Tragic Sandwich

There’s a Chipotle in Westwood. The portions are fresh (as advertised), big, and delicious. I recommend the burrito with carnitas, particularly with pinto beans. But then I do love pinto beans.

Mt. Waterman is one of our favorite place to snowshoe in L.A. Next weekend, the GM told us, the ski lifts should be fully operational. That will mean that we can buy a ticket to the top, rather than hike up the fire road. Mind you, the fire road is a perfectly good hike, particularly on snowshoes, but I’m looking forward to being at the top with energy to explore up there. I guess now I’ll have to pay more attention to the skiers, though, to make sure I’m not in their way. That wasn’t really an issue when the lift didn’t work.

After an afternoon of snowshoeing on Mt. Waterman, why not stop at Newcomb’s Ranch for a hearty meal? First of all, after snowshoeing you’ll definitely want a hearty meal. Second, Newcomb’s Ranch is the closest restaurant by a long shot. Third, it’s delicious. Our group had fish and chips, broccoli-cheese soup, chicken tortilla soup, chili, and a steak sandwich. Everyone walked away happy, and the prices (while not cheap) were reasonable for the portion size and quality.

I’ve been doing a lot of cooking over the past week, in spite of (because of?) being sick. I made homemade chicken soup, although I used boxed vegetable stock, and I made slow-cooker BBQ pork, although it also relied on a store-bought ingredient–the BBQ sauce. (Big fan of KC Masterpiece, BTW)

Last night was our usual grilled salmon–marinated briefly in Worcestershire sauce and topped with Old Bay or the generic equivalent–cheesy mashed potato casserole, and broccoli.

Tonight will be a bit of a cop-out, because although I want to cook, I’m still getting over this sinus infection and couldn’t think of anything I specifically wanted to make after getting home from work. Therefore we will be having spaghetti, with our usual array of jarred sauces.

I’d like to use the slow-cooker more during the week, but mine runs hot, which would result in burned dinner by the time we got home. People have suggested leaving it on a timer, but I keep hearing horror stories about houses burning down because of slow-cookers. And why would it be good to leave the food sitting out for several hours before the timer kicks on? I guess it would be less bad this time of year than in the summer, but it doesn’t seem like a great plan.

Oh well. At least there’s spaghetti and jarred sauce.

You know what’s good for lunch on a sick day? Buy a can of Campbell’s Healthy Request Tomato Soup. Make it with milk instead of water, and add dashes of the following: cayenne pepper, black pepper, dried basil. Cook. Mmm-mmm-good.

New Year’s Eve was very low-key at our house, with one friend joining us for what turned out to be an evening of conversation and South Park. The menu:

chili (ground beef, no beans)
cornbread casserole (good, but needed to bake longer in the center)
make-your-own brownie sundae based on Ghiradelli brownie mix, Dreyer’s ice cream, and homemade hot fudge sauce

Now there’s chicken soup cooking slowly in the slow cooker, so we’ll be eating left over comfort food for the rest of the week.