Pork spareribs on the smoker - will be ready to go in a couple of hours. Vegetable side will be whatever heats the house the least. Shaved vegetable salad, maybe, or a quick saute of green beans. Very low effort and max reward!
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Wild cod from Market Basket dusted with Moroccan BBQ Spice from Georges Bakery with tabbouleh and lentil/couscous salad from the same. Garden tomatoes and local red leaf lettuce. And some red and rose wine.
Back to work tomorrow. 
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It was a 3-load of laundry day. And a PSA: Don’t buy Target’s Threshold Performance Sheet set. They have some sort of nasty chemical smell that does NOT come out in a wash. They’re going back at my earliest convenience.
Dinner was a boneless center cut pork chop seasoned with Herbes de Provence and salt/pepper and seared in oil and butter, then some wine reduced in the same pan, mounted with butter.
Side was sauteed sugar snap peas, carrots, red bell pepper and onion seasoned with Penzeys Sunny Spain seasoning and a pinch of garlic powder. There was some wine.
Since it was National Ice Cream Day, I sliced up some local strawberries, tossed with some sugar, topped with ice cream, and sprinkled with some vanilla powder.
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We went to a birthday potluck and brought blue cheese cole slaw with buffalo chicken tender strips on the side, and GF baked corn pudding. Lots of vegan and vegetarian dishes at the potluck, plus great cupcakes from a local bakery.
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Another batch of marinated coleslaw, used rice wine vinegar and added in a lonely carrot and bit of bell pepper- and in a flash of brilliance some crushed ramen noodle crunchies! Added the rest of the hideous seitan nuggets after the photo. Kombucha a la carte
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Shindig, wine , beers , salume . Say no more. I’m in.
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Hmm, wonder what that line is for?
Yes, please. 4 pcs for 10 RMB. Each sesame “bun” is 1 RMB. You can go home and make your own sandwich. I want to make mayo, but no one trusts raw eggs here. Boiled eggs are all super boiled. Fried eggs are never runny.
I was telling our host about how wonderful heirloom tomatoes in America are. The next day…
… “You mean like these?” Yes, exactly like those. She lives in the suburbs (suburbs here are very different) and picked them up from a farm for me. I think no matter where you are, you have to search for good food. Fried chicken and heirloom tomatoes, check.
Like we have bread improver, here you have:
That melon is similar to honeydew. There are at least 6 more melons here I have yet to try. The cherry tomatoes are just like the striped ones I buy at the farmers market.
I finally found a knife (菜刀). There was a restaurant supply store 50 meters from my apartment. And I took one of our neighbors there to purchase one, too. Made me feel better than even locals have no idea where to buy a knife.
I was sharpening my knife and one of my housemates says you are doing it wrong and completely ruins my 15 minutes of labor in 30 seconds. So I found a knife sharpening video in Mandarin and showed them that this way you can slice through a longan like it’s nothing:
Much to my surprise, gooseberries are very popular here. And this other fruit that looks like a small apple is great, too. Very expensive, though.
Todays random pic: Pizza Huts might be closing in Baltimore, but here, they’re alive and well.
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Put together lamb gyros. No pita bread in Mt shasta . You do what you have to do . Wine to drink ,Cheers ,
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that lamb looks SPECTACULAR. the pilaf too!
i love lamb tacos!
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Last night was a rib eye that i fridge-aged for 3 days with kosher salt. Used the Gordon Ramsay steak method - sear in olive oil, baste in plenty of butter with garlic and thyme thrown in. overcooked it a bit - stupid malfunctioning thermapen. on the side was corn on the cob with a cilantro/aleppo butter, and a salad of romaine, butter lettuce, cukes, radishes, shallots, cherry toms, a big sprinkle of Everything but the Bagel seasoning, and a Green Goddess-ish dressing with yogurt i strained for an hour, herbs, garlic and salt-packed anchovy. The dressing was killer.
After dinner, i made a big batch of David Lebovitz’s take on essentially beef chili colorado for tacos tonight.
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I never take the temperature of a steak that I cook in a cast iron skillet. I use Kenji’s method, and flip it every 20 - 30 seconds. I can tell by pressing on it when it’s done to my preference. I usually don’t use a thermometer on the grill either, unless I’m cooking a very thick steak.
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I’m not much of a meat eater, so I find a thermometer useful when cooking for others. I know my friends and family were quite grateful when I finally invested in one.
@mariacarmen That is a very nice salad!
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Don’t misunderstand. I’m not anti-thermometer. It’s just that I usually don’t need it for steak. And if you flip the steak every 30 seconds, you stay close enough to observe it.
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i’ve not yet mastered how to tell when it’s done to my liking by touch. but yes, this steak was probably too thin. But my thermapen was seriously off - one minute it said the temp was in the 70s, and literally a not a minute later it was 157! and i never the left that steak alone, i have learned that lesson.
Gordon Ramsay says to turn the steak over and over too…
It also has to do with where the probe touches the meat. If you were a millimeter away the second time from where you were the first time, you’ll get a completely different reading.
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I never thought of using Everything but the Bagel on salads before. Great idea! I usually just use it for cream cheese or on roasted and buttered potatoes.
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God those look good!
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Thank you! Seriously, with good butter and that bagel spice, they’re a little too good. 
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Burrata caprese was lovely, as was the Norwegian salmon. The wahoo was a little bland and dry, which I expected. Same reason I’m not too crazy about swordfish.
As for tonight, my man demanded we use some of the Thai basil from the planter we recently purchased at the FM (also in the planter: regular basil, spearmint and curly mint), and that it had to be spicy.
I nixed the idea of a Thai curry with black tiger shrimp, a) because I think they would be wasted in the dish and b) it’s too fucking swampy for me to feel like a curry dish.
Instead, we’ll be having yam nuah with sliced london broil and the usual suspects. It’s a summer favorite at casa lingua & I’m very much looking forward to it.
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