Sunday Kind of Love

Sunday was a gloriously lazy day. We'd been out drinking the night before, so I woke up with a nice fat headache and my head feeling like it was gonna wobble off. So, as I like to do on lazy weekend mornings, I brewed some coffee and plunked myself down with a book in front of my porch while N-A snored away from the nether-reaches of my bedroom. Eventually--once he woke up and we sufficiently uncrankified our cranky-ass selves--I busted out the groceries I'd bought on Friday and proceeded to whip up an enormous breakfast: tofu scramble (tofu, red peppers, mushrooms, zucchini, avocado), sausage patties, and homefries:




(Now, we all know my intense, almost-orgasmic, love of the avocado, so as always, I'm a wee bit biased. But good god if some ripe avocado doesn't make a world of difference when it comes to really infusing some life into a tofu scramble.)

After gorging to our heart's content, we proceeded to laze away the afternoon with a) football, b) Othello, c) backgammon, and d) other shenanigans.

As dinner time rolled in, we both found ourselves in an unreasonably tired stupor. I was starving, but feeling 100% super-lazy, and I didn't really have anything I could whip up from scratch except pancakes or potacos. I pouted a bit about not feeling like doing anything. At all. Whatsoever. And jammed my forehead into the couch and N-A's leg while I pouted. After that, N-A brilliantly suggested that he run out and pick up some groceries so HE could whip up some dinner for us. Inadvertent score.

N-A is an improvisationalist when it comes to food, so I'm not even sure (by way of anything other than the large, chunky, obvious vegetables) what exactly was in this, but man was it good. Wheat fettucine found itself draped in an olive oil-drizzled harmony of red and green peppers, portobella mushrooms, black olives, and "bacon" bits. The end result was a salty, smoked, and yet sweet dish of pasta.

I had concluded the week before that "bacon" bits were a bit too overpoweringly flavored in a way that didn't so much please me, but thankfully this dish revised my opinion--if you cook them down a little, the flavor disperses into the surrounding ingredients and dissipates some of the salty pungency of them. And it doesn't hurt having some sweet peppers in the near vicinity, to counteract the excessive saltiness.




After we'd gorged to the point of moaning, we planted ourselves down on my couch and returned to Stuporville for the rest of the evening.

But not before N-A very nerdily asked, "So am I gonna make it onto your blog again?"

Clearly he can take this as a yes.

Google Me This and Google Me That

Apparently, ever since I posted about my recipe mishap last week, if you google "motherfuck," I'm the second result that pops up, second only to Wikipedia.

AND I beat out the Urban Dictionary.

It's essentially like I've won the silver medal of motherfucking!

Take that, Definer of All Things Urban! HOW YOU LIKE ME NOW?!?!


(I would be like the dude in the middle
but awesomer and with a less ugly jacket)

Rigatoni with Eggplant Puree

                                    from Smitten Kitchen

I *KNEW* some pics of foods I'd recently cooked had vanished, dammit all! I kept wondering these past couple weeks how the hell I'd been cooking a decent amount and yet didn't seem to have very many recipes to post. And voila--apparently I'm a tool and somehow deleted a bunch of food pics.

Anyways, I actually made this recipe a few weeks back. What I liked most about it was the mint/eggplant/red pepper flake mix. It was a strange and yet delighful combination--kind of like a battle of fire and water in the mouth.

Hm. Realizing I don't have much more to say than that.

Wow that was a boring post.

Vagina!

PS. I have no idea why MY pasta sauce looks all Barbie while Smitten Kitchen's is all deep and sultry in color. So don't ask.



INGREDIENTS:

• 1 small eggplant, cut into 1-inch cubes


• 1 pint cherry tomatoes


• 3 cloves garlic, whole


• 3 T. olive oil


• 1 t. salt


• 1 t. freshly ground black pepper


• 1 t. red pepper flakes


• 1/4 c. toasted pine nuts


• 1 lb. rigatoni pasta


• 1/4 c. torn fresh mint leaves


• 3 T. extra-virgin olive oil


• Parmesan, to taste (optional)*


• Glug of balsamic or red wine vinegar or freshly-squeezed lemon juice (optional)

DIRECTIONS

In a large bowl combine the eggplant, cherry tomatoes, garlic, olive oil, salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes. Spread the vegetables out in an even layer on the baking sheet. Roast in the oven until the vegetables are tender and the eggplant is golden, about 35 minutes.

Heat up a small pan on medium-low heat and dry-roast your pinenuts until lightly brown (between 3 and 5 minutes or so).

Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the pasta and cook until tender but still firm to the bite, stirring occasionally, about 8 to 10 minutes. Drain pasta into a large bowl and reserve (at least) 2 cups of the cooking liquid. (Now that I'm thinking about it, I'm not sure that I used anywhere near CLOSE to 2 cups of water when I whipped mine up.]

Transfer the roasted vegetables to a food processor. Add the torn mint leaves and extra-virgin olive oil. Puree the vegetables.

Transfer the pureed vegetables to the bowl with the pasta and add the vegan Parmesan. Stir to combine, adding the pasta cooking liquid 1/2 cup at a time until the pasta is saucy, as well as a glug of vinegar (optional). Sprinkle the pine nuts over the top and serve. (Or you can just serve your noodles with some of the sauce poured on top, a sprinkling of pinenuts, and some parm on the side.)

(Recipe from Smitten Kitchen)