post-baseball practice expected supper:
Trader Joe’s enchiladas
vegetable tray
housemate guacamole with Nopalito tortilla chips

a prairie grass meal is $35/pp incl tax tip cocktail - maybe even $40/pp
Maybe Max & binney’s for $20/pp but that’s nothing like prairie grass

king crab legs are $30/lb at Costco and I’ve found a $50-60 unit
so maybe you’re getting a pound at WF for $42??
I just think that a decent restaurant meal is still significantly more than king crab legs bought at WF or Costco. I actually don’t know where Costco is near highland park!

I don't remember exactly what we paid and am too lazy to go look, but I think it was just under $40. I figure a pound per person, then with some sides and a bottle of wine, we're near $100. Which is probably typical for us at a semi-nice restaurant with drinks...but King Crab Legs on menus around here lately have been price at $70+ per meal. 1.5 lbs at Bob Chinn's is currently $95. Not sure if that even comes with fries.

I believe the nearest Costco for us is about 10-12 minutes away. It's not the drive that keeps me away, it's just that I don't need to buy things in bulk and for the few things I would buy there, the savings probably doesn't make up for the membership. Great for families and it does seem like they have some quality groceries, I'm not knocking it at all.

Got a text that one of the restaurant suppliers I go to had lump crab in excess, so crab cakes tonight.


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We got takeout from Tortilla Flats, the local "bad gringo Mexican" place. I got steak fajitas, which I love.

And a Patina.

Nice looking crab cakes! I can't do bell peppers, so most restaurant crab cakes are out for me, but I do make them from time to time.

Just celery in those as a vegetable.

Mom doesn't like onions so I had to add onion powder as opposed to the onion.

I choose a recipe with as little mayonnaise as possible since I despise it, but the folks don't, so I couldn't replace it with Greek yogurt.

They were looser than I would have liked, but I'll blame myself for using 17-18 saltines as opposed to the recipe's 20 within the batter.

Grilling while intoxicated after my afternoon drinking
My child and their pal are having a play date. The Pal’s parents are at Fleming’s steakhouse. I’m so happy for them!

4 sliders (on warmed & cheesed Hawaiian buns) - zero toppings except Cheddar
2 sliders with cheddar and toppings
1 slider with Swiss, grilled onions, and not-hot hot sauce
1 slider with Swiss & cheddar, grilled onions, and chimichurri sauce

Popping popcorn for my child and their pal
white popcorn from bob’s red mill

im still so buzzed

My marinara challenge got a little derailed after the Carbone shipment had a broken bottle.

My wife made a nice mushroom sauce, so I had some of that first. Very good.

Then I tried some of the Carbone Marinara, plain over spaghetti. It’s a nicely balanced sauce. Not sweetish like Rao’s. I’d give it a 4 out of 5. Don’t think it’s worth $9-10 a 24 ounce bottle.


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Rao’s edlp at Costco is like $5.50 for 28-Oz. Is The Carbone double good as Rao’s? Maybe even 150% better?

Well, I don't know that Rao’s is worth their price, even. I do like to check out new sauces to compare against, though.

Interesting that the Rao's was 'sweetish', as it's known to be a low(er) carb marinara. Interested in your thoughts on the others when the time comes.

To me the Rao's wasn't really sweeter, but had a lack of acidity which made it seem sweeter. My biggest problem with most tomato based sauces is the acidity, so I thought the Rao's was quite good once spices, meat, mushrooms, onions, etc. were added.

I never realized how many people used jarred marinara often. I should have since they have a whole wall of sauces at the grocery store.

My dinner dilemma. I always have pizza and champagne when watching award shows (reliving my Oscar moment....that's what we ate in the limo on the way to the ceremony the one year that I was lucky enough to attend---now it is sitting on the couch in sweats but the same food). Pizza is a treat because I love it but is a calorie bomb so don't have it often. Do I get my beloved pastrami pizza? Or should I take one for the team and try Pizza Hut (gasp!!) Detroit pizza? I normally would not even ever consider Pizza Hut but I don't know of any other Detroit pizzas around so am curious to try it. I will probably agonize over this for the next few hours. aagghh.
Champagne is chilling for the kir royale---that's the easy part.

I really enjoyed my cheeseburger sliders last night - and not just because of being mega buzzed. I know it was because I rarely eat them. They tasted so great.

I think most people like to make marinara while others just buy it. I used to enjoy making it with canned san Marzano DOP tomatoes and basil, and one day my spouse came home with Rao’s so it made more sense to cook the preferred sauce brand. It’s not that essential to me if it’s DOP or Rao’s; price helps.

for your pizza, I would suggest your beloved.

We have so many places in Sf doing Detroit style pizza so I’m surprised that it’s not more available in your area.

DON’T get the Pizza Hut Detroit. Just don’t. Horrible, awful, disgusting. Inedible. I don’t mind take out pizza at all I think Pizza Hut is the best of the ‘plastic’ pizzas as we call them. I saw people on here talking about it a couple of months ago so we picked one up one night. It was truly disgusting, trust me. Worst pizza I have ever had and that includes mass-produced frozen pizza. We threw the leftovers in the garbage, it was that bad. Horrible.

I use both. If I'm looking to impress someone or have time, I'll make my own. If I'm looking for a quick meal, then I'll use jarred sauce.

As far as Pizza Hut, it's not great.

Even bad pizza is still good. Though there have to be better options in your neck of the woods!

*swoon* kir royale. Reminds me of being in France. For some reason I only get them there.

Believe it or not, I don't know any local places carrying Detroit pizza. There are some that are closer to downtown or mid town LA but none that I can find here in the South Bay. So pastrami it is!

Problem solved...I called Pizza Slut and my local one doesn't have it and doesn't know where it is. Of course I would have checked on here before I made the mistake of getting one. Thanks for the info...I know not to try it now! Threw it away?? It would have to be really bad for me to throw away pizza so it must have been awful.

I normally agree that even bad pizza is still pizza but since I have my pastrami option, I am going to go with it.
The Chambord was an impulse buy yesterday as it was just going to be champagne with a few strawberries in the glass. I have not had a kir royale in ages either...I will pretend I am in Paris (and also at the Oscars).

It was that bad. Worse than the worst frozen pizza you will ever eat. Awful. I agree, all pizza is good pizza but this was the exception. And like I said, I actually like Pizza Hut. Not this one. The sauce was disgusting (was not their normal sauce, had an awful chemical spicy taste to it) and they literally glopped on big dollops of it on top of the cheese so you had sauce soup in some places, nothing on other places. Just don’t.

Fish tacos:

• Pacific cod (from last week's Sitka Salmonshares delivery) with a flour/chili coating
• Corn tortillas
• Salsa
• Chili crema
• Limes
• Cabbage

(Basically this NYTs recipe.)

Ooh! That sounds great. I'll have to remember that one.

My ,$16.95 pizza (small pastrami ) is costing me $27 plus tip for uber eats to deliver it...so many crap fees.

to be cooked:
fish tacos with warmed flour tortillas
avocado slices

Gorgeous - I prefer sautéed fish compared to “Baja” style fried fish. Even when I’ve been to taco restaurants, I’m very fussy about how they do fish tacos.

Ouch! I'd probably pick up said pizza.

I put a dent in Marcus Samuelsson's Rise cookbook before having to return it this week. Highly recommend, but be forewarned the ingredient lists tend to run long.

I usually do but I am watching the Oscars!
It's wonderful .
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I hate you right now. I have fasting bloodwork tomorrow morning, so I can't eat until after that and now I'm starving!

Oh no! I would hate me too.

I was doing well with it too, until I saw that photo.

So fun! Bon app!!!

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🍕 As far as Pizza goes, I have gotten Pizza Hut and Papa John's lately as our local Domino's has been featured on Local 10's dirty dining report due to a rat, then a roach issue that had them shut down by the health department. Our local PH dropped the Detroit Style Pizza due to low sales, so I never got to try it as my wife prefers thin crust, not even hand tossed with the fast food pizzas. Our favorite is Steve's Pizza (NY style) in North Miami, but the medium (six slices) one topping pie is now $15.95 and they don't deliver to my house as it is too far. I had Door Dash deliver one to me a couple months ago and it cost me $27.00, so my wife said, if you can't pick it up, then we will go without. We used to eat there and get slices until Covid. Since she has been vaccinated, we actually ate there on the way home from one of her medical treatments after she had not eaten because she had been fasting for 12 hours before the procedure which took 3 hours.

Is there no local pizzeria that you can get pizza from rather than those nasty chains? Italian restaurant or deli or just a pizza place? I agree that Doordash, Grubhub etc have gotten very expensive with all the add ons. Can't you still get slices from your favorite place and just pick them up curbside or a whole pie and eat if for a few days?

May want to use slicelife.com or the Slice app for local pizza shops.

You can never go back
 

My first experience with frozen dumplings was 15 years ago or so at Trader Joe’s. It’s been years since I’ve gone, but my wife stopped by recently, so I had her pick up a bag of my former favorite, TJ’s pork dumplings.

I decided to try them head to head with the Mandu Bulgogi dumplings from Costco. Both were cooked frozen, straight from the freezer.

The TJ’s dumplings were ok. My wife steamed, then pan fried them. They tasted fine, but nothing out of the ordinary. The wrappers held up fine during cooking.

Next was the Mandu. Prepared the same way. The wrapper did start to come apart a little while pan frying. The taste was far superior than TJ’s. I’d easily pay twice as much for the Mandu. Since Costco often runs a sale on them, I’d guess they can be up to 50% cheaper, on a weight basis than TJ’s. Huge advantage for the Mandu.

continued eschewing of king crab legs so...
bagel with lox & cream cheese
leftover pizza or fish tacos
veggie tray
beef Teton sausage with or without red cabbage


agreed about the pizza - carryout ftw when delivery isn’t available IF you have a car. Courier fees aren’t cheap. Courier services are great for buying a lot like 4 pizzas or food intended for leftovers; mostly non-deep-fried Asian food. Of course just do what works best for your meal at that moment :-)

Any chance we love Mandu because the name feels short for Mandulorian? :-)
agreed that they taste great - maybe because it’s beef and not pork??
I still have 99 ranch dim sum that I must finish before I buy more - Costco is convenient and tis tricky to buy when freezer space is limited.

I used to like the Costco Ling Ling Pork dumplings quite a bit. My Costco switched to just the chicken version now, which I don’t like as much.

I go with how it tastes, primarily. I used to think TJ’s was the best. Mandu is just really good. Always looking for something better, of course.

When dining out at PF Changs, I’ve always enjoying their dumplings. Even when they only had one restaurant, and called them Peking Ravioli’s.

My child saw the Elbow macaroni and made a request so different supper than planned:
nyt southern Mac & cheese
teton beef polish sausage
raw vegetable tray
rotkohl

https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/...cipe-iOS-share


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Bacon wrapped dates on lettuce with blue cheese
boneless half chicken with cheesy gnocchi and spinach
Honey glazed pork chops with garlic mashed potatoes and asparagus
warm butter cake with whipped cream and ice cream

I've saved this, but never gotten around to making it. Is it as tasty as it looks?

leftover Mac & cheese casserole (350 degrees for 10-ish minutes)
veggie tray
leftover panic pizza - olive - with arugula
mixed green salad

I’ve had an epic day - I discovered that one of my new FB friends attended summer school with me ages ago. They were pretty impressed when I asked about it. Super ramotional, so...
dessert of toasted safeway blueberry bagel, half butter and half Wise Sons cream cheese

side note - just saw a picture of facebook’s marc Z outside Wise sons on a weekend brunch day.

so tasty that my family had leftovers today for it. My child eschewed the cheddar bagel I brought for snack because of anticipation for supper. During the drive home from play date, my child asked if we could eat the Mac & cheese by 6 because my child was very hungry while still eschewing the adjacent cheddar bagel. My child even carried the plated bagel into the house from the car.