Colmus Recipes and Blog Disasters

Hello friends. I am sorry for my absence this past week. I was away for a nerd convention, and one would expect such a convention (which took place at Penn State) to have some sort of internet for visitors. This wasn't true, so I couldn't check my email OR update this blog. I came back to Friends Recommend to see what kind of good stuff our Tuesday-Thursday bloggers had for us and saw that it was Recipe Week! My original intention was for the week starting today to be Recipe Week, but something was lost in translation. Since everyone who posted thought last week was the week, I must have done something wrong. I apologize. This might work out well though, since the only recipe I have is from Colmus. I'll post that here today, and if Todd wants to do something tomorrow not related to recipes that would probably be great. A big thanks to Colmus for this. This guys blog posts are some of my personal favorites:

Since I'm pretty sure this Recipe Week mess is partially my fault, I feel honor-bound to submit an entry. I'm sure the history books will show that this week peaked on Monday and careened off the clif like Toonces was at the wheel. But we managed to trick Ricky into giving out his mashed potato recipe, so mission accomplished. (Sorry Ricky.)

Anyway, I don't really have any Knock-Out dishes. Not one. I'm not a dreadful cook, but I'm usually too lazy or theoretically busy to bother with much in-depth cooking. I likes 'em fast and no-fuss. Like my coffee.

But I have picked up a few things in the kitchen that I don't mind passing along. They taste pretty good to me. I'm comfortable with their taste-effort ratio - the "torque" of the meal, if you will. Enjoy.

Quesadillas

Mike Ward might consider me a purist with my spatula and frying pan, but I'll never let a damn machine make my quesadilla.

In fact, the only Recommendation I can make for this simple ethnic treat is in the way that it's cooked. (In a pan, for chrissakes.) You've all probably got your favorite ingredients, and I'm not going to recommend any here because I usually keep mine simple - usually sauteed mushrooms and red onions, with diced jalapenos sprinkled inside. Add an egg if it's before 2pm.

But my endgame goes like this:

Heat an ungreased skillet over medium heat for about two minutes. When it's properly warmed, place a tortilla in the skillet for about 20-30 seconds on each side, nicely toasting them. After you've removed the tortilla from the pan and started heaping your filling in, fold the tortilla over the filling. (Don't do this two-tortilla Mexican Pizza shit.) Drizzle the outside of the tortilla with about a 1/4 teaspoon of olive oil, spreading it all the way to the edges. Then sprinkle with salt, about 2-3 shakes of the shaker.

Carefully slide the quesadillas onto the heated skillet (still at medium heat), oiled sides down. Now repeat the oiling and salting on the newly-exposed other side of the tortilla, and prepare that to be flipped in about a minute-and-a-half to two minutes, just until it's nicely browned. I was pretty surprised by how much something as simply as the oil and salt add to the taste, even for dessert quesadillas (like "King Killers" - peanut butter and banana).

And no goddamn robot is gonna top that.

Roasted Green Beans

Everything tasted better roasted - nuts, vegetables, legumes, Andlers. But the dish I turn to the most often is roasted green beans, mainly because a ton of fresh green beans anyway. They might be my favorite vegetable (narrowly edging out Betty Crocker Mashed Sweet Potato Mix).

Here's my take on it:

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees, and begin snapping off the stems and whatnot from your green beans. (Run them under some water while you're at it.) Put your cleaned green beans in a mixing bowl and pour a tablespoon of olive oil over them, tossing to coat. Then add 1/2 teaspoon of salt and toss again.

Line a cookie sheet with aluminum foil and spread the green beans evenly across it. If you're making a lot, like I do, it might get cramped. Deal with it quickly and move on.

Place the sheet on the lower middle rack of the oven for about ten minutes, flipping them afterwards (or at least pushing them around). These things take to sizzling pretty quickly, and you might notice you can hear them from outside the oven.

Put the beans back in the oven for another 10-15 minutes, removing them when they're lightly browned and pretty well shriveled. (If you burn them, you've got about five minutes to eat the entire batch before they harden. It's totally doable.)

The roasting brings out an almost nutty flavor to the beans, and the salt contributes to that. (You can use a pinch less salt and it'll still taste great, but not quite as great.) Pair this up with some Stovetop Cornbread Stuffing and some leftover birthday cake and you're good to go.

Bon Voyage!