Good Stuff

These are some blogs we follow daily (or, well, whenever we don't have 50-pagers hanging over our heads):

Making Love in the Kitchen

BranAppetit

Zesty Cook

Simply Recipes

Recipe Girl

Canned Tuna with Peas

Submitted by soroberts:

Ingredients:

• Splash olive oil
• Can of tuna
• Splash tomato sauce (pasta sauce is fine)
• Dash curry powder
• Dash salt
• Dash pepper
• 1 squeeze of mustard
• Big dash oregano
• 1/4 red onion, diced
• 1/2c frozen peas

Directions:

1. Heat olive oil in pan and add onion. Sautee until the onion starts to turn translucent and add everything but the tuna.
   
2. Once that's all nice and hot, mash the tuna up a bit, add it and cook for a few more minutes or until the tuna has heated up and absorbed the flavors. Voila!

Ricey Puddin'

Submitted by soroberts:

"Let's say you got some Chinese food. Great! But you have crappy Chinese takeout rice that is not so great. Well, you can make ricey puddin' with it! This recipe is easily generalizable, but the units used will assume you have the amount of rice that comes in a Chinese takeout container."

Ingredients:
~ Puddin' Base ~

• Milk (twice as much as rice)
• Rice (from crappy takeout place)
• Sugar of any kind, 3/4c. If you use maple syrup, 1/2c. This is highly recommended.

~ Recommended Extras ~

• 1 egg (optional; will make the pudding thicker)
• 1/2-1c raisins (optional; will make pudding more delicious)
• Rum (optional; will make raisins and pudding more delicious)
• Vanilla (small splash; to taste)
• Nutmeg (small dash; to taste)
• Cloves (small dash; to taste)
• Ginger (small dash; to taste)
• Cinnamon (big dash; to taste)

Directions:

1. Put milk, sugar and rice in a BIG pot. The more surface area the milk has, the better! Heat this concoction and get to work on your extras.
2. Put raisins in a bowl, pour enough rum in there to cover them, and stick in the microwave for 1 minute. Take the raisins out and let them sit. In a few minutes, for extra-plump raisins, repeat this process once they start to cool off. (If you don't like the taste of rum and want plump delicious raisins anyway, use water.)
3. Is the milk boiling yet? Give it a stir. Keep an eye on the milk so it doesn't form a gross skin. Nobody wants that.
4. Dash spices in there as desired; there are some recommended ones above.
5. Once the milk really starts to boil, stir it near-constantly, making sure to scrape the bottom of the pot. If you don't, milk will burn on down there and whoever's on dish duty will hate you. Add raisins if you have 'em; an extra splash of rum in the pudding won't hurt, either, if you are fond of the flavor.
6. After a while, the milk will stop making real bubbles and will start making craters. If you are choosing to use an egg, crack it directly in there and stir it up really fast. You should notice the pudding getting a little thicker all of a sudden. If you are not using an egg, skip this step completely; once the pudding starts making craters it is done.
7. Remove from heat and stir for a little while longer; it's still too hot to eat and you might as well help some of that water vapor escape. Once it's been sitting and you've been stirring it for a little while, you should notice that when you scrape the spoon or whatever along the bottom of the pot, it leaves a clear path that doesn't fill immediately. HOORAY! Pudding achieved!
8. NOM. Get housemates to do dishes.

Everyone Loves Quesadillas

niclark submitted the following:

Ingredients:

• flour tortillas (one per quesadilla)
• avocados (1/2 to 1 per quesadilla)
• cheese, grated or cut into small cubes (we used sharp cheddar cheese because that's what we had on hand, but many cheeses would work just as well)
• a wee bit of butter (optional)
• garlic powder
• onion powder
• cinnamon
• balsamic vinegar
• lemon juice (optional)

Directions:

1. In a small bowl, mash up the avocado. Mix in equal parts garlic powder, onion powder, and cinnamon (a pretty heavy dash of each), a splash or two of balsamic vinegar (a little goes a very long way), and a small splash of lemon juice.
   
2. Melt a little bit of butter in a medium or large skillet (large enough to fit your tortilla), or just bring the skillet up to medium-low heat without the butter if you want.
   
3. Put the tortilla in the skillet and let it start to brown a little bit. Flip the tortilla and sprinkle on the cheese.
   
4. When the cheese just starts to melt, add the avocado mixture. Fold the tortilla in half, then cook for about a minute on each side.

Optional delicious additions: diced tomatoes, diced red onion