What fun!
Does your whole family speak mandarin? That would certainly make things easier! I was laughing at your earlier comment about your 8yo’s teacher’s comment re Beijing accent.
Those skewers 
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thanks
My elderly neighbor has moved to a beautiful assisted living community. I miss having her nearby but this is the right place for her to be. I visited for the first time this afternoon. Knowing her massive sweet tooth moved with her I made chocolate chip cookies.
She gave me the grand tour and we settled back in her apartment to chat and enjoy a cup of tea and a few cookies. We couldn’t stop eating them! So I think that’s what my dinner for the day is.
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Mrs. P made blackened shrimp salad with a Cajun dry rub. This is very similar to yesterday’s blackened tilapia salad except it has sautéed red onions, and the tomatoes and blue corn tortilla chips weren’t added.
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I was in easy-peasy sandwich mode, so after getting out of work at 3pm and running errands, dinner was a lemon-pepper chickie-boobie purchased at my local butcher.
Grilled and finished in the oven, sliced and served on a toasted potato bun with extra-thin slices of Swiss cheese, my lettuce and a healthy schmear of my honey-mustard.
Wine since 5 o’clock.
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I so love your reports about spending time and eating and cooking with your child friends. I have so many great memories of doing the same myself…and then I adopted a 7 year old from foster care. Some of my happiest times ever were with the child friends. And they liked many more foods than my son does!
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love that friendship you have! I hope you both enjoy future visits.
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Tonight , I made bursting tomatoes with shrimp barilla thin protein plus
pasta
Cooked cherry tomatoes from garden inEVOO, till they almost burst, then added tons of garlic, herbs ,a tin of anchovy then in with the red Argentina shrimp. ( I find that it takes longer for tomatoes to burst and release their flavor and if I adheres and garlic early on, they get burnt. So, I am reversing my order . In the meantime, I had roasted shrimp shells, then boiled it, and then added the pasta for 7 minutes. Mix hem altogether, added freshly grated parmesan cheese and Kirkland’s pesto. No salt added as the tin anchovy as well as the parmesan cheese already had the salt in it. It was good. Have enough for tomorrow’s lunch ! Actually, I decided to have more pasta to avoid cooking lunch so I made another batch of bursting tomatoes to the dish. tOMuL94sTEmTOekor58dSg|525x700
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Tonight, I made Spaghetti Pomodoro, following the Delfina recipe of parcooking spaghetti and cooking it in the tomato sauce itself (+ pasta water) for the other half of the time.
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No, only the kid speaks Mandarin. Our first trip here two years ago I had to learn just enough to not die. We were in Zhengzhou and the smaller cities are not as English-friendly. (The kid was at camp during the day, so I didnt have a translator.)
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Started early with dhokla (steamed savory cake) from lentils flours. Still haven’t been to the store, so no cilantro for chutney (or zhoug, which turned sour), so I added some spices into the batter.
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10-minute stir-fry later - vegetables and shrimp.
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I wonder if I the bag of stir-fry veg from the freezer is always soggy, or just when I make it…
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Before heading out for the holiday weekend to a place where we have family, but where the eating will be less healthful than our regular routine, and with far less flavor or interesting foods, i wanted to fortify with some fish and veggies. So, tonight i made a streamlined version of swordfish piccata, roasted brussel sprouts and asparagus. it hit the spot and was exactly what i wanted before entering food wasteland for the weekend.
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Salad and some fried green tomatoes. The tomatoes were courtesy of my sister’s kids, who went a bit rogue at the farm stand before their mother realized what they were filling their buckets with.
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Recipe, please!
What a nice thing to do.
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Those berries😍
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It’s always soggy, I think. The freezer is horrible for al dente texture.
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Her tastes are pretty tame so this was just the standard Toll House Cookie. I smiled when I saw the CCC you and your son made - my friend would be befuddled by the Maldon salt! She would politely nibble them and then remind me that she’s just an old country girl. 
I thought the cookies would be good for a late night snack or to offer if she has a new friend over.
She is loving not having to plan and cook her meals. Her apartment does have a modest kitchen if she wants to cook on occasion.
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We’re going into town for dinner tonight. Probably the most edgy food in the metro area. They lack hospitality however, so we may get pissed off with them at some point. There’s very much an attitude of “this is how we do things. if you don’t like it, fuck off and don’t come back”. But, man, the food is exciting. Last time - [Stockport] Where The Light Gets In
Tomorrow night, dinner is a summer time treat for us and an idea we brought back from a trip to NYC some years back. “Italian” sausages with onions and peppers (I’ve got red, orange and yellow) on bread rolls. I remember it was the San Gennaro festival and I first ate this, desperately trying to shelter from the rain which was absolutely pissing down. We went back to Little Italy the next night to a restaurant and tried to imagine ourselves in Godfather 2. “Tell Harters, it was only business. I always liked him”
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It sounds kind of like old time French service. The customer is NOT always right, rather the proprietor has a product and presentation model that he adheres to. If the customer doesn’t like the way that restaurant does things, he can chose another one whose style is more compatible with their demands or expectations. (I say “old time” because in recent years the influx of American, Japanese, Australian, Nordic et al chefs/restaurateurs have resulted in less traditional service.)
We rather enjoy it. We learn new ways, new ideas, usually wind up making new friends. And, wow, that exciting food, as you call it, is worth letting go of some of our hang-ups.
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