In medias res » Food

Found: best use of leftover cornbread, ever

in medias res — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 20:57:07 +0000

I made some cornbread last weekend; since there were just two eaters, we didn’t come close to finishing it. Days later, I was in need of a quick dinner, and decided to try something new. Sooo…I mixed together the remaining cup or so of chili with a can of black beans, poured some jalapeno salsa over the beans, then crumbled the cornbread on top and covered it all with a bit of cheddar. The mess fit into a 9-inch bread pan just right. I expected something edible to emerge from the oven 30 minutes or so later, but what we wound up with was food that was OH MY GOD!!! awesome.

Thought I’d share, in case anyone else out there ever winds up with leftover cornbread.

A food desert?

in medias res — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 16:58:31 +0000

I was ready to blow up when I saw the following headline on the O this morning: Portland’s low-income neighborhoods are city’s ‘food deserts.’ Given the excessive number of wealthy foodies who restaurant hop on Hawthorne and fight for parking spaces at New Seasons, I guessed it was going to propose that the poor needed more fine dining restaurants.

However, that was not the case. Instead, the article explores the lack of access to groceries that is a problem not just in Portland’s lowest-income areas but pretty much anywhere there are large concentrations of people living in poverty. Paige Parker of the Oregonian is the author; I don’t know that I’ve ever said this before to anyone at the O, but great job! Very nicely done.

Recipe for a tasty Sunday

in medias res — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 18:41:00 +0000

Start with some Stumptown Sumatra blend coffee. Think about their future New York City location (H/T Dave Knows: Portland), become highly annoyed with the Flash-based design of their website. (Hello, world, it doesn’t work for rock band websites, and it doesn’t work for yours, either.)

Head to farmer’s market the moment it opens. Obtain all the vegetables and fruit one can carry, along with some chipotle chevre and farm-style sausage and bacon.

Return home. Sauté sausage while roasting a chile ancho. Make scrambled eggs with sausage, chile, and chevre. Slice a tomato, sprinkle some sea salt, and enjoy.

Commence imagining how the long, delicate broccoli would taste after grilled.

Nap so that dinner time will arrive sooner.

Dumbass servers in SE Portland

in medias res — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 05:14:16 +0000

I had dinner with a friend this evening at a place in SE Portland, Wild Abandon. We were seated on the patio, and the mosquitoes were aggressively awful…she was mopping blood off her arm with her napkin. We waited about twenty minutes for our server to come by after the onslaught started, and when we could finally handle it no more, we moved inside. Of course we told the nearest available server what we were up to, and she said “That’s fine! Sit at any clean table inside.”

Fast forward five more minutes, and our server finally visited our original table, saw that we (and our wine glasses) were gone, and then literally RAN right past us, out the front door, and onto the street, presumably thinking that we had, what, STOLEN OUR WINE? We saw him run by, and never once did he look around the room to see if maybe, just maybe, we had moved. In fact, he still wasn’t looking for us when he came back from the street; we flagged him down.

Now, I know it’s shitty to move, but it’s also shitty to a) wait 45 minutes for your soup and salad, and b) never hear from your waiter in that time.

I don’t get the server’s response, but maybe it’s the preponderance of worthless hipster and hippie types in that part of town. Don’t know. But I do know I’m not going back. That’s ridiculous.

It’s a brunch. That’s why there’s so much alcohol.

in medias res — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 16:35:08 +0000

I’m having a pre-birthday brunch for my Best Roommate Ever tomorrow morning; there will be 12-15 of us, and most of the group are of the pretty hard-drinking variety. The menu is coming together a bit slowly, but so far, here’s what I have:

Drinks: coffee, mimosas (OJ and passionfruit), bloody marys, prolly greyhounds

Food: challah French toast, with assorted fresh, local berries; pear and arugula salad, with walnuts and parmesan; bacon-ey stuff; maybe some roasted asparagus–but it’s out of season.

Any quick ideas of things to round out the menu? I am not really wanting to bake, as it’s kind of hot in the kitchen already, but I do feel like something may be missing…