Fried Zucchini

Sometimes you’re really hungry or feeling super snacky. Sometimes you don’t have any “junk food,” but you want, nay, need some salt. Here’s something you can do.

You’ll need:

-1 zucchini

-3/4 cup flour

-1 tablespoon garlic powder (oops)

-enough olive oil to cover the bottom of your skillet

-salt and pepper to taste

Go ahead and slice your zucchini in pieces that are about a half inch thick. Growing up, my parents made this all the time, but Dad liked to slice his really, really thin. If you want to taste the meat of this vegetable, go a half inch or larger.

Put those slices in a bowl in some water, just to get them moist.

Put the flour and garlic powder (mine was a total accident, you guys. I wanted to put just a dash, but the lid went crazy and A LOT poured out. I didn’t mind) in a smallish dish, maybe big enough to hold two slices of zucchini at a time. This will save you flour.

Warm your skillet on medium, then add the oil.

Take each slice of zucchini and press it into the flour mixture, flip, and press again. Add to the warm oil  

Once the skillet is full, sprinkle all the slices with salt and pepper.

Let them do their thing for about 4 minutes, then flip and do it again.

When you’re done, they’ll look kinda like this: 

Don’t forget that paper towel (even though I hate them), there’s going to be some grease.

A word of caution: those suckers are going to be super hot. And super hot forever. Be patient. Enjoy.

(Fine. Dip them in ranch. I knew you were going to anyway.

BBQ Pulled Pork and Egg Sandwich

Stop everything you’re doing. You’re going to want to eat this.

If there’s one thing I love to make, it’s a sandwich. If there’s another thing I love to make more, it’s an egg sandwich.

This morning I was super hungry and checked the fridge. I saw the container of left over BBQ pulled pork that my mom left yesterday. I had one, lonely egg in that huge cardboard container.

Here’s what I used…kindof.

Start by preparing your bread, either in the pan or in the toaster.  I like to use a grill pan to make my toasty bread, but you can always just use a toaster. The advantage to the grill pan is the amount of delicious butter you get to add to get the bread toasted. The trick is to time the perfectly done toast with the perfectly done egg. Once you master this, you can do anything.

Make sure your skillet is on medium and pretty warm before adding about 2 teaspoons of olive oil. Let that warm for a minute. Crack your egg and let it do its thing.

I like to let it cook for a minute or two on one side. When the white looks mostly solid, I break the yolk with a fork and guide it around the egg to get a nice even flavor.

Note: my egg is a little too brown on the sides for me. If it bubbles and gets crunchy, your oil and pan are too hot.

About this time, I just warmed up the pork in the microwave. Mom tells me that they used Sweet Baby Rays BBQ sauce.

You’ll notice in the picture at the top, there’s a little olive jar. Last week, I added thinly sliced onion to the leftover brine of some garlic stuffed olives. It’s one of my new favorite things. Try it.

Once your egg and bread are cooked to perfection, go ahead and add your pulled pork and egg. I used mayonnaise (because I just can’t get enough), but this time, I left out the Sriracha. I wanted to be able to taste all the ingredients. And I added a few slices of the olive brine onions. I considered, briefly, adding some sort of mustard, but something told me not to. I’m glad I didn’t. I also considered adding some bread and butter pickles, but I thought I’d wait until I tried it first.

The sweetness of the sauce and tangy salt of the onions were incredible together. The sandwich didn’t last long.

For the the finale, I fished out one bread and butter pickle from the jar with my fingers.

It was perfect.

Hotel Room Tuna Melt

While out on my archaeology job last week, I was fortunate enough to have a kitchenette in my hotel room. If you’ve every done this sort of work, you’ll know how lucky this is. Well, it was nearing the end of my job there, and I really wasn’t feeling the idea of going to buy more groceries if I was leaving soon. To add to that, I’d been watching those survivalist shows on cable, so I was pretty far into my head about how good I was at utilizing the resources I had around me.

I checked the fridge: cheese, bread, butter. A grilled cheese. I saw a tomato. Yes. Add tomato. And some onion. Yes. Always.

So, I started making my grilled cheese: 2 Tbps. Butter (let’s be honest, you use this much anyway) 2 slices of bread (I had something kinda healthy) I had some extra sharp cheddar in a block, so I sawed off enough to cover the bread.

Put half of the butter in a skillet that’s been warming on medium. Swish that butter around to coat the pan. Put in both pieces of bread and move them around to make sure they’re covered in butter. You can turn the heat up now and let those pieces get nice and brown.

It’s this part during the process that I spotted one of those lunch pack tuna kits. I’d bought several for work out in the field. When you’re miles into the woods, it’s always good to have extra calories. I mixed up one of those kits; they come with mayo, but I added a little extra AND chopped up some onion and threw in there. I always keep sriacha on hand, so I put some in there, too.

Once the pieces of bread are brown on one side, flip one over. Add the cheese to the warm side of the toast and add the other piece with the warm side on the cheese. I like this method because it helps to melt the cheese quicker and more evenly. Brown your grilled cheese, then flip.

After my plain ‘ol grilled cheese was done, I just opened it (gently) and added the tuna mix along with a slice or two of tomato and a little extra onion. Boom. Hotel room tuna melt.

Hotel Tuna Melt

-2 tbsp butter

-2 pieces of bread

-Three thin slices of extra sharp cheddar cheese (any cheese you love or have in your fridge will be fine)

-one tuna lunch kit

-2 slices of tomato sriacha or any hot sauce, to taste (if you love it)

-extra mayonnaise if you’re a fiend

*This pairs well with Lucy’s Hot Pepper Ale by Weston Brewing Company*