The serrano doesn't fall far from the plant

After a week of good, but fried and pretty fatty food, I felt the need for green and clean. I started thinking I wanted some type of Asian vegetable rice dish with heat, not a heavy sauce. I found some cheap pork and thought it might be dressed up quite nicely with some orange, garlic pepper sauce. I also found some fresh green beans looking really sharp. I wanted the vegetables to be really crisp and bright. Basil in the rice and a big bunch dropped in at the last minute to the pork and vegetables also made this dish almost medicinal. The heat came with more of those fresh dried peppers sent to us by my aging brother in law.

It was cool to chop up all my own vegetables and choose exactly what I wanted inside. You know, I couldn't wait to eat out on vacation and just 5 days of it left me longing to be in my own tiny kitchen and doing all the work again. Go figure.

I wonder if I'm going to end up like my parents, where all their dining out experiences left them a little disappointed in the world. I used to love to ask them for a review after they came from eating out. I wanted to see their faces scrunch up and contort. They hated to complain buuuuut... especially with Mexican food, most meals fell way short of perfect. My dad would be on the verge of being pissed and it was great hearing him describe what they did wrong. 'No, they put all the Damn sauce all over everything and everything was soggy! Why do they gotta put so much Got'damn sauce on everything! They don't flavor their rice!" My mom used to just shake her head and seemed amazed that someone could screw up her enchiladas so badly. In his and her defense, they made some amazing Mexican food. Of course, they were in the mid-west and in small towns too where pickin's were slim. They also had their own restaurant so....that had a lot to do with it.

But I have amazing choices here in NY and so many of even the cheap ones do what they do so well. Now Florida...they could use some work. Uh oh.