Food, Food, Food

So, I know it's been a while.  Maybe I favor the Unnecessary Supplement blog more than this one.  But, you know, first of all, I don't know how many people even read blogs anymore.  It's all Instasnap, Tweeter, and Snapgram nowadays.  

Second of all, everyone posts food.  It's like, half my facebook newsfeed is food, half is pets, and the other half is people's offspring.  It's totally acceptable to take food pics in public.  No one even looks at you anymore when you take photos.  Back in my day, we were eccentric and looked upon as bizarre creatures with our digital cameras, and why the heck would anyone bother to take photos of their dinner?  Now, people take a picture of their morning coffee and get a thousand likes.  

So, now, I'm just one of the masses.  But, anyway, here are some food pictures from the past few months.

One day I had a craving for cookies.  For citrus cooler cookies.  So I googled a recipe and I made some.  And they were pretty damn good.  And I basically ate all of them.  TFP ate like maybe one, or not even, like a half.  He has such self control, lol.

Lime cooler cookies

I had a good stint of a couple weeks when every mango I got was just perfect.  This was one of them. I like the ones that aren't too ripe.  They have still a little texture, are not stringy, and are that great mix of sweet and sour.

yummy honey mango

Here is my chicken tikka masala attempt.  I had made a kind of garam masala mix & then I added paprika, cayenne & turmeric to it.  I marinated the chicken in the spice mix & yogurt for a few hours.

marinating chicken

Then I made the sauce with onion, garlic, ginger, tomato & more spice.  I let it simmer for a bit.

Then I added the chicken and let it cook for a while.  It was pretty damn good.

chicken tikka masala

We had a rare Saturday or Sunday off together, so we went for brunch, even though it's not our thing.    It was ok though, because there were maybe 2 other tables the whole time we were there.  It made for a little bit of a weird vibe - I would have preferred a little more than a half full restaurant.  But, an empty restaurant during brunch is better than a loud full restaurant with an hour long wait.  We went to Bywater American Bistro, or BAB to those in the know. 

This was the smoked tuna toast.  It was quite good.  The garnishes on top really made it that much better.

In the back is the lamb neck sandwich.  The bun was good.  The sandwich was ok.  In the foreground is the proper breakfast with baked beans, bacon & boudin noir.  We got it for the boudin noir, which is blood sausage for those of you who don't want to google boudin noir.  It was disappointingly dry.  Now, don't get me wrong.  We went for dinner before, and everything was great.   I'm going to say this was just an off morning.  At least I hope it was!

These are celeste figs from our neighbor's tree that is in the front swale.


These are not as sweet as like black mission figs or brown figs, but in a good way.  These small and not cloyingly sweet, so you can each a bunch at once.  Which, since I am a binge eater, is a good thing for me.

local celeste fig

I had picked too many figs, so I took a jam cookie recipe and just put a half fig in the center of each cookie.  They were buttery, and the fig didn't completely dry out, which was a nice texture.

celeste fig cookies

These are grass fed ribeyes from Whole Foods.  

I seared them on our nice little cast iron flat top.  I cooked some brown rice to go with it.  Celery was the only vegetable we had in the house.  I sliced it a little thin, sauteed it a little and squeezed some lemon on it.  This might sound weird, but it was pretty damn good.  The celery and the lemon were a nice counterpoint to the meaty fatty steak.

This is just a picture of pretty heirloom tomatoes.

This is one of my new discoveries.  Hot chocolate using 88% chocolate and unsweetened almond milk.  It's so strong and bitter in a good way.

This was onion, mushroom & cauliflower with lamb meatballs, seasoned with garam masala.   It was a thrown together quick meal, but it actually turned out really yum.

This was my regression meal.  I cooked a box of Annie's Mac and cheese that our friends had left.  Then I made chicken nuggets & blue cheese buffalo sauce.  I boiled chicken with Tony's.  Then I chopped it in a food processor.  I shaped nuggets, then I coated them in buttermilk & flour & bread crumbs.  I fried them in our TFal table top fryer.  It was really damn good.  

homemade chicken nuggets with buffalo blue cheese sauce

I started making my own green drink since our Whole Foods nearby doesn't have a good selection.  So, I got this Moringa Powder from Whole Foods once.  It was on sale.  I had it, not sure what to do with it.  And then I figured it out.  I pick lemongrass, mint & Thai basil from our garden.  I add the Moringa powder, a little squeeze of honey, a pinch of salt, grated ginger and turmeric.  Then I heat up hot water and steep it in it.  After a few minutes, I add cold water and let it sit in the fridge overnight. The next day I strain it.  

homemade tea

One night I wanted homemade pasta.  I didn't want to go through all the steps of making spaghetti or linguine, so I made gnocchi, which is a little faster of a process.  It was pretty good.  Not the prettiest looking gnocchi, but I was never good at that.  Anyway, it was satisfying.  So filling though.  I don't know how people can eat a big plate of it!

potato gnocchi with meat sauce

For the past 2 weeks, we have been eating vegetarian. Well, I have tasted a little meat at work, and I had a couple of anchovies.  TFP has been more strict about his diet.   I have to say, I can feel quite a difference.  A lot of the daily inflammation has been greatly reduced.  Today was the first day we ate animal for a meal.  We had sushi.  I didn't take photos.  It was really good, but nothing earth shattering.  But, boy did it hit the spot.  Tonight, TFP wants soup and salad.  I'll have this leftover brown rice with veggies that I made the other night. 

This is an ugly omelet I made one night for dinner.  I'm not sure if it was after we went vegetarian or if I just really didn't have much in the house to eat.  Anyway, it looks pretty hideous, but it tasted good.  I like to kind of make more of a calzone with the egg, rather than embedding the veggies in the egg.  This is similar to the way I was taught to make omelets at the French cafe I worked at in La Jolla.  But I made them look prettier there, of course.

This is a whole wheat quick bread I made yesterday.  I didn't want to mess with yeast dough, I wanted something fast, and I wanted the texture of quick bread over a yeast dough.  So I googled an easy recipe and made it.  This recipe is with honey, and buttermilk, but it could be converted into vegan.  I didn't really care about that.  It has a kind of muffiny texture, but it really is not sweet at all.  It has all the bite of the whole wheat.  I kinda really dig it.  I wanted to buy butter to slather over it.  But I didn't.   I like it plain too, anyway.

So, that's most of the highlights of the last few months.  

Cheers!