Croque-Végétarien & Croque-Monsieur

So, you know how there really wasn't much winter this year?

Its been like, November (but without the rain), all winter long.

We're so spoiled by it...  Because this year, any time it goes below 35 or is rainy, we're all 'ew, gross!  couch!  comfort food!'

Since our honeymoon in Paris was quite rainy and chilly, one of the newer additions to our 'ew, gross! couch! comfort food!' repertoire is the Croque Monsieur.  While in Paris there was more than one night where the sightseeing got in the way of the marathon dinner events that we planned for many of the nights and, as a result, we ended up at Cafe Le Depart-St. Michel more than once...  While it wasnt much more than our equivalent of a 24 hour diner, it was open 24 hours (important to NYers who are used to such things) and close to our hotel(s) to boot, so it worked.  And this cafe's croque végétarien was one of the best I had while we were there...

This version is my favorite of all of the ones I've had since leaving paris (admittedly, there havent been that many, but this one is good, i promise!) and will probably become my new standard, not to mention a regular part of the 'ew, gross! couch! comfort food!' rotation.

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Croque Végétarien & Croque-Monsieur

courtesy of me, as adapted from Ina Garten

Click here to import recipe directly into Pepperplate

6 slices good white bread

1 tablespoons unsalted butter
1.5 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1 c warm milk

1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
Pinch nutmeg

3 oz Gruyere, grated
3 oz Emmentaler, grated
1/4 c freshly grated Parmesan

Dijon mustard

2 plum tomatoes, sliced

For Croque-Monsieur:
1/4 lb jambon de Paris

***

Preheat the oven to 400°.

Toast your bread in the oven on a cookie sheet - 5 minutes on the first side, then 2 minutes on the opposite side. Set aside.

In a small saucepan set over low heat, melt the butter and then add the flour, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon for ~2 minutes.

Slowly pour the warm milk into the pan with the butter/flour mixture and cook, whisking constantly, until the sauce is thickened, about 3 - 5 minutes.

Remove from heat and add the salt, pepper, nutmeg and stir.

Add in 1/4 c of the Gruyere, 1/4 c of the Emmentaler and all of the Parmesan and stir until cheese has all melted. Set aside.

Spread dijon mustard on all of the bread.
On half of the bread, lay out tomatoes on a single layer.
If desired, add a couple of slices of ham on top of the tomatoes. (croque monsieur)
Top the same slices with the remaining Gruyere and Emmentaler, about 1/3 of the total cheese on each.
Top each 'loaded' slice with one of the dijon-only pieces of bread.

Top each sandwich with about 1/3 of the bechamel (cheese sauce)

Bake the sandwiches for 5 minutes.

Switch your oven to broiler and broil for 3 to 5 minutes (depending on how close your heating element is to your sandwiches) or until the topping is bubbly and lightly browned.

Serve hot.

Broccoli Mac & Cheese

When the weather starts to cool off, everyone's thoughts (mine included) turn to apples and pumpkin and maple syrup. However, when mother nature decided to skip the whole cooling off period a week or so ago and go straight to RAINY & COLD, I couldn't help but skip the normal cravings and move straight to comfort food.

Most people will agree that there really is no better comfort food than mac & cheese but for those who arent looking to fatten up for their winter hibernation, the comfort we seek in mac & cheese can quickly turn to distress when trying to get dressed in the morning and finding out that none of your clothes fit anymore because you've been eating a little too much comfort...

This leaves you with a dilemma - stop eating the warm comforting hug that is mac & cheese and keep that slammin' body or eat all the comfort and embrace the fatness?

I'm here to give you a 3rd option - do both.  and do it without sacrificing the stuff that makes mac & cheese the yummy goodness that it is...

Now, this recipe makes me feel a little bit like a mom who's trying to sneak vegetables into her kid's meal but really, the broccoli is a bonus, not a secret we're hiding under a layer of cheese (though that's how my mom got me to eat it as a kid...) and actually adds to the dish.

And you don't have to be on a diet to like it.  It doesn't taste like diet food!  I promise you, this mac and cheese tastes just as good as many other versions out there.  The bonus is that the vegetables are already built in, so you don't feel like you have to make a side in order to have a complete meal.

It's a pretty versatile dish.  While the recipe below uses high-fiber pasta and reduced fat cheese, that's not really the calorie-cutting key - its much more about the fact that there is equal weight of pasta and vegetable soaking up all of that cheesiness.  I highly recommend playing around with it and coming up with the version you like best.  I'm already planning its successor as we speak ;)

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Broccoli Mac & Cheese

courtesy of skinnytaste.com, with modifications by me
Click here to import to Pepperplate.com

12 oz high fiber pasta (we used Barilla Plus elbows)
12 oz fresh broccoli florets, any large pieces roughly chopped

2 tbsp butter
1/4 cup diced onion
1 tbsp minced garlic (about 2 cloves if you aren't cheating and using the pre-minced stuff)

1/4 cup flour

1 cup vegetable broth

2 cups 1% milk
1 tbsp garlic chili cholula sauce

8 oz (2 cups) shredded reduced fat mexican cheese blend
salt and fresh pepper to taste

1/8 cup grated parmesan
1/4 cup bread crumbs

***

Lightly grease a large casserole dish and set aside

Preheat oven to 375°

Prepare pasta in accordance with package directions for al dente pasta.  Include the broccoli in the water with the pasta for about 7 minutes  (this was al dente cooking time for our pasta, so everything went in together.  If you are using a pasta with a longer cooking time, just throw the broccoli in when there is 7 minutes left...)

While pasta & broccoli are cooking, heat 2 tbsp of butter over medium heat.  Add onion & garlic and cook for about 2 minutes to soften.

Lower heat to medium-low and whisk in flour.  It will clump and get dry - dont panic.  Keep whisking for a minute or two until it is all incorporated and the mess looks golden.

Add broth, milk and cholula, whisking to incorporate.  Raise heat to medium-high and heat, whisking often, until mixture is bubbling and gets thick.  (This will take anywhere from about 5 - 10 minutes, depending on your definition of medium-high)

Remove from heat and stir in cheese, in batches, until it has melted and is well-incorporated.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Add the pasta & broccoli into the cheese sauce and mix well to combine.

Pour the whole thing into your prepared baking dish.  Top with parmesan and then breadcrumbs.

Bake ~ 20 minutes and then turn oven up to 500° and bake for an additional 3 minutes to get the top a bit golden and crispy.

Allow to sit for at least 5 minutes before serving.

Lazy Lasagna

This is one of those times where i'm going to go on record saying that its really easy to make something that other people find difficult...

That thing is lasagna.  it seriously takes no brain power - just a bit of time.  and one day, i'll even get around to blogging about how easy it is...

but today is not that day.  because, ravioli lasagna?  its even easier...  like, i'm going to out on a limb and say that i think that, with a little help, even my 2.5 year old nephew could put this one together. (If i was in NC right now, i'd test it out, but i'm not so, um, sister, mom, dad?  someone get on that.  take pictures and video please because its going to be a legendary mess but i bet it will still taste good in the end...)  which is why i've dubbed it lazy - because the amount of effort required is so minimal that even the least motivated version of yourself can pull this one off.

In fact, I'm pretty sure this is one of those dinners where preheating the oven takes longer than actually assembling the dish - perfect for a weeknight, a sunday night or really any other time you can think of...

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Lazy Lasagna
courtesy of Real Simple - modified by me

1 tbsp olive oil

5 - 6 c fresh baby spinach*

~20 oz roasted garlic spaghetti sauce
2 packages large fresh ravioli - uncooked - (13 to 15 oz each package)
1.5 c shredded mozzarella
1/3 c of your favorite grated cheese - we used a combo of pecorino romano & parmesan

crushed red pepper, salt, black pepper (all optional depending on your taste and how spiced up your sauce already is)

***

Preheat oven to 350°

lightly grease 2.5 qt casserole dish if you are afraid of stickage.  Set aside.

Heat olive oil in a non-stick pan over medium heat and add the spinach in.  Stir around until just wilted and remove from heat. *

place ~ 1/3 of your tomato sauce in the bottom of the casserole dish

layer in half of your ravioli - make sure the bottoms of all of the ravioli are touching plenty of sauce (this is what allows them to cook in the oven)

top with all of your spinach

sprinkle with 1/2 of your grated cheese

sprinkle with 1/2 of your shredded mozzarella

place a few spoonfuls of sauce over the cheeses and spread as best as you can without making a mess of the cheese

sprinkle with crushed red pepper, salt & black pepper, if desired

layer in the rest of your ravioli

top with remaining tomato sauce.  Again, make sure that all ravioli are well-coated with sauce and that there are no naked edges showing.

top with remaining grated cheese

top with remaining shredded cheese

cover (either with your fancy casserole cover or with tin foil) and bake ~ 25 minutes.

Remove cover and bake for another 10 - 15 minutes until the cheese gets a little bit bubbly and maybe even a bit brown around the edges

Allow to cool for 5 minutes & then cut as you would normal lasagna and serve.

Serves 3 - 4 for dinner, depending on what you serve it with ;)

*note: for the 2.5 year old making it version, feel free to use frozen spinach, thawed and squeezed out

Banana Nutella Bread

the name sounds like it might be the greatest thing on earth, right?  banana = good.  nutella = good.  banana/nutella?  GOOD, right?

Well, let's just say i hope it is - I'm writing this as attempt #3 is finishing up in the oven...

Yes, you read that right - i've made this 3 times now and i'm only just blogging about it...  but thats cause its ATTEMPT #3 - meaning the first two?  not blog-worthy...

In an effort to make your attempts more successful than mine were, ill tell you what went wrong.

attempt #1 - i overmixed.  Plain and simple.  When directions tell you to mix until just combined - there's a reason for that...  if you overmix the bread gets chewy and hard and neither of those in a good way.  I may have also over-baked...  (my coworkers ate it without complaint, but i dont think they're a picky bunch...)

attempt #2 - I underbaked.  I was nervous of the over-baking, so i pulled it out early.  and it was not right.  i wont tell you what it looked like but suffice it to say, it didnt look like anything one would want to eat...  (we managed to salvage a few ends that were, in fact, cooked but not enough to call it any sort of success...)

For attempt #3, i decided to scrap the original recipe.  I'd been working from a recipe I'd found in a million places on the internet, but have traced back to vneck and a cardigan...  but then i came across Mark Bittman's banana bread recipe and i thought - ooh, maybe i'll combine that with the nutella-ness of the other, dial back the amount of nutella (as i suspect that contributed to the gooey mess that was the second one) and i'm still hoping that is my winner...

if you see a pretty picture above, it means i won.  If you see a pile of mess above, it means i lost.  because the this is my third and final attempt and i'm blogging it either way.  because if it didnt work this time, well, i give up...

---

Banana-Nutella Bread
inspired by a combination of Mark Bittman - How to Cook Everything and V-Neck and a Cardigan

2 c all purpose flour

1.5 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 c brown sugar
1/4 c white sugar

3 - 4 small bananas, very ripe and mashed well (it was about 1 c of banana mash)
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 tsp vanilla extract

~ 1/3 c nutella (homemade or store-bought) (a)

***

preheat oven to 350°

generously grease loaf pan, set aside

mix flour, baking powder and salt together and set aside

cream butter and sugars until fluffy

add mashed banana, eggs & vanilla to butter mixture & mix until well combined

using nothing more than a spatula or wooden spoon, gently incorporate the flour mixture.  DO NOT OVERMIX.  its ok if there are lumps...

pour most of the batter into your greased loaf pan, reserving about 1/2 to 3/4 of a cup.

mix nutella and reserved batter until just combined.

pour nutella mixture over top of the loaf and use a spatula or a knife to swirl in.  swirl well.  make it count.

Bake 50 mins.  If after 50 mins, it appears to still be underbaked (a knife will come out fairly clean when its baked) put back in the oven for another 10 minutes.
if its still underbaked, reduce oven temperature to 325° and bake in 5 minute increments until fully cooked.

remove from oven and allow to cool for ~ 15 minutes in its pan, then, remove from loaf pan and cool on a rack.

(a) I meant to do this with ~ 1/2 of a cup of nutella...  but we'd been at the booze experiment all day and i guess my math skills were not so good...  

Gnocchi Mac & Cheese

If i'm not mistaken, this was my first home-cooked dinner as someone's wife.

failure - not an option.

When this recipe came across my tumblr dashboard, i immediately sent it off to Jordan.  No subject, no commentary, just an email...  Why?  because he didnt have a choice.  this would be dinner...

Now, we did make one compromise - you could be all fancy-like and make your own gnocchi, but we purchased gnocchi from our beloved fairway - a tricolor mix (you know, to make it healthy...) but you'll have to forgive us that one - you see, there was a mouse living in our house (many, actually.  they moved in while we were frolicking in paris...  damn squatters.) and we didnt want any extra food stuff anywhere...  and homemade gnocchi?  its messy...

see also: making excuses for laziness...

anyhoo - i'll declare this one a complete success.  so much so that i proceeded to tell everyone i spoke to for the next 3 days - "OH MY GOD, you HAVE to make this!!!"

my first dinner as a wife?  total WIN.

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Gnocchi Mac n' Cheese

courtesy of The Cutting Edge of Ordinary with minor modifications by me
Click here to import recipe directly into Pepperplate

1 pound tricolor gnocchi
2 Tablespoons butter
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 Tablespoon all-purpose flour
3/4 cup milk (i think we used 2% but maybe it was skim, since thats what we generally have in the house...)
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1/4 heaping cup shredded Comte cheese, packed tight (you can use Gruyere, but the comte & gruyere were the same price and frankly, comte - which is basically france's version of Gruyere - is one of my favorite cheeses, so, duh...)
1/4 heaping cup shredded fontina cheese, packed tight
Salt and white pepper to taste
1/3 cup shredded Parmigiano-Reggiano

***


Preheat oven to 375. 

Grease 1-1/2 qt shallow baking dish 

Prepare gnocchi according to package directions. Drain and place gnocchi in a single-layer in prepared baking dish.

Melt butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Stir in garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Whisk in flour until it thickens and bubbles, then whisk in milk and Dijon. Continue to whisk mixture and cook until slightly thickened, about 3-5 minutes.

Combine Comte and fontina, then add by the handful to milk mixture, stirring until melted before adding the next handful. Once all cheese is melted, season sauce with salt and pepper.

Pour sauce over gnocchi and sprinkle with Parmigiano-Reggiano over top. Bake gnocchi until they puff and the cheese is golden and bubbly, about 25 minutes. Let gnocchi rest for 5 minutes before serving.


Serve with some veggies to balance out all of that cheese and, of course, some crusty bread & wine...

the simple life

once upon a time i found making pasta to be significant. because it meant boiling actual water (no pasta-prontas here!) and - omg - heating up sauce... i thought myself a gourmet when i'd add a little ricotta & shredded mozzarella because, i mean, thats like almost baked ziti.

then one day i decided that anything that didnt involve either some level of difficulty, creativity, or odd ingredient found only at fairway was just too basic for me...

that snobbery did not served me well. it caused me to miss out on so many things just because they werent 'different' enough... (sure, it also served me very well in that i ended up eating things i may never have eaten otherwise, but we're focusing on simple here today, ok?????)

today isnt really so much about what i made as it is about that notion of dropping the snobbery at the door. not always going for new-different-wow. instead, sometimes just sticking with the tried-and-true...

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Rice Krispie Treats, microwave style
courtesy of Kellogg's, i think...

4 tbsp butter

4 c mini marshmallows

6 c rice krispies



Heat butter in microwave safe bowl for ~ 45 seconds or until melted

stir in mini-marshmallows, coating all with the melted butter

microwave entire mess for 45 seconds, stir and put back in microwave for another 45 seconds

Line a 9x13 pan with waxed paper

When microwave dings, mix rice krispies in with buttery marshmallowy goodness until well combined (*note - could also add a variety of other things now - chocolate chips, peanut butter, whatever... or could make this with a different kind of cereal... go crazy...)

scoop into wax-papered pan

cover with another sheet of waxed paper and press down

Allow to cool (could be in the fridge to speed it up) and then cut into 24 squares


try not to eat them all at once...

Dear Martha Stewart,

Hi Martha. How's it going?

You know, I've always been a Martha fan. own the cookie book. subscribe to some of the daily emails. even almost went to work for your company (albeit while you were *ahem* away...)

So the other day when yet another martha stewart mac & cheese recipe landed in my inbox, i thought to myself, 'self... you know all that CSA cheese you got? how you thought it was totally neccessary to order 24 oz of cheese at one time? well, self, this recipe will totally use up some of that! 12 oz of that! do it! make it!' and since i always listen to the voices in my head (when they are suggesting that i eat bad-for-me food) i printed out that recipe and headed to the grocery store to pick up a few things i didnt have. namely macaroni and panko... 3 cups of panko. even though that sounded like an awful lot of panko... but martha, you are an empire unto yourself. who am i to question?

so even as i worked - cooking the mac & making the cheese sauce - i just kept thinking - 3 cups? i must be reading that wrong... but no, i'd look at it time and again and sure enough, 3 cups. and then i'd think to myself... well she said 3 c of fresh breadcrumbs... is it possible that panko is THAT MUCH DENSER? and i'm all like, nah. just a different taste...

so anyway, i motored on and put it all together and poured that panko/butter mix over the top. over and over and over. it felt like i was my dog burying my bone in the backyard. or a kid in a sandbox. yeah, kid in a sandbox - lets stick with that one...

but martha, i had faith. faith in you and your copywriters and your commenters... it would be good. it would be fine.

and then i took it out. and lady, you need to hire new editors... because there aint NO WAY IN HELL that there should have been 3 cups of breadcrumbs - fresh, panko or otherwise - on top of that mac & cheese. NO WAY IN HELL.

i scraped off about 2 cups

and honestly, the mac & cheese was still fairly dry.

therefore martha, consider this my PSA... because now when people google 'martha stewart macaroni and cheese recipe correction' they'll end up here. instead of writing you letters telling you that you owe them $2.49 for all that wasted panko...

Sincerely,
Kristen at kitchenhell

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Macaroni & Cheese
slightly adjusted and corrected courtesy of me with original mistake from Martha Stewart

1 pound elbo macaroni
Coarse sea salt

6 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
4 cups milk
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg

3 cups shredded (12 ounces) sharp white cheddar cheese
1/3 cup finely grated Parmesan cheese

3/4 cup panko



Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Cook pasta in a large pot of boiling salted water 1 to 2 minutes less than package instructions.
Drain, rinse with cool water, and place into baking dish (I used an 8x12. You can use something bigger or make individual portions - cooking times are listed at the end).

Meanwhile, heat 4 tablespoons butter in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat.
Add flour; cook, whisking, 1 minute.
Add milk, cayenne, nutmeg, and 2 teaspoons salt; bring to a simmer.
Cook, whisking, until mixture is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon, 2 to 3 minutes.
Whisk in cheeses until smooth.

Pour over pasta; toss to coat.

Melt remaining 2 tablespoons butter; toss with breadcrumbs.
Sprinkle over pasta.

Cover baking dish with foil. Bake until bubbling, 60 to 70 minutes for large dishes, 40 to 50 minutes for small. (check after 35 mins for individual sized dishes)

Remove foil; continue baking until golden, 5 to 10 minutes more.

trying to not raise chicks...

the eggs - they're taking over my life! i only get a dozen every 2 weeks...

listen to that again - a dozen every 2 weeks.

on one hand, i'm like, thats not that many! on the other hand i'm like, that would mean i eat one egg every day. which might not be as far off as you'd think but the problem is some of those eggs come from one of the local salad places (in the form of a sliced hard boiled egg in my salad) or from the diner a couple doors from my office (in the form of an "egg and cheese on a roll with ketchup")... which means i'd really have to eat more than an egg each day.

so i was looking at the eggs and thinking of how there was a new dozen coming tonight and it hit me - QUICHE! quiche uses eggs! lots of eggs! its the answer...

then i remembered that i had a nice little container of VERY expensive crab meat in my fridge that had been in there for a while and was going to go bad if i wasnt careful and use it soon... so crab quiche became the order of the night...

no, i didnt make the crust myself but whatever... it still counts ;)

---

Crab & Corn Quiche
courtesy of me, adapted from Diana Rattray

1 pastry shell (9 inch), partially baked

1 tablespoon butter
2 tablespoons shallots, minced

6 oz jumbo lump crabmeat
1 tablespoon flour
1 sm can white corn

2 cups Swiss cheese, shredded/divided
3 eggs
1 cup half and half
1/2 teaspoon salt
dash pepper
dash nutmeg


Have a 9-inch pastry shell partially baked.

Saute shallots in butter until tender, about 2 minutes.
Mix in crabmeat, flour and corn.
Remove from heat and set aside.

Sprinkle 1 cup of the cheese in the pie shell.
Spread with crab mixture.

Beat eggs, cream, salt, pepper and nutmeg until mixed.

Pour into shell (over crab mixture).
Sprinkle with remaining cup of cheese.
Press cheese so that egg mixture just covers it.

Bake for 30 – 35 minutes (until top just starts to brown) at 350 degrees.

cheat-a-pizza

i've had bloggers block... sorry...

and this isnt exactly rocket science that i'm about to post but when bloggers block hits, there's little one can do but ride it out... (if you must know, i chose to ride it out over some white water while sitting in a tube up in the catskills. a few bruises later, hopefully i've shaken out some of the cobwebs...)

anyway, back to cheat-a-pizza...

so i'm on the phone one night chatting with my friend Sherri while making myself some of the ever-impressive pita pizza that college girls everywhere call gourmet dinner and i mentioned it... she mis-heard and thought i said cheat-a-pizza and laughed and well, the name stuck...

Perhaps one of the easiest things to make for dinner and also incredibly versitile... the only thing that i think one needs to keep in mind is this - if you arent using 'pizza sauce' (i wont judge you for using the store-bought stuff, i mean, it took me over a month to blog about this - i can hardly be judgemental), make sure to thicken up whatever you are using... the first time i made this i tried just using a basic tomato sauce and it was way too watery... the second time, i thickened it up with some tomato paste and that seemed to do the trick... if you dont have tomato paste but want to thicken your sauce up, just throw it in a sauce pan and heat it up for a little while - if you put it over medium heat, it should thicken up real quick - just be careful as if you leave it too long, you'll burn it...

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Cheat-a-pizza
courtesy of me

one large size whole wheat pita
1/4 c tomato sauce
1 tbsp tomato paste
~20 herbed baby bocchini (fresh mozzarella, about the size of gumballs often packed with some oil and italian herbs. or could use plain and add more of your own herbs. You could also sub in any fresh mozzarella and just chop it up)
1 oz(?) oregon blue cheese, crumbled (not sure of the amount but not too much - maybe about golf ball size, pre-crumbling?)
red pepper flakes
italian seasoning
salt
pepper

Preheat oven and pizza stone to 350

mix tomato sauce and paste together

spread on pita, leaving 1/2 in border all around

arrange bocchini evenly on sauce

arrange oregon blue cheese around the bocchinis. remember that a little blue goes a LONG way and use sparingly.

season with any combination of red pepper, italian seasonings (oregano, basil or the good ol italian mix), garlic powder, salt, pepper, whatever... or save those for after it comes out - up to you!


Place on pizza stone (be careful - stone is HOT) and cook ~8 minutes or until cheese is nice and melty.... let sit for 2 - 3 minutes before cutting to allow cheese and sauce to 'set up' a bit...

susan's revenge

last winter, i called my friend susan to get her chili recipe and had to suffer my usually-cynical friend gushing on about some guy...

fastforward a couple months and we are reminded why we are cynical and jaded...
yeah, you guessed it, he broke her heart...

to make matters worse, she was perusing my blog and ran across the entry dedicated to her gushy rants which served to only further depress... when she mentioned it, i asked her if she wanted me to take the post down, change the name, whatever... she said no, but we did need to come up with the anti-susan's-in-love recipe...

and what better comfort-breakup food than easymac with cut up hotdogs (you can decide if there's some symbolism going on there or not.)

susan's a vegetarian, so you will have to suffer thru tofu dogs, but i'm sure it would work just the same with regular hot dogs... hell, it was always good when i was a little kid!

---

Susan's Revenge
courtesy of me & susan

1 container easy mac
1 tofu dog


Prepare easy mac according to directions on the container

cook tofu dog in microwave for 45 seconds

while cheese sause is thickening, hack veggie dog into a million little pieces

combine all in the easy mac cup

enjoy while watching High Fidelity - our choice for ultimate breakup movie...

diet : postponed

you know how most people get the stomach flu and lose weight?

yeah, not me.

immediately following said stomach flu, i decided to injest 1/2 lb of cheese. ok, fine, i gave the dog a bite or two, but mostly, that 1/2 lb was ALL me.

see, i was feeling a little sorry for myself. 2 of my best friends were up for the weekend so that we could celebrate my new position at work, enjoy a spa day and generally just have fun... but oh no, god decided to punish me for some unknown crime and give me some type of food poisioning or stomach flu instead, which lasted just long enough for me to miss out on all the fun.

anyway, normally when i'm feeling a little sorry for myself, i order up some grilled cheese. cause i rarely have regular old american cheese and bread in the house as i dont eat either often enough to justify it always being here... however, today i had to run out anyway and decided screw it, i'll buy myself the ingredients and make it for myself.

hrmpf. i'll show that stomach flu!

its weird - when i was a kid, my mom always made her grilled cheese in the oven, under the broiler. and i do have a special affinity for it made that way. but i also have a special affinity for butter and frying pans. and today was a butter and frying pan kind of day. partially cause i wanted butter, partially because i havent really figured out where the broiler is, exactly, in my oven (i dont know if the bottom pull out is the broiler or a storage drawer, so i just dont use it. i think its the broiler, but i feel dumb trying to figure it out. it makes me wonder why i'm willing to admit it here... anyway...)

i also decided to change it up a little and go for a triple decker... one of the places i frequently order from does this (sometimes - its hit or miss) and i really kind of like it in that gluttonous way...



its really not so hard to make the triple decker - and it really is a lot better - particularly when you havent eaten much in 24 hours...



but the shame isnt in the fact that i made it a triple - the shame is in the fact that i made it twice...

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Triple Decker Grilled Cheese
courtesy of me & moms everywhere

3/4 tbsp butter
3 slices white bread
4 slices american cheese (i used deli slices, but you can use kraft singles if you want. i wont judge)
more cheese for snacking while you are cooking (i will judge you if you snack on kraft singles)


melt butter on skillet over medium-low heat

eat a couple slices of the extra cheese

place all 3 slices of bread on skillet; let brown for about 2 mins

eat another piece of cheese. maybe share some with the dog.

flip one slice over when its just a bit tan

place one slice of cheese on the tan, cooked side

eat another slice or two of the extra cheese

in about another 30 seconds - 1 minute later, flip the other slices

place 1 slice of cheese on one of them
place 2 slices of cheese on the other one

eat one more slice of the extra cheese before returning it to the fridge

flip slice #1 onto the other slice with only one piece of cheese
flip the slice with 2 pieces on top of the sandwich you just made

cook the triple decker until cheese is melty, just about 30 seconds to 1 minute.

slice diagonally and serve

because we dont get snow days in manhattan

did you know that? worst.part of living in this city, ne, this borough, is the lack of snow days... cause kids, when's the last time you heard that wall street took a snow day?

exactly. and unfortunately, if they can get to work, that must mean i can too...

anyway, there really is nothing that says snow day quite like soup. tomato soup, to be exact... and ever since i got the immersion blender, i've been obsessed with the idea of making everything, anything with it... not to mention using the herbs from the aerogarden...

pack snow and the obsession all in one day and its time for some tomato soup...

once again, i must sing the praises of the vidalia chop wizard...
it slices, it dices, it took nearly all of the prep work out of making the soffritto for the soup.

i thought about putting rice in there, as my long standing favorite soup EVER (and the entire reason i like tomato soup) was the tomato rice soup from the now-defunct MBNA corporate cafeteria, but decided that there were chives in that there aerogarden, and they were begging for a baked potato to top...

therefore, i introduce to you, the perfect snow night meal:

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Homemade Tomato Soup
courtesy of The Food Network - Michael Chiarello (with slight changes by me)

1 (14-ounce) can chopped tomatoes
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 stalk celery, diced
1 small carrot, diced
1 yellow onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced

1 cup vegetable broth
1 bay leaf
2 tablespoons butter

1/8 cup chopped fresh basil leaves
1/2 cup heavy cream


Preheat oven to 450°.

Strain the chopped canned tomatoes, reserving the juices, and spread onto a baking sheet.
season with salt and pepper, to taste.
drizzle with 1/4 cup of the olive oil and roast until caramelized, about 15 minutes. (note: i honestly think you only really need about 1/8 of a cup of oil, at most, for this step. next time i make it, i will cut way back...)

Meanwhile, in a saucepan, heat remaining olive oil over medium-low heat.
Add the celery, carrot, onion and garlic, cook until softened, about 10 minutes.

Add the roasted chopped canned tomatoes, reserved tomato juices, vegetable broth, bay leaf and butter.
Simmer until vegetables are very tender, about 15 to 20 minutes.

Add basil and cream.

Puree with a hand held immersion blender until smooth.

Makes 4 servings.

all i wanted was a chili recipe.

so i have this friend. this cynical, jaded friend. (ok, most of my friends are cynical and jaded, but whatever...) and i love her for that.

i also love her for her veggie chili recipe...

(shown with my other best friend, Stella. surrounding a pile of creamy polenta - my inappropriate subsitute for cornbread - and topped with cheddar...)

therefore, you can imagine my surprise when i called her a couple weeks back to ask for said chili recipe (i know i had it in this apartment. i just have no idea where it ended up...) and found out that she was IN LOVE. what does this have to do with food? NOTHING. but its my blog and i'll publicly tease my friends if i want...


therefore, this recipe is no longer just known as susan's chili, its now known as 'susan'sinlove chili'.

(shown with blue corn chips. this is my preferred combination...)

its even a little funnier if you know her whole name...

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Susan'sinlove chili
pieced together from between rumblings of how DREAMY her new boy was...
Click here to import directly into Pepperplate

1 tbsp olive oil
1 cup chopped onion *
1 large red pepper - chopped *
5 cloves garlic - minced

1 16 oz can great northern (white) beans
1 16 oz can kidney beans
1 16 oz can black beans
14 oz can diced tomatoes - plain
14 oz can diced tomatoes with jalepenos

1 c frozen corn
1 large carrot, chopped into small pieces

1 tbsp chili powder
1 tbsp chipotle chili powder
1.5 tsp oregano
1 tsp cumin

1 chipotle pepper in adobo sauce, minced
adobo sauce to taste


over medium heat, saute onion and pepper and garlic in olive oil. about 3 - 5 mins

Add cans of beans (rinsed)
add tomatoes
bring to boil and stir - then reduce heat to low and simmer.

Add corn & carrot

add spices and let simmer, uncovered for about a half hour - 45 mins. Stir occasionally.

when liquid is nearly cooked away, add chipotle pepper and adobo sauce, to taste.

cook another few minutes and then serve with a good beer, some cornbread or chips, shredded cheese - or any other way you can think of...

Chili can also be frozen in single serving sized and reheated for 2 - 2 1/2 mins on high (microwave).

*that vidalia chop wizard ROCKED for this part...

bad day solution

if you read my other blog, you already know i had a craptastic day. if you dont read it, i'll recap... annoying people on the subway, annoying people at work, annoying people at the lab, annoying people at time warner...

i thought the solution to my bad day was to go out and get myself some Sabra hummus for dinner (seriously, i cant even make it that cheap, so why bother trying? theirs is SO good!) even though it meant changing out of my PJs and back into real clothes...
so i did that, and it was good, but it wasnt good enough...

i needed more. i needed cookies.

(it is worth mentioning that today was supposed to be the start of 'operation: body makeover' but it was squashed by the fact that my shiny new gym membership may be cheaper through our new insurance, which means i need to find out the details before i sign up and spend too much...)

nothing fancy - half of a batch of the good ol fashioned toll house cookie recipe. plus coconut. plus one mistake...

the recipe calls for softened butter... in a very typical moment of impatience, i wanted the butter softened like, 5 minutes ago. so i put it in the microwave. and forgot about it until i heard it bubbling. oops... i thought that i should let it cool before beating, but figured i might as well add the sugar and then cool it... and by cool it, i mean put it in the fridge.

then i got more impatient and added the egg, the vanilla, the salt and the baking soda. and put it back in the fridge.

then i got more impatient and took it out. it was still quite melty, but whatever. i wanted cookies NOW, not in an hour...

so i beat the hell out of the mixture... until it seemed like it came as close to resembling softened butter as possible... it was holding some shape - i figured that was enough, right? mixed in the flour (a bit more than i even should have) and then got a little nervous - the batter seemed more like batter than like dough...

but thank god for that coconut... (not the sweetened kind, the kind you get out of the bulk food bin in the supermarket...) i mixed in the chips and the coconut and i guess the dried coconut soaked up just the right amount of liquid, (liquid caused by melted butter. duh.) cause now it seemed right.

i was still a bit skeptical but wow - thats a mistake i'll make over and over... the cookies are a little crisp on the outside and almost a little cakey on the inside...


the chips are soft but not mushed. and the coconut is there, but its just a hint of flavor... um, yum...

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Chocolate Chip Coconut Mistake Cookies
screwed up courtesy of the standard Toll House Cookie recipe

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 sticks) butter, melted and then cooled
3/4 cup sugar - half granulated sugar, half packed brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 large egg
1 cup NESTLÉ® TOLL HOUSE® Semi-Sweet Chocolate Morsels
scant 1/2 cup organic coconut flakes (not sweetened)


PREHEAT oven to 375° F.

In microwave, melt butter in medium sized (non-metal) mixing bowl. 1 min, 15 seconds should do it.

Mix sugars, vanilla, salt and baking soda in with melted butter. Add egg.
Refrigerate for 5 minutes or more, if you can stand the waiting.

Beat melted butter mixture on medium high until it starts to get lighter, fluffier and hold some shape... probably a good 3 or 4 minutes...

Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in chips and coconut. Drop by heaping tablespoons onto baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

BAKE for 10 to 12 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on baking sheets for 5 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.

Dough can also be frozen. Wrap in wax paper, form into a log and wrap the whole thing in a freezer bag. I hear it will last this way for up to 8 weeks, but who the heck has cookie dough in their freezer for 8 weeks???

Snobby Joes

(originally titled: so good that i'm skipping past dessert...)

there are mint chocolate brownies waiting - no begging - to be posted.

but they will wait. because this - this MUST be made soon. while the weather is cold and craptastic. (did you hear it may SNOW at the end of the week? SNOW!)

i didnt make these up, i didnt really change anything (except the color of a pepper and that was just cause i used what i had instead of running to the store) but i need to share this, STAT.

vegan sloppy joes. also known as Snobby Joes. also known as a 5 pt dinner for all of you weight watchers out there...

onion, pepper, garlic & oil look good!

simmering lentils. ew, looks gross!

honestly, they couldnt be easier... i had 45 minutes between getting home and going back out and i put it all together and then let it sit so that all the flavors could really mush together...






now, i dont know about your childhood, but during MY childhood, there was really only one kind of packaged roll. i'm not sure if its cause they are so yummy or if its cause they are so full of preservatives that they NEVER EVER get moldy or hard, but we always, always, always had martin's potato rolls in the house. always.



honestly, aside from perhaps kraft mac & cheese with cut up hotdogs or perhaps hamburger helper (both things i no longer eat since there's meat in both), theres nothing that says childhood memories like sloppy joes... therefore, it would have been 6 ways wrong to put them on anything other than martin's rolls...



(there's only one in that picture, but i had 2. I'm a piggy...)

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Snobby Joes
Courtesy of Veganomicon, via the ppk.com - teeny tiny changes by me


1 cup uncooked lentils
4 cups water

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 medium yellow onion, diced small
1/2 red pepper, diced small
2 cloves garlic, minced

2 1/2 tablespoons chili powder
2 teaspoons oregano
1 teaspoon salt

8 oz can tomato sauce
1/4 cup tomato paste

3 tablespoons maple syrup
1 tablespoon yellow mustard (wet mustard)

potato rolls (or some other kind if you MUST)



Put the lentils in a small sauce pot and pour in 4 cups water. Cover and bring to a boil. Once boiling, lower heat and simmer for about 20 minutes, until lentils are soft. Drain and set aside. Reserve 1/2 c of the liquid.

About 10 minutes before the lentils are done boiling. saute the onion, garlic and pepper in the oil for about 8 - 10 minutes, until softened.

Add the cooked lentils, the chili powder, oregano and salt to the onion/garlic/pepper combo and mix.
Add the tomato sauce and tomato paste. If desired, add 1/4 - 1/2 c of the reserved liquid in order to allow the mixture to 'cook down'.
Cook for about 10 minutes over low heat, stirring frequently.

Add the maple syrup and mustard and heat through.

Turn the heat off and let sit for at least 10 minutes to allow the flavors to meld.

Serve on open face potato rolls. Should make about 6 sandwiches.

(1/6th of lentil recipe = 3 WW pts. 1 potato roll = 2 WW pts.)