All posts filed under: Food

Tax Day

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Sometimes, bombs go off, and you don’t even realize the impact they’ll have through all the smoke and chaos and initial “WTF happened?”. Meaning sometimes, it’s not the Apocalypse but the Aftermath that really stings, that lingers in the air—often invisible but still noxious, clouding your senses.Vinyl of the day: “So runs the world away” by Josh Ritter. The fallout feels like fog. I owe(d) thousands to the IRS. To me, numbers are painful realizations that make self-employment feel like Sisyphus-style self-immolation. Fortunately, there’s food. And silk. And vintage “pearl” neckties. And Dan Costello. Even, and especially, on tax day. I don’t even know how he does it. He took the scraps of haphazard, neglected and wilting vegetables and over-exposed-to-the-air tortillas and made magic happen. We got this cast iron dutch oven somewhere for some such cheapness (Dan will remember and I’ll ask him later and then delete this part with just a cheap-ass number and you will forget this sentence ever existed. Poof. Like magic). All this became Black bean & radish fried tortilla pie.Then …

FOOD: Eggplant stuffed eggplant

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By Dan Costello, made while Jessica was out of town. (Damn it.) So you take an eggplant, see, and hollow it out like a little canoe… You can see most of the other ingredients there as well. That’s a grapefruit, an apple-Gouda sausage (optional if you’re going veggie), and yes, a habanero pepper. More on that later… Those ingredients, along with some butter and olive oil, apple cider vinegar, fresh ginger, sea salt and pepper, dance around gently in a cast iron skillet until cooked… Some hot peppers can seriously be painful to work with. I use a separate board just for them. I avoid touching this li’l dynamo by using a chunk of discarded onion skin, and then washing the knife and my hands very thoroughly afterward… Rub the eggplant generously w/ olive oil, stuff it with the ingredients from the skillet, top w/ some cheese if desired, and bake it! I’m just doing half an eggplant here, so a small Pyrex dish in a toaster oven is my plan… Into the Cadillac-of-toaster-ovens it …

FOOD: Foraged Spaghetti Squash Pasta

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This is a cray-cray busy week for nearly all of us in the Holmes/Costello/temporarily Evett household. I arrived home from a relentless Monday at 10:30 pm to this dish, waiting patiently for me in the oven. Dan had foraged spaghetti squash from our neighbor (with permission), roasted them, then made the sauce in between breaks while practicing with Ned Evett’s band in his studio. He calculated that total ingredient costs for this dish added up to about $0.75 per plate. Then he drew me (really, you, Cheepers) a picture of it all. TOMATILLO SAUCE1 lb tomatillos, washed and quartered1 really stupid-huge carrot, diced1/2 onion, diced about the same as really stupid-huge carrot3 cloves garlic, mashed & minced1 dried (or fresh) chili pepper (I used a serrano)3 big blops yogurt1/2 cup white wine1 wedge worth of lemon juiceCook carrots, onion, garlic and tomatillos in a little butter and/or oil in a sauté pan over low heat, until tomatillos finally break down a bit. Cook a little longer, adding chili and stirring a bit more to reduce/evaporate …

FOOD: Awesomeness Dinner

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Last Monday, we had a four top up in the house, featuring the fantastic guests Jenah Thornborrow and Ned Evett.Obviously, with these peeps, there is no other way to put it than Awesomeness, the Dinner. As usual, the menu and most of the heavy kitchen labor are by Dan. MACCHIATO BEEF TENDERLOIN STEAKS Beef tenderloin fillets from Jenah’s family’s farm-raised cattle in Buhl, Idaho, cleaned, cut, then wet-rubbed (Jessica aside: hubba) with molasses, finely ground coffee, brown sugar, cumin, fresh garlic, paprika, Pico Pica hot sauce (Dan’s new favorite), and dried chili flakes. Seared on cast iron shallow skillet (and so smokey we turned on all the fans, and Dan had to step outside). CHAMELEON CARROTS PASTA Multicolored carrots, peeled (with a few peels tied together and used for fresh garnish to highlight different hues pre-cooking), fresh onions, and small eggplants from Create Common Good farm share, sauteed in butter, soy sauce, and olive oil with half of sauteed mixture blended to smooth out sauce (and sauciness). The chameleon concept was twofold: 1) The multicolored carrots changed color while cooking, and 2) …

FOOD: Create Common Good Brunch

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Earlier this year, I got a half farm share from Create Common Good, a completely mind-blowing, forward-thinking, and soul-stirring organization in Boise that employs and trains refugees in creative, sustainable ways that center on food. I savvily purchased during a limited-time employee-wedding 10% off sale, so my total cost for 10 weeks of fresh-picked local organic produce (grown with deep purpose) was $247.50 (or $24.75 a week). Cheep! Brunch by Dan, also mind-blowing and soul-stirring, and made using only ingredients from this past week’s Create Common Good basket, save the bacon and bread. POTATOES with Mustard Green Stems, Chives & Flat Leaf Parsley Cook bacon first, set aside, then cook potatoes and company in rendered bacon fat. FRESH CORN MEDLEY fresh corn (cut off cob) cherry tomatoes (cut in half) green pepper basil, regular and purple flat leaf parsley tanned onion Bring sauce pot of water to boil. Blanch corn, green pepper and cherry tomatoes, drain, mix with herbs, onion, salt, pepper, lime juice, and cinnamon. OPEN-FACED SANDWICH with Bacon, Mustard Greens, and Raspberries Deglaze cast iron …

Christmas dinner part II: food

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Since this holiday event is over a month old, I’ll keep this post sweet + short. . . . . . «This $5 sticker chalkboard helps us prepare our menu, and gives guests a chance to drool before anything hits the table. . . . . «We got this rotisserie appliance from Dan’s grandparents. With a bit of salt and pepper, and lemon slices placed just under the skin, the taste is unbelievable. This is a nice device for parties during cold winters, to add a bit of warmth to the kitchen, and a focal point for your guests. . . . . . «We found this CuisineArt slow cooker for $20 at The Youth Ranch downtown a week before Christmas, an $80+ savings from the original MSRP. Inside, is a slow cooked lamb shank. Mmmmm…. . . . . . . . . «The food was great, and Dan did most of the cooking. Thanks Dan. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . …

Cheep backgrounder

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Starting a public-facing blog begs self-examination. I think things like, “Seriously, who do you think you are? What do you know about any of this stuff? You think you’re a simulacrum of Tim Gunn and Padma Lakshmi and Anthony Bourdain and those Brits from Changing Rooms (the much better BBC precursor to Trading Spaces. And yes, I watch too much reality television) on a die-hard budget. But who are you really? A nobody.” Well that’s just it really. I am a nobody, and I felt like one nearly all my life. I wasn’t born with a 75% off Calvin Klein jumper on and a fabulous art-deco mobile over my vintage crib. I was a shy, utter depressive from the age of 11 to at least my mid-20s (RIP, soul-raking sadness). I dressed in rotations of cliché awfulness: like a hobo, like a punk, like a preppie conformist. I ate meat and potatoes and once-frozen vegetables for dinner nearly every night, along with all the processed crap that makes up the blighted American food landscape. I …