{easy dinner alert}

do i have your attention?  good.

first mistake i made food shopping today...

going without a list.

second mistake...

going hungry.

it all paid off, though.  if i went with a list i would not have bought tuna, randomly.  the moment i saw the tuna can all i could think of was a tuna melt and mustard.

(don't worry, this isn't about tuna melts).

so, lunch was taken care of.  check.

when i don't go with a list, i also tend to flock to the chocolate and rice pudding area.

can you blame me?!

if i did not go past that area, i never would have discovered the awesomeness of philly cream cheese cooking cremes.

i brought home with me, the italian herb and savory garlic.  even though i had my heart set on making ribs and sweet potatoes, i was super curious to see how this new product would pan out.

and no.  i'm not crazy for opting chicken and pasta over ribs.  

i decided to do the k.i.s.s method for the cooking cream and use the recipe on the back.  

the changes i made were to roast the red peppers instead of cooking on the stove and i added a tad more spinach than the recipe called for.

tad more = 0.7 ounces more.  could be worse, i could have added bacon.   

love.  love.  love roasted red peppers.  25 minutes at 425 degrees, brushed in olive oil.

once all the ingredients are prepped, just add it to the pan.  

save some pasta water to add afterwards.

the biggest, baddest food critic i know gave it a two thumbs up.  

proof is in the pudding, people.  no cookie bribes were made.  i promise:)

and for the princeton folks.  terhune orchard now offers wine. check it out.  surprisingly, delicious.  i'd do a better job describing it, if i knew how to.  

all i know is good, gooder, and bad wine.  

isn't that what matters?

give the philly cooking cream a try.  you will not be disappointed.  

(especially if you wash it down with some "gooder" wine).

have a great night.

jill

guinness is gross...

but it makes one heck of a stew.

a friend of mine brought over a bunch of guinness from her fridge that her fiance left over at her home.  they have been sitting in my veggie drawer for months.  and by months, i mean a year.

i personally think they are gross.

yeah, i'm thinking about dumping it down the drain!

if i'm going to drink a beer, gosh darn it, it has got to have some fizz.

how gross guinness is as a beer is not the objective for this post.

my objective was to find a way to use up these draughts in the spirit of st. patrick's day and share it with you.

i found a food network recipe for beef and guinness stew. surprisingly, i had everything i needed for the recipe in my fridge...and i haven't done food shopping in a week!

changes i made:

1. i added bacon.  
2. i added a tablespoon of brown sugar.  
3. i added semi-cooked, diced potatoes towards the end.

if i had a little more patience and less cleaning to do i would have figured out a way to photoshop my fingerprints off my spoon.  

just keepin' it real.  

cheers, big ears!

stay tuned for some kind of green dessert.  

xoxo

jill

tortilla de patatas

my daughter just had a play-date with two little girls from her pre-school class.  both of the moms stay at home, as well as myself, so it was nice to have adult conversation before noon.

although i wasn't expecting to be fed, i was pleasantly surprised at the lovely lunch she had prepared for us.  a hot lunch.  ftw.

two words:  spanish.  tortilla.

omg.

if i was alone and didn't care about people judging me, i would have scarfed down both of them...with my bare hands.

before i even tasted it, i asked if she had ketchup.

(jill rule #235 says if it has potatoes in it, it must be dipped in ketchup.) i know, i'm so american.

while she was getting the ketchup i took a bite.  i was in heaven.

again.  omg.

for first time in my life, i said never mind to the ketchup.

i need to share with you one of the best any-time meals i have had.  breakfast.  lunch.  dinner.  dessert, possibly.

after doing a little research combined with the advice the hosting mom gave me, i was able to come up with a delicious spanish tortilla.  ugly looking, but delicious.

first thing, first.  there is no actual "tortilla." whether it be corn or flour.  none.  

stick to potatoes like yellows or red news.  from my limited experience i thought russet (what i had on hand) did not hold up well after frying.

use a mandoline. the slicing kind.  not the musical kind.  it will make your slices uniform.  uniform = pretty.

who needs toys when we have cat bowls and mandoline boxes?

he's such a boy.

i neglected to take a picture of him playing with the bowl of yogurt...on my white carpet.

my stove cooks on the hot side, plus with a cast iron pan, i fried the potato slices on medium low.  

fry them just enough so that they are slightly brown on the outside.  lay them on paper towels.  yes, meli...this is when paper towels are better than cut up bath towels:)

once all the potatoes are done, toss in garlic and onion.  saute until soft and translucent.  

layer the cooked potatoes in a circular pattern around the pan. 

add your egg/milk mixture.

shake the pan gently to get the egg in between the potato layers.

i had a major fail.  i walked away to change a diaper and the pan got too hot.  the bottom stuck when i went to flip.

so, what you should do to make the tortilla flip easier.

• be sure to have enough olive oil coating the pan
• stay away form cast iron.  go with non-stick.

this is the general idea of what the spanish tortilla should look like.  i tried.

this is what it is suppose to look like.

here's the recipe i followed.  well...at least i tried to follow. 

have you tried spanish tortilla before?  was it authentic?  part of a tapas meal?

i feel like i'm the only one who has never had one before.  

i'm so uncultured.  sigh.

love to hear your experience with it.

thanks for stopping by,

jill