Between Hell’s Kitchen and Kitchen Nightmares I’ve had ample time to fall in love with this hot-tempered Scottish chef.  I don’t know much about his actual cuisine; but, with his very vocal, excruciatingly picky standards of culinary perfection I’m sure that if I ever have the opportunity to eat at one of his establishments that I would be 100% satisfied with what I ordered.  I HEART Gordon Ramsay… and, am sad that he’s married… as I’d happily be his love-slave if he’d only cook for me.

Either that or I’d really like him to teach me to cook.

This is pretty basic; but, it’s warm and nourishing and tastes pretty yummy.

Everything in One Pot Ramen
Ingredients:
1. 1 package of beef flavored Ramen noodles
2. 1 cup of cubed tofu, drained
3. 1 cup of the frozen veggies of your choice (I like broccoli and cauliflower)
4. 2 large cloves of garlic, peeled and smushed
5. *1 handful of shredded cheese
6. Soy sauce to taste

Technique:
1. Prepare ramen noodles as directed
2. Return to a boil and add frozen veggies, garlic and tofu
3. Cover and simmer on medium until liquid starts to reduce
4. Season with soy sauce and serve w/shredded cheese on top

*If you are a total weirdo like my friends Molly & Carla and do not like cheese you can eliminate this ingrediant.

After making Cheddar Chowdar the other night I had an extra potato which was peeled, sitting in the refridgerator just begging me to do something with it. So here is what I did (and it was LE YUMMEH!)

Cheesy-Potato-Taco-Fakeout
Ingredients:
1 peeled potato, diced
2 cloves of garlic, kinda smushed
2 cups of water
1 tsp salt
Cracked pepper to taste
1/4 shredded cheddar cheese
1 pat of butter
A splash of milk
1 large spoonful of salsa

Technique:
1. Bring water to a boil w/half the salt
2. Add potatoes and garlic, boil until tender and then drain
3. Add remaining salt, pepper, butter and milk - mash together like when making mashed potatoes
4. Add shredded cheese and stir in until melted
5. Using a spoon, create a little crater in the middle of the mashed potatoes
6. Fill crater with a large spoonful of your favorite salsa
7. EAT AND DREAM OF TACOS!

*If you have the extra budget you could probably add some lean ground beef that you had sauteed/drained to this recipe under the salsa.

Yum, yum, yum!!!
I ate it so fast I didn’t have a chance to take a picture of it… will have to do so next time.

From mah Mommaship and Auntie B-B comes this *CHEEESY recipe for easy cheddar chowder. I think I may make it tonight:

Ingredients:
2 cups of water
2 cups of diced potatoes
1/2 a cup of diced carrots
1/2 a cup of diced celery
1/4 a cup of chopped onion
1 tsp of salt
1/4 a tsp of pepper
1/4 a cup of butter
1/4 a cup of flour
2 cups of milk
2 cups of shredded cheddar cheese
4 strips of bacon

Technique:
1. Combine vegetables, salt, pepper and water in a pot, bring to a boil and cook for 10-12 minutes (DO NOT DRAIN)
2. Melt butter in a separate pot and whisk in flour until smooth
3. Slowly add milk, keep whisking and cook until thick
4. Add CHEEESE and stir until melted
5. Add veggies and water into cheese sauce, stir until combined
6. Cook bacon until crisp and crumble
7. EAT SOUP w/bacon crumbles on the top.

*Please someone tell me that they got the Wallace & Gromit reference… please… someone.

A fuzzy pic of mah actual cheddar chowdah taken on mah cell phone.

Check more of my cellie pictures on Radar… I’m KatedaGreat, friend me y’all and let’s share pics of food we make… mmmm…

It has turned cold in San Francisco, which has me thinking about chicken soup with rice… which makes me think of the Maurice Sendak book “Chicken Soup With Rice” that mah Momma used to read to my brothers and me when we were kids.

As this book illustrates, chicken soup with rice is nice anytime of year; but, especially when it’s cold and rainy. I actually - over the years - have developed a good chicken soup with rice recipe.

Though I have not made this particular soup for my dinner club, I think that I might at some point in the near future. Also, something that I regularly do is make soup and freeze it in little Tupperware containers, so I have individual servings I can just pop into the microwave/soup pot. It’s a lot cheaper than canned soup in the long run… the ingredients for this recipe should cost you under $20 and make at least 12-14 servings. It does require some time and that you have saved the bones from chicken you’ve eaten previously to help make the stock. (Remember when I said that I save fat and bones in a baggie in the freezer? This is why.) You could probably make it w/out the bones; but, you’d have to substitute chicken stock or some sort of flavoring into the soup.

Love It Once, Love It Twice: Love Mah Chicken Soup with Rice
Ingredients:
1. 1 lb of chicken bones
2. 1 lb of carrots
3. 1 lb of celery
4. 3 large yellow onions
5. 3-5 large sized cloves of garlic
6. 2 bay leafs
7. Salt and pepper to taste
8. 2 cups of rice
9. 4-5 chicken thighs one the bone, with skin

Technique:
Stock:
1. In a large stock pot: place bones, 1 bay leaf, 2 onions (skinned, but whole), 1/2 the garlic, 1/2 the carrots, 1/2 the celery (veggies should be washed well; but, not peeled or cut) and a fair amount of salt (1tsp-ish)
2. Fill pot with water and bring to a boil
3. Continue to boil on a high flame until stock begins to reduce
4. Add more water once stock has reduced to 1/2, return stock to a boil again
5. Once the bones are soft (like mushy, not brittle at all) strain stock through a pasta strainer into another pot
6. Discard the bones and bay leaf, you can save the veggies to eat at another time… (I do)

Rice:
Cook 2 cups of the rice of your choice according to directions on the box/package

Finishing the soup:
1. Add chicken thighs to stock
2. Peel and quarter third onion and add to stock
3. Wash, peel and chop carrots and celery, add to stock
4. Peel remaining garlic and add whole to stock
5. Add remaining bay leaf
6. Slowly bring soup to a boil over medium heat
7. Once it is at a rolling boil, reduce heat to low and simmer soup for about an hour; or, until the chicken thighs are cooked completely through and the meat pretty much falls off the bone
8. Remove chicken thighs, allow to cool (while keeping soup on a low, low flame) and de-bone the meat/skin. Dice meat into small, bite size pieces and return to the soup
9. Set skin/bones aside for the next time you make soup
10. Serve over rice — YUMMY!

This makes about 12-14 one cup servings, so I’d recommend inviting friends or buying some freezer safe storage containers. If you want to reheat it when frozen I’ve found that it takes 4 minutes in the microwave, or you can just dump a frozen block of it into a soup pan and heat on a low flame until it melts apart. Enjoy!

I will not be blogging for a while: this is why.

Tonight I splurged and ate out. W00T! Doesn’t happen often; but, when it does I always make the meal count.

Twice.

That’s right, eating out means: LEFTOVERS!

I almost never finish what I order at restaurants: mostly because the portions are so dang big and my tummy is so dang small from eating like a thrifty starving student all the time.

Tonight I had a cheeseburger (with feta) on a big-azz bun, rare with lettuce and tomato as a garnish. When I boxed it up to take home, I pulled the burger off the bun and set the bun way away from the lettuce/tomato/meat with cheese. Here is what I’m going to make tomorrow with these leftovers:

Fake Beef Strogenoff, Garlic Bread and a Salad:
Ingredients:
1. 1/2 a rare *feta cheeseburger
2. 1/2 a hamburger bun
3. 1 tomato slice
4. 2 large pieces of iceberg lettuce
5. 1 packet of beef flavored ramen noodles
6. 1/4 cup of low fat milk
7. 1 pat of salted butter
8. 1/8 tsp of flour
9. 1/8 tbsp of balsamic vinegar
10. 2 cups of water
11. Pepper to taste
12. Garlic powder to taste

Technique:
Strogenoff:
1. Bring water to a boil in a medium sauce pan.
2. Cook noodles and drain in a strainer once tender.
3. Cut burger w/feta on it into small-ish pieces.
4. While the noodles are draining combine ramen seasoning packet, milk, flour and 1/2 the pat of butter in the sauce pan. Stirring frequently, bring to a slow boil.
5. Add meat with cheese on it to sauce and reduce to a simmer. Cook until cheese melts and beef is warm all the way through.
6. Toss noodles with the sauce until well combined.
7. Add pepper to taste.

Bread:
1. Place a piece of tin-foil on the oven rack.
2. Pre-heat oven to 350 F.
3. Divide remaining butter equally between two bun pieces and add desired amount of garlic powder.
4. Place bread on the rack and bake for 5-7 minutes; or until desired level of crispiness is acquired.

Salad:
1. Tear up lettuce.
2. Chop tomato into small pieces.
3. Toss in a small bowl with the balsamic vinegar until coated.

Enjoy! (I know I will!)

And, remember: poor starving students can’t afford to throw food away - even if leftovers aren’t your thing (as they are not mine) - they are nutritious, filling and if you’re creative can be as yummy as the first time you ate them!

*Works best with feta, Monterey Jack, mozzarella or provolone cheeses - though you can use any leftover cheeseburger you happen to have handy.

My friend Katherine and I are very much a like in many ways: specific to this post, I have discovered that we both had a love of Steak-Umms as kids.

For those not familiar, Steak-Umm is pressed beef which one can pan fry to make cheesesteaks with. Katherine recently discovered that Steak-Umms not only still exist; but, were on sale at Lucky… she just sent me this recipe for crispy cheesesteak grilled cheese sammiches which she says “went over big while watching the Red Sox with a bunch of D’s friends.” (D is her awesome boyfriend.)

Next time I go to Lucky I’m so going on a Steak-Umm hunt so I can try it out!

Katherine’s Yum-tastic Crispy Grilled Cheesesteak Sammiches
Ingredients:
1. 2 slices of bread
2. 1 slice of Steak-umm meat product
3. 2 slices of the cheese of your choice (I prefer American for cheesesteaks, myself)
4. 1 slice roasted red pepper
5. 1 tsp of olive oil

Technique:
1. Toast bread in toaster for extra crispiness
2. Cook Steak-Umm in a skillet until brown, drain fat and blot with paper towel
3. Wipe out pan with paper towel and heat olive oil in the skillet
4. Assemble the sandwich so that the Steak-Umm and pepper are in the middle of the toast/cheese
5. Grill to melty-cheesy-steaky perfection
6. Enjoy with a cold beer while cheering on the Boston Red Sox, Chicago Cubs or some other appropriately lovable sports team (the Oakland A’s or the Buffalo Sabers, maybe?)

GO CUBS!
(Wait, I think they blew it a couple nights ago.)

GO SOX!
(They’re still in it, right? Golly, I haven’t watched enough baseball this summer!)

Ever have those moments when you’re craving something really specific? I have them almost monthly, usually around the time that my face starts breaking out like a 16 year old who’s been eating chocolate and drinking Coca-Cola on the sly… that is when I start craving the combination of sweet and salty. Here is a desert recipe which uses three ingredients everyone seems to have and one leftover from “movie night” to create a gooey bastardized version of the *Rice Krispie Treat:

Popcorn Peanut Butter Bars:
Ingredients:
1. 3 cups of lightly salted, non-buttered stale popcorn
2. 1/2 cup of creamy peanut butter
3. 1/16 cup of honey
4. 2 tbsp of flour

Technique:
1. In a bowl, mix together honey, peanut butter and flour into a paste
2. Pre-heat oven to 350 F.
3. Fold popcorn into peanut butter mixture, stirring until all popcorn is coated
4. Lightly spray the bottom and sides of a small pie pan with cooking spray
5. Spread popcorn/peanut butter mixture evenly into the pan
6. Bake in oven for about 15 minutes (time can vary - don’t cook longer than 25 minutes) until solidified
7. Let pan completely cool
8. Slice into bars
9. Eat with a napkin - this is a slightly gooey, yet YUMMERS taste treat - while flipping through a copy of Tiger Beat, watching Beverly Hills 90210 on DVD and dreaming of taking Dylan McKay to prom

*I don’t like Rice Krispie Treats for the fact that I cannot tolerate marshmallows in any form other than the forms found in Lucky Charms Cereal… marshmallows = ICKY!

This is a cheap version of a recipe that I found on Recipe Zaar that I plan on making for my next turn cooking for our happy little family over here in San Francisco. I think it’s a great way to use the one cup of leftover coffee that I never drink in the morning, plus it tastes a little like Chicken Mole:

Caffeinated Chicken & Rice
Ingredients:
1. 4-6 *chicken thighs with skin
2. 1 cup leftover brewed coffee
3. 1/2 cup of ketchup
4. 3 tsp of brown sugar
5. 2 tbsp of vinegar
6. 1 tbsp of olive oil
7. 3 packets of soy sauce (reuse them from those days of Chinese takeout!)
8. 2 tbsp of lemon juice
9. 1 large yellow onion, chopped into coarse-large pieces
10. 1/2 cup of water (for sauce) and enough water for rice
11. 2 cups of brown nutted rice

*To you reduce the fat content you can use boneless, skinless thighs - which are more expensive - however, I like skin on mah chicken… so, there!

Technique:
1. Place all ingrediants for the sauce into a sauce pot and slowly bring to a boil
2. Stirring frequently, lower heat and simmer until sauce reduces to half
3. Place onion and chicken into pot, cover tightly and refridgerate for 1/2 hour
4. Pre-heat oven to 350 F
5. Place chicken, onions and sauce into a shallow pyrex baking pan
6. Bake in oven for 60 minutes, turning thighs at least twice and basting at least three times
7. Prepare rice as instructed on container
8. Serve chicken/onions over bed of rice and ENJOY!