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| As Not Seen on TV |
| GUY FIERI, have you eaten at your new restaurant in Times Square? Have you pulled up one of the 500 seats at Guy’s American Kitchen & Bar and ordered a meal? Did you eat the food? Did it live up to your expectations? |
| I wish I could write this well. |
random craftiness
Since I have no natural talent in anything (aside from eating enough to make Vegas buffet trips a break-even-or-better prospect), I have to practice and warm up when I pick up things I haven’t done in a while. In addition to pool, this dust-off-the-rust thing also applies to crafts. When I start doing ceramics again, for example, I won’t work on a commissioned item right away — I’ll do some small project to reacquaint myself with the painting techniques. This goes for yarn crafts, too.
Here is my warm-up piece — a brain slug from the animated television show “Futurama”.
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And now, I shall return to working slowly through my commissions…
thanks a lot
Some social media thing going ’round has people posting one thing they are thankful for each day in November. Okay, fine. Let’s see if I can actually finish this bit of foofaraw.
Of course I’ve fallen behind schedule…
| 8. Autumn |
| Reminds me we have no seasons in Southern California because our leaves are mostly coniferous needles, or fake. |
| 9. Idiots at work |
| They provide job security. |
| 10. Habanero peppers |
| Uh. Hmm. HAHAHAHAHAHA. That is all. |
| 11. The men and women who defend our country |
| Without them, I would never be able to talk this much sh#t. |
| 12. AFP |
| Always F#cking Post. Great lesson and great entertainment, if I do say so myself. |
| 13. Wine |
| “I cook with wine. Sometimes, I even add it to the food.” |
| 14. Living close to the ocean |
| It’s very nice. |
| 15. AJR |
| The sponsor of this post who thereby brings joy not only to me, but also to all of you who are reading. 🙂 |
food yoga
Reader AJR sent me an Andrew Jackson and told me to spend it on something tasty. I responded that I would spend it all stockpiling ramen. AJR said no ramen — I was to eat well, and enjoy not having to eat ramen in the name of saving money for tournaments. No ramen? Hell of a challenge, but I was down with it.
Let’s see what happened to that twenty dollars.
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Chicken | |
| My local supermarket was having a decent sale on bulk packages of fresh chicken. I usually buy chicken thighs in bulk and freeze them, but this time, I sprung for a chicken Grill Pack. | ||
| The Grill Pack contained 3 chicken legs and 2 chicken breasts. | ||
| This Grill Pack would be different from the norm, since I rarely cook chicken breast (it ends up quite dry — blech). I had a few things on hand to supplement the purchased chicken, though, so the future looked to be a tasty one. | ||
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Braised Chicken with Tomatoes | |
| 1 chicken leg ($0.90), 2 tomatoes ($0.50), 1 rather old shallot, 2 garlic cloves, 8 basil leaves ($0.10), shot of sherry, and some herbs and spices (salt, pepper, rosemary, thyme, oregano) | ||
| $1.50 • $1.50 spent • $18.50 remaining |
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Sticky Roast Chicken Legs | |
| 2 chicken legs ($1.82), 1/2 onion ($0.50), herbs and spices (salt, black pepper, white pepper, paprika, onion powder, garlic powder, ground ancho chili, thyme) | ||
| OMFG, I have found the holy grail of roasted chicken recipes. This made two meals. | ||
| $2.32 • $3.82 spent • $16.18 remaining |
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Curried Chicken Salad | |
| 1 chicken breast ($0.91), mayonnaise, 2 green onions ($0.20), 1-1/2 celery ribs ($0.15), canned oranges ($1.00), lemon juice, spices (salt, black pepper, curry powder) | ||
| I roasted this chicken breast the same way I roasted the above legs (to further verify the awesomeness of that recipe/technique) and it came out NOT DRY AT ALL. It was AMAZING. This also made two meals. | ||
| $2.26 • $6.08 spent • $13.92 remaining |
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Chicken Noodle Soup | |
| 1 chicken breast ($0.91), chicken bones, 1/2 onion ($0.50), carrot ($0.25), celery rib ($0.10), garlic clove, herbs and spices (salt, black pepper, thyme, tiny bay leaf), egg noodles | ||
| I brined the chicken breast before roasting to add flavor. The bones were from the previously roasted chicken pieces. I simmered the bones with vegetables and seasonings on super-low heat while I slept. | ||
| $1.76 • $7.84 spent • $12.16 remaining |
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Beef | |
| Steaks are the laziest way to high-quality beef. There are many underappreciated cuts out there including my favorite — beef chuck. I got beef chuck strips, cut them into smaller strips, and then marinated them in some leftover jarred galbi marinade I had in the fridge. | ||
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Random Stir-Fry | |
| beef ($3.87), 1/4 white onion ($0.25), 2 celery ribs ($0.20), 2 tomatoes ($0.50), garlic clove, cilantro ($0.10), soy sauce, shot of sherry, Sriracha chili sauce | ||
| Two meals! Three, if you add rice (I didn’t)! I totally winged this one — had no idea what I was doing but it turned out nice. | ||
| $4.92 • $12.76 spent • $7.24 remaining |
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Salmon | |
| The beef gave me a taste for the good life so I spent even more money and got a salmon fillet. I really enjoy poke, a Hawaiian raw fish salad, and figured this would be a nice opportunity to make it. I did not have all the ingredients necessary to make authentic poke, so my easy-to-make version is referred to as “hokey poke” (clever nomenclature courtesy of my friend’s witty husband). | ||
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Hokey Salmon Poke | |
| salmon ($4.63), 1/2 avocado ($0.75), 2 green onions ($0.20), soy sauce, seasoned rice vinegar, sesame seed oil, Sriracha chili sauce, tortilla chips ($1.00) | ||
| Two meals! The tortilla chips were from a Mexican restaurant. | ||
| $6.58 • $19.34 spent • $0.66 remaining |
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Dessert | |
| 3 mini packs of Haribo Gold-Bears ($0.60) | ||
| Coworker’s kid came in with a bag of Halloween candy. I offered to buy some. She asked how much I had. I said 66 cents. She said I could have three packs of gummi bears for 20 cents each. I said I could give her 22 cents each since I had 66 cents. She gave me a serious look and said, ” You should never spend all the money you have.” | ||
| $0.60 • $19.94 spent • $0.06 remaining |
I covered land (beef), sea (fish), and air (chicken) in this food challenge. Because I can cook a little and have good stuff lying around in my pantry and fridge, I don’t always have to eat like an aspiring professional pool player. Also, my meal sizes when I’m not at a buffet are reasonable, so here’s the disclaimer:
results not typical, your mileage may vary
Hey, if you can cook like this all the time, why eat ramen at all? Ramen is still cheaper — $20 would have provided 15 meals as opposed to the 10 above and although I have my moments of inspiring innovation and astounding determination, my usual mode of existence is extreme laziness (I blame the brain slug). In any case, I was very well-fed for a little over a week and I am very thankful. 🙂 If you think I should do recipe posts for these dishes, let me know which ones in the comments section.
Thank you, AJR. I know you intended for me to enjoy a single delicious meal, but I got ten. Hope you don’t mind. 🙂
