You're All I Need to Get By

My love for iceberg lettuce and chick peas is combined here with a seemingly uneventful dish with surprisingly satisfaction.  Use a light lemon garlic vinaigrette, kalamata olives, onions and tomatoes salt and pepper.  If you're not doing the bread thing due to health or calories, the peas stick to your gut and the two roasted chicken sausages with a little cheddar melted on top fill you up but nothing bloats the gut.  It's a good supper to eat if you still have lots to do that evening, especially in warm months.

Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing

Another solo meal. Beforehand I watched a bunch of food porn. Non-stop Food Network videos of mac and cheese variations. I was in a frenzy and could barely wait to eat by the time I pried myself from the computer so I had to make a quick stove-top tuna and noodle dish that slightly resembled my fantasy mac and cheese dish made by the Barefoot Contessa using mushrooms, wine and truffle butter. Truffle butter! That little Jeffrey husband of hers is one lucky stiff if you ask me. She knows how to make dinner that one.

Oh Heaven Must Have Sent You From Above

Made some heavenly breakfast burritos from Italian sausage and the creamiest of scrambled eggs and sharp cheddar. The side of oven-fried thinly sliced potatoes with Frank's hot sauce and dried jalapenos sprinkled on top were glorious!

Heaven Must Have Sent You From Above

Fresh herbs in the summertime renew your dishes and make the flavors burst off of the plate. Mint, cilantro, basil, and dill are abundant again and this opens up lots of different options for flavors.

After I bought a bundle of basil and mint, my friend at work brought me a couple more of each fresh from her garden. Unexpected perk!

P loves him some pesto and we had a bunch of walnuts on hand, so I did a basil, mint pesto with walnuts, garlic, lemon, a little bit of olive oil, Parmesan and a lot of chicken stock. The texture is a lot different but its a lot less fattening and magically tastes a bit lot Underwood Deviled Ham Spread, which is maybe gross to some but others might say 'hey', like me.




I saw a cool recipe for almost like a virgin mojito. Strawberries, mint, basil, lemon juice chomped up with just a tablespoon of sugar and then iced seltzer. Refreshing doesn't do justice. Since I don't drink anymore, I haven't had a specialty beverage made with care like this for a long time. sniff, sniff...sigh. I felt like I wasn't worthy. That's not a blurry picture, that's me tearing up at my own efforts. No actually, its a bad picture.

Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing Baby

Dominos has that pizza deal where you get two for $5 or something like that but somehow when they bring it the bill is never less than $25 or so. Its like bad magic. I love making pizzas and different doughs, toppings but sometimes you just want it quicker and less work. I got a bit of help from a pre-made thin crust and just made my own quick sauce and added pepperoni and cheese. So whatever, no big whoop but it was really good like pizza tends to be. But the story is that I added Shiitake mushrooms. Of course mushrooms are good on pizza and a good companion to pepperoni, everyone knows that but Shiitake mushrooms are almost too special for this type of venue. Heated so high, their juices just burst out. The flavor shines through and becomes a superstar. They were good on this but it was like having Dylan singing backup to The Who. I needed to change the set a bit and give these mushrooms the spotlight they needed to shine. Next time, they will be the 'meat' along with two types of cheeses. I'll eliminate the red sauce and use more of an herb oil. I think the challenge is to make this type of pizza moist enough because I've had similar specialty pizzas that were a bit dry. You don't want to put anything in that's going to overpower the mushrooms but possibly, small slices of nicoise olives or anchovies. Okay, maybe some really good bits of crispy sausage, just like scattered on top of the cheese like bacon bits. That's it! Stay tuned for the results.