charlotteann

Closer to a “true American” breakfast, anyway. For those of you know my eating habits fairly well, you’ve probably heard of my aversion to eggs. Hate ‘em. I wish I didn’t because they seem so gosh darn versatile. But, they’re also the ova of another animal and that weirds me out. That and the smell, phew! Anyhoo. I make do for breakfast in America at diners and the like with either a collection of side orders or the homefries or some other starch. Like delicious, sizzling hash browns. Yum. I made my own scramble today that was sort of like homefries but not really? I don’t know what to call it. Home Sweet Potato Scramble Fries? Yeah, let’s go with that.

Home Sweet Potato Scramble Fries

This serves one person, ideally enjoying a leisurely rainy morning at home during the holiday vacation:

1 small red onion, chopped
1 medium sweet potato, diced into 1/2 inch cubes
1 green onion cut into sections
1/4 cup quartered mushrooms (I used shiitake)
2 small links sausage, casing removed
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
salt, pepper, dried herbs of your choosing

I recommend having everything chopped up and ready to go - this is a minor stir fry situation.

Heat the oil in a skillet, a cast iron skillet is excellent for this if you are awesome enough to have one, and add the sausage. Stir it around a bit until it’s mostly cooked, then add the sweet potatoes. When they start to soften and get crispy and browned on the outside, toss in the onions and mushrooms. Stir often but not constantly until the onions start to soften, adding a pinch of herbs if you’d like (I used Herbes de Provence) and some S&P. Add the whiter parts of the green onions in the last minute or so of cooking, use the rest for garnish.

My sincere apologies for my lack of eloquence in recipe-writing. It’s really hard and I’m not good at ordering people around. In addition to eggs I hate coffee. Or, I should say, I hated coffee (see, past tense). During finals I got turned onto the stuff and I currently have TWO DIFFERENT KINDS of coffee in my possession.

Caffeine

I don’t know coffee and I’m not about be a Blue Bottle snob. I’ve actually tried their coffee and you know what? It tasted like a lot like coffee. Between the two varieties in my kitchen, I think I like the Illy better. I bought the Roma stuff because it had a local address on it and it was cheap but not the cheapest at Safeway. Both contain adequate levels of caffeine. I can’t help but wonder - if I am now able to consume coffee, are eggs next on my list? Stay tuned. This is my birthday month and things are bound to get a little crazy.

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.