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rEvolution: Small, Fast and Instagram It

1/30/2015

Spam and String Beans, ca. 2010

When I started Feeding My Ohana, I was using a laptop, a decent point-and-shoot camera, and PhotoShop and then Picasa.

I would lovingly crop photos, try to correct color, and present the recipes and images in the best light.

OK, so I had a lot to learn, and clearly, I was not (and am still not) a graphic designer, photographer, or a digital re-toucher.

In case you couldn't figure it out.

Spam and String Beans by Smartphone, today

Internet-speed to the present.

I still use Picasa and have a laptop, but I upgraded my storage to an SSD (solid-state drive--faster and no spinny parts).

More often, it's my smartphone, tablet, and Snapseed. And my smartphone's photos are larger than the images I took with my old camera.

I am still not a graphic designer, photographer or digital re-toucher, but holy smokes, the smartphone is more like the brilliant-genius-phone for what it has enabled me to do.

Most importantly, Spam and String Beans was still delicious last night. I can just show my table a little better now.

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CE-Excess...A Week of Vegas Meals

1/26/2015

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Venice in the desert.

Las Vegas is the world's largest movie set. You can visit Paris, New York, Egypt (at the Luxor), Venice (the Venetian and Palazzo), and Rome (Caesar's Palace).

One can also time travel to medieval days (Excalibur), go all pirate-ey (Treasure Island) or David Lynch-ey (Cosmopolitan, which is also a little like Amsterdam). All of these hotels have some form of flashy lights/lobby, piped in air freshener to mask the smoke, and myriad of restaurants.

And of course, a casino. Or two. Or three hundred. Every direction (right down to the elevator lobby button, which is noted as a "C" for casino) starts off with "Walk through the casino..." I ventured into this amazing city of excess for a week in January. Here is what I learned.

Las Vegas Strip is a really great walking town. It's pretty safe at night. People who not-very-enthusiastically try to hand out the stripper flyers are really the only annoyance. The monorail also works well.

"Regular" food is expensive. Expect to pay airport-level prices for Starbuck's or similar. A venti iced tea lemonade and a pastry was close to $10. I also had to eat at LVCC because of work and this was also quite expensive for C+ food. Even when I tried to be healthy, oatmeal was $9 in a hotel restaurant.

Walgreen's is a great place to stock up on liquid. Indoors or out, Las Vegas is very, very dry. I bought all forms of water, and lots of it to stay hydrated.

Cow is really delicious in Las Vegas. It was great at the time, but I won't be staring down a burger any time soon. That said, most of it was fab. Here's are the highlights.

Loved it!

BurGR by Gordon Ramsay at Planet Hollywood--Love
They had me at parmesan truffle fries with homemade catsup.

I ate every last bit of the Farm Burger. $15 for a burger is kinda pricey, but it is Las Vegas and it was fabulous. Duck bacon, a perfectly warm-but-still-gooey sunnyside up egg with extra sharp cheddar.

The portion was not ginormous, but it was incredibly satisfying. One of the 'fancy' best burgers I've eaten. My compatriots had the Blue Burger and the Hell's Kitchen Burger--all in the $14-$15 range and we were all very happy and full, to the point that we did not get dessert.

I'm not a Gordon Ramsay fan, but this place did it right. The only downside is that it is crowded and noisy. But again, this is Las Vegas.

Burger Bar by Hubert Keller at Mandalay Bay

FarmBurger was e-i-e-i-ono!

Try it once to say you did.

Another fancy burger joint, this one by Hubert Keller.

I had the Buffalo Burger ($24), which was good, but the portion was such that I ate only a part of it (and the hungrier diners in my party were happy to gobble up the rest).

We sampled a lot of the appetizers and I do like a deep fried pickle. This is also where we had the beer float sampler. While I wouldn't have this again, it was definitely something to try once.

DOCG at the Cosmopolitan--Love
An up-market pasta bar/grill (ala carte ordering and entrees in the $25-ish range). It markets itself as a wine bar, but we went for the food and the dessert.

My team split a roasted heirloom beet salad, which was absolutely ONO and an arugula salad. I had the pappardelle with short rib meat and chestnuts, which was also very much ONO.

We finished up with by splitting the salted caramel budino. Pretzel toffee, fresh whipped cream and a smooth caramel pudding

ONO all the way around.

Once I got home, it was chazuke.

Ono x 3

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Finally Cooking This Week

1/20/2015

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Mahalo Contessa!

It feels like forever since I've been cooking and blogging in any kind of rhythm. We barrel through the holidays
and various early birthdays, especially now that the time when all my birdies are in the nest feels so finite.
Baby Birdie's wings seem to grow by leaps and bounds every day.

So it was nice to take the MLK break and really get going again. There is something very satisfying about setting out a good meal to eat with the family. Here's what's cooking this week.

Proper Sunday Meal
Husband roasted a chicken and butternut squash, and rounded it out with rice and salad.

#MeatlessMonday
Carnivore Husband's Experiment with Butter Chicken Sauce. Tofu with carrots, zukes, and onions with garlic naan turned out pretty well for jar-food.

On my day off, I made granola, roasted tomatoes and tried out a new technique for chicken stock more or less based the Barefoot Contessa.

Chicken Divan makes us happy!

#LeftoversRoulette Tuesday
Chicken Divan with a chicken leg from Sunday. A welcome return from Las Vegas food and Holiday food. I was so excited
to cook, I made a 9 x 13 pan's worth for three people!

Ladies Who Dinner Wednesday
Out to dinner with an AWESOME group of moms that I have known since our collective birdies were just litter peepers. Part of feeding my ohana is being with my ohana and we've all watched out kids grow up as we did too.

#LeftoversRoulette Thursday
BBQ Crockpot pork pizza. Husband (do you see the trend here?) tried out a new recipe for pork and we'll used the rest of it, plus shredded cabbage and sharp cheddar to make a variation on BBQ chicken pizza. Should be good.

#LeftoversRoulette Friday
Chicken Barley Soup with the above-noted chicken stock. Husband mistakenly made barley for dinner instead of rice...

Have a good week all!

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rEvolution: Small, Fast and Instagram It

CE-Excess...A Week of Vegas Meals

Finally Cooking This Week

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rEvolution﻿: Small, Fast and Instagram It

CE-Excess...A Week of Vegas Meals﻿

Finally Cooking This Week

about

categories

archives

rEvolution: Small, Fast and Instagram It

CE-Excess...A Week of Vegas Meals