Melty spicy Cheese and persian cucumber jaffles

From Pantry

2 slices american cheese
margerine
Siracha sauce
one half persian cucumber
2 slices bread
salt and pepper
1tsp of parmesan artichoke dressing

Add ons: none
Total cost today: 0
All these ingredients can be subsituted but the point was to make a hot gourmet tasting sandwich with whatever weird things i had left. And to use those american cheese slices which are hard to make taste high brow.  The key to this was to make something in the style of the Australian Jaffle  which is cooked on the outside, on all sides actually. 2 kinds of cheese flavor amps a sandwich and a spicy kick helps too. I melted some margerine in a frying pan, browned one side of the bread, then placed between the bread, both cheese slices, the siracha hot sauce, the parmesan dressing (which again can be substituted for any creamy dressing OR a second kind of cheese) As a unit i browned the outsides of the bread in the pan turning the whole sandwich over and over while making little cucumber slices from the persian cucumbers I inherited from my traveling friend.  When cheese melted I removed form heat and inserted the cukes between the bread, sliced in half and made a very delicious, spicy melty sandwich with a crunch.

NY Deli Egg and Ketchup Sandwich (from inherited ingredients)

From pantry:
2 slices honey wheat bread (from half loaf left to me by carrie who went to new york last week)
1 egg
kethcup packs (from random trip to the carls junior)
salt and pepper
1 slice american cheese (left in fridge by subletter from september)
Add ons: None
Cost today $0


I remember from New York how two eggs on a roll is a buck 25 and tastes really good with ketchup pepper and salt on a melty soft kaiser roll.  So I had exactly one egg in the pantry (left to me as part of a half dozen,  last week by Rachel who went to Miami.) Normally I am a two egg one bread or two egg one tortilla person but since i only had one, I toasted up 2 slices of bread because the loaf looks like its teetering on its freshness date anyway and fried up the egg seasoning with salt and pepper. I took a slice of the american cheese that has been languishing on the bottom shelf because I rarely use it for anything, and put it on top of the egg to melt.  I margerined up one side of one slice of toast, laid on the egg and the cheese blend and then opened up 2 ketchup packs that have been sitting where the butter is supposed to go in the door of the fridge.  sliced the sandwich in half and to my delight pretty much recreated the taste of monday mornings in new york on the corner of 83rd and Amsterdam on my way to school at Lincoln center. And I gotta tell you, in this particular context a kraft slice tastes PERFECT.

Cous Cous Faux-entine.

From pantry:
cous cous
half bag of frozen spinach
5 raisins
10 peanuts
pat of real butter
olive oil
tbsp of parmesan artichoke dressing
one egg
pepper and salt to taste
Purchased Add ons: none
cost today: $0

This is from a rather meager pantry-- about half way through what was in there when i arrived two weeks ago.  Remember the goal is to eat everything in there before i go the the grocery store.  If people go on vacation and give me their perishables it adds to the pantry. If my friend who is in catering brings me back half a lasagne it adds to it and so on.  I am someone who is known to order 50 bucks of food from yummy.com just to avoid going to the store (it's LA that is DRAMA), and eat their prefab sushi and sandwiches and smores which are kind of to die for actually, and I can easily drop 30 on bottled water cool whip and mighty leaf tea.  So this is a real change of attitude for me.  Recession mentality. I also feel like Patsy and Edina when they tried to be poor and ended up blowing six figures because of all the trouble they got into.

Today was east meets west with a spinach/egg/cheese florentine flavor added to moroccan cous cous.  I made a box of cous cous which takes five minutes and a cup of water. When it had puffed up to cous cous size I added 5 raisins which I have been rationing from the one box i had in the pantry, to throw on top of salads and whatnot, and 10 peanuts from a jar that some subletter left here this summer. There are about 30 peanuts left as well as the peanut dust which i am going to put in a sauce. This is pantry raid people, we use EVERYTHING.  Then I made the bold move of cooking up the half bag of frozen spinach that was in the freezer-- again I think left over from some errant subletter.  I seasoned with pepper and salt and a pat of real irish butter that kristen likes to eat when she visits (i myself am a margerine girl) I immediately put half to couscous and half the spinach in tupperware.  Then I set the spinach on top of the cous cous (and raisins and peanuts) and poured on some Annies artichoke and parmesan dressing which sits in the door of my fridge for when mysoy free gluten free friends visit.  Remembering that on Top Chef people like to put an egg over easy on things and break the yolk for texture I cooked one egg in the spinach pan in some olive oil, flipped it and then put it on top of the spinach and cous cous. Broke the yolk let it mix with the sauce and couscous and greenery.  I have to tell you it tasted pretty freaking delicious. It reminded me of those hippy restuarants like Juice For Life in Toronto and Real Food Daily in Los Angeles where they make rice bowls and just kinda mash on textures and vegetables and usually some version of tahini and it tastes healthy and sort of like dirt.  And all the wait staff are white people with dreadlocks who leave a waft of patchouli and cayenne pepper as they swish past your table in their hemp clothes.  It's a style and i like it sometimes. Mine had a kind of moroccan flair from the raisin peanut cous cous action with a florentine french twist from the egg and spinach.