To quote Tom Waits “don’t life seem nasty, brutish and short?”
Good food with good people to the rescue!
Music helps as well.
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Scott, thanks for posting this. I gave it a whirl with a modification you might want to try (but note so far I’ve only done this with much smaller tortillas, 6-inch, so it might fail with larger; I’ll get big ones this weekend and give it another shot).
Anyway, I figured why mess with the foil when I’ve got butcher’s twine?
I was in a bit of a rush (wife’s lunch time was looming) so I didn’t get the pleats arranged very neatly, but the benefit to using string was the total cook time dropped to about 13 minutes from 25 with John’s foil method shielding so much in the first 2 bake episodes.
I also sprinkled a bit of fine salt after oiling and liked the extra flavor.
One goof up was putting the tortillas on the tops of the jars - they took the shape of the threads somewhat, and I thought they were going to break trying to get them off, until it occurred to me that I needed to “unscrew” them.
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Dang, too late to edit my post. It was catfish, not cod. $8.00/lb trim at Tokyo Fish, about $4.50 for the two-meal batch of soup.
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I’m guessing the twine is not going to work on the shallow octagonal bowls I use, plus I really like the control the foil provides for making the pleats. But glad to hear it worked for you, and I like the idea of adding a little salt after oiling.
Time is not an issue for me as I start these ahead of prepping my other ingredients, and then a quick reheat in the convection oven with the warm stuff before adding the cold toppings. This adds to the crispness so the outside of the bowl is more like tortilla chips.
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I think you’re right, given how you make them. But the string might still work with your 6-inch ramekins. I’d give it a try. Note it’s upside down, though to start - that way the string is draping toward the wider part and kind of gives it a, uh, “hug” you don’t get if the ramekins are right-side-up.
Like I said, Ima give it try with more normal sized stuff this weekend and will report back.
I made shortcut lasagna with portabella mushroom ravioli, TJ’s jarred Bolognese, Besamel sauce from the freezer, and mozz cheese. Very good for the low effort. Sides of green salad and steamed lemon-pepper buttered broccoli.
Yep, need to clean the oven. 
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Last of the freezer Lentil soup with fried Italian sausage/spicy pepperettes a dash of hot sauce and a generous showering of Parm/Regg.
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Improvised dinner of calamari braised with tomato and white wine. There’s also potatoes, green beans, carrots, celery, shallots, garlic, and a little chile de arbol in there. Fresh basil that needed to be used up on and in the finished dish, too.
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Roasted chicken thigh with roasted mushrooms and creamy Dijon sauce, 7-grain pilaf and steamed sugar snap peas. Easy and tasty.
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Mmmm, I’m inspired to put meatloaf on my meal plan for next week.
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@Desert-Dan’s dinner reminded that I had half a mini meatloaf in the freezer. Served with mushroom gravy, cauli mash and a fat pat of butter. Mixed greens, red onion, avocado, radish salad with creamy Greek dressing. Wine.
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Cantonese steamed pork patty with water chestnuts, preserved vegetables, and anchovies, with rice and broccolini.
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Funny that I keep meaning to make this then forget, so glad to see this. This has to be one of the prettiest presentations of steamed pork patty I’ve seen.
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Leftovers! The potato-leek-catfish soup, augmented with sous-vide salmon and TJ’s seafood blend and spinach.
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Yesterday was ladies night at the cidery my band played recently. It’s closer to where some of the gals we hadn’t seen in a while live, and we were hoping to lure them out by meeting in their own backyard, so to speak. We lured successfully: 2 local gals did show up, including my widowed friend who joined our posse only recently 
They had a live band that was done at 8:30 (the place usually closes at 9pm), but we stayed chatting and drinking cider until about 10:30. Between our table we shared an order of the Reuben spring rolls (fantastic), frickles (not great), another order of the spring rolls, and French onion soup dumplings (delectable). The fish & chips main I was going to share didn’t happen, as we were stuffed from the apps.
I’m on my own til Sunday & have no major dining or cooking plans as of yet. That said, dinner tonight may well involve roasted salmon (he’s not a big fan) à la @Amandarama, and I’ll throw some sautéed KOS at it. The mandatory salad on the side.
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Your dinner out with friends looks great! I hope your salmon turns out well; if you have the opportunity to pair it with some sauteed or roasted mushrooms (with lots of garlic in either case) it takes it up several notches!
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I do have one lonely king oyster shroom that needs et. And now I’m excited about my solo dinner tonight 
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