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

[6pairsofshoes]

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.

[6pairsofshoes]

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...

[8ullfrog]

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.

[6pairsofshoes]

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.

[8ullfrog]

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.

[6pairsofshoes]

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.

[8ullfrog]

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.

[6pairsofshoes]

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.

[8ullfrog]

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.

[goldshirt*9]

Plain Toast and butter 

[goldshirt*9]

Isn't all toast plain until you butter it?

good point 

[6pairsofshoes]

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.

[8ullfrog]

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!

[6pairsofshoes]

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.

[8ullfrog]

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.