ODG Eats

What's red and white and green all over? This chicken penne I made for dinner. Since I'm about to be out of town for a week, I know I need to get rid of all of my fresh produce in the next few days, so it's time to start throwing shit together. I decided I wanted to make some penne pasta tonight with my chicken breast, but it wasn't until I started pulling stuff out of the fridge and pantry that I decided on what I was going to do. I went ahead and diced up some red bell pepper, radish, and some red onion, and crushed and sliced some garlic cloves. I decided to use the mushrooms two ways: I removed and thinly sliced the stalks and dumped those in a bowl with the pepper and radish, then kept the caps whole in a separate bowl. Next, I peeled the grape tomatoes. This is not the most painstakingly fucking tedious process in the world, but it's probably top 10. I did not do a perfect job, but I think I did pretty damn well considering it's a pretty new experience for...

I've debated whether I should write this one, but I did say I was sharing failures, and this failure was fucking spectacular. I picked up a pack of frozen whole sardines last weekend, and I thought I could do something cool with them.  So I thawed them out and had no idea what to do after that.  So I figured I'd prep my veggies. I sliced up some shiitakes and diced some red bell pepper (red bowl), minced some red onion and garlic (top-right bowl), and quartered and salted some grape tomatoes. Okay, back to the fish. I figured I should remove the heads and tails, but I didn't want to just toss them out, so I thought I'd make some broth for...something. I didn't have a fucking plan, if you couldn't tell. I threw those bits into a pot with water, added some salt, a couple bay leaves, and got it started simmering. So now what? I was thinking maybe I'd cook them like this, but then I noticed that lovely goop falling out the head end of the nearest fish and realiz...

So Hurricane Fuckyourself hit Louisiana yesterday, which means Memphis got to have storms all day. It was a blast. I love driving in the rain. I love wondering if I'll have power when I get to the house. It's just the best.  I'm starting to run out of the groceries I bought last weekend, so I decided to have a little fun tonight. I managed to find a couple purple sweet potatoes to go along with some red bell pepper, my last three tomatoes, a little bit of red onion, some garlic, and kale. I also cooked up some jasmine rice with split green peas in the rice cooker, but that was boring.  I started off by peeling and cubing up the potato. I started boiling a pot of water, threw in some salt, and then added the potato cubes. I just let those cook while I prepped and started everything else. I minced up the red onion, crushed and sliced three of the garlic cloves, and quartered the tomatoes, which I lightly salted and let sit for a few minutes before I used them. I melted some v...

I had to work late tonight, so I didn't get started cooking dinner until 8pm. Now it's 9:20 and I'm writing a blog post before I get to relax. It's a long fucking day.  I didn't have anything thawed, and I didn't want to use my brain too much, so I made some veggies and rice with butter. It was a good choice. I started off by mincing some fennel bulb, smashing and slicing some garlic, dicing a little bit of yellow onion, and slicing up some green onion. I used my mandolin to slice up some yellow squash, as well. I also used my mandolin to make some zucchini "noodles." I sprinkled them with a little salt, cracked in some black pepper, and drizzled in some white wine vinegar. After mixing it all around to get everything coated, I let it sit and absorb flavor. I guess I should note that, before I started working on the veggies, I started cooking my purple rice. I paid attention to the directions this time instead of using my $30 10-year-old rice cooker si...

If you give an ODG some tomato sauce, he's gonna want some pasta. If you give an ODG some pasta, he's gonna want some cheese. If you give an ODG some cheese, he's gonna want some wine. If you give an ODG some wine, he's gonna want something crispy and fried. If you give an ODG something crispy and fried, he's gonna want some tomato sauce. This was not a vegan meal, but it is vegetarian, so at least there's that. I started off by slicing my garlic as thin as I could, dicing up some red and yellow onion and some bell pepper, slicing up some mushrooms, chopping up a green onion, and mincing some basil leaves.  I made the mistake of peeling my tomatoes raw. They're much easier to peel if you cook them first, but I was drinking wine and didn't feel like blanching tomatoes, so I butchered them instead. I still had about half an eggplant, and it was starting to oxidize, so I figured I'd go ahead and get that all cooked up. I cut it into "fries," t...