how time flies

I write to you, dear reader, to let you know that I am alive and well. I cannot believe that it has been about a month since I last wrote. Despite the hackneyed phrase, it never ceases to amaze me how days are minutes passing by. Listen to Pink Floyd's "Time." So sad, but so true....rip wright. I got a job as a writing tutor at the school shortly after my last post, and along with school and work at the hospital, I spend my spare free time on the weekends catching up on sleep. But enough about me, and onto the food!

update on the last post: my hot carrots were a failure. I did not blanche (sp?) the carrots before hand, and learned it does make a difference in the end result with regards to time. I like my carrots crunchy, and was afraid that it'd make them too soft. Also, I might change the type of vinegar I used, and not use oil in it at all...it got all over the jalapenos nasty like.

On the corner of DB Blvd/Grand Ave, where Diamond Palace and Round Tables Pizza is (two great lunch buffets for your money btw), I've noticed a Mediterrean Place that opened up a while back. I had some time last Friday, so I went to check it out for lunch. I got there around 1230, and it was empty. The menu was very simple, as it offered just a few items, such as kabobs, wraps (chicken, beef, or falafel), and some plates, along with several sides.
I opted for the beef shawerma plate, which included hummus, some greens/tomatoes, and a pita for $6.49.

They did have meat on a spit, and boast on their menu that they use USDA choice top sirloin beef. I remember reading something once explaining the differences among choice, prime, and some other one that I forget. Anyhow, I'm not sure if the lady sliced it off the spit for me. I want to think and say that she did, but I'm not sure. What I did see was her heating it up on a grill with some sauce. Or was it water? I'm no expert on Mediterrean food, but I always thought you eat it sliced off the spit, not reheated. Anyhow, while the portion was generous, the beef was dry. I wasn't sure if I had shawarma (prounounced SHWAR-muh according to wikipedia) before, so I looked it up and read some recipes. I'd like to give it another shot sometime, but maybe at a different place.
What I did enjoy was the hummus, which I'm not sure if it was made fresh. The container holding the orange stuff was a spicy garlic spread, which was quite potent. I had read about some kind of garlic spreadfrom Zonko's I want to say, and I was curious to see what that tasted like. I'm not equating the two, but now I have some idea of what garlic spread is, and I did like it. You also get some pickled onions/radishes was it? I wish I had gotten more. I love that kind of stuff.

Lastly, kudos to the first falafel I really enjoyed. I've had falafels at several places, but all of them, while bigger than the one here, which cost 60 cents each btw, were dry, and I always thought they were previously frozen. This one was moist and tasted home made...meaning different.

Overall, despite the fact that I did not like the beef, I would return here, and try something new, as well as ordering several falafels again. The lady recommended the kabobs, which are a lunch special. The prices are fair, and their menu quite simple. This is Sawyer signing out.

Taza Fresh
1220 S Diamond Bar Blvd
Diamond Bar
Open Mon-Sat 11am - 9pm

cloudy with a chance of meatballs

If you've never heard of or read this book, shame on you.

I love soup. I can always appreciate a good bowl of soup, and with the cold weather coming (sooner than later hopefully), it's soup season and I want to learn and get good at making this tasty stuff. Soup reminds me of the story "Stone Soup." Now that was some damn good soup....

With my last free Monday for a while, I decided to make some tomato soup, from a recipe I read from the LA Times. I always end up making too much so this time I really rationed my ingredients, and came out with too little. So it goes.

First, I chopped up some carrots, onions, green onions, fennel bulb(a new ingredient for me, a bit pricey, but smelled good), and celery. I cooked it in a pan with some olive oil and butter, then added some cloves of minced garlic. I wasn't exact with the proportions for everything, and I"m going to make some adjustments for the next time I make this.



















Next I diced some tomatoes, and added them into the mix. Into this, I added some salt, gin, sugar, pepper, paprika and lemon juice. I could smell the alcohol burning off and it smelled damn good. I added some red wine too for good measure. Maybe it wasn't a good idea to put it in, but I like using wine. I let this cook on medium heat, stirring occasionally for a while until the mixture thickened a bit.



Last step was to take this stuff, put it into a food processor, and puree that sucka good. Then put it into a pot, and however much chicken broth you want. I used the low sodium/low fat, which probably wasn't as flavorful, but I wanted to taste the vegetable mix I made. Scoop, dish out and garnish with some basil.


The end product. As you can see, the consistency seems a bit off. I thought I had blended it long enough, but I guess not. It doesn't look too much like the LA Times picture. Maybe I should have blended it for a longer amount of time, or I should have added more chicken broth. I used about 3/4 of a can. There really wasn't much, as there was about two small bowls worth. Visually, I didn't like it because it reminded me of salsa or baby food. The taste was good though, although I thought it was a bit sour, which I was guessing from the acidity from the tomatoes, with not enough of the veggies to balance it out. I'm going to add some more carrots and sugar to make it a bit sweeter.

I bought a basil plant today. Hopefully I won't kill it. Basil is expensive at markets...running 3-4 bucks a pop. You get an okay amount of basil, but if you've ever gone to a farmer's market, you know that you get way more, for about a 1/10 of the cost.

I reckon that's all for now folks. Stay tuned for more. Next up: My first try with making hot carrots.

summer is almost over

and fantasy basketball season will be here soon!

had a bbq for labor day, and was mildly satisfied with the results. cooked up some rib eyes, rubbed with some sugar, cayenne pepper, garlic powder, salt , pepper and mixd with some 2 buck chuck merlot and evoo, italian parsley and bay leaf and let it sit for a couple of hours. funnily enough, when i grilled it later, the meat kinda smelled like galbi. also grilled some zucchini, green onions, and corn.

i need to get into the habit of writing my recipes down. last year i found this really nice red wine recipe which i slightly modified and it tasted so damn good, but i never saved it and i can't find it anymore. i overcooked the ribeyes, i like them medium rare, but it came out more to a medium/medium well and a bit dry. my grilling experience isn't very much, and this was the first time i grilled rib eye. i usually like getting tri tip from costco. they were cut thinner than the tritip, so i knew that the cooking time wouldn't be as long. however, i had some problem with starting up the charcoal, and as a result, the rib eye came out a bit over cooked because i left it on too long. my first grilling experience was with gas grills at an apartment complex i used to live at, and man it makes things easier. but i do like charcoal grilling, and i'm learning each time i do it. also had some garlic/pepper burgers, which i bought, but woulda made if i had the time. made some spring rolls with carrots, cabbage, cucumber, mint, cilantro and basil. i'm getting a lot better at rolling them consistently...i've found the smaller i make them the easier it is to roll.

today for dinner i packed myself a turkey sandwich with a lemon/cilantro hummus spread on multi grain bread with tomatoes, romaine lettuce, and basil. don't get the turkey at fresh n easy. it's salty as hell, unless you like that. a boring dinner, but a nice break from the monotony of the library.

i took my dog on a walk today, and passed by this box, which i thought i heard some rustling in. i looked inside and there were these two pidgeons. i stopped by later to drop off a piece of bread, but they were gone.

randoms

first off, i bought a 6 pack of harvest moon pumpkin ale (the canadian brewing company that makes blue moon), and was disappointed. i'm no expert in pumpkin ales, as i've only tried one other from bjs, but i have to say that the bjs tastes a lot better because i can taste the pumpkin and spices more strongly in the bjs comapred to the harvest moon. and that's the taste i wanted as i was quite thirsty in this hot humid spell we've been having. i thought summer was over.

in sd, i used to go to a place called spices thai quite frequently for their lunch specials. say what you want, but i loved their tom khai (sp) /sour coconut soup, it was damn good. they had these fresh veggie spring rolls, which i liked getting, and you got some sweet/sour plum sauce and peanut sauce for dipping. i was craving that, so i decided to make some for myself. rolling it pretty like they do at spices, as well as any pho place, was a lot harder than i thought, not just the size of it, but keeping the veggies all stacked up nicely. i grated some carrots, radish, cucumber, and added some cilantro, mint and basil. it looked ugly and the size wasn't very consistent, but it tasted good. fresh light veggie rolls. however, i got a little trigger happy with the mint in some of them, and found that it overpowered the rest of the veggies. next time i'm going to put in some bean sprouts, alfalfa sprouts and maybe some tofu too.

i also tried to make some of the peanut sauce by blending together peanut butter, brown sugar, soy sauce, vinegar, garlic powder, sesame seeds and water, and it came out ok. it tasted mostly like peanut butter, but i mixed in some cock sauce, and it tasted better. i was a bit conservative with the other ingredients because i tried to make some peanut sauce one time, and i put in too much sesame oil, something i did not use this time, and it overpowered everything.



the end product.


randoms: i saw a tarantula a couple days ago under my front door and it was still there in the morning, so i took some pictures of it. i almost stepped on the damn thing with my bare foot. i couldn't stop looking at it. i've seen a tarantula before, but i've only seen one in the 'wilds' once or twice







i've been eating around some, but i need to sleep right now, more later.