Ricky'S Lunch Blog

I enjoy lamb. I’ve crafted a few excellent lunch blog postings about it over the years.

From a thought-leader’S perspective, lamb is a lot like one of those cheap, large crystals that college kids buy in head shops and hang in front of their dorm room windows, so that when it catches a ray of sunlight it dots the walls with trippy little specs of color.

Man, I have no idea where I was going with that. By the time I finished the sentence, I wasn’t even sure I was lunch-blogging any longer. Let’s be clear about it: Lamb is nothing like a stoner’s trinket. For starters, I’m pretty sure it can’t refract light. Alright, that’s enough. We’re not having this conversation now.

Lamb is the one meat that when I think about it, I see the actual animal in my mind’s eye. Show me a rib eye, I don’t see a cow. Mention a Cornish game hen, and…hell, I don’t even know what a Cornish game hen is so how can I possibly visualize one? Bring up lamb, though, and I immediately see it. And it’s always standing in a moist, green meadow staring at me with a coy look on its face. I imagine I experience this because of all the meat-producing animals I find lamb to be the most attractive.

This morning I found a seal-a-meal bag in the freezer that had lamb and red chile in it (see Figure 1). It was from last August. I brought it to work and had it for lunch. That’s my point.

I haven’t produced a blog posting of such low quality in a few months. I guess I was due.


Figure 1. Lambs bleat, right? Because that’s what I’m hearing echo off the aspen grove on the far side of the valley when I look at this.

I drilled the small hole for awhile today. Then I came back to the office and reheated that lamb and red chile soup I teased you with yesterday.

I didn’t want to get all moist and sweaty down there like I did that other time, so before I went to the golf course I changed out of my dungarees and into my seersucker Daisy Dukes, as shown in Figure 1. That did the trick. Everything stayed dry and comfortable, and you wouldn’t have been able to pick up my scent unless you squatted.



Figure 1. In Ricky’S world seersucker never goes out of style. The red arrow indicates the region that remained dry and comfortable as Ricky repeatedly drilled the small hole.

I can smell opportunity on the wind. It’S what separates the true lunch thought-leader from your garden-variety lunch practitioner.

Maybe you had developed and implemented a robust lunch plan. Maybe you ladled the slow-cooked lamb and red chile into your favorite Tupperware container and carefully secured the lid with two rubber bands so the fluid wouldn’t leak and soil your sparkly disco rave purse. Maybe you even brought the chopped cilantro and onions in separate zip-lock baggies to sprinkle on top. Maybe you were firing on all lunch cylinders when …

The youngster sales guys invited you to go to Del Taco with them.

I almost declined because they make fun of my shorts, which they refer to as my “Daisy Dukes.” I smile and laugh along with them as if I get the joke, but I don’t. Or maybe I do, but don’t think it’s funny.

Anyway, I came up with another excellent lunch innovation today: I used both Del Scorcho and Del Inferno on my tacos. Hell, don’t take my word for it—take a look at Figure 1.



Figure 1. Here we see Ricky innovating the lunch paradigm with both Del Scorcho and Del Inferno on a single taco. (Photo Credit: The hyperactive ADD-stricken young sales guy).

When we got back to the office I put my lamb in the fridge for tomorrow.

It was the best of times: lamb stew.
It was the worst of times: week-old red potatoes soaked in cabbage juice

I knew the lamb stew was solid. I made it last Saturday for dinner. “This is pretty lamby!” the Battle Ax had declared that evening upon the first bite, right after she’d cut the top of her thumb off while making me a nice dinner salad.

Knowing that a lunch of lamb meat alone was unacceptable, I scanned the fridge for a starch of some kind. I found the greasy glass bowl with the potatoes. They were at least 10 days old and mixed together with the limp cabbage, carrots, and some stringy corned beef fat. It was impossible not to notice how the thin gray fluid that had pooled in the bottom had softened and discolored the submerged portion of the potatoes. I gulped, held my breath and scooped two of them into my favorite lunch Tupperware container.

When I took it all out of the microwave in the lunch room, I mashed the lamb and the potatoes together into a kind of workhouse gruel. That helped, I think.

God bless us, everyone, especially Skeeter.

Tried to make my own salad for lunch today with disastrous results. I put leftover lamb meat on it and covered it in Freedom dressing. Even though it was disgusting to look at (see Figure 1, below) and tasted even worse, I ate the whole thing.

I’d also found some 15-bean soup in the freezer that I’d made a few months ago. I had that too, but I really didn’t let it defrost sufficiently. You see, my eyes were dilated from my visit to the optometrist earlier in the morning. I didn’t know what was going on. I was, however able to discern the box of Klondike bars next to the frozen soup, so at the end of the meal I had two of those. That helped.


Figure 1. Ricky’S Lunch of Crap

PS—Astute readers will notice that the eye doctor gave me some information on golfing tours in the United Kingdom, stapled to his prescription. Gonna have to run that one by the old Battle Ax.

For dinner on Saturday night I made risotto as a side dish for some nice lamb chops. I realize this is not a Ricky’S Dinner Blog, but please bear with me; there is a lunch angle, and I’ll be addressing that shortly.

I put onions and mushrooms in the risotto, and I used a combination of chicken and veal broth to provide the liquid component. It came out creamy, and I was pleased with the results. There was a lot left over so I put it in a bowl and stored it in the refrigerator.

Now, on to our primary subject: Lunch. Yesterday, right around lunch time, I rediscovered the risotto in the fridge. In fact, it was the only lunch-worthy item in there. So I spooned an overly generous portion onto a plate and reheated it in the microwave. I was concerned because it looked congealed—not nearly as appetizing as when I first made it. Regardless, I ate it all quickly. It wasn’t creamy anymore. It was starchy. I think that’s why a felt the need to lie down and take a nap as soon as I swallowed the last bite.

I fell asleep immediately and would have probably been out for a few hours had the cat not stuck its ass in my face after about 25 minutes.

What do you think of this blog entry? I think it’s mediocre.

I had lamb for lunch yesterday. I ate in the corporate kitchen and read my book. As I've mentioned before, they call the kitchen 'the café'. Gives it a Parisian flavor I guess. I sat in the corner with my back to the doorway, but I still found myself nodding at people as they came in to prepare their little lunches.

I made the lamb last Sunday for the big football game. Served it with red potatoes and steamed broccoli. It was actually a lamb and prune stew. The recipe called for mutton, but my butcher counseled that I substitute lamb for mutton. Too bad, because I like to say the word "mutton." Not as much as I like to say Del Scorcho, but not too far behind. My Super Bowl guests were a little iffy about the prunes—that is until they tasted the dish. Everyone went back for seconds. Then they got to reap additional benefits 12 to 18 hours later.

I had lamb today for lunch. It was left over from dinner last night. My sister gave me a cookbook for Christmas, and this was the first recipe I made from it. The recipe called for lamb shoulder, which I had to get from my butcher because the supermarket doesn’t carry it. The dish was called “Shoulder of Lamb A La Boulangere.” It was good. There’s a Chicken Ratatouille recipe I might try tonight.

I ate lunch in the living room and watched the E! entertainment channel. A True Hollywood Story was on about the TV show Blossom. Boy, season four of that show was no picnic. There was a lot of conflict on the set as Joey Lawrence’s fame began to take on a life of its own. I’d seen this one already, but that was some time ago.

I had a handful of Nestle’s chocolate morsels for dessert.

Here's a lunch update for the last few days:

Friday, 4/28: Airport crap

Saturday, 4/29: At the airport in Antigua, I ate snacks that had settled to the bottom of my backpack, including an apple, a granola bar, some pecans, 2 Altoids, and M&Ms.

Sunday, 4/30: In Prince Rupert Bay off the island of Dominica, we had Mac and cheese and 3 or 4 locally bottled beers that some guy paddling a surf board delivered in the morning.

Monday, 5/1: Right as we set sail for Les Saintes, Marta came up on deck with a big bowl of chicken curry salad, some crackers, and these coconut cream-filled cookies. More beers, too. Yum.

Tuesday, 5/2: Up in the hills of Les Saintes, we found this little place with many scooters parked out front. The guy sitting next to us spoke a little english and helped us work through the French menu. Long story short, 3 of us split 2 dishes. Lamb with red beans and rice, and fish with cristofine, which is a really tasty thing that grows in the ground.

Wednesday, 5/3: Today we stopped in this seaside cafe and had shrimp in a saffron-basil-lime cream sauce. Washed it down with a half liter of Rosé. Side dishes included pumpkin curry and a plantine mash of some sort. Finished up with chocolate mousse and a cappucino. I didn't really want to leave, but the French couple running the place were eager to shut down for the afternoon and take a nap.