People Watching

Lunch at La Madelines

I'm so glad I don't

Have food alergies.

Yesterday a co-worker and I were going to have Lebanese for lunch. Silly me pulled two dumb moves two days in a row. Day one, I forgot to leave the house with a camera battery AND my cel phone, so when the Downtown Dallas Gas Explosion happened, I wasn't able to take pix of it. I did see huge plumes of smoke from my manager's window. Day two, I didn't pack the CF card.

DOH!

I wanted to try to get a backup 512mb card, but radio shack was charging more for the smaller card than I paid for my card that was twice as large. Can you say: NO Thanks!? I thought you could. Feels good, doesn't it?

Anyway, back to Lebanese. By the time we got to the restaurant, there was a line. Can you hear me? I said it again: NO Thanks!

So what are the alternatives? Taca Cabana? Ugh. No.

I remembered asking my co-worker if he like Japanese food, and his first reaction was No. So I thougth about my question first. I said: Do you trust me? He said: yes, I said: We're going to have Japanese then. He gave me a look. I asked: Have you ever had it before?

No, isn't it all raw?

No, they have other stuff too, trust me you'll like it.

Ok.

So we found a place about a block away that I've been wanting to try. As we walked in, I loved it. It had a very eastern feeling without feeling like they were going over the top. I had my sashimi plate and he ordered some shrimp. Since we both had bento boxes, we also had Gyoza, salad, Cali rolls AND shrimp and veggie tempura.

He's not much of a fried food eater, but I suggested he try it all before dismissing it completely. He was skeptical of it being 'heavy' and when I assured him that it wasn't he tried it. Then I said something I never even thougth about or ever had any fears about saying before. The tempura was probably fried in peanut oil.

The look in his eyes nearly stopped my lunch.

I'm glad he doesn't have peanut alergies, but I'm greatful that I've never had to have any food fears or allergis. I love that I can eat everything, and feel bad for people that don't.

Another co-worker and I were just discussing lactose intolerance, prob one of the food allergies I do have, but I eat cheese an chai's anyway. Then suffer the consequences later. :)

How much luckier do you want to get?

This year is 2007.

This month is July (seventh month)

Today is the seventh.

AND Today is Saturday (the seventh day of the week)

Earlier it was 7:07 am.

And nothing special happened. I just ate breakfast with my parents and my grandma. Lucky Me :)

They finally listened.

One of the coworkers on my floor gets a little excited every time she finds out they've hired a new person with a spanish sur name. One time she got so excited her emotional outburst was to say "We're taking over BAYBEEEE!!!" She actually turned a few heads with that one.

For the longest time, I've wanted food network to have a hispanic chef and I just saw what looks like a preview for a show that revolves around Latin inspired dishes. Excellent! I've seen so many shows with chefs (food network seems to have an abundance of italians) that will talk about their foodie experiences growing up and not once have I ever heard them talk about (when showing their talents at say, making oh fish tacos) how it was family inspired. Those stories usually revolve around some vacation or mentor chef, and that's just not nearly as special, cool and inspiring yes, but just not something to make you say 'ahhhh how sweet'.

I love listening to the home stories about how they cooked with their parents or grandparents and with this show coming up ~ hopefully I'll finally get my wish. I can't wait to see what Ingrid has to offer. Her show starts July 14th. Check out the details here. I sent an email about a year and a half ago requesting a spanish chef, guess it didn't fall on deaf ears :)

I'm slightly excited. As my coworker says "We're taking over BABYEEEE!!"

Socially acceptable deviant behaviour.

Do you think there really is such thing?

Ever have one of those days where no matter what you try to do right, everything and everyone just seems out to get you?

I woke up late this morning, about 55 minutes late which meant that I had about 35 minutes to get ready. Lucky for me I took a shower the night prior. I attempt to blow my hair out straight and again my hair refused to cooperate.

Just great. I pull it back in a classic chignon and walk out the door.

Just why does my hair want to pull temper tantrums? What can I do to bribe my hair into submission? I like the new look and all, but I just want my hair to do what I want it to and not what it wants to. Either way, it's still healthy and that's all that matter right?

Right around lunch time I figured out why my hair was being childish. Me and the ladies step outside and guess what was waiting? None other than my friends the rainclouds. That explains the puffy frizzies. The second the ladies and I step in the car is when the rain comes down. So we're all discussing where to go and agree on 'cheap mexican'. The funny thing about the Big D are the neighborhoods: On one block you'll see homes worth over a mil, the next block over are homes and business with bars on windows and are completely worn down. However the property they sit on is worth a very pretty penny.

I think they should do like San Diego did to the neighborhoods on the 15, which is pay them off, tear them down and rebuild. Everyone I've spoken to has said how much the neighborhoods around my office have changed in the past 20 years. For me they're just not changing fast enough.

We pull into the parking lot of the restaurant. It's full of potholes, bars are all over the windows, some of the building brick surfaces are full of scars with huge bits missing from them. As I walk past a few of the other businesses I notice all kinds of little things that make me think I'd just rather not be here in non daylight hours. Even San Ysidro never made me feel this unsafe.

In the restaurant, it smells like my grandma's kitchen. Ok, it's not so bad now and all of a sudden my tension seems to go away. We take our seats, order our food and OMG it's delicious!!!

----

So back at work the rain continues. From what I remember on the morning news, the storms were way north of us so where did they come from?

Today the sky didn't turn dark, but I did get a nice lightning show along with the thunder acoustics. My boss asked me if I had ever seen lightning. I had to admit to him that lightning and thunder are pretty rare in SD. I grew up here in Texas, but as a kid I never stopped to appreciate the storms and most of the time I ran around the streets kicking up puddles of water.

I went back to my desk and about an hour later I look outside again and guess what? Not a cloud in the sky! When I started to go home it was HOT again: 105. Ugh!!

In an unrelated topic, did you hear about Paris Hilton's new catch phrase: "That's Holy!"

I'm sitting on the highway, and it's going slower than usual when this car in front of me SLAMS on their breaks. Shit.

I'm sure all the cars in front of him slowed down too, but com'on gimme a break. Traffic reports are stating that west / east bound north routes are at a standstill. Great. It took me about an hour and a half to get home and by the time it was all over I was beyond irritated. Even with my agro music it didn't help. Stop Go, Stop Go.

I wanted to push my magic button that would bring out my mega car crunching tires or better yet, transform my car into a helichopper and fly away home. Best thing to do was go home and play some Grand Theft Auto.

MMM Sushi!

So today at lunch, some coworkers and I went for a drive and found this place near the office. The food was good, but the service was lacking. I don't think I'll be going back.

An old favorite

I'm sure you know that for quite some time, I've had this serious desire for home cooked food. It's been a month in my new apartment and for some reason I'm still doing the whole eating out thing.

Well ~ I still ate out cause I'm missing so many uber cool kitchen gadgets that cooking in my home isn't very welcoming . . . just yet anyway. After looking at my bill last week and realizing an average of $18.00 was spent per day for both lunch and dinner, I said no more!! Not to mention that since arriving in March I've gained about 7lbs. Yea ~ not the direction I want to be headed in.

I keep meaning to go running, but something comes up, somebody calls and I just make excuse after excuse. At least when I was living with D&G I had a semi valid reason. (1) The track was over five miles away and (2) there were too many stray animals running loose in the neighborhood so I didn't want to risk running there. I've still not found a track here and people run next to cars in my new neighborhood (no thanks, I'll leave the fume inhaling for when I'm sitting in traffic). I have a gym within feet of my front door and a pool that is open 24/7 but I'm just being lazy when it comes to getting motivated. I gotta snap outta that since it's short and tank season.

Something I never woulda really cared about in Cali since most of the time I never wore "real" summer clothes because of the perfectly tempered weather. I'm still in the habit of carrying around multiple layers of clothing, but at work it's freezing indoors yet when I step outside my layers and sweaters come off.

I wore shorts and a tank out to when I went to Central Market and all around me I saw beautiful women everywhere with their perfect legs and perfect arms walking around with their perfect outfits and there I was in my weekend rags.

I picked up all my "good for you" food here. After reading all the foodie reviews in D Magazine it seems they're the place to go to get your fresh food. I have to agree with the magazine, they have a better selection of the rarer and freshest foods out there, aside from the Farmers Market which also has an awesome collection of goodies.

When I went with my new gal pal, we passed by a "real" cowboy who had about six freezers each with a 20x16 poster photo of a cow. Turns out you see what you eat. I know that might make some people go vegan, but I thought it was humorous. What I wondered was how many photos he cycles thru, if he prints them at home, or if they are truly actual photos of the cow in the freezer. Morbid huh? I'm still gonna get a steak or two from that cowboy one day, with any luck I won't bring home a tapeworm.

Where was I? Oh yea food shopping. I got my number at the fish counter realized I had about 20 people in front of me so went and picked out the rest of my fresh veggies: avacado, celantro, jalapeno, ginger and limes (for this dish). I saw the LARGEST cherries I've ever seen and bought about a pound of those, some Texas peaches and some Cali naval oranges (my absolute favorite). My total bill here was $15.00 and I have enough for three more tuna steaks.

Sweet!

It was all so yummy, and so simple ~ it makes me wonder why I waited so long to bring home the good nummies. Not to mention that my smaller portions left me feeling fuller than all the junk I've been eating these past three months. All in all I spent about $105 on food this weekend. I plan to hide my atm/visa card so there won't be any temptation for eating out. Wish me luck.

Lemon Lime Slushies

I haven't made one of these silly collages in a while. This one is ultimately cheesey but I don't care.

I was driving home today and all I could think of was getting home and making my slush. Todays temperature seemed to be hotter than usual (it said 89 but it felt hotter). The sun was also out which intensified the heat.

Cinders greets me as usual. I change from my office clothes to my hang out cottons. I'm almost outta ice so I turn the ice maker back on. Hopefully I won't have to throw the first few batches away like last time.

Pop the ice in shaver and walk away. Take the frozen glasses outta the freezer, the syrup outta the fridge. Pack it all in the glass. Have a seat on the floor in front of the fan. Instant cool down. Oh yea, life is sweet.

I have a weakness and it's raspado's

Originally uploaded from flickr.

I blame my brother for this purchase. One day I was chilling on the couch watching TV @ his place and him and Gracie come home from Wal-Mart. They're unloading their bags and my brother is totally excited about his slushie maker.

He's a little disappointed when he gets it out of the box because the ice tub is only 1/2 of what it looks like in the picture but he doesn't let this deter him. He loads up his slushie maker with ice and twists the nob.

A few minutes later he's poured the syrup over his shaved ice (and I asked if he could make me one too) so we're both enjoying the slushee treats.

A few days later, I had to buy some toothpaste or something @ Target and saw they had a small stash of slurpee flavors themselves, so I bought a 3 pak of Lemon-Lime, Grape and Strawberry Banana. After that I pretty much made myself 2 or 3 slurpees a day.

The weekend I moved out, I was joking around with him and said I was gonna pack up his slurpee maker and he could come over when he had a slushee craving. He said him and Gracie were planning on getting me a slushee maker for my place, but I just spoiled my surprise (too bad I couldn't wait for their gift).

The same weekend Daniel was helping me move, we were wandering around the Wal-Mart in my neighborhood and saw their HUGE stash of slurpee mix, he took home some more for his collection, I passed them up cause I had nothing to drink it with... until now.

So today I'm wandering around with a specific budgeted shopping list @ Target when I see in spanish, in huge hard to miss pink letters: RASPADOS ¡Prepare sus bebidas congeladas favoritas en minutos! Disfrute de granizados, raspados y bebidas congeladas con su soda, jugo o fruta favorito.

Dude use a translator, or common sense to figure out what it said.

Budget be damned. I brought this baby home with me along with 3 new syrupy flavors. I've had two already today. Someday I'll head back over to Wal-Mart and raid their slurpee flavor stash. I'm sure, in fact I know I can make the syrup myself and I can make it better.

When I made my first slurpee in my apartment, I had this memory triggered from last year where I blended some canned pineapple, maraschino cherry juice, pineapple and sunkist soda and lemon zest with some simple syrup. I swear I made the biggest mess but even after freezing it I think I figured out how to make my own homemade sherbert. Two days later it was still that not quite solid but not quite frozen consistency.

Also seeing the term raspado on that box reminded me of when Sam would go to that little mexican taco shop near our house and he would bring me back my lemon lime raspado and my shrimp/octopus cocktail. Damn I loved those things, now I can make my own!

Sweet!

[found it] [seafood] [,] [leftovers] [where] [?]

I'm feeling a little geeky, a little crazy, a little excited, and very satisfied. As I was in the car driving home Thursday evening after a very long and tiring week, I reminded my cousin, since we were kinda on the way anyway, about that place Central Market. Every opportunity we had prior to this it was always too early or too late to shop there and today seemed to be nice timing.

Now, my aunt had taken me to this bourgeois grocery store about 4 years ago, and we had gone to the Dallas one earlier in the spring. While I was impressed with it each time we visited ~ somehow I totally forgot about their selection of seafood. Though I DID remember that their markets were alot like the San Diego grocery stores! Since I've been here I'm sure you've read about just how much I miss my seafood!!

My cousin and I rushed thru the isles (all I wanted was fish and only had $20.00 in cash, plus I was freaken' tired), As I walked inside I remembered that we went to one of these when he lived in College Station but it was a combo HEB and Central Market so it was a little more of a traditional market with isles and less like an IKEA.

I rushed past all the fresh fruits, stopping to inhale the scents of some of the more exotic fruits that are not found in the typical white bread Kroger's in our neighborhood. I stopped at the vegetables debating on if I should purchase baby artichokes (but left the baby's at the store) I started to smell that familiar scent ~ seafood!!!! Right before the fishie isles there was a small table full of Le Cruset cookware. More temptations!!!!! I picked up a small pan and heard the words 'Walk Away!!' I put it down and continued to walk forward. . .

Right in front of me had to have been around 100 feet of every type of ocean fish imaginable!!!!! Gulf coast shrimp, Red Snapper, Swordfish, Halibut, Albacore, Tuna, Flounder, Salmon. . . I had to stop the saliva from escaping (ok you didn't need that visual, but I'm not kidding, it really happened). I would name off more fish, but the nice fish butcher came up and asked if I needed any help.

I asked if he knew the lucky numbers to the lottery, which got no response. I quickly had to make up my mind about which cuts of fish to chose from. Now, since I am not to familiar with this market AND I was on a budget I couldn't just go all out and order everything l saw, so ~ I chose a fish that I knew I had a simple recipe for ~ Plane Jane Tuna. When I looked at the price per pound my heart skipped a beat. It was a bit more pricey than the skimpy selection at the Krogers, but it looked so mouth watering juicy and tasty that I justified to myself it was worth the cost.

I ordered a 6oz filet for myself and an 8oz filet for my cousin. The fish butcher asked if there was anything else I wanted, and I had to tell him that sadly that would be all for today. What he did next totally floored me!!! He weighed each of my filets, said one was a little under and one was a little over the weight I wanted and asked if that was ok. "Of course", I said. After that he wrapped them up, then proceeded to pack them in ICE!!!!

They don't even offer that service at Henry's in San Diego!!! In fact, I've only seen this done on TV!!!!! I walked away from the counter feeling so freaking special! I was giggling to my cousin about just how amazed I was with everything I saw and then went on to plan out what we were going to buy on the next trip. He reminded me that I need income, yea well ~ I can still dream about good food :)

I walked up to the cashier, she tallied up the fish ~ named out the price (which was incorrectly low). I exclaimed "THAT'S IT?!?!" My cousin kicked me but the cashier didn't even notice. I paid and we walked out of the store giggling even more! Was that wrong? Yes. Do I care? Not really. Do I feel guilty? No.

Sadly, I was not able to cook my meal that night. I didn't know all of the ingredients off hand so I ate home made chicken fried rice instead. Then, because of the tornados and floods on Friday ~ I settled for a chicken basket at Sonic. Now today, I was able to go out and finally do some real grocery shopping. I got the rest of the ingredients for my tuna steaks and wala:

celantro, jalapeno, ginger, garlic, soy sauce, olive &
sesame oil, fresh lime juice, lime zest & sugar

I used my *new* food processor that my aunt gave to me for christmas. This thing ROX, it's the three cup capacity model from Cuisinart and it's perfect!!! I went to taste a sample, shared some with my cousin and um, we had a hard time not eating it all before the steaks were done! LOL

sea salt, fresh ground pepper, olive oil & tuna

Because of the two days of not being able to do any real grocery shopping, I stuck the steaks in the freezer. They almost didn't thaw out in time but thanks to ziplock bags and cold water ~ they thawed just in time to take their sea salt and fresh pepper bath. I couldn't resist and cut out a small chunk and ate a bite before cooking. OMG, it melted in my mouth!!!! In the future I'll be trying to make my own sashimi. . . The only thing I'm missing is a *really, really, really* nice knife.

more like, there's nothing left!

Seriously, my camera is lacking the color justification that was on the plate. The avocado, the soy vinaigrette, the seared tuna (salad with sesame garlic dressing not pictured), the wine, everything. OMG it was all so good, and yea ~ there were no leftovers.

It was all so filling there was no room for dessert (good thing I didn't make any ..). And yea, it was the best *ahem* underpriced tuna I've ever had!

shrimpies & kitties

So last night I gather up my ingredients to make my yummy scampi. I use this recipe and have added a few of my own embellishments to make it my own (red peppers, grape tomato halves and fresh parmesan cheese). Trust me this recipe is one of the best ones out there, at least in my opinion. I hope if you try it out, you will enjoy it as much as I (and anyone else I've cooked it for) have.

I also made an awesome dessert of fresh strawberries and raspberries in balsamic vinegar with a touch of sugar. This photo is an archive from my flickr stuff, so there are no raspberries in it. Looking at this photo though really makes me miss my old camera. Ah well, I'll get another one eventually.

I don't have much to entertain you with today because yesterday when I was cooking my kitty Cinders decided to go on an adventure when I wasn't looking. I had the front door open when I was cooking and while she is really good at staying close when she goes out side, there is also another neighbor here that has a dog bigger than Zoey. So Cinders couldn't make it back to the safety of the house and found a really good hiding spot. I doubt the other dog or it's owner even had a clue that Cinders was out wandering about.

Well while I was cooking I heard the other dog outside, and had that little panic. I casually called out for Cinders . . . Nothing. I set my cooking tools down, and look in her usual hiding spots . . . Nothing. I ask Zoey if she knows where Cinders is, and she just gives me a cute look. I poke my head outside and call for Cinders, the dog and owner pay me no attention . . . No response from Cinders. Mannie finishes his morning routine, I ask if he can go Cinder hunting while I finish my cooking. He takes a walk around with Zoey trying to help (but we really wanted her to stay inside at this point). He looks for about 10-15 minuets with no luck.

I don't want to start to panic because that will do me no good, but she IS a black cat and for some reason people like to start shit with black cats because they're stupid and have little brain squigglies and think black cats are bad luck or something.

Right before the cooking is all done Cinders decides to come out of hiding (she was camping out in the laundry room). Mannie yells at her and she scampers the few feet back to the apartment and the door was closed so she couldn't run right back in. Ah well, at least she was safe ~ and that other dog had no clue she was ever outside.

While we were eating, we had the door open and she kept trying to sneak back out, but this time we had the compressed air can to keep her away!

Here are your pictures. There are no finished product pix but I'm sure you can understand why :) Don't forget to check out the recipe on food network.

Start out with shrimp, I prefer frozen and already mostly deveined. Take the time to remove their shells and get rid of the 'other' vein otherwise you sometimes have a sorta sandy texture with each bite ~ and yea, that's just not sexy. Add some salt, pepper and red chili flakes as well as some lemon juice to the resting shrimp. In your pan warm up some olive oil and butter, add the garlic and scallions until the scallions are translucent. Add in the shrimp and cook until they're pink. Remove and set aside to make the scampi sauce.

Here is my italian flag, chopped parsley. If you can find it, use italian parsley since it's not as heavy as regular parsley, but today I used regular parsley. Those are also chopped scallions and garlic, and in the last pic are my grape tomatos and red peppers. Yummy!

Ok, for the sauce, add some more butter and olive oil, some wine, water from the boiling pasta, and lemon juice. Bring this to a boil until it starts to thicken, then add in the rest of the linguine. At this point you can also add in the red ingredients and return the cooked shrimp to the pan. Mix it up and let this cook up until it looks like the consistency you want to eat it, for me this is about 5-7 minutes.

Add it to a bowl, sprinkle some parsley and parmesian and enjoy! Hmm, I keep forgetting to make some garlic bread. Oh well, I'll remember one day :)

Taco Tuesday!

You know this isn't so bad, being away from *home* that is. I've HAD and keep GETTING these major joneses for fish ever since I got here and I keep telling myself: "Just adapt to beef damit, it's ALL anybody eats here". I mean fish was (and will continue to be a major part of my diet, I'm just gonna have to cut WAY back on the sashimi/sushi, because here you have to take out a small mortgage just to eat the stuff).

You know what? Fish is just better for you damit, but I do need to eat some more cow. See I have this problem with my iron count being way too low (like on some iron scale I'm a 9 or a 10 normally and I'm supposed to be a 12) so the cow will do me some good. Mooooo.

Anyway, on my way to the DFW area, I passed my this mom and pop restaurant in the middle of nowhere called "La Salsa", but it wasn't the food chain that I'm used to. Seeing it made me want one of their veggie bean burritos and thinking about them tasty burritos also made me think of this other restaurant called "Rubio's" who happen to have some of the best chain-food type fish tacos. Today also happens to be Rubio's $.99 Fish Taco Tuesday.

Anyway when I was planning out my menu earlier this week. I went to the fish counter at Krogers, looked at their fresh water white fish selection and saw buried under some of the other fish some seafood, a treasure of flounder!!! Could it be? Is it really there? YES!! So I ask the fishie guy for 1/3 of a lb of the treasure flounder. He wraps it up and as my cousin takes the fish from his hand, and before he puts it in the basket, he brings the wrapped fish paper up to his nose and inhales... My cousin said the fishie guy looked at him funny, I'm sure that if I saw him do that, I prob woulda smelled the fishie paper too. Of course this next moment would not have been as sweet as it was:

As it was, when I unwrapped the fish from the fridge today this wonderful aroma of fresh ocean fish filled the kitchen. AND OMG, It made me really miss the smell of the SD air. I totally miss that ocean smell and no candle or plugin in the world will ever come close to that beautiful aroma of fresh salty ocean air. This miracle treasure flounder came in really close though. The funny thing is, when ever I would cook fishies in SD, I could never understand what the TV chefs were talking about when they said to smell your fish. (I know what you're thinking with my last statement and you have a dirty mind!!!) Whenever I smelled my fish, it just smelled well like nothing.... Guess it was cause I was surrounded by that wonderful salty ocean cucumberey air. Who know's.

I had to do a little bit of leftover shopping today to pick up some missed items from yesterdays trip. I forgot the sour cream, the bread crumblies and the perfect peanut oil. Oops. I also went and picked up a cheap food processor. I've come to the conclusion that it will be the *hot* item / salsa processor or at the very least, it'll be used to grind up dry spices. Cause the blade thingie isn't solid, it's hollow which means it's gonna be a haven for nasty thingies if I happen to not wash it immediately after using it. (le sigh).

I get home, my cousin was sleeping (he work's nights) and I made the pink chili sauce. Lucky for me the blade noises didn't wake him up. The other good thing is the sauce had the chance to marinade in itself.... yummy... I also chopped / shredded up some cabbage. A side note about the cabbage. My cousin picked up this cabbage and I kid you not it was the size of a bowling ball!!!! In SD we're lucky if you get a cabbage that's the size of bocce ball (that's lawn bowling for rich old peeps). I just sat there staring at this freak cabbage, but you know what? It was soooo yummy!! I also chopped up about 5 limes into tiny wedges for the fish, the sauce and the taco garnish... mmm.. My mouth is watering again just writing this.

Chipotle Lime Sour Mayo

1 7oz can of Chipotle peppers, use only 1-2 peppers from the can (or more if you're daring)
equal parts mayonnaise & sour cream
lime juice and zest
salt & pepper
* mix in food processor and let refrigerate for about 2 hours, tastes better the longer you let it sit.

Now for the fun part. FISHIE GOODNESS!!!

Heat peanut oil to about 375 degrees.
Salt and pepper the fish and spritz with lime juice
For the fish batter mix 2 eggs and 1 TSP of fish broth (or water if you don't have broth) and soak the fish for about 2-5 minutes.
Next batter the fish in Panko bread crumbs (they say you can find these in the asian isle, but I found them hiding in the baking isle with the other bread crumbs) (and if you like Tempura, these are the same bread crumbs)
Let the fish kinda come to room temperature before putting them in the hot peanut oil
Cook for about 3-5 minutes until they're golden.
Once finished let them rest on one of those cookie baking cooling thingies, so the oil doesn't soak and cool in the fish.

Hehe, now time to play dress up with the tacos. My favorite part!!

Mannie's taco, can you tell that he really liked the chipotle sour mayo

One of my tacos. Ah the limey goodness!!

Oh yea, there's those corn tortilla thingies. Heat up some more peanut oil in a diff pan, about 1 TBSP will do, or at least enough to cover the bottom of the pan. Pop in the tortilla and flip it around for about 30-45 seconds. Any longer and you will have a fish tostada not a fish taco.

All I have to say is this meal really satisfied my fish craving (at least temporarily) and definitely settled down my little bit of homesickness. <>My fish tacos also taste better than Rubios!! < / end brag >

I was a little worried that I didn't get enough fish but Mannie said that it was likely going to be more than enough. However when I looked at the fish strip, it did look kinda skimpy. I *almost* snuck out and bought some more fish. Lucky for me (and because it was my first attempt here at this meal *another one of the foods Mannie said he really didn't care for* we almost had too much fish!! I feel really satisfied with my meal and was defiantly in no say stuffed. Even though it was fried food, it was very light and it didn't have that over powering taste of fish funk that most people complain about.

This is the 4th time somebody has said that about the fish I've made for them, and that makes me a very happy cook. Tomorrow, the ever famous shrimp scampi!!!

Filet Mignon & Asparagus

Who needs restaurants when you can eat better at home? Today my 'roomate' (my cousin) and I went out to Kroger to go food shopping. I had a sorta menu planned out for the week with no intent of eating out until all our food is gone ~ leftovers and all.

Sometime a week or two ago I went out solo food shopping and got some stuff to make shrimp scampi. After I started cooking it I remembered him telling that he wasn't a really big fan of el shrimpies. Hmm... Oh well!! I thought about this for a few minuets and came to the conclusion that if he didn't like it, well then there was more pasta for me!!!

The funny thing is, in the middle of cooking it turned out that he was short a cork screw for the white wine sauce. Long story short ~ I ended up knocking on his neighbors door and asking for said cork screw, getting it and then later giving this nice man the FRESHEST leftovers you could imagine. I mean the noodles were still steaming, that's how fresh they were!!! When we came back from the weekend there was a nice note on the door about how 'awesome' the scampi was. I'm sure the nice neighbor is glad he loaned out that cork screw.

As for my cousin, I noticed that he picked a rather small portion to start off with, ATE IT ALL and I swear I saw him lick his bowl (but I can't confirm that). He then proceeded to get up, walk to the kitchen and get a heaping larger second portion, so much for not liking shrimpies eh? He then went to work and raved about the shrimpies to all his coworkers. (Who know know me as the shrimp chick, yup they know all about my scampi).

This past week I was explaining to him how I like my filet mignon's. So today we head out to the market, pick up supplies and drive home. Also this past weekend I brought back all my caphalon cookware (which is gonna make cooking SOOOO much easier!!) I was also debating on whether to leave certain pots back at my parents place, but that was like trying to decide which child is your favorite and you just can't. So I packed them all in my car and brought them all over. I'm SOOO glad I did too!!

So here I am, in this new kitchen in this new state in this new home about to prepare what I am hoping is going to be another masterpiece. I always get nervous about cooking and worry that it's gonna turn out like crap. This has only happened once before, but I ate my food anyway since it seemed such a waste to not eat my hard earned failure.

Anyway. I'm a big Food Network junkie so if you want the recipes my favorite chefs are Tyler, Giada, Alton, Michael C, Bobby and Ina. I mix and match their ingredients and add my own flair. But here's what I used for this masterpiece:

Asparagus
Balsamic Vinegar
Salt & Pepper
Garlic
Cherry or Grape Tomatoes cut in halves
(try and marinate these for at least 2 hours)

Filet Mignon, 6 oz & 8 oz pieces, wrapped in Bacon Strips, held in place with WET toothpicks
Merlot
Balsamic Vinegar
Olive Oil
Salt & Pepper

Heat pan on high heat and coat with olive oil to a smoke, drop in filets & add a little merlot. Sear filets for 1-2 minutes. Prior to this turn oven to 450 degrees, add filets in pan to the oven for about 8-10 minutes. Remove and let cool; while the filets are cooling....

Add the Asparagus to the dirty filet pan on medium heat for about 5-8 minutes (so it cooks in the filet juices in addition to the greeney marinade.)

Serve and enjoy the pretties!! (Though next time I'm adding some cutsie red mashed potatoes)

Now when we were eating these goodies, we drank some of the merlot and let me tell you it went STRAIGHT to my head, but was soooooo yummy and went purfeeect with the balsamic vinegar sauces. OMG and the seared flesh off the filets with the crusties from the salt and pepper... SOOOO yummy. The filets just melted when you stabbetied them with your fork.

As for tomorrow; check out my fish tacos. I just gotta find me a cheapy food processor to make the Spicy-Cool Chipotle Cream. My mouth is already watering!!!

frenchy fries

I keep meaning to write something here, but just don't feel like saying much.

My aunt keeps telling me she's gonna send me her secret enchilada recipe, but I keep checking my email, and it's not there... earth to auntie! Hello! Can u hear me? I want a good rice recipe too! Also, do you know how to make yellow rice? or just red? Love you! Maybe grandma knows.

I've gotten alot into cooking recently. Mostly because just about everytime we go out for fast food, I feel sick to my stomach (it's either I'm engorged and unsatisfied or its slider food, and yes I said slider food, now go have fun with that mentail image) and the good food is well, pricey (but soo worth it). So for now I've managed to convince Sam to eat in and it's been fun. The bad part is, I keep forgetting to take pix of my dishes.

Here is a simple one that I did manage to take pix of, my frenchy fries!

Click here for instructions!

Twice Fried Frenchy Fries!

I made these a few days ago, and was just really lazy in organizing this. So here are the simple steps:
1. Start with a Russet potato
2. Peel the skin
3. Check out the naked potato! O.O
4. I find it easiest to slice the ends off and make a rectanglish shape. It just makes cutting easier for me.
5. Chop into yummy bite size stix!
6. Soak in water / Wash / Rinse starchy residue.
7. Drain and dry off as much water as you can, water and oil don't mix plus it makes a mess and you can get oil splatter all over. It doesn't feel good on bare skin!!! ><
8. Heat up some canola oil to about 325 F (med-lo-ish heat) (I usually do then when the 'tato is being chopped)
9. Cook for about 6 mins (first time)
10. Remove from oil, Drain on some paper towels, and heat the oil to about 375 F (med high heat)
11 Cook again for about 3-4 mins or until they start to float or look the color / crispy texture of your preference.
12. Serve with a variety of salts or my preference, self concocted chili powers :)

yum yum!

Total cooking time including slicing, rince time, dry time and fry time: about 20 mins! The good news is, if you eat these, you might never go back to eating fast food fries ever again :)

Time flies

So now it's Thursday on this week long trip and time has been flying. Monday was nothing but formalities which basically including driving to this 'middle of nowhere' to that 'middle of nowhere' to do something that took 5 minutes, drive back to the hotel for 2 hours, and drive back to some other 'middle of nowhere' for another 5 minutes, another drive back to the hotel for an hour or so and then the last trip to this other 'middle of nowhere' to do the opening ceremonies.

(by that time I was tired, has sinus issues, and butter overdose so I missed the ceremonies)

The girls played a Las Vegas (NV) team Tuesday and run-ruled them 15-0 by the 3rd inning. Wednesday they played a team from Telequah? (OK) that started off cocky, but in the end we won 8-2. Today we played a San Jose? (CA) and run-ruled them in the 5th inning @ 12-0.

The girls play again tomorrow @4pm. If they win they play Saturday @8am; if they lose they play again Friday @8pm.

I hope they win.

I believe we play another Oklahoma team tomorrow. If we win this one then they play a rival team that we ALWAYS play from Peñasquitos. I just love how they spend all this money and in the end all the So Cal teams just play each other. Ah well. the good thing is: all the So Cal teams end up sitting in each others bleachers and making more noise.

Let's talk about food: I've eaten too much.

I wish they had Whattaburgers in SD. I really miss these guys, and their chocolate shakes, /rolls eyes, Wendys gotz nuttin on dem. I'm buying a jumbo shake in Phoenix and making it last.

Rosa's Cafe was a big disapointment. Sam thought his burrito was a joke. Their salsa was a joke. I ended up with better salsa at their "free" buffet. Their nachos left lots to be desired. The funny thing is we were full for the rest of the day.

Sam and I had the opportunity to eat @ Golden Coral (with the team) but we were still too stuffed from Rosa's. Looking at everybody plates around us, I don't think we woulda been disappointed in what they had to offer. Their steaks looked really good. I ended up eating the basket of bread and YES, I ATE THE BUTTER. /Homer Simpson drool. That honey butter they have was sooo good, and they slathered the biscuits in that honey butter too.

There was this hibachi bar near the hotel called Osaka, even though our chef was a white dude he did a pretty good job (he was a lot messier than the asian chefs are rice was EVERYWHERE). DId I say he was funny? Well he was. Too bad Sam and I are a bunch of sarcastic assholes, cause we were actually making him laugh. I had *THE* best talipia I've ever had. Can you say hello butter? They wanted me to sign a waiver cause I wanted my filet mignot rare. I changed my order to med. rare.

One day our team parents decided to BBQ carne asada in the parking lot. I miss home (home as in SD) grilled carne asada. They say they asked around the local markets (for the carne asada) and they just looked at them like a bunch of tard burgers. So the cooks improvised and make some good stuff. The guac was good too. Left over salsa is always better a day later. I had some today and almost didn't want to stop eating.

So yea, after days of all this good food I think I'm gonna 'splode. Still on my list: A good BBQ joint (or my dad's next week) A good tex-mex (I might have to wait until we get to San Angelo cause I've seen nuttin here and yea, did I say Rosa's Cafe sucked?) Dairy Queen, A steak house, and more whattaburger.

mmm...

next week... HOURS upon HOURS at the gym.

Hurray for cowboys!

You know when I left Texas 2 months ago, as soon as I got back to CA all my little health issues when away.

like within hours

Now that I'm back here I have my allergies again >sniff< >sniff< >ACHOO<. Hopefully I'll have no headaches this week and hopefully no heat rashes.

You know after coming back though (at least to the west tx area, not DFW) I do miss the dry heat they have here as opposed to the humid heat they have in non-coastal Cali / DFW areas. For all these softball games to go to this week, it will be nice to not be sitting in a pool of my own sweat. (or secretly giggling at other peoples sweat pools and then looking and laughing at my own too) Hurray for AC and swimming pools!!!

I miss the low price of gas. Gas here in Odessa is $2.80-ish. Gas in San Diego is $3.30-ish.

Eating out is cheaper, if you like fried butter. I had fish and chips last night (at Hooters) Hurray for T&A!!! Those were some good fish too. I miss that place that Fred gets those catfish boxes. I doubt they have one here, but I'm sure there is one like it. I just gotta find it.

I like this Hotel we're at, it's close to everything: a Mall, Walmart, Target, Hooters :) You know they don't sell swimsuits year round in Odessa. Heathers swimsuit was missing (and to me a swimsuit to a kid is more important than her softball glove) anyway, Heather and I went to FOUR stores looking for a swimsuit. None to be found. What is there is on clearance, and way too small/large for her. Poor Heather. She gets to watch her friends swim. I'm sure she won't care and will end up in the pool anway, clothes and all :)

I keep thinking of all the things that I like more about one place and what I miss about the other, but in the end the health problems that I have in Texas just make the Sunshine Tax in Ca worth it.

welcome to sonic, hold please, forever.

Ok, so yes I am a geek. I have digipix of this AND video. So it was boredom or geekdom (or both) you know that we were here for about FIVE songs while waiting for our order? That's right, FIVE.

And it was a simple order too, your ordinary burger, a chicken "basket" and a cherry lime slush. How hard is that?

Funny thing about this town, everything here is run down, broken, closed, old. Basically the town time forgot. The only new buildings on the Main stip were Sonic and a Funeral Home. Kinda sad. Clog your arteries here at Sonic. Cause of death: Sonic. Where do you go? Funeral Home!!!

They got the market cornered.

Hot Wings

So yesterday was Fathers Day. I wanted to make a special dinner for my boyfriend. He happens to love hot wings. So I go searching for recipes all over the web and can't really find a great one so I make mine up with all that I found, plus used some friend recommendations.

Now, I'm not the biggest fan of hot wings (Tabasco ~ ewww) but I found a recipe that was light on the sauce and here is what I came up with (by the way, I'm not much for measuring and stuff either, I just added what looked right):
================================
2lbs chicken breast meat, sliced into small bite size bits(wings are not meaty enough, I prefer chicken boobs!!!)
2 lemons - juiced and seeded
a dash of sea salt
a dash of lemon zest

Let the chicken bits marinade in the lemon mixture for about 5-10 mins or while you're making the next bit of this concoction.
================================
1 Jalapeno (boiled in a microwave to soften) (Slice this or stick it in the food processor)
1 cup of Franks Red Hot sauce
1 tbsp of Louisiana Hot Sauce
1 tbsp of Chipotle Tabasco
1 tbsp of Vietnamese Hot Sause (it's in the asian food aisle)
1/4 cup of soy sauce
1/4 cup of ketchup
a dash of garlic powder
a dash of Worcestershire sauce

Take the chicken bits out of the lemon bath and tumble them around so that all the chicken bits are covered in the red sauce. I let the chicken bits sit while I did this next part, but I'm sure you can cook them right away.
================================
While the chicken was marinating I also cut up my celery, carrots and blue cheese. I also pre-heated the oven for some bread stix. Once the oven was ready I cooked the chicken in a skillet for about 15-20 mins (the same amount of time to cook the bread). Add a bit of grapeseed oil to coat the pan for the chicken or the other internet recipes suggest butter. When the chicken looks finished then add in a bit of corn starch to thicken the sause since the cooking will make it watery. I prob didn't add anymore than 1 small spoonful of the starch.
================================
By now the bread should be ready, and so should your hot wings! Enjoy! I was definately impressed with this recipe since I am not the biggest fan of chicken, especially hot wings. I was giving my plate dirty looks but when I finally took a bite, I was impressed! If you try this out, I hope you enjoy this as much as we did. Too bad I didn't take any pix :)