Still here....

A quick update... we've been pretty busy with baseball (both the travel team and the local minor league team) and getting ready for the school year to start, so I've been making a few repeats (brined pork chops) and easy instant stuff (Ikea meatballs & roasted potatoes). With a few ballpark hot dogs and soccer stadium nachos thrown in for variety.... But now that soccer season (Chivas USA) is about done, OC Flyers baseball is winding down, and school is ready to start, we will hopefully be back to a normal dinner routine. I have 2 new cookbooks (free, I only had to pay shipping, couldn't pass that up!!: The Art of Mexican Cooking by Diana Kennedy and Mario Batali's Italian Grill)

Sunday I brought home a package of cooked lobster claws and 3 lbs of clams home from Costco for our dinner, we had a 1996 Chassagne-Montrachet to drink in celebration of our 12th wedding anniversary. Clams went into the pot with a bottle of inexpensive but drinkable Pinot Gris, about 2/3 stick of butter, a sliced lemon, 4 smashed garlic cloves and a big pinch of red pepper flakes. We ate the lobster claws cold with lemony clarified butter. Some nice demi-baguettes rounded out the meal. I was outvoted on a salad, we made a good mess on the outside tablecloth. It was fun, we debated about music and the Dodgers while getting messy with shellfish. I forgot to take a photo of the spread either before or after, there was quite a bit of carnage. A great way to end the weekend.

Monday I made a different tofu recipe from the Flexitarian cookbook - roasted tofu with lemon & thyme. I was a bit short of lemons so left of the slices. It was sort of meh, kind of dry. We all like the "other" version better (I posted on it before, with soy/butter/ginger/shallot sauce).

Last night was brined pork chops, also posted previously. It is just amazing to me how brining makes even blah supermarket pork chops very tasty.

Tonight & tomorrow bring more repeats, fritatta & chicken/sage bake without sausage this time.