Amazing Grilled Tomatoes

Posted on 06/03/2013 by Walter Blevins

This is that time of the year when the grill gets a workout.  The weather in most parts of the U.S. is great and the outdoor grill beckons.

Some of us use the grill year-round because it’s easy and fast—and because it doesn’t get the kitchen all messed up, hot and smelly.  And the grill is great for more things than just charring meat.  You can literally do the whole meal on the grill.

grilled tomatoes & squash plated

One of our favorites is pork loin chops with a glaze of mayo and Beaver Sweet-hot Mustard.  It’s an incredible combination and one I’ve written about before.  http://www.cheap-bastid-cooks.com/grilled-loin-chops-with-mustard-glaze/

And increasingly we like more and more grilled vegetables.  So last night that was the whole meal—grilled loin chops and grilled vegetables.

So today, it’s all about the simplest part of this meal—grilled tomatoes.  If you’ve never grilled tomatoes, let me just tell you that they’re a treat.  It’s super simple, quick and cheap. Continue reading →

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Spicy Mexican Carrots

Posted on 05/23/2013 by Walter Blevins

You may have noticed—or you may not have noticed—that Cheap Bastid hasn’t been doing much cooking or recipe posting lately.  That’s not a rumor.  It’s a fact.

I don’t really know how these big muckety-muck foodie-bloggers manage to post every day with hundreds and hundreds of recipes.  My problem is two-fold.  I have to work to afford to eat and selling cars for a living not only takes a lot of time but it also seems to kill every creative brain-cell.  The second thing is that I’ve got a lot of recipes that I’ve written about and sometimes I like to cook and eat a dish again—rather than making it once, writing about it and then not cooking it again.

I’m just saying.

spicy mexican carrots done

So, onto the topic of the day—Spicy Mexican Carrots.  One thing we like about getting Mexican food is the side of hot carrots that usually comes in a plastic bag with our carry-out carne asada burrito.  This is something you’re not going to get at Taco Bell or other franchise eateries.  We love ‘em—and in true Cheap Bastid fashion I thought to myself—“Self, you can make these.  It can’t be too hard and it’s got to be cheap.”  Continue reading →

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Homemade Hawaiian Rolls

Posted on 04/02/2013 by Walter Blevins

Know what I like about baking?  It’s a little bit like Forest Gump’s “box of chocolates”.  You’re never sure what you’re going to get.

It’s a little bit messy.  You’ve got to be organized and a bit more systematic.  It’s like different kinds of art.  Baking is a little bit like “paint by numbers” because you really can’t go too far outside the lines while cooking is a bit more like abstract art–free-flowing and intrepretive.  But that’s way too philosophical.

Let’s put it this way–I like baking and find it relaxing as I escape into mixing and stirring and kneading then anticipating the tasty results.

So for Easter, I was thinking about some sort of bread to go with the dinner.  But, it needed to be something that would compliment the saltiness of ham, the gloppy starchiness of mashed potatoes and the texture of a vegetable dish.  I wanted something that would come out soft but with a bit of flavor.

Homemade Hawaiian Rolls

Continue reading →

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Cheap and Easy Calzone

Posted on 03/19/2013 by Walter Blevins

We love to kick back on the sofa on Friday nights, paper plates of pizza on our laps, feet up on the edge of the coffee table to watch some TV and relax—enjoying one another’s company and feasting on some tasty pizza piled with meat, vegetables and cheese.  No matter what other kind of food a person likes, pretty much everybody likes pizza.

I’ve been putting off making calzones because we enjoy our homemade pizza so much, but quite frankly doing the crust on a calzone is actually easier than working the crust on a pizza into the right shape and size.  I really envy those guys at the pizza joints who can fling the dough around, spinning it in the air and have it come out smooth, shaped right and without any holes.

But I can roll out the crust on a calzone and get really good results shaping the disc into the right size to create the filling stuffed turn-over.

Cheap and Easy Calzone

Some people like to buy pizza dough from a pizza restaurant or like to use ready-made frozen dough or even frozen bread dough.  If that’s what you want to do, be my guest.  I’ve gotten so that I like to make my own dough and it only takes a few minutes to mix everything and knead it.  Here’s my recipe for pizza dough:  http://www.cheap-bastid-cooks.com/homemade-pizza/ Continue reading →

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St. Patricks Day Fried Cabbage

Posted on 03/09/2013 by Walter Blevins

It’s Saint Patrick’s Day “season” where once a year everybody channels their inner Irish, wears green and partakes of Corned Beef and Cabbage.  We put on this year’s broadcast of “A Quiet Man”—seemingly the definitive movie about Ireland starring that famous “Irish” actor John Wayne—and enjoy our celebration.

But how many of us actually like cooked cabbage?  Let’s get a bit more specific, how many of us like cabbage that has been boiled…and boiled…and boiled until it’s this soggy mass of pale green nearly void of both texture and taste?  It seems as though we suffer through it once a year to go along with the theme of the day and then wash it down with an obligatory green beer.

fried cabbage and sausage2

Mrs. CB turned me on to a different way of cooking cabbage that retains some “crunch” and a bit of flavor and doesn’t slither down your throat when you swallow.  She fries it, and we have found that the wok is the perfect utensil to use to make this quick, easy and (best of all) cheap dish to go along with St. Patricks Day Corned Beef.  Actually, this recipe has opened up the possibilities of cooking cabbage more than just once a year. Continue reading →

Posted in Comfort Food, family meals, frying/sauteeing, vegetables | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments