{"id":402,"date":"2009-12-10T13:10:15","date_gmt":"2009-12-10T17:10:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/halfton.withbloodandthunder.com\/?p=402"},"modified":"2010-01-30T19:03:24","modified_gmt":"2010-01-30T23:03:24","slug":"obligations-%e2%80%93-schmobligations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/halfton.withbloodandthunder.com\/?p=402","title":{"rendered":"Obligations \u2013 Schmobligations."},"content":{"rendered":"
The Breyley (Former Apartment)<\/address>\n
Corner of Sunset Point Rd and Keene Rd<\/address>\n
Clearwater, FL<\/address>\n
33765<\/address>\n

In these \u2018Economic Times\u2019 I feel it\u2019s an obligation to push out a couple of pauper-esque reviews.\u00a0 We have daily reminders of our recessed economy in the news, our television programs (What\u2019s that? Dunder Mifflin is declaring bankruptcy?! Oh you sneaky writers for \u2018The Office\u2019, making your show so topical), and our daily life.\u00a0 I am thankful that I do have a job and I can afford to run a semi-comical website that bitches about and praises food.\u00a0 So, in that vein, a review about a meal had at home!<\/p>\n

On a juicy Thursday in September\u00a0 (it just doesn\u2019t seem to cool down in Tampa until December), my old lady and I decided to cook a hearty homecooked meal.\u00a0 We chose to create a veritable \u2018sm\u00f6rg\u00e5sbord<\/a>\u2019 of Mexican food.\u00a0 I made \u2018Mexican Rice\u2019 on the suggestion from my brother.\u00a0 Sia made Carne Asada with a side of fresh lettuce, sliced avacados, tomatos, and sauteed onions\/garlic\/mushrooms.\u00a0 We also prepared some Pinto beans dressed with finely chopped and sauteed Galric and Onions.<\/p>\n

Here you can see a video of my idiotic-ass attempting to take a picture of the \u2018Mexican Rice\u2019, I managed to engage the video instead.<\/p>\n

<\/embed><\/object><\/p>\n

List of ingredients in the Rice:
\n2 cloves of Garlic (finely chopped)
\n1 white Onion
\n\u00bd Jalapeno (I kept the seeds in)
\n2 cups Rice (browned in Oil prior to cooking with water)<\/p>\n

Season to your likening with:
\nGround Cumin
\nSalt
\nFresh Tomatos
\nBouillon<\/p>\n

Preparation steps:
\nSautee onions, garlic and jalapeno for 5 minutes.
\nAdd 2 cups of rice to the mixture.
\nBrown the rice without burning it.
\nAfter the rice has browned, add 3 cups of water, bring to a boil, turn the heat to low and let sit for roughly 20 minutes.<\/p>\n

I did find a recipe that follows the same guidelines and outlines exactly what to do fairly well; you can see that here<\/a>.\u00a0 A rule of thumb when cooking rice is typically 1:2, 1 part rice to 2 parts water.\u00a0 You do need to modify this relationship as you increase the amount of rice you\u2019re cooking.\u00a0 So when I cook 2 cups of rice I use 3 cups of water.\u00a0 If I\u2019m cooking 3 cups of rice I\u2019ll use 4 \u00bd cups of water.\u00a0 The rice came out fairly well, but I felt it was a little too moist.\u00a0 I likely needed to brown the rice more prior to introducing the water.<\/p>\n

\"01<\/a><\/p>\n

The Pinto beans with Onions and Garlic was fairly easy to prepare.\u00a0 Sia heated up a sauce pan with a bit of Olive Oil and sauteed the Garlic and Onions. \u00a0Next, I turned the heat to low and poured a can of Pinto beans into the pan (I rinsed the beans first). You can focus on the other parts of the meal while this comes to heat.\u00a0 Prior to serving, I topped the Pinto beans with a bit of Parsley and Cilantro.\u00a0 The Pinto beans went very well with the Mexican Rice they had a considerable kick from the garlic.<\/p>\n

\"02<\/a><\/p>\n

At this point, you could stop and make this a vegetarian day.\u00a0 The Pinto beans would give you enough protein (as well as flavor) and all I would introduce would be freshly cut veggies as a side.\u00a0 If you are a \u2018Meatatarian\u2019 then you should gladly proceed with making the Carne Asada. I did find a much more complicated version of what Sia did here<\/a> (the recipe in the link has you add Cilantro and Sugar). We only let the Flank Steak marinate for 45 minutes or so.<\/p>\n

Ingredients:
\n1 or 2 packages of Flank Steak
\nSalt and freshly Ground Pepper
\n4 cloves of garlic (finely minced)
\n2 Jalapenos (kept the seeds in and minced)
\n1 tsp gound Cumin
\n3 Limes juiced
\n\u00bd cup Olive Oil<\/p>\n

Preperation:
\nScore the Steaks lightly with a fork and then put them in a ziplock bag.\u00a0 Next, add the remainder of the ingredients and give it a couple of good shakes to get everything mixed together.\u00a0 Make sure to try and remove any excess air in the bag before sealing.\u00a0 Rest in the refridgerator for 1-2 hours if you have the time.<\/p>\n

Cooking:
\nIn a non-stick pan, with a splash of oil, bring the heat to medium-high and cook each side of the steak for a few minutes (until brown).\u00a0 If you like your meat well down clearly let it cook a bit longer.\u00a0 Cut and serve.<\/p>\n

\"03<\/a><\/p>\n

(you can see our terrible dog hoping for some scraps to fall through the glass to him)<\/p>\n

As you can see, the result came out very well.\u00a0 The marinade helped make the Flank Steak much tenderer as well as infused a whopping amount of flavor.\u00a0 Each bite had a citrus punch that was refreshing.<\/p>\n

\"04<\/a><\/p>\n

Everything went very well together and I would suggest that anyone with some time and a taste for some spice try making this.\u00a0 If I had a chance to do this meal over I would marinate the Flank Steak a bit longer and make the Pinto Bean dish from dried Pinto Beans.<\/p>\n

The meal merited [rating:4.5].<\/p>\n

-Matt in Tampa<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Breyley (Former Apartment) Corner of Sunset Point Rd and Keene Rd Clearwater, FL 33765 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54,13,23,5,191,26,55,22,121,164],"tags":[116,110,119,118,115,111,361,117,114,112,120,113],"class_list":["post-402","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-affordable","category-beef-dining-in","category-delicious","category-dining-in","category-eatingathome","category-enjoyable","category-inexpensive","category-mattreview","category-mexican","category-restaurants","tag-avacados","tag-carne-asada","tag-cheap","tag-flank-steak","tag-fresh","tag-homemade","tag-inexpensive","tag-lettuce","tag-mexican-rice","tag-pinto-beans","tag-price-worthy","tag-rice"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/halfton.withbloodandthunder.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/halfton.withbloodandthunder.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/halfton.withbloodandthunder.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/halfton.withbloodandthunder.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/halfton.withbloodandthunder.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=402"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/halfton.withbloodandthunder.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":406,"href":"https:\/\/halfton.withbloodandthunder.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402\/revisions\/406"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/halfton.withbloodandthunder.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/halfton.withbloodandthunder.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/halfton.withbloodandthunder.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}