Tuna-Spinach Cassarole

It's time for another episode of 3D, and this time we are making Tuna-Spinach cassarole. While the recipie itself is as easy as a GSC recipie, the ingredient selection for this recipie is a little less forgiving.

Ingredients:
1 can tuna
1 lb macaroni
1 bottle of alfredo sauce
1 bag of spinach
Some type of melty cheese

To start, boil the macaroni, and wilt the lettuce with a little bit of olive oil. When both are cooked, put all the ingredients(except the cheese) together and stir. The result:

The next step is to put that into a pan, and put the melty cheese on top. In the pictures below I used a block of cheddar and cut some strips.

Bake at 350 degrees for 25-ish minutes.

And voila! You have tuna-spinach cassarole :D



This is one of my favorite recipies, as it is super easy and delicious. I actually ate it for lunch and dinner today :P

Grad Student Corner: Fried Rice

Hey Everyone,

Sorry for the hiatus, but we all graduated and that was a draining experience. I'm now into my first month of grad school and my cooking habits have changed. No longer am I the carefree undergrad who bought steak to eat with my Gorgonzola mashed potatoes. I'm going to create a new segment called Grad Student Corner, where I look at cheap, easy to make recipes with leftovers.

The first dish for GSC is Fried Rice. A staple dish, this is the best way to consolidate all those one-ofs in your kitchen.

That one last hog dog that has no bun.

That last egg that isn't really enough to make an omlette.

That half an onion leftover from when you made toppings for your hot dogs.

The basic idea is to take rice that you have, either from leftover Chinese carry out or a meal that you made, and cook it with soy sauce. You can then add in the one-ofs, making this a kind of unique meal. Some things(eggs, hot dogs, some veggies) should be fried before you put them in the rice. This makes it so that things that have uneven cooking temperatures are not undercooked. That makes Dinesh a sad grad student.

Brioche and Brie

Dinesh at your service. Allow me to take you on a journey.

Imagine a huge grilled cheese sandwich. Now imagine that sandwich with creamy brie instead of kraft singles. And replace that generic white bread with rich, tender brioche. Now you have Sarah's Brioche with brie.



I'm not too clear on the details(I was there for consumption, not preparation). From what I am told, you make the brioche batter. Then stick the brie into it. There are a couple rise times in between.

The White and Yellow

So yesterday I made what I think is an interesting take on the regular Bacon, Egg, and Cheese sandwich. Yes there was brown sugar bacon and Muenster cheese, but the star of the show was what I am calling "The White and Yellow".



By cooking an egg sunny side up for a while, then puncturing the yolk and flipping it over you can create an egg that is yellow on one side and white on the other. I like thins just because it intensifies the yolk taste without having runny eggs. Get into the kitchen and make yourself a sandwich!

Lemon Tart and Dumplings

"Why lemon tart and dumplings?" one might rightly ask. Well, I made both of them today in a fit of snowed-in food stockpiling and fridge-cleaning. I had lemon curd left over in the fridge and some sucree I had already molded in the freezer that has been languishing for the last 8 or so months. She said airily. In her domestic goddess persona.

Anyway, you've heard of molten chocolate cake, but probably not of molten lemon tart, which if you examine the picture closely is clearly what that is as the curd is oozing all over the plate after I have stabbed it with mine fork. That is because it is bona fide lemon curd sans cornstarch. And also with sort of old yolks that didn't do the thickening thing properly. But it is very tasty.=)


Here are my morphologically challenged ha gao. They have shrimp and bamboo shoots with lots of various Chinese sauces/condiments for flavor, probably primarily stemming from copious amounts of MSG. I had extra filling left over so I also wrapped some up in won ton wrappers. Embarrassingly these tasted slightly better than my homemade ha gao wrappers and were easier to wrap, too. Last time I ever fail to actually measure things in a Chinese recipe I am unfamiliar with. Oops, did I admit that out loud...still, they were super tasty. Just need a couple more iterations and some measuring cups before I can quit the day job.

Tonight am making sausage and spinach lasagne with the bf as per his request. If he thought I was going to make a bloody lasagne all by myself for him he had another thing coming!

Bon appetit!

Chicken Pesto Pizza (Nom Nom!)

Hihi,

So tonight, I remembered I had rotisserie chicken leftovers in my fridge begging to be eaten (and I was dying to eat), so I put together this pizza. It's quick and yummy but to be honest nice horrendously nice to the college student budget, unless you have a basil plant. I bought a pre-made pizza crust and topped it with home-made pesto, fresh mozzarella cheese and the chicken. Into the oven for 8 minutes and nom nom!

...Unfortunately, I'm new to this whole blogging thing so uhh....we ate but one slice of it before D remembers that, you know, we have a food blog. But, I swear, the whole pizza looked was sexy.

I don't really have a pesto recipe...but roughly:

Rough chop a couple handfuls of basil and cilantro. Put half in the blender, blend and slowly add olive oil until blended. Toss in the rest of the basil and cilantro. Toast a handful of pine nuts. Toss in pine nuts, black pepper, salt, a dash of lemon juice, and parmesan cheese to taste.

Ganache Brownies and Candied Lemon Slices

So it seems that I, Dinesh, will be propelled into the role of primary writer. Thankfully, this means that the chance that I burn myself is significantly lowered. We made Ganache Brownies from a recipe that came from Sarah's friend. My favorite part of this recipe was the big bowl of different chocolate used for the ganache!

Tuquynh made candied lemon slices for her lab. The process was stolen from http://userealbutter.com/2009/09/10/candied-lemon-slices-recipe/. I personally thought that the slices were a little bitter, but thats because when I see something in sugar I expect it to be sickeningly sweet. Could be a personal fault.

Vietnamese Spring Rolls

So this is your host Dinesh, and welcome to the first episode of Dinners, Desserts, and Drinks. We'll start with a food that is none of the above, but is delicious anyway, Vietnamese summer rolls. Made by my co-hosts TuQuynh and Sarah, these are made of a clear spring roll wrapper around romaine lettuce, shrimp, pork, rice noodles, parsley and mint.

The most interesting part of this for me was that the shell is dipped into warm water, and then the filling is put into it. There is no cooking of the shell involved!


There are two sauces for this dish, a hoisin-based sauce from Southern Vietnam(right) and a fish sauce from Northern Vietnam(left).


Here is the final product!

So full, need nap! Bon Appetit! And get back to the kitchen and cook yourself some dinner!