Quail Eggs and Pork Bellies

 I was drug here, almost to the day 27 months ago, kicking and screaming like a bratty ass five year old jacked up on Skittles and Starbucks. In all this time, i have tried to give Amarillo the benefit of the doubt. For instance: This is a major center for beef packing, so naturally i believed I'd be able to buy really nice beef here. WRONG! I don't know where the good stuff goes, but it isn't here. (Not even to the boutique butcher shops)  My one hard and fast criteria for moving here was there be one good Chinese place. Again, Donner assured me this place was littered with them and certainly one of them had to be good. (Or Not!) Finally, i love my produce. I want a reasonable selection that's been taken care of where i don't feel like I'm wasting my money and should just get the frozen variety. To say I'd lost that lovin' feelin' a few times would be more than fair.
It was during one of these low times, i discovered Meyer Lemons at the local grocery store. They had two bags and it was pure reflex that i grabbed them both. I instantly ran down the list of fish and picked my top five. Well five turned to four and so on... Lastly, i was left with a sad little block of frozen flounder. A little butter, white pepper, and i got my poach on. At last, I lived to eat another day. Within a few days that dozen Meyer's were a memory. Slowly, the sudden glow of sunshine on my culinary adventures here began to cloud over. Once again, i was back to the same ol', same ol'.
During the rest of last year, i kept an eye out for the occasional "treat", but alas i was left wanting. When we took a trip to Ruidoso, i wanted to pack a lunch basket with some reasonable water ham and Jarlsberg. Three deli counters in town and all three asked what that was. It boggles the mind! In their defense, they did know what Swiss cheese was.
Once again, i had all but given up on this town. I'd begun to make peace with the mundane and lack of anything remotely different. Then i spent ten days out in civilization.
Oh joy of joys!!! I had great Chinese four times, hell, maybe five. I bought romaine hearts and we had a great chicken salad. It felt like i was being shown sunlight for the very first time! Then like all good things, it ended. I came home and locked myself away from the world until I'd had a sufficient amount of time to sulk. Personal sulk time is highly under-rated!
As i was coming out of my funk, i had to go to the store and both boys just had to come with me. I swear, the fascination with going to the store eludes me. (I've probably written about this part before, so please forgive me.) While at the store, one of the boys was climbing up my neck in the way only a teenage boy can. He wanted to help and so i told him to go ask the produce guy at The Devilstore where the blood oranges were. I knew this was a safe one and he'd be gone for a while. Or Not!!!
Yeah, they had them alright. so i got two bags and went home and enjoyed the moment. They hadn't really ripened enough, but they were quite lovely still. That happened around the middle of January.
Two weeks later, we were at the store and discovered they had Cara Cara's. SCORE!!! It appeared that i was in a rally of foods i had written off for this hamlet. Then last week i had to go to the doctor.
Don't be alarmed, it's something that happens from time to time. I have been watching this one piece of skin on my hand and it just kept getting angrier and angrier. So, i took a couple of pics and sent them to my Homegirl Bubbles for an opinion. She's got her game ON in this department. So, on her advice, i went to get it checked out and we'll see, but in the meantime, i did get to have a great conversation with my doctor.
He's originally from Corpus Christi. I told him he should have been a girl because some of the prettiest girls I've ever seen came out of Corpus.
Anyway, he and i have this familiarity between us. He asked if i had been to the new market yet and i asked him, "What market?"
He filled my ears with visions of OZ!!! So, naturally i had to go there Saturday. I'd love to say he was mistaken, but he was not. Their produce department is awesome. Who'd have thunk you could get whole bamboo shoots and fresh basil and green mangoes and even pudding fruit in Amarillo.
As if that weren't enough, their meat is pretty good and reasonably priced. I did help myself to some quail eggs while i was there, but i left the pig uterus for someone else. One of the best things i saw that day were whole redfish and their eyes were still clear. I will be back on grocery days that's for sure. The only thing that bothered me about the whole experience was, quite petty but, they had twelve different types of preserved duck eggs and even packages of duck egg yolks, but they didn't have a single fresh duck egg in the place. If they can solve that i think i might just have a love here afterall.

Until i visit with you again, Peace Be With You, D

Can I Get The Recipe??

"Can I get the recipe?", has to be the greatest single inverse in any kitchen. Let me attempt to clarify what i mean by inverse. For instance; you eat something you really enjoy and you ask your friend, mom, sister,etc for the recipe. This is the easy part and trust me when i say it's quite flattering when it's your recipe being asked for. Remember, this is the easy part. Now, let's put some context to this as an aid in producing a clearer understanding of why writing down the recipe is hard.
Okay, so you've asked for the recipe and i'm going to give it to you in exchange for you telling me how you manage to keep your house clean all week with kids and work, or how you keep your feet so soft, or how you get all of the things done in a day and still have the energy to go out that night. The simple answer is; it's a process.
We all have processes we have fine tuned over the years. The reason we are successful with these is we have found what works for us and what doesn't. Clearly if it didn't work for us, we'd stop doing it. Except laundry! Laundry doesn't work for me, but i can't seem to stop trying. After all  I like clean clothes. So, in order for you to better understand the process i use to create dinners like this, there are a few things you need to have laying about in your kitchen. The bad news is it'll add a few bucks to your grocery budget, but the good news is you'll have it on hand when you want something like this again.
I tend to keep the following, among other things, for just this purpose: sesame seeds, sesame oil (dark), garlic & chili paste, soy sauce, and a piece of fresh ginger in the freezer (in an airtight container or it'll end up smelling like feet. YUK!!!). Oh yeah, and rice of course. I use the cheap rice, or Basmati or Jasmine if i get it from the Asian market. It's much cheaper there than at the grocery store and i usually get a BAG of rice. I keep it in an airtight container and it'll last forever if you are careful. I know some of you prefer using boxed rice because it's easier and that's fine, but for those of you a bit more adventuresome, I'll include a Rice Recipe right now.
HOW TO MAKE RICE THAT DOESN'T COME IN A BOX: Measure out two measures of water and one measure of rice. Bring the water to a good boil and dump in the rice and stir to cook the starch on the outside of the rice. Keep the heat on and cook uncovered, stirring occasionally for five minutes. At the end of five minutes, remove from heat and put a lid on it. The rice will be ready in twenty minutes. That's it. Rice the hard way.
I know, you are asking what "measure"????? Trust me when i say it doesn't matter. The only thing you need to keep in mind is the amount you want. The finished product will be, more or less, the volume of three measures. So you could use a measuring cup, a coffee cup, a tea glass, whatever, as long as it's about 1/3 of the amount you want to make.
NOW FOR THE DISH:
You'll need a meat and some veggies. Pretty much the same as if you were doing a normal meal. I'll leave that math up to you.
This is what i used. 4 chicken breasts, a can of water chestnuts, some sugar peas in the hull, regular onion and green onion, mushrooms, and bamboo shoots. Now i made this in my little wok one plate at a time, but you could do it as a skillet meal no sweat.
Set up your cutting board and cut your chicken into bite sized pieces. Clean the board and knife and do the same for the veggies you intend on using. Put everything into it's own bowl for making one plate at a time or the chicken in one bowl and the veggies in another if you are doing it as a skillet. When everything is ready, reach in your silverware drawer and grab a tablespoon. Toss a table spoon of corn starch in enough water to  make a liquid resembling milk. I have a funny story of just how much it does resemble milk, but i'll spare you, for now. Lastly, you'll need a glass of water just in case.
Make sure you have everything ready and available and this will be really easy.
Put a little Vegetable oil in your skillet and brown up that chicken. When the chicken is about done, throw in a tablespoon (remember the kitchen drawer, this is not a measurement) of the garlic & chili paste. Don't go crazy if you are squeamish about the heat. Get that stirred in so everything is coated nicely and dump your veggies on top and start to stir them top to bottom. (Side Note: if you have carrots or green beans put them in right after the chili paste and before the rest of the veggies as they need a little more time to cook). As everything starts smelling good, take your bottle of soy sauce and sprinkle it over the top of the whole mess. If i had to guess, i'd say a good tablespoon or two or three depending on how saucy you want it. It's going to steam up on you some and so you stir-stir-stir. The sizzle will die down. As the heat returns, you'll start smelling your veggies. When it all starts smelling really good, give your corn starch liquid a quick stir and add a tablespoon or two of that and stir like mad. If it seems like your sauce is too thick or has turned to plastic, add a couple tablespoons of water and stir like made. If it's too thin, add more of the mixture and stir. It's easy to tell when corn starch has cooked, it goes from being opaque to translucent.
At this point you are basically done. Take a plate and put rice on it, put your stir fry on top of that and garnish with green onions or sesame seeds or not. It's all up to you.
If it doesn't turn out the way you like the first time, don't beat yourself up. I'm sure you have a signature dish people love and they love it because you have spent years perfecting the, that's right, process. Every time you make this it will be slightly different and always better than the last.
Okay, so how does this really work?? Pick a protein and a couple of vegetables and a flavoring you'd like to have. You can use shrimp, beef, pork (keep beef and pork thin to cook quickly), chicken, fake crab, tofu (if you are into that whole Xeno-Estrogen thing). Next Pick your veggies, the sky is the limit here and pick your flavoring. garlic, chili, ginger, orange, peanut butter, bean paste, fish sauce, too many to list.
What you'll end up with is a mind staggering number of possibilities from one simple little dish. Another one of the benefits of this is it cooks quickly and the clean up is wholly reasonable. I don't know about you, but there are some nights i don't even want to think about it, but it has to be done. On most other days, i'm still pretty good with In, Done, and Out.
Remember, pick a meat, pick veggies, and pick a flavor. It's just that simple.

Till we talk again, Peace be with You. D

A Superhero In Search Of His Cape

I'm laying here with no particular thesis in mind. I seem to be stuck somewhere between "Ramble On" and "On The Road".  I assure you I am neither a Plant nor a Kerouac. I am a Truculent Grey-eyed fool playing my part on the grandest stage of all.
My elder son is a Senior in High School and will graduate in June. I have to admit, i'm a bit uneasy with the impending change looming on the horizon. In many ways, he's ready. Though, i can't help but worry about the choices he'll make in the early years after leaving the nest. He's a great kid and has chosen an honorable profession. One in which i think his demeanor and athleticism will serve him well; he'll be a Fireman. I guess it's still allowable to call them Firemen and not some super politically correct euphemism like, an onsite extrication, recovery, and incendiary containment specialist..
I believe, my shenanigans aside, i like Fireman the best!
Easy ladies, but here is a picture of the budding super hero.....

Growing up, as many of us know (though i don't really fit the description), is a perplexing time filled with wonder. As in, I wonder what i'll be when i grow up. Which has been the biggest challenge of my life to date.
I once asked my Grandfather, "Papa, how do you know what you'll be when you grow up?" To which he replied, "Many years from now you'll be cleaning out your desk for the last time and taking stuff home you've never taken before. At that moment, you'll look back and know what you were when you grew up."
You know, that was about all of the "what do you want to be when you grow up?" advice i ever remember getting. In the context of today, it's really not bad advice considering all of the people who work several jobs during their lifetime. For me, it wasn't that i didn't know what i wanted to be, rather it was that i wanted to be too many things; many of which were completely ridiculous. Now, i'm not talking about the run of the mill ridiculous like deciding at twenty to be a Rock Star or a "C" student who is weak in math that wants to be an Astronaut. (Guilty) What i'm talking about is something like; I want to be an Oceanographer! and the only ocean i'd seen was on TV. I still love Jacques Cousteau! Also from a tender age i wanted to be a Writer/Photographer. You say "That doesn't sound ridiculous". Well, let me tell you, i might as well have had aspirations of being the King of England. (More on that in a future post if i think about it.)
The point here is that when i was growing up we never talked about what we wanted to be when we grew up. I don't know if that led me to where i'm at today or if it were simply the choices i've made or a combination of the two. Be that as it may, I did talk to the boys about it. I asked them often and no matter how ridiculous their responses, at the time. I never beat them up about their choices. What i did do was to ask them how they applied to other jobs in the field. I always left them with a question. For instance: let's say they wanted to fry an egg. I'd ask them if frying an egg was all they wanted to do with it. I'd ask them if they'd like to make an omelette or possibly learn to make custard. The lesson here is about flexibility and being able to roll with the punches that life throws at us without becoming bitter and cynical.
In the short go, it has led to both of my guys knowing where they want to be ten years after graduation. Now, those of us with enough ground under our boots know that life has a way of steering you, but in the meantime they are both on a good course.
So, to tidy up the end of this visit i'll say that my little super hero will be attending EMT classes this Fall or the Fire Academy. Since he'll only be eighteen, there is a chance he won't be selected for the Fire Academy this year. Until he is though he'll be satisfying the other requirements for the job he seeks. I am proud of him, but in our Viking home it only counts when you cross the finish line.

Until we speak again, Peace be with You, Dave