House of Bren: Single Girl Cooking & French Cookbook Winner!

HomeMade Pasta Sauce

Fun, fun news.. my awesome web developer Joey has created an internet TV channel for me! He totally surprised me with it today. I then noticed he made a few changes to the look of FE TV, over there on the right . I invite you to take a lookey over there and tell me what you think about the Plantain demo…all others can be seen on the channel by subscribing to the podcast through one of the feeds, either via iTunes or preferably, Miro.

An unapologetic disclaimer: why the hell does it look like I gained 10 lbs? I’m not even playing! I was so disturbed by the unforgiving camera, I almost didn’t put the vid up. Any of them for that matter. In comparison to my real life body, I swear I look like a caramel fudge ball! Edible, but damn! Do you see what I see? I hired a trainer yesterday as a result. He kicked my ass in the first session and told me I need to lose 6 pounds. So here I am, praying for strength to stay away from green tea ice cream and sushi for 6 weeks.

On to real issues.

I hate cooking for myself. You’ll find me at Chipotle quite a bit every week. They now know me by last name. That sounds crazy, right? I mean how does a PC with a catering company end up at some McDonald’s owned enterprise?

Well the truth is that it’s quicker to go out sometimes. And considering my tight schedule, cooking for mi misma becomes some what of a chore. I so hate to admit that. It’s inexcusable, really. But I’ve analyzed the situation and decided the only way to curb that hate is one of the following:

1. find a boy toy tomorrow so I can start cooking for the guy in exchange for a Fendi bag or those new Rayban’s, or what ever tickles my girl fancy (once a month); opening a new gift every so often will surely inspire me to chop like a fool at home.

2. to hell for cooking for some undeserving man and just make really fast and simple food–FOR ONE.

Pressure cooked beans, skewering pork chops, pulling flank steak, 24 hour marinades, all day chilling for Grand Marnier flan? Save that for paying clients and family get-togethers.

A few weeks ago, I was faced with being really hungry, but incredibly lazy to get dressed to find some food. Even Chipotle wasn’t fast enough. So I looked at my fully stocked fridge and made the unthinkable (well, to me): Espageti, as my mom would say.

Spaghetti!

I don’t really get into pasta like I used to. It’s been about 4 years since I’ve really indulged in noodlemania. Why? My aunt and I took my father out to this really nice Italian resto in DC for his b-day. I was so eager to eat the butternut squash ravioli. The ambiance was sexy, even for lunch with papi and the food had been generally excellent up until then.

I licked every bit of sauce off my plate it was so good.

I wake up the following day with excruciating abdominal pain and debilitating headaches that lasted an entire week.” Dr. did you just say food poisoning! What the hell?” Ooh I was so livid. I called the restaurant in a mad fury and complained. “Sorry ma’am but our food has never made any one sick. We’re sorry, but there’s nothing we can do”.

Bastards.

That was the last time I ordered pasta at a restaurant.

So back to my at home cooking dilemma. I hate jarred marinara and like even less having to spend time doctoring it up. This leaves me with no choice than to make my own.

I like getting my hands dirty in the cocina, especially when I have loads of time and lots of hungry people to feed. However, whipping out the KitchenAid to make my own, is yet again too much work for just myself. I rely on Barilla (wheat) brand for that.

But the sauce. I love making my own marinara. Nothing fancy or gourmet. I just feel cool when a great and savory marinara is ultimately rendered and deliciously coats the starch. This one is a quickie of sorts. Fast, good and straight to the point! If you’re cooking for self but don’t want to sacrifice a healthy choice and utter goodness, I offer you this. It’s very meaty with the mushrooms, has great aroma with the basil (I love love love fresh basil), and has kick with the cayenne but counterbalanced with the sugar! I made two batches: one with a can of already seasoned diced tomatoes and one without. Both were damn good!

Maybe for just 20 minutes, you’ll feel my joy in being single!

GARLIC & MUSHROOM MARINARA

Ingredients:

3 medium tomatoes, peeled & chopped
1-8 oz. can of plain or Italian seasoned diced tomatoes, optional as a filler
1/4 c. extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp. red wine vinegar
1 c. fresh mushrooms, diced
1/4 c. green pepper, chopped
1/4 c. red bell pepper, chopped
2 tbsp. red onion, diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
4 green and purple basil leaves, chopped
1 tsp. sugar
2 tsp. fresh oregano or marjoram, roughly chopped
1/2 tsp. cumin
1/2 tsp. black or cayenne pepper
salt to your taste

Preparation:

In large skillet, heat olive oil and add tomatoes. Cook on medium-high for 8 minutes or until tomatoes have cooked down. Add can of seasoned diced tomatoes (optional). Mix in vinegar. Add onions, garlic, all peppers, cumin, oregano, sugar and pepper and stir. Cover and let cook for 6-8 minutes. Add basil and let uncovered for another 5 minutes. Dazzle with a bit more olive oil if desired.

Serves YOU!

And finally, I owe one of you a cookbook, don’t I? I was supposed to have done this last week but I got tied up with party business. So, for those of you that tuned in and left comments on the respective post, here is the grand winner of the Culinary Institute of America’s newest cookbook:

Amy of We Are Never Full was selected by a cool random number generator I used in Google! Congrats to Amy, one of my first loyal readers! Thanks girl!