Friday Food 02-21-25

In the last 35 years I have pretty much lost all my cooking skills and barely manage to meet the nutritional needs for my age.   Cooking is just not interesting, so I depend more on simple meals or occasionally on prepared foods.  Never sure exactly what I might be eating with prepackaged things and they are always higher in salt than I prefer.   However, I do experiment sometimes.   At the market I was looking in the refrigerated case for cheese when I saw a bargain on fresh packaged meals, buy one get one (BOGO), that are things I have enjoyed. 

 
In fact, Carbonara is my favorite Italian offering. 

And Chicken Marsala is a close second.  

Both are easy to make at home, but require more cooking time than I usually want to give.    $7.99 for two is a deal.  The plastic bowl is filled with soft pasta and there is a plastic pouch of sauce.  Pour the sauce and mix with pasta, cover and zap for five minutes.   I took it out, stirred, and zapped for another 1-1/2 minutes so it  would still be hot when I had zapped a serving of fresh broccoli. Not as tasty as  my favorite Italian restaurant, it was a satisfactory meal and would be cheap enough at $7.99.    I will probably purchase again one day. 

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Friday Food - Sort of! 05-10-24

I don't know how many thousands of photos I have  on my laptop, a lot.   One of the handiest features is "search" where I type in a word and hit "Enter" and the little gremlins go searching for whatever. In this case "Food".  And up come all the photos with food.  The gremlins aren't sure sometimes and they throw it in anyway.  Some of these images are really far reaching, others could quite  possibly be food.

A box of Monica Shaffer's EPPs ready to use.

Dye set up in a Sue Benner fabric dyeing/painting class. 

The magazine sales table at a Surfside Quilters Guild meeting.

Nancy Pestal with Philanthropy fat quarters to sell. 

Baskets at November Fest, full of fabric and other goodies, but no food. 

This one makes me laugh.  It is "food", but the bottles sat out in the sun and developed a slouch.

Well, they do resemble eggs.

The gremlins can read anyway.  

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Friday Food 02-02-24

This gave me a laugh.  In the search box for my photos I typed in "meat" and this was one of the pictures that turned up.   I have other bison images and also cows, but this is the only live meat on the hoof that came up.

Bison on a ranch in Wyoming. 

What I was looking for was the one below.

Lamb chops at a restaurant in Oak Harbor, Whidbey Island, Washington.

One of the great things about computers is being able to visit my memories!  I do love lamp chops and can almost taste them looking at this picture.   They were the best I ever had.  This was taken in April 2013 when I was taking a class in Coupeville.  The entire class drove up to Oak Harbor, not very far, for dinner on the next to last day of class.  What a great adventure that trip was.

I was so impressed with the waitress's hair-do.  Seemed a little avant garde in a  small town, quite removed from big city styles. 

It was a very fancy restaurant ,even the ladies room.

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Friday Food 01-05-2024

I do like sweets, dessert of some kind at every meal.  I almost never make dessert at home, but try to find great dessert places to eat out. .Of course, there is always ice cream or gelato in the freezer.  And chocolate chips to help satisfy those terrible cravings for just a little bit of sweetness.  

Paris Baguette is rather new in our area and now there are two!  Fortunately neither is on my regular errands route, but sometimes I will go out of my way.

Cake is okay and some restaurants serve fabulous varieties.

And there is usually some kind of cheesecakes on the menu at fancier places/

Not many desserts at Japanese restaurants, but some serve green tea ice cream with chocolate drizzle.

Some really high priced places have homemade ice cream with delicate cookies. 

Anytime I see Marionberry pie on the menu, I will have a piece.

This is a whole pie which I would need to share with a couple other people.  

Creme Brulee always hits the spot.  

Chocolates are nice, even when they are not See's.  

I can savor one piece or just pig out, I was born a chocolate lover. 

But my great downfall is a cookie.  As part of my self invented diet I repeat

"One cookie is better than five", but I don't always listen to myself.

Orange and chocolate is a divine combination.

Homemade are best and there are always some on the refreshment table at guild meetings.

Like this rich chocolate with pecans. 

This bar cookie was soooo  good.  A crust with chocolate frosting  and  chopped  almonds. 

A trio of cookies for Christmas  -  chocolate chip, cranberry, and nuts with frosting. 

Of course, KoKo is also a cookie lover, although it is a very rare treat for him.

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Friday Food 12-22-23

Neighbors very generously treat me and Pam, another neighbor widow, to dinner almost every month. And in December they chose Summit House which is probably the fanciest and, therefore, the  most expensive local restaurant.  It is incredibly well  decorated and there is a group of four carolers who stroll and sing.  Unfortunately, the place was so full and so noisy I couldn't hear much of anything.  But it was very festive, interesting to see the different people and what they were wearing (dressed up or not),  and the food is always excellent.  I chose the John Dory, one of their  specialties, and it was perfectly cooked and presented. Unfortunately, in my photo it looks a little like oatmeal with some green strings on it, so we will skip that.  

                           

After going through the lobby one is greeted  with this view of the open kitchen behind a display of the desserts on offer.  

Then along to the right is the about twelve foot heavily decorated Xmas tree. 

Leslie took this picture of her husband, Charles, and the two widows: Pam and Del.  

Here are hostess and host: Lesley and Charles Lipton.  

The desserts are mostly too much after the full plates we had for dinner.   This  offering  is  nice if everyone is willing to have just a couple bites of their choice, but Chuck likes  the trifle, and the ladies are inclined to share.  

So, we had the profiteroles - on individual plates.  So good and just enough.  Of course we ate every bite since the inside is vanilla ice cream so no dessert doggie bag.

It such a great treat!!!

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Friday Food 11-10-23

When I look through my  pictures I  realize that I am more inclined to take pictures of desserts than of actual meals. So, these are either homemade or at unremembered  restaurants.

Avocado  toast which I have  enjoyed for decades,  before it had a  name!

This is homemade with toasted raisin-pecan bread, a thin spread  of  mayo, a tiny sprinkle of salt, and, as you can see, some black  pepper.

Sometimes I make it with frozen waffles!

One of  my favorite meals when I visited friends in San Juan Batista.

Mary would fix lamb chops and  baked potatoes and,on this occasion thinly sliced carrots, a tomato slice and some thin radishes. Located in the veggie capital of California there are always lovely fresh vegetables.  

A lovely fresh shrimp salad at an  unremembered  restaurant.

I do love shrimp, but rarely eat them unless I can be sure they are not treated with sulfites to keep them fresh.   Sulfites do a job on me. The blue flowers don't have a taste, they are just a delight to the eyes. 

This is an Indian meal from the family whose boys I take to school two days a  week.  The dad was born here and works from home except for Tues and Wed.  The mom, born in India, is a nurse who is studying to be an anesthesiologist assistant and has odd hours.  Both of them cook and will sometimes prepare extra  for me.  This is beef chunks, little pancakes with veggies, a "salad" of cut up fruits and veggies (papaya, green onions, cucumber, and other things).  Also a homemade naan.  Sometimes things are too spicy for my old stomach, but usually I can tune it down with plain yogurt and occasionally I put it in a strainer and run water over it before reheating it in the microwave. The food is varied and always tasty - even if I cannot identify it.  I believe they use these stainless steel plates and bowls as their every day dishes.  

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Friday Food 11-03-23

 All of the quilt guilds I have belonged to have  refreshments of some kind.   I think the ladies of Surfside Quilters Guild outdo themselves, at every meeting there is a tempting spread of  both sweet and savory.  A member brings something and puts their name in a bowl for a drawing for the table decoration.  Members with birthdays in each month are encouraged to bring something for the refreshment table.  In September I always take See's chocolates - three pounds are gone by the end of the meeting.

Some offerings are homemade, but I think they are mostly store bought. 

One member consistantly brings English muffins  topped  with  egg salad and cut  into bite  sized  pieces.  Usually this  is  the first  plate that empties!

Some members  like to bring seasonal treats like  witches hats  and chocolate egg nests.  

A selection of savory .....

....and sweet.  At our present location there is no coffee - groan!

I think it would be impolite not to try a little something!!

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Friday Food 10-27-23

The other day when Carol and I had lunch at Fitness Grill in Yorba Linda we both ordered Chicken Chipotle Kabob: Chicken breast, chipotle ajoli marinade, grilled tomatoes and chilies, basamati rice.  When we were seated we noticed a man seated nearby had something that looked delicious and asked the waiter who gave it thumbs up.  Oh,my goodness it was fantastic. So much so that I can hardly wait to go back and have it again. I had already tucked  in before I took the picture. The two tomato halves are the light red  on either side of the plate and the bright red at the top isone of  two mild chillies,  I had already  removed the VERY hot green chili so it  wouldn't contaminate anything else.

Of course I couldn't eat all of this for lunch, so I have enjoyed it for dinner, along with two of Carol's chicken pieces and some broccoli from my frig.   YUM.

I  was recently  at a meeting at Rosie's in San Diego and we all  went next door for lunch at the Mexican place. I think their food is good, but they are shortofstaffsoittakesawhiletogetserved.

LookslikeIhaverunoutofspaces!  

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Friday Food 10-07-23

I haven't been to Fish in a Bottle for sushi in months.  Don't know why, guess I just haven't gotten back in the dining out habit.  Carol and I went on Monday evening,  discovering all over again how delicious the food is there.  I didn't take a picture of the Tempura, which looks like tempura everywhere. 

Carol had a glass of wine. Always looks good, but I can no longer tolerate alcohol.

Crunch,Crunch is one of our old favorite rolls.  

Shrimp tempura, crab meat, cucumber, avocado, and crispy crunch on the outside.

This cucumber roll is new on the menu and we will order it again.

There is no rice and the outside is wrapped in thinly sliced cucumber strips. 

Albacore, crab, fish roe, and??  I don't remember what else and the online menu does not list this roll - too new, I guess. 

I brought home the leftovers and ate them for lunch the next day.  And they were again delicious. I will start going there frequently again.  Before Covid I went once  a week. 

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