Second year sick for hols. 2023 was COVID for us. Feeling jinxed! Hope you have a short course of whatever the ick is.
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I get perfect results on the grill, or in the CI pan.
What better reason for a comprehensive house cleaning than hosting our first poker game in what seems like decades! Between my crud & our general ennui, we’d practically been hermits most of 2025 so far!
Freezing rain had just started to come down heavily when my PIC grabbed our order from one of two Indian places in town — three if you count the Pakistani, which unfortunately has gone downhill since their fabulous beginnings. We’d already told everyone to show up earlier bc of the weather, and got a call from the ones living closest to us (5min away) to let us know that they couldn’t get their car out of the driveway, and were therefore not going to make it…. which effectively would’ve killed our game as we only had 6 players 
Yeah, no 
Another friend with an even steeper driveway had just rung our doorbell and said he’d be happy to pick them up. My bassist (who lives the farthest away) had also arrived just minutes later, and in the end my PIC swung by and brought them over safely so we could play. Phew!
Since the food had been sitting around for a bit while we got our game on, we had to nuke everything in increments: saag paneer, lamb korma, shrimp biryani, bangin’ bharta; mutter paneer & chicken curry/butter chicken for us, both ordered spicy. The rest of the crew ordered theirs medium (my bassist probably mild bc you can take the boy out of Ohio, but… 
).
The two paneer dishes were excellent if devoid of any heat, the bharta was bangin’ and the shrimp biryani quite nice, but somehow the restaurant seemed to have mixed up the lamb & chicken orders, as our chicken came in a somewhat hot but too sweet sauce with raisins, whereas my bassist’s lamb “korma” seemed to arrive in the curry sauce we’d expected with our dish. I brushed off as much of the sauce from our chicken as I could, but focused on the much better veg dishes. No pics bc I completely forgot about them yakking away.
We played till just before midnight, I lost only $5, and a good time was had by all 
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Iike the idea of sous vide, but have yet to get one.
But I have trouble understanding your comment re the fat here (which is what Natascha commented on). Won’t the interior fat still be gloppy fatty if sous vide cooked to medium rare, then seared?
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Chef Google says that marbling will melt at temperatures above 130F. Medium rare is about 132F. I’ve been SVing ribeyes to 128, but the cuts I get from TJs aren’t well marbled. But I’ll try 132 next time.
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You can find the right temperature and time with sous vide which allows the fat to melt but not overcook the meat (beyond med-rare or whatever you prefer). In every other cooking method you won’t achieve it as you will get gradients of doneness in your meat.
Sous vide is pretty cheap today, especially if look for some sales
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Salmon bowl which includes salmon (d’oh!), avocado, Persian cucumber and sprouts and served over rice. The dressing includes soy sauce, mirin, rice vinegar and sesame oil. The bowl was garnished with green onion and sesame seeds.
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Shrimp, feta, and orzo with fennel, adapted from Ottolenghi Simple - I added a little wine, lemon in place of the orange, and a mixture of parsley, fennel fronds, dill, and chives in place of the basil. Looking forward to the leftovers tomorrow, too!
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Serious Eats’ baking powder prep method for chicken wings, with an oven roast at 450° until crispy, then glazing the last 15 minutes of baking with a spicy apricot sauce from Food & Wine.
Gingered Coleslaw (with extra red cabbage and grated carrots) and Carrot-Raisin Salad. Similar salad, but didn’t want potato salad or deviled eggs, or anything else.
There was wine.
Dessert was a slice of pear-ginger brown butter tart I got at Pizzelle’s bakery in Lowell yesterday, with a small scoop of Gifford’s Salted Vanilla Toffee ice cream.
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Can’t find the sugar free kind. I go with orange sports drinks, ginger ale and good old H2O. Just schededuled this coming fall’s endo😵
Slept like a log last night. I seem to be returning to my pre-covid habits of being more of a night owl than a morning person. No complaints about that whatsoever 
My PIC made Spekuloos ice cream with toasted pecans this afternoon that’s about to be churned, and I am hopeful that we’ll be able to taste the fruit of his labor later tonight 
I made a batch of tuna salad for his lunches next week: 3 cans of mostly drained Genoa brand yellowfin in olive oil, lemon juice (totes forgot about RWV or Worcestershire this time), celery salt, spicy brown mustard, the last of the commercial grade mayo, celery, capers. Peeled, washed & halved the rest of the organic celery hearts for our dinner tonight, which was Suberb Owl-ish in that we fried up a buncha wings in our spiffy new air-fryer & had the celery with my dood’s homemade blue cheese dip on the side. These were whole wings, so I think we each had 4 when we called it quits. Plenty of wings left, of course.
(first batch was a lil anemic)
(second batch came out better)
(bee-youtiful aerial wing sauce shot
)
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Bit of a decadent dinner tonight, featuring steak Japanese-style.
I cooked a picanha steak sous vide, then seared it and dressed it with a garlic, soy, sake, mirin, dashi mixture. (Steak was medium rare though it looks darker because it’s tossed with the sauce.)
Made crispy garlic rice – after making crispy garlic chips.
And finally, to fill half the plate so I didn’t eat all that at one go, broccoli in the same sauce as the steak.
Started with a wild arugula and beet salad dressed with sesame oil, rice vinegar, and pomegranate molasses.
MVP of the night: the homemade garlic chips hands down, though the steak was pretty close – I do love picanha.
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Day 6 & 7 of DH’s low fiber regime.
Last night (Day 6) was Hebrew National hot dogs on white wheat buns: two for him with an ad-hoc mac-and-cheese on the side, and one for me with leftover tomato basil soup.
Tonight (Day 7) was hot-wings on the grill. The rest of the M&C for him, and veggie stix with ranch for me.
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It was gonna happen, sooner or later.
I found chili con frijoles and cornbread in the freeze, seemed Superb Owl appropriate. Avocado and radishes.
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Sweet Potato Oxtail Stew - oxtail, green peppers, onions, garlic, orange zest, tomato paste, cinnamon stick, thyme and bay leaves are braised in a mix of veal stock, reduced red wine and orange juice. After two hours you add diced sweet potatoes for another hour and finish with some parsley.
Served with a salad made with shredded jicama and carrots and a dressing with canola oil, lime juice, roasted cumin, garlic, jalapeno and cilantro.
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We Superbowled at our friends’ place – DH smoked wings and made homemade ranch, whipped homemade ricotta and avocado ricotta, and I brought vegan buffalo cauliflower, homemade blue cheese dressing, TJ’s kale yogurt dip, and half a German chocolate cake I squirreled away in the freezer. Our hosts made homemade pretzels, buffalo chicken dip, and crudite, plus black Manhattans. Assorted chips. No pics – we were too busy stuffing our gourds.
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Thanks much. Also thanks @ernie_in_berkeley.
With the two bits of green onion placed like eyes, it looks like Caspar The Friendly Ghost.
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It really does!! Keen eye!
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Haha I didn’t even notice 
I was trying to sprinkle the green onion over top of the salmon but the pieces kept rolling over to the side of the bowl except for those two.
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