SOYLENT GREEN IS CATTLE!!

I'm not proud of it, but I serve my kids hot dogs at least twice a week.  It's a necessary sacrifice in a busy world.  They are protein tubes, a processed, uniform, convenient ration you defrost, heat up with a starch and there you go, a meal on a busy night.  

I only serve kosher hot dogs, at any rate.  My brother in law is a rabbinical student and slaughterer for the subcontracter that procures rabbis for Hebrew National.  He sees about 400, er, clients a day.  So we tell the kid's they are Uncle Yishay's hot dogs.  Drop those babies in a microwave, straight from the freezer, and Bob's yer uncle.  I serve it with carrot and celery sticks, maybe sliced cucumber, but they could care less.

Best Practices Fried Rice

This fried rice incorporates leftovers from six different meals including three batches of white rice and three breakfasts of scrambled eggs my kids didn't eat. I resurrected limp takeout chinese chicken by tossing in char siu sauce, and broiling on cast iron into sweet, sticky, half burnt, nasty, delicious cracklin's.   Mix all, season light with a little soy sauce and even less sweetened rice vinegar; add peanuts, salt shrimp, chopped scallion, and serve with lime and hot sauce.  Also finely shredded inner romaine leaves in lieu of bean sprouts, which are so rarely fresh enough for me that I stopped looking.

Suicidal Wings, or Remembering The 'Nest

When buffalo wings are in the zone, they should be just too spicy to eat, but too good to stop eating. 

I'm pleased my pantry recipe does justice to my memories of 'suicidal' wings from the old  Cuckoo's Nest Restaurant in Powderhouse Square.   It's 2 parts Texas Pete's hot sauce to 1 part sriracha sauce, plus a little olive oil. Jointed wings should be fried for at least 20 minutes, until really crispy and most of the fat has rendered out. I have no patience for soft or soggy wings.   Sauce liberally, toss well, serve immediately. 

Salad for Wife Mark II

OK... this one's better. Farm stand tomatoes, house dressing, basil and thyme from the garden. A nice olive mix: I buy three kinds separately, and mix them myself. Anything that says 'Olive Medley' turns me off; they are usually marinated in dressing or don't have distinct flavors. OK, I promise no more salads for a while.

A Well Fed Daddy is a Happy Daddy

Smoked fish, a good bagel, cream cheese is one of those hit-the-spot comfort foods I gotta have. Smoked salmon on a bagel and diet coke; car food before picking the kids up from school.  Also sable on a bagel ($12 a pound at Market Basket!)... mmm.... and that salmon spread with onions and capers is the very end of the hand sliced salmon a few posts earlier.  All served on toasted Kupel's bagels from my stash in the freezer.

Blackened Cod Tamale

This started as an effort towards blackened cod, which doesn't work because the cod flakes apart.  Instead I wrapped them in fresh corn husks, a la tamale, and blackened them instead.  This contained the fish, which sort of steamed, and the blackening spice on the corn husks came off on the food, the plate, the fingers when you open them, and seasoned the fish lightly.   I included the corn kernels in the tamale as a nod to the tamale's staple cooked corn meal filling.  Served with lemon wedges -- well, OK, slices, and just a couple of drops of hot sauce.  

And house dressing on the side

Salad I made my wife for work yesterday.   My current 'house dressing' is seasoned rice vinegar, dijon mustard, olive oil, fried garlic, salt and pepper.  The previous incarnation of house dressing was a little more asian, with soy sauce and sesame oil instead of mustard.  Notice, btw, the styrofoam store bought tomatoes, to add authenticity to the salad ('tastes just like take out!').  Why my wife tolerates those things, especially in tomato season, is beyond me, but I haven't had time to go to a farm stand.  Fresh basil and thyme from the garden.