charlotteann

I am unlucky in love. I’m getting used to it and discovering my true comfort foods in the process. So far the list includes: mac’n'cheese, fried chicken, grilled cheese sandwiches, chicken noodle soup, ramen, and, of course, PASTA. Yes, pasta is magical. It is amazing. It is wondrous. I don’t know if I like it because it’s easy to make or because my mom made it all the time when I was growing up. Come to think of it, the former probably begat the latter.

To make up for my most recent ill-fated attempt at love, I made whole wheat fettucini with Trader Joe’s 3 cheese (or is it 4 cheese?) red sauce and some leftover chicken. The photographs look better than it tasted. I think this means I have a career in fast food photography!

Well hi! It’s been a very long time. The Fall Semester 2009 has finally destroyed itself and I finally have time to cook and photograph the foods of my labor. I can’t tell you how excited I was to go to the farmer’s market Sunday morning. Okay, more like Sunday afternoon but I still got some good stuff. In fact, my scallions and mustard greens were discounted to 75 cents each because Ms. $1 herb lady wanted to get rid of them so badly. Anyhoo. For this dish the only thing from said market was the onion, everything else came from Safeway and Bristol Farms, the bougie, ’spensive grocery store under the Westfield mall. Oh, and the sausage came from the little halal meat market on Geary at Jones, next to my all time favorite pizza joint Milan Pizza. I guess the apparent point to be made is that I buy my foodstuffs from all over. All of these ingredients could potentially come from the same place, however.

Sweet and spicy rigatoni (serves two)

1-2 small link(s) sweet chicken sausage
1 medium onion, chopped into smallish bits
1 clove garlic
1/3 cup spicy/zesty tomato pasta sauce
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
2 cups dry rigatoni
4-5 leaves fresh basil torn into small pieces
1 tablespoon grated Romano cheese
salt & pepper

In a small sauce pan, cook the onion, garlic, and sausage in the olive oil over medium heat until the chicken is cooked through and things start to brown slightly and/or start to leave little brown bits on the bottom of the pan. I was satisfied when it looked like this:

Add the sauce, stir, lower the heat and continue to stir occasionally. Season with salt and pepper as well as the basil, but make sure to keep some basil around for presentation value later on. Meanwhile, cook your rigatoni. When it’s al dente or otherwise to your liking, drain it and return it to the pan. Pour the sauce over the pasta and mix well. Garnish with the cheese and remaining basil and serve!

While this meal is decidedly Italian in nature, I used a sausage seasoned with Middle Eastern spices. And apples, I think. Part of me thinks that Italian and Middle Eastern food can totally get together and make something delicious. If I pursue this vein of cooking, it would be a somewhat poetic joining of my family history (Italian) and my neighborhood (San Francisco’s Tenderloin district). I can’t think of any Italian-fusion restaurants, only French. And most of those are fused with Asian cuisine. Gee whiz, California. Way to think outside the box.

Yeah, so, school started last week and I was feeling just a little too busy to update the ol’ blog. But it’s never too late, right? Right.

Truth be told, I abandoned my soup challenge a bit. I have had a bowl of soup every day (although someone told me instant ramen doesn’t count, so if they’re right I am lying to you) but the whole documentary part sort of fell by the wayside. Tragic, I know. Will you ever get enough pictures of bowls of soup? I don’t know, I just don’t know. Woe is you.

Bright side! My schedule this semester includes three days that commence at 9 AM and continue to at least 3:45 PM, and I happen to harbor a certain love for bringing a packed lunch. The restaurants around school (including its own totally weird café) can be a little pricey and none of them are very tasty. So I’ve decided to make a big effort to bring my lunch every day because it will save me money and give me practice being a mom. Speaking of, my mom packed my lunch every day in grade school and I had the coolest pink lunchbox. It was shaped like a briefcase and had its own little pink drink cooler that, now that I think about it, was shaped like a coffin. A coffin for beverages.

So, for this week (shortened thanks to Labor Day) I made pasta. I cooked 1 3/4 cup (dry) of whole wheat penne pasta, sauteed 1/4 of a yellow onion, heated up some Bolognese sauce from Trader Joe’s, and tossed it all together. This made two servings of pasta which I separated into plastic, microwaveable containers. I wanted to label them “Tuesday” and “Wednesday” but thought the other art school kids might make fun of me. I haven’t really put much effort into rounding out my packed lunches, though. A piece of fruit? Little Debbie cakes? Carrot sticks? What do you think? I’d love to hear stories about how your mom or dad or legal guardian packed your lunch, and what were the best and worst surprises.

And they are delicious. Last night I went to a Portland Sea Dogs baseball game and ate a lot of crap. I had a hot dog, popcorn chicken, french fries, a fish sandwich, popcorn, and an ice cream sandwich. They were all satisfying in some way, but the disappointing fish sandwich was just a phallic, soggy piece of fried fish in a hot dog bun. While I was away enjoying the culinary delights of Portland’s Hadlock Field, my mom and her fiancé (the wedding is soon, that’s why I’m here) ended up with 5 free lobsters. They may be lucky ducks but they can’t eat that much lobster in one sitting.
Then there were three.

What to do with all that delicious lobster besides taking its picture? Well, I used some green things (excepting the rosemary) from the garden…

… and some whole wheat linguine, garlic, and olive oil to make lunch. It was good, but my mom and I agreed it could have used a little spice, like red chile flakes, freshly chopped chile, or chile oil. Basically, anything chile-related would have helped.

Lobster and Swiss chard linguine
• 1/3 cup roughly chopped lobster meat (chilled)
• 1 serving linguine
• 1 small bunch of Swiss chard
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 3 tbsp extra virginolive oil
• 1 tbsp sweet or Italian basil, torn into small pieces
• 1 tbsp Italian parsley, chopped
• salt and pepper

Boil water and cook linguine al dente. Drain and set aside. I made my pasta as I was cooking the chard, but if you lack my amazing sense of timing or only have one burner, cook the pasta first. Heat 2 tbsp of olive oil and the garlic in medium flat-bottomed pan or wok over medium heat until fragrant. Add the Swiss chard and stir occasionally until tender. Add the linguine, basil, lobster, and the rest of the oil (if needed) and stir until heated through. Avoid overcooking, as the lobster will get all tough and less delicious. Turn off the heat, season with a little S&P, transfer to a bowl or plate and garnish with the parsley.

Typically, I follow a recipe when I make something other than ramen, spaghetti, or a grilled cheese. But yesterday I decided to wing it with a boneless pork chop I purchased from my new buddy at the meat counter at Golden Natural Foods. I know I said it was pricey, but it’s also really convenient. I knew I wanted to use some sage and rosemary from my little garden. Dressing the linguine was proving quite difficult until I came upon some ricotta left over from lasagna I made last week. This recipe isn’t exactly fancy. I was even too lazy to mince garlic, but it tasted pretty good so… No whining!

Pork chop 
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 2 or 3 sprigs of rosemary
• 5 or 6 leaves of sage
• 1 boneless pork chop on the small side

In a cast iron skillet add the olive oil, rosemary, and sage and let cook over medium heat until fragrant. Add the pork chop, cook about 15-20 minutes on each side (depending on thickness). I was having trouble gauging the cooking time for this because I can get impatient and my meat thermometer is not very accurate. So you should probably rely on your own pig-cooking skills before sticking to my suggested 15-20 minutes.

Linguine 
• single serving of whole wheat linguine
• 2 tbsp fresh ricotta cheese
• 1 or 2 tbsp dried cranberries
• salt and pepper

Cook the pasta to that lovely point of al dente, drain, and return to the pan to keep warm. Toss with ricotta and pinches of salt and pepper or according to taste.