gulfporter

Pasta with charred grape tomatoes, baby spinach, and crispy shallots, topped with goat cheese. My "sauce" is 1/2 cup each of white wine and chicken broth, reduced to almost nothing before adding the rest of the ingredients.

Out for lunch at our Plaza. It is the first place we ate when we first visited here in 2007 and basically the same exact menu. French dip is always excellent, served on a local buttery bolillo. The "Camarones Francese" is shrimp salad (mayo forward) between 2 slices of bread, dipped in batter, then rolled in corn flakes and deep fried. No idea why or how it got on a menu of a small outdoor eatery in an equally small village. I don't recall ever seeing it elsewhere in MEX or in the US. Or in France for that matter.

When we first started visiting MEX in the early 2000's many restaurants had Pollo Milanese on their menus. I wondered why all the little local Mexican restaurants were serving an Italian dish?? It was also listed as a filling at hole-in-the-wall torta (sandwich) places. All the local butchers sell pounded and raw but breaded Pollo Milanese. Today I made one into Chicken Piccata. Thanks to the butcher shop I was able to skip the mess of pounding, egging/breading. Literally the meal was finished in 15 minutes, frying to serving. Here's today's dinner pics,

Buffalo Chicken Salad.

Corn. Some of the more upscale restaurants offer it from time to time. Never seen it in stores. It is often sold in the shape of an ear of corn, along with other offerings in shapes of oranges, lemons with matching flavors. Seems to be a niche wholesale market at least here in Guadalajara area.

Grilled blackened salmon with couscous salad of dried cranberries and toasted pecans in a lemon Dijon vinaigrette. Cherry chipotle dipping sauce.

Grilled bangers, mash and (unmushy) peas. I like to remove skin and flatten banger into patties. Made a red wine and bacon gravy. Solid comfort food for mi esposo who returned from a solo trip to US first time since his femur fracture and surgery. We were told at his age (73) it would be a year to full recovery, and that he might never fully recover. He's pretty much at 100% now, 8 months post ORIF surgery (internal metal brace secured to femur with screws and wires).

Grilled shrimp with white beans, charred tomatoes and arugula. In a white wine reduction of caramelized shallots. Lots of pimentón picante.

Grilled blackened salmon. Jarred imported (Spain) white beans tossed with chopped arugula, big dash of smoked paprika and a little balsamic cranberry-chipotle dipping sauce.

Fettucine with charred grape tomatoes, bacon, shallot and arugula. Topped with parm on the plates.

Kimchi burger with gochujang.

Lemme see. Chocolate (check ☑️). Marshmallows (check ☑️). Put it on a graham cracker crust and I'm all in. Can't believe no one's created a S'mores pizza before!

My version of Buffalo Chicken Salad. Arugula, halved grape tomatoes, seedless cukes, minced shallots tossed in bleu cheese dressing. Topped with slices of a crunchy fried chicken thigh (from carryout up the street). Doused with Mexican hot sauce.

Managed to score a bagged, sanitized salad mix. Labeled "Thai" the greens were great, but the dressing was way too sweet. We added siracha and it made a big difference. Bought some arrachera (marinated skirt steak) at a local market and very pleased with both the marinade and its texture and tenderness. It grilled up fast and stayed juicy. Made for a nice Thai-Mex steak salad after a few too many pasta meals at home and some heavy meals at restaurants the past few weeks.

Last week I grilled grape tomatoes to a fare-thee-well. Yesterday I grilled thin sliced zucchinis. Labor of love....about 8 minutes per side to get level of caramelization I wanted. Dinner was pasta with grilled shrimp and the zucchini. Simple "sauce" of olive oil, reduced white wine and small amount of chicken broth. Served with garlic bread and a lot of fresh grated parm.

Made 2 pulled pork MXN style sandwiches (avocado, pickled onions, salsa) and STILL have enough left for another 2 sandwiches.

My kind of dinner!

Delivery from local chef who cooks out of his home. A giant chamorro with tortillas, refritos, rice and pico de gallo. Chamorro is a slow-roasted pork shank in an adobo sauce. We shared half of it for dinner; enough leftovers for pulled pork sandwiches for today's lunch. Cost of meal including tax and delivery was 190 pesos (just over 10 bucks USD).

Seared tuna, made into soft tuna tacos. Tacos included wasabi mayo, pickled onions and fresh avocado.

Yesterday mi esposo was in a Chocolate Mood. He's as lazy as I am at times, so he made two different 3 ingredient recipes. Both sound weird but are tasty and successful He's made this one several times and it always works; neither of us can discern the pumpkin flavor and neither could any guests who tasted it before we told them the ingredients. It is less like cake and more like a firm mousse (if you let it warm to room temp); we eat it straight from fridge and it's more like a sliceable truffle. Instead of using a blender to smooth it, it's faster/easier to use a stick blender in the mixing bowl. He pours it into a plastic storage container to firm and to keep. https://kirbiecravings.com/3-ingredient-no-bake-chocolate-cake/ He made this microwave chocolate mug cake for the first time. Given there is no flour in it, it did indeed come out like a cake and very choclatey. https://kirbiecravings.com/3-ingredient-chocolate-mug-cake/ Sorry no pic of the mug cake, but it looks like what you'd expect....we topped it with whipped cream. Here's picture of slice of the no bake "cake."

I don't think we use knives while eating more than once a month at home. Our protein of choice is seafood, usually salmon and shrimp. I sear tuna steaks for soft tacos, but I slice the steak and prepare the tacos in the kitchen. We love grilled racks of lamb, but I carve into chops in the kitchen and plate. We gnaw on the grilled chops out of hand (how gauche!). I grill pork tenderloin but these days they are so skinny, after I rest them, I slice and serve the slices on our plate that are just a one bite deal. We love chicken. I often buy rotis chicken and debone and make into a recipe (if you need a knife for a rotis chicken you're buying it at the wrong place ☺️). I have BBQ chicken and also wings delivered, both of which we eat of of hand (with lots of napkins!). We have pizza at least once a week either delivered, carryout or I bake a Costco frozen Detroit pizza. No knives needed other than to slice the Detroit pizza before eating. Other meals at home are pasta, omelets, hashes, soups and stews. I grill burgers (beef, lamb, Italian sausage) a lot in summer, too. Our table/steak knives come out for chicken sheet pan dinners and an occasional meal of arrachera (marinated skirt steak).

I managed to hold 3 to 4 lined up in my palm at a time to skewer. Didn't take that long, but worth the effort.

This was my best attempt yet at a decent char on grape tomatoes; skewering made them sit still (when loose, I picture them dancing around the grate when the grill hood is down). Pasta was surprisingly a French import (from an Italian family so the story goes). We get a lot of EU goods at our MXN stores; I had assumed the pasta was from Italy as most are. It was a good pasta and I'd buy it again. Easy meal to put together since I had grilled the shrimp earlier in the day.