Armchair Dining on DP

Excellent, you brought a little bit of New England to New Zealand this holiday! Glad that you liked it. There are also variations: cranberry juice, grapefruit juice, and vodka is called a "Sea Breeze." Cranberry juice, orange juice and vodka is called a "Madras." They are also pretty good. But glad that you enjoyed the Cape Codder!

 

Well, the temperature here in New England this morning 8F/-13C and the weather man says that the wind chill makes it feel like -6F/-21C. I have to go out and snowblow the driveway this morning because we got about 8 inches of snow yesterday. When it is cold like this, no matter how warmly you dress, the chill gets in your bones. So, I will be asking the wife to make a good "warm-up" lunch for when I come in. Probably it will be a good beef and bean chili that looks something like this:



While not a native New England dish, it does a great job of warming you up. Of course, I am open to other suggestions as to what might be a good warm up, comfort food for these long winter days, so please share your food "remedies" to fight the cold!

 

So, it's Friday evening and I am waiting for the wife to finish our dinner gruel (damn diet) and I thought about finding a new snack for the Super Bowl championship football game (American/NFL football) and I came across these churro almonds:



Brown sugar and cinnamon coated almonds with melted white chocolate drizzled over them. Wow, does that sound great. Of course, it is mostly a fantasy on my part as I need to stay on this damn diet for quite a bit longer. But it is nice to dream...

 

I am on my damn low carb diet again (never ends, it seems) and my wife came home with something new to take the place of high carb starches, like potatoes, pasta, bread and, most notably, rice. This is frozen, riced cauliflower:



We used butter (actually, a margarine made from olive oil) and it was pretty good. I tried some brown gravy on it and if I closed my eyes and stretched my imagination, it could be mistaken for actual rice. Of course, being a low-carber, I don't eat rice very often, so it could just be my memory is not so good. But, it is low-carb, gluten-free, etc., and I thought that I would pass it along for anyone looking to reduce carbs. Of course, if you are really industrious, you could rice fresh cauliflower, as well. We will likely do that some time soon.

 

Did it cross your mind that you can just start exercising and then eat pretty much anything you want? There are so many full-body workouts for any age group out there that can get you in shape in 3-4 months. To sit on a diet denying yourself the fun of good eating is a crappy way to go about life.

 

I thought about starting a strenuous exercise program, but then I laid down, closed my eyes and the thought soon passed, thankfully.

 

I knew exactly what your comeback will be like. Just keep in mind you're going to gain everything back as soon as you get off your silly diet.

 

So, it was unseasonably warm today and we decided to take the dog to a cool dog park where she can run free and loose on the South Shore of Boston. It turns out that it was a few blocks away from a Wahlburgers burger joint. This is the regional burger chain that is owned by brothers Mark and Donny Wahlburg along with the brother Paul and their mother. I think that there is or at least was a reality TV show about them the launch of this chain. It was pricey for fast food: about twice the cost as a trip to McDonalds. Their classic "Our Burger" was good, especially with the home made sweet pickles on the burger. But, what made my lunch were the thin, crispy onion rings:



I have not had onion rings this good in many years. Some places used to call them onion strings and one restaurant many years ago had them listed on their menu as "bands of gold" and they were right about that. If you end up at a Wahlburgs, be sure to get the onion rings.

 

So, yesterday was my daughter's birthday and she wanted to go to Bar Louie, a restaurant chain. We went to the one in Patriot Place in Foxborough, MA which is the name of the shops, restaurants and hotels that are built around Gillette Stadium, the home of the New England Patriots football team. I had never been to a Bar Louie before and it was good, though expensive (anything at Patriot Place is way overpriced.) I had the "Blue Louie" which is a cheeseburger made with Bleu Cheese and Bacon:



It was really good and, unlike just about any other bleu cheese burger I have had, the bleu cheese was melted and spread over the entire burger so that the strong bleu cheese taste was there with every bite. They also put Buffalo hot sauce on it which may not be to everyone's taste, but it was a really good burger that I recommend if you ever happen to be at one of their restaurants. We also had an appetizer that was good and unusual, in my experience:



They were basically just like the hot, soft pretzels you can buy at ballparks or from street vendors and a nice change from other typical appetizers. They had three options to put on the pretzel: honey mustard, nacho cheese, and cinnamon butter. All were good, though I preferred the honey mustard.

Anyway, it was a good stop. When we finally fire up the DP World Food Tour bus (it is currently being retro-fitted with driverless technology along with a rooftop hangar and control electronics for drones that will scout ahead for good food options) we may start off at Bar Louie's for lunch on the way out of Rhode Island.

 

Not going to happen. We have too many DP users still asking how they can invest $50. As long as it's the case we are far from owning a shack, let alone a bus.

The burger looks great. I used to get me blue cheese steak at Damon's Grill back in OH, loved that stinky flavor quite a bit. Not everyone can stomach it though. I guarantee you there are people that would probably gag at the site that burger.

 

Au contraire. I have just learned that I am the long lost cousin of Nigerian royalty making me a prince who is heir to a diamond mine worth $10 million. I am arranging for the bank transfer of that amount to buy me out right now. I just have to finish giving them my bank and credit card details and they are going to transfer the funds. I can then fund the bus, of course.

I needed to look no further than my wife and kids sitting around the table who were afraid that they might catch a slight whiff of the bleu cheese. There used to be a burger joint in the late 1970's right near Fenway Park in Boston called The Fatted Calf and they used to make a bleu cheese burger in which the bleu cheese was inserted into the hamburg patty much like jelly is put into a jelly donut. It was fantastic, though the Blue Louie was pretty much as good. My wife also has a strong aversion to goat cheese, but that is another story...

 

So, the weekend looms and, of course, my thoughts turn to food.

Probably not on the menu for me this week as I am still doing the low-carb diet thing, but I wanted to post a picture of my favorite type of pasta. Ever since I was a kid, I have strongly preferred the wagon wheel shaped pasta. Below is a picture of it with a tomato beef sauce:



Now, don't get me wrong, I cannot think of a shape of pasta that I do not like (unless it is something too tiny to pick up with a fork) but wagon wheels are #1 for me!

 

This time of year, my Mom would make a Portuguese favorite of mine, called folare, that is a bread with two meats baked into it: chorico sausage and presunto cured ham:



It is great, as is, but I have also heated a little it in a toaster oven or a microwave, especially as it gets a little older. But freshly cooled from the oven, it is fantastic. A sandwich in itself.

My Mom stopped making it when she was in her eighties and I have not had much since then and hers was the best, anyway. But, I have a line on a possible good one that I may be able to sample in the weeks ahead.

 

This weekend I had a version of a chicken salad sandwich that I really like. It includes cranberries and walnuts. Due to the cranberries, I am assuming that this food originated in New England:



I generally do not like "sweet" sandwiches, but the cranberries add some sweetness and some tart-ness, so it goes well with a sandwich. Walnuts are one of my least favorite nuts, but they add a texture in this dish that is quite good. Simple to make with chicken, mayonnaise, cranberries, and walnuts. Some people add diced celery for a little more flavor and that is good, as well. Still some left, so I will likely have more today.

 

I am generally not one for pretzels; if I want a salty snack it will be nuts or chips. However, dip said pretzels in white chocolate and it is an entirely different matter:



The combination of sweet white chocolate and salty pretzel is really good. Just had some this afternoon and I highly recommend them!

 

So, it is the Fourth of July weekend here in the U.S. and I will be breaking out the charcoal grill for the first time this year. My daughter requested that I include one of her favorite desserts, grilled pineapple slices with brown sugar:



Really good eating. I also grill bananas with brown sugar, but the pineapple slices are better.

 

I did something new today too. I smoked salmon without a smoker. Burned some wood in our fire pit, put a couple of hot coals in a big pot, put some foil on top of the coals, put the salmon on top of the foil, closed the lid and let it sit for an hour. Turned out fine. It had a lot of smokey flavor, but I'd prefer if it was less cooked.

 

Sounds great! We have a small fire pit in the backyard, but the most we have done with it is toast marshmallows.