What About Them Chipotle Maple Pork Chops.

Not a bad lunch.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The meat section at Food Basics was conspicuous by its absence today. One roast, two packets of stewing beef, four or five little steaks.

No ground beef or pork, although there were a few items in poultry, and processed/prepared meats seemed to be okay. That's very unusual in a Canadian grocery store. Bananas come on a boat, fresh meats come from right here in Ontario, including Maple Leaf and Schneider's. Many smaller companies as well.

This kind of high-value product also has the shortest shelf-life. It has to be produced, packed and shipped, in a labor intensive model that brings just the right amount for daily consumption in any given town.

That supply chain appears to be experiencing some disruption.

#food

I was still in and out, (in twelve minutes or less, typical bachelor stuff), for $19.20, plus a nickel for the plastic bag. That includes a bag of salt & vinegar chips, (no name), and a large tin of spaghetti sauce for another day…

 #Covid_19

That being said, the processed meats offered some hope at least. We grabbed a couple of Legacy chipotle maple pork chops and six or seven dollars worth of corned beef from the deli section.

The store did have buns, fresh ones at that, and that wasn’t always the case a year or more ago, when the pandemic, and public health ordinances originally hit.

$8.00 for two pretty nice chops.

I’m not that familiar with chipotle, but the flavor is just nice, it’s not overpowering.

We microwaved one small potato, cut a couple of celery sticks lengthwise, also refreshing the water in the jug before putting that back into the fridge.

A stalk of celery is a certain size and we live alone, so some of that inevitably ends up in the trash. As for the plate, I’m all out of paper towels, but this is a clean shirt and it’s just me. Right?

There were a few water spots on there, that is for sure.

 

Along with a pickle and some beer, not a bad lunch.

 

END

 

See Louis Shalako’s Heaven Is Too Far Away, an online serialization of the original novel.

 

Thirty Years of Funk. (Grand Funk.)

 

Thank you for reading.

 

 

I Call It Barbarian Chicken.

 

Yesterday's lunch...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I call it Barbarian Chicken, but basically, it’s chicken barbacoa. Its roots lie in the Caribbean, and ultimately, Africa before that.

One has to have a name for it, in the unlikely event that I ever get a woman in this apartment, you know, like for dinner and stuff. Drinks and stuff. You want them to think that you are self-sufficient, which drives them mad for some reason...no, what I mean to say is that it makes you all the more intriguing, ah, gentlemen, because their last three or four husbands were about as useless as we can imagine.

I, ah, mean in the kitchen, and stuff like that, right...right...???

(Ahem.)

This meal was actually constructed using a Lou’s pre-cooked dinner entrée, (although Louis usually has them for lunch. – ed.)

It is the usual thing, I get to do the shopping, (and paying for stuff), hauling it up to the third floor, I do all the basic prep work and then good old #fritz gets all of the credit.

I do get to eat it, which is a plus—he can’t, being a purely imaginary being.

The product was $6.99 on special, and we (or I) got two meals out of it. Looking at the plate, one can see small portions of brightly-colored vegetables. Brightly-colored vegetables are good, ladies and gentlemen, as any front-page nutritionist, big girls who just like to cook, on a six-month contract and a government grant will surely attest, and they just want to help poor people make better nutritional choices on a limited budget, for example ODSP, (disability), roughly $1.25 per day, or in the case of OW, (welfare), a nickel.

...he could be wrong, but not by much... - ed.

So far, we haven’t seen too many potatoes in this blog, and that might even be a good thing. I like potatoes, but also enjoy certain substitutions, parsnip with roast, carrots at almost any time, the little baby turnips, I reckon cauliflower would serve a similar need.

You could do rice if it agrees with your #microbiome

The sauce in this product is very nice, there is some heat but it’s not crazy or stupid-hot or anything like that.

I believe that this is a glass of Carling Ice, 5.5 % alcohol by volume and $2.00 from the cooler at your local Ontario liquor outlet.

I could be wrong, but not very often—and not by much.

 

END

 

The Humble Yet Lovable Meat Pie.

 

Steaming hot.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I love the smell of fresh-cut celery in the morning.

It smells like victory.

As for the humble but lovable meat pie, we baked this $1.79 Swanson Turkey Pie from Food Basics, first removing it from the plasticized bowl and placing it in (or on) a piece of tin foil sprayed, in this case, with Pam.

I like the sort of food you can stick in the oven and then sit there drinking beer, watching stuff on the screen, and sort of allowing that anticipation, that appetite, to build up a bit.

Carling Ice, $2.00 per tall can.

I ate lunch at 2:00 p.m., more or less the usual time. I will be done eating by 7:00 p.m., which means the time in between is sort of like a mini-fast, each and every day.

We peeled and sliced one carrot, a source of vitamins and minerals and trace elements which are essential to maintaining those precious bodily fluids.

Prep time for something like this is not excessive.

We took a few slices off of a cucumber, and a thin slice off of a tomato, all in the interest of visual appeal, and to add some contrast in the flavors. Lots of brightly-colored vegetables on the plate. That is the key—

We found some leftovers in the fridge, which accounts for a couple of slices of sweet potato and a few green beans.

Just for a laugh, we stuck our Nikon S-33 underwater camera down in there for a look at celery, underwater.

END

Celery, under water.

 

 

Rinse that real good.