You Want to Taste and Help Yourself

Amidst the tomfoolery of the local establishments trying to sell us on silly food themes or gimmicks instead of straight awesome eats, something exciting is taking place on the streets.  Brave cooks are popping up with their makeshift gear and setting up sans food trucks, just hot plates and tables, selling their smoked BBQ or tamales, jerk and assorted other offerings.  If you're not a social media partaker, you have to be lucky to catch them but when you do, it's a kismet!  Like these delicious fall off the bone ribs....

....and this smoked chicken with greens and the meatiest dirty rice we've ever tasted! It becomes more special because when it's a chance encounter, the treat is that much better.

Earlier, the morning provided treats from Alamo Draft house City Point here in Brooklyn in the form of the tenderest chicken tenders and dreamiest queso with chips.  The Accountant 2 matinee and the surprise wonderfulness of Jon Bernthal. 

Well She's All You'll Ever Want

Spinach, Shrimp & Avocado Summer Salad

My giant IKEA bowl inspires me to mix up glorious salads!

After my sweat-fest that was a pot of vegetable soup, I cooled things down the next day with a loaded Spinach salad featuring boiled shrimp in tomato consume, avocado, red onions, cherry tomatoes, corn and celery.  I think a can of rinsed black beans and a hard boiled egg would have been nice.  I like a lot going on in my salads.  I made a vinaigrette with lemon, oil, Dijon mustard, honey, garlic, salt and pepper.  

I'm Your Vehicle Baby, I'll Take You Anywhere You Wanna Go

New Year's Eve Loaded Tater Tots

Not exactly the party of your dreams for New Year's Eve but fun is a relative term these days.  Loaded tater tots are a blast to make at home (if you're old and lonely).  A bit more filling then chips and you can get much more creative then I did here.  In fact after meat and cheese, you can do small chopped tomatoes, green onions, pickled jalapenos.  Or again, everyone loves a theme, how about pizza toppings, make it Greek, because baked Feta really is all that.  BLT style, you name it, the tot is your oyster.  

R.I.P. to the beautiful soul Thich Nhat Hanh

This new year we could all stand to remember that our minds are not our best friends.  They are useful tools, certainly, but not to be taken too seriously.  On my bike ride home tonight, my brain busied itself by feeding me an ugly scenario that never even happened, and another that did, but years ago.  Yet it got me so riled and upset.  Think about it the next time you flood with negative thought. You recognize it more like a bratty kid brother to send packing out of your room!  Beat it, loser!

We must get past this ignorant stage of our evolution.  And this is not to say we should ignore our gut.  So far, this is a better resource even though it too can steer you wrong on occasion but mine has a fairly good track record.  Every year we allow ourselves to believe we are the being we created in our mind, is another lost.  That's just me being honest, as my sister likes to say. 

Try to Remember the Kind of September

This was one of those amazing days where I exercised in the morning, made two dinners and went to see a great afternoon movie.  As I lay on the couch today with a blanket over my knees I try to recall the mindset of getting so much done and realize good weather makes all the difference.  It's 27 degrees, feels like 16 as I'm writing this now.  I'm not looking forward to doing too much today except staying warm and horizontal.  

This was a Pesto Vinquini that is so easy with yogurt, ricotta, Parmesan and Pesto mixed to make the sauce. You can add fresh herbs and I made with broccoli but any green would do.

The Beef Veggoni, where the summer squash mocks the macaroni was not as visually appealing but super tasty and I would recommend taking the time to cut the vegetables just right so they mock the polpular tubular noodles.  This was ground beef in a quick spicy tomato sauce with mushroom, onions and garlic with the squash thrown in to the boiling sauce for only a few minutes to soften. Doesn't take long at all.  Top with Parmesan.

Lots of construction downtown Brooklyn.  It will be a brand new town at some point and from the looks of it, the people who will live here are not short on cash. 

The Blaze movie.  So good.  I had heard about this guy from P for years, not these huge stories but just of him, a guy that was around Texas that he knew of, that was also during the Townes era.  I have issue with the way Townes was portrayed, meaning his character but thought Charlie Sexton did an amazing job.  P disagreed and didn't see Townes in him at all.  I really hate that when you feel so strongly and your partner is on another plane entirely. I don't think that man who played Foley himself could have done a better job.  I liked all the characters and felt they put to life a story I held in my head for some time. 

We went to the park and ran the steps in the morning and someone displayed an outdoor art gallery on the public garden fence. 

The top of the park and steps.  That's P doing push ups.  I draw the line at that madness.

She's Got Style, She's Got Grace, She's a Winner

Zucchini and carrot ribbons with chicken meatballs, black olives and marinara sauce.  If I plated this more carefully you would see what a beautiful dish she is.  This won't win any awards for creativity but I will say lightly sauteed, thin sliced vegetable ribbons are just so... elegant! Like potato chips dipped in champagne!

It's Not Unusual

Dang I never noticed just how much chicken and brown rice I make on the regular.  We're people of habit.  P's like a machine with factory programmed settings.  I'm a huge super freak that did all kinds of drugs and alcohol but my body is so now that if I take two aspirins there need to be precautions taken. I'm like a delicate ecosystem.  The last time I ate beef I had such a come down that I burst into the room from a 2 hour zombie nap warning that love was in danger of dying.  I meant the entirety of love on the planet, disintegrating into the ether.  Who thinks these things!?  But I did f and it put the fear in me all month.  But damn them ribs were good!

I take the same route to work most everyday. I don't go changing things around if they work. Routine, tried and true, the usual, same 'ole, those are not always bad things.  On my familiar route to work, I turned to watch the sunrise and saw a whole bunch of giant pigeons that turned out to be seagulls coming right at me. A scene right out of the Birds.  But right before they became all entangled in my salad, they made a sharp dive for an abandoned pizza box, thank goodness.

A week before Christmas in New York.  I'm only present physically anyway.

Stoned Me Like a Jelly Roll

It was interesting to read the reviews of the 2015 Grammys and that anyone takes the time to so seriously review this show in the first place.  I've made a beautiful peace with musical award shows and it's freed me to enjoy the most mundane events. Simply dial down your expectations to 0.

I loved AC/DC. And why wouldn't you just choose to love on them?  Of course their new single sucks. They've sucked for several years.  It says more about you if they failed to blow you away with their new material.  Look again, they were amazing!

Dwight...my Dwight.  Sigh, silence.....and end scene.  He's so damn boss, I can't even look at this picture without holding my hand in allegiance.  That Brandy Clark has a great way of dropping down way low during her chorus, which is very effective.  I would like her with just a few nips and tucks of her production. 

Tom Jones is like my handsome uncle, although for me that's a contradiction in terms.  I keep respect for him.  Way back in the 70s it was not unusual for my sister to dive in front of the TV to see him perform. I was just a pup so it would be a couple of years before I understood that level of reaction to the opposite sex.  I texted her immediately.

 Ed Sheeran reminded me of Van Morrison.  Do people say that about him?  I never heard him before.

When Prince walked out, I felt the world tilt a little on it's axis.  Got a lump in my throat and got a little weak.  These are the little gems that you shouldn't deprive yourself of by being a music snob.  Music is like food.  You can get the best food in the oddest places, you just need to say humble.

Annie Lennox mixed her meds that night and the results were just the right blend of crazy.

Paul McCartney was cute dancing to ELO, who by the way did sound kinda wondrous to me too.  I didn't feel any of that erratic Kimye Rihanna debacle.  Everytime I listen to Kanye, I try to erase all my preconceptions and find that genius people speak of but that's a quest that continues.  Not unlike my search for UFOs.

But the best part of the whole night was I was able to finally get my pantry in order.  I even have an international shelf!  Beans with beans, tomatoes of course have their own level, duh.

It's Good To Touch the Green Green Grass of Home

My sister was telling me all about her garden in the backyard of her home in Colorado.  It was my day off and I was thinking, man, I should go down in that back area of our building and make a little garden.  Would the rats eat everything?  Does the lack of sun down there make it a lost cause?  Ugh.  Seems like so much work.

So I thought about it so more and went ahead and made this less than inspired ground turkey with corn over mixed greens and polenta.

It was good and actually, adding the greens really provided a good texture and more spring-like feel for an otherwise comfort food type of meal.

All the sudden I see one of my Mexican brothers on my fire escape and he's pulling off all the overgrowth that climbed its way up the building over my window, which I loved actually.  It provided privacy for my nude shenanigans. Then I look down and there are about 5 other guys cleaning up this aforementioned back yard! 

Like a little dream come true and within a couple of hours it was all cleared and lovely.  My sister is growing tomatoes, herbs, squash, beets, lettuces, zucchini, and other amazing beautiful things....

I will be lucky if I go down and sit in this area let alone grow anything of value.  But it's enough to know that it is clear and clean for now.

She's Got Style, She's Got Grace, She's A Winner

www.bhg.com/recipe/chicken/slow-cooker-coq-au-vin/

Coq Au Vin.  Just saying the name I get nervous and figure I'll screw the recipe up.  But this was a slow cooker recipe and those are usually dumbed down and so much easier to digest.  It's all about layering the ingredients.  I didn't have the time on this day to allow several hours of cooking so I actually did this in my heavy pot in the oven.

Same difference really.  Coat and brown the chicken, add the onions, garlic, mushrooms, carrots and if you don't have the wine then like me, you'll use stock.  To better mock the deep wine flavor, I added beef stock with Worcestershire sauce and lemon.

This was great and felt special.  I made a little dill lemon yogurt dressing for the steamed broccoli.  Hey Mexican's can be classy too!  Mexican-Americans that is, or whatever the heck it is that I am.  How can you relate to a hyphened title?  Its not natural.  However, you do need the divide.  I'm not full blown 100% Mexican like Anchorman 2. I'm the watered down, can't speaky Spanish type of Mexican that gets rash with too much sun and the kind who grew up in the Midwest.  The kind whose parents aren't from Mexico but some of their parents were.  I'm more like the song.  As a matter of fact they really did call my mom Chella and she really does have a son in law named Jeff!  You can't make that stuff up!

But other than that, I always felt like my mom was from sort of old money type family.  She never went to college and barely finished school but she seemed to have this incredible air of sophistication about her.  And you always felt like you should act properly in front of her or you'd feel like a shmuck.  I always hoped some of that rubbed off on me, but I'm not sure it did.  I did learn to give a real pointed evil eye that seems to really work though, even on tough New York bullies.  She was really good at that look.  Sometimes I knew she was giving it even when I wasn't facing her.  She also doles out one liners that rival Alexis Carrington.  At 90 she can give a read upon waking.  'Is that what you're wearing?'  She's so amazing and I love her so much.  I wish she were sitting next to me right now.

This dish is in honor of my mom and all her grace.