The solution to all your week night meal problems: Tuna Cakes

    There's been so many times when I've looked in my fridge at sighed at the slim pickins' I have. It's always this: capers, bacon, a block of Parmesan cheese, eggs, mayonnaise, lemons, whole yogurt. When I'm at the bottom of the barrel with veggies usually all that's left is green onion and cilantro. Ok, so I have yogurt. I have some herbs, I always have Dijon. I always have canned tuna. TUNA! TUNA AND CRACKERS! TUNA CAKES! Tuna cakes are basically a "poor man's" crab cakes but super delicious. You can eat them with a salad for lunch or as a main course for dinner with some vegetables.

       I had yogurt and mayonnaise. I combined the two with some Dijon, basil, Tabasco, and salt and pepper. There I had a great little cream sauce to go on top.
       I thought of college kids when I created this recipe. I recall my college years when we would all go to the supermarket together. We had no choice but to go as a group simply because only one of us had a car and the market was too far to walk. We would do a massive food haul. Stuffing the food into the fridge was always like figuring out some cryptic puzzle. You would never believe how much food can fit into a regular sized refrigerator. You would also be surprised to see how little amounts of food college kids can live off of and how creative their meals can become. Ram en with a poached egg was a staple lunch in our college house.
     So this recipe is for the University kids. There's plenty of health depletion and deprivation going on during those times but a descent meal shouldn't be one of them. So go on. Smoke those cigarettes, drink that coffee, pull those all-nighters and chug that beer. But don't skimp on good food.

Here is the video for tuna cakes

Tuna Cakes              serves 2

1 can tuna in water or oil, drained
1 egg
1/4 onion, copped fine
1/2 lemon, squeezed
10 saltine crackers, crushed
1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon mayonnaise
3-4 shakes of Tabasco
1/2 teaspoon Old Bay Seasoning
salt and pepper to taste
flour for dredging
Olive oil and 1 tablespoon butter

- Combine all the ingredients except the crackers and mix.
- Add the crackers and mix. Cover, and refrigerate for 1/2 hour.
- Form 4 patties and gently dredge them in the flour. Meanwhile, get a pan hot with butter and oil.
- Fry and each side for 4 minutes. If it's browning too quickly, lower the flame. Serve with lemon or cream sauce. Enjoy!

*** This recipe is very adaptable. Substitutions are welcomed!***

Chicken Piccata with Spaghetti

 Domenic recently brought home a giant bag of yellow lemons. Though this may seem normal and dull to most people, it's quite exciting for me and many Westerners living in Taiwan. Why? Because the lemons here are green. The lemons here are sour. The lemons here are bitter. The lemons here are lacking in aroma and citrusy goodness. I don't mean to sound  so harsh but lemons are on my top 3 most important ingredients to cook with and, well, the green ones just aren't the same.

  So I need to use these wonderful yellow lemons of mine before they go bad. I'm not really a baker and I'm expecting Dom (hheemmm heeemmm Dom I know you're reading this) to make lemon meringue pie. So I opted for some good ol' Chicken Piccata. It's a super simple, one pan kid of dish and it always tastes amazing. If you like sour, and little salty, and fresh flavors this dish is for you. It's one of my all time favorite meals. I hope you enjoy it too.

Chicken Piccata           serves 2-4

4 Chicken Breasts, pounded thin and dusted with flour
3 tablespoons of butter
olive oil
1 1/2 lemons, squeezed
2-3 tablespoon capers
1 cup white wine
1 1/2 cup chicken stock
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 quarter onion, diced
2-3 tablespoon parsley, chopped

- Melt 1 tablespoon butter and olive oil in a pan. Add the chicken. Cook 2-3 minutes per side and remove.
- To the same skillet, add the capers and dry for 30 seconds or until slightly crispy and browned. Remove from the pan.
- Add more olive oil and butter to the pan. Add the onion and saute 1 minute.
- Add the garlic, saute 30 seconds.
- Add the wine, chicken stock, and salt and pepper to taste.Keep this at medium high and boil for 10 minutes to reduce by half. 
- While this is happening, boil and cook the spaghetti.
- Add the lemon juice, 1 tablespoon butter that has been dipped in a bit of flour, and add the chicken back to the pan. Cook 2 minutes. The sauce should thicken slightly.
- To finish, add fresh parsley, slices of lemon and the fried capers.
- Serve with spaghetti and some fresh grated pecorino. Enjoy!

February Favorites

Happy March! February is officially over.I thought I'd gather together some photos, links, and happenings of all sorts that I enjoyed from this past month.

Let's talk music for a bit. I love The Beatles. And really, who doesn't? I especially love George. He's always pulled at my heart strings a bit. Those deep, dark eyes. That sexy, tousled, man hair. He looked so mysterious and tortured. I wanted to shake him and say, "George, everything will be alright! You have Krishna and Krishna loves you! Me! I love you!"

 I'm getting off track about the music part here. So he made excellent....and I mean excellent solo music. Recently I've been bringing it back into my life. The Traveling Wilburys were great and so were their hair!

I also love his first solo album, "All Things Must Pass". Please bring good ol' Georgey back into your life as well. Thank you. 

Next. Let's talk books. Now, my boyfriend would laugh if he heard me say this. Simply because I spend so many hours on youtube and the internet in general. To be honest, I've been on this terrible, "no reading kick" for a while. Specifically fiction. I just keep feeling the burning desire to read recipes! That's all I ever want to do! What a loser. With that said, I am reading. Just not in the way you'd think. My nose is not shoved into any Game of Thrones or The Hunger Games book series. No sir-ee bob. There's no time for that. There's only time for Jeff Smith.....the dorkiest man alive.

To those of you who aren't food weirdos, Jeff Smith was an American t.v. chef who had a series called, "The Frugal Gourmet". About 3 years ago I was at a Salvation Army digging through the cookbook section. I have a terrible habit that I will certainly never lose of hoarding vintage or older cook books. I found, "The Frugal Gourmet Cooks American. I was immediately drawn to the creepy cover and you will be as well!

Why is he holding this turkey like a pet? He's just going to eat it soon. Why is the old lady and the boy behind her so...uummm.... well I'll let you fill in the blanks. And how about the massive array of boy scout badges! I guess I'm Un-American but I hated girl scouts.  I quit right after Daisies.

Anyway, The book is great. It's filled with interesting facts about ingredients that are indigenous to North America. Ingredients like, Maple syrup, pumpkin, sweet potatoes, turkey. He also has a cute, little sense of humor. I would love to sit down and have dinner with him. We'd talk about food for hours. Something I wish I could do with everyone but I don't want to scare people off.

Next, let's talk fashion a bit, shall we? I freakin' LOVE creepers. To those of you who are unfamiliar with these beautifully, hideous pair of shoes they look something like this:

Or this:

Or last...drroooolllll....this:

I bought my first pair of creepers when I was in 10nth grade. They're similar to the mary-jane ones you see in the middle photo except mine had metal studs, which is way more bad-ass. I wore the hell out of them. And then I wore them in college when they were sooooooo not cool to wear. My friends thought they were tacky, and they are. And I love my friends because even though I know they thought it, they didn't actually say it. So I opted for yet another pair of mary-jane creepers but this time, no studs and less......creeperish? It took me a long time to get past the stud thing. I didn't stop wearing my studded belt for God knows how long. To be honest, I brought my belt with me to Taiwan because I just couldn't part from it.

 Ok, here's where we get into current creeper news. A few months ago, I went to the night market with my friend, Catherine. We were looking for some shoes with big platforms to embellish. I stumbled across a beautiful black and white pair of creepers (very similar to the top photo). I had to get them. Something came over me. My inner teenager who loved pop-punk, ska, and shitty local indie music was yanking me towards them and saying, "You can still do this, Brittany! It's never to late to wear tacky,wonderful, amazing, sexy, shoes!" So I gave in. My friend (once again) thought they were hideous. In fact, I think she thought I was joking at first. I said, "Just watch, Catherine. In a few months, they'll be all the rage." I was half joking but now whenever I check out fashion blogs and what not they are, in fact all the rage. I don't know whether to be indifferent, happy, or bitter about that. But any who, I love my creepers. I shall forever wear them even though they frighten my boyfriend and perhaps my friends. And DEFINITELY my sister. 

Last, I'd like to say R.I.P. to my faux leather jacket. It was lost at Domenics staff party early this February. I did my best to find it but it's gone forever. I think it was stolen but maybe that's the hyper paranoid New Yorker in me. What the hell else could have happened?  I bought a replacement that's kind of similar in style but it will never be the same. It was my favorite article of clothing and I felt super cool wearing it. See?

super fly

Ok folks! That's all for my February Favorites. What are some of yours?