I had prepared horseradish in my fridge for bloody mary's, and still hadn't fully experimented with the steak rub from the spice store in Colorado. Sounds like steak time, no?
Steam some green beans or asparagus and look at you with your healthy meal. Oh so fancy.
I used the spice and rubbed it into my steak. Took Worcestershire sauce and threw those bad boys in a plastic sandwhich bag to marinate for a day or two. I found that cooking for one means you have repeated meals, but it can still be fresh. The first day had no marination, but if you prep all the meat in the package the same day you can get increased marination each day.
Life had been stressful for my coworkers so I decided comfort food was in order. Made a giant batch of jalapeno-mustard and hot dog mac and cheese. I used the basic ratios from Rachel Ray's Reuban Mac n Cheese recipe then just changed up the ingredients. All cheese - medium cheddar. Replace spicy brown mustard with jalapeno mustard. Add turkey hot dogs to the pasta. Done.
I had furniture advisor and Mar over for bfast one fine Saturday. I had a huge box of grits and discovered a wonderful find at Grocery Outlet - shredded habanero cheddar.
Put it all together and what do you get? Cindy-ized shrimp and grits.
I was feeling scattery so I brain-summarized the recipe to go as follows:
Cook turkey bacon (1 piece for person?). Remove from pan and set aside for chopping when you won't burn your fingers off from the grease.
In the same pan throw in shrimp. Salt, pepper, etc. Place with what should now be chopped bacon. (While those are cooking start to boil water for your grits. Use however much the box tells you to boil. Also get a little pot of water boiling for your eggs).
Same pan. Throw in diced onions mushrooms. Add enough chicken broth to coat those suckers in the caramelized meat juices.
While those are cooking make grits per box directions. (Takes about 5 min). Stir frequently - it's a bitch to clean if you let it stick to the bottom of the pan. When those are done throw in the habanero cheddar til the cheese melts. Don't add too much - it's REALLY SPICY.
While your 2 things are cooking and periodically getting their stir on, poach some eggs. (Read put eggs in silicone poacher). It actually takes about the same amount of time if not less, to cook as the grits. I recommend 3min < time < 5min for runny. If you can't read that go back to school.
Plate your crap up.
Fresh ground pepper and green onions sprinkled on top.
I also made a vegetarian version the next day that was much simpler. Just skip the meat, throw in veggies in a pan (here it's zucchini, mushrooms, and onions). I still did the chicken broth thing because veggies make their own caramels too.
Later that week I decided I wanted rosemary bread. So I made this recipe for rosemary focaccia. I get carried away flouring anything doughy and sticky because I hate when the dough sticks to my hands. I could have baked it longer to get more of a brown crust, but I was tired.
Balsamic vinegar and olive oil - best late night, post-drinking snack evarrrrrr.
At this point through various recipes I had a bunch of random crap in my fridge and I wanted another use for the habanero cheddar. Can't have grits EVERY day now can we? We can. But that's not the point.
My tomato also needed to be eaten STAT so I made a grilled cheese sandwhich. Habanero cheddar mixed with regular cheddar, sour cream, fresh arugula, dried basil, and tomatoes.
No cooking involved. Just pile ingredients on bread, shove in toaster oven. Set to medium. Come back at the ding and smoosh.
I also revisted gingerbread pudding for book club night dessert. I can't find the recipe, but it's the gingerbread pudding cake recipe from the December 2007 issue of Bon Appetite.
Add soy vanilla ice cream - look at the gooey center...
I started a no-red-meat/pork food club with my friends that had such dietary restrictions. For our first dinner we had italian sausage and bean soup. Very simple recipe, and it took maybe 40 minutes to cook with chatting and losing track of time.
Bubble bubble..
With nebbiolo and some shaved pecorino on top
Zoom in - the pasta was gluten free macaroni!
Yes, it did get bigger and bigger the longer it sat. I think quinoa pasta just never stops. Oh yea, we had french bread too! They made a garlic butter (chop up garlic mix with room temp butter).
There was also gluten and dairy free chocolate cake. Made in a springform pan. It was made with black eyed peas and tofu. Tasted a lot like a red bean cake.
But the tofu made it very moist, and who doesn't like red bean anyway?
My friend and I had recently been gifted some flavored salts. I don't normally cook with salt, and she is not a big meat eater. So we experimented with my smoked salt. We made baked chicken with smoked salt; baked zuchinni with shaved parmesean, salt & pepper, and thyme; and mashed potatoes with peas, quinoa, sour cream, and green onions. The quinoa gives the potatoes a creamy texture if you can't have too much dairy (obviously you would also leave out the sour cream).
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