"Ramen Noodles For Stuck Up Culinary Students"

I've been writing a research paper for what honestly feels like a month, although I know it can't possible have been that long. It's my last big project of the semester and it's sucking up all my sanity time. In the mists of working my brain to madness I've needed something to fill my belly that would take just long enough to cook that it would be a nice head clearing break, but not so long that my freshly cleared head forgot every new piece of information I just shoved in there. Out of that time crunch came this recipe that is relatively cheap, easy to pull together and just salty enough to sate that part of me that wants to stress eat Chinese food.


Crunchy Peanut Noodles

1lb spaghetti
2 tbsp peanut oil
2 tbsp sesame oil
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
2 garlic cloves, minced
6 tbsp low sodium soy sauce
squeeze of lemon juice
1 bunch green onions, chopped (about 1/2 cup)
1/3 cup chopped peanuts
12 ounces frozen green peas
1/2 a rotisserie chicken, shredded ( I put the other half in the fridge and use it for another batch later)

In a small mixing bowl whisk together the oils, vinegar, garlic, soy sauce and lemon juice. Set aside.

Cook the spaghetti in salted water according to directions on the box, chop up the onions and peanuts  while you wait. When the spaghetti is about 1 minute from being done, turn off the heat and dump the frozen peas in the hot water with the noodles to shock them bright green and cool down the noodle water. Strain out the water with a strainer and add the noodle/pea mixture back into the warm pot. Toss with sauce,onions, chicken and peanuts. Serve warm (or chilled!)

"The Denial Twist"

Last Monday I came upon a realization. A decision. A fork in my road. I realized that if I really wanted to do the things I dreamed of doing, I was going to have to make a change. Struggle a little bit, and be bold. And that really the only thing standing in my way was me. Me. This idea was incredibly hard to swallow. In fact it was terrifying. So what did I do? I headed straight to the grocery store.

This very same Monday I suddenly got a craving for something not so high brow, it's a yellowy orange and comes in a little blue box. I just wanted a little taste but when I bent down to check on the prices I noticed there was really only a dime or two difference between big box and little, so big box jumped in my cart and followed me home. Until the next day... when I found myself thinking about those noodles again. Just how delicious they were and how nice it would be to have another taste. You know, just a little one. About seven days and four boxes later the boyfriend and I decided to head out to see a movie then have lunch at Panera. Lunch time rolls around and I ordered, you guessed it, just a little bowl of delicious cheesy noodles (again). And you know what? They were so good that on the way home I made a quick pit stop in at Kroger you know, just for one last box. From the outside it's pretty obvious that something weird was going on. I know how to actually cook now, something without actual food in it shouldn't hold such a power over my waking hours. And yet for some reason it did.

"It's really nothing" I told myself, "Just the good old wintertime spread" I joked with my mother "I'm perfectly happy so I know it's not stress! It's just soo delicious!" I heard myself lie but I had no idea what the trouble was.

All the while deep in my mind there was processing, mulling, learning to deal. Two more boxes of Kraft Dinner came and went and I had a conversation or two with my closest of besties, and suddenly things were slowly starting to take shape.

I looked at myself, I realized that I like many ladies before me I was absolutely strangled by the idea of my own success. Panicked by the prospect of failure and desperate to find an easy way to forget all about it and just go back to the complaining I was so comfortable with.

But today instead of running back to the box, I've taken a leap, I've signed my papers, made my very last (and real this time!) batch of mac and cheese, and officially signed up to start culinary school in 2012. Provided of course that the world doesn't end ( wouldn't that suck?!).

To all you smart girls out there who are munching on noodles and waiting to make a move, this is your sign.

Today is your day. Leap.

Carpe Diem Mac and Cheese
Adapted from  Smitten Kitchen

3 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 1/4 cups milk
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoons coarse salt, plus more for water
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 cups (about 8 ounces) grated sharp white cheddar cheese
2  cups (about 8 ounces) grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 pound elbow macaroni

2 cups broccoli florets

Frozen tater tots 

1. Preheat oven to 400°F. 

2. Warm the milk in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Melt 3 tablespoons butter in a high-sided skillet over medium heat. When the butter bubbles, add the flour. Cook, stirring, 1 minute.

3. While whisking, slowly pour in the hot milk a little at a time to keep mixture smooth. Continue cooking, whisking constantly, until the mixture bubbles and becomes thick, 8 to 12 minutes.

4. Remove the pan from the heat. Stir in salt, nutmeg, black pepper, cayenne pepper, 1 3/4 cups cheddar cheese, and 1 1/2 cups Parmesean  set the cheese sauce aside.

5. Cover a large pot of salted water, and bring to a boil.  Add the broccoli florets and the macaroni and Cook  for 5 minutes, then strain (the pasta will be underdone).Transfer to a colander, rinse under cold running water, and drain well. Stir the macaroni into the reserved cheese sauce.

6. Portion out the mixture into 6 ramekins (or mini pie plates). Sprinkle the remaining cheese and top with frozen tater tots in whatever design you like. Bake until golden brown, about 30 minutes . Transfer the dish to a wire rack for 5 minutes; serve.

"You Say Goodbye, and I Say Hello"

It's mid September, nearly autumn, and while most people are busy choking back sobs as they pack away their flip flops, I  personally (strange girl, maverick) am readying myself for my all time favorite season.

My flip flops honestly have been packed for weeks, and already I'm spelunking the depths of the internet scouting out cute boots and winter coats I don't need. I'm blasting the Beatles (cause it's autumn music. It's true. No! Yes! SHUT UP!) and I'm clearing out disk space for all those golden leaf/blue sky pictures I'll be taking just the second Nashville decides to (FINALLY) pick a season. Autumn and I (despite the allergies) are hardcore awesome bffs there is no denying it.

I know it's nothing new or fancy, that every year the earth will move and the leaves will change and the only difference is my mind, my fantasy and the skip in my step, but all the same I will blast the Beatles, spend hours on Zappos and take eight thousand pictures of leaves like this is a one time deal.

My plants at least seem to be on board with this whole "accepting fall" idea, most of them are getting that droopy look, like they want a robe and a pipe and a nice long bath which sounds like a good idea to me. We're saying our goodbyes (for now) in the most delicious of ways, with soups, and seeds and pestos, and I welcome my little break from gardening, until we meet again in the spring.

Goodbye Summer Pesto with Pecans and Orecchiette

2 cups fresh basil leaves

2 garlic cloves

1/4 cup olive oil

1/8 cup pecans toasted and chopped

3/4 cup grated parmesan cheese divided

1/2 cup ricotta cheese

3 cups steamed broccoli florettes

1lb orecchiette

1.Cook the orechiette according the package directions, drain and set aside.

2.Add basil, garlic, olive oil, pecans and 1/4 cup of parmesan cheese to the bowl of a food processor and pulse until smooth. Salt to taste.

3.In a small mixing bowl combine 1/2 cup ricotta cheese, 1/2 cup parmesan and the whirled up pesto from the food processor and stir to combine.

4. Add the broccoli florets, and the pesto/ricotta mixture to the hot cooked pasta and gently toss together.

Serve hot topped with an extra little grating of parmesan cheese.

"She Throws A Party When Her Roses Bloom" or "The Garden Made Me Do It"

There's something about the change of the seasons that always romances me. Maybe deep inside me is some pagan blood just burning to frolic in wild celebration four times a year, but it never fails that I get the burning desire to throw a party.

I've always wanted to be that person, the kind that holds a soiree every winter, spring, summer and fall with long tables topped with mismatched plates, wild flowers and depression glass. I'd invite my friends from California, Sweden, New York and Tennessee,(and they would come, by the plane-full).And for the menu, I would let my garden speak to me, and tell me just what tastes the best (because really, who better to know?).

This day of course would be sometime centuries in the future, when I wear nice shoes to work and no longer live in a one bedroom apartment in the not so swanky side of town. Hell, I didn't even have a garden until a few months ago ( let alone a chatty one). No, Solstice\ Equinox parties are definitely a long way off or at the very least they're on the back burner until I make close personal friends with Eugene Hütz and he vows to have his band play each and every party.

However,

This morning as I puttered rubber flip flops around my tiny balcony of potted plants, humming to myself and thinking about the day all these things would happen. The breeze jingled wind chimes and warm dirt and fresh blossoms swirled perfumes in the golden sunshine and I swear, ever so faintly, I heard a gentle whisper 'Mint! Take some mint! And Lemon too!'

"....?"

Maybe a little practice run?

I didn't really have a plan when I started out, mint and lemon being somewhat loose guidelines but when a garden gives you instructions I think it's best to at least  try and follow through. I kind of winged it with a light handed effort at a Martha Stewart recipe for lunch. A lemon kissed Tabbouleh (say it with me, Tuh -boo-lee) with bits of watermelon, feta cheese and couscous. It's fancy to say, simple to make and it's kind of like a salad dressed in lace, standing shoe-less in the tall grass. If you know what I mean. If I had a fancy outdoor garden party this would probably make the cut.

But what I really fell in love with was the Minty Lemon Iced Tea.  It is simply a revelation. Why on earth I've never tried steeping fresh herbs with black tea I'll never know. I've been kicking myself all day for all the time I've wasted.  And the combination was completely accidental. I was sort of tossing mint in random things to see what worked and this magical brew came about. Southern sweet tea with a chill of mint an a ring or two of lemon, it simply sighs a moonlight skinny dip against your lips. It is divine. When the time comes I finally host my yearly summer parties I will serve this tea by the truckload.  Eugene Hütz will write a song about it I think,( he strikes me as an iced tea man).

And for my last trick, dessert.

 I'm a firm believer in dessert after every meal (what can I say that's just how I roll) and with a dish this easy there's really no excuse to not roll along with me. These lovely almond shortcakes are magical, they are as easy to makes as tarted up pancakes (No really!) only  you bake them in an oven and stuff their lovely centers with citrusy whipped cream and fruit. In fact if you had the mind to serve this at a brunch instead of pancakes you might just start a revolution. Only this isn't brunch, (in fact definitely no) this summertime party is totally planned for the PM. It's summertime in Nashville, lets not even kid ourselves, and what's a summer in the south without fireflies?

After dessert, who knows. Break dancing? Fire juggling? Drunken limbo? The pagans seemed to like a  good old fashioned frolic in the altogether, but... lets just wait and see how we feel.

Mark your calendars for someday soon, when it's finally time I'm inviting you

What would your summer party be like? Would you invite gypsies?

Tabbouleh with Watermelon

adapted from Martha Stewart Living

1 1/4 cups water

course salt

3/4 cup couscous

8 ounces watermelon (about 1/2 small),peeled and coarsely chopped (1 1/2 cups)

2/3 cup coarsely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

2 scallions, thinly sliced on the bias

1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil

2 teaspoons finely grated lemon zest, plus 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

3 ounces crumbled feta cheese

1. Bring water and 1/4 tsp salt to a boil in a medium saucepan. Stir in couscous, and remove from heat. Let stand, covered, for 15 minutes. Fluff with a fork, and let stand, uncovered until cooled, 15 to 30 minutes.

2. Transfer couscous to a bowl and toss with watermelon, parsley, scallions, oil, lemon zest and juice and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Gently fold in feta cheese.

Serves 4

Minty Lemon Iced Tea

3 cups of boiling water

4 black tea bags ( I used a mix of Luzianne and Tazo Awake)

2 fresh mint sprigs

1 cup granulated sugar or splenda

1/4 cup lemon juice or 1 whole lemon, sliced

5 cups cold water

Fresh mint and sliced lemon for garnish.

Use the boiling water to brew the black tea with the mint sprigs for 5 minutes. Strain or remove tea bags and mint. Add sugar and lemon juice, stirring until sugar dissolves. Stir in cold water. Serve over ice, garnish with fresh sprigs of mint and a slice of lemon.

Almond Shortcakes with Minted Blueberries and Cream

adapted from Food Network Magazine

For the filling

2 tablespoons water

2 tablespoons sugar

1/2 pint picked-over blueberries

1 1/2 teaspoons chopped fresh mint leaves

1/2 cup well-chilled heavy cream

1 teaspoon finely grated fresh lemon zest

For the shortcakes

1 Cup flour

1 1/2 cup Almond meal

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2/3 cup milk

1 egg

1/3 cup vegetable oil

In a very small saucepan simmer water and 1 tablespoon sugar until sugar is dissolved, about 1 minute, and in a small bowl toss with blueberries and mint. Chill blueberry mixture, covered, 15 minutes, or until cold.

While the blueberry mixture is chilling start making the shortcakes.

Whisk flour, almond meal, baking powder and salt together in a bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk together the milk, egg and oil, then stir in the flour mixture being careful not to over mix, the dough will stay loose and wet (almost like pancake batter) . Drop scoops of the dough on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet, sprinkle with sugar and bake at 475 degrees F until golden, 10 to 12 minutes. Let cool. 

While the shortcakes are cooling, beat heavy cream with remaining tablespoon sugar in a chilled bowl with an electric mixer until it just holds stiff peaks and fold in zest.

Split the shortcakes and fill with whipped cream and blueberries.

"We Got More Bounce In California Than All Yall Combined"

Clockwise from the top : Big Bang Theory, Chinese takeout, Gilmore Girls, The O.C.

Confession time: I have some weird habits. I love to get whole seasons of TV shows on DVD and watch all the episodes back to back. This is not without some side effects. I tend toward funky dreams where I share intimacies with the characters from the show, I imagine that I've spotted members of the cast out in random places they would never be (driving a garbage truck?), and I start to crave the food they're eating in each episode.

"Linguine with Walnut Sage Pesto" or "Know Your Onion!"

I tried to make this recipe last week, I'd finally gotten around to reading the January issue of Fitness and found a recipe for Walnut Sage Pesto that I decided I had to try. Fitness while a health magazine, still has a pretty good grasp on foods that taste good which I will forever appreciate. Somewhere down the line there seems to always be a divide between eating for pleasure and eating for health (I don't know why it has to be that way) and Fitness seems to hopscotch over it and give you both. At any rate, after skimming the pages, I went to the store and apparently all I remembered was the "walnut pesto" part and ended up back at home with a bunch of basil and hardly anything else that was actually in the recipe.

Tasty TV - Madeline's Chicken Soup

I was kind of a dreamy child and like the very first crowd of people to ever watch a moving picture, for a long time it was hard for me to grasp the idea that I couldn't actually experience what I saw on screen. In a way this aspect of reality still kind of bugs me, I have a maddeningly long list of foods I've seen eaten in cartoons and books and movies that look delicious that I will never get the chance to taste. Now that I've started cooking I've decided to start a new spot on my blog dedicated to the fictional dishes I'm dying to sample and their real life versions which I'll be cooking up. The only thing I don't have yet is a catchy name for it (suggestions are definitely welcome here). This week : Madeline's Chicken Soup

My childhood in my mind is measured (as I suspect is the case with most kids from the 90's) by the shows I was watching and the food I ate. Christmas in particular is much easier to remember since by nature of the "traditional" aspect you tend to do the same things over and over. This memory I think marks a tinier window around 1990 and just a few years following.  Madeline's Christmas was a cutesy book first, published around 1956 ( my mom read it growing up) and then (in retrospect) a slightly craptacular  television Christmas special that aired around 1990. I was about 4 when I first saw it and in love with all things french ( I suspect because somebody told me my name was french) so for me this movie was a big deal.

"Cauliflower-Onion Linguine" or "The Anemic Plate"

This recipe in Food Network Magazine drew my attention because it was two things I had never tried before;
1)Cauliflower as the main event
2)French fried onions

To most people I guess french fried onions are pretty old hat at this point, but I didn't grow up eating green bean casseroles like (at least the Campbell's soup commercials imply) most people did. In fact I'd never even tried a green bean casserole until a couple of years ago and even then I think somebody had rooted through and scooped all the french fried onions off for their own greedy lips. This called for 1/2 cup french fried onions chopped with a 1/4 cup panko and some olive oil and two garlic cloves toasted together in a span on the stove-top, which after several samples during the cooking process, has totally won my heart. It basically tastes like the most amazing topping to the best casserole ever, without actually adding butter or baking it in the oven. I'm convinced I will use this combo for many many more things in the future.

And as for the cauliflower... I just went along with it because that was the recipe. I could sit here and say that I've always had some sort of long lasting love for the most pallid member of the  family cruciferous but I think anybody who says that is probably being sarcastic.Cauliflower... it's not really something you seek out. It's just there. And honestly in this recipe  just like every other  time I've ever tasted cauliflower, just there was really all it was.

But the worst part was, it didn't just hang out in the background not adding to the party. It sort of stuck out, in that terrible way that it seemed all vegetables did when you were a kid eating anything that wasn't mac and cheese or hotdogs.

 

It was like, "Hey, cauliflower... dude... could you uh... maybe leave some room for something else?"

And to top it all off, if you pick it out (which I almost guarantee you will) the spicy noodle part doesn't even seem worth your time on its' own. It doesn't make sense really, in fact the whole dish pretty much follows a no fail formula of salty/cheesy/carbs and yet it's still ho-hum and borderline unappealing.
And it doesn't even look appetizing! I had a hell of a time trying to photograph this incredibly pale dish with only red pepper flakes and basil to give it any life. Aren't professional chef's always saying "you eat with your eyes first"?!
I kept imagining how much better this would be with some chicken and cream sauce but then I realized I was just wishing for chicken carbonara which is basically the noodles and cheese without everything else. Hm... imagine everything else is gone....

Final thoughts, panko + french fried onions = whole heartedly approve
Everything else = snore

Vince Camillo, I give you a sad face :(

Samantha Cotton aka "Sam Cott"

 
The last few days I'd been football tackled by a cold, and there's nothing like being sick to make me crave some home-style mama made it type comfort food.

(from google search. yes I ate it all before I could take a picture)

 Now in her defense I'll say that honestly I don't think my mother ever made this when I was growing up. I'm pretty sure this over processed  largely canned dish was something I concocted when I was trying (without  recipe) to replicate something much nicer that she'd made ( I spent a lot of my teen years doing this). Somehow though over the years this became an effortless comfort food staple in our house. Nameless for many years eventually and (I swear soberly) we decided to call it Samantha Cotton for some reason none of us can remember.

Samantha Cotton

1lb salad twirls (rontini) the orange, white and green kind is what we always liked the best

2  5oz cans solid white tuna, drained

2 15oz cans Del Monte mixed vegetables, drained

1 tbsp Olive oil

2-3 tbsp Kroger Brand "classic whip" (there's something specific about this flavor, Miracle Whip won't work)

salt

Cook the noodles according to the directions on the box being sure to use plenty of salt. Drain.

 Stir in the olive oil to coat the noodles. Dump everything else in a stir til combined. Eat warm out of the pot ( but be warned  if you eat it warm you will be back for seconds) or cool in the refrigerator and eat cold.

Perfectly Passable Vegetable Lasagna

At one point in your life, although you may not remember, there came a moment when you looked down at your lunch and you realized that a peanut butter sandwich was bread spread with peanut butter. You went to the kitchen, tried it yourself and realized that you could make a sandwich.

One day, when you've been cooking long enough comes a time when you experience this same feeling of previously unrealized clarity. You'll be standing in the grocery store and you think to yourself " man I'd really like  some ___ right now" now if you're not particularly dirty minded and the blank is something that can be found in a grocery store not peddling hookers a miraculous moment will settle onto you, your memory will flip through the pages of the Larousse Gastronomique and not only will you remember how to make such a dish, but you'll be provided with a grocery list of every ingredient needed.

This strange foreign sensation settled on me today. I'd been feeling sort of lazy lately and none of my recipe resources have really been thrilling me lately so I thought I'd just wander around the grocery store until something came to me. Usually I try to avoid this method of shopping because most of the time it's fruitless and it always turns out to be expensive, but today was my day and the dish was lasagna 

The funny thing about lasagna is that before you start cooking it always seems like such a fancy involved dish when in reality it's pretty much a cheesy noodle sandwich. That said I'm not looking a gift horse in the mouth. I'll congratulate myself for not ruining this dish and even giving it a little personal flair via roasted eggplant and frozen spinach. Ignoring a few crunchy noodle ends it was delicious, in fact you'd never know that I didn't use a recipe.

Pasta with Baked Tomato Sauce

Okay so in a way I'm cheating with this one. I technically made this for the first time last week around the same time. Because a) I needed something to take to work for lunch and b) it's my Monday back at third shift and I can't really sleep. Also this recipe is ridiculously easy, or rather it should be. I somehow have a problem concentrating on ridiculously easy tasks it seems because this is the second time I've made this dish and the second time I've tried to ruin it. Last week when I found the recipe I was admittedly sleepy when I started but seeing as there was nothing else to eat in the house (nothing else I wanted to eat) I decided to suck it up and try my best anyway. However laziness got the best of me and I didn't bother to clear a place for anything at all which proved problematic when I had a boiling pot of noodles on the range and a hot dish of sauce in the oven and no place to combine the two. I also tried to knock the freshly strained searing hot noodles onto my back when I took the sauce out of the oven with a rag that was way too thin but the noodles fell in the sink and not on me which is a blessing... I guess.

Anyway today's antics came by way of multitasking and further proof that you really shouldn't try and do anything else ever while texting. I decided to be a maverick and add a second cheese ( Asiago again!) and an extra garlic clove to the recipe to spice it up, but became too lazy to grate the second cheese (the parmesean was in a bag already grated. Don't look at me like that it's all they had for some reason)  and just chopped it. I must have gotten lazier still because as it turns out, I was way too lazy to chop the garlic too since I forgot completely and put it in the oven without a single clove. Somewhere about 15 minutes in I discovered my mistake and in an act of desperation chopped two cloves and tossed them in there for the last five minutes which of course did nothing.

All things cooled there were cheese globs and garlic islands but in the end it's noodles, tomato, and Parmesan, and it's pretty impossible to make anything worse than passable here. It tasted fine. I won't starve at lunch, and I foresee a third raucous round with this recipe soon.