Category Archives: Food

Eating through the weekend

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Here are a couple more appetite enhancers.

On top–Saturday night’s pick-up pizza. Homemade crust and sauce, fresh basil, low fat turkey pepperoni, anchovies and green peppers, garlic, red peppers to taste. Two types of cheese, perhaps a bit too generous.

Funny how that wide angle lens works. The plate with 1/4 of the pizza looks as big as the pizza pan with the other 3/4.

Below–Sunday morning’s swiss cheese omelet, sour dough toast, turkey bacon. The omelet has a bunch of egg whites, one yolk. The cats ate a couple of the other yolks, so not all went to waste.

Click either photo for a better view.

Pizza

Omelet

Penne pasta with fresh grilled vegetables and sausage

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Bowl of pasta

It was late Wednesday afternoon and we were thinking about what to make for dinner.

My first idea was to make up some homemade pasta sauce, which we haven’t had for a while. I thought about one of Meda’s salads, and then remembered that there were assorted vegetables in the refrigerator waiting for grilling, some reaching the end of their shelf life. A thick, red, and spicy pasta sauce with a side of grilled vegetables was sounding good. Then I thought, why not leave out the middle man and just have pasta with grilled vegetables? When I suggested it to Meda, she thought it would be good to add some italian sausages. We buy the low fat hot turkey sausages, which are pretty tasty. I was sold.

So while the grill was heating, I assembled the vegetables. Broccoli, an onion, the last of a bag of small sweet peppers from Costco, a large green pepper cut into bite-size pieces, baby carrots. I poured a little olive oil and garlic, mixed it all up, and it all went into a grill basket and onto the grill. I found three sausages in the freezer, and they went on the grill. A pot went on the stove for the pasta. After I poured the pasta into the pot of boiling water, I added some small local tomatoes to the vegetable mix.

Finally it all came together. The pasta was cooked and went into a big bowl. I added some olive oil, anchovies, a little more garlic, fresh basil, a few olives, crushed red pepper. Added the vegetables, tossed them all together, then dropped the sausages on top. At the table, we scraped on some of that good Costo Ramano cheese. A glass of wine. And a cat watching. That’s Ms. Harry, by the way. She was disappointed at the fare, which wasn’t very cat friendly.

It was good. Not great, but pretty good for a first-time experiment. It needed a bit more spice. Perhaps a fresh hot pepper would have helped, and a few more anchovies. Or just a pinch of salt. I’ll experiment on the leftovers. And then try this recipe again with modifications.

Bowl of pasta

Sunday morning bacon and eggs

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BreakfastSunday morning breakfast has become one of our weekly rituals. Other mornings we get by with coffee, fruit, yogurt, and maybe a bowl of cereal. On Sunday, though, I make an egg white omelet with a slice of cheese melted in it. I fold it over, cut in two. Turkey bacon, supposedly lower in fat. Toast or, as in this case, an English muffin. Coffee. The sunday newspaper. A cat or two. It makes for a nice, leisurely breakfast.

For several years, I had a nice, non-stick pan that I used for omelets. It made things very easy, but it had a flaw. Despite a “lifetime” warranty, the finish on these expensive Calphalon pans regularly wore out after less than a year. This despite using plastic spoons and taking other steps to prevent damage. I returned one or two and the company replaced them under its warranty, but I finally decided it just wasn’t working.

I recall thinking that it meant the end of omelets, since I assumed eggs would tend to stick in our cast iron frying pans. Not so, it turns out. Cast iron actually turns out very nice omelets, thank you, very much. I’m very much a fan of our old cast iron, which all came from thrift stores or garbage piles.