Author: laura k

I made kick ass Potato Leek Soup!

Potato Leek Soup

Please excuse my cheek, but I thought this soup was doomed from the beginning. I let the leeks brown, and the milk boil, and every taste promised blandness. But once I sat down with a piping hot bowl and ate it up, I realized that, holy crap, I made kick ass Potato Leek soup! Which leads me to realize that yes, I can make up a recipe completely on the spot and it just might turn out ok. Whew.

Every recipe for Potato Leek soup I looked at just seemed…not what I had in mind. Right, you’re thinking, Potato Leek soup is pretty basic, how could it be not what she had in mind? I don’t know, maybe I was just feeling contrary. And because this soup is pretty basic, I figured I could figure it out on my own, yeah? I few tips on leeks (specifically, don’t burn them because they will taste bitter), some basic knowledge of cooking with milk and boiling potatoes, and a hint about hot stuff in blenders, and I was ready to go.

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Grilled Eggplant and Roasted Red Pepper Panini

Eggplant sammies

Last night required another super speedy dinner plan: I had only twenty minutes until Gilmores. Yes, I am terribly addicted to the Gilmore Girls. Who would have thought it, right? I, queen of cynicism and snark, book-readin’ and CSPAN-watchin’, I watch the Gilmore Girls? A television show was sponsored by Focus on the Family? (Or so the rumor goes. Can anyone confirm this?) Yes, I like to thank my old housemates, Laura T and Julia, for sending me down the path to ruin, by introducing me to the wit and spark that is the Gilmores, oh those several years ago.

Point being that after having a drink with Mr. X and rushing home after said drink, I had only twenty minutes to assemble something edible. Well, these sandwiches were not just edible, they were delicious. I think they were both completely digested five minutes into the show (which was pretty moving, despite my severe disappointment with this entire seventh season).

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Penne with Italian Tuna, Roasted Tomatoes, and Artichoke Hearts

Penne with Tuna, Tomatoes, and Artichoke Hearts

One thing I have always had a weakness for is canned tuna. I grew up eating it in macaroni and cheese, and to this day making boxed mac and cheese without tuna just doesn’t seem right. When I saw a can of imported Italian Tonno (or, yeah, tuna), and almost that same day happened upon a recipe for a basic pasta dish involving said Italian tuna, I had to try it out. Of course, I tweaked it a little because I had a bunch of other stuff in the refrigerator I wanted to use, and because I’m almost never content to do just what the cookbook tells me.

All in all, this only took about 20 minutes to make, so it’s a good week night dinner. I would probably use a little more pasta next time, though, to balance out the tuna. I usually only cook about 3/4 of a cup of pasta per serving, which often is more than enough. This time, though, I should have thrown in a little more.

The Italian tuna really is slightly different from the Chicken of the Sea or Bumblebee or whatever crap I usually buy. Maybe that’s because it’s packed in oil, and I never buy tuna packed in oil. Or maybe it’s actually the tuna itself. It seemed a little more buttery, or salty. I can’t really find any Tonna vs. Tuna references, so if any of you have a clue, let me know.

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Corn Potato Chowder and Dinner Rolls

Corn Chowder

My apologies for the late update–today was a particularly difficult Monday morning. The Corn Potato Chowder dinner was actually Friday night’s, courtesy of Crystal and her family recipe. I decided to make basic dinner rolls, to continue my current obsession with dough and baking. I’m not sure how well I’m going to be able to reconstruct chowder making: There was a lot of wine consumed Friday night. But I’ll do my best.

Crystal’s made this chowder a few times before, and I always like it. She said it wasn’t as good this time, but I still thought it was good. It’s a very starchy chowder, heavy on the potatoes, but overall pretty healthy, I think. You can definitely taste the corn. And the bacon. Mmm. Bacon. She did say that this is a recipe you can tweak a bit, so I’m sure if I don’t get it exactly right here, it will still be good. The bread, thankfully, I can reconstruct exactly. I might go with less sugar in the future, but they were loved by all at the dinner table, so I should stop criticizing them, probably.

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Pasta e Fagioli, mostly

Pasta e Fagioli

Last night it was cold, and I lost my hat, and I was super tired from staying up until 1 am the night before, and I really, really wanted soup. Good soup. Hearty, filling, not-from-a-can soup, and I wanted it quick. Nothing complicated, or time-consuming, or that would make me stand over a stove for a long time. This soup exactly fit the bill.

I think it’s a pretty traditional Pasta e Fagioli, but in my cursory research, I couldn’t really find a definitive Pasta e Fagioli reference. I figure, though, that it contains both Pasta and Fagioli, so that’s close enough for me. Plus, since I got the recipe from Eating Well, it’s even good for me and stuff. Of course I ended up with way more than I expected, so I’ll be eating this for a few days, but no matter, it is good. And warming. And full of vegetables and good stuff. Did I mention that it was also easy?

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Makin’ Crackers

Homemade Crackers

The other night I found myself with a serious craving for crackers and hummus. See, I don’t have a sweet tooth so much as a salty carb tooth, and I really wanted crackers. Alas, I was also so poor I couldn’t even afford a packet of saltines, but I did have some flour in the pantry. Ding ding ding! I could make crackers!

Well, the only recipe I found in The Joy of Cooking that night involved yeast and rising times, and since I didn’t really want to wait until midnight for crackers, I forgot the whole idea and finished watching my movie, snackless. The next day, though, I went onto the interwebs, and lo! with the wonders of technology I found plenty of yeast-less cracker recipes of all types.

What I decided to make is a variation of a recipe for sesame wheat crackers. I didn’t have sesame, and what I really wanted were rosemary crackers, so I just did a little changing and a little tweaking, and in less than an hour I had my own homemade and carb-craving-satisfying crackers.

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Mini Croques-Monsieur

Baby croques

Mr. X had a brilliant Sunday morning breakfast idea for the leftover ham: Miniature Croques-Monsieur! Despite being a relentless francophile and ham lover, I had never actually had a croque-monsieur before. Now I am fully ready to acknowledge that this might be the most brilliant sandwich idea ever. My internet searching tells me that the croque-monsieur isn’t much different from the monte carlo, which I thought was the most disgusting sandwich I’d ever had, but maybe that’s only because I ate it at Bennigan’s.

Mr. X’s version was simple and perfect. And miniaturized, because everyone loves tiny food. Despite their tinyness, they certainly filled me up for the rest of the day. And convinced me that I shouldn’t eat anything but soup and carrot sticks for the rest of the week (which hasn’t been hard because I literally have $0 in my bank account until tomorrow). If you’re feeling indulgent some weekend morning, though, break out the baguette and cook yourself up some croques-monsieur. Then, walk around for the rest of the day with a bad french accent.

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Some sprouts, some potatoes, and a Cauliflower Gratin redux

Sprouts and pots and caulis

Eunice had been wanting to cook up a ham for quite some time, and we finally managed to set a dinner date this past weekend. Eunice brought over the ham, and Mr. X cooked up some greens, and, in response to Eunice’s requests, I made, once again, a Cauliflower Gratin. Of course, I couldn’t make the same Gratin twice, because that would be boring. There were many variations I considered, and there is a good chance you will see them here at some point (where did this newfound love of cauliflower come from anyway?). But this time around I put together a Cauliflower Gorgonzola Gratin.

I’m really not sure what possessed me. I don’t even like Gorgonzola. Perhaps I am trying, through some kind of desensitization therapy, to appreciate moldy cheese. I just thought I might as well give it a shot, and both Eunice and Mr. X love the Gorgonzola. And shouldn’t I really be thinking of who I’m cooking for sometimes?

Despite an initial mishap resulting in the smell of moldy cheese before the moldy cheese was even out of the fridge, it really wasn’t that bad. I might be able to tolerate Gorgonzola after all. Mr X. made some excellent Brussel Sprouts and Potatoes, which I think I should be able to detail for you here. If I get it wrong, perhaps he’ll be willing to step in and make corrections. And the ham? The ham was awesome.

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The Ultimate Tuna Noodle Casserole

The Ultimate Tuna Noodle Casserole

I have a strange weakness for casseroles. I’m not really sure where it originated. We certainly didn’t eat them growing up. In fact, I think they were almost banned. I seem to recall something about my dad being a little, er, overexposed to casseroles in his 1960s childhood, and the casserole subsequently enjoying least favored nation status in our house. The only childhood casserole I recall is the traditional Thanksgiving Green Bean casserole, but that almost doesn’t count, as Thanksgiving is incomplete with that dish. There were no hamburger pies, no cheesy chicken chili bakes, no turkey tetrazinnis in my past. So why do I get so excited by the thought of a Tater Tot Casserole now?

If you think about what most casseroles actually are, it’s hard for me to understand why people don’t like them. You basically have meat, pasta, and tons of cheese, all mixed together and baked into one-dish perfection. What could possibly be wrong with that? This was supposed to be the winter of casseroles, and it didn’t occur to me until this week that so far, there hasn’t even been one! Of course, there hasn’t really been winter until recently, either.

So tonight is the night. The night of the Ultimate Tuna Noodle Casserole.

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I’m making real bread; or, Laura Kneads Some Dough

Mmmm…bread 

I don’t know why I got it into my head that the Lahey/Bittman No-Knead Bread wasn’t real bread, but I became determined, after making two or three knead-free loaves, to make a more traditional loaf. I wanted to see how they compared, and to better understand how this No-Knead phenomenon actually worked.

Where else to go for a traditional, basic bread recipe but The Joy of Cooking. I know some people who shun this omnipresent kitchen staple of a cookbook, for being too basic, too boring, for being (how could they say it!) actually wrong. But I love my copy. Whenever I’m cooking something new, I first consult with Irma, just to get a handle on the basics. I suppose it’s true that I rarely follow the recipes from the book word for word, but the book helps me lay a nice foundation. It’s comforting, somehow, sitting up there on my shelf, full of instruction on just about any food item in existence. Obviously, I’m going to check in with The Joy of Cooking before I make my first loaf of “real” bread.

After reading page after page about using the right materials, and measuring properly, and kneading, and scoring, and batards, and couches, I finally felt ready to make some bread.

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