My favorite breakfast place in Atlanta was, hands down, Gato Bizco. Aside from the cute cat kitsch, the staff were super friendly and the food was affordable and oh-my-goodness-cram-your-face yummy. I still maintain they have the best pancakes on Earth. Another delectable dish was their huevos rancheros.

Admittedly, it was a very different take on huevos rancheros, but you really didn’t care because they hit the spot. I don’t know why some people do not like eggs and salsa. They’re perfect for each other! Moving on, the version of huevos rancheros I made the other morning (courtesy of Smitten Kitchen) isn’t authentic either, but Matt and I gobbled up every last bite.

If this were missing one thing, I would have said home fries. Ah, well, maybe next time…

…me. If only by the hair’s breadth that is Matt making me pancakes on any weekend morning I want. These weren’t as awesome as the banana pancakes he made me a couple of weeks ago, but dammit, they were good pancakes. I am pleased that I married a man who has amazing pancake proficiency.

Currently, I am being accused by Matt of “phoning it in” when it comes to this year’s NaBloPoMo entries. He’s not entirely off but when you have post something food-oriented every day, you take the little opportunities you usually ignore. I don’t chronicle every time Matt makes pancakes but maybe I should. In any case, tomorrow there will be an honest-to-goodness recipe. No, really, come back tomorrow!

I am trying to give Friday nights back to Matt in terms of cooking. It sounds sad, doesn’t it, that I allot him one weekend morning and one weeknight for cooking? He’s going to roast the duck in December so that’s fair! Anyway, using some delicious goat cheese ravioli, he made an interesting pasta sauce for them. Using a basic white sauce as a base, instead of a roux made with butter, he used bacon grease. Yes, bacon grease. It was…tasty but odd. And I would’ve dropped the bacon grease in the mix.

Is it wrong that sometimes, on Fridays mostly, that Matt and I go to Costco for a cheap lunch?

After—at my behest, of course—we prowl the aisles for samples, we settle in at the snackbar for a hot dog. I wanted to go with pizza today but if it means choosing between pizza and Quebec’s greatest contribution to junk food, frites avec sauce, then I have to go with the frites. I have yet to meet a potato I didn’t like, people. So yeah, some Fridays, we go there, sit at the snack bar and feel like complete and utter white trash. Only more well-dressed (Matt especially). So maybe, next time, pizza?

For hangovers and/or quasi-hangovers, I am a firm believer in the high fat/high protein restoratives. Despite my prodigious drinking during Fakesgiving the day before, yesterday was merely slightly headachy and slow-moving. Regardless, I whipped some fatty decadent pasta to eat for lunch.

I freakin’ heart pasta carbonara. This is a super simple version of it; you can chopped parsley, sauteed mushrooms or peppers, whatever. Consider my brain power was extremely limited yesterday, I just did the easiest one I could think of. Bacon, parmesan, pasta…what’s not to love?

Pasta Carbonara

1/2 lb. of pasta of your choice (I used fettucine)

1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan

4 slices bacon

2 eggs

salt and pepper

Bring large pot of water to boil. As you wait for the water to boil (don’t forget that lid!), chop the bacon into 1/2-inch pieces. Fry bacon over medium heat until it’s done to your liking. Put aside bacon pieces; reserve one tablespoon of fat, if able. Cook pasta for time directed on package. Meanwhile, lightly beat the two eggs in a bowl; add 1/4 cup of the Parmesan. Once pasta is done, drain thoroughly. Quickly back the pasta back into the hot pot and pour the egg mixture over it. Working swiftly with tongs, coat the egg mixture all over pasta. Once the pasta has absorbed egg mixture, season with salt and lots of pepper. Add bacon pieces and the pork fat if you want. Finally, garnish that baby with the leftover Parmesan. A bowl of this and some ginger beer and you’ll be all right.

My husband made an interesting and humorous observation last night. I made marinated seared tuna steaks—something I love—and as he chewed, he said, “This doesn’t taste at all what I thought it was supposed to taste like.”

I inclined my head to hear exactly what he thought tuna steaks were supposed to taste like (cat food? steak?). “I dunno,” he finished, “I just assumed they would taste like the tuna I buy in a can.”

Much like the perfect pancake recipe I discovered a few weeks ago, Lady Luck may once again be on my side with bread-making. (Why, yes, I am crossing my fingers as I write this; it’s making typing terribly difficult.)

I want to cry, this bread turned out so beautiful. Better still, the recipe is perfect for anxious bakers like myself. There’s nothing to it; and better yet, it yields A LOT.

It’s perfectly crusty, buttery and chewy; again, I want to cry because it was a long time coming.

The husband put his foot down tonight. “I want to cook more,” he cried. And here is tonight’s result. Clockwise to the right, we have pasta with roasted red pepper sauce, lemon pepper pasta with broccoli and aged cheddar, and finally, pasta with my homemade parsley pesto. Carbs? Whatever do you mean?

Grilled Tuna in Flank Steak Marinade

adapted from “Simply Shrimp, Salmon and (Fish) Steaks” by Leslie Glover Pendleton (HarperCollins)

3 tbl. reduced-sodium soy sauce

2 tbl. lemon juice

2 tbl. vegetable oil; more for brushing pan

1 garlic clove, minced

1/2 tsp. sugar

1/2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper

1/4 tsp. salt

4 6-oz. tuna steaks, 3/4 to 1 inch thick

In a large plastic bag combine soy sauce, lemon juice, 2 tablespoons vegetable oil, garlic, sugar, pepper and salt. Add tuna steaks, coating well with marinade. Seal bag and refrigerate at least 30 minutes, and up to 2 hours.

Place a ridged grill pan over medium-high heat for about a minute. Brush pan with vegetable oil. Remove fish from marinade, discarding liquid, and add to pan. Cook to taste  (3 minutes on each side for medium-rare). Serve immediately.

Simple Crusty Bread

Adapted from “Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day” by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois (Thomas Dunne Books, 2007)

1 1/2 tbl. yeast

1 1/2 tbl. kosher salt

6 1/2 cups unbleached, AP flour, more for dusting dough

cornmeal

In a large bowl or plastic container, mix yeast and salt into 3 cups lukewarm water (about 100 degrees). Stir in flour, mixing until there are no dry patches. Dough will be quite loose. Cover, but not with an airtight lid. Let dough rise at room temperature 2 hours (or up to 5 hours).

Bake at this point or refrigerate, covered, for as long as two weeks. When ready to bake, sprinkle a little flour on dough and cut off a grapefruit-size piece with serrated knife. Turn dough in hands to lightly stretch surface, creating a rounded top and a lumpy bottom. Put dough on pizza peel sprinkled with cornmeal; let rest 40 minutes. Repeat with remaining dough or refrigerate it.

Place broiler pan on bottom of oven. Place baking stone on middle rack and turn oven to 450 degrees; heat stone at that temperature for 20 minutes.

Dust dough with flour; slash top with serrated or very sharp knife three times. Slide onto stone. Pour one cup hot water into broiler pan and shut oven quickly to trap steam. Bake until well-browned, about 30 minutes. Cool completely.

Variation: If not using stone, stretch rounded dough into oval and place in a greased, nonstick loaf pan. Let rest 40 minutes if fresh, an extra hour if refrigerated. Heat oven to 450 degrees for 5 minutes. Place pan on middle rack. Bake as directed.

My husband really does a deft touch with breakfast. No, really, his pancakes are rockin’ and, better still, consistent. Still, since I planned on making pancakes this morning (which didn’t happen, by the way), I asked for something savory for Saturday. Enter: baked eggs. Goodness me, y’all, I love it when that man surprises me.

The LSC is from the “a little bit of this and a little bit of that” school of cooking; I admire that because I am not.

Point of fact: my husband loves stir-fries. So much that for nearly an entire year in university, variations upon them were all he ate. So making an orange chicken stir-fry was pretty much a win-win proposition.

The only changes I made to this dish was the addition of 3 garlic cloves and the subtraction of a tablespoon of soy sauce. The recipe calls for the low-sodium kind, which is the kind I do not have, so I figured reducing the amount would make it less salty. I was pleased with the end result but the LSC did add more soy sauce to taste, so feel free to do the same if you like.

Orange Chicken and Rice Bowl

adapted from USA Rice Federation

2 tbl. vegetable oil, divided

1 lb. skinless, boneless chicken breasts, cut into strips

2 cups broccoli florets

2 carrots, thinly sliced

1 medium onion, thinly sliced

1 yellow bell pepper, sliced

1 red bell pepper, sliced

1 tbl. grated fresh ginger

3 garlic cloves, minced (optional)

1 (14 oz.) can low-sodium chicken broth

1/2 cup orange juice

1 tbl. grated orange zest

2 tbl. light soy sauce

2 tbl. cornstarch

3 cups hot cooked rice

Heat 1 tablespoon oil in large skillet or wok; stir-fry chicken until lightly browned; remove. In same skillet, heat remaining oil; stir-fry broccoli, carrots, onion, bell peppers, ginger and garlic 4 to 5 minutes, or until vegetables are tender-crisp. Take care not to burn the garlic. Combine chicken broth, orange juice and zest, soy sauce and cornstarch in a bowl and stir until smooth. Add to skillet, stirring constantly. Boil 1 to 2 minutes or until thickened. Stir in chicken and cook until heated through. Spoon over or toss with hot rice.

Oh, how I keep telling myself that not every dish is a winner. Point of fact: this one. Perhaps freshly shelled chestnuts would have made a difference, perhaps not.

Seriously, I was so disappointed in this one.

The LSC and I were back in Montreal this past weekend. There was a comic convention which really was the saddest little con you ever did see. Somehow it was sadder that Lou Ferrigno was there. Still, I got to meet a couple more of my husband’s friends. As a prize for being a good sport, the LSC took me to see Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, which we both loved. I must profess I only wanted to see because of Bill Hader, but the bonus of Neil Patrick Harris and Bruce Campbell made it worth more than the price of admission.

In my continuing quest for decent Mexican food up here in the Great White North, we ate at Manana Saturday night. Every time we’ve stayed on the Plateau, we’ve walked by and I’ve been quite intrigued. Doing diligent research at our hotel—Anne Ma Soeur Anne, equally a rocking place but more on that later—the LSC pulled up a taqueria that sounded very promising but after heading towards where it was supposed to be, we discovered that it was no more. As visions of chorizo tacos spiraled away to nothing, we agreed to Manana as a second choice. (It was my first, actually, but never mind.) Manana is admittedly a bit cliche with its bright prints, extremely loud salsa music and Frida Kahlo pictures on the walls (which I loved, so there) but it was warm and cozy. After a long day of seeing the sad nerds with their sad costumes, it was time for booze. And oddly, I wasn’t the one to suggest it!

Ah, fresh strawberry margaritas. My only gripe? They were frozen. Still, they were laden with tequila and sometimes that keeps the bad things at bay.

The spouse had the table d’hote (which essentially means he ordered the fixed price meal) and his starter was this interesting eggplant gratin. I am not entirely sure what this has to do with Mexican cuisine but from what I tasted of it, it was all right. A bit unusual but all right. Actually now that I think about this dish more, the more I am confused by it. Anyone care to shed any potential light on this?

I had the “quesadillas del queso”; that’s an oxymoron, morons (not you, whomever wrote the menu).

And the LSC had some sort of chicken dish whose name we have both forgotten. He liked it well enough but said, “This was okay but I think you could make better Mexican food.” Was that a challenge?

Post-dinner was pints at a favorite microbrasserie, L’amere Boire, a nice stroll to our room and a night’s sleep on the comfiest hotel mattress I have ever encountered. They give you fresh croissants in the morning (the hotel, not the mattress)! Also, our hotel was next to a jazz bar so I got lulled to sleep by “My Baby Just Cares for Me,” a favorite song, so: bonus!

Stir-Fried Shrimp with Chestnuts

1/4 cup peanut or vegetable oil

1/2 cup shelled chestnuts, cut into 1/2-inch pieces (I used canned and peeled chestnuts)

salt to taste

1 pound shredded cabbage

1 clove garlic, sliced, plus 1 tbl. minced garlic

about 12 large shrimp, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch pieces

1 tbl. minced or grated fresh ginger

2 tbl. soy sauce

1/4 cup chopped scallion

2 tsp. dark sesame oil

Heat a third of the peanut oil in a large skillet. Add chestnuts to pan, along with a pinch of salt, and cook over high heat until they begin to brown and slightly crisp. Remove and set aside.

Add another third of the oil, followed by the cabbage and the slice garlic; cook over medium-high heat, stirring, until the cabbage begins to brown. Add about 1/4 cup water and continue cooking for another 3 or 4 minutes, until cabbage has softened.  Remove and set aside.

Add remaining oil to pan, then add shrimp, minced garlic, ginger and a little more salt; cook until shrimp is just pink.

Return chestnuts and cabbage to pan, along with a couple more tablespoons of water and the soy sauce. Cook, scraping up any brown bits from bottom of pan. Add scallions, drizzle with sesame oil and serve.

I really really do. Some of my favorite food memories center on when my mom used to make us pancakes for dinner some nights. In hindsight, it probably had more to do with monetary necessity than anything else, still. I like to think of breakfast for dinner as an indulgence, something slightly decadent, like eating tons of chocolate right before bedtime.

Hence: the frittata. Nothing more than flat-faced omelet, or as my husband thinks of it, “skillet quiche.” Paired with some crispy fried hashbrowns and perhaps a leafy vinegary salad, I think you have the makings of a very grown-up version of breakfast for dinner indeed. Especially when you use a lot of basil from your garden.

Of course, if you don’t like frittatas, you could always make stratas, Spanish tortillas (not the bread, the dish) or yes, even quiche. But you should really have breakfast for dinner tonight; your tummy will thank you.

Frittata with Onion, Basil and Tomato

1 medium onion

2 tbl. olive oil, divided

1 (14.5 oz.) can drained diced fire-roasted tomatoes

1/2 cup chopped fresh basil, divided

4 eggs

4 egg whites

1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Cut onions in half lengthwise. Cut each half into narrow wedges. In a large nonstick skillet, heat 1 tablespoon oil. Add onion and cook 10 to 12 minutes or until golden. Remove about 1/3 of the onion from the skillet and keep warm. Add tomatoes and all but 1 tablespoon of basil to skillet and cook with onions one minute.

Place eggs and egg whites in medium bowl and beat with a fork. Add onion-tomato-basil mixture to eggs, stirring just to combine. Heat remaining 1 tablespoon oil in skillet on medium until hot. Pour egg mixture into hot skillet. Cover and cook on low 12 to 15 minutes or until set. Top with reserved onions and basil; sprinkle with cheese. Let stand 2 minutes; cut into wedges and serve warm.

The LSC and I are attempting to buy a car currently so I am exhausted from the research, the various walks to dealerships, talking with salemen, etc.

Last night I whipped up my version Taco Hamburger Helper. Of course, this has a lot more veggies than real Hamburger Helper and much less preservatives. I’ll be back on Thursday with a more exciting blog entry (fingers crossed).