Spent the better part of the afternoon comforting a friend who’s going through an awful divorce 
Fitting for a gloomy day with endless rain.
To pretend it’s spring out, I made a big-ass dinner salad for us: Aldi’s gem lettuce, celery, flavor bomb tomatoes, cuke, avocado, blue cheese, Nueske’s bacon and the last of the salmon simply brushed with Tony Cacheres seasoned avocado oil & air-fried until flaky.
Really satisfying and so healthy 
Lots leftover for tomorrow’s lunch 
Leftover lamb biryani from dinner out the other night was supplemented with bhindi (okra) masala. and saag paneer. Bhindi masala is the dish I use to judge restaurants but the one we went to didn’t have it on the menu so my craving was left unsated. The saag paneer was made with tofu since I didn’t have paneer, nor the ingredients to make it. I stock up and freeze freshly made roti when I see it so it’s always handy.
@BierMonk The curry leaves in the masala were from our plant
Costco prime ribeye on the stove top. Cukes tossed in the last of the Green Goddess dressing. Frozen fries in the convection oven (details on request).
I’ll die on the hill that Argentinian Red Shrimp are superior to almost any other crustacean, short of lobster. Here, I sautéed them and added ravioli and a light marinara sauce. Turned out to be an amazing combination.
Martini.
Pongal (rice & lentils) again, so comforting and so tasty for being so simple. Today I used a technique from some of the recipes I looked up that incorporated some milk in the cooking liquid, and it made it very creamy. Didn’t need much ghee as a result.
Roasted a piece of salmon with harissa butter to have alongside, using a technique from the NYT.
More millet papad and sautéed cashews for crunch (I see you @Amandarama)
Not pictured: a big pile of steamed broccoli.
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An artfully arranged Wheel of Pizza toppings! :::cue Wheel of Fortune voiceover:::
Looks awesome!
I love purple cabbage in seafood tacos. A restaurant we used to frequent had a mango and purple cabbage salsa that was the bomb.
Hmmm…that sounds good - and I have mango AND more purple cabbage! I was glad I thought about the bag in my crisper drawer. They always go bad, because it’s always too much for just me as a singleton - so this was a good way to use at least some of the small bag!
Thanks
When we lived for many years in San Diego we often traveled regularly to San Francisco to dive into the much better culinary world up here. Since we wanted to experience as many restaurants as possible we rarely repeated any of those restaurants in SF. There were very few exceptions from that “rule” and Commis https://commisrestaurant.com/ in Oakland was one of them. We tremendously enjoyed always their food, service and ambience.
Now, living in the Bay area it was finally time to get back to Commis after more than 10 years and the visit was a good reminder for us why we liked the place so much - still outstanding food, service and ambience (and a really nice thought out wine pairing). We like their quite strong asian influences in some of their dishes and it is no surprise that they have two Michelin stars for quite some time - it won’t take us again so much time to be back
It’s been almost 3 months since my last…
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…Friday night steak tip dinner.
You thought I was gonna say confession? C’mon, people…you should know me by now. 
Technically, it IS a confession, AND it’s been too long. I’ve been trying to be good, but I was due for a wee splurge.
Steak tip from my butcher, medium-rare, Ballymaloe steak sauce drizzled on top. Half a baker with NQTPSTOB…it’s Kerrygold, so the yellower color makes it LOOK like TPSTOB, with SC on the side.
Steamed green beans with some leftover gremolata sprinkled on top.
There was a glass of wine. And it was good.
We had our third PT sesh today with a focus on cardio. By the time we were done I was feeling nauseous and light-headed, and I am skeptical whether I will be able to walk tomorrow 
I was supposed to chauffeur my elderly neighbor around town for several errands in the afternoon, but she decided to postpone to another day. Another client of mine needed me to pick up her favorite coconut milk-based ice cream at the crunchy granola store, and I decided to combine that trip with a quick stop at Mallwart in the hopes of finding BTB mushroom there, which is part of my broth base for the hot pot dinner we are hosting for good friends tomorrow.
Once I was standing in the soup aisle it all came back to me: I’d been there before, to no avail. D’oh 
I’ll have to try to find a stand-in for it at the Asian grocer tomorrow when I pick up the veg & shrooms for the hot pot.
As for WFD, my PIC was nice enough to take care of cooking duties tonight & made one of our favorite NYT recipes: Peruvian chicken with aji verde.
I roasted a few small potatoes (simply tossed with avocado oil and sea salt) in the air-fryer & blanched a bunch of broc. Everything was delish dipped in the very kicky sauce, which my PIC has perfected over time* 
*Deets in the NYT thread.
I know it’s too late for tomorrow, but maybe there’s something like this at the Asian market? I purchased these a couple of years ago, and used half a cube with 1 cup of boiling water in a pasta dish last weekend. Worked out very well!
https://www.amazon.com/Funghi-Porcini-Bouillon-Mushroom-10-Cubes/dp/B078MHSGFB/ref=asc_df_B078MHSGFB
I have Italian Knorr porcini bouillon cubes somewhere in my cupboard, but not sure how old they are 
Yay! Looks delicious!
