Thanks cj 
I don’t know if you are talking about yesterday’s meal, but that was takeout. The spicy Brussels sprout side dish from earlier in the week was homemade. We had that with leftover homemade braised rabbit pappardelle and a lobster tail (with drawn butter and old bay seasoning). We love old bay seasoning. We have it with lobster, crab, and corn, among other things. I haven’t tried the Del Monte summer crisp corn, but it sounds delicious with old bay seasoning and butter.
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Tell Mrs P to give that corn a shot. I think you guys will like it. It is probably twice as expensive as other canned corn but it is well worth the extra dollar!
I forgot to post on the brussels. They looked great! This BBQ spot near me is putting out some awesome fried sprouts lately. They are some sweet chili sprouts deep fried and have a great texture and heat profile. I will take a joke out of Bob’s handbook. “How do you get a fat guy to eat Brussel sprouts?” Deep fry them, add butter, and doust them in sweet chili oil lol : )
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Thanks cj. We will have to look into that corn. We normally don’t get canned corn but this looks really good and has gotten excellent reviews.
You have to try that Spicy roasted Brussels sprouts recipe. It has some serious heat with the gochujang paste, chopped garlic, red pepper flakes, scallions, and red onions.
Didn’t feel like cooking last night. So did a cheeseboard: Asiago, Swiss, Monterrey Jack, and smoked garlic cheddar a friend brought back from Vermont. Fig Jam, raspberry preserves, apples, and pears. And this delightful Merlot below that I picked up in Sleepy Hollow last month.
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Are you using any MSG? You’ll never get the taste without it.
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One of the best Chinese dishes, Mapo tofu can be made with 1 specialized ingredient (dou ban jiang) and in less than 20 minutes including prep time. Plus it’s not too difficult to get it pretty close to restaurant quality. It’s a classic for a reason!
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No, I’m not. Nothing against it. Maybe I should buy a bottle.
Good point.
IMO every kitchen should have some MSG in it, it just makes everything taste better, like salt but on a different level.
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Thanks for recommending the Del Monte summer crisp corn cj! I bought a few cans and had some today for lunch with butter and old bay. It was delicious😋
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Tonight we had some takeout from Chengdu 23 using Uber Eats. It was pretty good but I still like Chengdu 1 better.
We had Sichuan pork dumplings with roasted chili vinaigrette; Ants climbing a tree; dry chili beef with Chinese celery, bamboo shoots, dry chili and Szechuan peppers; spicy crispy scallops with hot Sichuan peppers; spicy crispy fish filet. It all went very well with Mendel Cabernet from Argentina.
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A stunning array of cuisine right there.
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Tonight ended up being Italian night.
I decided to go with the famed Italian breakfast dish (and hangover cure) “Eggs in Purgatory” as an appetizer. Homemade chunky tomato sauce, get it bubbling, and then delicately float two eggs over the sauce. Cover for a few minutes and done. Easiest thing ever. Loaded it with pepper flakes to get some warmth on this cold night. You don’t use a knife and fork on this baby, just bread, bread, bread.
Next comes a simple calamari marinara…which meant more bread…
Then there was homemade pizza. I gave up on this a while ago, because my pizzas always came out looking like footballs and having the consistency of a cardboard box. Maybe it was the different treatment of the dough tonight, but the pizza actually came out like pizza. One with half mushroom, half meatball, and the other a white pie with onion and garlic (I don’t like ricotta on my whites-- way too heavy).
Dessert tonight was from J & M Bakery in Middletown…
There was, of course, lots of red wine. I’m a horrible Italian. A jug of the ultra cheap, ultra sweet Opici Barberone suits me fine. Then some Chambord and espresso with dessert.
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Thanks Greg 
Wow, good pics fellas! Im trying to get some sleep and now I feel like eating a bunch of ice cream because of you guys lol.
Eli, I am totally jealous. I have no good Sichuan around here within 30-35 minutes. I will trade you 4 Italian places for one good Chinese place!
Greg don’t feel bad. I don’t think I can ever cook great pizza either. I leave that to the locals 
Speaking of that, I picked up a slice of buffalo chicken pizza with ranch at chiafullos. It’s a good slice if you get it rather fresh.
And on a random topic, I planned a trip to Drews today in mid December. I can’t wait! I’m going with one of my vendors so it should be fun.
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It’s 5pm somewhere…what I made for breakfast and how I ended last night. What’s cooking? Right now I’m roasting!! (Greetings from Aruba my Ho’s)
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Greetings from Asbury Park! (Had to. #sorrynotsorry)
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Bob is living large! Catch some rays and have a drink on me buddy.
So I should have taken some ham pics this afternoon but here is the start of some pea soup with the left over shank. It smells AMAZING IN HERE! It’s been about 2.5 hours and the meat has completely come off the bone. Another 3 hours or so and this soup will be ready to cool overnight.
Uploading…
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I decided to smoke some wings today on pecan for lunch after a bowl of pea soup. I used seasonest “lemon fire” as I haven’t tried this one yet out of the box set I bought. After 2 hours, they started to look great. 2.5 hour cook. Some home made blue cheese and dill cucumber salad made for a nice lunch on a nice fall day. Pics in a few…
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That looks awesome cj! I can practically smell it from here 
We had some previously made split pea and ham soup last Thursday. I didn’t take any pictures, since soup doesn’t really photograph that well (except for yours)
