Last meal in philly apartment

I left my apartment in philly for 6 weeks to study for the boards at my parents house. I had the following items in my fridge:

Hot dogs
Hamburger buns
Red bliss and mini yukon golds (with so many shoots that it looked like they were trying to escape the crisper)
1 green onion
2 normal onions
Garlic
Plain yogurt

Without further adeiu, DINNER:

Two part breakfast bash: waffle sandwich and carrot cake

I like making bigger breakfasts on the weekend, when I am foggy from the night before and hungry because I normally eat breakfast at 5:30AM on weekdays.

This is easy, different, and soul quenching. Two over easy eggs on top of frozen toaster waffles with lots of pepper and syrup on top. Use butter to fry the eggs. If you're feeling crazy, try it with hot sauce, poached eggs, scrambled eggs, ham, etc.



This is what I made last night for breakfast this morning. Carrot cake with tons of fresh ground nutmeg, allspice, and cinnamon. Golden raisins keep it looking fresh and summery. If you're into it and have a cuisinart, check out Alton Brown's recipe.

Guest star: Liz

Was invited to a tasting last month for my friend who is in pastry school. She made this smashing pistachio creme brulee with chocolate cookies. The doily was a little girlie for my tastes, though.

Check out Liz's adventures at http://bakedbyliz.blogspot.com/

Poached eggs

Poaching eggs is surprisingly difficult. The timing seems kind of weird, because you get a bunch of carry-over after you take them out. Here's what I did:

1. Simmer a few inches of water.
2. Add a pinch of salt and half pinch of sour salt (or vinegar, but I didn't have any white vinegar on hand).
3. One egg at a time, crack egg into a bowl and slide the egg into the simmering water.
4. Cook for 3 minutes. Remove with slotted spoon. (Cook longer if you don't like runny eggs, but 5 minutes seemed to give me pretty hard cooked eggs and 4 minutes wasn't runny enough)

I put mine on top of hash browns and chopped proscuitto, with some hot sauce and S&P to top it all off. Next stop, hollandaise!

Salad night

Some avocado, peppadew peppers, tomatoes, field greens, and a hunk of rustic wheat.

Wok fired eggplant

This is a spicy dish that I unfortunately made inferno-hot. The recipe comes from Grace Young's book, The Breath of a Wok, which is beautiful if you ever are interested in stir-frying.

Basically it's steamed eggplant that is then stir fried with some chili and a basic stir fry sauce. I cut it in half as a main dish for one person, but forgot to cut the amount of chili in half. Fuego!

Braised cabbage

Sorry! Long hiatus due to the lack of motivation to cook much anymore. Here is some braised cabbage that kept me going for a good 3 meals. Basically cabbage + apple cider vinegar + garlic + onions + water + sugar. I'd use real apples next time to add some more flavor.