Black Beans and June Bugs

Yeah. OK, I haven't posted in forever. No biggie. I'm still here! With the downturn in the economy and job prospects, I, too, turned down. However, I am back in the saddle again. Does this mean a correlation with better job prospects pour moi? Perhaps, perhaps not. Can you tell I've been watching Le Tour de France?

I thought this time I would talk about my daughter's eating habits. Well, mostly I wanted to list everything that she has eaten so far in her 13 months...as if I am really going to remember. So, I'll list some good stuff and then other stuff that is not as tasty.

Highlights:
-Beans (esp. black beans)
-Pineapple chunks!
-Avocado
-Roasted red bell peppers
-Kalamata olives (and every other kind of olive I can think of)
-10+ kinds of cheese
-Various meats (e.g. salmon, fajita chicken, beef, and venison, various steaks)
-Kiwi
-Fried eggplant

Those are highlights mostly because I like to eat all of those too, so I actually remember them. I don't know what the Highlights really are, do I look like a children's magazine?

Honorable mentions:
-Dirt
-A bug (not sure what kind, but I swear I pulled a brown wing out of her mouth - maybe a june bug?)
-Small pieces of wood (from the playground)
-Books (well, only the corners of pages)
-Food off of the floor (abt six-second rule, no biggie)
-Bird poo/dook/deuce/fecal matter (not so much ate as rubbed on her lips - really disgusting)


You get the idea. My philosophy is that children need to and should be exposed to a large variety of foods. When they are older, they will make their own choices. Hammer them with all kinds of food now! One day soon, they might only want to eat chicken strips. Boo hiss.

Texas Weekend - Tortellini ala Pana

We had multiple events back in Texas this weekend. It was a great time. One night off, so to speak, we had dinner with my brother and his wife. We ate at Mamma Mia in Fort Worth - it was very good!

I had tortellini ala pana. This was cheese tortellini in a pink sauce. Pink sauce? I had no idea what it was, so I asked. It was marinara and alfredo sauce cooked with brandy. I had never had this sauce before...ever. Nice, right? Well, it was. I really liked the dish and it was a ton of food for only about $9.

Here's the locale:

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If you are ever around there, I recommend it! The lobster ravioli special also got high marks.

Palm Beach, FL Weekend

We went to Palm Beach for the weekend and had a great time. Our little lady visited the beach and ocean for the first time and also swam in the pool quite a few times. We ate at some fun restaurants and visited the kick-ass Palm Beach Zoo.

However, I am tired from my 7am flight, so I'll write more about it later. Needless to say, some highlights were the beer flight and gorgonzola chips at Brewzzi, dark chocolate ice cream at Sloan's, the zoo, and dinner at Bradley's Bar.

Viva Vienna!

There is a festival (sort of) in Vienna, VA, this Memorial Day weekend. It's called Viva Vienna, and, since we only live about 1.5 miles from it, we decided to walk there this morning for a snack and to take a look around.

Well, we were a bit early for everything. Genius boy, yours truly, did NOT really read the schedule of events. Today was only carnival rides and a few food vendors. The main event starts tomorrow when they block of a few streets and set up about 100 vendors or so. Some of them are interesting, some not.

Regardless, we ate a decent Italian sausage and some pretty good ribs for an early lunch. I think we'll head back tomorrow for some hot vendor-customer action! Actually, we really might only head back because it says there should be a Lebanese food vendor and this one stall said they would have jerk chicken. But, who knows what we will find at the vendors? Perhaps...um, a barrel!

Oh yeah, they are also doing an E-waste drive, wheeeeee!

The locale:

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Marinades

I read an article in the New York Times quite awhile back while sitting on a runway somewhere, probably in Texas. It was all about marinading meat. It delved a bit into the biochemical reactions of marinades. I was interested to find that many of the findings noted that it really did not matter how long you allowed meat to sit in most marinades, as long as it was maybe an hour or so. I cannot recall exactly.

That said, I still think that one should do whatever they want with a marinade. Make it complex or simple. Keep it traditional or make something new. It's up to the cook. I am writing about this because I cook fajitas often during the warmer months. Whether the fajitas are chicken, beef, or venison (which, unfortunately, I will probably do less now that I am not back home), they are quick, tasty, and easy.

The secret marinade: Wish Bone Italian Dressing. That's it. I let the meat marinade for at least an hour, grill it, slice it. That's it.

Stay hungry, my friends.

Image copyright/courtesy/thanks to/whatever the US Meat Institute, 1947 - or something.