Author: lynley

lynley http://imwiththebandlfarris.wordpress.com i bake cookies for bands i make art i play the accordion i hunt graffiti i knit i dj i cook i am process driven i love whiskey i had a spiritual moment at graceland the past is our present its the whole karmic enchilada

meatless monday: toasted ravioli

Leave a comment

the south is known for its love of deep fried food.  fact…at the salad bar in the grocery store the side opposite salad ingredients is all a variety of fried foods and condiments to go with those foods.  shocking for me when i had a sudden craving for toasted ravioli and couldn’t find any fried pasta around.  i searched every pizza/italian restaurant menu i could find along with checking at the grocery store in the frozen section.  i became suspicious they don’t have toasted ravioli.  to confirm this i asked a born and raised knoxvillian about toasted ravioli, the response……what’s that?

meatless monday then became a challenge of making toasted ravioli.  first issue how to cook the frozen cheese ravs but not boil them so they could cook longer as they fried.  solution i rinsed them off in HOT i mean HOT water till they got thawed and got soft.  then came the basics for breading and frying, eggs and italian bread crumbs.

the assembly line

to tell when a ravioli is cooked, if you are boiling them, it  is when they float.  frying them is much the same thing i noticed, instead of floating they sort of puff out forming little toasted pillows. plus they are all golden brown.

fry away

these sort of cooking adventures can turn out wonderful or be huge messy disasters.  this one was the first. i heated up some paul newman’s tomato and basil for a dipping sauce sprinkled the whole shabang with parm and a little oregano/basil mix and enjoyed a midwestern treat.

sunday night dinner: october 16, 2011 — curry-jerk chicken

Leave a comment

lets set the mood

i have a theory that if you add curry to anything it will make it better, so far i haven’t been proven wrong.  for sunday i made one of my favorite things a giant bowl of yumminess, curry-jerk chicken on rice.  it makes me happy.  potatoes, sweet potatoes, jerk chicken, peanut butter, and of course curry.  the only thing that made it a tad bit better was the giant glass of red wine i had with it.  nnnnooommmmmm

now that’s fall — broccoli cheese soup in a bread bowl

Leave a comment

wednesday was a seriously fallish day.  overcast, rainy, leaves falling which got me excited for soup season. in celebration of soups becoming a regular part of my cooking routine again and maybe being a little inspired by the kc ren fest, i put on my fall apron and began chopping up ingredients for the soup.

reds, oranges, and browns that's a fall apron

the best part i love about making soups is how they can cook all day.  by the time dinner time rolls around i can barely stand it and have to dig in. i decided to venture and try something i’ve never done at home before, the bread bowl.  i got french boule bread at the grocery store.  having eaten a ton of these over the years at panera i thought “no problem, just cut out the middle, maybe scoop out a little bread, and volá, soup bowl”  this is trickery than it seems.  first i cut the hole to small, which required a lot of scooping out of bread, so sad.  what i finally concluded from the bread bowl (having made a second now with leftovers) is you got to cut that hole about the same size as the loaf.  needless to say it was still yummy and to go with the theme of fall i treated myself to a new belgium seasonal brew the Hoptober ale. oh soups i have missed you so!

springfield style cashew chicken…….LIKE

Leave a comment

from lucy's

about four years ago i was wasting time on facebook and decided if i was going to like something by god it was going to be cashew chicken.  i was shocked to discover that low and behold there was no facebook fan page for springfield style cashew chicken.  this had to be created and created a fan page i did.  i uploaded an image of the stuff sent a few requests out to fellow springfield cashew chicken fans and that was the extent of my devotion to the fan page.  now four years 7,722 fans later, and i haven’t done a damn thing on it since,  i have decided maybe i need to be a bit more proactive on my fan site.  facebook will send little updates on it, i’ll just say i was shocked at how much activity was going on the site…..uploading of photos, recipe discussions, the whole shabang.

so be prepared springfield style facebook fans photo albums of take out i get every time i go home, my quest to find springfield style in other cities, pics of the iconic cashew chicken resturants, and of course tired and true recipes.

sunday night dinner: oct 2, 2011 — fancy ramen

Leave a comment

on my quest to like mushrooms i have come to fancy them in stir fry.  sunday night dinner then was fancy ramen, aka what my friend alaina calls ramen that has lots of veggies in it or as steph did a while back some veggie nuggets as well.  to set the mood i put on my most recent album purchase, “Dance the night Away” a 4, yes 4 album compilation of discos greatest hits that i got for only $0.95.  i was really excited because it had my favorite elton john song, the duet with kiki dede, “don’t go breakin my heart.” the tune was perfect for fancy ramen night.

my stir fry consisted of broccoli, mushrooms, and carrots in a sauce of oil, ginger, garlic, cayenne pepper, and of course the seasoning packet from the ramen.   and now looking at that least i realize i should have added some sort of nuts to that mix, damn!  is it just me or does stir fry just always look pretty?

 

 

 

meatless monday: veggie omelette

Leave a comment

at work i have probably seen at least a thousand omelets go out of the kitchen, yet i am not really a big fan of them.  however i decided to attempt an omelette at home for my meatless monday meal.  3 eggs beaten to a pulp were put into a hot skillet.  although i really wanted to attempt a classic julia child move of flipping the omelette in the pan i knew it would turn into a very big disaster.

yeah my omelette not so much like her’s.  inside my omelette i put cheddar cheese, diced tomatoes, and avocado.  i wished i would have topped it with some salsa but it was still oh so good, especially  with the homemade whole wheat cornbread muffin.

sunday night dinner: september 25, 2011—plantains with black bean-shrimp rice

Leave a comment

a couple of years ago taggart and i tried a late night experiment with plantains.  it was a disaster that involved a wide variety of condiments to try and make them taste better.  i believe everything from salsa to chocolate syrup was busted out of the fridge.  i described this experience to her co-worker Robinson who at the time was at our house making us a venezuelan meal of tamales, melon juice, and chicken.  he just laughed and told me how to make “real” plantains.

the most nerve racking part for me is letting the plantains go black.  i was convinced that i had actually let them go bad this time, but for the first time ever they were perfect.

blacken and beautiful

i was inspired to make plantains for dinner because a couple of weeks ago when i came back from the grocery store i discovered 2 containers of queso in my bags that i didn’t pick out or pay for.  my guess is the customer before pulled them from their food and the next bagger didn’t know they weren’t mine so vola i end of with 2 big containers of queso.  the solution to using it all up….plantains.

my free queso

if you have ever had plantains they were probably fried, which is excellent.  i however, via Robinson’s advice, bake my plantains with queso, butter, and salsa.  to go along with the meal i made a spanish rice that had black beans and shrimp in it.  and of course you got to have homemade guacamole.

mmmmmmmmm

since i was making plantains i knew i had to invite my friend justin over because it is his favorite food.  when he dug in he actually did a little happy dance in is chair.

alaina and justin ready to dig in

the meal was finished off with sherbert, rainbow of course and some ukulele playing, now that’s a meal.