My Urban Pantry

I actually feel semi-rotten-verge of sick maybe?  This reminds me, please pray for a little girl in Seattle who is in the hospital struggling to regain liver function-that she would be restored to full health.   I’ve known her mom since she (the mom) was in diapers.  So, what would’ve been lemon & garlic marinated chicken souvlaki is frozen shrimp and the rest of the tots from earlier in the week with some homemade tartar sauce that I made with habanero pickles that I made a while back.  Nothing too challenging, time-consuming or messy-just a quick dinner so I can’t put my feet up and get some rest so I am ready for tomorrow.

I can’t believe I’ve never blogged about quiche.  I searched and can’t find anything.  That’s so weird.  Real men eat quiche.  Another thing I never really ate before I got married.  I really don’t remember my mom ever making quiche.  Or eating it either.  I wonder why.  Anyhow, at some point not that long after we got married Z was like, let’s have quiche.  Do you know what a pain in the neck it is to make?  Pre-cook bacon, onions and par-bake a pre-bought (I’m real.) pie crust.  Fill it up and bake it some more.  Meanwhile, you could have scrambled some eggs and grated some cheese on top.  Anyhow, that’s what we are having for dinner tonight.  Quiche with bacon and onions and cheese.  I loosely follow this recipe subbing in one onions for the leeks or shallots or whatever.  It’s a good recipe.    And some sauteed home fries on the side.  I’m actually pre-writing this while it cooks.  Z already did the dishes.  ***awesome side note post dinner.  I opened the oven to find that at some point during cooking I HAD TURNED IT OFF.  Needless to say, fifteen extra minutes at 400 degrees so we could eat before o’darkhundred!  The ugly pile next to it are some home fries-which actually turned out to be quite tasty if not slightly well done.

WTF*#!  I have come upon my food nemesis!  My NEMESIS.  We made dinner and as evidenced by the picture below KNEW (I KNEW!!!) I couldn’t eat it.  I’m so mad.  I spend more money than I want to tell you about on ‘tasty salted pig parts’ so I could surprise Z with meat for his birthday and when we opened them up they had a delightful sheen of mold (we looked it up, harmless penicillin type THEY SAY…) and I couldn’t – could NOT make myself eat it.  How can I call myself a food adventurer.  I have eaten so much that is bizarre and I couldn’t eat this and I wanted to.  Can you understand my frustration???!!!  Purchased from Boccalone in San Francisco and shipped straight to the house.  I respect the chef, Chris Cosentino.  For crying out loud, he is a Top Chef Master.  He knows what he is doing.  So, I diced it up and Z put it on half of a caramelized onion and gruyere pizza.  Served alongside a pile of greens with caper vinaigrette.  Dinner was great and I am sad.  If Chris Cosentino served me this meat, I’d try.  If he said, this meat is OK – I am sure I would try.  But left to my own devices?  No.  What would you do?

right.  Karin wanted to know what I do while I make dinner.   I don’t think I have an absolute answer for that as weeknights and Sundays couldn’t be further apart.  Last night during the stewing part of the bourguignon I variously mowed the lawn & showered, cleaned the kitchen, started to think about how to decorate my supercute new kitchen island/bar/table thingy and got some downtime.  She was disappointed there was not a gin & tonic in that picture.  Can’t win ’em all. Tonight while I made burgers it was pretty much moving from one thing to the next to get it done.  I did manage to make a delicious gimlet while I cooked and it looked funny alongside my cuted up tray of dinner and giant glass of water.  I am pretty much the luckiest girl ever because right this minute Z is doing the dishes.  Anyway, tonight’s offering was pimiento cheese burgers with mini tator tots.  Can I tell you how I feel about pimiento cheese-there aren’t words.

‘I’m Julia Child’ echoed out of Z’s laptop as I started to make dinner this afternoon.  Why?  In two words, boeuf bourguignon.  A big meaty fall stew with a whole bottle of red wine would be ours in only three short hours.  Anyway.  I didn’t use Julia’s recipe but rather more or less of Ina Garten’s recipe available here on foodnetwork.com.  My only omission was the tomato paste that we didn’t have.  I’m not sure this was classic as it had bacon in it but it sure tasted good.  I served it over a pile of mashed potatoes and we threw in some garlic bread as the stew reduced and thickened for the last ten minutes and also alongside some home pickled lemony cauliflower.  The acid in the pickled cauliflower brings a bright note to a super hearty dinner.  This isn’t a thirty minute meal by any stretch and we would only do it when we would have the afternoon and evening without any defined plans but it is homey and takes me back a little to cool fall days and falling leaves that I miss here.  Bon appetit!