Mexican Risotto!!!

Oh yes.  Perhaps the best fusion of cuisines I've ever had.  I often wonder why I don't see this dish EVERYWHERE.  It is the perfect creamy risotto texture with the flavors of your favorite mexican dish.  We chose to stick with our favorite chili ingredients for this first trial run, but you could do a simple cheese and shrimp or do a take on huevos rancheros with eggs and tomatillos.  You could deconstruct any of your favorite Mexican dishes and add it into the risotto and I guarantee it will taste amazing.  We served this with a tequila lime marinated tilapia, but the risotto overshot the fish so far that the fish would have been better off mixed into the risotto.

Ingredients
2 cups creamy tomato soup
2 cups vegetable broth
3 tbsps taco seasoning (we use the Trader Joe's brand)
1/4 cup unsalted butter
1 1/2 cup arborio or carnaroli rice
1 tbsp olive oil
5 cloves garlic, minced
1 onion, diced
1/3 cup tequila, ale or white wine
1 15 oz can of black beans
1 3-4 oz can of green chiles
1 cup corn kernels
6-8 oz aged, sharped cheddar, shredded or crumbled
3 tbsp chopped cilantro
chopped scallions for garnish
Salt and Pepper to taste
Cayenne Pepper and/or Hot Sauce to taste

Directions
Put the stock and tomato soup in a saucepan.  Bring to a low boil and then reduce the heat to keep it warm.  Heat the butter and oil in a pot and saute the onions for 1-2 minutes.  Add garlic and mix well.  Add the rice and stir with wooden spoon to coat all of the rice with fat.

Add taco seasoning and stir in. Saute the rice in the butter and seasoning for a few minutes and then add the tequila, ale or wine.  Stir until it is completely absorbed.  Add 1 ladle of liquid and stir until absorbed.  Continue to add the liquid in this manor until the liquied has been absorbed and the rice is al dente (~18-20 minutes).  Reserve the last ladle of stock.  Add the beans, chile, corn, cilantro, most of the cheese (save some for garnish) and the last ladle of stock.  Stir until all incorporated and cheese has melted.  Salt, Pepper and add hot sauce an/or cayenne to taste.  Remove from heat, serve with scallion garnish.

Scrambled Eggs with Fried Sage and Cornbread

Ingredients

2 Eggs
1 tbsp milk
1-2 tbsp Butter
3-5 sage leaves
Salt and Pepper
A mild white cheese, like mozzarella, is optional
A slice of Buttermilk Cornbread*

Directions

Melt butter in a frying pan.  Put sage leaves in and flip them after ~5 seconds.  Cook for an additional 5 seconds and then remove and place on a towel to drain.  Beat eggs and milk together in a bowl.  Add salt and pepper (two or three shakes of each ought to do it).  Use the same butter to cook your scrambled eggs.  If you're going to add cheese, add it towards the end or on the plate.  Garnish the eggs with sage.  You may want to crumble or break the larger leaves so that they are more incorporated into the eggs.  Serve on top of a slice of cornbread.

*Simple Buttermilk Cornbread Recipe

Ingredients

1 cup cornmeal

1/3 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 egg, beaten

1 cup buttermilk

Directions:

Combine dry ingredients; add beaten egg and buttermilk, mixing well. Pour into greased, heated 8-inch or 9-inch iron skillet. Bake at 400° for 20 minutes, or until lightly browned.

Buttermilk cornbread serves 8.

The Giant Garlic Spaghetti Monster

aka The Spaghetti Sandwich

I've been wanting to make this for a while, and actually found a recipe for a spaghetti sandwich in this awesome kids cookbook- Cooking with Herb: The Vegetarian Dragon.  When I recently had a big craving for spaghetti and meatballs, I decided to go for it.  I made one adjustment though,  I used egg noodles instead of a longer stringier pasta like spaghetti, fettucini or angel hair.  The fluffy egg noodles took some of the 'weight' out of the dish allowing for more face stuffing! 

Quantities are vague hear, because I assume everyone has their own way of making spaghetti and meatballs.  For the record, I used a 12 oz bag of basil egg noodles, almost a full jar of Newman's Own Marinara, and one 12 oz bag of veggie meatballs.  For the garlic bread, I just followed the directions on the box but homemade garlic bread is easy to concoct if you have some bread, garlic and butter lying around.  Here's a good recipe from a fellow blogger. Oh, and we were able to eat off of this for almost a week, so, let's say serves 8-10.

Ingredients

Noodles (spaghetti or egg noodles work well)
Tomato Sauce
Pesto
Meatballs (Try a great meatless version- Nate's Zesty Italian 'balls)
Garlic Bread (Trader Joe's frozen variety was used in this experiment)
Provolone

Directions
Boil up some water for the noodles.  Heat up your tomato sauce and meatballs in another pot.

 Add a heaping spoonful or 2 of pesto to your tomato sauce.  Drain the noodles and heat up the garlic bread in the oven with provolone on top for extra cheesiness.  Mix noodles with the sauce and meat balls.   When the garlic bread is done, top a piece of garlic bread with  some saucy noodles.

Top with another piece of garlic bread.  Smash down real hard.  Try to fit it in your mouth, then give up and eat it with your hands and a fork like a normal person.  

You Want Some Fries With That Breakfast?

Just a little suggestion -  When you don't have home fries or hash browns on hand to complete your greasy diner-style breakfast at home, use french fries.

This little plate is graced with fried eggs and sausage patties with leftover fries from the wonderful 5 Seasons Brewery.  I think I dig it even more then the typical breakfast potatoes. 

Bon appétit!

Mini Coconut Ice Cream Sandwich with Whipped Cream and Raspberries

A Midnight @ Mom's House creation.

I recently found myself at my mom's house for the weekend while she was out of town.  Like many moms, she has a large amount of random fresh foods, condiments and dry goods at any given time.  It's easy and almost necessary to get creative with food in her kitchen, since nothing appears to have been purchased with the intention of being combined together.  

Voila! 

Within 2 minutes I had whipped myself up an extremely satisfying and delicious treat, and it was something that I may not have ever thought of on my own.  

Ingredients

1 mini Ice-Cream Sandwich (I recommend So Delicious Coconut)

1 dollop or squirt of whipped cream

1 small handful of fresh raspberries

Directions

Remove Ice-Cream Sandwich from wrapping.  Apply whipped cream.  Sprinkle with berries. 

Thanks Mom!

Cinnamon Raisin French Toast Sticks

So easy and delicious, I can't believe I haven't done this before!

Ingredients
3 slices cinnamon raisin bread
2 eggs
1/4 cup milk or cream
dash of almond extract
butter for pan frying

Directions
Purchase (or make!) some thickly sliced or unsliced cinnamon raisin bread.  If unsliced, slice into 3 two inch slices,  and then cut each slice into a 2 inch wide strip.  In a bowl, mix together eggs, milk and almond extract.   Heat frying pan or griddle to Med-Low heat.  When pan is hot, melt the butter in it- enough to coat the bottom of the pan.  Dip each strip of bread, making sure to coat each side and the ends and place in pan.  Cook each side for about 5 minutes.  You may need to reapply butter if you're working in smaller batches.  If you're making a lot at once, keep a ceramic plate in the oven @  200-250 F and store the cooked strips in there until you're ready to serve.  Serve with fresh fruit and maple syrup for dipping.  Dust with powdered sugar or some extra cinnamon if you like.
Enjoy!!

Sweet Potato Black Bean Enchiladas with Creamed Spinach and Cheddar

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Mmmmmmm......

Ingredients

1 Sweet Potato

1/2 Onion, chopped

2 cups Spinach, cooked or frozen

1 tbsp Lime Juice

1 8 oz can Black Beans

1 12 oz jar of Enchilada Sauce (we used Trader Joe's)

1 Tbsp Taco Seasoning

1 tbsp Cream Cheese or Plain Yogurt (for creaming the spinach)

1 tsp garlic, minced or powdered

5-6 small Tortillas

1 Tbsp Olive Oil

6-8 oz Cheddar Cheese

Salt

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 F.  Cube sweet potatoes and boil until you can pierce easily with a fork then drain.   Saute onions with olive oil until translucent, then take them off the heat.  Mash the sweet potatoes and and mix in the onions, lime juice, black beans and taco seasoning.


The creamed spinach- if you have an amazing creamed spinach recipe, or just happen to have some laying around in your fridge, use that.  I made a quick concoction out of cooked frozen spinach that I heated up and mixed with cream cheese, garlic and a pinch of salt.  

In a baking dish, pour half of the bottle of enchilada sauce.

Place a tortilla in the dish and coat both sides with enchilada sauce.  Fill with the sweet potato mixture, top with the creamed spinach, and roll it up!  Repeat until all of the filling is used (makes 5-6 enchiladas depending on how big you decide to make them).  Pour the rest of the enchilada sauce on top and spread out evenly.  Top with cheddar cheese.  Bake for 20-25 minutes until sauce is bubbling.  
Dig in! 

Cadbury Creme Egg Ice Cream

Yowza.   I made a version of this last year with homemade frozen custard and some additional mini chocolate easter egg candies -- and it was fantastic -- but the Cadbury creme flavor did not carry through.  So, I decided to try a more direct version that is much simpler and you can quickly make at home (without an ice cream maker).  The idea was to mix in the crushed Cadbury eggs in a cold bowl with your favorite flavored ice cream (sort of like those franchise places with the frozen marble).  As you can see, we experimented with vanilla, but based on our findings other simple flavors would be just as tasty.

Ingredients
1 pint Vanilla Ice Cream (or FroYo)
3 Cadbury Creme Eggs
1 ceramic bowl (frozen for at least 1 hour)
2 wooden spoons

Directions
First, place a large ceramic bowl in the freezer for at least one hour.  Remove from freezer and scoop out contents of ice cream pint.   Place 3 cadbury eggs on top of the ice cream and start whacking with the wooden spoons.

Once the eggs have been mostly desecrated, start mixing and folding the ice cream until the chocolate is thoroughly mixed but you can still make out the yellow clumps of cream in the concoction.  At this point, you may want to pop the bowl and it's contents back in the freezer for 5-10 minutes to prevent melting.  Once the ice cream has firmed up, you can plate some in a bowl and store the rest in the empty pint container.

A friend of mine also pointed out that using a cracked egg on top of a single serving bowl of scooped ice cream would also be worth trying...

ENJOY!!!

Soft Pretzel and Hummus

An easy but delicious and satisfying combo.  The hummus pictured above happens to be a very pungent and tasty garlic hummus.  


A short list of other good things to dip into hummus:
Pita
Warm Garlic Naan
Tortillas
Tortilla chips
French Fries
Crudité (especially carrots)
Crackers
Warm Bread 
String Cheese
Fingers


Ingredients
Fresh or frozen soft pretzel
Hummus


Directions
Warm up pretzel in microwave or toaster oven.  If you're using a frozen variety, follow the directions on the box.*  Serve on a plate, with a big heaping spoonful of your favorite hummus, plain or flavored.  If you have more then one type of hummus in the fridge, you should put some of each on your plate -- variety stimulates the mind and the taste buds.  In fact, I would encourage adding a mustard or two to the plate as well if the mood strikes you.


Dip and eat with your hands.  


*once, when i was a young child, i came home from school and attempted to heat up a frozen pretzel in the microwave.  going off of memory, i failed to look at the directions on the box and nuked the pretzel for 2 minutes rather then 20 seconds.  when it finished cooking, it was completely hard.  i had baked my giant soft pretzel into a giant hard pretzel.  unfortunately it was too hard to really eat and enjoy, so it ended up in the trash.  i was very sad because it was the last pretzel.  learn from my mistakes, don't be a sad pretzel-less fool.   

What Happens When You Throw Chocolate Covered Cherries in a Fondue Pot and Dip Soft Pretzels and Marshmallows in it??

Holy Shit.  There are no words.

Ingredients

1 box of chocolate covered cherries (~12-16 cherries)

1/4 cup cream (you could use a non-dairy cream or an cream liqueur)

1  3-4 oz. bar or milk or dark chocolate, whichever you prefer

Marshmallows

Soft Pretzels (we used the frozen variety that you can just pop in the oven/microwave)

Directions

Melt chocolate bar, chocolate covered cherries and cream in a fondue pot or saucepan set to medium.  Stir and smash chocolate covered cherries with a wooden spoon.  Try to smash as many of the cherries as you can to impart more of their flavor into the medley.

Once the concoction has completely melted, gather round and start dipping!  We kept it simple with just the pretzels and marshmallows, one salty and one sweet.  You can dip anything you want!  The whole spirit of this recipe was to EXPERIMENT and luckily it turned out smashing.  The fondue sauce was fairly quick and easy to make. Great for any assembly of hungry folks, stoned or sober.

It should also be noted that this fondue sauce was just as foxy as a cold chocolate dip or topping.  I think, perhaps, that I may have created something new...Cold Fondue!!  Much more convenient for the solo munchies, you can dip cookies, fruit or marshmallows in it or pour it on top of a bowl of ice cream.  It has a thicker consistency, but is just as tasty.

WARNING: VERY EASY TO OVERDO!!!

Frozen Kiwis, Eaten with a Spoon

Happiness...is a cold kiwi.

Simple.

The best stoner food is the easiest and most delicious.

Kiwis are good.  Frozen kiwis are better.  Everybody has a freezer and a spoon.  Go buy a kiwi and put it in the freezer.  It will keep for months.

When the mood strikes...

Ingredients
1 kiwi

Directions
Place kiwi in freezer.  Before enjoying, take out of freezer and let sit at room temperature for ~10-15 minutes.  Slice in half with a knife.  Scoop out the frozen fruit flesh and let melt in mouth.

Alcoholic Puddin'

Is more then just a sweet southern nickname.

This is so easy!  I recently picked up a 99¢ box of instant chocolate pudding from Trader Joe's because  I thought it would be a cheap, easily stored, quick-fix for the sugar munchies sometime in my future.  When the time came, I was also eyeballing the bottle of irish cream in the fridge as an even quicker fix.  Then, like an eclipse - or a Venn diagram of thought- the 2 were combined...


Ingredients

1 box chocolate instant pudding
1 1/2 cups milk (I used Vanilla Almond Milk)
1/2 cup Irish Cream

Directions

Follow directions on box.  This particular box called for 2 cups milk to be mixed in with the pudding powder.  I decided to replace 1/4 of this with the Irish Cream, but you should experiment with replacing 1/2 or all of the milk and let me know the results!

The whole prep time took about 10-15 minutes - longer if you wish to chill, which I recommend.  The shallower the container you store it in, the quicker it will cool.

Replacing 1/4 of the milk with Irish Cream imparted a noticeable alcohol "bite" to the pudding and the Irish Cream flavor mixed beautifully with the chocolate.  

And it would be simply mad if you decided to pour it on some Ben & Jerry's Crème Brûlée ice cream...

Toaster Pastry S'mores

I just want to say.... this is one of the most beautiful and delicious creations I have ever made.  

The sweet berry filling mixed with the the quality dark chocolate makes this unlike any S'mores that has come before it.  

You must try this before you die. 

Ingredients

2 toaster pastries/pop-tarts (I recommend strawberry or cherry-pomegranate flavors from Nature's Path)

3 large marshmallows

1 bar dark chocolate (I used Newman's Own Dark chocolate-it was exactly the same size as the toaster pastries!!!)

Directions 

Place both Toaster Pastries, icing side down, on a plate.  Place 3 marshmallows on one pastry.  Place both pastries in the toaster oven.  Toast until marshmallow tops are brown. 

Remove from oven.  Place chocolate bar on the toaster pastry without the marshmallows.  

Sandwich together and let it blow your mind like a sticky, melty, sweet chocolate-marshmallow shotgun.

Everything Bagel with Cream Cheese and Fried Egg

It's Sunday.  That means a heady breakfast that doesn't require changing out of my pajamas.  To me, an Everything Bagel with cream cheese is the shit.  Throw a fried egg on top of that and it becomes a bad-ass stoner brunch you can eat with your hands.  I use Nancy's Cream Cheese --made by Ken Kesey's family at their dairy out in Oregon.  Check them out, they have a very colorful history!  You can find it in most Natural Food stores.  It contains probiotics which gives it a tangy kick, and even though it's still creamy, yummy and cheesy it's more environmental and a little bit healthier then the average cream cheese.

Ingredients

1 Everything Bagel

a heap of Nancy's Cream Cheese spread

1 egg

butter or cooking oil

salt and pepper

Directions

Heat up cooking oil or butter in frying pan over medium-high heat.  Crack egg into pan.  After dropping egg in pan, place bagel in toaster.  Spread cream cheese on toasted bagel then plop egg on top.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.  (I eat mine open face with just half a bagel, but sometimes add the second half on top to make a sandwich).  Sink your teeth in.  Sit back and enjoy the day.

Ravioli Pizza

The concept for this pizza was conceived and carried out within an hour.  I couldn't decide if I wanted pizza or ravioli for dinner, so this delicious creature became my ingenious solution.  I had my pie and ate it too.

You can make your very own Ravioli Pizza.  It's easy.  Just make pizza like you normally do, and add some cooked ravioli on top before you throw it in the oven.  I used a trio of spinach, porcini mushroom and roasted red pepper raviolis for this pie.

A few tips I learned from my 1st Ravioli Pizza trial run:
1.  Let the cooked ravioli sit and dry out for 10-15 minutes after you cook it.  Pat dry if need be.  I didn't and thus there was some extra wateriness in the pasta.

2.  Place some cheese on top of the raviolis so the raviolis don't burn.  I used slices of fresh mozzarella and I experimented by placing some raviolis partially under the slices and some out in the open.  The raviolis began to brown a little too quickly.  It would be easiest to use a shredded or thinly sliced cheese to cover the raviolis.

3. Don't eat the normal amount of pizza you usually do.  These slices were heavy.  I thought I could handle two.  I could not.  I had to walk around my house like Paul Newman's egg-eating ass in Cool Hand Luke.

Ingredients
Pizza stuff
Raviolis

Directions
Make pizza like you normally do, and add ravioli.  You could even use frozen pizza (just put some extra cheese on top halfway through the cooking process).

For this pie I mixed pesto and vodka sauce together for the sauce, fresh mozarella, onions, tomatoes, and a few dashes of kalamata tapenade.  Here's some pics...

Better than Ramen: Thai Noodles with Spinach and Quorn Chicken

I love going to the Big Lots closeout store.  Especially the one about 20 minutes outside of town in the "boonies" where several of my friends share a house.  I almost always find tons of organic and natural non-perishable food items out there for CHEAP...untouched by the traditional country shopper.  Thai Kitchen's Instant Rice Noodle Soup varieties are already cheap (about 70-90 cents/pack), but I recently found every variety marked at $.50 and so I stocked up on about $10 worth for the winter.

I was visiting with my friends after my shopping trip, enjoying the unseasonably beautiful November weather with great company, good beer and a little smoke.  Before long I had to put something in my belly and my little soup packet came to the rescue!!  They make great quick meals (take about 5-7 minutes to cook).  Sometimes I'll drop and egg in at the end of cooking the soup to make and Egg Drop Noodle soup, but on this particular day I added a few nuggets of Quorn "Chicken" and some cooked spinach that my friend was making in another pot.  These little guys travel well and taste great on their own, but it's always fun to try adding different varieties of veggies and protein. 

Ingredients

1 packet Thai Kitchen Roasted Garlic and Vegetable Noodle Soup

1/2 cup of water

1/2 cup cooked spinach

5-8 nuggets of Quorn "chicken" (or real chicken)

Hot sauce

Directions

Follow directions on package of Thai Kitchen soup.   Add Chicken when you add the noodles into the soup.  Add cooked spinach (I usually use frozen spinach, but you can steam some fresh spinach).  Pour into a bowl and let it sit for a few minutes before eating...it will be HOT!!!  Then dig in and slurp some noodles.

Pizza Eggs

                    

So I'm a huge fan of the Showtime series Weeds.  Somewhere in the 1st season there is mention of Pizza Eggs, with no further explanation.  It is a reoccurring meal mentioned on the show.  Ever since I heard those two words put together, my mind has raced with many interpretations of the actual dish.  This will be one of several Pizza Egg recipes that will be posted in this blog, both to pay homage to the fine writers at Weeds and because this first experiment was DELICIOUS!

  Lucky for me and this recipe, my boyfriend works at a pizza restaurant, and I received a beautiful gift of leftover slice-pie pizzas and bread loaves the other night.  Although this pizza was just plain cheese, ANY pizza topping combos that you fancy would be excellent in this dish.  I chose to simply add some capers to my pizza...my new favorite pizza topping.  After trying to explain where capers came from to a friend and consulting this killer book:  Food Plants of the World , I discovered that not only are capers flowers, but they are one of the most popular pizza toppings in the world!?!?  I tried it and fell in love.  Of course, you can order or make whatever kind of pizza you want. 

Leftovers on Huevos, Part II

Ingredients

1 slice leftover pizza (any and all toppings optional)

2 eggs

1 tbsp goat cheese or cream cheese

1/2 tbsp butter

Parmesan

Red Pepper flakes

Oregano

Hot sauce

Salt and Pepper

Directions

Reheat leftover pizza slice in oven.  Remove and let cool for 5 minutes.  Cut off the bone (crust) with a knife, and nibble on it while you cook-like an appetizer.  Cut the cool, but still warm pizza into 1-2" chunks and set aside.  Heat butter in a frying pan on Medium-High heat.  When the butter has melted, begin making the scrambled eggs.  I personally like to crack the eggs in the pan and then take a wooden spoon and start scrambling.  I add a little goat cheese (if it's not already on the pizza) straight into the pan instead of milk to add some cream and fluff to the eggs.  You may also find it helpful to occasionally lift the frying pan off of the eye while scrambling to prevent overcooking the eggs.  About halfway through cooking the eggs (~3 minutes), add the pizza chunks in.  Continue to scramble another 3-5 minutes until eggs are cooked and the pizza has assimilated.  Garnish like you would pizza and/or eggs:  add any combination of parmesan, red pepper flakes, oregano, salt, pepper, hot sauce or whatever else you throw on your Pizza Eggs, and feast on this stoner breakfast of champs!  

 

Stoner Food Review: QB's Crispy Treat filled with Ice Cream

I stared in amazement and awe when I saw this at the local natural foods store.  We bought one vanilla and one chocolate, but I was only able to try the vanilla flavor before they were all gone.  One is definitely enough.  they also have a strawberry variety.  The squares were very sweet and rich. and unlike most food products, the crispy ice cream treats inside the box were BIGGER then the ones on the box!!   This is a combination that begs to go together to satisfy a sweet, multi-textured, multi-junk food craving.  I haven't seen a conventional version of this, so yay for the natural food industry for coming up with some delicious natural stoner snack!  I would only recommend this for true fans of rice crispy treats because they were a little awkward and sticky to eat by hand... but worth it.   Make sure to eat fresh out of  the freezer!

Toasted Pine Nuts and Dark Chocolate Chips

It's the little things...

I thought that this would be a good introductory post.  Something simple and strange inspired by an ingredient I was using to make dinner and another ingredient that was  hanging out in the fridge.  Found ingredients are where most of the dishes in this blog will come from.  The munchee quest for most of us ends with a combination of what we have close by along with the desire to blow our minds and satiate our bellies with something so comforting or so strange.

I was toasting some pine nuts (just throw some in a small cast iron skillet and put on medium heat, toss until lightly brown and fragrant) to top some pasta I was making. After I ate the savory my craving for sweet crept up.  I went to grab a few dark chocolate chips that I had leftover from the Apple Chocolate Chip Cake that I made for my birthday.  The still warm, leftover pine nuts in the pan were calling out to mingle with the chocolate.  I couldn't refuse their cries and I'm glad I didn't.  The result was delicious and new, but with the familiar comfort of a chocolate-nutty combination with the warm pine nuts helping to melt the chocolate.   Mmmmmmmm.....

If you happen to be the type of stoner cook who keeps pine nuts and any type of chocolate around, this is a quick, easy, rich and satisfying snack.  If not, then any warm nuts and chocolate are delicious.