Tasty Balance...

So after the lunch time burger, I needed something tasty but lite for dinner.  Chickpeas and cauliflower over brown rice served the need.

While I let the brown rice simmer, I sauted green peppers and onions, and then added the chickpeas.  I added a little salt, pepper, and paprika,

While everything was getting together in the pan, I sliced the cauliflower, and layered it on top, to let the juices steam the florets.  With about 7 minutes left on the rice, I stirred it all together.

Served with a little side salad, I felt the balance return to my day...

Sean

The First of Many...

Everything in a balance right?  I try to eat pretty healthy most of the time, but I do allow myself 1 tasty burger a week.  Hence a lot of entries in my blog will be Burger of the Week type post.  I start this week with a respectable 1st entry from The Green Iguana, a local chain, that has a number of different 'specialty' burgers.

You don't hear it very often but burgers need mayo. It keep the burger juices from ruining the bottom bun.  The Smoked Burger, starts with a smoked chipolte mayo, then builds with smoked pepper jack and smoked bacon.

This burger was 1/2lb patty and was tasty all the way through.  I like mine done medium rare, and GI does a great job of being consistent with the meat, 80/20 and always fresh.  As you can see from the picture it comes with the standard lettuce, tomato, and red onion slice.  I threw 'em all on, because that's how they designed it, and I figured that's how I should eat it.  Add the kicked-up onion rings, and you have a great burger.

As a note, the fries are just ok, but a Yuengling Draft goes great.

Sean

Wines of the Time

While I drink wines from around the world, I am currently stuck on 2 particular wines.  An American blend, Menage-a-Trois and a New Zealand Chardonnay put out by Cupcake.  For the money if served at correct temperature both are solid choices.

Starter Post from a Foodie

This Blog is a new journey for me...I have always liked food.  From a young age I remember enjoying food.  Not in the way normal kids eat their bolognie and cheese sandwich, no I had to add Doritos to give it a 'nachoee' flavored crunch to 'kick-it up a notch'.  I just think about food differently than a lot of other folks so I have learned.  I was fortunate that my step-mom knew her way around the kitchen, which she learned from her mom, both who took time to let me help.  My grandmother on my Dad's side could cook too, but her kitchen was HER kitchen, and men were supposed to sit out on the porch and drink.  It's possible my grandfather established this early in their marriage...  


I'm sure someone out there will comment that I can't be a foodie, because I will eat cold pizza after it has been sitting in a box for a while or because yes, Bud Light is good enough when its hot outside.  But as I am eating that slice of Pepperoni Pizza, I am thinking:  you know their cold pizza isn't nearly as good as that other place we had the other day.  So maybe my discerning style although different, may still qualify.  Also, this might be a good time to tell you I don't come from New York or California.  I am from the South.  Not the Nouveau South either, but break out the pork fat, sweet tea, and grits, SOUTH.  I know, another strike i guess, but son I tell ya, we know about eating!


Actually someone else included me in the ranks of foodie before I was even aware that there was such a thing.  Mostly because I like to cook, drink wines that aren't on the bottom shelf, and know the differnce between a single-malt scotch and Jameson.  Where I don't consider myself a food snob, I do know that I ain't paying $14.99 for Tilapia at a restaurant when the local grocer has it for 6.99 a pound, and all they have done to it, is salt, pepper, paprika, and butter.  I mean really?!


So anyway, future posts that I am thinking about will cover breweries from around the state (I live in the sunshine state) and delving into restaurants that utilize grown local produce and meats.  Lot more foods than oranges are grown in Florida, and I am curious how they are being prepared.  I will also, have a spot for the things that I cook from time-to-time.  I promise to keep the simple or mundane to a minimum, but if there is an educational moment for me, then I will likely share.  


If you have made it this far, not sure I should thank you or recommend a psych eval, but none-the-less come back, I promise the topics to be more interesting and the site to get a little more sophisticated.


Sean