Monster Chicken Sausage Panini
4 links chicken sausage, butterflied and pan crisped on both sides
pesto (homemade our your favorite purchased variety)
combo of mozz and grated parmesan cheese
3-4 artichoke hearts, chopped
olive oil spray (trader joe’s makes a good extra virgin kind)
Focaccia
salt, pepper and red pepper flakes to taste

Last year I acquired a cast iron pan with grates and a panini press (score!) but prior too that I constructed my own*.  Heat up the pan with the top panini press while you assemble the monster panini.  Cut the foccacia in half, spread a layer of pesto, then a layer of cheese, then the chicken sausage, artichoke hearts, and the final layer of cheese.  Season with salt, pepper and red pepper flakes if desired.  Spray the bottom of the pan with ev olive oil spray, put the sammy in and spray the top with olive oil before putting the press on.  Keep the heat at low-med for about 10-15 minutes until the cheese is fully melted.  Slice up like a pizza and serve to hungry guests!

You can always swap out the pesto for marinara and the chicken sausage for some veggies such as baby spinach or roasted red pepper.  The possibilities are endless, the thing that counts here is that it’s monster-sized.

*This is how you construct a make shift panini press: heat olive oil in a large skillet, add your sandwich, spray the top of the sandwich with olive oil spray, place a layer of aluminum foil over the panini then top that with a smaller skillet.  To weigh it all down and achieve the “press” put a tea kettle full of water on the top skillet.  The set up is not visually appealing  but it does the job!

It’s not the biggest and baddest of all kitchen gadgets but a fun new cooking tool all the same.  Meet Mr. Ball Whisk, the innovative companion for all of your bechamel and stirring needs (please do not confuse with a head massager).  It was fate that brought Mr. Ball Whisk into my kitchen.  I was over my Uncle Rick’s house on Christmas morning sipping on some mimosas watching him cook when I saw the whisk in the sink.  I asked him if it worked well and next thing I knew he was giving it to me!  I graciously accepted the gift and used it for the first time this past week thickening up some gravy.

Verdict is in, Mr. Ball Whisk works magic and is a hell of a lot easier to clean!

I busted out my sprouting jar, got a tablespoon of green lentils and followed the same recipe/method for the alfalfa and mung been sprouts.  I was a bit skeptical because green lentils are pretty tough and only begin to soften after 20 minutes of simmering, how could they get tender from simple rinses of water over the course of 4 days?  It turns out sprouts work in mysterious ways, the lentils came out tender and delicious, perfect to top off a salad or to just snack on!

Last night we had a spectacular fire in our backyard thanks to my mancrow’s (MC) efforts of “getting all hippy and shit” by cleaning up our backyard and building an a-class fire-pit. All in all this lady had a great Saturday with holly-crow that was kicked off with a trip to Roslindale, the highlight of which was the discovery of a butcher shop right up the street! We each picked up some sausage, hand made by Tony himself! Most were cooked over the fire at the Archdale Estate that evening, but two hot links were stashed away for use during the week. I was planning on saving them for a nice meaty pasta dish later in the week, but after hearing my MC’s caws for help this morning, I knew I needed to sacrifice those plans for the sake of Sunday productivity.

This is a great breakfast recipe because breakfast for two can all be made in one cast iron- its fun to bring the whole pan to the table and scoop out the tasty morsels. For best results, make sure to use lots of fatty goodness of your choosing!

Breakfast for Two
2 eggs
about 1 1/2-2 cups of chopped potato
1 sausage link, out of the casing
1 small onion, diced
salt, pepper, chili powder
butter (or oil)
fresh herbs

Method: Cut the potatoes to small bite sized pieces. Chunks that measure 1-2 cm at the longest point would be best (or perhaps visualize 2-3 chunks per bite!). Melt 1T butter in the cast iron pan. Allow to froth a bit and place the potatoes in the pan. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, as well as a light pinch of chili powder. Cook the potatoes until they are golden brown all around, and are just barely be fork tender. This will take the longest amount of time, so be patient, and find a temperature that is cooking the potato, but not burning the outside. At this point add the onions, and re-season. Let the onions sweat for a short period of time, and move the potatoes to one side of the pan. Cook the sausage in the other side, breaking it up into delicious morsels. After the sausage is cooked, move it over with the potatoes. Add 1t of butter to the pan, let it sizzle and pick up all of the sausage bits from the bottom of the pan. Crack the two eggs side by side in the open portion of the pan. It should be hot enough that the raw egg doesn’t wander off into the potatoes and sausage, but instead cooks on contact. Cook the eggs to your liking!

To serve: Sprinkle fresh herbs on the potatoes right at the end so that they don’t wilt or cook. The eggs might want some hot sauce, but hopefully the eggs and sausage won’t need anything!

As has been previously established, the Crows are major fans of Le Creuset.  How could you not be?  It’s so pretty (and functional!).  Check out the link here for cookware porn and ideas for displaying your gorgeous pieces.

For Mother’s Day, my sister Erin turned a vintage baby carriage into a planter. She decoupaged the outside with images of nature and filled the inside with soil, some flowers and a little ceramic watering stake shaped as a mushroom.

Cute!!

This year I have been bitten by the gardening bug.  Probably as a reaction to last year’s failure (in which I burnt all my potted herb plants by frying them in the hot sunlight on my roof), this year I am determined. Inspired by Holly, the true green thumb of the Crows, I committed to having a little green spot of my own, to eat some food I grew myself, and a find chance to play in the dirt everyday.

However, there are a few obsitcles in my way.  First of all, I rent, and on the third floor of the three unit, so it’s not exactly the backyard is my domain. Despite the fact that, thanks to my landlord, it frequently looks a like a junkyard, I feel it would be a little presumpous to just sart digging up grass and planting.  My landlord would probably consent if asked, but the yard is mostly shaded, and there is only a small portion that would really work for gardening anyway.  Unfortunately, this section is right in the middle of the yard and next to the house- there is no way I could ever reasonably dig a garden there without upsetting someone.  Plus, setting up a garden can be pricy, and investing into a place you won’t be living for more than a few years seems a little waseful.

So! Soulution!  A potted garden/weed-bed takover.  A garden that is 75% mobile makes big use out of small spaces.  It’s a combo between a tabletop pot garden and a pre-existing raised bed garden that was full of weeds and old leaves.  For the table I used an old wooden coffee table found in the junkyard of my landlord’s and when combined with the large variety of pots I had lying around I think it has a nice esthetic.

Raiding Home Depot with the man crow was a lot of fu!  I scored all the seedlings either there or at the Curley Plant Sale in JP on Saturday morning.   I also bought planting soil and four pots for this operation- the rest I had already from last year’s debacle.   On the table I am growing:

-Herbs: basil, italian parsley, thyme, oregano and rosemary.

- Two varietys of tomatoes

-Green Pepper

I can’t wait to mow on some fresh herbs!

Herbs!

Its going to smell so good when they get growing too!  Now the true inspiration here is the side-of-house garden. This raised bed has alsway been there, but you would barely have noticed it because it was so overgrown with weeds.  They took mere minutes to remove, and then I repaced them with a layer of soil I had leftover from potting. Here, I have planted:

-2 more tomato plants

-green lettuce

-green beans

Side of the house, raised bed garden.

Please try to ignore the cable wire. This will be really my first experiment in growing from seed, so I’m excited!  Of course there is a lot more I would have liked to try, but I think this is a good start.   Also check out my gardening supply bucket:

How can this not be a success?  Expect frequent updates as the summer moves on on!

I’m not up for getting the charcoal ready, though, so I’ll be attempting the cast-iron indoor burger.

Some green garlic + cheese stuffed burgers, are just around the corner!

This is a fun article to get you in the mood!

Although I always prefer fresh herbs I bump up my dried use in the winter months such as thyme, oregano and rosemary.  I tend to stay away from dried basil or parsley, they don’t have any aromatics so if a recipe calls for it just use the real thing.  If you have the option of buying in bulk it’s usually cheaper and you get to use your own spice jars, but if not a brand that always treats me well is simply organic.

I got this herb saver as a present from my brother and it works like a charm. The shelf life is amazing, fresh rosemary and thyme have lasted up to three weeks and the leafier herbs such as basil and sage will last around a week and a half.  The herb saver  alleviates the guilt I often faced from throwing away a pack of herbs before I got a chance to use them all, something that brings a tear to the eyes of all crows and foodies alike.

I should have taken Anthony Bourdain’s advice and skip the bread and potatoes and focus right in on the meat but i couldn’t deny my love for carbs, especially dipped in delicious meat juices.  We ate ourselves into a food coma and ended up leaving Anotonio’s with an ungodly portion of pork.  We ended our New Bedford experience with a trip to Lydia’s Bakery for some much needed coffee and sweets.

The next morning i had a revelation on what I should do with my leftover mountain of pork: make one of my favorite sandwiches, the Cubano.  I waited a day, then shredded up the pork, chopped my lettuce, tomato, onion and pickles and created an assembly line.

My man crow and I each made two Cubano’s each- one for dinner and one for lunch the following day at work.  Since we both have different preferences, mine being extra pickles and mustard- hold the mayo, and his being extra pork and mayo- hold the mustard, we decided to construct our own.  My kitchen lacks a panini press so i had to brainstorm an alternative.  This is how you construct a make shift panini press: heat olive oil in a large skillet, add the Cubanos, spray the top of the sandwiches with extra virgin olive oil spray, place a layer of aluminum foil over them then top that with a smaller skillet.  To weigh it all down and achieve the “press” put a tea kettle full of water on the top skillet.  The set up is not visually appealing  but it does the job!

Finished Product served w/ a simple slaw