Sunday, August 7, 2016.
The Comfort Of Routines.
The Marys laugh at my many perennial habits. The slice of toast in the morning. My long list of utterly trivial anniversaries that I celebrate anyway. Red beans on Monday. The trip to the grocery store every Saturday. In my defense I say that by having all these matters plugged into a routine, they all get done. Could it be that women are just more spontaneous than men are? If so, why don't we each play to our strengths? Why do I think I will get a rational answer to these questions?
But there is one routine I don't really like. MA and I inevitably reach the point in the day when we are too hungry to ignore the pangs. At that point, one is apt to make this meal from the most convenient possible restaurants or leftovers at home. This is why we wind up too often at the Acme, Zea, Chimes, New Orleans Food & Spirits, or--as in today--La Carreta. Both of us know that we really should go to restaurants where I've not dined in awhile, but we never seem to agree as to specifically where.
So here we are at the La Carreta on Causeway Boulevard in Covington. This is not entirely useless, because I recite a live radio commercial for the place every day, and the menu is too big for me to be familiar with everything on it.
We come to an early conclusion, and not for the first time. These are the best chips-and-salsa around. The chips are very thin, and the salsa cool, fresh, peppery and zingy with lime juice. I think I could come here and fill up on these things entirely.
[caption id="attachment_52400" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Chicken a la Diabla, from the Monterrey menu @ La Carreta.[/caption]
But I don't. Instead, I find something on the "Monterrey" section of the card. These are complete dinners whose main items involve better than average ingredients. The beef is Certified Angus, a hallmark of above-averageness. But the best items on the Monterrey are the shrimp or chicken a la diablo. The protein involved is grilled, and surrounding it is a pile of rice with scatterings of small pineapple chunks, and a variety of peppers and vegetables. Two sauces--one the queso dip from the appetizer section, and the other a very peppery chilpotle sauce. I think this is a very good plate, leagues ahead of the combo platters in most Tex-Mex places. Not nearly as heavy and pasty.
It's a good late-afternoon supper, one that will stave off hunger for the remainder of the day. My thoughts turn again to mowing the lawn. A race is on between the temperature and the rain. I'm waiting for the former to come down so I won't get a heatstroke. But if I wait too long, the rain will shut me down halfway. A half-mowed lawn looks some kind of stupid.
I get lucky. I manage to cut the main lawns in their entirety. I rest awhile, then go back out to see how my new string trimmer works. Very well, is the verdict, as I cut a good-sized patch that I can't get at with a lawnmower, let alone my tractor.
Well, I guess that was a pretty good day.
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Monday, August 8, 2016.
Culinary Mimicking. Return To Vocalizing.
It's Monday, and I am hankering for red beans and rice. This week MA and I go to New Orleans Food and Spirits, once again sticking to our routine because we can't seem to work up the creativity to go somewhere else. Mary Ann is satisfied with a big salad and a pile of fried oysters. She herself doesn't understand where this sudden hunger for oysters is coming from, but she gets them almost every time we go out.
She will reject this theory, but: I think that she is unconsciously imitating me. I eat oysters every chance I get and always have. It's my favorite food. I also see her making the same hand motions and vocal inflections I use when I'm talking. On the other hand, I am sure that I've picked up some mannerisms of hers. I guess if a person can look like his dog, two long-married people can be forgiven their adoption of each other's qualities. And the things that drive one another crazy, too.
Back to doing the Monday show from home. It's my hommage to Johnny Carson, who turned the Tonight Show over to guest hosts for most of his thirty years on the air. And I have a good reason, too. Monday night is chorus rehearsal night. The Northlake Performing Arts Society, in which I am unobtrusive second tenor, gathers for the first time in our 2016-17 season. We will begin with a country-and-western theme. Not only is the selection of tunes better than I expected, but there is a clear invitation for singers to group into trios or quartets to perform the likes of "Tumbling Tumbleweeds." I have put this idea forward, and got two other guys interested. One more and some rehearsals, and there we'll be, in the spotlights.
Chicken a la Diabla, from the Monterrey menu @ La Carreta.[/caption]
But I don't. Instead, I find something on the "Monterrey" section of the card. These are complete dinners whose main items involve better than average ingredients. The beef is Certified Angus, a hallmark of above-averageness. But the best items on the Monterrey are the shrimp or chicken a la diablo. The protein involved is grilled, and surrounding it is a pile of rice with scatterings of small pineapple chunks, and a variety of peppers and vegetables. Two sauces--one the queso dip from the appetizer section, and the other a very peppery chilpotle sauce. I think this is a very good plate, leagues ahead of the combo platters in most Tex-Mex places. Not nearly as heavy and pasty.
It's a good late-afternoon supper, one that will stave off hunger for the remainder of the day. My thoughts turn again to mowing the lawn. A race is on between the temperature and the rain. I'm waiting for the former to come down so I won't get a heatstroke. But if I wait too long, the rain will shut me down halfway. A half-mowed lawn looks some kind of stupid.
I get lucky. I manage to cut the main lawns in their entirety. I rest awhile, then go back out to see how my new string trimmer works. Very well, is the verdict, as I cut a good-sized patch that I can't get at with a lawnmower, let alone my tractor.
Well, I guess that was a pretty good day.
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