The Pig and I

Usually when I buy potatoes, I buy red ones. I just really, really love red potatoes. Oh, and I also love the purple fingerlings. I forgot about that until just now, because they're so costly I rarely buy them anymore. This time, though, I bought a russet. A big one. I'm not really sure why I bought it, but it was just there, in the pile of russets, "staring at me." It was like it was saying, "Allie... Come buy me, and bake me, and eat me." And so I did. Buy it, that is. But then it sat on the Cameroonian mortar (they're kind of wide and flat, so they're perfect for holding things), hanging out with the garlic, onions and lemons. Because I didn't know how I wanted to deal with it. But then, when I was peeking at my jars of foods I've preserved this year, I noticed there was a jar of chili I hadn't already promised to someone else remaining. And then I knew what to do with the potato. I was going to make a nice, cheap, yummy dinner for ...

We got a huge bag of green beans at the farmer's market, and rather than sitting down in front of the tv and scarfing them down, like I normally might be inclined to do (I have this problem with peas, too), I actually cooked some. Mainly because P asked me to. I've been really into the farmer's market lately, you might've noticed. I find the food is better, and ultimately cheaper in most cases (8 billion eggplants for 4 monies, as an example). Anyway, I just wanted to kind of lightly cook these with a minimum of added flavours. A little heat sounded good to P and I, but I was asked not to make it searingly hot like that one time with the shrimp. I agree, since I thought my lips were going to fall off when we had those shrimp. This was nice - just a hint of spice, not quite so little you forget it's there but also not enough that you feel like you have to keep eating to be safe. I hope you enjoy! 1 tablespoon each: sesame oil, vegetable oil 2 pinches chile fl...

Not being a real Southerner (or even a fake one), I really have never used my stale bread for anything but croutons. But recently I've been baking a lot more bread than normal and my eating hasn't kept up (thankfully). So I've been storing all the stale bread in chunks in the freezer. I decided I was going to make bread pudding. I had no real understanding of how to make bread pudding, so I looked at about a billion different recipes to figure out a general concept of how this works exactly. I totally spaced taking a picture of this, and since I actually made it last week but forgot to tell you, it's now too late (until the next time, of course). It appears that most recipes use raisins, but I decided to use more fruit than just that. Anyway, I hope you enjoy! 4 cups bread cubes (I cut mine about 1"x1") 4 eggs 1/4 cup butter, melted 1/3 cup white sugar 1/3 cup packed dark brown sugar 1/2 cup heavy cream 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon...

Over at Chile Chews , they're doing a meme of what people have in their spice cabinets. I thought this seemed like a lot of fun, so I'm participating too. I have some spices that are not on this list, and the instructions say to just add them to the end. So if you want to continue the meme, you can either use the list I have, or refer back to the original post, linked above. I've cut and pasted her list, and put in bold the spices I have. The ingredients I've added to the end have been done in italics . She uses an asterisk for herbs she's grown herself, but I'm not doing that part because I have no herbs I grew myself that I don't also have that I didn't. I've got some duplicates, I guess. 1. Allspice, ground 2. Allspice, whole 3. Anardana, ground (dried pomegranate seeds) 4. Anardana, whole 5. Basil leaves 6. Bay leaf 7. Caraway seeds 8. Cardamom 9. Cayenne pepper 10. Celery seed 11. Chile pepper, New Mexico, ground (note: this is no...

While I was muscling a second turkey into my freezer (turkey is on sale for 39 cents a pound right now, so... you know how it is), I noticed a half pound of locally... uh...harvested? Caught? Whatever. A half pound of locally obtained shrimps I'd purchased at the farmer's market a month or so ago and stuffed in the freezer for later. Sometimes I don't know what's in my freezer (I also discovered 3 pounds of ground meat I didn't know I had, which is perfect since I need to make more meat sauce soon). Additionally, I had some zucchini left from our last trip to the farmer's market. So I figured I'd stew it. And then eat it, of course. This was really simple to make. I hope you enjoy! shells and tails from 1/2-1 pound of shrimp 2 cups water 6 peppercorns 1 teaspoon salt 1 can stewed tomatoes 1 1/2 zucchinis, cut into 3/8" half-moons 1 teaspoon each: dry basil, sumac 1/2 teaspoon salt 1-2 tablespoons shrimp broth 1 1/2 cups chicken broth 1/2 po...

Our ginormous box of grapefruits came yesterday (thanks, M!), so I decided to use some of them to make a fruit salad with the fruits we (mostly) got at the farmer's market this weekend. I wanted to lightly dress it, so I decided to use up some of the quince "paste" I made (ok... it's not quite paste; it's more like a thick preserves because I didn't cook it long enough - still tastes great though) and a little bit of parsley from my garden to brighten it up. I hope you enjoy! 3 navel oranges 1 valencia orange 3 grapefruit 2 satsuma mandarin oranges 1 dancy tangerine 1/4 pomegranate 1 apple 2 tablespoons quince paste or preserves 1 tablespoon fresh parsley, chopped 2-3 tablespoons juices from all the citrus 1/2 tablespoon vegetable oil Supreme* the citrus and squeeze the juice from the membranes into a bowl. Peel, core and chop the apple. Get all the seeds out of the 1/4 pomegranate. Combine the citrus, apple and pomegranate. In a small bowl, whi...

I have some beets, as per usual, and also some brussels sprouts. P was wanting some of the Anson Mills grits we got, but I didn't really think that was going to be enough for dinner (despite us now both being sick). That being said, I wanted to keep it light (because we're both now sick). So I decided to roast some veggies and make them part of a salad. This is kind of sweet-tart, seasonal, inexpensive and healthful. Hope you enjoy! 1 cup stale bread, cut into cubes 1 tablespoon olive oil salt and pepper to taste 1/2 teaspoon sumac 1 large beet, cut into thin half moons 3 brussels sprouts, cut into quarters 1/2 onion, chopped 1 stalk celery, cut into 1" pieces 1-2 tablespoons oil of your choice (I went olive, but standard vegetable would also be good; I briefly contemplated sesame) 1 teaspoon lemon juice salt and pepper to taste 1/2 teaspoon each: sumac, fennel seeds 3 cups torn green leaf lettuce 3/4 cup assorted cherry and/or grape tomatoes 3 mushrooms...

I like this as a breakfast food. Well, okay. I also love it as a dinner food. Very, very filling and not too expensive. We've also been really into eggs lately, so... yeah. Hope you enjoy! 1 carrot, diced 1/2 onion, diced 1 sliced red potato 1 tablespoon each: sesame oil, vegetable oil 1/2 teaspoon rubbed sage pinch each: salt, sumac (optional), nutmeg 1 diced zucchini 1 cup chicken broth (or vegetable) 1/3 cup beet stems (optional) 1/2 cup celery with leaves, sliced salt and pepper to taste 6 eggs salt and pepper to taste pinch nutmeg 2 tablespoons milk or cream 1/2 cup grated cheddar (optional) Heat a pan to low, then add oil and heat. Add onion, carrot and potato and sprinkle with sage, salt, sumac and nutmeg. Slowly cook until the potatoes begin to reach translucency. Add in zucchini, broth, beet stems (yes, stems. I'm on the stems again), celery and S&P. Cook this until the broth is absorbed fully and the beet stems have softened enough to eat (...

The downside of being sick is that you really can't taste anything, and you don't really want to eat anything. I'm still eating though, because I'm trying to get over this illness as quickly as possible so I can go back to school and work (I went to class Monday and to my morning class Tuesday, but have done nothing else since). Today I have been eating odd foods. One of the things I ate was a version of "chicken soup" that I think only a sick person would want to eat. I dumped some leftover rice in a bowl, poured on some lemon juice and crystal's hot sauce, then threw in a teaspoon of shmaltz, a bunch of leftover roasted veggies and some homemade chicken broth. Then I threw it in the microwave until it was hot. I don't know how it tasted but I think it was okay. It didn't make me sicker, so that's all I care about (P said it looked gross). I also have eaten a lot of dried fruit, and pickled onions. A lot of onions. Nearly a jar. Add that to si...

As SJ likes to tell me, when you have a lot of leftovers, make some lasagna. Ok. I think she's less prone to mishaps than I am. Or maybe I should just not be in the kitchen while I'm taking lots of medicine (I'm sick - I think I have a cold but I do not know). I had some misadventures with this one, so I wound up having to make the pasta from scratch. I'll put the recipe for that in here too (it turns out you can make the pasta more simply than I did, with just all-purpose, eggs and salt. But you know me... I like to do things the hard way!), but feel free to buy pre-made or to make them the normal way unless you're just really bored or really in need of a work-out (I lost the clamp to my pasta roller, so I had to roll it by hand, too. My sheets turned out thinner than the store bought though, strangely enough). Pasta: 235 grams fine semolina 1/2 teaspoon salt 2 large eggs 1-2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil Mix the flour and salt and make a pile on you...

Originally, this was going to be just pear. And a crostata. Then it was going to be a pear and cranberry crostata. But then I had an incident with my lasagna noodles that meant I was going to have to make them from scratch since I can't go to the store today, and this very suddenly became a tart. I also actually did one layer too few, so I'm recommending you do 3 pear layers instead of the two I have, so your shell is full. :) I hope you enjoy! 1 pie crust for a 9" pie 2 tablespoons corn starch 3 large pears, cored and cut into thin slices 1 cup cranberries, whole 3/4 cup vanilla sugar, divided 2 tablespoons apricot jam 1 teaspoon water Preheat oven to 400F. Line tart pan with prepared crust. Dust it with the cornstarch. Arrange half the pears in a spiral (or however you want to). Dust with a scant 1/4 cup of the sugar. Top with cranberries, concentrating the cranberries around the edges (but not exempting the middle from them). Use any malformed or small slic...

This is not really a traditional lo mein. This was more of an attempt to use some corn noodles I had in a pseudo-"appropriate" way. Also, I was trying to use up some more of the left-over chicken. It worked out well in the end, though I think I actually prefer a more standard pasta for this preparation. Once again, I forgot to take a picture. I was famished and more-than-a-little cranky (because I was hungry, and also because I've had a headache for a week and a half now, and because I'm in the middle of writing a semester paper that is already looking like it's going to be utter crap), so I just ate it up. I realised I'd spaced the photo when I went back to do the dishes. Either way, I hope you like it. 1 onion, sliced into rounds 6 small ichiban eggplants (2-3 large), diced 1 sliced carrot 2 stalks diced celery 1 small daikon, cut into 1" strips 1 zucchini, sliced into half moons 1 yellow squash, sliced into half moons 8 cloves roughly chopp...

Ok, it's really krab salad. Normally I would turn my nose at fake crab and refuse to eat it. But we're doing this diet thing, and fake crab has no calories (nearly). Plus, it was only $1.50 for a pound. I can live with some flavoured cod for that price. When you make this, I know you will use real crab instead, to amplify the deliciousness of this salad. This is a dry salad, because I wanted the ingredients to be able to do the talking rather than the dressing as the focus (y'know... for when I make this with crab and not cod). I hope you enjoy! 1 pound crab 1 green onion, thickly cut (except the bulb - cut that thin) 2 cups roughly diced cucumber 1 stalk celery, roughly diced 1/2 large tomato, deseeded and chopped 1/2 cup each: coarsely chopped basil, mint 1/4 cup chopped tarragon Mix, then stir in dressing until everything is lightly coated. Dressing: freshly ground pepper 1 tablespoon honey 1-2 teaspoons lemon juice 1/4 teaspoon hot sauce (I used Crystal...

After the storm, my mother sent me a bunch of spelt. I thought this was great, since I'd been intending to get some. Of greatest interest to me regarding the spelt was cooking it as though it were risotto. I've noted over the last year a lot of people have been making risotto with grains other than rice, and the thought of the crisp, chewy grains of spelt were particularly appealing to me. To top it off, I also baked a chicken earlier this week. So this was a great opportunity for me to use up some of the leftovers. For one, I saved all the shmaltz (chicken fat) from the chicken, as well as the collagen jelly. I got a lot of jelly out of this chicken (which, happily, was on sale for $2.50 for the entire chicken). So I've been using the jelly as a fat replacement in my cooking. I still add in a little fat here and there, but the jelly is working beautifully to add a bit of meat flavouring to non-meat dishes. And, of course, I got more beets, so I'm using the stems ag...

Sometimes we like to drink soda, but we don't like the associated price tag, or all the crap that's stuffed in it, removing it from the "food" category. So I have just been making my own. I make an assortment of syrups from the "trash" of my cooking, and then mix it with club soda (which we pay $0.79 for a 3-litre bottle; after I save up, I will be buying this for us instead). You can make your soda as strongly or weakly flavoured as you like, and the varieties achieved are outstanding. You start by making a simple syrup base (1:1 sugar:water, brought to a boil and allowed to boil for another minute). Then you can do it two ways, once the simple syrup is made. One is to simmer the additive in the syrup for a while, such as with orange peels or lemon peels (to make candied peel at the same time, thereby further reducing waste). The other is just to remove the syrup from heat, stir in the additive and let it infuse for a while (I go 30 minutes to 4 hours). ...

We got some delicious things at the farmer's market this weekend. I bought another 2 weeks worth of eggplant (sorry, to those of you who're tired of it) for 4 dollars, and this time I got zucchini instead of yellow squash. But, since we didn't show up uber-late this time, we actually were able to get some fresh eggs and some beef sausage. I really just wanted to eat the sausage and eggs, but I wanted a good excuse to put some eggplant in, as well as other veggies. Omelet it is, then. I made a huge amount of filling, so this are definitely over-stuffed. This recipe is another one of those that seems like it's got a lot going on, but truly it's quite easy to cook. 1 tablespoon butter 1 teaspoon olive oil 1 teaspoon sesame oil 1/2 yellow onion, thinly sliced salt and pepper to taste 4 garlic cloves, sliced 1 large ichiban eggplant, sliced thin (or 2 small) salt and pepper to taste 1 teaspoon lemon juice 4 ounces button mushrooms, sliced salt and pepper ...