Food Sex!

I HAVE MOVED!

2008-01-13T14:42:00.000-05:00

After hours and hours of fighting with Wordpress, Photoshop and in general, the internet, I have moved Food Sex to its very own domain. It's a rough start, but I'll figure this all out as I go along. Please update your bookmarks (bookmarks? Seriously, who bookmarked this site??) to thefoodsex.com. All of the old posts have already been moved over, and I'll be updating there super regularly. Holler!

Scattered Posting

2007-12-19T10:06:00.001-05:00

Sorry for the lack of updates, but I have an excuse. I'm in the midst of several huge holiday projects involving food, including two potluck dinners this weekend, cookies for Christmas Eve (as commissioned by my grandmother) a huge meal for mine and Rob's solo Christmas Day dinner (his parents are jet-setting off to COSTA RICA for Christmas, so it's just me and him), and last but certainly not least, PAUL'S FREE TURKEY EXTRAVAGANZA. Paul's office gave him an 18-pound turkey, so we're gonna have us a feast. Even though I don't eat turkey. Whatever. I promise, it's coming.

More Soup, What Can I Say?

2007-12-13T15:32:00.000-05:00

So, I’m a total dweeb, seriously. Do people still say dweeb? I’m a dweeb. Whenever people would mention to me in public that they’d seen my food blog, I’d get all embarrassed and feel like a loser. And I decided I wasn’t going to do it because I wanted to be cool. You know.

And then people started asking me what happened to it, and it was way more embarrassing to say that I didn’t want to do it anymore because I wanted to be cool, so fuck it, here’s some soup.

Seven-Veggie Soup

This technically has eight vegetables in it, but Rob said that Seven-Veggie Soup was a catchier name, so let’s go with that. You could use whatever you wanted, really. I had started out intending to make traditional minestrone, or at least what I thought traditional minestrone was, but as it turns out, there are no hard and fast rules to minestrone.

So, here we go. I had some zucchini and the very, very last of the summer squash. It looked a little anemic, but I figured it’d be okay. Dice these both into bite size pieces. Heat some olive oil in the bottom of a big pot, and add a clove or two of minced garlic, and maybe half an onion. Sautee them until they are soft and fragrant. This, incidentally, is the beginning to every good recipe for soup, and also for tomato sauce. I love this method, it just feels so familiar and smells so good. Anyway, enough dweebiness. I added a few shakes of dried oregano. You could use dried basil, or Italian seasoning, or whatever you like. The key to cooking with dried herbs is to add them at the beginning so they have time to release their flavors. When using fresh herbs, add them at the end so they don’t lose all their flavor in cooking.

Throw in your chopped zucchini and squash and stir. I also threw in a diced red pepper at this point, which I thought was really good, but Rob was not sold on. Also, I’d had half a bag of frozen corn leftover from something, and I added that too. Cook about 5 minutes until the veggies are soft, then add a can of crushed tomatoes. The big can. If it had been summer, I’d have pureed some fresh tomatoes, but it’s not, so canned it is. Pour in 2 cans of vegetable broth and bring it to a boil. Once it’s boiling, lower the heat a bit and simmer, covered, for 15-20 minutes.

Add a can of drained white beans. I used navy beans, which prompted me to keep singing that line from that terrible Adam Sandler song that just goes, “navy beans navy beans navy beans!” Clearly you know exactly what I’m talking about. Also add about a ½ a cup of uncooked small pasta. I actually ended up putting more in because I thought it didn’t look like enough, but I was wrong. ½ cup it is. I used ditalini, because that’s what I thought was usually in minestrone. Cook until the pasta is tender, about 10 minutes. Just keep trying it. Once the pasta is tender, throw in a big handful of spinach and let it wilt for a few minutes, then remove the soup from heat. Season with salt and pepper if need be, add a little fresh basil if you want, and serve.

I garnished with freshly grated asiago cheese, because Rob gets antsy if he doesn’t get at least some animal-product in him, but this would certainly be a good vegan soup otherwise.

I wish the picture had come out a bit better, because the soup was definitely more red and vibrant than this, but oh well. Rob says he was pleasantly surprised and went into it timidly, which isn’t surprising because we recently had someone who knows him well convinced that Rob is allergic to vegetables.

Eight hot dogs. Woo!

Pesto, Take Two

2007-11-28T10:33:00.000-05:00

Asparagus Pesto with Baked Goat Cheese

As you may have guessed, I’m really into making different kinds of pesto. Traditionally, pesto refers to a puree of fresh basil, olive oil, garlic, parmesan cheese and pine nuts, but there is so much more you can do with it.

I made this asparagus pesto recently. I think I just love the idea of green noodles, which means I really ought to try making fresh spinach pasta, but you know, sometimes I’m lazy. So here’s the asparagus pesto:

Start out with a pound of the thinnest, youngest, most tender asparagus you can find. I know they aren’t in season right now, which totally sucks, but I end up buying it year-round anyway. Snap off the tough ends of each spear, and cook asparagus in boiling water for really just a few minutes—no more than 4. Take the asparagus out with tongs (rather than draining, so you can use the boiling water for pasta.) Cut off the tip of each spear (about 1.5 – 2 inches) and set aside. Chop the remaining spears into pieces.

Into your food processor, place:
The chopped spears,
2 cloves of garlic
1 tablespoon of olive oil
About 1.5 tablespoons of lemon juice
3 tablespoons of hot water from the asparagus/pasta pot
A handful of fresh basil leaves (just under ¼ cup, I’d guess.)
Process until smooth.

Serve over your choice of pasta (I used linguine) and top with the reserved asparagus tips and some grated parmesan.

WARNING: Don’t make this stuff if you’re planning on getting hot and heavy with anyone. You’re ingesting about a half-pound of asparagus per serving, so it makes your pee (and thus, your nether regions) smell like a garbage dump on a hot day in July. Seriously. I’m sorry.

I served this with baked goat cheese, because goat cheese is my new obsession (take that, milk allergy!) Goat cheese usually comes in a little roll of 4 ounces. Stick the whole package in the freezer for about 15-20 minutes before you start this, it makes the slicing go much easier, as goat cheese is pretty crumbly. Carefully slice into 4 rounds and dredge each round in seasoned bread crumbs. Place on a baking sheet and bake at 425 for about 6-8 minutes. Yeah!

The concept of baked goat cheese nearly pushed Rob to the brink of a nervous breakdown, but he pushed through. Unfortunately, I didn't freeze the goat cheese long enough and it was still a little crumbly, so that kind of sucked. But he really liked the pesto, so he gave it a rating7.5 hot dogs.

Soup Season!

2007-11-26T14:13:00.000-05:00

Potato-Rosemary Soup

Sorry for the delayed posting, I've been busy sitting on my couch and being fat, post-Thanksgiving.
Anyway.
MMMM soup. Around this time of year, I’m pretty much obsessed with soup. It’s liquid, it’s chunky, it’s WHATEVER YOU WANT IT TO BE.

Anyway, I had made this soup a few weeks ago when Rob went out in the cold to play paintball with his coworkers (yeah-- I don’t know why, either.) and then promptly forgot to write down what I put in it. So I tried to recreate it last night and paid closer attention this time around.

In a large pot, sauté the following in a bit of olive oil:
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 celery ribs, chopped (leaves and all)
1 white onion, chopped (because Rob is so afraid of big chunks of onions, I always puree them before I put them in soup or sauce. It’s actually pretty nice, except that when you go to sauté pureed onion, it will burn your eyes like you wouldn’t believe. Seriously, do NOT lean over that pot.)

Sauté these all for a few minutes until the celery seems tender. Add to this two cans of vegetable broth and 12 small red potatoes, quartered (this is about 2 pounds, I’d guess.)
Cover and let boil, then cook about 15 minutes or until the potatoes are tender.

Once the potatoes are cooked to your liking, take out about 10 of the quartered potato pieces and set them aside. To the soup, stir in a few glugs of balf-and-half (I never said this was fat free, did I?) until the soup begins to turn white/light brown. Ew! It tastes better than it sounds, I promise.

Working in batches if you’re me, or all at once if you’re an awesome person that owns a big food processor, puree the soup until it is a thick consistency. Return to pot and add salt and pepper generously. Simmer for a bit, and add more half-and-half if you want it to be a lighter color, a bit of water for a thinner soup, etc.

Sprinkle the potato pieces you left out with some salt and cut them into smaller chunks. You could either put them back in the soup now, or divide them among the bowls once it’s been served.

Chop a few sprigs worth of rosemary very finely and add it to the soup. I find that rosemary flavor gets weak very quickly when cooked in soup, but if you don’t cook it long enough, it’ll be overbearing. Just keep tasting, you’ll know when it’s ready.

Ladle into bowls and add the remaining potatoes, if you didn’t before. Garnish with a sprig of rosemary (come on, like you’re ever gonna use all the rosemary that comes in that package) and eat.

This soup is awesome with stale-ish bread, oyster crackers, and watching the X-Files on DVD in bed with your loved one. Um, not that that’s what we do. We’re exciting and fun, I swear!

Rob gave it 8 hot dogs. Awesome!

Fancy Girls!

2007-11-20T09:48:00.000-05:00

So this past weekend was my good friend Liz's 20-somethingth birthday, for which she hosted a dinner party at her house and enlisted my help. Amongst several other dishes, including spinach dip, a lasagna and a cheese platter that the kind people at Whole Foods put together so we didn't even have to, we also made a few other things.

Pumpkin Ravioli with Sage-Cream Sauce
The pumpkin ravioli was a recipe Liz found in a Rachael Ray magazine her roommate bought.

1 cup canned pure pumpkin puree
4 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup finely grated parmesan cheese, plus shaved parmesan for serving
1 large egg
Salt and pepper
32 wonton wrappers

1. In a medium bowl, mash together the pumpkin, cream cheese, parmesan, egg and 2 pinches each salt and pepper.
2. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside. Spoon a tablespoon of the pumpkin-cream cheese filling into the center of 16 wonton wrappers, brush the edges with water, top with the remaining 16 wrappers and press to seal, gently squeezing out the air. Arrange in a single layer on the prepared baking sheet.
3. Bring a pot of salted water to a boil.
4. Working in 3 batches, cook the ravioli in the boiling water until they float to the surface, about 3 minutes.

Surprisingly, we had very little trouble with this. Only one or two of the wontons burst, and only because the second you dropped them in the boiling water, they sank to the bottom and stuck immediately. The key seemed to be moving them around in the water constantly, especially in the first minute.

The Rachael Ray sauce was just butter and pumpkin seeds, so we decided to make a sage-cream sauce. Melt 2 tablespoons of a butter in a small saucepan until foamy. Add one chopped shallot and 2 tablespoons of chopped fresh sage, cook about 5 minutes. Add two cups of heavy cream (aw yeah) and three fresh sage sprigs, and simmer about 15 minutes or until sauce is reduced by half. Remove the sprigs of sage and serve over pasta.

The only things we decided we would change about this dish was that next time, instead of using two wontons to make a big ravioli, we would use the wrapping directions on the back of the wonton package and call em tortellini. Taste-wise, they were great, but the look of all the noodles was a bit weird. Also, people began to arrive as the sauce was still simmering, so I think I took it off the stove a little too soon and it was a bit runny. Oh well, lesson learned.

Sorry the picture is a little out of focus--Rob wasn't there to take it.

4-Layer Red Velvet Cake with Cream Cheese Filling and White Chocolate Ganache

The cake recipe came from Paula Deen:

2 cups sugar
1/2 pound (2 sticks) butter, at room temperature
2 eggs
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
2 ounces red food coloring
2 1/2 cups cake flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon vinegar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
In a mixing bowl, cream the sugar and butter, beat until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time and mix well after each addition. Mix cocoa and food coloring together and then add to sugar mixture; mix well. Sift together flour and salt. Add flour mixture to the creamed mixture alternately with buttermilk. Blend in vanilla. In a small bowl, combine baking soda and vinegar and add to mixture. Pour batter into 3 (8-inch) round greased and floured pans. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Remove from heat and cool completely before frosting.

Well, that was the recipe for three 8-inch cakes. I increased it by half to make four 9-inch cakes. Why? I don't know. I really don't.

The cream cheese frosting between each layer is just 8oz cream cheese, softened, mixed with half a stick of butter, softened, 1 tsp of vanilla and a 16oz package of powdered sugar, added in increments. Simple enough.

The white chocolate ganache was 13 ounces of Ghirardelli white chocolate, chopped into pieces. Over this, pour 1/2 cup of heavy cream that has been brought to the boiling point but not quite boiled. Now stir like hell until the chocolate melts and you have a goopy syrup. Pour over the top of the cake.

I should probably have made more ganache, as you can see it didn't quite make it the whole way down the cake, because the cake was like two feet tall. The red stuff on top is just the extra cream cheese frosting, thinned out with a little cream and tinted with red food coloring. It looks orange in the photo, but I promise it was red. The top is garnished with the leftover white chocolate pieces. This cake made people's bellies hurt, so...mission accomplished!!

Say Wahoo!

2007-11-16T14:09:00.000-05:00

Wahoo (Fish) Tacos with Lime-Garlic-Cilantro Crema

So, in an effort to use up more of the aforementioned wahoo, I decided to make tacos. Now, when I say, “Let’s have tacos for dinner,” Rob thinks Taco Bell. That’s not what I had in mind. Traditional Mexican cooking does not include melted orange gunk, and I wasn’t about to cook up a pan of Grade D ground beef. Words that Rob never wants to hear in reference to what he’s eating: lime-garlic-cilantro crema. Oh well. It was good! This was also adapted from a Cooking Light recipe.

I cut the fish into fillets, which is one of the most disgusting tasks ever. I’d rather scoop the litter box with my bare hands. Into the raw fish, I rubbed a mixture of spices. The ratio was probably something like 1 part cumin, 1 part coriander, 1 part chili powder, ½ part garlic powder, ¼ part crushed red pepper and just a few shakes/grinds of salt and pepper. You could definitely up the spice factor on this with more red pepper. The fish was baked at 425 degrees for about 10 minutes, until it flaked easily with a fork (the best way to tell when most kinds of fish are done.) Into a bowl went the cooked fish, and I broke it up into bite-size chunks with a fork.

Split the fish between some warmed tortillas. I stupidly bought the fajita kind, but you should get the smallest kind possible. Add some shredded romaine (shred it yourself instead of buying the pre-shredded kind, it tastes so much crisper) on top of each and top with lime-garlic-cilantro crema. For this, mix equal parts sour cream and mayonnaise (Mayonnaise freaks me out a bit, but I happened to have some Veganaisse around, and it worked fine) and then equal parts of thinly sliced green onions and chopped cilantro. Add garlic, as much as you’d like, along with a few big squeezes of lime juice and, even more importantly, some grated lime rind. Mix it up and adjust it to taste.

In the pictures, you can’t really see the crema too well, but that’s because I got the world’s largest tortillas and by the time they were done, I was ready to just devour them, so we only got one picture before I had a taco in my mouth.

I served this with a corn and black bean salsa/salad, which was tossed with cilantro, lime juice, olive oil and a bit of salt.

I liked this one a lot— you had to tear a bunch of the tortilla off in order to get at the good stuff inside, but I thought the tanginess of the crema was a nice compliment to the slightly spicy fish.

Rob was “pleasantly surprised,” which is pretty much the best compliment you can hope to get when feeding him something he’s never tried before. He gave the tacos 8 hot dogs, and the salsa 6 (because he really only seems to like liquid-y salsas whereas I am more of a chunky salsa kind of girl), so we’ll even it out to 7.

You know what the worst part is? Right after I made this and effectively finished the wahoo, we went to visit Rob’s family, at which point his stepmother sent us home with another 10 pound bag of it. And a 10 pound bag of mahi-mahi. Looks like I need to come up with some good fish recipes.

Got any you’d like to submit?
Send 'em to thefoodsex@gmail.com

I Love Peanut Butter In a Sick, Sick Way

2007-11-12T11:01:00.000-05:00

Shrimp "Pad Thai"

I am disgusting about peanut butter. I’ve definitely caught myself absent-mindedly eating directly from the jar. I’ve also absent-mindedly been growing a bit of a pot belly. Anyway.
One of my favorite things to do with peanut butter is making sauces for Asian-themed dishes, like this shrimp “pad thai.” I put the “pad thai” in quotes because I really don’t know what traditionally makes a dish “pad thai” so I don't want to be all, "Ooh, look at my pad thai," while you're all, "That is totally not pad thai."

So, to make this pseudo-pad thai, the recipe for which was adapted from Cooking Light, begin by cooking a bunch of spaghetti as you normally would. I used whole wheat because it was all I had around, and it was fine. Reserve some of the pasta cooking water for the sauce. To make the sauce, whisk together and set aside:

1/3 - 1/4 cup teriyaki sauce
3 big globs of peanut butter (I used Skippy Natural, creamy-style because that’s my eating-out-of-jar preference)
A squirt of Sriracha
2-3 tablespoons of the pasta cooking water

In a big skillet, heat some sesame oil. Add a clove of garlic, because seriously, I can’t make anything without garlic. Sauté for a minute or two. Add some peeled, deveined large shrimp with the tails removed. Cook for about 2 minutes. Shrimp really don’t take long to cook, I think the problem most people have is overcooking them, and then they get chewy and gross. Add the sauce mixture and cook for another two or three minutes. After this 4-5 minute period, the shrimp should be just about done. This is, of course, for large shrimp. If you were using smaller, obviously reduce the cooking time. If you were using an even larger kind, you’re a sick human being because this is pretty horrifying!

Anyway. So your nice normal-sized shrimp have been in the pan for 4 or 5 minutes. Add the cooked pasta and some green veggies--I used snow peas. Toss really well and cook just long enough to heat through the snow peas—about another two minutes. At this step, you could really throw in whatever veggies you wanted. Broccoli and bok choy would also be awesome, but I’d pre-steam any vegetables that take more than two minutes to cook. Okay. At this point I think I added a few more shakes of teriyaki sauce and a few shakes of soy suace, just to cover the noodles a bit better and encourage the sauce to spread around. Now, remove the pan from heat and add a whole lot of chopped cilantro. I really love cilantro, did you know that? Top with some peanuts, serve with limes for squeezin’, and voila, you’re done.

Rob really liked this, as he tends to like anything that seems like it could have been delivered to your front door in a paper bag. That’s just how he rolls!
8 hot dogs!

At Least Someone Can Bake...

2007-11-07T10:29:00.000-05:00

...because I sure can't.

Chocolate-Peanut Butter Chip Cookies

I hate baking. You know, I always think I can do it, and everything usually turns out poorly. It’s all that exact measuring—when I cook, I like to dump some of this in, a little of that, then taste and see what it needs. I can’t be bothered to level off flour or measure out sugar. I do not have the patience to bake.

Alas, I always try anyway. I figured it’d be easy to make cookies using the recipe on the damn bag of Nestle Toll House chocolate chips. Hah. Right.

Here’s what you need:

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks, 1/2 pound) butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated [white] sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 cup chopped nuts

Except I did 1½ cups of chocolate chips and 1½ cups of those Reese’s peanut butter chips. Mmm. Maybe that weighed down the batter too much, I don’t know. Oh well, onto the steps…

1. Combine flour, baking soda and salt in small bowl.
2. Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla in large mixer bowl.
3. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition; gradually beat in flour
mixture.
4. Stir in chocolate and peanut butter chips.
5. Realize that there is a hockey game on television that you are missing.
6. Wander into living room, taking cookie dough with you.
7. Marvel at how the Versus Network’s NHL coverage is even worse than the local station's, a feat you never imagined possible.
8. Notice a slight stomach ache and realize you’ve eaten about 25% of the dough.
9. Curse.
10. Drop leftover dough by rounded tablespoon onto ungreased baking sheets.
11. Realize that even though you have eaten a good portion of the dough, this is gonna make a lot of cookies. You’re going to be up all night. Curse again.
12. Bake in preheated 375-degree oven for 9 to 11 minutes or until golden brown.
13. Realize that 11 minutes is probably too long when the first batch comes out sort of... black-ish. Curse. Wow, you’re on a roll!
14. Let cookies stand for 2 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.
15. Wonder why your cookies are flat instead of puffy like the ones in pictures. Wonder if you should have added more baking soda?
16. Wonder what the hell you are doing to do with 3-4 dozen flat ass cookies.
17. Vow never to do this again.

That picture actually makes them look better than they do in person.

On the bright side, they actually tasted pretty good. As Rob put it, they aren’t much to look at, but if you close your eyes when you eat them, it’s a pretty enjoyable experience.

Here he is, proving it.

Oh Rob.

So he gave them a very generous 9 for taste, 5.5 for looks. I averaged this out to 7 hot dogs. I would have rounded up to 7.5, but I hate how my "half a hot dog" clip art is bigger than the full hot dog, and I don't feel like fixing it. Mediocrity at its finest!!

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Contributions!

2007-11-06T08:07:00.000-05:00

My evil twin is one hell of a baker. Laura once made this biscotti that she brought to my house, and I didn't speak to my then-boyfriend for nearly a week because he ate the last piece. It was that good. Her first contribution to my blog are these totally bitchin' monkey cupcakes she made for a child's birthday party:

Here is her recipe:

I wanted to use a banana cake recipe but the mom who wanted them, said all chocolate. This recipe made 48 cupcakes! Holy Bananas.

3 cups flour
1 1/2 t. baking soda
3 sticks of butter, supposed to be softened at room temp., I of course put them in the microwave for 10 seconds
1 1/2 cup sugar
8 ounces unsweetened chocolate, melted.
1 1/2 cup brown sugar
6 eggs
1 1/2 cup buttermilk
1 1/2 t. vanilla extract (don't be cheap, use the real shit)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Line muffin tins with cupcake papers. Set aside.

In a small bowl, sift together the flour and baking soda. Set aside.

In a large bowl, on the medium speed of an electric mixer, cream the butter until smooth. Add the sugars and beat until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the chocolate, mixing until well incorporated. Add the dry ingredients in three parts, alternating with the buttermilk and vanilla (I of course did both all at once and my batter was super thick, but they baked to perfect tops!). Do NOT overbeat. Using a rubber spatula, scrape down the batter in the bowl to make sure the ingredients are well blended and the batter is smooth. Carefully spoon the batter into the cupcake liners, filling them about three-quarters full. Bake for 20–25 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted in the center of the cupcake comes out clean.

Cool the cupcakes in the tins for 15 minutes. Remove from the tins and cool completely on a wire rack before icing.

I made them Friday night and iced them Saturday morning with chocolate icing, large Nilla wafers, mini Nilla wafers, I cut small marshmallows in half for eyes and I used black and red gel for the nose and eyes. All the kids loved them, but they thought they were bought at the grocery store and didn't believe they were homemade.

Here are the finished products. How cute are they?

If you'd like to contribute a recipe, either send me the recipe and I'll make it to the best of my ability, or you can make it and then send me the recipe and photos to thefoodsex@gmail.com.

Italian Night!

2007-11-02T12:56:00.000-04:00

Last week I hosted an Italian Night at my house with some wonderful friends from college. There was a ton of food that I didn’t get pictures or recipes for, so I’m just going to document the two that I either made or watched be made. (Watched be made? That can’t be grammatically correct.)

I decided to make eggplant parmesan for this. For anyone who has ever made eggplant parmesan, you’re probably cringing right now. It’s an incredibly labor intensive process that generally sucks, and if you mess up the slightest thing, your eggplant sucks. Every time I make it I usually end up standing in front of the stove with a spatula in hand and tears in my eyes. This time was no exception.

Eggplant Parmesan

What you’ll need:
Two medium-to-large eggplants
Flour
Eggs
Dry breadcrumbs (Some people mix grated parmesan in with this, some don’t. Your call.)
Tomato sauce (I used the last of my homemade stuff, but you can definitely use the jarred kind. Interestingly, my cousin Joe came for this meal and recognized the sauce as our grandmother’s recipe, which touched me a little. I may not be as good a cook as Nana, but at least I can make her sauce!)
Grated parmesan
1 pound of fresh mozzarella, thinly sliced
Oil for frying
Basil
Patience
An appetite for punishment

Slice the eggplant into about ½-inch thick slices. Lay them in a single layer on some cookie sheets and sprinkle very generously with salt. Eggplant has lots of bitter juices, and this technique, known as “weeping,” will help to draw them out. Let them sit for an hour. Take a load off! You’ve had a hard day, and it’s only gonna get worse.

After an hour, take note of all the bitter juices that have wept from the eggplant. Ew! Rinse each slice thoroughly with cold water and pat it dry. You are now already beginning to regret making eggplant.

Once it’s all dry, set up an assembly line: flour in one dish, beaten eggs in another, breadcrumbs in the third. Heat an inch of vegetable oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat until it’s really, really hot. I don’t have a thermometer, so I use the water trick that I mentioned before—flick some water at the oil and if it bubbles immediately, you’re all set. Take a slice of eggplant, dredge it in the flour, then the eggs, then the breadcrumbs, then drop it in the oil. “That was easy!” you think. Then you look at the remaining slices to be fried, and inside you, something may snap. Just a warning. So, eggplant really only takes about a minute and a half on each side, and you can do a few slices at once. Just be careful not to overcrowd the pan because too many slices will drop the temperature of the oil and it won’t cook properly. So a minute and a half on each side and then drain on paper towels.

By the time you’re done, your stove will be a mess and you may have wept. But that’s okay! You’re in the home stretch! Spray a 13x9 pan with cooking spray and then pour a little sauce in the bottom (to keep the eggplant from sticking.) Layer slices of fried eggplant, topped with sauce, lots of grated parm, and the sliced mozzarella. Continue layering until all eggplant is covered. Bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes. Sprinkle with fresh basil and eat the fruits of your labors. You deserve it.

This picture sucks, and the reason is that I forgot to get a picture before everyone started eating, and I was all, “Rob, get in here and take a picture of this!” and he looked at me with a mouthful of food and a belly full of booze like he didn’t even know who I was. So I took it, and yes, it sucks.

You know what didn’t suck? Didn’t suck at all? Ali’s appetizer.

Ali's Totally Bitchin' Pita-Veggie-Cheese Masterpiece

She started with a package of pitas, and cut them into triangles. She drizzled them with olive oil and sprinkled garlic powder, oregano and pepper, and baked them at 325 for about 15 minutes or until they started to get brown and crispy (or until she finished her glass of wine and remembered, “Ooh! I have food in the oven.”)

She took the pita chips out and topped them with the following:
One box of frozen spinach, thawed
Artichoke hearts
Sliced mushrooms
Diced zucchini
Roasted red peppers
Shredded cheese mix of mozzarella and provolone

She put them back in the oven for another 10 minutes or so, until the cheese had melted. Then she put them on my coffee table where they proceeded to be devoured. Again, I didn’t manage to get a picture until people had already jumped on and Rob’s hands were full of pita, so you’re stuck with this. Use your imagination!

So good!

Then we filled our already full bellies with Kacyn’s tiramisu and Sher’s Italian love cake, neither of which I managed to get a picture of because I was stuffing my face. I’m really inefficient.

Anyway, onto the ratings. During the meal, I looked over at Rob’s plate. He had plenty of Megan’s delicious spinach lasagna, of Ali’s pita chips, of bread…but no eggplant. I’m like, “Dude, eat the eggplant!” to which he replied, “Hell no!”
I got him to take a bite, which he admitted “wasn’t too bad,” and that he “liked it” but that was it.
I caught Joe picking at Ali’s appetizer long after everyone else had left, and he ended up taking it home in a Tupperware container.
Thus, I give everything 10 hot dogs and to Rob I say, “pfffffttttt!”

Oh and James, bless his heart, made this awesome-looking casserole of polenta, peppers and sausage. I couldn’t try it, because I don’t eat meat (just fish) but it looked really, really good. Unfortunately, this is the only picture I have of it:

It was late in the night and the wine bottles were empty. What can I say?

I Am Really Gonna Miss the Farmer's Markets

2007-10-30T10:46:00.000-04:00

After another successful farmer’s market outing (please don’t go away for the winter, farmer’s markets! Please? I just really love cooking with seasonal, locally grown vegetables. God!) I decided to roast everything that looked good and make cilantro pesto with some pasta. It turned out better than I expected.

Roasted Veggie Pasta with Cilantro Pesto

I’ve always been a fan of basil pesto, but I’ve been on such a cilantro kick lately that I figured it would work too.

So I made this with butternut squash, zucchini and red potatoes. To roast them, begin with the squash (cut it in half, scrape the innards out, cut off the hard outer shell while being very careful not to lose a finger, because that shell is hard as hell to cut off, then cube the flesh.) Add the cubed zucchini and halved potatoes. Toss with olive oil, salt, pepper and a little Italian seasoning. Bake on a cookie sheet or in a roasting pan for about 30 minutes for all of them. Stir occasionally, and adjust cooking times for how well-done you like your veggies. Make sure to read Rob's review for more info on this.

For the cilantro pesto, I mixed a big handful of cilantro leaves, olive oil, fresh grated parmesan, peanuts, salt and pepper. I really have no idea what the measurements were here, but start with a little olive oil and keep adding more (or add a bit of water, if you’re worried about fat EVEN THOUGH IT’S THE GOOD FAT) until it’s the consistency you want.

I garnished with peanuts and parmesan to mirror the flavors in the pesto and served the whole thing over whole wheat rotini, to a very dubious boyfriend. The words “cilantro pesto” are enough to make him run for the nearest Burger King.

Rob's review:

Surprisingly, he didn't cry, or stick out his tongue, or pound his fists on the floor! He just said the zucchini was a little overcooked and gave it 7.5 hot dogs. Whew! To counteract that, i think next time I'd just roast the squash and potatoes together and saute the zucchini in a little oil on the stove, just for a few minutes. It can't seem to handle the long cooking process of roasting without getting flimsy and a little gross. Lesson learned. Anyway...

There you have it.

Tofu Heaven

2007-10-29T10:12:00.000-04:00

There's a little Asian market in the Strip District here in Pittsburgh that sells tofu for 25 cents a brick. 25 cents! That is insanely cheap. So whenever we go to stock up on veggies from Stan's, we always stop in at the Asian market and grab some tofu.

From that, I made this dish. The recipe was originally from a VegWeb user, but I ended up having to do a little tweaking.

Apple-Soy Tofu

about 1 lb. firm tofu, drained and pressed
1/4 cup unsweetened apple juice
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 medium-sized garlic clove, minced or pressed
1/2 teaspoon grated fresh ginger

Slice tofu into triangles. Mix the above ingredients in a Ziploc bag and marinate the tofu in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours, but up to overnight.

Place the tofu into a glass baking dish. Here's where your preference comes in--if you want your tofu to be crispy, set the leftover marinade aside. If you want it to be chewier and less crispy, pour the remaining marinade over the top. When I made this, I actually discarded the leftover marinade (stupid!)

Bake uncovered at 375 for about 30 minutes.

This is what they looked like:

If I were to make this again, I would have saved the leftover marinade (or made more, depending on how long you let it marinate for and how much was left) and served it as a sauce on top of the tofu, with some rice for soaking it up. All in all it was good, but it definitely needed more kick.

Rob's review:

Seven hot dogs. Not a resounding victory, but not terrible either!!

Sriracha

2007-10-29T10:10:00.000-04:00

I'm sorry, I should have probably explained this earlier, but I got a question from a reader about Sriracha.

Sriracha is an Asian chili sauce made with garlic. It is really spicy, so a little goes a long way. It's fairly inexpensive, and moreover, it's pretty accessible. I found it in our local supermarket (which is a dump) alongside the other Asian sauces--soy and teriyaki and whatnot.

Here's what it looks like (not my hand):

More Fishies

2007-10-24T10:02:00.000-04:00

If you've ever read my other blog, you may know that Rob and I went on vacation this summer to Cape Hatteras, where we went deep sea fishing. Yeah. And caught this guy:

That’s a wahoo, which is a firm, dense white fish. I know, completely horrifying, right? What’s even more horrifying is the sheer amount of fish in our freezer that Rob’s stepmother passed off on us.

Fortunately, this past weekend we’d gone to the Pumpkin Festival at a local orchard/farm

and picked up some apple cider. So if you’re gonna get cider, you gotta get bourbon. And if you’re gonna get bourbon, you gotta glaze something.

Bourbon-Glazed Wahoo

(adapted from Cooking Light)
This would also work with salmon, tuna, or any other dense fish. Adjust the cooking time as necessary. Actually, you could probably use it on chicken or other meats too. It's got a really sweet Asian flavor, so that seems like it'd be good.

In a Ziploc bag, mix (per fillet of fish)
1.5 TBS brown sugar
1.5 TBS bourbon (I used Evan Williams, because it’s cheap but doesn’t taste like it and it reminds me of swigging from a flask in places you're not really allowed to have a flask)
1 TBS soy sauce
1 minced clove of garlic
the juice of one lime half
a good sprinkling of ginger and some black pepper.
Marinade these for about an hour or so, flipping the bag over a few times and really rubbing the marinade in. Yeah, rub that marinade in goooood. Mmmm--what? Anyway.

After the fishies are done marinating, heat a skillet on your stove until it’s good and hot. Dump the whole bag in, marinade and all. This wahoo took for-e-ver to cook, because it was thicker than my arm. I’d estimate it was about 8-10 minutes per side. If you had salmon, which cooks considerably more quickly, I’d guess about 4-5 minutes per side. Just poke at it a little, you’ll be able to tell when it’s done. Anyway, after the fish is done, drizzle it with the sauce leftover in the pan from the marinade. It’s so good. Sprinkle with sliced green onions and sesame seeds.

I served this with my go-to Asian side dish, Sesame Rice. I think this also may have originally come from Cooking Light too, but I’m not sure.
Quick fact about me—I cannot, to save my life, cook rice. It always comes out wrong. It’s always too sticky, not sticky enough, scorched on the bottom, whatever. I can’t do it. Thus, I resort to my only real cooking shortcut, the Walmart to my gourmet: boil-in-bag rice. You know, you can’t win em all. And I’m okay with that.
So, cook your rice and have it all ready to go. In a skillet, heat a little sesame oil. I prefer the dark kind, but the light would work too. Add to this a few handfuls of peas, carrots, broccoli, snow peas, whatever you want and some sliced green onions. The onions are key. Cook this all together for a few minutes, as long as it takes to get your veggies to a nice texture. Add a few shakes of soy sauce and some Sriracha. Mix well. Add the cooked rice and toss the whole thing together until it is well-mixed and well-heated. Turn off the heat, mix in some sesame seeds, and scarf.

Rob's review:
8.5/10 hot dogs. He said it would have been higher had the rice not been so spicy (so, I MAY have gone a bit overboard with the Sriracha, but I liked it!)

It's Soup:30!

2007-10-18T10:10:00.000-04:00

So for a few days there, it really felt like fall in Western PA. But then the temperatures rose again, and I think the high is like 70 today. But no matter, because technically it is fall, and that means I’m making soup.

At Rob’s suggestion, I made clam chowder. I’d never done this before, so I had to read through a few recipes to try to adapt them. Apparently, clam chowder is serious business. I mean it—people in the Northeast are crazy about their clam chowder. Being from Pittsburgh, which some will argue is the Northeast, some will argue is the Midwest, I’m far less concerned. So if this recipe is not “authentic” (and I know it isn’t), don’t complain! This recipe made two very large bowls of soup--we definitely didn't finish them!

Clam Chowder

2 eight-ounce bottles clam juice
about ½ pound red potatoes, unpeeled, cut into bite size pieces
1 tablespoon butter
1 cups chopped white onions
2 stalks of celery, chopped well (including the leaves, they are so good!)
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 bay leaf
1/4 cup flour
3 six-and-a-half-ounce cans chopped clams, drained, juices reserved
1/2 cups half and half
squirt of Sriracha (see a pattern with this?)
salt n pepa

So, pour the clam juice into a pot and add the potatoes. Bring to a boil and then lower the heat a bit to cook the potatoes—around 10 minutes, depending on how big the potato chunks are. This will make your kitchen smell a bit bad, because let’s face it, clam juice is kind of gross. Remove from heat and set aside.

In another pot, melt the butter. Add the celery, onions, garlic and bay leaf, cook until the veggies are soft (5-7 minutes, maybe?) Stir in the flour slowly and whisk like hell. Don’t let it brown. Cook about 2 minutes, stirring constantly, and then slowly begin adding the reserved juice from the clams. Keep whisking…build those whisking muscles. Try to break up any clumps of flour and veggies. Add the potatoes with the clam juice they were boiled in, half and half, canned clams and the Sriracha. Stir well and allow to simmer, stirring frequently, for 10-15 minutes, just to let it get hot, let the flavors blend and the soup thicken. Be sure to take the bay leaf out, that's a surprise that no one wants. Season chowder with salt and pepper and slurp away.

I served it with a sprinkling of parsley and some sourdough bread. You know what, this was damn good. It would definitely have been better with fresh clams, but when you’re landlocked in the fall, you do what you can.

Rob's review:
Also 9/10 hot dogs!

You know, I'm beginning to think Rob's being overly nice on the giving of hot dogs because he has to live with me. If you'd like to become a hot dog rater, please come over for dinner.

Comfort Food

2007-10-15T20:44:00.000-04:00

Do you remember that children's book, Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day? Well that's the kind of day Rob had on Friday—a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day—one of those days in which everything seems to go wrong. Being the wonderful girlfriend and roommate that I am, I decided to make a whole bunch of really fatty foods for dinner. You know, comfort food. So I made chicken for Rob (yes, I handle raw chicken. According to our favorite bartender, Sheila, this makes me "a keeper.") and tofu for me.

On the side, I made scalloped potatoes and the best homemade macaroni and cheese I have ever had. The potatoes were a combination of a few recipes I saw online and my preferences, and the mac-n-cheese was straight from an episode of Alton Brown's Good Eats on the Food Network. And oh my god, was it good.

Macaroni and Cheese

1/2 pound elbow macaroni
4 tablespoons butter
2 eggs
6 ounces evaporated milk
1/2 teaspoon hot sauce
1 teaspoon kosher salt
Fresh black pepper
3/4 teaspoon dry mustard
10 ounces sharp cheddar, shredded

In a large pot of boiling, salted water cook the pasta to al dente and drain. Return to the pot and melt in the butter. Toss to coat.

Whisk together the eggs, milk, hot sauce, salt, pepper, and mustard. Stir into the pasta and add the cheese. Over low heat continue to stir for 3 minutes or until creamy.

I followed this recipe pretty closely—the only substitution I made was a squeeze of Sriracha for the 1/2 teaspoon of hot sauce. The key to this recipe is good quality cheese. Somehow I don't think it would be as good if you just threw in a bag of shredded Kraft cheddar. Go the cheese counter and buy some good, sharp cheddar and grate it yourself. I promise it's worth it. Besides, good cheeses are fun, and buying something from the cheese counter always makes me feel like a foodie. For this one, I used a big block of Tillamook.

It even looked like heaven. This recipe makes a LOT, so prepare for leftovers. Luckily, it reheated really well. Thanks, Alton Brown. I'd marry Alton Brown, if only he'd reply to the daily fan letters I mail him. Sorry, Rob.

Next up, the potatoes. I think when most people think of scalloped potatoes, they think of a big browned cheesy mess. Which is good, but probably not that great when you're already eating a big cheesy mess (see above.) So I decided to do a more traditional French preparation with the addition of some herbs I had in my fridge. Still pretty fatty, still delicious, just no cheese.

Scalloped Potatoes

2 large potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced (I used Yukon Golds)
2/3 quart of whipping cream (oooh, fat!!)
2 minced garlic cloves
2 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
Small amount of butter

Layer the slices of potato in a buttered glass baking dish. In a bowl, mix together the cream, garlic, salt and pepper and pour over the potatoes. Dot the top with butter and place in oven for 50 minutes while it gets all brown and delicious. Simple as that. Take it out and sprinkle with any herbs you might want (I used parsley and chives, because they both pair with potatoes so well.) Let it rest for about 15 minutes and then dig in.

(Please note the Sur La Table chef kitchen timer that Rob gave me for my birthday peeking over the dish. Sweet moustache!)

Rob's reviews:
The potatoes:
8.5 out of 10 hot dogs

The macaroni and cheese:
A whopping 9.5 out of 10 possible hot dogs! Seriously ladies, the way to a man's heart is by clogging his arteries.

Food Read

2007-10-12T08:28:00.000-04:00

The way I see it, there's no point in talking about food if you aren't going to discuss books about food. I just got this from Amazon (used for like, $1.59) and it's completely awesome:

It's a collection of essays from women about the nature of food and its presence in their lives, bucking the ideas that women are constantly dieting or worrying about what they shouldn't eat. The essays are nostalgic, funny and touching. My favorite (thus far) is by a woman named Pooja Makhijani, whose traditional Indian mother packed her leftover aloo tikki for her school lunch, when all Pooja wanted was to buy chicken nuggets and pizza bagels from the cafeteria. It's definitely a good read for anyone-- but in particular women-- who love food. Highly recommended!

So Many Apples...

2007-10-10T08:55:00.000-04:00

Right now, we have more apples than we know what to do with. The giant bag of them keeps moving around the kitchen in an effort to keep it out of the way, and it seems that no matter how many we eat, the bag never gets any emptier. So I decided to try to put apples in something savory instead of sweet, and came up with this recipe. (I'm also trying to do a better job of including some form of measurements with recipes on here.)

Potato-Apple-Feta Pancakes
2 large baking potatoes, peeled
2 large Granny Smith apples, peeled and cored
Handful of crumbled feta cheese (about 3 oz?)
2 eggs, beaten
2-3 TB flour (I actually forgot that I had planned to add flour when I made these, and it didn’t seem to make much of a difference. They’d probably be more cake-y, less potato-y, so try whichever you want)
About 2 TB snipped chives
Salt & pepper to taste
Olive oil

Into a large bowl, grate the apples and potatoes using the largest holes on a box grater. The apples may just turn into mush, that’s okay. You just have to work quickly to keep them from browning. (If you absolutely need to, toss the mixture with some lemon juice, which slows the oxidation process that causes browning in certain fruits and veggies.) Sprinkle with salt, mix well.
Taking the potato mixture in small handfuls, squeeze the hell out of them. Get as much moisture out of them as you possibly can. Don’t worry about squeezing too hard, just get them as dry as possible. Place the dry mixture into a colander until the bowl is empty. Wipe all the moisture out of the bowl with a paper towel and move the potato mixture back to it. Add the eggs, chives, feta, pepper and flour, if you’re using it. (Be aware that if you don’t use flour, there will be liquid in the bottom of your bowl, just drain it off the best you can.)

Place a frying pan over high heat. Add a bit of oil and let it get good and hot. A good trick to use when frying things: if you flick some water onto the oil and it bubbles on contact, the oil is hot enough. With a spoon, drop some of the potato mixture onto the oil, and use the back of the spoon to smoosh it into a thin pancake. This recipe should make about 8, so use that to judge how much mixture to add.

Now, this is the key: don’t mess with it for three minutes. I think people’s tendency when cooking something in a pan is to poke at it, try to flip it, shake it around, etc. Just don’t. Go read a magazine, clip your toenails, something. Three minutes. Okay. Flip it and give it three minutes on the other side. Drain on paper towels. Add a bit more oil and repeat. Then devour.

Along with being aesthetically not-too-appealing, this dish is also totally unhealthy. I served these with sour cream and chives because in terms of fat, I think you should go big or go home. I also made baked apple-tamari tofu, which I’ll post the recipe for later. Oh god, do we have a lot of apples. Finally, serve this meal with classy beverages!!

Robbo’s review:
Surprisingly, he really liked these. One thing you have to understand about feeding Rob is that it’s often like feeding a kid (ask him what his favorite food is sometime—it’s chicken fingers and French fries.) So it can be difficult to get him to try things that are a bit out of the ordinary, including apples in potato pancakes. When I get him to admit he likes something ‘alternative,’ it’s always a big victory for me. Anyway, he gave it 8/10 hot dogs.

Not a Pie Man

2007-10-08T09:23:00.000-04:00

Normally I’m not a big fan of being dependent on recipes—I think it’s better to have a good understanding of food and flavors and how they work together, but when it comes to baking: 1) I am vaguely inept and 2) as a craft, it requires a lot of precision. So here is the Whole Foods recipe that I adapted slightly for Robbo’s birthday, even though he doesn’t really like pie. Because, you know, I like pie.

Pumpkin-Apple Pie
Serves 8

1/3 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, ground
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup water
2 tablespoons butter
3 cups Granny Smith apple, peeled, cored and thinly sliced

1 large egg
1/3 cup sugar, granulated
3/4 cup pumpkin, mashed (fresh or canned)
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, ground
1/4 teaspoon ginger, ground
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup evaporated milk
1 unbaked 9-inch pie shell

Combine the brown sugar, cornstarch, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon and 1/4 teaspoon salt in a 2-quart saucepan. Stir in the water and butter. Cook, over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture comes to a boil. Carefully add the apple slices and cook for another 4 minutes. Remove from the heat and set aside.

Combine the egg, sugar, pumpkin, 1/4 teaspoon salt, spices, and evaporated milk in a bowl. Beat until well blended using a rotary or electric mixer set on low speed. Pour the apple mixture into the unbaked pie shell and then spoon an even layer of the pumpkin mixture over the apple mixture. Bake in a preheated 425°F oven for 10 minutes, then reduce the oven temperature to 375°F, and bake for another 40 minutes, or until the filling is set around the edges. Cool on a wire rack.

Here it is (with vanilla ice cream, because what’s the point of pie if it’s not a vehicle to carry ice cream to your mouth?):

Robbo’s review:
Like I said, he doesn’t really like pie, but Rob also claims to not like things he’s never tried. He looked at it and said, “I’m nervous!” He took a bite, swallowed and said, “Well, it’s not bad.”
So, 6.5 out of a possible 10 hot dogs.

Caveat: As a pie fan, I thought this was awesome. On Thanksgiving, I always have to pick between pumpkin and apple pie because I never have room for both—PEOPLE, this pie is both!
And Rob’s dad asked that we leave the leftovers at his house, so I call this pie a winner! Rob is full of it!

Contributors!

2007-10-04T09:27:00.000-04:00

Within 12 hours of the launch of this blog, I received several offers of contributions, which I think is a great idea. If you'd like to contribute, email me your recipe using the little envelope at the bottom of each post and I'll cook it (to the best of my ability)and have Robbo review it.
Alternately, if you'd like to write an entire post, just email the text to me with a photo and your own review.

And It Begins (With a Lasagna)!

2007-10-02T22:25:00.001-04:00

I thought lasagna would be a good place to start. Oh my god, do I love lasagna. Lasagna makes me go into Garfield mode, where I dig my hands into the pan and force the food into my mouth as quickly as possible. It’s easy and versatile (I make a bunch of different kinds) and you can pretty much throw whatever you want in it.

Tonight’s was spinach and basil with a bunch of really good zucchini and some roasted butternut squash I got at the Southside farmer’s market. I had made a huge pot of tomato sauce the night before, so I used that with some whole wheat noodles. I always use cottage cheese instead of ricotta. Now, I know this is less-than-authentic, but seriously, when you can put away as much food as much as I can, you have to cut some fat. You know, or else. So anyway.

No real measurements, because making lasagna is just a method anyway.

So, preheat the oven to 350. If you live in a crappy apartment like ours, begin this st...oh, four hours before you want to cook. I’m kidding, mostly. Next, cook those noodles. I know they say you can bake lasagna without boiling the noodles first, but I’ve never tried it and would rather take the time to boil the damn noodles than ruin a perfectly good lasagna.

Okay. Throw a bunch of cottage cheese, an egg and a handful of fresh basil into your food processor. I always put a clove of garlic in this mixture too. Process this until it’s smooth and I promise you, you won’t even miss the ricotta.

Okay, now put a pan on the stove with some olive oil and garlic. Let it get nice and warm. Throw in a bunch of cubed zucchini. Cook it for a few minutes until it softens up a bit. Add a few big handfuls of baby spinach, stir, and remove it from the heat. The hot zucchini will help wilt the spinach. In this step, you could really use any vegetables you wanted: onions, mushrooms, broccoli, peppers, whatever. This is just what I’d picked up at the farmer’s market. At this point, I mixed in the already-roasted butternut squash. To roast a butternut squash, cut it in half, scrape the innards out, cut off the hard outer shell and cube the flesh. Toss with some olive oil and salt and bake it for about 40 minutes at 400 degrees. Anyway, give the spinach a few minutes to wilt, then dump all the sauce you’d planned to use (minus a few tablespoons) into the veggies. Mix that shit up.

Now you’re ready to start assembling.

Spray the hell out of your pan with cooking spray, because lasagna loves to stick. On top of that, spread the reserved tomato sauce.

Okay.

Put down enough lasagna noodles to cover the bottom. In a 13x9 pan, this will be three. On top of that, spread 1/3 of your sauce-and-veggies mixture. Top with 1/2 of the basil-and-cottage-cheese mixture, a handful of shredded mozzarella (or slices of fresh mozzarella, if you’re putting on the ritz) and then top with three more noodles. Repeat the process. On the topmost noodles, spread some sauce, more mozzarella, and some parmesan if you’re into that. This method of layering makes for a more-filling-less-noodle lasagna; if you’re more into the noodles, do it in three layers, using 1/3 of the mixtures each time.

Bake it, covered, for about 45 mintues. Uncover, bake for 10-15 more until it’s all bubbly, and then eat it as soon as humanly possible. Also, drink (cheap red) wine, as we just did with this lasagna.

Voila!

Robbo’s review:

7 of a possible 10 hot dogs. A good score, but he said he liked the full-fat stuff better. That's what I get for forcing him to eat all those vegetables anyway.

Foodies!

2007-07-27T15:33:00.001-04:00

So here it is, my food blog. Does it get any nerdier? I don't know. Maybe I'll have Robbo write a Live Action Role Playing blog. That would be nerdier, right?

I'm not quite ready to launch yet, but when I am, you'll be so glad! I kid, I kid.