Grilled

Just a few days ago, we experienced a 30°F drop in temperature over a span of 4 hours, from early morning high (late night) of 68°F to a 36°F drive to work at 07:00. Yesterday morning, we discovered a dusting of snow on the car.

We woke this morning with a hankering for some grilled grub. Perfect weather to kick back, grill some food, and chill. The air was calm, the sky was a bit overcast, oh, and it was 31°F.

Before we could have our picnic, we needed some breakfast in us since we planned on going to Harry & David early to pick up our spiral cut turkey and ham sampler, and whatever treats our eyes and bellies would sucker us into purchasing.

Slightly smashed port cherry, strawberry, and espresso cupcakes

For breakfast, we ate cupcakes from A Cookie and a Cupcake. A new pink polka-dot over brown awning was installed above their storefront window on Wednesday. The special this week was a port cherry cupcake, with large cherries soaked in port as a topping and a filling, with buttercream icing, and vanilla cake.

Fortunately, the port was enough to flavor without overpowering, so I was able to enjoy it. My favorite regularly available cupcake is their strawberry. Overall, my favorite is still the date cupcake, their special from a couple of weeks ago.

We bought our stuff at a very busy H&D and hurried home as we had some chicken, Brussels sprouts, zucchini, broccoli, yellow squash, and linguine waiting for us.

In addition to their ham and turkey sampler, we bought 2 sleeves of thick-sliced pepper bacon, 3 soup mixes, 2 sets of pretty paper napkins for a work party coming up, and some interesting sounding snacks from Sahale that will find their way into someone else's home as gifts:
- Sing Buri cashews with pineapple, peanuts, lemongrass, mild chili pepper
- Louisiana pepper pecans with peanuts, bananas, brown sugar
- Cashews with pomegranate and vanilla
- Marrakesh pistachios with pomegranate, sea salt, and marash pepper

You're probably thinking this must have cost a lot. It should have cost $125. We had two things going for us, an overstock price on the sampler and a coupon, which dropped the price down to $50 total.

Anyway, time to fire up the grill.

Sort of.

Bug started by opening all the windows. He then flashed his seasoned grill pan that we acquired about a month ago. He cooked the chicken breasts and halved Brussels sprouts in the pan, while steaming the zucchini, broccoli, and yellow squash, and cooking up the linguine. Our place looked like a scene from The Fog.

The chicken received a dusting of seasoning that I received as a gift from CJ consisting of Thai red chilies, cardamom, coriander, turmeric, brown sugar, sea salt, and some other [secret] spices that aren't listed.

A lot of grilled yum

The smoky grilled chicken had a slight zing and a balanced blend of woody, citrus, and peppery flavors. The Brussels sprouts were awesome, being grilled to a perfect crunch. The noodles were done perfectly since I'm the noodle madame of the household, but Bug put too much garlic on it, so I whined about that a little (ungrateful wench!). The steamed veggies got overcooked a little, but it wasn't a disaster. It didn't turn to soup or anything.

I was extremely pleased with tonight's dinner, especially considering my task in helping to prepare this entire meal was to chime in that the noodles were officially done as they were delivered to me to taste. Bug even served me my platter, which prompted me to quickly get up and grab my camera to take pictures of this fabulous meal.

After we finished eating, I made numerous excuses to myself to walk past the kitchen, past the bowl of beckoning sprout halves, and swipe one or two each time. Nom.

The amount of food that Bug prepared could easily feed 4 people -- all for under $10 total.

I didn't forget to thank him for preparing such a lovely and nutritious meal, which he took graciously and cashed in as he ran across volumes 7-14 of the Blade of the Immortal manga series in pristine condition for $7.95 each (list price new is $17.95) at our neighborhood bookstore, Visible Voice.

Current album playing...
1000 Fires by Traci Lords


@#$@#$@% I just noticed on Visible Voice's website that they have a customer loyalty program, where every $100 spent earns a $15 gift certificate. *grumble* We've shopped there numerous times over the years and nary a mention.

Bah.

- Cassaendra

A Cookie and a Cupcake
2173 Professor Ave
Cleveland, OH 44113
Tel: (216) 344-9433