To all the single ladies.

Life is too short to wait around to get married and THEN get the good kitchen shit. Fuck that! Start collecting your amazing kitchen supplies: pots, pans, serving ware, knives NOW. Then if you DO get married, you can register for more amazing stuff to add to your collection. Being single is no excuse to punish yourself with shitty kitchen supplies from Goodwill. This is one area in which I totally condone being a snob. Be a GIANT snob!

Fall Minestrone.

4 Slices of pancetta or bacon

2 Tablespoon Oil

1 onion, chopped

1 large carrot diced

2 ribs celery, diced

2-3 Garlic Cloves, minced

1 med. Zucchini, diced

1 med sized potato, chopped

1 28oz can diced tomatoes

1 32oz Chicken Broth

2 Cup Water (or just more chicken broth)

1 Teaspoon Dried Oregano

Salt & Pepper to taste

1 15oz Can Cannellini beans OR Great Northern beans (drained)

4-6 Cups Kale, chopped

2 Cups Cabbage

1 Acorn Squash (peeled & chopped) *in order to peel easily…stab with fork and microwave for few minutes until soft enough to peel and chop.

  

Cook pancetta or bacon in large soup kettle. Once cooked (but not crispy) take out bacon and chop into small pieces, place back in kettle, add oil. Add onion, carrots, celery, zucchini, and potato. Cook until veggies are soft. Add garlic, cook until fragrant (but do not burn!). Add canned tomatoes, broth, water, oregano. Bring to boil & simmer for 30-45 minutes on stove, letting all the flavors mix, adding salt as you go. Stir occasionally.

30 minutes before serving add beans, kale, cabbage, and partially cooked squash.

 Before serving/taste and add more salt if needed! Serve with Parmesan cheese on top.

*We had our soup with cheese bread! Just get sourdough artisan bread, slice, spread butter (in our case "I can't believe it's not butter") sprinkle with garlic powder, parm. cheese and then put grated sharp cheddar on top...broil in oven, watch carefully! It's ready when the cheese is bubbling and slightly browned. YUM.

Recipe: Asian Style Cole-Slaw

I first tasted this delicious cole-slaw at my friend's son's 1st bday party. I thought it was so delicious, that I had to ask her for the recipe! I tweaked it a bit (including the title...since it was originally titled "Chinese Cabbage" but had no actual Chinese Cabbage in it! haha). So below is my version:

Asian Style Coleslaw

1/4 c chopped green onion

16 oz. Fresh Express Coleslaw mix

1/2 c. slivered almonds

1/2 c. sesame seeds

1 pkg. chicken flavor Top Ramen

Dressing:

1/2 teaspoon sesame oil

1/2 c. olive oil

4 Tablespoons rice wine vinegar

1 Tablespoon chicken buillion

1/2 c. sugar

Flavor packet from noodles

Brown almonds and sesame seeds in 350 oven 15 minutes, watching and stirring.

Crush noodles.

Put cabbage in bowl and add noodles. Then add almonds and seeds.

Mix together dressing ingredients, pour on top of cabbage and stir.

*ADVICE: Pour in 1/2 of the salad dressing and mix with coleslaw and let it sit for about 10 minutes, then mix again and taste. Then add more dressing if needed! I ended up using BROWN sugar and dumping half the dressing bc I thought it tasted fine without adding anymore!

Don't mix all the ingredients together until 30 minutes (or less) before you want to serve for maximum crunch. Although, I am eating leftovers from last night and although the crunch is lost...still tasty!

What I made today.

When I first awoke this morning, I thought that I would take it easy today.

I ended up cooking for 6 hours today. Ha. HA.

Home-made Pita Bread. 

Let dough rise.

Bake 2 at a time (total of 8).

Korean steamed pork buns. 

Which entails chopping various veggies into teeny-tiny pieces,

cooking the meet/veggies. Squeezing out alll the liquid from the

meat/veggie mixture. Letting the dough rise twice.

Rolling the dough out into 16 equal pieces, stuffing them.

Steaming in 3 separate batches (since I do not

have giant steamer). 

tzatziki sauce.

No, I don't plan to eat all that today! Tomorrow will be an easy day when I cook up chicken pitas. Yum. :)