Spaghetti, meatball, red bell pepper

These tiny tins of tomato paste are cheap as can be but one guy alone even this is too  much paste. Hate to waste. The paste that comes in a tube is 20X the cost of this, say, four dollars for a lot less amount. Freezing as paste wafers is a good solution. It makes them available for anything. 

Singed red pepper salad

It's a thing. I like it. Don't know why.

And it's not just me. An acquaintance of Italian persuasion was over here and said, "This is perfect." Red pepper strips tossed in olive oil and singed on one side. The margin for satisfaction is broad from half cooked and firm to floppy so long as they have black spots.

Then pecans at the end and then little tomatoes at the very end all in the same oil and salt. A very nice balance right here, the oil and tomato, pecan with pepper, and you never see things like this. I think you'll like it too. 

I want more.

Hamburger from prime rib, red bell pepper, asparagus

BBQ sauce is catsup that is already adjusted with cayenne powder adjusted further with brown sugar and rice vinegar. It is very good.

The hamburger is one of two formed from 1LB slab cut from a prime rib already roasted to medium rare. It's not the best idea. It cannot hold together as well as raw meat will. Raw meat will coalesce in an hour or so in the refrigerator, but this tends to crumble. Chopped in the Cuisineart in pulses half-roasted, half raw and pre-mixed with cold butter the resulting thoroughly cooked burger is very tasty. I will do this again with 100% raw meat. After this pre-ground hamburger meat will be just slumming it. There is no reason to mess around anymore.

Steak, red bell pepper

This is showing the tremendous value offered on this steak, 

15.67 - 9.39 = 6.28

6.28 ÷ 15.57 = .40
40% reduction.

Maths!

There is no sign of discoloration and even if there was I'd still buy it, that's natural. I notice the butcher shops that still offer prime are not this concerned about their beef being so red but the grocery stores are.

I said something I never said before, it felt strange, but out it came. The young woman stacking the display case agreed their placement there seemed a bit premature, as if they are anticipating or judging by timing and not actual color. She remarked about marbling, I said,

"You're probably too young to know this, but when I was your age, most likely before you were born, stores like this one, this store in fact, sold USDA prime right next to choice. Choice always was the second choice, and prime first choice for its marbling, double this here, that conveys beef flavor so well."

That was weird.

She opened up like a flower, immediately became more warm and intimate. Pushed her cart with the packaged steaks all stacked so it no longer divided us and drew closer as she continued. No longer a mere worker, no longer a fierce young lesbian, no longer a fighter, no argument to issue, no position to defend, right before my eyes all defenses were dropped and she stepped out of her hard protective shell and became a tender little girl eager to converse and fine to hear from Daddy about the world that once was. That is what happened.

Seasoned both sides, seared in a hot pre-heated cast-iron pan with ovenproof handle, briefly on the first side, even more briefly on the second side, seconds, less than a minute. All that heat for mere seconds, then into the oven for 8 minutes then out, out of the oven, out of the pan. It is still cooking. So guesswork, mon ami, and that is what makes me so ace. I'm telling you, it is like a restaurant over here.

I heard on the teevee men like blue cheese on their steaks and I thought, "Hey! That sound like a very good idea."  

And it is!

There is an Italian fellow I know, every ounce the snob, speaks Italian, goes to Italy a lot, and knows all there is about food. He said of this red bell pepper seared to a black edge in oil on high but still crunchy-tender, a combination of snap and cooked soft, blackened and barely cooked. Each piece showing aspects of burned and raw, softened and unaffected. Fried in olive oil fast and hot and steamed up with balsamic vinegar, "This is perfect." 

Seared red bell pepper with nori

Hamburger, seared red bell pepper

Scrambled eggs, red pepper with green beans

Red bell pepper

I. am. so. sorry. 

I got lost there in a little pile of red pepper. 

I started following tiny mustard seeds and they led me all around. It's their fault. I could have kept right on going. The only reason I stopped is because I got tired of seeing red pepper vistas unfolding before me and I kinda wanted to return to the land of people.  You guys.

I learned something. If you put mustard seeds in a hot pan they explode like popcorn right out of the pan. It's fun. I imagine it could be dangerous. Half the mustard seeds popped out of the pan before I could cover them. They still pop but they burn exploded open in the pan. So add mustard seeds last and have a lid ready. Or turn off the heat for non-splody mustard seeds. 

Do you know what? Maybe I should mention this. The light at the restaurant the other night was yellow. Very low low low warm yellow. So I turned up the ISO in the camera to 1000 which is quite high and would ruin most photographs. The bad thing is, I forgot to roll it back and the next few sets were shot at inappropriately high ISO. These photos are unnecessarily noisy. That's a word they use to describe this situation. The difference between the startling sharpness this lens produces and this set of pictures is the difference between extremely high ISO and appropriately set low ISO.  And so I learned my lesson, I sure did, and that lesson is: try to be smarter. 

Red bell pepper

You know, this makes an excellent snack. I recommend it. 

Did I mention, my brother pointed out to me at a grocery store on Maui, the price of a single bell pepper was $4.50? That was the least of it. I vowed to never again complain about food prices. 

Roasted chicken salad

* chicken previously roasted and frozen
* hand made mayonnaise
* Romaine lettuce
* red bell pepper
* English cucumber
* avocado