These Nachos Built This City

The Cheapest and Best Nachos Ever
Tostinos - Hint of Lime chips
Generic 3 Cheese Taco Blend
Salsa verde
Chipotle Tabasco sauce
tomato
One white onion
Pickled jalapenos
Refried beans
sour cream

So, I put two layers of the lime chips in a baking pan (and an extra layer went in my mouth) and I dolloped refried beans on them. The thing about refried beans is that they taste fine from a can but when they're actually in the can they a)smell like wet shit and b) are watery which makes the shit smell worse. Take them out, put them in a bowl, and whisk 'em around with a form until the consistency is good and even. THEN put little dollops all around the chips.

Layer with cheese. Lots of it. Even when you put a ton on the post-baked chips will seem like they need more. Sprinkle on jalapenos and chopped onion. I chopped mine very fine since I'm not a fan of the crunch but more of the flavor. Cheese it again and bake.

My chips were on foil in a baking pan and went in at 350 degrees for 12 minutes. When they pop out all warm and bubbly top with a huge restaurant-style dollop of sour cream and drizzle the whole deal with some of the Chipotle Tabasco sauce. YOUR NACHOS ARE WIN.


These are the nachos about a minute in to Boyfriend eating them. He was devouring them and I said, "wait I have to take a picture!" He said, with food in his mouth, "Okay, but I won't stop eating." So here they are, already demolished, at a weird angle since he was double fisting them and it was hard to get the computer camera in there.



Win Sauce Sandwiches
Contrary to the name, there is no sauce involved. Only win
A thick, hard loaf of bread
A couple of eggs
Shredded Parmesan cheese
olive oil or cooking oil
Slices of another cheese, swiss was good
yellow onion
red pepper
mushrooms
fresh garlic

So that there is the frame of the sandwich. What you put in it is up to you but Emily and I put her mother's homemade meatballs. Browned with rosemary and butter, then squashed flat. You can also make tofu-balls with crumbly tofu, breadcrumbs, spices, and egg. Ham might be good, as would a Morning Star chicken patty. Options are endless. But here's the rest of the sandwich.

Cut the bread in to thick, happy slices. Make them sturdy. Scramble the egg in a dish and soak the bread completely in egg. If you did it right, one egg should be equal to about two slices of bread.

Throw the egg-soaked bread in a ziploc or other plastic bag and pour the cheese in. Shake it like a Polaroid. The cheese should stick to the bread thickly. Then it's safe to throw in a skillet with a little oil and pepper.

Put the bread in an already warm skillet. There's a little rule that anything that hits the frying pan should begin to cook right away. Don't move the bread around, don't flip it, leave it to simmer on medium heat for about 8 minutes. If you can life it straight up and the cheese on the cooking side is brown, THEN flip it and leave it the fuck alone. Moving it around will screw up the cheese crust.

Put your bread off to the side somewhere safe to cool. Then, in the same skillet, start cooking thinly sliced onion, red pepper, minced garlic, and mushroom slices. Let them get all soft and brown then throw them on one of the bread slices. Follow that by some sliced swiss cheese and your sandwich is ready for whatever filling you want. Ham? More cheese? Tofu? Throw it on, press the sandwich on the grill, and enjoy!!!

(I tweaked my sandwich a little by not cooking it in olive oil but in some Newman's Own Parmesan Garlic dressing. That added a great flavor.)

Vegetarian Notes of the Day: Most refried beans are not vegetarian. I know what you're thinking, "But Haeyoon! WTF.". Pinto beans are usually made with pork or bacon drippings. That's why Chipotle's pinto beans are NOT vegetarian. Use black beans if you're looking to avoid animal products. This is one of those 'Surprise! It's an animal!" moments, like Jello and Thai Noodles.

Random Pot Soup

Since I started blogging on a semi-professional weekly basis Rainbow Grab Bag has suffered. I know I can't keep up with a weekly recipe and so I am going to give you some special ones I've cooked up recently and a few ideas to make up for my sad, sad hiatus.

THIS SOUP I MADE TODAY
Today, I made a soup. After over a year of making soup on a daily basis I feel like I know a thing or two about soup. However, once I had all of the pans in front of me, I panicked a little and started making things up on the fly. This is what happened:

Pot 1:
A large silver cooking pot. I chopped up an onion and 5 cloves of garlic were minced. I let them simmer and turn slightly brown in a big 'ol unmeasured gulp of olive oil.

Pot 2:
A small black pot where I cooked up a handful of penne pasta.

Pan 3:
Here is where I simmered the meatballs. Yes, you read right. Fucking meatballs. Beef, rolled with breadcrumbs, onions, spices, and some parmesan cheese. They cooked on low in a pan filled with olive oil and browned rosemary/sage/red pepper (I let them get really crisp and brown on the outside. They were of mini-size).

Pot 4:
This pot was filled to the brim with chopped potatoes, diced carrots, and minced broccoli florets. They boiled with water and a whole ton of salt.

What did I make? I made a really, really poor (and creative) man's version of Italian Wedding. I threw the strained veggies in with the onions and garlic and stirred. Then the pasta. I then added 5 cups of water, 4 bullion cubes, and salt/pepper. Then, my secret crazy made-up roux:

2 cups milk, brought to a slow, roiling boil
1 cup grated cheese
1 handful of flour
whiskwhiskwhisk and dump it in the pot.

Serve in a bowl with halved meatballs and a little cheese on top. So much win. So filling, and you can freeze it to last for YEARS.

I've got a whole bunch upstairs in the fridge now, as I type this, and I want more but my stomach cannot take it. Just 1 measure cup of this soup destroyed me. I was warm and full and happy and my tongue was burned.

I didn't measure a single thing throughout this soup and neither should you. Throw in pinches and handfuls of whatever you want. I used tons of salt, more than enough pepper, a little dill, rosemary, thyme, basil, and red pepper flakes. And it was all good. Spices are meant to be experimented with.


As you can see here, I did not get my degree in Food Photography. This unappetizing thing is my delicious soup. Take my word for it, it was pretty good.