Freakin' Freezin'

Mission Hill is feeling more and more like the antarctic everyday. Fighting back, I made soup. It is a combination of my grandmother's beans and escarole soup, and well, some things I had in my kitchen.

White bean and kale soup
4 celery stalks chopped
2 carrots chopped
1 onion chopped
6 cloves of garlic minced
1 tomato chopped
1 lb of kale roughly chopped
3 sun-dried tomatoes
1t of rosemary
1T parsley
2t red crushed pepper
salt and pepper
lots of water or stock
1lb of cannelloni beans soaked overnight with garlic and salt

I first threw the carrots, celery, garlic and onion in the pot, covered with water and let it cook down and become fragrant. In Italian this is called soffrito, or "softly fried" which really means to sweat aromatic vegetables. In Italy you can buy pre-chopped frozen aromatics which makes soup and sauce making twice as easy. But today I chopped my own.

Once the mixture has become soft, add the kale, beans and tomatoes, more salt and pepper, and maybe a little more heat as well. This will need to cook for at least an hour, most likely more. If you don't want soup when you start this recipe you will definitely be hungry when it is ready.

If this soup upsets you because there isn't enough animal in it you can always add sausage or bacon.

Pastry Towers

I know I promised this wouldn't be a photo diary of a fatty but I saw this recipe in a old cookbook my mom gave me and had to try it. If something looks delicious even in black and white it has to taste good. So I did it, I made a pastry tower.The individual pastries are called Pâte à Choux, which weren't that hard to make.

• 1 cup water
• 3/4 stick butter (6 tablespoons)
• 1 tablespoon sugar plus 1/8 teaspoon salt (for sweet)
• 1 teaspoon salt (for savory)
• 5 3/4 ounces flour
• 1 cup eggs, about 4 large eggs and 2 whites

Just heat the water, sugar and salt in a sauce pan. Then when melted add the flour, take the pan off the heat and add the eggs. Stir it well, until the mixture comes off the sides. Then scoop it all into a pastry bag and make little one inch puffs on a baking sheet. 350 for 10 minutes.

To keep them in place I dipped them in caramelized sugar (equal parts sugar and water cooked over med. heat) and stuck them around a small glass. Okay I cheated big deal.

I finished the tower with melted chocolate of course.

Then it was massacred/ devoured in a matter of seconds.

Broccoli what?

I used to be one of those lucky girls who walked by six farmers' stands on her way home from class. We are not talking about farmers' stands like those of Boston's Haymarket. Those vegetables come from a wholesaler in Chelsea.

"I'll give you all these tomatoes if you take these half-rotten broccoli heads off my hands,"

I'm talking about real southern Italian I-sell-artichokes-for-a-living farmers' markets. My favorite stand belonged to an older man named Domenico who sneered if you dared to touch his potatoes but was otherwise friendly. So I was shocked to see a cardboard sign reading "Rape $1" written in red paint and leaning against his Ape. (An Ape is this adorable three wheeler, ape means bee in Italian, these cars are used by farmers to deliver their produce to the more urban areas.)Seeing the sign for rape at a price, I asked Domenico what on earth he was saying. I discovered a new favorite. A type of vegetable, actually pronounced broccoli rah-peh. It is a bitter green like swiss chard but with the texter of both spinach and broccoli. It tastes amazing with spicy sausages, pasta and cheese.

I was thrilled when I found that my not-so-friendly local grocer carried it. I was double thrilled when my roommate came home with spicy sausage. A coincidence made for a great dinner.


Rape and Sausage Pasta- Orrechiette con la rape:

1-2 bunches of Broccoli Rape (rapini or rabe)
1 lb or orrechiette pasta or shells
1 lb of spicy italian sausage
4 cloves of garlice minced
1 t red crushed pepper
salt
1 T olive oil


Dealing with the broccoli:

First cut off the hard stems then cut the bunches in half and boil them in salted water for 1-3 miniutes. When they are tender enough scoop them into a bowl of ice water to stop the cooking. Keep the water from the boiling and add the pasta to it. Meanwhile heat a skillet and add the oil. On low heat sweat the garlic and add the red crushed pepper. Break the sausage up into pieces and add that to the skillet as well. Cook out the pink and then add the strained broccoli. When the mixture comes together add the pasta. Raise the heat to high and cook all the ingredients together. Cook until there is no excess liquid. Also you could stir in a cup or so of your favorite pasta sauce.

serves 4

Potatoes on Pie

As I made my way to the grocery store for the fourth time in three days I realized that at 21 I've already become my 80-year-old grandma. The Cincinnati IGA staffers are going to know my name if I'm not careful. Though its hard to be stealth when you're shopping-cart bulldozed by the other grandmothers. They think I too am after the BOGO sale on dates, but really I just want some pizza dough. 'Cause I'm too hungry to wait for dough to rise. What I found was Pillsbury pizza dough. Now usually I'd turn up my nose like a mean girl, but like I said, I'm hungry.

Rosemary Potato and Chicken Pizza:

2 thinly sliced red potatoes
2 sprigs fresh rosemary
2T fresh chives
2 T olive oil
1 clove of garlic
2 chicken breasts
salt and pepper

Wow pizza is super easy with pre-made dough. All I did was slice the potatoes and mix them with the herbs, oil, and garlic and spread them evenly on the dough. I half cooked the chicken in a saute pan with garlic, salt and pepper, sliced it and placed that on the pizza too. It tasted like a rosemary-potato croissant which is good. Who doesnt love carbs on top of buttery carbs?

I served it with a baby field green salad, mixed with carrots and crispy pan-fried potato slices. The dressing is just olive oil, balsamic vinegar, garlic powder, salt and pepper.

could serve 4, but only served 2 this time.

We're not starving

I am trying to keep this from becoming thisiswhyyourefat.com, or a way to keep track of how many burgers I've eaten (see above).
An exaggeration, but only because the burgers were surprisingly disgusting, though don't fill you with as much self loathing as the Super Big Boy Burger:


Sure he looks happy now...

So to counteract the "burger bliss" I made lemon-chive angel hair pasta and spicy beef stir fry.




This is what it looks like half eaten.

Angel Hair:
1/2 pound pasta
1 bunch of chives
1 lemon
1 clove of garlic
salt and pepper

First boil the angel hair for just one minute. Drain the pasta and toast it with garlic oil in a wok. Once it become slightly toasty add the juice from one lemon and then toss the pasta with the lemon slices.

Spicy Beef:
1lb cubed beef
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 sprigs of rosemary
T soy sauce
t olive oil
1 hot sauce
1 habanero pepper
1 green chilli pepper

Slice the pepper and garlic and combine all ingredients to create a marinade. You can let it rest in the refrigerator or you can toss the beef in the wok immediately, whichever you have time for. It should cook in just a few minutes, be careful not to overcook the meat. It is one of the easiest and fastest dinner to make. It takes just 15 minutes at most.

Lentils!

What? You don't know what lentils are? Well, they are that legume that you can buy by the truck load for a dollar at any Indian food store. True, lentils are not always first on the grocery list, but if you're looking for dinner on a budget it should be. Living on a college-student budget myself, I was looking for a way to entertain a group of friends without spending, or eating, too much dough. I remembered my grandmother's lentil soup. It is delicious by itself, with some elbow pasta, or a big slice of fresh Italian bread to sop up all its goodness.

Recipe:
3 celery stalks
2 large carrots
1 medium onion
4 garlic cloves
red crushed pepper
1 sprig of fresh thyme
1 sprig of fresh rosemary
11 cups of chicken broth
16 oz of lentils

First add some olive oil to a semi-hot pan. A friend of mine always adds a couple of anchovies first thing to the oil, not a must but I bet you'd like it. Then add the chopped veggies. Sweat them in the pot and then, using the veggies as a bed, throw in the garlic. Spice up your soup with some red crushed pepper, salt and pepper, also toss in some fresh herbs. Let the flavors marry over the heat for 10 minutes, then add the broth. The lentils will take about an hour at a simmer to soften up.

serves 6-8