thirtynine clues

Oh my, what an excuse to dig into what's left of my jewelry box and eat spoonfuls of caviar.

Not intentionally related events, but entirely appropriate.

They were doing some kind of construction on my street this morning. It was grating. I just wanted to enjoy my biscuit brekky sammies in peace after making the effort to set up on the front porch.

One sweet, one savory biscuit retrieved from Joyce. Filled with fried tomato paste + basil + mozz for savory and blueberry jam + black sesame caramel for sweet.

By the time I finished eating them, the drilling sawing blowing ruckus was over. Or maybe I just successfully tuned it out because I wasn't bordering on hanger anymore... except it was more like irritable instead of angry... hunritable?

Leftover dumpling filling (there's always leftover dumpling filling) became spaghetti and meatballs but Asian. We can file this under the Childhood Trash Cravings series as well since pasghetti and meatballs was literally the dish that pushed me to starting making my own meals at home. There was a time when I thought you could only get food like that at Olive Garden or Red Lobster. And that is why my first obsession in the kitchen was Italian food. Also why to this day, Red Lobster is still where Dad chooses to go to celebrate life events.

Xi'an meatballs and peanut butter pasghetti

-fry meatballs in a bit of oil, remove balls

-fry a couple spoonfuls of cilantro-garlic-ginger paste in the reserved meat oils

-cook spaghetti in separate pot

-add one spoonful of tahini and two spoonfuls of peanut butter in sauce

-when spaghetti is to your preferred doneness, add enough starchy pasta water to sauce to simmer meatballs

-add back meatballs and simmaaaa

Simmer until the sauce thickens and eventually breaks into a gross separated gunky brown mess as mine did. Plate with fresh cilantro, scallions, and chili oil. Devour because you shouldn't judge a book by its cover and sometimes the ugliest foods taste the greatest.

Eaten while debating if Meryl Streep's character is sympathetic or not in season 2 of Big Little Lies.

I found an unlabelled jar of infused alcohol in the back of the fridge. Smelled like floral vodka. Tasted like vodka. Annie thought it was leftover vodka. Eh, it's probably vodka. I strained it for good measure, split it, and infused half with black tea and half with camomile tea.

Today's happy hour was the time to taste test the camomile. With bubbles and some wild mint growing in front of Joyce's building. Camomile flavor came through in a good way. It tasted... a bit... salty though? To be investigated another time.

Porch pizza picnic to give me a reason to celebrate the end of another 'what? huh? when?' week.

breakfast pizza for dinner

sourdough crust from Joyce

miso bechamel sauce + extra for crust dipping

kimchi bacon from Joyce

mozz

super soft super creamy tomato scrambled eggs

cilantro and scallions
butter fried sage

caviar cuz we bougie

Washed down with sangria variation #2934729374 (roscato + brandy + triple sec + ginger beer).

pc: Joyce *

Jk. Caviar courtesy of work project 'cause it was technically expired and not gonna make it to the end of quarantine. So I took one for the team and rescued it. Don't say I don't do good deeds.

*BTS: