There is No End to What We Can Do Together

Deluxe Fried Egg and Cheese Burger on Toast

With homemade shoestring fries 

This is a messy delight and best eaten with a knife and fork.
I love burgers and All the different ways you can prepare them and ingredients to put in them, finding what to pair them with.  I hope to never stop finding fun ways to make burgers.  

These fries were made from tiny potatoes julienned and shallow-fried in a pan because I couldn't bear a roasted potato, or bother to make potato salad.  But outside of the endless cutting, these were such a great idea because small like this it's harder to eat too many and you don't need to drown them in ketchup because they hold the perfect amount of seasoning.   

You Gave Me Loving in the Palm of My Hand

the ominous new structure going up in Downtown Brooklyn

Went to see Licorice Pizza at Alamo Drafthouse Theater in Brooklyn.  What a treat, for so many reasons.  One, to get out and enjoy a public space was rare but since it was not crowded and everyone booked their seats far away from each other, it felt relatively safe.   The Paul Thomas Anderson film put you right there in another world, which is something well worth the major bucks you pay to 'get away' these days.  I loved the movie, although other than the pains of first love, I couldn't quite tell you what it was about, but I did enjoy all of it.  I couldn't take my eyes off Haim, who was so surprisingly mesmerizing. You can't do wrong by anything 70's related, as it is my favorite decade and I lived that age, at that time.  

Food-wise, it is a culinary adventure to order by description and never set eyes on the plate, other than low light glimpses. Your taste buds must decipher all the nuances and detect ingredients.  This is a huge part of the Drafthouse experience.  P likes to start with beer and end with coffee.  I went straight for the loaded fries, followed by the Angry Pepperoni and ended with the Holiday Special cookies.  The food offerings here are special and sometimes made especially for the movie.  Angry Pepperoni Pizza?!  That's a dream combo made by an angry wizard.  

The cookies are freshly baked and so warm when they bring them out that you have to let them cool off.  They have the crispy hard edges, and the soft slightly salty gooey chocolaty center that you crave in a freshly baked cookie.  

That coupled with the pulling of the mystery fries that would either come with bits of bacon, cheese sauce, green onions, jalapeno or nothing at all, like a game of drawing straws.  The beauty of this game is that the random crispy naked fry is a welcomed treat when mixed with all of these incredible flavors. 

It's too expensive to do this much anymore, but when Let Me Roll It blasted out of those speakers in a key scene and the guitar part echoed across that big room and the director allowed the song to play out longer, I thought I just might pay anything to feel that alive again. 

There Is No End To What We Can Do Together

I'm two weeks back to work but pre Phase 2, so still void of actual customers. P and I were discussing how each little freedom we gained during quarantine, we're handing back one by one like pennies at the candy counter.  Now, these were all things we accepted pre-COVID 19 but somehow indulging in those freedoms made life feel so delightfully unregimented.  Waking up and eating when your body knows it's hungry, going to the bathroom not every 2 hours but when you need to.  Working for a full 8 hours and traveling back and forth to work basically takes your entire day.  When you come back and make a meal, clean up and then shower yourself, welp, you have time to basically check if the world is still crazy and maybe take in some visual nonsense before it's all over and you start again.  Logically, I know this is the deal.  This is how we live, in order to live.  I just can't help but notice how oppressive it feels when you've lived it differently for awhile.  You have to make a living and I actually love to work.  It's how we work could use some tweaking in that Google office kind of way.  I've been in retail for 42 years and I believe if the processes feel like prison, that is what your salesperson will reflect.  People take advantage and that's a fact but they will anyway so maybe the best you can hope for is motiving the majority through small allowances.  Its amazing how simple pleasures really are the best.  Like these after work frozen Whole Foods pizzas. 

Only My Love Does It Good To Me

Coincidental Taco Tuesday 

Carnitas Taco

Pollo Yucateco - Chicken and Bean taco from the Yucatan

This was my plate, fortified with my own beans and rice

Al Pastor Taco on the far left - the one I wanted to try the most but didn't get to taste because I waited too long and 'someone' ate it.

Corn Esquites - Corn in a Cup!

Guacamole con Totopos - the best chips!!

I kept walking by this taco place that is just down the street, looking in longingly, after breaking up with my other taco joint.  Actually, they left me, the ole' Corona shut down.  So I'm feeling vulnerable, wounded, and slightly hangry.  I'm looking for a new love and I've seen Tacombi around, I mean it's a local chain, but a nice looking one.  Finally, today walking by earlier I saw the sign and considered it a sign - Easy taco enjoyment! Order online.  I just had to pull the trigger and invite these tacos to my mouth for dinner.  It was as easy as internet dating. I placed my order online and walked the two blocks to go pick up the sack and didn't even have to go inside.  I could totally get used to this type of introvert food pick up. They have a table that faces out, like all the local places that opened and the only human interaction is stating your name loud enough through your mask that they guy inside can hear you.  Every time I've walked by this place it's been packed to the gills, mainly because it's across from BAM but I often get timid to try new places that have any kind of complicated ordering process or I think will feel like walking into a party where everyone knows each other, except me.  Boo hoo! No, my nonsense actually goes beyond that.  I've been freaky uncomfortable where I have to feel good about the whole building, doorway, entrance, signage, tables and layout in order to try a new place.  Their tables looked so close together, so that and the large crowds have kept me away.  I do love their interior style and colors, very festive.  They started in the Yucatan as a VW van but grew exponentially here I see.  

I will definitely go on a second date as Tacombi showed promise and the price is right.  The corn tortilla was fresh, loved the texture.  Great guacamole and the chips were best ever.  The tacos overall were dressed beautifully and each had unique flavors.    

Say Anything But Don't Say Goodnight to Love

As I was riding back home from the city on the subway today I considered again our differing views in the world today and how our actual scope might affect our perspective.  If you live in a congested city, you literally have a concentrated, zoomed in sight-line.  This is true throughout my entire day.  I'm crammed in tiny subway cars or concentrating on the narrow bike lane in front of me, trying not to get hit by the bus driving alongside me. I work in a windowless maze of hallway-like rooms with hundreds of consumers in a steady stream.  Many times I need not leave the comfort of a few blocks to shop for food, have an outing, get a prescription, pick up take out.   Most things affecting me are immediate and within feet of my being.  You have to wonder, how does my vista influence my thinking on issues like gun control for example?

I never eat at McDonald's unless we're out of town because fast food in New York is definitely questionable.  This particular location is downtown Brooklyn and open 24 hours.  It would be the type of place I avoid like the plague.  But I was tired and wanted a quick fun treat.  How bad could it be?  I was thinking more along the lines of them never changing the oil, the cleanliness and so on. So I'm not in there two minutes when a fight breaks out.  The people involved with the  disruption become excitable, including me.  There is those few moments in these situations when the mood escalates quickly and bad things happen.   Nothing really took place outside of really loud screaming.  A woman may have pushed a man and then he escorted her out threatening to kick her ass, which is never good.  I thought what if everyone involved here had a gun or even three people, or one.  The city would be half dead because there are moments like these constantly.  No weapons and we can all settle back into our regular day with little disruption. 

I don't know what its like in mid America anymore. I imagine it's changed quite a bit.   I know when you add in more people in already stressed situations nothing gets better with weapons.  However, take my sister for example, out in a small town.  Many times she travels solo, like me but in her case not with a million people along doing the same thing.  She walks to her car alone, maybe goes fishing, takes a walk around an isolated lake.  She knows how to protect herself, clean and care for her gun.  As do many of the folks in my family.  Guns are thought of as protection and assurance.  Here in Brooklyn if you saw one, it would surely be a weapon more likely to be used against you.  It's not legal to open carry in the city thank goodness.  And like Chris Rock said, if a kid walks in a school with a knife you're not going to read that a hundred kids got knifed to death for obvious reasons.  

But this is exactly why I'm not the person that needs to be outspoken on guns.  I don't want one, I don't ever want to carry or use one.  I don't even like talking about them.  But many people have strong thought-out opinions and we should listen to them, not me.  

I will however speak on this new Signature Crafted burger.  I was so overwhelmed with new choices and my order taker person seemed impatient and distracted so I just pointed and was really pleasantly surprised at how good it was.  I got the sweet BBQ Bacon burger with crispy onions. Felt like someone cared and more thought went into it then the Quarter Pounder but both were super satisfying. 

Listen To What the Man Said

A B C.  A always. B, be.  C, cooking.  Always be cooking.  Actually my motto is now always be doing something, but it doesn't fit to the reference here and not a fun quote.

Wasted free time is a bit of a sin, or at least a type of failure to utilize our short passing moments here on earth.  Idle hands are the devil's workshop. I'm someone who could daydream their whole life away given the chance, so I give myself lists.  Constant lists. So many lists. I get so much out of cooking.  It allows me to shop for groceries, create, produce, experiment, take photos, write.  All fun things that I love to do.  And then you can eat your own art!

If you look at cooking like being a musician, then one thing I know for sure from being a lonely companion to one, is that you must constantly play, practice, write.  Again, always be something.  The growth comes with the process.  For me sometimes I love to just sit and think about food.  Think about what's good, what I want to eat, what's in season, ideas for future meals, ways food all ties into my whole life past and present.  I wonder what my friends and family is eating.  I also consider ways I could have cooked past meals better.  So I justify my constant daydreaming basically by making it part of the progress.  Spin your weaknesses.  Why beat yourself up.

On this day I thought of my mom and her home cooking before the restaurant.  There was a chicken casserole type dish she made with zucchini and mini corn on the cob pieces that soaked up all this delicious flavored rice with a bit of chicken fat to make it all glisten.  One of my favorites.

Due to time and also to trying to slim down recipes, I made my version with quinoa, skinless chicken, and left some bite on the vegetables to keep color and vibrancy.  No one can cook like my mom, except maybe my sister Rachel so I'll say this was me giving a nod to my mother's dish.

Always be cooking.  Always be eating.  Always be creating.  Always be doing something.   For all we know it will grow into something good.

Do Me A Favor, Open the Door...Let Em In

We are so fortunate to be able to walk a block and get the best burgers.  We split one on this day from 67 Burger. Two halves of two amazing burgers.  Both fabulous.  Why can't we see how lucky we are from day to day, more consistently?  I hate to admit it but deep inside, I see the glass as half full...half full of assholes!  Some days I can't help but concentrate on all that's missing and wrong, corrupt, ill-planned.  Why? Why can't I just choose to be happy or more content?  Why recognize negativity? 

It's as if everything I know is in the empty part of that glass.  The familiars. depression, sadness, the longing, the discontent.  The broken-hearted, the lonely, the skittish, the leery, the hurt, the distrusting.  The sacked.  The weary, tired and weak. I can hang with the crowd that see the glass half full.  And I can see it too. It's much happier over there. I believe it exists, let's put it that way.  My world is filled with amazing beautiful interesting people and Brooklyn is the most fascinating place one could live in so many ways.  Why can't I just let it all be my reality?  Why would anyone choose to fill their thoughts with the asswipes?  Take my job for example. Please. Bahdumbump.  I really like my gay guy from Texas who always has tons of interesting things to report and talks a mile a minute, can't seem to finish a thought.  We have lunch when we get the chance to take our breaks together.  I really enjoy the Rasta drummer who loves to talk about the 'what if's' in a way that a child see things.  He seems to see things with fresh eyes and it's fun to listen to him. His sentences always start out with 'imagine if'. I love that! Regularly when I ride my bike, I see good people just living their lives.  That's a nice satisfying thing.  But it's like I see it thru the glaring muck.  It's there but it's an exception.

I had all these super tasty leftovers from the 4th get-together so I was able to construct these kick-ass quesadillas with steak and corn and peno's, cheese and salsa.

I served with black beans to make myself think I was eating something semi-healthy.

What seems to fill my head are the sneers of the mean girls I pass in the bathroom at work or on the streets.  But a lot of people smile and say hi.  I store the memories of the ones who throw those bad ugly vibes.  The one bad experience from the bike ride, what will keep rolling in my mind will be the asshole that cut me off on Fulton. Or the jerk who had to pass me but now I'm having to ride slower because I'm on his tail but won't let me pass. What a turd!  Are these all coincidences or simply confirmations that everything I fear is true about people and life? 

But none of that is as interesting to me as why one would even bother to accept any of that if they could instead consider all the good and hold that as their proof. Why can't I just be grateful and cool?  Live in the moment and see the glory that fills these days.  Enjoy my burgers and steak quesadillas and just be cool.

No More Lonely Nights

Turning the oven on in this heat and humidity could be suicide.  But I'm so lonely without my little mini weeknight pizzas.  Well, don't let a little heatwave deprive you of your pizza fix girl. Make stovetop pizza!

I'm very proud of this little invention. I just toasted thin bread in the toaster first, topped with quick pizza sauce, frozen chopped broccoli quickly rinsed and drained, onion, pepperoni and cheese.  In the side of the pan, I added a bunch of fresh baby spinach and put the lid on until the cheese melted and the spinach wilted.  Then added it to the top.

If you get the pan hot enough, the bread will stay nice and crusty on the bottom.  Don't let it steam, crack the lid a bit otherwise it will get soggy. 

Tiny pizzas as cute as puppies!