The Meatwave: Ribs Gone Tropical.
This link isn’t so much for sharing it is me bookmarking it so that I can make these at a future date.
That we never actually posted the pictures from Owen’s first birthday party. They’re filled with a lot of people and children you probably won’t recognize.
And since it’s been a few days removed from the party, and we have a 4 GB eyefi card, we’ve obviously taken lots of other photographs:
Oh, and we took a ton at the park yesterday, as yesterday was a gorgeous day. Gonna try something new here, which won’t work on iDevices ’cause it uses Flash:
Today was a snowy day in Denver, so we’ve been stuck inside pretty much all day.
We had a ton of strawberries left from when they were on sale. Had to use them up – so I made strawberry jam.
Somebody here has a birthday soon – and I have this plan to make that person’s cake from scratch. So today I did a test cake. It was a marble cake with vanilla buttercream frosting. It looks really good, and the frosting tastes good. Half of the cake will be delivered to new neighbors who move in tomorrow, but of course we’ll test some tonight.
Then, for dinner, I put together this chicken thing I made up. I’ll probably write more on that depending on how it ends up tasting.
Kind of busy today, but I am trying to keep on my “one post a day” minimum. So I’m going to attempt to do two things at once here: write down a recipe I made up last night for “special taco sauce” because Anna has requested me to do so, and write a blog post. If I don’t write down these recipes that I make up, I forget them and they can never be duplicated, which makes Anna a sad panda.
So last night, Anna learned how to use the fabulous meat grinder, and ground up some chicken. For the taco seasoning, I used:
First I … browned? I guess cooked … the ground chicken in my trusty, invincible cast iron skillet. Then I added everything above, brought the water to a simmer, and let it sit for a bit. That is the easy part – basic taco goodness.
What’s important here is the special-est sauce: In our mini-chopper I added the entirely scientific and precise amounts listed below:
Mix it in the chopper thingy until it’s all blended. If I had it to do again, I’d probably add a pinch of sugar or something, as the sauce is very tart, like Anna.
It was pretty good. Oh, and we topped our tacos with grilled onions and Monterey Jack cheese. Nom.
Once a year, we have pork tenderloin for dinner. Last night was that night.
For twenty-four American hours, the meat marinated in a mixture of orange juice, lime juice, and organic “purchased by Marvie” grapefruit juice – and the zest of all three, olive oil which may or may not have been previously deflowered, garlic, salt, pepper, and some chili powder. It was pretty good.
If you have trouble finding the particular type of grapefruit, you might check with Marvie.
We went with our annual pork tenderloin because it was warm enough to grill. We got’r done early and ate as a fambly. I don’t think Owen gets the whole “sitting at a table I’m not tied to” thing.
I was reading this post on a food blog – this gal bought a seven pound chicken roasted it, and stretched the leftovers for seventeen meals.
The meal total included leftovers for lunch, which is neat to consider. Leftovers are very important in our house. Twenty-six dollars for a work week’s worth of food is not too shabby, and makes my … thrifty … heart grow three sizes.
But, we could never do that, other than for the express purpose of saving cash – and even then, it wouldn’t be very fun. I love me some lean-protein chicken, but I don’t think I could eat chicken five days in a row. It wouldn’t be enjoyable, especially because around day four I’d start actively wondering if I was going to die if I ate the chicken. I know I probably wouldn’t die? But I would think that I could die, and that seems to be enough to give my intestines the go-ahead to speed up the process of expelling used food.
What I have been trying to do lately is to eat more vegetables, and we have been going vegetarian once or thrice a week. It’s a bit less expensive, and honestly, a lot more healthy so long as we get some sort of protein, giggity.
Tofu gets a bad rap, but if you prepare it correctly, it’s great. Owen loves it!
Doesn’t that look delicious? There are two reasons I like tofu, and Anna tolerates it. On normal weekday evenings, quickly put together dinners are the best. A tofu stir fry takes approximately ten minutes to prepare, if you don’t count the arduous process of cooking rice in the active preparation, and the pre-prep time of pressing the tofu. Bonus – it is flavorful, healthy, and inexpensive! One pound of extra-firm tofu costs us a single George Washington.
Normally we use a store bought stir-fry sauce. We used to use the Iron Chef sauces for ironic and tastiness purposes, but apparently those are difficult to find at our local grocer these days.
The only thing you would need to know is that, ahead of time, you need to press the tofu. After that, it’s a simple stir fry. Cut up a veggie or two, heat up some oil, and stir fry everything. Then, add some sauce. Add to rice. Win.
On tofu nights, we’re happily fed and on to watching Lost or Chuck. Or more correctly, Anna is watching it, and I’m bitching about it. Or, even more correctly, Anna is watching it, and I’m half watching it while playing Final Fantasy (again) on my iPod Touch, yet still bitching about it.
A long time ago, I wrote about the phenomenon that occurs when people buy things. It seems that a person who spends more money on something will be convinced that it is better – simply because it was more expensive. I obviously tend to believe this study because we don’t generally buy expensive things. Clearly I’m biased.
This morning I read about Wal-Mart’s attempt to … go green by supporting local farmers and produce.
This was then followed up by an article by a foodie, Corby Kummer, who has an unfortunate name but writes for The Atlantic.
He has a lot of the same contempt for Wal-Mart that seems to befit people who identify with the progressive, left side of politics. Or should I say – he had. He was impressed enough with Wal-Mart’s offerings to actually hold a blind taste test between them and organic, local produce from Whole Foods.
This is probably my favorite quote from the article:
“They do a lot of good things they don’t talk about,” he offered.
I think that’s true of a lot of people and businesses.
Avocados are healthy – avocado.org doesn’t mind telling you so.
Anna had a soiree at the house recently, and she bought a Costco sized pack of Wholly Guacamole.
One of the ladies who came to said soiree brought Guacamole (non Wholly).
Owen loves avocados. We’ll just slice up chunks and he’ll pick them up and slam ‘em down about as fast as we can get them in his cone of vision.
Avocados were recently $0.77 apiece at our local grocer – and even more recently $0.39 apiece. Being tired of eating avocado, but having a son that loves it, I did what made sense – I bought ten of them. Avocado as far as the eye can see, including leftover guacamole that I’m quite sick of eating.
I shouldn’t complain. Avocados in other places are much more expensive than they are here. And they’re incredibly healthy:
High avocado intake has been shown to have an effect on blood serum cholesterol levels. Specifically, after a seven-day diet rich in avocados, hypercholesterolemia patients showed a 17% decrease in total serum cholesterol levels. These subjects also showed a 22% decrease in both LDL (bad cholesterol) and triglyceride levels and 11% increase in HDL (good cholesterol) levels.
If only I thought my cholesterol was a problem. My blood pressure needs fixin’, not my cholesterols!
So the Saints won. As a fan of the Saints, I am pleased. Today I am wearing my Aaron Brooks New Orleans Saints jersey.
Amy was in town, and to celebrate the Super Bowl, she crafted a bacon explosion.
For a photojournal of the creation, look below the fold: Read the rest of this entry »
I wonder if I can find an old Weber on craigslist or something?
This guy made a pizza oven out of an old Weber. I need this to go with my perfect crust, until I can dig into my backyard and make my own brick oven!
