Carolina Cooks: Dinner Improv

Chris had a bad day on Monday. I didn't anticipate quite how bad it would be but I knew he'd be exhausted and starving by the time he got home so I wanted to make a tasty meal for him.

A quick scan of the mostly empty fridge and pantry revealed that my options were meager. I knew I'd have to improvise. I remembered seeing a half empty jar of pizza sauce which kickstarted a pizza craving.

A tiny lightbulb went off when I remembered we had some frozen naan in the freezer.

And a block of cheddar cheese that I could shred.

5 minutes later I had gathered all the ingredients and was dicing the vegetables. Your pantry and fridge will determine what you put on your pizza but here is what I used:

2 pieces of naan (could also use english muffins)

Cheddar cheese - shredded

A few tablespoons tomato sauce

Half a jalapeno pepper - diced

1 clove garlic - minced

One slice of red onion - diced

4 pieces of large pepperoni

A few sprinkles of blue cheese

Prep

Preheat your oven to 350. Scatter about a tablespoon of pizza sauce onto naan ovals. Top with whatever you want. Sprinkle with cheese.  Bake for 10-12 minutes, until naan is crispy on bottom and cheese is bubbling. Sprinkle with seasonings (oregano, red pepper flake etc.) if you'd like. Easy peeazy.

For the side, I also made a box of rice and beans. All in all it took 25 minutes start to finish and Chris loved it. A little bit of improv goes a long way.

This website will even do the improvising for you. Just list the ingredients that you have at home and it churns out recipes that can be made with them. It's helped me make many a casserole.

Carolina Cooks: From the kitchen

I have the good fortune of living with a cooking fanatic. Chris loves to brainstorm what our next meal should be and how he can make it as delicious as possible. And I love to eat it. 

I've gotten hundreds, maybe thousands of letters from fans of my blog asking me to post pictures of what delightful dishes he's been cooking lately. Who am I to go against popular demand?

Chicken nachos

Yellow curry, rice and naan

Fish sticks and buffalo fries

Chicken chili

BBQ chicken and bacon pizza (with homemade bbq sauce)

Shepherd's pie

Carolina style: BBQ chicken, Baked beans, Cole slaw and Corn bread

Buffalo chicken pizza

Thin crust BBQ chicken and bacon pizza

Bacon, cheese and bison burger with spicy roasted potatoes

Bouncing back

It's been a couple weeks since the lizard incident and I'm almost fully recovered. Yes, all my trips into the laundry room lately involve me frantically sprinting in and out. But I'll be fine. Gift baskets aren't necessary. The best way to bounce back is to start blogging again so here goes...

The week of the 11th was a pretty lazy one. Chris was in real estate classes and Lacey, Brutus and I were mostly unproductive. Brutus wasn't the biggest fan of Lacey since she liked to sneak up and swipe at him. She's a playful kitten, and he's an old man. But they eventually learned to tolerate each other...while asleep.

I was able to check one thing off my list - cleaning the office. When we moved in, all of the suitcases and random stuff ended up in that room. It became a giant storage closet. So one rainy day I finally tackled the project. Lacey was nice enough to help by pouncing onto everything I attempted to put away.

After a couple hours, the project was complete. Having that room cleaned out was a weight off my shoulders. Felt so good to be able to check something off my list.

Office Before:

Office After: 

Yes, everything on the wall is crooked

That Friday we went to the our standard Friday night bar, the Irish Pub. Every Friday we meet up there with some people we met through the Meetup group. We're practically regulars and it's always a good time. The beer is cheap, the locals are friendly and the karaoke is very...memorable. That night, a local woman did an eardrum shattering performance of Madonna's Like a Virgin, complete with gyrating on the mic stand and putting the mic up to her crotch. Guess she thought it wanted to sing. Her boyfriend noticed me taking a video of her performance and insisted that I put it on youtube. I declined. For now.

Not a virgin

Saturday morning was a harsh reminder once again that alcohol is poison. There is a reason they made an entire movie about hangovers. They are a real bitch. Luckily, I discovered a way to ease the pain: Bojangles' cajun filet biscuit. I'm normally anti-fast food but Chris was raving about it and my grease levels were dangerously low. It made me feel a lot better...until an hour later when it made me feel a lot worse.

Grease fix

I also spotted an exciting new addition to the neighborhood: Trader Joe's! They opened last week and I can't wait to check it out. I love suburban grocery stores. So big and clean and full of food. The Trader Joe's I shopped at in New York was small and always packed with people. The wait in line was always a minimum of 20 minutes followed by a 5 block walk home carrying heavy bags of food to squeeze into the fridge I shared with two messy roommates. Life is easier these days.

That afternoon my foster duties were complete and I took Lacey back to the Humane Society. It was so sad to have to say goodbye to her. She was such a sweet, affectionate, playful kitten. And she constantly followed me around the house. I love 'em needy. I wanted to keep her permanently but unfortunately she was a long-haired kitten and Chris and I were both allergic. Zyrtec worked great for the allergies but it'd be pretty expensive for us to be on it for the rest of her life. Plus, Brutus was terrified of her. He's a real man's man.

I spotted this pretty girl at the shelter and felt like maybe it was fate that I adopt her. I think it would be hilarious to have a dog and a person with the same name living in our house. The confusion! The laughter! Chris disagreed.

Doppelganger

That night we tried out the cast iron pizza pan I bought on Amazon as a gift for Chris completing real estate school. Cast iron pans are awesome - it made our best pizza yet. Now he uses it for all kinds of meals- roasted potatoes, bacon and eggs, stromboli - it does it all.

12 pounds of delcious

And then on Sunday: KITTENS!

to be continued

DOCtober

Last night was Game 1 of the NLDS - The Phillies vs. The Reds.

In honor of the game, I made a batch of Go Phillies chicken nachos.

The game was legendary.

Phillies pitcher Roy "Doc" Halladay threw a no-hitter to beat the Reds 4-zip. Statistically, a

no-hitter is

the most difficult thing to accomplish in baseball. And only one other player in the history of baseball has thrown one in the post season: Don Larsen in 1956. Without a walk in the fifth inning, yesterday would have been a perfect game.

The conclusion is obvious: I make Go Phillies nachos and he pitches a no-hitter. Coincidence? Don't be naive.

10/2 -10/3 - The Weekend in Pictures

Saturday: Pizza night!

Pizza 1: Tomato, Brussel Sprouts w/ Potato soup as sauce

Pizza 2: Brussel Sprouts, Bacon, Onion and Jalapenos

Sunday: Khary's Birthday Dinner & Drinks

Loye's first drinking game(s)

The competition

The Daily Haps - Thursday 9/30

Thursday was a bit more productive. We started out the day (okay, afternoon) doing random errands in the front yard. Chris cut some railroad ties for the garden and I painted a flower pot. The previous owners left some concrete flower pots strewn throughout the yard and I've taken it upon myself to repaint them all in lieu of doing any yard work of actual importance.

I basically live in exercise clothes these days. Not because I exercise more, because they are more comfortable than pants suits.

Once I tired of painting (2o minutes later) Chris requested (begged) that I accompany him to the driving range. I have never been and was extremely sore from playing tennis (once) all week. But he finally convinced me to go. I spent 45 minutes trying to pick out an outfit until he informed me there was no pretentious dress code at ranges.

The range turned out to be fun. Unsurprisingly I was the only female there. It was all middle aged men escaping their wives. After a few dozen fruitless swings, and despite being told that I swung like Charles Barkley, I finally hit it. After that I was hooked. I now understand why men go to the range to get away from it all. Granted, I don't have much to get away from, but it was still a nice change of scenery.

Afterwards we played some tennis and then...Buffalo bleu chicken burgers! With bacon! Yes, food is my life.