Tales & Trails of a Traveling Wiseguy

I spent over $20,000 shopping on Black Friday... but not on 4k QLED TVs, Amazon Dots, Apple earbuds, or any of the myriad other things advertised left, right, and center yesterday. I bought pieces of companies.

The stock markets were down on Friday. News about a new Coronavirus variant emerging raised fears of new rounds of lockdowns impinging consumer spending. Asian and European markets were down ahead of the opening of US markets at 9:30am EST. When US markets opened broad swaths of stocks were down by 3%, 4%, or more. Energy stocks were down 8% on fears that lockdowns would reduce travel and commerce.

Some people react to stock market downturns with dread. "Oh, no, how much money did I lose today?" I lost money Friday, in the sense that the market value of my portfolio decreased. It didn't bother me. I don't invest with the expectation of selling things the next day. (Some would argue that's not even investing but trading.) I buy stocks expecting to sell them anywhere from several months from now to a year or more, to possibly never. Thus when the market's down I look at it and think, "Woohoo! Stocks are on sale!"

It's not even Thanksgiving yet— it's two days away still— and already I feel like I've done nothing but eat all week. Flying out east to visit friends and relatives we haven't seen for at least 2 years, in some cases 3 or more, has meant lots of celebratory meals. I overate delicious food at lunch and dinner Saturday lunch, took it somewhat easy Sunday lunch but was stuffed after dinner, then took it easy Monday lunch but was stuffed after an excellent dinner. Today I was surprisingly stuffed after what I thought was a modest lunch, and feel stuffed again tonight after what I thought was another normal-sized meal. And I still have to get through tomorrow with enough room in my stomach to survive Thanksgiving Day. I'd say "ugh" but the good food and good company are hard to regret.

Today I scheduled my Covid-19 booster shot. I'm pretty much on the verge of 6 months since getting my 2nd Pfizer vaccine dose, and I match the conditions approved by the FDA and CDC for getting a booster right now. Thankfully the CVS pharmacy website has been fixed so I didn't technically have to lie (see previous link) to get an appointment. And I don't have to travel over 100 miles for it, either! I'll get my booster shot at a clinic a few miles away on Monday just before lunchtime.

There's irony in the fact I've scheduled my third shot just as Covid-19 finished ripping through part of my family that dithered and made excuses not to get their first shots. Some of us boarded the clue train right away; others don't get it even when hit in the face with a clue-by-4. Well, I'd like to these relatives when I travel for Thanksgiving— but it's got to be safe. Getting a booster this week sets me up for being as safe as I can in visiting Head-in-the-sand America 6 weeks from now.

Veal parmigiana has been one of my comfort foods for a long time. Veal used to be a lot more common in stores and restaurants, before ethical concerns about industry practices made it much less popular around about 1990. Back in the 80s I enjoyed it about once a month. Heck, there was a time when Burger King sold a fast-food veal parmigiana sandwich! Nowadays I go about two years between dishes. Thus when I saw veal scallopini in the grocery store earlier this week, my first idea was I can make veal parmigiana!



The first step with veal parmigiana is to bread the veal before cooking it. The picture above shows my prep setup. The process starts from the left, with the thinly sliced veal, and goes counterclockwise. I dredge the meat in flour with a bit of salt, coat it in a mixture of 1 egg mixed with 2 tbsp. (30 mL) water, toss it in a mixture of breadcrumbs and freshly shredded Parmesan cheese, then lay it out on a plate covered with wax paper to await cooking.

BTW I'm not so much following a specific recipe here as going by experience. When I worked in a restaurant as a teenager one of several positions I worked was the fry line. It was hot, sweaty, dirty work, but I enjoyed it. One upshot is that I know how to season, batter, and fry meat!

Here's what the breaded meat looks like:



BTW I did consider other dishes to make with veal scallopini. There are classic sauté recipes with light sauces made with white wine or red wine. I even thought about making saltimbocca, though that's made by adding pork, which Hawk won't eat. None of them tickled my fancy quite as much as this old comfort food, veal parmigiana. As a plus it's kind of one of Hawk's comfort foods, too. And double-plus, making it by hand for the first time ever was satisfying.

Next I pan-fried the breaded veal.



I've got a left-to-right workflow showing in this picture, too. On the left I'm frying a few strips of meat at a time in a skillet with plenty of butter. In the center I've set a wire rack over a plate to hold cooked strips and let them drain while the rest are cooking. On the right is a baking dish I'll layer all the meat in once it's fried. I've already got a layer of marinara sauce in it, to prevent the meat from sticking to the bottom.

BTW2, the left-to-right assembly lines I'm showing here aren't just something I ginned up for photography. This is how I work when I'm cooking something that involves more than about 2 steps. It's another bit of learned experience from restaurant work decades ago.



Once the meat is cooked I layer it in the baking dish with more marinara sauce and a good layer of shredded mozzarella cheese on top, then put it in the oven to bake.

Baking time is kind of arbitrary. The meat's already cooked to a safe temperature from the sauté step. The baking stage is there to heat the sauce and cheese to a consistent temperature and get a nice, melt-y texture and golden-brown color on top.



Oh, yeah.

And here it is on the plate, with the rest of Thanksgiving dinner:



Yes, it was delicious.

It was even good the next day as leftovers. It didn't last past lunch on Friday.

Since we canceled our Thanksgiving travel plans (LJ link) we had Thanksgiving dinner at home for the first time in a long time. Here's our dinner last night:



merhawk and I aren't big on Thanksgiving tradition. That main dish in the middle is veal parmigiana. While not a traditional food it's definitely a comfort food— one that, until now, I've only enjoyed at restaurants. Tonight I made veal parmigiana from scratch!



Along with the veal we enjoyed home-made challah bread, a vegetable medley, and mashed potatoes. The veggies are part of a swap we did with another couple in the neighborhood. We sent them a loaf of bread (my MIL's recipe makes 3 loaves!) and half the cake; they sent us the veggies, stuffing, gravy, and 1-2 other things I don't particularly like so I don't remember what they're called. For dessert we had home-made pumpkin spice cake.

BTW, why am I a day late posting Thanksgiving dinner? It's because on Thanksgiving day I was still catching up on previous cooking— in this case, paneer tikka masala (LJ link). And I've still got more kitchen catch-up to do!