I live in a quiet neighborhood and we just got new neighbors. Watching them move in catty-corner from us has been the most exciting thing to happen in months. Seeing the work they are putting into the house has been a great joy. How boring does all this sound? Exceptionally so. Immensely. I suppose that’s okay, but at times I miss the old neighborhood. Never a dull moment.
Not that we lived in a bad part of town and all our neighbors were awful. Santa Rita is a great part of this community. It’s an old neighborhood with eclectic housing. Some areas are not as glamorous as others. Let’s just say that there are pockets within neighborhoods. We lived on the border of such a pocket. Low cost rent houses and cheap motels with monthly rates can attract not just the broke college kids but the more criminal elements of society. And boy did we get a bit of both. The first time I saw someone getting arrested in front of our house I peeped through the blinds to secretly watch. By the end of our stay, when those blue & red lights were flashing, I was on the porch with a drink taking in the show. To quote Ricky Butler from the ‘Burbs “God, I love this street”.
The house across from us was a rental that seemed to only attract drug dealers. The first were straight up gangsters. Caricatures of gangsters. They didn’t care who saw them slinging drugs. They were loud and partied till the early AM. They were not clever and didn’t last long. The second guy was straight up class. I’m talking godfather smooth. He knew a thing or two about appearances. Clean cut, very polite, nothing flashy, good conversationalist. I never suspected a thing. That’s why it was a shock to me when the US marshals kicked down his door. He apparently got tipped off because he was nowhere to be seen and left all his belongings behind. What we learned was the guy moved A LOT of cocaine.
Next door we had the college kids. For the most part they were good respectful neighbors. All that they wanted was to drink beer and smoke weed, so they made it a point to keep us happy. I don’t think they were the studious types. Aside from the occasional beer cans in the yard and late night party, they did a good job. Sometimes you would hear yelling. Drunk boyfriend mad at drunk girlfriend & vice versa. One night things escalated. Girlfriend went berserk on boyfriend’s new truck. Boyfriend tried to pull her away from the truck and she stabbed him in the thigh. Cops came. Bye bye girlfriend. They moved out after graduation and left that house in shambles. I kind of missed them, they were hilarious kids.
A little further down the street was where the real drama was. Everything else was more comical until they came along. They moved in closer to the end of our time on that street and certainly played a part in us moving on. The neighbors on the block nicknamed them “The Crackheads”. The true blight of the neighborhood. Neighbors from hell. They screamed at each other. Stormed down the street yelling and crying. All hours of the day this went on. College kids said they never slept & that they were into some “weird s***”. They were closer to them so they had more interaction. I mentioned the motel. Gallivanting back and forth from said motel they sure did. Often with new companionship that looked just as strung out as they. Cops always over. And they had 2 pit bulls THAT THEY NEVER KEPT IN THE YARD!!!! Jemma & Tank. They would attack other dogs on the street. It got where we could only walk Hazel one direction. With pepper spray. I don’t know how many times animal control was called on those poor animal. I called on 2 occasions when other dogs were getting attacked. I thought Tank was going to kill this old yellow lab one day. I came running out of the house with a f***ing flip flop in my hand. Like that was going to do any good against a 100lb dog with a bite strength over 200lbs. Adrenaline was pumping and I wasn’t thinking, but I did get them separated. If the dogs were not roaming the street they were chained up in the yard. In all weather conditions howling day & night. The Crackheads were the worst pet owners. Again, neighbors from hell.
So you see settling into the new house a year ago took a little getting used to. We were accustomed to excitement on a daily basis. Maybe this is a boring street. But in this case, upon reflection, boring is a good thing. I love my neighborhood.
Jalapeno!!
Beef with broccoli. Of course I added fresh peppers. The beef cooked for nearly 2 hours so the meat was perfectly tender. This isn’t a typical summer dish for us, but because the temperature was in the mere 70’s we went with it.
Loco Moco on King Kamehameha Day! I promise this wasn’t planned. It’s been a long time since I’ve made this dish and it really wasn’t quite as good as I remember it being. I think it’s just that I don’t eat as much beef as I use to. I still enjoyed it.
Another HelloFresh from my friend! Bibimbop. This turned out to be AMAZING! I wasn’t really sure what to expect. It was a little time consuming to prepare because each veggie needed to be cooked separately. Next time I’ll just combine them. The flavor was excellent. Three nights of beef. Time to move on to chicken.
Grilled sweet & sour chicken. I don’t know why I’ve never done this before. It’s always stir-fry or breaded. This is clearly the option I’ll be going with more often in the future. Much healthier and just as good. Not to mention a lot easier to make.
Grilled crab lets! My friend was going to smoke them and I could not get crab off my mind so I decided to cook some myself. I had planned on steaming the legs but the idea to grill them was planted in my mind. I was not expecting them to turn out as good as they did. I’ve been missing out all these years. It was simply fantastic. I don’t see myself preparing them any other way from this point forward.
Cocktail of the week: Cinnamon Toast Crunch.
En Fuego 
Crab legs are so yummy !
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