Hot Pockets

Somewhat small calzones. The salami ones need a lot more filling. I think they should be stuffed and juicy and somewhat dripping ingredients. I don't know. The calzones I had were two meals. And they had a lot of ingredients like a burrito. I haven't tried one of the meatball types yet.

  

This batch made a dozen.

  

sweet-potato, zucchini, yellow squash

Fried in generous butter, drizzled with balsamic vinegar, boom, salad dressing right there.

This is so good, I want more immediately. The meal that leaves you wanting more. It'd make a great starter.  The zucchini and the squash fill your whole mouth with flavorful moisture. 

Fried sweet potato seen on Diners: Tokyo Stories. I guess sweet potato in Japan is white. What then heck, this works very well. A lid is used for the pan and water poured in to steam up inside there and guarantee the sweet potato cooks through. It goes fairly quickly. 

broiled ham and cheese sandwich, sourdough bread

Croque monsieur, translates to "Mr. Crunchy." 

Sourdough bread follows.

scrambled eggs, avocado, tomato, olives and meatballs

Ground beef

grated onion

grated garlic

grated Parmesan cheese

tomato sauce

Worcestershire sauce

curry powder

finely cut basil leaves.

I should have added breadcrumbs to absorb all the stuff that leaked out.

Baked at 350℉ for ten minutes.

Three eggs are scrambled as a partially failed sauce. That is, stirred and scraped continuously over moderate heat, lifted off the burner more than on the burner until a generous chunk of cold butter melts and light curds are allowed to form. Then, cold sour cream is whipped in off the heat to arrest the cooking and the scrambled eggs have been thickened without drying by overcooking. They are very wet and they can be poured over toasted English muffin or over toasted sourdough bread, or a muffin. 

The eggs are beautiful and silky and sexy. I mean it. Do this and your date will go, "Hey, what's with you anyway? Are you a chef or what? Who even does this?" Chefs do, that's who.

If you ordered this in a restaurant they'd charge you $15.00 for its singularity. They'd figure they have the market cornered. And they would. Because where are you going to get this? Amuse-bouche curried meatballs? Come on!

stromboli

I liked the first one a few days ago so much that I made it again. 

The dough is made a little more sturdy with a few tablespoons of semolina flour. It's common to add it to pizza dough. Most places will use high protein bread flour. That's the way to go. Both of mine split open by rising so much during baking. 

It doesn't matter which meats you choose. This is all Boar's Head, and it's all very good cheese too.

This time I spread a few tablespoons of tomato sauce, making a few lines thinly layered over the meat.

Parmesan is pressed onto the surface and it really does contribute significant flavor when it toasts.

pork cutlet breaded and fried, green beans, tomato with basil

These cutlet are too thick for my purpose so they are sliced in half. This would have been easier a little bit frozen.

dredged in light flavored flour, drenched in beaten egg, dredged in panko bread crumbs pushed into it.

If you ever happen to see this balsamic at the grocery store, in jars smaller than usual, then buy it. It is the best balsamic short of the outrageously aged types that I've tasted.

Tonkatsu on Japanese menus, a pork cutlet breaded with panko and fried.

The sauce is catsup with Worcestershire, mustard, garlic powder, and black pepper.

banana, blueberries, raspberries, cornflakes

hamburger, handmade buns

hominy grits, applewood bacon, fried egg

Hominy

chicken sausage with sage and cinnamon, coconut rice

cabbage with bacon and onion, pecans and raisins, homemade cranberry sauce

The idea is to make cabbage taste like something else entirely. Because cabbage is basically gross. For me that means sweet/sour/heat, plus anything else that strikes your fancy, anything else you have on hand. I wish I had apple. 

* onion sweated

* half a small cabbage

* fennel seeds

* brown sugar

* apple cider vinegar

* cayenne pepper

* sat

* bacon

* pecans

* raisins

Cranberries have a lot of pectin. They have four little air sacks inside and with a little water they pop when they cook. An emersion blender can smooth them but I left them rough and I left a few un-popped. The mixture thickens as it heats and solidifies when it cools. They're fun to cook because they're active and they change visibly right there. 

* packaged cranberries 

* water

* brown sugar

* ginger

* cayenne

* cinnamon

* scant clove

easy enhanced macaroni and cheese

* the whole jar of cheese dip

* sweet corn

* hot jalapeños 

* 1 LB dry macaroni

* rough cut onion

* only 1/3 of the 1lb hamburger is used
* three thick slices of smokey applewood bacon

This is two small hardboiled eggs pickled in bread and butter pickle juice, minced. 

* garlic powder

* cayenne

* turmeric

thin French fries

These are cut very thinly from two small potatoes and deep fried in oil twice, the first time in lower temperature, the second time higher and more briefly to dehydrate.

chocolate custard

butter burger siders, homemade soft potato bread slider buns

stromboli

The dough is 20% semolina flour to toughen it up. This is the opposite of hamburger bun dough that is 1/3 potato to soften them. This is pizza dough. 

The dough can be bought at the grocery store or from a pizzeria. But I do not understand dough-making aversion. It's easy and it's fun and therapeutic. You can feel it change in your hands and that's satisfying.

BBQ pork and hot roasted Hatch chiles.

My onions are more burnt than caramelized but they're still sweet and very good.

Sliced mozzarella minced mustard chicken thigh and roasted red bell pepper.

I should not have cut such deep slits in the dough. This was an error. The log expanded in the oven and tore through the slashes causing a side to break away and cheese to ooze out onto the pan.

I don't have marinara sauce, nor tinned tomatoes in a small size, nor tomato paste, nor sun dried tomatoes. I do have a large tin of imported tomatoes but I don't want to open it for this so I'm using this tomato and roasted red pepper soup instead and it is a satisfying substitution. I could jazz it up with Worcestershire, brown sugar, vinegar, ginger, mustard and the like but I don't care to.

I forgot to rub the log with oil and I forgot to include leaf basil but that hardly mattered. I like this oversized hot sandwich a lot.