A Perfect Meal for When You Don't Want to Cook

There are those days when I just really don't want to cook. No, seriously! Usually they're the days when Atlanta traffic likes to make my afternoon commute an hour instead of twenty minutes, or after seventy-five minutes of sweat inducing bikram yoga... I just don't have it in me to make anything worth eating. That's when the fast food drive thru lights start flashing. Not good.

 

I know it's hard to want to cook for yourself. Especially something that's good for you. I've had my share of popcorn dinners with a side of gummy worms. Whether you're cooking for just yourself, or a bouncing off the walls family of 4, this dish is something easy enough for even the busiest of busy bodies. And with all of the rich iron and veggie protein, it'll fill you up without slowing you down.

Drunken Pasta with Roasted Eggplant and Tomatoes

Uuuuugggh... I am really not feelin' so hot today. Last night was Romain's (our friend who let us stay in his apartment for free for a month) 30th birthday party. Let's just say there was a lot of dancing to 80's music (since Romain was born in 1980), a lot of booze, and a lot of, "This is so AMERICAN!" from Romain's brother, Ben. It was tons of fun, but I woke up this morning with a bruised and throbbing finger, and I can't remember how I hurt it. Thankfully, it's not broken.

Needless to say, today I'm a little cloudy-brained.

Since yesterday was my first time back to Romain's apartment since we left, and we're talking about all things drunk-related, I figured I would do a little reminiscing. I'll share with you one of the things I conjured up while we were squatting Romain's apartment. It starts with a bottle of wine... no, not to cook with (yet), to start drinking. Then there's the roasted eggplant. I threw that in the pot with some pasta, tomatoes, onions, garlic, splash of wine, and topped it all with basil and some French Comté cheese. Comté is one of the most popular cheeses in France. It is a semi-firm cow's milk cheese and has a slightly sweet, nutty flavor, much like Gruyère. By the end of it, you'll be nice and toasted (due to constant drinking of wine while cooking), but it just makes it taste that much better.

Drunken Pasta with Roasted Eggplant and Tomatoes

3/4 lb of fusili pasta

1 medium eggplant, cut into 1/2-inch cubes

1 pint of cherry tomatoes, halved

1 medium onion, diced

1-2 cloves of garlic, minced

1/4 cup of red wine (I used a Côte du Rhone, but you can use any red wine you like, just make sure it's a wine you would drink)

2-3 sprigs of fresh basil

a block of Comté cheese

extra virgin olive oil

salt and pepper, to taste

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Cut the eggplant into 1/2 inch cubes and place on a baking sheet. Drizzle olive oil over the cubes of eggplant and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Toss together so that all of the eggplant is coated with the olive oil, salt and pepper. Roast for about 25 minutes, occasionally moving pieces around so they brown evenly.

In a large pot, bring pasta water to a boil and add salt and olive oil. Once boiling, add pasta and cook until just al dente, about 2 minutes less than is directed on the package. You can strain the pasta in a colander, just make sure to save 1-2 ladles of pasta water for the end!

In large sauté pan, add 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil and the minced garlic. Slowly bring the temperature to medium, and once the garlic has infused the oil (about 3-4 minutes) add the onions and sauté until soft and translucent. Add 1/4 cup of red wine and bring the heat to medium-high. Add the halved cherry tomatoes and sauté until softened.

Add the roasted eggplant, pasta, and a ladle or so of the pasta water to the tomato/onion mixture (if your sauté pan is not large enough to hold everything, you can transfer it all into a large pot). Stir over medium heat for a few minutes, just to finish cooking the pasta and let the red wine and pasta water create a tasty sauce. Sprinkle some chopped basil over the hot pasta and stir to let the basil start to wilt. Top with some freshly grated Comté cheese. Salt and pepper to taste. Serves 3-4.

Tartine Tuesday: Brie, Crispy Ham, and Green Olive Tartines

I've never been too crazy about lunch meat style ham. It's usually in some kind of rectangular shape(I've never seen a rectangular pig) and packaged in a bag with water(why?!?). Now, I'm not trying to be snooty or say I'm too good for lunch meat... I can't really afford to be picky these days. I have found a way though, to give a little umph to the blah that is lunch meat.
 

Meet my brie, crispy ham, and green olive tartines.

Brie, Crispy Ham, and Green Olive Tartines

6 slices of bread or baguette, toasted
6 slices of brie(cream cheese works really well as a substitute)
2 slices of lunch meat style ham, cut into small strips
green olives, sliced
salt and pepper, to taste

Heat a sauté or frying pan on medium to medium-high heat. Add the strips of ham and fry until crispy(as you would with bacon or lardons). Top each slice of toast with a piece of brie, crispy ham, and green olives. Salt and pepper to taste. Serves 2.

Day One

Very exhausted and hungry as hell, we've finally arrived in France. Day one went pretty smoothly. After messes of paperwork, overnight FedEx fiascoes and one too many tears in trying to get Bruzer, my cat, to France with me, we ironically didn't even go through customs at Charles De Gaulle. Bruzer seems to have survived the flight as well. I was worried that the non-direct(layover in Iceland) flight would traumatize him, after a friend of ours told us that it took 2 years for his cat to start purring again after an overseas flight. The only thing that happened was that he peed in his cage, but after spending almost 18 hours locked up like that, I can't blame him, I'd do it too. So once we got to Quentin's parents apartment I gave him a bath and plenty of treats.

Speaking of treats, I was starving from the flight. Thank you Iceland Air for being so cheap, but now I know why. Zero in-flight meals(unless you paid for them) means buying a bunch of really expensive airport food to last you through your flight. I bought about $35 worth of food to last me and Quentin through both flights, and in total: 1 Turkey sandwich, 1 Ham sandwich, Cold Udon Noodles, a small container of Macaroni Salad and Pesto Tortellini. They were all pretty tasty, but definitely not worth the 35 bucks. So needless to say, my first meal in France was a good one. Nothing too big, just a little something to tide me over, but something I've had before, something comforting, and something delicious. Galette with egg and cheese... oops, excuse moi, galette oeuf fromage. Crispy outside, creamy, melt-in-your-mouth inside... pure deliciousness.

 

 

Besides all of the goodness going on in my belly, it's been pretty calm today... mostly just unpacking and recouping from the jet-lag. So, more sleep for now, but tomorrow I'm going into Paris to meet up with an old friend that I haven't seen in years... and we'll be likely to eat something tasty! À demain!