Katya4me

A couple years back, I got all these spice blend samples and have slowly been using them up. Today, I used a packet of coffee and chile spice blend with some smoked salt for smoked chicken wings. I smoked the wings for 4 hours and they are delicious.  In addition, I made potato leek soup and seasoned it with shiitake powder.  

This afternoon was clean out the fridge/ cook lots of stuff time. I made okonomiyaki for a late lunch and put the leftovers in the fridge. That used up the Chinese cabbage and beet greens. I made up a Sriracha mayo to drizzle on top and sprinkled with sesame seeds.

Made a breakfast egg casserole last week and polished off the last slice of it this morning with an Asiago bagel.  I was concerned the eggs would be a little bland, so I added some red chili pepper paste and Italian seasoning to the mix and was very happy with how the flavor turned out.

Today's lunch was leftover blackened steak and delicious almost caramelized leftover peppers and onions.  

I was in the mood for a steak salad, so we made this blackened steak salad the other night and I used the leftover seasoning mix on some chicken breasts the following night. I'm definitely keeping the recipe for that, if nothing else.  We added avocado and tomato, skipped the blue cheese since we had none handy. 

Today's lunch was fancified ramen.  I boiled up 2 packets of spicy ramen noodles, and added a cut up leftover chicken breast that had been cooked in red Thai paste.  I sliced up 3 mushrooms and tossed them in the pot as well.  While that was finishing, I cut 1 ear of corn into my bowl, and then put 1 cut up green onion and bean sprouts into both of our bowls before adding the hot soup.  I was very happy with this lunch.

I was in the mood for fish, so we bought a big salmon filet and roasted it.    Had that over rice and it was delicious and have tons of leftovers to have over salad greens.

This week was BLTs for dinner.  The first night we followed a recipe that called for subbing in fried halloumi for the bacon and serving on sourdough bread.  Tasty, but we have bacon in the fridge.  So, the next night we had it with bacon.  My husband got the last of the sourdough and I had mine on an everything bagel.  Last night was the last of the bacon, and we had used up the large tomatoes but had some cherry tomatoes that had been lingering.  We cut those in half and had the sandwiches on seeded bread.  The cherry tomatoes were tasty, but didn't stay in between the slices very well.  

The Curry Place (Germantown) - We went here last night after a long bike ride and got carry-out. Hubby likes the chicken ghost curry and I like the lamb saag.  We also got the appetizer sampler, as well as an assortment of breads.  The sesame paratha tasted a bit dry to me, but the chicken & cheese naan was good as was everything else and very well packaged. 

Sushi Bae (Lake Ridge) - We've been trying to figure out when they were open since the pandemic began.  First they were closed for renovations, that extended, and now they are closed on Sunday and Monday, but you only know this if you listen to their VM message.  We finally visited last Saturday and got an assortment of special rolls and a hibachi dinner.  The rolls were good, but I think I'll way until the pandemic is over to try hibachi again as it's not the same when boxed up.

Ooh, that does sound good. I don't generally have brine around much, and this has been my go-to recipe for years: https://honest-food.net/how-to-make-mustard-2/

I've been working some crazy hours at work and hubby knew I'd be getting home late on Friday.  I came home to portabella mushrooms and goat cheese mashed potatoes and was so happy.  Nice mix of textures and flavors and I didn't have to think or wait to eat.  

I didn't feel like cooking last night, so got some frozen chicken breasts out of the freezer, put them in the Instant Pot along with some BBQ sauce, apple cider vinegar and Worcestershire sauce for 25 min.  Hubby made mashed potatoes and dinner was served. 

I saw this recipe for steaks in cherry sauce and it looked really good.  However, I had no steaks on hand, but I did have 4 boneless pork chops.  I thought the substitution turned out very well and while I was not patient enough to let the sauce reduce as much as it should have, I'd definitely make this again.   

We've been doing the jalapeno cheddar bagels for a while now, but decided to change it up last week and made asiago bagels instead.   The texture was a bit different, not sure if I like it quite as much, but they were good and went well with cream cheese for breakfast.

Continuing on the all-purpose flour kick, my husband tried another yeast pizza dough recipe and I liked how this one tasted better than the previous recipe.  We halved the recipe and added some Penzey's pizza sprinkles into the dough.  

We really liked the super creamy chickpea stew that we got as a side with our takeout kabobs recently.  I found a recipe that seemed to appeal to both of us.   However, we had it last night over rice and it didn't thrill either of us.  Despite soaking all day, the beans still were a bit too crunchy after I unsealed the Instant Pot.  I gave it another 10 min and the chickpeas were soft enough then, but nowhere near creamy.   And my husband felt that everything else in the stew (carrots, potatoes, onions) had lost it's texture in the process.  I've got 2 other recipes to try, but pretty bummed with this result. 

Dinner last night was Szechuan pork with soba noodles.  My tenderloin was 2 lbs and I didn't have any better plans for the other lb, so I doubled the recipe.  It was easier than I expected, I'm not sure I'd have called it Szechuan, but we both enjoyed it and will have plenty of leftovers for lunches. 

Last night was a sort of fruit spritzer.  I split a can of Q ginger beer between 2 glasses, followed by an 8 oz bottle of tart cherry juice.  I added about 2-3 oz. of grapefruit juice, some ice cubes and finished it off with a splash of Elderflower liqueur.  Quite tasty and very enjoyable.

Last night was garlic butter roasted butternut squash with a side of chopped bacon sauteed with sliced mushrooms.

Tonight was naan pizza on the grill.  I opened the bacon package last night, so fried up some more as a pizza topping.  I'm one of those terrible people, so I put the bacon on the pizza w/ pineapple chunks, topped with mozzarella and then popped on the grill for about 14 min. 

We've been doing carryout about once a week, for the past 3 months.  No delivery and 99% is in the Woodbridge area.  We want to support the local restaurants, but we also like variety, so we don't have a favorite restaurant that we hit constantly.  Having said that, these have been our experiences so far:

The Shakin' Crab (Manassas)

Yum, easy online ordering and safe easy pick-up. They had a plexi shield and sliding tray below it that they put your bag into and, sort of like some banks have. We did the Special #1 and cajun fries.

Astoria Pizza Restaurant (Woodbridge)

We’d seen good reviews and we thought it was OK but not worth the drive from our house.

Arepas Capitol USA (Woodbridge)

Been twice, like it.  Easy to order over the phone and counter right near the door for pick-up.  We’ve tried a couple of the sandwiches and the appetizer sampler platter.

Kabob G (Woodbridge)

Easy online ordering, with fields for notes like NO CILANTRO.  Got the food as ordered and it was very good.

Dok Khao Thai Eatery (Woodbridge)

Not sure if it was because of Mother’s Day weekend, but this place was a madhouse in terms of them trying to keep track of the status of orders and the kitchen.  It took 40 min to get the confirmation email and then my husband waited at the restaurant for over an hour to get our order.  The food was good but e probably won't go back.

Skrimp Shack (Dumfries)

We have been a few times pre-COVID and happy to see they were doing well.  Easy online ordering and curbside pick-up.

Wok & Pho (Woodbridge)

Easy online ordering but the Thai curry was not very spicy to according to my husband.  I got the Thai basil fried rice, which I’d had pre-COVID, and enjoyed as much as I previously had. 

Almita's Mexican Restaurant (Woodbridge)

Not easy to order over phone, but the food was good.  I think they’ve improved their ordering system since then.

Dixie Bones (Woodbridge)

We went here in early April. Easy online ordering, well packaged with instructions.

Crosby's Crabs (Woodbridge)

The ordering/pick-up table was outside but I saw a distinct lack of face masks.  The shrimp and crabs were good, but I don’t think we’ll go back.

KikiRiki (Woodbridge)

This is a Peruvian restaurant that we’d been to pre-COVID.  Good spacing inside, but some customers had issues following/understanding the traffic flow.  But it was not overly crowded and We enjoyed the food.  We had a whole chicken and tripe soup, which covered us for 2 meals. 

Taste of Tandoor (Woodbridge)

This was another restaurant that we’d been to pre-COVID and happy to see they were doing well. 

Jangko Japanese Restaurant (Woodbridge)

Phone ordering.  We liked the Korean Spicy Chirashi & Yakisoba which we ordered with sushi, and it made 2 meals for us.

On 10/15/2015 at 1:23 PM, Katya4me said:

If you are in the Lake Ridge area of Woodbridge, there's a locally owned frozen custard place called BR Frozen Custard & Sweets. In addition to vanilla & chocolate, they also have unique daily flavors and weekly sundaes, all made fresh every day. The also have a daily assortment of frozen custard sandwiches that we have enjoyed as well. The daily flavors calendar can be shared to your Google Calendar, which is a wonderful and terrible thing. http://www.brfrozencustards.com/

Wow, been a while.  This was renamed to Campbell's Custard, but the custard has remained consistently delicious.  The new URL is: http://campbellscustard.com/  In addition, we've been a few times this summer and I've felt very comfortable with the employees' masking and how they are handling payment and food handling.

Tonight's dinner was this: https://bakerbynature.com/honey-glazed-scallops/ over a big ol salad. We used the sauce as the dressing and it was fantastic.

We had 4 limes and a single orange that had been sitting on the counter for too long.  I squeezed them all and made us frozen daiquiris.  I think I should have included a bit more simple syrup, but it was enjoyable. 

We're trying out the Misfits Market produce box subscription service and had a couple of Roma tomatoes to use up.  Decided to make nachos for lunch.  Ground beef w/ taco seasoning, blue corn chips, pickled jalapeno slices and cheddar cheese.  My husband had the remains of a bag of ghost pepper chips, so he added that to his side of the tray.  Once hot and crispy, I added some salsa to mine and he went for the sour cream.   

We had some tortillas, eggs and cheese.  So, after this morning's bike ride, I scrambled an egg w/ Sriracha and black pepper.  Poured it in a small skillet and once it was 85% set, sprinkled on cheese and topped with a flour tortilla.  Gave it another min, then flipped and another min.  Repeat for the 2nd one, roll it up and breakfast was served.  I made some quick pickled fennel yesterday, so added a bit of that to mine, which I enjoyed.

I've had to go into the office this week because there's a lot going on right now.  Yesterday was mildly insane, but we had an early dismissal too.  At 3pm, I let my husband know I was on my way home, but hadn't had lunch.  He then realized he hadn't eaten lunch either, so I walked into the house and he had made beef lo mein.   We'd had ground beef defrosting, so he used that, cut up the last of the bell peppers and about 1/2 a head of cabbage.  I devoured it and was so happy.