Shaved tenderloin, rice, individual pizza

White rice; no matter how small or large the pot, no matter how much rice, within reason of course, within the world of reasonable pots and reasonable amounts of rice, there should be this much water above the rice after the water is at full boil and before the heat is cut back to nearly zero, to steam for 25 minutes on moderate heat, then additional 10 minutes with no heat at all.

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The tenderloin is sliced thinly frozen, shaved, and seasoned.

Pizaas are sourdough bases prepared and frozen earlier. 

Rice with lamb

White rice, nutritionally insubstantial but spiced up and cooked like the guy knew what he was doing or something.

Leftover lamb that was coated last night but not fried with the rest so it sat there with its flour coating all night and half the next day. So old leftover lamb carelessly handled and boy is it ever delicious.

These are the smaller bits of lamb that didn't get fried, so not all that much was leftover that way. I almost threw it out. Enough leftover flour dusted lamb to reconstruct a mammal, I'd say, about the size of a rat.

Well, that wasn't very nice. Sorry.

But it does show what you get if you're ever in trouble in a post-apocalyptic future. And if you're good at pretending you can use this for inspiration. 

Rib-eye steak, white rice

The same thing shown again.

You could say, well that's all very well and good, Chip, but what spices are those? 

And because I'm tired of saying the same thing all the time, by impulse I'd say, what difference does it make? A question that doesn't answer the question and declaratives phrased as interrogatives are rude, plus the non smarty-pants answer is as easy anyway,

* rosemary

* sea salt

* black pepper

* mace

All ground up in a stone smasher.

The rice is spiced up too. Typical things with honey this time, and butter. 

* coriander seeds ground up

* chile pepper flakes

* cayenne peper

* white pepper

* sea salt

Rib-eye with rice, red chile, onions and mushrooms

There are two layers of plain white rice with a layer of miso and wasabi between them. 

The onion slices were lightly splashed with rice vinegar while frying. The scant vinegar changed the onion dramatically. The combination is sweeter than the two elements separate. 

The steak is a rib-eye pulled yesterday to thaw but not used then when my mind was changed to salvaged lamb chunks which turned out better than I had hoped. Half the thawed rib-eye steak is used here today, the other half is still in one piece in the refrigerator. Half of the salvaged lamb chunks are in the refrigerator too so it appears I will be going back and forth between until they're both gone. And when the day comes my thoughts will change from using up the things that are here to shopping because apparently deprivation and dearth is what it takes to motivate.

Is that so bad?  

The red chile peppers were grown on the balcony from seeds scraped from grocery store chiles. These red chiles were dried on the countertop. They are milder than their parent chiles so another different type of chile was included with the onions and the sliced steak, serrano chiles from a tin opened earlier. 

I hope to duplicate this sometime because it is intriguingly delicious and satisfying beyond human grasp. The thin layer of miso and the layer of wasabi together hidden inside the rice is a delightful and impressive combination. And it looks so plain and innocent.   

Wild Pacific salmon, black-eye peas, white rice

With orange and lemon sauce.

I made a real lunch that took planning and created a propper mess.

Preparation time: 12 hours.

Kidding.

Dry beans were soaked overnight. Does that count for preparation time? It only took thirty seconds. Oddly, the beans cooked more quickly than the rice.

Beans:

* Chopped bacon into a pre-heated pot.
* When the bacon bits are almost done, add chopped onion.
* When the onions and bacon are really really almost almost almost done, add chopped garlic. Heat through, remove to separate bowl or plate. The point here is to reserve as much of the bacon fat as possible. Some goes along with the bacon/onions, some stays in the pot.
* Season the oil in the pot to suit your tastes. Consider bay leaf, brown sugar, but reserve to the end molasses if you're using that. I used coriander and cumin and my own house mix chile flakes with a touch of brown sugar, S/P.

Wild Pacific salmon fried in butter flesh-side down first. Flipped before it was half way done. Removed before it was cooked through.

Sauce. Orange juice directly into the messy pan. I was going for an orange-colored sauce but my pan had so much flavor bits in it that it changed the color to not very attractive. Added lemon. Thickened with corn starch.