We get a whole additional 24 hours this month to tie out to the 365.25 days it takes for the Earth to orbit our Sun. So how should we use those extra 24 hours?
There’s Dark Chocolate Day , Tater-Tot Day , Carrot Cake Day , Fettuccine Alfredo Day, Mardi Gras, Drink Wine Day (wait - isn’t every day that day?), Sticky Bun Day, Margarita Day , Tortilla Chip Day, and Clam Chowder Day.
So there’s MORE than enough ways to foodily ensure we put those extra 24 hours to good use!
What will you be cooking with all of that extra time?
I def look forward to our annual Mardi Gras gig, even though it happens to fall on my mom’s bday - the first since she died last May. I am hopeful, however, that the joy of performing at one of our favorite venues to a usually enthusiastic crowd will overwhelm any sadness or grief I might feel. #musicheals
Margarita Day sounds dangerous, if popular culture is to be believed, but I could go for fettuccine alfredo & clam chowder, and wine days are unlimited
This week was sorely (s)lacking in new recipes we’d planned to try, so I’ll strive to be better about it come Monday. Going out tonight (ladies night), tomorrow (a friend’s bday party), and Saturday (our weekly poker game). Ample time to think about what to make on Sunday when I’ll finally be back in the kitchen
The first year of a parents death is the hardest since you will be without your mom for the first time at Christmas, her birthday, mother’s day… Spending the day doing something you love will help you heal.
An oddball meal tonight, but I guess it worked to fill the belly. And tasted pretty good.
A half a relatively thin slice of ham was pan-seared and a “sauce” of Brooklyn Deli Mango Chutney (I got at World Market) and white wine was added near the end.
Baby potatoes steamed and then buttered and s/p’d, and steamed broccoli.
Coconut roasted haddock with salsa macha, adapted from the Rick Martinez recipe on Food 52. Very easy to put together, especially if you use peanut chile oil you already made and add more nuts and sesame seeds to it for the salsa macha. These make fantastic tacos!
Dinner today was built around a jar of homemade kimchi. I made bulgogi style ground beef, and served it with steamed rice and egg on top. Pickled cukes and kimchi on the side.
I made caldo gallego. Sauteed ham hock with onion and poblan pepper until vegs were tender, added garlic, bay leaf and sweet pimentón and pepper, no salt everything was salty enough, sauteed for a minute then added chicken broth and simmered until the meat fell off the bones. Returned the cubed meat to the broth and added cubed potatoes and kale and simmered until tender, then just before serving I added cannellini beans and Spanish chorizo. Salad of little gem, grape tomatoes, yellow baby bell, green onion, muffaletta dressing. Cook’s cocktail was a Red snapper garnished with a Spanish olive and chorizo and there was wine with.
Well, it’s been a tough two days as ceremonies kicked off last evening for dad’s 1-year anniversary (“kicked off” as in lunar / religious calendar leading up to the punch-in-the-stomach of a whole calendar year having passed, because no one had space to mourn him with all the shit that happened to mom after that, so how the high heck has it been a YEAR??? Aah, life.)
Anyway, LINNER yesterday was the early bird special with fellow Onions at a new Cambodian restaurant (timing worked out well because I was home in plenty of time to video call in to the ceremony).
The food was lovely; it’s been so long since I ate Cambodian that the gentle spicing combined with potent flavor combinations was a pleasant surprise.
What we ate and pics are here:
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After the ceremony, it had been long enough post-meal that I was hungry again, so I ate the rest of a spanish tortilla I had made earlier in the week with leftover chorizo and alioli. (Look at my cute little baby tortilla! — turns out 2 eggs-worth will fit into my tiny carbon steel fry pan, which I never thought to do until this week, duh.)
Oh yeah, and that marble cake finally went gonzo .
I made lazy polenta (microwave + oven) finished with milk, brown butter, cream cheese, and lots of grated parrano (which is all I had, not having restocked cheese yet).
Also sautéed a bag of spinach (because I couldn’t get to the store for broccoli rabe, which is what I had planned for this plate).
This. Was. So. Good. Lazy version of every item, but so delicious anyway.
Oh, and I baked some new-to-me brownie cookies since dinner didn’t need much work. They were almost a disaster (as in, almost all over the bottom of the oven) but then they were saved, which is just as well, because they’re tastier than I was expecting.
It’ll hopefully be eased by the fact that we’ve lived on different continents for well over 20 years now, and with her increasing dementia over the last years, contact was often spotty. But yeah, it’ll be strange and sad for sure.
I was gifted a jar of homemade kimchi by my friend who recently lost her sister. My PIC absolutely despises the stuff, so eating it will have to be clandestinely & behind closed doors. Or on the patio
Lovely ladies night, and far less of a sausage party than last time – as it should be
I was happy that the widow who gifted me her ginormous kamado grill last fall (she didn’t care to use it anymore after her husband passed 5 years ago) could join us. She only very recently started going out again, and she enjoyed herself tremendously. A dear friend who was diagnosed with MS two years ago, and who therefore hasn’t been able to join us on a regular basis showed up as well & was in excellent spirits. A truly joyful evening
As for food, we shared an order of the fish fry nuggets – perfectly crisp batter and juicy, flavorful chunks o’ salmon with a dill lemon tartar sauce,
and escarole salad with feta, grilled peppers and stupid, flavorless chalk balls aka chickpeas I ate anyway (only bc I was hungry ) in a lemon vinaigrette.
, Tater-Tot Day 
, Carrot Cake Day 
, Fettuccine Alfredo Day, Mardi Gras, Drink Wine Day 
(wait - isn’t every day that day?), Sticky Bun Day, Margarita Day 
, Tortilla Chip Day, and Clam Chowder Day.
.
) in a lemon vinaigrette.
