Monday, November 11, 2013

Life Hacks/Food Hacks/It's Snowing At Roseholme Cottage

     For the really kitchen/skills-impaired:

     1. Ungrilled cheese sandwich: Toast two slices of bread deep golden-brown.  Stck two or three slices of cheese in between them and microwave the whole thing to 10 to 15 seconds or until the cheese is just barely melted.  Microwave time is critical -- run it too long and you will produce a terrifying cheese-lava that no sane person gets near their mouth!  But when you get it right, it's very nearly as good as the real thing, at least twice as fast and you don't even need to own a skillet.  Zap some tomato soup to go with and you're home free.

     2. Apple un-pie: A good sweet apple and whatever kind of store-bought ginger-thing comes to mind, from ginger snaps to gingerbread.  Alternate bites and the taste is close to home-made apple pie.  (I suspect some careful experiments with the microwave might pay dividends here, too.  Warm sliced apples and cookies, topped with some ice cream or, for you barbarians, cheddar....)

     These superfast comfort-food thoughts came to mind tonight as I gazed out the kitchen window at the season's first snowfall.  It's melting as it hits (so far) but this is very early for snow here and something to warm the soul is a comfort.  (I made sizzleburgers, grass-fed ground beef with a tiny dollop of European-style butter and a few drops of Worcestershire sauce at the center, cooked medium and served on a kaiser roll with thin-sliced onion and good condiments, chili sauce and deli mustard. Side salad and sliced Valencia orange for dessert.  Yum!)

8 comments:

Chuck Pergiel said...

European style butter? What's the diff? Is it more socialist or somethin'?

Shermlock Shomes said...

Charles: You're put on a waiting list before you can buy it.

Roberta X said...

Try again: Lower water content, higher butterfat content! Also, some brands taste better, probably a function of cattle breed and diet. I like Kerrygold, from Ireland.

Blackwing1 said...

Get all the battens lined up on your hatches...it's 12-degrees here in Minnesnowta this morning, and this cold stuff is headed your way in about a day.

Good, solid, warm comfort-food. Nothing like a good toasted-cheese sandwich and a hot bowl of soup when you're sitting inside contemplating just how cold it is OUTSIDE.

Knucklehead said...

I enjoy your site but FAKE grilled cheese?!?!? That's just wrong.

Tonight's dinner will be homemade chicken soup (from the last rotisserie chicken I grilled up) and some REAL grilled cheese sammiches.

Fake grilled cheese. I've heard everything now. Yeesh.

homebru said...


For the pseudo-grilled cheese, remember to put a thin coat of butter/margarine on the outside of the toast. That gives the "greasy finger" part of the experience.

You can change to rye bread and different inner-gredients and wind up with a pseudo-reuben.

When it's over a hundred outside, my microwave lets me reduce heating up the kitchen. Not now of course.

Roberta X, remotely said...

Homebru: H'mm. I view the lack of finger-grease as an advantage.

Knucklehead: Hey, toasted bread, melted cheese, what part is fake?

Windy Wilson said...

Yes, Kerrygold is good. For some "applications" it's better than Challenge or Trader Joe's.

The "greasy finger" part of grilled cheese was, for me growing up, worse than drinking the oatmeal my father would make with butter AND milk and sugar.

The word verification is ongoofi.
"On Goofy, on Pluto,
On Mickey and Donald!
To the top of the porch! to the top of the wall!
Now dash away! Dash away! Dash away all!"

The Department stores here are playing the Christmas music already, no snow in sight, although the mornings are cold with hot mid-days. More signs of Catastrophic Anthropogenic Global Warming, if you're not a believer in the region's typical mid-November weather transition.