sort-of quiche

for a while there i was up to my eyeballs in basil, so i did what any sensible gal would do. i made a shitload of pesto. while wondering what to do with it that didn't require making any pasta- i whipped this 'quiche' up on a whim one night. i had about 1/2 a bottle of wine leftover (from my first go at risotto-- which also DID NOT get photographed AND turned into yummy little arancine
which i baked because i was not confident in my already shaky frying skills after a morning of throwing back beers and bloody marys while watching the world cup. fucking brasil lost to france. anyway- the leftovers were almost better than the actual risotto itself. but i digress) anyway- wine, proscuitto, smoked provelone, pestopestopesto, tomatoes, and barely 3 eggs. this was (as always, excuse my language) fucking awesome. there's simply no other way to describe it. fucking awesome...

more food things i love about houston

there are approximately 100 million vietnamese sandwich shops in houston, and about 75% of them are within a 5 minute drive from where i work. i have gone out on a limb before and tried some of the meaty variety, but i think i'm just too american or something not to be petrified of what , to me, will always be 'vietnamese mystery meat probably of the piggy persuasion'-- which can sometimes be an alarming shade of red. so i usually stick with the veggie sandwich, which is so freaking good all on its own, who cares about fancy foreign meat anyway? awesome bread, some sort of butter/mayo hybrid, carrots, cucumber, cilantro, jalapenos, and mysterious yummy soy+(?) sauce. it's MUCH better than it sounds (plain. if ever a description of a sandwich could shrug it's shoulders-- this one would for sure)-- crunchy, crisp, sweet and savory all at the same time for less than two bucks. i fucking love the food in houston.

happiness is chocolate guinness cake

from my sister over at the comfort zone. i subbed abita turbodog for the guinness because i'm southern like that.

a hot lookin salad for when it's hot outside

while there isn't really anything shocking or innovative about this salad, it sort of just came to me while in a traffic jam (with a busted air conditioner) driving home from work on day last summer. i'm pleased as f*ing punch about it, though before last year i didn't really care for cantaloupe OR proscuitto (i'm not much of a ham eater. or anything of a ham eater actually. if it's not bacon then i'm usually a straight up pork-hater in fact, so this was sort of a stretch for me at first). ANYWAY-
1 cantaloupe- chunked
1/4 lb thin thin thin proscuitto cut in ribbons
smallish handful of fresh basil cut in ribbons
2oz (=/-) crumbled goat cheese
drizzle of evoo
s&p to taste

mix the whole shebang together and devour. good to bring to bbqs if you're not worried about looking too snooty bandying fancy cheese and stuck up pork products about like that.

wherin i go off on such i kodak binge even i get a little sick

so, it's been AGES since i've posted. i've been cooking up a storm (including many things that i did not in fact take photos of-- the yummiest being black bean cakes with plaintain/yucca mash, chipotle gravy, and roasted corn/napolito/avocado salsa. hoo boy). enjoy. first up: wheat/tuna biscuits for the lady zoe.

can you even stand the deliciousness?

blue cheese and bacon cheesecake for the boy [for his birthday]. my virgin attempt at spring-form pan cookery-- it was a resounding success. i'm dying to have a nibble, but it's not my birthday, is it? i'm a little afraid of this golden goddess of a cheesecake. i used 1lb of bacon and 1lb of blue cheese. the thing is like 2 inches thick-- it's like a black hole of cheesecake. NO FLAVOR CAN ESCAPE! one teaspoon of this cheesecake weighs more than a ton of steel, etc.etc. anyway. i smacked cheesecake in the ass and it is now my delicious savory bitch. i'll let you know how he likes it, i imagine stars will shoot out of his eyes, his feet will flap like bird wings and his tongue will roll out like a red carpet. and i will take all those things as compliments.

sweet potato bisque with roasted red pepper coulee

or, as i like to call it-- sweet potato soup with red peppers:
<<
...ok. so the picture's blurry. i was dying to eat the soup and i could barely even hold the camera. the soup was bitchin and super fast.
mashed sweet potato, h2o, a little tomato paste, a little milk, and the secret ingredient... cough syrup-- children's cough syrup... wait a minute, that's not right. CASHEWS. simmer for an hour and let the old immersion blender work it's beautiful mojo. toss some rosted red peppers on top (a la coulee) and serve with a big ole salad.
that's good eatin. i must confess that i nicked this recipe from the soup nazi. it was good, but i don't think i'd put up with waiting in line and getting yelled at just for a taste of it.

dueling pot roasts

i got ambitious. i cooked two (count 'em, two) pot roasts about three weekends ago (i know-- three weeks ago! i'm a horrible slack! and no pictures to boot!) anyway, first things first>>

we'll call pot roast #1 aaron burr. i seared him in my big cast iron skillet and simmered him for 2 or 3 hours with a bunch of chopped tomatoes, some garlic, and a cup of coffee. i then added the standard sliced potatoes and carrots and simmered away from another 1/2 hour. i removed ole' aaron and fixens from the skillet and whipped up a lil gravy.

meanwhile, in ye olde crocke potte, pot roast #2, one mr. alexander hamilton (already seared like his mortal enemy mr. burr), crocked away with some sliced onion, worcester sauce, and a cubed sweet potato (along with a few peppercorns and a stick'o'cinnamon). same story. ole alex crocked for about 4 hours, i took him and his veggie pals out of the pot and whipped up a gravy (which may or may not have included what i felt was the very inspired addition of curry paste and coconut milk). and the duel was on.

to be fair, they both put forth a valient effort. alexander hamilton got his little bland butt kicked though. even the exotic curry/gravy couldn't save him. oh well. lesson learned.

coffee pot roast
*3 lb beef pot roast
* 1 t shortening
* 1 can diced tomatoes w liquid
* 1 c black coffee
* s&p to taste
* 1/2 c chopped onion
*1 1/2 c sliced carrots
* 2 1/2 c diced potatoes
* 10 oz frozen green peas

PREP-
brown meat on all sides (the recipe says to trim the meat and brown it in shortening. excuse me? ok, so DON'T trim the meat. brown it with the fat on. keep the fat on while you're cooking it and trim it later. the roast stays moist--- wet even. zoe ate cow fat all week like some sort of (twisted) queen)). anyway. add the tomatoes, coffee, salt, and pepper. cover and simmer for 2 hours. add carrots and potaotes. simmer for another 1/2 hour. add peas, wait a minute or two and YER DONE! thicken the juice up with a little cornstarch and water if ya like and you're in freaking business baby.

30-minute pasta thing- asian style

this is a new incarnation of the 30-minute pasta thing and an expanded version of a dish i used to practically live of off during college summers-- the base recipe is 'cold sesame noodles' from this old vegetarian cookbook i have. it's basically whole wheat pasta in a sauce of tahini, pb, soy sauce, cider vinegar, garlic, ginger, and sesame seeds. it's cheap and best served cold and it got me through some pretty hot summers. i've tweaked the recipe a bit over the years and added siraccha, fish sauce, and sesame oil to the sauce. feeling ambitious and in need of some veggies i also added frozen peas and some shredded broc/cabbage/carrot mix (one of my new favorite things), and some cubed tempeh that had been marinated in sesame oil, fish sauce, and chili sauce. this was out of this world and SO fast. mmm. tastes like summer.

om (elett)

while npr is busy with their spring pledge drive (the guilt! and more guilt and finally less guilt) pbs is apparently at it too. the vehicle for their begging this time around>julia childs (aka- the french chef). i was treated to multiple (awesome) episodes of the french chef on saturday afternoon. it made want to do terrible things with butter. the first show i watched was about omeletts. usually when i make an'omelett', it really turnes into scrambled eggs with stuff in 'em. however, per julia's brilliant instruction, i made my first ever real omelett-- it even folded over all pretty, just like hers did. two eggs beat together (with a little water) in a hothothot pan with a little budda-- i shook the pan just like julia told me to, added some shredded cheddar and fried potatoes and folded it over into my plate like a pro. i slapped some guac on top and served it up with sthe remaining potatoes, a coupla slices of sprouted wheat toast and a big glass of carrot/apple/lemon juice. mmm. so fast and awesome. thanks julia!

breakin' eggs

this was breakfast two saturdays ago. pretty good for an improv brekky-- potatoes, broc, celery, kale, and fakin bacon in a big fry up with peppery scrambled eggs, montery jack, and sambal on top. served up with some sprouted wheat toast. i made a lot of this and ate it for lunch all week. i am starting to get really interested in breakfast food. i stumbled across this breakfast blog .
cool rating scale, but i feel like s/he gets the same thing everywhere (poached eggs, variations of benedict, etc) though i guess that's ok-- i mostly get the same thing when i go out for brekky-- i get the rare urge for waffles or french toast, but i'm mostly a scrambled eggs and hashbrowns gal.

meh

i have been shockingly uninspired lately. exhibit A (above). nothing but potential deliciousness- lentils, sweet potato, garlic, ginger, diced cherry peppers, cumin, coriander, tumeric, coconut milk, basmati rice and cute shreds of cocconut on top. i ate this for dinner once and fed the rest to my dog. where did i go wrong? cilantro would have helped me thinks... what else though? this is alarmingly similar to this red lentil dal i make on a fairly regular basis that i love so much i could practically bathe in it, so what gives??? my mojo must have been set to 'suck!'.

i'm co-planning a dinner party-- on deck>
*venison medallions rubbed with cocoa and cayenne crusted with toasted pistaschios
*roasted root veggies (potatoes, beets, turnips, parsnips, you get the idea-- with a ton of oliveoil, s&p, rosemary, and a squirt of lemon)
*mache salad w goat cheese and possibly grapefruit
*old skool choc cake

i'm getting all filled with sweaty drooly desire at the very thought of it all...

i hope this dinner party pans out. i am in such a cooking rut! i've had my stand-by i'm-too-lazy/busy/hungry-to-cook meal (micro mac'n'cheese with faux chicken nuggets and crushed tortilla chips all mashed up together. sometimes i'll add peas intothe mix) three times in the last four days. seriously. that's ok on the odd night, but i need some inspiration here...

i'm thinking old skool pot roast and all the fixins next...

The Georgian cutlets with a mashed potatoes

just real quick before i dash off to kickboxing.

look at this>

this is one of my favorite snarky indulgences-- snickering at the way non-native english speakers (or writers-- mostly writers) misuse words.

i know it's wrong, i just can't help myself.

aside- the food seems interesting.