Cheap and Easy...

...just like your Mom. Just kidding! More like your college days of rice, beans, and ramen noodles, but without the ramen sodium-bomb.

Tonight's meal: Rice (sort of) and beans.

I had the can of black beans, so this one is very easy: saute a little garlic in a little olive oil. Add a can of black beans. Add about a tablespoon of cumin. That's it. It's amazing how good this tastes.

The rice part was courtesy of this:









This was given to me by a friend in the process of moving. It looked rice-like, and the pepper sure wouldn't hurt. Directions on the package on this one.

I finished her off with grated cheese in a quesadilla cooked in a pan, and of course the obligatory salsa.
College never tasted so good. Except those nights when people were smoking.







Side Bar: This one was a two-for-one deal as well: I fried an egg the next morning and put it on top of the beans and extra quesadillas. Huevos Rancheros on a school day! Que rico....

Def-Summer Pasta Jam

Horrible, horrible, mid-90's play on words there, I know. I'll work up something better the next time I make this.


And I will make it again because I LOVE it. I stole the basic idea from Barbara and Camilla Kingsolver's book "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle". It's great because the ingredients are so common in summer, but it's the shapes that make it work, I think- the zucchini is shredded and it's served with orzo, so you can't really tell what's pasta and what's veg. Pretty good for people who say they're not that keen on vegetables- and the addition of cheese always helps.

Here's the how-to:
Take a zucchini and shred it. I use a food processor because I happen to have one, but you can run it over a course grater if you're feeling up to it, or want a quick bicep workout.
Boil the orzo in either plain water or chicken broth if you have it (it makes it a little richer).
Sauteed the shredded zucchini in a little olive oil and butter. Add any or all of the following: chopped garlic, fresh tomatoes, mushrooms, greens, fresh herbs, dried herbs, kitchen sink. I sauteed the zucchs with garlic, then added a tomato, and right at the end of the cooking threw in parsley, basil and arugula.

Drain the pasta, add it right to the saute pan, and top with any kind of shredded cheese (Parmesan, mozzarella, even cheddar). Eat out on the porch and enjoy the evening before the snow starts falling.

Food photography is not my forte, or Tomato Pie

I realize this picture does not do the summer-time love of Tomato Pie justice. I almost didn't include it. I will try to make up for the sins of my photography with the recipe. Mea Culpa.

This consists of taking fresh tomatoes (don't bother with this one outside of Aug/Sept), slicing them, and drizzling with olive oil and salt and pepper. Throw some breadcrumbs on top (store bought, or if you have any old bread, put it in a ziploc bag and pound it with something heavy, like the wine you're about to open for that night's dinner), a little Parmesan cheese and bake at 375 for about 20-30 minutes or so until it looks good (or better than this picture). This is really good on its own, or served as an appetizer with bread. Leftovers can be thrown in with pasta for a quick meal the next night. I also added some jarred roasted red peppers because I had them, but they are optional.

This meal will be a sweet reverie this winter as you contemplate the sad, hard tomato at your work salad bar.

Eggplant Parmasagna

(That's not bad Italian on my part, I'm trying to hyphanate "parmasaen" and "lasagna").
Coming into the kitchen tonight, I was faced with a giant eggplant that I bought because it seemed like a good idea, but had since sat on my counter for a few days. The culprit was this:

The tomatoes in the picture gave me the Italian spin, so there it was: Eggplant Parm. I salted the eggplant (here's how) and let it sit for a bit. I made a pesto in the food processor by mixing a handful of parsley, some nuts (I had hazelnuts), garlic and olive oil. The tomatoes got sauteed them with some butter and basil. As I was looking for the basil, I spied a package of lasagna noodles, and that's where things got tasty.
Here's the nitty gritty:

1. Salt eggplant.
2. Cook tomatoes with some butter, salt and pepper, and basil.
3. Mix ricotta with pesto.
4. Cook noodles.
5. Take eggplant, dip in milk, then breadcrumbs.
6. Briefly fry eggplant (don't use too much oil- eggplant will suck up as much as you put in)
7. Layer all of the above in a pan.
8. Bake at 375 until the dinner companions show up (30-40 min).

The finished product:










Product is much tastier than may appear.