In my eternal quest to find new and exciting combinations of old familiar ingredients to top tacos with, Since I'm making a big-ass batch of green chile chicken tacos tomorrow for the gaming crowd, I thought I'd try something to go with it - and since Rainbow had both tomatillos and, somehow, RIPE avocados on the shelf today, that was gonna be my basis. You'll need:

Pasta in a cream sauce with cajun chicken.

Before I go into further details, let me mention that I went to Jake's City Grille in Eden Prairie with my parents for my dad's birthday, and they like it, and it's not what I would call bad food. As such.

But there's something about a place like Jake's, a place that's still serving cajun chicken pasta in 2010, that makes me want to scream. A place that puts their name on things (Jakesauce, Jakewings, Jakefries) when, at least in the case of the Jakefries, clearly came frozen off the back of a truck.

When Burger Jones opened, I told myself that one of these times, I was gonna order the short rib chili. It sounded awesome - chili, made with beef short ribs.

This recipe came to us via Cathy's mom, from a newspaper article, from a Sacramento restaurant called "SooHoo's". You can buy the pork from a Chinese market or deli, or use my recipe and make your own if you wanna show off. You'll need:

Dough:

• 1 envelope dry yeast
• 1/3 C sugar
• 1 C milk (105 - 110 degrees F)
• 4 T shortening
• 1/4 t salt
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 6 C all-purpose flour

Char Su filling:

Pollanation (n); Pollanate (v): The process by which products Michael Pollan would consider "edible food-like substances" are deliberately marketed as what Michael Pollan would call "food", so as to avoid increasingly negative reaction to fast and processed foods as a result of health concerns, the slow food movement, the organic movement, the locavore movement, and Michael Pollan's own work. 

If you're wondering why there's no picture, it's because the Doritos official site is the ugliest fucking nightmare of a site I've ever seen, and the only picture Google can find comes from a "review" on a "website" that is so glowing with unearned praise that someone clearly either got paid, blown, or both to publish it. And it wasn't even a good picture.

So Liz was kind enough to bring a bag of these to the Sunday shindig, and most of us tried them. 

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The last post was just about the stuff we made, but I would be remiss in not mentioning as much of the other food my friends brought that I can remember:

I love a good party. Of course, I'm a nerd, so for me a good party means me and a bunch of my nerdbuds sitting around, playing games, talking shit, and eating food. Your mileage may vary. The point for this blog is the food. So here are some pictures and notes.

VEGETARIAN STEAMED DUMPLINGS:

So three of the four dumpling party dishes are done and frozen (the fourth has to be made day of). Tonight is the last day I'll be cooking just for myself until Tuesday. I had a bit of skirt steak left in the freezer. And dammit, I wanted some cheesesteak.