BeeZee

Yesterday was DH’s birthday, he got to cook his own dinner😎. Ahi tuna steak and asparagus on the grill (I liked how the tops got crispy). I made a rice/quinoa pilaf. Went to Halo Pub, local ice cream shop, for dessert, ate our dessert in the car.

Not much effort after being out playing golf...came home and put a couple of small turkey tenderloins in some prepared marinade, let it sit an hour. Yellow squash sliced in half, some oil, salt, onion powder, balsamic glaze drizzled on top. Button mushrooms with same, but left whole. All grilled, served with salad. The turkey was good because it was natural/non-injected, and cooked up perfectly by DH...overcooking it makes jerky.

you know what, my husband has a bad habit of assuming the fridge and freezer doors will fully close themselves all the time...I should probably get some alarms for my peace of mind. Preferably something that sends me an alert on my phone so when I'm at work, I can tell him to close it.

I'm more inclined to make something like a New Orleans BBQ shrimp and serve with cornbread, the more I think about it...like the restaurant dish I enjoyed. That way he can get a good helping of large shrimp and not little rubbery pieces chopped up. I was thinking of indulging his "vision" but why waste good shellfish!

Muesli - TJ's multigrain cereal soaked in milk for about an hour, ground flax, chia, blueberries.

Fridge clean out salad...romaine from coworker’s garden, radishes, edamame, grape tomatoes, some baked tofu that I had cooked last night.

@gfweb, that sounds like a tasty idea, too. By the way, if anyone comes to NJ, there is a restaurant called Drew's Bayshore Bistro in Keyport. It is in a strange location, kind of a PITA to get to...but the guy has an app (which I had for my main when I went last year) called Voodoo Shrimp, he makes the shrimp in a New Orleans style BBQ sauce (ie, savory buttery sauce) and serves over jalapeno cornbread. It is legendary.

My husband got the idea that we could make cornbread muffins and stick a shrimp and piece of jalapeno in each one. I think he envisioned a whole shrimp stuck in the center. I have some cornbread mix, his birthday is coming up, so I’d like to indulge him. If I were to include shrimp in the muffins, am I better off lightly precooking them and chopping in to chunks to mix in the batter? My instincts are that raw shrimp would mess with the batter cooking properly.

There is probably only one restaurant near us that we will go to, the Blue Point Grill (Princeton) as they always had a nice outdoor dining area and so the overall experience wouldn’t be significantly different. I am not anxious to eat out just yet, and I know those outdoor seats which are limited in number will be hard to reserve.

Turkey burgers on the grill...meat is mixed with mushroom duxelles, worcestershire (plus a slash of fish sauce), a little catchup. I had to add some panko (maybe 2 TBS), the mixture was not going to hold together. They came out very juicy. We had fortunately gotten a surprise gift of Wolfermans English muffins, so we used the sour dough variety instead of buns. Made caramelized onion for topping, and some sliced tomatoes and an asian slaw as a side.

Freezer stock for dinner, need to clear out some of the hoarded stuff. Trashy coconut shrimp, previously roasted yams, and sauteed some broccoli I had blanched/frozen (defrosted, put some sliced garlic in the pan with it).

Going in to my office tomorrow (haven't been there for 2 weeks) and co-worker has promised me lettuce from his garden. Score! One of the local Farmers Markets happens on Saturday and frankly after reading all of the restrictions (starting with parking) I'm not sure I want to deal with it.

I have been eating that brand for a couple of years, good for a frozen meal...Amy's has a pretty good Indian meal (not highly spiced, but comforting) that I like - Palak paneer with beans and basmati rice. For frozen prepared meals, the quality overall is a cut above.

Strawberry/whole wheat/oat muffins. The new silicone pan is awesome!

Forgot to post, but in April, I believe, we had a message on the home phone from Shoprite...since I used the loyalty card for our purchase, an item that was recalled was tracked back. I was pretty happy that the system worked...and that said item was still in the freezer.

Took a long walk and wanted a light dinner, chopped up half of an English cuke, some feta leftover in the fridge, pouch of tuna. Squirt of lemon juice, grind of black pepper, fresh dill (well, actually freezer stock, I found that fresh dill keeps OK). Leftovers will be for lunch tomorrow. Might add some capers.

When I worked for a furniture company we told people to use Lestoil, which you can get at Home Depot.

Grilled for “planned overs”...DH cooked a large piece of beef for himself, boneless skinless chicken breasts for my dinner and 2 future meals. Corn on the cob, basic salad. @BKEats reminded me that I had some golden beets in the fridge, sliced them around a half inch thick and cooked in a foil pan with a little oil, ginger powder, curry powder, salt, drizzle of honey (those will be for tomorrow’s dinner). Tiny fingerling potatoes cooked in foil, ate half and the other half will be for tomorrow.

When I lived in a condominium, I painted my bathroom vanity cabinets. It is amazing what a change if color and some new handles/knobs will do, small cost for a big change. The challange with painting kitchen cabinets is thorough degreasing before application to ensure the paint looks good, and lasts.

After reading @andiesenji’s comment about reinforced silicone baking pans, I bought a muffin pan online. I make muffins often enough, and I am curious to see how it works with a recipe I currently make which requires paper liners. I had a silicone baking pan many years ago and hated it, in part due to the lack of structure.

Defrosted/reheated leftover eggplant parm casserole, since temps are trending higher seemed like a good idea to have it on a cooler day.

Last trip to supermarket I took a peek at the cheese case and spotted a small cut of baked lemon ricotta...I've been wanting to try it but couldn't justify a purchase of a large chonk since I'm the only one eating it, and it wasn't cheap. Had some on a Lundberg rice cake (wanted a plain/neutral base) with a drizzle of honey. I think it would be tasty on oat cake type crackers, or I had contemplated using a graham cracker as a vehicle. Glad I finally got to try it, I found it pleasant but not likely to repeat at that price.

I was so happy to have some different fruit at the supermarket, on sale, even better...bought a pint of blueberries (not from the bogs of NJ, but pretty good) and some cherries, which I knew would be mediocre this soon in the season, but I needed some variety from all of the pineapple and apples we have been eating. I am not sure if our small local farmers market will start up again in June, haven’t seen any notices yet.

Went to the grocery store, so fresh seafood was in order. Dry sea scallops cooked in a pan with butter/oil and diced shallot. Deglazed the pan with a little stock. Couscous and spinach.

I have a small Pier One gift card I never used. I thought about it last year when there were inklings, but I didn’t really find anything I wanted to buy...so no big loss. I only get multi-tasking gift cards (Amazon, Target) or our local bank does stored value gift cards that can be used just like a debit card, any store. A lot of restaurants were selling gift cards to raise money during the pandemic, but I wondered how many of them might not survive long enough for redemption.