Greco-Italian Stir-Fry

Cooking for yourself, there's often the dilemma of quantity. Sometimes, making just enough for one portion is difficult, since you can't really go out and buy a quarter head of cabbage. Besides, the less you make at a time, the more often you have to cook, the more time you spend cleaning things, etc etc, and sometimes you find yourself not having time to cook at all, staring at a slab of raw meat in the fridge that is completely useless to you at this point in time. So leftovers are pretty much a constant, and this often holds true even when you're not just cooking for one. This recipe was born thanks to a large bowl of leftover Greek salad from dinner the day before. Welcome to the Mediterranean, folks, as we'll be spending the next couple posts here. You are now free to roam about the cabin.

-=Greco-Italian Stir-Fry=-

8-12 shrimp, peeled

6 asparagus spears

4 tbsp butter

2 tbsp Dijon mustard

2 tbsp dill weed

1/4 cup lemon juice

1/2 cup Parmesan cheese

Garlic salt

=Greek Salad=

1 roma tomato, cubed

1/2 green pepper, chopped

1/4 red onion, chopped

1/4 white onion, chopped

1/4 cup feta cheese

1/4 cup sliced olives

1/4 cucumber, chopped

Melt the butter in a medium-large wok and start cooking the shrimp. Add the dill weed, lemon juice, and garlic salt to taste. Stir gently to coat shrimp evenly. Trim and cut the asparagus into thirds (peeling is optional, depending on whether you find asparagus too fiber-y). Add to the wok and cook for a few minutes until tender. Next add the tomato, pepper, onions, olives, and cucumber, cooking until tender but not mushy. Finally, add the cheese and mustard and mix thoroughly, allowing the cheese to melt around the rest of the ingredients. Serve!

When it gets chilly outside....

.....it's the season for making some chili inside. There's probably over 9000 different recipes for chili out there, and everybody has their own secret recipe they swear by. This recipe is not-so-secret (as soon as I post this anyways), relatively simple, and doesn't take all that long, but is still very satisfying. It's a hearty pork-based chili, mildly spicy as written (but you're free to add as much heat as you like)

-="Oinker" Chili=-

3/4 lb pork sausage

1/4 lb bacon

6 tomatoes

20 oz pinto beans

6 oz black beans

1/2 large white onion

1/2 large red onion

12 oz brown button mushrooms

butter

olive oil

2 tbsp dark red chili powder

1 tbsp cayenne pepper

crushed red pepper flakes

salt

pepper

Start off by chopping 4 of the tomatoes into cubes and dicing the other two. In a large pot, start cooking the chopped tomatoes in 2 tbsp butter on medium heat, stirring occasionally. In a separate skillet, cook the sausage with some olive oil on high. Liberally add the red pepper flakes (I used about 4 tbsp) as the meat cooks, making sure to stir often to break up the sausage into small pieces. Add salt and pepper to taste. When the tomatoes are tender, add the beans to the pot, followed by the sausage once it is cooked about 75% through. Turn the heat down to a low simmer. For the remaining duration of this recipe, make sure to keep stirring the pot once in a while to prevent the bottom from burning. Back to the skillet now. Chop the onions and sautee until translucent, then add them to the pot. Chop the bacon, cooking in the skillet until done, but not crispy, and, surprise surprise, add it to the pot. Lastly, quarter the mushrooms and cook in 4 tbsp butter, then mix it in with the rest of the chili. Add the chili powders, along with any fresh chilies you may want to add. Continue simmering for another 10-15 minutes, and you're done.