Peppers, Onions and Eggs for Dinner

Veggies atop the chicken at the restaurant.

Over this past weekend, my friend Tom and I went to a local Mexican restaurant we hadn't been to in a while. I decided to try something I'd never tried before and went with the Pollo Salvadoreno - Grilled Chicken El Salvador style. I had imagined that the veggies would be cooked down more than they were, but they were still mostly crispy. If you've ever had fajitas, you know what they looked like, but they were cooked LESS than that. I was disappointed, but still ate the chicken, which was delicious. The veggies smelled fantastic, so I brought them home along with the leftover rice, beans, chips and salsa. 

I decided on Thursday that I was going to use those peppers and onions. Perfectly good food that deserved being eaten, even if it was in a different way than originally served. But, I didn't want to thaw out any meat. I wanted something fast and easy. 

Peppers and eggs are very popular in our area, especially where there are a lot of Italians. I'm sorry to say that I refused to ever try them until after my mother passed away five years ago. She would have been thrilled to see me eat them. I discovered I liked them quite a bit. Yes, these peppers came with onions, too, but they were sweet onions, which I'll eat cooked. I don't like onions that have a sharp bite to them and I'll never ever eat an onion raw. So, I tossed the

Shortly after pouring the eggs in the pan.

Salvadoreno vegetables in the pan with some olive oil and began to pan grill them to where I like eating them. While that was happening, I got out seven eggs and put them in a bowl with some milk and scrambled them. 

Once the veggies were cooked (some might call these burnt - I prefer "blackened"), I poured the scrambled eggs over them and began cooking everything together. I took two pictures of the eggs - one while they were setting up and one after I'd stirred them and they were done. There is also a photo from the restaurant showing the veggies as they were before I decided to cook them again. 

After stirring with a wooden spoon until they were just set.

Add two slices of some fantastic artisan whole grain bread from Trader Joe's, toasted and buttered, and I can't deny that I had a pleasurable meal. 

Have you ever brought leftovers home and turned them into something else?

Originally published to my Bubblews account.

Dinner at Don Pablo's

It was my turn to treat my friend to dinner and I had chosen Red Lobster. It had been years since we'd been there and their $15 for four courses was a definite attraction. I wanted to go. So, off we went, knowing full well it was Saturday, but hoping that we were early enough to beat the dinner rush.


OMG!! There were people standing OUTSIDE waiting to get in! Sorry, but that's not for us. We had tentatively decided to get barbecue if Red Lobster was crazy busy, but the BBQ place was about five miles away and we still had to go to PetSmart to get our babies food. Since PetSmart was where we were, we decided to pick another place to eat.


The area where we were is lousy with eating establishments (to use a colloquial term), so we had a wide array of choices. We opted for Don Pablo's since we both love Mexican food (and I knew I could get Sangria for cheap). 


It's funny that I'd never noticed the barbecue options on the Don Pablo's menu before, but last night I did. And, that's what I decided to get. Tom decided to change his usual ordering pattern as well by ordering carnitas.


I ordered the "Texas Two Step", a plate full of Rio Grande ribs and a mesquite grilled chicken breast, both slathered with barbecue sauce, sharing a large platter with Mexican rice and smoky beans. The ribs were surprisingly meaty. I say surprisingly because I had ribs once at Applebees that were almost entirely bone with barely enough meat to hold the bones together. But, Don Pablo's ribs had plenty of meat on them. The chicken was tender, moist and left me wanting more. The ribs were also very good, but I was full by the time I got to them. I even shared one with Tom and still brought a couple home to enjoy today. 


Tom's carnitas turned out to be pulled pork without BBQ sauce and were accompanied by soft flour tortillas, shredded lettuce, guacamole and sour cream. He'd opted out of the pico de gallo. I tasted a piece of his pork and it was delicious and tender. It wasn't long before his plate was empty.


Although the barbecue sauce they used wasn't as full-flavored as I'd have had at the barbecue place we'd considered, it was still delicious and satisfying. I'm glad we went.