Surf n' Turf Saturday Night

So the guy from my last "Saturday night" post? Yeah. We're still seeing each other. And he's been just as awesome. I keep telling him I want to cook for him, but with our schedules, it's been close to impossible. Currently, I only have Saturday nights free to spend with him; and that's usually after a brunch shift that totally drains me. However, he's been fantastically understanding. Last Saturday, we grabbed Little Caesar's and just chilled at his place. Last night, he offered to cook for me!

When he picked me up, he mentioned we had to stop at the store- he had picked up some beautiful ribeyes earlier at the farmer's market, but needed to pick up a side dish. Apparently his green beans are magical,  so we stopped at the grocery store by his place to pick them up. On the way, we both decided we were a bit too hungry to wait and needed a pre-dinner snack. And something for dessert. We walked the aisles, snagging brownie mix (because if I didn't have energy to make a whole meal, dammit, I can do brownies from a box at least) and a shrimp cocktail platter.

We got to his place to discover the shrimp was frozen solid. So I set it under a tap of running water and got "baking" while he started dinner. Once the brownie mix was in the oven and he was halfway ready to start cooking, his mom called. Dinner got put on hold for a bit while he took the call, and I remembered an old quick-thaw trick for frozen cocktail shrimp I learned at a restaurant I used to work at. By the time he was off the phone (and 15 whole minutes after I could have had the shrimp thawed), we were decimating our snack.

Watching him cook, his technique could have used work. But I behaved and kept my mouth shut- after all, he was cooking for me! And you know what? It wasn't perfect, but I enjoyed it immensely. I'm so thankful he was willing to cook, and I hope he does it for me again.

*Andi's "no shit sherlock" shrimp thaw trick*
Put the frozen shrimp in a bowl and cover with very hot water. Let it sit for 2-3 minutes.  Drain, then quick chill in ice water and drain again. Serve immediately
*I cannot guarantee this is the most food safe way to do this, but to my knowledge it hasn't gotten anyone sick yet.

My Night on the V-Side

I adore meat. Pretty sure I have made that exceptionally clear, even having an entire post dedicated to it. However, I do try to keep an open mind. So when an old Improv friend of mine happened to be in town Friday night, and I happened to have the night off, I joined him and his pescatarian friends for dinner at a vegetarian Chinese restaurant.

I was a bit unsure going in, not going to lie. The menu looked just like any other Chinese food menu, down to the sweet-and-sour chicken and Mongolian beef, but there were side notes at the bottom of each page that specified that the "meats" were soy-based substitutes. We all started off with a couple of appetizers, some steamed dumplings and hot and sour soup. I enjoyed the soup, but the dumplings were stuffed with different purees that had a not-quite-pleasant runny texture. The flavor didn't suck, but it was a bit disappointing.

Entrees... well, I have never been so disappointed in tofu. And this was at a vegetarian-specific restaurant!  I never expected to say this, but I should have gone with one of the soy substitute "meat" dishes.  Those actually had a decent flavor to them. Overall, not someplace I would go to of my own accord, but if I had vegetarian friends, I'd humor them and tag along.