i'm steve, and i'm a food scrounger

Darrel and I are better than average cooks.


We need to be.


We are better than average eaters.


I have written several times of trying to fit into the cycle of the new house. Part of that is learning how to keep the larder filled for our meals.


In days slipping away I told you about our first culinary disaster: the chicken that went bad. Not that Chicken Little crossed over to the bad side. His carcass merely began prematurely rotting in the refrigerator.


Darrel and I long ago learned that flexibility is a virtue best practiced in the kitchen. If the chicken is bad, out it goes. And a new dish will emerge.


The photograph above is not that dish. It is our dinner the next night: tortilla español -- with a twist: chipotle sauce and ham. But the side dish is the leftover stir fry from the previous night.


To prove that we are not Johnny-one-notes in the flexibility department, we had another opportunity on Sunday night to pull ourselves out of a stall.


I knew it was Labor Day weekend. I knew that Labor Day weekend was a big holiday in Mexico. I knew stores would be closed on a big holiday in Mexico.


With all of that knowledge did we stock up on groceries for the weekend? Of course, not. I guess we thought we would pop over to the open-all-night Safeway and buy whatever we needed.


Because we are not boys who look as if we are starving, we found our own interesting solution. Fresh pineapple and watermelon for a salad. And the bachelor classic (nachos) with some personal improvement touches.


Here is the result of our labors.




In truth, I would just as soon avoid another nacho plate like that for dinner. I suspect I will not score any weight loss points with it.