Jan 5, Dinner. Two beef tamales from the Tamale lady in front of Walgreens, plus some salad, and Joel's Rough Cut cooked salsa, mostly sweet red peppers, but also some tomato, green onion, habanero sauce, anchovy paste, parsley, salt, pepper, and vinegar.
Jan 5, Dessert. I ate two of these; Jan ate the other two. These came to us via Christmas stockings.
Jan 6, Breakfast. The usual.
Jan 6, Lunch. A bowl of egg-noodle "House Special" pho from Pho 88 (Number 53, if you want to order it yourself, although the Number 50 is just as good). Crab, shrimp, beef, pork, plus basil, sprouts, lime, and serrano chiles to taste from the plate in back. On the left is my sauce mix, about 2/3 fish sauce and 1/3 chile paste.
Jan 6, Snack. Two medjool dates.
Jan 6, Dinner. Sunday night dinner at Barbara's. Roast, vegetable stir fry, and a half a baked potato. I didn't have the glazed carrots, since I'm not fond of them. There's also gravy, but I only had it on the potato. This roast was mostly good, but had some rough spots inside (gristle).
Jan 6 pre-dessert. Barbara always has treats laying about; it's a big calorie boost on Sunday dinner. I grabbed a couple of Dark Chocolate Dove bits after dinner and before we had dessert
Jan 6, Dessert. Amish Friendship Bread and Butter Pecan Ice Cream from the Pennsylvania State Creamery. Samantha (my niece) came up with this starter for a spice cake and part of the deal is that you split your starter with 3 other people. So now there are three loaves of this stuff floating around the city... and who knows how more after that. Sounds like a pyramid scheme involving bread dough and starter to me. Eventually, all of Albania will collapse under the weight.
Jan 7, Breakfast. The usual, plus some orange juice. The oranges are starting to come in. Technically, these are not "oranges" but "tangelos," but I call everything orange in the back yard an orange, much to the chagrin of my sweetie who distinguishes between four different trees that all have orange things on them.
Jan 7, Dinner. Jan brought back a Nico's taco for dinner. I'm in a hurry this week, so I skipped lunch. I did a wine tasting presentation at my Mom's retirement village this afternoon.
Jan 7, Dinner. Also, she brought over some cherries for dessert. Yum.
Jan 7, More Dessert. Some Raspberry Crunch ice cream from the Pennsylvania State University Creamery. Our friend Craig sends us this (with his commune) every year, and we enjoy it until about the middle of January. It's good ice cream, for sure.
Jan 8, Breakfast. The usual. Doppio cappuccino freddo, a little orange juice, and a cat.
Jan 8, Lunch. Out on the patio, it's warm enough mid-day to sit outside. A salad of greens from Jan's garden, plus some cheese, sausage, and other bits. In this salad were some of Rose's olives.
Jan 8, snack. Two medjool dates.
Jan 8, Dinner. It got cold at night, so I made a sausage risotto. Sauteed onion, then browned the sausage, then poured in the rice and cooked it, adding meat broth, until done. 1 cup of rice is too much for two people, but it was really good. Just right: not too al dente, and not mushy.
Jan 9, Breakfast. The usual, but no orange juice. Right now we're mostly getting volunteers or bird-damaged ones. I'm waiting for the grapefruit to come in.
Jan 9, Lunch. A green chile burrito from Martin's. They call it something else, but it's a green chile burrito. And a coke. On 4th Avenue.
Jan 9, Snack. Two medjool dates. We're running out of dates.
January 9, Dinner. Salad based on greens from Jan's garden.
Jan 9, Dessert. Ice cream from the Pennsylvania State University Creamery. This is Butter Pecan and Raspberry Crunch together.
January 10, Breakfast. The usual.
January 10, Breakfast. Jan snuck me the last bite of the Amish Friendship Bread.
January 10th, Lunch. Taco Bron's Sopa Azteca. This is essentially a tortilla soup with some chicken in it. It's good. It was warm enough to eat outside, but cold enough that soup is good.
January 10th, snack. Two medjool dates.
Jan 10th, pre-dinner. Jan brought over some cinnamon rolls which were not too sweet. I had a bite. A good effort. Needs a little less kneading; I think the bread developed too much gluten.
Jan 10th, dinner. A salad and a glass of wine. Greens from Jan's garden.
January 11, Breakfast. The usual: doppio cappuccino freddo, some spremuta, and the vitamins that Jan makes me take. I don't know what they are. I don't think she's poisoning me, but I'm not sure.
January 11, Lunch. We tried a new place around the corner, the Asia Bistro. A sit-down asian restaurant with a heavy Chinese bent, but this Tom Yum soup on the set lunch menu gives away a Thai influence. Spicy, and good. Simple, not thick like you often get at cheap Chinese restaurant lunch buffets.
January 11th, Lunch. I had the set lunch "Mongolian Beef," and it was a good rendition. Well spiced and the only real complaints I'd have are about the sweet-and-sour sauce---what the hell is that for?