1. I hopped in the Camry and blasted over to Coeur d'Alene for a quick haircut at Supercuts and then, after gassing up, went on a shopping spree at Costco. It was fun stocking up on chicken and ground beef and some pantry items. I also decided to replace our current blender/food processor with a new one.
I'm told by others that parking is a nightmare at Costco, but the parking gods smiled on me today, again. I almost immediate found a parking place close to the store. I'm also told by others that Costco on Saturday is a crowded nightmare. If it was crowded, I didn't pay attention -- I entered the Costco Zone in my mind and had a great time wandering the aisles, taking my time, and imagining possible future cooking projects with the goods I purchased (using rebate funds from the purchase of our heating/cooling system).
I didn't hang out in Coeur d'Alene after shopping -- I wanted to get the meat home as soon as possible and I didn't bring my cooler for this Costco shopping spree.
2. Back home, I made a list of the food purchases I made, what I put in the basement freezer, and what I put in our basement pantry. If I don't make such a list and check it from time to time, I forget what we have in the basement because those things are out of sight and I forget all about them.
3. Debbie also did some shopping after she worked in her classroom or several hours. She purchased a jar of Moroccan sauce. I figured I'd give it a try. I chopped an onion, cooked it until tender, then added ground beef to the pan which I seasoned with salt, pepper, garlic powder and fennel seeds. The sauce already had cinnamon, cumin, and all spice in it, but, in retrospect, I could have added cinnamon and allspice to the ground beef to enhance the flavors in the sauce. Once the ground beef was cooked, I added sliced mushrooms and folded in a moderate helping of the sauce. As the mushrooms cooked, I added dried apricots to this dish -- next time I'll chop them.
I made a batch of jasmine rice and topped the rice with turmeric.
I was making this dish up as I went along and I almost got it right.
I now think I could have been more aggressive with the seasonings and because the ground beef from Costco is leaner than I usually buy, this meal turned out a bit dry. Next time I'll fix a simple sauce. On the positive side, I think my instincts were good that fennel worked well with the ground beef and Moroccan sauce and I liked seasoning the rice with turmeric.
Oh! Next time I might also add lemon juice to brighten the flavors and integrate some chili flakes or cayenne pepper into this experiment to give it more bite, more heat.
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