Hamburger, seared red bell pepper

Pita with cheese, serrano, onion, capers

I almost didn't bother with this, making it or showing it. I am simply not hungry lately and the whole thing is a bit forced. Having said that, I tore off half of one of the pitas that were made yesterday and dressed it up half-heartedly and it turned out to be 10x more delicious than I had imagined possible. 

I used a slice of individually wrapped American cheese. I bought it just to be masochist. I heard Bobby Flay say about making hamburgers, "It has to be American cheese." This struck me as exceedingly odd, and yet here it was from the author of a book on hamburgers, and an Iron Chef besides. I think that American cheese is the kind of thing that is not all that outstanding on its own but combines well with other things. Plus there is good American cheese and indifferent American cheese. This is indifferent American cheese. That it is so delicious in combination here astounds me. The trick was to let the cheese go a little bit toasty as well as the pita. It's sort of like a Mexican pizza. 

Tinned serrano chiles were opened previously and stored cold. 

Horrible, isn't it?

Oh the depths we sink. I'm starting to feel mad at myself for being so pathetic. I put it in the oven thinking that I didn't have to eat it if I didn't want to. Then it turned out I wished I had cooked the whole pita and not just half of it. The amount was determined by the prepackaged individually wrapped slice of cheese, which is just flat weird in my opinion but kind of fun. 

Top round, spinach, onion

The top round was on sale, I think. It's a bit tough but when the meat is cut against the grain then there'll be no problem with mastication. The steak was cold out of the refrigerator so I put it in warm water for a about 10 minutes to bring it to room temperature, then dried it off and seasoned it a bit heavily with salt and pepper. Fried for a few minutes in a very hot pan then set aside to rest.

The spinach is packaged frozen. Microwaved for five minutes, seasoned, drizzled with balsamic vinegar aged seven years, and not the goofy aged seven years either, not the type that a portion is aged for  seven years mixed with newer vinegar aged for a single year, no siree, the whole thing is aged for a full seven years and I do believe that makes a huge difference. Have the people at the speciality store help you pick one out if you're interested, and I wish you would try it at least once, it will change your culinary perspective permanently. So, vinegar, sweetened as it is + butter + salt/pepper = dressing, simplicity itself. 

The onion is caramelized  in the same pan used to sear the steak. It picks up some of the fond left there while simultaneously leaving its own flavor in the pan now sweetened by caramelization. The pan is now nicely begrimed with olive oil mixed with rendered beef fat, the seasoning that sloughed off the steak, fond from the singed meat, and the trace of caramelized onion. It would be a real shame to waste all those layers of flavor, only to mention a crime against art. Therefore, the pan is deglazed with the remainder of the second-rate canned beef broth opened earlier down there ↓. Had I been up to it, or had I been entertaining, the liquid could have been enhanced even further with wine and with something unusual or sweet. I keep a bag of blueberries on hand frozen for exigencies and for impulse.   A handful of blueberries tossed into the pan, caused to melt and to impart their unique blueberry essence and then quickly processed to oblivion and their presence disguised, or any such thing as apricot jam or honey, all have the potential to elevate even second-rate, last choice broths and bottom tier wines, to a whole new plateau. Surprise yourself sometime by inventing your own sauce. 

But tonight it is late and I cannot be moved.  Tomorrow is a long day and I will be lucky to get the mess cleaned up that I have left behind. 

Raw salmon on sourdough toast

Parents, hide your children.  The little darlings would not like this.

Raw salmon on sourdough toast.

Pacific salmon from pre-packaged frozen filets. I picked one of the brightest filets in the larger package and carefully sliced, then diced by hand.

Anything, and I mean anything, is better than plain Philadelphia cream cheese, which seems to me a blank whiteboard upon which actual flavors are intended to be written. Therefore, I scribble away. Supplemented with my own handmade ricotta, which wasn't very much, along with commercial ricotta. But then ricotta is hardly much of a flavor improvement over Philadelphia, then is it? Therefore I fortified it with some incredibly strange raw Wisconsin cheddar which is, oddly enough, spreadable. So there's four different white spreadable cheeses and its cheesy flavor is not ordinary. Plus horseradish, and S/P.

The sourdough is toasted to about 85% toastiness because the bread goes Melba if you toast to 100%.

Avocado, Carl's sourdough, tomato, parmigiano