And it Makes Me Wonder

Sheet pan Chicken and Sausage 

Sweet peppers, tofu and frozen kale joined this bird over some corn meal mush.  This is one of those highly satisfying meals that does not require much but provides such deep comfort. 

The only recipe would be to put all the vegetables into a large bowl, spice with chili flakes, s&p, oregano, olive oil and a dash of balsamic vinegar. And you know how you like your chicken, so do that.  Lay your lovelies on a sheet pan and slide into a 450 degree oven. Give it 25-40 minutes and you're golden. 

I wonder, is it insulting to give a recipe for a sheet pan meal?  Is it like those videos that make you fast forward through 20 minutes of chopping common vegetables? I think it's safe to say we can all cut an onion thus far, so I always say, get to the good stuff lady!  I should mention though, that if you haven't, you must, roast tofu.  Firm tofu, drained to the best of your abilities and then highly seasoned is such a treat to add a tray!  My husband tends to eat all the meat but then I can be left with rice and vegetables for lunch and tofu being the substitute for meat. 

8 Miles High, And When You Touch Down

16 Bean Soup in the Crock Pot 

Do you ever get wild hairs up your arse and haul off and make a bunch of meals at one time, just because you have the extra energy but fear it may go away for awhile?  I did just that and it did just that.  Firstly, a supremely hearty 16 Bean Soup in the crockpot with roasted peppers and smoked turkey necks, carrots and kale, garlic, smashed up at the end a bit to create a creamy texture.  

I also schlepped to the grocery store and found rice paper wrappers for these amazing Vietnamese (Goi Cuon) Shrimp Summer Rolls.  

These were slightly more work than I realized with all the precise chopping of the vegetables and herbs.  The just-right boil and slice of the shrimp.  Plus, to do it right, boiled pork sliced very thin needed to be added and boy was that worth it. Plus who knew you could boil pork so quickly and have it come out so tender???

And because this heavenly muse stayed with me all day, I made an equally divine peanut sauce for dipping.

Don't get me started on the hardship of rolling these sticky bitches!  You have to keep your hands wet and work faster than a Times Square hooker on Fleet Week. 

Somehow I felt it was the best idea to roast a chicken during all of this creative commotion.  

The next day I was sick as a dog with P's bug but I flew high before that flu struck. 

Don't Be Denied

I love Brooklyn. And now most of the country does too.  There are attractions in Brooklyn that I wish we could preserve, as they existed before people like us starting migrating in.  Couples from the states with hopes to somehow mingle in without disrupting the terrain. But numbers change everything. Without knowing we brought higher rents.  All the social clubs that existed just 10 years ago, older gentlemen with hats and Cuban shirts sitting outside smoking cigars, one of the reasons I fell in love with the borough.  Living beside them playing dominoes on folding chairs was such a treat.  All the amazing mom and pop immigrant restaurants that served up heaping Styrofoam platters of take out for a dime are dwindling.  The absence of anything corporate or chain related was one of the biggest scores.  We walked all the way to the end of Cobble Hill to go to our bank. Now there are so many within blocks of each other.  

With new money coming in great stuff happened too, like the dirty smelly bodegas were replaced with fresh organic markets.  We have high end pizza slices, chef run BBQ joints and gourmet burger spots within feet of our door step.

The immigrants have changed as well.  No longer the dowdy scarf wearing squat types scraping to make a living from Russia, Poland, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and Ireland.  But now tall thin wispy upwardly mobile consumers from everywhere like Australia, England, France, Italy, Spain and Japan.  And lots of Americans, again, coming from a much higher tax bracket that are edging into our local spots and taking them over.  This is what New York was built upon but it never stops feeling harsh and unfair.  You can't stake a claim in sand, instead you just drift and pray you stay in the shallows without a wave taking you out to sea or worse, Jersey.

There are benefits, like Alamo Drafthouse Citypoint Brooklyn.  A chain, movie theater out of Texas but good Lord this place is heaven.  Clean, well run, huge metal bowls of popcorn to your table....fresh baked cookies, flatbreads, burgers, alcohol, $5 cans of beer, milk shakes, ice cream with liquor for the people who like to do that.  Which by the way, who are those people?

New York is this unbelievable place that seemed to have the perfect amount of people when we got here 21 years ago.  If we could have just shut the door on the city that day and put the old Studio 54 doormen to man the incoming after that point, perhaps this could have worked. A million in, a million out.  It's as if no one left and now as we continue to flow in we must fight it out.  The dollar being the muscle.  And well, you see how this will end.

Hot Hungarian Paprika Chicken with baked sweet potatoes, brown rice and a side salad.  That's what's for dinner on the 3rd floor.  I wonder what the millennials on the lower newly refurbished apartment are eating? Perhaps delivery from the Turkish corner restaurant that we've wanted to try but haven't found the occasion yet to spend $16 for a gyro.