Food basics

Ask my parents, former roommates, and boyfriend what my Food Network addiction is and they'll all tell you: Good Eats. Few of them see the appeal, but I love Alton Brown's simple, yet educated take on cooking. His recipes aren't exactly gourmet, but he's amazing at teaching his viewers how to easily cook those must-know recipes.



I'm constantly inspired by Alton's show, but realized that there are no recipes on how to make simple chicken (for pastas, salads, sandwiches, you name it). There are nights when I don't want to go to the grocery store for any fancy add-ons, and just have frozen chicken breasts in my freezer, and this is what I make.

No fuss chicken


1 chicken breast per serving
Salt
Pepper
Extra virgin olive oil

If you use frozen chicken breasts, like I do, make sure to completely defrost your chicken before starting any of this. Put a frying pan on the stove on medium heat, making sure that it is completely hot before anything touches it.

Use a large knife (ie, not paring), that you're comfortable working with. You don't need something as large as a chef's knife, but something at least as long as the chicken breast and sharp. Place your non-cutting hand on top of the breast, and cut through it parallel to the counter. This part really matters if you want tender chicken. Then slice these halves into three pieces each, but use your best judgment.

The hard part is over. Liberally salt and pepper all of the pieces, then flip them over and repeat.

Add a quarter sized amount of olive oil to your hot pan. Honestly, if you have a non-stick pan, this step isn't even necessary. Add three pieces of chicken. You really don't want any more than that in the pan, or else the food will get crowded and won't cook evenly.

The hardest part is over. Our mission now is to touch the chicken as little as possible. You should only flip it once, although peeking is definitely permitted. You're looking for the chicken to start turning opaque, and some brown on the bottom. Flip when you see this, and wait for the now flipped side to start to show those brown bits. If you're still wary about how cooked the pieces are after that, you can check by carefully pulling back a piece of the chicken with a fork. If you can't see pink, you're fine. Remember that the longer the chicken is on this kind of heat, the drier it gets... but you don't want salmonella poisoning, so don't chance it.

You're done! It's not fancy, but it's delicious, tender chicken that you can add to just about anything. I made this with couscous last night, then chopped up the leftovers and put them on a sandwich with melted cheese for a sandwich for lunch today. Simple chicken is one of the building blocks of cooking, and opens up so many new options once you know how to successfully cook it.
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Dog days of summer

As you can see, it's hot, so the puppy and I are looking for ways to stay cool.


Neely will beg by the front door to go out, and the two of us step out into the oven that is Austin in the middle of the summer. She immediately looks at me, her expression reading, "What were we thinking?" She'll prance across the hot pavement, pull me to the grass, then race back to our air conditioned domain.

It stands to reason that my favorite things right now are frozen.
I'm loving the snow cone stand around the corner, frozen yogurt shops all around the neighborhood, frozen vegetables, and my favorite: frozen fruit.

I love coming home from work to a handful of frozen green grapes. I pick the soft grapes from the vine immediately after coming home from the grocery store and pop them into a plastic container in my freezer. After a few hours, they're icy cold, pop when you bite into them, but are like creamy bites of ice cream inside. Delicious. Neely loves them too!


But since today is Friday and I'm feeling a little celebratory, I'm going to go to Bananarchy to get a frozen vanilla granola banana. I could do it myself (by dipping a banana in vanilla yogurt), but I'd rather not wait for it to freeze! Then I'm going to curl up with my dog, watch a certain beloved old movie, and wait for my brother and his wife to come down for a visit.

Have a great weekend.

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Penne with spinach and fresh mozzarrella

I love fresh mozzarrella, and it's a great, relatively cheap way to add something extra to pastas, salads and sandwiches. Last night I made a very easy adaptation of a dish my mom makes.




Ingredients
Penne pasta
Extra virgin olive oil
10 cherry tomatoes
8 small mushrooms
1/2 white onion
Minced garlic (I use it out of the jar--it lasts forever)
Baby spinach
8 small balls of fresh mozzarrella cheese, quartered
Chicken stock
(Serves two.)


I like to prep all my ingredients before I even start boiling water, just because I don't want to be running around my kitchen. Slice the mushrooms as thin as you can, quarter the tomatoes (try to get rid of the seeds if you can, they add a lot of bitterness), and give the onions a good chop. As you can see in the picture, nothing is too small, so there's still a bit of crunch.

Start boiling a pot of salted water. Once it starts rolling, toss in as much pasta as you want. Everyone is different. You want to it be tender, but not gummy, so start checking it after about 7 minutes.

Heat up a saute pan over medium heat, and add enough olive oil to coat the bottom of the pan. Toss in the onions and cook until they start to brown, then toss in the mushrooms. Once the mushrooms soften, add the tomatoes.



Start pressing your spoon/spatula down onto the tomatoes, so they release their juice and start to deconstruct. You're looking for the skin to start peeling off. Add a small amount of chicken stock into the pan--keep in mind that we're not making a soup, we just want a bit more liquid to soak up the ingredients. Let the mixture simmer and color the juice--it should start to look a little messy and jumbled together, which is perfect. Now throw a handful of spinach per serving on top. Don't touch it, just let the heat wilt it.


By now the pasta should be done, so take it off the stove and drain it. Add the quartered pieces of cheese to the saute pan, then pour the pasta on top.


Toss and enjoy.
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...and this is my blog.

I'm a college student, and not an especially well-off one. I live paycheck to paycheck, or at least on a monthly check from my parents. I started to feel trapped between eating delicious meals packed with ingredients, then starving through half of the month, and eating processed meals out of the box. I reached my breaking point when I looked into my pantry and realized that I had bought two boxes of Hamburger Helper.
Check the internet, and there aren't many websites that appeal to young 20-somethings like myself. I also know far too many people who never learned how to cook at all (my brother), and now subsist on frozen pizzas and takeout. There's nothing wrong with that, but I love freshly cooked food. The more I cook, the more I want to cook.
So that's my goal. Finding and creating recipes that appeal to my generation, are fun to make, and are easy on the wallet.

Aside from that, I'll also blog about some of my other loves: my dog (who cooks with me), home design on a budget (no $300 rugs here), and art (books, photography, film). I'd love to hear your input.


Thanks for visiting!

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