Pesto is the answer

I am revealing to you my trump card for every potluck or backyard bbq. Roasted russet potatoes and haricots verts with pesto. Usually I would put this over watercress. Sometimes I add capers but the pesto was a little salty this time. Why I am making it in the middle of the week on a school night when I have 42309324 pages of reading to do for tomorrow I am not sure except that it is difficult to concentrate with basil aging in the vegetable bin.

¡Chili con huevos!

Vegetarian chili topped with spinach, cheddar cheese, and a poached egg. Kind of like The Soup but it's chili instead of soup. I'm tempted to say that my chili recipe is TOP SECRET but I already gave it to Laura and it's here for anyone to see. I make it with NO TOMATOES BECAUSE I HATE THEM. Also, I can not stress enough how much of a difference bulgur wheat makes to a vegetarian chili. Much meatier. Or you could just put in meat.

Fortune

I got this fortune cookie at the sushi place yesterday:

Milkshake Busters Challenge #4

The next (I believe 4th) Milkshake Busters Challenge has been announced! We will each have one month to prepare...

FATBLOG DEFATIFYING CHALLENGE!!!

Yes! It's finally come! Each contestant must select one item from the infamous thisiswhyyourefat.com and healthy that son of a bitch up! Now keep in mind, some of these recipes, in order to remain as their original post, will have fattening elements. It is your job, however, to take something from the fatblog and turn it into an everydayish meal. Points go to healthiness, creativity, difficulty level, and closeness to the original.

Go forth and make their milkshakes healthy... then drink the shit out of them! Your time beings... NOW!



Keep in mind, all those who abstain from participation may be subject to loss of posting privileges.

FISH > YUENGLING

Look at that fish. look at his beady little eyes. i ate him. yes i did! i ate him right up.
him and his brothers. the red snappa' brothers. i ate all of them. like the gangsta i am, i first laid them on a bed of salt (that i added some whipped egg whites too). also i stuffed those mothah fuckahs with some lemon and onion and garlic, because THAT IS HOW I ROLL.
look at them all snug in their beds made of salt! so cute. that's like 5 pounds of salt there. and like 6 whipped egg whites. that's a lot of salt.
here they go -- into the oven at 425 for 30 minutes. there's no real way to tell when they're done, so just know that a 1.5 lb fish wrapped in about an inch or more of salt will take 25 minutes to cook. TRUST THE TIMING. i added a few more minutes because i cooked two fish to the pan. i mean bed. bed of salt.
then... then i cracked that salt right off. and threw it in the GARBAGE. fucking salt. it also got everywhere. but not inside my fishies! awesome. they have dead eyes now. right when they came out of the oven, the eyes were all swelled up because the liquid inside boiled, but then after a few minutes they caved in. animal eyes are cool.
yeah, this is me de-skinning those delicious fishys. you take that skin right off and the meat inside is delicous and moist. and surprisingly not salty at all! omg. i'm going to have to tell you guys about going to the fish market in trenton. oh man. matt just threw me off track for a second. where was i?
oh fuck yeah. that's such a good combination. dale's pale ale (the best beer in existence in a can) (also Matt says it's damned delicious and he's got a pretty good repoire when it comes to beer tasting) (also it's just a fact) and some red snapper. oh yeah, i was going to tell you guys about this place - ok, so. FISH AS FAR AS THE EYE CAN SEE. seriously. like 30 varieties of fish, all ready to be de-scaled and de boned and gutted and everythign by my helpful mexican de-fisherizer. he was amazing. there were also tanks of live fish in case i wanted to take home my own tilapia for a pet. also, there was a WALL of SHRIMP. i almost lost my boyfriend to grocery section! and whole rock crabs and blue crabs (but only the females which is just tragic because they take em out of the waters and then who will be there to make the next generation of little crabbies for me to eat?)lauren got really grossed out by the eyeballs. and the spine. personally, i like looking at all the parts of something i'm eating... i mean, hell. it's going inside you, you might as well get a good look, eh? am i right?

oh the remains. the best parts were the fishmeats on teh bottom of the fishies because the juices soaked through all the lemons and garlics and got just a touch salty and it was amazing. that's my fork right there, i was picking the remains. YUM.
greg says "THIS FISH IS BETTER THAN YUENGLING" and then got in a philosophical discussion with matt about how yuengling is just adequate and then john terry piped in with how yuengling is to beer what dante's peak is to movies. but everyone agreed that the fish was better than both of those things.
and that's what's left. not too shabby for less than 10 bucks a head! (including salad and greenbeans as a side dish) (also there was a tart that i made from almost overripe fruit that was pretty bangin but is an entry all its own) (BEN WHAT? TOP THAT WITH YOUR MINI EGGS. I DARE YA, and matt just fucked your milkshake)

butternut squash fries

I whipped these together as a treat to prevent myself from crying over my math homework. Peeled and seeded butternut squash, cut into sticks, kosher salt, olive oil, bake, eat. I had them with some aioli on the side.

breakfast like WHOA

OK SO: ben, quit bitching. here's some picturesque deliciousness which even features EGGS and JOHN TERRY!!!! Woooooh!

we made somethign amazing. this is the pancake batter. it includes sour cream, beaten egg whites, RICOTTA!! lemon juice, and yes... you're seeing those yellow flakes! that's lemon zest. i fucking LOVE lemons. this is going to get even more delicous. you cant wait.

Here... here we have the pancakes cooking. they're like an inch thick and so awesome. FLUFFY GALORE.


Ok so, on the side we got some molasses. Grandma's molasses. the ORIGINAL kind. we dont fuck around with the molasses.


You ready for this? we cooked the EGG in the MOLASSES.
THAT JUST BLEW YOUR MIND.


And this is how it turned out. dripping, luscious. full of the sweet stuff. (kind of wierd)

Final plate:
we took some powdered sugar and put a teaspoon of fresh lemon juice in it and smushed it around and put THAT on the pancakes! amazing!


Even JT said "yeah, ok. these pancakes are ok! awesome."
and that's the end of that chapter.