sassybat
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Posts posted by sassybat
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i've pretty much stopped eating airline meals on national flights. if they even serve a meal, it's usually inedible, so i just make a habit of bringing my own sandwiches. but internationally speaking, i flew on air japan from LA to tokyo once, and the difference in quality absolutely blew me away. there was actually edible food! and the flight attendants were all pleasant, and made constant rounds with pots of coffee and green tea.
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i was in the mood for fish sandwiches, so i took some of the tilapia i had in my freezer and pan-fried them. (i didn't have enough oil to bother with deep-frying) served it up on baguettes with lettuce and mayo.
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ah...pasta...one of my all-time favorite foods on earth.
i absolutely adore fresh pesto. you can't really go wrong with a meal of pasta and fresh pesto, roasted fish, and salad. even my friend who is very non-adventurous with food (if he had his way, he'd have meat and potatoes every night) cleaned his plate.
something about carbonara really appeals to me. a big plateful of pasta alla carbonara with a pinch of salt and lots of freshly ground black pepper makes me happy.
my newest love is vodka sauce. that light pink, sweet, creamy sauce is irresistable.
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my favorite is blanched, then sauteed with olive oil and garlic, served up with lemon juice and some salt.
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i don't have any jarred salad dressings because oil and vinegar is more appealing and easier for me. sometimes i'll make an actual vinaigrette and keep some in a jar in the fridge, but that's the extent of my salad dressings.
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1) my mother and grandmother were big believers in soup. not campbell's chicken noodle, though. when we were sick, they would feed us what i call "macaroni stuff." it's essentially a clear pork (or beef) broth with pieces of pork (or beef), and macaroni. sometimes they'd add vegetables. that and congee were the definitive sick foods in our house. i'm working on teaching SO to make macaroni stuff so he can make it when i'm sick.
depending on my symptoms and/or illnesses, they would also feed me medicinal teas. blech.2) i can't think of any particular healing properties to these foods other than they were good, except for the medicinal teas.
3) definitely
4) i'm also a big believer in soup.
though my soup is more like homemade chicken soup, etc.5) not as far as i know of, though i think my family thinks of them as "easy to digest food". foods that take effort to eat aren't very appealing when you're sick, whereas soup with noodles is relatively easy.
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saturday night i was hosting a birthday party for a friend, so the theme was generally some of her favorite foods:
strawberries and champagne grapes (love costco!) to snack on
bruschetta on ciabatta bread
steamed clams
roasted halibut with lemon
green beans sauteed in olive oil with lemon
chinese-style strawberry cake for dessert/birthday cake
yesterday my SO and i went out to the Top of the Market restaurant in downtown san diego:
lemon drop martini
tagliarini with fresh shellfish (a HUGE platter of some pasta and more shellfish than i could possibly eat in one night)
creme brulee
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i always tip a couple dollars when i get take-out. i used to work at my parents' chinese restaurant as a hostess, and part of my job was to take carry-out orders on the phone, or at the counter when they walked in, and also assemble them in the kitchen. trust me, when they are people waiting to be seated, and 7 carry-out orders needing to be packaged, tips are always appreciated. the kitchen staff didn't package everything for us, so it wasn't as easy as just grabbing boxes and throwing them into a bag. we still had to serve up the soups, rice, etc. and package those. we didn't have a tip jar, but sometimes people would leave tips on their credit card receipt and we were always appreciative.
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if you drop strawberries or even cherries into champagne, they not only get a little fizzy, but they also taste a bit like the champagne.
my friend calls them "alcoholic fruit" -
last night's dinner was:
ice cream.
i went to a potluck/barbecue for lunch and was just too full for dinner. but somehow i found room for ice cream.
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penne ala vodka (i found the recipe on epicurious). really yummy and made enough pasta for dinner for two and two lunch portions
homage to roast veggies: cauliflower, bell peppers (red and orange), and string beans. i still like the cauliflower the best.
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last night was a kind of burrito night:
tortillas (the uncooked kind. there's nothing better then cooking and eating them while they're still hot. yummy, crispy goodness.)
carne asada (costco never ceases to amaze me)
homeade guacamole (like there should be any other kind?
)sauteed bell peppers (red and yellow) and onions
sour cream
rice
and the best part was that there was enough left over for me to make a couple of burritos for today's lunch too!
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there's a pizza chain here in san diego called pat & oscar's that have a couple good pizzas. my favorite is the "san diego" pizza, with feta, red onion, avocado, and pesto.
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in hindsight, i probably should have taken a picture of monday's dinner, but i was too hungry to dig up my digicam.
monday dinner:
roast leg of lamb with garlic, rosemary, and thyme
broccoli and green beans stir-fried with garlic
rice
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i work at ruth's chris, and everyone who walks in there assumes we're given filet mignon everyday for our staff meal. that is definitely not the case. sure, we get an employee discount when we dine in, and if we're working they do provide a staff meal everyday around 4:30, but the staff meal usually consists of sandwiches/hamburgers, fries, or chicken tenders, etc. we get a lot of burrito type fixings and salad. the only times we eat off the menu is when we make a reservation and dine in.
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i hit up the farmer's market yesterday, so dinner last night was purely farmer's market inspired:
spaghetti with pesto (i couldn't resist the basil, and arguing with my blender to make pesto is a small price to pay for fresh pesto)
ciabatta
brie
long stemmed strawberries (i can never resist chocolate covered strawberries)
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i hate "the question." i understand that the server is just trying to save themselves an extra trip back to the table, but i still find the question tacky. i've worked in restaurants for the past 10 years, and i always said something along the lines of "i'll be right back with your change." if the person wants me to keep the change, they'll say so. i've gotten the question a few times while dining, and it always irks me slightly.
also, i'm with the people who give back a 5 and ones. giving back all singles feels presumptious the same way asking "do you want change?" seems presumptious. plus, i hate dealing with a large collection of ones, and if for example my dining companion was going to take care of the tip, then i would be stuck with 7 ones and that would just annoy me. so adhering to the service for me as a server, i would always bring back the person's change as a collection of larger bills and ones, simply because if i was them and i received my change all in ones, i would feel annoyed at the presumption.
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i also really enjoyed "cooking for mr. latte." i just picked it up at the bookstore and read it before i even knew these were pieces from the new york times. i liked how the book told stories of her experiences with people and food and included recipes that she liked.
i agree with ruthcooks about feeling amanda's sense of loss at her inability to share her desire to dine, roman-style, with the rest of her family. a big part of amanda's excitement to go to italy was to dine the way italians do, and to eat true italian food, but if everyone else with her on the trip didn't want to dine roman-style, and didn't share her enthusiasm for dining, then that also affected her own pleasure during the trip.
i thought it was charming, and i thought she addressed her snobbishness and ignorance about matters (the indian guy's visit comes to mind) with humor. the book seemed like a journey for her to come to terms with her perfection issues and love of food, as well as her attempts to share her love of food with others, particularly mr. latte.
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yeast bread. i can't, for the life of me, bake a decent loaf of yeast bread. mixing and kneading, fine. let it rise till doubled, check. punch it down, form it into loaves, and let rise again, double check. stick into over and bake, no problem. result: bread-tasting brick.
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i bought a 9" slicer for the SO (he loves making sushi), and he adores the knife. it's his favorite knife in the whole kitchen. but now he's afraid of sharpening it because he doesn't want to ruin that perfectly straight edge....
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we moved into our apartment in december, and it had a built in window box with a HUGE and happy bush of rosemary in there. that actually had a significant weigh on my decision about choosing that apartment.
this is what we have added since to the windowbox:
thyme
chives
oregano
parsley (but it was overrun with aphids until the SO's dad told us about this peppermint soap from whole foods. dilute in a spray bottle, spray down the plant, no more aphids. i just need to remember to wash the parsley REALLY well before using it)
i want to add basil, or get a giant pot for basil. there's just something about freshly made pesto....
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strawberries. ohhhhh, the strawberries are back!
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strawberries. bing or rainier cherries. peaches. nectarines. i'm a summer fruit gal.
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monday night:
baked cabrilla fish with butter and lemon
sauteed snow pea greens
roasted cauliflower
blanched bok choy leaves with garlic/vinegar dressing
bok choy soup
last night:
lemon pepper shrimp - shrimp broiled with LOTS of butter, lemon, and pepper
warm sourdough to mop up all the yummy lemon pepper shrimp sauce
reheated leftovers from monday night
staff meal
in Cooking
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i don't normally eat the staff meal due to lack of time and disinterest in eating sandwiches or burritos yet again, but yesterday i was hungry and they had pans of lasagna and a huge salad, so i took 5 minutes to inhale a plateful.