I was vaguely accused of being a hoarder when it came to this huge pile of magazines I just couldn’t quite part with. Since I occasionally watch that show with both horror and fascination I sat down and using an Exacto knife sliced out pages that had articles or photos that inspired me and have shoved them in a file folder in a crate with our household paperwork. Then processed the magazines into grocery bags for a work giveaway. It could be anything from recipes to decorating to crafts to places I’d like to visit. Pinterest is an online place to pin images that inspire me linking back to the original site that has recipes or shopping info. It is a less hoardery way of storing information. Last night for dinner I made a recipe I had pinned from a blog I follow for a really cool online shop called Eat Boutique which is the store I would have if I were entrepreneurial. It is an Asian inspired meatball with Soba. Porkey meatballs filled with springy green onions and toasted sesame seeds simmered in a broth made of soy, white wine, brown sugar and a little sriracha. It is a simply complex broth filled with contrast. I used that broth after simmering the meatballs to coat the noodles into a mass of slurpy goodness and forced Z to eat with chopsticks. It isn’t an item we would eat on a daily basis and I may have slightly overcooked the meatballs as they weren’t as moist as I would have liked but it is a nice variant on the theme of comfort food.
tilapia tacos
driving down our street tonight I saw a huge truck with a trailer filled with grass clumps and 
thought to myself, ‘someone’s lucky!’ – and it was me!! My wannabe grass but mostly only dollar weed and yellow daisy like flowers interspersed with something that smells like tea when I mow the lawn is gone. Next stop-new lawn! I thanked the guy with a bottle of water and got started on dinner. Tonight I made Tilapia soft tacos with lime cream and thinly sliced cabbage. It was so easy and tasted fresher than your average sleepy Monday dinner.
- Preheat your oven to 350 and wrap some taco shells in foil to heat.
- 2 small Tilapia filets sliced into 3″ x 1″ chunks dredged in salt and peppered flour. Pan fry in just a little canola to give a light crust. Drain on paper towels.
- thinly sliced savoy cabbage tossed to loosen the strands
- one grated carrot
- 1/3 reduced fat sour cream thinned with the juice of one lime to drizzle
- sliced green onion
- pile everything in the shells
- serve with Cholula hot sauce and tortilla chips
tako cheena
tried out a new place on Friday night called Tako-Cheena by Pom Pom. Owned by Pom Pom of a previous entry entitled ‘hype’ – I wasn’t impressed by her sandwicheria although it is a total darling of the locals and I should probably give it another try. I had read good things about this new venture other than the fact that they only took cash. It is a cross between latin and asian food serving up filled empanadas, takos (not a typo) and asian hot dogs. We invited a friend to join us and headed out for dinner. Take Cheena serves Mexican Coke and Jarritos fruity sodas. I chose Grapefruit which was sweetly tart and refreshing. It actually worked well with the fried foods, cutting the greasy factor. To start we tried a couple of empanadas, one chicken and one beef but I think we were delivered two beef with two sides of chunky salsa. It was a kind of tomatoey beef with some spices and corn and served super hot. For my main meal I ordered an unlikely combo of a Japadog and two tacos. I could totally live without the Japadog – a wierdly textured deep fried dog that could easily be pushed aside. The tacos were excellent though. I ordered two, both on flour tortillas, one panko crusted cod and one deep fried tofu. They had different toppings of salsas and crunchy lightly dressed crunchy slaw. I couldn’t stop tearing through them, crunching along and tasting the bright salsa and slaws. Finishing with Z’s favorite churros I wished we would have tried the apple potstickers. Next time.
bar americain and a bit on ww
I picked up a copy of Bar Americain by Bobby Flay sometime in the range of Christmas. It was right around the time we started Weight Watchers (WW) so it has somewhat languished on the shelves. I got a fairly good selection of cookbooks just aching to be opened up and put to the test. WW has been going well for the most part – we started in December and have lost 23# and 25# depending which of us you ask. But last week we tried one of the recipes calling me from the book to good success. A green tomato, goat cheese and bacon grilled cheese.
I picked up a loaf of jalapeno cheese bread from the bakery for the base which was slightly different from the Pullman loaf it called for. I wasn’t really sure what that would be but found out after the fact that it is a basic square sandwich loaf baked in a pan with a lid to keep it square. No matter, the jalapeno bread added just a bit of tang and played well with the others. I crisp fried a few slices of bacon and thin sliced the tomatoes adding them to an ounce or so on each sandwich of semi-soft goat cheese and toasted it all with some butter. This sandwich is a perfect riot of flavors, crispy fresh, tangy and savory. In the old days we probably would have had it with fries (we still would sometimes) but instead had it with some lightly dressed spinach.
tap room
nothing like heading out for dinner on St Patrick’s Day and trying a new restaurant to find out that it is a bar. We worked and lazed around the house yesterday recovering from a long work week. Around six we decided to head out for dinner and thought about where to go. I remembered that there is a semi new place called the Lake Nona Tap Room fairly close by. We googled the menu and it looked pretty promising with a full complement of burgers, fish n chips and that type of thing. So we headed over.
It is pretty solidly a bar serving green beer and four giant televisions showing ‘the game’ (in 
this case March Madness highlights). They have like 50 beers on tap at a hugely long bar. Probably the first time Z has been to a bar on St Pat’s. We found two seats together and placed our orders for coke and iced tea while we perused the menu. We decided on pretzel bread and cheddar ale dip along with a bacon and blue burger and a bratwurst on a pretzel roll.
The kitchen in back looked tiny but they really put out some good food. My burger was well cooked medium-super juicy and had crisp bacon and a good amount of crumbly blue cheese on a floated toasty roll. They hand cut potatoes into super thick chips that weren’t exactly crisp but pretty tasty. I used a bit of the leftover cheddar ale dip for those and was pleased with the result.
I am happy to have a local spot for a good burger so close to home even if they don’t quite know my name.
My Urban Pantry 