tomatillo salsa and a new toy!!

I finally bit the bullet and bought a digital SLR camera and I love it already!! I got the Canon Rebel XS, with a 50 mm 1.8 lens for close shots. (I don’t know what any of that means). I have tons to learn, but it’s going to be a fun challenge. As if I need a new hobby!

For dinner tonight, I made a tortilla casserole from one of Martha Stewart’s cookbooks, which involved a tomatillo salsa. Word to the wise: don’t make a Martha recipe unless you are willing to dirty a lot of dishes. That woman does not mess around.

Here’s the recipe for the salsa. Good luck finding tomatillos — there is one grocery store in my area that carries them, and they are pretty pricey. But if you love salsa verde, it’s worth it to make it yourself.

simple tomato basil soup

These days of summer, walking through the farmer’s market, it’s almost unimaginable that mere months ago all that could be had were a few scraggly apples. The July market is the definition of bounty. I have a very hard time limiting myself to “necessary” items when I’m greeted with such incredible freshness but I have to remind myself that there are only two I’m cooking for, and one of them doesn’t like greens.

Incredibly, I was able to pass through and purchase only what I needed on Wednesday — dill for my pickles, carrots and tomatoes for my soup. There are so many amazing variations on carrots and beets, I just want to make rainbow salads of them. The only loose carrots I could find (since I did not need a whole bunch) were golden. A lovely pale gold. Do I sound like I’ve been drugged? Given happy pills? A little over the top, maybe, but it’s no exaggeration to say that food made from farm fresh ingredients is pretty much unbeatable. And, to the detriment of my budgeting, worth the extra money.

I got a few golden tomatoes to go with my golden carrots and set off for home with my vegetables.

As a kid, I never ate tomato soup at home. It just wasn’t something on the menu. When we ate soup with grilled cheese, it was always lentil soup — that combination still brings me directly back to childhood. I had an iffy relationship with tomatoes for a very long time. I didn’t mind tomato-based things, like spaghetti sauce, but put a tomato in my salad? Yuck. So tomato soup was out of the question, with its cloying sweet tomatoeyness, eerily smooth texture, unnaturally red color. I still can’t go anywhere near V8.

This tomato soup is completely different. You could make it with canned tomatoes, but at this time of year, why would you?

sausage kale rice casserole thingy

Brown rice + a bit of cheese + greens, pick your favorite + spicy sausage, pick your favorite = delicious. Is it weird? I feel like it is weird. I’m not sure rice with a bunch of crap in it counts as a casserole, even if you do top it with cheese and put it in the oven for a little while. But I’m not sure what else to call it. I also have no recollection of how I started making this dish, which I’ve made in many variations over the past couple of years. I don’t think anyone ever fed it to me. Maybe I officially made it up?

This is a fabulous use of leftover rice (or newly cooked rice, in this case), and you’ve got your whole grain, protein, and dark leafy green all in one dish. You could also top with sliced almonds for a little crunch. Of course you could sub out chicken, turkey, or veggie sausage.

And lest you think I have completely abandoned the budgeting thing, this is a very inexpensive meal. It makes 6 servings for just about $1.30 a serving — and that’s with fancy Whole Foods chorizo and farmer’s market kale. Huzzah!

strawberry balsamic jam

So, what has my weekly total been you ask? I don’t want to talk about it. What with the holiday and my newfound desire to can things, I have fallen off the wagon, so to speak. I still don’t think I’ve gone that far off the rails (I haven’t had any extravagant meals out), but I haven’t been keeping track of every little thing as closely. Anyway, my failed attempt at discipline notwithstanding, I have canning news to report!

If you have any interest in canning, I encourage you to go out and buy Eugenia Bone’s new book, Well-Preserved. I love her for her correct hyphen usage alone. It has a great intro to the various types of food preservation, and after reading it I feel confident I won’t poison myself with botulism. Unless it’s voluntary and involves going to a “dermatologist.” She also describes how to make one’s own bacon, pickled things, conserves, preserved lemons, etc. It’s definitely worth it if you think you’ll put in the time and money required to get the proper equipment and get familiar with the process. I’m not even going to pretend it’s a good idea to post a recipe here, because I will definitely get you killed for poor sterilization. Just read the book.

I’m really looking forward to canning my own tomatoes and then using them into the winter…see how I get ahead of myself there?

I made her recipe for Strawberry Balsamic Jam, because it’s the season for strawberries, and because, well, it sounded DELICIOUS. I can confirm, it is pretty much face-exploding good. I can’t wait to try it on some scones.

cold noodles and lemon bars

I’m not gonna lie. I’m distracted this week.

But somehow I managed to make a decent cold noodle salad and passable lemon bars last night. Sounds exciting, doesn’t it? Well YOU TOO can make said dishes, hopefully with a little more enthusiasm than I did. Really what happened is that in a moment of weakness, I went into Barnes and Noble. I should know better. I am queen of 1,000 unfinished projects. I have two scarves, half knit, sitting in a box in my room. I need to reupholster and paint chairs in my apartment, organize the closets, learn how to make jewelry. But instead of doing these very tangible things, I pile on new projects! Back to Barnes & Noble. So the problem with the books I bought is that they are on 2 very specific topics: canning, and making cheese. These activities require planning, time, and special equipment. I am going to do both, to the detriment of my other projects and responsibilities I’m sure, but when I’m fantasizing about making my own farmhouse cheddar, it’s hard to focus on the task at hand, i.e., dinner.

week 2: it’s a weird one

After my successful first week of feeding 2 people 3 meals a day for $50, I’m off to a rocky start.

Sunday was fine — I made more brown bread, and the lentil recipe I listed before. It made even more leftovers than I expected, so that is great.

Monday I made Jamaican Jerk Chicken (I used the other half of the bone-in, skin-on chicken I’d used for the Arroz con Pollo last week) and Fried Plantains (yum – and only 3 for a dollar). There was a enough left over for Brian’s lunch.

Then Tuesday was a little weird. I got a free lunch from work, and after work we went out to The Young and Hungry launch party, which featured some yummy food and drink. Also free. (Thanks guys, it was a blast!) Then at 10 pm, a group of us went to Broome Street Bar and ate Nachos. Aah, a healthy dinner. At least it only averaged to something like $6 for the two of us, so I guess it came out OK.

Tonight I plan on making a cold noodle salad with spicy peanut sauce — it’s way too humid out to be using the oven. Then because of the holiday weekend, there are going to be parties and outings, and I just don’t know if I’m going to have a solid meal plan that will work. I have other dishes I planned on making, but now the days are all screwed up and my three day weekend is beckoning to me.

Sigh. It really does feel like extenuating circumstances are more the norm than the “norm” is the norm….whatever that means. Noodle salad recipe plus prices for the jerk chicken & plantains to come later…