*Note, I did not abandon my tumblr blog, it just wouldn't let me post pictures the way I wanted to.
I'm by no means a food blogger. I can barely keep this blog active. I have so many adventures and encouters with the humans from the bottom of the gene pool in queue that I now have a running list of blog topics with notes on them like "don't forget to mention he was wearing one shoe" and "this woman smelled like a 3-day old can of dog food" so that by the time I get around to writing the entry I haven't completely forgotten what sparked my interest to begin with.
My love for food rivals my hate for stupid humans. I just like to eat. I taught myself how to cook in college because it was either that or keep spending money I didn't have on take out for which I could not justify the price. Rachael Ray is singlehandedly the most obnoxious chef on Food Network but she taught me how to cook. She taught me the basics, great time savers and how to make a decent meal in under 45 minutes (30 minutes is just not feasible if you're type A in the kitchen, it just isn't). She taught me it's ok to mess up in
kitchen, pretty much everything is fixable (unless you're baking which she doesn't do) and that cooking can be fun. Obviously, I have no culinary training and none of these food-related entries aren't for me to show you what a genius I am in the kitchen because that is rarely the case. I am the most clumsy person I know and many of my experiences around cooking are centered on me setting kitchen towels on fire, burning rice, scrambling eggs when they should not be scrambled and blunders that make dishes pretty inedible. I'm human and sometimes my dish just doesn't resemble anything even a dog would eat, but it's a lesson learned and those lessons include, paying attention to oven temperatures, not consuming an entire bottle of wine to loosen up before cooking and not walking away from the stove to check Facebook.
To me, cooking is therapeuatic and for the most part relaxing and I like that the end result always ends up in my stomach. Cooking for others is my way of telling people I love them. So while I may put my arm out and stop you from giving me a much unwanted hug, if I've ever cooked for you, that's your hug. And it came on a plate.
I'm horrible with ad-libbing. I love recipes and learning new techniques, but the day after Thanksgiving I was cross eyed from reading so many recipes and tired of making sure I had everything in order before I could proceed. However, I wanted to use leftovers from the day before to make breakfast with, mostly because I'd be damned if I threw away organic potatoes because I couldn't find anything to do with them. So I made a breakfast hash out of chopped turkey, potatoes, apples, onions and bacon.Heart disease aside, you can't go wrong with bacon. I'm going to save this obsession for another time because I could write for days about how much I love bacon and if given the choice of jumping into a kiddie pool full of money or bacon Scrooge McDuck style, I'd choose bacon.
Hash is so simple-you can pretty much fry up anything with potatoes, serve it for breakfast and call it hash. I think the base is almost always potatoes and onions, but I'm no expert. If you're serving a person who frequently enjoys the illegal type of hash (this would likely be a person whose younger days were in the mid-60s-mid 70s because they still call it hash), make sure you clarify and tell them this is the breakfast kind, not the roll in paper kind.
Like I said, I don't make up recipes, so this is just a rough estimate of ingredients and again, there's really no way to go wrong with this. I used these ingredients because I made my turkey with an apple sage brine and was trying to keep the same flavors. Also, I had many of these things already on hand. I'm not a stickler for measurements unless I'm baking or making a sauce that I need to get to a certain consistency, so most of these measurements (cups, inches, kilometers) I just made up because they sound nice. This is a pretty free range recipe so if you want bigger pieces go for it, but my advice is to make everything as uniform as possible so things cook evenly and it just looks better. This can be easily doubled but since it's just me and my mom this recipe probably makes enough for four (leftovers!) or two if you're a fatty.
Post-Thanksgiving Coma Breakfast Hash
serves 2
4 slices of bacon chopped into 1/2 inch pieces (preferably center cut and get real, don't use turkey bacon, it's blasphemous)
1 c onions diced into 1/2 inch pieces
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1.5 c potatoes scrubbed and cut into 1/2 inch cubes
1/2 c apples diced into 1/2 inch cubes, any variety, I used Fuji because that's what I had on hand
1/2-3/4 c chopped turkey
1 Tbs chopped sage (optional)
In a large frying pan (preferably one with high sides), fry bacon over medium heat until crisp about 4-5 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon and put on a paper-towel lined plate.
Leave pan on medium heat and add onions and season with salt and pepper. You should have a nice heart-stopping amount of bacon grease to cook the onions in but if you don't feel like there's enough or are into angioplasties, add maybe a tablespoon extra virgin olive oil or butter, which ever you'd prefer to be in your eulogy. Cook, stirring to prevent burning, for about 7-8 minutes until onions are softened.
Add potatoes and cook for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking, until potatoes are brown and crisp on most sides. If you find that the pan's a little dry and the potatoes are starting to stick, you can add some olive oil or butter, but you shouldn't need any more than a tablespoon. Potatoes should be fork tender (test the fork on the biggest piece in the pan).
Add the apples and cook for about 3 minutes, stirring occasionally, to soften them up a little bit.
Add the turkey and cooked until warmed through.
Sage is pretty strong, so if you don't like it, leave it out, but I had a lot of fresh sage on hand, so I stirred it in before turning the stove off. It would probably taste pretty good with some cheese tossed on top, a sharp cheddar would probably work best.
Serve in a warm serving bowl to someone with an empty stomach. I got this one at Anthropologie-half-off! They have this kitchenware brand called Biscuit and in my fantasy kitchen all of my dinnerware is this brand.
I served mine with a fried egg and leftover brie and chive biscuits. I served some gravy with it too, but the presentation was bad so I cut it out.
Kitchen soundtrack: Interpol, Interpol
I'm by no means a food blogger. I can barely keep this blog active. I have so many adventures and encouters with the humans from the bottom of the gene pool in queue that I now have a running list of blog topics with notes on them like "don't forget to mention he was wearing one shoe" and "this woman smelled like a 3-day old can of dog food" so that by the time I get around to writing the entry I haven't completely forgotten what sparked my interest to begin with.
My love for food rivals my hate for stupid humans. I just like to eat. I taught myself how to cook in college because it was either that or keep spending money I didn't have on take out for which I could not justify the price. Rachael Ray is singlehandedly the most obnoxious chef on Food Network but she taught me how to cook. She taught me the basics, great time savers and how to make a decent meal in under 45 minutes (30 minutes is just not feasible if you're type A in the kitchen, it just isn't). She taught me it's ok to mess up in
kitchen, pretty much everything is fixable (unless you're baking which she doesn't do) and that cooking can be fun. Obviously, I have no culinary training and none of these food-related entries aren't for me to show you what a genius I am in the kitchen because that is rarely the case. I am the most clumsy person I know and many of my experiences around cooking are centered on me setting kitchen towels on fire, burning rice, scrambling eggs when they should not be scrambled and blunders that make dishes pretty inedible. I'm human and sometimes my dish just doesn't resemble anything even a dog would eat, but it's a lesson learned and those lessons include, paying attention to oven temperatures, not consuming an entire bottle of wine to loosen up before cooking and not walking away from the stove to check Facebook.
To me, cooking is therapeuatic and for the most part relaxing and I like that the end result always ends up in my stomach. Cooking for others is my way of telling people I love them. So while I may put my arm out and stop you from giving me a much unwanted hug, if I've ever cooked for you, that's your hug. And it came on a plate.
I'm horrible with ad-libbing. I love recipes and learning new techniques, but the day after Thanksgiving I was cross eyed from reading so many recipes and tired of making sure I had everything in order before I could proceed. However, I wanted to use leftovers from the day before to make breakfast with, mostly because I'd be damned if I threw away organic potatoes because I couldn't find anything to do with them. So I made a breakfast hash out of chopped turkey, potatoes, apples, onions and bacon.Heart disease aside, you can't go wrong with bacon. I'm going to save this obsession for another time because I could write for days about how much I love bacon and if given the choice of jumping into a kiddie pool full of money or bacon Scrooge McDuck style, I'd choose bacon.
Hash is so simple-you can pretty much fry up anything with potatoes, serve it for breakfast and call it hash. I think the base is almost always potatoes and onions, but I'm no expert. If you're serving a person who frequently enjoys the illegal type of hash (this would likely be a person whose younger days were in the mid-60s-mid 70s because they still call it hash), make sure you clarify and tell them this is the breakfast kind, not the roll in paper kind.
Like I said, I don't make up recipes, so this is just a rough estimate of ingredients and again, there's really no way to go wrong with this. I used these ingredients because I made my turkey with an apple sage brine and was trying to keep the same flavors. Also, I had many of these things already on hand. I'm not a stickler for measurements unless I'm baking or making a sauce that I need to get to a certain consistency, so most of these measurements (cups, inches, kilometers) I just made up because they sound nice. This is a pretty free range recipe so if you want bigger pieces go for it, but my advice is to make everything as uniform as possible so things cook evenly and it just looks better. This can be easily doubled but since it's just me and my mom this recipe probably makes enough for four (leftovers!) or two if you're a fatty.
Post-Thanksgiving Coma Breakfast Hash
serves 2
4 slices of bacon chopped into 1/2 inch pieces (preferably center cut and get real, don't use turkey bacon, it's blasphemous)
1 c onions diced into 1/2 inch pieces
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1.5 c potatoes scrubbed and cut into 1/2 inch cubes
1/2 c apples diced into 1/2 inch cubes, any variety, I used Fuji because that's what I had on hand
1/2-3/4 c chopped turkey
1 Tbs chopped sage (optional)
In a large frying pan (preferably one with high sides), fry bacon over medium heat until crisp about 4-5 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon and put on a paper-towel lined plate.
Leave pan on medium heat and add onions and season with salt and pepper. You should have a nice heart-stopping amount of bacon grease to cook the onions in but if you don't feel like there's enough or are into angioplasties, add maybe a tablespoon extra virgin olive oil or butter, which ever you'd prefer to be in your eulogy. Cook, stirring to prevent burning, for about 7-8 minutes until onions are softened.
Add potatoes and cook for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking, until potatoes are brown and crisp on most sides. If you find that the pan's a little dry and the potatoes are starting to stick, you can add some olive oil or butter, but you shouldn't need any more than a tablespoon. Potatoes should be fork tender (test the fork on the biggest piece in the pan).
Add the apples and cook for about 3 minutes, stirring occasionally, to soften them up a little bit.
Add the turkey and cooked until warmed through.
Sage is pretty strong, so if you don't like it, leave it out, but I had a lot of fresh sage on hand, so I stirred it in before turning the stove off. It would probably taste pretty good with some cheese tossed on top, a sharp cheddar would probably work best.
Serve in a warm serving bowl to someone with an empty stomach. I got this one at Anthropologie-half-off! They have this kitchenware brand called Biscuit and in my fantasy kitchen all of my dinnerware is this brand.
I served mine with a fried egg and leftover brie and chive biscuits. I served some gravy with it too, but the presentation was bad so I cut it out.
Kitchen soundtrack: Interpol, Interpol
