UnRecipe: It's the End of the World as We Know It and I'll Have Pie

So, like everyone else, I was talking with some friends about the fever pitch over the Rapture that was supposed to have happened this past Saturday, and being a believer or not, is it really something newsworthy? I have little doubt that even if the holy heavens swept through to claim the faithful, I'd most certainly be left behind with my heathen ways, but I came to the conclusion that yes, the Rapture-fever is relevant, because then I can do a totally silly post about it. So there.

The almost-last supper - Photo by Wasabi Prime

While there's nothing particularly Biblical about a savory bread pudding, I did en-Rapture my arteries in a lot of cheese and bacon for this dish. During the week prior to the supposed End Times, I tried cleaning out my fridge like the world was gonna end, cooking with every random scrap of food we had sitting around. We always wind up with spare bits of stuff from previous dishes. I'd used some bacon for pork meatballs, bread for sandwiches, and random things that were impulse buys at the farmers market -- my fear of wasting food kicks in and then a whirlwind of cooking panic drives me to make something that uses as much of this stuff as possible. Compulsive cooking syndrome? There's a reality TV show waiting to happen there.

End of Days ain't so bad, there's dinner and cocktails involved - Photos by Wasabi Prime

As always, UnRecipe-ness rules supreme. See that random pile of ingredients? Just throw it together and hope for the best! In this case I felt fairly certain it would be a tasty pile of UnRecipe-ness. Chopped up bacon, rendered crisp with the fat reserved to saute leeks and some shallots until lightly caramelized. The leftover bread was just the stale heels from two loaves bought at the farmers market. This was a great way to use up the weird little pieces, as it's too small for a sandwich and while they would have made great croutons, their stale-ness made them extra thirsty to soak up the flavor of the bacon, leeks and creamy egg custard that brought the whole thing together. I had a little wedge of gouda, also from the farmers market (it was on sale, and I can't resist discount cheese), and the flavor is a bit pungent, so it's not something you just bite a hunk off. The cheese-wang was strong with this wedge, but crumbled and mixed into the egg batter, and it melted down in wonderful ways, seeping into the bread and making the whole thing savory and rich. The garden is finally yielding a healthy batch of herbs, so I was happy to sprinkle in handfuls of fresh parsley, sage, chives and thyme into the mix.

Savory bread pudding that just came together on its own - Photos by Wasabi Prime

You can't face your maker without dessert. Again, an impulse buy of rhubarb, likely from my impatience with our own rhubarb plant taking forever to grow edible-sized stalks, was cooked with strawberries and made into a pie. Nothing fussy with perfectly woven lattice-work, just a simple foldover of the excess dough and a sprinkle of sugary oat crumbles to make a crusty top. This was more like a "yay, the world didn't end" reward, as the day of the supposed Rapture had us getting gussied-up and going out with some friends for dinner and drinks. It wasn't to party-on through the reaping of souls, it was just good timing. But we raised our glasses after 6pm and said, yep, we're still here. And we had a strawberry rhubarb pie, with strawberry ice cream, to celebrate with on the following post-Rapture Sunday. Win-win, right?

Get fancy, have pie and ice cream, avoid the end of the world -- good weekend, no? - Photos by Wasabi Prime

UnRecipe: The Comfort Food Zone

Submitted for your approval... you are traveling to another dimension... a dimension of not only sight and sound but of humble, simple foods. You have entered the Comfort Food Zone. So maybe that's not what Rod Serling intended for his historic (and one of my favorite) anthology series, the Twilight Zone, but lately, I've gotten into the habit of doing a lot of cooking on Fridays, often doing multiple dishes not even meant to be eaten together, but it turns the whole kitchen into an edible zone, with things bubbling on the stove or baking in the oven. Normally I'd consider it a Test Kitchen Friday, but recently with the change of weather, it's not new things I'm trying, but a return to familiar dishes and flavors that really strike the autumnal mood. Submitted for your approval: andouille sausage mystery beer chili and a leek and pesto Italian soup with quinoa.

Hey there, hot stuff - Photo by Wasabi Prime

Chili is a notorious UnRecipe for me because I never measure or keep track of how it's made. In all likelihood, each pot of chili I've made has been like some rare, genetic singularity fang-toothed dodo bird/platypus hybrid, anomalous and extinguished before proper documentation could occur. But delicious all the same. This batch of chili used up some leftover andouille sausage we had languishing in the fridge and Brock found an unmarked bottle of beer from one of our homebrewing friends where the top had lost its seal. No longer carbonated, it would still make for a tasty cooking liquid, despite its mysterious origin. Honestly, any beer would do. You could throw in a PBR into your chili recipe and it would taste fine, and you could have the smug knowledge that your chili was a blue ribbon special.

Deconstructed chili - Photos by Wasabi Prime

I threw in chopped bell peppers, an onion, garlic, and browned some ground turkey as an additional protein punch. I've been leaning more towards the use of black beans over kidney beans for the legume component; the smaller beans make for a less chunky chili, plus if you feel so inclined, the more uniform consistency makes for a boss add-on to fries or tortilla chips. As for the main flavoring, I use two or three adobo chiles with a bit of the sauce, and then a disorganized, unmeasured mix of chili, mustard, cumin and garlic powders, plus a hefty shake of Hawaiian seasoned rocksalt. I realize this must sound really frustrating to those wanting measured amounts, but I don't name these posts UnRecipe for nothing.

Blog-inspired, Wasabi-meddled soup - Photo by Wasabi Prime

Another burner was busy bubbling away with an Italian-themed soup. This was inspired by personal chef and blogger, Silvia de Gregori's Citron et Vanille. Her beautiful Sardinian spinach, chickpea and fregola soup inspired an Italian turn, taking a big liberty with the seasoning and adding a spoonful of the homemade pesto we still have in the fridge. I also substituted the couscous-like fregola pasta with quinoa, which was also a pantry leftover awaiting its destiny in some meal. Not meant as an insult to Silvia and her amazing blog; she writes several new posts every week with beautiful, colorful photos and her dishes are always a constant source of healthy inspiration for me to incorporate vegetables in new and interesting ways. I liked the idea of her Sardinian soup and modified it to fit the needs of what the pantry and refrigerator already had, because we have a terrible habit of just letting ingredients pile up. Definitely give Citron et Vanille a look and if you're lucky to live in the Bay Area, her personal chef services would be a treat to experience.

Tasty bulbs and the last of the quinoa - Photos by Wasabi Prime

I appreciate your coming along for this visit into the Comfort Food Zone. Certainly not as exciting as William Shatner freaking out over the fact that THERE'S... SOMETHING... ON THE WING! but really, what else can beat that? There's at least a creature comfort in having a few simple meals cooked up ahead of time that can be spooned into plastic containers and brought to work, or easily microwaved for dinner after a long day. That makes venturing into the CF-Zone on Fridays a worthy trip indeed.