My Daily Plate

     As the temperature continues to hold at around 105 degrees, my thoughts are turning to a nice, cool salad. Today's Daily Plate features a chef salad made from fresh Romaine lettuce, cucumber, hard boiled egg, sliced scallions, red and yellow tomatoes, shredded carrots, diced nitrite-free ham and gruyere cheese. It was a delicious and cool supper for the mid summer heat.   Super Chef Salad      On the photography front, tonight's photo, in my humble opinion, is getting closer to the quality I'm looking for. I used a large mirror to bounce light back in to the right side of the photo. This removed the heavy shadows from an 8 p.m. harsh sun. The learning and practicing continues.

     I tried something new for My Daily Plate today. Thanks to friend Andy for turning me on to spinach wraps. Today's plate features a wholesome wrap made from a link of nitrate-free andouille sausage and two cage-free eggs. Add to the mix a baby portobello mushroom, half of a fresh jalapeno and 1/2 oz. smoked gruyere cheese, wrapped in a spinach wrap, and this became my favorite daily plate to date. Well, at least in recent memory!  Andouille Spinach and Egg Wraps      In ongoing discussion on photography matters: A necessary trip to Dallas today prevented me from going to collect items to help my photography along. So...today's picture uses the same techniques as the last few. Soon I hope to try some new techniques. I'll keep you posted.

     My real job is keeping me from truly pursuing food photography. Tomorrow, if time allows, I will be manufacturing a large diffuser to tone down the brutal Texas sun. Then, I'll also arrange for a white reflector. Between the two, I hope to avoid the harsh shadows in the last couple of days' photos. We'll see. Sloppy Joes Now, for today's plate. We had Sloppy Joes , potato rounds and fresh melons. The "joe" filling was a combination of 96/4 ground beef and lean pork sausage. Tomato sauce, Rotel original and various other spicy ingredients finished the dish. I'm pretty much a "dump it in and see how it works" chef, but I've tried to recreate the recipe on the Recipes page. If you try it and it tastes terrible, one of two things has happened. Either I didn't get the recipe right, or your palate is more attuned to barbecued Spam. :) Hope you enjoy My Daily Plate today.

Tex Mex Chicken with Pico   I like chicken breasts because there are so many different ways to fix them. Tonight my daily plate is 2 oz. of Tex Mex chicken topped with freshly made pico de gallo. Served with a side of maple beans, it was a light but sizzling supper for a hot summer night.

  Breaded Chicken Breasts with Lime Butter      Tonight's daily plate features bread crumb and wheat germ crusted chicken breasts pan fried in a bit of olive oil. The breasts are then drizzled with a lime, chive and dill butter for a zesty bright taste.      Accompanying the entree is sauteed broccoli with red pepper flakes and parmigiano/reggiano cheese. Finally, I had a serving of simple potato crowns for a bit of crunch. A quick, simple but delicious meal.