charlotteann

Of course! I should have known. Bacon comes from the pig’s belly so it stands to reason that pork belly would taste delicious, too. The last time I ate pork belly was in Las Vegas at Bouchon in the Venetian. Thanks to the several free vodka tonics post-dinner at the black jack table (I won $60) I can’t remember much about that meal. But, I did remember to file it away as a cut of meat to try again at home.

Most of the recipes I found online requested several days of preparation, including rubs, cooking followed by chilling followed by more cooking 24 hours later, and overnight braising. Yeah, right. My guest was due in six hours and I needed something considerably less labor intensive.

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Pancakes! My goodness, it has been years since I have enjoyed a blueberry pancake. Maybe not years, but my mom (who lives in Maine and has access to superior blueberries) makes them sometimes when I infrequently visit her and they are simply delish. I would have liked some bacon this morning but my little apartment would have smelled for a week.

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So I went through a lot this afternoon to make a pizza. After waiting next to a marijuana dispensary for 20 minutes for some French dude to answer his phone to show me a kitchen table I might be interested in purchasing, I grew a bit fatiguée and hopped on a bus to go to Trader Joe’s and Bed Bath and Beyond. The two stores are somewhat conveniently located on 9th and Bryant and accessible to me via the 27 or 19 bus. I took the 19 today because the 27 was on vacation. And then I missed my stop on the way home because I was jammin’ to some Mirah. Sigh.

Anyway, I had a mind to make a prosciutto and arugula pizza, but I needed most of the ingredients. Trader Joe’s helped me out there, and after hearing a friend rave about his pizza stone I decided to get one, too, from Bed Bath and Beyond. But I didn’t get that giant wood pizza spatula, which was a decision that ruined my pizza.

As you can see, everything started out just fine. I put my new pizza stone in the oven and let them heat up to 450 degrees together while the dough relaxed on a lightly floured surface. (more…)

I go back and forth with coffee, and by that I mean I lie about whether or not I drink it. I drink coffee like any respectable student should, but I’m not into lattés or macchiatos. When I fib about my coffee consumption it’s because I don’t want to drink your coffee. Illy is my favorite and I’m sticking to it, $15 a can be damned!

Since I’m spending so much cash on coffee I drink about three times a week (other mornings are started with PG Tips tea), it’s time to start being a little thriftier on other things. Okay, that was a lie, too: I need to be thriftier in general. But I’m also trying to cut meat out of my diet unless it’s sustainably fished from the sea. Thus my breakfast this morning consisted of yellow potatoes, yellow onion, and Smart brand sausages “chorizo style.” For the record, they taste nothing like chorizo. Nor do they imitate its texture in any way. The closest it came to resembling the real thing was in the color of the stain it left on my cutting board.

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I love char siu (aka Chinese BBQ). It’s cheap because I live near Chinatown and it tastes like pork candy. If I don’t nibble my way through the 1/2 lb (~$3.00) I typically buy every other week or so, I’ll use it in fried rice (see previous post) or soup. So today I bring you a little photo montage of this soup-making process.

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So I attempted to make some pork fried rice tonight. I didn’t let my rice dry out sufficiently and the whole thing ended up one lumpy, orange mess. Thankfully, the flavor was quite good. I started out stir frying sliced yellow onion with leeks until they began to brown. I then removed them from my wok and added the rice, soy sauce, rice vinegar, and fish sauce. At this point I knew it was over but proceeded anyway by making a little hole in the middle of the rice in which to scramble an egg. After mixing the egg back in with the rice, I tossed in the BBQ pork (got 1/2lb or so from Chinatown today for $3.80), shiitakes, and pea greens. After the pea greens had wilted a bit, I returned the onions and leeks to the mix and stirred in some Thai basil and green onions. To finish it all off I spooned in a generous helping of chile garlic paste.

School is, anyway. I still have one semester and one summer class before I am officially degree’d and rather poorer than I was 3 years ago. Oh well. I’m very happy here and glad to have my own place since February. It’s super sunny and just the right size for me and the cat.

See?

Classes kept me rather busy this spring, but I am happy to report that summer is here and I am moderately committed to eating healthier and taking more pictures. I could have been taking pictures of my meals these past few weeks, but I didn’t want anyone to know how much instant ramen and pizza I was eating.

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