More culinary observations from this past week:

  • The Halfmoon Diner is one of Halfmoon’s best-kept secrets – they make a terrific bowl of chili, and the best coconut cream pie I’ve ever had. The service is great, the prices are terrific, and you can get in and out of there in 35 minutes on a Saturday night. We go there pretty regularly (so often that Bob doesn’t even need to order – they already know what he’s having), and have never had a bad experience.
  • I’ve been looking for some good slow-cooker recipes, since I have 3 crockpots and not very much time. I found a really good cookbook by Sandra Lee called “Semi Homemade Slow Cooker Recipes”. Her premise is to use 70% store-bought ingredients and 30% fresh ingredients. That’s fine, but I’m trying to stay away from processed foods (with mixed success)…so, I’m using about 90% fresh ingredients, and adapting her recipes to fit my tastes. Thursday night I made Coq Au Vin from her book, and it was quite good! I’ve got a crockpot of Pot Roast with Mushroom Gravy sitting in the fridge waiting to be cooked tomorrow. Recipes to come when I have some time to type.
  • I used up some leftover pot roast & veggies from last week (frozen), by making it into beef pot pie: defrost the roast, veggies & gravy, chop up the beef, put everything in a pie plate, microwave until hot (this is very important), top with fresh-made dumplings, bake at 350 until dumplings are cooked. Yum!
  • My lunch this week was “Asian Chicken Lettuce Wraps” – chopped leftover roasted chicken, snow peas, scallions, shredded carrots; mixed with soy-ginger dressing (1/2 cup mayo, 1T soy sauce, 1 tsp grated ginger). Place on lettuce leaves, top with mandarin oranges and sliced almonds, roll up and enjoy!
  • I must admit it publicly – I was so ravenous after my event yesterday, that I stopped at Wendy’s and got a single with cheese. Bad, bad Wendy. But it tasted so damn good…
  • Bought Breyer’s Slow-Churned No-Sugar Added Vanilla Ice Cream. Meh. The vanilla tastes way too artificial. It is very creamy, though. It’s not nearly as good as Stewart’s Light Vanilla, which is absolutely heavenly. Their coffee is great, too. Stewart’s pretty much rocks. It’s an oasis in the desert.