Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Octopus Brains

Well...that's one more thing that I don't need to try twice! Husband and I went out for happy hour a few days ago to our favorite restaurant, Craig and Sally's. They have great wines and a menu that changes everyday, but we like to sit at the bar and order tapas (which also change everyday). We ordered a couple different plates: chicken/pork pate with dijon mustard on a baguette, brie on crostini with honey and guava jelly, meatloaf sliders, and octopus salad.

Oh, the octopus salad. The bartender warned that it might be a little...intimidating...but we were game. I think I was expecting some sore of salad with rings of octopus legs, sort of like a calamari. What we got was a mound of bright red mini octopus. I sliced the legs off one for my first taste...as T put it, "rubber bands covered in hoisin sauce"...I thought the taste and texture was ok, but I couldn't get over what it looked like. Whole, two to three inch long, octopuses! My next bite was the round, grape-shape, which even though T reminded me is the body and not the head, I couldn't get "brain" out of my brain. I bit into it and the braininess squished around my tongue and that was it for me!

On a less adventurous note, we did great on the budget this week, mostly because I bought a whole chicken and we had that twice for dinner and twice for lunches. Buying the chicken whole costs about $6.50, and if I buy just a boneless breast it is about $5. On the boat, our fridge is not big enough to hold a whole chicken, but we are still house sitting this week. I spent $56.86 this week, so $48.14 into vacation fund!

Menu this week: Monday was a big salad and baked potatoes, Tuesday was steak with a salad and stuffed mushroooms, Wednesday was falafel with tomato soup, Thursday was Brick Chicken, a recipe from Bon Appetite that has become my new favorite. You remove the backbone so that it lays flat,

then cook it 45-60 at about 400 with a weight on it. You are supposed to use a brick wrapped in foil. Last time I used rocks, and this time I used a very heavy glass pan with a cast iron pan inside of it.
It is falling-off-the-bone tender when finished! It's cooked with a rub of grapeseed oil, lemon, and rosemary, but anything you used would be good.

Anyway, Friday was the octopus night (T paid so this does not come off my budget), Saturday was chicken wraps with tomato soup, and Sunday was stuffed squash with soup and salad.

Hope everyone has a great week!

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