Browny's Clam Chowder Revisited + dinner

Dear Palm Springs, I miss your sun & 81 degrees. I knew I would miss it so I planned clam chowder for lunch today while sitting outside in a sleeveless dress in CA four days ago. I'm pretty good at planning. I've had this little gem of a recipe for exactly four years. I'm happy I made it and will be making a fall/winter staple. Only two hitches: 1) The grease from turkey bacon made the flour portion of the recipe not come out quite like it was supposed to but it didn't affect overall taste, and 2) The potatoes took about five minutes longer to cook than the recipe said.

Things I learned from this recipe:

Bacon grease from turkey bacon is not the same as bacon grease from pork bacon.

Serve it with rustic bread. This is beginning to be a theme in this house.

Would I make this recipe again?:

Definitely.

The recipe

Dinner: Spanish-style Shrimp + leftover chowder

Our dinner plans got canceled for tonight so I was forced to come up with something on the fly. Thank goodness I'm obsessed with recipes right now and happened to watch a video from the Seattle Times about shrimp. I really shouldn't be actively looking for more recipes, but I'm glad I watched this one. The only ingredients used were olive oil, garlic, salt, chili flakes, parsley and shrimp. I sprung for the wild, gulf shrimp, not previously frozen and they were delicious. Oh, and we ate the other half of the rustic bread loaf.

Things I learned from this recipe:

I might need to be watching more videos on cooking. 

I love simple ingredients that don't make a dish seem simple in taste.

Would I make this recipe again?:

Definitely

The recipe

Chirashi

We love sushi in our house. I don't trust most grocery stores so I do all of my raw fish shopping at Uwajimaya. I usually stick with tuna, hamachi and salmon. Today I also added ebi (shrimp) and Japanese cucumber for garnish. While there are very few steps to this recipe all of them are important. Using sushi rice is important as well as adding a sushi mix to the rice to add flavor. After adding the mix I fanned the rice for approximately 3-5 minutes. While I threatened to use frozen rice the other day I chose not to tonight. :) After fanning, the placement of fish is all that is left.

The fish

Rice w/sushi mix

Zoji rice cooker

Things I learned from this recipe:

Never underestimate the importance of good wasabi.

Keep fanning the rice until it's not hot to the touch.

Would I make this again?:

Without a doubt.

Last Day in Palm Springs

Our last day in Palm Springs was 81 degrees. It was heavenly and I really didn't want to leave.  For brunch we ate at the King's Highway at the Ace Hotel. I had a veggie tofu scramble. It was amazing.

Tofu Scramble

For lunch we biked to Woody's for burgers. I had a turkey burger and Eric had beef. My was quite tasty and Eric noted his was a nice old-fashioned type of burger. The staff was incredibly friendly, and the fries and onion rings were good too. 

Turkey burger

So long Palm Springs. You treated us very well but I can't wait to get back to cooking.

Biking to lunch

Brunch & Dinner - Palm Springs style

Brunch: Lobster Roll

I have a recipe for a delicious lobster roll so when I saw it on the menu at Jake's I had to try it. The recipe I have is very easy and very good and one I made a couple of times last summer. I have been thinking about it recently and wished it was a little warmer back home so we could eat it out on the deck. 

I was a little disappointed when this first arrived because of all the mayonnaise. My version involves lemon, butter & chives. While this one wasn't as bad as it looked I still prefer mine. The redeeming aspect of the sandwich was the tomato which tasted like it had just been picked.

Eric may have had basil pesto bacon. I was slightly jealous.

Dinner: BBQ Pizza

We went to Bill's Pizza for dinner and I had an extremely delicious BBQ pizza. The ingredients were: BBQ Sauce, mozzarella cheese, chicken, sliced tomato, fresh jalapeño, pineapple, red onion & fresh cilantro. I am a sucker for BBQ sauce on pizza and I was completely sold on the idea of having fresh jalapeño on top. I have a pizza I like to make using Boboli at home that has pineapple, garlic, turkey bacon and is topped with fresh arugula and this meal made me realize I will be making that really soon. Yum!

A-L-T

What is an ALT you ask? It's an avocado-lettuce-tomato sandwich with a delicious aioli, and it was in Palm Springs waiting for me. It was simple and fresh. I added chicken and secretly wished they offered turkey bacon to add instead of pork.

While we're on a mini-vacation for the next three days, I've decided to take photos of foods I'm eating to draw inspiration for future meals.