Lasagne of Desperation

I made lasagne today. I kind of winged it, but mostly followed the recipe for Italian-American lasagne. from Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything. And, the photos I took (and will take) today will, largely, show back up in that post, which is sadly lacking in fun photos. However, you probably want to know what constitutes “Lasagne of Desperation.”

No problem! I’ll explain. First, your fridge needs to look at least a bit like this:

Then you have to be about ready to scream because you’ve never been a good cook when comes to greens that aren’t kale, spinach, and swiss chard.

Then you reach into the above fridge and grab whatever greens that aren’t the above that come readily to hand. You do this because you almost forgot you were going to make a veggie lasagne.… Continue reading →

[112] Boneless Rib Pasta

How to Cook Everything, Revised Edition by Mark Bittman

This recipe is a very slight adaptation from the recipe “Andrea’s Pasta with Pork Ribs” in this book. Namely, the recipe calls for “6 – 8 meaty spareribs, separated” and we used about 3/4 lbs of boneless beef ribs.

As with just about any substitution we make on this site, it has to do with what we had on had when we made the recipe in question. In this case, I chose this recipe because I was trying to figure out how to best use that meat.

This is an older recipe that needed to be posted. We made it not too long after I returned from “Edible Institute 2011.”:http://www.metacookbook.com/archives/193-A-short-post-maybe-on-Edible-Institute-2011.html While I was gone, Bill had purchased some chicken and some beef for cooking himself some curry and some stir-fry, and then not gotten around to cooking those things.… Continue reading →

[105] + [106] French Toast

How to Cook Everything, Revised Edition by Mark Bittman

Cover of How to Cook Everything Vegetarian, by Mark Bittman

French toast is my breakfast enemy.

I like to eat good french toast. Most people and places, myself included, do not make good french toast. I really do not like to eat bad french toast. Most people and places, myself included, not only do not make good french toast, they make bad french toast.

That’s right. There is no “meh” in french toast. There’s only “good” and “bad”. I suppose there can be “excellent” and “horrible” as well, but there’s no “meh”. It’s that simple.

This french toast, amazingly, was in the “good, but could be excellent” camp. I’m astounded. I never thought I could make french toast that was even in the “good” category, much less in the “could be excellent” on as well.

Why did I feel I couldn’t aspire to such heights?… Continue reading →

[97] Boneless Prime Rib for a Small Crowd

How to Cook Everything, by Mark Bittman

Bill and I have two farms we tend to buy meat from at “Green City Market.”:http://www.greencitymarket.org/index.asp One I’ve mentioned in passing several times, is “Meadow Haven Farm.”:http://www.meadowhavenfarm.com/ While they have beef, we tend to purchase from them mostly poultry and pork. In fact, I think we’ve never purchased beef from Meadow Haven.

The farm we get our beef from, generally, is “Heartland Meats.”:http://www.heartlandmeats.com/ Now, we don’t buy it explicitly because it tastes better. We have, in fact, not tried most of the other vendors’ beef. We end up buying it from Heartland because it is pretty darn good, and because we managed to form a relationship with them, albeit “just” buyer and seller, long before we connected with any of the other farmers.… Continue reading →

[84] & [85] Bacon, Roasted and Microwaved

How to Cook Everything, Revised Edition by Mark Bittman

Okay guys, I have to be honest. Angelique sent me “this Food Network Humor link”:http://foodnetworkhumor.com/2011/01/ridiculous-food-network-recipe-of-the-week-paula-deens-english-peas/ the other day, and I laughed a lot. Then I commented that I shouldn’t be laughing because I’ve posted some similar recipes, and would do so again.

Her response? “Two ingredients?” She was incredulous and doubtful that anything so unlike a recipe had ever appeared on this site. Just for honesty’s sake, please examine the following two links: “Rachel Ray”:http://foodnetworkhumor.com/2010/11/the-most-ridiculous-food-network-recipe-of-all-time/ and “MetaCookbook.”:http://www.metacookbook.com/archives/37-18-Bacon,-in-our-toaster-oven-broiler.html

Of course, we admitted it was a bit of a cop-out from the get-go. And we tried to make it up to you by including an amusing story to go with your cop-out bacon. Furthermore, if you didn’t know this already, all the photos on our page go back to our flickr site, and some of the photos have “notes” on them.… Continue reading →