So Much Food

Sadly I took only one food photo over the holiday. No, make that two. I was with in laws and was trying to go low key with pics. Actually that and I was herding the 2 smallest kids all weekend (with lots of help I might add) and taking photos was just not foremost in my mind.

Three highlights:

1: Cowboy game at Jerryworld in a suite with lots of quality food and beverage. The Boys lost in a pitiful OT but whatever. Shrimp and beef tenderloin plus some nice sweets were all in attendance. No complaints. Jerryworld is pretty spectacular.

2: Christmas Eve dinner prepped by sister in law and her hubs. They do a mean prime rib and it is one of my fav meals when visiting. That and teal but that is a story for another day. Suffice it to say I aspire to their culinary prowess and bow before them. I did get to contribute my burnt green beans which I think everyone enjoyed, so that was good too.

3: flour less chocolate cake. The end.

Um, Yeah . …

Good lord I am behind.

Like two weeks ago I had this squash casserole and shrimp jambalaya at Treebeards in market square, or whatever they call that location, on Travis.

Squash casserole was the shizz. Excellent breading to squash ratio, not too dry and squash nice and mushy. Jambalaya had too much sausage for my personal taste but not bad. A tad too much heat to the exclusion of other flavors. Overall good meal. Rounded out with buttercake that Ducky Momo ended up eating most of. I don't need the calories so while resentful it was for the best.

Reminds me I finished my 4 weeks of aquatic boot camp and survived. I can now push out of the pool and get my foot up on the deck vs rolling out like a beached whale. Yay me.

Oh 5 for the casserole and a 3.5 on jambalaya. Of course it's recommended. Duh.

Ps, no idea what that second photo is. Mashed potatoes or chicken fried chicken. I'm going with mashed. Part of Ducky Momo's meal.

Update: looking at this on a computer vs. my phone I can see now it is BOTH mashed potatoes with gravy AND chicken fried chicken, also with gravy.

More Crepes

Yeah so I had a draft of this done but left it on my phone and it got wiped. As a result this one wont be nearly as pithy. Boo for you!

Ok, Monday met a friend for lunch at Sweet Paris. Return visit for me, first time for her. Tried something different from last visit this time. Went with some Mexican French fusion in the form of a chicken enchilada crepe. It was ok. The filling was good but the sauce was not really like ranchero but more of a spicy marinara. I won't go so far as to say it was gross but I scraped most of it off. There was also way too much. Very saucy. Side salad was good. Crepe is huge so it is good value, but I couldn't eat it all so from that perspective maybe not such good value after all. But what about leftovers? If you think that is acceptable then you have obviously never had a leftover crepe. Not good.

Overall nice lunch and pleasant company. We traded baby pictures and had a delightful time catching up.

I'd recommend Sweet Paris if you're near rice village. More legit French peeps there so these are indeed credible Crepes.

Breakfast Post

Running secret Santa errand with Hubs this morning. Got a side of grits to go from Breakfast Klub. First, huge container so I have to see if Twist or Chungry want to share. Second, buttery and creamy. The gold standard in grits. The end.

5 and recommended.

Hob Nobbing Pt. Deux . . .

 . . b/c you have to use French when really hob nobbing it.

Monday started things off with a bang and today the week ended with a bang.  The middle pretty much sucked though and is not really worth mentioning.  I think I had some leftovers and then I went out of town and had some bad airport food followed by some government agency cafeteria food, followed by more bad airport food.  At one point I think I had a meal that consisted entirely of a king size Mr. Goodbar.  This also prompted me to look up that movie about Mr. Goodbar from the 70s which I always assumed with a name like that was a kooky rom com.  Um no.  It is totally F'd up man and nothing I think I ever need to see.  So, where was I?  oh yeah, bad airport food:  FYI Tidewater, when you say you have a crab cake and describe it as having Lump Crab Meat, that seems to imply that you have a higher crab meat to breading ratio.  Not the other way around.  Super disappointed in your crab cake, but then again, I was also at the airport so perhaps the blame is all mine.

Thursday while I was eating Government Agency Cafeteria food (which was a nicely done grilled cheese with bacon) in DC, my cohorts were over at Grove for our department Christmas holiday lunch.  Pretty sucky that I missed out on that and instead was stuck doing some admin litigation in a room full of crazy people.  But anyway . . . today more than made up for it.  Twist and I joined a couple of entertaining and pleasant folks from the regulatory floor for a last hurrah buffet lunch at the Plaza Club before one of companions cancelled her membership.  I'd never been there before but use "club" and "buffet" in the same sentence and I'm in.

Look at the fancy sign and the marble entry!  It reminded me of the old executive dining room that the McGraw Hill building in Rock Plaza used to have.  Anyone know if they still have it or if its been repurposed as office space?  It was sweet and so was this.  Great views but poopy weather today.  However we did have a super view of the building that our company is moving into over the next couple of years.  Check it:

Aww and they even put out green and red napkins for the holidays!  How can you not love that?

No photo of the buffet b/c I did not want to embarrass my host, but nice spread.  Not your typical buffet either.  My compliments to the PC for inventive buffet menu.  A Caribbean table had some panfried pork, an unidentified roast veggie of some sort that may have been a plaintain but was more squash-like, fried oysters and fried shrimp and Caribbean cabbage slaw.  There was also some fajita chicken and tortillas along with some sausage that I meant to try but didn't get around to getting up and procurring.  Also- a soup and sandwich table.  Brilliant!  Soup was gumbo.  Tasty gumbo with a nice kick.  Made my nose run, but not so much spice my mouth went numb eating.  Juuuust right.  Base was really dark brown which freaked me out a little but I was reassured by the service piece which was a giant cast iron and enameled dutch oven.  It looked like the gumbo was actually cooked in that pot then carried out to the table.  No warning dish or crappy soup tureen.  It was sort of impressive.

I forewent salad and jumped right in with entrees.  I had a full plate before I found out about the sausages so missed those.  Reports were that they were very tasty and had a good spicy kick.  I just did a little bit of everything.  Highlight was fried oysters and smoked salmon.  I am a whore for smoke salmon.  I would stuff myself silly with it if I could.  I was trying to be classy though and not pig out so only got a few pieces.

This is not my plate.  The picture of my plate has mysteriously disappeared so you get to see um-- the other guy who is not Twist's plate.  Now that I have lunched twice with these two and expect to do so on a more regular basis I think they qualify for code names.  I'll have to work on that for next time. . .  Suggestions?

Meanwhile, dessert options were presented.  Choc mousse cake, turtle cheesecake that actually looked pretty bitchin and dripping with caramel, banana fosters pie that also looked intriguing eventhough BF is not my thing.  Keylime pie, um, some other stuff and mango creme brulee.  Actually all pretty tempting options.  Key lime pie most definitely IS my thing so I ordered some up.  Again, distracted by conversation on how cats are dicks so forgot photo.  You tell me if I liked it or not:

Yes- absolutely disgusting.  No, just kidding.

Really lovely and not a fake green color which I appreciate.  Solid graham cracker crust that tasted homemade and some nice heavy whipped cream on top.  A perfect finish. I don't know what a membership at this joint costs but the buffet would make it totally worthwhile unless it's like crazy money every month.

Company again, fantastic and almost brought me to tears at one point I was laughing so hard.  Cats really are dicks.

I guess you had to be there.  Ran into Chungry and Ducky Momo on the way back  and got the stink eye from both of them. Not sure if it was for going off floor for lunch mates or going to the Plaza Club without them or both, or maybe they are just a coupla cats?  hmmmmm

PS-- found it! This is my plate.

Monday Revelations . . .

Some life changing news today people! A fortuitous turn of events resulted in lunch with Twist. Thinking soup might be the way to go since its sort of legit cold here today, we headed towards Corner Bakery.

Alas, spicy Thai coconut is not on the Sun-Tues roster of soups. Jerks. That should be an everyday soup instead of that tomato basil nonsense.

Vaguely recalling that Ducky Momo had suggested awhile back he thought there was a chance CB did breakfast all day I threw caution to the wind and asked. I thought that was intel worth getting a definitive answer on.  I am happy to report to you that yes, this is true!!! With the exception of oatmeal, but who wants to eat oatmeal all day? No one, that's who. Good call CB.

Twist and I both went breakfast route. He with a chicken sausage panini and me with the Anaheim panini. His came with roasted potatoes that were excellent. Slight crisp on the outside and good seasoning. His panini was also reported as satisfactory raising the level of CB in the lunch rotation to new heights. The Anaheim was a glorious lunch. Not too big. Lots of good scrambled egg and avocado. The sourdough bread was also fantastic. And, the eggs were real.  So a big huzzah for Corner Bakery!

All in all we were super excited by the breakfast all day (except oatmeal) revelation. I'm pretty sure that this will make my week.

I have to go with a 5 on my panini. It was GOOD. Seriously, I'm so psyched to know I can get breakfast for lunch. Commuter Croissant, watch out!!

Friday

Didn't bring lunch today and it seems no one saw fit to ask me to join them. My brilliant coworker suggested Treebeards. I hadn't been in a while so off I went.

Shrimp étouffée with a piece of butter cake. A pretty decadent lunch Not sure what butter cake is? A slice of heaven, that's what! It's like you most favorite sugar cookie morphed into a moist sweet blonde bar. But there is nothing in it. No nuts or choc chips. its strength lies in the batter. Mmmmmmmmmm mmmm good.

And probably a thousand calories. But I fit into the 29 inch jeans today so feeling pretty good. The boot camp thing is kicking my butt. I'm hanging in there though.

Hob Nobbing . . .

Last night was the annual Christmas open house (Christmas, not "holiday".  It's Texas so to them everyone celebrates Christmas and they don't care) at the country club we belong to.  I know how that sounds, it's not as snotty as it seems.  We don't hang out there much.  Just use it for kid activities and Hubs plays tennis in a tennis league.  Anyway, the food is always good an plentiful as are the antics of buzzed older white people, so we usually go.  This year was no exception.  Now that we have the layout down, Hubs and I can run our pattern on arrival vs wasting time milling around.  In the front is always cheese and crackers and a beer and wine bat that never has a line.  Hit the door, get a drink, snag some cheese b/c I am starving, and head to the back corner dining room.  On the way scope out one of the carving stations and some other apps.  The back room is the first stop because of this:

Yes, my friends.  A giant table of ice and shrimp and crab claws.  The club boils them fresh so they are actually good and have a nice flavor.  Crab was sweet. shrimp was just right.  cocktail sauce nice and spicy.  So we had a plate of those and chatted up some people we ran into--who are legit crazy rich and kind of can't have a conversation about normal things.  Instead we talked about the dude's jet he owns b/c going to the regular airport is too much of a pain in the ass, and his piloting.  So, I don't know. At least he flies it himself?  He talks about it like its one of the cars in the driveway.  Kind of nuts.  Unless of course I am ever to benefit from knowing someone with their own jet in which it is THE BOMB!  Shrimp a 4.5

After the shrimp we headed back out to the main dining room and the carving stations.  Last year they had a phenomenal smoked tenderloin which we were hoping to partake of again this year.  And, they had it! yay!  The tenderloin is a 5.  I would eat this any and every day of the week if I could.  I swear this is the only time of the year when they pull this out.  A little Christmas magic I suppose.  Had two helpings of that.  Nice and rare.

We also tried some of the other appetizers.  Hubs had some egg roll and we tried the lobster dip with bagel chips.  Yeah, not so much.  It was velveeta with rotel tomatoes in it and chunks of lobster.  Verdict was guilty for subjecting lobster to this treatment and ruining it.  On the other hand, the mussels were again-out of this world.  Another 5.  Yodi had herself a big 'ol bowl of them and was super happy.

 

 Next stop- dessert room.  Last year we missed this because we were still novices and all the desserts are downstairs.  They have a whole room and hallway with nothing but dessert tables and bananas foster.  That is not my thing but boy was there a considerable amount of geriatric members lined up for that!  I just went with a sampling of the small things.  the tarts were not very good.  crust was soggy.  The little mocha cake bite things were the best.  Gingerbread cookies also good.  I wrapped up two to take home to the nippers but now I can't find them.  Hmmm.

 

The fancy bar with the liquor, and ice sculptures!

It was a quick hit more or less but a successful evening with the added bonus of meeting the MOST adorable old guy who visited with us for quite a while over dessert.  At 74 my man just came back from climbing Mount Everest to the 18,000 ft level.  He looks like your average grandpa, but seems to be quite the outdoorsman.  He also had lots of other great stories about working the back country at Sequoia National Park as a college student and then going back for a 2 week riding and camping excursion in his 70s.  Just a charming delightful little guy.  Cheers to him!

Oh and the people with the jet invited us to their New Year's Eve party again this year so obviously they aren't that bad! hehehehe.

Free Lunch!

Employee meeting today followed by free lunch! The whole office trucked over to the downtown aquarium which was a nice change of venue. Usually our meetings are in a nearby theater where I invariably fall asleep in the cushy chair in the low lighting. With that kind of environment it can't entirely be my fault though. Who can stay awake in the morning under those conditions? Anyway. Meeting was good, lots of fun facts and beat of all I stayed awake throughout. Probably a good thing when the CEO is in attendance, no?

Lunch was a buffet with fried chicken, some cheesy pesto pasta thing and biscuits with crudités and salad station. I got a little of everything for research purposes. No salad though. Just crudités. Mix of veggies was nice. The aquarium threw in some fun stuff like whole carrots and raw eggplant and endive along with the standard tomato, squash, celery choices. The carrot was the best thing about lunch. I am not making that up. Very tasty and sweet. Makes me wonder if it was local which would explain why it hasn't had the life sucked out it yet like store carrots.

Fried chicken was bland. Meat had no flavor. Coating was ok though. Pasta was pretty good but heavy for lunch. Glad I didn't get more than a few bites of that. Biscuit tasted like KFC but that's cool. KFC makes a fair biscuit. Too much fake butter brushed on top though. Filling but also pretty marginal all together.

Ducky Momo and Chungry ducked out in favor of paying for lunch somewhere else. That's just how they roll. Suckers.

Desserts were meh. I'm a cake and pie gal myself and this was mostly tarts and fancy pastries. Took a berry tart to go. Not too bad. Ate half and picked the fruit off.

Noticed all the dudes just did chicken pasta and biscuits. Not a veggie anywhere in sight. It kind of grosses me out. I can only imagine the gastrointestinal havoc being wrecked on office mates this afternoon. Way to go guys. Thank god you don't sit on my floor.

Leftovers . . .

Brought my leftover meatloaf and potatoes from Barnaby's.  Still awesome.  Meatloaf has great texture and the potatoes heated up well and were still nice and moist.  yum!  Nothing new there then.  I still recommend it.

A quick digression if I may.  Last night I put a plastic lidded fast food cup with a straw that I had been drinking out of for 2 days in the fridge on my way out.  In the cup were two lemon wedges and water mixed with a little bit of iced tea.  Also in the fridge was my ziploc baggie of lemon wedges I brought from home.  The lemons are homegrown off my own lemon trees.  They are really good!  Anyway, I come in today and go to collect my water and lemons and they are GONE.  Some bendejo TOOK both the cup of water and the lemons!  Nothing else in the fridge was gone so it was obviously not the cleaning crew.  Besides, they never clear out the fridge until it is stuffed to bursting with stinky old food.  I am told by reliable sources that it was most definitely someone from the department on the other side of the floor who work 24/7.  Whoever you are, NOT FREAKING COOL, MAN!  I will find you someday and there will be repercussions.  Serious repercussions.  You have been warned.

peace out!

At the Coppa-cabana . . .

So Thursday was free lunch day.  Department lunch celebrating co-worker's promotion at Coppa in Houston on Washington.  It's Italian.  It was ok.  I didn't think I ate that much but sitting here at my desk  it is apparent I thought wrong.

Really liked the environs and food for the most part was prepared pretty light which was a nice change.  However they used some spices I am not a real big fan of.  Primarily fennel.. Gag me.

For starters there were meatballs, fried zucchini, and frito misto (fried seafood).  The friend stuff all had alight lemony essence which was ok.  Seafood and zucchini fried almost tempura style.  Very light though and nice.  The meatballs were ok.  The sauce was kind of spicy and I don't really dig spicy Italian.  Not sure why, I just don't.  Next had a Caesar salad with lettuce that looked wilted and old, but turns out was actually grilled. I started out eating it thinking it was fine but then Chungry was convinced it was freezer burn.  I got so freaked out about it (I HATE old lettuce, totally grosses me out) that I couldn't eat about half my salad.  Ultimately that is fine b/c I didn't need it anyway.  I started a  boot camp on Tuesday. More on that in a bit.  Nice spicy dressing with anchovies and homemade croutons.  Nice presentation.

frito misto

 

fried zucchini and meatballs

For my entree I had the baked pork chop.  It was listed as coming with seasonal vegetables so I assumed that meant a serving of veggies on the side.  It turned out to be more like a garnish.  It was onions and spinach and some other stuff I couldn't recognize all chopped up around the pork chop.  Presentation on the plate was nice though.  I was disappointed that I really didn't have any vegetables to eat.  I also didn't like the seasoning on the vegetables.  they were cooked with orange peel which left a bitter citrus taste--combined again with the fennel so no thank you  to that.  Pork chop was lighter on the fennel so not bad.  Meat was kind of dried out with not much flavor.  I ate about a third and left the rest.

 

pork chop al forno w seasonal vegetables

Dessert was better.  The whole table had these Italian donut holes that were ok.  Then there were some extra orders of a chocolate malt cake with pistachio ice cream.  Really nice choc malt sauce on the plate and garnished with crushed Whoppers.  Cannot go wrong with that.  Best of all, excellent strong coffee to top it off.  I never get though why Italian places don't give you warm milk for your coffee.  I don't like putting cold cream in my hot coffee and then drinking luke warm coffee.  Anyway, it was good so hats off Coppa on the coffee.

 

coffee and Caesar salad.  Chocolate malt cake below

I should not have had dessert since I am trying to get off the sweets.  I have managed to go 2 and a half days without sweets.  Don't laugh.  If you have a raging sweet tooth, two days is an eternity.  Now I have to start over.  I need to get one of those safety signs that say how many days its been since the place had an incident but mine would be for eating candy and cake and whatever.  And why am I not eating sweets?  Because I started a boot camp on Tuesday.  It's an aquatic boot camp that is supposed to be based on the Army Deep Dive training.  They also have a nutrition component so I'm trying to follow that eating plan loosely for how many helpings of proteins, starch and fruits and vegetables for each meal, staying within 

1200-1400 calories.  I may have just blown that wide open at lunch just now.  Boot camp was cool though.  Pretty sore today on upper body.  At some point swim fins will be involved which makes me a little nervous.  And if I may take liberties to talk about the pool location for the boot camp.  Holy crap is it nice.  It's like an Olympic training facility.  Boot camp is held at the school district's natatorium--and yes they really call it that.  Olympic size pool with 8 lanes, 3 diving platforms, hot tub, locker rooms and I don't even know what else.  There were so many people there Tuesday night for various swim practice and lessons and water polo it was nuts.  Oh and it's a salt water pool to boot.  Water temp was a little cold for my taste but I got over it after the initial shock of jumping in.  I'll have to take a picture tonight when I go.

Ok- have to get back to looking up Santa Barbara real estate.  I'm planning my retirement today.

Two Things . . .

1) a good dive bar is good to have

2) Barnaby's meatloaf is crazy good.

On point 1: Tuesday had lunch date with Twist. Agreed to go to Warren's, a nearby ( and more than likely very old) establishment downtown. Warren's is a total dive. It's dark and worn and out of date. Everyone in there is old and knows each other. It has cheap burgundy velvet flocked wall paper and a random bust of some dude in the corner. But, it also has cheap lunch specials that are generally good. More importantly, it is the only place I have found that can make a real grilled cheese here.

Guess what the special was yesterday? Grilled cheese and chicken rice soup! I'm not lying. We both quickly ordered up a cup of soup and a grilled cheese. Soup was nice. Not too much broth and a good peppery kick. Grilled cheese could have used more butter on the sandwich bread but otherwise it was a standard homey grilled cheese. Not overflowing with cheese either. Just right. Came on a plastic dinner plate with a generous helping of chips and a gloriously garlicky dill pickle. In contrast to the plastic plate, the soup came out in well worn standard diner heavy ceramic cup and saucer. I can't begrudge Warren's from being economical. If I can eat there for $5 then I am more than happy to use a disposable plastic plate and one napkin. Respect.


Is it the best food ever? No. But it's homey and no hassle and cheap. I'm giving Warren's a 4 and a recommended.

 

On to number Two: Barnaby's. no photo today. Was out with a colleague and didn't want to go into the whole "I'm taking pictures of food for my blog" thing. Kind of sorry I didn't though. My first experience was meh. Today was much better. Went with meatloaf. Came with two giant steamed broccoli bunches and mashed potatoes. Also got three thick slices of meatloaf in marinara. Crazy good. For real. Not sure how they made their mashed potatoes but they were some of the best I have ever had. Great flavor. Not too starchy and very light. A distinct absence of cream and butter. Possibly mashed Yukon Golds. Whatever it was, yum. Meatloaf was moist with good consistency and flavor. Definite Italian meatball kind of thing going on.


I only take issue with the broccoli that was steamed just this side of raw with no seasoning of any kind. I can appreciate the plain thing but, work with me, it's broccoli.

This meal I think is a 4.5 and a recommended. I ate about a third and have the rest to take home for dinner.

Turkey Day Recap . . .

Oh my gosh you guys, I am so behind today!  Woke up at 4:30 to deal with cranky Babyman and thought I might stay home with him but then he rallied so here I am.  SO tired right now.  On the plus side, leftover sausage cheese kolaches in the kitchen at work, and I fit into the next size smaller pants. Hooray!  For the rest of the world outside Tejas, the kolache is a sausage roll.  Kolache Factory (and Buccees for that matter) have really really good ones. 

But I digress . . .  I need to get caught up on what went on last week food-wise.  Monday and Tuesday I have no idea.  Oh Tuesday I didn't eat lunch b/c I went to the movies and intended to have popcorn but did not.  The line was too long.  I was riding solo so couldn't go get a seat and have someone bring me popcorn.  Thought I would run out for some during previews but then I like the previews and didn't want to get up.  So- never really had anything.

Wednesday took the day off for some pre-festivity cooking prep.  Hubs got let go early so I met him at PF Chang for lunch and then a movie.  For the most part I don't care for PF Chang's.  It has one dish I really like generally (Singapore Street Noodles) and a couple of apps but then that is it.  The rest of their food I don't think is great, not real Chinses/Asian with few exceptions and they charge too much for sake.  Oh and it takes forEVER to get in and out of there to eat.  Hubs really digs it though so to humor him since it was my people coming for the holiday, we went.  I had crab wontons and fried shrimp dumplings as my entree.

I admit I do LOVE the Chang shrimp dumplings.  I have the recipe and have made them at home.  Also really good but a total pain in the butt to make.  Just takes a long time and involves folding up the wonton wrappers which I am not great at.

These 2 apps each get a 4 and a recommended.

Wed. night I decided to make dinner and did coq au vin.  Classic French dish of chicken in wine.  Dad said it smelled good when I was making it but never followed up with a tastes good too so not sure if he liked it or not.  The Rents can be tight lipped about compliments.  Anyway, not too hard to make actually.  I might not marinade the chicken overnight again but just do it 6 hours ahead or something.  Being in the wine overnight and then simmered made the chicken purple.  I liked it though. Thought it came out well.  Could have used more salt, and I didn't get enough french bread to go with it.

Coq au Vin

Next came Turkey Day.  My favorite holiday of the year.  I tend to find cooking turkey stressful so I opted for a made by someone else and bought by me dinner.  I did make several sides though.  I added cranberries in port wine, rutabaga-pear mash, rutabaga with carmalized onions and apples, butternut squash and some non-dairy potatoes.   Our purchased food was fantastic.  The only thing I had issue with was the stuffing.  I had to dump a bunch of chicken stock on it to moisten it up b/c it was quite dry.  The stock did the trick though and it turned out really good.  Cornbread stuffing of course.  The turkey had been brined so it was juicy and tasty.  I'd give the meal a 4.5 and will get it again next year.

For dessert we had a pumpkin pie as well as a bundt cake from Nothing Bundt Cake.  The bundt cakes there are phenomenal.  I am so over cupcakes.  The bundt kicks the cupcakes ass.  My Mom even liked it and she never likes anything not chocolate.

As far as leftovers go, turkey is gone so working my way through some of the others.  Mostly stuffing and cranberry and rutabaga.  I loves me some rutabaga.  My Granddad used to call it Rudy and we had it at just about every holiday meal I can remember.  The rudy-pear mash was good but i think next year I'll go back to the standard rudy only mash with stock and salt and pepper.  However, the rudy with onions and apples was pretty darn good if I do say so myself.  Will def make that again at some point.  The butternut squash was boiled with ginger then mashed with salt pepper garlic brown sugar and onion.  Also tasty and I will make again.

And that brings us back to Monday.  Went with a three cheese rigatoni Lean Cuisine.  Just some pasta with veggies.  Nothing major.  Veggies tasted fresh. My only complaint was too many red peppers.  The minute I took the cellophane off to eat I was hit in the face with red pepper smell.  I don't like red bell pepper.  And in general you cant go wrong with pasta stuffed with cheese.  I'll give it a 4 and a recommended.

Today Twist and I are going to Warren's.  Warren's is a total dive bar in downtown Houston that happens to serve some pretty good cheap lunch specials.  AND, best of all Warren's can make a real grilled cheese sandwich.  Something most of Houston cannot.  Woot!

Yes. . .

I am indeed having a BBQ brisket sandwich from Bucees for dinner. Deal.

Not bad. A little fatty. A little too saucy. Good value, it's gigantic!

3.5 recommended if you're at the Bucees off I45 near Huntsville.

Let's See . . .

This week was kind of crazy. Sick babyman meant Hubs and I shared baby duty so lunch was off.

Wednesday was Trader Joe palak paneer with TJ naan. SO GOOD. I think this is one of my top 5 favorite meals. Naan warmed up nicely in the communal toaster oven.
4.5



Thursday I was home and made a grilled cheese sandwich. Neglected to take a photo. It was good. Also top 5 fav meal. TJ California style multi grain bread. Whatever the hell that means. Plus Kraft Deluxe American cheese. Bread buttered w Irish butter. Mmmmmmmmm
5.0

Friday I had to get something fast to eat before I had a conference call at 1. Just gave up and went to lobby deli for a salami on rye. I added some provolone. Rye bread was not as dry as usual but for rye bread it really sucked. Whole sandwich was serviceable at best. There was not enough yellow mustard for that bitch. I don't know where it was absorbed but I really piled it on and could barely taste it. On the up side, a delightful garlicky dill pickle. AND it was a whole pickle too. Not just a spear. Booyah!

3.0. Recommended only if you're desperate.

Bon weekend mes amis!