Modern Vespa

I'm making...
Soy honey and garlic marinated chicken breasts. Stuffed jacket spuds and a great big chopped salad. With caramelised balsamic onion dressing.
Hope you're all having something nice!

Here's a cheeky toad in the hole I made yesterday mmmm

Bangers and mash.

roast asparagus and seared tuna steak....


with a cheeky glass of merlot....yes merlot...

Is that what they call "FUSION"!!!!

gammon steaks, fried eggs, chips, beans and bread and butter!!!

Chicken Korma, with Nann bread!

muschroom tortellini with a courgette and onion cream sauce. mmmm. and a nice glass of sauvignon blanc. and a banana

Thai green chicken curry with Jasmine rice

Malay Beef Rendang with coconut rice.... That toad in the hole looks good, mine never rises that much, despite having the sieve above my head when sifting the flour.

just had all you can eat build your own cupcake at brewers fare ...... steak n kiddly then leek n potato ....... cant move now

Jar tomato sauce over pasta - exctiing haha.

Had tagliatelli arabiata with pepperoni, also garlic bread followed by a shared portion of bombolini (small sort of doughnuts that come with cream and chocolate dip).

Mark

Nothing so exotic or exciting here: probably will have that one left over Good Grains bagel from Einstein's Bagels, with some of their yummy Garden Veggie Cream Cheese. I'll have a cup of Butter Toffy Coffee with it.

Left-over Los Dos Molinos' green chile stew. Mmm.

A rotten egg and a burnt piece of toast. I got a tapeworm and that's good enough fer him.

My daughter is driving home from Gainesville so she and my wife can take me out to a nice restaurant, Taverna, for my birthday. I am going to select something very good.

Last night we had Stroganoff:

Tonight I am getting lazy... Spam:

I always wondered who ate that Spam. Interesting.

Carryout. Chinese!

Roasted pork loin and a big pile of sauteed kale...if I get to leave the office home tonight. *grumble*

Sauteed onion, cabbage and carrots, seasoned with soy sauce, served over a slice of tofu with a slice of swiss melted on top....all on a slice of whole grain bread.....simple, healthy and surprisingly tasty.

Pizza hut. Its game night, and there are usually people at my house before I get home. Pizza is the easy answer.

Keeping it simple, busy day tomorrow, Potato and onion tortilla

http://dinersjournal.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/02/29/recipe-of-the-day-spanish-tortilla/

Dumpster Divers Surprise

Over here in the UK fried spam ( sliced) with fried egg And other breakfast items sausages, bacon mushrooms, beans, black pudding, all put together equate a full english, also though not ever had it spam fritters (dipped in batter) and deep fried. When fried spam takes on a totally different flavour give it a try.

A big bowl of my stuffing. I eat it raw. It has bread, sausage, onions and poultry seasoning so everything will be cooked before i mix it except the bread and onions. Make it once a year if im here. Can't wait.

Duck Tacos!

I picked up a cataplana 10 years ago I think and have never used it. Tonight while going through recipes I found the book that came with it. Yum

OOPS you really need a Boa to go with that outfit the feather isn't working. Pizza hut delvers to the beach out here. 8)

Thanksgiving leftovers.

Thai takeaway tonight. I'm battling a cold, and spicy food was required.

A fresh salad and some marinated New Zealand Lamb steaks cooked on the BBQ....washed down with a Carona with a slice of lemon 8)

Leftovers from Thursday. Wish there was some of the italian torte I made for my contribution.

I still have several cases left over from my brief brush with IDF service.

For those who have not served in the Israeli military, I offer here a detailed description I prepared for a friend on the subject of 'Loof':

Loof is roughly the Israeli equivalent of English 'bully beef' or American Spam®. It really defies conventional description... but because I need to give you some idea of what it is in order to continue writing about it, let's simply call it canned, preserved, seasoned, mystery meat.

Granted, since all rations given to Israeli soldiers need to be kosher, one can narrow down the main ingredient of loof to a fairly narrow segment of the animal kingdom. But the official list of ingredients seems to be more of a starting place for speculation than an assumption of fact.

For instance, according to the list of ingredients on the side of the can, 'Beef' is loof's primary ingredient. This seems to be about as intentionally vague as saying that the main ingredient in a particular brand of hot dogs is 'Beef'. Many pundits have speculated that the odd bits of the cow that the hot dog makers won't accept find their way into loof. I think (hope) that this is just soldier humor... but I'll save you the investigative trip to the slaughterhouse if we can all agree, for the sake of argument, that the term 'beef' covers an impressive range of meat products/ and byproducts... as well as a multitude of sins.

OK, now that we have a working knowledge of what loof is (as well as a hazy sense of what it is not), let's talk a bit about how it is found in its natural habitat.

Loof is most commonly found in cans. For some odd reason, the net weight listed on these cans is 310 grams (just under 11 ounces). Why, you are probably asking, isn't it packaged in a nice round weight... say 300, or even 500 grams? Nobody seems to know. One of the prevailing theories is that this odd weight is a resigned nod to the possibility that some extra scraps of 'SOMETHING' will inevitably find their way into the can along with the intended 300-gram serving.

All in all, the weight issue is probably best left to the side along with the issue of ingredients.

So, having decided to ignore the content and volume of loof, we proceed directly to actually opening the can. It is worth noting that there seems to be a peculiar fixation among present and former soldiers with regard to the ritual surrounding the opening of the can. For some reason, there is even something approaching superstition surrounding the cleanliness of the can itself. By this I mean that one is not supposed to wipe off the can before opening it. A dusty, mud-encrusted can of loof seems to be preferable to a shiny new can fresh from the box. Don't ask me why. All I got whenever I repeatedly asked that very question was the classic Israeli shrug that would infuriate even a Frenchman.

Once you've used your pocket can opener to open the top of the dirty can... STOP! Don't throw out that lid... and whatever you do, don't put away the can opener... you're not done yet. You now have to open the bottom of the can. Don't worry about any juice leaking out. Trust me when I tell you that there is nothing in that can which isn't solid at room temperature.

Now that you've opened and set aside the top of the can, and opened (but not removed) the bottom, you need to locate a piece of cardboard. Yes, as with the can, there seems to be a preference for dusty or dirty cardboard. [insert infuriating Israeli shrug here] Now, lay the can on its side, and begin pushing the loof out onto the cardboard by applying gentle pressure to the bottom of the can. As the pinkish 'meat product' begins to emerge from the top of the can, use the top lid of the can as a knife to cut the loof into slices.

I've had extensive conversations with current and former soldiers about the finer points of preparing and serving loof. As with most issues presented to a random sampling of Israelis, there is precious little consensus. Recipes and tastes seem inseparable from one's ethnic background. Particular army units have cherished traditions surrounding ways for preparing loof, but the most common serving tips include frying chunks of loof with scrambled eggs... putting slices of loof directly on bread with the condiment(s) of choice... and of course, just passing around the the slices 'in bianco' on the dusty cardboard tray for people to grab with their fingers.

Great post!!! Your description of Loof definately makes one think of Spam, except for the obvious Kosher part. It has many of the same qualities and uses (spam & eggs, etc). I can certainly relate with having to open both sides of the can. Spam does the same exact thing, the new can is flexible and you wind up alternately squeezing the sides until air gets in there for it to fall out, making a sound that has no natural equivalent (at least I hope it doesn't, otherwise it will make you lose what is left of your appetite).

TREP Spam animal sounds better than Loof animal. Really going out on a limb if people think it's Kosher. But maybe.. Hawaii keeps the Spam company in business Yuck. Big dudt up years ago when they had their 50th or maybe 75th anniversary and were giving out free T-shirts to everybody except for Alaska and Hawaii. They took out ads and apologized and people over here got their T's. Having the last of the stuffing and Turkey tonite. If i don't see either of them until next year i'll be a happy camper.

After reading the thread about liver and onions, I did a search and thought this might be a good one to resurrect. So, let's have it, what's for dinner tonight, or what did you eat and enjoy recently?

Last night was tacos, made from leftover Pheasant and Capon that's been sitting in the fridge, along with a lot of spinach to give it some moisture and the usual spices, as well as some ginger hotsauce my partner found somewhere.
Topped with cilantro, red onion, cheese and avocado chunks, they were pretty good.

I'm not even kidding here...
My usually brilliant home chef of a husband (he of the scratch-made Ranch, thin lamb medallions and translucent spinach ravioli) has decreed that tonight is for eating banana splits.
Of course, he has spared no expense.
I cannae wait, laddies...

I'm hooked on Lee's Sandwiches #12, the Vegetarian (I'm not). But tonight might just be the Adobada ribs at Los Dos Molinos. Yum!