Tuesday Dinner: Mexican Chicken and Lime Soup (Sopa de pollo y lima, or something like that)

If I were to guess, I think The Wife would like it if I used the grill a few more times before the chill of autumn settles in. We have a detached garage that sits towards the end of our property. It seems like the din of fall makes the walk to and from the garage more like an arduous expedition rather than the same 40-step walk (from door to door) that I’ve done since assembling the grill in the spring.

(I would ask The Wife about all of this, but that would require us having a conversation about something other than The Kid or work. This is a seeming impossibility these days. And besides, we’re married. I don’t have to talk to her anymore.)

What I do know is that there are flavors that The Wife likes and those she loves. Cilantro falls into the later category. If she approved of such things, you would see her walking around with a wad of the pungent little leaves tucked into her lower lip like a hunk of Skoal.

Inside the city limits

EDITOR’S NOTE: Not to be outdone by my trip to Dallas, Farmington/Canandaigua Bureau Chief and The Smartest Man That I Know™ Brian Moritz went to Austin to eat dinner. Actually, he presented at International Association For Communication and Sport’s Summit on Communication and Sport at the University of Texas. The author of the Sports Media Guy blog and Ph.D. candidate at Syracuse University files the following report.

Crab and shrimp tostada, from a food truck just outside my hotel by Lady Bird Lake. Unfortunately, I didn’t get the name, because it was incredible. Big hunks of crab and shrimp meat in a cool mayo, with fresh lime juice, fresh cilantro and little dabs of hot sauce on top of a crisp tostada. The lime and cilantro added such great bursts of tang and flavor. It was incredibly surprising and very good. 

And the brisket. First off, we didn’t make it to Franklin BBQ. A little too far from campus, and apparently they open at 11 and then are open until they sold out. We didn’t get done for dinner until 6 p.m., so odds weren’t in our favor. We opted for Ruby’s, a little joint on 29th and Guadalupe. I went for the brisket plate, with vinaigrette slaw and black beans as the side. Of course, it was the best brisket I’ve ever had. Fork tender and moist, incredible flavor. The pickles on the side were a surprise as well. They weren’t the big, thick-cut pickles we’re used to in the east. They’re thin, almost wafer, and really good.

Monday dinner: Quinoa burrito bowls (and the debut of Meatless Monday)

UPDATE: Al Dente’s Binghamton Canandaigua bureau chief Brian Moritz reports that his Wegmans carries store-brand freshly made pico de gallo. Very disappointing.

Meatless Monday has become a national movement backed by the geniuses at Johns Hopkins University in an effort to reduce our overall consumption of saturated fat and cholesterol. It has its roots during those skirmishes in the early to mid 1900s, where Presidents Wilson, Roosevelt and Truman asked Americans to go meatless one day a week to make sure we could feed our soldiers abroad. Or something like that.

(Tangent: We can get into the politics of this, but I don’t believe that food should be political. It should be safe. It should be accessible. It should be served to politicians. It shouldn’t be a political statement. There are too many people who lack access to quality fresh food. A 12-week per year farmer’s market in a Northeast city is a nice gesture, but is a fingertip bandage on a fissure. If people are hot to make a political statement about food, they should try fixing that.)

For our purposes, Meatless Monday is not going to be a grand statement. It’s my challenge to reach out and try new things that are healthy, and approach the stove without a chicken thigh, pork tenderloin or other piece of animal flesh in hand.

We’ll see how long this lasts.

Tuesday dinner: Chicken with salsa verde

Sunday’s Wegmans trip was a taste of Murphy’s Law at the grocery store. Usually, the produce department is hemorrhaging tomatillos, the sweet but ugly little fruit used to make salsa verde. Of course on the day I was looking for a half-pound of them, they were nowhere to be found. The produce manager told me that they would be on the truck that evening. So, Monday’s dinner moved to Tuesday.

The Wife likes tomatillos and will pretty much go with salsa verde (or simply, green salsa) whenever it is available. Our personal favorite is the variety dished at The Mission. It’s sweet, smokey and has just a hint of heat (they list it as a medium salsa). In the past, I’ve broiled and pureed them with other ingredients to make a traditional cold salsa as an accoutrement. Tonight, I went with a sauté.

Tuesday dinner: Honey-lime chicken breasts

We’re going to try a new format for the recipes. We’ll start with a little bit of babbling, touch on what worked and what doesn’t, and then drop in the recipe. This way, we can cut back on the stream of consciousness that kicks off so many of these pieces and focus a little more on the food.

My hope is that this focuses me a little more on the topic at hand. I’ve noticed that I wander a little bit (okay, a lot). It adds some personality and color to an otherwise boring recipe, but holy hell, even I get sick of hearing myself talk after a while.

So, let’s call this the end of the babbling and move on to…

Monday dinner: Stuffed poblano peppers

Good poblanos are tough to come by in Syracuse, N.Y.

My first encounter came at the now-shuttered La Hacienda in North Las Vegas, a taco stand where my aunt complained that the music was too damn loud to hear the waitress. I didn’t have the heart to tell her that the volume was irrelevant because the waitress didn’t speak English. The best I can come by here is El Canelo, an underrated Mexican restaurant on Bridge Street in East Syracuse. The peppers are fire-roasted, then fried, and served with melted cheese in a slightly-spicy red sauce.