Lots of Fish

Date & Time: October 6, 2011 6:30pm
Main Course: Fish tacos made from beaded fish nuggets from Market Day. They were tasty and served on flour tortillas. Liz also brought some tasty Puerto Rican food again; I think there was an empanada (which may have been called something else); a bread whole catfish; some omelet/Fritata thing with fish and meat wrapped in potato and deep fried.
Sides: Shredded cheddar; crumbly Mexican cheese; velvets and homemade salsa; homemade jalepeno sauce; chorizo and potatoes; and lettuce.
Beverage / Libation: beer and wine
Desert: Rainbow Sherbet
Guests: Tom & Sue and Aunt Liz
Misc.: Once again ate too much...
Cheers,

NATE

Cancelled Puerto Rican Night

Date & Time: September 29, 2011 6:00pm

Main Course: Carolyn was sick. So I made crispy tacos for the kids. We had ground beef with taco seasoning. Liz stopped and got some interesting Puerto Rican food from a trailer in a park abs brought it over. There was beef empanadas, chicken and plantain shish-kabob, and some sort of beef cheese and potato puck that Liz didn't know what it was.

Sides: Shredded cheddar; homemade jalepeno sauce, lettuce.
Beverage / Libation: water
Desert:

Guests: Aunt Liz

Misc.: Carolyn had a stomach bug and went to sleep when I got home. Liz bought Puerto Rican food before she got the word that burrito night got cancelled.

Cheers,

NATE

That's a Mild Enchalada

Date & Time: September 22, 2011 6:30pm

Main Course: Carolyn made some tasty vegetarian enchiladas. I never figured out what was in them but they were delicious. They involved mozzarella cheese and black beans and one pablano pepper from the garden. They were cooked double decker which didn't work too great the bottom ones got a little manky looking.

Sides: Shredded cheddar; salsa from a jar and home canned; homemade jalepeno sauce, sour cream, cheese quesadeas for the children

Beverage / Libation: Real cheap vodka and diet tonic, wine
Desert:

Guests: Tom & Sue and Aunt Liz

Misc.:

Cheers,

NATE

Empanadas

Date & Time: September 15, 2011 5:30pm

Main Course: Beef and potato empanadas made with pie shells and baked.

Sides: Shredded cheddar; salsa from a jar and home canned; homemade jalepeno sauce

Beverage / Libation: Water

Desert: no dessert

Guests: Aunt Liz

Misc.: Dinner was served early so Carolyn could attend the BPC meeting (i.e. PTA)

Cheers,

NATE

Gorditas and Pork

Date & Time: September 8, 2011 6:30pm

Main Course: Smoked pork from Labor Day with tasty gorditas that were filled with cheese and beans. With the pork we served stir fried peppers and onions in a sauce made from a taco packet. They were very tasty.

Sides: Shredded cheddar; spicy black beans; salsa from a jar; homemade jalepeno sauce

Beverage / Libation: Remainder of a box of Target red wine and a bottle of pink Winking Owl

Desert: Neapolitan ice cream

Guests: Tom & Sue and Aunt Liz

Misc.: Happy Birthday Chris

Cheers,

NATE

Chicken again

Date & Time: September 1, 2011 6:30pm

Main Course: Chicken thighs were seasoned with Market Day season salt and grilled over high heat along with some oiled onions, bell peppers, and squash. These tasty grilled items were served with grilled flour tortillas.

Sides: black refried beans; homemade giant bowl of salsa with tomatoes from the garden; bag of shredded Mexican style cheese mix; Tabasco sauce.

Beverage / Libation: Big bottle of wine that was finished and more was desired.

Desert: We had ice cream but didn't serve any. I assume Carolyn didn't want to share her ice cream.

Guests: Tom & Sue.

Misc.:

Cheers,

NATE

Tinga Tinga Tinga

Date & Time: August 25, 2011 6:30pm

Main Course: Pork tinga, it's basically a stew of pork chunks, potatoes and tasty seasonings. It's cooked for a long time in the crock pot. The pork roast (should be shoulder) is chopped into chunks that in the end gets fork tender and falls apart. The tinga sauce is drained and pork and potatoes are served on tortilla.

Sides: black beans; homemade salsa with tomatoes from the garden; crumbly Mexican cheese; onions and cilantro; roasted tomatoes and onions; chopped tomatoes; and mozzarella cheese quesadillas for the children.

Beverage / Libation: Fat Tire beer; wine; sangria made with koolade (I think).

Desert: We may of had some cake for Noah's birthday which was Friday.

Guests: Tom & Sue, Marcie & Ella and Aunt Liz.

Misc.: Happy birthday Noah

Cheers,

NATE

Steak and Potatoes

Date & Time: August 18, 2011 6:30pm

Main Course: We had some thinly sliced sandwich steaks which were rubbed with olive oil with some chili powder and garlic powder mixed in. I should of used some lime juice to help tenderize the steak but after it was grilled I chopped it up rather small bite to cut down on the chewyness. Along with the steaks we had grilled green peppers, pablano peppers, abs onions. They were served with flour and corn tortillas that were warmed on the hot grill.

Sides: Colby cheese preshredded cheese mix; Roasted vegetable salsa made with homegrown tomatoes; potatoes and chorizo sausage sausage; onions and cilantro (which I forgot to use, it was on the far side of the table)...

Beverage / Libation: Mobelo beer; cheap Target wine; chocolate milk and water.

Desert: Oreo cookies, double stuff; iced oatmeal cookies.

Guests: Tony, Eileen, Asa, Audrey and Aunt Liz.

Misc.: It was a very nice relaxed burrito night with nice conversation following; not that I talked much...

Cheers,

NATE

• Posted using my iPod.

Deep Fried Avacado

Date & Time: August 11, 2011 6:30pm

Main Course: Deep fried avocado. Well the Tribune had an article on deep fried avocado so we had to give it a try. We followed the directions which used a seasoned beer batter and a panco bread crumb topping. They were excellent but then again isn't just about anything deep fried good (chicken gizzards?). Since we were frying things once the five avocados were done we also breaded up some onion rings and really spicy jalapeño halves.

Sides: Cheese and hot sauce.

Beverage / Libation: .

Desert:

Guests: Tom; Andy, Marcie & Ella and aunt Liz (late)

Misc.: I slacked on typing this and have forgotten most of the details...

Cheers,

NATE

• Posted using my iPod.

All alone...

Date & Time: August 4, 2011 6:30pm
Main Course: I whipped up some leftovers. I sliced a previously grilled pork chop and heated it on the griddle. Then I added some white Mexican cheese which melted and browner on the griddle. I tossed the pork and melted browning cheese on two pairs of corn tortillas with some lettuce and they turned out rather tasty.
Sides: Well I took a couple of jalepeno peppers and replaced the inside with a chunk of the white Mexican cheese. Then I wrapped it in a slice of bacon and tossed them onto the grill. They grilled up nicely but they were rather spicey jalepenos.
Beverage / Libation: Tiki cup of ice water.
Desert: I ate an ice cream sandwich, it had three flavors of ice cream, the standard vanilla was the best flavor.
Guests: Only me...
Misc.: The rest of the family was off having fun without me at a water park somewhere.

Cheers,
NATE

• Posted using my iPod.

Taquitos - hmmmmmm

Date & Time: July 28, 2011 6:30pm

Argh! I typed out an elegant and long blog post using my iPod software Blogpress on the train but had to wait to publish it until I had wifi. But when I got wifi the blog draft was gone no where to be seen...

Main Course: I gave a try making taquitos and they were outstanding. Two different kinds were made the first were filled with taco meat (ground beef with a taco seasoning packet) and some white Mexican cheese. The second kind were jalepenos peppers with cheese. The cheese didn't do so well in the fryer but some cheese was left in them. The shells turned wonderfully crispy and everybody seemed to enjoy them. Fried is tasty...

Sides: Homemade salsa; sour cream; sour cream with a blended up pablano pepper; cheddar cheese; and refried black beans with lots of garlic.

Beverage / Libation: Water and maybe some white wine.

Desert: None... I was going to fry up some flour tortillas abs covet them with cinnamon sugar but the oil got rather manky with melted cheese.

Guests: Tom and Liz. Not sure where Sue was. Some sort of professional meeting or something.

Misc.: The evening was cut slightly short due to power outages. We had power but my parents didn't so we broke early to get a generator to hook up but the power went back on before we even picked up the generator. Which is good I guess.

Cheers,

NATE

• Posted using my iPod.

Fish Tacos

Date & Time: July 21, 2011 6:30pm

Main Course: Grouper. We grilled the fish which was a first for me. Im pretty certain I've never grilled fish before. It came out pretty tasty if I say so myself. It was marinated with oil, lime juice, cumin, chili powder and salt and pepper. We used tasty small flour tortillas heated on the grill following the fish cooking.

Sides: Homemade salsa (so so); Mexican slaw (for the tacos, shredded broccoli, cilantro and some other stuff, the lovely Carolyn made it, tasty); sour cream; cheddar cheese; cilantro and onions.

Beverage / Libation: Watermelon daiquiri; tasty but not enough; Water fir the kids.

Desert: Blue bunny chocolate chunk and chocolate covered salty pretzels ice creams on cake cones. I had a red freezer pop.

Guests: Tom & Sue.

Misc.: . The house is hot. Our little ac unit can keep the dinning room at about 80 degrees sometime 78. Can't wait for the heat wave to pass. Looking forward to some snow...

Cheers,
NATE

- Posted using my iPod.

Chicken Again...

Date & Time: July 14, 2011 6:30pm

Main Course: Shredded chicken thighs in nearly standard taco meet sauce. It was very tasty and relatively easy to cook. 4 cups of water chicken and seasoning cook until water thicken to sauce 40 minutes or so. I enjoyed and it was a nice change from the grilled chicken rut we've been in

Sides: Beans -- didn't forget the beans this week and they were garlicy and tasty; homemade salsa with tomatoes, green peppers and lots of cilantro; and the standard other taco/burrito fixings.

Beverage / Libation: Some large bottle of white wine; a 2L of Inca Kola: the Golden Kola, some sort of south american cream soda that is apparently bottled in New Jersey...

Desert: South American vanilla wafers and Oreo double stuffed blizzard cookies

Guests: Tom & Sue; Liz; and Marcie & Ella.

Misc.: It was a busy evening with Noah and myself going to Harry Potter at midnight and planning for some upcoming camping trips

Cheers,

NATE

Crowds & We're Back

Date & Time: July 7, 2011 6:30pm

Main Course: Boneless chicken thighs. The were not very well marinated, I just sprinkled some season salt on them. The chicken was grilled with one large onion cut in half, one red bell pepper, two pablano peppers, two jalapeño peppers and one large yellow squash. Everything was then chopped into strips for easy taco construction. Served with corn and flour tortillas.

Sides: Homemade roasted salsa, about five Roma tomatoes, four jalapeño peppers, an onion, 2 ears of corn, entire garlic bulb and some cilantro (not roasted); potatoes with the cheap chorizo (it's better then the expensive stuff); I forgot to make beans... my favorite part; preshredded Mexican style cheese; tabasco sauce (I seem to have run out of jalapeño sauce); I'm sure there some other items that I've forgotten.

Beverage / Libation: Diet Pepsi; some sort of pink wine (there's a Burlwood Cellars corks laying around so it was nothing but the best); leinenkugels.

Desert: Sapitos, Frog cookie / candy bar from Bolivia similar to Crunch bars (figura con sabor a chocolate rellena con sebor manjar/dulce de leche y cereal crocante Caramel flavored and crispies filled frog shape chocolaty bonbons, I didn't see the English until I typed the Spanish); ice cream sandwiches and Trix rice crispy squares.

Guests: Tom & Sue; Jon & Patti; Andy, Marcie & Ella; and Aunt Liz.

Misc.: Jon said I should get back to updating the burrito night blog. So I found an app for that and maybe I'll start updating this more. Took me a while to figure out my login...

Cheers,
NATE

- Posted using my iPod.