Monday, July 12

moar random cr@p

Today we opened the woot box of Random Crap (purchased June 24th), and this is what I got:


and some closer ups ...

a box of 6 Disco Queen bobble heads


1 spaceglo autolite


a slightly broken, but maybe fixable ATI TV Wonder card + CD driver & software


insulated lunch bag

because ... ya' gotta have a bag!

video of the opening will be forthcoming.

Saturday, July 10

"I have to try that"

Hey, where have you been for so long?  I've been waiting to write another post for you but ... where were you?  Anyway, you're here now.

I recently tried 2 recipes that both worked well.  One I saw online and said "O M G, I have to try that!"
fried deviled eggs?  as a salad dressing ??!!

Well, technically it was Pan-Crisped Deviled Eggs on French Lettuces from the "The Splendid Table" site/blog from NPR, and before that from somewhere else.  You can look up the exact recipe if you're curious, but in short:
  • make deviled eggs filling them flat, to the surface of the egg, not mounded
  • make the rest of the stuffing into a salad dressing
  • fry the filled eggs (!) flat side down
  • dress the salad
  • gently lift the eggs from the pan, turn them filling side up, set them on the salad, and serve
I had to improvise some. 1) I didn't have Dijon (so I thought) so I used yellow mustard, 2) didn't have white wine vinegar so I used malt vinegar, 3) didn't have parsley, so I skipped it.  I will say at this point the dressing smelled too "mustardy" (because I didn't measure?)

The recipe just calls for a salad of greens, but that was too boring, so I had spinach+ lettuce, avocado, tomato (and 1 more thing, I forget)

And the one part of the recipe I forgot that really would have improved it: Sprinkle [the eggs in the pan] with salt and pepper as they cook.

Anyway, it was very good, not too mustardy at all  (but maybe needed a little more time frying)

The second recipe was a a sudden inspiration. I was looking in the fridge and saw some brie that we had bought for some get together, but there were enough other things served so ... (but I digress).
I saw it and thought, how would that be in a lasagna?  Turns out ... it was very good.

Regular, red sauce, ricotta, etc lasagna, but on top of one of the ricotta layer, add some sliced brie.

But you know me too well to expect that would be the only experiment I'd try.

As usual, the sauce was store bought and a variety of  flavors.  I think there was "three cheese", "tomato basil", and ... something.  And, also as usual they all happened to be vegetarian.
This time instead of spinach, I used rapini (aka broccoli rabe), fresh → chopped → sauteed in olive oil → S&P → add garlic → sautee a bit more (let cool and add to ricotta mixture).

There was a layer of fresh mushrooms (they were on sale) that I boiled in wine for a little while then sliced.

And a layer of zucchini (boiled then sliced, salt and let stand to drain). I've done this often enough, I need to think of some newer twist with zukes in lasagna. I've tried long slices broiled replacing 1 noodle layer.
Tasty, but not quite "there".

Other than having to make "regular" and a (very well received) gluten free lasagna (actually, it 2 of each) that was all the experimenting, and that's all for now

Next post: woot.com stuff