[Palomine]

I invited everyone in Chat over for Felafel but no one showed.

[Shara]

I ate nothing that day

[pedonbio]

Spaghetti with marinara and mushroom sauce. I was tired.

[RandomX]

Last night I had a Chipotle wrap which was...eh. So I ordered some sweet potato fries instead.

Monday night is trivia night for us, so we head to the bar and dominate people with our giant brains.

[Palomine]

Chicken cutlets pounded thin (with my grandfather's white rubber mallet, through saran wrap) then egg washed and dredged through panko (Japanese) bread crumbs and spices and cooked very quickly in a nonstick pan glazed with butter just a few degrees shy of the smoke point. Served with slices of al dente zucchini sauteed in a bit of bacon fat with an assortment of other veggies softened ahead of time and also some coarse bulgur wheat pilaf reconstituted courtesy of homemade chicken stock.

Some white wine and dark beer too... and some company... the best ingredient of all. I took a quick snap but it's still in the camera... to be added later if I remember.

[Shara]

when I get home I want to be able to eat 15 minutes later... so usually a pasta

[Palomine]

I was expecting between one and three friends over for dinner tonight, so I cooked for four and was relieved when only one showed up (the cutest one). I made London Broil (marinated of course, then sliced thinly against the grain at a fortyfive degree angle), Brussel sprouts in garlic butter and sweet potatoes baked with onions, mushroom, dried cranberries and slivered almonds. Everything was delicious... pardon the flash photography which does little to get the point across. "Johnny Cash: American III Solitary Man" as the musical accompaniment.

 

[Shara]

I'm one of three people on this planet who adores brussel sprouts

Pal replies: so that's you, me and who's the thrird? Young and fresh, and properly prepared (not over cooked) they're sweet and delicious... like Lilliputian cabbages.

[BacE]

I'm one of three people on this planet who adores brussel sprouts

Pal replies: so that's you, me and who's the thrird? Young and fresh, and properly prepared (not over cooked) they're sweet and delicious... like Lilliputian cabbages.

Well I guess, I'm the third person.
B"had me some spaghetti carbonara today"acE

[PregNut]

I like Brussels sprouts...


...but they don't like me.

[RDaneel]

Fresh caught mahi-mahi, blackened, on a still warm from the oven sourdough roll, thin slice of tomato. bit of lettuce, bit of onion, touch of wasabe. Cold brew and a big napkin.

[Shara]

pizza with homemade toppings

[gOOber]

I'm one of three people on this planet who adores brussel sprouts

Pal replies: so that's you, me and who's the thrird? Young and fresh, and properly prepared (not over cooked) they're sweet and delicious... like Lilliputian cabbages.

I wonder if I`m the only person on the planet that seasons their brussel sprouts with nutmeg?

[Shara]

nope

[Palomine]

My digital camera died so no pix for a while.

It gets dark so early now: mid-November and daylight savings time and all ...seasonal affective disorder seems a real possibility; though because it's SoCal I barbecue all year round, even if a sweater and hat are useful at times (hardly necessary today, it's almost 80 as I sit here typing this on my laptop while sitting next to the BBQ, with a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale at hand and KCSN on the radio). So much time wasted on the phone this morning (all morning basically) with my cellphone provider (gah, how I despise them!   ) that I felt no guilt whatsoever in starting dinner and opening a beer before it was even 2pm. Plus, I have the whole 'night-comes-so-early-now' thing as a rationale.

Inside I have a couple cups of rice in the Zojirushi and a pot of water on the stove, heating a packet of sauce from a package entirely devoid of English text (I think the Kanji characters roughly translate to 'tasty brown sauce for stew'). Out here on the grill, I have a few pounds of split chicken breasts (oiled and seasoned) and the grill pan (a nonstick thingy perforated with small holes so the diced veggies don't fall through) is laden with some sort of squash, an onion, three kinds of peppers, a couple heirloom tomatoes and waterchesnuts (everything but the waterchestnuts are from my garden or the gardens of neighbors).

When the chicken is done, I'll shred the meat from the bones, toss it with the grilled veggies and the sauce, and serve it over the rice. By which time I'll be on my second or third beer if experience holds true. It's impractical, but between the cellphone company and the water company (which dug up part of my yard by mistake today, killing a couple of bushes in the middle of a long hedge... it turned out to not even be necessary   ) I am overwhelmed by the desire to be completely off-grid. Again.

A well and septic tank, solar panels with batteries and a backup generator, propane delivery for cooking, etc... NO connections to the local infrastructure, not beholden to any ironically-named 'customer service' department. The ISP would be the only 'utility' I'd have to deal with. Just a pointless fantasy of course.

Added later: tonight a beautiful thick and buttery salmon steak with teriyaki sauced veggies over rice. Simple and quick, but fantastic. Very photogenic too, but as mentioned I'm now cameraless.