Stoner Food

French Toast Waffles

2012-01-14T19:03:00.000-05:00

Ok, this one is all over the web, but I thought it was pretty rad.

You take your favorite pan-fried french toast recipe, but instead of cooking it on the stovetop, you cook it on your waffle maker!!

That is all.

I topped mine with macerated berries and maple syrup.

It was good.

Home Fry-ttata

2012-01-14T18:46:00.000-05:00

It's like the inside of a breakfast burrito that you slice up and eat like pie.

Yeah.

Why not?

Makes one small fritatta. Serves 2-4.

Ingredients

5-8 fingerling potatoes, 1/2 cubes (8 if your potatoes are small or you want a Really potato-y frittata)

4 eggs, beaten

1/4 cup milk

1/4 of a small onion, chopped

5 baby bella mushrooms, sliced

8 cherry tomatoes, halved

4 oz goat cheese, crumbled

4 cloves garlic, roughly chopped

1 tbsp pesto

2 tbsp butter

Salt and Pepper

Directions

Rinse the cubed potatoes in cold water, pat dry. Heat skillet to med-high, when hot add 1 tbsp butter. Add potatoes once butter has melted, stir to coat. Add salt and pepper. Cover for 15 minutes, stir occasionally. Add onions, mushrooms and garlic and stir in. Continue to stir occasionally for 5 minutes. Test a potato cube by piercing with a fork to see if it is tender enough for your liking. At this point toss with the pesto, coating each cube.

Meanwhile, mix eggs and milk together in a bowl. Add another dash of salt and pepper here too. Place the other 1 tbsp butter into pan with the potatoes and let coat the bottom of the pan as best as possible. Pour the egg mixture into the pan, over the 'taters.

Wait 1 minute, and then add veggies and goat cheese, sprinkling lightly over the mixture. Preheat oven to broil (light broil if it's an option). Let the frittata cook on the stovetop until the edges are cooked. Place pan in oven for about 5 minutes to finish cooking the top of the frittata. Watch closely! Seriously, don't stray far. Keep the oven light on and park a chair in front if you have to.

When eggs are firm and lightly browned on top, it's done. Try tilting the pan to make sure no runny liquid remains. Let cool for 5 minutes and then slice into quadrants and slide out with a spatula onto your plate.

Voila! A vegetarian breakfast with everything you could want in one bite. Feel free to use your own fillings, add bacon/sausage, whatever your frittata-fancy may be.

Enjoy!

Calamari Pizza @ Coppa

2012-01-12T20:12:00.000-05:00

This is the Sicilian Fisherman's Wood-Fired Pizza from Coppa.

It will be the best fried-cephalopod pizza you've ever had.

We went to go check out Coppa this week. I'm glad we did. It's a beautiful, simple, elegant hole in the wall with great music and a yummy, creative menu. We sat at the bar, had a couple of beers and ordered the broccoli raabe antipasti with Meyer lemon and garlic. It was one of the best dressed greens plate I've ever had. Next we got the above photographed pie. This was special not only because it was frikkin' fried calamari on a pizza, but because I've been pondering grilled squid on pizza for a while. I thought it might be too chewy, so this was a way to experience a similar version and test my theory out.

The Squid came piled high- tubes, tentacles and all, along with cherry peppers, parmesan and tomato. Each slice was decked out, and the first bite was slightly awkward as calamari toppled over onto the plate, but overall it was an unbelievably delicious combination of flavors and textures. And you know what? The squid that falls to the plate, you just pick up with your hands and eat. No biggie. I didn't find the squid to be too chewy for the application, either. The key here may be the quantity of the squid on the pizza - enough so that you get at least one whole tube with every bite. The tentacles required a little more sophisticated maneuvering, but totally worth it.

Big fan of Coppa. Can't wait to try out Toro, with another menu by Chef Jamie Bissonnette.

One pie served two of us with leftovers to spare. Made an excellent late night snack AND breakfast.

Mexican Risotto!!!

2011-12-21T18:16:00.002-05:00

Oh yes. Perhaps the best fusion of cuisines I've ever had. I often wonder why I don't see this dish EVERYWHERE. It is the perfect creamy risotto texture with the flavors of your favorite mexican dish. We chose to stick with our favorite chili ingredients for this first trial run, but you could do a simple cheese and shrimp or do a take on huevos rancheros with eggs and tomatillos. You could deconstruct any of your favorite Mexican dishes and add it into the risotto and I guarantee it will taste amazing. We served this with a tequila lime marinated tilapia, but the risotto overshot the fish so far that the fish would have been better off mixed into the risotto.

Ingredients
2 cups creamy tomato soup
2 cups vegetable broth
3 tbsps taco seasoning (we use the Trader Joe's brand)
1/4 cup unsalted butter
1 1/2 cup arborio or carnaroli rice
1 tbsp olive oil
5 cloves garlic, minced
1 onion, diced
1/3 cup tequila, ale or white wine
1 15 oz can of black beans
1 3-4 oz can of green chiles
1 cup corn kernels
6-8 oz aged, sharped cheddar, shredded or crumbled
3 tbsp chopped cilantro
chopped scallions for garnish
Salt and Pepper to taste
Cayenne Pepper and/or Hot Sauce to taste

Directions
Put the stock and tomato soup in a saucepan. Bring to a low boil and then rude the heat to keep it warm.
Heat the butter and oil in a pot and saute the onions for 1-2 minutes. Add garlic and mix well. Add the rice and stir with wooden spoon to coat all of the rice with fat.

Add taco seasoning and stir in. Saute the rice in the butter and seasoning for a few minutes and then add the tequila, ale or wine. Stir until it is completely absorbed. Add 1 ladle of liquid and stir until absorbed. Continue to add the liquid in this manor until the liquied has been absorbed and the rice is al dente (~18-20 minutes). Reserve the last ladle of stock. Add the beans, chile, corn, cilantro, most of the cheese (save some for garnish) and the last ladle of stock. Stir until all incorporated and cheese has melted. Salt, Pepper and add hot sauce an/or cayenne to taste. Remove from heat, serve with scallion garnish.

Scrambled Eggs with Fried Sage and Cornbread

2011-12-21T17:30:00.000-05:00

Ingredients

2 Eggs
1 tbsp milk
1-2 tbsp Butter
3-5 sage leaves
Salt and Pepper
A mild white cheese, like mozzarella, is optional
A slice of Buttermilk Cornbread*

Directions

Melt butter in a frying pan. Put sage leaves in and flip them after ~5 seconds. Cook for an additional 5 seconds and then remove and place on a towel to drain. Beat eggs and milk together in a bowl. Add salt and pepper (two or three shakes of each ought to do it). Use the same butter to cook your scrambled eggs. If you're going to add cheese, add it towards the end or on the plate. Garnish the eggs with sage. You may want to crumble or break the larger leaves so that they are more incorporated into the eggs. Serve on top of a slice of cornbread.

*Simple Buttermilk Cornbread Recipe

Ingredients

1 cup cornmeal

1/3 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 egg, beaten

1 cup buttermilk

Directions:

Combine dry ingredients; add beaten egg and buttermilk, mixing well. Pour into greased, heated 8-inch or 9-inch iron skillet. Bake at 400° for 20 minutes, or until lightly browned.

Buttermilk cornbread serves 8.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread French Toast with Founders Breakfast Stout

2011-10-01T20:05:00.007-04:00

Welcome to my first post from our new home in Somerville, Mass! We have finally settled into the new digs and our going about business as usual. My man has left the pizza business and is working with craft beers in a retail setting, so expect to see some more beer pairings as our refrigerator overfloweth.

Every fall I make Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread. So, our first settled weekend in town we wanted to celebrate with a warm, homey fall breakfast. We tend to make French Toast a lot when we want to brunch at home, so this idea came together as something that was originally two separate recipes we wanted to make. The pumpkin bread is a pretty simple quick-bread to assemble. We made the french toast while it was still warm from the oven, and had to slice it a little thicker because it tends to be a bit crumbly when hot. Also, we didn't have chocolate chips on hand so I chopped up a delicious Chocolove XOXO 70% Dark Chocolate bar instead - a definite improvement!

Ingredients

for bread

2/3 cup butter

2 cups sugar

4 eggs

2 cups canned pumpkin (1 lb can)

2/3 cup water

3 1/3 cup flour

3/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking powder

2 tsp cinnamon and 1 tsp cloves mixed (or 3 tsps ground mulling spices)

6 ounces semisweet chocolate chips or a chopped chocolate bar of your choice

for French Toast

1-2 eggs

1/4 cup milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 tbsp sweetened cocoa powder

1 tbsp cinnamon and clove mix or mulling spice mix

Directions

To make the bread: Preheat oven to 350 F. Cream the butter and gradually add sugar, beating well. Add eggs one by one and beat mixture. Stir in pumpkin and water. Combine the rest of the ingredients and add to the creamed mixture. Fold in the chocolate.

Spoon mixture into a greased 9 inch loaf pan and bake for about an hour or until a knife inserted into the middle of the bread comes out clean (except for maybe some melty chocolate).

To make the French Toast:
Slice the cooled bread into 1/2-1 inch slices. In a bowl, mix together eggs, milk and vanilla extract. Heat frying pan or griddle to Med-Low heat. When pan is hot, melt the butter in it- enough to coat the bottom of the pan. Dip each slice of bread, making sure to coat each side and the ends and place in pan. Cook each side for about 5 minutes.

You may need to reapply butter if you're working in smaller batches. If you're making a lot at once, keep a ceramic plate in the oven @ 200-250 F and store the cooked slice in there until you're ready to serve. Mix together cocoa and spice mix, sift over plated bread. Eat with maple syrup and a delicious breakfast beer like the Founders Breakfast Stout or your favorite fall seasonal beer.

Kefir and Muesli, Cruesli or Granola

2011-06-29T19:41:00.002-04:00

The best cold breakfast ever!!!

This is one of my favorite combos. If you've never tried it, do yourself a favor.

Kefir, if you're unfamiliar, is a smooth yogurt-like liquid with a slight tangy effervescence. It comes from fermenting milk (or coconut milk) with kefir grains - a symbiotic blend of yeast and bacteria. It is great for intestinal health and tasty to boot.

Muesli is a breakfast cereal made of rolled oats, fruit, nuts and sometimes chocolate....
Cruesli is a name brand granola/muesli type cereal from Quaker sold in Europe. I picked up a few boxes the last time I was visiting. Yes, I bring back food from my travels.

The combo above is a classic vanilla (kefir) and chocolate (Cruesli) pairing, but the combinations are endless. This past week we picked up some banana granola and mixed it with strawberry kefir, which was equally delicious.

As they say in The Netherlands, schmecklekker!

The Giant Garlic Spaghetti Monster

2011-06-27T22:47:00.004-04:00

aka The Spaghetti Sandwich

I've been wanting to make this for a while, and actually found a recipe for a spaghetti sandwich in this awesome kids cookbook- Cooking with Herb: The Vegetarian Dragon. When I recently had a big craving for spaghetti and meatballs, I decided to go for it. I made one adjustment though, I used egg noodles instead of a longer stringier pasta like spaghetti, fettucini or angel hair. The fluffy egg noodles took some of the 'weight' out of the dish allowing for more face stuffing!

Quantities are vague hear, because I assume everyone has their own way of making spaghetti and meatballs. For the record, I used a 12 oz bag of basil egg noodles, almost a full jar of Newman's Own Marinara, and one 12 oz bag of veggie meatballs. For the garlic bread, I just followed the directions on the box but homemade garlic bread is easy to concoct if you have some bread, garlic and butter lying around. Here's a good recipe from a fellow blogger. Oh, and we were able to eat off of this for almost a week, so, let's say serves 8-10.

Ingredients

Noodles (spaghetti or egg noodles work well)
Tomato Sauce
Pesto
Meatballs (Try a great meatless version- Nate's Zesty Italian 'balls)
Garlic Bread (Trader Joe's frozen variety was used in this experiment)
Provolone

Directions
Boil up some water for the noodles. Heat up your tomato sauce and meatballs in another pot.

Add a heaping spoonful or 2 of pesto to your tomato sauce. Drain the noodles and heat up the garlic bread in the oven with provolone on top for extra cheesiness. Mix noodles with the sauce and meat balls. When the garlic bread is done, top a piece of garlic bread with some saucy noodles.

Top with another piece of garlic bread. Smash down real hard. Try to fit it in your mouth, then give up and eat it with your hands and a fork like a normal person.

You Want Some Fries With That Breakfast?

2011-05-24T18:47:00.003-04:00

Just a little suggestion - When you don't have home fries or hash browns on hand to complete your greasy diner-style breakfast at home, use french fries.

This little plate is graced with fried eggs and sausage patties with leftover fries from the wonderful 5 Seasons Brewery. I think I dig it even more then the typical breakfast potatoes.

Bon appétit!

Mini Coconut Ice Cream Sandwich with Whipped Cream and Raspberries

2011-05-22T11:03:00.002-04:00

A Midnight @ Mom's House creation.

I recently found myself at my mom's house for the weekend while she was out of town. Like many moms, she has a large amount of random fresh foods, condiments and dry goods at any given time. It's easy and almost necessary to get creative with food in her kitchen, since nothing appears to have been purchased with the intention of being combined together.

Voila!

Within 2 minutes I had whipped myself up an extremely satisfying and delicious treat, and it was something that I may not have ever thought of on my own.

Ingredients

1 mini Ice-Cream Sandwich (I recommend So Delicious Coconut)

1 dollop or squirt of whipped cream

1 small handful of fresh raspberries

Directions

Remove Ice-Cream Sandwich from wrapping. Apply whipped cream. Sprinkle with berries.

Thanks Mom!

Cinnamon Raisin French Toast Sticks

2011-04-10T19:39:00.001-04:00

So easy and delicious, I can't believe I haven't done this before!

Ingredients
3 slices cinnamon raisin bread
2 eggs
1/4 cup milk or cream
dash of almond extract
butter for pan frying

Directions
Purchase (or make!) some thickly sliced or unsliced cinnamon raisin bread. If unsliced, slice into 3 two inch slices, and then cut each slice into a 2 inch wide strip. In a bowl, mix together eggs, milk and almond extract. Heat frying pan or griddle to Med-Low heat. When pan is hot, melt the butter in it- enough to coat the bottom of the pan. Dip each strip of bread, making sure to coat each side and the ends and place in pan. Cook each side for about 5 minutes. You may need to reapply butter if you're working in smaller batches. If you're making a lot at once, keep a ceramic plate in the oven @ 200-250 F and store the cooked strips in there until you're ready to serve. Serve with fresh fruit and maple syrup for dipping. Dust with powdered sugar or some extra cinnamon if you like.
Enjoy!!

Sweet Potato Black Bean Enchiladas with Creamed Spinach and Cheddar

2011-04-10T16:04:00.003-04:00

Mmmmmmm......

Ingredients

1 Sweet Potato

1/2 Onion, chopped

2 cups Spinach, cooked or frozen

1 tbsp Lime Juice

1 8 oz can Black Beans

1 12 oz jar of Enchilada Sauce (we used Trader Joe's)

1 Tbsp Taco Seasoning

1 tbsp Cream Cheese or Plain Yogurt (for creaming the spinach)

1 tsp garlic, minced or powdered

5-6 small Tortillas

1 Tbsp Olive Oil

6-8 oz Cheddar Cheese

Salt

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 F. Cube sweet potatoes and boil until you can pierce easily with a fork then drain. Saute onions with olive oil until translucent, then take them off the heat. Mash the sweet potatoes and and mix in the onions, lime juice, black beans and taco seasoning.

The creamed spinach- if you have an amazing creamed spinach recipe, or just happen to have some laying around in your fridge, use that. I made a quick concoction out of cooked frozen spinach that I heated up and mixed with cream cheese, garlic and a pinch of salt.

In a baking dish, pour half of the bottle of enchilada sauce.

Place a tortilla in the dish and coat both sides with enchilada sauce. Fill with the sweet potato mixture, top with the creamed spinach, and roll it up! Repeat until all of the filling is used (makes 5-6 enchiladas depending on how big you decide to make them). Pour the rest of the enchilada sauce on top and spread out evenly. Top with cheddar cheese. Bake for 20-25 minutes until sauce is bubbling.
Dig in!

Cadbury Creme Egg Ice Cream

2011-03-29T18:45:00.004-04:00

Yowza. I made a version of this last year with homemade frozen custard and some additional mini chocolate easter egg candies -- and it was fantastic -- but the Cadbury creme flavor did not carry through. So, I decided to try a more direct version that is much simpler and you can quickly make at home (without an ice cream maker). The idea was to mix in the crushed Cadbury eggs in a cold bowl with your favorite flavored ice cream (sort of like those franchise places with the frozen marble). As you can see, we experimented with vanilla, but based on our findings other simple flavors would be just as tasty.

Ingredients
1 pint Vanilla Ice Cream (or FroYo)
3 Cadbury Creme Eggs
1 ceramic bowl (frozen for at least 1 hour)
2 wooden spoons

Directions
First, place a large ceramic bowl in the freezer for at least one hour. Remove from freezer and scoop out contents of ice cream pint. Place 3 cadbury eggs on top of the ice cream and start whacking with the wooden spoons.

Once the eggs have been mostly desecrated, start mixing and folding the ice cream until the chocolate is thoroughly mixed but you can still make out the yellow clumps of cream in the concoction. At this point, you may want to pop the bowl and it's contents back in the freezer for 5-10 minutes to prevent melting. Once the ice cream has firmed up, you can plate some in a bowl and store the rest in the empty pint container.

A friend of mine also pointed out that using a cracked egg on top of a single serving bowl of scooped icing would also be worth trying...

ENJOY!!!

Tart Cakes and Fruity-O Cakes

2011-03-08T20:25:00.000-05:00

These freaky-deaky breakfast pancakes are the spawns of seeds planted by Kenny Shopsin of Shopsins in NYC. You may recognize his name as the inspiration for my French Toast Bagels post several months ago. I've been reading his book Eat Me: The Food and Philosophy of Kenny Shopsin and have been very entertained and inspired by his writings and recipes.

Ingredients

Pancake Batter (whatever kind you would normally use)

Butter

Cereal or Granola

and/or

Your favorite toaster pastry (we used strawberry)

Directions

Read Kenny's book. Heat up your griddle and wet with butter then pour on pancake batter. Sprinkle cereal or chopped toaster pastry bits on top. Flip the pancake, topping side down, after about 2 minutes of cooking or until the pancake becomes bubbly. Cook with topping side down for another 2 minutes. Serve topping side up.

I like to keep a warm plate in the oven (about 200F) if I'm cooking for a lot of people, and place each finished pancake on the plate until I am done cooking . That way everyone can enjoy hot pancakes at the same time.

The Results

Well, the the Tart Cakes turned out far better then the Fruity-O Cakes. The jammy parts from the pastry made a great filling and the iced tops added a bite of sweetness. The cereal cakes were comparatively flavorless and overly carbohydrated. In the future I'm going to experiment with raisin bran and granola with dried fruits, chocolate and nuts to try and enhance the flavor.

Any other ideas?

Happy experimenting!

Hubert, The Sandwich.

2011-02-20T20:38:00.001-05:00

(Reuben's first cousin).

I love sauerkraut. I really love sauerkraut on a sandwich. I would say that I love a reuben, but i've never had a real one. I'm a recovering vegetarian, but I'm not advanced enough to eat a pile of corned beef...yet. I've enjoyed countless meat-substitute reubens where I've added a tomato to give the sandwich an extra flavor/filling. However, Hubert was born out of "what the hell do I have in my fridge that I can throw on a sandwich and grill?" and that just happened to include sauerkraut.

Ingredients

2 slices sourdough bread

1-2 slices sharp cheddar cheese

1 Tofurky Beer Brat , sliced into quadrants (or real beer brats)

1 tomato slice

1 onion slice

1/2 cup sauerkraut, drained

Mustard

Mayonaise mixed with olive tapenade

Directions

You know how to put together a sandwich!! But we suggest this order:

Bread > Mustard > Brats > Kraut > Tomato > Onion > Cheese > Mayo-Tapenade > Bread

We used our cast iron panini press to grill the sandwich into ooey gooey perfection, and then dubbed thee Hubert. Sauerkraut mixed with more classic sandwich accouterments turned out to be fantastic. We used a really authentic, fresh sourdough bread that added to the deliciousness.

Enjoy!!! (and tell me about any of reuben's other family members that you may have eaten)

Garlic Naan Veggie Burger

2011-02-19T23:51:00.000-05:00

Obviously you can use a meaty burger in place of the veggie burger if you like.

I used a SouthWest Sunshine Burger, one of my favorite non-meaty varieties.

This is more of a concept then a recipe, and that is:

Concept

Replace your burger bun with a piece of naan sliced in half

This particular burger is topped with lettuce, tomato, pepper-jack cheese, and delicious hummus.

It was delightful.

Go forth and naan-ify your buns!!!

Frankenstein Abomination Dinner (via my friend Adam)

2011-01-30T19:41:00.000-05:00

Chicken basil tomato portabello rolled in mozzarella rolled in lasagna noodles rolled in croissant. And then more mozzarella on top.

"It was absofuckinglutely amazing. Frankenfeast success."-Adam

My first contributor post!!!

Ingredients

A whole big tomato

Half an onion

Buncha Basil

4 small baby portobello mushrooms

A small container of ricotta

~1 lb shredded chicken

8 cooked lasagna noodles, cooked

Mozarella

Croissant dough

Some Pepper

Some Balsamic vinegar

Directions

Mix tomato, onion, basil, portobellos, pepper and balsamic together in a food processor. Mix this blend with the ricotta and chicken. Lay out cooked lasagna noodles and lay down a layer of mozzarella. Then lay down 'the mixture' and roll it all up. Next, roll that up in the croissant dough and add another layer of mozzarella on top. His girlfriend and co-chef, Meghan, recommends weaving the lasagna noodles together.

Thanks Adam and Meghan!!

If you have photographed an awesomely ridiculous and tasty meal, submit via email here.

Soft Pretzel and Hummus

2011-01-06T20:14:00.005-05:00

An easy but delicious and satisfying combo. The hummus pictured above happens to be a very pungent and tasty garlic hummus.

A short list of other good things to dip into hummus:
Pita
Warm Garlic Naan
Tortillas
Tortilla chips
French Fries
Crudité (especially carrots)
Crackers
Warm Bread
String Cheese
Fingers

Ingredients
Fresh or frozen soft pretzel
Hummus

Directions
Warm up pretzel in microwave or toaster oven. If you're using a frozen variety, follow the directions on the box.* Serve on a plate, with a big heaping spoonful of your favorite hummus, plain or flavored. If you have more then one type of hummus in the fridge, you should put some of each on your plate -- variety stimulates the mind and the taste buds. In fact, I would encourage adding a mustard or two to the plate as well if the mood strikes you.

Dip and eat with your hands.

*once, when i was a young child, i came home from school and attempted to heat up a frozen pretzel in the microwave. going off of memory, i failed to look at the directions on the box and nuked the pretzel for 2 minutes rather then 20 seconds. when it finished cooking, it was completely hard. i had baked my giant soft pretzel into a giant hard pretzel. unfortunately it was too hard to really eat and enjoy, so it ended up in the trash. i was very sad because it was the last pretzel. learn from my mistakes, don't be a sad pretzel-less fool.

French Toast Bagels with Cream Cheese, Maple Syrup and Jelly Filled Holes

2010-11-20T19:15:00.005-05:00

I was up late last night reading Eat Me: The Food and Philosophy of Kenny Shopsin, particularly the Griddling chapter, and woke up this morning with several inspired breakfast ideas. This is one of them.

Ingredients

2 cinnamon raisin or blueberry bagels; or any other type of bagel. I suggest a sweet one, but if you want to use an everything bagel, fucking do it! Then tell me how it turns out.

2 Eggs

1/4 cup cream (I used irish creme)

1/4 cup milk (I used hazelnut milk)

1 tsp vanilla extract

1tbsp butter

Cream Cheese

Maple Syrup

Jam (your jam, whatever your jam may be)

Directions

Slice bagels in half with a good bread knife and then carefully use the knife to shave off a thin layer of bagel skin from the butt of the bagel. It's important to expose some of the bready goodness within the bagel on both sides so that it will soak up the liquid and cook more evenly.

Preheat griddle or frying pan to a high medium heat. Whisk together eggs, cream, milk and vanilla in a small bowl. Soak each bagel piece in the egg mixture before placing on cooking surface and don't forget to wet the surface with some butter before placing down. Cook each side of the bagel until brown, about 3 minutes on each side. If you are making a large quantity or only have a small frying pan, I recommend you keep a ceramic plate in the oven set at 200 degrees. As you finish each 'toast' place on the oven plate to keep them warm until ready to serve.

When all of the bagels have been properly french-toasted, spread a layer of cream cheese on their tops and place a dallop of jam in the center of the bagels. Pour on the maple syrup and then attack with your fork.

Pistachio Crusted گلاب جامن....with Bacon?!?

2010-10-02T18:11:00.008-04:00

"Possibly better then sex..."

Gulab Jamun, if you're unfamiliar, is (via Wikipedia)-

(Hindi: गुलाब जामुन, Urdu: گلاب جامن), also known as "waffle balls," a popular dessert in countries of the Indian Subcontinent such as India, Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh. It is made of a dough consisting mainly of milk solids (often including double cream) and flour in a sugar syrup flavored with cardamom seeds and rosewater or saffron.^[1]

^{Waffle Balls!!? I've never heard that before. If you've ever been to a buffet at an Indian restaurant, then you've probably seen or had Gulab Jamun. They're the brown bobbing balls in a tray of syrup at the end of the line for dessert. They are served warm and almost POP in your mouth with goey, cakey, creamy innards. They are super rich and sweet and delicious.}

^{One day I thought 'What if you rolled one of these sweet Indian balls in crushed pistachios and then wrapped it in bacon?' Now, I have to admit that I am not a bacon eater, but I was trying to blow my friend and fellow stoner chef's mind. We finally got to making them last week after purchasing a can of Gulab Jamun at the local Indian market. You can make them from scratch, but we wanted to keep it easy and put our energy into the main dish we were creating.}

^{When I first thought of this, I thought it may have been an original idea. And, according to Google, it is. However, I was surprised to find that pistachios are a common garnish, and so only the bacon makes it unique.}

^{We made two varieties of the balls...one with bacon and one without. The pistachios alone rounded out the flavor and texture of the Gulab Jamun, and totally set them off. The bacon just added more richness and a contrastingly savory flavor.}

^Ingredients

1 can Gulab Jamun (contains ~20 balls)

1/2 cup of pistachios, chopped

10-20 strips Bacon

toothpicks

Directions

Fry your bacon and set aside. Warm Gulab Jamun and syrup in a saucepan over medium heat for ~ 10 minutes, or until they are slightly too hot to eat. Spoon the Gulab Jamun out with a slotted spoon and let some of the syrup drain. Roll balls in chopped pistachios and set on serving dish. Wrap bacon strips around Gulab Jamun and pierce all the way through with a toothpick, then set upright so the toothpick is sitting straight up and down.
We offered this as a sweet finger food- an hors d'oeuvres type dish to some friends and lovers before an onslaught of additional stoner food was presented. It was a huge hit. They taste good at room temperature but are best served warm.

What Happens When You Throw Chocolate Covered Cherries in a Fondue Pot and Dip Soft Pretzels and Marshmallows in it??

2010-10-01T20:49:00.007-04:00

Holy Shit. There are no words.

Ingredients

1 box of chocolate covered cherries (~12-16 cherries)

1/4 cup cream (you could use a non-dairy cream or an cream liqueur)

1 3-4 oz. bar or milk or dark chocolate, whichever you prefer

Marshmallows

Soft Pretzels (we used the frozen variety that you can just pop in the oven/microwave)

Directions

Melt chocolate bar, chocolate covered cherries and cream in a fondue pot or saucepan set to medium. Stir and smash chocolate covered cherries with a wooden spoon. Try to smash as many of the cherries as you can to impart more of their flavor into the medley.

Once the concoction has completely melted, gather round and start dipping! We kept it simple with just the pretzels and marshmallows, one salty and one sweet. You can dip anything you want! The whole spirit of this recipe was to EXPERIMENT and luckily it turned out smashing. The fondue sauce was fairly quick and easy to make. Great for any assembly of hungry folks, stoned or sober.

It should also be noted that this fondue sauce was just as foxy as a cold chocolate dip or topping. I think, perhaps, that I may have created something new...Cold Fondue!! Much more convenient for the solo munchies, you can dip cookies, fruit or marshmallows in it or pour it on top of a bowl of ice cream. It has a thicker consistency, but is just as tasty.

WARNING: VERY EASY TO OVERDO!!!

Frozen Kiwis, Eaten with a Spoon

2010-09-24T23:20:00.001-04:00

Happiness...is a cold kiwi.

Simple.

The best stoner food is the easiest and most delicious.

Kiwis are good. Frozen kiwis are better. Everybody has a freezer and a spoon. Go buy a kiwi and put it in the freezer. It will keep for months.

When the mood strikes...

Ingredients
1 kiwi

Directions
Place kiwi in freezer. Before enjoying, take out of freezer and let sit at room temperature for ~10-15 minutes. Slice in half with a knife. Scoop out the frozen fruit flesh and let melt in mouth.

String Cheese Pepper Jack Veggie Pizza

2010-09-12T23:13:00.005-04:00

Desperate times call for innovative measures...

Two weeks ago, there was a local BrewFest that was much anticipated until we realized that the entrance fee was $25 and didn't come with any free brews. When the day came, a few friends and I decided to avoid the crowds and drop the same amount of money on a whole bunch of microbrews in a Make Your Own Sixer and have our own beer-tasting Brewfest. We all filled our sixers with three beers we'd tried and wanted to share and 3 mystery picks. (If you're a beer drinker, I highly recommend you try this at home).

Since this was the last minute decision of a bunch of broke people, we had not planned on food. Luckily I had the pieces to throw together some thin crust pizza.

Ingredients/Directions

I used a large Lahvosh Cracker for the thin crust and I spread some tomato paste and sprinkled a tsp of dried oregano on the cracker. I had some mozzarella string cheese, so we peeled 3-4 and positioned them in between round slices of pepper-jack cheese. I then topped it with some peppers, halved sungold tomatoes, roasted eggplant and olives. I cooked it in the oven @ 350F for 10 minutes and then topped with some chopped fresh basil and some take-out packets of crushed red pepper and parmesan.

It turned out to be a nice little pie. The two cheeses oozed together and sheathed the whole pizza and the thin crust left plenty of room for beer and some late night seconds.

Of course, you can put whatever you want on your pizza and use whatever type of crust, sauce and cheese. This mix was good for us, but it was all we had in the house -luckily summer has provided us with a fridge full of veggies from the garden.

Tortelloni Frittata

2010-08-30T22:42:00.001-04:00

Leftovers on Huevos Experiment III

I love pasta salad. One of my favorite pasta salads came from a local pizzaria that recently shut down leaving an empty, gapping whole in my heart. So when we recently purchased some fresh pesto tortelloni, I was quick to turn it into the best pasta salad I could using only the ingredients I had on hand. What ended up in the pasta salad was....

Tortelloni
Diced Red Peppers
Chopped Banana Pepper
Olive Tapenade (making sure to add a lot of the oil)
Shredded Parmesan Cheese
Diced onions
Halved Sungold Tomatoes (the best little 'maters you'll ever put in your mouth)
Garlic Pepper and Salt to taste

Sorry I don't have a recipe, but I wasn't measuring or intending to post it. However, pasta salad is hard to screw up Just chop, eyeball, add, mix, taste and repeat until it's to your liking. If you over do one thing or another, just physically weed it out. If you really screw it up, then just rinse the pasta off and start anew (and maybe sober up a bit).

Flash forward to Sunday morning, a day that is sacred because it is the only day that I can sleep in and (most of the time) am obligated to do nothing. A day where I can enjoy a cold coffee with maple syrup on the front porch and build up an appetite as I mentally plan a day that will bring me enjoyment. The first thing to accomplish is to concoct a heady breakfast. Eggs are usually involved -- you may have noticed from previous posts.

Now, a frittata is quite a simple and grande thing baked up into one little pot. Having already chopped several vegetables for the pasta salad, the most work I had to do for this dish was whisk together the egg mixture and cut the tortelloni's in half (they were huge!) I used a small cast iron skillet and it made 2 servings. I recommend expanding the recipe to feed a large mass...just use a bigger skillet.

Ingredients
1/2 - 3/4 cup leftover pasta salad (any will do, but the stuffed pasta put it over the top)
2 eggs
1/4 cup milk
1 tbsp butter

Directions

Heat butter in a small oven proof pan on medium-high heat. Mix together eggs and milk in a bowl. After butter has fully melted, pour egg mixture into pan. Evenly spoon pasta salad into the egg mixture.
Let cook until the edges of the frittata are cooked.

Preheat oven to broil (light broil if it's an option). Place pan in oven ~5 minutes to finish cooking the top of the frittata. Watch closely! Seriously, don't stray far. Keep the oven light on and park a chair in front if you have to.

When eggs look fully cooked and there is no runny liquid when you tilt the pan, it's done!
Slice into quadrants and slide out with a spatula onto your plate.

This ended up being a completely excellent creation.

Would go well with some toast or biscuits on the side. Yes, indeed.

Squash Casserole w/ Goat Cheese and Lobster Ravioli Crust

2010-08-25T22:26:00.002-04:00

This summer we've been squash casserolin' it about once a week due to the obscene amount of squash and other veggies coming from our friend's farm. I usually top with bread crumbs, and serve with a side of potatoes, mashed or roasted. Since we were sans potatoes this week, and extra hungry, we decided to use the near expired (and cheap as hell) lobster ravioli from Trader Joe's we'd been saving. The resulting casserole was a thing of beauty...

Ingredients
4-5 Squash, sliced and quartered
2-3 medium red peppers
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
1 cup frozen spinach or 1 bag (~8 oz) fresh spinach
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
6 oz goat cheese
1 package Trader Joe's Lobster Ravioli
Salt and Pepper
Shredded Parmesan to garnish
1 tbsp olive oil

Directions
Fill a pot with water and add Lobster Ravioli. Place ravioli on stove and bring to a boil. Once water starts boiling, take pot off the heat and drain in a colander. In another pot, sauté onions in olive oil for 5 minutes then then add garlic, peppers and squash. Cook until squash are soften but still firm (about 15 minutes).

While vegetables are cooking, mix milk, egg and flour in the bottom of a casserole dish. Add spinach, goat cheese and sauteed veggies into the casserole dish. Mix thoroughly.

Strategically and artistically place raviolis on top of the mixed ingredients and sprinkle with some parmesan. Cover with aluminum foil and place in oven for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, remove foil and let cook for another 20-30 minutes, until top begins to brown. If top has not browned by that time, broil for 1-3 minutes...but watch carefully, it can turn from brown to burn very quickly on broil!

Yum.

adj. Slang, -mi·er, -mi·est.

Very pleasing to the taste or smell; delicious. See synonyms at delicious.
Delightful; delicious.

[From yum, the sound of smacking the lips.]

yumminess yum'mi·ness n.