1. When I went to Yoke's today, I suddenly thought that it would be fun to fix Debbie and me a chicken and rice dinner with a mushroom sauce. I hadn't consulted a recipe before going to the store, but I figured once I bought mushrooms, I'd be able to use what I had at home to make a sauce.
That turned out to be pretty much true, given that I could make some substitutions.
For example, I didn't have heavy cream at home nor did I have any white wine. But, I did have half and half and plenty of chicken stock. I also didn't have any fresh thyme, but dried thyme worked just fine.
I made the sauce well ahead of Debbie arriving home by cooking mushrooms until golden in a combination of olive oil and butter. Once golden, I added a couple of minced garlic cloves to the pan and cooked them until golden.
Not having wine, I glazed the pan with a quarter cup of stock, then added another half cup of stock, a cup of half and half, and a half cup of grated Parmigiana-Reggiano cheese. Since the half and half would result in a thinner sauce, I popped some corn starch into the sauce to thicken it.
A also added ground thyme to the sauce.
I set the sauce aside and warmed it up when I baked the chicken thighs, seasoned with salt, pepper, Old Bay seasoning, and garlic powder.
I fixed a pot of white rice.
2. As I left Yoke's, I couldn't resist making a stop at the Beach Bum Bakery. Well, I didn't actually try to resist! At least once or twice a week, I want to give this bakery my business. It would appear that I am far from alone! I had hoped to snag a loaf of bread (it wasn't the bakery's day for bagels), but Beach Bum was sold out of everything I wanted to purchase and for my purposes today, challah bread just didn't fit.
BUT, Beach Bum Bakery did have thick, good-sized rectangles (or squares!) of cornbread available and I decided a couple of these might go really well with the baked chicken, rice, and mushroom sauce.
I was right.
The cornbread rounded out our little blue ribbon meal and I had a blast preparing it -- with the help, I might add, of gin and V-8 juice, spiked with Frank's RedHot Sauce and a squeeze of lime juice, sipped from a glass rimmed with Old Bay seasoning.
3. Growing up, I don't remember watching Burke's Law, but for the heck of it, I clicked on it once I got our smarty pants Vizio warmed up and Debbie and I watched an episode.
Gene Barry plays a millionaire who is also a homicide detective. In contrast to Columbo who putters around in his beat up Peugeot, Amos Burke glides from place to place in a Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud II, chauffeured by his driver, Henry.
I don't know if this episode of Burke's Law was typical, but if it was, each episode featured superb guest stars. The episode we watched featured Tammy Grimes, Keenan Wynn, and Burgess Meredith. This episode also developed a convoluted plot and included unusual, if not surreal, details. The episode opens with a prostitute who discovers not only the murdered victim lying fully clothed under a shower, but also discovers a buffet of gourmet food and instead of calling the police, ravenously dives into the turkey drumstick, caviar, and other culinary delights. Each time Burgess Meredith appears, he's tending to, and feeding, his collection of meat eating plants. Keenan Wynn plays a goofy used car salesman ("Give 'Em Away" Murphy) whom we see making tv commercials. We also meet a wine snob and an old Japanese friend of Burke's whose loves ancient Japanese music and playing poker.
Burke is suave, standing in stark contrast to the oddballs he investigates and the situations he walks into -- he has to keep from having his arm eaten by the carnivorous plants and, at one point, joins one of the suspects in a steam bath, fully clothed in his tailored millionaire suit.
Burke's Law was a trip -- I don't know if we'll return to it, but it was a fun detour.
So was Starsky and Hutch. I never watched this show either and the episode we watched tonight featured a married couple in their, oh, 70s I guess, who are unhappy with the group home they live in and pack their car's trunk with dynamite and plan to blow up their residence.
But, while they are seated at a coffee shop, two criminals steal their car, not knowing its packed with TNT.
It's quite a challenge for Starsky and Hutch to run down the criminals and to try to get the car to a remote place to blow up.
It's an hour of car chases, hand to hand combat, gunfights, and a car blowing up, engulfed in flames.
I didn't know how much excitement I missed nearly fifty years ago when I never watched Starsky and Hutch.
Wow!
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