Wine: It's What's For Dinner

Greetings fellow boozebags,

Let's just all agree that wine is swell.  It's great for cooking, you get to use fancy glasses, it's good for your heart (in "moderation", whatever that means), and it's a great gift for people whose personalities you don't care about but you can't show up to their home and eat all their fancy cheese without a little barter.  Is that just me?  I love fancy cheese.  I ain't even sorry.

Anyway, wine.  It's lovely.  Now, I happen to be a broke ass mutha trucker, so the wine I drink usually costs around $6.99 per bottle, maybe $12.99 if I want to impress somebody.  However, I do try to give slightly nicer bottles as gifts around the holiday season (to people I do care about and know them well enough to know they love booze).  **cough** Jaime **cough**.

If you want to give the gift of booze or just get fancy drunk by yourself, here's a great article from the New York Times featuring 20 Autumn Wines for $20.

Go forth, enjoy, and get drunk.

Peace & Vino,
Mel

Thursday Night

I spout a lot of shit about "healthy foods" and "food is fuel" and "vegetables", so I feel it is only right to share that last night, not only did I not cook or prepare one gd fresh piece of food, I stuffed myself with this:

and also this....

I also did nothing but watch two seasons of The League on Netflix.  

I regret nothing.

Happy weekend,

Mel

Everyone Stop Eating My Favorite Stuff

Hey guys,

I'm wicked serious today.



 Alright, look, I'm a pretty low maintenance, zen kind of gal**, but this shit is getting ridiculous.  Although Buzzfeed has given me 40 adorable reasons to be happy about it, I'm not okay with this bacon shortage.  You know why?  I mean, other than the fact that bacon is the crack of foods.  Even my vegetarian friends are like, "dude, bacon smells sooooo gooooood!".  That's a true story.  But back to my rant.

Bacon is just the latest in a long line of my favorite foods to be caught in the midst of a shortage scandal.  First, coffee, then strawberries and salmon, now bacon and that's just the tip of the shortage iceberg.  This is simply unacceptable. 

First of all, are we such greedy, greedy, bastards, that we need to make this?

Bacon shortage?  Color me shocked!

Look, I don't want to get all preachy on your interweb asses, but can't we all enjoy our favorite things without gluttonous, environment-destroying behavior?  Everybody just be cool, know where your food is coming from, and take care of the planet.  Plants and creatures should not be in shortage because of human greed and blissful ignorance.  Let's all play nice and share the bacon....

That sounds dirty, right?  Like hide the sausage?  Ew, anyway....

Here are some links I like that teach me about this stuff:

For information on fishes and seafood, visit the Seafood Watch site

For general environmental news and information visit the Environmental Working Group

and, for veggie-friendly recipes and tips (eating less meat really is good for you and the earth), visit Meatless Mondays

Alright, no more ranting about food, unless we actually do run out of coffee, then god help you all.

Peace, Love, and Bacon,
Mel

** I'm only low maintenance is my mind

Mental for Lentils

Hi food eaters,

I threw some sh*t in a bowl and it was delicious and I'd like to share it with you.  One word: Lentils.  A few additional words: garlic, feta, arugula, in my face.

First, giving credit where credit deserves to be given, my inspiration was found here.  The original recipe, found on Epicurious, sounded delicious, but I did a few modifications based on personal tastes and the ingredients at my disposal. 

Lentil & Arugula Salad w/ Feta & Cherry Tomatoes

You'll need:

2 cups brown lentils
2 cloves garlic (mashed to paste)
1/2 cup olive oil
1 cup arugula leaves
1 cup cherry tomatoes (cut in halves)
1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese
sea salt (to taste)
lemon juice (optional)

Boil lentils until tender, but still firm (15-20 mins).  Whilst the lentils boil, mince & mash your two garlic cloves into a paste and mix with 1/2 cup of olive oil and a dash of sea salt.  Drain lentils, mix with olive oil, and let cool.**

Mix in arugula, tomatoes, and feta, and serve.  I also squeezed half a lemon over the salad.  I love citrus.

That's it.  Easy, breezy, filled with protein & fiber, and delicious.  In fact, lentils are pretty badass.  You can read more about them here.

**Technically, I should have let the lentils cool completely (3 hours minimum), but frankly, I didn't have that kind of time, so my bowl of lentils only cooled for about 40 mins.  The salad was served warm and it kicked ass, as did leftovers for lunch.

With my lentil salad, I served lemon & chive seared salmon, toasted pita bread, and a wonderful bottle of cheap Prosecco.  It was amazing.  The meal was overall one of the best I've accomplished.  It scored high on the nutrition, taste, and thrifty scales, which is really all I hope for in life.**

**that's a lie.  I'm a total greedy biznitch.

Here are some pictures:

Garlic paste & olive oil

My boyfriend "helping" me cook dinner.  :)

Fin