It’s a New Menu Monday… I didn’t Change my basic Chicken Vegetable Soup, but instead of serving it with rolls or garlic bread, I tried a new recipe. A Beer Cheese Dip, yum!
The original recipe is from ASpicyPerspective.com, calling for three ingredients- pepper jack cheese, cream cheese and a 12 ounce bottle of beer. Not difficult to prepare, this was really nice as-is. The only change I made was to use regular jack cheese. I can see why pepper jack is called for (besides the tip off of the blog title containing the word “spicy”)… it needed a little something more. I added two teaspoons each of Worcestershire sauce and dry mustard, both standard cheese dip ingredients. The Girl loved it, but The Boyfriend and I agreed: too beer-y and needs cheddar. The Husband Approved, went for seconds and I don’t think that The Boy touched it. Chicken.
Chicken Vegetable Soup with Bread and Beer Cheese Dip
This really is a super easy dip. Cream cheese and jack are known for their meltiness, and really make this recipe. I’ll make it again, with pepper jack. And it is always fun to invent new words to describe food. Today’s are “meltiness” and “beer-y.” There will be a quiz at the semester’s end, study your vocab, students!
Fish Tacos and Lightning’s Elemental Pilsner“Better Beer Through Science” Who can argue with that?
Quick Fish Tacos for dinner tonight, and what to drink with it?
I consulted the resident beer expert (he’s also my running coach, among other things) and he suggested a pilsner. So… pilsners generally don’t have a lot of hops, I’m guessing, that must be why I didn’t hate this beer.
Don’t you wish that wines and beers with amusing labels and clever sayings on the bottles tasted better than boring ones as a rule? That would make selecting one much easier. I think The Husband picked this beer because of the motto alone… patronizing fellow scientists. “Better Beer Through Science.” Clever.
I liked this! Lightning Brewery, in North County San Diego, was founded by a couple of former scientists, and I’m happy to see something other than double, triple and quadruple hopped beers coming out of this part of the country. This is getting to be ridiculous!
It may be one of the signs of The Apocalypse, but there are now TWO kinds of beers that I would drink- pilsners and stouts (it only took three wrong spellings before I gave up and used the spell checker to see how to properly spell ‘apocalypse’).
Today’s foray into new food was setting up to be one of extremes- it was looking like either vegan fast food or a donut shop. The restaurant wasn’t where I thought it was. Oops. However, the donut shop on the walk up the hill to find it was looking mighty good! But, I turned the corner and there it was, right where The Girl pointed it out to me a couple of years ago. Her friend works at “The Loving Hut,” the largest family of vegan restaurants worldwide, and a meatless Lent makes this the perfect time to finally try this restaurant.
You know It’s a good joint when there are two Buddhist monks sitting in a booth near you, and the satellite choice is tuned to jazz combo music. Yea!
I ordered way too much for lunch so I could share with whoever shows an interest, IF I decide to share…
Fresh Summer Rolls
Fresh Summer Rolls– lots of basil, carrots and jicama for crunchiness and protein of soy ham and tofu. Very good.
Ginger Tofu
Ginger Tofu– whoops… remembered that I don’t care for ginger. Fortunately, it wasn’t overloaded with ginger. It was just plain good, a gingery-teriyaki-ish sauce on tofu cubes that might have been fried. They were good, however they were prepared.
Healthy Fried Rice– it’s darn near impossible to make a good fried rice with brown rice, even The Boy would like this. I don’t like meat in my fried rice but love the scrambled bits of egg. I didn’t miss my egg as the fried bits of chopped tofu were really delicious.
more of the menu options at The Loving Hut- non-GMO, organic tofu used…
The guys working were really helpful with suggestions for what to order next time (oh yes, there WILL be a next time). Lucky Lemongrass soy fillet with veggies, the wonton soup, Crispy Chow Mein noodle bowl filled with sautéed veggies and soy, Drunken Noodle stir fry, and a couple of taco options all came highly recommended.
And jazz music. Did I mention that? Piano bar jazz on their background music playlist.
The Loving Hut is neither fast food, nor junky, and all around delicious- I will be coming back here soon.
After running the gamut of errands, house work, and emotions, I plopped myself down and thoroughly enjoyed Giles Coren in “The Million Dollar Critic.” If you have access to BBCA Network, and are looking for something other than the usual sitcoms and Reality TV (LOL… I can hardly mention that poorly-named genre with a straight face), you might appreciate this show.
I enjoyed Giles Coren and comedian Sue Perkins in “The Supersizers…” The series, in which for one week they wear period costumes, live in close to or completely authentic settings, and eat the foods from different eras throughout history, was full of great banter and crammed in a lot of interesting facts. I caught “The Supersizers…” on American TV several years after it originally ran in the UK, from 2007-09, and I was happy to see Giles Coren on a new foodie show for North American audiences.
A lot of self deprecating humor in “The Million Dollar Critic” helps to balance the fact that he really is a highly regarded critic with much riding on his reviews. When dining with Eva Avila, the season four Canadian Idol winner, he shares “People imagine that having dinner with a restaurant critic is going to be informative, thrilling, and sexy. But in fact, as I’m demonstrating to Eva, it is as boring as having dinner with any other tedious, self obsessed middle-aged man who loves the sound of his own voice,” and then proceeds to embarrass himself with the cutlery.
Best lines included:
“An amuse bouche is something that restaurants that think they’re fancy give you because they’ve seen it on the TV… just the sort of thing that makes you wish you’ve gone for a burger instead.”
On trying seal meat- “This tastes like death. Like a small haunch of the Devil’s ass.”
On observing the chefs and owners of a popular restaurant- “Chefs should never be drunker than I am. That’s just showing off.”
There are about 120 other great lines, go watch this show. Great television viewing here, folks, it doesn’t get any better that this.
Plans for a nice family dinner at a favorite Japanese restaurant just didn’t materialize in the way I had hoped for. I haven’t seen the teens much lately, which sometimes is NOT a bad thing- am I right, fellow moms of teens??? However, I do enjoy these people an overwhelming majority of the time. There are subjects to cover, jokes to hear, stories to catch up on that you can’t hear in the fifteen minutes you see them in the morning before they dash out the door, or pry out of them as they are poring over their studies.
We try really hard to sit down together at dinner every day of the week… by “we try,” it’s really “I try.” All this effort results in maybe three family dinners per week. With fencing, guitar, theater, church leadership, Academic Decathlon, and sneaky Netflix binging, (and this is just The Teens) I feel like I have to out-plan everyone in order to bring us together on a regular basis. That should be a college course for parents! “Family Togetherness 101: Stealthy and Inconspicuous Planning and Gathering- Techniques and Practices Explained.”
No le gusta el atún. Pobrecito. Part of the the catch of the day last July. It was Poke City here. Click the pic for a recipe similar to oursFurther evidence of how deep his distaste for tuna runs…
It is probably a good thing that The Teens stayed home… one doesn’t like sushi or any fish for that matter, the other racks up quite a bill. We had half the usual bill by leaving half the family at home. Look at The Boy. He’s not kidding. This is the poster child for Mac N Cheese. And fillet mignon. His tastes run amok.
Hamachi (Yellowtail) Sashimi, caught that morning
My favorite selections for sushi are always salmon and yellowtail nigiri. Tuna used to be a top choice, but we are extremely fortunate to catch our own on a friend’s boat or receive some of his haul and we have a freezer full of ahi. It. Is. HEAVEN!!
Tobiko and Scallop…
So, we lost the teens and instead were able to have a nice dinner date with just the two of us. Not a bad consolation prize, huh?! Where The Girl was going to have carte blanche with the sushi menu and do the choosing for me, in hindsight, maybe it is a good thing that she wasn’t there? Hmmm… hadn’t thought of that. Who knows what she would have tried to get me to eat? (*shudder*)
The Husband got to choose instead, and we ended up splitting orders of scallop nigiri and tobiko. Holy Yum. The scallops, especially, they were so sweet! I thought that shellfish would be on the tough side if prepared raw, since I’ve only had giant clam sushi… I don’t recommend it. Our favorite little neighborhood sushi joint prepares the scallops with a very light dressing, probably mayo based- I loved it, and so did the mayonnaise-hating husband. And I really did like the tobiko, too. Fresh and ocean-y tasting, lots of fun, salty popping going on, and very yummy.
branching out... on a limb 