I scored some Amylu’s chicken teriyaki meatballs on clearout and thought my kiddo would like them. I made a stir-fry with peppers, onions, fresh pineapple, scallions, garlic, and ginger and added the meatballs and Kikkoman teriyaki sauce. Served over brown rice. The kiddo unfortunately wasn’t really into it and had leftovers instead. The meatballs were passable but this won’t be a repeat beyond the other two packages in the freezer.
19 Likes
We often had good dinners when traveling to Santa Barbara but rarely really outstanding ones which would also standout in larger cities like San Francisco or Los Angeles. We heard a lot about Barbareno https://www.barbareno.com/ before but somehow never managed in previous visit to Santa Barbara to eat there. This trip we finally had the chance and came away quite impressed and for us it was one of the best if not the best dinner we ever had in Santa Barbara. Really good dishes utilizing cuisine from Central Coast with fantastic service. We will definitely be back on our next trip.
Eggamuffins, cornmeal blinis, whipped seascape, country ham, cured egg
Especial, lamb al pastor, masa flatbread, shishitos, goat gouda, salsa verde
Grilled avocado, black garlic ponzu, yuzu mousse, fresh horseradish, avocado leaf salt
Barbareno burger, house bacon, smoked cheddar, avocado, pinquito miso aioli, pickles
Santa Maria bbq, brandt tri-tip, pinquito beans, pico de gallo, garlic butter
Duroc pork chop, wenzlau apples, parsnip puree, fennel slaw, country ham
Animal potatoes, caramelized onions, special sauce, smoked fiscalini cheddar
Baked california, mango and basil semifreddo, lemon, hop cake, lavender pine nuts, OG kush
Blackbird’s s’mores, graham cracker, pistachio miso, marshmallow, chocolate soil
14 Likes
Pork Rendang tonight, with basmati rice, curry -apricot -coconut beans and assorted veg from the fridge.
6 Likes
The cannabis strain? Did that add anything to the enjoyment of the dish?
Nothing really noticeable
Another frosty day, another failed attempt at having Google verify my small business. It’s been amazingly frustrating, to say the least 
Did a little grocery shopping & picked up a nice 3lbs. organic chicken from TJ’s (thus my query) to roast tomorrow or Wednesday.
I was feeling like Something Not Soup today, and since I’d bought a ton of broccoli & always have shrimp in the freezer, I made the stir-fry recipe from WoL again – which I initially had found so boring 
I added crushed ginger, garlic, and several Thai bird peppers (all from the freezer) & doubled the amount of sauce for the steamed rice my PIC contributed. Chopped scallions on top.
Unfortunately, the sauce didn’t thicken up as much as I wanted to, but the flavors were on point. The bird peppers made my eyebrows sweat, which is just about the right level of heat for me. A bottle of Sapporo to wash it all down.
Leftovers, natch. Watching the Godfather with a dry AF martini, as my PIC recently recorded the trilogy. Here we go…
22 Likes
looks fabulous!
1 Like
Rancho Gordo moro beans, ditalini, and smoked turkey soup. A FB food group I’m part of has a Secret Santa exchange and this year my Santee sent me a WHOLE SMOKED TURKEY from a company in Texas (Greenberg). I wasn’t sure if we’d like it as it was SO FRICKEN SMOKY, but we partitioned it, froze it, and then took the skin off the dark meat (way too smoky to use) and the BF made some broth and I made another. His he froze for another night, today I made mine with shredded thigh meat, carrots, onion, garlic, broccoli rabe, bay leaf, parsley, a parm rind, grated parm, a squeeze of fresh lemon juice and a splash of dry sherry (fino). Cooked ditalini separately and then threw it in to soak up some of the flavor. Turned out great! We still have the white meat for salads/sandwiches. Acme rosemary rolls as garlic-rubbed croutons, a ton more parm, and a drizzle of olive oil at the table.
23 Likes
Old school is now in session.
Hard-shell, spicy beef tacos with Beechwood smoked cheddar, pico de gallo, avocado, and lettuce. On the side, homemade refries from garden-grown Jacob’s Cattle Beans.
24 Likes
Yum
2 Likes
Another sunny days. The last one for a while. Fired up the grill to char some poblano peppers, and put the cast iron skillet on to heat for a NY strip I had marinated overnight. Served with parsley butter and a salad of little gem, red leaf lettuce, green onion, grape tomatoes, avocado, mushrooms, blue cheese and ranch. There was a Negroni.
22 Likes
My area of New Jersey has now seen its first snow (to stick, anyway) in about two years. Looks like a little more than an inch so far but not supposed to be anything incredible.
Tonight was Scungili Marinara and sautéed broccolini. I didn’t make pasta, but there was bread, of course!
And a martini.
24 Likes
I went out with a friend for ramen here in Tokushima. I am a noodle lover, but MUCH prefer udon to ramen because udon is MUCH lighter and quite a bit less expensive. I eat udon VERY often but besides making ramen at home with fresh or dried noodles (NEVER instant as they do a number on me), I found out that this was the first ramen I’d eaten out since December 30th, 2018!
This shop, “Nishishoku” is owned by an acquaintance and even though I hadn’t been to his shop since approximately 2016, he remembered me! My friend and I both had the same order, a small bowl of the basic ramen (this shop calls it “chuuka soba”, but here in Tokushima many places call it “shiina soba”…they’re the same to me and both translate to “Chinese noodles”.) It cost ¥680/USD $4.65. The ramen had char siu, bean sprouts, menma (boiled, sliced, fermented and preserved bamboo shoots), green onions & ramen noodles. It wasn’t too salty or oily, but I didn’t finish the soup (which is tonkotsu + shoyu/soy sauce) because I knew I would regret it later if I did as I’d be bloated and maybe get heartburn since I don’t eat fatty soups often. Ramen is quite popular ALL over Japan and there are umpteen variations including “Tokushima Ramen” which is often VERY dark and VERY rich (there is a type of Tokushima ramen which as a whitish soup, though.)
I also took a photo of their menu which is VERY basic…just 2 sizes of ramen to which you can add additional char siu, a simmered egg, additional amounts of the already included toppings, a raw egg (a VERY popular addition here in Tokushima!), grated garlic, back fat marinated in miso & garlic or a bowl (small or large) of rice. By the way, the ONLY drink on the menu is non-alcoholic beer which makes sense because pretty much everyone drives here in Tokushima.
21 Likes
We had chicken and red kidney bean enchiladas served with rice. We just used one of those kits so it was a very simple meal.
17 Likes
That is kinda brilliant.
3 Likes
I prefer udon, too! Toronto is nuts for ramen. We have a new outpost of a NYC udon specialist called Raku which is quite good.
2 Likes
No soft drinks or tea? (Not a fan of beer here!)
1 Like
I opened a large can of tomatoes on Sunday night for a side dish I had planned so I am now pivoting a couple of this week’s meals to finish up the tomatoes. Last night I used some of them to make a marinara sauce which I served over spaghetti and I had the last of the waxed beans in the fridge.
16 Likes
Very German dinner with kassler (smoked pork chop), carrots, savoy cabbage, and apple in a cream mustard sauce
18 Likes
The fact that there were no soft drinks like Coke or the ubiquitous Hi-C style of drink called “Bireley’s Orange Drink” (formally an American brand, but long ago defunct in the US) was a bit surprising. As for tea, Japanese people generally don’t drink tea with ramen, they drink water, which was served. The local udon chain I go to does offer regular beer, hot tea (cold in the summer) and ice water from a dispenser…the latter of which was offered at this ramen shop for self-service refills.
As to why the udon shop sells regular beer, it’s just my semi-educated guess, but that particular udon chain’s shops are more centrally located and closer to public transportation. But again, that’s just conjecture on my part without any solid proof as to why it may be the reason.
3 Likes
