acechick

Drive-in

Halfway between Philadelphia and Cape May is Vineland, the home of NJ's only drive-in.

On the way home from the beach yesterday we thought we'd give it a try. I've been trying to go ever since I heard about it, and coincidentally, got a convertible from the rental car company (luck of the draw). With this hot weather, it seems like a perfect match.

There is nothing retro-chic about this place. It is full on daggy. And to answer B's question, there were no Chiko rolls.

In the above, the left building is the projector room for screen #1, the right one is the cafe.

The 'rows' are on slight inclines, making for optimum in-car viewing. I must have forgotten about this detail. After I took this photo I was told by the attendants 'no cameras', not even photos of one another! You can imagine what I did with that info.

Above is the projector room and the cafe.

Cowboys and Aliens: pretty shit. But the lightning show behind it was brilliant.

Food update

Things started to go awry on Wednesday. Not necessarily in a bad way, just due to poor planing. The Chinese chicken salad was great, although I shouldn't have used all the dressing. Plus I added some croutons (I had made last week) which probably helped soak up the excess dressing.

It's just that roasting and hot weather don't really go together. It's not exactly rocket science, is it? I guess I was so excited about the thought of ribs that I didn't stop to consider that 2hrs+ in the oven on a day in the mid-30s in a tiny house would be anything but sensational.

By the time the ribs were done, so was I. There was no accompanying salad. It was just MEAT. Not necessarily that bad considering the enormous salad for lunch.

With a cold beer (or two), it went down a treat.

And so there was no lunch prepared for Thursday. No problems, I had the leftover satay on plain rice. Make that TWO servings. Again, that satay is ridiculously yummy: spicy, creamy, limey.

Thursday was evening was back on track: Open Kibbeh with pearl barley tabouleh and marinaded feta.

Why is it marinaded and not marinated? The Guardian has good subbies, so it has to be deliberate.

This wasn't a difficult or complicated recipe, it just had lots of steps and ingredients. I guess I must be getting better at this while cooking gig, or perhaps taking it more seriously, as I made sure I read the recipe through a few times, then did the prep ready to go.

It's a delicious recipe, so yummy. I thought that the tabouleh might have been unnecessarily fussy (cashews!), but it worked well. Although, the pearl barley was a pain to cook. It was the longest part of the whole recipe, so if you try it, put it on to cook first.

Note that where it says to cover the pearl barley with water, it's not in a cous-cous sense. It's a fill a pot with water and boil the hell out of it way.

We most certainly did have leftovers for lunch today as per the plan. And as is his wont, Fred ate it as a sandwich.

I had the leftover ribs on mine.

Fred's working for home today, so we're going to head down the shore this arvo. This means the Friday dinner is off, or at least the decision has been postponed. There's a drive in (yes, really!) halfway between us and Cape May, and I'm hoping we can go tonight. Our current rental car is a convertible and I think it would be a hoot.

Tomorrow night we've been invited to our neighbour's for dinner, so I've guess we've finished with this plan. I'll save the unused recipes for next time (next week?).

Result: deffo making the satay and kibbeh again soon. The ribs will wait for cooler weather.

Menu plans. update

Today I went up to Reading Terminal Market with my neighbour O for supplies. Spice Terminal is fantastic, I managed to spend more there than at the produce place, and I bought a lot of cabbage and lime. Apparently the theme for this week.

The tacos last night were fine. Nothing special. I used Mahi Mahi as recommended by the Wholefoods guy. I think it was the pan frying instead of barbecuing that did it in.

I over catered the cabbage by a LOT. Saved it for tonight's salad. Instead of looking as fancy as Smitten Kitchen's it looked colour-less and plain. But it was quite tasty, I recommend it.

The Satay was spot on. Fred barbecued them to perfection. I eat chicken rarely these days as it's usually overcooked and thus tasteless and chewy. But not these. I could have eaten another serving. In fact, I probably did — the two of us ate what was probably a serving for four. The rest of the peanut sauce will be saved for Thursday's salad.

While the barbecue was still warm, Fred threw on some chicken thighs which will be for tomorrow's salad. I prepared the rest of the salad (& packed for tomorrow) in 5 minutes. Easy.

Then I tossed together the marinade for tomorrow night's ribs. Again, 5 minutes.

I've not had such a busy day in some time. I also managed to squeeze in a job interview and training for volunteer dog walking at the shelter. Lucky dinner was all planned and ready.

Menu plans

This is my second attempt at menu planning. The aim is to have lunches and dinners sorted, with great variety and little fuss. By fuss I probably mean 'no last minute rush and bad decisions'.

The key is to have dinners we can cook on the barbie (the weather being what it is).

MONDAY
Dinner: Fish tacos

TUESDAY
Lunch: Greek-style lamb wraps
Dinner: Satay chicken with Cabbage and lime salad with roasted peanuts

WEDNESDAY
Lunch: Chinois Chicken Salad
Dinner: Chinese marinated pork ribs with Cucumber Peanut Salad

THURSDAY
Lunch: Crunchy satay salad
Dinner: Open Kibbeh, with pearl barley tabouleh and marinaded feta

FRIDAY
Lunch: Leftover Kibbeh
Dinner: Coconut, lime and chilli barbecued prawns with Quinoa salad with Lime Ginger Dressing

SATURDAY
Dinner: Lamb and Lemon skewers with Quinoa and Grilled Zucchini

I post this having just dined on the fish tacos, cooked indoors due to rain. I now realise that I've got the lamb on either end of the week rather than next to one another (to reduce cooking/prep time).

Another thing I now notice is that there's a lot of nut, cabbage and lime to be consumed this week.