Meat Is Our Number One Ingredient. . .

In The Garden

I bet you have seen one of those commercials that compares the family dog to a wolf. I suppose it is intended to feed some desire in pet owners to see the manatee nee bulldog beside them on the couch as a noble predator, stalking his quarry. . . Bit of a stretch.

Yes dogs are decedents of wolves, but how? Prevailing theory now is that proto-dogs self selected in the garbage heaps near ancient human communities. So dogs are opportunistic omnivores. 

The picture above is our dog in the garden nomming on a discarded ear of corn. To my knowledge he has never been given corn right off the stalk. He found it, brought it out of the picked over stalks, peeled the husk back, and ate the nibblets off the cob. Opportunistic omnivore. 

Oh, yeah. He loves crabgrass too. 

Everything Is Better With Pizza Sauce

Breakfast, Wednesday September 05: pizza omelet (egg, jalapeno, red pepper, onion, mushroom, bacon, mozzarella, pizza sauce); garden tomato; banana.

As far as Alexis is concerned everything is better with pizza sauce on it (coleslaw?). So when I said I would saute some veggies for eggs her demand was "As long as mine has pizza sauce on it." We had sauce on hand because I was out of town for a few days. "What's that got to do with it?" you ask. If I am not going to be home I usually make sure she has stuff to make herself flatbread pizza. It's not that she is incapable of cooking for herself. She works 12 hour shifts. When she gets home she is tired, but usually has some chore(s) to tend to in my stead: pick beans; water plants; tote boxes upstairs; other housework; etc. So I try to make it easy for her to make herself some comfort food.

Ed's Diner

Supper, Tuesday September 04: meat and three (pork barbecue, sweet corn, yellow Italian beans, cauliflower and cheddar).

Over the years I have had many people tell me "You should open a restaurant!" I always graciously thank them. What I don't tell them is that I worked for some time in that industry in both the corporate and independent versions.  I've done more or less every job in the restaurant business. (No I can't say that I have been officially a Poissonnier, but very few restaurants in the world have one). I can therefore say with all certainty, it is really hard work. I mean REALLY hard. Not only that, the hardest job is owner/chef of an independent restaurant. 

I cook at home or for guests for my own amusement. I do not want it to be my job. Beyond that I would also note that just about the only thing that cooking at home and running a restaurant have in common is that both use food somehow. That's about it. 

It's Octopuses

Weird road food edition

So we were traveling home from our beach condo and planned on making a stop in Savannah to eat. Alexis is always down for Mexican but I wasn't feeling it. I was more in the mood for Thai. While I was looking on the Google I was reminded of a sushi place we recently tried and liked. So I was like "What about that sushi place?" Then she was all like "Hells yeah!" So then I was like "OK then make a left up here."

Yeah, not a fan of the quotative "like." Say or say not, there is no like.

The place has a baby octopus "salad." I guess it's a salad 'cause it's got sesame seeds, soy, and sesame oil. Really it is just a bowl of chewy yumminess (assuming you're into that sort of thing). Anyhoo we shared the "salad" and some sushi and soup. A great way to start the trip.

Oh, yeah. octopuses always sounds weird to me. I have always wanted it to be octopi. Cactus? Cacti. Alumnus? Alumni. Octopus is not a Latin word. It's Greek. So it is octopuses. My position though is that we are using a Greek word in English that sound Latin-ish. Do we really need to adhere to the original plural form? We should make it an honorary Latin word. Octopi forever!

What Is So Sublime About Cheese And Eggs?

Breakfast, Friday August 17: cheesy eggs 

(eggs (DUH), medium cheddar, salsa); 

hash browns with salsa; tomato, avocado, 

Hawaiian sea salt, ev olive oil.

Seriously, take gooey eggs, mix in some cheese til it's all melty and gooier. What we should say is "Wow! This has the texture of Rhinoceros snot." We don't. Pourquoi pas? I guess it just tastes that good and we have learned to accept that texture.

I saw a news story recently on specialty ice creams. One featured had the property that it stretched like melted mozzarella. I'm not sure I could do it. The texture would be too foreign.

I Gotta Get A New Phone

Lunch, Monday August 13 homemade lunchable (grilled squash, yellow Italian beans, 

Ohio sharp cheddar, 

beer and mustard cheese, Trail bologna).

The glass over the camera on my phone has gotten badly scratched. It is making all my pictures very blurry. 
Did I mention that Alexis just adores her little bento style lunch box? Yeah, she does. She is also a fan of nibbly things. Win, win.