Thursday, April 30, 2020

You Brought a New Kind of Love to Me


Baked Chimichangas
I ran out of cooking oil, the corner store has no tortillas and the bread is picked over but they did just get a huge shipment of these grain wraps.  You have to work with what the stores have right now.  For $3.99 you get 6 medium size, a rip off but blessing in disguise as we're not supposed to eat bread.  Somehow I justify it during the Pandemic.
I made these lovely oven baked Chimichangas with shredded pork, hotsauce, onions and mozzarella with Cotija cheese on top.  The wraps were crunchy and thin, great texture although if they were side by side there would be no comparison to a deep fried flour tortilla but that's the great thing, if you haven't allowed bread for months, you really appreciate anything that even looks like it.  This comes from a girl that drank near-beer for 10 years though.  Oil brushed on the top helped them to crisp up and brown in a 350 degree oven.
Roasted cauliflower is a great, super easy side.  Cauliflower and cabbage have been smart purchases if you're trying not to visit the market every day.  They keep well in the fridge and provide enough for a few meals in a variety of preps.

Wednesday, April 29, 2020

Looks Like I'm the Fool Again, I Don't Like It

I guess egg tastes great with just about anything because of the rich creaminess of that yolk. And a fried egg is probably best but a poached egg is also special in more of a cloud-like pure way.  I toasted up 1/2 an Arnold's bread and melted mozzarella on the bottom, topped it with the egg and my pre-cut leftover pizza toppings from last night.  Such a sweet little breakfast treat.

Angelic!
I made this for P and instantly regretted not making one for myself.  EEeedjiot!
You Idiot Ren And Stimpy GIFs | Tenor

Someone Saved My (Rice) Tonight


A repeat of the previous day's pork and rice bowl this time including pork gravy.  My nephew told me his 4 year old daughter has an affinity for gravy today via text.  The idea of creamy, smooth porky liquid wouldn't leave my head.  I love gravy too but never make it.  I had all those amazing juices from the roast pork so a quick pan gravy was born out of the suggestion.  I wanted to do biscuits but the store was out of flour.  Rice, gravy and pork is not the most natural combination, the flavors warm and homey but unable to really pop.  In the end, I don't think the gravy alone elevated my bowl necessarily but when added to my hot sauce, it became another experience entirely! Mini taco bites naturally formed of all the elements with a little lettuce for crunch.

Said 4yr old's rendition of a family member
Just making it clear there was rice beneath that dousing of hot sauce.

Tuesday, April 28, 2020

There's a Place for Us

Want a bunch of meal opportunities?  Slow roast a pork shoulder at night while you're sleeping!
Homemade Roasted Hot Sauce
Pork & Rice bowl 
 I like variety and bowls.  Rice, beans, lettuce, pork and hot sauce to make us strong like bull.

Lilac Bushes
Brooklyn is its own Botanical Gardens in spring.  Many of the neighborhoods have the trees we flock to see in the park.  And it's all free!   However, walking around right now post COVID, I have the constitution of about an 87 year old.  I'm moving faster but when someone comes up behind me quickly like the hundreds of runners do on the street right now, I feel fairly vulnerable, crackable.  If I fell right now, my body might just break apart like a Nature Valley granola bar.  I've had a few missteps taking the curbs, misjudging distances, still walking more wonky then I'd like.Corona screwed with so much of my equipment.  Reactions times are a little off.  It's as if my knees aren't talking to my leg muscles or operating on a 7 second delay. I'm unsure if it's all gonna click back to normal but I'm counting on it. Again, can't imagine how hard this would be for someone compromised.  I've always been sensitive to the old folks in the city, walking to get groceries hunched over, wondered how they must feel so unguarded.  I had a peak into that world today while walking and please, no thank you!  At least for 30 years or so, God please if you're listening.
Graham Home for Old Ladies









Nigella Lawson's Slow Roasted Pork Shoulder

Monday, April 27, 2020

Cause I'll Be Standing On the Side When You Check It Out

Zucchini egg breakfast burrito
Zucchini!  Always available, cheap and versatile.  Zucchini is that round the way girl of the vegetable world.  She's not trying to be anything but helpful, there when you need a quick but healthy meal.  Every market has zucchini right now.  Sauteed zucchini and scrambled egg is divine! 

Ready to go in oven overnight..pork shoulder
Birds acting like they're starving.  They must miss all the scraps the restaurants normally provide.
Neighborhood Cherry Blossoms

Okame Cherry Tree?

Saturday, April 25, 2020

Got a Monkey On My Back







Monkey Bars
Here's something dangerous that's happening; craving desert.  I've heard others complaining of this new phenomena, the desire for a little something sweet at the end of the night.  Actually, we're all craving a lot of things, most of them bad for us but they feel oh-so-right during this topsy turvy world.  We need vices or some of us might go off the rails on a crazy train. 

My logic is that we need to allow ourselves these small depravities, as long as no one is being hurt, or the ol' what they don't know won't kill 'em applies. These low-ish calorie banana bars are a great and easy way to get your sugar fix.  I don't suggest starting the tradition of adding sweets after all meals, but we are in war times.

Call Out the Instigator, Because There's Something in the Air

Out of the Woods Mini Pizzas 
Coronavirus life gives us many challenges.  Shopping changed overnight as did much of our lives.  From yesterday to today two of my nearby stores is only allowing a certain number of customers to enter, which for Shop and Save, made the line completely unmanageable unfortunately.  I wasn't prepared to wait.   You might be surprised this was not happening much sooner, especially the amount of business these markets do all day, every day.  After making it out of my own retail customer service job alive, I felt complicit in this silent killer by shopping in markets as if these kids and produce managers were immune to this thing.  I realize their contribution but unlike our nurses, doctors and service workers, theirs is not necessarily voluntary.  The last visit, I thanked the cashier and he about took my head off with one look and that drove my point home, that we are part of the problem, shopping in these establishments.  Limiting customers is a good thing, and I would have been happy to do it sooner, otherwise I was going to start tipping and I do try to go at odd times.  Many stores have already done this, so it's also on the small businesses to make the call and not wait until someone dies or gets deathly ill.  It's the right thing to do.  You still have the problem of the cashiers dealing with the same number of people.  But as we look to the future, taking out each dangerous element of the human contact, we're left with a brand new shopping experience.  I envision self checkout only and a couple of humans in hazmat suits possibly for troubleshooting.  But it takes a lot of people to maintain even the smallest market with restocking and cleaning.  This new world poses a lot of opportunity for new ideas.

Yesterday, I realized another but less important issue.  What you set out to shop for, may not be available so you need to be flexible and now that time in the store is limited, you need to have a plan B at the ready, not make people wait while you hem and haw.  Look at it as a real life Chopped Challenge.
I had major cravings. Getting a good pizza delivery was going to cost a ridiculous amount of money, especially since you want to give the drivers a hefty tip in appreciation and to make it worth their while. Instead, I decided to make a homemade pizza.  I needed Almond milk, which is sort of heavy and carrying that plus the only giant sized sack of organic artisan flour available was not possible.  I was able to snag the last two small mozzarella balls though, so I decided to remake my Arnold's Thin sandwich bread mini pizzas.  I could make the sauce, use turkey pepperoni, peppers, onion and mushrooms. What went on the pizzas also went in the salad raw, which was a nice accompaniment and use.