New Place, First Meal

Yes, we've moved since I last posted here. And last night, I got the kitchen unpacked, so tonight, I cooked dinner!

I've recently started using Ibotta and Cartwheel to save some money. (I mean very recently... so far I've saved a little over $5 with Cartwheel and before the receipt for this meal I had $2.50 on Ibotta.)

So today when I went grocery shopping on my lunch break, I tried to buy exclusively things that were on one app or both. Out of the whole receipt, the only things not on either app were potatoes, which I thought I would use in tonight's dinner but decided to go with pasta instead.

Which means this meal was made exclusively from items purchased cheaper or with rebates using those two apps. And I totally winged the whole meal. And it was pretty delicious.

To ease myself back into the food blogging thing, I'm not going to do formatted recipes, just a narrative of what I did.

Boneless Pork Chops, Onions, and Italian-Parmesan Pasta

First, I started the water boiling for the pasta, to give myself some time to figure out what else I wanted to do. Once it started boiling, I put in the pasta and cooked it about 7 minutes (I didn't use much). While that was boiling, I put Italian breadcrumbs, Parmesan cheese, garlic powder, and shallot-pepper seasoning in a bowl and mixed it up, and whisked an egg in another bowl. I also chopped up about half an onion. Once the pasta was done, I drained it in a colander and rinsed it with cold water. Then I put a skillet on the hot burner and melted about 1 Tbsp butter in it. I dredged the boneless center cut pork chops in the egg, then the breadcrumb mixture, coating them evenly, and put them in the skillet. I didn't time them, but a few minutes on each side? Part of the time it was covered, and part of the time it wasn't. Like I said, I winged it all. Once I cut into one and they were done, I moved them to a plate and put the pan lid over them to keep them warm. Then I put another 1/2 Tbsp or so of butter in the pan and put in the onions and maybe 1 tsp of minced garlic. I stirred them up to get the bits up from the pork in the pan mixed in with the onions, and I salted them a little. While they cooked, I put some zesty Italian dressing in the pasta and mixed it thoroughly, then did the same with some Parmesan.

Couscous Cakes

Couscous Cakes

adapted from here

Instructions
1 cup cooked couscous
2 eggs
about 3 T panko bread crumbs
parsley, basil, salt, pepper, garlic powder
3 T olive oil

Equipment
saucepan, saute pan, stove

Instructions
Lightly beat the eggs. Mix the cooked couscous in with the eggs until incorporated. If it seems too thin, add the panko crumbs a little at a time, mixing thoroughly to see if you need more. Add the seasonings and mix thoroughly. Heat the oil in a pan. Form the couscous mixture into cakes with damp hands and drop carefully into the pan. Cook until browned on each side (about 5-7 minutes per side for me).

Yields
I got five out of this much mixture

Total time
Including cooking the couscous, about 15 minutes

Cleanup rating 3/10
Not including the pot you cooked the couscous in, all you have is a bowl that you mixed in and the pan of oil.

Difficulty rating 4/10
The trickiest skill required is knowing how much of the panko you need to mix in. It's not even hard to flip the cakes, if you wait until they're done on the first side.

Flavor rating 5/10
This is the simple, basic version. The original recommended including chopped pistachios, which I didn't have and I didn't think would go too well with the seared tuna and sauteed green beans, so I left them out. I would definitely recommend putting SOMETHING in them, and if you don't, go a little heavy on the salt, or serve them with some kind of sauce on them.

Adjustability: high
You can put all sorts of things in these, as long as they're small (or chopped fine) enough to not break up the structural integrity of the cakes. Pistachios or other chopped nuts, peas or chopped pieces of broccoli, asparagus, carrot, or other veggies, small pieces of meat like chicken, bacon, or ground beef... the possibilities are endless. You can also change the seasonings to whatever you want, and serve it with any kind of sauce (to match whatever you put inside them or serve it with).

Make it with...
I started off thinking I'd just make some sushi rice to go with our tuna, then I thought I'd try making rice pilaf, and then Birk suggested couscous or quinoa. So anything you'd make a grain with, you can make these with.

Baked Ziti

Baked Ziti

Ingredients

pasta (I used penne rigate, making this actually "baked penne")

pasta sauce (whatever you like)

ricotta cheese

shredded mozzarella

Equipment

pot, oven, stove, baking dish

Instructions

Prepare the pasta according to package instructions. Preheat oven to 350F. Drain it and put it in the baking dish. Add sauce to your liking and stir until evenly coated. Add ricotta and stir until thoroughly incorporated. Top with mozzarella. Bake for about 30 minutes (until cheese is melted and bubbly).

Yields

as much as you make

Total time

about 45 minutes

Cleanup rating 3/10

If you stir the sauce and cheese in with everything already in the baking dish, you only have one thing to really clean. And if you wait too long to do it (or keep leftovers in the dish) it'll be harder to clean.

Difficulty rating 3/10

Other than just boiling pasta and adding sauce, this is almost the easiest pasta dish you could possibly make.

Flavor rating 8/10

Classic, simple, and delicious. I think of baked ziti as a wintry comfort food.

Adjustability: medium

Use whatever kind of pasta you want. Obviously it's intended to be ziti, but like I said in the "ingredients" section, I used penne rigate. I was looking for rigatoni, but couldn't find any. We also had rotini, which would work just fine. It only gets weird if you use long pasta like spaghetti or vermicelli, or small pasta like orzo. You can also use whatever sauce you like (I imagine it would be interesting to try an alfredo sauce or something) and any cheese. You could put veggies or meats in it, too.

Make it with...

I went super simple and just microwaved some frozen peas, but any green veggie goes really well with pasta. Salad is a good choice too. To make a more robust meal, you could make chicken or steak or pork chops or something like that with it.

Crostini

My favorite thing at Baker's Crust is the apple and brie bruschetta, with green apples, brie, walnuts, and caramel sauce. It's absurdly delicious. That is what I was thinking of when I threw this together.

Apple Crostini

Ingredients

apple

honey

goat cheese

French bread

butter

Equipment

griddle pan, stove

Instructions

Melt butter on the griddle pan and lay slices of bread on top. While the bread toasts (don't forget to check on it and flip it when it's ready!) slice the apple. (It'll take longer than that, so maybe cook something else in the meantime.) When the toast is done on both sides, spread goat cheese on one side, lay apple slices on top, and drizzle with honey. Devour.

Yields

as many pieces as you want to make

Total time

5 minutes

Cleanup rating 1/10

Wash the butter off the griddle pan, and drop a knife in the dishwasher, and you're done.

Difficulty rating 2/10

If you can make grilled cheese, you can make this.

Flavor rating 10/10

One of my new favorite foods, hands-down. I love it and I want to eat all of it forever.

Adjustability: high

You can put whatever you want on a crostini! Any kind of cheese, herbs, vegetables, fruits, sauces, anything!

Make it with...

Anything or nothing. As you can see in the photo, I made the kale and onion saute (but I actually got the onions cooked all the way this time, so it was much better) and sauteed some beer brats, for a well-rounded and delicious dinner.

Maple Bacon Walnut Green Beans, and Candied Walnuts

Yes, vegetables are inherently good for you. But sometimes you feel like making them as bad for you as possible. Adding bacon, maple syrup, and candied nuts to them is a good way to accomplish that goal. Here's how:

Maple Bacon Walnut Green Beans

adapted from here

Ingredients
about a pound of green beans
3 T maple syrup
2 T olive oil
1 T red wine vinegar
1/2 t Dijon mustard
2 cloves garlic, minced
6 slices cooked bacon, chopped
1/4 cup chopped candied walnuts

Equipment
whisk; pot; colander; large bowl; stove

Instructions
Bring a pot of water to a boil. Boil the green beans for 3-5 minutes (they should still be crisp). While the beans boil, whisk the syrup, oil, vinegar, mustard, and garlic together. Drain the green beans immediately and put them in a large bowl with ice water. After three minutes, drain the green beans again. Pat them with a paper towel, then toss them in the dressing. Top with bacon and walnuts. Salt and pepper if preferred.

Yields
4 servings

Total time
15 minutes

Cleanup rating 3/10
If you do this correctly, you should only have one bowl that needs good cleaning. Other than that, you have the pot you boiled the green beans in, and the colander. (And a whisk.)

Flavor rating 8/10
How can you go wrong? It's salty and sweet, bacon-y and maple-y, and still a crisp green vegetable.

Difficulty rating 6/10
For a side dish, there's a bit of work that goes into this, but it pays off. Don't forget that there are steps not technically included here (like cooking the bacon, and if you're making the candied nuts yourself, you need to get that done before you start, too).

Adjustability: low
There aren't many things you could do differently here. I suppose you could use prosciutto instead of bacon if you're the fancy type. The original recipe used pecans, but I had walnuts, and sliced almonds would be good too.

Make it with...
As you can see in the photo, I made it with a potato-onion-sausage saute (also delicious) but this could go with anything you'd pair with green beans. Beef, chicken, pork, turkey, something vegetarian (although these are decidedly non-vegetarian, what with the bacon and all).

---

If you can't find candied nuts to your liking or at all, or you have some plain nuts on standby that you want to use up, this is how I made mine. They weren't perfect, and I would adjust the recipe or find a different one (or just make the nuts earlier and let them dry some more before making the green beans) but it works!

Candied Walnuts
adapted from here

Ingredients
2 cups of nuts (walnuts, in my case)
4 T butter
4 T brown sugar
sprinkle of cinnamon (optional)

Equipment
microwave; bowl; parchment or wax paper

Instructions
Melt the butter in a bowl. Add the nuts and toss to coat evenly. Add the sugar and cinnamon (optional) and stir until incorporated. Spread on paper and allow to cool.

Yields
2 cups of nuts (plenty more than enough for the green beans recipe)

Total time
5 minutes

Cleanup rating 2/10
Only one bowl (and disposable paper) but it's a sticky mess of a bowl.

Difficulty rating 2/10
Stupid easy, just don't burn your fingers on the bowl.

Flavor rating 6/10
They're pretty good, but if I were going to eat them by themselves, I'd change something... I just don't know what.

Adjustability: low
You could add other spices, but there isn't much to this recipe, so there isn't much you can change.

Make it with...
Obviously, with the green bean recipe above. But you could put these on salads or eat them as a snack.

Pasta and Cheese

I think it's unfair to call mac and cheese "mac and cheese." I don't think I've eaten an actual macaroni noodle since my freshman year of college (because Easy Mac is so quintessentially dorm food). The best "mac and cheese" is made from fancier noodles (my personal favorite is cavatappi, but rotini is a close second). Anyway, this is pasta and cheese, the recipe for which I took from here. (Basically, I cut it in half and added bacon.)

Pasta and Cheese

Ingredients

1/2 lb pasta (I used rotini)

1/4 cup butter

1/4 cup flour

2 cups milk

3 cups shredded cheese (I used white Cheddar)

salt and pepper

another 1 T butter

1/4 cup panko crumbs

few Tbsp Parmesan

garlic powder

bacon

Equipment

saucepan, pot, pan, stove (and three burners that function at the same time), colander, 9"x13" pan, oven

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350F. Cook pasta according to package instructions. Start cooking some bacon*. While that's happening, melt the 1/4 cup of butter in the saucepan, sprinkle in the flour and whisk it together. Let it cook for 2 minutes. In the meantime, start the 1 Tbsp butter melting in a pan. Once melted, add the panko crumbs, Parmesan, and a little garlic powder. Stir often until they get golden brown and toasted. Gradually add the milk, whisking as you go until it's smooth. Add the cheese a small handful at a time, letting each one melt before adding the next. Salt and pepper to taste. Drain the pasta and add it to the cheese mixture. Chop up your bacon and stir it in. Pour the whole thing into a greased 9"x 13" pan. Top with the toasted panko. Bake for 12-15 minutes.

*If you cook your bacon on the stove or in an oven, I would strongly recommend making the bacon beforehand. I was raised making bacon in the microwave so that's how I did it. If you try frying the bacon on the stove while you do everything else, you'll have four burners going at once and one of them will be spitting bacon grease at you. If you make it in the oven, you could throw off your oven preheating for baking the pasta at the end.

Yields

3-4 servings

Total time

About 30 minutes

Cleanup rating 6/10

What a pain. Pan, pot, another pan, plus a baking dish. Two of them with cheese all over the place.

Flavor rating 8/10

YUM. Delicious. I haven't eaten homemade pasta and cheese in a very long time. It's a bit of an ordeal to make compared to a lot of the stuff I post here, but totally worth it.

Difficulty rating 6/10

The difficult part of this recipe is doing many things at once. Boiling water for pasta and preheating an oven are easy enough, but you also have to make sure you don't burn flour, milk, cheese, or panko crumbs, while the pasta doesn't boil over. It's quite a bit to keep track of compared to what I normally do for dinner.

Adjustability: high

You can put just about anything you want in your pasta and cheese. I wanted bacon, so I used bacon. I considered broccoli but instead made peas to go with it. You could put other meats or vegetables or whatever in it. You could use any cheese you want. I had some Monterey Jack in the fridge too, and if I had more of it, I would have used Gouda. And, of course, use whatever pasta you want. I like rotini because it holds the cheese in the little grooves.

Make it with...

See the adjustability section, I guess. It's pasta and cheese... it goes with just about everything.

Fancy Salad

I think it's hard to name salads. Either there's a perfect word or phrase that encompasses the essence of the salad, or you list every ingredient you can taste in the salad. That's why I'm calling this "fancy salad."

Fancy Salad

Ingredients
romaine lettuce
chevre (goat cheese crumbles)
chopped walnuts
apple
onion
balsamic vinegar
honey

Equipment
pan, stove

Instructions
Dice the onion and saute it with some oil or butter (I, of course, used butter) until golden brown. In the meantime, wash and dry your lettuce and distribute into bowls or plates, and dice the apple. Build the salads out of all the solid ingredients. Drizzle with balsamic vinegar and honey to taste.

Yields
As many as you make.

Total time
About 20 minutes

Cleanup rating 3/10
There are lots of separate ingredients, so if you don't use them all up or you leave them strewn all over the counter, you have to devote a little time to putting everything away, plus you have the onion pan (which, I've cleaned far more difficult pans, so that's not a big deal).

Flavor rating 8/10
This would have been a very different rating if we hadn't adjusted the salad as we ate. First, I completely forgot the dressing. So we added a little balsamic vinegar. Then Birk said it needed something sweet. So we added a little honey. Perfection! It has a good mix of textures, too.

Difficulty rating 2/10
It's a salad; how hard could it possibly be?

Adjustability: high
Salads are made of adjustability. If you don't like romaine, use spinach or arugula or iceberg or whatever you want. If you don't like chevre, use a different cheese. Same goes for literally every ingredient. Granted, you wind up with a different salad, but that's the fun of salad.

Make it with...
As you can see in the photo, I browned some beer brats to go with this salad, and I would very highly recommend it. Anything meaty and salty would be delicious with this salad. I had originally planned on searing and slicing some sirloin (alliteration!) to put on top of the salad, but then I thought, "Mmm, beer brats."

Kale and Onion Saute

That's the chicken lazone from the last post, with garlic mashed potatoes, and the star of this post, kale and onion saute. The original recipe came from here, and you may notice some very clear visual differences between theirs and mine. I definitely want to make this again in the future and do a better job overall.

Kale and Onion Saute

Ingredients

head of kale, washed and dried

onion

vegetable oil

salt

Equipment

saute pan with a lid, stove

Instructions

Slice onions thinly and slice kale into thin strips. Heat a few tablespoons of oil in the pan and add onions, cooking until they start to caramelize. Add the kale and a few tablespoons of water and cover. Let it steam for 5-10 minutes until the kale is all wilty. Stir everything up to incorporate. Salt to taste.

Yields
The head of kale I used could easily serve 4

Total time
about 20 minutes

Cleanup rating 2/10
One oily pan and all the water you dripped all over the entire kitchen while trying to deal with your unwieldy kale is all you have to deal with here.

Flavor rating abstained
I refuse to rate this recipe until I try it again, because I flubbed. I was making chicken lazone at the same time, and I wanted them to be finished at the same time, so I didn't wait for the onions to caramelize. I also used pretty big pieces of onion. I think dicing it would work best (for both cooking and eating).

Difficulty rating 3/10
It sounds stupid to rate this so easy when I managed to screw it up, but my issue was with timing this alongside another recipe, not this recipe itself. This is actually quite an easy recipe; I just need a do-over.

Adjustability: medium
The original recipe suggested sprinkling the finished product with apple cider vinegar and red pepper flakes, but I decided against both. It still wasn't bad. I quite like cooked kale, and I love onions, so even though I did it wrong, it turned out okay. Which goes to show you that you can season this basically however you want. Add other veggies to either stage: peppers with the onions, or spinach with the kale.

Make it with...
Anything you'd pair a green-and-leafy with, really. Birk thinks kale tastes a lot like broccoli (I don't disagree, but I don't think I would have made the connection without him pointing it out) so if you'd have broccoli with something, this would probably do well in its place.

Cost
Oh, fresh produce. I love you so much. You're so inexpensive (if you aren't organic, and I don't typically buy organic) and so delicious. You're the best.
Anyway, kale is $1.29/lb at my Farm Fresh. I don't recall how much I bought, but it felt like about half a pound if memory serves, so I'm going with $0.65 for how much kale I used. Onions belong in my kitchenventory, but they were on sale for $0.74 so I barely spent a dollar on this recipe (considering that vegetable oil and salt belong in my kitchenventory).

Chicken Lazone

I had never heard of chicken lazone before, but I ran across a recipe here and thought it sounded too easy and delicious not to try. It was good, but I think I need to make it again and let the sauce thicken a little longer and it would be perfect.

Chicken Lazone

Ingredients
2 thin boneless, skinless chicken breasts (either cut in half lengthwise or pounded flat)
garlic powder
onion powder
chili powder (I didn't have this, so I used taco seasoning... close enough!)
1 cup heavy cream
2 T and 2 T butter

Equipment
skillet, stove

Instructions
Season your chicken breasts on both sides with the three spices. Melt 2 T of butter in the pan and cook the chicken on both sides until done. Melt the remaining 2 T of butter around the chicken and pour in the cream. (If necessary, scrape up any seasoning that has stuck to your pan and incorporate it.) Cook for about 8 minutes until sauce thickens.

Yields
2 servings (two chicken breasts)

Total time
about 20 minutes

Cleanup rating 4/10
This rating was arrived at because I was a responsible adult and cleaned the pan immediately after eating dinner. Don't let this one sit. My sauce was thin enough that the little bit left in the pan just went down the sink drain, and it's only one pan so it's not too bad.

Flavor rating 6/10
Birk liked it more than I did, but it did grow on me the more I ate. Like I said at the top, I think I should have let the sauce thicken more.

Difficulty rating 5/10
It doesn't take a very long time, it's almost the same as my basic chicken recipe but with a sauce component added to the end, and the skills necessary are pretty simple (recognizing when chicken is done and when sauce is thickened).

Adjustability: medium
You can switch up the spices and maybe add vegetables or cheese or something. It's hard to say with this one.

Make it with...
I made this with garlic mashed potatoes (the sauce was delicious on them) and a recipe I'm about to post, kale and onion saute. Everything went really well together. The original recipe showed the chicken and sauce being served over a long noodle like spaghetti, which would probably be really good too.

Cost
Chicken, heavy cream, butter, and the spices all belong in my kitchenventory, so the garlic mashed potatoes (about $2) were the only thing I bought that I don't normally have on hand.

Skillet Potatoes

I cam here thinking I was just going to post a nice picture of tonight's dinner, but I discovered - to my surprise - that I had not yet posted the recipe for skillet potatoes! So instead, that's what you get tonight. I also made chicken (with Parmesan and salt and pepper and garlic powder) and zucchini (with Parmesan and salt and pepper and dried garlic and dried onion) but the recipe is skillet potatoes, which are... just amazing. I'm astonished that I haven't posted this yet.

Skillet Potatoes

Adapted from here

Ingredients

a pound of Yukon gold potatoes (that was about 5 of them)

half an onion, diced

1 Tbsp and 1 Tbsp of vegetable oil

salt

1 Tbsp minced garlic

Equipment
microwave-safe bowl, microwave, skillet, stove

Instructions
Peel and dice your potatoes and put them in the microwave-safe bowl. Toss them with a tablespoon of oil and some salt. Microwave for 10 minutes, stirring after each minute or two. Add minced garlic and onions and toss. Heat a tablespoon of oil in a skillet and add potatoes. Cook for a few minutes until they start to brown, then stir/flip until potatoes are browned and your life is delicious.

Yields
two big servings (I really like potatoes... a whole skillet of these sounds like a serving to me)

Total time
about 20 minutes

Cleanup rating 2/5
You have a couple dishes to do here (cutting board, microwave bowl, skillet, etc.) and they're all oily, but it isn't that bad.

Flavor rating 9/10
Have I ever given anything a 10/10? If so, this is probably a 10 instead of 9. It's really amazing and delicious and makes me so happy.

Difficulty rating 6/10
You have to be very present (taking something out of the microwave and stirring it every minute for ten minutes takes a lot of attention, plus the whole skillet thing requires a bit of presence).

Adjustability: low
Other than adding seasonings or maybe some other vegetables, there isn't much else you can do to this. The original said you could use red potatoes instead but I like peeling Yukon golds.

Make it with...
Everything. Or nothing. Just make them. Always. Now. Go make them. Right now.

Egg Sandwich and Toasted Edamame

It's time for a two-fer!

Egg Sandwich

Ingredients

bread (we used the same everything French bread from last night's grilled cheeses)

eggs (about two per sandwich)

salt and pepper

cheese (I had white cheddar)

butter

Equipment

skillet, pan, stove

Instructions

Mix up eggs in a bowl with salt and pepper like you're making scrambled eggs (because you totally are). Butter a skillet and start the bread toasting. Cut your cheese into tiny cubes. Butter a pan and heat it up. Add the eggs. When they just start to cook, add the cheese. Keep stirring it and chopping it with the spoon until you have scrambled eggs. Keep an eye on your toast (flip it over when one side is toasted). Once everything's done, make sandwiches.

Yields

I made three sandwiches out of four eggs.

Total time

About 15 minutes

Cleanup rating 2/5

All you have to deal with is a buttery skillet, an eggy pan, and a raw eggy bowl.

Flavor rating 8/10

Yum! Simple but delicious. Hard to go wrong with butter, bread, eggs, and cheese.

Difficulty rating 2/10

Super easy. Unless you're terrible at cracking eggs. Then it's like a 3. Or like 5 if you're really, really bad at it.

Adjustability: high

It's a sandwich... add whatever you want! Use different cheeses, mix in vegetables or meats, add stuff like lettuce or tomato or whatever you want. That's what I love about sandwiches.

Make it with...

I made it with the recipe below, toasted edamame. But again... it's a sandwich. Chips, pretzels, veggies, whatever floats your boat.

Cost

Half a dozen eggs: about $2

Everything French bread from Walmart: $1

Butter from kitchenventory

Brick of white cheddar cheese from Target: about $3

Cost for all ingredients: $6

Toasted Edamame

Ingredients

bag of frozen edamame

vegetable oil

a few Tbsp Parmesan cheese

about 1 tsp minced garlic

salt and pepper

Equipment

baking sheet, oven

Instructions

Rinse/thaw your edamame. Toss it in vegetable oil. Add minced garlic and toss again. Spread it on the baking sheet and sprinkle with Parmesan, salt, and pepper. Bake at 350F for about 10 minutes.

Yields

a bag's worth of edamame

Total time

about 15 minutes

Cleanup rating 1/5

You have an oily bowl (or colander if you're like me and get tired of being told there's too much oil in your vegetables, so you added oil while the vegetables were still in the colander) and, if you line your baking sheet with foil, a piece of foil to throw away.

Flavor rating 7/10

I think this is an excellent vegetable side dish, personally. Our edamame had been sitting in the freezer for about a year, so it was a tiny bit tough, but it was still tasty.

Difficulty rating 1/10

The hardest part was opening the jar of minced garlic.

Adjustability: medium

You could use other spices or herbs or something, but that's about it.

Make it with...

Anything! It's a side dish. Goes with any meat, any non-meat, any sandwich, whatever.

Cost

Bag of edamame: about $2

Parmesan cheese from the kitchenventory

Minced garlic from the kitchenventory

Cost for all ingredients: $2

Cost for this recipe: $2

Grilled Cheese

No, I'm not going to just tell you how to turn loaf bread and American cheese into grilled cheese. I hope you know how to do that. This is a grown-up grilled cheese, and it's delicious.

Grilled Cheese (Grown-Up)

Ingredients

half a loaf of French bread (ours is "everything" pre-sliced from Walmart)

brick of Monterey jack cheese

butter

half an onion

Equipment

skillet, stove

Instructions

Slice the onion into half-rings and saute in butter. I added a little garlic powder, salt, and pepper. Remove from pan and allow to cool. Melt butter in skillet and place four pieces of bread on skillet. Cover each piece in slices of cheese, then layer onions on top, covered with more slices of cheese, then topped with bread. Wait until bottom piece browns and cheese is starting to get melty, and flip sandwiches over. (I used this time to work on making guacamole so the sandwiches wouldn't get underdone thanks to my impatience. Also Birk took over the sandwiches at this point.) Once the cheese is all melted and the bread is toasted on each side, boom, done.

Yields

four little sandwiches (2 servings)

Total time

about 15 minutes

Cleanup rating 2/5

You have a greasy buttery pan and an oniony cutting board to deal with, but that's pretty great. And your plates don't get messy either. They're sandwiches.

Flavor rating 9/10

Mmmmm yummy. Caramelized onions are totally the way to go with grilled cheese.

Difficulty rating 2/10

Children could make this. This used to be a thing I asked Birk to make for me. Now I can do it myself. So easy.

Adjustability: high

I couldn't decide what to put on these... onion? peppers? bacon? green apple? Expect to see more grilled cheeses for grown-ups here in the future. There will definitely be experiments.

Make it with...

As you can see in the second picture above, I made guacamole (smoosh up an avocado, squeeze a lime into it, sprinkle it with kosher salt) and threw on some tortilla chips. But it's a sandwich... have whatever side you like with sandwiches. Chips, pretzels, veggies, whatever.

Cost

The recipe (sandwiches only):

Bread for $1 at Walmart and still have half a loaf.

Cheese for $2.50 at Walmart and we used the whole brick.

Onion for $0.61 at Walmart and still have half left.

Butter is part of the kitchenventory.

Total cost to buy ingredients: $4.11. Total cost used: $3.31.

The meal:

Avocados: 2 for $2.78 at Farm Fresh.

Limes: free because my friend Missi brought a bag to the New Year's party.

Salt: part of the kitchenventory.

Total cost to buy ingredients for guacamole: $2.78. Total cost used: $2.78.

Total cost to buy ingredients for whole meal minus drinks: $6.89.

Total cost used for whole meal minus drinks: $6.09.

French Onion Soup

French Onion Soup

Ingredients

3 large yellow onions (slice 'em up)

4 Tbsp butter

1 cup white wine (I used pinot grigio)

42 oz beef broth

Salt and pepper

bread

shredded cheese (I used Gouda)

Equipment

slow-cooker, skillet, stove

Instructions

Melt the butter in the skillet. Add onions and saute until they're soft and a little bit browned. Add the wine. Pour it into the slow-cooker with the beef broth, and a dash of salt and pepper. Cook on low for 4-5 hours. Toast the bread lightly. Serve in bowls with bread on top, cheese on top of that, and add a little more soup on top of the cheese to melt it all together.

Yields

4-6 bowls of soup

Total time

4.5 hours: About 15 minutes of prep, 4 hours in the slow-cooker, 10 minutes to finish off

Cleanup rating 4/5

Slow-cooker recipes always have higher cleanup ratings. We didn't like this enough to keep the leftovers, so I strained the liquid out of it with a colander into the sink, and threw out the remaining onion pieces. Plus you have more dishes than you normally get from a slow-cooker recipe: skillet, knife and cutting board, and the five billion tears from cutting up so much onion at once.

Difficulty rating 3/10

There are many steps, but none of them are particularly difficult. You do need to try to get the onion slices approximately the same size for even cooking, but that's probably the trickiest part.

Flavor rating 4/10

Meh. I don't really know what went wrong with it, but it just wasn't very good. The wine flavor was pretty strong, which is not what I want out of a French onion soup. I think that was the biggest problem. I would cut down on the wine.

Adjustability: low

There isn't much to French onion soup. There's onions, liquid, then bread and cheese. It's rare for "peasant food" to not be very adjustable, but this one doesn't have much of anywhere to go. Different onions, different wine, different broth, different bread, different cheese, but they're all the same basic ingredients. For what it's worth, the gouda worked really well, even though the original recipe suggested Swiss.

Make it with...

I made it with beer mushrooms, sauteed beer brats with garlic, and potatoes. It could be its own meal, or go with all sorts of things.

Beer Mushrooms

You know what's awesome? Beer. You know what else is awesome? Mushrooms. But guess what wasn't double-awesome? These beer mushrooms. They were okay.

Beer + mushrooms = beer mushrooms

That's them, on the right, with beer brats and potatoes.

Ingredients

8 oz mushrooms

2 Tbsp butter

1/2 cup beer

salt and pepper

Equipment

skillet, stove

Instructions

Melt butter in a skillet. Add mushrooms. Add beer. Cook for about 30 minutes, letting the mushrooms absorb all the beer. Salt and pepper to taste.

Yields

3-4 servings

Total Time
about 30 minutes

Cleanup rating 2/5
The thing about making something with a lot of butter and leaving it in the pan while you eat dinner is that it gets that fatty stuff all over the pan. I think it's kind of gross, but it's easy to clean up.

Difficulty rating 2/10
Patience factors into difficulty, which is the only reason this isn't a 1/10.

Flavor rating 3/10
Meh. I like mushrooms. I like beer. (At least, I like the beer I used for this.) I didn't really like this.

Adjustability: low
Use a different beer (the original recipe recommended a stout, maybe that was part of my problem) or use different mushrooms, maybe add some other herbs/seasonings, but that's about all you can do.

Make it with...
I made this to go along with French onion soup, sauteed beer brats with garlic, and potatoes (they were sliced this time to make them cook a little faster). You could make them with just about anything... chicken, pork, beef, vegetarian meals, whatever.

Game of Thrones Dinner: Honeyed Chicken and Spiced Squash

I know, I disappeared from this blog for a while... Sorry! But I haven't been cooking as much because I've been doing... everything else.

Last Saturday, Beth and Chris and I entered a cosplay contest at Tidewater Comicon... and we won best group! In celebration of our cosplay (Melisandre, Margaery, and Oberyn) I wanted to make an easy dinner for everyone from the Inn at the Crossroads. I wanted to make olive bread but the timing didn't work out very well, so this is what we wound up with:

I made a pressed-for-time (some might call it "lazy") version of Honeyed Chicken. I cheated and used pre-made rotisserie chickens, but I made the sauce. I also made Spiced Squash with it (I used the modern recipe, but used butternut squash that was growing in the yard so I wouldn't have to buy acorn squash). And to pull it all together, I threw together a green salad out of what the in-laws had growing outside: a couple different types of lettuce, spinach, tomato, and some red onion Birk chopped up while I was out picking everything else.

Sauce for Honeyed Chicken

from Inn at the Crossroads

Ingredients

1/2 cup apple cider vinegar

1/3 cup honey

dash of mint (I had to use dried)

handful of raisins

1 Tbsp butter

Equipment

saucepan, spoon, measuring cup, stove

Instructions

Combine everything in a pan and cook until the raisins start to plump. Pour it over the chicken when it's done. (Yes, it's that simple!)

Yields

I actually doubled the recipe since, as you can see in the photo, I had two chickens. (I was channeling the Hound, I guess.) But the recipe makes plenty for one full chicken.

Total time

For the sauce, maybe 10 minutes total. I was reheating the chickens so that took about 30 minutes.

Cleanup rating 2/5

I expected something with this much honey to be a huge mess, but it wasn't bad. I recommend cleaning out your pan pretty quickly though, because it does that thing where the fat floats on the top if you don't use all the sauce, and I think that's kinda gross. And rinse out your measuring cup with really hot water right after you measure the honey, and that'll be less of an issue later.

Difficulty rating 2/10

It's a really simple recipe. Even if you had to roast a chicken from scratch, I wouldn't put this over a 5/10. The timing is easy, the cooking is easy... you do need to be able to keep an eye on it, but I had Birk around for that.

Flavor rating 6/10

I thought it was a little heavy on the apple cider vinegar, but everyone else said it was good. I think it went really well with the already-seasoned rotisserie chicken, so the flavor plays well with others. And I'm pretty sure some of the vinegariness went away as the sauce cooled.

Adjustability: low

Other than adding herbs, I don't know how I could change this, but I also don't know why I would. It's basic and yummy.

Make it with...

Obviously, chicken. I don't see any reason you couldn't make it with turkey instead. I wouldn't use it with other meats, or with anything other than poultry.

Spiced Squash

from Inn at the Crossroads

Ingredients
a squash (I used butternut)
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp allspice (I skipped this because we didn't have any)

Equipment
sauce pan, stove, baking sheet, oven

Instructions
Cut up the squash into approximately 1" pieces. Preheat the oven to 375F. Heat the maple syrup in a pan with the spices for about 3 minutes, stirring constantly (do not let it boil). Remove it from the heat. Arrange your squash pieces on a baking sheet (I highly recommend lining it with foil first). Pour the sauce over the squash, coating the pieces as evenly as possible. Bake until tender, about 20 minutes. If you managed to reserve any sauce, heat it in the last few minutes and pour it over the squash when you take it out of the oven.

Yields
Two fairly big butternut squashes fed me and five friends, and the sauce was just the right amount.

Total time
This only took about half an hour, with Birk cutting up the squash while I worked on the sauce for the chicken.

Cleanup rating 2/5
Not bad, but you are heating maple syrup in a pan. I'd recommend using all the sauce on the squash to begin with, and cleaning the pan immediately, while the squash is in the oven. And if you follow my advice about lining the baking sheet with foil, it'll make it 10x better.

Difficulty rating 3/10
I learned that butternut squash is pretty tough to cut; it's kind of like a sweet potato. Beyond that, this is a very simple recipe... it's like a sweet version of my potatoes!

Flavor rating 7/10
I don't eat a lot of squash, but maybe I should start. This was really good. It's excellent for fall weather! I think I might mount an effort to get squash everywhere instead of pumpkin. (Nothing against pumpkin, I'm just not a big fan of it in everything... just pie, really.)

Adjustability: low
There are only so many spices that would go well on a squash, and there are only so many types of squash, and that's all you could really change, because that's all you're using.

Make it with...
Of course, I made it with the honeyed chicken, which was an amazing combination. But I think you could make it with anything that you consider a fall or winter meal. It's a side dish that plays well with others. And it's an excellent and easy vegan dish if you have guests with dietary considerations at the holidays. (It's also gluten-free unless you have a really weird maple syrup.)

French Croutons

The only "French" thing about these croutons is that I learned how to make croutons on the stove (as opposed to in the oven) when I was in France last year. I didn't follow a recipe or use particularly French ingredients or anything like that. I just had some bread leftover from this day, and decided to try this out... and I was pleased with the results.

"French" Croutons

Ingredients

Bread, cubed

butter

seasonings

shredded Parmesan (I used a four-cheese blend that included Parmesan and Romano)

Equipment

pan, stove

Instructions

Melt butter in your pan on medium heat. (I probably used about 2-3 Tbsp for the amount of bread I had, pictured above). Once it's melted, add your bread cubes. Toss them around to get them thoroughly coated. Season them and toss again for even coating. Once they're just about to your desired level of toastiness (remember, I like my croutons a little chewy, so in my picture, they aren't really crunchy yet) add the cheese and toss until it melts onto the croutons (be careful not to let too much melt onto the pan; it can burn pretty quickly).

Total time

about 10 minutes... be patient while waiting for them to toast; you don't want to burn them!

Yields

As much bread as you throw in there

Cleanup rating 2/5

You'll have a mildly greasy pan, but if you don't let anything burn, it'll be a breeze to clean. You don't even have a bowl/bag to deal with like you do with my other croutons!

Difficulty rating 3/10

If being patient is difficult for you, this is a little difficult. And you need to keep an eye on them; don't turn away for too long or something (bread, cheese, seasonings) might burn.

Flavor rating 8/10

YUM. It's hard to go wrong with butter, bread, and cheese (hey, that actually does sound pretty French... just add some wine!).

Adjustability: medium

You'll notice I didn't specify seasonings. Honestly, I made this a little while ago and can't remember what I used. I know there was garlic powder involved, because there always is. And I'm pretty sure I used my Parisian spice blend (...French) which has some dry leafy seasonings in there, and I was concerned about burning. But use whatever bread, spices, and cheese you want! Add other things! Leave out the cheese!

Make it with...

In the bonus photo, you'll see the croutons were their own individual side dish. You could put them on a salad like normal croutons, or make them smaller and use them in a Grenobloise style dish (that's why I learned it in France... we made skate Grenobloise, with capers and croutons and lemon juice). You could also just make them as a snack. Put some of these next to a cheese plate and glass of wine? Perfection.

Bonus photo:

Made them with sauteed chicken with red wine mushroom "relish,"
garlic mashed potatoes, and peas.

Cheesesteaks

I'm pretty sure I've never been to Philadelphia (therefore, if I have, I don't remember it) so go easy on me here, okay? I just like sandwiches. Don't try to tell me this isn't a proper cheesesteak... I'm from the south; I'm not expected to get these things right.

Cheesesteaks

Ingredients
green pepper
onion
mushrooms
ground beef
sliced provolone
bolillo rolls
about 2 Tbsp butter

Equipment
pan, foil, baking sheet, stove, oven

Instructions
Cut up your veggies into pieces that are an appropriate size to put on a sandwich. (I mention this specifically because I made mine a little big... they shrink a little while they cook, but not that much.) Melt butter in a pan and cook the veggies on medium-high until they start to get little char marks on them. Move the veggies to a bowl to wait while you cook the ground beef thoroughly in the pan. Drain your ground beef (I set out a paper plate covered in paper towels and pour the meat onto it, pat it down with a couple more paper towels) and put it back in the pan. Add the veggies back to the pan and mix thoroughly. Turn the heat to low. Once the veggies are heated through, spread the mixture evenly in the pan and cover with slices of provolone. Preheat the oven to 250F. Once the cheese is melted, scoop the mixture into sliced bolillo rolls. Wrap each sandwich very very tightly in foil and set on the baking sheet. Bake for about 10 minutes.

Yields 
I got 5 sandwiches out of one package of ground beef, one pepper, one onion, and a few button mushrooms. If we had used bigger rolls, it would have been 4.

Total time
about 30 minutes

Cleanup rating 1/5
Using one pan for the veggies and the meat makes cleanup even easier. Since the sandwiches are wrapped tight in foil, they don't leak onto the pan, so that doesn't even need to be cleaned.

Difficulty rating 2/10
These are not hard... they're just a little more time-consuming than a sandwich usually is. I was playing on hard-mode because my thumb hurt (have you ever cut your thumb by opening shampoo? I have) but still... not hard.

Flavor rating 6/10
Pretty good. I feel like there's something missing, or maybe I just should have used actual steak, but they were good.

Adjustability: high
Switch up your veggies! Change your cheese! Use steak instead of ground beef! Try chicken or pork or turkey instead! Use a different bread! Season your meat with something crazy! Every ingredient can be changed, removed, or switched out for something else. You could even go against everything Philly stands for and just put the mixture on top of rice or mashed potatoes or something, I don't know.

Make it with...
I made potatoes, and I had some green beans on stand-by to make sauteed green beans if the timing was a little off (but it wasn't). I thought about potato chips, potato salad, something with avocado (I just couldn't decide what)... it's a sandwich! Make whatever you want with it.

Bonus photos:

Veggies should look pretty much like this when they're done sauteeing.
Look at the little brown bits on some of them! YUM.

Cheese is just about melted over the meat-and-veggie mixture.
Almost time to transfer to the rolls.