I Like Everything

Unlike my friend that blogged I Hate Everything, I have the problem that I Like Everything. This is especially an issue when it comes to food and entertainment. Anyone who has eaten out with me knows of my legendary indecisiveness. How many times has the Jeopardy theme been hummed for me? I just can’t decide, I like it all… Marriage has simplified some of this, if I hesitate for even a second when ordering, my wife will say, “you’re getting the special.” At home, “what sounds good for dinner” is almost a trick question. “Anything” isn’t the right answer, but neither is “Tacos!” usually. Beverage selection can be difficult, too, so many choices, all of them good. Beer, wine, cocktail… with multiple choices each and that is just when I get home from work!

I also like movies. I like action, drama, thriller, romantic, comedy movies. I like indie film and blockbusters. While I disagree that Titanic was the best movie of whatever year that was, I did like it. Witty movies, stupid movies, I am just pretty easy to entertain. When it comes to reading, I just want to be entertained, and edutainment is good too. I like I like I like. Just look at my Goodreads ratings, nothing less than a 3.

And I like TV. Deprived as a child, I grew up with one fuzzy channel on a small B&W TV until we moved to Lawrence. And when the picture tube went out, my sis and I would listen to Saturday morning cartoon, but that was too pathetic and soon that went away and for the next 10 years I grew up in the TV-less household. I remember renting a TV for the Olympics, and getting the TV from the school in a couple summers, but nothing was cooler than the friend with cable! Once we got TV and cable, I bought the nicest VCR my $1000 at the Army Exchange would buy and recorded… and watched and recorded some more. Now the major factor in my TV viewing is time. I have to pick and choose what I want to watch, sometime a really hard decision needs to be made. External factors, DVR space and time conflicts seem to be the most important decision making tools.

One of the best filters I have is price. If I can decide how much I want to spend, that can narrow down my choices. When I picked out a car, I factored price, performance, utility, economy and style into the mix, but that wasn’t defined enough, I like so many. So I weighted the top three factors, then threw out price, since I knew how much I wanted to spend, and got Utility and Economy, which lead me to one car, well, 2, the Matrix and Vibe. The duchieness of the Toyota dealer pushed me into my happy Vibe. Similar decision tree for food and beverage happens too, but I have minutes not days to resolve. I think I am getting better, tho.

Ginga

I like ginger! I like red-heads, too, but this isn't about them. Ginger root. One of my favorite parts to a good sushi dinner is the pickled ginger. I try to steal the uneaten ginger off others plates. I like it at the beginning of the meal, in between pieces as a little palate cleanser, and of course, for desert. I love a spicy garlic ginger sauce, i had it once fairly recently, and was caught off guard by how much ginger there was. and the left overs had half the building coming over to see what crazy thing i was eating today. Oh, yeah, Thai House. (Pad Ped Beef : Tender beef stir-fried with a grounded red curry paste, Thai ginger, bamboo slices, peppers, onion and basil leaves) yum!

But lately is has been a beverage kick. It started with a trip to the islands (Key West) when I (re)discovered the Dark 'n Stormy. A lovely concoction of Gosling's Black Seal Rum, Ginger Beer and a lime wedge. This bar had a 1/2 price special when ever it was raining. Anyway, Gosling's also makes a Ginger Beer, and by beer, I don't mean alcoholic, just a bit more (flavor, bite, sugar...) than your typical Ginger Ale. It was pretty good, but left me wanting more. So I have been chasing down the more-better ginger beverage ever since.

Beer, as you may know, I am a homebrewer, so I tried to make my own ginger Beer. First attempt, not nearly enough ginger added late into the boil of a Hefeweizen. Nice beer with hints of ginger, but not what I was going for. Next attempt, I pulled out all the stops and added GINGER. Fresh sliced ginger root added 2 ounces every 15 minutes throughout the boil of a pretty Red Ale (a ginger-ginger beer). This is when I learned that the longer you boil ginger the less spicy it is... so another let down. Not to be deterred, I sliced up half a pealed ginger root and added it straight into the keg, ha, I say, take that! And several days later this beer elicited a smile from this curmudgeon. It continued to gingify for about a month, then stabilized as a tasty Ginger Beer. Not good enough for a Dark 'n Stormy, but pretty good.

A keg of homemade ginger ale was brought to Pints for Pets, and it was good! I think he said that 5 pounds of ginger was diced up and stewed in sugar water to extract the ginger. the leftover ginger was dried and became ginger candy. But, alas, that keg went home, and all I got was a 2-liter bottle to keep. And I covet the stuff... I will have some more again tonight...

But I struggle to find a commercial beverage to meet my desires. I researched "best ginger beer" on the internet, learning which had sugar, corn syrup, honey and other ingredients, the went looking for them. I tried all I could find, including the different versions of Reed's the Merc had, tried an off brand from Target, even picked up a promising six-pack from TJ Maxx, any ginger that I saw. A bar that didn't have ginger ale tried to make some with bitters and cola and soda, or something, not really even close. Then the day my life changed, I saw a brightly colored 2-liter bottle of Goya brand ginger beer, and it was good! But where to find it?! The Mexican grocer in OP did not have it (but did have Malto Goya, another quest). I thought I was going to have to order some online, but the season was fading. Dark 'n Stormy's are best when it is warm, nice refreshing cold drink, but not hot, a bit too sweet, so as the summer turns to fall, my beverage palate is turning. But then I walk into Checkers and look at the latin section, really for the Malto, but find a case of Goya Jamaican Style Ginger Beer in 12 oz bottles! Unsure if this was really what I thought it was, I just bought 2 bottles and hurried home to sample. So I have to come up with a new name for what I drank, Dark 'n Stormy is registered by Gosling's and since I was out of that brand I have been substituting Kraken, as similar colored spiced rum that is quite a nice little rum. I like the theme of the giant sea monster and tropical storms, but I will save that effort for another day. Any ideas? So, I pour my measured jigger of rum over ice the popped the top of the Goya. I like to take a sip before mixing, just to see what I have, a little drink followed by half a minute coughing fit! WOW! My smile was getting in the way of my cough, so I poured my drink and ambled into the living room. My throat was tingling from the ginger so I took a careful sip of my drink and bliss. yes, that is perfect, followed by more coughs. As I drank my second one, there was a little sizzle on my lips, maybe from the smile, maybe from the ginger.

Last night I picked up a bottle of Gosling's, and made another drink with my second precious bottle, just to make sure. This time no coughing, just a wonderful drink! One I can highly recommend to any ginger lover's out there. Now I have to hurry over to Checkers and get more, before they take it away from me!

Hurray for Ginger!!

Leftovers

I like leftovers, maybe even too much sometimes. I look at them as a challenge on several levels. How many meals can I make of this? Do I divide it into single servings now or later? How many days is dish-X good for, is this safe? Will 2 minutes in a microwave freshen it up a bit?

It may kind of be like a race. A long race, this is no sprint. I have been in training for years, eating dodgy foods, pushing the edge of the envelop, working through the gas and bloatiness, and when it knocks me down, i get back up (off the pot, usually) and do it again. I vary the workout routine, 3 day old pizza, week old Chinese, some soup that doesn't seem to have anything growing on it yet and still smells like cumin and garlic (as well as freshly prepared food and beverage, but that hardly count, those are like the easy workout days). A note about hydration during the workout. I find that beer is the best liquid for washing down aged culinary delights, that not being possible for lunch M-F, an ice cold Diet Cola beverage works too. Water, Tea or juice doesn't cut it, maybe the carbonation is the key. Another ingredient to a successful workout routine are supplements. What goes on that dish can be just as important as the wattage of the microwave. It varies from the twice grilled, now nuked hot dog dressed up just like it was fresh, to the ham and bean soup that cries out for hot sauce to make it new again. The all-around-best is Sriracha sauce (also known as "that red rooster sauce"), as it can go in stir-fry, pasta, chili, soups, stews, sandwiches or just on a cracker. It can buffer just about anything, and in proper doses, make you sweat.

Another reason I like leftovers is it just the right thing to do. Like recycling cans or turning down the furnace, eating leftover is the ecologically responsible action that can lead to a more sustainable future. Kind of like composting, but rather than a messy pile out back it is in my belly. And like cans or heat, it saves money. Not one of those buy a $23,000 solar roof that will pay for itself in 17 years sort of saves money, but dollars a day! Would I rather have a hot off the grill burger and fries, maybe, but I just saved $5. Is there lower risk in a PBJ or Ham and Swiss sandwich with a little bag of chips, sure, but last nights stroganoff will save that 50-75 cents worth of food for another day. Then there are the frozen dinners, so healthy and cheap, but a couple dollars is a couple dollars. Over the course of a week, I probably save enough for that 6-pack of beer, maybe.

The downside of living on the edge can be guessed. This week work provide lunch on Monday from Noodle & Co, a perfectly mediocre buffet of several dishes more differentiated by their color than their taste. All the leftovers were packaged up and put in the fridge. Tuesday the whole GIS department did their parts to eat more, Wednesday it was just a couple of us, by Thursday I think it was me and one other guy. Wednesday my abdomen was voicing its disgruntlement, despite a generous dose of Sriracha. When I finally got home, a beer settled my stomach down. Surprise, surprise, it was my stomach was even louder in its disapproval. Struggling to not offend the office, several trips to the bathroom or outside relieved the pressure a bit, but it wasn't until I got to the car... yeah an enclosed car on the day with 100+ heat index, that the methane bubble escaped. Windows down and AC on required...

Lessoned learned? Yes, at the end of the day, I came out ahead!

Taco, Taco, Taco

OK, I have been thinking about tacos all week! By tacos I don't just mean crispy hard corn shells filled with meat, cheese, lettuce, tomatoes and sauce. I use it kind of as a generic term for Mexican-ish food. I like it!!

So I am on day 5 of my taco run. my wife has left town so I have dedicated this week to tacos. Tequila Jalisco's on Friday, where I had the house fajitas, a huge plater of grilled beef, chicken, shrimp, pork ribs and chorizo! (and all the other fun stuff, too) Also had a mediocre margarita to wash it all down with, its only saving grace being its size, served in what was possibly 32 oz beer mug. I wished for some good salt on the rim, though.

Saturday, I swung through Burrito King for 2 beef and 2 chicken hard tacos. Good tacos with the grease dripping though the foil, but not particularly tasty. I needed more sauce, I guess. I was still hungry after wolfing those down, so I visited the Taco Bell drive-thru for a Fresco Bean burrito and a Volcano taco, garnished with Fire sauce. I have a thing for that bean burrito, full of fiber and cheap, and it likes the Fire sauce, as do I. the taco was more flavorful than the BK ones, but still needed the Fire to kick it up a notch.

Sunday was brew-day, which was finished by margaritas on the patio. Really good Margaritas. (yes, they deserve to be capitalized!) As it started to get dark, the gas was lit and skirt steak and veggies were grilled up for the house special fajitas. Mmmm... I have to say i like fajitas with beans, meat, veggies, sour cream, cheese, and the perfect salsa. For me that was a good fresh Verde Salsa. The right combination of tangy and spicy, pulls it all together perfectly!

And Monday. Exhausted from all the errands and chores I wasn't able to share, I didnt get around to dinner until 8:30, about 2 hours later than normal. I considered running down to Taco Johns for a 6-pack and a pound, but I felt way too sweaty and dirty for even that place. But tacos it was! Farm fresh burger with a considerable dose of Spanish Garden seasoning (double the norm) AND the Valentina Salsa Picante Muy Picante (hot) taco sauce I have just for me. La Tiera taco shells, small, thin, crisp and good, lightly toasted, filled with my taco meat, cheese, a dab of sour cream and a diced tomato from the garden, and just a touch more of my muy picante... perfect!! The meat was spicy enough that I didn't need more sauce than it could hold... I barely needed a napkin. That was a happy belly!

Today I think I am going to make Green-Chili-Black-Bean-Chicken Enchilada casserole. No, I am not going to roll anything up that just gets lost in the sauce and cheese. I will post about its outcome later.

Have a spicy day!