Dinner for One – Midweek edition

I was looking at the hits on this blog and the column that got the most views was about the Patriots and was headlined with a picture of Marcia Brady.

Now, the question is, do I somehow work the Patriots into every blog or do I start each one with a picture of Marcia-Marcia-Marcia…

Maybe this will do…

Tonight I’m in a kinda Mexican mood. Just for fun I Googled “Gourmet Mexican Food” in images. To be really honest…I was horrified.

My favorite cuisine, even from fancy pants chefs like Bobby Flay and Rick Bayless, kinda looks like…crap.

Here I’ll show ya

It’s all kinda piles of brown stuff or rolled up piles of brown stuff  with cheese and diced tomatoes tossed on top. Not that I’d ever push away a 3 item combination plate with all rice (sorry, no refried for me) . But, I mean, it sure as hell isn’t this.

So it was off to the market (or el marcado) to stock up la cocina.

Tonight’s menu will be a three item combinación re-imagined

Chile Relleno Crepes
Deconstructed Fish Taco
Open Face Pork Tamale

Yes, normally I’d be busily snapping away with Amy’s camera (sorry, babe) giving you a play by play of the dinner prep.

Unfortunately tonight I went insane. I seem to have forgotten that I’m not in a commercial kitchen with yards of prep space, a deep fat fryer and a dishwasher of questionable citizenship.

So…

Instead of happy little photos of crepe making, pork simmering, sauce creating, and fish frying I give you this…

The kitchen about two minutes before service.

     

You’ll note Bingo roaming the area for the inevitable floor samples.

  

And as presented at the table.

I just realized it looks like piles of brown stuff or rolled up piles of brown stuff  with cheese.

Crap

I know how this happened…it’s hereditary.  My Mom was an inquisitive cook. She loved to find a recipe and make it just “…to try it out”.

One time Mom called me asking if I knew where to get sour pickles…old fashioned Jewish deli sour pickles. Not dill – they had to be sour. I asked why (fearing the answer) and she said, “Oh, it’s just a recipe I want to try out”.

I spent the next couple of weeks trying to find a place where you could get sour pickles. I checked purveyors, gourmet food shops, I even called a deli supply place in New York City.

No dice…nobody had seen sour pickles in years.

Defeated, I called Mom to tell her the news. I asked what recipe she wanted them for.

She said, “Oh I found this old recipe for turning sour pickles into sweet pickles and I wanted to try it out”.

…seriously?

I think I gave her a jar of sweet pickles for Christmas.