Popcorn As It Should Be Done

So, I feel the reputation of popcorn needs rescuing. Popcorn that comes in a paper bag that you throw in the microwave is not real popcorn. (That fake buttery-flavored stuff that gets caked on the inside of the bag? Ew. Just ew.) Real popcorn gets dumped in a weird-shaped machine that makes weird loud noises and violently vomits the popped kernels into a bowl. Once there, the freshly AIR-POPPED popcorn--that is, real popcorn--gets drizzled with delicious melted butter (NOT MARGARINE.) In a perfect world, this is all topped by delicious grated parmesan cheese--that powdery Kraft crap will do in a pinch. And that, gentle readers, is how REAL popcorn is done. Don't be fooled.

Cookie > Cake

My birthday is coming up next weekend, and I have a confession to make: I am underwhelmed by birthday cake. I know, I know, color me weird. But you know what my perfect birthday confection is? A giant, pizza-sized chocolate chip cookie. Maybe with some frosting letters to make it more birthday-ish. But seriously, gooey chocolate chip cookie over cake any day of the week. Even Wednesday. It is just a purer form of bliss. Also? Fudgey brownies over cakey brownies, always. Cake is so wishy-washy as a dessert. There's all that fluff involved. I want my fat and sugar as undiluted by flour and other potentially healthy ingredients as possible. On the other hand, I hate fudge. So... I dunno. You tell me.

Guilty Pleasures

Theoretically, I'm one of those hippie types who's all pro-natural, pro-organic, into locally grown sustainable agriculture, etc etc etc ad nauseum. If I had the budget for it, I would actually follow through on all that. Join the food co-op and whatnot. As it is, I do my best to avoid overly processed items ("PROCESSED CHEESE PRODUCT" IS NOT "FOOD," I DON'T CARE WHAT ANYONE SAYS. EW.). But I still have a few guilty pleasures. Oreos for one. Brown Sugar Cinnamon Pop-Tarts for another. And god help me, Cadbury Creme Eggs. I have no idea what that delicious gold-and-white filling is. And I don't care. I need it for to live. It is pretty much the only reason I even notice Easter anymore -- when those things start hitting the shelves, I'm in trouble. And here's the really bad part: Cadbury, being a British company (I believe?), has way more variety and availability in Ireland. Creme eggs are not seasonal there. They are found anywhere, anytime. I was there for four months, and I pretty much ate one every other day. No wonder I gained fifteen pounds there. Well, that and the Guinness...

Mom's Spaghetti Sauce Recipe

Yesterday I whipped up a batch of my mother's awesome spaghetti sauce recipe, which is somewhere between from-scratch and from-a-jar. I'm not a big tomato sauce fan (and I'm part Italian! I know, right?), but I loooove this recipe and it's super-easy. From memory, it basically goes like this:

Sautee lots and lots of garlic in olive oil in a large pot. Add in two 15-oz cans of tomato sauce and two 6-oz cans of tomato paste. Fill one of the 15-oz cans up with water and dump that in, twice. Whisk it all together until smooth. Add a large handful (about a third cup) Tone's Spicy Spaghetti Seasoning -- that's pretty much the secret ingredient. Add some extra sugar, cayenne, oregano, and salt and pepper. While all this is going on, brown some boneless country-style pork ribs under the broiler; when brown on all sides, throw those in the sauce. Simmer it all on low heat until reduced to desired consistency (usually about an hour or so). Take out the ribs and cut them into little pieces and dump it all back in. Done! The sauce splatters while simmering if left uncovered, so you may want to partially cover it with a lid, but make sure it's not on all the way so the steam can escape.

I like to serve this over linguine topped with fresh-grated parmesan or romano. In fact, that is precisely what I am having for dinner in about half an hour. Om nom nom.

Plug: Cake Wrecks

As I have mentioned here before, I am a decent cook but a sub-par baker.* Even store-bought cake mix has proved to be a challenge to me in the past. (What do you mean I have to let it cool before I ice it? Oh god, why is the top peeling off? HELP!) But I like sweet baked treats as much as the next person, and I love to mock bad taste. Ergo, I must share with you one of my favorite snark blogs: Cake Wrecks ("when professional cakes go horribly, hilariously wrong"). The fact that the featured wrecks actually exist out in the world somewhere fills my heart with smug, superior joy. Far be it from me to knock someone else's personal baking disaster, but when purchasing a professional cake, one expects a certain level of... well... professionalism. Amirite?


*Note: In my defense, I do make some freaking awesome Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookies. Just sayin'.

Southwestern Bean Salad

I was just reading an acquaintance's knitting blog, and for some reason she had posted a recipe. It sounded pretty tasty, and reading through it I realized I'm pretty sure I have all the listed ingredients at the house. So maybe when I get home tonight I will make it. As yoinked directly from her blog:

Southwestern Bean Salad

1 can black beans
1 can navy beans
1 medium size red pepper, diced
1 meduim size onion, diced (either red or sweet, your call)
1 1/2 cups corn kernels
1 clove garlic, pressed
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp dijon mustard (or to taste)
2 Tbsp red wine vinegar
3 Tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper

Rinse and drain the beans. Mix together the beans, corn, red pepper and onion in a large bowl. In a smaller bowl, stir together the garlic, cumin, olive oil and mustard, and gradually mix in the vinegar until the sauce is creamy. Pour it over the beans and mix well. Season with salt and pepper.

...Now I am hungry. I brought leftover Chinese to eat between work and My Favorite Class Ever OMG Info Tech Is So Interesting. Guess I'll just have to tough it out for the next three hours until dinner time...

Balsamic Chicken, Sauteed Green Beans, Roasted Potatoes. Also? Garlic.

I've had a craving for one of my standby meals lately: Balsamic-Glazed Chicken. I haven't made it in months. I believe I may have based it on a Rachael Ray recipe, but I do it my own way now. Also, I never measure anything.

*********
Heat olive oil in a pan, sautee chopped garlic and shallots several minutes. Add 4-5 boneless chicken breasts (thinner is better), add salt and pepper. Brown several minutes each side. Pour balsamic vinegar liberally over each piece of chicken, coating both sides. Continue cooking until glaze bubbles and thickens and chicken is done.
*********

Favorite side dishes for this meal (very common dishes; I don't follow a specific recipe for these -- the ones linked are just what came up on Google):

Sauteed Green Beans with Garlic
Garlic-Rosemary Roasted Potatoes


You may have noticed that all three of these recipes have something in common. That something is garlic. I love garlic. I love it with an unconditional depth and intensity unmatched by any other food substance. In fact, now that I think about it, there is no way I've had this blog for several months without already waxing dramatic about my garlic obsession. Suffice to say, then, that I put garlic in pretty much everything I make. And I want to make one thing very clear: if it is coming out of a jar or any other form of container, it is not garlic. It is a poor substitute marketed toward those who don't know any better. Buy it fresh. Seriously. You'll never look back, and you may just mourn all that time you lost before you saw the light.

Better Late Than Never

This past weekend was Easter. M and I, both having been raised Catholic, are used to such traditional Easter meals as ham, lamb, etc. What did we make this weekend?

Corned beef and cabbage.

Hey, we never got around to it for St. Patrick's Day. We couldn't just let that go.

We did, however, manage to eat way too much Easter candy. Ugh.

Bailey's Milkshakes

I think I need to post about the milkshakes M made the other day.

She got out the blender.

She dumped in some coffee ice cream.

She poured fake Bailey's all over it (Carolan's I think? Some kind of generic Irish cream liqueur).

Blended it all up for half a minute and dumped it in a glass.

AMAZING.


Next time, maybe some whipped cream and chocolate sauce on top? Mmmm....

Mixed Fruit Custard

I think I may have found a pretty good approximation of the custard from yesterday, over at an Indian/Pakistani recipe blog. I am stealing it wholesale to post below:


Simple, healthy (sort of) and delicious dessert for a warm summer evening.

* Whole Milk 500ml
* Custard powder 2 tbsp
* Sugar as per taste
* Diced mixed fruits 1 cup
* Jelly 1/2 cup
* Vanilla extract 1 tsp

Procedure:
Boil milk. Once boiled, lower heat and add the sugar.
Mix custard powder in half a cup of cold milk
Slowly pour custard powder in hot milk and keep stirring
Cook till it passes the back of spoon test (take a wooden spoon and dip in the custard, run your finger through the middle of the custard on the back of the spoon, if a clear path is left, the mixture is ready otherwise cook for some more time)
Let it cool outside, once it reaches room temperature, put it in the refrigerator till its cold.
Add the fruits ( i added kiwi, oranges, apples, grapes, blue berries, mango and pineapple) and diced jelly.
Serve cold.


I am so going to try this. The version I had included grapes, bananas, apples, and some other unidentified varieties of fruit. So good. And, as noted above, almost kind of healthy! Seems pretty easy, too. I'll post about it if I get around to giving it a go.

Langar at the Gurdwara

Yesterday I had an interesting food experience. M's Anthropology of Food class took a trip to the local Sikh temple (called a gurdwara) for their Sunday service followed by langar -- a homecooked meal free to anyone who stops by. I've always been a little iffy on Indian food, but I'm trying to be more open to it. Yesterday was a step in the right direction -- it was amazingly delicious! I can't remember (or really even pronounce) the names of any of the dishes... there was a soupy yogurt with some crunchy things in it, a salad of mostly cabbage and carrots, some kind of awesome spicy lentil concoction, a spicy cooked vegetable mix, a tortilla-like flat bread ("roti," according to Wikipedia), and a fruit salad/custard thing that I still can't get over. Langar is always vegetarian so as not to exclude anyone who wants it, and while I'm a fervent omnivore, I think I could happily live on that lentil stuff with some roti. I am going to Google around till I find out what that custard is called, because I need to try making it.

A note on the gurdwara: if anyone is intrigued by Sikhism or the gurdwara in general, I encourage you to stop by and check out their service. It's all in Punjabi so I don't actually know what they were chanting, although they projected the English on a screen for some parts. Anyway they were very welcoming, and they're always open to visitors. It was a great experience. And a delicious one. A nice way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

Variety is the spice of life... and cooking.

I try to keep my life structured by making a big meal on Sunday or Monday and eating the leftovers for the rest of the week. I made a pan of lasagna the other week, and that kept me fed for a good long while. The crockpot is an excellent tool for this strategy, but I'm woefully lacking in recipes. I've had luck with pot roast, but that gets boring after a few goes, and it's getting to be past season for it. Anyone have good crockpot recipes to share?

Down With Winter, Up With Veggies!

One of my favorite things about going to the community college in my hometown was that it was right across the street from the local farmer's market. This meant that at least once a week, I would come home from school with bags of fresh veggies: tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, green beans, squash, beets -- all manner of good, healthy stuff. Depending on what was available that day, I would pick up things I didn't even know what to do with, just to challenge myself to try something new. There is absolutely nothing like fresh, locally grown produce, sold to you by the people who grew it. I miss that. I cruised through the Oakland farmer's market a handful of times last summer, but it just wasn't the same (although I can heartily recommend the Emerald Valley Artisan Cheese stand -- no seriously, check it out). This year I would love to grow some veggies in the backyard, but as my lease is up at the end of July and I don't yet know if I'll be renewing it, I'm a little iffy on investing in a garden. I'll have to see how things go. What is for damn certain, however, is that I am craving fresh produce. Spring/summer cannot come fast enough. Winter has overstayed its welcome in this town, and I am ready to see the sun again.

Sweet Elixir of Life, How I Loathe Thee

I am suspicious of addiction in any form. Of course I will readily admit my own Internet addiction; there's no getting around that. And I have a near-compulsive need for milk that I just can't explain. But on the scale of quirky habits to life-threatening dependencies, I can live with those two. It's things like cigarettes that freak me out. Any need that is so strong as to compel people to poison themselves with known carcinogens is something I want to steer well clear of. That brings me to the topic of this post: Coffee.

I've been a coffee-drinker for years. But for most of those years, my level of consumption amounted to a cup every few days, maybe two cups if I had a project to finish. Sometimes for a month or two it would increase to a cup a day before I cut back down. And I was always a milk-and-sugar kind of girl, though I switched to milk-and-honey for a while because it seemed (marginally?) healthier.

Sometime in the past half year, however, I became your average pot-a-day black coffee drinker. Part of it, I'm sure, is that my living situation changed and I began living with heavy coffee drinkers. These days we make a pot in the morning, and between the three of us, it's gone by the time everyone disperses for the day. As I am always the last to leave, I get whatever is left. What this means is that if it's there, I will drink it. Even if I don't need it. Even if I don't want it. It's just the thing that I do, unthinkingly, robotically. This type of behavior smacks of addiction, and I don't like it. Whatever the studies say, excessive caffeine is just no good.

I don't know what my point is here, or if I even have one. It's just something that's been on my mind lately, and what is a useless little personal blog for if not whining about one's life?

Food = Life: The Utilitarian View

As has been well established in this blog, I love food. And I love eating. So when nourishing myself becomes a chore rather than a joy, I consider it a damn shame. But alas, such has been the state of things for the past few weeks. Emotional turmoil has led to a serious decrease in appetite, and it's all I can do to keep myself fed enough to get through the day. For the sake of this blog, I will try to muster up a modicum of enthusiasm for the subject. But it's been rough going, and the spark just isn't there right now.

La Comida Mexicana en La Ciudad de Acero

C is from Austin, TX, and as such, he is used to excellent, authentic Mexican food. (And yet he patronizes Taco Bell. Readers, it wounds my very soul.) So in the interest of showing me what real Mexican is like, we went to El Campesino out on McKnight Road. It was, in fact, very similar to the authentic Mexican place I am used to from my hometown, but I love that place as well so it speaks in its favor. The decor was lovely, the staff were very polite, and the food was AWESOME. C disapproved my choice of a fajita quesadilla because "it's Tex-Mex," but the heck with him, I really liked it. My thought on Mexican food is that essentially, it's the same handful of ingredients in every dish, just put together in different ways. So whereas he had to construct his fajita, mine came sort of pre-assembled. I don't care if it's authentic or not, I'll take it. And the rice was great. And I never have strong feelings about rice, so that's saying something. The queso dip that we started out with was really good, too. Also? The portions were ENORMOUS. The leftovers I have sitting in the fridge will make another two meals. Another two awesomely delicious meals. I will totally go back there again. However, I believe we are also planning to try Mexico City downtown -- follow the link for a fairly lengthy review from the City Paper. I'm excited to give it a go!

Clueless Yankee Attempts Southern Cooking

Continuing along the theme of Southern cooking that has invaded my life of late, I have a confession to make. Monday was C's birthday, so I told him I'd make him his favorite meal. He chose biscuits and gravy. Cue the slight panic -- I'm a Yankee, I don't know how to do that stuff! But you know what? It was actually really easy. I followed a recipe for buttermilk biscuits that was right on the bag of flour, and after I figured out what the hell "cutting in shortening" was, it went just fine. They actually turned out great! As a non-baker, I was very impressed with myself. Then for the gravy, I just browned some crumbled breakfast sausage in a pan, and added flour and milk. That's all there was to it. Really. Now for the confession: I actually really really liked this meal. I will probably make it again -- mostly because I know it would make C happy, but also because, well, it was delicious. But there is absolutely nothing healthy about it, so it's going to remain a once-in-a-while thing. Meanwhile, I must devise a way to get the boy to eat vegetables...

Eating Bambi: The Aftermath

Several weeks ago, I posted about receiving a bounty of venison from my uncle. We made pretty quick work of all that meat; there's only a tiny bit left. For the most part I handed it off to my Texan roommate, figuring that he would have a better idea of what to do with it than I. Here are the highlights:


Texas-Style Deer Chili

This was AMAZING. I'm actually not sure how he did it -- if I recall correctly, he just sauteed everything up in a pan and then dumped it all in the crockpot for the rest of the day. Not sure what exactly went into it, but it had the perfect amount of spice, a good even consistency, and great flavor. I was really impressed. Sprinkled with a little cheese on top, it was heaven.


Chicken Fried Deer Steaks

I'm not sure I get the whole "chicken fried thing-that-is-not-chicken" idea, but it sure turned out well. I believe he just breaded the steaks and fried them in a pan of oil. I liked them more than I expected -- and I even ate the fake mashed potatoes that he made with them because, well, I was really really hungry. And the white country gravy. I ate that too. I don't know how all this Southern food made its way into my diet, but I think I can safely blame C. But hey, he cooks -- who am I to complain?


A tangential note on this experience: I've never been a fan of hunting; the idea used to offend my squeamish hippie sensibilities. But I got to thinking that doesn't it make more sense to kill and eat something yourself rather than supporting the unarguably cruel meat industry? I'm all about being an omnivore. But I do believe that if you are going to eat meat, you need to be aware of where it's coming from and the process it goes through to get to you. Everything is so damn sanitized these days, you pick up your prepackaged cuts of meat in the safe, sterile white context of the grocery aisle. There's something not right about it. I don't know if I could kill a critter with my own hands, but I'm willing to acknowledge that death is a very real and necessary step in getting that deliciousness on the table. If C wants to shoot a turkey for Thanksgiving this year, I'm totally up for it. I might even tag along. I think it would be a good process to go through. I'm just not gonna pluck the thing.

Casa BBQ

It is spring, y'all. Maybe not officially, but close enough for me. The flowers are coming up in the backyard, my wool coat is packed away in the closet, the daylight is longer... And you know what that means? BBQ time! Last weekend the roomies and I had some friends over for delicious grilled food. We did kebabs with steak, onions, peppers, zucchini, yellow squash, and mushrooms, all marinated in Gazebo Room Greek Dressing (native to Central PA, where I'm from -- I stock up when I visit, because it's just that good). We also did "tandoori" chicken, which I'm sure was far from authentic but delicious nonetheless. I picked up a jar of tandoori marinade base at Kohli's on Craig Street, mixed it with plain yogurt, and brushed it on -- that's all there was to it. We grilled some naan to go with it. All that food plus + a case of Corona + good company + balmy weather = a great Saturday night. We're looking forward to many, many more as the weather warms up.

I'm a huge lavender fan. Lavender shampoo, conditioner, soap, chapstick, etc... I can't get enough of it. When it gets warm out, I might even try growing it. But you know what I've never considered doing? Cooking with it.

Last class, our very own "Jane Austen" was kind enough to share with me an Orange-Lavender cookie from Eat Unique on Craig St. The idea baffled me. Floral cookie? Does not compute! But let me tell you, readers... it was delicious. Seriously. A quick Google search for "cooking with lavender" brought up all kinds of intriguing possibilities. Blue Mountain Lavender Farm says "cooking with lavender seems new and mysterious when one first entertains the idea, but it isn’t much different than adding mint or rosemary to other culinary blends." Maybe so, but mint and rosemary aren't flowers. Still, I think I need to look into lavender as a valid culinary option. How about lavender tea cakes with jasmine tea? Sounds like the perfect menu for a spring tea party. I guess the next step is figuring out where on earth one procures lavender for cooking purposes. Whole Foods, I suppose; maybe the East End Co-op? I believe an expedition is in order.



(Lavender Creme Brulee picture stolen shamelessly from a Google image search. Isn't it pretty?)

Eating Bambi

I was visiting my parents in Central PA over the weekend, and managed to come home with several pounds of venison courtesy of my uncle the hunter. I've got steaks, ground meat, jerky, and three different types of sausage. Here's the thing: I've never cooked with venison before and have no idea what to do with it. Any hunters or friends/family of hunters out there? Got any tips or recipes to share? I've heard it cooks a little differently than beef, so I'm a little nervous. For the time being I am just working my way through the stash of jerky, which is quite tasty.

Note: I'm really hoping that at least some of this meat is from the deer that mangled my sister's car. Sweet, delicious revenge...

Anthony Bourdain: I Have No Reservations About My Undying Love For Him

I can't talk about food without bringing up Anthony Bourdain. I love him. No, really. Absolutely adore him. The snarky humor, the rock n' roll persona, the deep reflections on food, culture, and life... not to mention he's looking pretty good for a guy in his fifties. (Yeah yeah, he's happily married with a toddler. Do I tear down your dreams?)

Maybe you've seen him on the Travel Channel. His show, No Reservations, follows him around the world, where he interacts with locals, learns cultural customs, eats whatever's there for the eating, and drinks. A lot. It is, to my mind, the perfect vicarious travel show. If you like the show, I have to insist that you read his book, A Cook's Tour. There's a lot more going on during these trips than what makes it in the final cut. But the place to start is with his break-out book, Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly. It's not just the shocking truths he reveals about restaurant life. The book is also a memoir of his life in the business -- and it is not all pretty. Tony's been through some dark stuff, which makes his success all the more inspiring. The man is extremely intelligent (he went to Vassar for a time), and his insights make for pretty absorbing reading.

I don't really go for the whole "celebrity chef" thing. I don't watch Hell's Kitchen or any other food-themed reality show. I feel guilty for kind of liking Rachel Ray. But Tony is different. He's a step above. Seriously, read his books, watch his show. You can't but love him. And I will NEVER EVER forgive myself for missing the chance to see him speak in Pittsburgh last year.

Oh yeah, and that "Bizarre Foods" dude who's recently reared his gimmicky head on the Travel Channel? He can suck it. Tony eats people like him for breakfast.


Here's a quote from the New Jersey episode of No Reservations (which will never cease to strike me as an amazingly clever title). It pretty much sums up what I love about him.

The beauty of the grilled cheese sandwich in its classic form is that neither the shaped carbohydrate slabs nor the processed orange food product have any relationship to a living, organic nutrient system. Being therefore incapable of sustaining life in any form, they presumably can't make you sick. It exists merely to provide a warm, savory, viscous sensation in the mouth, and so fool the stomach into believing it is receiving actual food.

Anthony Bourdain, ladies and gentlemen. He tells it like it is.

Showing Love the Delicious Way

My love of food is inextricably linked with my love of family. I don't know if it's the Italian heritage or just a common human quality, but we're not very vocal about our affection for each other -- we express love through food.

Exhibit A: my two sisters and I are, for the time being, perpetually broke. So we don't get our parents fancy gifts for Christmas. Instead, the tradition has become making an extravagant gourmet meal of their choice, doing the best we can with whatever budget we can scrape together between the three of us. My older sister has been working in the restaurant business for about seven years now, and recently completed her culinary degree. Naturally she is the chef de cuisine of the operation, while I, being next in line, am the sous chef (okay, let's face it, I'm more of a line cook). The youngest is the expediter/server/whatever we need her to do.


The Menu:

Salad
Escarole with Mixed Citrus and Red Onions

Main Course
Roasted Lamb Chops with Shallots and Rosemary Pan Sauce
Buttered Fingerling Potatoes with Chives
Roasted Asparagus, Cherry Tomatoes, and Mushrooms with Garlic

Dessert
Mint and Chocolate Baileys Parfait

Wine
Quara (Argentinian Malbec)


Kim is in her element, deglazing away.


Kara thinks she's adorable in her little hat and apron. I am working on the ill-fated parfait, which, due to time constraints, ended up being more of a custard. We put the leftovers in the freezer overnight and they were perfect in the morning. Ah, poor planning...


Contemplating the salad...


Yeah, we're hella cheesy -- silly hats and all. But hey, if you're gonna do a thing, do it all the way. Right? And really, it was all worth it for the masterpiece that emerged:




...Yeah, he's pretty much obligated to love us now. <3

Guest Post: Tales From Hungary

My best friend of many years has been living it up in Budapest for the past several months, working as a Bulgarian head-hunter (yeah, I know -- what??). I asked him if he'd be interested in doing a guest post, thinking maybe he'd whip up some authentic Hungarian goulash or other local dish. He obliged, but the meal? Italian pasta. Hey, I'm not here to judge! I'm here to eat. John's story is as follows, yoinked from his LiveJournal:

**********************************************

So when you find something like "homemade Italian pasta" fresh from Italy... you know you have to buy it. You might not know what the hell you're going to do with it, but you have to get it anyway. You'll figure the rest out later. If someone offered you a 30 carat diamond for $5 bucks, would you know what to do with it? Would you know where to sell it? Probably not. In a food related vein, I bought the pasta.

I may not have done it justice, but it was delicious. So... while it may not be exactly a recipe to repeat easily, I think you should be prepared to try, should you come across it. That... and it was so ridiculously delicious that I wanted to brag about it. Deal.

So first... I went to see if I had onions... and MAN I had onions. But... they weren't the most useful ones:

So I got new onions... Then the pasta made an appearance:


Sadly this was just for me. I have more left over so... there will be more made hopefully including others along with the pasta.

Next... I cut up an onion (one that wasn't practically flowering)


Then... then came the garlic.


I thought it would be better with a red pepper... but I didn't have one. I did however have a green one. It was still pretty awesome:


Then I put the onions, garlic, and peppers in a pan with some olive oil:


I only have a gas stove. If you use one, beware, they heat up waaaaay quicker than electric ones. I have some experiences with omelets that went seriously awry:


mmmmmMMMMMMMmmmm grill that stuff gooooooood:


I wanted to put on some parmesan cheese, but I was foiled. I couldn't find any. So... I got some random ass cheese (it was in Hungarian... who knows what it is?) but... let me stress this... it was AWESOME.


While all of this was going on, I boiled that pasta.


and a side of bread and butter needed to happen too


Finished product?


and with it all mixed in:


It was awesome. One of the best dinners I've had since coming to Europe. I done made it myself. One recommendation: make sure if you use this method that you use a lot of oil or butter because the cheese melted and turned the supposed pasta into more of a casserole consistency. Now, I don't care too much, because it was delicious, but people with better taste in food might.

Thanks to Teirk for the posting... Also thanks to her for teaching me how to cook. So... y'know... I can feed myself out here.

Saturday Brunch: Square Cafe

Readers, I apologize. I finally tried out the Square Cafe in Regent Square today and utterly forgot to bring my camera. It's a shame, because both the cafe and the food were beautiful. If you haven't been there yet, seriously, check it out. The place just has a good vibe. Bright, clean design, funky and modern but very friendly, neat art on the walls. Cheerful, attentive staff. Amazing menu -- I wanted to try everything on it. (I ended up going for a plain old breakfast sandwich, which was nonetheless remarkable -- egg, bacon, and provolone on ciabatta.) It's not particularly cheap, as breakfast goes, but it's well worth it for a weekend brunch splurge. I never thought anywhere in Pittsburgh could compete with Pamela's for my breakfastly affections -- and it's got the added bonus of being conveniently close to my neighborhood in Swissvale! Then again, they don't have chocolate chip banana crepes... Pamela's? Square Cafe? There is room in my heart for you both.

Sage Butter Macaroni and Four Cheese (Food Network Recipe)

I regret that I was lax in the photographic documentation of this delicious Sage Butter Macaroni and Four Cheese recipe, but it is too good a recipe not to share anyway. I've made it three or four times now, varying slightly each time. I've never bothered including the mascarpone, and maybe that's some hideous culinary sin, but I think it turns out splendid without it. This most recent endeavor was conducted on a stricter budget (i.e. my mother was not in town buying the ingredients for me), so I had to scale back on the quality of cheese -- which is, of course, what makes or breaks this dish. We decided to settle on regular old Giant Eagle Swiss instead of the Gruyere, and went with a mid-range natural Cheddar. We also substituted Pecorino Romano for the Parmigiano-Reggiano, because my love for Romano borders on the obsessive. There's no getting around the sage, though -- it has to be fresh for this, or you may as well omit it altogether.

Perhaps it doesn't do it justice, but nevertheless, I give you... the mac n' cheese:


Hungry yet?

Samosa Night!

I am blessed to be living with my lovely and talented roommate, M. We make an excellent culinary team: I cook and she bakes, so between the two of us we are always supplied with home-cooked meals and desserts. The other day she decided to encroach on my territory by making some amazingly delicious samosas. (The link to the recipe we used does not apppear to be working, but a similar version can be found here.) I've documented the process via photos:

Sauteeing the onions.

The filling: onions, diced boiled potatoes, peas, ginger, green chili, coriander, cumin, and garam masala. (Did you know that coriander is the same thing as cilantro? Usually it refers to the seed of the plant, whereas cilantro connotes the leafy part. I just discovered this. Incidentally, I loathe cilantro. But coriander is okay. Go figure.)

The dough is just a mixture of flour, salt, oil, and water, which is then separated into balls and flattened into individual circles.


Stuffing the pastry.


Pinching it shut.


Deep frying it! (A note on this deep fryer: It was given to me by my mother, and I have no idea where she found it. It had never been used before this night. But it was made in 1978. What??)


Deep-fried Indian stuffed pastry goodness! (And they're even vegan!)


And finally, the lady of the hour:
Beautiful, a great cook, and SINGLE!

Stay tuned for more adventures in the Casa Kitchen -- and possibly more pictures of the unparalleled Miss M!

Welcome! Pull up a chair and grab a fork!

I'm a big fan of food. I like to think about it, talk about it, look at it, cook it, smell it, eat it. I am by no means an expert on the subject, but the neat thing about living creatures is that we all have to eat, so I at least feel pretty qualified to discourse about it. It's also one of the few things I think will keep my writerly interest for four months, and which might actually interest other people. Everyone likes food, right? So that's what this blog will be about. Food I make, food I eat, food I merely dream about because it is way outside my severely restricted budget.

This being the first post of the blog, I feel it's fitting to start with the first meal of the day. I like to get up early enough to make a proper breakfast in the morning. My usual fare is some concoction of eggs, peppers, onions, and cheese, either in omelet or scrambled form. Breakfast sausage is a common accompaniment. (Sorry vegetarians, but I love meat.)


I'll leave you with that for now. I have tentative plans involving mac n' cheese tonight, in which case I will post the recipe and results. Happy eating!