If there was a graveyard for the avocados that I have let spoil before I was ready to eat them, it might rival those buried at Arlington Cemetery (people not fruit). One predicament is that if I need an avocado for today, all the avocados at Walmart are rock hard and won’t be ready for 3 or 4 days. Or, I’m trying to think ahead and I’m looking for an avocado that will be ready in 3 or 4 days… and all of those avocados at the grocery are already soft and will start to turn brown by tomorrow. Also, if I buy a medium sized avocado, I don’t need to eat it all, when half would do.
[NOTE 10/31/24]: I think it was a woman customer, behind me at Pate’s who mentioned that putting an avocado in a glass of water (completely covered) and putting it in the refrigerator would make it last longer, so I tried this. Unfortunately, I forgot about this avocado and it was probably two weeks before I pulled it out and attempted to cut into it. At first I thought it was frozen. It was hard and difficult to cut around the kernel, but I did and then left it to thaw before twisting it apart. But later, when it should have been thawed, it was still hard, but not cold. I did manage to pry it apart and to my surprise it was rock hard inside. It looked fairly good, if it had been soft, but it wasn’t soft. Not sure why it took on this extreme rigidity, but maybe just a few days would work to hinder the overripening. [end NOTE]
Finally I thought through this dilemma and decided that I would cut the ripe avocado in half and eat half now and make guacamole out of the other half. I could refrigerate the guacamole and it might last for another couple of days, so I might be able to skip a day between eating the whole fruit. *I try to cycle through the different types of food/meals I prepare. I don’t want to eat steak every day, or chicken every day, or steamed cabbage for every meal, so I try to change my entrees and sides. I’ll eat chicken in a stir fry today, and a pan fried pork chop for the other meal. I might steam asparagus, cabbage or cauliflower for one side and maybe fix a cucumber/onion salad in sweetened vinegar or stewed Roma tomatoes to go with whichever other side I’ve chosen. I may choose a hot side to go with a cold side. I like a microwaved Russet potato with butter & sour cream as a side and I might eat steamed asparagus with that choice. Cabbage slaw made with Dukes’ Mayo and some Half-n-Half might go well with a pork chop. I like a hamburger or maybe a large Sweet Italian Sausage patty that I might put on a ciabatta roll (or half of a roll).
I currently like a simple ciabatta roll sandwich, made with some Dukes Mayo, a couple of slices of Wegman’s White American cheese, a slice of Sweet (Vidalia) onion and some Hillshire Farms Pastrami. Carlie C’s IGA has a small bag of Wavy “store brand” Potato Chips that sells for about $1.48. This is not a family sized bag, nor a single serving bag. I can make 3 or 4 meals with this sized bag, and not eat the whole thing at one sitting. So I put some of these chips in a plastic sandwich bag, along with the slice of onion and maybe a few grape tomatoes. In another bag, I put a wedge of “Ranch Dill” pickle or olives, keeping the dry ingredients from the wet. For the Dukes Mayo, I put some in one of my small Rubbermaid containers that have an “Easy Find” lid. And, a few weeks ago I happened to see and buy a set of eating utensils that fit in a plastic carrying case (metal spoon, knife and fork). So this sandwich is what I fix sometimes when I drive up to Wegmans Grocery in either Raleigh or Morrisville. I actually buy the pastrami, cheese and the ciabatta roll at Wegman’s and make the sandwich in my car. I either eat in the parking lot, or find a nearby city park with some shade. *It is amazing how delicious this sandwich tastes. A bite of the pastrami sandwich, then a wavy potato chip, and maybe a tomato or a bite of the dill pickle. Oh, I also buy a cheap ICE flavored drink (costs about a dollar) and may have brought a half empty frozen drink container with ice that I can pour the drink into to cool it off.
I like various nuts. I have eaten a lot of raw peanuts this summer. Pate’s Farm Market, across town, has a large pile of raw peanuts for sale. There is a scoop, but I use my hand to select my peanuts, and most times I eat a mess of them right after I get back to my car. I also like roasted pumpkin seeds and cashews. *Years ago the Fresh Market offered “Wasabi Soy Cashews” and I really liked the flavor, but then they discontinued that flavor of cashew for about nine years. A year or so ago, they brought the Wasabi Soy Cashews back, but once again they didn’t sell well. I had found that I could use the wasabi soy seasoning powder that sloughed off and put it on roasted pumpkin seeds. And the flavored pumpkin seeds became my favorite over the cashews. I finally found the wasabi soy seasoning powder at Amazon, and now buy a small package about once a month. I can season quite a few pumpkin seeds from (“Wasabi Soy Seasoning Sauce Powder – Kinjirushi Brand) this one package. They are addictively delicious.
About once a month or a month & a half, I buy a whole rotisserie chicken from Harris Teeter. It costs less than $8 for the whole cooked chicken. I can make four or five meals from this one chicken so it is very cost effective. Two breasts (maybe 4 oz. of white meat each), and two drumsticks with some white meat (3 oz. each), and then pick off the remaining meat to make chicken salad. Cabbage slaw and some baked beans would go well with the chicken.
I like various seasoned beans like black eyed peas, large white lima beans, or green split peas, and I am partial to lentils with some carrots & onion. I season the beans & peas with bacon or ham hock. Some time ago I made a delicious “mess” of green beans, white potato and bacon. Beans & potatoes both mess with my blood sugar levels so I don’t fix them quite as often as I would like.
I like the flavor of German Potato Salad which is simple to make: potato, bacon, onion (maybe some celery if I have it) and vinegar & sweetener. I like the flavor, but I can’t have this often because it “messes with” my blood sugar levels.
I used to make spaghetti sauce at home (about every two weeks) but rarely do this now because I don’t need all the starchy pasta noodles. After years of using the cheap starter sauces (from Delmonte or Hunt’s), I heard about Rao’s sauce and now buy their Marinara starter. The cost difference is probably $2 for the cheaper sauces and $8 for Rao’s regular jar, but Rao’s produces a better end flavor. I add ground beef, onion, sweet (yellow or red) bell pepper, and sometimes mushroom pieces. I might add some Italian Sausage, but not always, and I will add some garlic, or garlic powder, along with some fennel seeds. I read that Italian Sausage is seasoned with fennel seeds so I thought to add this as extra flavoring. *It is a licorice flavor. I just saw a review of several starter sauces online and Rao’s was a favorite of several reviewers. I don’t know why it’s that good, but it is that good!
BREAKFASTS
I often fix fried apples and bacon for breakfast. I like using Gala apples and often use bacon grease to fry the apples (sometimes with olive or avocado oil). If I have it, I use some pepper bacon that I get from Lee’s Market near Benson, NC but also like the Gold Leaf (plain not peppered) brand from Smithfield. The Gold Leaf is a cheaper brand at Carlie C’s IGA, but I noted that Pate’s charges about $3 more per package for the same product. *My mother fixed fried apples for me the first time, but I don’t think we had them very often. They only had sugar and ground cinnamon for flavoring, but as I started to fix them fairly often I began to add most if not all of the “warm” spices. So, I added cinnamon, cloves, ginger, mace and nutmeg. I later added ground coriander (a lemony flavor) to the mix and each time I fried apples I would sift sweetener (not sugar) on the cooked apples first and then took each spice in turn and sifted it across the apples. Only recently, when I bought a set of empty glass spice jars, I decided to combine these spices into a separate Fried Apple Spice Mix. I also used some Pumpkin Spice mix, but I don’t think it includes any additional spices. *I haven’t tried it yet, or even thought about it until now, but I might try adding Amchur (mango powder) or Tamarind powder as an alternative flavoring. I think either would go well with the sweetener.
I have several flavored teas that I eat with my breakfast: Bigelow’s “Earl Grey” or “Constant Comment” (both of these I have drank probably since 1985 and was introduced to them by Rick & Linda Bell (former Marine Pilot and later a Baptist pastor). Several years ago, while on a trip to Lynchburg, Virginia I tried another Bigelow tea, “Raspberry Royale.” If you had asked me first if I wanted to try it, I probably would have said, “no.” But after I tried it, it was good hot, and good even when it got cold. I actually bought a six pack from Amazon and gave the boxes as Christmas present one year. I don’t know why I bought another brand (Taylor’s) to try some time ago, but I did. As I recall, I didn’t like the “heavy” flavor of “Scottish Breakfast” tea the first time. But, a few days later I tried it again, and I liked it a little and by the third time I tried it, “I was hooked,” and it is maybe my favorite hot tea now, with half-n-half and Equal & Sweet-n-Low sweeteners, Agave Nectar, and coconut sugar. I was reminded about Rooibos and bought a small box of this flavoring in tea bags, and they make a good cup of tea. Rooibos means “red bush,” and I don’t think it is actually tea. Probably like sassafras. *It also makes a good hot drink that goes well with sweetener and creamer. — Remember this, because it does taste better with Half-n-Half.
I also like the Starbucks Brand of “Breakfast Blend” coffee. I get this in a $9 package of their already ground coffee. *In the past, before Covid, I would buy a Harris Teeter brand of coffee bean and grind it at home, but after Covid they didn’t bring this back in bean form. **An interesting aside was that someone (probably Deborah Savage) had given me a pound of ground coffee from Cracker Barrell as a Christmas present. Because I ground my own beans, I had left this package in my cabinet, probably for several years. When Covid struck, I eventually ran out of my favorite HT coffee beans so I went to the cabinet and tried the Cracker Barrell coffee. It had a good flavor. The next day I tried it again, and it was good again. But on the third day, I finally had the thought of how ironic this coffee was. I HATED the Cracker Barrell coffee when I ate breakfast as their restaurants. I hated the flavor so much that I would order (or bring my own bag) tea instead of their coffee. But, here I was enjoying every cup of their coffee at home. But, eventually this coffee would “run out,” and fortunately it ran out just as my second (booster) Covid immunization happened. After I had my shot, I think I had a hair cut, and (maybe not it that order) then went to Cracker Barrell to eat (and buy their brand of coffee). I think they sold a decaffeinated blend and one that wasn’t. The packaging had changed. I think it had previously been a metallic copper colored theme, but now was a metallic aqua color. That may have been reversed also (the color of the packages). So, I got the Cracker Barrell coffee home and brewed a cup, It wasn’t good. I don’t think it was as bad as the restaurant version, but just not worth buying again, or continuing to drink. I spent $9 on various packages of coffee from Harris Teeter, and Walmart, etc. and finally found the Starbucks Breakfast Blend that I’ve continued to drink.
I like to fix egg salad (usually from two hard boiled eggs) for breakfast sometimes. Add a little Dukes Mayo and some margarine (Cracker Barrell Original) to the egg salad. Some polenta and bacon and a few grape tomatoes (or Campari) finish out a delicious breakfast.
Another favorite breakfast includes a microwaved egg seasoned with Dulse, celery seeds, salt and some freshly ground Indian Long Pepper. I add a little olive oil and cook the egg in a plastic onion cooker. This cooker cooks a whole onion, but can also be used for cooking a potato (white or sweet) or maybe even an apple. You put the object to be cooked in the container and it steams inside it fairly quickly (a minute for the egg and about 4 or 5 minutes to cook a potato). The egg comes out round and flat, and maybe has the texture of an omelet (or maybe a scrambled egg). I like English Muffins, but can’t have them often because of my blood sugar, but add this egg to the muffin and then a slice of cheese and a slice of Canadian Bacon and you would have something approximating an Egg McMuffin. *Add some liver pudding (mush), casing removed, mashed and mixed with some sauteed onion. And heat up some polenta and mash it up like mashed potatoes. The polenta becomes the base, and you put the liver pudding & onions on top. Also add some grape tomatoes and this is delicious. **I like tea or coffee with this breakfast.
Not for breakfast, but I also like corn on the cob (steamed in the husk in the microwave in about 5 minutes) with a little salt and margarine. I like fried okra (but I like okra in soups also) without batter, and sometimes add onion to be sauteed with it.
I have a drink that I mix almost every day, and I’ve had it each day for months and months. I have glass carafes that I add water to, leaving some room for orange & cranberry juices mixed. To this I add a packet of Pomegranate Lemonade and a packet of Iced Tea (maybe with Lemon). For some reason this drink mix, which I call “Bill’s Drink Mix & Some Juice” never gets old. I usually make it and have drunk the whole thing before midnight. *Sometimes I run out of one of the ingredients (no OJ, or cranberry juice, or one of the flavored packets [Walmart] ) and the drink is never as good. **I did like the Dragon Fruit flavoring, but eventually stopped liking it much. Walmart at one time had a Lime flavor packet and I really liked having a glass of this after eating out at a restaurant. For some reason, I didn’t like the lime flavored drink at home, but when out and about. They stopped making those flavor packets but for a while I would find one that I had misplaced at home or in the car and I would enjoy it again. No one else makes a lime flavoring.
I haven’t mentioned peppers, or seafood chowder, or a Hispanic or Indian (India) meal. I can chop up chicken, some veggies: carrots, onion, bell peppers & tomatoes and just by changing whether I add Salsa Ranchera from Herdez, or Hot Curry Paste from Patek’s I can go in two completely different directions. Have to add sweetener and/or Agave Nectar to this to “turn it” properly. Either of these would go good on top of rice or mashed sweet potato (with some cinnamon, sweetener and margarine),
Oh, I also created a Polska Kielbasa, Shrimp and Zucchini dish. The only other ingredients are onion, a little tomato (just enough to make a slightly red sauce) and some pasta shells. This also has ground cayenne, or red pepper flakes, or maybe even some diced jalapenos. This is a spicy dish. Sometimes it takes my breath, in a good way. But each item sings it’s part in the show. Not too much shrimp, or too much kielbasa or too much zucchini. Each bite a tiny island of flavor, and the tomato disappears except for the color of the slight red sauce. The onion isn’t a star, but is necessary, and the pasta shells soak up the sauce flavors. Hmmm, hmmm, good, over and over and over.
I haven’t quite mastered my stir fry. Chicken usually, but shrimp, or pork or even beef sometimes. Carrots, tomatoes sweet bell peppers and onion. Toasted sesame oil and some soy sauce with garlic powder. There is a “crunchy garlic” paste that I also like.
[NOTE 10/05/24]: I mentioned to someone yesterday that I liked a simple salad made with turmeric, vinegar, tomatoes, sweet bell peppers & sweet onion. I think I found this on a Mediterranean themed site. The turmeric gives an acrid flavor to this, and eating some olives with this would also work. *I recall that at some point I added sweetener to this. I think I saw a turmeric pickles recipe that caused me to try this. I liked the sweet acrid flavor. *I might try adding turmeric to some dill pickles. I know I like the Ranch Dressing flavor that adds to the dill spears. [end NOTE]
Bill Gibson, II 