FISH AND RICE

I got out a little earlier last night (not really early, just not 8:00 p.m.) so I joined Meena on a quick F ride back to the hood. On our walk home, we hit Fish Tales and Pacific Green for a couple quick supplies. It was super cold out last night so I was seriously racing back to the house to get the burners cranked up and the oven broiling.

I still didn't want to spend too much time in the kitchen. Given I had a little extra time to kick back, I wanted to get in and out and start digging in as quickly as possible. So what's easier and faster than fish and rice? Not much, man. Here's what went into it:
- cod
- glaze (brown sugar, soy sauce, crushed red pepper, garlic)
- scallions
- white rice
- burnt red onion
- burnt poblano pepper

I threw it all under the broiler to finish after a quick stint in the oven. Awesome flavor.

I also threw together a salad:
- field greens
- red onion
- parmesan
- olive oil
- rice vinegar
- salt
- basil
- mustard

The greens were delicious, too. Nice mustard flavor permeated the whole thing.

I loved the whole meal. It was super quick and the cod was delicious and packed with flavor as a result of that glaze really getting baked into it. Meena isn't a fan of the peppers, but I liked the additional flavor they added with their buddies, the burn onions.

DIFFERENT DELIVERY

We didn't feel like cooking when we both got home late last night so we decided some Indian would be in order. Normally we do the Thai or Japanese thing, but we figured what the heck? We hadn't really reached out to any of the Indian places around here. We figured we'd give Dhaka Indian a shot.

We usually do the test and order our favorites when we call any Indian place. So we went with the normal stuff. Meena had:
- chicken tika masala

Alec had:
- lamb vindaloo

We also had an order of naan, the various sauces that come with Indian food and one order of mango pickle. I'd be remiss if I didn't admit I only ordered this because M.I.A. mentions it in a song. She likes fish and mango pickle. Or so she says. So I figured whatever. I'll try it. And now ... I've tried it. I'm not sure I need to again. Maybe it was just this place and their mango pickle I didn't like. Who knows. But you know, I like to try stuff.

Anyway, the food was OK. Not great. Not as good as Baluchi's. But not bad. There are a couple other spots we can call. And I'm sure we will.

COMFORT

As I've mentioned extensively, Meena has been sick for the better part of a week at this point. She's still not feeling great, but I'm hoping she's finally turning the corner. Let's hope.

At any rate, she requested comfort food last night and I was happy to help out with the request. Who is going to argue with comfort food? I mean really. And what's more comfortable than mac and cheese?

Here's how I did mine:
- organic macaroni and cheese
- smoked provolone
- parmesan
- bread crumbs
- olive oil
- dried basil
- milk
- low fat hebrew national hot dogs

Meena is a huge fan of having some hot dogs with her mac so I grilled up a few and threw them in as well. It was lovely. It was like being 12 again. Pretty awesome.

I also whipped up a quick salad to give us some greenery:
- field greens
- red onion
- dried cranberries
- olive oil
- rice vinegar
- salt
- mustard powder
- crushed red pepper
- dried basil

It was total comfort food but it was all really awesome. The funniest thing was that it was SO cheap to get the ingredients. I forget how much money you can save when you're eating grilled cheese and tomato soup style day in and day out. I'm not saying I'm about to make the switch, but you know ... just stating the obvious.

STEWING ON LOST

In an effort to recall all the vital Lost details that may have left my brain since the end of last season, I holed up yesterday and watched the better part of Season Three over again. I want to be ready when 1/31 rolls around!

Because most of my time was spent in front of the tube, I figured leftovers were in order. I didn't want to spend too much time away from my castaways. So we reheated the beef stew and added some grilled cheese to the mix. Nothing fancy, just some smoked provolone on good old peasant bread.

Meena wasn't a huge fan of the sandwiches, but I'm convinced the sickness has her taste buds off ... or maybe I just made a bad sandwich! I liked it though, so I'm hoping it's the former.

Meena put in a request for some comfort food tonight ... should be an interesting post tomorrow.

DI AND DAN

Sunday night. Football night. For the big Packers playoff game, I went over to D and James' house for a little football time. Meena was feeling WORSE if you can believe it and stayed home in bed. This cold or whatever it is has it's hold on her. It's terrible.

I forgot to take pictures and for that I am very sorry. Because we had quite a spread:
- sausage bread
- edamame dip with vegetables
- spinach balls
- buffalo chicken and tofu
- taco dip
- beer
- wine
- chips
- cookies
- brownies

I mean ... is that a spread or is that a spread? Now if only the Packers could have pulled it out ... sorry Brett. Maybe next year?

ALTERNATIVE?

For breakfast this morning, I hoped one of our favorite deli sandwiches would cheer Meena up and make her feel ready to fight the world again. But alas, she wasn't feeling great and I didn't quite do the sandwich.

We normally pick up a baked salmon salad bagel on weekend mornings but instead of doing the giant bagel thing, I went with my own homemade version with some baked salmon salad from Court Street Bagel.

Here's what went into mine:
- red onion
- tomato
- baked salmon salad
- turkish delight bread

I liked it. A lot less carb than the store bought version. But still nice. I think this may be the way forward for us.

STEW AND SICKNESS

Toward the end of Saturday, Meena still wasn't feel well. This sickness does not want to let go of her.

So I went out to the butcher Saturday morning and picked up some meat for a beef stew. I read in Jaimie Oliver's book about a recipe so I figured I'd give it a shot. Nothing tricky ... just good old fashioned stew.

Here's what went in:
- stew beef
- carrots
- celery
- red onion
- olive oil
- wine
- canned tomatoes
- salt
- cinnamon
- garlic
- dried shiitake

Nothing too drastic. And the result after a day in the crock pot? Awesome. Everything melted together and it was just a wonderful broken down bowl of goodness. Can't ask for much more than that.

I was supposed to use dried porcini but I couldn't find any. Shiitake was OK, but obviously porcini would have been much better.

We threw in a picture of Meena's side dish of the weekend. This illness is really bumming her out. She just can't shake it.

BREAKFAST FOR ONE

We woke up and Meena wasn't in the mood for breakfast. So we made her some oatmeal and I went with the egg white omelette.

My little creation featured:
- egg whites
- cilantro rice and beans
- salsa
- cilantro
- laughing cow cheese
- field greens
- salt
- crushed red pepper

Not bad. I got the eggs a little over done. It was fine. But not the best I've ever made. But with the contents available in the fridge, this was about as good as I could manage!

EM FOR THE NIGHT

Meena still wasn't feeling very well so we kept it close to home and picked up some movies. Nothing serious in the hope she'd start feeling a little better. In an effort to do something a little adventurous from the confines of home, we tried a new thai delivery place - Em Thai.

We kept it mostly similar to our normal orders. Meena had:
- veggie dumplings
- chicken pad thai

Alec had:
- shrimp dumplings
- chicken curry something or another

Mine was mad spicy. Which was great. Meena's was just OK. I'm not sure we'll do the Em Thai thing again. Maybe. We'll see. But I don't see the likelihood being great.

SICK AND SUSHI

Meena was out sick yesterday so when I got home, she wasn't all that interested in food. She did decide finally that a shrimp shumai and POSSIBLY some miso might actually do the trick.

So we called our friends at Cube 63 and dialed up some Thursday night Japanese. I would have run out and picked up some supplies but it was raining and gross. I couldn't have done it. It was too nasty. So here's how it went:

Meena had:
- shrimp shumai
- miso soup

Alec had:
- sushi plate (california roll and 8 pieces of fish)
- miso soup

I forgot to take a picture of the sushi plate. Whoops. It was just so tasty that I dove into it and forgot all about taking photos. I didn't eat any of my rice which is the way I like to roll with this new sushi plate deal. If I do ... I'm too full by the time I get to the third piece. So I just stick with the fish.

Meena was really into her soup and shumai. I think she still felt kinda bad and went to bed, but at least she ate a little something. She'll be better soon. I'm sure of it.

SUBWAY RASTA

I had to go to the Wyclef show in Times Square last night so I wasn't really able to get down with some serious eats. I hate eating alone so I wasn't about to go hit some restaurant in midtown after work all by myself. So I just worked a little later and then sorta meandered over toward the Nokia Theater. A little past it, I found a Subway and that was fine for last night. It was a weird ghetto Subway food court thing with like Nathans and Indian places and Chinese places too. Very strange. But I went for the Subway and it filled me up and that was awesome.

I had turkey. On wheat. With the usual provolone, mustard, every pepper they have and some lettuce and tomato. Nothing special but it's pretty much my favorite.

I can't front. I like Subway. When Meena and I are on road trips we'll go way out of our way to find a rest stop Subway. It just makes more sense for some reason.

Anyway, I didn't have food photos so I just snapped a couple shots of Wyclef and Times Square to give you a sense of what the rest of my night looked like. Wyclef was good. He covered Marley and soloed on the guitar with his teeth. Can't ask for much more than that, right?

A TIME OF TACOS

We're on day three with our rump roast and tonight we're trying yet another nationality - the very simple, very mundane Mexican soft taco.

Well, I guess it's not that mundane. Tacos are common, but they can taste really good, right? I know we do them a bunch, but that's because we like them. So whatever. Here's a little store about a few more.

I got started with a little rice and beans side:
- black beans
- rice
- salt
- cilantro
- tomato juice
- olive oil
- cumin
- lime juice

And then we just threw together all the taco stuff:
- fat free sour cream
- flour tortillas (trimmed to a smaller size)
- salsa
- shredded cheese
- cilantro
- field greens

We threw it all together and it was truly lovely. The warm tortillas were trimmed down to the perfect size and we had just enough of all the stuff to fill them up.

The beef is still going strong. It went really well with the chipotle salsa.

Anyway, I know it may look like just another taco night, but I'd put it up there in the top tier of taco nights from that past year or two. Simple, delicious.

MY HAND AT SSAM

I'm not sure if I should be trying to make ssam, but last night I figured I'd give it a shot. I had that lovely beef rump roast that had been cooked down the previous day and even though it wasn't the incredible salty Berkshire pork they have at Momofuku, I thought it might work.

So I got everything going and as soon as Meena got home from her first day at her new gig, I sprung into action and started wrapping stuff up. Here's the list of what went in:
- shredded beef
- shiitake mushrooms (sautéed with black sesame seeds and rice vinegar)
- white rice
- miso sauce (soy sauce, water and miso paste)
- kimchi paste
- whole wheat and flax wrap

I also made a little green side dish with the following:
- broccoli
- raisins
- cumin
- paprika
- rice vinegar
- garlic
- olive oil
- black pepper

Meena wasn't a huge fan of the broccoli. I should have chopped it up into smaller pieces when roasting. My bad. I learned this one from Bon Appetite and it didn't really say how large they should be ... just what the needed to look like when done. But the vinaigrette was very nice. I liked it and I'll try this one again. I just need to refine it a little.

The ssam was pretty good. I should have thrown something green in there. Edamame would have been nice. I thought about it. But I couldn't find it at Pacific Green. Whatever. I mean, I think we both liked it. Pork is the ideal, but the beef was OK. Meena especially liked that I wrapped it up in foil just like they do at Momofuku.

The point is, I think I stayed mostly true and as a result, we had a nice dinner. I'll keep working on it. It's definitely something I'd like to get better at doing. I want to hit Chinatown and see if I can get some mu shu wraps to use instead of these tortilla things. That'll help. And I should try to marinate some black beans and cucumbers. That would help too.

I'm going to get better. I promise!

BBQ AND SADNESS

Sad day. Colts went down for the count. That means we become Green Bay fans for the remainder of Favre's historic drive. And that's OK. But still. Sadness. They were a better team than that.

Anyway, we put a nice big rump roast in the new crock pot yesterday and let it slowly simmer away all afternoon. When all the games were over, we were finally ready for some lovely beef barbecue with an awesome Carolina style sauce. Here's how it went:
- rump roast
- beer
- water
- salt
- vegetable broth
- ajvar
- garlic
- crushed red pepper

Once we shredded the meat and let it stew just a little longer in that broth, we threw on some sauce:
- apple cider vinegar
- brown sugar
- honey
- salt
- garlic

We threw it all on a bun and went to town. That tang of the apple cider vinegar was perfect with the rich, broken down beef. I loved it. And we have plenty more of the beef for the rest of the week. Look for leftovers coming soon!

DESPERATE

I hate to say it, but after hitting a party last night on the Upper West Side, we made it back to Cobble Hill long after everything else was closed and shut down. But we were hungry. Desperate.

We had a great time at Lida's birthday. We had plenty of wine, snacks and laughs, but in the end, we were both craving something a little more substantial. We needed to expound on the crackers and spinach puffs we'd just picked on.

So as much as it pains me, we were stuck with chips from the bodega or a thin crust pizza from the Dominoes on the corner. We did the latter. With ham and pineapple. And I'd be lying if I said it didn't taste like college. Not great, but there were memories embedded in that crust.

WHITE PARTY

This morning I went digging through the fridge for some breakfast stuff. We didn't have a TON of supplies, but as it turned out, plenty for a quick omelet.

Nothing special. Definitely nothing fancy. Just egg whites and some simple fillings. Here's the list:
- egg whites
- spinach
- laughing cow cheese
- parmesan
- pancetta
- salt
- olive oil
- cherry tomatoes

It was pretty good if I do say so myself. That laughing cow gets creamy instantly and the pancetta was salty and perfect. The cherry tomatoes were exploding with good tomato flavor that you can't find in the regular joints this time of year.

I don't know that it was a "healthy" breakfast but it wasn't like ... triple bypass inducing. I don't think anyway. But whatever. It was good. And I ran this afternoon. So let me eat and have my fun!

THERE WILL BE SUSHI

The last few days of this week were especially challenging at the office so we figured a movie and dinner would be the ideal evening to ease into the weekend. I'd been told There Will Be Blood was one of the best films anyone would see in the next few months so I figured we'd be best served hitting it up. Turns out that was a wise decision. It was great.

For dinner, we wanted to be close to the theater. Thus, Cube 63 it was. It was also awesome to see the place packed last night. We barely got a table!

We didn't deviate too much from the norm. Alec had:
- sushi plate (8 pieces and a california roll)
- miso soup

Meena had:
- lobster tempura roll
- 63 roll

As always, it was glorious. Spectacular fish. I couldn't eat all my rice, but I was hungry, so I plowed through most of it.

Awesome dinner. Amazing film. Fantastic Friday night.

MEENA = BEST EVER

I already knew Meena was the best ever but when I got home late last night and she had all those lovely things you see up there hot and ready to go ... well, she really just locked up her reputation from now until forever.

The first little course she had waiting was some sort of goat cheese appetizer she found at the butcher. We both agreed it wasn't the best little thing we'd ever picked up. Lots of goat cheese ... not a lot more flavor. The one with the olive tapenade was good though.

Then she got down with some serious main courses. First we got started with the salad:
- spinach
- parmesan
- cherry tomatoes
- dressing (olive oil, garlic rice wine vinegar, honey mustard, worcestershire, salt and black pepper)

And that lovely rolled chicken contained:
- butterflied chicken breast
- parmesan
- pancetta
- herbed bread crumbs
- laughing cow cheese
- chicken broth
- paprika
- garlic

Everything was great. The chicken was all rich and cheesy. And that little pancetta pop made everything taste incredible. That marinara we've been enjoying for the past few days made its encore appearance and it really tied the whole thing together.

The salad dressing was perfect (Meena is way better at dressing than me) and the spinach was dry as a bone when everything started mixing (shout out to the salad spinnah!!!!!).

Meena is amazing.

THAT'S A SPICY MEATBALL!

I wanted to cook last night in a bad way. We were out on Monday, I was out on Tuesday and Wednesday, if I had my way, was going to be cooking time!!

Luckily, Meena had picked up a glorious new salad spinner, so both of us were eager to get in the kitchen and get to work on some delicious midweek taste explosions.

We started things off with the salad (thanks to the spinner!) that featured:
- green apple
- baby spinach
- pancetta
- rice wine vinegar
- salt
- balsamic vinegar
- pistachios
- olive oil
- garlic

I think it was good. The flavor was strong. I need to work on salads a little. I haven't been making them as much lately and my skills have suffered. I'll do better.

The main was a salmon meatball offering that was totally fantastic. It went like this:
- salmon
- serrano pepper
- garlic
- lime juice
- dijon mustard
- oyster sauce
- salt
- allspice

I served them atop a little of that marinara Meena picked up the other night. Pretty fantastic. They were moist and tender but still packed with lots of good spice and salty, tart flavor.

I'd make these again for sure. I think I could have eaten about 13 of them. Next time. Next time.

A RECORD BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION

Last night I joined Matt and Jaymez and D over in Greenpoint for Mel's birthday dinner. Meena had some stuff to finish up due to the impending work transition, so she didn't make it over.

While I was away, Meena did have some of Joya's finest pad thai. I'm sure it was delicious.

I, on the other hand, was chowing down on some really wonderful stuff made by Mel's friend Erika at Eat Records in Greenpoint. Thanks to Matt for snapping the cell shots and forwarding them my way. The menu went a little something like this:

- Assorted Olives and Nuts
- Pizza Salad with Spinach, Radicchio, Caramelized Onions and Shaved Pecorino
- New-Style Idaho Shepherd's Pie (Beef Chuck Roast/ Leek Mashed Idaho Potatoes/ Herbed Corn)
- Braised Green Bean with Tomatoes, Olives and Lemon
- Clementines and Pomegranates and whopie pie

The food was fantastic. The people were great. It was another fantastic night. Until the G train stopped running and I had to take a bus to a train to a train just to get near our place. But I digress. Happy birthday Mel!