memoirs of a palate

LEFT TO MY OWN DEVICES




Tonight Meena had her fashion dept. holiday dinner at Mexican Radio, so I was on my own. While we joked on the train this morning that I was going to keep it strictly bachelor with a hungry man dinner featuring 42 gallons of mashed potatoes, 12 pounds of fried chicken and a trash can full of yellow corn kernels ... I knew that wasn't going to happen.

I had to take back some videos in the west village and I was getting really hungry ... so I almost thought I wouldn't cook and just get all gyro and stuff, but I still had some motivation to hit the grocery once I got off the train. I sorta milled about the store for a minute trying to figure out what I was going to make. I was thinking of trying to replicate one of my favorite Ivo & Lulu dishes (some odd sausage and some nice couscous with raisins), but sausage was expensive and it didn't look very good for me. So I went with these ingredients:

- chicken breast
- chili peppers
- fresh mozzarella
- cherry tomatoes
- cucumber

I had some curry powder, raisins, miracle whip, balsamic vinegar and olive oil at home, so what I ended up doing was mixing up a little curried chicken salad (served it on a warm tortilla) with that cucumber/tomato/mozzarella salad. They were both really nice. And filling. I'm totally full. But best part ... I spent like 12 dollars on groceries ... and I totally have lunch tomorrow, too.

Oh, the one thing you're going to start realizing with my cooking ... my presentation is CRAP. And because you can't taste this stuff (I assure you it's good), this is hardly of any use to anyone. Therefore ... I promise to work on that. It'll get better. Mark my words.