Morning Grits  

Posted by Matt



A very tasty morning breakfast that is easy to make.

2/3 cups corn grits
1 cups water
2 slices bacon
1/2 cup shredded cheese
2 eggs
salt
pepper
paprika (not shown)
hot sauce (not shown)

Start by putting the bacon over medium high in a skillet.

In a small pot (preferably with a top), begin the water boiling with some salt and pepper
While it is getting boiling, put some butter in a small egg skillet (also preferably with a top), over medium heat. Once the butter melts and coats the pan, crack in two eggs sprinkle with paprika, and cover with the pot.

When the water boils, stir in the corn grits, and put on the top.
Check the bacon, probably flip it. The goal of the bacon is to get it pretty crispy, as later it will be chopped up.

As the corn grits heat up, stir often. Once it begins to thicken, it will boil and pop like molten lava. Use the top as a guard otherwise you will get brimstone spit on your hands.

Check the eggs and take them off the heat as soon as the whites are cooked, but before the yolk does. Using a top on the skillet helps to trap in heat and cook the top of the eggs whites before the yolk gets over done.

Somewhere in this mess, shred some cheddar.

When the corn grits are thick, take it off the heat. Chop up the bacon, and stir in them with the cheese. Pour into a bowl, topped with the two eggs, and season with salt pepper, and hot sauce. 

The corn grits will hold heat like a mother holds a child. Just be ready.
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Onigiri  

Posted by Matt




Arborio Rice (or any short grain rice)
Left over meat or filling of your choice
Sesame Seeds
chopped green onions
soy sauce.

So while my family was visiting, my mom and I made these. She got the idea from my cousin Heather. While we didn't do them perfect, they were still good. Essentially they are just a very sticky rice that has been hand shapped into rice balls with some filling in them.
To get the rice sticky, I used arborio rice in the rice cooker with a lot of water. Pretty much 2:1.
For the filling we had some left over roast that we braised for the day until it fell apart. (We did end up over cooking them, but that wasn't part of the recipe). Any left overs or pre cooked filling could be used. Chopped chicken? Spam? Sauteed Onions? Chopped Nuts? Chocolate?

Once the rice has cooked and cooled enough to touch, you'll want to wet your hand, grab a small handful of rice. Flatten the rice out to be pretty then, but not breaking apart. Add some filling, wet your hands, grab a little more rice, and put on top. Shape it into a ball and get the edges to stick to be whole.  Let sit until cool, about 15 minutes.

We then roasted some sesame seeds, and rolled the balls in those before topping with some green onions and drizzled on some soy sauce.

Other variations have you wrapped them in seaweed. That would be tastey as well. This recipe is similar to Musubi, which my roommate Sarah likes to make.
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Greek Roasted Veggies  

Posted by Matt

 
Bah, Just spent the last 30 minutes writing out this recipe just to have it crash and not save. So here it goes again, but this time with less filler.

Roasted Beets. Eat them. Again and again.

Veggie portion
2 ears corn
4 beets, washed and trimmed
1 head broccoli, chopped
1 onion, peeled
white wine
oil
salt
pepper
oregano

Roast these for 35 minutes in 350 degree oven

Add 4 chopped zucchini
Roast for an additional 10 minutes

Add cleaned and chopped beet greens
sprinkle on more wine
Roast for 10 more mins

Cool for 5 minutes. Chopped up big veggies into bite size pieces. Mix in big bowl.


Taziki sauce
plain greek yogurt
3 persian cucumbers, shredded, squeezed of juice.
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1/4 cup dill chopped
1/2 lemon juiced
package of crumbled feta
2 avocado, diced
salt and pepper

I mixed all these together and let them marry for an hour. Avocado goes great in a taziki sauce. yes!


Rice:
1.5 cup basmati rice
2 cup water
.25 cup white wine
1/2 lemon juiced
A bunch of herbs from my garden that I chopped up;
mint
parsley
sage
rosemary
salt

I put this all in the rice cooker. Mixed it up good and let it cook. I added salt at the end.

I need to do more with roasted beets. Yumm.

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Roasted Veggie Quinoa Pesto  

Posted by Matt



This turned out better than I imagined it would. I was hoping it'd be okay, but it surprised me. The sweetness of the corn with the tangy tomatoes and smoky peppers, the crunchy pumpkin seeds, and then all the flavors of the pesto. It was good.

So first the pesto, since I made it ahead of time.

1 bunch basil
4 cloves garlic
1 bunch green onion
1 bunch kale
1 bunch rainbow chard
1/3 cup olive oil
1 cup ricotta
lemon juice
salt
water.


I started with some chopped garlic and green onion in a frying pan, sauteed. I then steamed the kale and chard for a couple minutes. Then I put the rest of the ingredients in a blender with the garlic, onion, kale and chard and blended until smooth. It took two batches in the blender because it was a lot of sauce. I had to just eyeball the water to make sure it was wet enough to blend. I added salt at the end to taste.  I let this sit overnight, but I'm not sure how neccesary that would be. Also, this makes a killer dip. Eat it.

Also a day before:
1 cup raw hulled pumpkin seeds
olive oil
salt

I layed these out on a baking sheet with a little olive oil on top to help the salt stick, and then baked for 15 minutes in the oven at 450, until they changed from green to light brown. They crackled and popped a lot.

Next the quinoa:
1.5 cups quinoa
3 cups water
salt
1 Tbsn chopped herbs from the garden:
rosemary
mint
sage
dill
oregano


I put this in a rice cooker, all mixed up and turned it on until it was done. It came out with a slight polenta/maltomeal smell.


For the Veggies:
2 green bell pepper
2 ear corn
2 pints cherry tomatoe
2 Tbsn of the chopped heard from the quinoa
Salt
Pepper

I chopped up the bell pepper a little, shaved the corn off the ears, and layed it all out with the other ingredients on a oiled baking sheet. I put this in the oven for 15 minutes at 450, then did another 15 minutes under the broiler, mixing it around once to get good roasted coverage. I probably could have saved the pumpkin seeds and did them with the veggies. If I try this recipe again, I'll do that.

Finally
I sliced up some bread and toasted it for a little more crunch. Garlic bread would have been perfect.

p.s. I originally planned for this to have grilled chicken with it, but I discovered that my roommates had eaten the chicken all up. It was still a great meal with out it.
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Tabouli Burgers and Greek Zucchini Boats  

Posted by Matt


First the burger.

1 lbs ground beef
1 cup tabouli mix
1 cup water
1/8 cup olive oil
1 egg
1/2 lemon, juiced
salt
pepper
garlic salt

I mixed this all together and let it sit for an hour so the bulger int he tabouli mix could absorb some of the liquid. Then I shapped it into a patty and on a skillet with some oil, I fried it up. The bulger browned up nicely, but I had to make sure to cook it on low heat to let the meat all mixed in to get to temperature. At the same time I sauteed a jalepeno for each burger for the toppings. The burger didn't stick together too well and would do epically bad on a large grill, but a nice skillet was perfect.

Toppings:
fried jalapeno, sliced and seeded (this had no heat, but great flavor)
sliced fresh tomato
thinly sliced cucumber
red pepper hummus
broiled toasted buns
chopped mint leaves

You can figure out how to put this together. However, I did put the mint on top of the burger right after flipping it so they would heat up and release there goodness.


Next come the Greek Zucchini Boats


5 zucchini, ends trimmed, and sliced in half lengthwise
1 block feta
1 jar kalamata olives
1/2 cup tabouli mix
1/2 cup water
1 Tbsp oil
1/2 lemon, juiced.

I preheated the oven to 350, and mixed the tabouli mix with the water and oil and let it sit for 20 minutes. Sliced up the zucchini and laid them out in a baking dish. I spread out the tabouli mix on the zucchini, chopped the olives and put them on. sliced the feta and broke it up to cover the as much space as I could. Then I tossed them into the oven and let them bake. The key to this dish is making sure to get the zucchini just cooked enough to be nice to bite through but not completely soggy. I did it for about 30 minutes and it worked out well. Right after I pulled it out of the oven, I juiced the lemon on top to help rehydrate the tabouli mix which dried some in the oven.

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Christmas Breakfast Toast  

Posted by Matt

I randomly stumbled across a recipe from 7 years ago that I made during Jeremy and mine's sandwich experimentation phase, that I subsequently made one Christmas morning. We intended on making this open face sandwich a regular thing for Christmas morning in my family when it was just us. I suppose we all forgot about it. But here it is.

Ingredients:
Two slices bread.
Onion, sliced
Bell Pepper, sliced
Sliced turkey
two eggs
finely grated cheddar
hot sauce
dijon mustard

Saute the sliced onion, bell pepper, and deli meat until tender. Crack and fry two eggs in the small pan with the veggies and meat. Top with some finely grated cheese and some hot sauce. Put under the broiler to melt the cheese. This should come out as one fully connected mess.

Concurrently, spread some dijon mustard on two slices of bread and then toast in a toaster oven.

Then put the veggie onion mixture on top of the two slices of toast side by side. Voila, open-faced Christmas toast.

*Recommended that you don't over cook the egg. Keep the yolk runny to make sure the overall moisture content just right.

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Tortellini with sauteed Veggies  

Posted by Matt


This is a good alternative to the simple spaghetti meal, and just as easy to make. The key is finding good cheap prepared tortellini which I found in the bulk section at Winco.

2 cups cheese tortellini
1 package hot Italian sausage
24 oz Bertolli's basil marinara
Parmesan cheese
6 carrots
1 1/2 pound green beans
1 turnip
salt


Why a turnip, you ask? I asked that, and answered with a 'because it was there.' I started with a large pot of water to boil, with a healthy amount of salt. I then chopped up the carrots, peeled and chopped the turnip, and trimmed the green beans. I added them to a steamer with some water boiling. For the sauce I poured out the bottle and added chopped Italian sausage and put in on high with a lid.

When the water was boiling, I added the tortellini and cooked for 10-20 minutes until it was very soft. I made sure the veggies were soft to the fork. Once the sauce was hot and had cooked up the sausage, which released its flavor drippings into the sauce, I was pretty much done.

I drained the pasta, poured on the sauce, and dished up a plate with some salt and pepper and Parmesan for taste. So easy and so tasty.
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