I'm Still Here (Sunday Dinner)

Taking a break from paper world, I finally took a minute to cook up the stuff I got at the AMAZING Inwood farmer's market (more on that later). I like to do a Sunday night dinner that is a little awesome since the rest of the week is so insane. Here we go:
-roasted fingerling potatoes
-sauteed collards
-roasted spaghetti squash with vars spices
-baked soy-mustard crusted tofu

P.S. HAZ! (thx Ben!)

Eating Appreciation Day

Thanksgiving is not just my favorite holiday, it's the only holiday I like. At all. Turkey + stuffing + gravy = heaven. For me, it's the perfect meal. So much starch. Butter in EVERYTHING. I wish it was more complicated than that. But it's not.

Ever since the first time I had a less than satisfactory Thanksgiving meal I've wanted to make my own. The first time I did it was two years ago when, through a series of misunderstandings, Sara and I were left with nowhere to go on Thanksgiving. So, I made the whole meal for just the two of us, while we sat at home in sweat pants and listened to old episodes of This American Life on line. That was perhaps the best Thanksgiving I've ever had.

This year I went to my aunt's house and made all of the sides, plus two pumpkin pies. I didn't think to take pictures beforehand, but here are a few phone shots of the aftermath:

Sweet potatoes with marshmallows:

I really wish I'd taken a picture of this before all of the marshmallows melted. The marshmallows were all perfectly browned. It was ridiculous. Like in a goddamn magazine. It was disgusting how awesome it looked. I'm not even a big fan of sweet potatoes and I just kind of winged this. Boiled them and then mashed them with some butter (of course), cinnamon, brown sugar, and evaporated milk (mostly b/c we only had fat free milk and I had it left over from making pumpkin pie). I think you can do just about anything to sweet potatoes and everyone who likes them will love them.

Stuffing:

I love stuffing. It's probably my favorite part. This is a really basic stuffing that I made with veggie stock instead of chicken stock so that my vegetarian sister could get a little joy out of this bird-eater's holiday.

Cranberry Sauce:

Again, as simple as it gets. Cranberries, sugar, water. I don't know why anyone would ever buy this already made. It's even fun to make. A monkey could do this.

And finally, Pumpkin Pie:

I never liked pumpkin pie until one year when my mom made it from a cheese pumpkin. I think she only did this once, but it was so memorable that I always wanted to try it myself. I started doing it in like '03 or '04 and have done it every year since. I've had people say it was the best they've ever tasted. You'd think that would be the ultimate compliment, but it sounds so made up. Still, this pie RULES.

yo ben: this guy. oh man, this guy. you're going to have a conniption.

i think thisi is the guy who really drank your milkshake.

oh man.

Challenge Entry: The Cucone

Meet the cucone.

Based on the bacone.


Here's me holding it.

Here's that guy with his.


The bacone is a cone make of cooked bacon filled with scrambled eggs, cheese, country gravy, and topped with a biscuit. The cucone is a cone made of peeled cucumber, filled with poached egg whites, goat cheese, and topped with a piece of smoked salmon.

I'd say this guy speaks entirely for himself, but... Boo-Yah!!!

I'm going to hell

for eating female crabs. but by god were they tasty!


(sexing crabs)

happy halloween, SHARK STYLE

this year, i carved a shark. you cant see it, but he has some fearsome teeth and a terrifying looking tail! but greg and matt said he looks like a dolphin. eff that. dolphins suck. "vanessa!?!" you might cry, "dolphins are intelligent and friendly!" to which i would reply (to quote cartmen) "yeah, intelligent and friendly on rye bread with some mayo"

stupid dolphins.
matt's pumpkin was much more fierce. not in a 'project runway' kind of fierce (go christian!) but in a IM GOING TO EAT YOU AND SUCK THE MARROW FROM YOUR BONES kind of fierce. it's SHARK X.

shark x comes from a long-standing tradition which was started by jon soto. while i may not approve of his lack of a flat-top hair cut, the man knows how to start a bad-ass tradition.



For dinner we ate shitake mushrooms sauted with olive oil AND butter, salt and pepper. After about 5-10 minutes of that, i threw in about 3/4 cup of white cooking wine. once that bubbled down a bit, i added some salad greens that were hanging out in the fridge and about to turn into salad-green-soda (gross).

all of that over noodles. i loved it. it was delicate. YUM. matt wished there was some sort of sauce. maybe next time i will take the stems from the mushrooms (which you dont want to really put in the dish because they're pretty tough) and make a broth-y sauce with them. cook em with some water and more butter and some seasonings. but that's all for next time.

and o man you guys. we made pumpkin seeds by soaking them in buffalo wing sauce and then baking them. it was brilliant. wait until we fine-tune the recipe and then BOOM WE'LL BE DRANKIN ALL THE MILKSHAKES OUT THERE.

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.