A Sandwich Haiku

Two eggs, bacon, roll
Only five minutes to make
One tasty sandwich

Sausage, Cannelloni Beans, Broccoli Rabe

This was a Jacques Pepin recipe that I had found and wanted to try out. He made his with some canned clams and broccolini (its from his "Fast Food" book).

Once again my local grocery store failed me. They had did not have broccolini (also goes by baby broccoli). The regular broccoli didn't look that great, so I bought the broccoli rabe which looked pretty decent.

I thought the rapini (easier to type than broccoli rabe) would be slightly bitter, but it really just overpowered the dish. Next time I'll probably stick to broccoli.

He also had you use the liquid from the can of beans. I used this along with some chicken stock and let it all reduce, but I think in the future I'd just use the stock.

I topped it off with some olive oil and parmesan cheese.

Highlight of making this was squeezing the hot italian sausage out of its casing. Not quite sure what it reminded me of. I'm also fairly certain this would've grossed Mandy out.


General List of Ingredients
Hot Italian Sausage
Rapini
Cannelloni Beans
Garlic
Chicken Stock
Red Pepper Flakes
Salt

Blue Moon - Full Moon Winter Ale

I have two problems with this beer.

We'll start out with the brewer - Coors. They like to do everything they can to not acknowledge that this is their beer. Now, I suppose the other large brewers do this also, but Blue Moon is consistently positioned as a micro-brew. This bothers me for some reason. I won't even mention the Coors family political leaning.

The second is that it is described as an abbey ale. It does not come close to tasting like an abbey ale. In fact, it does not come close to tasting like anything at all. Maybe I'm being too harsh. It has a slightly metallic taste with no aftertaste. It has more maltyness (is that a word?) than a Coors Light. (Mandy also pointed out that the label touts a "balanced taste" which could be accurate if "no taste" and "balanced taste" are one in the same.)

It is probably easier to drink with a meal than a Sam Adam's Winter Lager, but that's about the only positive thing I can say for this offering.

Overall, I can't recommend that anyone spend their money on this beer. Go buy yourself any other winter ale/seasonal offering that you can find (I recommend either this or this).

Official Joe Cooks Dinner and Stuff Beer Rating:
Blue Moon - Full Moon Winter Ale
1/5

Sausage and Peppers

Fairly straightforward dinner here.

Sausage, onion and peppers on a roll.

Done.

Smuttynose Pumpkin Ale

Ah. Now this is more like it.

I was a little afraid that I wouldn't be able to find more than one pumpkin ale in our neighborhood, but a few of the stores were actually carrying the Smuttynose Pumpkin Ale.

Now, I've definitely had this in the past, but once again, I could not remember if it was good or not.

Thankfully, this beer was not terrible. It may have been a tad sweeter than the Post Road offering, but this wasn't necessarily a bad thing.

The balance of pumpkin and spices was good. Even though its sweeter than the other I tried, there is some nice bitterness from hops still present.

I'd recommend it for anyone who wants a pumpkin ale and can still find it in stores (or just wait until next Fall...)

Official Joe Cooks Dinner and Stuff Beer Rating:
Smuttynose - Pumpkin Ale
3/5

Mac'n'Cheese

Mandy may have already blogged about this meal, but I'm here to do it right (i.e. better).

This dinner was inspired by our recent trip to Quaint.

I think the recipe is mainly derived from Alton Brown (also a man-crush of mine, along with Josh Howard, Doug Martsch and others). However, my recipe is far superior due to the addition of two ingredients: Bacon and Cayenne Pepper.

Unfortunately, it was not as bacony as it should have been, as I dropped a piece of bacon transferring it from the frying pan to a plate to cool. Being incredibly lazy/hungry, I decided to not fry up more slices. (Note to self: make at least twice as much bacon, if you do not use it in the mac'n'cheese, you can just eat it.)

The resulting mac'n'cheese was slightly spicy/hot, slightly bacony and deliciously cheesy.

Doug Martsch vs. The Smiths

Inspired by Nuclear Trout's Smiths' compilation, I present Doug Martsch and friends doing their best Morrissey/Johnny Marr impression:

1. Still Ill - Doug Martsch - 2002-06-11
2. This Night Has Opened My Eyes - Doug Martsch - 2002-02-13
3. Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want - Halo Benders - Don't Touch My Bikini EP
4. Bigmouth Strikes Again - Treepeople - Something Vicious for Tomorrow

Download

Hot Taco Action

When we first moved into our apartment here in Sunnyside, we had a little pest problem (OMG ROACHES!!!). Accordingly, we didn't do too much cooking for the first few weeks until we could get an exterminator. So while the roach situation was still in full crisis mode, I ate at the local taco truck probably about three times a week. Thankfully, the exterminator came in and solved our little problem and I was able to start my own kitchen nightmares. But as a result of my taco truck binge, I hadn't been much in the mood for tacos, salsa, guacamole, fajitas, etc.

This weekend as I was struggling to figure something out to cook, Mandy suggested I make myself some tacos. This sounded like a good idea as months have now passed since my affair with the taco truck.

The tacos were pretty straight forward. I came up with a spice mix with some references online (cayenne, cumin, chili/onion/garlic powder, oregano) and simmered the ground beef in it for a little while. I heated up the corn tortillas and chopped some vegetables. Quick and easy. Like your mom.

Mandy amused herself while I ate by trying to take action shots of me eating the tacos. I'm pleased to present below some of the highlights for your enjoyment.

Pork Scarpariello

This meal did not go exactly according to plan. I wanted to cook a version of the chicken scarpariello that I had eaten a few weeks ago. It was thin chicken cutlets with red and cherry peppers in a light sauce. It was slightly spicy and quite awesome.

I decided I didn't really want to eat chicken, so I was going to substitute in some pork. Hopefully the chef would be able to accommodate me.

I scanned some recipes online and came up with a rough ingredient list and recipe.

All was going smoothly until Gary showed up to play some Portal, or as he likes to call it, Holes.

I seared the pork on both sides with just a little salt & pepper. Then I started doing things in the wrong order (ugh). I poured some chicken stock into the pan to start the sauce. While this is one of the steps, I should have sauted the garlic and cherry/red peppers first in the pan. This is what I get for not writing down what I'm going to do ahead of time.

I dumped the stock out into a bowl and tossed the peppers & garlic into the pan with some olive oil. I then went and watched Gary play some Holes for about two minutes. When I came back in to the kitchen, there was a rather pungent pepper smell in the air. Woops. Combination of not enough oil, not enough movement in the pan and too much heat. The red peppers were a little charred (as you can see in the picture). I added a little more olive oil and watched them for a few minutes until the peppers were mostly soft.

I poured the stock back in along with some of the liquid from the cherry peppers (i also should have included white wine, but I didn't have any around) and put the pork in. I let it all cook for a while to let the liquid reduce.

Total cooking time was probably around 15 minutes.

It actually tasted pretty good, but I'd like to have the sauce be thicker next time. Maybe some cream and a little roux in there and it would probably be closer to what I was aiming for. I also forgot to put some of the parsley in the sauce that I had around the apartment.

The one major drawback to this operation was the apartment smelled like peppers for the rest of the evening. It may or may not have caused Gary to cough up a lung while attempting to solve 3D puzzles.

Chickpea Ragout

This is one of my favorite dishes to make for several reasons:
1) I get to chop up a lot of stuff with my knife
2) Not too many dishes/clean up (one pot, one cutting board, one bowl)
3) You can't really mess it up

However, even as easy as it is, its still possible to forget important things. For example, the layout picture is missing one key ingredient: an onion. I had to take a stroll down the street for a yellow onion after getting everything together. I'm thankful I don't have to get in a car for situations like this.

So lets get to the easy to make part:
Chop a medium yellow onion and an equal amount of green onions.
Saute the onions in some olive oil along with some salt and pepper.
Mince (or slice depending on how garlicy you want it) 2 cloves of garlic.
Throw the garlic in!!
Roughly chop the2 medium tomatoes (I usually just quarter them but I chopped them up today), throw them in!!
Drain the chickpeas, toss them in!!
Put in some chicken stock/broth or water; somewhere between 1/4 and 1/2 cup depending on how thick you want it to be; consider adding some more salt & pepper.

Bring it to a boil, cover and reduce to a simmer for 15 minutes or so. Uncover and cook for another 5-10 minutes until it gets to the consistency you want. If your a pimp with a kitchen knife you can probably cook the whole meal in 30 minutes (I'm looking at you Rachel R.).

I put some parsley and hot sauce in and ate it as my main course, but it also makes a nice side dish. It would probably go well over rice or pasta, but I'm typically too lazy to do more dishes when I make this.

Wild Animal Crunch

I like cereal. A lot. So, I'll occasionally post some cereal reviews here if I'm eating anything interesting. You, my three loyal readers, will not see a review of Cheerios, which also happens to be in our cupboard now.

At the grocery store I shop at there is not a wide variety of cereal. They did not stock Count Chocula, Franken Berry or Boo Berry this fall season. You cannot buy Golden Grahams. And of course, the cereal prices are outrageous. Everything is around $5.00 a box unless it is on sale.

While shopping yesterday, I saw that Wild Animal Crunch was on sale for $2.99. The description of "vanilla-chocolate" flavor intrigued me. The box was pretty interesting. It was really glossy and had animal trading cards that you can cut out (Sloth FTW!!!!!11!juan). Since I will purchase any cereal that looks like it might have some sugar in it if it is on sale, Wild Animal Crunch made its way into my shopping basket.

Upon waking up this morning, I poured myself a bowl of cereal along with some organic milk (thanks for the tip Gary).

The texture was pretty interesting. I don't mean that in a positive way. I thought it might have been stale, but the "good by" date is in December.

It tasted like nothing. Cardboard probably tastes better in milk than this stuff. I'd rather eat some shredded wheat, at least that has some good texture to it.

While the cereal itself showed no signs of its "vanilla-chocolate" flavor, the remaining milk had a hint of vanilla flavor. While this was great, it by no means mad up for the rest of the experience.

Overall, a pretty terrible cereal. Not worth the $2.99 I spent on it.

Castle Rock 2007 Pinot Noir

This past weekend Mandy and I went out for some drinks and a snack at Quaint and Bar 43. We ordered the bacon macaroni and cheese at Quaint, which I enjoyed. Mandy said she enjoyed my macaroni and cheese better (not Kraft). This may or may not have been a hint that I need to make mine soon.

Before returning to the apartment, we picked up this fine bottle of wine. Now, because of the drinks I already had (an old fashion and a Brooklyn Lager), many of the details about the wine are foggy (much like the picture below). In fact, this entire review basically comes from Mandy. "There was no aftertaste/finish" and "This $5 bottle tastes just as good" were the two comments that stuck with me.

However, it was still drinkable, which qualifies it for the highest score on the Joe Cooks Dinner and Stuff Binary Wine Grading Scale.

Joe Cooks Dinner and Stuff Binary Wine Grading Scale:
Castle Rock 2007 Pinot Noir
$10? (this is what happens when you drink and don't write things down ahead of time)
1/1

Tortellini and Sausage

Ah. The perks of living in New York.

Two of the things I missed the most not living near New York were tortellini and thin italian sausage (also known as cheese and parsley sausage).

After three years in DC, I moved to Cleveland Park. There is an italian deli (Vace) on the main stretch of Connecticut Avenue that has a good selection of frozen pastas that are locally made. Their tortellini (both cheese and meat) were actually really good, and I was glad that I didn't have to bring tortellini back in a cooler from visiting my parents in New York. Unfortunately, they only made sweet and hot sausage.

So I'm glad to be back in NY. This tortellini is from Riviera Ravioli on Morris Park in the Bronx. I think the sausage was from a deli in Carmel, NY (not sure of the name of it, its in Putnam Plaza, but used to be on the corner of 52 and Fair Street).

Both were totally awesome.

The last time I was in Butcher Block (an awesome Irish deli around the corner from my apartment) I noticed they had some in the case in back, so I'll try that soon too.