Artichokes, my long lost love

For Christmas Gina got me this cookbook:




And tonight I used it to make a pretty kick ass dinner.

Gina doesn't really dig spicy foods and tonight she wanted a veggie burger for dinner so I took the opportunity to make something I'd like (read: super spicy) for myself.

All you really do is mince up a few cloves of garlic, defrost 9 ounces of frozen artichoke hearts, sauté them in olive oil with the garlic, capers (I used way more than the recipe called for because I can't get enough of their briny goodness), parsley, a healthy heap of fiery red pepper flakes, lemon juice and bread crumbs.

I piled it on top of some soba noodles and proceeded to kill all if it by myself. It was only after I pushed back my plate and sighed with contentment that I realized the recipe I 'd just housed was supposed to serve four... And I hung my head in shame.

But only for a second.

It looked like this:




Under the Dome premiers tonight for season 2 so I guess I'll give Orange is the New Black a break and check that out while rocking out some Straubs.




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Weird lunch and more from India

Shop n Save closed near us, in Kennedy Twp.

Word is Giant Eagle bought them.

I miss mostly that I could walk to them, that was nice. Their prices were moderately better depending on what you'd buy, and they were within walking distance - that's key in an area where there's not much to walk to.

Giant Eagle does have better options for weirdos like Gina and I, though, like this gem:




This fake chicken is freaking awesome. Seriously.

With it we recently made these:




As far as "chicken" sandwiches go, these were a ten out of ten, we thought.

I also utilized this cookbook:




That we bought before we even lived together. Now that there's a worthy fake chicken to work with I attempted one of this books poultry dishes and made this tonight:




Having never had the real deal I truly don't know how close it came but I ate two servings and wanted a third so I guess that says something.

I will leave you with two things, first being a truly pathetic lunch I made the other day at work using literally the only things in our fridge. I took cold leftover pasta and a veggie bouillon cube. I added hot water to the pasta from the coffee maker's hot water spout at work and crumbled in the bouillon and voila, noodle soup.

It was embarrassing and it looked like this:



Several nights later I went to
Armstrong's in Moon Twp with my parents and had their damn good Linguini Puttanesca which looked like the below picture and I want to re- eat it every day for the rest of my life it was that good:




And that is all.


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BREAKFAST!

As I've posted before I love breakfast.

A lot.

Today I made a doozy. Roasted potatoes, carrots and onions in olive oil and thyme along with steamed broccoli and smothered in a lentil-chickpea gravy inspired by a gravy in that new Isa Chandra Moskowitz book I mentioned in the last post, Isa Does it.

It took about 50 minutes to an hour, all told, but for a leisurely sunday morning it's actually enjoyable (as opposed to cutting up veggies on a work night when your hanger level is through the roof).

It looked like this:










If you've got some time some morning give it a whirl.

For the roasted veggies:

- 4 russet potatoes chopped up
- 1 medium onion chopped up
- 2 carrots cut into medallions
- A generous pinch of thyme crushed with your fingers
- olive oil to coat
- salt to taste

For the lentil-chickpea gravy:
- 1 1/2 cups cooked lentils
- 1 can chickpeas
- 1 onion diced
- 3 or 4 cloves of garlic chopped
1 1/2 cups veggie broth
Pepper
Oregano to taste

For the steamed broccoli:

- About a cup and a half of chopped fresh broccoli.
- 1/4 cup of water
- a teaspoon of garlic powder
- salt or soy sauce to taste

1) Set the old oven to 450 then do your prep work while it preheats.

2) arrange the potatoes, onion and carrots in a casserole dish and coat with oil then sprinkle on the thyme and salt and mix well so everything is coated. Stick that bad boy in the oven and time for 45 minutes.

3) cook your lentils.

4) sauté the onion and garlic in oil for 5-ish minutes.

5) add the lentils, oregano and broth and warm.

6) transfer lentils to food processor and pulse several times then return to pot and add chickpeas. Heat stirring often for about 10 minutes.

7). While the lentil-chickpea gravy is heating bring 1/4 cup of water to a boil I. A pot and add in your broccoli, garlic powder, salt or soy sauce, mix up and cover to steam until broccoli is softer but still has a slight crunch (probably about whatever time is left on the gravy.

8) fill half a bowl with broccoli and the other with the roasted schtuff and drown it in gravy.

9) MANGIA!


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First post from the iPhone!

I downloaded the blogger App since I was hardly ever posting in this blog anymore using the old computer.

Very quick first post:

Been trying out a lot of stuff from Isa Chandra Moskowitz new cookbook Isa Does It. So far Gina and I love it.

Imma try to post a picture in this new blog atmosphere, hang in there...




That was way easier than I thought!

Anyway, that picture is broccoli and seitan with homemade barbecue sauce from the aforementioned book. It was amazing.

Below is a night I made a bunch of stuff for us to eat the next day or so to save on time:




I tried to freeze the soup (which is Hot and Sour). It was a freezing disaster:




And below are roasted potatoes, onions, and carrots all from my garden..... Okay, I totally bought them and don't even have a garden but they were delicious all the same:




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