GrownUp SpaghettiOs after The Anniversary at SeaCompression

Hey All,

I've been slightly MIA, but well.  More than anything, I've been traveling.  I often forget how busy a jam packed week before a trip really screws with household planning.  There have also been some recent tragedies, but, out of respect for many of my readers, I won't rehash that.  Those of you who are in the know, THANK YOU for being there!  Without your love and support, this would have been A LOT more difficult!

Last week ended up being lots of dining out.....and my budge reflects it.  But, I keep reminding myself, its that time of year and its OK to let my hair down.

There is little to report from last week that isn't holy depressing.  The happy stuff started on Friday when we departed Salt Lake City for Seattle, first class to celebrate our Anniversary at SeaCompression.  Being our first anniversary and all, we decided to do it in style.  Up first was my first-ever first-class flight on Alaska Airlines.  I have loved Alaska for years, their regional carrier used to be my preferred path out of Montana.  In the past year, they have opened up tons of markets in Salt Lake City;  every chance I got I thanked them and congratulated them on their success in Salt Lake City.  I am thrilled to say I am now a card carrying member of their mileage program and will likely continue to fly them when a first-class ticket is in order.

The flight up was pleasant, no alcohol service until 10K feet, but that was soon rectified.  The meal outbound was OK.  It was a toasted turkey and cheese on ciabatta and a broccoli slaw.  The broccoli slaw was a reminder that I really should do that more often when I have broccoli stems instead of feeding them to the dogs.  It was perfectly dressed with a more Mediterranean twist than I am used to with slaw, but it was quite tasty.

Seattle greeted us with the usual fun and frivolity and a very charming accommodation.  If you ever need a place to stay in Seattle and last minute prices have you gagging, try A Bed & Breakfast Inn Seattle.  The rate was well within budget, and despite a smallish sleeping area, everything else was perfect.  The meals were tasty and the staff friendly;  I couldn't have asked for more!

Also in Seattle, I got better acquainted (oh who am I kidding, I feel like they are best friends for life), with Ranger Torchwood, and company, shout to Ranger Flourless Cake too.  We met at the Berlin social at Burning Man and instantly rubbed off on one another.  Here's a picture of us before we created a spectacle of ourselves on one of the dance stages.

I'd love to share more pictures from SeaCompression, but let's be honest, you just have to be there.  Just ask my Mom who was heartbroken that SeaCompression was early this year and she couldn't get away from her job to come.

Seattle brought its usual culinary delights.  One of me favorites, not to be missed, is Odd Fellow's.  The mussels there are not to be missed.  Not quite as good as the canal mussels I had in Vancouver, WA, but a very close 3rd, with Bambara's being #2.  Another amazing find was the hole in the wall, Pike St. Fish Fry.  Traditional cod fish 'n chips with malt vinegar and curry ketchup made this bear very happy!  Oh and I have to say, I actually had good seafood on this trip to Seattle.  Its ironic that I've never had that spectacular of seafood in Seattle in all the times I've visited.

Then, in a flash, it was time to come home.  We were able to enjoy the hospitality of Alaska's Board Room....lunch was a salad and curry red lentil soup.  This is a soup I must make in the upcoming winter months.  It was a nice bite, soon to be followed by Alaska's award winning in-flight service.  Granted, I sent a rather poor review of my check-in experience as I couldn't find the first class check in until well after I'd done the check-in of the unwashed masses, but their in-flight service made up for that minor inconvienence.

The meal was a "snack" of chicken salad.....  I must say, I'd never thought to make a curried chicken salad.  This meal has inspired me to give it my own attempt, I even bought turmeric at the market today:

I must add, they are doing something right.  The solitary cherry tomato was a highlight of the dish.  I often find tomatoes that don't come from my garden to be tasteless, this one was sweet and popped in my mouth.....the glass of chardonnay (and the two before and the three after) was icing on the cake.

Now that I'm home and we've had the obligatory crap pizza meal, I got my poop in a group and made a meal.  Granted, this one is not quite as nice on the pocketbook, or as visually pleasing, but it turned out great.  I call it Grownup SpaghettiOs....and it only dirtied 3 dishes plus plates for 3.

Some time ago, I scored a heck of a deal on premade pesto and tampanade.  I think I paid $0.50 for the containers and threw them in the freezer.  A bit ago, whole wheat cheese tortellini was on sale, I can't remember, but I think it was $2.99 a container.  It takes 2 containers to feed us, so we're into it $6.50 now.  I also scored on frozen green beans at $0.38/lb today....I think I prepared a pound.

At any rate, here's the result:

The little packet of cheese and herbs was saved from the pizza the other night.  Yeah, I'm cheap like that, but damn those things come in handy sometimes!  Yes, that's also a glass of wine.  I've found that when I'm feeling like I do after a day like today, a couple glasses of wine help me lose the day, sleep well, and not have stomach upset in the morning.....not to mention I'll likely drink 32oz of water before bed.


Today's shopping also brought great ideas for next week.  Husbear is off on Friday and has promised to help with the prep for next week.  I'm happy about this, I think we're catching on that a little bit of preparation makes for a lot less hectic week.  Without further ado, here's the menu for next week along with prep:

Meal 1:  Chorizo and peppers.  Usually I do an Italian sausage and peppers, but I was pretty sure we were out of Italian sausage and chorizo was cheap on sale ($1.58 for 18 oz).  We'll slice the onions, tomatoes, and peppers and have them in the fridge so all we have to do is fry the mess.

Meal 2:  Beefteki.  I've written about this one before and its a favorite (see April 6, 2014 entry).  I have leftover greek yogurt in the fridge and cucumbers were $0.10 ea, so why not!  I had to hunt to find a cucumber that hadn't been frozen and was wilty, but the hunt was worth it.  We'll mix the beef, herbs, and onion and have that ready to go.  The tatzeki will be made ahead as well as the flatbread (see May 30th entry).

Meal 3:  Steak and Corn on the Cob.  OK, this one doesn't have much prep, except maybe dry rubbing and sealing the steaks.  I paid a bit more than I like to for corn, $0.39, but the ears were nice and I know they are local.

Meal 4:  Walnut Shrimp.  Cabbage wasn't super cheap, but I've been craving this and at $0.59/lb I couldn't say no and mean it.  This is a personal favorite of mine and really easy to make if you cheat on the breading....I'll have to write this one up when I make it.  I always serve the shrimp on a bed of shredded cabbage....the cabbage barely wilts when you throw the hot shrimp and sauce on top and is a just perfect sweet and savory.  Granted, this is purple cabbage so the whole mess will turn out a weird green/purple color, but whatever.

Meal 5:  Flatbread Chicken Margherittha.  An easy take on the classic Margherittha pizza.  Since I've only enjoyed a few of the tomatoes, and most have gone in the freezer, we'll be doing this.  Also mozzarella, while fun to make, was on sale for $1.49 for 8oz in water.  Make the flabread ahead.  Soak the chicken in garlic, salt, and oregano and grill it.  Put together and throw it under the broiler for a bit and viola!

I hope you all are doing well and enjoying the Autumn.  And let me reiterate, no more freaking tragedies....I'm getting kind of tire of it.

Lotsa Love,

3Day

Getting Ready for another week

Hey All,

So last week's planning paid off in big ways.  I found myself with plenty of evening time and my stress level, despite my employment's best efforts, were kept low while at home.

Here's a couple of photos to recap some of the highlights:

 This is the chicken salad sandwiches with the German Coleslaw and sweet patato tots.  Notice the big cup of fry sauce.  Fry sauce is a Utah favorite and also a favorite of mine.  Its really simple, 2 parts mayo, 1 part ketchup, and I always add a few splashes of Worcestershire sauce.  Fries without it is just wrong in my opinion.

This is the Hawaiian chicken with more coleslaw and a rice pilaf.  I buy dried soup veggies in bulk and add them in when cooking the rice.  The pilaf is really simple, cook rice like you normally would, adding enough bullion for the amount of water, and veggies to taste.  When I make Pilaf, I also add a good dose of oil, it makes it a bit slicker which I find more appealing.

The week ahead looks like it will be all about those recipes held close to the heart that have absolutely no measurement.  A bit of this, a dab of that, and viola, a meal.  Unfortunately, I am on call until midnight, working a bit from home, etc, so I didn't get to go play at a local festival.  I figure its a fair trade off since I'll be traveling all over the west coast in the next few weeks.  I may even have been coerced into making a trip to Sacramento in late October.  I never thought of Sacto as a destination, but why the heck not.....

So this week, I'm going to talk a bit more about the meals in general and how I'm going to preprep them.  Measurements are mostly by heart/taste, so use your imagination as best you can.

Meal 1:  Fajitas.  This is pretty straightforward.  For seasoning, I get the large jar of taco seasoning.  It will have well marinated top round cut into strips, bell peppers, mushrooms, onion, and tomatoes.  I don't think we have any sour cream on hand, so I'll substitute greek yogurt.  We are also blessed to live in "panaderias" according to judgmental maps.  It gives us access to amazing tortillas that you just can't get at the supermarket.  They are soft, flaky, and nearly translucent and don't overpower your food.

To prep this one.  I'll slice the steak and mix it with the tomatoes and taco seasoning and bag that up.  The veggies will be prepped and bagged separately.  When its time to cook, I just pull out the bags and cook them up.  Pretty no fuss!

Meal 2:  Chili.  Husbear makes this one.  He's perfected his chili over the years.  Things I do know about it:  Use good meat, like the top round used for the fajitas, don't make it too saucy, and cook it for a long time.  I got a good score on a corn muffin mix ($0.25 for a mix that makes 6-8 muffins).  Also reasonable price on locally made corn chips ($1.19 for a big bag, and I just found out I overpaid by $0.20, but I also didn't have to drive across town, so I'll call it even), so I'd say we're set to have a delicious meal.

To prep this one.  I learned from Melissa D'Arabian of Food Network fame that when making beans, make a huge pot and freeze what you don't use so you don't have to go through the headache of prepping beans all the time.  We'll put everything together in a crockpot and keep the crock in the fridge until the morning we are ready to start it.  Simmered on low all day, it is ready when we get home from the work day.  Easy peesy!

Meal 3:  Chipotle Chicken.  This is a recipe taught to us by my Father In-Law.  Its really tasty and easy to make ahead.  Combine 2 cups chicken stock (or 2 cups bullion reconstituted) and a small can of chipotle peppers in adobo sauce in a blender.  Blend that together for a bit.  Strain out the seeds  and big matter.  I can't stress enough to strain that stuff out.  You will get a meal that is far to spicy for human consumption if you don't.  In a baking dish, slice a large onion.  White onions are recommended, but because I'm cheap, I use whatever costs the least.  If I'm making it for company, I definitely get a white onion as they tend to be a bit sweeter and break down during cooking.  Layer chicken (boneless skinless breasts or thighs recommended) on top of the onions.  Pour the stock and pepper sauce over the top, grate cheese over the top.  Bake covered at 350°F for 30 min, uncover and cook 10 or more minutes until the cheese browns.  We like this one with yellow rice.

To prep:  The chicken will be put together and kept covered in the fridge until ready to cook.

Meal 4:  Sausages with coleslaw and mustard.  So last week my tiny head of cabbage made a lot more coleslaw than I expected. What doesn't go better the coleslaw than sausages?  I always buy sausages when they are on sale and freeze them for easy meals.  The sausage gods had been especially kind over the last little bit, so we have 3 kinds to choose from.  A local hot smoke sausage, Aidell's chicken and apple, and Brats.  Keeping with German tradition, these will be lightly grilled and served with good mustard and coleslaw....never on a bun.  If I've got leftover bread, I'll serve it along side, but never put good sausage in the bun!

Meal 5:  Tuna and Noodles.  Ok, I'm not even going to take a stab at this one.  This is another one that Husbear makes.  It sounds like traditional casserole yuck, but he does it well.  We'll put this one together and also have it in the fridge, ready to cook.

A couple more weird musings from this week:

I want to try a tropical fruit salad.  I recently had a Hawaiian flavored e-liquid that has just a hint, its so subtle its hardly there, of dill.  It makes the tropical flavors totally pop.  I'm thinking pineapple, guava, a bit of mango, maybe some dragonfruit, maybe some starfruit, all mixed together in its own juices with a sprinkle of dill.  I'll likely go check out the produce at Global Supermarket.  They always seem to have intriguing tropical fruits.  I didn't know what a dragonfruit was until I saw one in person.  Also, if they have the yellow mangoes, get a bunch, they are over the top ripe and delicious by themselves or in anything using mango.  If you ask nice, they will often cut you one heck of a deal on the ones that are so ripe they are falling apart.  Oh and my brain just said, "Hey, see if they have those delicious giant coconut flakes, that'd be really good on top."

I need to revisit the thai peanut salad.  It was good and I've been having a hankering for it again.  I've also got a lot of peanuts leftover from Burning Man.

So there ya go, another week's worth of meals.  Oh and I must say, I'm proud as heck of the grocery bill this week.  $45, this includes $5 worth of snack goodies for the basket at work and a few dollars of breakfast add ons.  I'm not sure why I've been watching the budget, more than anything I get a kick out of making my home pretty awesome for cheaps.  So far for the month, excluding the week following Burning Man, which had a lot of dining out/order-in, we are at $100.

Have a great week!

3Day