Food

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Welcome to Applebee’s! Can I Get You Started With Some Disinfectant? Chain restaurants are rethinking food for diners who fear the virus — and one another.

While some of this is a bit much, I’m glad that people are at least taking this seriously. Dining environments are often filled under the concept of “Generally considered safe” than “Swimming in disinfectants”.
I’d like to think if you can pass the inspections from the board of public health, you’re going to generate safe food. Relative to your staff’s health. But common areas like tables, chairs, booths, and other customer touch heavy areas can’t be held to same standards as your kitchen service; least not in practical terms. But a little bit of calculated effort can go a long way to avoid and limit stupid.
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This is the first time I’ve made a meatloaf in years.

My mother used to make meatloaf fairly often, but left to my own devices I haven’t made one in so long that I can’t remember what year it was, lol. Growing up in a household devoid of brown gravy, she never missed an opportunity for food that could be smothered in it; not that pasta sauce and meatloaf isn’t delicious, it very much is, lol. I don’t really do brown gravy, but opted to buy a few packets planning ahead for tonight’s meatloaf.

The pair of potatoes that didn’t make it into this weekend’s vegetable soup got baked, mashed, and turned into pure deliciousness. I forgot how much work it is to mash potatoes, and just how incredibly worth the effort it is! That I’ve switched from cooking with milk to using half & half hasn’t hurt any. Licking the potato masher was enough to prove my efforts were successful 😁.
Because I’m weird: the side is roasted brussle sprouts. My mother would usually make green beans out of a can, or in later years some mixture of green, white, and red vegetables cooked until soft, mushy, and seasoned Italian style. The latter was always far better than the former, and probably played a large part in why veggies are a focus of many meals around here. You can bet my habits of roasting sprouts and carrots share seasoning characteristics with my mother’s cooking, lol.
Also I think it’s time for Willow’s nails to have a trim.
To compensate for the time spent in the kitchen, I gave the hungry minions a regular treat before I started cooking. Then some of their meat and gravy goodies after dinner; usually they have to wait until after dinner for their weekday treats.
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While I don’t think I will ever make a truly good soup, I was glad that there was plenty of flavor. Plus pretty much everything is a cheese delivery vehicle 😉.

Willow’s perspective was more about whether or not sharing was to be involved.

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My first experiment making sweet tea involved a bunch of old oolong tea that I had sitting on a shelf, and was deemed successful.

Repeating the experiment with some fresh tea, well, it was successful—but it was more like a great success.

Personally, I’ve never cared very much for hot tea, nor regular iced tea. So much as dealing with friends and family caused me to tolerate them. And then there’s sweet tea. Now that’s something that I’ll drink with pleasure, lol.

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Most nights, I cook dinner at home. And then there’s times for ordering a delicious food coma.

Plus there’s enough leftover for dinner tomorrow, after filling my dinner plate.

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While I’ve met a few dogs in my life who could be called birders, Willow is more of a fisher as far as scavengers go. That is to say if her spider sense detects fish, she will likely be very interested.

The onigiri I made last night of course drew some attention, since tuna was involved.

But nothing quite gets their collective attention like treats 😁.

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Unlike in my childhood: it’s kind of rare I have much ice cream these days. Rarer still with so many trimmings.

Of course this doesn’t mean Willow is content with my explanation of why it’s not for dogs…

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As someone that tends to skip breakfast, or turn it into a granola bar to go, this is one of my concepts for a large breakfast.

The five frozen sausage are quartered, and meant to be shared with the hounds. Roughly a 2 for them, 3 for me kind of arrangement. The toasted waffle (often, toasted bread) for belly filler. And 3 eggs scrambled for yum. In this case with soy sauce, salt, brown sugar, and some cheddar mixed in.

Of course after breakfast: the doggos require proper treats to follow up their share, lol.

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The main reason that I’ll take a picture of dinner is to capture the dogs reaction.

And sometimes I get a few good snapshots.

To this I will also add that spinach, mushrooms, and Alfredo works better than anticipated.