4 posts tagged “cooking”
Taco Salad with Lemongrass Chicken Spring Rolls.
I had the eldest daughter assist with this one.
Just shy of 4, she was able to shred the romaine lettuce leaves by hand.
She also sprinkled the chopped onions into the skillet with the hamburger while it was browning.
Then she poured a little of both ranch dressing and cheesy pasta sauce onto the salad and mixed it in with a spoon.
Finally, she crushed the (generic) chili cheese Fritos by hand and stirred them in.
By then, the frozen Lemongrass Chicken Spring Rolls were coming out of the oven and ready to be placed for presentation just as my wife arrived home from work.
I propose a new named sandwich.
The "Neutered Groove"
Apologies if this list of arranged ingredients already exists under another sandwich moniker.
It's not that I will desist, mind you.
I just want to be clear that it has now been dispossessed of its ingredients and will need to find new ones should it wish to go forward as a named sandwich, or risk being de-listed from the sandwich board exchange.
A "Neutered Groove" consists of:
Two slices of bread, any bread, I usually go wholewheat.
Onions slices and tomato slices, one or two of each.
A spring mix of various salad leafy greens and reds.
Two slices of pepper jack cheese, otherwise known as Monterey Jack with Jalapeno bits incorporated.
Seven deli-thin slices of hickory smoked ham.
Two slices of hard salami.
Point zero eight ounce, approximately, crushed ripe black olives.
One squirt ketchup.
One squirt mustard.
One shot glass.
One bottle of tequila.
One bottle of vodka.
4 albums of music:
A) Gas Huffer - "One Inch Masters"
B) Claw Hammer - "Thank The Holder Uppers"
C) Mercury Rev - "Boces"
D) Col. Bruce Hampton & The Aquarium Rescue Unit - "Self-titled"
Assembly instructions required to qualify as an official "Neutered Groove":
Begin playing the music in the order listed from albums A - D.
Do not shuffle.
Play straight through.
Drizzle the bread with Jose Quervo Black Medallion Tequila.
Butter one side liberally and place in a pan on medium heat (butter-side down.)
Place the one of the two cheese slices on top of the bread.
Simmer the onion/tomato slices in vodka until soft.
Add one of the two slices of hard salami on top of the cheese and bread.
Add all seven deli slices of ham on top of the salami, cheese, and bread.
Add squirt of mustard on ham, salami, cheese, and bread.
Add the leafy greens on top of the mustard, ham, salami, cheese, and bread.
Add the onions/tomato on top of the leafy greeens, mustard, ham, salami, cheese, and bread.
Add the second slice of hard salami on top of the onion/tomato, leafy greens, mustard, ham, other salami, cheese and bread.
Add squirt of ketchup on second slice of hard salami, onion/tomato, leafy greens, mustard, ham, other salami, cheese, and bread.
Add the second slice of cheese on top of the ketchup, second salami, onion/tomato, leafy greens, mustard, ham, other salami, other cheese, and bread.
Add the crushed olives on the second cheese slice, ketchup, second salami, onion/tomato, leafy greens, mustard, ham, other salami, other cheese, and bread.
Add second slice of tequila drizzled bread on second slice of cheese, ketchup, second salami, onion/tomato slices, leafy greens, mustard, ham, other salami, other cheese slice, and bread.
Compress the stack with a large spatula flipper, butter the top slice of bread, and flip the arrangement, ass over tea kettle.
Now, and this bit is truely make or break, do exactly three shots of vodka, and three shots of tequila.
By the time you're done, the bottom side of the sandwich will be golden buttery brown and you'll be in a state fully capable of appreciating this culinary delinquent.
Now, sit in a comfy chair, turn down the lights, eat the sandwich, and let what remains of the play list finish out.
Your groove will be neutered.
The Vortex strikes again.
A foster-adopted-step cousin of mine is separating from her husband and moving back there.
Oh, the foster-adopted-step-cousin thing?
Yeah, I have a nightmarish M.C. Escher family tree.
Anyway, another one pulled back.
She'd been out of the place we shall not mention for better than 14 years.
I'm telling you, and myself, you have to watch these things; forever.
And they'd just adopted a two year old girl from China, as in 4 months ago.
Will China even let you keep an adopted child if you get separated/divorced?
Similarly, what were they thinking adopting a child if things were choppy?
Or was it the added stress of the kid thing that widened/exploited an existing crack?
Ain't nothing in this world for sure.
Excepting for how good hot dogs taste when slightly burned/blacked around the outer skin/casing.
Today was warm enough to open up the windows for ventilation and cook like a caveman all flame and noir style; i.e. blackened.
Smoke detector be damned, mmmwa-hahahaha.
Fire, meat (assorted beef pieces in a tube-shape), good.
I even read a book on the deck wearing only shorts and got the first official minor sunburn of the season.
Sweet.
On the first sunny day over 60 degrees F this year.
Onions and garlic make nice at the family reunion, held in my cast iron pan.
It made my afternoon.
Take one softball sized red onion, and give it a rough chop.
Rough referring to the size and shape of the pieces rendered, not the amount of violence or lack of focus used during the slicing procedure.
That'll just get you a trip to the corner drugstore for more band-aids.
Scoop the onion bits into the pan.
Throw in a spoonful of fresh minced garlic.
Mine being freshly minced from a jar mind you.
Drizzle with extra virgin olive oil (why extra virgin? because you're going to eat it, and you want the taste) and cook over medium heat for a few minutes until the onions are soft and the garlic is opaque, well, more opaque than it started off, just don't burn the garlic, that's no good to anyone.
Then dump onto a plate or bowl of your choosing and savour.
Oh sure, you could make this a bed for a meat dish, but I find it refreshing all on its own.
Essentially it's batterless onion rings, er, bits anyway, but with extra good stuff and none of the bad stuff.
You don't even have to feel guilty.
Unless you're Catholic and you really, really want to anyway.
