Food Blogs (313)

I was doing some random surfing and hit a page with a link to a page that had a link to another page with a video of someone cutting 'things' and what was being cut wasn't exactly what they appeared to be.

See for yourself... It's a piece of cake!

I recently got back from a friend's house.
They invited me to a BBQ pool party this afternoon.
Good food, and lots of fun.

On the way back home I stopped by Walmart
and got several things, including some sherbet.

It is NOT pina coloda, as my blog title may have indicated.
It is "Margarita". Not bad. A lemon & lime flavor.
So, if you wanted pina coloda, you're s.o.l.
However, I do have plenty of extra Margarita sherbet, if you hurry.

As always, I have to be completely honest with you.

The reality is, that I have absolutely no idea,

what I actually ate tonight.

I can tell you this, it was very good.

Moments ago, I just went back and looked at the label, after I wolfed the meal down tonight.

I was very hungry after softball practice.

The label said something like Josh Rogan Vindaloo.

Now, I do know that vindaloo in Indian cooking has something to do with extra spicy.

And the dish was nice & spicy And clearly, it was Indian cooking.

I bought it from a reputable place. So, I sincerely hope and trust,

that eating this meal was not cannilbalism.

I hope Josh did not fall into the pot.

However, if that was the case, he certainly had......

good taste.

...only about 20 meters square. Some vertical places. When "put up", (Mainesse for 'canned and frozen'), there's stuff for much of winter. If a such a declared fool can do so, anyone can. But what of the many thousands of hectares here at the Vierk Gnome Mansion? So glad we built the spacious servants' quarters. They don't mind weeding.
And Mr. Bravo, merely looking out the window, seems to keep those pesky deer away. Another day in Paradise. Those vine fresh tomats, oh those fruits of the vine. How different from the cardboard ones usually bought at the big boxes.

Stuffed clams for dinner tonight. Yum !

Now it's time for "very berry" pie (a mix of raspberry, blackberry & blueberry).

Someone gave me yesterday Philippine Delicacy called PUTO came in two flavors cheese and Ube. TWO BOXES was sent me.

I shared one box to my housemates and one box I kept for myself
Today I will marathon eating the All Puto else it will stale!! Mapanis!

...at least at my house. Yours might have been quite different.

On my way home from photographing a baby (bald) eaglet,
I stopped by the grocery store.
There is a store chain here in New Jersey called Shoprite.
For the past year I have been capitalizing on a recent change there.
I noticed the change, when I got back to NJ from Florida last spring.

In the very back of the store they have a sit down eat area.
I suppose some workers in the area go there and eat lunch.
Perhaps it's gotten progressively more popular to do so.
It's a lot cheaper than going to a restaurant, and you don't have to
deal with a waiter nor waitress. So, no tipping needed and you can sit there
as long, or as short as you like, or take out the food too.

At the end of the lunch period, the store has a lot of leftovers.
So, they package about 2 meals (or more) into a plastic containers with a clear plastic lid
and move that to the front of the store, where they have several glass door
refrigeration units 2 to 4, depending upon which store location.

When they move it up there, the containers are at 30% off price.
Then later, they are reduced to 50 % off.
By the time ~ 4:30pm arrives many are at 70% off.
So, after I am done doing whatever I am doing that day,
I stop by Shoprite and get 4 containers once a week.

Thus, for the past year I have been literally feasting on gourmet meals for a song
and other than heating that dinner up in the microwave, I haven't cooked 1 dinner
in over a year.

When I get home I freeze 3 of the 4 packages and use the other for dinner that night & usually the next night. The second day I also move the second package from the freezer section to the refrigerated section and repeat that each 2 days. This then takes care of 8 dinners for the week. I got 4 packages earlier tonight.

At random I stuck 3 packages in the freezer and the one I tried tonight is (Indian) Butter Chicken. It was sooooooooooooo good, that I ate both meals AND I took
5 pieces of 100% whole wheat bread and sopped up every last drop of the sauce
and ate those too:

I guess I better pull out one of the other containers for tomorrow night......once I can move again.

I just looked up the recipe for you;

Now, THERE,THAT's how to talk to your GF. On closer analysis, it has it all. An invite out to tasty food. Compliments on her beauty, and the hint of passion after the meal. But I digress.
There's much talk about businesses failing with C-19. In the USA, restaurants are one of the top businesses, and they, as a group, seem to be in for the greatest percentage of business failures. So, as statistical outliers always attract the epididymis' eye of Vierk, let's rant away.
For starters, why would anyone want to be a restaurateur? Well, there are a few types. The saddest cases are those who are basically romantic (sometimes chefs) social foodies, who love to bask in the life of cavorting with customers, and banging the staff/customers. Recently I heard one such lady from NYC brag about "having in the artsy, leftie, moneyed wannabe bohemian types, foodie cruising in various regalia, among their ilk, less for the food, than for being fully in the scene". This particular lady was newly bankrupt, and now in nursing school. She said that few of these sort succeed, typically lacking a lick of business sense. They see themselves as artistes, and as such, only a tiny minority make it big. Sugar mommys/daddys sometimes are behind the exceptions.
The business types, though, can succeed, in various ways. Rarely on their own, most either form, or buy into, profitable franchise operations---yes the "eatery chains". Volume purchasing, advertising, and management approaches seem to do it. Profits can be very good, from margins often multiples of those in the "on their own" artiste operations.
I am wondering, with rents and staff forming so much of the costs of operating, why we aren't seeing more home based purveyors of take out food, or even of "live upstairs, guests seated downstairs" places, as I saw in Lisbon, and in much of the developing world. By analogy with Air B-n-B, perhaps in some form.
My own take on this topic is less eating out. After all, a little getting to know the food workers, and their work environment, can easily make anyone less sanguine about the restaurant scene. And it's more than sociopathic spitting on a dish, as of a poor worker somehow "getting back at the rich". On your way to the restaurant bathroom, psuedo mistakingly saunter into the kitchen, as I did in NYC, where I used to visit mostly for the food, and with raer exceptions, the lack of hygiene will shock you. Not to mention the conditions in the John. Graduate studies in entomology was frosting on the cake, as it were.
In fact, most of the tiny margin, artiste like establishments probably were close to failing BEFORE C-19. It's capitalism at work. The failures will force overpricing landlords to lower rents, and so on. And I'm becoming a much better cook at home.

No ! I didn't eat the robin.

This evening I wolfed down several turkey breast slices with honey-mustard, mashed potatoes with butter, 1/2 a sliced red bell pepper & shredded red leaf lettuce drizzled with Balsamic vinegar.

For dessert it was a chocolate brownie.

I hope your dinner was good too.

I just took recycling outside. 'My' robin, nesting ontop the front porch light,
flew from the nest to a short nearby tree, as usual, when I opened the front door.
But oddly, she didn't chirp this time.

Perhaps the lack of sun today had something to do with that.
Or maybe our front porch 'dance' is becoming 'old hat' to her.
Perhaps I should sing as I exit to spice things up.

This round I did a switch.
I wanted to try something sweet... but I didn't have any cream cheese.
Fresh mango, yogurt, honey, mozzarella cheese, pizza dough.
It was okay, but after I realized I forgot butter !



The side split getting it into the pan so some mango juice oozed out.