Kinda Sesame Noodles

Serves 2-4
½ pound cold cooked spaghetti
¼ cup sesame oil
1/3 cup smooth peanut butter
1½ tablespoons white or rice vinegar
½ teaspoon red pepper flakes
2 tablespoons sugar
1 cup broth or water
1 minced jalapeno, seeds and veins removed
2 cucumbers, chopped (salad bar)
2 scallions, trimmed and minced
¼ cup minced cilantro
Toss spaghetti with the sesame oil. Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour.
In a large bowl, combine remaining non-vegetable ingredients. Add the cold spaghetti and toss well. Add the cucumbers, scallions, and cilantro, toss and serve.
You could add cold shredded chicken and or thinly sliced cabbage or lettuce.
Add hot sauce or more red pepper flakes, if it’s not spicy enough

Hearty Chicken Noodle Soup with homemade Chicken stock

Serves 4 to 6.
Stock
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 pound ground chicken
1 onion chopped
1 carrot chopped
1 celery rib chopped
2 quarts low-sodium chicken broth
2 bay leaves
2 chicken breasts

Soup

1 onion chopped
2 carrots chopped
1 celery rib chopped
8 ounces tagliatelle
Salt and Pepper
Dried English mustard


For the stock:
Heat oil in large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add ground chicken, onion, carrot, and celery. Cook, stirring frequently, until chicken is no longer pink, 5 to 10 minutes. Reduce heat to medium-low. Add broth, bay leaves, and chicken breasts; cover and cook for 30 minutes. Remove chicken breasts and set aside. Continue to simmer stock for 20 minutes. Strain stock through fine-mesh strainer into large pot.
For the soup:
Brown onion, carrots,and celery in oil. Add broth to vegetables. Add pasta and continue to cook until pasta is cooked. Shred chicken meat with fingers or 2 forks. Add shredded chicken, Season with salt and pepper; in the bottom of each owl put 1/2 teaspoon or so of dried mustard. spoon soup over mustard and serve.

Eggplant “sandwiches”

1 small eggplant
Garlic
Feta Cheese
Cherry tomatoes
Olive oil for cooking
Good olive oil for drizzling

Preheat oven to 350

Slice “hips” off opposite sides of eggplant and then slice lengthwise into three or four sections.

Chop garlic

Chop cherry tomatoes in half and salt them.

Heat pan over medium heat and sauté

Eggplant in olive oil until tender. Drain on paper towels.

Sauté garlic for one minute then add tomatoes and stir until they start to break up

In oven proof dish or sauté pan, layer eggplant slice, top with garlic and tomato and then crumbled feta. Top with eggplant slice

Once all are assembled, place in oven for 15 minutes. Rest for 5 minutes

Serve with salad

1-2 servings

half hour

Pasta with Eggplant Sauce

Easy but exotic

1 or 2 eggplant(s)
Salt for salting eggplant
Lots of cooking Olive oil
1 recipe worth of Lonely Guy Sauce
1 pound pasta

If you have not already made Lonely Guy Sauce, do it now.

Slice eggplant lengthwise into 1½" slices. Salt well and stand in colander of sink for ½ hour. Rinse well and dry on paper towels.

Put water on to boil for pasta. Add oil to skillet and sauté eggplant all on sides until well browned (even blackened). Don’t crowd the pan, so this may take several batches. Drain on paper towels.

When cool enough to handle, cut eggplant slices into 1 1’2" cubes and add to fully cooked warm sauce.

When pasta is done drain, return to pan, pour sauce over pasta. blend and serve.

I don’t like parmesan with this recipe.

2-4 servings

45 minutes

You could add red pepper flakes. You could add Anchovy paste.

Kinda Mu Shoo

Cutting some corners here, but end result is close enough

Packaged Cole slaw mix, rinsed and drained
2 cloves garlic chopped
1 bunch scallions, cleaned and cut finely
1 package firm tofu, cut into ½" cubes and drained on paper towels
Hoisin Sauce
Flour tortillas
Cooking oil

Heat Oil in large sauté pan until hot

Add Cole slaw mix and sauté until softened. Add tofu and stir to mix and warm.

Warm tortilla in microwave according to instructions.

Spread 1 TBS Hoisin on warm Tortilla. Spoon on veggie mix. Fold up one perpendicular side and roll up crossways.

2 servings

20 min

You can add chopped ground beef, pork or lamb or leftover chicken instead of tofu
Could also add scrambled egg.

Peas and bacon

1.2 slice of thick bacon, cut into 1/8 inch squares
1/2 package of frozen peas

The sweetness of the peas pairs nicely with the saltiness of the bacon.

I use the thick slab bacon as it has better flavor and texture. After you open the package, separate bacon into two slice stacks and wrap with plastic wrap and freeze. It will keep indefinitely in the freezer and you can take out whole slices or just cut off some as in this recipe.

Brown bacon pieces in sauce pan until dark and crunchy. Add peas and stir to coat in bacon fat. remove from heat and let peas cook for a couple of minutes.

Yum Yum

Many Mushroom Stew

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon butter
1 pound assorted mixed mushrooms (cremini, shitake, even button) cut into largish pieces
1/2 cup chopped carrot
1 onion, chopped
garlic, minced
1/2 cup red wine
1 cup broth
Black pepper
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 tablespoon anchovy paste
1/4 teaspoon thyme
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
Papardelle or tagliatelle

Heat the one tablespoon of the olive oil and one tablespoon of butter in a sauce pan over high heat. Sear the mushrooms until they begin to darken and turn dark color on the edges, about 5 minutes. Remove from pan.

Add more olive oil. Add carrots, onions, thyme, and lots of black pepper into the pan and cook for 3 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the onions are lightly browned. Add the garlic and cook for just one more minute. Add flour and stir until it turns to paste. Add Tomato paste and Anchovy paste and stir to mix

Add the wine to the pot, scraping any stuck bits off the bottom, and stir until alcohol smell is gone, a couple of minutes. Add back the mushrooms with any juices that have collected and the broth. Simmer for 20 minutes, or until mushrooms are very tender.

Season to taste.

To serve, spoon the stew over a bowl of cooked pasta.

Serves 4

Great with peas and bacon.