Tastes Like Chocolate?

1 small package of bacon (the real kind, I don't want no turkey substitute)

Vermicelli pasta

1/2 sweet onion

fresh green beans julienned

balsamic vinegar

sugar

parmesean cheese

This one was a collaborative effort. My friend came over for dinner, and we were trying to eat cheap by making food from what we had. I knew we needed some protein to avoid hunger after two hours, so I asked her to bring home the bacon. She suggested we cook with balsamic vinegar. At first I disagreed, but I was trying to be reasonable and not a control freak, so I suggested we cook it in the bacon with sugar to caramelize it. Do not, I repeat, do not, add the balsamic vinegar to the heating oil, it will sizzle up and burn the crap out of you. After the bacon was almost done frying we added more balsamic vinegar and sprinkled a bit of sugar on it. The bacon turned out delicious, surprisingly un-bacony, and super crispy. It wasn't until the end of the meal that I realized it kind of tasted like chocolate.

Frenchie

Green Beans julienned
1/2 Sweet Onion
1 Clove Garlic
Olive Oil
1 tbs. Butter
Salt & Pepper
Angel Hair Pasta

I used to work at a restaurant that had a delicious spring beans side dish. They would thinly slice them and sauteed them so that the beans were a little charred and crunchy. For this I sauteed the garlic and onions as well as the julienned green beans and served it atop a bed of angel hair pasta garnished with some freshly grated parmesean. Simple, and probably the most delicious meal I've had in a long long time.

This Makes Your Apartment Smell Really Good

Watermelon
Salt
Sugar
Cinnamon
Cloves
All Spice
Lemon
White Vinegar
Water

I went to this restaurant near by me and ate a pickled watermelon rind salad. It was absolutely delicious; I went in the next week to get it again, and it was gone. So this one is really hard to make. It should probably only take 3 days, but it took me 5. I got the recipe from this blog. Aaaand I just noticed my mason jar looks nothing like theirs...

It's Not About Hunger, It's About Indulgence

Jiffy Brownie Mix
Aunt Jamima pancake/waffle mix
Ghirardelli Cocoa Powder
Ground Coffee
Vanilla Extract
Almond Extract
Cinnamon
Water

Ya... So this is a total winger. Mix together what you think would taste good, make it a good thick consistency and MAKE SURE TO GREASE THE WAFFLE IRON. It's a bitch to clean.

Round One:



Boo!!!
Round Two:

Steak and ...Pork? Quesadillas

some meat
corn tortillas
monterey jack cheese
cilantro
tomato
sauteed onions

My roommate had visitors who brought us their leftovers from a delicious restaurant. In the box was an assortment of different meats. We took steak and what we assumed was pork and shredded it into our quesadillas. I recently acquired a waffle iron which I learned can make many things other than waffles. Such as: brownies, omelets, french toast, and guess what, quesadillas. But if you use a waffle iron to make your quesadillas, make sure you get flour tortillas, cause the corn ones can't handle the heat (and moisture).



So we switched to the stove top griddle. And it worked excellently. Cook it up!

Just Easy

1/2 cup elbow macaroni

1/4 cup alfredo sauce

8 basil leaves, chopped

1/4 cup marinara sauce

4 baby bella mushrooms

Cook pasta al dente, saute mushrooms then add sauces, and lastly mix in with pasta and add basil.

Remember To Wash The Basil

10 Basil Leaves

Havarti Cheese ( I suppose a 2" x 4" piece)

3 Slices of Prosciutto

1 Piece of Whole Wheat of Flat Bread

Coupla Shakes of Balsamic Vinegar

1 oz. Olive Oil

I got this recipe from my roommate. It's pretty awesome. Begin by preheating the oven to 350 degrees. Spread the olive oil on the flat bread all the way to the edges. Put out half the cheese in little pieces (grate it if you like, but havarti is kinda gooey and it will probably stick to the shredder). REMEMBER TO WASH THE BASIL, mine was so dirty, and usually I don't wash my produce, but this time I could feel the grit on my fingers. Tear the basil into smaller pieces so you don't have to when you're biting it later. Don't you hate it when you take a bite of pepperoni pizza and you pull off the whole pepperoni so that there's none for the next bite? Tear up half the prosciutto, then place the flat bread onto a pan and into the oven. I love salt, but I figured with the prosciutto there's really no need for it especially since I was using an old pan with salt in the bottom. Let it bake for about 15 minutes (I think). Take it out of the oven and add the rest of the prosciutto to the top. Take it out of the pan and let it bake on the rack for another 10 to 15 minutes (once again, I think, I was doing other stuff, so I'm not sure, just don't let it burn). Oh, I forgot, remember to sprinkle on the balsamic vinegar before you put the flat bread in the oven the first time. It helps to take some of the bite from the basil. If you've ever eatin it plain, you'll know it's really strong. Which brings me to another recipe that should be shared at this time, since I've posted two basil themed recipes in a row. I got it from the restaurant I work at. It's called a Marco Polo, and I'm pretty sure our bartender named it and made it up. You muddle kumquat and basil then add lemon juice, club soda, gin, and compari. It's delicious.

Yes! Mac n' Cheese Muffins with Basil

1 cup elbow macaroni

1/2 cup sharp cheddar

1/4 cup alfredo sauce

handful of basil leaves

2 eggs

I finally made it. I think I didn't put enough cheese in it. The key to making this dish is to layer the pasta that is mixed with the alfredo and egg mixture then grated cheese, then the chopped basil, then the pasta, and then the cheese again. I topped it with a little grated parmesan. I like to serve sauteed spinach with garlic and a little bit of coriander as a side dish.

My Chips Are Better Than Yours

2 sliced tortillas

3 tablespoons vegetable oil

lotsa salt

This isn't so much a recipe as it is being friends with the cooks at the slow restaurant you work at so you're able to deep fry whatever you want. I always liked to slice up tortillas and make little crisps so I adapted this recipe for when I don't have a deep fryer (although I wouldn't mind owning one for deep fried ravioli). All you do is cover the tortilla with the vegetable and salt after slicing it to whatever size you want and bake for about 20 minutes. Yuuuuuuum.

BUR GER

It's what I want.

Pasta & Canned Clams... Really

1 can of clams

4 oz. basil-tomato sauce

1 1/2 elbow macaroni (little kind)

So this one sounds sketch, I know. But besides being a little chewy, it was actually delicious! So I'd been sitting on this can of clams for about two weeks. My last apartment I sublet my roommate didn't have a can opener... or a frying pan... um, ya. So yesterday I moved from there; I've upgraded, to a room with a window, a door, and two closets! I fried the clams a little to try and give them a little "pan-fried" flavor (perhaps that was why they were chewy?). And remember, pasta must be al dente. And now I have a pretty bowl to eat from. Go new apartment.

Cold Green Curry

1 part-time internship

1 empty wallet

1 delivery man

No cooking tonight. Sitting at a computer for 12 hours kinda makes you want to sit staring at hulu when you get home... funny how that works. Although I did get free Thai food, so today I have a eating tip: eating spicy thai leftovers cold helps make its heat tolerable. The green curry I had today was the kind that tickles the back of your throat and makes it pulse from the spice.

Work and Mold

1/2 cup of Newman's Own tomato basil pasta sauce

1 cup elbow macaroni, al dente (soft pasta is disgusting)

1/4 cup chopped green pepper

1/4 cup chopped onion

1 fried egg

Managed to snap this pic before I quickly gobbled my food. Being a freelance graphic designer is never easy in New York, gotta take $50 wherever you can get it. I thought the fried egg would get old, but it hasn't yet. I once lived in an apartment with carpet (eww, yuck!) for 6 months. Every morning I would eat one over easy egg and two slices of white toast with butter. That apartment ended up growing mold and I was able to break my lease. Actually, I was able to break more than one lease now that I think about it... The second apartment that I broke my lease ended up being condemned by the city of Raleigh and everyone got evicted. I now have a fear of signing leases. After graduating, who can willingly say they are certain of living in one place for one solid year? Maybe I want to move to move to San Francisco.

I Used To Be One Of Those Girls

2 Gorton's Frozen Fish Fillets

4 Handfuls Musclun Greens

1 Whole Carrot, sliced

10 Cherry Tomatoes, halved

4 Radishes, sliced

1/4 Red Onion, finely chopped

2 oz. Ranch Dressing

Before I moved to New York I lived in a lovely one-bedroom apartment in North Carolina of which my boyfriend inhabited as well for a brief time. I was only taking classes and didn't have a job so I became a domesticated "house wife" of sorts. My favorite dish was created after a trip to my local Harris Teeter in which I found Gorton's frozen fish filets 2 packages for $5.00 (or maybe it was $7.00, who cares, it was cheap). I chopped some greens, radishes (cause every salad should have radishes), cherry tomatoes, carrots, and finely sliced red onion and threw it into a plastic storage bowl. I put a few drops of ranch (lets try not to be too fatty) and shook it up -- salads are always better with the dressing tossed through it. After padding the greasy fish filets with paper towels I put it right on top of the salad. It was so good. Don't ask me why, my boyfriend at the time preferred my hybrid Target's Archer Farms concoctions. More about those to come...

Disclaimer: while googling for images suited to this posting I stumbled upon this.That woman looks very reliable.

Salad Ending In Bread & Murderous Vegetables

1 can beets

1 can mandarin oranges (or fresh clementines)

1 package leafy greens (I prefer mesclun)

1 package goats cheese

Coupla ounces of poppy dressing

Some sliced almonds

So I've always been oddly fascinated by beets. The color, the smell, they way they always dyed my grandmother's hands when she boiled them and how she stained my mother's dish clothes. One of my favorite authors, Tom Robbins, wrote a lot about beets. In Jitterbug Perfume he wrote: "A tale that begins with a beet will surely end with the devil." Well this tale will just end with you being seduced by the canned foods isle.

I was meeting my friend to eat at her apartment. For this meal she just went to Wholefoods on Houston to buy the ingredients, and I was only required to purchase the wine. So I think the key to making canned foods work is to pair them with more expensive ingredients. The beets cost no more than $2.00 and I think the mandarin oranges where $0.89. The poppy dressing ended up being mandarin poppy dressing, and the only crumbled goats cheese Wholefoods had was basil-onion flavored, which ended up being perfect, 'cause the sweet dressing needed some salt to balance it.

All in all it was delicious, but a coupla hours later I was still hungry and found myself drinkin a beer and eating pizza and pasta on a rooftop with a ballerina.

So I don't have a picture this time either (I'm really gonna get on that!), but here's something to get your blood pumping.

"The beet is the murderer returned to the scene of the crime. The beet is what happens when the cherry finishes with the carrot. The beet is the ancient ancestor of the autumn moon, bearded, buried, all but fossilized; the dark green sails of the grounded moon-boat stitched with veins of primordial plasma; the kite string that once connected the moon to the Earth now a muddy whisker drilling desperately for rubies."

--Tom Robbins, Jitterbug Perfume

I Live In Greenpoint

4 perogies (unfrozen kind from a Polish-owned grocer preferred)

1/2 onion

1/2 container of sour cream

1 large egg

Today I got off work around 7:30pm. Earlier this week I had impulsively bought perogies while trying to stay healthy... So I knew I had that in the fridge. I bought some toilet paper and an onion at the corner store and headed home. I remembered I had sour cream from a week ago; when I tasted it, it was questionable. The expiration date was July 10th... I tasted it again and decided it was fine. I currently don't have a frying pan, so I first sauteed the onions in the pot, then pan fryed the perogies. It was then that I got the impulse to make an egg over easy to top my meal. Seasoned with salt and pepper. It was so delicious I forgot to take a picture. But here is one with the ingredients. I took this as an opportunity to play around with photoshop... err, ya, sorry.