draggonlaady

Chicken cordon bleu is pretty damn yummy. Breading made of crumbled Parmesan and cheddar cheez-its, with some basil and ground pepper, is amazingly tasty. AMAZINGLY, especially considering that I don't much like cheez-its.

Is apparently what we had for dinner tonight. Whatever the hell he calls it, it was yummy, so yay Bruce!

Cook rice. FLAVORFUL rice. Make the rice flavorful by addition of: beef broth rather than water for cooking, butter, oregano, onion powder, and ground pepper. Put cheese in the rice. Enough cheese to make the rice cohesive. Marinade very thin strips of steak in olive oil, malt vinegar, and steak seasoning. Use more vinegar than you might think is appropriate, particularly if you've used more oregano than is purely natural in the rice. Roll steak out flat. Make nigiris, and roll them up in the steak.

Place rolls in a deep pan, cover and bake at 300F for an hour. or 45 minutes. or, you know, until they're done.

Allow to rest (covered) for 15 minutes.

Voila!




Ideas for next time: stew in tomato sauce instead of braising in own juices.

Bruce has just made me the wonderful and lovely dish of Chicken and Blueberry Risotto. If you have never had this, you are MISSING OUT. If you know how to make risotto, go get yourself some blueberries and chicken and do so. If you don't, then go find someone who knows how, or go watch Alton Brown's risotto episode. On second thought, go watch it even if you do know how, he's amusing.

Alton Brown's "Rhapsody for red" marinade is good stuff. Marinade roast, serve over fried rice. Marinade reduces well to a sauce also. Cook meat separately from sauce, add honey to sauce to thicken for reduction and mellow taste.

Well today was pretty sucky.

Both Bruce and I are tired and cranky, though we're trying not to take it out on each other.

Spent the entire day at the clinic. Literally. Was there at midnight, then 4:30 am, home for a couple hours sleep, then back by 9. Left briefly to get lunch and came back, there until 3. Got home, took my shoes off, phone rang, back to the clinic. Got home at 4. Sat down on the couch, phone rang again. Thankfully not back to the clinic this time. Instead, I took a nap on Bruce.

Feeling much better now, thanks to a lovely dinner. In case anybody wondered, Parmesan bacon potato soup is yummy.

Such a quiet afternoon that we sent people home early. Bruce is cooking dinner at his folks' and I'm supposed to be there with them. Except that just as I head out, I get a call.

"I've got, like, this little dachshund, and like, she, like, acts like she's, like, drunk or something? She won't, like, walk right, or maybe she can't see? I don't know if she, like, maybe got, like, kicked in the head?"
Brief discussion of head trauma vs. toxins follows. Owner wants to watch the dog and see how she does. Doesn't think it's a toxin, because she wasn't out so she couldn't have gotten into anything (so, where would she have gotten kicked in the head? who knows.).
Almost immediately after hanging up, I think of something else, and call back. Discuss blood sugar issues in small dogs. Ask more questions. Discover that the dog "has blood coming from her 'wee wee'", won't eat (if they put food in her mouth, she just drops it), her eyes are rolled back and glazed....so I tell her it sounds like we should probably look at the dog.

So now, I'm sitting at the clinic, waiting for the wreck to get here. And brainweevil is TEASING me by posting about the delicious turkey that I'm not there to eat.

Applesauce waffles with cinnamon roll icing are the yum.

Crossed the state twice this past weekend with Bruce. Long long time to sit on a motorcycle. Trip #1 started Friday evening. We stopped at a little place called Cow Creek Mercantile for dinner. Little deli place inside a gift store. We got there at the worst possible time--15 minutes before closing. The lady was friendly though, and said to come on it. "She'll cook whatever I tell her to, she's my daughter," she said when I asked if the cook had already cleaned the grill. Food was good, we sat outside in a little garden area and watched the praying mantises hunt moths in the sign lights. (http://www.merchantcircle.com/business/Cow.Creek.Mercantile.509-659-0490)

Kicked around Tacoma, hung out with insaneraven and his beautiful wife and cute kid. Had lunch at the Rock Pasta with khiril. Good pizza, and excellent brown sugar mozzarella bread! Went back to insaneraven's for dinner; you're right, julzerator, he makes a mean brisket!

Drove home Sunday, started early so we could meander and be silly. Took the long way home, across 2. Stopped at the Reptile Zoo in Monroe (http://www.yelp.com/biz/reptile-zoo-monroe), which was sorta mixed good and bad. The critters were fascinating, of course, but some of the habitats left somewhat to be desired. Staff was friendly though. As a side note, it's best to not leave the bike key turned on while you wander around. Got a jump start from a nice gent in the parking lot, and continued up the hill.

Hit the custom knives place at the top of the pass, and The Alps candy store above Leavenworth. Didn't buy anything. Knives were really pretty (but expensive, as expected). The Alps was neat, and had a ton of stuff, but I was disappointed that all the fudge was pre-packaged, so you we couldn't get just a small amount. Buying very much wasn't a good option, for fear it would melt and/or smash in the saddle bags, so no sugary goodness for me there.

Going through Wenatchee was horrible. Too hot to breathe, even on the bike with a 60+ wind chill. Weather.com says it was 105F there yesterday, but it felt even hotter.

Stopped for dinner in Coulee City at a place called Steamboat Rock Restaraunt.
(http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&um=1&ie=UTF-8&q=steamboat+rock,+coulee+city&fb=1&view=text&latlng=9203843340315552548) Got the absolute worst service possible without the waitress outright insulting and mocking us. Walked in, didn't see anyone at the counter, so we grabbed a table. There was only one other group of people there. After a few minutes of nobody coming out, I went and got us menus. Woman eventually comes over, says "Hi. The special today is chicken fried steak." and walks off. Does not look up, does not even glancingly make eye contact. Didn't ask if we wanted drinks, or were ready to order.
She comes back after a bit and sets two TINY glasses of water on the table and walks off again. AGAIN without eye contact or asking if we wanted anything. Eventually she comes back to ask if we want anything to drink, and Bruce asks for a pitcher of water, since it's blazingly hot out, and we've already emptied the glasses she brought us. She refuses to give us a pitcher, says "I'll bring you more water" and leaves without taking our order. Comes back, fills the water, walks away without asking for our order or looking up from the table.
Seriously considered at that point just walking out, but decided that the bar across the street was unlikely to have milkshakes, and dammit, it was hot out.
We end up asking again for water refills when she finally comes back to take our order, and twice more during dinner. (Please mind that even though she's the only server, there are still only 2 tables to tend to!) At 6:30 she comes by and flips all the open signs to closed, even though the sign on the door says they're open until 7. When we are finished with dinner (food was decent, but nothing spectacular), she walks up and sets the bill on the table. Doesn't ask if we're done, or if we want dessert, or if we need anything. STILL has never made eye contact with me, though Bruce has managed to get her attention once or twice. So I stop her, and ask about dessert. She manages to fairly rapidly hide the pained look, picks the bill back up, and goes to get us a cinnamon roll, and brings back the altered bill with the roll.
AFTER we are ready to go, have put money on the table, and are walking out, she starts smiling and trying to chat with us; asking where we're headed, how the ride's been. Don't know what was with the sudden mood swing, but it was much too late to salvage a tip.

I'll let Bruce do the ranting about stupid other drivers and people trying to kill us.

So at the suggestion of a friend, I varied up something I'd made before...and by golly he was right. Thanks mercaptan

Sautee onion in butter, add tandoori spices (cumin, chillies, cinnamon, cardamom, turmeric, ginger, etc). Then add more cinnamon. Cubed chicken (or paneer, or whatever other protein source you prefer). He suggested wine, but I had none. So I threw in mango yogurt (which has a very mellowing effect on the spices, so you may need to add more than expected). And add corn--this part was also suggested by mercaptan, and surprised me with how good it was.

Serve with rice, of course.


On an entirely unrelated note, go to these places:

www.badscience.net
http://www.bonkersinstitute.org/

Went veggie for tonight's food, because I was too damn lazy to walk out to the freezer and defrost something. So much for my high moral standing. Anyhoo:

1 can coconut milk, heaping spoonful tandoori spice, teaspoon fenugreek, 1 stalk celery, 1/2 bell pepper, 1/4 bunch of cilantro, and one chopped sweet potato into sauce pan, cover and simmer until the sweet potato is soft. Added some instant mashed potato (yeah yeah, i know, cheating--but if I'm too lazy to walk to the freezer, do you think i'm gonna boil & puree real potatoes? hah!) to thicken the sauce.
Served over rice. it was the yum.