During the pandemic we are suppose to distance ourselves from other people as much as possible. Grocery stores are the places we go to with the most people these days so I elected to do grocery pick up. I had a good experience from Costco with grocery delivery two weeks back. Last week I didn’t need any groceries so I did without. This week I decided to try Safeway because I can’t get everything I want from Costco like scallions, herbs and many assorted other little things.
It was pretty easy to order and pay on line. I was surprised that I couldn’t buy radishes…or dry milk. I also couldn’t buy the 65cent watermelons that were on sale unless I paid $5.00 each for them….But I admit maybe I just messed that one up.
AnyWHO…….
When it came time to pick up we got into a parking space, called a number that someone answered.. Soon someone comes out with a cart of groceries to our car and loads the trunk.
When I got home I checked out my groceries.
They were out of a couple things that I really needed like garlic… 🙁
A few things were substituted …………but I marked no substitutions….. 🙁
But the one thing that made me upset was the rotten moldy basil they stuck me with.
I guess the person packing my cart for me was very tired and didn’t even look at the basil….?
But I wonder why would something like this even be on the shelf?
They also neglected to give me my Monopoly Tickets…for prizes and discounts. 🙁
That was Grocery Shopping During the CoronaVirus Pandemic – Week 7 – Safeway in Metro Phoenix AZ.
Ramen eggs are very easy to prepare and are delicious! You can enjoy them many ways. You can enjoy them plain, to dress up a vegetable dish, any soup dish, a salad, a burger or sandwich or even a dinner. I didn’t create this recipe but found it on the web years ago and can’t find the same one again to give the author credit. I did find that many recipes are similar. You have some flexibility with the recipe and adjust it to your needs. You cook the eggs the way I did and you just need to remember to marinate the eggs over night in a solution that is 1/3 soy sauce, 1/3 mirin and 1/3 water. I wrote the recipe in 1/3 cup measurements but I used a 1/3 cup dry measuring cup because that is easier to eyeball. It doesn’t have to be exact but the measurements are meant to be even.
Ingredients for 6 servings (I did 7 eggs and it was enough)
Water to cover eggs well in pot
1/3 cup soy sauce
1/3 cup mirin
1/3 cup water
Directions
1- Bring a pot of water to boil with enough water to cover eggs well.
2 – Add eggs slowly with a spoon and don’t drop them in or they will break
In our local Phoenix Newspaper (The Arizona Republic) our food critic Dominic Atmato highly recommended this mail away frozen ramen called Ramen Hero. After I read the article I wanted to try Ramen Hero. I went to the site and they were all sold out of all the flavors except for two Vegan Ramen varieties that come in a four pack so I ordered them. I got two called “Hippy Van” and the other two are called “Miso Impossible.” I got the four pack at around $73.00 that includes the shipping. They arrived about a week later and were packaged very well with dry ice.
They come in vacuum sealed bags with easy boil in bag directions. Each bag is filled with a frozen bag of soup, a bag with protein and vegetables, a bag with a sheet of seaweed (that you add at the end) and a bag of noodles.
Everything is heated up and I give it a try.
The soup is very good. It’s rich, developed with flavors and it’s good. Taste like I could have gotten it out from a restaurant.
The noodles are also very good and chewy. Not as good as the last ramen I had at a restaurant but nearly as good.
But WOW the protein is POLARIZING.
In the one bag with the protein I got strips of pepper, a squishy strip of zucchini, a chewy sun dried tomato slice. The protein has a nice texture that is similar to meat…..BUT WOW……. the protein taste like something that is IMPOSSIBLE to describe. (now I know why it’s called Miso Impossible) It’s FORKING INEDIBLE and is AWFUL to me……I can’t eat it. It doesn’t taste like food……and it’s painfully salty too like salt water. It’s like a combination of LOTS of salt, something burnt, something like coffee grounds and something funky. Even my husband can’t eat it. Thank God I made delicious ramen eggs so I’d have something good in this soup.
It’s not a total loss.
Well the soup and noodles really are very good….and the sheet of seaweed adds that just right flavor to it. Maybe the meat varieties of Ramen Hero are better?
I would NOT recommend the Vegan Miso Impossible many because I couldn’t stomach the protein it came with and wasn’t thrilled with the squishy and chewy vegetables. (now I’m afraid to try the other one…….I am hoping it’s better…..If it is I’ll write about it when I get the nerve to try it.
I think this soup would have been much better if it came with cubes of tofu instead of the vegan protein. Maybe a different vegetable like a mushroom would have worked out better here I’m thinking……
Those were my Forking Thoughts on Vegan Miso Impossible Ramen Hero and your Forking Thoughts may indeed differ.
www.RamenHero.com
Everything is subject to change and your experience may differ.
We are supporting restaurants as much as we can. These are the worst of times and all restaurants are hemorrhaging money. While nothing is for certain these days chances are that take out food is safer than food you purchased at a grocery store. Remember that you are suppose to avoid contact with as many people as possible and keep at least a six foot distance. I don’t know if the news is factual but on channel 3 news they reported that you are very unlikely to catch coronavirus from food anyway. They reported that even if the person preparing your food has coronavirus that you are unlikely to catch the virus that way. I hope that is true…….
Our first take out this week was from Taco Fusion in Glendale. I’ve been there a couple of times before this second take out. The Tacos really are the best that I’ve come across in this part of town.
Pastor and Shrimp tacosbarbacooa tacoMild habanero chicken, grilled chicken, fish and Tijuana asada
The handmade tortillas are different and also delicious. The flour tortillas are very thin but tasty and the corn tortillas are a little smaller but have a nice corn flavor to them. I still think all the tacos are excellent but the mild habanero chicken taco on corn tortilla is my favorite. It is extra delicious with any salsa on it but my favorite salsa the first time was the pineapple salsa. First take out they didn’t have pineapple salsa but this time the pineapple wasn’t mixed up or something and it was just juice but all the other salsas were flavorful and amazing.
We shared some with our furry companions.
Next take out was from Chino Bandido in North Phoenix. They are a casual Chinese/Mexican Restaurant mixed with a little Caribbean. You get a BIG PAN of food with a fresh baked snickerdoodle cookie there for around $10.00 a pan or less depending on what you get.
Pan on the left is a chile relleno quesadilla with red jade chicken, black beans and steamed white rice. Pan on the right is a pollo diablo quesadilla, carnitas, refried beans and steamed rice. In-between the pans are the fresh baked snickerdoodle cookies. For most people each pan is two or more meals each. Our furry friends love to taste the foods.
We also did take out from Rocket Burger in North Phoenix. This is a casual sandwich shop with a wall of 100’s of sodas. When they first opened the sodas were mostly root beers but after a few years they now offer all kinds of flavors.
On the left is a double Santa Fe Burger that is made with a giant fried green chili, veggies, cheese, bacon and it normally comes with (DELICIOUS) Rocket Sauce (but my husband won’t eat creamy sauces so it was ordered without). On the right is the Pescado de Cohete (Mexican Fish Sandwich). It’s a cornmeal crusted mild white fish topped with DELICIOUS, slightly spicy Mexi-Slaw and pico de Gallo. These sandwiches only cost less than $9. each.
Next take out was from Tratto the fine Italian restaurant from the James Beard Award Winning chef and the famous Mastro of pizzas Chris Bianco.
We got the family meal take out special that included a salad, hand made pasta, creamy chick peas, a loaf of Bianco bread and chicken sauce. Everything was prepared to perfection. Everything was amazing.
Last take out of the week was Grassroots Kitchen and Tap in Scottsdale. The food is always delicious from Grassroots Kitchen and Tap.
I got the house smoked salmon and orzo salad. My husband got the bbq brisket with cheese grits and beans. A MUST GET is the key lime pie because 40 yes FOURTY key limes get squeezed into every pie making it THE BEST Key Lime Pie in Metro Phoenix and maybe beyond.
“That’s all Folks!”
We tried to support as many restaurants as we could this week. This week we did take out from-
Taco Fusion in Glendale
Chino Bandido in North Phoenix
Rocket Burger in North Phoenix
Tratto in Phoenix
Grassroots Kitchen and Tap in Scottsdale
Everything is subject to change and we hope it does for the better.
I had these plum tomatoes that had to be used so I made a tomato soup. I made it chunky but if you like smooth you can blend, strain and add a little cream if you like. After I made it I thought what can I do to make it more interesting? I thought I’d make grilled cheese ravioli so I did. The soup is far more interesting now. My idea of serving size will differ from your idea of serving size. To me this makes 4 bigger servings or 6 smaller servings.
Ingredients for around 6 servings
2 Tabllespoons olive oil
1 onion – chopped – like pea sized
1 carrot – remove skin, trim end, chop into small cubes like pea sized
3 garlic cloves – ground to paste or microplane
1 1/2 plum tomatoes (they must be super ripe like one day from throw away) – remove the stem button and dice small
14 oz Italian crushed tomatoes
2 cups water
1 Tablespoon vegetable soup base (this adds flavor and also reduces the salt added)
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper (or to taste)
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon sea salt (or to taste)
1/4 teaspoon ground white pepper
1 egg
2 egg yolks + one of the egg whites to seal ravioli
1 1/2 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil
pinch sea salt
10 slices American cheese
2 oz butter to fry with
2 Tablespoons corn meal or semolina to rest ravioli on
few squirts of olive oil so ravioli don’t stick
optional a few fresh basil leaves
1/2 cup + 2 Tablespoons flour + extra flour for rolling *****amount of flour may differ slightly because different brands are ground different****It’s possible that you might need 2 Tablespoons less*****Start with 1/2 cup flour and slowly add till dough isn’t too sticky
Directions
In a big mixing bowl add the egg and yolks and mix well. Then add the oil and salt and mix well. Add 1/2 a cup of flour and mix well. You might need up to two tablespoons more flour. Slowly add flour until the dough is smooth and not too sticky. Knead it into a ball pat some flour all over it and wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate about an hour.
Make soup.
In a sauce pot on medium high heat add the olive oil. When the olive oil is hot add the onions and carrot. Stir Occasionally and cover. This takes around five minutes. Add the garlic, plum tomatoes, crushed tomatoes, water, soup base, black pepper, thyme, salt, basil and white pepper. Bring to boil and reduce to simmer. Let it simmer about 20 minutes.
Roll out ravioli dough.
Cut out a circle and brush it with egg white.
Put about 1/2 a slice of cheese in the lower middle of ravioli. Fold and seal and place on semolina (or corn meal) lined tray.
If you have a dog it might appear by your feet now hoping that you will drop cheese.
Repeat till done. ( made 19 ravioli but I had to roll up scraps and re-rolll the dough..The second dough I couldn’t get as thin or as tender but it still was good)
Boil for one minute.
Fry in butter on both sides for about a minute or until lightly brown and serve with soup.
I guess you might have enough ravioli to give more than two ravioli a person but I thought two was the right size serving. You will have more ravioli than soup if you give two but don’t worry. They are so delicious that the ravioli will go fast. They taste like a grilled cheese sandwich but they are ravioli.
Tomato Soup with Grilled Cheese Ravioli
Add some fresh basil if you have any.
My husband said that he could eat all the grilled cheese raviolis. I hate to brag but they really are FORKING GREAT!
There is always something NEW, WEIRD, DIFFERENT, Limited or Special Edition out there in the wonderful world of food. I came across most of these just before the pandemic.
Up top are-
NEW – Reese’s BIG PUFFS – Now you can have BIG BALLS TOO for breakfast…
NEW – Kellogg’s Eggo maple flavored waffle cereal ..they don’t look like waffles to me….
NEW – Kellogg’s Eggo blueberry waffle cereal flavored with OTHER natural flavors (ick) WTFork is other natural flavors……..squirrel farts? They also don’t look like waffles to me.
LIMITED EDITION – General Mills Cheerios with happy heart shapes…WHY ………then they aren’t Cheer-i-“O”s…..O’s….O’s Not farts…I mean hearts…….
LIMITED EDITION -General Mills Cherrios Toasted Coconut whole grain oat cereal with OTHER natural flavors…..? other? pineapple would be good here?…but other can mean something else. Other could mean ground up cow utters…….
NEW – Kellogg’s Llama Loops….in fantastic fruit with (FORKING) sparkles and OTHER natural flavors….OH POOP…OTHER natural flavoring might be LLAMA BUTTS..OH GOD WHY? Someone must have been on drugs to dream this cereal up.
NEW – General Mills Hershey’s Kisses Cereal…It FORKING looks like a bowl of rabbit turds
NEW – LIMITED EDITION – Kelllogg’s Mommy & Daddy Berry Fin-tastic with marshmallows Cereal and Baby Shark Cereal in Berry Fin-Tastic with marshmallows. They didn’t even bother to make this cereal shark shaped. They didn’t even bother to make the two cereals any different…WHY?
NEW and WEIRD – Jell-o Play in edible grass lime and edible sunshine lemon….Odd is the lime grass flavored…or does it come out looking like grass? Also why is it called play? …..Phew…..Glad they didn’t name the lemon one yellow snow….
Different and maybe New – Hershey’s dairy whipped topping on caramel flavor…??????
DIFFERENT – 4TH & Heart Chocti spread that’s cacao, ghee and dates
Different A Netflix Flavor of Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream – Netflix & Chilled – Peanut Butter Ice Cream with sweet and salty pretzel swirls and fudge brownies……..sound good……?
NEW – Haagen Dazs Ice cream with spirits. Here’s rose and cream ice cream and stout chocolate pretzel crunch ice cream…….????? Rose ice cream doesn’t sound good to me……Not sure about stout?
NEW – Harvest Snaps – in southern BBQ flavor ………..?????
DIFFERENT – Munch Rights – apple cinnamon baked puffs…..?????
DIFFERENT – Craft Counter Wunder Nuggets plant based nuggets with lentil. It would be healthier to just eat vegetables with lentils…..
Joey Chestnut (The Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog eating champion) sauces in green hatch & jalapeño, sriracha teriyaki, citrus habanero and hot chicken….????
NEW – Pop-tarts PRETZEL style in chocolate filled and cinnamon sugar…? …I’m interested but I doubt that I will ever try.
NEW and WEIRD- Pop-tarts in Mer-Mazing Blue Raspberry…
NEW and LIMITED EDITION – Pop-tarts in fruit loops flavor with natural fruit flavors….
OLD Leftover LIMITED EDITION – Wintermint Ding Dongs – They look like they are filled with Smurfs.
DIFFERENT and WEIRD – Charms Brand (the lollypop people)Rainbow Sherbet Cotton Candy so you can fart a rainbow too!
DIFFERENT and Maybe NEW – Hot Tamales soft and chewy bites
DIFFERENT – Salt and Lemon HOT POWDER..
..(ick) what am I suppose to do with that?
DIFFERENT – Almonds and Fruit in sea salt almond blueberry, dark chocolate almond with toasted coconut, sweet cardamon almond with honey crisp apple and ghost pepper almond with tart cherries….
DIFFERENT – Blue Diamond Almonds in sweet Thai Chili and Sriracha….
DIFFERENT – Sherwood Feisty nut clusters in sweet habanero….could be good?….could suck?
DIFFERENT – Project 7 Poppin’ Lolli’s – these are lollypops that you dip in popping powder….in fairytale fruit flavor………LOL………….fairy-tail fruit flavor?…….made up fruit?
DIFFERENT – Smart Sweets Gummy Bears , Swedish Fish, something sour. 3g of sugar a bag
DIFFERENT – Twizzlers filled bites in sweet & sour cherry and citrus….?
WEIRD – Spray candy….can’t spray candy…it’s just sweet liquid……weird.
They make FORKING weird food for dogs too!
WEIRD – Bocce’s banana split dog treats
(and even weirder)
WEIRD – Bocce’s Unicorn Shake Dog Treats
Someone must have been on drugs to think this one up…..Who are the whack jobs that would actually buy this for their dogs???
The next one isn’t food but it is food flavored (sort of)
WEIRD Oreo flavored lip balm
And they are still banging out the Oreo cookies!
WEIRD and Oreo and Trolls World Tour Limited Edition Cookies. They have green cream and popping candy in them!
We that was the NEW, Different, WEIRD, Limited and Special Edition foods out there for April 2020. Who knows WTFork I’ll come across next month.
You need a stand mixer bread flour, salt, water and active dry yeast to make these rolls. The dough will be sticky so you need to knead it with extra flour. They come out DELICIOUS! This recipe make 8 good sized rolls.
Ingredients for 8 rolls
3 1/2 cups bread flour plus extra flour for kneading
1 (slightly heaping) Tablespoon sea salt
1 3/4 cups water
1 1/2 pack active dry yeast (around slightly heaping Tablespoon)
A small amount of semolina, corn meal or flour to rest dough balls on so they don’t stick to surface.
Directions
Everything goes in your stand mixer bowl. Mix everything up by hand so you don’t have flour going all over the place. Use your dough hook and set the mixer on medium high for around 5. minutes or until the dough is like elastic.
Get a large bowl and make a nice little bed of flour for your dough ball.
Make the dough into a dough ball. kneading it till it feels like a nice dough ball.
Cover with plastic wrap and leave it sit out 4 hours. Then punch the dough down and knead it into a dough ball. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for 10 hours.
After ten hours pull out of the refrigerator and punch the dough down and divide the dough into eight by quartering it and cutting each quarter in half.
You need to lay down a large baking sheet or two baking sheets to rest dough balls on. The sheets need either flour, corn meal or semolina on them so your dough balls don’t stick.
The eight pieces of dough need to be kneaded into balls. Place each dough ball on a baking sheet that has either flour, corn meal or semolina on it and let the dough balls double in size.
Preheat your oven to 500 degrees.
I used my very oiled stone to bake the rolls on but I warn you that I took a chance.
Most bread stones can’t take 500 degree heat and might crack or burst. They make bread stones out of iron now that are more durable.
If I didn’t have a stone I would have used my pizza pan lightly sprayed with non stick spray.
Mine were perfect in 11 minutes…timimg might differ slightly.
When a new M&M comes out I just feel like I have to try it even if it rolls out during the pandemic. Armed with onion googles and a mask I risk death by entering an empty CVS store to purchase the last two bags of Fudge Brownie M&M’s. They were on sale for two bags for $5.00 and apparently they were sold out fast.
I get home open up the bag and take a whiff…Ummm it smells just like a bag of brownies.
I pour some out and I see that they are large for M&M’s and they are very irregular and sort of lumpy in shape. They come in the usual M&M colors yellow, orange, red, brown and blue.
I eat one.
It’s really different……It’s chewy….like a caramel-ee chewy brownie. It really does taste like a brownie….It’s the usual candy shell with the usual chocolate inside and the center is like a lump of chewy brownie….but it feels like it’s mixed with a non sticking caramel.
I eat a few more because they are pretty good tasting.
But the shells are melting in my hand.
HEY WTFork! That is not suppose to happen!
Maybe I got a defective bag?
Well they taste good. Gotta be happy with that.
Worth a try!
Those were my FORKING Thoughts on Fudge Brownie M&M’s.
During the pandemic we are giving our support to as many restaurants as we can. These are the worst of times and all restaurants are hemorrhaging money. We’ve also noticed that some restaurants have already closed permanently.
First place that we did take out from was our long time favorite for take out….Banh Mi Bistro Vietnamese Eatery in Phoenix. It’s a Pho-Free eatery but does offer most of your other Vietnamese favorites. We packed up the dogs to come for the ride and they started licking their mouths in sync when we got there.
I got the delicious curry chicken.
My husband got a shaking beef banh mi.
We always enjoy Banh Mi Bistro Vietnamese Eatery.
Next take out was from Confluence Restaurant in Carefree. We also been to Confluence many times. The food is always astonishingly FANTASTIC!
OMG YUM! The food really is Forking Extraordinary!
I had the halibut tacos. WOW they are melt in your mouth amazing! Almost nobody prepares fish this great!
My husband had the pork belly Rueben on chocolate rye.
This was another YUM-DINGER! We both with with the side salads as our sides, shared some delicious Brussels sprouts and enjoyed macerated strawberries! This really was quite a treat!
Since we are dining at home we had to share the goodies.
We also did take out this week from Pita Kitchen in Glendale. It’s a little casual Greek Restaurant.
I got my usual chicken kabob Greek salad but I tried their jalapeño cilantro hummus for the first time.
The chicken is developed with flavors and has a nice char. The fresh baked pita breads are very good too. The hummus is creamy and taste like cilantro…..I’m not getting the jalapeño but sometimes jalapeños can be very mild sometimes.
My husband got his usual Gyro Greek Salad.
We happened to have help eating the large portions.
We thought it was time to treat ourselves and we did the 5 course take out from Binkley’s in Phoenix. ($$$$$fine dining restaurant) ((but take out was many times less than dining in there))
First course was green garlic and potato soup.
Next was marinated cucumbers with crab, kumquats, yogurt, dill and red onion.
Third course was spinach and sorrel salad with spiced hazelnuts, feta, cranberries and sherry vinaigrette.
Our main courses were house made corned beef with red wine braised cabbage, apple balsamic mustard, Irish soda bread and honey butter.
Dessert was mulberries with mint and maple quark…WOW what a treat!
Oh and we had some help with this.
My dogs don’t know that they are lucky dogs that eat better than most people.
Last take out this week was from Cucina Tagliani in Glendale.
I got the strawberry and goat cheese salad that comes with grilled chicken.
They always have really great strawberries and their house made dressings are very good.
My husband had a Stromboli today.
The dogs enjoyed sharing our meals.
That was week 5 of Take Out During the CoronaVirus Pandemic. The restaurants we did take out with this week were-
Banh Mi Bistro Vietnamese Eatery
Confluence
Pita Kitchen
Binkley’s
Cucina Tagliani
If you care about any restaurant you should at least do some take out from them.
Everything is subject to change and we hope it does for the better!
I was watching chef Richard Blais on the Rachel Ray Show and all the food he made looked and sounded so delicious that I wanted to make it. This was during the coronavirus pandemic and I couldn’t make all his recipes yet but I was able to make his salsa verde and put it on a NY Strip Steak and a day or two latter but it on a salmon and IT WAS FORKING DELICIOUS! I didn’t have carrot tops to add to the recipe but even without the carrot tops it still was amazing. I also enjoy his restaurants. I loved my amazing meal I had at his restaurant in San Diego. I also liked his casual restaurant in Las Vegas called the Crack Shack. A special THANKS to chef Richard Blais for sharing this Forking Delicious Recipe.
ingredients for around 6 servings
1 teaspoon anchovy paste (I filled a teaspoon heaping with anchovies)
1 Tablespoon raisins (I used golden)
1 garlic clove (ground to paste or microplane)
1/2 cup fresh parsley leaves
1/4 cup fresh tarragon
1/4 cup carrot top greens (this I left out because I didn’t have)
1 Tablespoon fine chopped jalapeño
2 Tablespoons capers
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/2 lemon – (just the fresh squeezed juice)
fresh crushed sea salt to taste
fresh ground black pepper too taste
Directions
Blend and add salt and pepper to taste.
How I made the steak. I salt and peppered it. added a small block of frozen olive oil and vacuum sealed it in a bag. Put it in a 130 degree sous vide machine for three hours. Dried it off with a paper towel (still had paper towels). Fried it in a pan with some canola oil at high heat about maybe a minute on all sides to sear and added salsa verde.
Both dogs were there but it was hard to get my bigger dog in the photo.
Richard Blais Salsa Verde on NY Strip Steak
We all Forking Enjoyed The Richard Blais Salsa Verde on the NY Strip and Latter on Salmon!
A special THANK YOU to chef Richard Blais for sharing his FORKING SCRUMPTIOUS DELICIOUS Salsa Verde recipe!
