Dinner Suggestion: Club Sandwich

Some days you just don't have the time to make a proper dinner, some days you simply don't want a proper dinner. In fact, I hate the term proper dinner. What really defines a dinner? Well, Wikipedia claims that it's the "significant meal of the day", and in that case, my club sandwich is dinner more than anything else I ate today.
 
Well, either way, let us say you didn't feel like mashing potatoes, or boiling rice. Here's how you make an extremely simple, yet awesome club sandwich.

Cut a chicken fillet in thin slices, 1/3 inch or 1 cm thick tops. Salt it before you fry it. I also use lots of black pepper. Fry it on medium high heat. Fry some smoked ham. Cut up half an avocado. Use good bread, add butter and crispy lettuce. It's really simple, and perfect for those days. You know those days... When you have lots of work.

Or those days you just want to sit at your computer and play Hearthstone.

How to make a Meatball Pizza

It's hard to argue against the awesomeness of a meatball pizza, and I will assume most readers will know how to make their own variant of the king among pies. I will try to keep this short and simple with no nonsense. No anecdotes about vacations, no pictures of cats or dogs, no rants about brand managers who just fail to see the reason why people are reluctant to order the subscriptions.

So click in for nothing else but meatball pizza.

Spring Onion

The spring onion is a personal favorite ingredient, all though I would have a difficult time arguing why it's better than the regular onion. I use them in the same situations, when ever I make a pot, I try to include spring onion. Same if I fry vegetables as a side dish. I have included spring onion when I have made various sauces. And of course inside the burger meat. Is it the green color? Is it the natural portion sizes? The mild taste? The crispiness? What ever it is, I try to always have a spring onio ready when I cook.

To Catch a Fruit Fly

Summer is here, and for many of us, so are the fruit flies. Not really a big threat in any way, at least not if you give some thought to where you store your food. I usually keep all my food in the fridge or in closed containers, and I try to not have fruit out in the open. But even I get visits from the occasional fruit fly, and among things I really don't like, bugs are high up on the list.

Actually, that's not entirely true. I find bugs fascinating. But they belong outside. So for all bugs inside, it's game on. And here's my way of dealing with the fruit flies.

Take a small glass or jar, and fill it ever so slightly with white wine. It's possible to use citrus fruit as well. Or yeast. The flies seems to be attracted to fermentation, all though I couldn't possibly confirm this in a scientific way. Well, that's not entirely true either. I left a glass of wine on the table over the night, and in the morning it was filled with flies. That's a scientific confirmation, right?

Either way, I place two layers of plastic wrapping over the jar, and a string to hold the plastic in place. I then cut a tiny hole for the flies to enter. The hole does not need to be bigger than the size of a fly, but don't worry about the flies escaping. They're too interested in the smell of white wine to ever exit the hole.

It's not a delicate sight once the flies start filling the jar, so feel free to cover the jar with something. Or, if you feel all natural geographic, you can think of the jar as your own personal insectarium. Why not try to tell the flies apart? Give them names? Start cheering for them, and bet on who lives the longest? Everyone needs a hobby.

I will show the result of this Fruit Fly Trap in a few days, but as I can see exactly no fruit flies in my apartment right now, it may be rather uneventful. That said, I can confirm that this method works.

How to make fries

1. Cut the potato in strips of preferred size. Large bits should boil a bit first.
2. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, oil.
3. In oven at 225C/437F for 25 minutes
4. Enjoy

Dinner in New York

When the trip is over, all you really have left are the memories. But while you're there, you actually need fuel. We are nothing but animals, and the food is essential. So why not make the best out of the situation? We wanted to avoid the random encounters, where you just stumble hungry into the first place you see. Mostly to avoid places that got by exclusively through hungry tourists randomly dropping in. But also because we wanted to experience New York by way of eating.

We wanted New York in the form of food.

We did some research in advance. We watched a few travel guides, browsed the net, and asked locals where the good places to eat in New York was. The result was a google map cluttered with potential restaurants, and an extremely simple way of making sure there always was a relevant alternative nearby when the hunger growled like an angry wolf.

Read on!

Breakfast, lunch and brunch in New York

It should come as no surprise that there are many places to get good food in New York. But it's also no secret that many tourists tend to seek the familiar and safe option. In some cases, I even suspect it's tempting to eat cheap when on holidays. I can understand this, not everyone prioritizes food when they're on trips. And sure enough, you won't have to look long or far for the $1 burger meal in NYC. But it's really nothing to write home about. Literally.

We did it a bit differently. Read on for the first of three articles with details on where to eat in New York City. This first one is about breakfast, lunch and brunch. Enjoy!

Why do you travel?

Every time I visit new places, I try to hold on to the good memories of that trip, to the point where the memories becomes stories of their own. It's not necessarily a big issue, but I'd like any excursion or journey to matter. I try to thoroughly enjoy any travel, specially when visiting other countries. I like to experience something unfamiliar. Not only limited to food, but most relevant to this blog, I'll say that trying out local food is a big deal for me on trips.  And that's probably not that uncommon. What seems to be uncommon is to remember what you experienced. What you ate, saw, heard. What specific places you visited. The good and bad of a certain place. The people you met and talked to. I fail to see the reason of travelling, if you don't make an effort remembering this.

I expected to come back from New York with a wealth of stories, because in the end, that's really what travelling is about. Experiencing - and if you're like me - retelling the stories.

For this blog, I'll leave you with two of those stories, the first was when I looked for the toy stores of NYC. The second one is a big article about various restaurants, where to get good food in the big city. It will take a little more time to write that one, and I aim to have it out Thursday.

But the remarkable thing is.. Am I the only one that does this? Surely I can't be alone in actually remembering what I experience when I'm out travelling? Wouldn't other people also have specific memories connected to certain places they've visited? I mean, what other reason would you have to travel?

Here's the thing, leading up to my trip to New York, we did a lot of research. We tried to locate places of interest, or rather places we could be interested in visiting. And in this process, I talked with a lot of people who also had visited New York. I asked them: Got anything to recommend? Any places I should try to visit? Anything interesting, out of the ordinary I should know? Any stories of interest to share?

The answers I got usually went along these lines: Oh, you should totally go to see a show on Broadway! Oh, you should totally go shopping on Times Square! Oh, oh, oh... And that Statue of Liberty is worth checking out!

Don't mistake me for an asshole, I appreciated their advice, I took their advice and did see a show on Broadway, I did go shopping on Times Square, and it was great! Sadly I did not find time for the Statue of Liberty.

But these are probably very near the top five tourist attraction of the city, and nothing I couldn't read in any and all tour guide of NYC. No one suggested good areas/museums/monuments/art galleries that I should make an effort to visit. No one suggested specific stores of interest. No one suggested what to say/not say to people. Places to avoid. Mistakes not to be done. No one suggested a good place to eat. No one even suggested what food to try.

Obviously it got me wondering. Am I just as clueless were I to give recommendations on the places I've been?

I doubt I can give specific names and addresses to restaurants, but I'm sure at the very least I can give a suggestion what food to try from all of the different countries I've visited.
Italy: Go to any place that has ice cream and get a stracciatella. Amsterdam: Try the most random pancake you can find. London: go to a pub, order a pie.Visit any restaurant that has swordfish on the menu: Go for it! I guess I'm not breaking any ground with these suggestions, but this is just off the top of my head.

And I know I can share a story or two from every place I've visited, that could be interesting for a potential traveler.

I guess it takes time for people to dig out memories. And I really hope that later that night, these people thought for themselves Oh, I should have really suggested that awesome coffee place over at 14th and second. 

But I'm honestly not sure. Why do people travel, if they can't remember anything from the trip?

Dinner Suggestion: Chicken pot

This isn't as much a recipe, as it is a suggestion for what you can have for dinner. The reason for this is the endless ways you can tweak this dish.

Basically it's raw chicken rubbed with rosemary, along with some salt and pepper. I split the chicken into four pieces, two with thigh, and two with the breast parts. The chicken goes into the frying pan for a little while, and then into the casserole for at least 30 minutes. I also include onion, mushroom and cream. The sweet pepper is there for the color near the end. And that's it.

You don't have to use rosemary as your preferred herb. Feel free to use basil or oregano. Or how about spinach? Or mint? Curry is also an option. The mushroom is optional. How about artichokes or asparagus instead? The cream is optional. How about sour cream or yogurt instead? I used Brussels sprouts, and a simple salad as side dishes. You can add various side dishes like bread, rice, pasta, baked potatoes, mashed potatoes.

The main thing here is a relatively fresh, raw chicken. You can't really go wrong from there. It's easier than you think.

Remember to pour some water into the frying pan, and clear out the good taste that has accumulated. Everything goes into the casserole of course. 

Bacon tip

Just a little tip on this Tuesday. I've previously mentioned a way to get the bacon extra crisp is to cook it in the oven, as opposed to the frying pan. And that's cool, but it really takes less time to fry it. Still, the excess fat makes it less crisp than it should be. Instead of just going straight from the pan onto the serving plate, I let it rest for a few seconds on a newspaper. The paper absorbs the fat, and the bacon ends up super crisp.

Also this Tuesday: WTF?

Cheese Flutes

I'm not actually certain what the proper name for these things are. They are small bread rolls with cheese. I'd call them cheese horns, but I guess flute or bugle could do as well. I'm going flutes. Leave a comment if you think of a better name. 

This is a personal favorite after making pizza. I'm usually left with additional dough, and I'm way too cheap to throw away excess dough. Delicious with cheese, jam, ham, butter, etc. Great for breakfast the day after.
Step on in for recipe and pictures!

Marizpan Confection Makes Christmas (for me anyway)

Again, like last year (and the previous couple of years), I have been making marzipan for Christmas. It's not really difficult, and it makes for great, small gifts. Wrap them up in cellophane, or just in a napkin. Place them in a tiny box, and you'll have a perfect little gift that people will love (unless they're allergic to nuts, that is).

Marzipan is made from almonds, usually. You can use other nuts as well. I have had success using a mix between almonds and hazel nuts. 

I mix ground nuts and powdered sugar with a 60/40 ratio. Use less powdered sugar if you want it more bitter in taste, and obviously more if you want it sweeter. 

Mix this together with a tiny amount of liquid. You can use water if you want, or orange juice. I prefer to use egg white. The egg white makes the marzipan easier to work with, to mold. 

If you want white marzipan, you'll have to remove the shell of the almonds or nuts. There's no quick way to do that. Dip them in boiling water until the shell starts peeling. Simply remove the shell. Easy enough, but now you'll have to let the almonds dry up again. I never find patience to do this, so I simply make the marzipan using the entire almond. 

It looks far less exciting when it's presented like this, but the marzipan balls are essentially ready to be eaten. We're going to cover them in chocolate too. You could also bake them in the oven if you want. 

Now comes the time to be creative. If you want to have a core of chocolate, roasted nuts, jam or fudge, then just wrap the marzipan around. These particular ones are just pure marzipan through and through. 

I continue to dip them in melted chocolate, before I roll them in chopped almonds and hazel nuts.

I also did a batch where I rolled them in sprinkles. This was a disaster - obviously I shouldn't have rolled balls in the sprinkles, I should have sprinkled the sprinkles over the balls. It's all in the word. The sprinkles were assimilated by the melted chocolate and well.. Tasted pretty good though. 

Again, great gifts. Or just a snack that will bring forth that Christmas spirit. 

Enjoy, people!

Dinner suggestion: Chicken-Pasta salad

I made a proper Christmas dinner this weekend, just for the fun of it. The entire kitchen was utilized, all plates on the stove were in use, it took me a good hour to make. It really was fun. But that won't do in the normal weekday. Here's a recipe that will take roughly around 10 minutes, if you time it perfectly: The chicken-pasta salad. 

Start by boiling some pasta. Any will do, but the spiral-shaped fusilli is obviously the best...

Fry some chicken properly. Add spices if you want. I used some oregano and black pepper. 

While you let the pasta cool, slice up some tomatoes and cucumber. Larger bits looks more delicate, in my opinion anyway. 

Add feta cheese if you want. Parmesan will of course also work. 

Oil, salt and pepper, and you're good to go. Pesto on the side, and you have a really simple, quick and tasty dinner. 

Enjoy!

Tomato Sauce Revisited

I'm having so much fun with tomato sauces these days. A rabid fan of customization of... anything, the endless ways of doing tomato sauces brings me delight.

I guess I'm also a bit inspired, after watching The Layover, with Anthony Bourdain. An episode where he visited Rome - a city that didn't really come off as a great place to visit, but one thing stuck: Bourdain's praise of their simple pasta with tomato sauce.

Tomatoes in Norway tastes nothing. Literally nothing. Water with substance. So there's really no other way to use them, than to add taste.

This one had a large portion of onion, maybe two fifths were onion, the rest were cherry tomatoes. I also added garlic, oregano, pepper, salt, a small spoon of sugar and a nice amount of olive oil. I let it cook for roughly an hour. Deliciously chewy, under-cooked pasta, and a few slices of salami makes the entire meal.

Fun, versatile, extremely cheap, and really the only way to use tomatoes that doesn't taste a thing.

How to make tomato sauce

I believe this was the best option with the tomatoes I  got from a friend. They didn't taste enough to use in salad, but ended up being a decent sauce. 

Read on for how-to and pics. 

What to do with Tomatoes?

A friend is growing his own tomatoes, and found himself having literally several tomatoes. He game a few to me, to use at my own discretion.

Now, obviously, I could just eat these as they are. Slice them up, use them in a salad, in a taco, or what ever. But I thought I would use the opportunity to make a completely home made tomato sauce. Not entirely sure where to start, but I'll figure something out. So unless anyone have any objections, these will be sauce by the weekend.

Campfire Bread

This is a fun one, and I encourage you all to go hiking or camping while you still have the weather for it. Winter is definitely coming sooner than later. 

Today, we're making campfire bread. Bring a dough on your trips and make your own bread on the fire. 

Read on! 

How to make mashed potatoes

I expect my sister to let me know how potatos is spelled. I get a red line under the word "potatos", so I guess it's "potatoes", but that doesn't look right either. I'll stick to the one that doesn't set off the spell check. 

Mashed potatoes is extremely simple to make, and there's absolutely no need to use pre-fabricated stuff, that thing has the taste and texture of glue. Keep in mind, you can actually use potatoes to glue stuff, so it's not that surprising. 

But I digress. Read on for how to and pictures. 

The incentive to get started, learn, improve.

I got a request the other day, a person asked me for some advice when it came to the incentive to get started with cooking, to maintain the drive to make home cooked meals, and to improve his skills. I found the questions interesting. This wasn't "help me make scrambled eggs", nor was it "how do I make my fish more interesting". This was something else, and I don't shy away from the chance to get philosophical on a subject I enjoy. It could be toys, comics, or in this case cooking. His questions were more a string of thoughts around his current state as a beginner. And keep in mind, in many ways, I consider myself a beginner too. Like I've said recently, I've still a lot to learn. And even though there are some recipes I master to perfection, nothing is good to the point where it can't be improved. 

This fellow amateur asked me for advice when it came to actually getting motivated to cook his own meals. Maintaining the discipline, and how to improve. He also asked for some of my personal routines for keeping the interest up. 

Read on for my answers. 

Figure Friday: IKEA Groland, and other tools...

First time in Figure Friday, I will feature something else than toys. Well... not your traditional understanding of what a toy is anyway. Because the fact is that I consider these items very similar to my toys.

Read on for an explanation, and for what is quite possibly the greatest furniture ever!