More leftovers . . .

The parade of leftovers continues.  Last night for dinner I had a curry chicken tender.  Marinade going on was very paste-like but I'll tell you what, makes for a good moist meat post grill.

Today for lunch I am having leftover pulled pork from my sliders and broccoli salad.  Most people make broccoli salad with raw broc.  I am not so much a fan of the broccoli raw so I do a flash steam first then chop it and add cheese, bacon (duh), grapes, tomato and red onion.  Dressing is a mayo, vinegar, sugar combo thing.  Very tasty.  Even 3 days later it still is pretty crisp even with the dressing on it.

I used a filter on this.  The food really wasn't so faded.  On the paper plate it just made me think of a church potluck. I think my forte is making church potluck comfort food type stuff.  And, it's just what I like anyway.  Cookie was not part of the leftovers, but we will get to that in a  minute. 

The pulled pork is super tender and has retained good flavor sitting around in the fridge in fat and juices.  However, and I can't believe I am about to say this, it is a tad on the salty side.  A little too salty even for me, a salt whore.  Roll is King's Hawaiian.  Nothing to say about this.  It's one of the best things on the planet period.  I'd like to thank my mother for introducing this to me as a child and ruining my life forever.  King's is sold in abundance here in Texas.  It was hard to find back east so I didn't eat them often which was cool.  Now that they are everywhere I buy them all the time for my kids and end up eating more of them than I should.  #1 Son likes to make turkey sandwiches with them. Specifically, open face turkey sandwiches.  I get the what-for if I put the turkey on the roll like a regular sandwich and send it to school that way. It's the little things.

Cookie was free in the kitchen from Frank's Pizza.  Why Frank's makes cookies I've no idea.  But it was there and it's oatmeal raisin so I took it.  It's a big cookie so doubt I will eat it all.  Overall not bad.  tastes like Otis Spunkmeyer dough, so I'm putting my money down that is in fact what it is.  Otis has his place.  It's not awful, but I prefer something else.  Clearly not as good as homemade or Au Bon Pain even.

I'll have to give myself a 3.5 or even a 3 on this meal.  it's kind of heavy to do more than once in a week.  Although if you come to my house and I've made it fresh for you I'd give it a 4 and def recommend it.  I sent some pork home with people so will have to do an informal poll.

Tomorrow I might bring in the chicken and potato salad.  We shall see.  I also have a ton of crackers, Boursin cheese (OMG how good is that stuff?) and olives.  Hubs says I need to stop with the olives and cheese and crackers b/c I am the only one who ever eats them.  Prob. so.  I also have a jar of cornichons from Trader Joe's.  They are heavy on the vinegar and light on the dill and garlic so not sure if I will be able to finish them.  Granddad may have to come in as Closer on that one.

Le weekend . . .

So much going on over the weekend.  The parents in-law swooped in for a few days and it seems like the biggest thing we do with them is eat or talk about eating.  I already talked about the rotisserie chicken in my last post.  What else?  Oh yeah, on Saturday night we got a baby sitter for #2 and #3 child and went with Father In Law and Wife with #1 son to Perry's Steakhouse in The Woodlands.  Pretty crazy swank for a restaurant in a strip mall.  It's a nice shopping center, but no matter how you dress it up it is still for all intents and purposes, a strip mall.  A pig in lipstick or whatever that saying is.

We all went with the Restaurant Week menu, a filet with lump crab meat for me and the two guys had the Perry pork chop.  I don't have a photo of the chop but maybe Hubs will send it to me.  I think one would have fed our whole table.  The waiter brought it and did some song and dance about its preparation I only half listened to.  I was too busy sucking the last drops of vodka off the ice cubes in my vodka tonic (which was flat by the way.  How does that even happen?).  What I heard was blah blah brown sugar blah infusion blah blah ribs blah blah three days.  So I gather from that they do something to the pork chop for 3 days before they cook it.  Well, good for you.  I had a bite of leftover and I can say the ribs were mighty tasty the rest of the chop though just tasted like plain pork.  You are obviously wasting your time on the 72 hour thing.

On to my meal-- started with a Caesar that had some actual anchovies in it and anchovy paste to which I say thank you for that.  Hard to find anyone who does that anymore.  However it was almost canceled out by the mayo base of the dressing.  Therefore, not "real" Caesar dressing.  I'll take it though.  Still had good bite and good flavor.  Nice portion.

Steak came topped with crab meat.  I think I would eat just about anything that came with crab meat.  Crab was pretty good.  A couple of bites that were a little too mushy but overall maintained its crabiness and flavor which is probably quite a trick in Texas.  Correct me if I am wrong but I don't think crab is indigenous anywhere near Texas.  Steak could have used more seasoning.  It was pretty bland, but nice cut of meat.  I always order med rare.  This was just on the cusp of going over into medium.  I like it just this side of rare.

Sides for the table were creamed spinach and the potatoes au gratin.  I have to say the spinach was some of the best I have ever had.  EVER had.  Maybe with original Smith & Wollensky in NYC being THE best.  This was a close second.  The bread crumbs on the top really made it.  Loved it and worked very hard to restrain myself from eating the entire dish.  Potatoes were too cheesy for me.  They were ridiculously cheesy.  Cheese strings were everywhere.  It was overkill.  And I love cheese so you know when I say something had too much cheese, it was legitimately too much cheese.  Way too much cheese Perry's.

Dessert was the trio sampler.  Just the right amount of everything.  I could have had some more crème brûlée though.  I got a bite of cheesecake, a couple bites of crème brûlée and then a bite of chocolate mouse that was very un-moussey.  it was more like truffle filling.  Thick enough I could cut it with a fork and then stab it with my fork to eat it.  Not sure mouse is supposed to be so thick you can stab it.

I also had a very nice half bottle of Rex Hill pinot noir.  I was supposed to be "sharing" it.  The 'rents got the bananas flambe which was set on fire tableside.  #1 son really loved that.

Overall good meal.  Restaurant week prices and portions were good.  It seemed kind of expensive to me otherwise, but there is always a crowd it seems like.  I'd go back to try something else and get a full brulee.

I'll give Perry's a 4 and a recommended.  Decent leftovers as well.

Let's See . . .

Where are we now? Oh yeah I left off with the tikka masala.

As promised on Thursday I had leftover Trader Joe tikka masala. The photo has mysteriously disappeared so no visual. I think I may have saved it at work. Anyhoo, it was pretty solid. The sauce had more of a butter chicken flavor however the two are pretty close in terms of ingredients. Spicy, but not too much. Chicken was kind of dry, but not terrible. Honestly i don't think I've ever had tikka masala that wasn't dry Not much to say about it. It was good, not great.

Friday I went with Favorite Lunch Buddy and Primary Lunch Buddy to Corner Bakery. You know I had the thi coconut soup but this time I went with the Asian chicken salad. Lettuce was fresh is about all I can say. Not real impressed. Hardly any chicken and no veggies to speak of. Pretty bland even with some dressing. The cookie even let me down. Not nearly as chewy and moist as usual. Not a great end to the week. Left work early so that kind of made up for it.  Oh almost forgot, my little roll that came with the salad that is usually the bomb?  Totally hard and over cooked.  Boooo.  And that's all I have to say about that.

For dinner we had the rotisserie chicken I got ready the day before. We did 2 which turned out to be too much. One of the chickens caught on fire which we caught just before it turned tragic and the chicken was a waste. We saved it and it was fine, just lost the skin.  The other chicken was great though!  Threw some hickory chips into the smoker drawer on the grill. Chicken came out with some nice flavor between that and sitting over night in the rub.

Dessert was mini bundts from Nothing Bundt Cake. Yum. Way better than cupcakes. Period.

So a 3.5 for Trader Joe's tikka masala. 4 for the chicken ( my prerogative) and the Bundt cakes get a 5 and a very recommended. We got an assortment of favors. All good.

Will catch up on more tomorrow. Right now it's nap time.

Lunch Round Up . . .

I have been remiss in my postings this week and am getting behind.  Here is a brief recap of what has been going on with lunch and the menu for today:

Monday:  Called to duty as lunch companion again.  And went for dumplings, again.  Pork chicken combo with spicy sauce instead of mild.  The spicy is only marginally so compared to the mild so I'll be getting it from now on.  Dumplings were good.  Wrappers not too doughy which is always a plus for me.

And while we are at it, let's check on the quality of lime garnish Starbucks is putting into its Refreshers.  You may recall the last one I got was pretty gross.  Here is the most recent lime slice:

Eh, not much better.  Not sure why this Starbucks repeatedly has old yucky looking limes.

Tuesday some of us piled in the car and took a field trip to Arby's.    As I was on the heels of the Trader Joe's burrito fiasco I wasn't that hungry and had a salad with Diet Mountain Dew.

That was not a typo.  I did indeed have a Diet Dew fountain drink at the Arby's.  I know you're jealous.  The fountain Diet Dew is hard to come by.  It was heaven.  Salad was good too.  Very fresh.  First salad I have ever had at the Arby's.  My usual fare is the junior roast beef, potato cakes and jamoca shake.  To mix it up I will have a french dip.  Since I didn't get my usual I took a picture of my friend's food.

You see here he got curly fries in lieu of potato cakes.  While I do like the Arby's curly fries, as a lifelong potato cake person I cannot personally advocate for the curly fries, but will not hold it against you if you get them.  Our other co-worker had ordered a chocolate shake before I could stop him.  After extolling the virtues of the jamoca shake he went back and changed his order then concurred that it was indeed a fine shake.  While we ate, known Arby's fanatic, Favorite Lunch Buddy 1/Ducky Momo regaled us all with tales of living in NYC and trekking far distances to the only known Arby's on the island and singlehandedly educating the franchise about the appropriateness of serving potato cakes all day vs. just at breakfast.  And I have to agree, who doesn't know that? That is just criminal to deprive people of potato cakes after 10.  Oh that's right, it was an Arby's in New York City.  Combined with a Cinnabon.  Down in the West Village.  So many reasons why they would be completely clueless as to Arby's tradition.  Reasons, but not excuses.  There is no excuse for running an Arby's that way!  Anyway, Arby's was a pleasure as always, and we all left happy.  Do I even need to rate it for you?  Fine then.  A 5 with a RECOMMENDED.

Indeed!

Which brings us to today, Wednesday and leftover Trader Joe's chicken enchiladas.

They are not quite that color, I used an Instagram filter b/c they came out kind of dark and I wanted to show some details.  Details of an enchilada are kind of impossible though.  Especially leftover enchiladas.  So these came in a pack of 4--clearly 2 servings thank you very much Trader Joe's.   Hubs got these for dinner Monday night.  He ate most of it and thought they were just ok.  I tried them then too and will say I thought they could use more ranchero sauce and the chicken was dry.  What a difference a day and a half makes.  Leftover these are fabulous!  I could still use a little more ranchero sauce on them but overall very nice.  Great melding of flavors.  Chicken is nice and tender now and moist.  Not too much cilantro.  Not a big fan. People over use and it drives me crazy.  This is just right.  Ranchero is nearly 100% the way I prefer it.  Little bit of a beef stock undertone and not too much of a just plain tomato flavor.  Good hint of garlic.  Reminds me of my favorite place back home.

 

Here is the unfiltered shot after I have eaten about half of it.  Please excuse my dirty utensils!  Just overall feeling very pleased about this lunch.  From a calorie standpoint, it's 590 for both enchiladas.  If I'm being honest I should have only eaten one.  That started out my intent but I got carried away but my enjoyment of them.  No bundt cake for me later.  Which reminds me, we just got a Nothing Bundt Cake next door to the Trader Joe's which makes it all to easy to go buy cake.  And they are f'ing good.  I need to check on those calories.  I'm sure they are just short of catastrophic.  So far we have had cinnamon swirl, white chocolate (that I had none of b/c Hubs and Little Dude ate the whole thing before I could say Boo), white choc with raspberry and chocolate chocolate chip.  No one liked cinnamon but me, but it was really nice.  All the flavors are great.  Not too heavy which unfortch makes it easy to eat the whole thing.  And by whole thing I mean the small 4 inch cakes, the Bundtinis.  And yes, you do feel ridiculous ordering a Bundtini.  I just ask "for the small one there".

Oh, ratings.  Cake and enchiladas I would actually give 5s to and recommended.   

Now we are all caught up.  Tomorrow I will more than likely be having my leftover Trader Joe's Chicken Tikka Masala.  Stay tuned.  I know how thrilling that sounds.

Catching Up . . .

Wow!  I completely forgot to post my Friday lunch post.  I forgot because I had to borrow a phone to take pics and then forgot to send myself said pics.  Friday was quite the special occasion too and I would be remiss in not blogging it.

Special occasion is twofold.  1) we went to Luby's!  and 2) Chungry came with us.  Growing up in Oklahoma, Luby's, the old Furr's and Picadilly were staples in the "nice" family dinner rotation.  I don't think I'm alone here on that either.  And honestly, who doesn't love a good cafeteria?  If you don't then I can only ask, what's wrong with you?

LuAnn platter with fried fish, cooked squash and fried okra.  Fried okra always good.  I didn't even have to salt it myself because Luby's is on top of it people.  I know you think the fried fish sounds gross but let me tell you 3 out of 4 people at our table got it and we ALL concurred it was GOOD.  It's like that scene in Ratatouille when the food critic takes the bite and has his good childhood memories flash in his mind's eye.  It's just, Ahhhhh. . . .  squash was pretty good.  Lots of garlic and lots of salt, although not as thoroughly soggy and boled the way I really like it.  I had to ask the guy to dig from the center of the tray instead of the edges where it was crisper.  Again- childhood memories.  My aunt and my mom made a mean cooked squash.  If I could have it fixed like this everyday I think I could eat this everyday, thus I will award the elusive 5 microwaves and a recommended.  All hail Luby's!

 My neighbor with his fish, mac and cheese and green beans.  Mac and cheese got a meh.  Bonus celebrity appearance by Sam Kinison!!

Oh man, I forgot my roll y'all!  Uncool on my part.  See how shiny it is from the melted fake butter brushed on the top?  It was warm and yeasty and muy delicioso.  The end.  Also props to our server Starr who was, in all seriousness, very lovely to us and refilled our tea.

It was, you know, OK . . .

Today was a work lunch to meet a new employee who had flown down from the Mother Ship.  Reservation for 7 at Line & Lariat, the revamped restaurant in Hotel Icon.  The old placed was called Voice, which was a stupid name.  Voice food was good but the service always sucked.  The restaurant revamp did not include a service revamp.  It is still slow as molasses and clueless.  Ex: we had a reservation- walked in and were the only people there other than staff and had to wait while they pushed tables together for us and rearranged chairs.  Seriously people.  You knew we were coming what is the deal?  This happened before as well when it was Voice and we had to stand around in the bar that time for 30 minutes before a table was ready.  What is the deal?  I don't get it.

So we sit down after this tortured furniture rearranging goes on for 15 minutes.  The waiter was so soft spoken you could barely hear him so it's a good thing there was about zero other ambient noise.  Turns out it is also Restaurant Week here in H-town, which I was totally clueless about so we get the regular menu and the RW menu.  Several good looking choices, a red snapper, a gumbo and shrimp and grits.  Ultimately decided on the tomato salad and then the shrimp and grits off the restaurant week menu b/c it's cheaper that way--that's just how I am.  Someone also ordered truffle fries for the table which I did not get a picture of but arrived perfectly hot and crisp and as noted by one of my esteemed colleagues, just the right amount of truffle oil.

Seems like it took forever for the tomato salad to get out to the table.  We finally concluded that there was one person in the kitchen so everything was made and plated one at a time because that is how everything came out.  Salad had a nice variety of tomatoes, French feta and a vinaigrette dressing.  Truly fantastic salad.

Very nice portion too, especially for a prix fixe menu.  It was generous, not stingy at all.  Also the bread that came to the table was very nice too.  I was skeptical when it was first brought out but the yeast rolls were very good.  Flavor just right, moist and dense but not too much.  The onion cornbread muffins were also very tasty.  Moist with good flavor. A hint of jalapeno, but not overwhelming.  Good cornmeal to flour ratio so they were real corn muffins as opposed to being real cake-like.

And then we sit some more while we wait for entrees to be brought out one at a time.  I went with shrimp and grits.  One of my standards if it is on the menu.  Line & Lariat had a gumbo too but for some reason it didn't appeal to me today although someone else got it (FLB2 was in attendance).  Shrimp was fried in this version with some panko bread crumbs it looked like.  It was actually very well done and nice.  A little on the salty side but the grits were so bland that turned out to be a plus.  And you can see it was served with some sauteed greens.  The were a little bitter but not bad.  Fairly standard preparation with some garlic and oil.  You know, it was fine.

 
The red ring around the grits is hot sauce.  It wasn't enough to make any impact in which case, why bother?  As a garnish it's ok but when the menu lists something as part of the dish you generally expect to taste it don't you?  Right? Or am I just crazy to think that?  It also said grits with cheddar and bacon.  Not much though.  I know those are yellow so look like they are some nice cheesy grits, but do not be mislead.  Grits were smooth and creamy but lacked in flavor.  It was ok if you ate them with a bite of the fried shrimp but if you like grits for grits sake then they were disappointing.  I ended up full but not being satisfied which is a pretty crappy way to leave lunch.  I suspect I'll be hitting the deli downstairs for a Skor in the next 40 minutes.  Also a big waste of calories which means I'll have to go run tonight for at least a little bit.  I am joining a running club though so that should help.  Why?  I guess I probably have not mentioned I am training for a half marathon after Christmas.  I've never run one before and historically have not really enjoyed running that much so its kind of a big deal.  I am enjoying the running when its not 98 degrees out but I have a ways to go before I'm ready.  Shrimp and grits are not helping either.  Soon I will have to get serious and cut out sweets and then where will we be?  Some pretty boring blog posts perhaps!  For now though, I am off to get a Skor and a Gatorade.  Then I will be UNSTOPPABLE this afternoon.

Almost forgot-- Heirloom tomato salad is a 5 and recommended.  Shrimp and grits I will give a 3 to despite the strength of the shrimp.  The taste of the overall dish was just meh. 

It's a Go-Go . . .

I was all prepared to finally eat my Lean Cuisine Pad Thai that has been waiting for me for about a month now in the freezer, but I got called up again today to do back up along with FLB2 and one other co-worker.  The 4 of us hopped the cute fake metro train that Downtown Houston has and we went up to Tacos A Go-Go.  Very funky-my kind of place.  I particularly like the canvases on the wall of the Mexican wrestler masks a la Nacho Libre.  Very underrated movie.  Go rent it.

Besides funky, TAG-G has breakfast all day!  Bonus.  I really went back and forth between just a breakfast taco or a platter.  Eventhough I knew I wouldn't come close to eating it all I caved and went with the huevos rancheros with bacon and refried beans.  The platter came with fried potatoes too.  I just had a few to taste- they were solid.  Maybe some salt, otherwise tender and nicely fried.

Scrambled eggs were done well.  I mixed it all up and then scooped it into a flour tortilla with some beans.  YUM.  Beans didn't have a ton of flavor but were smooth and a nice base for the eggs in the taco.  The spicy tomato on the eggs was very nice.  Lots of flavor and spicy.

We also had some good chips and homemade salsa while waiting on our food.  Both were super fresh.  For dessert we tried the s'mores taco and the blackberry and cream taco.  I can't say I would recommend these.  they were ok if you just wanted something sweet but otherwise didn't real offer anything too inventive.  The blackberry and cream turned out to be jam in a flour tortilla fried with whipped cream out of the can.  All things that are individually fantastic, but I'm not sure I would make it and sell it.  I prefer things I can't make myself and this one I could def do myself.  S'mores was melted choc and what looked like marshmallow fluff also in a tortilla and then fried.  I didn't try any of that one but it also got a "meh" from the other lunchers.

Splurged on a Dr. Pepper instead of iced tea.  I find Dr. Pepper is the perfect accompaniment to Mexican food.  Overall, great food and cheap so perfect for lunch.  Next time if I don't just listen to reason and get a taco I will try the Migas.  I give it a 4 and a recommended.


Ed. Note:  It is also worth mentioning that once I got back to the office there was leftover Jason's Deli in the kitchen.  Score! Was able to top off my lunch with some fresh fruit and a brownie.  Jason's Deli brownie's are the BEST!

Lunch Meeting . . .

So today I had a meeting for a board I am on and it was a catered eat-in thing.  Food was from Treebeard's a local establishment.  I like Treebeard's a lot but it seems like the only foods you are only allowed to get catered are red beans and rice and shrimp etouffee.  Never have I ever seen any other food from Treebeard's catered and people get TB catered here a LOT.  Since I was with folks that I don't know real well I had to surreptitiously take a picture of my lunch.  Salad with a nice snappy vinaigrette, a dab of red beans and rice with some sausage and shrimp etouffee with rice.  The shrimp etouffee and gumbo are the only things I get at TB so I was cool with the menu.

The lighting was terrible in the conference room where the meeting was and obviously I wasn't able to go all Instagram on my food b/c that would have taken too long to set up and snap.  I didn't want to be real obvious about messing with my phone at the time.  Dark blob in the back is the red beans and rice.  I don't always like this. They put something in it that has a weird taste to me and I don't know what kind of spice it is.  Maybe cardamom or something along those lines.  Today the weird taste was not so prevalent and the beans were not as spicy as they usually seem to me.  Liked them better this way.  I eat them plain, no cheese or green onions.  That's just wrong.

Now the etoufee on the other hand was spicier than usual.  So much so that it made me break out in a sweat towards the end.  That combined with poor air conditioning in the room.  And poor a/c by Houston standards means it was "normal" vs. "arctic" which in the summer it nearly always is everywhere.  Having grown to love the sub arctic air in all the buildings here it was seriously a bummer to have to sit in a barely cool conference room and eat hot food.  Once I stopped eating I was fine though.  No worries.  Didn't get any of the TB bread they serve.  It sucks.  Let's be honest.  It has a sort of quaint quality to it, but at the end of the day it's just some mediocre store bought bread served with some tasteless margarine.  I prefer to use my calories for the etouffee.  Don't get me wrong though- I do like Treebeard's.  Its many many other redeeming qualities and fresh fruit cups with mint leaves more than make up for sucky bread.

Red beans and rice= 3 microwaves, but get a recommended
Shrimp etouffee = 4 microwaves and a recommended.

When I first moved here TB was one of the few places I knew to go for lunch so I was hitting the etouffee hard in the early days.  Plus I was preggers then so etouffee plus homemade cake was a pretty infallible combo.  Probably for that reason I will always feel a fondness for Treebeard's.  And you know who I ate there with the very first time?  That's right people.  Chungry.

Seriously, Dumplings Again?

Yes, my children.  It is with great sadness that I tell you Lunch Buddy often lacks in lunchtime imagination.  Once he locks on to a food he likes, watch out!  He will make you go with him to eat so often that you quickly reach maximum utility on the food likeability scale.  Since I have blogged about dumplings twice now (I will concede the pork was very fresh today) today I offer a dumpling haiku:

Order dumplings fast

Dip them and enjoy each bite

The food court beckons

Dumplings were followed by a chewy chocolate Great American Cookie.  A nice switch up from the iced sugar at Corner Bakery.  It was indeed chewy and just the right way to top off the dumplings.  Today's venti refresher had a more acceptable lime, rind still questionable looking.  By the way- a tour of the Interwebs tells me that the venti lime refresher has 80 calories.  Not bad.  It does, however, have an insane amount of sugar so we will have to go back to straight black tea.  Whah whah. 

Looking forward to the return of Chungry so I can go back to my Lean Cuisine and get off this cookie carousel.  No, of course I can't just stand idly by and watch people get cookies but not get one myself.  What is wrong with you?  The only way to avoid the cookie is to not stop for a cookie in the first place or just hide out in my office away from all the cookies.