Crab Tostadas

MG and I confronted two big questions today.

First… what do you make for dinner that will be satisfying and delicious, but super-easy because you started drinking champagne at four o’clock in the the afternoon and don’t have the energy to attempt anything even remotely ambitious?

Second… is it possible to eat a fantastic deep-fried tortilla loaded down with crab meat, jalapeño, avocado, tomato, onion, lime, and cotija cheese ONE-HANDED and NOT drop morsels onto the table?

The answer to the first question: Crab Tostadas.

The answer to the second question: No Fucking Way.

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Señor Verde’s Chicken Enchiladas

What do you do when you’ve arrived at home with an UNBELIEVABLE amount of affordable vegetables and a brand new Rachael Ray knife?  You get to work putting together a flavor-infused Mexican feast that serves six…  then you make sure you invite only one other person over to enjoy it with you!

Some of you out there know where I get my produce.  In the local area surrounding our production offices, the market I hit is famous not just for its jaw-droppingly low prices on everything from fresh produce, meats, alcohol and fresh breads, but for its war zone of a parking lot with a single entrance, a single exit, and a slew of locals who are either over the age of eighty or simply ignorant to common driver’s courtesy.  Plastic bags and runaway shopping carts dart around freely, as do at least three or four different languages and a healthy amount of honking and cursing.  It’s even worse inside.  It’s never anything but packed to the gills, and a mustering of patience is required along with extra-protective footwear and a heightened sense of self-preservation.

Yes, I very much have to be in a overwhelmingly composed, almost reverent state of mind to venture into the Super King Market at 2716 N. San Fernando Road in the Glassell Park neighborhood of Los Angeles.  I take a deep breath, purse my lips, tuck down my head, and concentrate on the finish line, much as I imagine I might if I were forced to walk across hot coals or experience a colonoscopy.

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Summer Tomato and Bell Pepper Soup

Here’s a soup so tangy and packed with flavor, I refused to share it with anyone… not even MG. In fact, I went out of my way to call him up after I polished off my first bowl to say, “I made an amazing soup tonight… and guess what? You’re not getting any of it!” I guess that’s a little bit of the “baby brother” coming out of me. I am the youngest of four, after all.

Or it could just be that I’m a jerk.

But guess what? I don’t care. This soup really is that good. Let this soup bring out the snotty selfish possessive brat in you.

And luckily, it’s as incredibly easy to make as it is powerfully delicious, so I suggest doubling the recipe below and making two batches, labeling one “Yours,” and the other one “NOT YOURS.” Then invite over loved ones to feast on it.

Not only was it a quick prep, but the ingredient list is also amazingly simple. The only ingredient I didn’t already have in my kitchen was the goat cheese which is a nice finishing touch, but isn’t even necessary to make this baby sing.

Serve it cold in the warm months, and heat it up the night you trim the Christmas tree.

And no, a grilled mozzarella, tomato and basil sandwich wouldn’t hurt the situation either, in case you might have been concerned about that.

Summer Tomato and Bell Pepper Soup from Epicurious

• 2 1/4 cups tomato juice
• 1 1/3 cups finely chopped tomatoes (about 11 ounces)
• 1/2 cup (generous) finely chopped roasted red bell peppers from jar
• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
• 1 tablespoon prepared white horseradish
• 1 garlic clove, pressed
• Generous dash of hot pepper sauce
• Fine sea salt
• 4 1/3-inch-thick rounds soft fresh goat cheese
• 6 grape tomatoes, cut in half
• 2 tablespoons thinly sliced fresh basil
• Additional extra-virgin olive oil (for drizzling)

Combine first 8 ingredients in large bowl; whisk to blend. Season soup to taste with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. Cover and refrigerate until well chilled and flavors blend, at least 2 hours. DO AHEAD: Can be made 6 hours ahead. Keep chilled.
Ladle soup into 4 bowls. Top each with 1 goat cheese round and 3 grape tomato halves. Sprinkle with freshly ground black pepper and basil. Drizzle with oil and serve.

Fresh Tomato Basil Dipping Sauce

We food bloggers… (I almost hesitate including myself. Have I been blogging long enough to deserve it?)… we all find our way to a love of food in different ways. Some of us learned it from mom and/or dad. Some of us reluctantly signed up for a college course to fulfill a general education requirement. Some of us just dig Rachael Ray that fucking much!

For me, it was a blood-pressure scare.

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Cheese and Tomato Sausage Bake

I’m leaving for a weekend in San Francisco in less than 24 hours. Very excited about it. Sadly, I picked the weekend of the Los Angeles Grilled Cheese International to leave town. Wish I could do both, but truthfully, I am a man who rarely wants for cheese. Witness this lovely dish that was cobbled together with leftovers and the perishables I’m racing to eradicate from my kitchen before I leave for the weekend. Kinda hard to look away from these pics, isn’t it?

Truth be told, the top pic is currently my desktop photo. You think it looks good 500 pixels wide? You should see it at 2500 pixels wide!

This dish is fantastic straight from the pan, or packed in a pita (consider it a Classy Hot Pocket). It also goes great over some slightly tosated sourdough or ciabatta bread lightly scraped with a garlic clove.

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Puff Pastry Pizza with Prosciutto

This recipe comes from a new friend named Katie and has travelled all the way across the Atlantic Ocean to meet you. Katie’s blog, Thyme for Cooking has been entertaining foodies since 2006, and is not only full of stories about Katie’s life and cooking overseas, but also boasts a sister site with an extensive section of kitchen tips I go to regularly, sometimes out of necessity, sometimes just to learn a new kitchen factoid and tuck away for future use.

If you ever need guidance on soup bases, how to pit an avocado, freeze an egg, or store a pumpkin, you couldn’t do better than starting with Katie!

And then there’s her puff pastry pizza with prosciutto.

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Walnut Pesto

Well, guess what I did last week?  I took an ENTIRE WEEK off from work.   I can’t remember the last time I did that.  Counting the weekends on either side of it, that meant NINE FULL DAYS to do whatever the god-damn-hell I felt like.  Aside from the usual necessary errands, I intentionally had nothing planned, but I did intend to be productive in some capacity.  I even put off plunking down a few hundred bucks for a PlayStation for fear it would turn me into a button-pushing zombie for the entire run. 

I thought for sure there’d be a good deal of time spent in the kitchen, but that never really happened either, thought I did manage to put this quick little treat together, and it only took about ten minutes, which is about all the time I spent in the kitchen on my week off.  This is super-fast, super-tasty, and great if you need to bring something to a potluck.  However, I will say that it’s flavor can be a little over-powering to anyone who’s thinking about the taste of pesto sauce or isn’t a bit fan of walnuts.  My suggestion is to make a batch for yourself first.  That’s what i did.  And I had no trouble finishing them off.  In fact, in ended up subbing in as my dinner for the night.

Walnut Pesto from Smitten Kitchen

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Tomato and Goat Cheese Tarts

If I understand every bit of instruction in a recipe the very first time I read it, chances are I’m going to have little or no interest in making it.

This week, I stuck my baby toe into the puff pastry pool and learned two new terms: scoring and docking.  As usual, I assumed because these two tasks have been assigned terms all their own, they were going to be much too hard for me to manage, and as usual, I was wrong.

And of course, because I still get kitchen jitters, I bought double the ingredients necessary so that I could first make “rehearsal pastries,”  which turned out alright, but not as good as the pictures you see here, which feature Tomato and Goat Cheese Tarts V2.0.  The rehearsal pastries came out flakey, tangy, buttery and all-over delicious, but I didn’t like the ratio of pastry to filling dictated by the recipe, so I adjusted it in V2.0

Tomato and Goat Cheese Tarts from Barefoot Contessa

• 1 package (17.3 ounces/2 sheets) puff pastry, defrosted
• 3 tablespoons olive oil, plus extra for brushing
• 4 cups thinly sliced yellow onions (2 large onions)
• 3 large garlic cloves, cut into thin slivers
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 3 tablespoons dry white wine
• 2 teaspoons minced fresh thyme leaves
• 4 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan
• 4 ounces garlic-and-herb goat cheese
• 1 large tomato, cut into 4 (1/4-inch-thick) slices
• 3 tablespoons julienned basil leaves

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Ultimate Sausage Pizza

Me to MG: “You and I… we were pigs last night!”

MG (confused) to Me: “We were? We only ate one pizza.”

If I had made a second one of these, there still would not have been any left over. If we had had to share this single pizza with a third party, MG and I would have gone to bed with little pouty frowns on our faces. MG and I are pure-blooded pizza pigs.

I will admit right here and now that aside from being a pure-blooded pizza pig, I am also a closet Boboli pre-made pizza crust purchaser. For the amount of homemade pizza we consume, it’s just the way it has to be. I have made pizza dough from scratch to moderately successful results, and even experimented with the pre-made dough from Trader Joes. I don’t bother anymore. The crust is just the delivery device for everything on top of it as far as I’m concerned. Protest me if you want. Or, better yet, send me some kick-ass pizza crust recipe that you think is divine enough to change my mind by clicking right here. I always welcome suggestions.

The fun of pizza-making is striking that perfect balance between vegetables, sauce, cheeses and meat, and I’m happy to say that I’ve run this recipe through the oven two weeks in a row and it’s pretty damn solid.  It will certainly put any local delivery spot you may have pinned up on your refrigerator to shame.  Please click on the pics below for big-screen full-res images.

Any tips or hints on my never-ending quest to perfect the pizza pie? E-mail me or leave a comment below. Have a great weekend!

Ultimate Sausage Pizza

• pizza dough or store-bought crust of your choice
• 1 can (15 oz) canned tomatoes, diced
• 1/2 white onion chopped
• 1 jalapeno pepper, chopped
• 1/2 red bell pepper, chopped
• 1/2 yellow bell pepper, chopped
• 1/2 green bell pepper. chopped
• 1 small Roma tomato
• 1 – 1 1/2 mild Italian sausages, uncooked
• 1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese
• 1 cup shredded Havarti cheese with dill
• 1/2 cup shredded Reggianito cheese
• 1-2 large basil leaves
• oregano
• pepper
• olive oil
• cornmeal (optional)

Spread cornmeal over your pizza pan to keep your crust from sticking.  This also helps to keep the crust from getting overly-crunchy.  Lay out your dough or pre-bought crust and coat lightly with the olive oil.  Add the diced tomatoes and spread evenly, then the vegetables and 75% of your cheeses.  Break apart your uncooked sausage into pieces and spread across the top.  Slice your Roma tomato and then halve each slice and place. Tear basil leaves into small pieces and spread across the top.  Add oregano and pepper to taste, and spread the remaining cheese over the top. Cook for 13-17 minutes.

Scrambled Egg Towers

Breakfast can be served 24 hours a day as far as I’m concerned so long as it’s my MG doing the cooking.  He’s a master at creating spectacular morning dishes that are so impossible to resist and so totally satisfying, I usually want to crawl right back into bed when I’m done with them and hibernate for a week.

MG can create gold from any ingredients (and more importantly, any lack of ingredients) lying around.  I’ll catch him surveying the contents of my cabinets and fridge and ask, “what are you looking for?” and without even glancing over at me, he’ll simply reply, “I’m just looking.”

Akin to the thrill of returning from a restaurant bathroom to find your food awaiting you at the table is the thrill I get from returning from picking up our morning coffees to find the most eye-popping breakfast coming together in the kitchen. This morning, he really outdid himself. I helped by having nearly every ingredient he went searching for on hand. Together, we are the perfect breakfast-making machine. All we need to do is throw in mimosas, Bloody Marys and maybe hire a Celtic harpist and we could open for business tomorrow!

Follow the link for more pics and the recipe.
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