Picture of Hannah and Priscilla at Starbucks.
I must reiterate to you all that Priscilla is a really good cook. Which is why I get so annoyed when she does stupid things in the kitchen.
A couple of days ago, I was over for a cup of tea (okay wine) and she was starting to make dinner. (I had already made most of my dinner, tacos, and I just had to go home and fry up the taco shells. You don't actually think I would use taco shells from a box, do you? Or salsa from a jar? Do you? How long have been reading this blog?) Prissie was trying to decide whether to cook the filets she had, or some pasta. Did she have any bacon to wrap around the filets, I asked? No. Any great ideas about a quick sauce? No. She thought she might marinate them in teriyaki sauce (one of my mom's recipes) but they could only soak for forty-five minutes. STOP RIGHT THERE, YOU GOOBER! Teriyaki is a great marinade, but it needs at least four hours, preferably longer. So she mixed up the teriyaki and put the steaks in to soak until the next day. Good thinking, Priscilla, glad I could help. (We won't go into why she shouldn't use $9.00 a lb filets for teriyaki. That was a losing battle with her, I assure you. She hates beef and so she must do anything she can to disguise its taste.)
So, she was going to make some pasta. Now, I learned ninety percent of what I know about Chinese cooking from Prissie, but Italian is NOT her forte. She overcooks pasta until it is mush. She mostly uses sauce from a jar. Her pastas come out with some really weird sauces she makes up on the fly. So anyway, she starts throwing pasta in a pot of boiling water and overcooking it. But guess what? She still hasn't decided how to dress the pasta! Here is a tip for Italian cooking: put the water on to boil and start making your sauce. Most pasta sauces can be made in under twenty minutes. Put the pasta in to boil just at the last minute and cook it a minute or two under what it says on the box. It should still be a little firm to the bite. Just tonight I made a sauce with sauteed shallots, porcini mushrooms, sage, and cream. I also added fresh cracked pepper and some of the porcini soaking liquid. I simmered it until the cream had reduced by about half and topped some homemade gnocchi with it and a grating of parmesan. Yummy!
8 comments:
This just in:
SPAM IMPERIAL TORTILLA SANDWICHES
1 cn SPAM Luncheon Meat (12 oz)
1 pk Cream cheese, softened (8oz)
1/3 c Chopped green onion
2 tb Chopped fresh dill
3 Flour tortillas (8")
1 md Cucumber, peeled and thinly
-sliced
1/4 c Sunflower seeds
1/2 c Alfalfa sprouts
In bowl, combine SPAM and cream cheese. Stir in green onion and dill. Spread 1/3 of SPAM mixture evenly over each tortilla. Top with 1/3 each cucumber, sunflower seeds, and alfalfa sprouts. Roll up tortilla jelly roll fashion and wrap in plastic wrap. Repeat with remaining tortillas. Refrigerate 2 hours. to serve, cut each roll in half.
GOD, I LOVE the versatility of SPAM. Don't you?
I have actually never eaten Spam in my life, so I can't really comment on the apparent lusciousness of this recipe. I do, however, find wraps stupid. That's right, Stupid. If you want a burrito, make a burrito. If you want a sandwich, get some bread for God's sake.
Wrong, you loved Spam when you were a small child, so did your sisters. And when does some one born and raised in CA say she is going to fry "taco shells". You are going to fry tortillas for tacos. Tell Prisilla that the best meat for teriyaki is flank steak sliced into half inch thick pieces on an angle.
I guess I have been living in the frigid north for too long, Mom. You're right. Tortillas are for much more than taco shells. I am going to post your teriyaki sauce recipe now.
Love,
June
Hi, everyone.
How come I always feel so inadequate reading about what wonderful cooks you are?!?! I really need to get more adventurous. So here is a question: how does a novice (ok, a person who is pretty much boring in the kitchen) start doing more interesting things?
Trish
Get a magaine Bon Appetite, Rachel Raye, Better Homes and Gardens, pick a recipe you have never tried and folow the directions. Thats all cooking is for the most part, after a while you will find if you don't have a ingredient you will know what to substitute. Mom
Wait just a minute, I will NEVER admit to eating spam!!! And I believe jello is wrong on so many levels, exactly what is jello? Hooves? By the way, I'm a pretty good cook myself. Just ask JuneBug for my famous mac,cheese and tuna recipe! Love Ya, Your OLDER sister....... Joy
I agree, I may have eaten Spam when I was a baby, but if I can't remember it, it doesn't count. Plus, I can't believe Mom would even serve Spam. Must be before she became the ultimate gourmet. LOVE your mac and cheese with tuna. If you leave out the tuna. And the mac and cheese. Just kidding. I still make your spinach salad recipe and your layered salad. Your layered salad is the best one I've ever had. Love you too, Your (much) younger sister, aka the mendon foodie
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