What's for Dinner?

[Gravdigr]

I kinda like the mini-beef and mini-chicken quesadillas from the new $1 menu at Taco Bell.

Reasonably tasty and filling for a buck. Just don't travel very far with them. They're wrapped twice in foil to keep them warm, but, the tortilla tends to stick to the foil, and it wants to peel away with the foil.

[BigV]

Twil got the fixins for caprese sandwiches. We'll have those with cider, or maybe red wine

[infinite monkey]

I won't eat any sandwich that is called a 'slider' or is referred to as 'like a slider." I mean, that's just gross. It's supposed to just slide down your throat, like oysters? Ugh. No. Never. It's a texture vs. value thing.

I think that term originated from that damn White Castle. Won't eat that crap either.

[sad_winslow]

Originally Posted by infinite monkey

I won't eat any sandwich that is called a 'slider' or is referred to as 'like a slider." I mean, that's just gross. It's supposed to just slide down your throat, like oysters? Ugh. No. Never. It's a texture vs. value thing.

I think that term originated from that damn White Castle. Won't eat that crap either.

I think it's a dumb word too. I don't know what it means. Like you're trying to slide a diminutive hamburger by me, as if I won't notice that it's fucking tiny? I don't know. I don't have any sort of inherent problem with the concept of a tiny hamburger, I just prefer it to be honest about what it is so that I know to either laugh and go somewhere else or order like forty of the goddamn things so I don't leave hungry.

I like White Castle myself, but we don't have them around these parts at all, so they're a rare "treat" every couple of years when I get back to parts of the world where the Castle lurks. I fully admit that WC burgers are strange and horrible things, and the frozen ones from the grocery store are so bad that even I can't stomach them. But "fresh" from the Castle? Yeah, I can dig it. It's 3am and I want like eighty tiny weird cheeseburgers please. OK, that'll be $3. And then I go home and I am pleasantly full of tiny meats and regret for the evening. It goes back to what I was saying about sandwiches of grim determination in a previous post, but White Castle maintains a little bit of whimsy because hey, taking normal things and make them tiny? Recipe for comedy gold, right there. You get to feel good while feeling bad. And that's what life at the bottom of the tank is all about.

[bbro]

I shall be making Gumbo-laya from an online recipe (sans okra)

[infinite monkey]

Originally Posted by sad_winslow

I think it's a dumb word too. I don't know what it means. Like you're trying to slide a diminutive hamburger by me, as if I won't notice that it's fucking tiny? I don't know. I don't have any sort of inherent problem with the concept of a tiny hamburger, I just prefer it to be honest about what it is so that I know to either laugh and go somewhere else or order like forty of the goddamn things so I don't leave hungry.

I like White Castle myself, but we don't have them around these parts at all, so they're a rare "treat" every couple of years when I get back to parts of the world where the Castle lurks. I fully admit that WC burgers are strange and horrible things, and the frozen ones from the grocery store are so bad that even I can't stomach them. But "fresh" from the Castle? Yeah, I can dig it. It's 3am and I want like eighty tiny weird cheeseburgers please. OK, that'll be $3. And then I go home and I am pleasantly full of tiny meats and regret for the evening. It goes back to what I was saying about sandwiches of grim determination in a previous post, but White Castle maintains a little bit of whimsy because hey, taking normal things and make them tiny? Recipe for comedy gold, right there. You get to feel good while feeling bad. And that's what life at the bottom of the tank is all about.

hahahaaha!

You know, if you get a square inch of processed cheese on those eighty tiny hamburgers, the price skyrockets to 17.50. Square inches of processed cheese ain't cheap, you know. Also, they're a mathematical oddity.

[chrisinhouston]

I made a paella in the crock pot, it sort of worked out but the rice didn't absorb as much of the liquid as I would have liked. The recipe said to only use long grain brown rice or it would be mushy but I think short grain would have worked better. Had chicken and some kielbasa type sausage in it and I added 1 lb of cleaned shrimp and some mussels for the last 20 minutes. The wife liked it ok.

[limey]

Over here the instructions say that the best rice for crock pots is "easy cook" (i.e. already part-cooked). I'm with you, I prefer short grain every time.

[Gravdigr]

What's for Dinner?

Don't know yet, but, it'll taste like ashes and regret.

[sad_winslow]

Originally Posted by Gravdigr

What's for Dinner?

Don't know yet, but, it'll taste like ashes and regret.

I had Taco Bell today too.

[BigV]

You're funny winslow, sad.

[sad_winslow]

Tonight was back to my staple favorite, baked chicken and rice. When it's cold out I can eat this almost every day, it's so good, and I keep toying with it to make it better. First I started replacing the water for the rice with chicken broth. Then I upgraded to peas, and tonight I added real actual mushrooms instead of relying on what was in the soup can. My next upgrade will be to find a better source of soup. Campbell's cream of chicken and mushroom (apparently a thing now, all in one can, conveniently) is good and all, but I'm ready to see what I can find that's a little less salt and a little more flavor.

http://i.imgur.com/sacM4Ev.jpg

It looks a little bit like a pod of sunburnt whales, or maybe like two undulating loch ness monsters in a litterbox, but I assure you, it tastes like chicken.

[limey]

Originally Posted by sad_winslow

Tonight was back to my staple favorite, baked chicken and rice. When it's cold out I can eat this almost every day, it's so good, and I keep toying with it to make it better. First I started replacing the water for the rice with chicken broth. Then I upgraded to peas, and tonight I added real actual mushrooms instead of relying on what was in the soup can. My next upgrade will be to find a better source of soup. Campbell's cream of chicken and mushroom (apparently a thing now, all in one can, conveniently) is good and all, but I'm ready to see what I can find that's a little less salt and a little more flavor.

http://i.imgur.com/sacM4Ev.jpg

If you've subbed broth for water, do you really need soup at all?

Originally Posted by sad_winslow

It looks a little bit like a pod of sunburnt whales, or maybe like two undulating loch ness monsters in a litterbox, but I assure you, it tastes like chicken.

[glatt]

The can of soup is both convenient to use and cheap. But Campbell's soup is horrible for you. It's a can of salt. I'd get a small carton of real cream and those real mushrooms you already tried, and just try pouring that on top. The chicken broth will give a lot of flavor (and salt) anyway.

[sad_winslow]

Originally Posted by limey

If you've subbed broth for water, do you really need soup at all?

Well, it's mostly there for the creamy quality. It wouldn't quite be the same without that little bit of creaminess to bring the rice all together in soft and almost gooey clumps. The broth just adds, I don't know, a hidden little dimension of richness. Maybe too rich for some folks. But I'm pretty sure my taste buds are, if not dead, at least due for a visit from a social worker to see about an assisted living facility.

Originally Posted by glatt

The can of soup is both convenient to use and cheap. But Campbell's soup is horrible for you. It's a can of salt. I'd get a small carton of real cream and those real mushrooms you already tried, and just try pouring that on top. The chicken broth will give a lot of flavor (and salt) anyway.

Yeah, it's convenience that's really the big thing. It's a nice dish to just chuck together with a minimum of effort. Pretty much everything in it is stockpile food except for the chicken, which is easy to snag at the store and hit the door. But using the real cream is a pretty good idea and I may try an experimental batch that way: if i'm going to the store anyways for the chicken and mushrooms, getting a pint of cream isn't too hard too. I do, for what it's worth, stick with low-sodium broth, because otherwise it'd end up rather... dessicating. I could already probably bottle the stuff as electrolyte-enhanced energy glop and sell it to passing joggers. It's pretty good, though, and the real actual fungus adds a joyful texture.

Unrelated to soup, but earlier I had a mouthful of haribo happy cola gummy colas in my mouth and I suddenly sneezed, utterly hosing my desk down with sticky giblets everywhere. It looked like I'd just ejected some sort of terribly important organ, or maybe what I imagine gummy worm droppings would look like. Gummy castings, if you will. That was pretty much dinner. So I've got that going for me tonight.