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.