dijon mac and cheese

I like the part about learning to cook where you start to be able to make up your own recipes. It makes last-minute clean-out-the-fridge meals so much more enjoyable.

Take this meal for example. A year ago it would have fallen into the "no meal" category. I had gotten home around 10 one night, realized I hadn't eaten supper, and so looked in my bare cupboards for things to scrape together.

With shells, milk, cheddar cheese, some flour, red pepper flakes and a dash of dijon mustard at the end I stumbled upon a dish I've actually made again. On purpose. When other ingredients were available. That's what I call a MEAL!

Hooray for progress.

popcorn

This may be my least cleverly titled blog post, but let's move on. It was a big weekend, leaving me with a lot of sleep to catch up on... eventually. Hopefully.

Popcorn is really delicious. Not the microwave kind so much, but the old fashioned, heated in a heavy pot kind. I've been making it a lot lately and experimenting with seasoning. My favorite so far is with oil and salt (of course), black pepper, dried thyme, and Parmesan. Super yummy.

And yeah, I do love Australia.

Plain Popcorn

2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1/3 cup popcorn kernels

Heat oil with 3 popcorn kernels in a 3-quart heavy saucepan over moderate heat, covered, until 1 or 2 kernels pop. Quickly add remaining popcorn, then cook, covered, shaking pan frequently, until kernels stop popping, about 3 minutes.

potato and green chile tacos

El Cid has been with me every step of my Chicago way. It was one of the first restaurants I ever went to here. When I got back from the post-college month in Europe, getting on the el from O'Hare, I went straight to the restaurant for a burrito. Birthdays have been celebrated, break ups mourned- their strong margaritas are good for both.

For the past couple of years I've fallen into a delicious rut with El Cid. My order is one avocado taco and one potato taco. Now, the avocado one is a no-brainer to make, but I was always curious about the potato.

Recently I came across Rick Bayless' recipe for potato and green chile taco filling. I gave it a shot and completely loved it. I'm not giving up El Cid yet, but since I no longer live around the corner from them, this will keep me happy in the winter months. You know, until their patio reopens.

Soft Taco Filling: Potatoes and Green Chiles

2 small (about 6 ounces total) boiling potatoes like the red-skinned ones, halved
1 1/2 tablespoons lard or vegetable oil
1/2 small onion, thinly sliced
3 medium, fresh chiles poblanos, roasted and peeled
Salt, about 1/2 teaspoon
3/4 cup (about 3 ounces) crumbled Mexican queso fresco or other fresh cheese like mild domestic goat or farmer's cheese *I've never added the cheese and it's still really good*

1.   The potatoes.   Simmer the potatoes in salted water to cover until tender, about 15 minutes. Drain, cool under running water, peel and cut into 1/4-inch dice.

2.    Fry the mixture.   Heat the lard or oil in a heavy medium-size skillet over medium. Add the onion and potato, and fry, stirring regularly to ensure that nothing sticks to the pan, until the mixture is nicely browned, 10 to 15 minutes.

While the potatoes are browning, seed the chiles and slice them into 1/8-inch strips. Stir them into the potato mixture, season with salt, remove from the fire and stir in the cheese. Scrape into a small dish and cool before using.

Hey, look who's eating a varied diet again! Yes that's right, I'm back on the big girl foods. Because I'm now 29, and dammit it's time to man up and get my shit together. So I did some research, found a recipe to finally use that tin of anchovies that felt unloved in my cupboard for so long and gave the double bird to anemia.
The thing about side dishes is that just eating triple portions does not magically turn it into a main meal. Maybe some day I'll really learn that. Until then, take it from me- you do NOT want to eat an entire bunch of turnip greens. Woooooo.

Wilted Greens with Garlic and Anchovies

Epicurious  | October 2007

Mario Batali

Molto Italiano

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil  

3 anchovy fillets, rinsed  

4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced  

1 head escarole or 1 head or bunch other sturdy leafy green, such as dandelions or turnip greens, cut crosswise into 1/2-inch-wide ribbons, washed and spun dry  

Salt and freshly ground black pepper  

1/2 lemon

 

Heat a 10- to 12-inch sauté pan over medium-high heat until hot. Add the olive oil, anchovies, and garlic and cook just until the garlic is light golden brown, about 30 seconds. Add the greens and cook, stirring constantly, until wilted, about 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper, squeeze the lemon juice over, and serve.

update

Hi. I am alive. A breakup sparked something of a domino effect of freaking out/reassessing a lot of things in my life. Which actually turned out to be a very good thing, but it took a lot of adjusting for me to see that. It's kind of like when you get underwear for Christmas. It's a bummer, but then you realize you needed them and they're actually really comfortable and wonder why you didn't just buy them for yourself a while ago and you're almost embarrassed that you'd put up with those holey ones for that long. So yeah, rocking the new undies of life. Lots of changes, which I'm not the best with, but I'm working on it and learning a lot in the process, so it's going to be ok.

If you read this blog a lot (which you probably do, since you're most likely related to me), you know that my appetite is the first thing to go in times of change. Not much cooking going on lately. If anything it's cereal or avocado toast, which I think I've covered enough. But I wanted to check in and tell you thanks for being awesome.