UnRecipe/FoodTrek: Good Fridays and Sunday Casino Royale with Cheese

Many people sought family time and quiet spiritual reflection over this Passover/Easter weekend. I went to the Tulalip Casino on Sunday to eat-it-like-I-stole-it for $19 ($21 and change after tax, plus tip), and had shellfish and bacon on Good Friday. For these edible transgressions I will most likely be cast into the charnel pits of Hell, but at least I'll go knowing I had a full stomach.

Digging on Swine and Making Good Friday Grrrrrrrreat! - Photo by Wasabi Prime

I'm a good person. I pay my taxes, return my library books on time and try not to swear like a sailor in front of impressionable toddlers. But let's say I'm more spiritual than religious, so yes, I went forth on Sunday and burdened several plates with the unholy buffet combinations of cashew chicken stir fry, mass-produced Eggs Benedict, pepperoni pizza, barbecue beef brisket, and sorbet. I won't frighten those who are faint of heart with photos, but suffice it to say, if there is a hell, I'm pretty sure my lower intestines are there now. To be honest, there are, in fact, no photos of this event, and I would have totally taken snaps of this Insane Clown Posse Breakfast Buffet of Earthly Delights, but casino security totally put the NO CAMERA shutdown in my face the second I walked in. So, that was my Easter, in a three-plates-piled-high sort of nutshell, with only my heartburn as a witness.

On Good Friday, when everyone was having their loaves and fishes, I put together a dinner of seared scallops over asparagus with an orange cognac sauce and crispy bits of bacon. The swine definitely tipped the scales towards Totally Not Good Friday, I know, but having a non-four-legged, swimmy meal wasn't the original intent behind the meal. The genesis (har-har) was strangely enough, a bottle of chive oil. I noticed the chives in the strawberry pot of mixed herbs were getting long and they just grow better with regular haircuts, so I snipped them all down. Way too many chives to use before they wilted, I buzzed them in the blender with oil, strained out the solid bits, and now have a nice bottle of bright green goodness to flavor my way through the next month of meals.

Turning chives into chive oil - not quite a miracle, but mighty tasty - Photos by Wasabi Prime

I've made no bones about my love of frozen stuff from Costco and made no attempt to hide the sins of my impulse buying. Giant bag of frozen strawberries? Yes, please, and make it three. I had a few frozen scallops leftover from an ill-conceived bulk purchase of aforementioned frozen critters, and so I thought a flavor-heavy sauce using orange and cognac, and a finishing drizzle of the chive oil would be a good way to finish 'em off. Plus, oh snap, asparagus is on sale and they do go well with all those ingredients and flavors. This is how meals come to be at Wasabi Kitchen Stadium, pure happenstance. Plus the orange I had in the fruit bowl was getting questionably soft, so when there is threat of janky produce, make sauce, because booze and heat will kill everything.

Using the salt of the earth. Literally. - Photo by Wasabi Prime

A more foodie-fancy ingredient that's been inspiring meals of pure happenstance has been specialty salts. I got a few small containers of them over the holidays from my foodie pal, Ms. Radish. Their strong flavors can overpower things, so they're used sparingly, but they add such a nice, richness to food. A dash of smoked salt on the scallops made for a pleasant little hit of flavor, plus it's great to sprinkle on roasting vegetables to give them some interest. And oh my holy Easter Sunday, it's great mixed with regular salt to season the rim of a Bloody Mary.

So maybe the selections of meals and buffets weren't totally Easter or Passover-friendly but I'm all about celebrating the seasons in my own special, socially-inappropriate Wasabi Way. Even if that means frozen shellfish, crispy swine, questionable produce, and a buffet concoction that would make Escoffier turn in his grave.

Salt, in Still Life - Photos by Wasabi Prime