Oh my 
In Madrid Capital for a 3 day weekend … Visiting the amazing Christmas Markets including the Italian Solidarity Market …
El Coque …
Michelin Starred Chef Mario Sandoval.
The Salmanca Barrio (niehgbourhood)
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Looks delicious! Would love to read a thread with your Madrid recommendations, like @mariacarmen’s recent one on Barcelona!
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Fig and proscuitto flatbread for lunch at Union Straw near my Mom’s and maple-pepper chicken and asparagus for dinner.
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One of my favorite things to eat at a Vietnamese restaurant - grilled lemongrass pork chop. Accompanied by broccoli slaw and nuoc cham, all homemade, and spot on for takeout flavor - for a change 
I’ve also been on a mini baking kick - made olive oil orange cake a couple of days ago (for my friend’s dad who’s visiting, though his grandson ate half while we watched - legit delicious, but too sweet), and I wanted to try a chocolate version of the recipe plus an eggless one (for mom later), so I’m playing with the wacky cake recipe to try to get to the same density and richness. This one is good, but not dense. Next rounds of testing will be with yogurt and then ricotta. I make only a tiny loaf each time…
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We had another nice dinner at Laurel and Sage. Details and pictures below.
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Dinner sounds great, but better yet is seeing you out enjoying the world.
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Hope you’re feeling better and get well soon.
I had my first op on the left knee for a torn ligament few years back after a freak accident - slipped and torn it while getting out of a dragonboat, it was practically dangling like a rag-doll. Simple actions such as walking and showering were a pain, the mister took two weeks off to care for my needs - had to go through many rounds of physiotherapy. Totally regretted when I had no furniture to cater to such a situation - low sofa and low bed, but thankful for bay windows in the attached bathroom to the bedroom. Am gonna stick to normal furniture in the new house.
Hang in there and all these will pass soon!
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Thanks @pilgrim and @thwysg ! I’m sorry to hear about your accident @thwysg and am glad you survived it. It’s funny how you take simple things for granted like getting in and out of a chair, until you get injured. This was my first dinner out since I had my operation. It was nice to finally get out of the house. I am slowly progressing and trying to ween myself off of the pain medication. I even walked a half hour on the treadmill at a very slow pace.
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Was sick for past few weeks - am still having a bad cough.
First two weeks while I was in bed - all three meals were always porridge with either steamed vegetables or pan fried saba (it’s a lifesaver - cheap, easy and frozen).
Recent days were better and I did marketing and cooked.
More pics to come.
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Giant Shimeji mushrooms that I found. They taste a little like oyster mushrooms. More crunch with oyster mushrooms than these.
Also made spam omelette - somehow the taste wasn’t quite the same with luncheon meat.
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Also tried making red snapper rice, with soup and steamed vegetables. Portion was too much for two of us with a fillet. Half the fillet and 3/4 cups instead of 1 cup rice should just do the trick.
Sometimes simple clear soup with either pork belly slices or white fish slices with glass noodles is all we need.
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Since the BF and I have no way to grill at home, today was a grilling day at my seester’s. I’d marinated a tri tip with a dry rub since Thursday evening, and I bought chicken thighs, rib eyes, and pork shoulder (country style ribs), and today gave each their own marinades. Left some of it all for my sister, and we’ll incorporate the rest into various meals - we just want that super smoky flavor. Ate a quarter of a rib eye at my sister’s for lunch so i was too full for more than a bite of my tri tip tonight (which i left rare as we’ll be reheating it at least one more time.)
managed to eat almost all my baked tater (with the PSTOB and Mexican crema). Farmers market maitakes and tetra shrooms were sauteed in butter and olive oil, with a smashed garlic clove, finished with a splish of heavy cream, chives, and a smattering of TJs crispy fried onions, which i just discovered and would eat like potato chips if left alone. TJs blue cheese dressing on some ice berg for some green.
but I still have the best part of the baked potato - the skin - to snack on, with a martini or two, later tonight. 
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omygod, that all looks incredible!!
I fork my baked potatoes , rub butter on the skin and liberally salt before baking . The best part is the skin .
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Whoa, you were sick and able to cook up a storm? Bravo! It’s like watching MasterChef Junior Australia (a food programme I watch sometimes in the gym)… 8 and 10 year-olds on this programme render me incompetent and that I should go sit in a corner.
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Pomegranates are in season so I’m leaning on them to brighten our dark November days. Saturday night dinner of baked salmon in an improvised glaze of gochujang + pomegranate molasses + sesame oil + splash of rice wine vinegar to thin.
Baby kale with EVOO and garlic, with pomegranate for contrast and texture.
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Hahaha… No storm in my house. You flatter me.
I usually cut up and prep the ingredients first - 1-2 days ahead. If you had noticed, many of the dishes are cooked in 15 min or less. But to cook at least 2-3 dishes each day, I always end up standing in the tiny kitchen with only one burner for at least two hours.
It’s only the preparation that would take up more time. Like the curry flavored ground pork and the ladyfingers (okra) ohitashi (in dashi stock) are dishes that could be kept in the fridge for 4-5 days, I just took them out to steam. Mixed rice dishes are easy too - the rice cooker does the work. Just that soaking of the Japanese rice grains takes 30-40 min, be it whether it’s for porridge or rice.
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Just gorgeous!
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