i just tried making wonton soup but they turned out really bland and soggy.. and they're really a lot of work. since i used seitan and roasted poblano peppers, i'll be able to turn that mix into tacos for lunch tomorrow.
i'm really trying to stop using the cafe at work cuz i don't need to spend $5 a day on lunch.
i just microwaved an amy's low sodium mexican bowl. and i'm now putting salt in it because it tastes like cardboard.
i love translations from japanese. i bought something from ebay and the notice says, "please do not put it near the fire. there is an error drinking danger. please do not give to the infant no matter what."
that's perfect.
i might get this.
maybe.
kurt and i went to dinner at a new(ish) sushi place on the east side. it's called takumi and you can read my review at yelp. i even told the chef that it was better than takara and he told me that takumi's owner used to own takara but sold it to open the new place.
it was fantastic and delicious.
i was a little uncomfortable because they were not at all busy and the waiter was highly attentive, and kurt took a little long to decide what he wanted.
we ordered too much, which is always the case when we go out for sushi, but we brought the leftovers back to mickey's kitchen staff. they were highly grateful.
and it made both weekly publications... the isthmus and the onion (can't find the online article). janie said she thought the isthmus one sounded dumb and she didn't believe that the author had ever been to the tavern.
wait til i tell her who he is and that i'm certain he's patronized the establishment once or twice.
regardless, the food's great, gil's an excellent chef, and business seems to be improving.
i've had dinner there every night this week. :x
it's been a while since i started thinking about doing this bento thing. basically, it's really just a different container for lunch.. i ordered a laptop lunch system from reusablebags.com and i filled it up this morning. and, of course, i did not take a picture. so i will describe it to you.
tuna salad and avocado wrap. olive, red pepper, celery salad. pasta salad with tomatoes and red peppers. cherry tomatoes. apple fruit rollup. apple granola bar.
so i broke my 20 day not-ordering-out streak with a veggie gyro from dimitri's.
boy was it worth it.
not ordering dinner! as long as we don't count the egg drop soup that i threw on kurt's chinese order last sunday. i'm still paying for lunch, and breakfast on sundays, but other than that i'm doing pretty good with this self-imposed rule.
the new ipod looks really cool.
anyway, i think i'm trying to make it a personal goal to not order out. i know, it's pretty silly and dumb to be like, "hey! i haven't ordered delivery in five days! look at me!" but it's an accomplishment, ferreal.
i was going to use the rice cooker for the first time tonight, but white rice takes 45-55 minutes, and i was hungry "now", so i made a tofurky-cheese-tomato-avocado toasted sandwich.
not before taking the dogs on a mosquito-infested walk. omg you guys. there were, quite literally, 30 of them hovering around jones the whole time. it was terrible! and then i caught a slug and it got between my foot and shoe and was squishing around. poor guy...
the pups are doing well.. by monday, i was kinda tired of hanging out with them, but the last two days have been okay. i think jones has figured out that nora is staying with us, and not just getting dog-sat for a little while.
i keep trying to give him the attention he had before, but it really wasn't that much; he's not a very cuddly guy, but nora is totally a cuddler and it seems to make jones think like he should be getting the same attention.
we just went for a quick run in the park (two-dog bonus), and they tired each other out within 10 minutes and are now quite content to lay on the diningroom rug. together.
so, one of the goals set after buying this place was to try to eat in more often. and the reason it's a goal is because we eat out a lot. at least once a day each. that's a sh*tload of money if you sit down and think about it.
i've been trying to find new and exciting ways to make food... so, last night, we made tacos (with morningstar farms crumbles) and i saved the rest of the "meat" and made "taco egg rolls" tonight. omg, so easy! i ought to kick myself for not making these easy mealbits before.
previously, i used to spend saturday afternoons making some sort of new food concoction which either turned out poorly, or was too quantitative that i couldn't eat it all before getting sick of it. so, i'm trying... and momentarily succeeding.
i just found this recipe and had to blog about it so i don't forget. i think it will work out well in a bento... now i just have to find my mini-muffin tin.
this is the result of my first attempt at making sushi. since i suck at rice, my batch yielded roughly half the rice it should have cuz i always end up burning the bottom and then the top stays all wet. :/
anyhoo, it turned out okay. below are cucumber and spicy tuna rolls. the tuna was cooked and mixed with sriracha and mayo, so it's not real spicy tuna. i'd still rather get it delivered. which i haven't done in like 3 weeks.
i just found a bandwagon that i can hop on... bento boxes for lunch.
i also found a box on ebay... and a rice cooker (which costs more than my earth machine composter).
my boss suggests, "save your pennies!"
i just tried sauteeing some soyrizo and the smell turned my stomach. that has never happened to me before. i had to have kurt dump it down the garbage disposal.
i can't even type this without feeling silly.
so, i've been getting sushi delivered, pretty regularly, since january. all the while, helping the delivery driver learn english (he's chinese). i let him know, when we put the offer in on the house, that we might be moving out of their delivery area... in the hopes that it would squelsh my habit. well, the cute little lady that takes my order told me tonight that as long as we still live in madison, they'll deliver to me.
when i order, i don't even have to recite my address or phone number. how effed up is that?
i hadn't ordered sushi since last wednesday night... they've been effing up my order by sending a regular spicy tuna roll instead of my favorite spicy tuna HAND roll. there's a huge difference, and if you don't know what that difference is, you haven't lived.
anyway, i ordered again last night since i've been good about eating what's in the fridge for a couple nights. they messed up again.
i'd call them to complain, but no one there speaks very good english...
i just shared with coworkers how often and how much my recent sushi habit has cost me. it made me blush.
i just reviewed lazy jane's on yelp. go check it out.
and sign up for an account, if you're an opinionated foody like me.
i think i'm allergic to shellfish. well, raw shellfish. we had shrimp last night and i had to pull all the legs off and my fingers were itching so bad! but they tasted yummers.
not sure how many of my readers feed their dogs or cats fancy food, but there's been a major recall of "cuts and gravy" cans and pouches... you can see the list of recalled brands here.
i blogged, a while ago about my habits. i've also told you about my favorite local restaurant. well, i ordered from them last night. and i have this weird way of stating my intention by which the gal who answers the phone has come to know me.
me: "i'd like to order a sandwich for carry out please."
her: "is this bekee?"
me: "yup!"
her: "okay, see you soon!"
i don't even need to say what i want. omg.
i frequently joke about "going to work at the coop", especially since my car will be paid off soon. i also mention to kurt, every once in a while, that i want to be a cook somewhere.
i just remembered the coop has an offsite kitchen. O_O
so, it's been over a year since i've ordered from edo. they kept forgetting stuff, taking over an hour (which is ridiculous for food that isn't cooked), and generally being low-quality.
fast forward a little bit to the end of 2006 when kurt and i discover 'oriental wok' delivers both chinese food, and a small assortment of maki. imagine our pleasure. well, oriental wok is across the street from edo. they make the chinese food and then run across the street and pick up the sushi order(s) and deliver them together.
conclusion: i've ordered sushi the last two nights in a row, even though i said i never would again.
so there's a new restaurant up the street; bab's french quarter kitchen. i've eaten there 6 times in the last two weeks. they're great. $6-8 po'boys, jambalaya (which i hear is pretty good). but stay away from the dirty rice... it's just white rice with sausage and green onions mixed in. :/
but! they've come to know me when i walk in the door, "there's bekee! yay!"
they're on the 1300 block of willy next to willalby's (the old rp's pasta joint) and they're open tues-sat 11a-11p.
the one thing i miss most often, being a pescetarian, are gyros. i used to get the make-'em-at-home kit from woodman's freezer section when i was a kid, and nuke everything to yummy greek perfection. imagine my excitement when i learned dimitri's gyros (then, in the gateway mall, now on east wash) carried "veggie gyros". their veggies include the following: lettuce, onion, kalamata olives, pepperoncinis, and tomatoes topped with crumbled feta and yummy tzatziki sauce.
well, in the last year i've gotten into the bad habit of playing "who's going to deliver my dinner tonight?" and dimitri's gyros is in the rotation. so yesterday, i decided to knock it off and try replicating this delicious meal in my kitchen for a third of the cost. it turned out pretty well! i even "strained" water out of the yogurt for 3 hours. you'd be surprised how much water is in yogurt.
the only problem with my newfound dinner is that it's so good i had one at 5 and one at 9:30 :x!
why can't i think of stuff like this?
i just bought 1/4lb of morels from someone at work for $5. we're gunna fry 'em up tomorrow.
we made pizzas last night. a couple winters ago, my friend mary brought a snackie down during a football game, it was a simple pizza on a flour tortilla with cheese and green olives. it was so awesome in its simplicity that we stopped having any other kind of pizza almost completely. so, last night, we made soysage and sour kraut pizzas. it was actually pretty good. i recommend you all try it.
kurt and i have perfected the art of the fish taco. yea, yea, you might be saying, "gross", but if you've never tried one, then you don't know what you're talking about.
we've determined, from a smattering of different fishes, that the best fish-taco fish is ahi tuna. we dry-rub simply organic's fish taco seasoning (just a half a packet per meal), and pan-fry the fish until it flakes. then we toast up the soft corn tortillas over the flame and top 'em with cheese, tomatoes, onions, lettuce, and salsa.
however, last night we decided to try tex tubb's taco palace after having braved the grand opening two weeks ago. it was still pretty good, they got better with the homemade salsas, and the service was expeditious, almost too fast, as we weren't able to enjoy the chips and salsa for as long as we'd have liked.
the grilled portobella mushroom taco was awesome; it came sprinkled with chunks of feta. the mahi was a little dry, presumably because we arrived about an hour and half before closing, and they weren't very busy. the achiote tilapia was good, too. they serve up the fish tacos california-style.. that is, with cabbage, some sort of white sauce, and pickled onions; which i could do without. but, for tacos cheap, we'll be back, for sure.
there're a handful of new restaurants opening up over here by work.. one of them is p.f. changs china bistro. i was enticed by the seared ahi on their appetizer menu, so mr. fly and i decide to go check it out. it was actually pretty good. i had the coconut curry vegetables and mr. fly had buddha's delight. they bring this little tray with cups and oil dispensers and make a sauce out of yellow mustard, soy sauce, and red chili paste before you order so that it marinates. the ahi was marvelous. that is all i have to say on the matter.
everything was going great until this table of six showed up and were seated adjacent to us. they were rude, loud, and stupid; and we shared anita the waitress. the first thing the guy whose mouth was pointed at me said was, "you better be extra sweet cuz we had to wait a long time." uhm what? whatever. it's noon and you're at a brand new restaurant on the west side. asshole. then it only took ~5 minutes before they started talking about me. i have a special look for people like that. as we were leaving, they were complaining about not having more white rice and soy sauce and a clean plate and can a person get any more needy?... so, i wrote on the receipt to anita, "don't let those guys let you down <- :)" as we were leaving, the loudy got up to take our little tray of sauces because his fat ass couldn't wait two more minutes. gross. it's not like grabbing a bottle of ketchup, it's like taking a half-eaten plate of fries. i wish anita had a blog like this guy, so i could read about her version of the six-top from hell.
usually, if i tell a story to more than one group of people, it's important enough to blog about.
so, tuesday night after work, we go to the weary traveler to say bye to a friend who's leaving town. i order a mandarin and soda, please. a caesar salad and two drinks into it, i ask for the check, to my surprise, my "mandarin and tonic"s were $7 a pop! i'm shocked and amazed. and of course, she takes like 20 minutes to come back and get my card (i had to charge two drinks and a salad because the $20 i thought would cover me didn't). i say to her, "were my drinks really $7?" and she says to me, "i'm sorry, the only mandarin we have is hangar one" i've never heard of this vodka so i say, "i should have ordered absolut mandrin" and she says, "we don't have that" and i nod knowingly at her, thinking, "yes, and then you would have told me that the only mandarin you have is $7 a drink." little does she know that i am friends with one of the owners. and i'm trying to decide if i should talk to him about this or if i should just not imbibe there ever again.
bob, you'll like this: A Japanese Tradition
the cutest bento boxes evar. Sushi Pictures
we just got back from lunch at the china wok buffet on university ave in middleton. it was, simply put, pretty bad. the white rice had a weird flavor, i'm not even sure the fried rice was even fried. the pile of egg rolls had one spring roll in it (which i could only assume was vegetarian). i took it and they never refilled the hotplate. but, it was only $5.75 w/tax. it's like the opposite of a sushi-high.
every weekday am, i have my 9 o'clock yogurt. i decided to try a new kind, silk key lime, but when i opened it up, there was a big blob of mold in it. so now i don't get to have my 9 o'clock yogurt.
this is just silly enough to work. Welcome to Flavor Spray Diet Online
sorry bobs. i broke down.
i've kinda been on an unannounced diet.. sorta. not really calorie counting but kind of; not really cutting out certain foods, but kind of. so today, we went out for lunch, and instead of getting the salad bar (which i should have), i got a grilled cheese and fries. my stomach feels like someone filled it with wet sand. yuck.
i need to pay someone to come home with me on wednesday nights and remind me that edo does not have good sushi and i shouldn't order it /solely/ because they deliver; which is the best part of edo. their rolls aren't spectacular and they sometimes forget essentials, like wasabi.
and last week i had sushi with bob and ed at takara and it was the best thing ever because i tried the white tuna (albacore) so i though, "yum! that was good, i will order it from edo." BLECH. that is all.
the grilled cheese at hubbard ave always tear up the roof of my mouth; yet i insist on getting it each and every time we go.
i've only been reading this guy for a month or so, but he's a great writer. he's a waiter at some fancy restaurant somewhere (ny?). this most recent entry is advice from his pov. on the last transaction of the meal (or the book of the meal, as kurt calls it), paying the bill.
Waiter Rant
what a great idea! i should have come up with it. :/
Eating in Madison A to Z
though, i'm too much of a food snob for most restaurants.
neat article about candy bar wrappers: Speak Up: A Century of Candy Bars: An Analysis of Wrapper Design
in celebration of the impending spinning, i broke down and ordered sushi from edo. i know i said i wouldn't ever again, but i had a craving. i must remember though, that their spicy tuna hand rolls are shite compared to takara's. edo's tuna sashimi, though slightly less tasty, is a larger portion, and you get two pieces with each order.
the black dragon roll was excellent, as always. it really hit the spot. i don't think i'll go wrong again if i stick to no more than four items.
it's chocolate. i still don't care for chocolate. even if it's in the shape of my favorite foodstuffs.
so i ended up ordering from edo last night. and they forgot my shrimp tempura roll. and i didn't call them back because i just won't order from them again. dumb.
omg the king of falafel on university/gilman is incredible! the falafel sandwich was only $2.95 and their hummus was delish! i also tried a bowl of their chickpea and rice soup. yumm. highly recommended, five stars.
kurt and i had a marvelous pre-valentine's day dinner at harvest last night. i got the pan seared scallops and they were mouthwatering! the evening resulting in staying out too late, and not knitting. so tonight, i must hunker down, get the fingerless mitts done and start on kurt's sweater.
sushi with the famous bob and amy last night. i hadn't been to takara in forever and it was super-tasty. today i get to have my taxes done and knit in public with kelli.
i had to take a picture, because the previous one really wasn't accurate. this is the big serving plate full of fish.
almost forever, the wisconsinized moen family has met in barneveld for their annual lutefisk dinner. that day is almost upon us once again. most people are scared of the notion. if you've ever had the chance to try it, you'll either hate it immediately, or be forced to come to appreciate it. basically, it's cod soaked in lye for preservation reasons. then there's a lengthy "de-soaking" process that takes a week, if my memory serves. they do get all the lye out before it's cooked, you know. then it's served with mashed potatoes, lefse, and melted butter. mom and i eat it like a little lutefisk burrito. whatever, don't make that face, i think "fish taco" sounds gross.
i'm attempting to make fantastic foods' version of falafels. wish me luck! *update at 5:46pm: it didn't turn out nearly as i had hoped.
For dinner last night:
Bekee's Kinda Mexi
3 flour tortillas (6")
1 cup white onion, diced
2 roma tomatoes, diced
1 can vegetarian refried beans
1 cup grated pepperjack cheese
Embasa green chile salsa
Preheat oven to 350.
Lightly spray a 12" glass pie pan. Spread beans onto one tortilla. Place tortilla in pan and layer with half the onions, half the tomatoes, as much salsa as you want and a third of the cheese. Repeat with second tortilla. Spread beans on third tortilla and place bean-side down on the top of the stack. Top with cheese and salsa. Loosely cover pan with foil and bake for 30 minutes. Take foil off and bake for another 10 minutes. Slice into quarters and serve. Good with Horchata.
my orange juice container says, "shake well for best taste". i think everything should say that.
I actually read a useful post on alt.animals.ethics.vegetarian! Most of the time it's this one guy, "God", telling everyone how not eating meat is killing the cows or some sh*t like that. Anyhow, I found this site, which has a ton of recipes for Dahl. I'll probably turn into a legume this winter.
After being all but flogged on the dailypage forum for asking what the benefits are of being a member at the Co-op, Kurt and I are now members. I think it'll be a good thing, though the prices are a little crazy. Benefits to me: 1. They really do have excellent vegetables. 2. I have at least 6 friends that work there. 3. The deli is yummy. 4. They have sushi-making supplies, books, and fish.
Cheater's Enchiladas Prep Time: approx. 10 Minutes. Cook Time: approx. 20 Minutes. Ready in: approx. 30 Minutes.
Makes 8 servings.
1 (8 ounce) container sour cream
8 ounces shredded Monterey Jack cheese
1 (12 ounce) can green enchilada sauce
12 (6 inch) corn tortillas
1 (2 ounce) can chopped black olives
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. In a small bowl, combine the sour cream and cheese.
3. Into a 9x13 inch pan, pour a small amount of enchilada sauce to coat bottom of pan. Layer 6 tortillas on bottom of pan. Layer half of the cheese-sour cream mixture and 1/3 of the olives over the tortillas. Repeat. Pour the remaining enchilada sauce over the final layer.
4. Bake for 20 minutes. Cut into squares and serve.
Ohmigod! Dinner at Harvest was the most fantastic meal I've ever eaten. Thanks to Bob's suggestion, Kurt and I went there last night to celebrate our one-month anniversary of marriage. I don't want to spend too much time explaining things here, because there will be a review up before the weekend is over. Awesome. That's all I can say.
Well, I did it. I said I would never do it again, but sometimes I don't listen. I got an Acropolis salad (from the Glass Nickel) and ate it immediately preceding bedtime. The crazy dreams it gives me! I had to get up just because I was tired of dreaming! Sheesh. And you know what? They need an online menu.