1/3 cup 5-min grits
5/3 cups of salted water
1/4 chopped medium onion
3 cups of baby spinach
2 Tbsp nutritional yeast
2 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp powdered ginger
Cheese to taste. I like 1-3 oz.
====r
Boil water with onions & spinach.
Add dry ingredients.
Add cheese at end.
The spinach is new. I wanted more vegetables.
MA Ballot Questions and my votes
Public Records. Yes. If the state government had been a bit more reasonable over the last few years, I might have voted no. Since they appear to want to have it all their way, they deserve to have none of it their way.
Public Defender's Collective Bargaining. Yes. It's not like they're overpaid.
Jungle Primary. No--reluctantly. If they'd combined it with a 4 person ranked choice vote, I'd be a lot more amenable.
Registration the day of voting. Yes. I'm not completely convinced registration should be needed at all, other than as an administrative convenience.
Revenue limits. No. It's too complicated. Come up with a simpler scheme and I might go for it.
Nature Fund. No--reluctantly. Again, come up with a simpler scheme and I might go for it.
Starter Homes zoning. Yes. The against was, "Trust us, we've been doing it well for decades." Not likely, bucko. You're the ones that got us into this mess.
Marijuana de-legalization. No. I hate drug use. I had an uncle who was ... problematic. But ... making it illegal doesn't help anything.
Firearms. No. Half the damned booklet was legalese about this one item. I'm all in favor of universal owner training and licensing. Propose making semi-automatic firearms illegal in civilian hands and I might even go along. This thicket of gobbledy-gook is obscene.
NO! This whole area needs to be redone from scratch. The whole concept of assault weapons was stupid from the get-go. Ohhh ... scary black rifles are forbidden. Wooden stocked rifles are fine. (AR-15 vs. Mini-14)
My local market is known for their meats. We usually get our fish from the local fishmonger. The other day we noticed the market had "Previously Frozen Ecuadorian Swordfish" for $4-ish.
Pat it dry, olive oil, salt, and pepper. Heat up the grill. Cook up to 125-130F & let rest. Caper-butter sauce.
Meh. It wasn't bad. It was swordfish. It tasted old, stale.
***Not recommended.***
I have seen other reviews that say you need to get it still frozen, thaw it & cook it immediately.
The local apple farm, city park, and farm stand had a big bin of their own okra. I snagged a half dozen young pods. I vaguely recalled a TV recipe for roasted, instead of breaded & fried okra. There were many on line.
-6 pods sliced into wheels roughly as long as the diameter
-salt
-pepper
-paprika
-cayenne or better, chili powder
-a splash of oil
Preheat oven to 425F
Coat wheels in oil & spices
Cover baking sheet with foil
Roast for 15 min.
That's it. Vastly superior to my mother's breaded & fried, or my father's favorite, whole pods stewed in butter.
Had my yearly lobster tonight. Two lobster rolls.
My wife made them for a family thing.
Lobster claws & tails, coarsely chopped.
Hellman's mayo to moisten.
Chopped celery for a little bit of crunch.
Split top buns (New England style hot dog buns) buttered & toasted.
Butter lettuce leaves to prevent sog.
They were delicious.
Jill Biden prays to her dead stepson for help. I don't think this is Christian/Catholic?
This idea intrigued me, so I tried it. My wife, who likes both tortellini & mac and cheese, said it was good. Not being a fan of either, it was OK to me. YMMV.
Combine:
20 oz cooked cheese tortellini,
1 cup jarred Alfredo sauce,
4 oz cubed Velveeta,
1 tbsp minced garlic, or 1 to 1.5 tsp garlic powder,
1 tsp paprika, and
a pinch of ground mustard...
...in a warm skillet or pot. The pot used for the pasta is fine. Stir over low heat until the Velveeta melts into a smooth, rich garlic-paprika cream sauce.
Ingredients List
Tortellini: 20 oz cheese-filled tortellini (fresh or frozen.) I used fresh Buitoni.
Alfredo Sauce: 1 cup jarred Alfredo sauce. I used Rao's.
Cheese Base: 4 oz Velveeta cheese, cubed
Aromatics & Spices: 1 tbsp minced garlic (1 tsp garlic powder), 1 tsp paprika (smoked or regular), and 1/2 tsp ground mustard or Coleman's prepared
Creaminess booster: 1/4 cup heavy cream or milk (optional, to thin the sauce if needed) [not needed, IMO]
Step-by-Step Instructions
Boil pasta: Cook the tortellini in a pot of boiling water following package directions, then drain. Reserve ½ cup of water as needed.
Sauté garlic: Melt a small pat of butter in a large skillet over medium heat and cook the minced garlic for about 30 seconds until fragrant. (Ignore for garlic powder. Add in next step.)
Build sauce: Pour in the jarred Alfredo sauce, heavy cream, and add the cubed Velveeta, paprika, and ground mustard .
Melt cheese: Stir constantly on low heat until the Velveeta melts completely and the sauce is smooth and thick.
Combine: Toss the cooked tortellini directly into the cheesy garlic-paprika Alfredo sauce until fully coated and hot.
The garlic or other spices may need to be reduced, depending on the seasoning in the other ingredients.
It's summer ... good tomatos. Hence good tomato sandwiches. Normally, I'd use mayo, but I've watched a few too many episodes of "Sandwiches of History."
Older recipes, before commercial mayo, used butter. The British still use butter. So I tried it.
Lightly toast the bread
Thinly butter it
Add lettuce
Add thinly sliced tomatos, lightly salted
It's delicious.
I noticed on Phantom Gourmet (PG) that Kouzina had a platter, like a pu-pu platter (pikilia). We like Kouzina, from before they moved across Rte. 1. My wife loves pu-pu platters. We tried a half platter for lunch.
Recommended.
The full platter feeds 4-6 they say, so the half presumably 2-3. That's generous. They are pricy. The easy equivalent of 3 meals for the half.
Ingredients: A pork souvlaki, a chicken kebab, chicken & pork gyro meat, two lokanico, and two lambchops. Some sliced cheese, tomato and some onion & parsley salad. Their excellent tzatziki, hummus, and tirokafteri (Greek pimento cheese) and some pita rounded things out. We brought home enough for lunch tomorrow.
Pro tip: if you like lamb go with someone who doesn't. You can thank me later.
We'll probably try a couple of more of PG's Great 8 platter recommendations.
Yellow toadflax, or Butter and Eggs, (Linaria vulgaris) It isn't special, just pretty.
G95D, 14-140 mm @ 140mm, f/7.1, ISO 800, 1/1000 s, -0.66 EV. Essex Co., MA
Anas rubripes American Black Duck, making waves in the Mill Pond. I love the wave diffraction between the two of them.
G95D, 14-140mm @ 140mm, f/5.6, ISO 800, 1/400 s, +1.66 EV
This Limoniidae crane fly is hanging out on a hawkweed (Hieracium). Essex Co., MA. This was a chance photo. I was just snapping interesting plants and caught this by chance.
G95D, 14-140mm @ 92 mm, ISO 800, f/8, 1/800 s, +0.33 EV
I swear this is not altered in any way. The pastel colors are real, and the somewhat unhinged look of the bee is (I think) a product of the angle of flight.
G95D, 14-140mm at 140mm, f/5.6, ISO 800, 1/640 s, +.66EV
G95D, 14-140mm @ 140mm, f/7.1, ISO 800 1/800 s, -.66 EV
Essex Co., MA
Just a common cabbage white two-spot (female) Pieris rapae. I love the wing flex as she takes off. The fly was observing.
G95D 4K burst mode, f/5.6, 1/2000 s, ISO 800, -0.7 EV, 140mm (14-140mm lens)
Having tried (and rejected) my homeboys' starter (Stonewall Kitchen), I looked around and found one similar product. A 28 oz can of Muir Glen chili starter (Medium heat(?)). I got it at Whole Foods for a reasonable price.
The ingredients are a warning to the tomato averse.
It's cool and rainy in Boston today, with a wimpy Nor'easter. It's a perfect day for laundry & chili. Laundry done; turn to chili.
A pound of lean ground beef, a drained can of pintos, and the giant can of everything else. Plus a part of an onion that was in the fridge, chopped. Splash of olive oil, sweat the onion, break up the beef, & brown. Then add the starter & the pintos. I tasted it & it needed a bit more heat, so a sparse handful of dried chile flakes: YMMV.
Simmer for a half hour. Serve up with Santito's tortilla chips.
Pluses: Fast & easy; decent chili flavor; not bland or sweet like Stonewall Kitchen's.
Minuses: I like a bit of tomato in my chili. This was a lot of tomato.
Verdict: If I needed a _lot_ of chili in a hurry, I'd get 2# of beef & two cans of beans, a similar amount of chili flakes & this giant can. Plus onion & maybe some roast peppers.
For a small pot, it was just too tomatoey. I suppose one could split it & freeze it, but this is a convenience food.
It's easier to make a small batch from scratch. If you need to serve a dozen fast, maybe.
Panasonic Lumix cameras have long had a 4K photo mode tied to video. I grew frustrated with normal photo mode on some kinds of flowers. These were extracted from a 4K photo stream from my G95. Much better.
Best bee shots on a recent walk, bar one. That one is separate.
Leftover sausages... the eternal dilemma
Serves 1 person
Ingredients
2 hot Italian sausages
1 small yellow potato
1/2 onion, chopped
1/3 cup sauerkraut
1/4 cup pickled beets
Salt & pepper to taste
Instructions
Microwave potato til fully done (190-200F) about 5 min. and dice
Chop up sausages
Heat sauerkraut & beets in microwave until hot
Brown sausage & onions in cold skillet
Add potatos & brown
Add beets & sauerkraut
Cook until melded
Lunch from stuff lying around.
I was reading a library book, waiting to go pick up my youngest grandkids from camp. I kept glancing up to the top of the page, looking for the clock. No clock. I pulled out my phone to check the time. Rinse, repeat.
How did we live like that?