Food Glorious Food

This weekend was all about the cooking. I'm trying to dig myself out of this huge pile of debt and eating at home seems to help. Plus, I love to cook. And I'm a grumpy old man no one wants to hang out with, so my social life doesn't really interfere.

Point being, my apartment smells great and the fridge is stuffed with food.

I roasted turkey thighs one night with a lemon and capers. Then I mixed the pan drippings with sour cream to make the sauce. That was delicious.

I roasted a chicken stuffed with lemon, basil and garlic. I stuffed the breasts with basil and put sliced garlic, salt, pepper and olive oil on the skin, which crisped up very nicely.

I made a slightly different version of David's parsley salad. I chopped up four tomatoes and a bunch each of basil, cilantro and parsley. Mixed them together. Covered them in olive oil and lemon juice. Sprinkled with salt and pepper. It is fantastic, especially if you like strong, fresh flavors.

Then I made a bunch of baked chicken breasts. The first batch were meant to be baked in red wine, soy sauce and raspberry preserves, but I didn't have any red wine. So I used red wine vinegar. This would have been okay, but I used nearly a half cup of vinegar, so the chicken really tastes a little too tart. Next time, I need to halve the vinegar or just run to the store and buy some wine. (I just saw a recipe for Boysenberry Chicken, so I may try that soon, too.)

The second batch wasn't quite what I wanted either, but that is because Gristede's (the nearest grocery store) sucks donkey dick. Lousy produce, lousy selection. I wanted to get some mushrooms. Shiitake, oyster, whatever they had. All they had was portabella. They didn't even have white button mushrooms. Just a bunch of old withered portabellas. So I had to buy canned. Anyway, this wasn't a gourmet recipe to begin with (it uses condensed soup), so I shouldn't be too upset. But I still hate fuckin' Gristedes.

I baked these chicken breasts with Campbell's mushroom soup, canned mushrooms and a half cup of dry sherry. It still turned out tasty.

I have plenty of food for the rest of the week (half the roasted chicken, five chicken breasts, lots of salad), but I also have a bunch of stuff left to cook (tofu, squash, red chard, green cabbage, red cabbage). I have a recipe for braised red cabbage that I'd like to try (luckily, cabbage keeps for ages, so I'm in no hurry). I just wish I had more time to cook. All weekends should be three days.

In non-cooking related news, I went to the blogger meet up at XES Lounge last Thursday (fun stuff . . . you can read about it in other places, so I won't go into it too much). It was great meeting some of the guys who I only knew through their writing. Joe.My.God., EvilBuddha, Robocub. I also found out another of my rugby teammates is a blogger (and his blog got a great mention in Gawker). I need to update my links soon to include all of them.

Saturday night was MAK's birthday party at Therapy. I brough Stuff along. Fun night, but I wasn't in much of a mood to be festive. I spent most of the night just talking with Stuff, Wayne, Rich and Jase. Jere was there, but we didn't really hang out much (we were all in a long, narrow space, so it was hard to mingle), but I got to talk with him at the WYSIWYG show. I also saw MAK's boyfriend K., who I hadn't seen since before his show went to LA, so it was nice to see him.

I also keep meaning to mention that the previous weekend, some of the blogger boys (Jess, Marc, a non-blogger friend of theirs, Michael Vernon and I) went out on Saturday for dinner at a Ukrainian place and then drinks at XES Lounge. We were joined at XES by BoiFromTroy, who was in town on a spur of the moment trip. His being there introduced an unusual dynamic to the evening: having someone there who we know from his blog, but who we don't know well in person since he lives in LA. It led to us all being a lot more chatty than usual. It nice to be able to share stories with someone who hasn't already heard them a million times before. All in all, a very pleasant evening.

Speaking of meeting new bloggers, I forgot to mention that I met Gymrat and Hugo at WYSIWYG. They were sitting right behind my friend Dino and me at the show. Good blogger turnout at that event. Jere was there, Frank, TinMan . . . the usual suspects. Can't wait for the next ones. I know someone in each of the next three performances. Hopefully, I'll be able to make it to all of them.

So that's my life. How was your weekend?