Leftovers and Hockey Fights

I'm having a hard time getting a handle on this week. I am working in an unusual situation which puts me in a difficult position for procuring groceries. Therefore it's really going to be all about how I can stretch what we have in the fridge. Making new meals out of my leftovers is one of my favorite tasks but there is a point where the challenge becomes nearly insurmountable. However, tonight it hadn't reached that point. Though I am wondering what the heck I'm going to do with all those pinto beans!



For the salad I used some of the leftover maple dijon salmon from last night with some beets and goat cheese over mixed greens.

Normally I would insert the latest chapter of Space Phalanx: The Human-Zzintar Wars here but I fear the story is getting a little too difficult to follow. Perhaps I'll get it back up on a separate feed sometime soon!


For the main course I made some roasted artichoke, tomato, and marscapone raviolis that I had in the freezer. I topped them off with the remaining gruyere and a little olive oil.

We're watching the Rangers-Devils game and there is an awful lot of discussion about fighting in hockey. That got me to remembering some of Wayne Gretzky's fights. I thought I'd sign off with one of my all time favorites.

Enjoy.

Maple Take Two

Tonight I set out to craft a new meal out of the leftovers from last night. Well, a newish meal.



I started out with the beets, some avocado, gruyere, and pecans over mixed greens with a drizzle of olive oil. Funny, the drizzle of olive oil reminds me of part four of a little story I like to call . . . Space Phalanx: The Human-Zzintar Wars!

The water drizzled out of the faucet and Kintaur Rosenbaum cupped his hands together, collecting some water and splashing his face. He looked up into the lavatory mirror at his stubbled, yet ruggedly handsome face.

"Kintaur Rosenbaum machine," he said to himself. "Zero defects."

Exiting the lavatory he was greeted by Stormbot, his faithful (yet robotic) sidekick. "Lord Calcitron beckons you on the milli-wave transmitter," Stormbot said.

Kintaur grinned roguishly. "I wonder what he wants," he jested.

A moment later Kintaur was sinking into the padded seat in his cockpit. "Lord Calcitron," he said in greeting to the evil insect face on his communication screen. "What an honor."

"Cut the smooth talk, Kintaur," Lord Calcitron hissed. "I know about what you did to my men. You are going to pay me back for their ships and their lives."

"Ha! You'll have to catch me first, Lord Calcitron! And it doesn't look like your men are very good at that."

A devilish look came over Lord Calcitron's face. "Well, we'll just see about that. Lord Calcitron out."

Kintaur leaned forward in his seat. "That's odd," he said.

"Look!" Shouted Stormbot from his mouth speakers.

Ahead of them through the viewport appeared an orange and white six-legged monstrosity which seemed to be snapping and clicking in the vastness of the space beyond their cockpit.

"Space crab!" They shouted together in perfect unison.

Will Kintaur and Stormbot escape the giant space crab? Will they foil Lord Calcitron's evil plot. Will Stormbot explain the origin of his mouth speakers? Find out in the next exciting installment of Space Phalanx: The Human-Zzintar Wars!

For the main course I marinated some salmon in dijon mustard, olive oil, salt, and pepper. Then I seared it, tossed in the remaining vegetables from last night and then mixed up some maple syrup with the remaining dijon marinade and drizzled it over the salmon (much like last night). Then I quickly wilted the tatsoi and spinach from the farm and served that on the side.

For dessert we had a Zzang! Bar which is probably the most delicious candy bar I've ever had. Along with an unwatched episode of The Office it went down smooth. Funny how after not watching the show for a year I don't feel like we missed anything at all.

See you suckers tomorrow night (maybe). Keep the love, and the vegetables, alive!

The Final Farm Share

Late yesterday and early today Jen and I were all about supporting local restaurants, in a fridge-clearing preparation to receive our latest (and last) winter farm share this morning.

Last night we ate at Friend of a Farmer, a spot we've dined at several times but not recently. If they are friends of farmers then we must be farmers because the meal was delicious! We met our good friend Joe there who enjoyed his first real meal (shepherd's pie) after a bad bout of food poisoning. Jen had the chicken pot pie and I had the angel hair with vegetables and garlic oil. It was delicious but I think I've spent the last 24 hours sweating the garlic out so I think I may need a break from my little Italian friend for a few days. I also enjoyed a Coney Island Lager which was delicious but a little too plentiful in its 22 ounce bottle. Combined with the fact that I'd eaten little in the hours proceeding dinner that made me feel like a prize lightweight.



This morning we went up to Fort Tryon Park and picked up our final winter share delivery. In this pickup we got: red, orange, and white beets; a bag of pinto beans; one rather soft potato; some softish turnips; empire and ida red apples; carrots; celeriac; spinach; tatsoi; and Swiss chard.

After that we drove on down to meet a group of friends at Sarabeth's. As a rule I do not like brunch. To me, brunch is a meal best reserved for hipsters and old ladies. Hipsters and old ladies who love to wait in line for an hour before eating! However, since I've managed to weasel my way out of this meal for the past four years I was overdue. When I am cornered into a brunch I always use the opportunity to enjoy some smoked salmon. That's what we in the business call taking lemons and turning them into lemonade. Salmon lemonade.

Eww.



We had to rush back home to meet the cable guy and play some Rock Band with our good friend Heather. After getting home we were in the mood for something sweet so I ran out to Carrot Top Pastries and grabbed some carrot, raspberry, and chocolate rugelach to have while we got ready to Rock. This eventually devolved into a Wii bowling rematch to try to avenge the ass-kicking Heather gave to us last summer.



I put Heather in her place.



Then Jen continued with a solid ass-kicking!



Then Jen and Heather both made me feel like a little girl.



For salad I made some boiled beets and tossed them with some cut up apples, dijon mustard, honey, almond, lemon, and olive oil. My intention was to serve them over the delicious beet greens I had in the fridge but our horrible, horrible fridge had other plans. Our fridge loves to freeze greens solid depending on the temperature outside, the positioning on the shelf, and the overall mood of the fridge in general. Sadly I had to dispose of a solid block of destroyed beet greens. The salad may have been better served as a side for the main course but I elected to serve it on its own anyway.

Now that I've told you about the salad, it's time to tell you the next galaxy-spinning chapter of my space adventure: Space Phalanx: The Human-Zzintar Wars!

Kintaur Rosenbaum keyed in the coordinates on his navi-computer and pulled a lever which pivoted below a flashing red light on the ship's control panel. "Well, Stormbot, this is going to be a tight one."

Stormbot flashed his eye-sensors in agreement. "These insectazoids need to buzz off," he delivered in his robotic monotone.

Kintaur's ship, The Magnetar blasted ahead, six or seven smaller ships matching speed and lighting the space behind them with their thrusters.

"Alright, Stormbot. Time to squash some bugs!"

The Magnetar arced upward, twisting as it did so, and dropped a dozen space mines behind it into the narrowing gap to the pursuing ships.

There was a series of explosions that lit up Kintaur's sensors. From the light of the explosions came one lone pursuer. Suddenly there was a buzz on the control panel's communication sensor.

"Kintaur Rosenbaum here," Kintaur said. "I'm the captain of this vessel."

"I have alerted Lord Calcitron of your position! He will be sending one of his motherships in! I suggest you surrender now while you still have a chance to be taken alive."

Kintaur cursed between gritted teeth. He lifted his thumb from the communication cone. "Alright," he said, depressing the switch once again with his thumb. "I'm cutting my engines. I will go peacefully."

"Excellent," the alien captain buzzed. "Lord Calcitron may show you mercy yet!"

As the boomerang-shaped alien ship slowed down behind Kintaur's ship, suddenly The Magnetar spun around and two round portholes shot open revealing a pair of pluon torpedoes aimed directly at the enemy ship.

"What!" Came the terrified alien voice over Kintaur's commincator.

"Tell Lord Calcitron that Kintaur Rosenbaum doesn't bargain with insect scum!" Kintaur nodded and Stormbot pushed the button to launch the torpedoes. The alien ship erupted into a ball of flame that melted away into blackness just as fast.

"Great shot, Stormbot!" Kintaur pumped his fist in triumph. "Let's set a course for the Duplin system. I think there'll be a swarm of bugs here any minute!"

Will the bugs find Kintaur again? Will Kintaur escape the bugs again? If the bugs find Kintaur and Stormbot again will Kintaur address them in a condescending manner? Find the answers to all of this in the next exciting chapter of Space Phalanx: The Human-Zzintar Wars!

For dinner I roasted some garlic, onion, turnip, celeriac, white beets, apples, and carrots. I also pan seared some bone-in pork chops and then roasted them along with the vegetables. I finished it all with a drizzle of maple syrup that I let carmelize in the pan for the last few minutes of cooking.

The pork was local, from the Winkler family farm. I tried doing a search to find information about the farm but Google came up blank. They tell me it's local to New Jersey but perhaps the chops just came in frozen from China and they just made up the story. Either way, the image of Henry Winkler in a straw hat, herding hogs, was well worth the price of the meat.



For dessert we had some of the chocolate covered chocolate mousse cake from Carrot Top. Overall it was a fantastic cap to a fun-filled day.

Let's see how long we can stretch this wonderful vegetable haul this time. My guess is that we won't make it until June when the next pick up will be.

Dinner a la Lazy Man

With this weekend's final winter share pickup just around the corner combined with a busy work week I was forced to cut some corners this evening. I promise that the next three nights will be markedly more interesting culinarily.

But for now, let's phone it in!



For a salad I used some beet greens combined with our slowly dying mixed greens, some almonds, tomato, lemon, and olive oil.

So that was the salad. And you know what that means! Another episode of Space Phalanx: The Human-Zzintar Wars!

When we last left our hero we had just learned his name, so he was still pretty new to us. Also, he hadn't really done anything yet that would identify him as a hero. So we'd better get around to that.

Calcitron, the evil ruler of the insectazoid Mentarillians, stroked his mandibles thoughtfully. "Zahr'ring'ih! Come to my throne and inform me of the goings on in the Trellingi Galaxy!"

An insectazoid toady gamboled horizontally over to High Lord Calcitron's throne which was made out of the skulls of people he'd conquered! "Yes, Lord Calcitron?" He bowed, then rubbed at one of his many segmented eyes.

"We have an enemy in the human resistance. His name is Kintaur Rosenbaum! We must find him and teach him that the Mentarillians are insectazoids that are not to be trifled with."

"Yes, master," Zahr'ring'ih said, rubbing two of his antennae together in a conniving manner. "Rosenbaum will feel the true rath of the Mentarillias and this Human-Zzintar Wars will tilt into our favor!"

"Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!" They both said.

Tune in soon for the next exciting chapter of Space Phalanx: The Human-Zzintar Wars!

For the main course I purchase a pre-cooked rotisserie chicken, some pre-cooked cornbread, boiled some of the beets, and baked a potato. There is something extra delicious about a chicken that someone else has cooked. It tastes like laziness.



The cornbread was particularly tasty. I will have to make up for it soon by actually making something. Still, all the groceries for dinner cost me less than $10.00. It's hard to top that.

Tonight either Time Warner or our crummy, lousy TiVo that I hate is broken so we only have about three channels accessible to us which means no hockey game. Instead we'll have to catch up on our previously recorded shows and/or movies. That, or play the recently released update for Fieldrunners.

Yay! Football!

Yesterday we went to Brooklyn to visit Caolan and Paul. However, that was not before we discovered (courtesy of a nice Jamaican gentleman) that we had a flat tire. Then I got to lie down on the road in Manhattan and put my donut on the car.



Needless to say we got to Brooklyn quite late but when we got there we were greeted with copious amounts of tea. That more than made up for the awful experience with the car.



Caolan made some delicious vegetable chili which we enjoyed with numerous toppings out of extremely ornate, peacock-themed dishes.



I threw together a salad out of some romaine hearts with a cool yogurt dressing to temper the spicy chili. Caolan and Paul were divided on whether I should mention the salads in the blog or I should continue my science-fiction serial, Space Phalanx. We decided, as a group, that I should do both. I think that's an exciting new direction for the blog!

For dessert (and snacks throughout the day) we returned to the large amount of scones and cookies. It was a lot like visiting Jen's family in that respect: large amounts of tea and sweet pastries. So, basically, one of the best days you can imagine.



Today I came home from work and got to work on some fish tacos that I made with some nasty Mission tortillas (because I'm an idiot and forgot to buy good ones, then had to run out to Gristedes), hake, lime, cumin, cayenne, chili powder, sour cream, guacamole, salsa, cilantro, baby greens and Gruyere cheese.



I also made some slaw out of jicama, red cabbage, lime juice, cumin, cayenne, chili powder, salt, and pepper.

This all wend down nicely with my favorite sport: football! I even got to watch Bruce Springsteen command me to step away from my guacamole and listen to him play his crummy songs. Sadly I had no guacamole left to eat defiantly. (I don't do anything The Boss tells me to do. While I had no chicken wings or guacamole to eat in protest I did talk about his crappy music. I also wondered where Clarence Clemens went. It looked as if he'd been replaced with an 8th level mage.)

Yay! Football!