Fluffy

Frittatas are an awesome breakfast option for someone like me who doesn't have time to cook every morning: they can be made in advance and refrigerated, and are easy to heat up. Plus, they can be a fully balanced meal, as well as being delicious. What's not to like?

Breakfast For Everyone Frittata

8 eggs
1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
2 cups baby spinach
1 large potato, diced
1 cup mushrooms, sliced
1 medium onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup olive oil
5 basil leaves, chopped
salt
pepper

~Beat eggs in a mixing bowl, salt and pepper to taste.
~Heat olive oil in the pan over medium heat. Add garlic, potatoes, onions, mushrooms, salt and pepper; cook until potatoes are soft, about 15 minutes.
~Use a slotted spoon to scoop potato mixture to a bowl; leave the oil in skillet.
~Pour beaten eggs into the pan and cook until bottom is golden and edges have begun to set, ~5 minutes.
~Add potato mixture to the pan, sprinkle cherry tomatoes on top. Cook for 2-3 minutes.
~Place baby spinach on top, and cover the pan to wilt. Cook until eggs are completely set.
~Serve in slices.

I Love The Pork Shop

...but not for their pork!

Just a quickie, my lunch today, a caprese salad. Fresh Mozzarella from The Pork Shop, located across the street. Styling courtesy of my room mate.

Caprese Salad for 2

2 vine-ripened tomatoes, sliced in wedges
1 bunch of fresh basil
1 lb ball of fresh mozzarella cheese
Extra virgin olive oil
salt
pepper

~Slice the mozzarella to an appropriate size in relation to the tomatoes and basil.
~Arrange nicely on a plate. Or don't.
~Drizzle with olive oil.
~Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste.

Like Deconstructed Pizza

Grilled cheese and tomato soup, that is. I just described it as "deconstructed pizza" to get The Boyfriend interested in it. And that's what I made for dinner tonight.

Of course, no meal preparation in this dormitory would be complete without a fire alarm interruption, of which there were 2--one just as I was about to get started, and one just as I was almost finished with the soup.

Fire Alarm Count: 17.
No, I didn't add wrong. There was also one at noon today when Mi, E and I returned for a short reprieve from our classes.

WAIT--Make that 18. It just went off as I am writing this, at 8:59. Yup. And we didn't get back in until 9:30, because some people who decided to stay in the building looked out the window and an RA saw them. The building advisors wound up making us stand outside while they checked every room in the building. Do the math--12 floors, 12 suites per floor, 2 rooms per suite. That's 288 rooms to inspect. Clearly, the ones who alerted the RA in the first place were dumbasses. If you're going to break the rules, at least do it inconspicuously and without inconveniencing everyone else.

Now let's get back to the food...

I have never made tomato soup from scratch before (read: I've only ever made it out of a can). But I love tomato soup. I love tomatoes, for that matter, but tomato soup is special. I prefer mine thick and sweet and acidic and basil-y, and for me it's what chicken noodle soup is to others. Better yet, since it's completely vegan, Mi, who is pescetarian, can eat it too. So today, I looked at those four beautiful vine-ripened tomatoes in the fridge and decided it was time to use them. And what would I make to accompany my lovely fresh tomato soup? Grilled cheese. I believe I've mentioned before that I love my grilled cheese. I could probably live happily on it for the rest of my life. And grilled cheese dipped in tomato soup is my idea of heaven. I'm such a food geek, I know.

But anyway, my first time making real tomato soup, I decided to wing it. And it came out exactly the way I'd hoped.



Tomato Soup Not From a Can

4 medium vine-ripened tomatoes, cubed
2 large tomatoes, cubed
Don't get your tomatoes from a supermarket. I bought mine off one of the many street carts selling vegetables and fruits in NYC, and the produce there is much better, not to mention cheaper.
2 sprigs of fresh basil
1 tbsp salt, plus more to taste
2 tbsp sugar
3 tblsp olive or vegetable oil
Olive oil is preferable, but I have yet to find a market where they sell it for less than $8 a bottle.
1 tbsp garlic powder

No water. No water is needed for this recipe. This is for thick, delicious tomato soup with nothing to dilute the flavor. If you want watery tomato mush, go elsewhere where they tell you to use water.

~mix the oil, salt, and 1 tbsp of sugar together in a large mixing bowl. Add the basil leaves and crush them slightly (I did my crushing with a whisk) to release the flavor.
~Pour in the cubed tomatoes, and toss it all together so that it's nicely coated. Let it sit in the fridge for 10-15 minutes. This is my "treatment" for tomatoes that are not home grown, which in my opinion, will never be as good as a tomato you grew yourself. If you're lucky enough to live near a farmer's market, try there. Either way, I prefer to soak my tomatoes in this solution a bit before cooking.
~After 10-15 minutes (or if you just decided to skip this step), heat up a bit of oil in a pot and put in the garlic powder. Fish out the basil leaves and put those in the pot too.
~Then pour the entire contents of the bowl into the pot...and stir. Add the second tbsp of sugar. Taste the soup before adding salt as needed. Put the fire on medium heat, and stir some more. Keep stirring until the tomatoes have cooked down into soupy mush.

Yields: Enough for about 3 bowlfuls, depending on the size of your bowls. Enjoy with freshly fried grilled cheese, like we did, or with crispy garlic bread.

Midnight Snacks Episode 1

I would first like to congratulate the other inhabitants of my building for not setting off the fire alarm today.

Second, yes, I am indeed making a post at 4 AM. The reason for this is because I am staying up atrociously late to boil water.

Yes. That's right. Boiling water. Not even with an egg or two in the water. Just water. To drink. Because I have personally always felt that buying large quantities of bottled water was a bit stupid when you had a perfectly good kitchen tap right there. I know there is a group of paranoid people who will immediately warn me "Don't do it! Tap water has lead and contaminants and blah, blah blah..." whatever. Past generations have grown up just fine on just water boiled over the stove. If you're that worried, do what everyone says and run the tap for 2 minutes before consuming any of it. I refuse to use bottled water for all my cooking and drinking purposes, and people who are still paranoid can just go here and read up on tap water safety and then come back and inform me of it.

Those of you who wonder why the hell I am not boiling my water while the sun is actually up do not know me well. Which is understandable, because those who do know me know that I like to stay up late. A lot. Really late. And these late-night vigils often involve a snack. Maybe even snacks. And therein lies the reason for my late-night-ness.


Yes, I actually do this. You may laugh.

Tonight, the snack is the leftover margherita pizza that I had as a parting meal with The Boyfriend before he embarked upon his journey back home. Yes, we are totally serious about this long-distance relationship thing. And those of you who can only offer pessimistic comments about the imminent outcome of this endeavor can suck it. Now now, Yumi, be nice!

Ahem. Anywhoo...this margherita pizza by Brooklyn's Tomato N Basil, I would say, is not quite on par with the one I enjoyed on two occasions at Cranbury Pizza, which I just discovered is famous for their margherita pizza (I might be biased, but this is my blog and I'll be biased if I want to). But it was definitely yummy, and dammit I'm no food critic--The Boyfriend and I got a whole pie and had three slices apiece, and wrapped up the remaining two and brought it back to my dormitory. I would gladly eat this pizza again in a heartbeat. Which I am now doing. And with a mug of Arizona Iced Green Tea, I am content.


On a random note, on the way back to my dormitory after pizza, I bought four beautiful vine-ripened tomatoes that actually smell like tomatoes from a street cart by my building for $1.50. As opposed to the two tasteless beefsteak tomatoes Whole Foods fleeced me $2.95 for a few days ago. I am so never buying produce at Whole Foods again. I don't care how organic their food is, if I can't afford it it's not happening.

The Idiots Who Can't Cook and Marinara Sauce with Fresh Basil

It's been a few days since I've made a post. No, that does not mean I haven't eaten anything since my last post. I took the train back to my house to pick up a few things and slept over at The Boyfriend's house with a few friends, and my diet on those days consisted mainly of Philly's cheese steak and Papa John's pizza.

I would like to take this moment to crown Papa John's as the best restaurant/takeout pizza you can get. Why this bold declaration, you ask?

*It's not super-greasy. Many restaurant pizzas have so much oil floating on top of the cheese that it could be soaked up with a sponge.
*The cheese is not burnt, it is perfectly soft and melted.
*The tomato sauce is not just salty, it is sweet and tastes deliciously of tomatoes.
*The dough is soft and bread-y.
*The crust is crisp, but not hard.

Yes. I love my pizza, and Papa John's has appealed to me for all of the above reasons.

On Monday morning, my dad dropped me off at Princeton Junction Station. After I took the NJ Transit back to New York, and rode the subway to 1st Avenue, all the while lugging a duffel bag that I swear weighed about 80 pounds (I'm 105 lbs., so you see why this is a problem.) and carting a plastic crate loaded with even more stuff, I was too broken in body and spirit to even attempt to make myself dinner. So I caved and ran to the nearest CVS and bought myself a few cans of Chef Boyardee ravioli. (Oh no she di'nt!)

Anyway, onto food that I actually made. I have had a package of linguine sitting on my desk shelf since I moved in (if you squint at the picture of my desk I posted on August 20th, you'll see it sitting next to the bag of rice), and since Mi and E had invited a friend, J, who lives on the 1st floor of our dormitory building, up for dinner tonight, I figured tonight would be a good opportunity to use it. So on our way back from Orientation, we stopped by Whole Foods and grabbed a jar of 365 Everyday Value Classic Marinara pasta sauce, frozen okra, and some Canola Oil (we looked for olive oil, which I prefer, but all they had was Extra-Virgin for like $10 a bottle and we're too poor for that).

Back in our cramped dorm room kitchen, I was about to start cooking when...dun dun duuuun! Disaster strikes! The fire alarm starts blaring, for the second time that day (we were gone for the first time). My room is on the 11th floor, and during fire alarms we aren't allowed to take the elevator, so it was down 11 flights of stairs we went. By the time the fire trucks had pulled away, it was 6:45 and dinner was late.

Okay, as I was typing this, the fire alarm just went off AGAIN. And apparently the reason for these THREE alarms in one day was because some people kept burning stuff on the kitchen stove, which created so much smoke that it set off the alarms. What the fuck? (this is probably a good time to mention this blog is not for young impressionable children.) It is not difficult to keep from burning things on an electric stove. If you're really that bad at cooking, you should probably either have someone teach you how to avoid burning things, or just stay the hell away from the kitchen. I'm getting tired of walking down 11 flights of stairs in the midst of a piercing fire alarm.

ANYWAY. On to the recipe. Before walking down 11 flights of stairs for the second time today, I would have said this isn't going to add any kind of extra wisdom to one's mental library of culinary knowledge...but now I think otherwise. So without further ado, I present spaghetti for dummies.


Twice-Interrupted Linguine with Marinara Sauce and Veggies

4 servings of linguine (about 2 oz. per person)
1 1/2 cup of marinara sauce
1 large tomato, diced
1 onion, diced
1 cup okra, chopped
1/2 cup button mushrooms, sliced
1 tbsp oil
a few sprigs of fresh basil, chopped

~Toss the linguine in a pot of water with a pinch of salt and set it to boil.
~In a large pan, heat up the oil and put in the chopped basil leaves and diced onion and stir on medium heat until the onion is lightly browned.
~Add the mushrooms, okra, and tomato, and push it around some more until the tomatoes become mushy.
~Tip in the marinara sauce, and stir it until it's hot and the entire kitchen smells like an Italian restaurant.
~The linguine is done when you throw it at the wall and it sticks. Do not overcook it. I prefer my pasta with a little bite--al dente, for all you cooking geeks, meaning to tooth. Cooking this particular pasta to al dente should take about 10 minutes in boiling water. Drain your linguine and divvy it up into four bowls. Pour the sauce and veggies over it and enjoy!

Makes enough for 4 people.

Sauteing the onions and basil.


This is J.



























You can also basically do this with any other type of pasta. I intend on making it with shells, which is my favorite pasta shape because the yummy sauces can hide in the little "bowl" the shell makes, and each bite contains a burst of tomato-y goodness.

A Trip to the Farmer's Market and Tomato Mushroom Scrambled Eggs

I can see this is going to become a regular thing. All the better.

Today after Orientation ended, Mi, E, and I stumbled upon a farmer's market on the way back to our dormitory. It's an odd concept for me, chancing upon vegetable/foodstuffs stalls in the middle of the city, because...I mean, would you expect to find people hawking fish and produce in the middle of NYC?

Well, maybe you do. I suppose since farmer's markets are the new hottest thing for "green" living, and New York City is one of the first to pick up on trends...

Anyway, Mi, E, and I walked through the farmer's market. Mi bought a bag of onions (different varieties--I think red and Italian being a few), and we also bought a small basil plant. Because fresh basil is awesome, and I'm totally going to attempt to make margherita pizza in our microwave oven at sometime. Wish me luck.


We checked out the tomatoes in the farmer's market also, but most of them were pretty pricey--$3-3.50 per lb., because they were all fancy heirloom varieties. Eh. For those who can afford it...we ran into Whole Foods across the street instead and picked up cheap tomatoes, button mushrooms, and a pack of 3 chicken drumsticks for me to make into curry later this week.

When we got back, it was past lunchtime, so E whipped up some Korean-style fried rice with last night's leftover white rice, eggs, scallions, and one of the small onions we'd just picked up. I don't have any pictures of this, unfortunately, because when I ran to get my camera I discovered the batteries were dead. So I had to wait for it to recharge, and of course by then all the fried rice was eaten. Oh well.

Anyway, on to dinner. Steamed white rice and scrambled eggs with tomatoes and mushrooms was my favorite dish when I was little...


Tomato Mushroom Scrambled Eggs

1 large tomato, chopped into large chunks
3 large eggs
3/4 cup of button mushrooms, sliced
2 tbsp oil
salt and soy sauce to taste

~Crack the eggs into a small bowl and beat them until they are well mixed. Heat 1 tbsp of oil in a pan, and pour the beaten egg in when it's hot. We want the eggs to be in larger pieces than for the fried rice, so leave it alone longer until the "skin" that forms on the bottom of the pan is quite thick, but it is still liquid on the top. Break it apart with a wooden spoon and push it around until the egg is entirely cooked--it's alright to brown it a little in this recipe. When the egg is done, put it aside in its bowl.
~Heat the second tbsp of oil in the pan, and use this to fry up the tomatoes and mushrooms. Now is the time to add a little salt and soy sauce.
~When the tomatoes have began to turn mushy, add the eggs in and cook for a minute or two longer.

Makes enough for 3 people.

Mi (right) and E waiting for me to finish cooking. All in due time...

Along with our tomato mushroom egg dish, we opened a tin of peppered tuna and some kimchi. I have grown to really like kimchi; the sour spiciness is oddly appealing. Yum. Usually I've not been very good at handling spicy foods, but living with two Korean girls, I suppose it's inevitable that I eventually get used to eating spicy food...