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I was seriously running out of stuff to take for lunches and snack on the the evenings. So it seems like all I did was cook. I made a fresh batch of hummus, from dried beans of course. This morning I made creamed chipped beef which leaves two additional servings after what I had on toast. Before I left for work I put a batch of pinto beans and onions in the crockpot, that should yield about 5 meals and it freezes well. And for dinner last night I had a version of pulled chicken. I may yet also make a pan of cornbread tonight.
Simple pulled chicken
I took two boneless, skinless breast and nuked them for ten minutes. This technically cooks the meat but I sure wouldn't serve it to anybody like this, it is sort of dry and tasteless. However it does yield quickly cooked meat that can be used in recipes. While it was cooling I diced up and onion and tossed it in the wok with some butter. about the time the onion was done I cut the chicken crossways about 3/4" and ripped it apart from there. I added the chicken to the onions along with some ground garlic, salt and pepper. I poured in some bbq sauce, I happened to have an open bottle of Bill Johnsons, got it all hot and set it off on a low burner for an hour and a half for the flavors to mix and served it over rice. If I had had a bell pepper I would have tossed it in with the onion but I had not thought that well in advance.
I sat down last evening to watch two more episodes of Battlestar Galactica. After all, each disc has 4 episodes. If I had paid attention I would have realized the last disc of the first half of season 2 only has 2 episodes. If I had known that I would have sent it back and had the first disc of season 2.5 for this weekend. So no biggy, I opened up Elektra which I was going to watch on Saturday night and started watching it. It locked up in scene 9 and cleaning did not help. So last night's plan and Saturday night's plan for watching movies went bust, partly my own fault.
This is why I deliberately looked for a phone that would allow me to keep multiple shopping lists. Last night I decided I would put off groceries until Friday evening. So under the old list system I would have left the running list on the counter when I left for work this morning. When I got to work I found there was to be a get together at Lisa G Friday evening. I have an appointment with the rental office Thursday after work so I will be going shopping on the way home this evening. Because I have the list on the phone there is less chance I will forget something.
So last night on the way home I stop at Total Wine to pick up some beer. It is not far out of my way and I can save $3-4 a case compared to what I would pay at Wal-Mart or Albertsons. So I double my savings by buying 2 cases. Of that $6-8 I saved I spent $16 of it on a couple of bottles of wine. ???
2003, PG-13, Ben Affleck, Jennifer Garner
Another Marvel movie. Lots of action. This one was just sort of ok. I felt the story line a little weak in spots.
Eating out - I had a soso barbecue sandwich Thursday evening at Thee Pitts Again on my way to Costco. Friday's lunch took me to Salvadoreno's where I had onion chicken that was really good. Many of the Salvadoran foods have similar descriptions to Mexican foods but are different in many ways. If you get a chance they should be tried. Sunday I had lunch at the Miracle Mile Deli at Arrowhead Towne Center. Really good corned beef, soso potato salad. All of those places I have written Yelp reviews so if you are interested you can follow the link on the left.
Cooking - for the second week in a row I got a salmon fillet and baked it. This time it was a wild caught fillet that because it was on sale was actually less expensive than the farm raised variety. I used the leftover to make salmon salad goop for sandwiches. I did a tri-tip on the electric grill Sunday night. Somehow I got it medium well instead of medium and I cannot figure out how to make meat less cooked afterward. And last night I pan fried a couple of ground beef patties. So I have leftovers for lunches this week. I had a double serving of Spam on Saturday and a double serving of bacon on Sunday. Having run out of sliced ham a couple of weeks ago I now have no more processed pork in the apt.. No, I am not going vegetarian. Just getting rid of those things that I really like the taste of but my body doesn't like digesting. I have also just about burned up my supply of red meat and will try to not eat any late in the evening where it can keep me up at night. It won't help my cholesterol any because chicken has as much as beef.
The biggest change from the norm for me was I actually took Sunday off. Slept in until almost 6, got up and had a leisurely breakfast, then started deep cleaning the apt.. I really didn't get the whole place done but I got the bathroom, vanity, and kitchen along with all the floors. Looking at some paperwork I found cleaning I had not cleared the shit lip in over 3 years so it was definitely time. Midday I took a break and went to the mall. I had lunch and then wandered around. Went in to Dick's which wasn't open the last time I was there (June 08) looking for unpadded bike shorts and not only was everything padded for road bike wear the prices were really high. I'll go to the Sports Authority when I have time and look there. I had a gift card that was almost a year old for Penney's and after wandering around I bought some boxers. I stopped at Yankee Candle and picked up a couple of Pumpkin Spice jar candles. And in general cruised the mall. For a Labor day weekend it wasn't very crowded and I only parked a few steps from the door. I spent the afternoon resuming my cleaning and keeping track of the Diamondbacks losing to the Rockies. A very easy going day.
And the highlight of my day Sunday came just before I started cooking my dinner. My son called and we chatted for about an hour. First time he has done anything other than texting in over 6 months.
Sunday, in addition to the ground beef steaks,baked potatoes and artichoke I was having for dinner, for lunches during the week I wanted to make some chicken to go with the basic bagged salad that was on sale. More than 1/2 the time I would marinade boneless skinless breasts in Italian dressing and ground garlic. Well I had no dressing so I thought I might make up a sauce and stir fry them in the wok. I make sauces from all sorts of stuff and one of the ingredients I wanted to try was some Terra Verde blackberry peach preserves I had in the freezer. I had had some on toast a couple of times and decided it was too tart for my taste. I decided to make it mayonnaise based which I have done several times for grilling but not for stir fry. I also knew I wanted enough liquid for the sauce to also be the salad dressing. Well, when I got done mixing it all up I knew I had a really good salad dressing that may not take the heat very well so I set it aside and cubed the chicken and gave it a dry rub of Garam Masala, salt, pepper and let it sit on the counter for an hour or so then fried it in peanut oil in the cast iron skillet.
It turns out I had enough (about 1-1/4 cups) dressing to use for three salads, one with just over 1/2lb of baked salmon and the other 2 with a cubed chicken breast each. Each on 2/3 of a 12oz bag of salad. I have no clue if I could even recreate the dressing. Here is a list of the ingredients in approximately descending order of volume. The first three items were the bulk of the volume. I noted brands where I think the taste is important. By far the strongest flavor was the preserves which were muted and was what I was trying for. As you can see I just wander around the kitchen tossing stuff in the bowl and then maybe make a second trip to alter the taste.
Mayonnaise (Best Foods)
Ketchup (Muir Glen organic)
Blackberry peach preserves (Terra Verde)
Mustard
Honey
Sesame oil
Orange juice
Lemon juice
Rice vinegar
Sriracha
Paprika
Onion powder
Ground ginger
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