YELP!

I made a new Yelp list that I’ll try to update every time I find a distinctive eatery out here in Steak Country. (Trust me, mankind, man cannot–and should not–live on steak and mashed potatoes alone!)

KS for the Foodie

It always baffles me when people come into Amics and stare at the menu as if it were written in Chinese. Aside from the fact that salads and sandwiches are named after famous artists (which, judging by peoples’ pronunciation, nobody in KS knows anything about art… Matisse, is it that hard? ) everything is pretty straight forward. A “pretzel roll” is a roll made out of a pretzel. “Sun-dried tomatoes” are tomatoes that have been dried out in the sun. OK, I won’t judge you if you ask about pesto or aioli. Not everyone’s a cook, I get that. But it’s not like our menu is full of fanciness. An olive is an olive. A green pepper is a green pepper. To use the popular internet acronym I only recently learned the meaning of….. SMH.

SFAS

Secrets From a Stylist (the first episode of season 2) is on tonight! I don’t know the time, but it’s on HGTV so check your TV guide. If you have cable, please watch it so she gets good ratings and doesn’t get cancelled. If I had cable, I would so plan my whole evening around it….

Fake it ’till you Bake it

Inspired by my new friend Libby’s blog about teaching yourself to cook through trial and error, I made something experimental, cute, and ultimately fabulously delicious last night. Brace yourselves for…. baby lasagnas, or lasagnettes, and I called them:

I started with some Barilla lasagna pieces, soaked 5 min in boiling water (to speed cooking time). I didn’t have an appropriately-sized baking dish, so I used my little Corningware ramekins (so cute! so french!). I cut each lasagna piece in half so as to make a square. Then I sauteed one diced tomato and 1/2 diced onion with olive oil, dried basil and oregano, and fresh rosemary (be careful! a little rosemary goes a long way!). I also threw in some zucchini, ’cause we have a TON to use up (did I mention the zucchini was almost 3 inches in diameter?). The cheese I used was mozzarella and “Italian blend.”

The layers went like so: Pam (to prevent sticking), lasagna piece, tomato mixture, mozzarella cheese, zucchini circle. Lasagna piece, tomato mixture, cheese. I used the Italian blend on top because it browns prettier than mozzarella.

Throw in a pre-heated oven (350 degrees) and bake about 20 minutes! The ramekins will be hot. Just a disclaimer.

Did I mention it was delicious? One thing I learned though: it was hard to eat the zucchini circle. The flavor it added was good, but next time I’ll chop it up to make it more bite-sized.