Free Range Friday ~ A Sampler Platter

Making pictures of meals I've concocted and meals I've enjoyed - not always two different things - doesn't always mean they get to the blog. Sometimes because I forget about  them, other times because something else looks better and then I forget about them. I was wandering through some of these meals when I thought I'd just do a back of the fridge mash up - this time of food photos and not the meal itself. 

Good tomatoes are a rare thing around here, without growing them for yourself. I'm not growing any but I did find these at the market and used them as many ways as I could without cooking them. They landed in breakfast lunch and dinner meals, sandwiches and salads for the most part. This was a bacon, egg, tomato and onion sandwich, a simple pleasure, especially when the tomatoes taste real.

When I'm feeling particularly lazy, I just toss the egg or eggs in the pan and swirl them with a fork to distribute the yolk. It works, especially with so many other strong flavor contenders. This was done after the bacon had been cooked in the pan. Bacon grease. I don't know why it's just not sold in a jar. Lard is, but not bacon grease (you can read a good little story about lard here). What a pity.

Before the green peppers below went off, forever forgotten in the fridge, it felt like a good time to make carnival food. Minus the bun. Sauteed onion and bell pepper, grilled sausage...yum. Just thinking about this fairly greasy, fragrant meal makes me want it for breakfast. Now.

(Some of the fun of grilling in Paradox. You might be interrupted by a mango spider. And, sorry to all spider and life lovers everywhere, the spider died. It was quick. I had a meal to finish up. And a heart that didn't need an attack. As you can see by two of its flickering legs, it wasn't going down easy.)

The onions got slightly overdone while I dealt with Mr. Spider.  

A dish I'd never had before was made the other evening, mixing up a few of my favorite things, though even Rodgers and Hammerstein might have had a tough time working plantain, cheese and bacon into a song. Oh, of course they could have. With ease. What am I thinking?

Sweet and savory - a good mix that worked here

edited to add: I forgot something important here. Doug save the rendered out  bacon grease to rub on the plantains, keeping them from sticking to the pan (or grill, if you chose that method) along with imparting more flavor.

Some grilled chicken thighs, some crusty bread and a simple good meal was ours. 

Danke' for something different for dinner, Doug! 

Simple or complicated, presented or just present, food should fill you on all sorts of levels. Take your time, enjoy. 

The other night I watched someone eat 8 grilled garlic shrimp, a bit of salad along with some garlic bread sticks and take almost an hour to do it. That included feeding me a few bites (it was splendid). I don't know if I've ever seen anyone eat a meal like that, steadily, happily, slowly, cutting small precise bites and throughly enjoying each one. It was slightly mesmerizing and educating to watch a meal be so appreciated, a lesson I might heed sometime.

Have a facultatively feasting Friday. Do something flavorousl.