Defeating the Purpose of Veggies

By frying and adding butter. Yes. While I am not one of those people who cringe at the mention of leafy greens, fried food appeals to me so much more than rabbit food. You may remember that on the day I made linguine, I had some leftover okra and pasta...and today, since it was just The Boyfriend and me for dinner (Mi went home to beg her mom for more rice, and E went out to dinner with a cousin) I decided to make good use of them in an experimental recipe that I had never ever ever made before.

Fried okra. I'm told a lot of people are turned off by the sliminess of the interior of okra. My dad is one of those people. But personally, I have always loved okra. I couldn't tell you why. I just do. The point being, a lot of people don't like how slimy okra is. And according to what seems to be a majority of the Internet, a way to kill that sliminess that people so abhor is by deep-frying it.

I considered this deep-fry method, but seeing as I'm a starving college student and not really in the mood to waste about half the bottle of vegetable oil it would take to deep-fry anything, I decide to go with just frying it.



Panko Fried Okra w/ Butter Pasta and Marinara

1 cup okra, sliced into roughly 1 cm lengths
1/2 cup panko bread crumbs
1 egg, beaten
1 tbsp butter
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1/2 tbsp garlic powder
salt to taste
2 servings of pasta
1 1/2 cup marinara sauce

~Heat up the marinara sauce on medium heat, then put it on low heat and set it aside, stirring occasionally.
~Boil the pasta and drain it. Then melt the butter in a pan and basically fry the noodles in butter. Pasta made with semolina flour will not brown the way Chinese noodles do (something I discovered today) but they will still become satisfyingly buttery. Freshman 15, here I come! Pour the marinara sauce over the pasta.
~Dip the okra into the egg, then roll them in the bread crumbs. Do this with more care than I did, because if you look at my photo you can see most of the panko fell off during the frying process. I was too rough with them. But The Boyfriend was hungry, so I was in a hurry. He was hungry because I was so absorbed in my Harry Potter researching that I basically forgot to make dinner. I'm such a bad girlfriend.
~Heat up the oil in a pan, and when it's hot transfer the okra into the pan carefully to avoid panko loss. Stir the okra with a wooden spoon until the panko turns golden and delicious looking.
~Season with garlic powder and salt. Spoon it over pasta.

Makes enough for 2 people.


(Also, I would like to report that the fire alarm count has not changed since my post earlier this day! Let it be known that since this all started, that is a record. How sad is that? Hopefully we can keep this up. Wish us luck.)

More Idiocy and Grilled Cheese

Okay, so I realize it's unusual for me to be making a post this early. You can blame this on the morons who live in my building, who managed to set off the fire alarm at 9 in the morning.

Fire Alarm Count: 10

On to the food. After trudging down 11 flights of stairs first thing in the morning, when I returned to my dormitory I made myself a grilled cheese sandwich. The simple grilled cheese is imperative to keep me happy and content under stressful conditions. This is soul food, my friends.



































Grilled Cheese to Soothe the Soul

2 slices of bread, preferably organic Italian bread from Whole Foods
1 or 2 slices of American cheese
2 tbsp butter (yes, it's a lot of butter. I promise it's worth it)

~Heat up your pan over the stove. When the pan is hot, add one dollop of butter to melt.
~When the butter is completely melted, put one slice of bread down on the pan. On top of this, add your cheese slice(s) and your second slice of bread.
~When the bread facing the pan is lightly browned, melt the second tbsp of butter in the pan and flip the sandwich carefully with a spatula.
~By the time the second slice of bread is crisp, buttery, and delicious, you should be unbearably hungry. If not, I forbid you to eat this sandwich. Send it to me.
~Slice in half, watch the strings of gooey cheese pull apart, and enjoy.

Makes enough for 1 person. Or maybe not. You may need to make two of these. I do. Often.


Oh, wait, make that 11 for the fire alarm count, by the way. I made a quick run to the Financial Aid office with E and by the time we got back, there were fire trucks lined up outside our building.

To end this post on a cheerier note: Yesterday, this blog reached 100 hits! Yaaaay! Please help me make it to the 1000 mark too~!