roomie bonding

I’m baaaaaaaaaaaaaack!

And really by “I’m back” I mean “my camera cord is back”. I’m actually delighted to’ve had a little bit of a break in blogging, because now I’m remembering how much I lurve it! Get excited for this post- it features ludicrously easy recipes for ghetto student apartments.

I’ve broken up the past few days into themes.

Number one: I HAVE A ROOMMATE WHO LIKES FOOD! OH THE JOY! She is awesome. She is awesome for several food related reasons (and for other non-food related ones, but, yknow, food blog).

#1: They always have free food at the business school library where she works.

Then she brings it home. Thus, the roughly dozen bagels currently in our freezer. I had one with REAL cream cheese (! the roomie is one of those naturally skinny intuitive eater chicks, so she has REAL cream cheese, mayo, etc. in our fridge so I’ve been eating them too!) and lox. Luuuuuuuuuuuscious. As you can see, I dug right in before photographing :D

 

#2: Her Mom sends her awesome recipes, and we have family dinner. Presh!

 

Mama’s Mac n Cheese

16 oz. rigatoni

8 oz shredded cheese (we used a reduced fat Cheddar-Monterey preshredded blend)

milk of your choosing

Directions: Preheat oven to 350*. Cook the pasta in salted water just shy of al dente. Put the pasta in a casserole dish with half the cheese. Stir to combine. Pour in milk until it reaches roughly halfway up the pasta. Sprinkle the remaining cheese on top. Bake for one hour.

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm! Comfort food! I made fabbity fab farmers market green beans on the side, with garlic and tomato. The roomie had her pasta with ketchup, I had mine with Sriracha. All were delighted.

#3: She appreciates my cooking.

To reciprocate for Roomie Dinner #1, I made Roomie Dinner #2.

Easy Peasy Pork Tenderloin

8 oz pork tenderloin (pork tenderloin was on sale, so I froze half and took the rest)

1 apple

little shmears of honey and mustard

salt and pepper

Cut your tenderloin half into four medallions. Working with one medallion at a time, put it between pieces of plastic wrap and pound it thinly (you could use a mallet, or, as I did, just a heavy pot).

Slice your apple into thin slices (I did it into quarters, then cored it, then cut each quarter into quarters.

Put your apple slices on a broiler pan with tenderloins on top (as displayed above) and add salt and pepper and then smear the pork with honey and mustard to taste.

Broil for 4-6 minutes per side to your desired degree of tenderness.

SO SIMPLE. SO TASTY!

With beautiful sweet corn, MMMM!

Finally, one last piece of roommate bonding:

following a great and noble tradition of I’m sure countless other young women, our first night in the place, we had no cooking implements, and I’d been sitting on a train for 8 hours after waking up at 6 am.

Thank you Beijing Cafe :D

That’d be a #10 combo of the chicken with broccoli, with the accompanying hot and sour soup and MOUNTAIN of fried rice (which I turned into rice pudding!)