Spider’s Trick Bag: Grilled Vegetables

Actually, since this happens on the grill (Spider doesn’t grill!) this is from Sandy’s trick bag, but you could just as easily do this in the broiler.

This is bright and tasty on its own, as a side dish, or in lots of other ways (ideas after the jump.) Also a good home for leftover fresh veggies past their peak.

Lawless Breakfasts

So who says that breakfast has to be cereal, pancakes, or eggs and toast? I do like breakfast. Don’t get me wrong on that. I love to go out on Sunday morning to diner and have a ham and cheese omelet with hash browns! (By the way, the best omelets in Chicago are at the La Saber Diner at Montrose and Damen. YUM!!!)

But as a single person, completely in charge of my dining destiny, I have broken the rules and created what I call “Lawless Breakfast”.

It started one morning as I was enjoying my usual cup of dark roast coffee; I was not sure what I wanted to eat. Now also keep in mind that I don’t normally have breakfast at the crack of dawn as some people do. With my uneven schedule it could be anywhere from 8 to 11:30. Sometimes I just go right to lunch.

So I was looking in the fridge at about 9:30am and I saw some eggs, some black olives, and some rice from the night before and some parmesan cheese. So I heated up a pan with some cooking oil, beat the rice and cheese into the eggs and added the olives. It was so fluffy and delicious, I was surprised. It was some sort of a brunch item.

Another unusual thing that I love when I need to eat and am in a hurry is a piece of rye toast with Dijon mustard and sardines. It is so tasty and good protein. I know that one may not appeal to non sardine fans, but I like it. You could also do that one with some smoked salmon if you prefer.

Or another quick one is sliced fresh tomatoes on a piece of toast with a little parmesan cheese and black pepper. Light and delicious!

One of the stranger ones I did was some left over Italian sausage that I cut up in small pieces with onion and mixed it up with some left over potatoes. Then I heated it in a frying pan in a little olive oil and served it with an egg on top, sunny side up!

I have made use of everything from a piece of a pork chop to white beans, to left over cous cous in scrambled eggs with herbs!

So that is how the lawless breakfast can be. I just hope this segment did not put you off your lunch……..so to speak!

Summer Inspiration

Cool. Crisp. Colorful. Easy, but satisfying. That's what I had in mind when I created this summer meal.

I started with the salad; pale, watery crunch of green and vivid deep summer red. Cucumbers, beets, onions. Then thought of an easy counterpoint whose friends could stand by in the fridge to be chowed down on whenever summer appetite calls.

Spider's Cool Salad

Thinly slice half a fresh cucumber.

Layer it on a plate with

half a can of sliced beets

and

a few thin slices of sweet white onion.

Drizzle it with

about a tablespoon of rice vinegar

and sprinkle it with coarse sea salt.

Rosemary Roasted Chicken Thighs

I roast a number of these at once and keep them in the fridge. Nothing like cold roasted chicken on a hot summer night.

Take chicken thighs, bone-in, with skin--as many as will fit in your little roasting pan and you think you can eat for the week.

Place evenly in the roasting pan, giving them room to breathe.

Rub with a tablespoon of oil per thigh (I use canola, but grapeseed's good too) and top with one crushed, chopped garlic clove and one sprig of rosemary per thigh, salt and pepper.

Roast for about an hour at 35oº, until skin is crispy.

Omelette Du Jour

This is an omelette I made the other night. I looked in the fridge and came up with this filling. What’s in your fridge that would make a good omelette?

(I like this with the summer salad on the side (see below))

Beat two eggs with a tablespoon of water, some salt and pepper.

Prep a pan with vegetable spray, a light coating of olive oil or a little butter. Heat the pan.

Pour in the eggs. Slosh them around so they’re spread nice and thin and leave them there for a minute or two. Once the edges start to set a little, take a spatula and scoot it around the perimeter. Scoot scoot. Slosh slosh. While the eggs are still runny add

1 teaspoon of capers

and 2 slices of fresh mozzarella cheese to the center

when the eggs are just about set but still moist, add

4 fresh basil leaves

to the center, flip up the sides and serve.

You can always count on eggs.

Spidie’s Summer Salad

This salad just tastes like summer to me. I use it as a side dish or spoon it on top of additional greens to make it a main dish. If I really want to make a meal of it, I just throw a few grilled shrimp on top.

Toss this all in a bowl:

1/2 cup chopped cilantro

1 ripe avocado, cubed

1/2 pint grape tomatoes, halved

4 thin slices white onion, separated

Top with:

1 Tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil

the juice of one lime

salt & freshly ground pepper

Meow. Summer.

Spider's Trick Bag: Sautéed greens

One of the challenges of cooking for one is managing fresh produce. You want fresh food, but the single person uses them in such smaller quantities it's easy for them to go bad before you use it all. Discouraging. So I look for ways around this.

Arugula is one of my favorites. It's versatile, and I like its strong peppery flavor. But I rarely get through a bag before it starts to wilt. As soon as it does, I do this:

Get out a sauté pan and put it over medium heat. Sauté some minced garlic until golden. Add the greens. They'll cook down pretty quickly to a small amount. Add salt and pepper as they cook. You'll know when they're done.

Eat it right away as a side dish (as I did here with the sole) or put it in the fridge to heat up and eat later.

Take a peek in Spider's Pantry (just leave the medicine cabinet alone, thank you)

It really doesn't take much to make something more elegant, more flavorful and feel a little more special. It's worth the effort to keep a few things on hand to plus any meal. From time to time I'll give you a peek inside my pantry. This is the stuff I almost always have on hand. Bonus: when the rest of the cupboards are bare, I can always whip something up from the pantry.