Faux French Apple Tart

I bought an apple at the grocery store today with the express intent of making this. It's loosely based on Ina Garten's French Apple Tart that I saw her make on television this afternoon.

Instead of making my own dough in my imaginary food processor (I'll admit that I get a little bit peeved at Ina for using hers for practically every recipe,) I used my good old dessert standby: Pepperidge Farm Puff Pastry.

The great thing about frozen puff pastry is that you can pull a sheet out of the freezer, let it thaw, cut off how much you want, and then re-freeze the rest. For this one person dessert, I cut off a piece just slightly larger than a 3x5 index card.

Quinoa-Black Olive Cakes

I may have mentioned a big bag of white quinoa that we have sitting in the kitchen.

Well, I finally found a recipe that I wanted to try.

It's delicious. Now, I usually cut recipes down when I'm making them for myself. In the future, I will probably do so with this one too...

Our mixing bowl situation in this house is, shall we say, sparse. So I mixed up the "batter" in this baking dish and realized that (thank goodness) I did not have to cook up all of these at once. I can actually pop the remainder in a tupperware and have the makings for quick, filling, vegetarian superfood cakes any time.

Did I mention that these were delicious?

Nana's Stuffed Peppers (Ham only, without rice).

I'm an idiot.

Sometimes I get an idea in my head and it swirls and gurgles and sits like a stagnant pond. This particular idea wouldn't go away, because it occurred to me every time I went grocery shopping.

It goes something like this:
Sausage is delicious.
Sausage is expensive.
I should buy a meat grinder.

Yeah, a fuckin' meat grinder.

Now, normally I can hold these spastic musings at bay. But then I got my tax return. My silly idiot mind started saying things like, "let's just see what Wal-Mart has in the way of small meat grinders," and, "maybe Amazon has something cheap but effective."

And the most insane one of them all, "Think of all the things I could make!"

Starfrit Manual Meat Grinder

Like I said, I'm an idiot.

Idiot like a FOX.

Bonus Post - The Poor Man's Latte

From time to time, I'll wander through our kitchen and notice leftover coffee sitting in the coffee pot. It's cold and probably stronger than anyone wants it to be. I hate, hate, hate pouring this coffee down the sink. I'm also not a huge fan of pouring this coffee down my gullet, either.

This is how I reconcile the situation.

Take a big coffee mug. Pour in 1/4 cup of milk and however much sugar you normally put into a cup of coffee. (Black coffee drinkers, pour the damn coffee down the sink and make a new pot.)

If all you have is skim or 1% milk, add a healthy splash of half & half or heavy cream. Microwave the mug on high for 1 minute and 30 seconds (or until the milk heats up enough that some of the fat floats to the surface in the form of foam, but not so long that it boils over and makes a mess of the microwave.)

Fill the mug the rest of the way with the old, cold coffee.

Stir and Enjoy.

Sear-Roasted Chicken Breast

When I was grocery shopping two weeks ago, I came across a large package of boneless, skinless chicken breasts that were only $1.99/lb. This was cheaper than my beloved chicken thighs. I hemmed and hawed, having avoided these pale, flavorless pieces of white meat for years and years. Then I said, screw it, they're freaking cheap.

I'm glad that I did. After two weeks, I've realized why everyone loves this culinary chameleon. I've put it on salads, of course. I've eaten these on sandwiches, in tacos, over rice, on pizza and straight out of the refrigerator. And the best part, I've cooked them almost exactly the same way every freaking time. It's so easy!

Ce n'est pas un blanc de poulet.

This is not a chicken breast. This is part of a chicken breast. Cheap-o grocery store chicken breasts are generally gigantic. Also, they tend to be lopsided, being crazy thick at one end and skinny at the other. When I got mine home, I sliced each one diagonally so each one was turned into a round, fat hunk of chicken and a thinner, flatter tail piece (shown above). If you're using these instructions to cook a fatter piece, just leave it in the oven an extra 2-4 minutes and check the center of it before gobbling it up.

Skillet Macaroni and Cheese

While grocery shopping last week I did what I often do, I followed my cravings. Namely, I had been thinking about a grilled chicken sandwich with bleu cheese dressing all day long. When I make a sandwich like that, I like a lot of lettuce on it. I like the cool, crisp crunch and it makes me feel healthy even on top of the bleu cheese dressing. So, without thinking things through, I grabbed a package of leaf lettuce from the produce section.

Even the small bags have a LOT of lettuce.

For days afterward, I've been eating salads...

Lots and lots of salads...

And after about 4 salads in as many days... I was feeling GREAT!

With that in mind, I decided to finally get off my butt and find ways to use the big bag of quinoa that an ex-roommate left sitting on top of our refrigerator.

(Update: I did end up finding one.)

My first step was to go to the website where my sister found our absolute favorite quinoa salad recipe. This recipe makes a TON of salad and involves a ridiculous amount of chopping. I'm not kidding, I've given myself blisters when making this over at Casey's house.

It's worth it. I could eat this stuff all day long.

Basic Frittata with Leeks and Bacon

I have a very specific memory from my mom's kitchen.  (Okay, okay, I have HUNDREDS of specific memories from my mom's kitchen... this is one of them.)  I was in my late teens or early twenties, raiding my parent's refrigerator.  It must have been just after Christmas because there was leftover shrimp from our annual Christmas shrimp cocktail. I was enamored with the idea of omelettes at the time. My mother was sitting at the kitchen table paying bills while I whipped up an omelette heavy with dill and chopped shrimp. Mom hated it when we made a mess in the kitchen, but she was also inordinately proud that all of her children were able and willing cooks..

I remember thinking that maybe, when I was rich, I would settle down and open up a little breakfast joint that served only omelettes. (Did I say "enamored"? More like "obsessed".) The problem with this little fantasy is that omelettes are kind of a pain in the ass.

Now, more than a decade later, I find myself slightly less intrigued, but still very much "in like" with the idea of the frittata. Not surprisingly, it took a recipe from Joe's cookbook to show me how freaking easy they can be. As long as you have an oven-proof skillet, that is.

Everything you've ever loved in an omelette can be produced in frittata form. Case in point, I recently succumbed to a teensy bout of nostalgia and made one with shrimp and dill.

It was quite nice.