds and they aren't there.
Made milkshakes last night, they were overly rich and led to stomach aches. Lighter eating has apparently made the stomach sensitive.
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I just had a slice of fine NY style pizza and some seltzer. A perfect summer lunch and not too expensive. Cheese and mushroom with bits of fresh parsley and a nice yeasted tender crust. Somebody should write a poem about the mid afternoon pizza lunch.
These slices seem best when you finally get to rest long after regular lunch time because you've been running too many errands and are really hungry and tired. There's a kind of peace that sets in.
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Also helps not having to run a pizza oven in July.
I've often thought the best meatball sub is the one you don't have to make yourself.
As to Maille, I got your PM, and yup, Unilever. Faux Frou.
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I picked up the pizza to go (a few slices) and took it home. Heated one, at about 3 in the afternoon, so I was pretty hungry.
Tonight I had Spicy Impossible Sausages and corn on the cob. It was a reasonable combo. The Impossible sausages are kind of expensive but they were on sale so I thought I'd try them. They're clearly not meat, but that's not a problem for me, but the flavor is surprisingly good. Primarily soy protein.
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Made mac and cheese with 1% milk because it's what I had.
Don't do that.
The packet powder didn't bond at all, it just sat there.
I added sour cream in hopes it would make the powder bond.
It didn't, but it tasted good.
So heed my mistakes, don't use 1% milk for mac and cheese. I had a coworker who swore you had to use whole milk, but I literally never thought about this before.
But yeah, don't.
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We usually don't have milk in the house, only half and half, so we generally have added that without problems.
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honestly, if it hadn't ruined dinner, I would have found it fascinating, seeing the ingredients gloop off like that.
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Sounds like you are venturing into the world of food science!
I made a modified recipe for Baba Ganoush based on one from the Guardian. The most fun is burning the eggplants. You lay them on the open flame of a gas stove and rotate them with tongs until they are pretty well charred on the outside. I finish them in the oven and then let them cool, scoop out the insides and proceed from there. Other ingredients: lemon juice, tahini, salt, a pinch of cumin, garlic and a little olive oil. The food processor is a good place to mix all of this together. This makes a great dip for vegetables or pita, or a nice spread for a sandwich using lavash, pita, or even warmed up flour tortillas with other vegetables or even some falafel, although I've never gotten that ambitious. The baba freezes well and it's nice cooled in the fridge because it lasts for a week or more and, once made, no need to heat up the house, so a great summer dish.
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2013/sep/25/how-to-make-perfect-baba-ganoush (https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2013/sep/25/how-to-make-perfect-baba-ganoush)
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We did a pizza, fresh dough instead of our usual trick of loading up a freezy piz.
I found a canned sauce I actually like. A lot of people like Mutti, I'm one of the weirdos who doesn't.
I used Muir Glen on a friend's recommendation. I'm not one for the organic craze, but their pizza sauce is decent. Reminds me of round table. More oregano than most, but they really shredded it down so there's no particulates.
I liked it. And most of the time the pizzas made in this house resemble the Necronomicon in Army of Darkness.
I don't like the flossing after a heavy oregano dish, so this was a pleasant surprise. I finally get what people like about oregano!
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I love good pizza. But I have never made it at home so I salute your efforts. Muir Glen is owned by General Mills. Several large food conglomerates have purchased the alternative healthy brands but the upside of that is that Grocery Outlet will have deals on it and there will be good sales. I use their canned tomatoes a lot. I haven't had their pizza sauce.
I grow oregano and will dry it and store it to use in stuff like tuna salad and turkey chili. It's a really good herb and can really impart a great flavor if not too much is used.
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Tea & a lemon yogurt muffin with poppy seeds. Not a bad breakfast.
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I made a rookie mistake.
I made egg salad with red onion and forgot to pickle the red onion before adding it to the recipe. Now everyone has heartburn and is mad.
I was hyper focused on the eggs, I was afraid of green yolk from overcooking, and the onion brining slipped out of my idiot brain entirely.
If I'd just used white onion I wouldn't be burping!
What is even more embarrassing is I just bought a gallon of vinegar; it was right next to me the entire time!
I could have used the egg water!
What I should have done:
The one difference from Sam's and the way I learned it is you don't have to let it sit in the fridge for days, your onions are ready to rock in 3 hours, which is right when the eggs come out of the fridge!
(You can also do it at 30 minutes, but 3 hours really lets the job get done)
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Sorry for double post, but tonight I did the exact opposite of the egg salad.
I took some left over "burrito meat" (turkey) mixed it with a hickory bbq sauce, microwaved it, then spooned it on to a hamburger bun, then toaster ovened the top of the bun with swiss cheese.
I think I honestly liked my lazy sandwich better than the egg salad. :(
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There's a Woody Allen movie, "What's up Tiger Lily?" in which a Japanese spy thriller has a completely new plot dubbed over the voices of the original actors. They are attempting to steal the recipe for the world's best egg salad. A good egg salad is a thing of beauty.
I wish I could lay claim to some achievements in that area, but it's an area where I have no experience. I have made potato salad with egg yolks and that was pretty good. We are having a block party potluck in a couple weeks and I have to figure out what to make so maybe the potato salad is the ticket. But a vinegar based one so people don't get sick from mayo sitting out in the heat.
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Eating the usual breakfast: scone and tea.
I get emails from various food producers: since I use bouillon sometimes, I get regular emails from Knorr, a Unilever company. Today's was sort of odd: recipe tips from the rapper Ludacris. Kind of like cooking with Snoop Dogg or Eminem. L's recipe is for Lemon Pepper Chicken Cutlets. I think I've seen Snoop Dogg on Martha Stewart, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised. It does give me hope for the upcoming presidential election since I can't imagine Trump going on a cooking show, but Kamala does cook.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xz7rNOAFkgE&ab_channel=KamalaHarris (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xz7rNOAFkgE&ab_channel=KamalaHarris)
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We got a pizza from Filipis. Mom was pissed off because dominos was running ads all night on Friday, but our local dominos has abysmal reviews.
We wrote Filipis off a few years ago when a pepperoni pizza went up to $23.
We actually have all the equipment at home to make a pizza, but we hate the oven right now.
A large cheese was $28 and we were not impressed. Filipis goes back on the shelf.
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I was just looking at a menu for a pizza restaurant in our area that had good reviews and it's $24 for a 14 inch pizza. That sounds kind of excessive, but I guess they have to pay to keep the lights on, for staff, and pay for ingredients, etc.
If my only option was Domino's, I'd either make my own pizza or give it up. Once in a while we even stoop to frozen pizza, but that's rare. We have to be really hungry and tired.
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Impossible sausage, a vegetarian sausage that actually tastes pretty good and some garden beans that are like green beans/string beans. They're scarlet runner beans so they're a little beefier than the regular string beans and quite palatable so long as you cook them before they grow too large.
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So working my way through the Impossible foods range and decided to swap out Pierre Franey's turkey chili recipe for Impossible ground fake meat. It is surprisingly good. I usually use two cans of kidney beans but for this, I used 2 garbanzos and one kidney and it worked really well.
Beans are super nutritious and a good meat alternative. Impossible is soy based unlike Beyond Meat, which uses a pea protein. Both are very good. I just had a bowl and now feel the need to go take a nap. It's hearty and satisfying.
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In San Diego there is a local chain that is legend, Robertos. As his family grew and disagreements came up, his kids would open their own -bertos, as did the daughters, who tended to use their first names for their chains.
One of the first, Albertos, was the most acrimonious of the splits. He used frozen ingredients, and Roberto Robledo (the patriarch) booted their asses out the door. (He was also proud that they stood up for themselves and allowed them to continue to use the -bertos suffix.)
Growing up in Encinitas, we went to Filibertos. It's gone now, but the chain lives on. My current town got one, so I decided to get their carne asada fries.
There was a bit of a hurly burly when styrofoam containers were banned in our region, the "eco boxes" are more expensive, and to be honest, they're not very good. They're essentially an imposition by the state, and restaurants have had to raise prices and reduce portions to keep up. Carne asada fries were hit extremely hard, portion sizes literally cut in half, because the eco boxes were small to start, more a doggy bag than a transportable.
That's not the important part. What is important is Filibertos has found an eco box that returns the size of the original styro containers. Sure it's more expensive, what isn't, but it was like stepping into a time machine for lunch. I was honestly amazed at the consistency of the carne asada fries, they were just as I remembered it, in a time where everyone is cutting corners.
(For the eco box, imagine an egg shell carton bloated up.)
As to impossible meat, I tried the whopper, it was good, but not amazing. I also tried the beyond burger at carl's Jr. I preferred the beyond, because it uses peas instead of soy. I'm not a big soy fan, I have that gene that makes digesting soy protein less than pleasant. My mom discovered this when she tried to give me soy milk as a baby.
I understand chains are dropping the beyond meat because it is expensive and the company is prickly, and the prices higher. I think it's a shame that the lesser product won the race.
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I definitely prefer Beyond Burgers to Impossible ones. I don't have trouble digesting either, although the BBs are richer. Impossible has all kinds of discounts at present, which is why I thought I'd sample them. I wasn't much impressed by the burger when I first tried it. I haven't tried the Beyond version of ground meat so it would be interesting to compare them in chili.
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What's funny is I only yesterday read about the whole digestion thing because of an argument about the Olympics. Apparently, they're being served soy, and some people think it's meant as a performance disruptor.
DIAAS% (Digestible Indispensable Amino Acid Score) for various food sources, 2013-2017
ease of digestion barring allergy
High
whole milk powder
milk protein concentrate
whole milk
egg hard boiled
beef
whey protein isolate
chicken breast
good
soy protein concentrate
whey protein concentrate
Pea protein
so protein
wheat
soy protein isolate
chickpeas
pea protein concentrate
mixed diet
Low
peas cooked
rice cookmed
rye
barley
wheat
almonds
rice protein concentrate
corn based cereal
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Someone gave me a bunch of peaches from their tree so I made peach cake. It's not super sweet but it's good for breakfast, so that's a change of pace.
And 8ully, is the "high" category the easiest to digest? I was unsure. That's an interesting chart.
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Yes, the high is preferred stuff. I had no idea a mixed diet was impactful in the negative but find the whole "keto" diet craze to be utterly insane.
Those are the people that refuse to eat grain or use plant oils. The even more stupid among them also eschew vegetables!
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Yeah. I have a friend who dislikes carbs and now is suspicious of fruits and vegetables because plants have "lectins" that are toxins the plants evolved to keep bugs from eating them? Some are reduced by cooking. The field of these chemicals in plant sources is so varied and the functions are so broad that I don't even begin to understand why they'd be a problem unless you are consuming large quantities of these toxins (like ricin) in concentrated form.
I'm not giving up tomatoes just because the skins might have this chemical. I love tomatoes. I just checked the entry on "Lectin-free diet" in Wikipedia and it's basically debunked as pseudo scientific. Well that's a relief. I eat lots of plants, both raw and cooked. No problems with any of them so far. And I'm fortunate to have been able to avoid food allergies or bad digestive reactions. I don't like green bell peppers because they are bitter, but other than that, I'm open to most plant foods.
I'm going to bake some persimmon pudding this evening for a potluck. I collected the pulp (Hachiya) in the fall and froze it. Time to put it to some good use. Recipe in the Joy of Cooking. The neighbor made a batch and it was delicious. Hopefully, I'll be able to replicate it.
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See also: Quackery. Surprised that one is still up, wikipedia is not known for a sense of humor.
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I tend to agree. This is a lovely neighbor who is otherwise just a great all round guy but he has these super weird ideas about food.
I had a big salad with some thai grilled chicken for dinner last night. A Thai friend made the chicken. It's marinated with lots of garlic, cilantro root, oyster sauce, white pepper. She grilled it and it appeared to have been pounded into thin cutlets. I sliced the chicken and put it over a large salad with romaine, spinach, arugula, cucumber, tomato, avocado and fresh mushroom with a light vinagrette. I didn't need anything else for dinner after that.
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it was a few days ago but I thought I'd mention it as I mentioned it in the HATE thread.
Checkers/Rallys is a cross country burger chain known for low prices and no dining room. They do have picnic tables outside, but no one uses them.
They did well under covid, since their footprint is tiny and designed around the drive-thru experience. I understand Wienerschnitzel experienced a similar bump.
One thing I like about rally's is that if you are on foot, it's not a problem. They have a walk up window, unlike most other chains.
Anyway, to the point, I'm not a fan of multi-patty burgers, and most of the bacon options at rally's are double or triple burgers. They recently added a promotional burger, the Bacon Ranch Cheeseburger. Since it's $2.50, I decided to check it out.
It's a small burger, but at that price point of course it is. Mine had four strips of bacon, and a slice of american cheese. The bun was so un-notable I don't remember what it was. It was toasted though.
The ranch oozed out. I'm glad I waited until I got home to eat, that would not have been a fun surprise in the car. Additionally, it was nasty cheap ranch.
I might be a bit of a ranch snob, but I've had better ranch in the hospital. Needless to say it wasn't buttermilk. It was that watery fishy ranch you find at dismal cafeterias.
I want to raise my appraisal of the burger because everything else was fantastic, but I can't. That ranch is a spoiler. Give it a miss.
The cheese was not notable in any way, might as well have been a kraft single.
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Funyons.
I don't like them. I don't know if humidity got to them or if that's how they're supposed to be, but aside from the onion taste I do not care for funyons.
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It's sad how a cheap condiment can ruin an otherwise fine sandwich.
I have been snacking on Blue Diamond Wasabi Almonds. They're really fabulous. Spicy and salty. I love wasabi on sushi, so the flavor here is really a nice addition. Otherwise, we have been having big salads every night as they are easy to throw together. I'm running out of greens, though, so I'd better get onto that.
I stomped into the brambles yesterday and brought home 10 pints of wild blackberries. I spent the greater part of today running them through a ricer so I could get the seeds out. It took hours. Tomorrow I'll turn them into beautiful dark purple jam that is so much better than anything I could buy in a supermarket. The labor and fights with thorns in the fingers is worth it. At one point, I thought of going for my first aid kit as some older dried parts of the brambles had deadly thorns that tore my fingers. But I soon got over that and focused on the prize. It was about a week too late to get the really big as your thumb berries but I still managed to get a bunch. They have to be washed, crushed and have the seeds removed, but after that, they have a great fragrance and flavor. The fact that I managed not to end up on my butt in a bunch of thorny brambles constituted an achievement.
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I made toaster pizza. I used a homemade pizza sauce recipe
https://natashaskitchen.com/homemade-pizza-sauce/
modified to scale it down and use the ingredients on hand.
Substitutions:
I don't have crushed tomatz, so I used a 6 ounce can of tomato paste. This turned out WAY too thick.
Thinned it with four ounces of tomato juice, it blended up nice then.
I still used a whole tablespoon of olive oil because I like oil in my sauce.
Used a half teaspoon of iodized salt because sea salt is pretentious and I like getting my io on.
Instead of straight oregano, I decided to chase the flavor demon. I used 1/2 teaspoon of "taco secret" from fire and smoke society.
It tasted horrible. Awful, I figured dinner was a mulligan, but decided to soldier through. Took a long bread roll, cut it in half, then sandwich cut that half.
Spooned my horrible tasting sauce on the roll, then covered it with provolone cheese and some pepperoni.
Toasted it until the cheese blistered, then took it out.
The toaster saved the sauce. It's bless'ed amazing once it baked. I went back and tasted the unheated sauce, still nasty.
It's like alchemy, gold from salt.
I am very happy with the end product, but it was definitely a fluke. The resulting sauce is spicy and delicious, but before it bakes I wouldn't want to taste it again.
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I'm glad you were able to rescue that pizza.
I made some pasta. Zucchini, onion, garlic, pignoli sauteed until tender in olive oil with some pepper flakes, and then angel hair tossed into that and eaten with some nice dry italian cheese (pecorino romano). The slow part is cutting everything up in advance. I toast the pignoli until they are slightly brown as they taste nuttier that way.
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It's morning so I'm having tea, soon to be followed by a cream scone with jam. Not exciting and predictable but delicious regardless.
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I just made some tuna salad. This relies on canned tuna in water, so it's hardly going to show up at the next Michelin star restaurant, but it's decent. Equal parts mayo and dijon mustard, dry oregano leaves (fresh if you have it), finely chopped celery and shallots, a couple cans of tuna (5 oz) drained. It is better if you chill the tuna before you mix it as it saves time and you can then eat it immediately.
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Breakfast again. Tea. Peach cake but made with nectarines. Nectarines are a variety of peaches, apparently. The great thing about this cake is that you don't really have to do anything but slice it. It's not very sweet so it's fine for breakfast. Kind of like a fruit coffeecake.
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I did the madrigal sauce flight. It's from Breaking Bad.
We take a trip away from the meth fields of New Mexico and visit a food lab in Germany, under the auspices of Madrigal electromotive.
The German scientists proffer a series of sauces, along with a fishbowl of hash brown crowns, or tater tots if you're not pretentious.
The first sauce is honey mustard. The lab wizards have reduced the amount of actual honey and replaced it with HFCS
The next sauce is Franch, a mix of French dressing and ranch dressing. Third sauce is "Cajun kickass sauce" reformulated because it caused gastric distress.
Next is hickory BBQ sauce, which is... Hickory BBQ sauce.
The final sauce is ketchup. Which is ketchup.
As usual I modified it.
First, I don't have crowns, I have Pilgrim chicken nuggets. They're decent, but still chicken nuggets. I like that they don't taste a damn thing like tyson, I'm not a fan of the "Southwest spice blend" Tyson products get in the southwest. Pilgrim nuggets are neutral, and taste like chicken, not a spice blend.
I'm not a fan of honey mustard, so I used some Sierra Nevada brown mustard. It was nice.
The Franch? Kraft ranch, kraft French. I didn't care for it. Kraft recently messed with the recipe, and it's "new and improved". Which means it's not.
Cajun kickass I have a green jalapeño sauce, it's got the consistency of salsa, and it's a champ. A rare win dollar store find, it's on par with the sauce cups you get at kickass burrito restaurants.
Hickory BBQ, I just used hickory BBQ sauce. It pairs extremely well with chicken nuggets, but that's not surprising.
Ketchup, I've got a jalapeño ketchup, and it also paired well with chicken nuggets.
What surprised me with this sauce lineup is that going from one sauce to another is not remotely jarring, these sauces pair well and taste good.
Madrigal knew their stuff, even if I'd rather they not go to the HFCS well.
[Edit the nuggets were PILGRIM, not Perdue. Perdue nuggets are on recall]
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I made hummos and baba ganoush. I use these in vegetarian wraps. So I heat a flour tortilla in order to make it a little more supple, and then smear some hummos or baba as a base and add slivers of bell pepper, cucumber and garden tomatoes in there, roll them up and voilà! lunch.
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I had the usual tea with some nice cranberry walnut bread from a local bakery.
But mostly, I wanted to see how 8ully was doing and hope he has a better kitchen where he ends up.
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I sleep at my aunt's but she scouted our new home. I wish she scouted a little harder but bless'ed liars are prolific in Florida.
Back to food, tonight was a butter chicken kit and it was bitchmade mild. Tasted good though, not a big fan of rice but the sauce elevated it despite bringing little spice.
My aunt is a fantastic host but I hope the seller ends up in the ben stiller retirement home from Happy Gillmore. Fully insulated my ass.
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I'd be surprised to find homes "fully insulated" in Florida. What kind of materials is the house constructed from? There were forms of lightweight aggregate concrete that were intended to insulate against heat in places like Teheran, but those were deployed in slab concrete construction of modest single family homes. The house we are moving into has no insulation, either, and it's in a place with much colder winters. So that's something we will have to pay to fix.
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Just had a thoroughly unsatisfying turkey and tomato on multigrain bread sandwich. It had a bitter aftertaste. At least I'm no longer hungry but of course now I want a nap.
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Simple homemade tacos tonight, refried beans are less brolific than broiled corn, and they put rice in their burritos.
Pretty much the same stuff as a tell taco, ground beef, shredding, shredded cheddar, hot sauce.
Tried out chi-chi's salsa Verde, like it a lot better then herdez.
Also bought a mini bottle of Melinda's green sauce. I wasn't sure spinach would work in a hot sauce but it is delicious.
We previously did burritos and I thought elective stoves sucked, but hitting the meat with a little bit more spice got the job done. Also used an everglades spice blend, worked pretty good. Work continues on the new home but our stuff still hasn't shown up. A delay for cross country moves is not out of the ordinary but I am deeply sick of the clothing from my suitcase.
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Cape Cod Potato Chips with sea salt. Crunchy and salty. They are pretty good. I guess they're called "crisps" over there. Sometimes I like salty snacks in the late afternoon. They are terrible for one's diet, but I don't indulge often.
Maybe I'll have a salad for dinner as penance.
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This bothers me too. Rice has no place in a burrito.
I actually prefer rice with chicken burritos but beef or steak must have refried beans
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Since I got back from the Caribbean I'm mainly eating wine. Tonight was a beautiful, crisp Gavi washed down with some pasta.
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I have a glass or two every night. Usually before bed while I'm watching television. The amount is usually less than 250 ml. When I was in the UK, that was how much they served in a glass.
We had frozen homemade soup for dinner with some olive bread, taking care to heat it up first. That was the level of energy we had left after spending the greater part of the day unpacking a pod.
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Turkey sandwich on rye bread with dijon mustard and garden tomatoes.
A couple of cornichons on the side because I love vinegar.
This is one of those overcast days when I think I should go get a cup of coffee.
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Once again apologies for mobile posting, were mostly unpacked but no issues yet. Choices are xfinity or verizon, so poo or expensive poo.
Tacos have become my truest friend. Aunt isn't one for grocery shopping and mom has never been one for patience. Helen wiped out flour tortillas if you can believe it. Corn tastes better but good luck folding it.
I have a bin I've been collecting the split tortillas In, been thinking homemade nachos.
We're in the crosshairs of tropical storm Milton, so that's fun. Lost some shed siding to Helene but that's nothing compared to the loss of life and home some people are dealing with.
So, tacos.
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I hope you guys don't get run over by Milton. Stay safe.
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We did. At aunt's
Had to dig a moat.
Power outage ate ice cream like Jurassic Park.
Is mom's bd. golly.
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Raisin toast, the refuge of people too tired to make anything else. And the usual tea.
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I got some bagels at the Amish market.
It's nice. The liquor store across the street was less impressive.
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Back to scones and tea. Can't complain. Although I miss my ancient gas stove. The new one is too efficient. I'm used to the high heat and pilot light of the old one. The newfangled one uses electric pilots and has a fan going to keep it cool. The scones come out ok, but seem drier than the ones I made in the old stove.
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DOH!
My husband just came in with the new coffee I bought and showed me that I'd gotten regular French roast instead of decaf. He can't deal with the caffeine so I really goofed. Guess I'll take the unopened bag back to the store and see if I can swap it out.
I'm drinking the regular tea. Time to heat up the scones.
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Tacos. Stove vent fan fell off it's axle. That sound is now glued in my memory
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I had fish chowder, with haddock, for dinner. It was pretty good.
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Ziti. It was fantastic. Bathroom sink popped.
I want to cry.
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Do you mean that the fixture separated from the wall or was it the plumbing connections? New houses (even used new houses) always end up requiring more repairs that one originally expects. At least it's less crime ridden, right?
Glad the ziti was good.
Maple walnut muffins. For breakfast. Lovely. I added dates and walnuts to them.
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The Ziti was weirdly fantastic for a nuke-a-meal.
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So the ziti I got the other day was cheese only.
I was going to try out the meat version, but it turns out it was double the price per ounce compared to the large version.
So I bought a family size Ziti. Needless to say, leftovers.
One very simple unimpressive leftover mix was Ziti + shredded cheese + Mexi-pep hot sauce.
I liked it better than the straight up ziti. It was spicy, it was vital, I think noodles are going to be the master plan for fall.
Still nuke-a-meals, I have to replace the stove vent fan, it fell off the spindle. From the time I did have with the electric stove, it honestly did a hell of a job, I got more Maillard reaction out of the meat than I did on the shitty apartment stove.
I'm honestly sad to be sidelined. I initally thought everything off the electric stove would be watery and gross. Boy was I wrong.
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Lemon yogurt muffin. Good. I prefer to add nuts. My husband requested poppy seeds instead. It's nice, like a light lemon cake. I froze half of them.
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Canned white chili.
Castleberry's Adobe Lime White Chicken Chili to be exact.
It's good, and most of the ingredients aren't science experiments.
I'd never heard of Castleberry before, but I like their hot dog chili sauce because buying it means I don't have to make it. With the exhaust fan out of commission I'm going to be eating a lot of microwave soup. But it's fall, so that's okay.
There's always the foreman and my instant pot I suppose.
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I was watching Sam the cooking guy videos, and two years ago he made toaster oven pizza:
So I decided, hey, he used a tortilla, why don't I just make tacos in that thing?
So I did. Status report: They were crispy and delicious. One downside of microwave tacos is the tortilla gets chewy. In a toaster oven, that is not so.
About the only downside of this is the cook time, a 30 second microwave taco takes about 3 minutes at 400f.
But I don't think I'll be going back to the nuka-wave.
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There used to be this demented woman who starred in informercials for MicroCrisp. This product was some kind of paper that one wrapped around food in a microwave that allegedly caused it to be crisp when cooked. Of course, you'll need to get 5 microwaves and paint your nails for the full effect.
p.s. The comments are even better than the video.
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I think they mocked her in Gremlins 2.
Tonight, we had Mac-a-Roni, a white cheddar mac and cheese from the Rice-a-Roni people.
The electric stove pretty much burned off the cheese sauce, so I shredded some cheddar, hit the noodles with black pepper, and stirred.
It was okay. Probably wouldn't buy it again, but it wasn't garbage.
"Roni" is in my browser's word dictionary. Weird.
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Those mac n cheese packages are very popular. We have used Annie's and even Safeway's. Both are pretty tasty. We use half and half in place of milk and generally a side of cooked (frozen) peas with them. It's been years since we had any. I ended up giving ours away since the little packages of cheese in the box won't last forever.
I'm having tea and scones. No end to the excitement here.
p.s. I've never seen the Gremlins movies. But I'm happy that the microcrisp lady got some air time in one. I suspect she got paid for it. That ought to keep her "family of snackers" in nail polish for a while.
Lunch: turkey sandwich on nice Walnut Levain bread with dijon mustard, mayo and heirloom tomatoes. Time to go hit up the Grocery Outlet wine sale as it's going to be a long 4 years...
This afternoon I chopped up some leftover Halloween candy and made choc chunk cookies and took them over to the neighbors who were greatly amused and happy to see them.
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One thing I liked about the Roni was that it used the powder packet, a lot of them use those oily cheese foil packs, and I'm not a fan. I know you can buy cheese powder standalone, but the Roni was nice. Only problem is my electric stove ruins it.
We did leftover burritos today, and mom asked me how to do the folding trick. It's not hard, but she still acts like it's a magic trick.
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One thing I liked about the Roni was that it used the powder packet, a lot of them use those oily cheese foil packs, and I'm not a fan. I know you can buy cheese powder standalone, but the Roni was nice. Only problem is my electric stove ruins it.
We did leftover burritos today, and mom asked me how to do the folding trick. It's not hard, but she still acts like it's a magic trick.
We haven't made burritos at home, but often make quesadillas, heating tortillas then with some warm black beans, grated cheese, hot sauce, and toppings like tomato chunks, sliced scallions and cilantro. I routinely make a mighty mess with them, as I do a crap job of folding, probably exacerbated by overfilling. It messes up the pan as we heat them before consuming. My husband's are always neat and perfectly folded. I don't mind making a mess so long as they taste good.
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This guy is kind of bad at it, but this is the trick:
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/xEF9u6K0WBc
The tuck and the roll are vital. Also, you want to put less in the tortilla than you think. You're hungry, it's excusable.
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Thanks. That's good to know. Usually I go out for burritos, but there's no real reason we can't make them at home.
Drinking tea and getting ready to put a scone in the oven. I'm up too early, but I might as well roll with it.
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Earl Grey tea and a cream scone with quince jelly and super bitter seville orange marmalade. The marmalade is main and the quince is pudding.
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Tea and a muffin. Breakfast.
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Fresh cream scones with seville orange marmalade. This batch of the marmalade was extra bitter. What odd oranges they are: bumpy skins and millions of seeds. Nobody eats them right off the tree because they are basically inedible in their natural form. They need this bizarre cooking and sugar addition. I wonder if Seville Orange marmalade existed before Columbus "discovered" the Americas and sugar cane was imported into Europe. I doubt it. Seville was an important port, so the trees were perhaps imported for their flowers and foliage. Certainly not for the fruit, initially. I guess you can add honey, but I don't use that. The oranges take days to prep and the marmalade varies from year to year, depending on the natural bitterness of the rinds. This batch was one of the most bitter, but it's still pretty tasty.
Here: https://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/food-and-drink/the-last-bitter-word-about-the-origins-of-seville-oranges-1.3953631 (https://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/food-and-drink/the-last-bitter-word-about-the-origins-of-seville-oranges-1.3953631)
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Lazy cook's salad:
1 perfectly ripe avocado, cut and sliced.
Salad dressing of your choice.
Toss.
Eat.
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I read that as "toes".
... and worried a little. (qv "Harold the Barrel")
Sounds like your inner cannibal is surfacing. I'd think toes wouldn't be very good -- too bony.
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"Buffalo Toes". I smell a marketing opportunity.
... or maybe "Spare Toes"?
You'd have to do better than that to make them appetizing to me. And I'm getting ready to have some pasta with sauce out of a jar.
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It was Thanksgiving so I feasted with the neighbors. I took over some persimmon pudding that was well appreciated. Do they have this in Europe? The persimmon pulp was from a neighbor's hachiya fruits that I had frozen last fall. The pudding is rich and particularly good when enjoyed with some whipped cream.
This was after the usual turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing and greens. It's been a good day. I hope yours were as well.
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I had a hamburger bun with bagel spread for thanksgiving.
My aunt asked me to dog sit so that she could have thanksgiving with her boyfriend, and I agreed.
She said I could have "anything in the fridge".
There weren't leftovers, but there was a half bag of crinkle cut fries, so I ate that for dinner the night before thanksgiving.
The next day I went excavating but I didn't find poo. Just hamburger buns and bagel spread.
She's very "live with what you need, and nothing else" but this was honestly surprising.
I didn't get paid, and one of the dogs peed on me when I was asleep. I took those dogs out every two hours, so that was on purpose!
I don't know if I'll dog sit for her again. The not being paid stung.
Especially when she acted like it was an emergency and she needed help.
When I asked her about the food situation, she suggested that I should have eaten the creamed corn from the pantry. Yup, that sounds like a meal.
Anyway, I stocked MY pantry with spicy chunky soup because I tried a can of the spicy chicken noodle, and they had all the ingredients in, instead of being 80% water. Well, those gits got me again.
https://www.campbells.com/products/chunky/chipotle-chicken-corn-chowder/
This soup is a bless'ed ruse cruise. That label makes it look mighty tasty.
Nope. Green pepper. Too much green pepper.
One upside of the soup is that it is a cream base, so at least that was nice.
I think the whole can had three chunks of chicken total, which was a Campbells standard from about 2000-2010.
I had a salad too, that was pretty good. Just your bog-standard bag salad with chipotle ranch. Nothing exciting, but it gets the job done.
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Your aunt sounds strangely stingy. Where I come from, you FEED people. And by that, I don't mean you leave them a few scraps of white bread to gnaw on. Jeesh.
As for the soup. I find green bell peppers very bitter. If you leave them on the plant long enough, they turn red and the bitterness goes away. My grandmother and I would make pepper relish. It called for red and green bell peppers, onions, pickling spice and vinegar/sugar mixture. But to remove the bitterness from the green peppers after they were chopped, we'd immerse them briefly in hot water and then pour off the liquid. It sounds like that soup was overpowering because of their inclusion. Lots of cajun dishes and gumbos require bell pepper, but they don't go overboard with it. Cream soups can be lovely but I generally prefer tomato based soups in that particular food genre. I like Progresso's chicken corn chowder. It's not bad for a canned soup. Cream based clam chowder can be magical. We used to eat oyster stew when I was a child but my grandmother made it with milk so it was lighter. We ate it with oyster crackers. They are octagonal but do not contain oysters. I once got in trouble for laying the crackers on the surface of the stew like a delicate mosaic. My dad got pissed off because I was being so fussy with the crackers. It's not clear why that bothered him so much. But I still laugh thinking about it.
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It's not a new thing. We've had previous "breaks" in the past. One time I was walking home from high school, she was 1 mile from the school, I was 2 miles.
I just got a wild hare in my brain and decided to visit. I was not welcome. She told me to leave.
Funny enough, though that rejection hurt BAD, it led to one of my favorite solitary memories. I walked from her house to the movie theater and watched Spiderman 2.
Then I went to burger king and got the spiderman 2 burger. It's one of my favorite burgers ever, and burger king is crap.
But I enjoyed the movie and burger and went home happy.
FIVE HOUR TURKEY
Turns out my convection oven SUCKS.
I've been lured into a false sense of complacency. I've mostly used the sucker for chili fries to now, but last night was the first trial by fire.
And the turkey would not hit 140f. Which, as you know, isn't good enough. At first, I thought my thermo was no good. It's not digital, it's old school.
Turns out my thermo is right on the mark, and that bless'ed turkey wasn't going over 140.
I went to the internet for help. It said to tent the turkey with tin foil. So, I did.
Still took five golly hours. It did hit 170 though.
Turkey turned out good, if a bit dry. Mashed was mashed. I'm not pleased with the outcome on that point, but I was cooking without sentiment on that count. I have done better, and I will do better. Stove top stuffing was Stove top stuffing.
One fun one, I bought "onion enhanced" gravy. 89 cents, I figured what the golly, why not?
It's just gravy with dehydrated onions. Nothing particularly enhanced, I was not impressed. But it did help with the turkey.
I kind of want to shoot the oven with a shotgun. Piece of poo.
I've been wondering why my toast keeps coming out lousy, now I know. The thing has the temperature containment skills of a bless'ed water balloon.
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I'm not a fan of toaster ovens. They seem like overkill for toast but they also, in my experience, do a lousy job of toasting bread. The convection thing, too, blowing hot air over something to speed cook it? It's bound to dry it out, kind of like having a hair dryer on your turkey. Best to let it sit quietly under a constant heat source. I suspect you are using this equipment due to lack of a regular oven, so I sympathize and admire your inventiveness and fortitude under those circumstances.
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Tea and scone.
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nice
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I got suckered again.
I've slowly become a fan of Bush products. Their refried beans taste the least canned of any other brand, and they're cheap.
But they got me!
They have a product line called "Chili magic". I'm not sure what I expected. I went with the "classic homestyle"
It's a can of beans.
I did get a good laugh out of things as I cooked, but it's a can of beans.
Also, thumbs down to vine ripe diced tomatoes. More like quartered! I like my diced tomatoes fine, but I guess it's late enough in the year to excuse a stew. I never knew I had to be discerning with diced tomatoes.
A previous mistake was thinking it was just diced tomatoes, I thought I was going to use a can on nachos. Boy was I embarassed.
(diced tomatoes are canned in water, but I imagine everyone on this site knew that before I did.)
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Bush's beans are decent. You need to look for "petite diced" in the canned diced tomatoes dept., otherwise you end up with those large geometric cubes.
I use their beans in chili and soups all the time. Also, use garbanzos for hummos and chana masala. Never had a problem with them, but they are, at the end of the day, just canned beans. I have never been brave enough to try their spiced or flavored varieties.
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I forgot to say what I thought of it.
It was fantastic. I wouldn't say it was magic, but after letting it simmer for a while, it was a fine chili.
Mom had three servings.
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We had turkey chili on Xmas eve and a sandwich for Christmas lunch. The relatives had a huge spread of food and it was a lovely dinner. Today we are heating up leftovers and grateful that we don't have to cook much after my Xmas eve baking marathon. 3 batches of cookies and some muffins. I'm thinking of getting a stand mixer as my shoulder complained about manually mixing up all that dough.
Perhaps it's all the food focused activities of the past few days but I feel like taking a mid afternoon nap!
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Eating too much visiting families :o ???
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Well that's one way of stopping them from visiting again.
Went round to son's family for present distribution:
Glad I didn't have a mouth full of tea when I read that. And, presumably, these are not food gifts? You are apparently generous with holiday gifts.
We baked a lot and gave books to the children. My favorite was The Day the Crayons Quit. Apparently the red one feels totally exploited and overworked this time of year and he finally just threw in the towel. I suspect Santa will need to switch outfits soon. One way to select kids books is to listen to them being read aloud. Here's a dramatic reading that's worth a listen.
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Correct, these are non-comestible. The four-year-old just loves two aspects after Christmas: being delivery elf, and unwrapping things. So we wrapped lots, to give her a thrill.
I hope she appreciated your efforts.
Tea and scones.
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Shortly before christmas my neighbor made me a soup before she left.
Microsoft bing called it "bigos"
It was a broth, I'm going to go out on a limb and guess "pork"
Pork slices that were the size of a deck of cards
potatoes
tomatoes
sour kraut
carroway seeds.
I always whine about not having any idea what to make for dinner, wanting to climb out of a rut, and my neighbor has me beat.
Some of the pork was a bit pinker than I'd like, so I baked it in my convection oven. This made it fall apart. Which was AMAZING.
My mistake was a bright outcome.
I liked that hunter's soup. Mom doesn't eat pork.
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I've been baking cookies (biscuits). Today, snickerdoodles and I did mix a batch of Pecan Dainties but I ran out of energy before I could bake the latter. That's for another day. The dough usually bakes better when it's cooled for a while anyway. All of these cookies require rolling into small balls and rolling in sugar before or after baking. My shoulders aren't what they once were.
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I'm out of hamburger buns so I mixed some bbq shredded beef up in a tortilla with some cheese and garlic hot sauce.
It was good.
I'm still not a fan of this fridge, I think I might remove one of the shelves entirely, it has a stupid slide lid.
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That sounds good and I think it would be better in a tortilla, really.
I made an omelette with sauteed onions, mushrooms and some grated cheddar today. I put a little dried basil in the eggs. It wasn't bad. Now I want a nap.
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Almond macaroon from a local bakery. This is one reason I'll never leave Earth. No decent nuts in space.
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Tried a few small nacho variations. They sucked. I love nachos but the recipes I tried were all bad.
Thankfully the recipes were all for snack plates and not a full dinner, but wow. I won't even name and shame the site, I think it might have been regurgitated AI nonsense.
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I love cheese but there's certain melted cheese dishes that I avoid as not being worth the calories. Nachos, pupusas, fondue -- all fine dishes -- but after a certain age, one has to be more judicious about such indulgences.
Dark chocolate vs nachos? I'd take the chocolate. I love good tortilla chips but salsa is as satisfying with many less calories than an equivalent amount of nachos, even with good cheese.
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I baked almond muffins last night of 75% almond flour and 25% regular flour. They turned out well. The problem is stopping at just one. We managed but barely.
At least it's an excuse to turn on the oven. Our heat works well but the utility bills have been exorbitant. I sure hope spring comes early this year.
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I baked almond muffins last night of 75% almond flour and 25% regular flour. They turned out well. The problem is stopping at just one. We managed but barely.
At least it's an excuse to turn on the oven. Our heat works well but the utility bills have been exorbitant. I sure hope spring comes early this year.
I came up with the idea at the beginning of the energy crisis, to put a fire brick in the bottom of the oven when we bake and then tong it out onto a stand in the middle of a room to harvest all that stored heat. Haven't got round to bringing home a firebrick from my site yet. probably be summer again by the time I think of it.
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That firebrick idea is a good one. My old stove has a series of vents on the side that were intended to heat the house. The local power company guy disabled it as a fire hazard when he visited for an "energy audit." There was an entire control knob that was related to this function. I never knew what it was for. Glad I never experimented with it.
I just baked scones in the new oven. Those are breakfast for tomorrow. The new oven doesn't really heat the house at all. Electric pilots so no continual fire burning. I guess that makes it safer and more efficient.
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Mom sprayed oven cleaner in the toaster oven. Gonna need a new toaster oven.
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Mom sprayed oven cleaner in the toaster oven. Gonna need a new toaster oven.
You gotta love the internet. Apparently, you are not alone.
https://www.quora.com/Is-it-bad-that-I-cleaned-my-toaster-oven-With-Easy-Off-and-VIM-It-has-a-strong-chemical-odor-but-I-know-these-chemicals-were-meant-to-clean-this-stuff-I-was-told-to-get-rid-of-my-toaster-oven-now-and-buy-a-new-one (https://www.quora.com/Is-it-bad-that-I-cleaned-my-toaster-oven-With-Easy-Off-and-VIM-It-has-a-strong-chemical-odor-but-I-know-these-chemicals-were-meant-to-clean-this-stuff-I-was-told-to-get-rid-of-my-toaster-oven-now-and-buy-a-new-one)
Meh. I looked into this and the likelihood of a thorough neutralization of the sodium hydroxide with 5% vinegar solution (the concentration found in most commercial food vinegars) is not reassuring. Part of this depends on whether she went full bore with a can of Easy Off on the entire interior. If so, then I suspect you are right. It's probably best to get another toaster oven. If she only cleaned the trays with it, that's another matter and probably reparable via a thorough washing and cleaning with vinegar. I suspect you are concerned because of the former. People often give away toaster ovens when they move so perhaps Freecycle is a good option. My stepmother died with an oven that was practically new so I donated it. Hopefully, you'll get lucky.
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Today I had the usual breakfast:
Earl Grey tea and cream scones with blackberry jam and a marmalade made from blood orange, meyer lemon and hibiscus. When you live in a place that has plenty of native citrus, you take advantage. As for the Eastern U.S., I'm going to have to learn to make jam from snow, apparently. The bunnies are still out hopping around, which is impressive given it's been below freezing for days on end. They must store up body fat and have a nice little place to hole up in with all that nice fur to keep them warm.
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Last night after whipping up a batch of cream scones, I watched them sit there in the oven failing to rise. Later I realized that although I'd gotten out the baking powder, I'd forgotten to add it to the dough mix. The end results resembled small hockey pucks. They went into the trash.
I won't do that again.
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Scones are much better when you use leavening.
I had a turkey sandwich for lunch. Just bread mustard and thinly sliced smoked turkey. Nothing to write home about but it was easy to assemble and required little clean up afterwards.
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Fresh wild caught haddock was on sale and so I got a couple pounds. We had it for dinner. This is a luxury as there wasn't affordable fish when we lived on the West Coast. I brought a rod along out here so maybe I'll get a chance to go fishing here. It's lots easier to let others do the gathering but fishing is a satisfying activity -- knowing where one's food came from is usually a good thing.
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Whatever is in the freezer and doesn't take too much energy.
Some fake chicken patties (Quorn) with some salsa on top for lunch. Not very inspiring.
Dinner: some vegetable soup I thawed out and it was delicious but not real stick to your ribs stuff so I'm chomping on nuts later in the evening.
Tomorrow, I swear, I'll go grocery shopping.
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Do they have Trader Joes in the UK? Probably not, even though it's a German chain. They have lots of nice prepared foods. I got a Greek salad yesterday and it was dinner. Fresh and I didn't have to do much other than toss the dressing in and voila! Dinner.
I have to cook stuff in the next few days but for now I'm happy to nuke stuff from there. I imagine that people who work a lot or have kids live at that store.
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Tea and a maple walnut muffin with dates. I finally got to cook a little. More over the weekend.
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The same as before. It quit raining for a couple days and it's been beautiful. Flowers are blooming and the sun was out with mild temperatures. Enough to get some things done.
The tea is good. It's reliable and wakes me up. The maple walnut muffin is great. I have no idea what I'll eat later today.
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We are having a recurrence of the atmospheric river.... I'm eating the same thing for breakfast as before. A dull creature of habit.
8ully, how's Florida treating you? I suspect you have better weather at least. I'm off to pump out our basement.
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Bad.
Medically I may be in the best shape of my life. All vitals are good, no diabetes risks. Just had my first doctor's appointment yesterday. Was weirdly Un difficult considering the road to it.
I am not assimilating. I managed to get my DL transferred finally but it was an ordeal. They have this weird thing where you have to bring in mail for proof of things.
Might as well be a literacy test.
I was not able to register for the presidential election at all, but I'm registered now. Which is about what I can do.
Food wise? I've been making a lot more food and less packaged stuff, because of price. I never knew bread and cheese was a bad way to go nutritionally.
Today I ate a bunch of veggies. They were past sell by, so I got them for cheap AF. It was nice. I had completely forgotten that I love snap peas, but I got a bunch of em.
The cherry tomatoes vanished, obviously. Good lunch.
Now I have to dial back cheese. I don't want to dial back cheese. This area is a retirement haven for Wisconsinites so cheese is EVERYWHERE.
Sorry I've been a poor correspondent. As far as hardships go, I should be grateful.
But I feel lost.
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But aren't you right next to the Gulf of America?
That's all the more reason for him to feel lost. I'm sure that nice red state where he's been transported to is enough to give anyone the willies.
I have been cooking lentils and beans a lot lately. Lentils in soup, beans in chili and other soups. They are super nutritious and generally cheap. Onions, celery, and carrots in combo with various other vegetables and some broth make for good one pot meals. I freeze the excess. I don't know if you have a reasonable sized freezer, but that's a way to keep from getting tired of the same dish over and over for a week.
I was reading about Lima beans lately and didn't realize they were called that because they originated in south and central America. The proximity to Peru is why the lazy guys exporting them called them Lima, after the city, instead of using their Latin name (Phaseolus lunatus). In the north American south, they're called butter beans. I use the baby variety in soup. The larger variety is known as the Lima type while the baby ones are the Sieva type. There's a crazy chemistry that the beans have evolved to ward off spider mites, one of their main predators. Apparently one worm pisses the plant off to the point where it cranks out hydrogen peroxide in the leaves. Another defensive strategy involves the production of hydrogen cyanide. So it's really a good idea to cook them since the toxins are kind of off-putting.
A friend of mine gave me a handful of the heirloom Rancho Gordo scarlet runner beans that I soaked and sprouted and they have been coming back on their own for a couple of years. They are pretty climbing vines with deep orange flowers and they produce a kind of fuzzy string bean -they are very nice steamed with butter. I don't know if you have space for a garden, but you could probably grow some with some poles and a windowbox. They are hardy plants. I don't know how the harsh Florida sun would affect them, but I was surprised and pleased to see that they could be grown from dried beans you could buy at the grocer's. I'm tempted to make an effort with the dried butter beans I picked up yesterday.
Garbanzos are super nutritious, too, and I have been using them in soups and chilis to use them up because I have a large number of cans past their expiration date, but they are fine so long as the can is still intact.
And to finish off my rant about beans, here's Pete Seeger. I met him once a long time ago, and he was a lovely human being.
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But aren't you right next to the Gulf of America?
There is a Gulf of Mexico drive near here and people are funning on it.
"Surely this will lower egg prices"
"All hail the new founding fathers"
They also call Desantis "Kinky boots Rhonda" but I'm not clear on that one.
Tonight I had a salad and some garlic bread.
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I get the "kinky boots" part but not Rhonda. It sounds like you have some entertaining neighbors, maybe not all MAGA types, so that is a bit o a relief. Still, I sympathize with your residing in Florida. It might be funny to read about that state or hear late night comedians like Jimmy Kimmel riffing on the antics of the residents, but to have to deal with them on a daily basis is not for the faint of heart.
That salad/garlic bread combo sounds like a nice meal. I made turkey chili and had it with the neighbors for dinner. Tonight, curried lentil soup and cornbread with an old friend.
I pulled some cream scones out of the freezer and heated one for breakfast and it was lovely with some homemade brambleberry jam. It's super hard to collect those berries but the flavor is out of this world. The plants have horrible thorns and they grow on riverbanks, so there's always the potential of plummeting down the hill if you reach too far, and the spiders and poison oak that tend to grow in the area make it even more fun. So it's hard won, but that makes it even more delicious.
According to the internet, "Rhonda Santos" is his secret drag name. I remember sending him some postcards with the word "GAY" written all over them (in response to his "don't say gay" campaign). That was fun.
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Tea and a maple walnut muffin. I put them in the freezer and they are just fine thawed out and reheated. Good to know in case you have more than you can eat over a short interval. Many baked goods freeze well. Yay!
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We tried a nearby pizza place. The large ran $18, and they taped the box shut.
It felt light, but they already had my money, so I took it home. Once I opened it, I realized why it was taped shut.
SIX SLICES in their large. I'd say the slices were some of the thinnest pizza I have ever had.
I learned my lesson; I won't be going back. They've got a 4.3, but apparently that's coasting off a prior reputation, lotta 2's lately, several of the reviews are asking if a former chef died.
I will say the pizza was absolutely delicious, the cheese was amazing, the sauce was perfectly seasoned and not overly sweet or acidic, which are two of my most hated pizza crimes.
But the size and the thinness cannot be denied.
Specifically, a Little Caesars hot and ready is thicker and bigger. And their slice count is 8.
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I love a good pizza but most pizza isn't very good. I'm glad your new find was delicious. Sometimes paying a little more and having a side salad to make up for the smaller quantity is the answer.
Late last night I heard of the poor gluttonous experiences of a wayward opossum in Omaha, Nebraska. I've been to Omaha. I can see why someone would want to dull the experience of being there with an excess of chocolate cake.
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I really miss my opossum buddy. The first time I saw him I thought death had come to claim me, but he was just chilling on my fence. He ate the noisy bugs and apparently my bedroom light helped in some way? I asked about it on reddit.
Reddit dude told me it wasn't ONE Opossum, because they only live for two years. I had a family of protectors!
And I never once thought to get them a cake.
Tonight, I had a Pepper Turkey and Palmetto cheese sandwich. I'm a big fan of cheese spread, and made the mistake of buying a local delicacy,
palmetto cheese.
It's like, a goo with shredded cheese. Looks nasty, texture is nasty, tastes amazing. I swore I wouldn't buy it again.
Aunt brought over a tub because she's a troll and she knew the cheese vexed me.
The cheese is spicy, the pepper turkey was spicy, and it made for a fantastic sandwich.
I just looked them up, they DO have just cheese spread. WOOHOO!
I was going to post a link to their website but then it blasted audio out of my speakers. So, I won't.
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A friend of mine sometimes leaves a sliding door to her garden open so her cat can come and go. A baby opossum decided to come in and have a look around. She snapped a photo of it in her dishwasher. I guess it had a warm moist welcoming environment. The cat food was a bonus.
I got some sleep for a change and had the usual tea and cream scone with jams. No big surprises there.
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At this time of the day
Anything I can get my hands onto ;D
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Cup of decaffeinated English breakfast tea from Taylors of Harrogate. It's mediocre. I won't buy more. I prefer Yorkshire Gold.
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There's a very good bakery near me that produces a genuine French fougasse with duck fat and calamata olives. It's so wonderfully salty. It's like a shaped focaccia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fougasse_(bread)#:~:text=In%20French%20cuisine%2C%20fougasse%20(Occitan,resembling%20a%20head%20of%20wheat. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fougasse_(bread)#:~:text=In%20French%20cuisine%2C%20fougasse%20(Occitan,resembling%20a%20head%20of%20wheat.)
I got one today and had a few slices to go with the vegetable soup I made last night for dinner. I am ready for a nap.
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Vodka fries.
Frozen fries
vodka sauce
mozerella
I've been chasing this beast for years and I always golly it up.
This time it was my convection oven. It decided to top out at 220F. 220F is WEAKSAUCE and will not broil cheese.
So I brought in the toaster oven as a pinch hitter.
Not only did dinner come out instagrammable, it came out tasting perfect, which is what is really important.
But when I was dishing up, I touched my bless'ed ring finger to the heating element.
I've never injured my ring finger before.
IT'S VERY INSISTANT.
So... don't do that.
I don't have a proper recipe it's diner food so
Frozen fries - cook them
Vodka sauce - heat it
Mozzarella - broil it
DON'T TOUCH HEATING ELEMENT WHILE SERVING.
golly.
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I had some really good quesadillas for dinner. Heated flour tortillas, grated pepper jack cheese, spiced black beans, cilantro, scallions, tomatoes, avocados, hot sauce. Two of them were plenty. It's a lot of prep cutting stuff up in advance but they go together quickly and they're tasty.
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Pesto pasta with chestnut mushrooms and chilli's (cabaneros)
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That sounds really good.