The Coffee House

[Gary A.]

Buenas Dias Coffee Hosers. Another gray and marine layer cool morning. Gary is finishing his first cup of coffee. This will be a busy morning and Gary is on a tight schedule. A breakfast meeting in Yorba Linda then a mid morning meeting in Yucaipa. Yucaipa is more desert than coastal basin, just on the backside of the San Bernarnio Mountains, east of San Bernardino and north of Redlands. Gary used to take his daughters there in late fall for apple picking halfway up the 11,000' high mountains. A bit of a drive, 2/3rds of the way to Palm Springs.

Interesting 'Column One' story in the Times on "Okonomiyaki" a popular Hiroshima dish which is part crepe and part omelette. The story centers around a company that makes Okonomiyaki sauce. The owner/founder of the sauce company realizes that his success is entirely based upon one local dish and has sent a lot of time, energy and money on marketing the dish. He even built an egg shaped Okonomiyaki museum.

 

[table1349]

And these are not your average Haas avocados. They are super creamy inside. Often we'd take them whole to the Hollywood Bowl and easily swirl up a guacamole mix with a thin plastic spoon.

Gary had a wonderful peach tree when he lived in Palos Verdes. It came with the house and Gary imagined the tree to be 50 years old. Every other year that tree feed the whole neighborhood and the dogs would get their exercise from jumping up to reach the fruit. Gary wants a peach tree but Mary Lou doesn't saying we'll just be feeding the birds.

Gary ain't making no avocado pie! These are all about tacos, guacamole, tacos, soups, tacos, salads, tacos, enchiladas, tacos, burritos, tacos, burgers, et al ... and maybe tacos.

Well you tell Mary Lou that birds have to eat to. Besides some of them may be vegetarian birds. As for the avocado pie, I thought the same thing until I tried Heirloom Tomato pie. Don't know what you are missing plus it only takes a couple of avocados.

 

[Gary A.]

Morning, hosers,

I looooooove me an avocado! I don't know what this is about an avocado pie, but it sounds just wrongedy wrong wrong. I remember the guacamole at Burrito Brothers in Gainesville. They were right across campus, a little hole in the wall type of place, which of course meant their food was awesome

I've been wanting tacos for days.

LOL ... "After hearing the Taco Truck on every street corner remark", Gary has also has a hankering for tacos, not the greasy, ground beef crap, but real tacos slapped together by Spanish speaking cooks who are quick with a smile and even quicker with their huge cleavers chopping the fresh ingredients on wooden blocks. The real tacos where grandmas are all gathered in a tight circle gossiping while the're hands, lightning fast are slapping balls of corn meal into the twin tortillas required to wrap all the finely chopped ingredients. Tacos are always good.

 

[Gary A.]

And these are not your average Haas avocados. They are super creamy inside. Often we'd take them whole to the Hollywood Bowl and easily swirl up a guacamole mix with a thin plastic spoon.

Gary had a wonderful peach tree when he lived in Palos Verdes. It came with the house and Gary imagined the tree to be 50 years old. Every other year that tree feed the whole neighborhood and the dogs would get their exercise from jumping up to reach the fruit. Gary wants a peach tree but Mary Lou doesn't saying we'll just be feeding the birds.

Gary ain't making no avocado pie! These are all about tacos, guacamole, tacos, soups, tacos, salads, tacos, enchiladas, tacos, burritos, tacos, burgers, et al ... and maybe tacos.

Well you tell Mary Lou that birds have to eat to. Besides some of them may be vegetarian birds. As for the avocado pie, I thought the same thing until I tried Heirloom Tomato pie. Don't know what you are missing plus it only takes a couple of avocados.

Maybe, Gary will make a avocado pie, but with a store fruit, not the wonderful avocados hanging from his Don Gillogy tree.

 

[NancyMoranG]

Late to the party...anyone still have their reel-to-reel around! Wow, 12" reel of tape music...

 

[pixmedic]

 

[Gary A.]

Carbonara tonight paired with an Atalon Sauvignon Blanc. Life is good.

 

[limr]

Happy Thursday, hosers!

I was in the grocery store after work yesterday and passed the taco kits. Yes! I finally had my tacos! I got soft tortillas and hard shells because I can never decide which ones I like best. Cut up some fresh lettuce, tomato, carrots, cilantro. I threw in some sauteed mushrooms with a brand of meatless "crumbles" that uses mushroom protein, not soy. (I limit my intake of processed soy.) Added some cheese and olives on top. Was going to make myself some fish tacos but at least for last night, I just couldn't be bothered. They're still part of the plan, however, because there are still plenty of shells left

 

[Gary A.]

Gary is planning on making his own tortillas ... thick, chewy tortillas as soon as the avocados ripen. Gary likes them soft, Mary Lou does a half-fry thing, light enough to keep them relatively soft but hard enough to warm and flavor them up with a slight crispness. (There are three avocados ripening in a paper bag on the kitchen counter.) There is a hole-in-wall place called Senor Baja which makes the best fish tacos ever ... little hunks of God know what fish, battered and fried served with just enough cilantro sauce to get on your fingers requiring you to lick them clean.

 

[waday]

Happy Thursday, hosers!

I was in the grocery store after work yesterday and passed the taco kits. Yes! I finally had my tacos! I got soft tortillas and hard shells because I can never decide which ones I like best. Cut up some fresh lettuce, tomato, carrots, cilantro. I threw in some sauteed mushrooms with a brand of meatless "crumbles" that uses mushroom protein, not soy. (I limit my intake of processed soy.) Added some cheese and olives on top. Was going to make myself some fish tacos but at least for last night, I just couldn't be bothered. They're still part of the plan, however, because there are still plenty of shells left

Sounds delicious. Yeah, I can't do more than a spoonful of the soy meatless crumbles.

Anyways, the wife and I had some delicious tacos a few months back. The guy made me vegetarian ones; we liked them so much we made them again at home.

Throw some vegetables (mushrooms, zucchini, tomatoes, peppers, etc) on the skillet with some taco seasoning (or buy the steam ready ones if you are short on time and add taco seasoning after cooked), then put cooked vegetables, cheese, and sliced avocado on some corn tortillas. I could easily eat 20 of these, haha.


by Wade, on Flickr

 

[pixmedic]

5 pounds of top round London broil sliced and marinated in carribean jerk.

The first 2.5 pounds on the dehydrator.
The beginnings of the wife's famous homemade jerky.

We get $40 a pound for the finished jerky. it's a better deal than the leftover scraps of dehydrated beef you get at a jerky store that's been sitting with a desiccant pack for weeks.


On a totally unrelated note....
If you don't see the ferrets around, it's absolutely not related to this new batch of jerky.

 

[tirediron]

Marinated in, or by?

 

[Gary A.]

Buenas Dias Coffee Hosers. Gary's Chicken Carbonara received high praise from all at the dinner table. Our guests took doggie bags of the stuff home with them. There is some good news in the California Section of the Times, Yosemite is expanding by some 400 acres. Three cheers for arguably the most beautiful spot on Earth. On the same page the California Coastal Commission, in a surprise decision, denied a huge Orange County development on the largest single undeveloped costal property in Southern California. Hundreds of people attended the Newport Beach hearing, both for and against the project. Many of the "For" people were bussed in by the oil company/landowner. Gary doesn't have a dog in this fight, but is against costal development in general, especially large developments in this case involving 100's of new homes and a huge hotel. And there is a story on Vasquez Rocks, a park in Santa Clarita Valley where Kirk fought the Gorn.

 

[Gary A.]

Marinated in, or by?

'With' ...

 

[Gary A.]

Vasquez Rocks: