Obsessions

This month has been filled with too much for me. Too many new things. Too many new discoveries. I don't even know what to post. I made a dutch baby, risotto, creamed tomatoes, a tortilla, saffron aioli, biscuits and gravy - and that's just the beginning.

I do know that I have a few new staples in my life. I've lost my hyper obsession with trying new recipes, but I've maintain my willingness to eat. I think Thanksgiving beat that obsession out of me - I had a bad experience with some pumpkin brownies (wayyy to dry, but Evan claims that the next day they were ok).

I eat a lot of pan seared broccoli. I consume insane amounts of it. It's probably my favorite thing. I buy a head every week. It takes 8 minutes, including prep time. How can you argue a green food?

Have you heard about the wonders of hollandaise sauce? Oh man, it is beautiful. Evan and I are putting it on everything - we even put it on top of spinach. He was the one who said "Hey, if you open the jar, you need to use it in 7-10 days!"

But I need something new. So, help me friends. Help.

It Ends With a Fall

I am up to my ears in soup. Seriously. Friday was a very tough day - I had a chunk of change in car repairs, I got hit by a high school kid on my way to get the car fixed, I stood in the rain for an hour to deal with a rude police officer with height issues (aka - a short man). After my gut wrenching estimate on my car was made, Evan then asked what I wanted to do for dinner: I suggested ramen noodles.

Let me just take a moment to say how wonderful he is - Evan not only planned to pick me up from the shop, he came immediately once I said "Uh, I got in a car accident" and stood in the 60 degree rain in flip flops. We came back to my house and made vegetarian chili. I don't really think you should have a recipe for something like chili, but there are definitely some things that make Evan's chili exceptional. He uses taco seasoning, chili beans, beer, other various beans, and a lot of hot sauce. I added some chopped red pepper at the perfect moment, and we had a wonderful bowl of chili. I then fell asleep on the couch at 8:45 PM.

Like I said, it was a rough day.

Anyway, so I have that. I have this winter squash that I MUST use today in a Jane Brody recipe for Creamed Squash Soup. I have all this rosemary that can ONLY be used in Molly Wizenberg's Chickpea -Tomato soup. And I just found an opened quart of Trader Joe's Roasted Pepper and Tomato soup. Ugh.

So I made some bread. Banana bread, specifically. My new Trader Joe's (about 1 mile away, oh glory day) had all of these ripe bananas. I felt guilty not buying some, like they'd be tossed to the curb by the end of the day. But they are so ripe, I couldn't eat them in time if I tried. Then I realized that all of this soup will need something aside from, well, more soup. It's in the oven right now, and the whole house smells like fall.

Again, thank you Bon Apetite for making my life just a bit more better.

Banana Bread with Cinnamon Crumble Topping


1 1/2 cups flour

1 cup sugar

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

2 eggs

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1/4 cup honey

1/4 cup water

1 cup mashed banana

Preheat your oven to 350. Grease and flour a bread pan.

Mix all the dry ingredients together in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs, oil, water, honey, and banana. Add to the dry ingredients. Mix well. Pour the batter into the bread pan, and sprinkle 2 tsp sugar and 2 tsp cinnamon on top of the batter. Bake for 1 hour, or so. Eat and enjoy the fall.

Girls In White Dresses With Blue Satin Sashes

I know this is a recipe blog. Yes, I do love a good recipe. I do love spending time in my orange kitchen, with my robin's egg blue table, and my dog at my feet, making something spectacular (Morgan's tortillas are planned for Wednesday night's dinner...).

But one thing we do not discuss, dear friends, are restaurants and their signature meals. Maybe it's because my boyfriend is a bit of a foodie, but in the past year I've been to some amazing places. Also, perhaps Matthew will post (being that he is in the land of ordered meals). Who knows. But here are my top five restaurants of 2007/2008:

1. The Red Drum: Mount Pleasant, SC

The Red Drum is probably the best place on earth. It's a 'gastropub' - loosely defined as a pub that puts as much thought into their food as they do their beer. When we go, we go all out. Our reservations are 2 months in advance, and our minds are made up 15 minutes after getting the menu.

Favorites: the corn pudding, green beans with pecans, lemon asparagus, and steamed greens on the vegetarian plate; ginger mojito; Evan loves their "cowboy beans."

2. Las Ramblas: Charlotte, NC

If I was on death row, my last meal would be from Las Ramblas. I don't know if the penitentiary would provide me with tapas and wine, but by golly, I'd hope so. It has a really nice atmosphere, as well (especially for a restaurant in a strip mall).

Favorites: fried goat cheese croquettes with honey, garlic, and almonds; manchego tortilla; patatas bravas; baguette toasts with melted chocolate, sea salt, and olive oil.

3. Riddles: U. City, MO

Does this need a reason? What about that time I bought Andrew Bird a drink? What about those awesome shows from Dave Stone? What about those potatoes?

Favorites: magical potatoes; electric pink beets; spinach lasagna; derby pie; any of their wines.

4. The Laughing Seed: Asheville, NC

Really, I'd like to put in this place the cupcake place that is on the corner of Biltmore and College St. But guess what - I don't know it's name. Anyway, the Laughing Seed is all vegetarian. I don't even remember what I ate - I just know I was overwhelmed with the selection.

5. Foskoskies : Charlotte, NC

I just discovered this place with Evan. I've only had one meal from there (two times), an artichoke spread sub with sprouts, tomato, and provelone. Now, the title "Artichoke Spread Sub" sounds disgusting, kinda like something from Applebee's. But I was SO WRONG and it is SO GOOD. Evan gets the fish and chips, and has a thing for their tartar sauce, even though he hates mayo. Like, detests it. He uses yogurt in it's place at all times. But he would probably eat that tartar sauce on anything.

Favorites: everything I've had (artichoke sub, black eye pea salad, potato salad, key lime pie, strawberry shortcake, one of Evan's 'chips' with his tartar sauce). Also, the servers are probably the nicest people I've ever met.

Runner's Up, but recently fallen out of favor: The Penguin (Charlotte, NC), Zada Jane's (Charlotte, NC), Al-Tarboush (St Louis - only out of distance, Sam. I still love your falafel.), and Taco Bell (no joke).

Tortillas! (take 2)

Shanna commented recently on how to make tortillas successfully.  I'm a big fan of tortillas, as many of you know I love making them and I love eating them. I, likewise, refuse to buy tortillas, since the homemade variety are so increíble.

However, when travelling in Spain, you'll find something altogether different if you ask for a tortilla.  Here, you'll encounter a Spanish omelette rather than a rolled, unleavened clump of dough.

These pictures are of a simple concoction I made at home with a small potato, part of an onion, and part of a red pepper, all chopped.  Sautee the potato, then add the onion, add some garlic, salt, black pepper, and whatever else you like.  Whip about 4 eggs with a small splash of milk.  Now, this is controversial; many tell me that I must not whip the eggs, and I must not disturb their purity with milk.  But the purpose of a Spanish tortilla, as I see it, is an infrastructure of firm-but-fluffy egg.  And for this, I whip air into the eggs and add a touch of milk to get the texture I like.

In a small pan with a bit of heated butter and olive oil, add the egg mixture (again, controversial; people only use olive oil to cook here) and cover with a lid without stirring.  After a few seconds (to firm up the bottom layer of egg), add the sauteed vegetables and re-cover.  Cook over medium-low heat for a bit until the bottom is firm.  The top will be uncooked, but hopefully isn't too liquid if you have the heat and the cover set right.

Now comes the tricky part: flip the omelette.

Yes, flip it!

The easiest way to accomplish this is to ready a second, larger frying pan with a bit of heated oil and flip the omelette directly into this pan.  Another approach is to slide the omelette onto a plate, then flip it back into the pan (though try this over the sink, please!).  If you're successful, you have something that looks really nice.  Now you've just to cook the bottom and serve up.  As you see, it's often served as a pie, and you serve wedge portions from it.

In Spain, this is a staple at restaurants and in homes.  Often it's served pretty bland, I regret to say, with plain potatoes, egg substitutes, and no spice to it at all.  At home it's much better.  You can accompany with a salsa, sour cream, or fresh fruits and vegetables as you like.

As I Recall

So here's the deal - it's Labor Day weekend. The official end of summer. Kaput. Fine. Done.

Labor Day is so bittersweet for me. Here in Charlotte, I'll have another month of warm weather, and then two months of fall weather, and a very short winter - 3 months tops - with no snow or wind chill, or any need for winter clothes. It's not goodbye to summer for me - I'm still pumping the phat summer beats (mainly, Lupe, Lil Wayne, and Kanye). It is what it is.

I went up to Gaston, NC with some friends to visit some other friends. They work at a charter school in the middle of nowhere - thankfully, they live on a lake. Real lake, a very large lake, a lake you can dive into off of the boat, or a lake where the back yard drops into their cove. Their boat is in the dock lift nightly. They have porches, decks, and hideous wall hangings that scream "Florida 1992." (They rent - it's the owner's taste.) We had a large crowd, which meant a lot of barbecue. I felt pretty useless all weekend. Literally, I think I would put most everyone into an ill state if they ate any barbecue prepared by yours truly. I guess it's for the best.

I came home today with the intent to go grocery shopping, but I'm spent. So I'm planning my meals for the next few weeks. I don't have time to go to the store 3 times a week like I use to. In fact, I hardly have time to eat now. So sad, I know.

I'm finding myself very uninspired now. The weather is still warm, but the farmer's market is beginning to look bare. It's too warm for soup, it's too nice to settle for pasta. So what do you eat at this time of year? I've been thinking falafel, pilafs, noodles and cheese, and other things that are "light."

So please, friends who never post, inspire me. And I promise, if I get a good response, you'll see an amazing recipe for black eye peas.

Tortillas!

I made tortillas, and they were awesome.

I've only tried to make flour tortillas twice before, but both times something went horribly wrong. The end product was edible, but not at all what I was going for. I kept ending up with something that had a resemblance to crackers that tortillas should not possess. But this time, they were perfect. They were slightly chewy and soft, and not at all like crackers. Even more miraculous, they might have been the best tortillas I have EVER had. So, I'm a little excited.

It's funny that Angie recently did a post on the blog Orangette because I'm also pretty partial to it, and that's exactly where I got the recipe from. It a pretty simple and standard method, but Molly does a damn good job on detailing her instructions. Now, even I, creator of the Mexican cracker, can make crazy good tortillas.

I served them as fish tacos to the boyfriend and my friend Liz. Liz was a big fan, and I trust her opinion here as she has assured me that her Mexican grandmother made the best flour tortillas that the world has ever known, and I believe her. Of course, I have not reached "abuela standards" quite yet, but I can dream, can't I?

Sadly, I took no pictures of the fish tacos, but they're pretty regular guests at our table, so eventually they will make it up here. The next morning, however, I did photograph the cheese quesadillas I made for breakfast.


I will never buy a tortilla at the grocery store ever again. Not even at the Mexican grocery store.

I get by with a little help from my.... grocery store

This post is all about giving props to Trader Joe's. He's, like, the best. I remember the old days in St Louis, when I was a slave to Schnucks, and Shop and Save (Whole Foods is out of my price range for mass shopping). I have Angie to thank for introducing me to the Joe, and Angie: "Thank you from the bottom of my stomach."

Since, I've had Joe in my life, I've been regularly consuming brie, smoked salmon, edamame, pork ribs, mango lemonade, and lots and lots of wine. Before Joe, these were all wasteful and extravagant on my student budget. Joe is also the only man that I will buy pre-packaged meal kits from. I trust him to make them taste good, and use the packaging necessary to prevent needless preservative overload. He even goes relatively easy on the sodium. He's good to me.

Joe does a really god job on certain cuisines, and I can always trust his Indian and Thai. So, when I first stopped in and saw a package of tuna in a red curry sauce, I lunged. This tuna comes in all three familiar colors of Thai curry(red, yellow, and green), but the red is my favorite by far.

It's a twenty minute meal (beat that Rachel Ray-face) from start to finish, and has become an absolute staple for the little man and I. Boil some rice, stir-fry some onions, garlic and whatever other veggies are hanging about, toss the tuna with those and, voila! Dinner.

This is what it looks like when I'm all done:

Take that and stuff it in your yum-o.