Hi all! I hope that you had a good weekend.
And, in honor of Day 50, I decided to change my strategy here at Socially Distant Cuisine. Cooking every meal is no longer a novelty, and we're starting to recoup some of our more regular eating habits. From here on out, I'll post a couple of times a week, sharing links to recipes and photos of things we've actually whipped up. I'll add recommendations for prepared food when we have them, but you don't need every piece of avocado toast that crosses our lips. Deal?
Breakfast Hash and Mason Dixie Biscuits
Saturday morning, we added some diced onion to the leftover potatoes and Brussels sprouts from last Sunday's Sheet Pan Sausages. With a sprinkle of hot smoked paprika, it was perfectly crispy and delicious. Add bacon, a fried egg, and a sweet potato biscuit from DC's Mason Dixie Biscuits, available in the freezer section around here. It was a hearty, Southern-style brunch, and lasted us until dinner.
Chilaquiles
The stale tortilla chips are still kicking around, and we had half a bottle of enchilada sauce begging for use. I diced a handful of grape tomatoes into pico de gallo, and used 3/4 of a beautifully ripe avocado for some awesome guacamole. Then put an egg on it. Jeff's coffee concoction this morning was a cappuccino with cocoa powder and cinnamon, and was quite a lovely paring. A good start to a drizzly Sunday morning.
Pad Thai
I have been craving Pad Thai. This week, I did our grocery shopping at Good Fortune, a wonderful Vietnamese grocery store in Eden Center, in Northern Virginia. I had been meaning to go for awhile, and switched my shopping game in support of the strikes at Whole Foods and Target on Friday. I picked up all kinds of goodies that I'll be sharing over the next several weeks (including several things that are new-to-me!). It was a fun diversion, even though I didn't linger long.
Pad Thai is my white whale of a home-cooked meal, and I gave it a whirl on Sunday, Day 52. Back somewhere around 2005, my friend Carla and I made an ill-fated attempt at homemade pad Thai. We were clueless at the Asian grocery and bought a few incorrect ingredients (a particularly strong fish sauce was the main culprit). That outing was completely pilot error, but man.... it was bad. Finally, 15ish years later, I decided to brave it again, with a recipe that used fewer exotic ingredients. This time, the result wasn't offensive. Just a little bland, and while I tried to fix the flavor, the noodles kind of steamed into a big blob. After it sat for a bit, oddly enough, the taste settled in and it was fine.
My verdict? The right Tamarind is key here. I have a block of paste, and this called for concentrate; it definitely wasn't as strong a flavor as in a good restaurant version. I also didn't have head-on shrimp (mine were frozen peeled), so the substitution of chicken stock could also have had something to do with it. Finally, I think this would be better in a wok over a flame than in a frying pan on an electric cook top. More frying, less steaming. The final product kind of scratched the itch (probably equal to a boxed mix?), but I am sure it's possible to do better. Hopefully not in another 15 years!
Other Players
The rest of the lineup (not pictured) was Friday's English muffin breakfast sandwich and McDonalds for dinner (on the way back from shopping) and frozen pizza and bagged salad after a long day of yard work, assembling patio furniture, and enjoying our first porch beer of the year on Saturday.
With that, we're off to another week. Stay safe and healthy, friends!
And, in honor of Day 50, I decided to change my strategy here at Socially Distant Cuisine. Cooking every meal is no longer a novelty, and we're starting to recoup some of our more regular eating habits. From here on out, I'll post a couple of times a week, sharing links to recipes and photos of things we've actually whipped up. I'll add recommendations for prepared food when we have them, but you don't need every piece of avocado toast that crosses our lips. Deal?
Breakfast Hash and Mason Dixie Biscuits
Saturday morning, we added some diced onion to the leftover potatoes and Brussels sprouts from last Sunday's Sheet Pan Sausages. With a sprinkle of hot smoked paprika, it was perfectly crispy and delicious. Add bacon, a fried egg, and a sweet potato biscuit from DC's Mason Dixie Biscuits, available in the freezer section around here. It was a hearty, Southern-style brunch, and lasted us until dinner.
Chilaquiles
The stale tortilla chips are still kicking around, and we had half a bottle of enchilada sauce begging for use. I diced a handful of grape tomatoes into pico de gallo, and used 3/4 of a beautifully ripe avocado for some awesome guacamole. Then put an egg on it. Jeff's coffee concoction this morning was a cappuccino with cocoa powder and cinnamon, and was quite a lovely paring. A good start to a drizzly Sunday morning.
Pad Thai
I have been craving Pad Thai. This week, I did our grocery shopping at Good Fortune, a wonderful Vietnamese grocery store in Eden Center, in Northern Virginia. I had been meaning to go for awhile, and switched my shopping game in support of the strikes at Whole Foods and Target on Friday. I picked up all kinds of goodies that I'll be sharing over the next several weeks (including several things that are new-to-me!). It was a fun diversion, even though I didn't linger long.
Pad Thai is my white whale of a home-cooked meal, and I gave it a whirl on Sunday, Day 52. Back somewhere around 2005, my friend Carla and I made an ill-fated attempt at homemade pad Thai. We were clueless at the Asian grocery and bought a few incorrect ingredients (a particularly strong fish sauce was the main culprit). That outing was completely pilot error, but man.... it was bad. Finally, 15ish years later, I decided to brave it again, with a recipe that used fewer exotic ingredients. This time, the result wasn't offensive. Just a little bland, and while I tried to fix the flavor, the noodles kind of steamed into a big blob. After it sat for a bit, oddly enough, the taste settled in and it was fine.
My verdict? The right Tamarind is key here. I have a block of paste, and this called for concentrate; it definitely wasn't as strong a flavor as in a good restaurant version. I also didn't have head-on shrimp (mine were frozen peeled), so the substitution of chicken stock could also have had something to do with it. Finally, I think this would be better in a wok over a flame than in a frying pan on an electric cook top. More frying, less steaming. The final product kind of scratched the itch (probably equal to a boxed mix?), but I am sure it's possible to do better. Hopefully not in another 15 years!
Other Players
The rest of the lineup (not pictured) was Friday's English muffin breakfast sandwich and McDonalds for dinner (on the way back from shopping) and frozen pizza and bagged salad after a long day of yard work, assembling patio furniture, and enjoying our first porch beer of the year on Saturday.
With that, we're off to another week. Stay safe and healthy, friends!
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