Lunch
One of the strongest recollections of my childhood years was the appearance of Hot Cross Buns – a sweet, spiced fruit roll – around Easter Time. I got word from Facebook that Whole Foods had some and we dutifully purchased, toasted and enjoyed two each for lunch.
- A pack of nine Hot Cross Buns costs $7.99 and we had two each, or $1.77 per serve
- Neufchâtel cream cheese makes a fine alternative to butter and is $1.99 a block, or 33c per serve.
Our nostalgic lunch today cost $2.10 a serve. Nostalgia comes at a price.
Dinner
Having moved from the convenience of Avalon’s outdoor grill, we avoided any grilling until today. The cast iron griddle on the induction cooker makes a fine substitute, as long as you have great ventilation for the inevitable smoke.
We served with Crash Hot Potatoes and a simple salad of Arugula, cooked beets and blue cheese crumbles. This is another meal with great flavor and is easy enough to cook that you could enjoy a date night, (apart from that smoke issue but cooking outside would solve that).
- Prather Ranch organic NY Strip Steak is $18.99 for 12 oz, or $9 a serve
- Potatoes and fresh rosemary from the garden, 55c per serve
- The pack of arugula is $2.99 or 75c per serve
- The pack of pre-cooked baby beets is $2.99 or $1.50 a serve
- The crumbled blue cheese adds about 40c per serve
Tonight’s dinner, worthy of a steak house night out, was $12.20 per serve, which compares very favorably with the $45-50 it would cost with tax and tip.
You’ll note that we like our steak rare. At first I thought this was underdone because of the new setup, but because the meat is of such high quality, and there’s little fat served, that the rare parts were much more tender than the cooked area around the outside. We wonder if we’ve been overcooking New York Strip in the past.