ODG Eats

I didn't really cook any full-fledged meals this weekend; I've been taking it pretty easy. I did cook up a few snacks, though. My Saturday early afternoon brunch snack was mixed veggies (radish, mushroom, yellow bell pepper, red onion, garlic, parsley, and basil) sautéed in butter, then topped with fried egg. Simple, light, tasty, and filling enough. My Sunday early afternoon brunch snack was a little more involved, but not much. I started off by mincing some red onion, crushing and slicing some garlic, dicing some yellow bell pepper and mushroom, chopping some parsley and basil, and hacking up a couple slices of prosciutto. I heated up some extra virgin olive oil in my pan and started sautéing. Onion and garlic were first, followed shortly after by the mushroom and pepper. Once they were softening some, I dumped in the prosciutto and let it all cook until the meat started getting just a touch crispy, at which point I added in the parsley and basil and let it all simmer on low ...

Since I was going to be heading out of town for the weekend, I wanted to use up some veggies before so they wouldn't go to waste. I also had a chicken breast thawed that needed to be cooked, so dinner was going to be a good time. I went with some radish, carrot, radicchio, endive, baby bella mushrooms, parsley, and, of course, garlic tonight.  Red bowl: chopped radicchio, diced parsley, and sliced mushroom Blue bowl: halved endive Left clear bowl: diced carrot and diced radish Right clear bowl: crushed and sliced garlic For my veggies, I started off by melting some butter over medium heat. I added in the garlic and some crushed red pepper flakes and let that cook for a little bit before adding in the endive. Once the endive had browned some, I flipped it and browned the other side, then moved it to a bowl and poured the garlic chili butter over it. Unfortunately, I burned a bit of the garlic, so that neither smelled nor tasted spectacular, but the endive was good. Since I'd bur...

So after I had dinner a The 'Dolo the other night, I needed to cook up something for the next day's lunch/dinner. I had a chicken breast that still hadn't quite thawed, so I put it in some water in the sink and did a Stardew Valley stream . By the time I'd finished streaming, the chicken was thawed and I was tired as fuck, so I knew I had to do something quick so I could get to bed. I grabbed a couple mushrooms, a carrot, and a handful of tomatoes and got to it. I peeled and halved the carrot, the sliced one of the halves lengthwise. I diced the tomatoes into 6 pieces apiece, and just kept the tomatoes in whole. I threw all of the veggies onto my foil-lined baking pan, doused them with extra virgin olive oil, and seasoned with some salt and black pepper. I also rubbed the chicken breast with the oil and seasoned it with the M9 seasoning I used during the Whole Chicken adventure . Then I just preheated the oven to 450 and threw the pan in (note: I did not actually throw...

Some nights (and weekends), I just don't feel like cooking, so I do go out to local restaurants from time to time. My most frequent haunt is El Idolo, a Mexican place just on the edge of Bartlett, TN. It sits a good 1/8 of a mile from the geographic center of the county, so it's reached easily enough from everywhere. They also have the best damn margaritas in town. I've come here frequently and long enough (since they opened, to be honest), that I don't order a drink - my server brings my drink when I've been seated. Incidentally, I go for the medium (used to be large, but they added a new size that's for my Sundays only) margarita on the rocks, no ice, no salt. When a new server starts at "the 'Dolo" (as we call it), it usually takes them 2-3 visits before they remember, and then it's smooth sailing again. Most places that I've ordered this just mix a normal margarita, then top it off with their mix; the 'Dolo says, "nah, hermano,...

I cooked food.  There were ingredients. There was seasoning. There was an order. Surprise. There was also pasta. It looked like shit. It tasted like shit. Life is shit. Just gotta keep moving. p.s. You ever notice how the more you give, the more gets taken from you? I try to be generous, I try to leave the people I meet in a better state for having encountered me, I try to put love into the world. I'm so tired. The only reason I don't quit is because I don't want people to think I'm a quitter, but who the fuck cares anyway? I don't get it, man. I'm just so tired of being alone, of being forgotten, of being told "if things were different," of sitting here in the dark trying to convince myself that maybe, just maybe, tomorrow will be different. Maybe tomorrow there will be love in the world. Maybe tomorrow I'll feel it. Maybe tomorrow one prayer will be answered, one wish will come true, one dream will be fulfilled, one tear - just one fucking tear -...

 I had some chicken thighs, I had some veggies, and I wanted some pasta. So I made some pasta with chicken and veggies. I'm super good at solving problems like that. I pulled out some parsley, the rest of my basil, some kale, a lot of garlic, a few mushrooms, a few tomatoes, and the last of my orange bell pepper. The parsley, basil, and kale were roughly chopped, the tomatoes were cored and halved, the mushrooms sliced, and the bell pepper diced. I just crushed most of the garlic cloves, the but the last two I sliced up super thin. I removed the bones from the chicken thighs again and tossed them into the oven at 400 for a few minutes until they got pretty damn cooked, then I dumped them into a pot of water with some salt and boiled the hell out of it until it cooked about halfway down; I removed the bones and used that broth to cook the pasta. In the meantime, I seasoned the thigh meat on the skin side with a little salt, a little pepper, and a bit of herbes de provence (I seasone...