stuffed tomatoes - valiant effort to save the day

I'm not one to let things go to waste. If I'm going to spend $8 a pound for good parmigiano reggiano cheese to make crappy crackers, I'm going to at least turn those crackers into something magical. I refuse to be defeated by these measly chalky crumbly pieces of edible goodness. If I could somehow manifest the taste and flavors into something more palatable, then this recipe could be pulled together.



By crumbling the already crumbled crackers, I was able to make a creamy filling for these tomatoes.


I've never made stuffed tomatoes before, but I couldn't imagine it'd be that hard. I mean, you don't need a rocket scientist to figure out how to seed, stuff, and bake a tomato.


I retract that last statement. I should have read a recipe first, fuck.


The skins were inedible at this point, and had to be pulled off before eating. The filling was perfect, but the cheesy crust on the top should have been covered with foil before baking.


Only once a person removed the bottom skin and peeled away the top cheese crust, could they enjoy my very first attempt at a stuffed tomato.

taro in coconut milk - going against my rules has never tasted so good

Okay- by now you should know that I hate this. I hate repeating recipes, especially reposting them here. I have thus far, not replicated a recipe exactly and then posted it as new entry (recall my numerous cookie and blondie adventures; well each time, the recipe or process has changed- so suck on that). Back to my bitching... I am against it. I think it's just stupid and a waste of time. This is not to say that I don't bake the same cookie recipe all the time while not posting them online (because I obviously do- to satisfy my picky eater on a weekly basis). With all that said, guess what I'm doing here- I am replicating a recipe- exactly.


The only way I can justify my actions is that I love love this dish. I've never made it myself completely, and I really only get it eat it when at my mother's or grandmother's house.


Being that I eat this dish once a year (if that), this deserves to have two posts here. In all it's simplistic glory, it embodies my childhood in a nutshell. The thought of it right now is making my mouth water. I can't even begin to fathom what life would be without such a recipe.


Speaking of recipe, can this even be classified as one? All it is basically is peeled taro that gets boiled until tender, then mixed with coconut milk and onion. For such a peculiar concept, how could it taste so delicious and perfectly melded? No fucking idea but just take my word for it.


So how could a recipe with just three ingredients get me so utterly wild? That too is unexplainable. But what really should be explained here is why I've never bothered to recreate it at my house; you know, being so simple and three ingredients and all.


The answer is a combination of reasons. First, two out of those three ingredients are hard to come by. Taro is not so easily accessible here in New York (nor is the price appeasing to my eye). I honestly wouldn't even know where to go about obtaining this root vegetable, as I've never seen it in any grocery store I typically go to. The second ingredient is coconut milk, which through thorough examination I could possibly find. I know for sure it would hard as hell to find the specific brand Mama swears by, but hopefully others would do.


With all that said, I'm sure it's valid as to why I have deprived myself of this delicious dish. But thinking about it now, I guess it won't be such a bad idea to attempt to recreate this back at home. I mean, afterall, I am obsessed with this.

---RECIPE---

Recipe found here.

homemade pizza - technically not from scratch

Every Sunday I wake my lazy ass up to go watch my boyfriend play flag football. He's in this league thing where they challenge other teams and play football with flags apparently (can you tell I know nothing about sports?). After the game, I went back to my house while he cleaned up and calmed down his testosterone. I wanted to bake a batch of cookie dough, but surprisingly I had no brown sugar left! This unusual travesty caused me to go to my favorite supermarket, where I stumbled upon a bag of pizza dough on sale. Sure, why not?


I took my sack of dough to my boyfriend's house, along with a can of tomato puree and a cube of mozzarella. I thought we'd figure out the rest of the details once I got there.


After spreading out the dough on a baking sheet, my boyfriend spooned on some of the tomato puree. Being the anti-tomato-person he was, he only put a few measly spoonfulls on the dough. On the other hand, me being the cheese-fiend, I forced him to use the entire brick of mozzarella. To make the tomato sauce not so bland, we sprinkled some oregano and seasonings on top.


As for the toppings, we basically had to stick to whatever we had on hand. He wanted a meaty topping (I should have known), so he chopped a ton of meatballs in half and threw them on. Me, on the other hand, (other than being cheesy) I wanted the pizza to be veggie-full. I brought a can of olives (which we only used about 5 olives because my boyfriend hates them) and there was a leftover half of red bell pepper in the fridge.


Mmm, once the kitchen filled with the smell of hot pizza, we knew it was ready to take out. Although it doesn't look fancy or pretty, the rustic look was homey and organic.


I cut a big slice for myself and (after taking a ton of pics) I took a bite. Tasted like regular pizza surprisingly- but a very meaty pizza. My boyfriend had to cut the huge chunks of meatballs every square inch of the pizza.


Although this pizza has nothing on the New York pizzerias, it surpassed my expectations. I guess these little storebought packs of pizza dough really do work. Next time, because yes there will be a next time, I plan to cut back on the meat and add more cheese!

mexican-inspired quiche - we ended up eating scrambled eggs instead

While waiting for our assortment of scones to bake and cool, my cousin's stomach began to rumble. What I learned after spending every waking moment with her was that she apparently has an out-of-this-world feeding schedule. And by feeding schedule, I mean having to feed her like a puppy every hour on the dot. I looked in my fridge and found a ton of eggs and some leftover bacon. We could take the easy way out and simply make fried bacon and scrambled eggs... Or we could go all out and make a quiche! Needless to say, we opted for the quiche. We even made homemade pie crust- how do you like them apples?


Back to the food processor, and back to the rolling board (P.S., my grandma sent me this nifty Tupperware rolling board thing. Isn't she the sweetest little thing?).


The crust rolled out pretty nicely (even due to the fact that my cousin attempted to ruin the dough by cutting the circumference without measuring it in the pan first). Yeah, I'm a nazi at this shit.


I placed my makeshift baking beans (uncooked rice) over the pie crust so it wouldn't puff up, while my cousin beat the eggs.


While the crust baked in the oven, we prepared the filling. Apparently all I had in my fridge were onions and bell peppers, so I guess that had to do.


After the crust finished baking (we eyeballed the timing because my cousin doesn't like to be precise), we filled the cute little tart up to the brim. What should be especially noted was that we used no recipe for this entire dish (not counting the pie crust, because that needed to be exact). We guessed how many eggs to beat and surprisingly 6 was just the right amount. We also guessed the amount of bacon, onion, and bell pepper to perfectly spread throughout every bite. But let's not forget the cheese....


I had the final say on the amount of cheese we added- which was obviously a very good amount. Speaking of which, the only type of cheese I had in my fridge was the "Mexican Blend". It was on sale and I had no idea what it tasted like, but I figured it would go with our newly-Mexican-inspired quiche.


To be quite honest, the quiche came out deliciously. We winged the entire process, even down to baking time, and I was surprised that it came out flawlessly. The only tiff I had was that the crust dough wasn't baked thoroughly and was sort of soggy. If only we baked the crust longer, the quiche would have been impeccable. Also, by having both bell peppers and the Mexican cheese, it was like a little Mexican-fiesta in your mouth.


The best part of this whole ordeal was that the quiche was taking so long to bake, the scones were too soggy, and my cousin began having fainting-spells because of her lack of food. Luckily my boyfriend was over and saved the day with his cream-cheese-eggs and bacon breakfast (my favorite). So yes, we did actually end up eating eggs and bacon for breakfast, which was what we tried to avoid in the first place. I ain't complaining though; we had a tasty breakfast and a delicious lunch.

---PIE CRUST RECIPE---
Taken from Cook's Illustrated.

ingredients:
1 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour , plus extra for dusting dough
1/2 teaspoon table salt
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
4 tablespoons unsalted butter , chilled, cut into 1/4-inch pieces
3 tablespoons vegetable shortening , chilled (we just used more butter)
3–4 tablespoons ice water (we don't have an ice machine, so the water was just moderately cold)

directions:
1. Mix flour, salt, and sugar in food processor fitted with steel blade. Scatter butter pieces over flour mixture, tossing to coat butter with a little of the flour. Cut butter into flour with five 1-second pulses. Add shortening and continue cutting in until flour is pale yellow and resembles coarse cornmeal, with butter bits no larger than small peas, about four more 1-second pulses. Turn mixture into medium bowl.
2. Sprinkle 3 tablespoons ice water over mixture. With blade of rubber spatula, use folding motion to mix. Press down on dough with broad side of spatula until dough sticks together, adding up to 1 tablespoon more ice water if it will not come together. Shape into ball with hands, then flatten into 4-inch-wide disk. Dust lightly with flour, wrap in plastic, and refrigerate at least 30 minutes before rolling.
3. See, the recipe doesn't state as to how long/what temperature you should bake the crust. Which is why we had to resort to eyeballing it, hence the sogginess.)

---QUICHE RECIPE---
Made up by my cousin and myself.

1. Cook half a pack of bacon, and use the fatty leftovers to sautee half an onion and half a bell pepper.
2. Beat 6 eggs with desired seasonings (we probably only used salt, pepper, and perhaps Italian seasoning- which would be the only thing I own).
3. Pour everything, including eggs, bacon, and veggies into baked (and by baked, I mean baked) pie crust. Sprinkle with cheese (I'd go with the Mexican cheese- yum) and place in preheated 350 degree oven.
4. Bake until firm-ish!

home fries - the perfect accompaniment for a healthy meal

To go with our healthy dinner of Asian chicken salad wraps, my boyfriend and I had home-fries on the side. (It didn't make sense to me either). My boyfriend who purposely wanted to eat healthy for dinner (and also wanted to torture me in doing so) also chose our side dish of greasy fried cubed potatoes. Granted, they aren't as bad as like french fries or other variations, but I mean it still wasn't by any means healthy for us. I didn't complain though- I mean, I can never turn down something greasy/fried. Not to mention that these were also an easy and quick fix for our tight schedule.


While I readied a tray for the potatoes to be par-cooked, my boyfriend chopped up some red bell peppers and onions and threw them in the pan.


Once the potatoes were tender enough, they were cut into block segments and dropped into the pan. Various seasonings were sprinkled on top, as the bottoms crisped up.


Even through all the steam and heat I could see that the potatoes were browning nicely and beginning to take shape.


And voila! In about 10 minutes or so, we (okay- more so my boyfriend) whipped up a fresh batch of home fries.


Anyone that knows me should know that I'm not much of a potato fan (give me rice over potatoes any day), but these were surprisingly good.


First of all, I love greasy food. What I also liked about these home fries was the little crispiness on the sides and such. Sometimes I think texture is even more important than taste, and in this case the combination of crunchy and tender was superb.

---RECIPE---