Random Successes

Here are some food adventures I have made lately.  They are too crazy and perhaps complicated to actually include recipes, but I thought I'd share the results

Doro wat, injera bread and abet minch
This is my first stab at Ethiopian food.  It took ALL day to make something that looks pretty much like the worst thing ever.  It tasted pretty good. It was a lot of work, however! We ate it in Washington D.C. and enjoyed it ever so much.

This is my first truly sourdough bread.  It took me about two weeks to get the starter going. This was so tasty. I am going to continue to experimenting making this bread. It's tangy and chewy and the crust is crispy and delicious!

Fettucine with Asparagus and Goat Cheese

Ingredients
1 lb asparagus
2 cans chopped tomatoes, well drained
8 oz fettucine
2 tbsp. butter
2 tsp. garlic, minced
8 oz goat cheese
salt
pepper

Method
Remove woody ends of asparagus. Cut into 1- 1 1/2 inch pieces.
Boil Pasta
While pasta is cooking. Saute asparagus in butter 2-3 minutes. Add garlic and tomatoes and continuing cooking until asparagus is crisp tender. Crumble in goat cheese. Add cooked pasta and toss. Add pasta water to thin as needed. Add salt and pepper to taste.

I suppose you could use cream cheese instead of goat cheese. However, I like the tanginess of the goat cheese.

Jalapeño Popper Grilled Cheese

Oops! It's been more than a year since my last post. That's pretty pathetic. After my sister chided me, I'm trying again.

This recipe came from a random recipe blog, which is sort of like poaching, but hey that's how it goes.

I really like jalapeño poppers, and I really like grilled cheese, voila. It's a bit on the spicy side so beware.

Ingredients

Crusty bread, such as a country French or sourdough
1 block cream cheese
Jalapeños (1 per sandwich)
Pepper jack cheese
Butter

Roast jalapeños on grill, under broiler, or on stove top until skin is blackened. Then place in plastic or paper bag until cool enough to handle. Remove the skin, then cut open and remove the seeds and membranes. Cut into strips. Beware, oh beware, wash your hands after this step!

Spread butter on outsides of bread, then spread a thinnish layer of cream cheese on the inside, layer with jalapeño strips and then a layer of pepper jack cheese.

Grill. Then let cool a couple of minutes before eating.