My own Private Casserole

Cooking for one is an art form that is under appreciated. It seems as though society skipped from stay-at-home moms cooking for the family unit right to the gigantic take out and frozen dinners industry. But why not take the time to make yourself a nice meal? You can buy pretty much anything in small portions, it doesn't have to be fancy, and you can't eat from Trader Joe's every night (well, you can, but...all that salt is not good for you, dammit!)

When I lived in my 450sq.ft. apartment in the beginning of the Homespun Urban days, I cooked most nights. I'll admit that I didn't have TV, so some of my motivation was that it was sort of my entertainment, but it's always possible to do, even in a galley kitchen. It got to the point that friends that lived in the neighborhood always happened to "stop by" just around dinner time, so I ended up cooking for two instead of one.

I was reminded of this having the house to myself recently due to a "Man Weekend". The man in question is allergic to shellfish, so when ever the cat's away, the shrimp do play, so to speak.
I bought some little fresh Maine shrimp, and baked them for 10 min. at 450 in a casserole mixed with butter, scallions, garlic, a chopped up mushroom, and breadcrumbs. Sprinkle with a little white wine, and you're done. Glass of white wine, a salad, TV all to yourself......

Too sad to blog

Too hard. Too embarrassing. Too heartbreaking.


All I can give you is the food results of Burp Bowl V:

1. Tastiest: A tie between "Hail Mary Pass the Potato Skins ", a nice dish complimented by a cilantro sour cream dip and "Flaxico Burgers", little sliders made with Flax seed rolls and grilled onions.

2. Best Football Reference: Another tie: "Hail Mary Pass the Potato Skins" again, and the one gloriously and now crushingly named "19-0", a bucket of nachos made with 19, yes, 19 ingredients. Not 18. 19.

3. Most Likely to Cause Gas: 'Unnecessary Meatness", a combo of wonton-wraped chedder hot dog slices and Philly cheese steak egg rolls. All deep fried.

4. MVP: This was a cake that's sort of an inside joke, but it was red velvet and shaped like something you saw a lot of whenever there was a shot of the cheerleaders. I'll leave it at that.

Now I'm going to go cry over the leftover Wes Welker cake.

Burp Bowl V

Every year we have a Super Bowl party called "The Burp Bowl". It features, among other things, the Patriots winning and a food contest. The categories are:

1. Tastiest. Past winners include 2007's Tortiere (French Canadian Pork Pie).
2. Best Football reference: Past winners are the "Peyton Manning blows his knee out" sheet cake, 2007, and some type of cheese log shaped into a football, 2005.
3. Most likely to cause gas. There is always fierce competition for this one. 2007's winner was Cincinnati Chili. The first winner of this one, back at Burp Bowl I, was a creation called "The Ted Washington", named for a 400 lb. nose tackle on the Patriots at the time. It was a casserole that featured 3 kinds of ground beef, three cheeses, fritos, tater tots, french fried onions and canned gravy. Yikes!

Last year we added a new category: The MVP, or most valuable plate. There were just too many quality entries going unheralded. 2007's winner was the Chicago Dog (check way back in the blog- there's an entry on the Chicago dog).

So who will win 2008? Well, the Patriots, but what about the food? Stay tuned, sports fans....

Score: Gourmet:1, Hunger: 0.

Well, we're off to a good start. Nasi Goreng, the treat of 1941, was a success. With lots of skepticism, I made the recipe with a couple small substitutions. The ol' husband is allergic to shrimp, so I used frozen squid instead. If that sounds off-putting, think about it: similar texture, similar mild taste. Not quite as good, but not bad. I also mis-read the call for "Ketjap manis", with turns out is a soy-based sauce, but I got sweet chili sauce instead, so I just added some soy.
1941's score card:
The judges: Husband Charlie and Comrade Dave.
The Verdict: Charlie "that's a keeper".
Dave: "put it in the rotation".




Gourmet 1, Hunger 0.

Party like it's 1941

I've nailed down the issue of Gourmet I was talking about a couple posts ago. It's the January 2006 edition, and it chronicles Gourmet from 1941-2006. My original plan was to hit one recipe a week, but once I did the math I figured out that it would take me 5 years. Hmmm....the project doesn't seem so fun when it will take longer than your recently acquired Masters Degree to complete. However, having stated publicly (to all 5 of you) that I'm going to do it, I at least have to get started. I went to the store today to get ingredients for 1941's winner, Nasi Goreng, an Indonesian rice/chicken/shrimp stir fry. (If you've been to Holland, you may have had this as "rijsttafel"). One of the benefits of the Urban living is that you have easy access to stores that carry not only the ketjap manis, or sweet chili sauce, the recipe called for, you get to choose from 42 brands. The local Asian superstore overwhelmed me, but I think I picked a good one. I have to be honest, I'm not too optimistic about the best of 1941 judging from my quick scan through the recipe, but then again, it was a war year, so you take what you can get, right? I'm sure this was the height of cosmopolitan cooking at the time.
The rice needs to be cooked and cooled, so I'll be making this fine dish tomorrow. Stay tuned....

The Cincinnati 5-Way

Now, get your mind out of the gutter. In honor of the Patriot's continued march to perfection last Sunday, I wanted to make some chili and remembered a style I had read about that's seen around Southern Ohio- Cincinnati chili. The chili itself is a sweeter, spicier, beanless version, but the five way comes from the assembly: Start with thick spaghetti, ladle the chili over, add plain kidney beans, diced onion, and cheddar cheese. If you don't like any of the toppings, leave them out and be content with a 4 or 3-way experience (your loss). The recipe was from a great cookbook from Jane and Michael stern called "Square Meals". If you don't have the book but want the recipe, email for it. Or, if you're from Cincin, let me know if I did it right- it seems like this is one of the regional foods that people get pretty passionate about.

Of course, now that we're in the Super Bowl, it will have to be chowder next time. Sorry, Bengals.

Thanks, Ruth Reichl!

I think I've found my cookbook project. In an earlier post, I spoke of wanting to undertake a "Julie and Julia" type project- cooking my way through one whole cookbook. After eliminating a few and the aforementioned oxtail incident, I found a project that I think will be challenging and interesting. I keep old Gourmet magazines that are of special interest, and I recently found their 40th anniversary issue (published 2 years ago, I think?) It's a recipe from each year from 1941 to the present. Not only does it present a wide variety of food, I think it's fascinating to see how eating habits have changed over the years. Stay tuned for 1941. (Don't worry, it doesn't involve powdered milk and spam...)

The 1950's dinner, minus the after-meal cigarette

Still looking for the cookbook for the "Julie and Julia" project, and a recent meal made me think I might go old school- maybe a 1950's era book. There's something really great about the era of martinis, rumaki, dress aprons... and baked potatoes. On a whim, I bought two cube steaks (you know, those ones that look like someone had run them over) and was trying to figure out what to do with them. The only book I had that had any sort of recipe was my 1960's era Betty Crocker, who suggested turning them into Stroganoff by sauteing onions and adding sour cream to the pan. Jacques Pepin's "Fast Food My Way" contributed a quick way of getting a good baked potato (6 min. in the microwave, 12 min. in a 450 oven), and with some sauteed broccoli, we were in Leave it to Beaver land in under 30 min.
Oh, that Betty! Look how sassy she looks circa 1986...

Tired, desperate, really wanted cereal

When we were growing up, our Dad often used to fix us a little bowl of milk and cereal before bedtime. Pair that with a warm bath, and you've got the fixins of a good night's sleep. I can't remember what that feels like, but I did really want some cereal during a recent night up with my constantly-feeding baby, and the last bit I had was aged to softness.

I vaguely remembered reading that you could heat up cereal in the oven and thought "who the hell would ever do that instead of going to the store?" but, being too wiped out to drive and reluctant to transport said infant, I gave it a try. Wow. 10 minutes at 300 degrees (I think, don't hold me accountable for any messes) and it was like a fresh new batch. Just one of the little things that can sometimes mean a lot.

Snow days are the best days of the year

It finally happened. Not only did we get a snow day, they called it THE NIGHT BEFORE. The night before! Cocktails all around.

Here's the tradition of snow day:













oh yeah! An easy doz of the hot d-nuts.