Praha, Pivo, Prosim

While this isn’t a dedicated food blog, the last two entries have been food-related so today I’m continuing the trend….

Green/mixed salads aren’t impossible to find here but not as many places have really good salad options so in the past week I’ve been throwing together a few random ones to compensate for my lack of veggie eating.

I hit up Tesco last night and bought the requisite ingredients. I had no specific salad in mind but I bought what looked good and knew I would make something ‘on the spot’ when/if I needed/wanted it.

First, I sliced up 2 red peppers and 3 small zucchinis. I tossed them with dried rosemary, salt/pepper and olive oil. Into the oven they went. 200-ish C until they are soft enough for your own liking.

While the vegetables were roasting, I made a vinaigrette. Mandarin oranges were on sale so I sliced off a sizable section and squeezed it into a jar. Some zest was also added. Salt & pepper were added as was dried rosemary, sunflower oil, olive oil and some apple cider vinegar. Shake, shake, shake….shake your booty.

The other ingredients of my salad included: baby spinach, mixed greens (Iceberg & radicchio), cherry tomatoes, cucumber, eidam cheese, salami, mandarin slices, and a hard-boiled egg. I’m a big fan of meat & hard boiled eggs on salads–I realize some are not into it but whatever–my salad!

Said salad was assembled and drizzled with the rosemary mandarin vinaigrette.

All in all, a rather tasty salad–and colorful, too!

MORE FOOD……

From the Smitten Kitchen, I read about a super EASY recipe. I usually find tomato sauces a bit too tangy (therefore I tend to add other ingredients to balance out the tang) but this one was SO SIMPLE I had to make it.

Strange though-it really IS as good as the other food bloggers said. I’ll certainly be making this again.

I modified the plain pasta with some leftover brown-sugared bacon I had made a few days before. I also added heavy cream to the mix to make a ghetto carbonara. Yes, I know carbonara IS a sauce so I essentially had two different sauces on my pasta but alas, this girl likes sauce!

And since I just mentioned it, here’s the brown sugared bacon I made last week. In a thread on Reddit, someone posted the merits of preparing bacon this way. Dude, it works. Yum. *Basically just get some thick-sliced bacon and sprinkle brown sugar over it. Put it into the oven and cook until it’s as crispy (or in my preference, floppy) as you like. Voila–salty, sugary, fucking delicious bacon!

Other random stuff… last week there was a festival/carnival in town. These festivals are quite frequent but with varying themes. Last week was Eurokarnaval… different bands (or ensembles? not sure on this one) from all over Europe came to town and played their stuff. Each group had their own theme/wardrobe…. One group was dressed like cavemen, another looked like wizards while yet another were all dressed like giant babies (yes, BABIES).

The guy from this group was very enthusiastic and fun to watch. His group did covers of Hush, Radar Love & Paint It Black. Good stuff!

Cavemen–complete with layers of fur!

In other news, it’s Saturday. I’m not working. Therefore, it’s time for pivo. Pivovarsky Klub here I come!

I have a weakness for breakfast food. I do–fact. I admit it. Admitting a problem the first step in recovery. I can’t say with certainty that there is some reason why I have this love/love relationship with breakfast items, it just IS. It’s kismet; it’s fate. Maybe it’s because my Mom never really made big breakfasts when I was a kid therefore, when I did have them, it was eggy carbo bliss. (and still is….)

On the weekends, I usually find myself whipping up some random breakfast. With a grocery store SO close (we’re talking a one minute walk), it’s really easy to buy stuff in no time at all. And even though I ain’t got no wheels, it’s no big deal. Transportation in this town is a breeze. It’s fast and efficient. That said, I don’t even need to use the public transportation to lug groceries back to my flat. It’s that close. Good times.

So, today was a day of pancakes. No, not from scratch. I could do it but I had a nice package of mix (sent from the land of the stars & stripes) in the cabinet. As Americans, we love syrup on our pancakes. It is delicious. No denying this sentiment. However, a bottle of syrup is about 200Kc here ($10+ yes, really) and I cannot justify the expense for something that I can’t/won’t use regularly. Instead, I whipped up a tasty (but ghetto) alternative to syrup. In a heated pan went some butter (duh), brown sugar, honey and a bit of cinnamon. When it was nice and melted I added it to a few tablespoons of Jif peanut butter. The heat makes the mixture pliable/stirrable (is that a word?). Also in went a bit of heavy whipping cream. Voila! A semi-spreadable peanut buttery pancake topping.

Many times I’m an ‘on the fly cook.’ Simply meaning, if I see an ingredient I’ll often try to use it–especially if it’s produce and about to go ‘bad.’ Wasting food is exactly that and I don’t really have a flexible enough budget to not care that I’m throwing away unnecessary amounts of food. So, with some leftover button mushrooms I decided on an omelette. I sauteed up the mushrooms with deli ham and tomatoes. When the omelette was ready to be ‘filled’ I put in the sauteed mixture and topped it with Eidam (cheese). Voila–nstant omelette!

Marks & Spencer (British store) has a nice grocery/potraviny. Here is proof that porridge really exists; it’s not just in that children’s story. By the way, it’s just oatmeal.

You may be surprised to know that I do have some flaws. Shocking, I know. But impulse shopping isn’t on this list. Well, ok I take that back. I’ll impulse shop at the grocery store but not really at a shopping mall. Exorbitant and flashy expenses aren’t usually my thing. This next item gets a check mark in the ‘impulse shopping at Albert’ column. I bought this ONLY because of the dumbass name. By the way, this is basically store brand Coco Puffs. And yes, I do eat them.