10/15 The Quickfire Challenge

Hungry and with not very few things other than beer in the fridge, I watched the Top Chef season 3 reunion show last night. For those of you who don't watch it (shame on you!), chef's compete against one another each week in various, often ridiculous, challenges. This is not a gimmicky show however. The contestants are very skilled executive or at the very least sous-chefs and the food they make is top notch stuff. Unlike anything shown on the food network, they actually cook on this show (it's on Bravo). Anyway, each week, the show begins with a "quickfire" challenge, where contestants are given a very limited time frame (often 10-30 minutes) to come up with something based on some ingredients or theme. So... as I was watching the reunion show and some of the quickfire highlights, I decided I should do the same and make something quick and tasty with whatever I could scrounge up in the house... (my theme was "be less hungry"). So here it is: Gnocchi with Apples, Turnips and Gruyeres.

I guess it's pretty self explanatory, I pan seared the frozen gnocchi i'd made a few weeks back, while I cooked a finely diced apple and turnip in butter in another skillet. Tossed each a few times before adding them to one another with some parseley and grated gruyeres. All in all a very successful 10 minute meal if I do say so myself.

8/28 lunch at work

With a microwave, a toaster oven and a few flimsy knives, "cooking" at work isn't exactly the easiest thing to do. However, that's no excuse for not eating good food. Today I put together a nice little sandwich with chicken breast (leftover from the other night), some fresh mozzarella, tomatoes and baby beet greens. I made sure to melt the mozz before adding the rest and ate the whole thing with a bowl of corn soup. Sure I could have used some fleur de sel and fresh cracked pepper, but it still beats a "burrito" from boloco.

The Egg Sammy

The egg sandwich. I believe one should be eaten every weekend. They are especially yummy with beautiful Eatwell eggs. I eat many variations on the egg sandwich: with chipotle in adobo puree, with or without lettuce, on a english muffin or bread. Today's variety includes dijon mustard, mayonnaise, sliced tomatoes, a generous amount of cheddar, and whole wheat. I had already started eating it when I took this shot.

8/23 a salad?

yeah, just a salad for dinner on Thursday night. But it did include 2 poached eggs, 4 slabs of bacon, an avocado, half a cucumber, half a red bell pepper and nearly a whole head of lettuce... not too shabby. add some sherry/dijon vinaigrette and you got yourself a decent meal!