Marinades/Sauces -

by gansie

Sometimes I Love Being an Adult

My first job post-college helped elect Annise Parker to her first term as Houston City Controller. During this period – the first time in my life where I didn’t have homework and I couldn’t get wasted and skip class – I forced myself to be semi-responsible. Thus, instead of going to happy hour every night, or going out to eat, I tried to cook dinner myself. If really only a means to waste time between getting home from work and getting to bed. But I’ll get more into those first cooking atrocities another time.

I remember how much I hated getting up for work. Not that being “Volunteer Coordinator” was all that awful, but I just thought – wow, do I really have to sit in front of a computer for 7 hours a day, 5 days a week (campaign – 7 days/week and 10 hours/day) for the next 45 years?!?! I hated being an “adult.”

Then, one of my coworkers brought in cheese and crackers for lunch. I stared at her in awe. I was so jealous. Here I was, eating my awful frozen veggie Cajun-seasoned stir fry enhanced with I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter spray (thanks, Mariah!), and she had the brilliant idea to bring in cheese and crackers.

As a kid, no one would ever allow you to eat just cheese and crackers for lunch. But as an adult, and as an adult making an embarrassing $750/month, the absolute genius of a cheese and crackers lunch made me thankful for finally being able to make my own decisions, be it lunch or a host of any other adult situations.

That being said, I now make lots of dinners that don’t necessarily pass as full fledged meals.

Are those “gasps” I hear from my ES readers? Yes, I know, I’m sure you think that every meal I create deserves its own Hollywood Star, but sometimes I keep it low-key. Shocking, I know.

The other night for dinner I made my own little plate where I could mix-and-match the items to create bite-sized pita canapes.

Read on for my sample platter.

by gansie

Endivine

First, thank you to all of the ES readers for helping me formulate my 2nd catering gig menu. According to the librarians, the food was a hit!

80P’s mom intro’d me as the “caterer” and it totally cracked me up. Of course, she also slid in the fact that I date her son, but her colleagues actually thought I was a real caterer. And once she divulged the fact that I’m a “published food critic” her guests were all over me, asking me for restaurant reviews of places all across the District. I’d been to some, but luckily, I read enough of Tom to know a general sense of a place I hadn’t dined at yet. But when they asked me the name of my “catering company” I surely told them that I do this just for fun (although Endless Simmer Catering sounds very nice.) Being known as a food professional (even opening up wine bottles, taking empty glasses and discarding used napkins) felt very exciting, I still think I want to stick to blogging for now. Although – I *may* be up for another gig (email me at gansie@endlesssimmer.com)

The food…

in Fish / Recipe / Veggie 6 comments

by gansie

One Tomato Down, 37 To Go

As I’ve certainly made the ES community well aware of my tomato abundance, I of course, will share my tomato creations.

I’ve always wanted to make fried green tomatoes. I mean, yes – I like tomatoes and yes – I like things fried. And with what, I think, is actually the last of the toms, I decided to go for it. Oh, and to make it a little bit less sinful, I threw the tomatoes over some arugula.

in Recipe / Veggie 8 comments

by gansie

Only the Mahi Survive

In the glorious world of gchat (IMing on gmail) my very good friend, Jrod, and I can keep in touch about all the important things going on in the world – Philadelphia sports teams and cooking. Here is his latest masterpiece via gchat.

Mahi over Maryland Crab Bisque with Asparagus

Jrod: I made an AMAZING mahi dish last week
gansie: tell me!
Jrod: im super proud
Jrod: right
so
i gotta say first
I stole from HGTV.com
sort of
but anyway, I still pulled it off

in Fish / Recipe / Veggie 2 comments

by BS

Wham Bam Thank You Lamb

With no Top Chef to watch or blog about this week, I found myself with some free time, so I figured, why not? I’ll cook something. I mean, I do have a food blog after all.

So I went to the local butcher Saturday and picked myself out some tasty-looking lamb shoulder chops. I wanted to get a little crazy (obv) but since my experience with lamb is rather young (haha) I decided to keep the cooking part simple and got creative with the after-saucing.

My inspiration here was E-double’s fantastic Chimichurri sauce that she puts on her steaks. I subbed in spinach for the parsley, and because it’s me, added some pine nuts. In a way, this is more of a pesto than a chimichurri, but in reality, it’s neither. Whatever you call it, this baby was delicious, and the recipe is after the jump.

in Red Meat 1 comments

by BS

I Have a Cream

As one of our great family-style meals at our endless simmer beach vacation a week ago, a trio of us whipped up an Italian feast that would make our gorgeous contest winner look downright everyday.

In addition to Thresher’s fried green eggplant and our pal Jerry’s amazing marinara sauce, we made some garlic bread and bruschetta, and I went for it and made the most fattening food in the world, alfredo sauce.

I’ve been fooling around with different varieties of cream sauce for awhile now, trying to find the best combination of dairy, dairy and dairy. It’s harder than it sounds!

I’m not gonna say it’s perfect-perfect yet, but I’m pretty happy with my current recipe – and you can be too, after the jump.

in Cheese 2 comments

by gansie

Pasta la Vista, Baby

When 80 Proof lived alone, he more or less ate pasta, with <gasp> jarred sauce, about 3 or 4 nights a week. Now that he has daily access to Chef Gansie, he hasn’t had a dinner of pasta in a couple months (not including my sides of pasta salad, of course.) So last night we ventured back to the days of pasta, but with no cheating – we made our own sauce.

in Fowl / Recipe / Veggie 2 comments