A friend of mine returned from Europe and got out of quarantine last week, I went for lunch with him on Friday at a local pub, he couldn't believe how normal life was.

Back on topic, last night was dinner at one of my favourite Viet restaurants "Phamish"

Blue swimmer crab dumplings
Beef la lot (beef in betel leaf)

Chili lemongrass chicken
Sesame lamb
ocean trout
crispy pork

I was full as a state school.

Happy Pessach. So ace

brisket (in oven) - prepped & baked in-house
apple charoset - prepared on Shabbat evening
Citrus charoset - prepared on Shabbat afternoon
gefilte fish (wise sons)
chrain (purple horseradish) (wise sons)
matzoh ball soup (pizzeria Delfina)
matzoh crackers (Streit’s Egg / Maneschevitz white / Yehuda white)

coconut macaroons (wise sons)
girl scout cookies (fetched 6 more boxes today)

too full for dessert.


https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...27fb1b87c.jpeg
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...e71f18d31.jpeg
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...2ea47ae7f.jpeg
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...0d6a03d44.jpeg
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...af9eed497.jpeg

Homemade pepperoni/Italian sausage pizza (the halfsies are because we each like different amounts of sauce/cheese/meat)
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...5ca3478b74.jpg

I love home made pizza. There's something nice about the conviviality of everyone getting involved in the process; lay out the ingredients and everyone builds what they want. My dream is to put in a wood fired pizza oven, but I hate baking and I feel like unless you're willing to bake bread it's a bit of a white elephant. (I'm also fairly certain wood fired anything is not allowed by the council)

if it’s legal and your dream, then I say go for it. Pizza 1-4 times a month? Then the pizza oven will be much fun.
I’m satisfied with oven pizza enough that I’ve lost desire to get it at any restaurant or to ever go to a pizza restaurant. I only made one exception on a mega-rare day in January when I had such a busy intense work day that I went to the nearby Costco to get a slice before fetching my child from school (Costco is a 3-minute drive from work!).

Last night we had our first truly indoor dining experience in 376 days... Celebrated Mr CE's birthday in Topolobambo's library. Prix fixe dinner, delicious and felt very safe. They've installed a big air filtration system and all of their staff have been vaccinated.

Tonight we've pulled leftover brisket out of the freezer, also have leftover matzo ball soup and just bought some gefilte fish so we'll have a Passoverish dinner.

St. Louis cut pork ribs. I usually smoke them, but can't be bothered today. Instead I'll bake them with a rub, covered on low heat, and then finish uncovered on high heat with a bit of sauce. I'll also probably do a broccoli slaw on the side. To keep it keto, the rub, sauce, and dressing will all be no sugar.

Leftover Pessach

brisket
matzoh ball soup
charoset
gefilte fish with chrain

mixed green salad

Coconut macaroons
Girl Scout cookies

Since you say you are concerned with the health aspects of foods.....
Have you looked at the ingredient list on those girl scout cookies? :)
I quit eating them long ago partially due to that, and there are just so many tastier healthier sweets out there.

i’m sure that I would find so many worse things to eat. I’m going to enjoy these with citrus or other fruits for awhile before getting any other form of desserts - no doughnuts for awhile :-)

Out of curiosity, which variety of Girl Scouts cookies are kosher for Passover?

We had Michael Solomonov's Abe Fisher Passover Meal Kit, delivered by Goldbelly (our kitchen remodel is almost complete, but our Wolf range won't be delivered for another three to four weeks, so we couldn't cook from scratch). I'll rate the meal at a B-; the brisket was way too fatty, the sweet potato and apple kugel was soggy and bland, and the chicken rillette and the flourless chocolate almond tart with pomegranate were way too salty, the latter tasted as if they substituted salt for the sugar, yes, it was really that salty. The everything spice matzo pieces were really good, the matzo ball soup was the best I've ever had and the carrot walnut charoset was sublime, more like a carrot salad that my grandmother used to make. The rest was OK. The portions were generous and it was a great value, but I expected better from Solomonov.

Pork katsu and stirfry vegetables.


https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...f5ec934bc.jpeg

The only ones I liked at all were the Samoas, and one box a year was plenty. But hey, if you really like them enough to buy dozens of boxes, enjoy.

Are you under the impression that it is ok to eat 18 boxes of girl scout cookies as long as you have fruit with them?

Thanks for all the paella tips. In the end, I was outvoted by a narrow 1 to 1 margin and we went with lasagna. Still an excellent choice. But paella will be on the menu some time in the next few weeks.

Same for us this weekend. Partly because I'm trying to use up all the wood that's stored on my patio before it warms up though.

The arrows were silly. Much safer to pass by someone in the opposite direction for 2 seconds than to stand behind them for 5 minutes going down the aisle. Most places here took those out a while ago. But to your question, I think some of the crazy rules will be around long after most people are vaccinated. It will take 1-2 generations before life returns to the way it was 18 months ago.

First - wow, that's a long time! We did eat inside last summer when things were open, but even then it was mostly outside to enjoy the weather. We did the Topolobampo thing last summer in the library and loved it. It seemed like such an intimate, special experience. Kind of like the first time I flew upstairs on a 747 and it felt like a private plane to Europe.