saf

Dinner here Saturday night with our usual crew of 4. I hate the pandemic precautions. We all LOVED being back there. Sat on the patio, drank cider, ordered half the menu, wished there were desserts. Wished we could be at the bar. Wished there was draft cider. But it was so nice to be there, so nice to be eating out.

Wow. It's been a week. So... Takeout (Mexican) and actual dining out (Basque) over the weekend! So, Sunday, we actually got to visit my mother in law. Everybody there, and both of us, now fully vaxxed! My husband was so happy - hasn't seen her since late 2019. This meant dinner on the road on the way home. I hate most fast food, but there wasn't much choice. (Had there been a Dairy Queen available...) Let's see, can I remember what we ate this week? Monday was stir fry - thinly sliced beef (leftover very rare steak, from the freezer), snap peas, and a peanut sauce with Pad Thai style noodles. Plus salad. Yesterday was honey miso chicken. And salad. And more of those really delicious English Muffin garlic, well, really ramp, bread. Oh, and still working down those cheese, so shreds of cheese on top. Tonight was chilis rellenos stuffed with smoke pork and cheese, from the freezer. Also, salad. Dessert for Monday and Tuesday was the most delicious baked lemon ricotta with strawberries. But now I have run out of the cheese. I need more cheese. So, ginger fudge ripple ice cream tonight.

YAY! It is indeed glorious.

Is it a second location, or are they moving again? And is it bigger than the current spot?

Ah, when we went to England, I could NOT eat the chicken. All tasted like fish to me. I was told they fed chickens on fish meal. I could eat the chicken in Ireland, although it was still weird tasting.

Strawberry Spritz! Salad. Then, scampi with orzo for him, steamed artichoke for me. Ramp butter on english muffins with some cheese shreds (still working through that cheese backlog!) Later, ginger fudge ripple ice cream. (Ice cream from "The Perfect Scoop." Fudge ripple also from there, left over from a previous recipe, and hey, chocolate and ginger are tasty together!)

Where are you? I can't bring myself to buy supermarket meat of any sort any more. I get it all at the farm market. Much better, and I can confirm for myself that it isn't factory farmed. OK, except when I break down and have to have a hot dog. Then I just ignore the cognitive dissonance for the duration of dinner. Meat-wise, we eat mostly chicken, pork, and the occasional beef. So no comments on lamb.

Last night was salad (I know, I am boring. But it really is the easiest way to get at least a minimum of vegetables into every meal.) followed by cheese plate. We had all kinds of odds and ends of cheese from cheese plate appetizers for the last few game nights. So, a baguette from Le Caprice, a bunch of various cheese, strawberries, the end of some pepperoni. Quite tasty. And the boy's favorite ice cream sandwiches (so artificial, so tasty!) for dessert. Giant's limoncello offerings are quite nice. Well, except for the weird ones. Who needs limoncello tortilla chips? Or paper towels? (Their holiday peppermint ice cream sandwiches are his second favorite ice cream sandwiches. The holiday peppermint seltzer is high on my list of tasty things. No so much the limoncello mango and limoncello blueberry seltzer. Those are only OK.)

Congrats! Tonight is another, "When it is in season, we eat a LOT of it" night. Pre-dinner strawberry spritz. Salad. Toasted leftover baguette with ramp butter from the last ramps of the season. (still some of that butter left) And cream of asparagus soup (recipe from "How to Cook Everything.") Later, the end of the chocoflan. I am glad we gave some of it away to the others at dinner on Saturday, but... I will be sad when it is gone.

Oh hell no.

Sunday. Baseball season. (Damn Yankees. (Unrelated - I really do not approve of interleague play.)) Not raining. So... grill night! Chicken thighs, rubbed with BBQ spice and brushed with (Dinosaur) BBQ sauce for their last few minutes on the grill. Salad, not grilled. Asparagus and sugar snap peas, both grilled. Rosemary bread. Leftover chocoflan for dessert. Quite nice. I could eat way more of this than I should.

I infused white vermouth with strawberries yesterday. Later today I will have strawberry spritz!

I did not make dinner or order out last night - went to a friend's house for tamale pie, black bean salad, lettuce salad, and roasted Mexican carrots. I did take chocoflan for dessert though!

Vace pizza last night - took it to a friend's house, along with salad. And a bottle of pear cider. She made chocolate chocolate chip cookies. A tasty dinner. Vace remains the same as ever, and that's OK!

So, Tuesday was tacos. Leftover pork from the weekend. Grilled red pepper from grill night. Ramps. Guacamole. Strawberry salsa. Very tasty. Also salad. And ice cream. And last night was some chicken chiles rellenos out of the freezer. More guacamole! Also salad. And the end of the ice cream. I admit, I save the fried dinners for the night before the house cleaners come. That way I only have to wipe up the stove. Tonight will be salad, soup from the freezer, and some bread. The boy went back to his office for the first time since last year today, so he's stopping for nice bread. And since the house was cleaned today, I don't want to start messing up the kitchen IMMEDIATELY!

Wow, they have better prepared food than Mediterranean Bakery? OK, for sure will have to try them now. (Haven't been to VA in quite a while now, so haven't had a chance to try them yet.) And as for deserts - the fruit pockets cookies at Mediterranean Bakery, especially the raspberry, are the best things ever. EVER! I wish I could find a recipe for them!

Stroganoff, using leftover hangar steak from the freezer, from a previous grill night. Also, ramps in place of onions. Pioppini mushrooms. (plus chicken broth, dijon, and sour cream.) Egg noodles. And, of course, salad. Quite tasty. I am getting better at estimating portions. It's frustrating - we are both from big families, and learned to cook for large groups. Took us years to get the portions right. Then we started getting older, and eating less, so we have to recalibrate again! But, we don't have tons and tons left over, so that's good. Later, ice cream.

And Sunday again, still baseball season. So, grilling. Chicken thighs rubbed with jerk spices. Asparagus. Carrots. Zucchini for him. Cheesey garlic toast on english muffins - thanks for the brilliant idea Pat! And of course, salad. Later, more strawberry shortcake. The shortcake recipe made 2 more pieces than we needed last night... so I get more shortcake!

Dinner from here for zoom dinner on Friday. Salad made at home. Then, spring rolls to share, Pad Thai for me and shrimp in garlic sauce for him. Dinner companions - I forget what they had. They liked it. Again, food is tasty. But their scheduling windows are a half hour range, and don't seem to be followed well. So we have all started ordering a half hour before I plan to arrive for pickup, which is the general estimate on the website. Then you instantly get a text and an email telling you it will be 45 minutes. Then you get a text telling you it will be an hour. That text is generally followed by a text telling you your food is ready, within about 15 minutes. They need to improve that. When I tell them about this, they acknowledge it, and say, "But the text telling you it is ready is correct, so just rely on that." The explanation that I need to drive 10 minutes, then park in Mt Pleasant seems incomprehensible to them.

Another round of ice cream pickup on Friday. This time, sweet cream for him and miso butterscotch for me. Both highly recommended.

Another game night/dinner party! Cheese plate, olives, and masala peanuts for apps. Then Cuban roast pork loin, oven-roasted asparagus, glazed carrots with rum and lime, salad, and baguette. Quite tasty. And the first strawberry shortcake of the season for dessert. So tasty! The pork loin was very tasty, but also very dry. And we were very careful on the temp, trying to avoid that. It also took almost 45 minutes longer than expected. I have this problem with pork roasts. Tenderloins work better. Shoulders work better. I dunno, I may give up on pork loin until I discover a better plan.

Crepes! Pretending that we were at the now long-gone Petunia's in New Orleans. OK, the crepes were not football sized. And I do not have football sized flaming crepes for dessert. But fancy crepes! Again, maitake mushrooms, with ramps subbed for the shallots. Also, made a half recipe, so had to tweak the topping a bit, as I was not about to try to halve an egg yolk. Later, the end of the ice cream and cookies.

Dinner, outside on the patio. Aperitivo hour! (Scroll down for aperitivo hour menu.) Aperol spritzes! Delicious apps! Negroni for him, also a black old fashioned. So nice to go OUT. Also, people across the patio from me, think before you talk. "I am not racist, but..." is never a good opening. And "We're in Mount Pleasant, right?" kinda indicates you have no idea where you are. Well, unless you are in Mount Pleasant. Which you are not.

I often either leave it out, or sub it with other herbs. The oregano is trying to take over the back yard, although it will have to overcome the mint. Perhaps oregano...

Ah, how I love autocorrect. (I used to love the damn you autocorrect blog. I have fat fingers I guess. Autocorrect goes MAD on my texts! My friends find it an amusing thing, luckily.) So, tonight, salad, as above. Then, quiche with a hash brown crust. Again, swapped in ramps for the oniony part, and added maitake mushrooms. If you make it, pay attention to the comments. You do indeed need to add about 10-15 minutes of baking the crust after stovetop frying to make the crust actually crunchy, as the comments say. The boy wanted it, so I made it, but I have always found the crust a bit soggy on the inside. Tried the baking this time, and it was so much better. (Made a half size. Love my tiny cast iron skillet. Came out nicely.) Later, ice cream and cookies. The masticha ice cream came out nicely, and I do like the almond cookies. (Always glad to find a recipe that uses egg whites. The problem with making ice cream is all the leftover egg whites!) I would make this, minus the evil cilantro. That sounds like it could be delicious. Where did you get the hatch chilies?