Before and After

Usually when I cook, I am cooking for two. When you are the primary cook of the family, You are necessarily limited to what you can cook by the likes and dislikes of your audience. I happen to like several things that my bride does not. First and foremost is lamb. She views the ovine species as 'too cute to eat'. I view them as 'delicious'. So when the opportunity strikes I jump at the opportunity to eat something I don't get that often. So tonight in an attempt to battle a grey and dreary day I cooked up some Mediterranean goodness. Well I grilled some lamb and bought a ton of sides at the extensive olive bar at my local Kroger.




From Clockwise: Grilled garlic lamb chops, pickled veggies, stuffed pepper, dolmades, olives, and feta cheese.














The remains of a fine meal.

Happy St. Patricks Day

It would be a sin if I did not post today of all days, so here you go. Taken during my second pilgrimage to the Guinness Brewery in Dublin. It's more fun to go if you take someone who does not like Guinness so you get their sample too.

A quick post before I lose all 7 of my regular readers

OK, I realize that I have not posted in over a week. I meant to post. Honest... I ran out of gas. I, I had a flat tire. I didn't have enough money for cab fare. My tux didn't come back from the cleaners. An old friend came in from out of town. Someone stole my car. There was an earthquake. A terrible flood. Locusts. IT WASN'T MY FAULT, I SWEAR TO GOD.

OK, so I got lazy. And I had a little writers block. You see I wanted to post about my favorite bar. Ever. For those that know me, You know that this topic is a big deal. And it has been a trying experience to sum up what this place means to me. So I will postpone it until next post. Or next week. Or when my muse returns.

So consider this a thrown together post. And for the thrown together post, I give you a standard thrown together meal at the Stump house. I usually make this with whatever leftover veggies I have on hand. I tend to make it more in the summer when the veggies are in season, but what the heck it was 76+ degrees in town today in the fair city of Richmond, and I grew nostalgic for warm weather dishes.

Veggie pasta with lots o' garlic

Ingredients: garlic, onion, red pepper, zucchini, snow peas, salt, pepper, romano cheese (or parmigiano), lemon, penne pasta, olive oil.

• Start water for pasta first. As soon as it comes to a boil put pasta on
  
• In a large fry pan heat 2 or 3 tbsp of olive oil. Sautee two or three large cloves of garlic for a couple of minutes
  
• Add onions and sautee for a couple of minutes.
• Add rest of veggies. I usually throw whatever I have around in the garden or fridge.
• 
• Grate a salty cheese - about 1/2 cup.
• 
• Once the pasta is done, drain and toss into the pan. Mix in with veggies. Stir in Cheese, and squeeze the juice of 1/2 lemon on top.
  
• Serve with cheap red wine.

Enjoy!