Budget cooking: soul food for the zombie apocalypse

When this post goes live, I will (hopefully) be about 2/3 of the way through a 24 hour stream of 7 Days to Die. I had to plan ahead for the stream, making sure that I'd taken time off of work, that I would have something to eat on breaks when I was hungry, that I'd have energy drinks stocked, etc., so I decided to make a pot of stew and keep it simmering while I stream.

I picked up some turnip greens at Kroger over the weekend, so I figured "why not do chitlins and turnip greens?" A few minutes later, I noticed the delicious irony of eating soul food while killing zombies. I've gotten a lot of mileage out of that one. I dredged the chitlins in flour seasoned with salt and pepper, and I chopped the greens up a bit. Really simple prep work for that shit.

I started off by browning the chitlins in butter, then added in my chopped greens to sauté with them. Once the greens had cooked down some, I added in some roughly chopped vidalia onion because that shit makes everything better. I also had some leftover steak from a company dinner the night before, so I chunked that in there, too. I mean, why not?

I decided I needed a little more sustenance in there, so I quick chopped a few radishes and mushrooms, too.

I poured in a bit of water (y'all know I don't measure shit) and dumped in some salt. After that, it was just putting the lid on and letting it simmer for several hours.

Ans a few hours later with some black peppers red pepper flakes, and herbs de Provence. Tasty, hearty, and inexpensive. Bone apple tea!

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Restaurant week: My new Mexican restaurant

As I mentioned the other day, my Mexican restaurant closed down. Luckily, they opened up in a new space a couple of months later. Great new look, new name ("Lopez Grill"), they've got a bar, staff is expanded, and the place is always packed. Business seems to be going great. Now, this isn't just a rehash of my post about the 'Dolo. While the menu is largely the same, there have been a few changes, plus I'm going to share a few things I've learned eating there. On my first visit to the new location (which was opening day, right when the doors opened; yes, I was standing in line outside with the other faithful), Señor Lopez brought me a bowl of their new salsa. He called it "guacamole salsa," but it's a jalapeño-based sauce. It's got an almost creamy texture, but is dairy-free (I asked for my vegan friend). Being a jalapeño salsa, it's got some heat, but not nearly as overbearing as some capsaicin-phobes may fear. It is perfectly bala...

Restaurant week: Polish food truck tasting

Due to a strange combination of circumstances, I recently found myself at a menu tasting for a soon to open Polish food truck called Halinka's Polish Eatery . I'm about 99% sure I was the only person in attendance who wasn't already personally known to the owner/chef, Magda, but it was a good time. Got to meet some nice folks and eat free food, but then I had to give feedback in public in front of other people, so that kind of sucked. Like, really fucking sucked. Pretty sure my face my was red the entire time. This is the price we pay for food sometimes. Our first course was a cabbage and mushroom pierogi with a side of beets. Apparently when the food truck gets going, the pierogis will be steamed, then finished either on a grill or in a skillet with some butter. However, due to facility constraints where we were trying the dishes, Magda had to serve them just steamed. Anyway, to the food: the cabbage and mushroom pierogis were fucking amazing. There was a tremendous depth ...

Stream recap: pseudo-bougie dinner party

This past Sunday (1/18/2025) was my second cooking stream of the New Generation of ODG Cooking Streams. When I was trying to come up with a "theme" for the afternoon, I was thinking a lot about those fancy-ass restaurants where they serve you three bites of food on a fucking plate five or six times and, even though you're somehow full, it still doesn't seem to quite justify spending five million dollars just to eat there for two hours while everyone around you looks at you condescendingly because you didn't wear a goddamn tie. Fuck those people. Anyway, I decided I wanted to figure out a way to do that kind of fun, small plate, presentation-centric food at the house without having to break the bank. My first course, as a direct theft from The Bear , a show I absolutely love, was the mirepoix broth. I started the stream by starting a light stock, which means you don't roast the bones beforehand, using some pork and beef bones. For the mirepoix broth, I finely ...

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