Weekly Menu 2/22-2/28

Nibbles

You know what sounds good when you have the flu? Almost nothing. And yet, a body can’t fight without fuel, so I stuck it out and put together a pretty decent menu for last week.

Weekly menu for the last week in February

Going clockwise from upper left corner:

Monday: Grilled Ham & Cheese Sandwiches and Soup
Soup and sandwiches are usually a pretty safe bet for any night you need a quick and easy meal. The soup was some gumbo we had in the freezer and the sandwiches used up some of the spiral-sliced ham I’d frozen from our New Year’s Day meal.

Tuesday: Carne Asada-style Quinoa Bowls
Thank you slow-cooker and rice cooker–my one-two punch. This was my first day back at work after 4 days out sick and I figured I’d be pretty tired when I got home. I figured right. The recipe from How Sweet It Is was intended for nachos, but I thought a bowl would be easier to eat. Making quinoa in my rice cooker, with chicken broth instead of water, is my new favorite thing, especially on nights like this one.

Wednesday: Classic Chicken and Rice with Green Beans
On Wednesdays Todd works late, so an oven dish with a long lead time always fits in well, here. Super simple to put together and very good comfort food. Which we needed as we were both bone-weary by the end of each day. We struggled through work this week out of necessity, alone.

Thursday & Friday (not pictured) Take Out
That exhaustion was a big part of why Thursday and Friday ended up no-cook nights. I’d allowed for one this week, knowing the likelihood was high of needing a night off, but two? Oh, well. Thursday we got Jimmy John’s (our just opened! and while I have some philosophical issues with the owner’s recent big game hunter kerfuffle, being able to get a decent lettuce wrap won out) and Friday I got a salad from Zaxby’s. And a milkshake. I earned it, trust me!

Saturday: Garlic-Parmesan Pork Chops with Roasted Carrots and Red Potatoes
If I hadn’t earned that milkshake before, the fact that I spent all afternoon and part of the evening fussing with the bathroom tile on Saturday then cooked supper made up for any former lack. That was a long day, folks! The pork had been defrosting the last couple of days so, really, all I had to do was slice and dice the carrots and potatoes and toss them in the oven for an hour. Not exactly neurosurgery. But I did spice things up by adding some garam masala and ground mustard to the olive oil, salt, pepper, parsley, and paprika that I usually season them with.

Sunday: Sweet-Potato and Kale Turkey Burgers with Coleslaw
These turned out a lot better than I was expecting–you just never know with turkey burgers. The sweet potato and kale were really good with the ground turkey and I’m glad we have two more batches of these in the freezer. The recipe came from Multiply Delicious.

So here’s a question: What’s your favorite “sick” food? The one you always turn to when you’re feeling under the weather. Is it the classic chicken noodle soup? I’m partial to egg drop soup when I’m feeling icky, but we’d just had that the previous week, and then Todd made us chicken noodle soup a few days later.

Something Mom used to make when I was little was milktoast (milquetoast?). Has anyone else had that before? It’s milk, just barely scalded (the point just before boiling where the little bubbles form around the edge of the pan), sweetened with a bit of sugar, with torn up pieces of white bread stirred in. It was comfort food when I was sick and a treat on occasional cold winter’s nights. I haven’t made it for myself in ages, but when it’s cold and I’ve got the flu, I do think about it sometimes.

The other fun food thing we did this weekend was turn the leftover King Cake (which I’d stashed in the fridge so it wouldn’t go bad) into bread pudding. Since it’s a brioche loaf to begin with, it seemed like it would work okay. The banana filling and sugar on top did make for a slightly sweeter pudding than usual, but I was relieved to see that the colored sugar didn’t turn the mix technicolor. Just a little hint here or there.

Have a tasty week!

Flavor vs Taste and When One is Lost

Nibbles

Taste is one of the five sense, what we pick up through the taste buds on our tongue, often simplified to the basics of sweet, bitter, salty, sour, and umami. Flavor, on the other hand, is the combination of the senses taste and smell. If you’ve ever had a head cold with a stuffed up nose you might notice that things don’t “taste” quite right–a bit of a misnomer since, really, all you’re doing is tasting, not, um, flavoring.

This was my predicament last week. It started on Monday afternoon when I grabbed a mini-Reese’s cup and couldn’t taste the chocolate at all, and barely the peanut butter. I still had some of my coffee from the morning, so I took a sip, paying attention this time, and found that I could only describe it as sweet; no particular flavor, and certainly not the vanilla that I’d used when I made it. Hmmm.

The strange thing was, even though I wasn’t feeling fabulous and I did stay home on Tuesday to try and sleep away whatever it was in its early stages, I didn’t have a stuffy nose. I could breathe just fine, etc. It was really strange. And this small bout of anosmia (the technical term for the lack of a sense of smell) lasted through Friday–longer than I’ve ever dealt with, even that time I had 3 cases of bronchitis & sinusitis in 3 months (more like the first cases never went away, but it was still the reason I didn’t even try to see the ball drop back in 2003).

Cooking supper this week was a series of ‘honey, I hope this tastes right!’

OTP 1-11-1-17

Monday: Broiled Tilapia and Roasted Sweet Potato Risotto

Tuesday: Cranberry BBQ Pulled Pork Sandwiches with Corn on the Cob

Wednesday: Orange Chicken with Rice Noodles and Green Beans

Thursday: Eggs, Grits, Turkey Bacon & Links

Friday: Corn Chowder with Cheddar Garlic Drop Biscuits

Saturday: Beef Negimaki with Not-Fried Brown Rice

Sunday: Chinese Take-out

Todd assured me everything was tasty this week. What I took away from the week’s experience was a renewed respect for the basic tastes (sweet was the easiest to detect, sour the next best) and the importance texture plays in our enjoyment of food.

Take, for instance, our BBQ pork night. I always use a bit of mayo and sweet relish on my barbecue sandwiches. While the flavors definitely play a part, the creamy texture of the mayo and the crisp cuts of pickle are a great counterpoint to the sauced pork. Another texture highlight were the rice noodles with the orange chicken–they were perfectly chewy without being too crunchy or too gummy.

I’m more than happy that my nose is working again and food has regained its flavor. Still, being without one sense, while frustrating, gave me a different perspective. And perspective is always good!

Have a tasty week!

Tasting Thomasville: Chop House on the Bricks

Nibbles

It’s been a while since we’ve done a Thomasville restaurant experience; let’s fix that, shall we?

Chop House on the Bricks, Thomasville, GA

Chop House on the Bricks, Thomasville, GA

About this time last year, Todd decided he didn’t feel like cooking one night so we wandered into Chop House on the Bricks, a restaurant that opened right around the same time we bought the Dollhouse.

Our view from the front and center table, Chop House on the Bricks, Thomasville, GA

Our view from the front and center table, Chop House on the Bricks, Thomasville, GA

With the low lights and the cozy booths, I was at first concerned we were under dressed (as we were both in jeans) and without necessary reservations. Neither appeared to be an issue, however, as we were seated immediately at a table right in front, affording us a nice views of Broad Street.

Whiskey Smash, Chop House on the Bricks, Thomasville, GA

Whiskey Smash, Chop House on the Bricks, Thomasville, GA

For drinks Todd ordered a glass of Pinot Noir while I decided to try their Whiskey Smash–whiskey is slowly growing on me, at least in well-made cocktails, and I was rewarded with a highly sippable drink of Knob Creek Rye, muddled mint, house sour mix, orange bitters, and soda water.

Bread and butter, Chop House on the Bricks, Thomasville, GA

Bread and butter, Chop House on the Bricks, Thomasville, GA

Chop House Chowder, Chop House on the Bricks, Thomasville, GA

Chop House Chowder, Chop House on the Bricks, Thomasville, GA

House Vegetable Soup, Chop House on the Bricks, Thomasville, GA

House Vegetable Soup, Chop House on the Bricks, Thomasville, GA

We were both in a soup mood that night, so with the dark bread brought to the table we ordered the Chop House Chowder (Todd) and the House Vegetable Soup (which was, that evening, a blend of roasted red bell peppers and eggplant and absolutely delicious).

Sea Scallops, Chop House on the Bricks, Thomasville, GA

Sea Scallops, Chop House on the Bricks, Thomasville, GA

For dinner, Todd ordered the Sea Scallops served with grilled Brussels sprouts, double smoked bacon, and caramelized Vidalia onion hash with a Romano cheese crisp and sweet corn puree. The scallops were melt-in-your-mouth tender and the accompaniments were bursting with flavor.

Duck Three Ways, Chop House on the Bricks, Thomasville, GA

Duck Three Ways, Chop House on the Bricks, Thomasville, GA

My Duck Three Ways featured seared crispy skin duck breast, duck confit, roasted butternut squash, local white acre peas, duck cracklings, and a red wine demi glace. I was in duck heaven. It took effort not to lick the plate clean.

Between soup and supper, however, we were stuffed and did not get a chance to sample any of their desserts. It was tempting to get an order of Bourbon Bread Pudding to go, but we restrained ourselves (how or why I couldn’t tell you).

We haven’t made it back to Chop House yet, but their house Burger (topped with a fried egg, Sweet Grass Dairy Asher blue cheese, onions, mushrooms, applewood smoked bacon, lettuce, heirloon tomatoes and house sauce) is high on my list of items to try. As is their Lamb Rack with pork belly polenta, their Black Grouper and grits, and, well, if I continued I’d just end up listing their entire menu. Everything sounds good and, if our first visit was any indication, will taste good, too!

Chop House on the Bricks is an excellent restaurant for a relaxed evening for two or a business dinner. Entrees range from $15 (the Chop House Burger) to $36 (the 8oz Filet Mignon), so it’s more of a special occasion restaurant for us, but it’s one I hope we make it back to before too long. You can find them at 123 N Broad Street and they are open evenings starting at 5pm, Tuesday through Saturday.