Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Dinner: Impossible

I love Michael Symon.

But man... watching tonight's episode of Dinner: Impossible (much like watching the "block party" episode of Top Chef last season) I was getting distracted by the whole "invade the neighborhood kitchens" thing.

Please, hold one for my block!!

You want shrimp? I got shrimp. I know enough not to let you take my nasty frozen scallops. got crawfish. I have fresh lemons, leeks, mushrooms (2 kinds) asparagus, broccoli, tomatoes (I did stop at the Farmer's market), prosciutto.

Pantry basics? How about some tomato confit and homemade veal, chicken and shrimp stock. I also have a bag of frozen lobster shells I need to deal with.

Dry pantry? About as many types of pasta as you can imagine, extra bottles of olive oil, extra bottles of balsamic vinegar. I also have just about every type of vinegar you can imagine. Don't get me started on counting all the various mustards I have.

It'd be a dream for me to have someone else come in and take all this stuff and make something beautiful and fantastic for a crowd with it, without me having to do it (or clean things up, as I am particularly cursed today and dropped an egg on my kitchen rug and then broke one of our old Vegas shotglasses).

Sigh.

Stoopid TV.

4 comments:

JJ (Lady Di) said...

I know what you mean. I made a recipe last night that was a frugal pantry-style recipe. As we sat down to eat it, I realized that I don't think I made it quite how the author had it in mind. I used oil cured olives that were in our refrigerator. Thanks to WW I keep whole wheat pasta on hand. Instead of lemon juice I decided to use vinegar and had to debate between red wine or sherry. I added some red vermouth too. I also added a touch of anchovy paste and a fresh tomato I had laying around too. I must admit I didn't have the fresh parsley called for but I did have a whole container of baby spinach. It was very tasty. :)

JJ from the CLC board
http://dibranchia.livejournal.com

Hurricane Mikey said...

Hmmmm.... Checking my pantry... I see I've got peanut butter, tortillas, olive oil, canned tuna, Rotel tomatoes, honey, flour, angel hair pasta, canned mushroom stems & pieces, diced green chilis, four boxes of corn muffin mix, a can of Chunky soup, tabasco sauce, and a case of diet coke w/lime.

In the freezer, I've got a bag of boneless, skinless chicken breasts and some brown & serve sausage patties.

It's gonna take some sort of culinary genius to make a decent meal out of that mess.

Unknown said...

Pffft... that one is easy. Cook the chicken breast, then make a sauce either with the Rotel and chiles or Rotel and mushrooms. Serve the chile version with some cornbread, or the mushroom version over the pasta. Or the sausages and Rotel over the pasta. Or tuna mixed with some pasta, spices and a little olive oil and the drained Rotel. Any of those would be tasty....

Marilyn said...

I like the contents of your pantry.

I just cleaned mine out yesterday and had to through out quite a bit that had gotten lost in the weeds. I miss my last pantry that was only a foot deep, but was three feet wide and floor-to-ceiling. Wonderful. And the one I had before that was four feet deep and three feet wide and floor-to-ceiling. When cleaning out that one, I once found a long lost tribe living in the back ;-)