Craving fast food and short of time/cash/desire to eat lard? Try this. Serves two.
Four tortillas - any kind/flavor, any size
One can refried beans
One can diced tomatoes with jalapenos, drained
1/4 cup shredded cheese (Monterey Jack, Colby, Cheddar, whatever's on sale)
2 tbsp sour cream
Adobo seasoning, to taste (if you don't have this, garlic powder, salt and pepper will work)
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Toast tortillas directly upon center oven rack for 5-10 minutes or until slightly crispy. Remove tortillas from oven, and spread two with 1/4 can each of refried beans. Sprinkle bean-topped tortillas with a few light shakes of adobo seasoning. Top each with another tortilla. On top of each pizza, scatter 1/4 can of tomatoes and top with cheese. Put back into oven (directly upon center oven rack again) for 10-12 minutes or until cheese is melted and tortillas are crispy. Allow to cool for about 5 minutes, then slice into quarters. Serve each pizza with one tablespoon of sour cream.
Bonus: Now you're left with a half can each of beans and spicy tomatoes. Mix these together and refrigerate; congratulations, you have bean dip for tomorrow. Olé!
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Roasted Corn and Red Pepper "Salsa"
Please note: this is not a salsa. I just didn't know what else to call it.
Some other blogger out there posted an almost identical recipe a few months ago, which places it at about six plus months after I came up with it. I'm sure someone else had made this before me, but I'm rather proud of it as it's my signature side and never fails to bring ridiculous glee to those who eat it.
This involves a grill. That makes it even more delightful. If you don't have a grill, guess what? You can roast bell peppers over your stove burner or in a 400-degree oven. The oven works for the corn, too... just put these directly on the grate.
2 ears corn, husked
2 red bell peppers, whole
4 sprigs cilantro
1 large jalapeno, seeded and diced
1 12-ounce can black beans, drained and rinsed
2 green onions, chopped
Salt to taste
Fire up the ol' grill to medium-high heat. Place whole bell peppers on grill, turning every few minutes, until skin is blackened. Remove and put aside on platter to cool. Place corn on grill, also turning every few minutes, until corn is mostly golden (and slightly brown in some areas).
Peel skin from bell peppers - if you're lucky enough to have a garbage disposal, this is an easy task if you run the peppers under water. If you're unlucky in that regard, like me, keep some paper towels nearby. Pull the stems out of the peppers; most of the seeds should come with them. Split each pepper and rinse the rest of the seeds out. Blot with a paper towel until peppers are dry enough to dice. Dice 'em.
Slice roasted corn off of the cob into a bowl. Add diced roasted peppers, jalapeno and beans and mix. Tear cilantro off of stalks and mix in as well. Salt a bit and toss. Serve and love it, and leave me a blog comment.
-A.
Some other blogger out there posted an almost identical recipe a few months ago, which places it at about six plus months after I came up with it. I'm sure someone else had made this before me, but I'm rather proud of it as it's my signature side and never fails to bring ridiculous glee to those who eat it.
This involves a grill. That makes it even more delightful. If you don't have a grill, guess what? You can roast bell peppers over your stove burner or in a 400-degree oven. The oven works for the corn, too... just put these directly on the grate.
2 ears corn, husked
2 red bell peppers, whole
4 sprigs cilantro
1 large jalapeno, seeded and diced
1 12-ounce can black beans, drained and rinsed
2 green onions, chopped
Salt to taste
Fire up the ol' grill to medium-high heat. Place whole bell peppers on grill, turning every few minutes, until skin is blackened. Remove and put aside on platter to cool. Place corn on grill, also turning every few minutes, until corn is mostly golden (and slightly brown in some areas).
Peel skin from bell peppers - if you're lucky enough to have a garbage disposal, this is an easy task if you run the peppers under water. If you're unlucky in that regard, like me, keep some paper towels nearby. Pull the stems out of the peppers; most of the seeds should come with them. Split each pepper and rinse the rest of the seeds out. Blot with a paper towel until peppers are dry enough to dice. Dice 'em.
Slice roasted corn off of the cob into a bowl. Add diced roasted peppers, jalapeno and beans and mix. Tear cilantro off of stalks and mix in as well. Salt a bit and toss. Serve and love it, and leave me a blog comment.
-A.
Insalata Caprese
Sounds fancy and complicated, right? It's not. But it's delicious.
You don't need balsamic for this. You just need to throw the following on a plate. We'll talk "lowbrow substitutions" in a moment:
Two roma tomatoes, sliced
10-12 leaves fresh basil, whole
5-6 slices fresh mozzarella (1/4 inch slices work well)
2 tbsp olive oil, drizzled over salad
1/2 tsp cracked black pepper, or to taste
Salt to taste (4-5 good shakes)
Serve with:
Toasted grocery store baguette, halved and sliced into 4-inch pieces and drizzled with olive oil before toasting (pop into 325-degree oven for about 8 minutes, olive oil side up)
Arrange baguette pieces around plate and sprinkle whole plate with your favorite Italian seasoning blend.
Huzzah. Dinner. And it took less than ten minutes, provided you toasted the baguette bits first.
Now, here's what you can and can't do with this recipe, based upon what you have. I've experimented with this.
1) Bread: don't worry about this if you're not in a bread kind of mood. The salad is wonderful on its own.
2) Mozzarella: food snobs will hate me for saying this, but I've made this with shredded generic mozzarella before, about 1/4 cup, and it's still really, really good.
3) Tomatoes: I discovered tonight that my romas had gone bad. So, wanting some insalata caprese very badly nonetheless, I actually plated a half a can of diced tomatoes instead, and followed the rest of this recipe. It was still outstanding, and easy to pile onto the bread. Again, the snobs will hate me, but in this economy, you can't listen to the snobs so much.
4) Fresh basil: Do not substitute dry for this. It will not be anything like the intended product. The basil makes it. This is the lone no-no substitution in the recipe.
5) Olive oil. All out? I'll bet you have Italian dressing on hand. Don't drizzle too much on - leave it to about a tablespoon - and forget the Italian seasoning part.
Canned tomatoes? Shredded grocery-store mozzarella? Italian dressing? Can you still impress someone with that? Yes. As long as you have fresh basil.
-A.
You don't need balsamic for this. You just need to throw the following on a plate. We'll talk "lowbrow substitutions" in a moment:
Two roma tomatoes, sliced
10-12 leaves fresh basil, whole
5-6 slices fresh mozzarella (1/4 inch slices work well)
2 tbsp olive oil, drizzled over salad
1/2 tsp cracked black pepper, or to taste
Salt to taste (4-5 good shakes)
Serve with:
Toasted grocery store baguette, halved and sliced into 4-inch pieces and drizzled with olive oil before toasting (pop into 325-degree oven for about 8 minutes, olive oil side up)
Arrange baguette pieces around plate and sprinkle whole plate with your favorite Italian seasoning blend.
Huzzah. Dinner. And it took less than ten minutes, provided you toasted the baguette bits first.
Now, here's what you can and can't do with this recipe, based upon what you have. I've experimented with this.
1) Bread: don't worry about this if you're not in a bread kind of mood. The salad is wonderful on its own.
2) Mozzarella: food snobs will hate me for saying this, but I've made this with shredded generic mozzarella before, about 1/4 cup, and it's still really, really good.
3) Tomatoes: I discovered tonight that my romas had gone bad. So, wanting some insalata caprese very badly nonetheless, I actually plated a half a can of diced tomatoes instead, and followed the rest of this recipe. It was still outstanding, and easy to pile onto the bread. Again, the snobs will hate me, but in this economy, you can't listen to the snobs so much.
4) Fresh basil: Do not substitute dry for this. It will not be anything like the intended product. The basil makes it. This is the lone no-no substitution in the recipe.
5) Olive oil. All out? I'll bet you have Italian dressing on hand. Don't drizzle too much on - leave it to about a tablespoon - and forget the Italian seasoning part.
Canned tomatoes? Shredded grocery-store mozzarella? Italian dressing? Can you still impress someone with that? Yes. As long as you have fresh basil.
-A.
Five Minute Meals
Subtitle: Stop reading the crap that comes up when you Google "five minute meals." Those are too general and take at least 20.
This is real, sad-income-household, I-don't-have-a-second-to-myself-but-I-hate-McDonald's cookery. No snobbery here, either; there's nothing wrong with opening a can or two, even if there's no emergency.
No experience cooking? Welcome. I have none either. I just like food, and I spent the last few years learning by trial and error with no guidance other than an inherited Betty Crocker cookbook on "international" food. It taught me well, and I recommend that everyone get a general cookbook like that before they have to cook a meal unassisted for the first time. The most important thing I've learned? The less time spent in the kitchen, the better. That's why I'm big on the five minute meal... I'm too nervous to leave the crock pot on while I'm at work, especially with a hungry kitten in the house.
If you're living alone, work long hours and can't cook to save your life, this blog may be of great help to you. If you work and have children and they're not terribly picky, this may also be of some help. If you're like me and are living alone, work long hours, can't cook to save your life and yet have a significant other who brings a picky and hungry kid over to your disaster of an apartment every other weekend, at least some of this blog may be of some help to you.
Enjoy. If I were to say "bon appetit," that would be a little cliché for me.
-A.
This is real, sad-income-household, I-don't-have-a-second-to-myself-but-I-hate-McDonald's cookery. No snobbery here, either; there's nothing wrong with opening a can or two, even if there's no emergency.
No experience cooking? Welcome. I have none either. I just like food, and I spent the last few years learning by trial and error with no guidance other than an inherited Betty Crocker cookbook on "international" food. It taught me well, and I recommend that everyone get a general cookbook like that before they have to cook a meal unassisted for the first time. The most important thing I've learned? The less time spent in the kitchen, the better. That's why I'm big on the five minute meal... I'm too nervous to leave the crock pot on while I'm at work, especially with a hungry kitten in the house.
If you're living alone, work long hours and can't cook to save your life, this blog may be of great help to you. If you work and have children and they're not terribly picky, this may also be of some help. If you're like me and are living alone, work long hours, can't cook to save your life and yet have a significant other who brings a picky and hungry kid over to your disaster of an apartment every other weekend, at least some of this blog may be of some help to you.
Enjoy. If I were to say "bon appetit," that would be a little cliché for me.
-A.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)