Decadent Friday with Desert

Lunch Tunes
MGMT
Oracular Spectacular

The Menu
Bacon Shrimp with Japanese Dipping Sauce
Cucumber Slices
Warm Chocolate Chip Cookies
Double Dark Chocolate Gelato

We ate everything that was cooked for dinner last night. Not a morsel left and I had finally finished the baked macaroni and cheese that I had been eating all week. I had to scavenge in the fridge.

As I mentioned in the seafood salad post I always have frozen shrimp in the freezer. I also always have bacon frozen wrapped in sets of three strips. And what is better than bacon and shrimp? Not much. Not much.

Defrosting the shrimp in water and the bacon in the microwave both work really well and are fast so this is a actually a really quick lunch. I even cook the bacon a tiny bit in the microwave of start to render it out on the stove so that it will crisp on quicker when baking. I actually didn't do it enough today. I was afraid of overcooking the shrimp so the bacon was a little chewier than I would have liked. I would have preferred a much bigger shrimp for this to avoid the undercooked bacon or overcooked shrimp dilemma but that's not what I had on hand. I stuffed the shrimp with horseradish. I could have stuffed them with anything though. Cream cheese and herbs for example or lemon zest and breadcrumbs. Just anything. Just thinking about it makes me want to make an experimental platter.

For the dipping sauce I was out of rice wine vinegar for I used a Chianti. Holy crow it was tangy. If you're using a strong vinegar I would cut the amount used back a bit. You could also have cocktail sauce. I thought that with the shrimp stuffed with horseradish it would be too much but you may just love your horseradish!

I don't usually have dessert at lunch time but I've been baking cookies so I really wanted to have some warm ones right away. The gelato was kind of an after thought. I bought it on a whim at the grocery store last night. It is the holidays and I do deserve a treat. It was excellent. Very rich.

Bacon Shrimp

6 Shrimp, peeled and deveined
3 strips bacon cut in half crosswise
horseradish

Butterfly the shrimp. Put about 1/4 of a tsp horseradish in the shrimp. Close and wrap snugly in bacon. Cook 375 for 10 minutes. Pop under the broiler for about 1 minute to crisp bacon.

Japanese Shrimp Dipping Sauce
(adapted from a recipe I got online. It was a long time ago and I lost the source but I've changed it so maybe it's my own now)

1/2 c mayonnaise
1 T sugar
1 T vinegar
1 T melted butted
1/2 t garlic powder
1/2 t paprika

Mix all ingredients until thoroughly blended.

Chocolate Chip Cookies
This recipe is adapted from the Toll House Cookie recipe. I use more brown sugar because I like a chewier cookie. I split the baking soda with baking powder because I like a puffier cookie. And I use Ghiradelli semi sweet chips because I like them better. When I make my husbands with the nuts I use 1 c granulated sugar and 1/2 cup brown sugar and all baking soda because he likes a crisper flatter cookie. I also make his twice as big. I make mine with my smallest cookie scoop. The number has worn off but it's about 1 1/2 T I think.

2 Sticks butter, room temp
1 c brown sugar
1/2 c granulated sugar
1 t vanilla
2 eggs
2 1/4 c flour
1/2 t baking powder
1/2 t baking soda
1 t salt
2 cups chocolate chips

Cream sugars and butter together. Add vanilla. Add eggs on at a time beating until smooth. mix all dry ingredients except the chips. Add to the butter mixture 1/3 at a time thoroughly incorporating before adding more. Mix until smooth. Fold in chocolate chips. Bake 375 for 9-12 minutes.

I See Food

Lunch Tunes
Robert & the Family
Unclassified

The Menu
Seafood Salad on a Bed of Romaine

Last night I made breaded cod and rice.

First, I didn't write a post yesterday because I just didn't feel like cooking. I had pickles and salt & vinegar Pringles for lunch. At my computer. Not a very photogenic meal so I skipped it.

Today my husband decided to stay home from work. We have one of those giant dumpsters in our driveway until Monday. We also have a room that we haven't gone into for over a year because you simply can't. I don't know how it got so out of hand but it did. So we are cleaning it out today. I can only look at papers that my son did in first grade for so long before I get bored and need to move the hell on. He can do that all day. So let him. He's going to have a sandwich and coffee for lunch so I am still lunching alone.

I decided to make the seafood salad because I wasn't in the mood for a chowder and seafood really doesn't reheat well without becoming gummy. I also always have a bag of frozen shrimp in the freezer so I added some of them for texture and variety. I had canned crab but it would have been way too much crab or I would have had to have found a use for the rest of it over the next couple of days and I just didn't see that happening. I also was going to make rice croquettes. It was a failure. I never made them before but I figure how hard can it be. They're just rice with egg rolled in bread crumbs right? I couldn't get them to stick. I mean the stuck to my hands just fine but I couldn't make the rice stick to itself to form a ball. So I trashed it.

Seafood Salad

1 clove garlic minced
1/2 T olive oil
4 medium shrimp, peeled
salt
pepper
2 small wedges of lemon
1/2 c cooked cod, broken into pieces
1/2 rib of celery, diced
1 T mayo (just enough to moisten and hold it together)
3/4 t dillweed
1/2 t garlic salt

Saute the garlic in the oil until aromatic. Add shrimp and the salt and pepper. When they are getting pink on one side flip them over and squeeze one of the lemon wedges over them. Cook until just cooked through. Put in a small bowl and throw them in the freezer to chill while you dice the celery. When they are cooled to at least room temp cut the shrimp in 4 pieces and add to the cod with the celery. Season with the dill, garlic salt, a grind of pepper and squeeze another lemon wedge over. Mix and let sit for a minute or two. Add just enough mayo to make it stick together. Spoon over torn lettuce.

Mmmm....meaty

Lunch Tunes
My son making funny noises while he played a computer game

The Menu
Fried Slices of Meatloaf with Cucumber Horseradish Sauce
Slice of Buttered Rye Toast

I made a meatloaf flavored with sage and thyme and wrapped in bacon for dinner last night.

Today was a snow day from school. First snow of the year! I really dislike snow. It's cold. It's wet. You have to move it off of your car to drive making you cold and wet. Blech. My son loves it though and I was looking forward to a day with him outside sledding and me inside reading and cooking. Then freezing rain happened. So plans ruined. He played a lot of computer and I did dishes and puttered. I already made pancakes and sausage for breakfast so I wasn't particularly hungry at lunch time so I decided to go with a small light meal. I sliced the meatloaf very thin, fried it in a drop of olive oil, and mounded the cold sauce on top. Put it next to a piece of toast and you've got a meal. A delicious meal.

The meatloaf I made was very herby but lacking in any kind of bite of I decided to kick it up a little with some horseradish. This probably would have made a very nice sandwich but I only have store bought sliced bread. Unless it's toasted I can't stand packaged sliced breads. And I've tried all kinds and all brands. For me to like a bread it has to be chewy. It has to have some texture. It has to be a little dense. And the fluffy, soft, uniformity of sliced packaged bread just doesn't do it for me. At all. The sauce would probably be a little thin for a sandwich unless you deseeded the cucumbers and drained them with salt first or substitutes diced green pepper. You could also thicken it up but using a strained Greek yogurt instead of mayonnaise. Or if you like the thickness but just would like more tang you could use sour cream instead. I used dried parsley for a little color and just a list fresh flavor but you could use any herb you like.

Cucumber Horseradish Sauce

1 T Mayonnaise
1 1/2-2 T prepared horseradish drained a little
1/2 pickling cucumber, peeled, deseeded and diced
1-3 drops Tabasco (I used 3 but I like things hot) Optional
Pinch dried or fresh parsley

Mix together in a small bowl and let stand while you make the toast and fry the meatloaf just to left the flavors mingle a bit. Spoon over the meatloaf.

Tacos Become Me

Lunch Tunes:
Tom Waits
Blue Valentine

The Menu

Chicken Taco Soup
Pepper Jack Quesadilla
Simple Salad with Salsa Vinagrette

We had chicken tacos last night so I used the left over grated cheese, a flour tortilla, and the seasoned meat to make myself this lunch.

Today my husband called me around 11 and asked if I wanted to go grocery shopping with him over his lunch break rather than waiting for him to get home from work. We only have the one car right now so I'm at the mercy of his schedule and by 5 when he comes home I generally don't want to go anywhere. It's winter so 5 is cold and dark and I'm just not a cold and dark kind of a girl. Plus there was a big World of Warcraft patch today and the servers won't be up until later and grocery shopping could potentially cut into my game time and we can't have that. Today's meal was going to have to be simple and quick. I almost didn't make it out of the grocery store without eating candy in the check out aisle. But because it was my first blog on my lunches it still had to be pretty so I could try to photograph it.

In today's lunch I used packaged croutons but I often make my own and these are really popular with the family because I can season them any way I want to. If I had a leftover roll I would have made them with chili powder, cumin, onion and garlic powder to go with my southwestern theme. I also used canned corn. It was on a really good sale today but I usually only use frozen vegetables. I have to say though that the vacuum packed shoepeg corn was really tasty in this soup. I got the little 8.5 oz cans and I only used half so tomorrow I'm going to have to work the rest into my meal tomorrow or the next day. For the soup if I had used ground beef or steak for my taco meat I would have used beef instead of chicken stock and if I was to go vegetarian with the meal I would have used mushroom broth and added a little chili powder and cumin and added green beans and some chopped red onion in place of the meat.

So I was thinking about posting format what I settled on was to include the tunes I listened to with my lunch (ambience to set the scene) a menu and a description of what leftovers went into the meal. Then a little chit chat about my thought process on what to make and why. As well as some of my thoughts on the ingredients I used and possible substitutions. And at the end I'll include the recipes for what I made.

Chicken Taco Soup

About a 1/2 a cup leftover seasoned chicken meat
A couple of heaping tablespoons of chunky style salsa
A couple of heaping tablespoons of canned shoepeg corn
Chicken broth (enoughto cover and make it soupy)
A pinch colby cheese

Put the meat, salsa, corn and broth in a small pan and simmer until heated through. Pour into a mug and sprinkle with the grated cheese.

Pepper Jack Quesadilla

Grated Pepper Jack Cheese
Grated Colby Cheese
8 inch Flour Tortilla

Put the grated cheese onto half of the tortilla. Fold in half and put into a warmed skillet and cook about 2 minutes on each side until the cheese is melted and the tortilla is golden brown. Cut into quarters.

Simple Salad with Salsa Vinagrette

Salad
Chopped romaine lettuce
Diced cucumber
Croutons

Vinagrette
1 T Salsa
1 T Red Wine Vinegar
1 1/2 T Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Put the salad ingredients on your plate. Mix the vinagrette ingredients in a small bowl and mix. Spoon over the salad.

An Introduction

I am unemployed. Have been for almost two years now. Not by choice and I find myself in two new and pretty uncomfortable positions. The first is that I am now a housewife and stay-at-home mom. These are not titles that I wear with joy. I've always been much more comfortable in the role of breadwinner while the husband stayed home and did dishes and dealt with the teachers and other parents. I am not what they call domestic and other parents tend to make my skin crawl. I am also extremely poor. Not that we were wealthy by any means when I was working but we definitely had enough to eat every day and pay all the bills mostly on time. And have a Christmas tree. And buy presents for our son. Even in lean years we were able to buy something to make it fun. This year it looks like I'm knitting him a pair of gloves and my husband and I will have to make Christmas morning a game instead of a present filled fest. So that is who I am.

I've been adrift in this weird structureless world of sporadic housework, intensive reading sessions that last days, and bouts of computer gaming. And not eating. During the day while the husband is at work and my son is at school cooking for myself just seemed like too much work so if I didn't have something I could just throw into the microwave, I just wouldn't eat. People who know me would be shocked. Not about the not eating, maybe, but about the microwave. Cooking is the one household chore I can do. I love to do. I make everything from scratch. No processed foods in the house if I can help it. And I turned into a Stouffer's French Bread Pizza, frozen dinners, Ramen noodles eating woman. Ok, so I got a little depressed.

But then something happened. We got even poorer than we were when I stopped eating. And I had to budget every meal down to the penny. Plan ahead, cook ahead. And I never planned lunches for myself but I was so conscious of not wasting anything that I began to have the best lunches of my life from the leftovers of dinners. And I wasn't restricted by the food whims of my family opening me up to trying things I would never have been able to try for family meals.

I was enjoying my lunches alone so much that I wanted to share my ideas for leftover lunches with others who maybe cooking for themselves alone during the day and wanted to avoid the prepackage foods or just popping last nights dinner in the microwave. I'm hoping to be able to take pictures because I really believe in the whole "eating with your eyes" thing and I try to make my lunches as appealing as possible. I hope you'll join me and maybe you might have some stories about lunching alone to share as well.