Taquitos!

I'm not even kidding.

This is the only picture I was able to take, so it is by default the best.

I apologize. Picture something delicious.

THERE. That is now "how tasty my taquitos are". 

Effortless would almost be the word best used to describe this recipe, except for the fact that I accidentally left the broiler on and burnt up my first batch. This did not stop anyone from devouring them, though, which I took as a note of confidence as I made sure to guard over the next batch.

Um, about the broiler. It's how we pre-heat our oven. It isn't even on the list of things to fix about this place - rather, "awesome oven" is on the list for Things For Next Apartment. If I told you what else was on that list, you'd shake your heads, so instead I'll say: if you, too, have an oven like this - wanna start a support group?

Anyway.

I made these easy taquitos! There were both chicken and vegetarian (black refried beans, with extra veg) options. So simple. See how easy?

Ingredients:

- flour tortillas
- two chicken breasts
- one can of vegetarian refried black beans
- four cloves garlic
- diced onion
- diced tomato
- diced bell pepper
- salsa
- sour cream
- guacamole
- basil, salt, pepper, etc etc
- olive oil
- shredded cheese

You'll want to steam the chicken, so shake some basil, salt, and pepper over the breasts and then steam away. While your kitchen starts to smell amazing, heat up the beans in a pan, using a bit of oil, about half the garlic, and season as you wish. You'll just be cooking it up a bit so it is hot.

Shred the cooked-through chicken. Add garlic, a little salsa (a few tbs), some of the onion, and anything else you'd like. Now. Take a tortilla. Rub a little oil onto each side and then, fill the inside with some shredded chicken mixture and cheese. Roll up tightly then place in a baking dish (or on a cookie sheet). Repeat.

For the vegetarian ones, you'll want to put the bean mixture in the inside, with some onion and tomato and cheese, then roll up.

Bake for fifteen minutes at 350 F, or until the tops are crisp and golden-brown and the insides are hot and melty. If you want to broil briefly at the end to get a golden-brownier top, please do.

Serve with sour cream, guacamole, salsa, and anything else you want. I imagine that "serve" usually involves plates.

Ours didn't make it farther from the baking dish than our mouths. OH THE LIFE.

The Eggs Have It. It being a potpie.

 Oh, but don't I love me some panko.

 

I know what time it is and that time is Posting Time! Or two in the morning, take your pick. My primary reasons for posting right now: I am awake and while Lyra would prefer that I were sleeping (or so I would gather from watching her sprawl endearing on the bed and stare me down with half-shut eyes), it's a little toasty in here and part of that is the weather and part of that is the fact that I feel like I'm running a slight fever?

I started to say "baby fever" but then realized that may send the wrong message. Which I don't want to do.

Also, I just wrote and deleted a description of some amazing thrift store finds. Maybe I should add a partner blog to this that talks about my actual life-life. I'm not boring, just ask my therapist (ba DUM bum).

Would anyone be interested in that?

H-hello? (is it me you're looking for...?) 

On to the food! Which is why you are here, I presume. That and my sparkling wit. 

One of my cookbooks is Elinor Klivans' Potpies: Yumminess in a Dish. No, I know, it isn't the best title, but so many cookbooks fall prey to the fact that they don't have the best names.

For those interested. My cat has just climbed under my (new! well. new to me! my roommate sourced this from his home in the 'burbs, bless.) bed and is likely going to climb into the box spring BECAUSE SHE IS INSANE.

Back to Elinor! She also wrote a book about cupcakes, which I also own, and is full of delicious ideas. Now, I love me a potpie and while I have made several from this particular cookbook, I've managed to perfect my own person chicken (or veg!) potpie by this point and so use this for the less traditional ideas. One thing I have always meant to cook from this dish is the Comfort-Me-with-Eggs potpie.

The story she has about it says she was served this in Ohio (represent!) by the Overbey family. I thought her recipe seemed...more basic than I would have preferred, so I took the idea and ran with it. Because you know what? When I made this (the day after Easter) I genuinely needed a comfort dish.

April Fools Day is, apparently, still an excuse for people to break out their inner Mean Girls.

SO. Eggs! Plenty of hardboiled eggs lying around, it had just been Easter! Only one thing to do!

 Oh look! Brightly colored eggs!

Kitchenry's Comfort Me With Eggs Potpie (with major kudos to Ms. Klivans and, apparently, the Overbey's.)

Ingredients

- eight hardboiled eggs
- two cups milk
- butter! about two tablespoons
- one half of an onion, diced the hell up.
- a handful of mushrooms, sliced
- garlic, minced to minceytown. (I used three cloves.)
- 2-3 TBS of flour
- dash of salt
- pepper (or even lemon-pepper. god I love lemon-pepper.)
- basil (as much as you want!)
- paprika (a pinch)

ALSO

- panko! the original recipe suggests 1 1/4 cups, honestly I just put a nice amount in a bowl.
- 2 TSP paprika
- 3 TBS melted butter
- pinch of salt

THEN

Preheat the oven to 375 F.

Peel your hardboiled eggs, then cut them in half and place them in the baking dish. I used my pleasing green dish, the original recipe suggests a six cup baking dish. I was fine. You can lay the eggs atop each other if you need, it's fine.

 Chopped and beautiful. 

Although at this point, I was a little like "what. are. you. DOING?"

In a saucepan, heat the milk over medium heat until it is hot and steam starts to rise, but don't boil it. Turn off the heat and ignore while you continue.

In another saucepan, melt the butter with the onion and mushrooms for around two minutes. Season with basil. Stir in the flour and cook a bit (or you can, um, forget this part until you've already added the hot milk and then add it but this way is easier. trust me.) for another couple of minutes, then slowly pour the hot milk over it while wisking away like a devil. Season with some salt and pepper and the pinch paprika and any other seasons you'd like. Let thicken, which will take about two or three minutes, and then pour the sauce over the eggs in the baking dish.

Even in non-traditional potpies, the creamy delicious sauce is the turning point. 

It's like a promise to be delicious and comforting.

And a reminder that maybe you should eat a salad or go to the gym.

Y'know.

Now. Mix the panko, paprika, melted butter, dash salt, and any other seasoning if using in a dish to moisten all crumbs. Spoon over the filling and spread it out evenly.

Bake around a half hour, until the top is a deep golden color and it's all bubbly and delicious. Then serve the hell out this.

I'm thinking of adding cheese to the crust next time, since when I reheated mine I added cheese to the dish and died. Seriously, so tasty.

And you know what? Comforting. Which is the whole point of a potpie. 

Homemade Potato Chips or Lazy McLazerson Can Still Impress You

I

Look at that! Chips! 

Ignore my thumb and the fact that I am clearly holding this up in a place not meant for food-tography.

You'll forgive me, won't you? 

Potato chips.

Not healthy, but delicious. I usually eat pita chips or sesame sticks when I want crunchy snacks. I've baked garbonzo beans in the oven. Enjoyed random delicious things from the Asian grocery store I frequent. From time to time, there are other things, but rarely are these things chips.

Inexplicable, then, how I should really really want some the other night. Luckily, my father had told me a while ago (and then, of course, blogged about it)  about how to make your own chips in - no, no, wait for it - a microwave. Of all things! The ol' microwave! The cheese-melter! The heater-upper! The friend of all college students! This is not to say that  I do not use the microwave, 'cause god knows I do. This is to say that I do not often put uncooked things in it and then later, blog about it.

Hell, I'm skeptical of microwave cake. I like to reheat things in it. On the rare occasion where frozen food exists in my life, I like to use it to turn it into non-frozen food when the oven is not available.

And when is the oven not available?

Rarely. That's when. RARELY.

Anyway. I was skeptical but also figured it was healthier than frying and less time consuming than baking and, well, I was just frying my panko-chicken up in a bit of butter. I hardly needed to wait for my (admittedly finicky) oven to heat up and then make me some chips.

So I did it. I nuked the thin potato slices, the thicker potato slices. And when all was said and done?

THAT SHIT WAS DELICIOUS.

Who knew?

Here is how I did it.

Ingredients:
- a potato
- any seasoning you like

Instructions:

You want to slice the potato in whatever thickness you desire. I suggest thinner ones, but then again maybe you fancy kettle style chips. I like the thick ones too. I get it.

Put the potato slices on a microwave safe (and I mean, really, a microwave safe) plate. Thick in the middle, thin on the edges. Sprinkle with whichever seasonings you like - I did some salt & pepper ones, a few spicier ones, and then just played a bit with some of my Spice House blends. Do whatever you like. One was barely - and I do mean barely - touched with olive oil.

The others weren't oiled at all.

Set your plate in the microwave and nuke for five minutes. You might need more, but I doubt you need less unless they are all really thin or, you know, you like it like that. Feel free to check at around four.

Ideally, the chip has gotten brown spots and crisped up. Most of them popped right off the plate, but even the ones that were a little reluctant came up without any problems.

And I took a bite...

and it crunched! And it tasted good.

Belated apologies for the awful awful plating in that photo. I meant to do it nicely and then got all hungry and then had eaten most of them before I mumbled to my cat "oh, right, the blog!" and then snapped the snap and went back to stuffing my maw.

I know you read this for the depictions of my delicate life. I am, after all, a lady.

A lady with an early appointment who must go to bed.

Sláinte! Irish Stew from Chi-reland!

 Soupier than yours should look.

Unless you want it to be soupier. Then have at.

Didn't I just say something about not eating a lot of red meat? I'm fairly certain I did and, in all honesty, that was true. In fact, if this were last year I wouldn't be eating it at all as I'd called it quits on cows and such for somewhere around two years.And yet, here we are, with yet another red-meat-recipe.

At least I was better at being a pollotarian that I was a vegetarian. Yikes. "No, no, I'm not eating meat right now...oh, this is a chicken salad bagel with bacon on it? HOW DID THAT HAPPEN?!" (oh, the things we do in relationships...that we will never, ever do again...)

At any rate. It is St Patrick's Day and that meant I ought to do something Irish for y'all. (must. stop. with. the. y'all-ing.) I don't know what I was planning on (lies, I totally know) but I do know it was awesome (not lies) and totally would have slaaaayed. I'll just have to go through my delicious Irish cookbook another time though because I did this instead.

And how did Irish Stew come into the world here? Well. Jamison is on sale at the grocery store if you get a beef product and, as happens, they don't check to make sure you HAVE said beef product if you do self-checkout. Unless you get the over-zealous self-checkout woman who wants to be sure you know how to scan a coupon and she reminds you to get your beef product. I then hunted for the absolute cheapest thing I could find.

Then I got home and remembered that as a ginger-haired, celtic-inked, whiskey-lovin' Irish lass, I totally have potatoes in my kitchen. And that, yes, Irish Stew practically requires it to be wicked cheap meat.

Also, it tends to ask that said meat be lamb or mutton (grown up lamb!) but I didn't have that and, well, I don't really like to cook lamb. The raw lamb feel? Blargh.

Okay, well, anyway, I decided to try my hand at an Irish stew with a few memories of Irish people I know who made this or talked about this. Sadly, I had no parsnips to include or cabbage or stout or whatever. But I threw it together!

- the packet of cheap stew-level beef (it was less than a pound)
- one cup veg broth
- half cup red wine
- olive oil
- butter
- handful of chopped mushrooms
- one small-medium onion, sliced in half-moon style
- two cloves garlic, diced
- three bay leaves
- three carrots, sliced up into soup sized bits
- three potatoes, chopped up into soup sized chops
- basil, pepper, salt, hint of lemon, a little thyme
- some of that butter-flour roux that you do without cooking it. you know. (a tablespoon of softened butter mixed with two tablespoons of flour to get a sort of crumbly pasty mix.)

Now. I marinated the beef overnight in some oil, with some basil and some garlicky-lemony seasoning. How's that for planning!

Now. Heat up some oil and butter in the bottom of your pot. Add onion and garlic and let soften a bit, then chuck in beef to brown up and cook a bit. About, oh, seven to ten minutes later add a splash of the wine and stir some more. Chuck in the veg, let cook up to a largely softened space. Season with the pepper, basil, etc etc (whichever you like!). Then add the stock and the red wine - if you have an Irish stout that you like or, you know, tolerate, I suggest adding some of that with the wine and stock - just lessen the amount of stock or wine. (may I suggest lessening the stock?)

Chuck in bay leaves, add a little pepper, stir, slap a lid on there, and cook a while. About twenty minutes in, maybe, crumble in the raw-roux and stir swiftly to avoid any gross clumps. Unless, of course, you like them. Then I apologize for mocking.

Lid back on! Cook longer! You want this to reduce down to a delicious stew. Once it does this to your liking, fish out the bay leaves and serve with bread. Soda bread, even, if you've that.

A NOTE.

Irish Soda Bread? Doesn't have rasins. I'm really sorry to tell you this. Traditionally speaking, that is a railway cake. I mean, call if what you want and enjoy it, but facts are facts, yo.

Also. I, um, maybe didn't wait for my stew to reduce. But I was hungry, it was midnight (I work late, I get home late, I eat late...) and by god, I don't even care.

It was pretty tasty, I'll say that. Not like the best thing I've ever done but I did eat two bowls (too much! slept so well!).

Happy St. Patrick's Day, guys!

Rest assured, I'll be celebrating after work. Sláinte!

It's getting chilly!

I don't know about where you are, but here the fake summer (which did, truth be told, give us some crazy hot days) has turned into crisp chill and it's easy to see that fall is zooming in. It's typical Chicago in that it does what it wants, when it wants, and for all we know there are some more heated days coming.

At any rate, I'm excited for the chillier days - though not the winter, blargh. I'm also excited for when I am less broke although as far as that goes, I have no idea. So tonight (and, yes, last night as well) I made some crazy cheap dinner. Tuna Mac. But not just the standard Mac-n-Cheese plus can of tuna equals NOM kind. OH NO.

- box of mac-n-cheese (last night I had whole wheat! tonight was standard)
- the milk/butter or oil/soymilk or whatever-you-like things to make said mac-n-cheese
- can of tuna (in oil or water, either way is fine)
- some onion, chopped up
- a few cloves of garlic, diced up
- sliced mushrooms
- seasonings of your choice (basil, lemon pepper, a sprinkle of bridgeport seasoning)

While your mac-n-cheese is, you know, mac-n-cheesing it - cook the onions, garlic, and mushrooms in some butter or oil. Season. If you like, you can do what I did tonight and add in a little milk. Add with the tuna to the mac-n-cheese when it's finished. Devour!

I also added some salsa verde just for some light heat but that's me.

Honestly, it's so delicious. You can add whatever veg you like or even none at all, but I figure the more veg the better. All together, given my ability to sniff out values, this is like a two dollar dinner. Delicious!!

A Gorgeous Day Calls for...

Potato Salad!

At least, it doesn't hurt to have potato salad involved in nice days and Saturday was, in fact, a cook-out-style nice day. That said, we here in the halfway house of ill-repute did not have a cookout. We stayed in and ate pasta and potato salad and maybe they don't match up, but they were still delicious. And we were still happy.

This potato salad has been requested numerous times by people and these people? Are very specific in their memory of it. I learned it from one of my very close friends and while I do it a little different (I think. sometimes, anyway.), it's still a huge hit. I've watched this stuff be inhaled at a pig roast, vanish in a backyard soiree, and not linger on in an apartment. Oddly, I don't make it very much until the warm weather starts to hit and people remember this potato salad.

I'd like to learn other picnic/cook-out side dishes and stuff, but until I do - this is a stand-by that I, myself, happily eat myself to fat on.

Now, I have trouble giving exact amounts here or even real guidelines. This is all done to taste. I learned by being told "chop that up and throw that in" and that was that - we were both cooks, we could sort of get away with this. Well, guess what? You can get away with this too.

Ingredients
- red potatoes (or baking potatoes or yellow potatoes, I've used all of them.) This last time, I used five red potatoes of varying sizes. But none were quite small.
- apple cider vinegar
- fresh dill, chopped
- celery, about four or five stalks chopped up fine
- red onion - medium sized, diced
- mustard (dijon, though I used regular on Saturday as I completely forgot and, honestly, I think you can play with this)
- mayo
- a lemon, juiced. (I squeeze mine directly in. Watch for seeds!)
*I recall using a lime once. It was delicious! I like limes, though, so I am partial.
- salt, pepper.



- cut your potatoes into the sized chunks that you want to be eating. I like smallish ones largely, with a few outliers. boil these in some water until tender and, you know, you can eat them.
- drain the potatoes and let them cool. add in the onion and the celery.
- once they are cool, mix in the mayo and mustard. I like to do a few spoons of mayo first with a small spiral of mustard. You can decide from there how much mayo you want and mustard taste and all. Add the lemon, though check after half of the juice to see if you want more. Add a small amount of apple cider vinegar - a tablespoon or two. Mix mix mix, stir stir stir. Add the dill and salt and pepper, all to taste.

Honestly, you can add other things or take things out as you prefer, but this is what I do and people love it. It's got a light zing from the lemon juice and the whole taste sensation is fantastic. Very comforting and fresh - really nice for those days on a picnic. Or sitting around with your friends. Or even as lunch in a break room, wishing you were off work.

And a big Kitchenry thank you goes to Kelly, who taught me this over shots of tequila that summer we rocked it at the Bakery. Also, I think this is relatively cheap - the dill might be the only pricey thing, depending on what you do or do not have in your kitchen already.

Being broke doesn't mean you don't eat.

Club Kitchen was well underway yesterday when I realized that I was going to need dinner, not just cupcakes. I'm not sure why I thought I would need something else, but I did and oh man, was it ever as delicious as I'd hoped it would be.

Since being unemployed, I've been finding ways to try and make every penny count. Now, I've always tried to live cheaply, but these days it isn't as easy as it used to be. Or maybe it is, but I'm just more stressed out about it. That tends to get in the way. Then I caught a lucky break.

Lentils. A delicious bean that was only a dollar per bag at the grocery store. A dollar! I swear, I was filled with a great joy when I saw the orange price tag. I can't even remember the last time I cooked lentils, but they were cheaper than the pinto beans I had originally gone to buy. So, I'm standing there in the grocery store and I realize - lentils! I have a carrot at home! I have some chicken! Mushrooms!

LENTIL SOUP! For under five dollars! (or maybe just over? the lady didn't charge me for the onions.)

- chopped onion
- sliced mushrooms
- thinly sliced carrot
- minced garlic cloves
- one and half chicken breasts, cut into bits
- chicken broth (rather, i chucked a bullion cube into the water)
- lentils, not quite a cup
- seasonings of my delicious choice
- drizzle of vanilla

I cooked the lentils according to the packet instructions, using the chicken broth instead of plain water. Towards the end of the beans cooking, I sauteed the onion and garlic with a little butter and oil - then cooked the chicken bits, then added the veg. Seasoned with salt, some dill, a quick dash of cayenne, and the barest hint of honey.

I added the veg/chicken to the lentils and let everything rest while I made very quick drop biscuits.

Super delicious. Super affordable. Super happy supper.

And since yesterday was a blustery, rainy, awfully grey Chicago day? It was exactly what was needed.

Easy Egg Drop - involve the kids!

There aren't pictures of this soup today because I wasn't able to take any - you ever try cooking with pre-schoolers? Trust me, you need more than one person or only one kid if you expect to get pictures of just about anything. Plus, scalding kids with hot soup doesn't go down all that well, even in Monressori enviroments. And as a former educator (hard to believe at twenty-four you are a 'former' anything...), I ought to know.

One of the mothers in my primary class gave me this recipe. It's a very simple, very cheap Chinese egg drop soup that takes practically no time to make. I like to whip it up when I want just a little something warm or if I feel like my pot stickers don't need a full-fledged stir-fry to make it a meal (or when i don't just feast on potstickers, fighting people for my share). Earlier today, I heated up leftover soup and just ate it with some delicious toast.

God, I love toast. I could just write a whole entry about toast. But this is soup time! So. Focus. Soup.

It is, in fact, so simple that if you want to let your kids help you out - you can! You'll want to be keeping a close eye, but kids like helping out. I mean, I don't have any, but I arguably once had upwards of twenty...so...just saying. Here is what you need:

- green onion (or onion. whatever. green onion is the best though and, when i'm onionless, i just shrug and don't bother. god i love this soup, it is so forgiving of poverty), sliced fine
- chicken stock (veg would be fine too)
- sesame oil
- egg(s), lightly beaten
- slivered garlic, though feel free to add whatever veg you like or even omit the garlic. Although why anyone would ever omit garlic from anything is beyond me...

So. You have your chicken stock all nicely hot and boiling, add the garlic or any veg that needs cooked. Salt, pepper, and just a little bit of sesame oil. About a teaspoon or so per cup of broth, depending on how much you love sesame. Slowly pour the egg into the soup, stiring quickly if you want shredded egg, slowly if you don't. Taste and season as you need, then sprinkle some green onion in and enjoy.

Clearly, the favorite thing the kids like to do is stir the egg. It's pretty exciting for them.

I have made this soup so many times that it is by now second nature. And while there are probably loads of other ways to do it, this is what I do.