Topic: What are you eating / What did you eat.

[8ullfrog]

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?

[6pairsofshoes]

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.

[8ullfrog]

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.

[8ullfrog]

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!"

[6pairsofshoes]

Scrambled eggs w/cottage fries.  Cheap quick & tasty.

[8ullfrog]

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.

[6pairsofshoes]

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.

[goldshirt*9]

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

[6pairsofshoes]

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.

[8ullfrog]

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.

[Beatrix]

Lemon pepper tuna n toast, pickles, and pepper Jack cheese.

[8ullfrog]

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.

[6pairsofshoes]

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.

[8ullfrog]

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.

[6pairsofshoes]

Raisin toast and some tea.