Tuesday, October 7, 2025

crab cake lasagna

 This was born of cajun crab leftover sauce that I asked the waitress to bag up for me... and the remainder of my box of lasagna noodles. I have nothing to say except that any time I have lasagna in the fridge, it gets quickly demolished.

selected pantry items:
lasagna noodles
tomato paste
caked up old bay seasoning
panko

accessories:
onion
celery
tomato
kale
parsley
mozz
lump crab


Thursday, October 2, 2025

favorite salad

 I spent 5 days craving and preparing for this salad.

selected pantry items:
tin of anchovies
dried corn
black pepper
dijon

accessories:
romaine
kale
fresh corn
parmesan
egg yolk


unhinged curry

This really random concoction did the opposite of grow on me. I almost dreaded eating it because it was so overpowering - I grossly overestimated the beef lemongrass broth granules. Or maybe I added too much crab?
Basically used a bunch of rehydrated dried corn as a thick base for a sauce, and I added shit until I determined I could strain it to create some sort of curry-like sauce. And then I threw whatever vegetable I had on hand in it. The only way to eat it was with plenty of rice and quinoa to really disperse the strong seafood beefy flavor. But I liked the method... and I still have a ways to go with the dried corn.
I mean, I don't know, it served me for several meals. Paired well with the leftover cucumber pickles I rescued from a work lunch.

selected pantry items:
dried corn
dried crab snacks
beef lemongrass broth granules
quinoa
rice

accessories:
carrot
onion
sweet potato
kale


Thursday, September 11, 2025

bfast tacos

 My favorite breakfast burrito is from Cat&Cloud. The crispy potato bits, the thick bacon pieces, the extra garlicky sauce, the jammy scrambled eggs. I just feel like.. I never knew one bfast burrito could be better than another pretty good bfast burrito until I had this one.
Ugh I crave it.
They use bacon from El Salchichero so I allowed myself to go buy a pack of that since I already had the necessary other fixings... potatoes that were slowly greening... limes that were slowly browning... an excess of corn tortillas that were taking up space in the freezer.

selected pantry items:
corn tortillas
turkey craw beans
dried jalepenos
tomato powder

accessories:
eggs
potatoes
onions
bacon
lime

I started a self cleaning cycle on the oven during the day, not knowing it would take four freaking hours to run, which meant that I couldn't cook anything until I got home from a workout class just before 8pm.
Amazed myself that I could fry up the little potato bits, char up some onion to make a thicc spicy jalapeno sauce, crisp up some bacon in the oven, overeasy two eggs, scarf two of them down, and shower, and climb into bed all by 9pm. *phew*


Round two of bfast tacos looking a little less tragic:

Monday, September 8, 2025

dessert AND dinner

 What a serendipitous thing that I had cornmeal and corn flour in my pantry to recreate Kassie's browned butter corn cake. I will not get off this corn run any time soon. 

selected pantry items:
cornmeal
corn flour
mochiko

accessories:
buttermilk
frozen berries

The real goal was really to use up this coconut buttercream before it got too lost into the depths of my freezer. So we pulled together a browned butter corn cake (that I would add a bit more buttermilk to next time) with cereal mochi and mixed berry jam filling.


Meanwhile, the journey to use up the pearl barley is almost at an end. There's about a 1/3c left after this giant pot of lemon barley soup served me for 3-4 days.

selected pantry items:
pearl barley
parsley
turmeric
black pepper
bay leaves

accessories:
potato
onion
carrot
chicken stock
lemon juice
pecorino

I threw her together between a run and a shower, and while she simmered away, I devoured some leftovers, so she could continue to marinate while I went off in search of a glass of wine. A comforting meal 90% of the time, but doesn't quite hit the spot when you come home tipsy and craving tacos.
Not pictured is the mountain of black pepper and pecorino shavings that I topped each bowl with.