3 a.m. party grub

[Mayhaw Man]

Yogurt and whatever cereal I've got-the more sugary and delicious the better.

Fage and Captain Crunch (with ORIGINAL Crunchberries-not those namby pamby blue things that aren't fit for consumption even by the drunkest of individuals) is a fine late night combination.

And then there are always canned biscuits, which, really, if you can handle oven operations, are a treat anytime. Lots of butter and jelly and you are all set. Just remember to wash your face before you go to bed.

[Reefpimp]

I think the most interesting thing I made was some asiago and roast garlic covered-n-smothered hash browns. It would have been a lot better if not for the cigarette ashes under the cheese.

[christine007]

  A trip to Burger King followed by a crying jag.

←

Oh, Sweetpea!!! Sit down. Nothing at Burger King is THAT bad. (Unless that creepy King person was on display).

Oh, My. I hope you're all better, and that it was a one-time thing, all in the past.

And like I said: Breakfast.

←

Thanks Racheld!

The crying jag was bought on my by the company I kept rather than the food.

[Daniel]

Well this might be a wierd one..This wasnt at 3 am, it started being made at midnight and was left to cool and be eaten around 2.. With the left over delivery Thai food rice, I made rice pudding for me and my buddy.. Also had on the side a small pitcher (about a cup and a half worth) of caramel..

Pudding with lots of vanilla..

[racheld]

←

Oh, Daniel!!! More DIVE-food when I've just now got CC's hummus shampooed out of my tresses.

Just to slide right out of that pitcher, spinning gently down the golden flow of caramel

PS I tattled on your fried lettuce/smoked eel sandwich over in the BLT thread. I'll bet everybody's coming to have a look. They love your concoctions.

[TongoRad]

I'll fill you folks in on something it took me until my late 30's to realize about the wee-hours belly-filler: that greasy, protein laden, junk that you think will satisfy your inner core will only serve to make you lethargic and crash. Sad, but true. The best thing that I have found to eat while pulling an all-nighter card game, or whatever, is a lentil salad with tons of fresh parsley and goat cheese. It not only fills the void, but is invigorating to boot (provided you want that sort of thing...).

[Shannon_Elise]

I've lost count of the number of times I've stumbled into a convenience store looking for Circus Peanuts and Beef Jerky.

Now, when it comes to cooking food at 3 a.m. for myself, I usually have an odd craving for brown basmati rice and I usually combine it with whatever fresh herbs I have growing in the pot on the porch or I'll grill a piece of fish with some cumin seed, lime and pepper. However, I got home from an event in Columbus called "ComFest" a couple days ago with a very large contact buzz and found that the cravings were completely different from an alcohol fueled-hunger pain. With that sort of buzz going on, I melted a Valrhona chocolate bar and dipped chocolate chip cookies I had made during the day in it. Of course, I fell asleep in mid-dip and woke up the next morning with a major mess to clean up.

Shannon

[racheld]

The best thing that I have found to eat while pulling an all-nighter card game, or whatever, is a lentil salad with tons of fresh parsley and goat cheese. It not only fills the void, but is invigorating to boot (provided you want that sort of thing...).

←

And where does one find that lovely concoction? Maybe in the pantry with all that foie gras and duck confit you guys always seem to have on hand?

[racheld]

  It would have been a lot better if not for the cigarette ashes under the cheese.

←

How on earth did I miss this sentence??!! My nominee for sig-line of 2006.

[TongoRad]

The best thing that I have found to eat while pulling an all-nighter card game, or whatever, is a lentil salad with tons of fresh parsley and goat cheese. It not only fills the void, but is invigorating to boot (provided you want that sort of thing...).

←

And where does one find that lovely concoction? Maybe in the pantry with all that foie gras and duck confit you guys always seem to have on hand?

←

You plan ahead, of course. That's why I posted it

Funny thing is- the first time I made it I was just trying to make something tasty that could be consumed without really interrupting the flow of the game (and yup- by 'all nighter' I mean until dawn). Then as we started eating it the looks started going back and forth to each other with comments like "hey...this is actually making me feel...good. Really good!" - which is a long way off from the usual groans and cave man noises that nachos and the like would bring forth. It has now become a 'thing', although the games have become more scarce (and planned months in advance, plenty of time to boil some lentils ).

[racheld]

I'll see you one poker game--all nighter, if you will, and raise you a Grandma weekend with a seven-year-old whirlwind. Please post the recipe. I need the energy. Besides, she loves to cook.

[TongoRad]

Okay- I fold. Here's a basic recipe, though there's always plenty of room to play around with something like this.

1 cup uncooked lentils

1 bay leaf

a pinch of salt

water as required

- Gently boil the lentils in the salted water (yes- salted) with the bay leaf until just tender but holding their shape. They can get mushy pretty quickly near the end so they need some babysitting at that point. Drain and run under cold water in a strainer. Place in a mixing bowl.

1/4 cup diced roasted red bell pepper

2 TBSP diced celery

2 TBSP diced onion (rinsed in a colander prior to use)

at least 1/4 cup chopped parsley

Add to bowl with lentils

1 1/2 TBSP lemon juice

3 TBSP Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Salt and pepper to taste

Whisk dressing together and add to salad. Gently toss.

When done add at least 1/4 lb. crumbled goat cheese to the top of the salad. Stir in at service.

Note: the measurements were done off the top of my head and may not be precise (the dressing in particular), so there may be either too much or not enough. Anything but 'just the right amount'

Enjoy your weekend!

[Lan4Dawg]

Okay- I fold.    Here's a basic recipe, though there's always plenty of room to play around with something like this.

1 cup uncooked lentils

1 bay leaf

a pinch of salt

water as required

- Gently boil the lentils in the salted water (yes- salted) with the bay leaf until just tender but holding their shape. They can get mushy pretty quickly near the end so they need some babysitting at that point. Drain and run under cold water in a strainer. Place in a mixing bowl.

1/4 cup diced roasted red bell pepper

2 TBSP diced celery

2 TBSP diced onion (rinsed in a colander prior to use)

at least 1/4 cup chopped parsley

Add to bowl with lentils

1 1/2 TBSP lemon juice

3 TBSP Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Salt and pepper to taste

Whisk dressing together and add to salad. Gently toss.

When done add at least 1/4 lb. crumbled goat cheese to the top of the salad. Stir in at service.

Note: the measurements were done off the top of my head and may not be precise (the dressing in particular), so there may be either too much or not enough. Anything but 'just the right amount' 

Enjoy your weekend!

←

exchange the lentils for black-eyed peas and that looks remarkably like some thing we make around here and call Georgia Caviar--of course when in Mississippi it is known as Mississippi Caviar and in 'bama, &c..... It is yumptious w/ a big basket of tortilla chips and also works well as a reception food.

[christabel]

poutine like concoctions -- For those not in the know, real poutine is french fries, gravy and cheese curd. Of course, it's common place for people to have their own 'versions' of this dish, depending on their pantry.

The purist - If I"m really drunk, i"ll make the fries from scratch, but other times I'll dig around for some frozen hash browns. I defrost some demiglace (I keep it in ice cube trays) and top with a random selection of cheese - mozzerlla would be the classic choice, but brie, camembert or gorgonzola are superdelicious.

Not the purist - I start chopping away at anything in fridge - tomatoes, olives, jalepenos, spinach, onions - whatever, and at it to the above recipe.

[Brian Brenner]

This is my kind of topic.

You know those cool liquid center chocolate cakes that us chef types have been serving up for years now in restaurants? In less time than it takes for your guests to make you another cocktail you can have a batch of those in the oven. Commit this to memory:

4oz chocolate (preferably high quality bittersweet, but if it's 3 AM and you're at the gas station mart, even Hershey's will get you by)

4oz butter

2 eggs

2 egg yolks

2 fl.oz sugar

2 tsp flour

Just remember 2's and 4's. Melt butter and chocolate together. Meanwhile beat eggs and sugar until ribbons. Combine the two mixture and beat in flour. Cook in generously buttered and floured ramekins at 450F about 8 min. Unmold, eat, and have another drink. And don't bother with aspirin before bed to avoid hangover...its effect will have worn off before you wake up! HAPPY COCKTAILING

[Shannon_Elise]

Brian,

I think I can remember that recipe, even after too many Jack and Cokes. And I always have some good chocolate on hand. I want to get drunk with you! Chocolate and a hangover solution...its the holy grail.

Shannon

[Brian Brenner]

Brian,

I think I can remember that recipe, even after too many Jack and Cokes. And I always have some good chocolate on hand. I want to get drunk with you! Chocolate and a hangover solution...its the holy grail.

Shannon

←

Shannon,

Pleased to hear that you have good chocolate on hand. For home I love Lindt

Excellence 70 per cent chocolate bars. Better grocery stores tend to sell them and I often use them even in the restaurant. I prefer this product above the standards such as Callebaut.

[tino27]

I walked in on a roommate of mine one time who decided to raid the pantry ... his menu for the evening? A jar of apple pie filling to which he would periodically add those fake soy "bacon" bits. Ugh, I still shudder at that one.

Another one involved my sister who had come to visit me during my college years. It was lucky that the bar we spent most of the evening in was literally across the street from my apartment. She had brought a box of Magic Stars cereal with her (too cheap to buy the Lucky Charms, I guess ). When we woke up the next day, there was Magic Stars cereal EVERYWHERE, but no marshmellows. When I unsurreptitiously accused her of eating all of the marshmellows, thus rendering the cereal inedible, she looked right at me and said, "Um, no, big brother! YOU ate all the marshmellows!" I felt a little foolish until I realized that in her drunken zeal, she had polished off not one, but two pints of Ben & Jerry's ice cream.

[athinaeos]

In Athens the best way to recover from alcohol related excesses in the wee hours is to visit the Central Market Tavernas and have a couple of dishes of tripe, or veal knuckles soup! While you enjoy your meal, there are street vendors passing by, fortune tellers seeking to reveal your destiny, musicians playing, beggars begging.

If all of the above does not cure you, you cna taste the ultimate drink, "salep" (turkish) or "sahlab" (Arabic), which is produced from an extract of orchid's roots.

[Daniel]

This was from monday night... After I went on this Japanese Bar Crawl, I ended up making these guys.. One was a duck skin quesadilla with queso fresco, a plum like sauce scallions and cilantro.. The other was straight up meat with I forgot what! A lot of half opened jars confused me..

This is one of two duck leg confit i fried up in the cast iron...

Look at this skin.. Skinned it and made a quesadilla..

Still got the duck fat sitting in my skiller waiting to cook something else..

One of the guys..

I garnish cause I care

Edit to add:

I also recall the drumstick having my apple cider Carolina BBQ Sauce on it at the end..

Edited July 20, 2006 by Daniel (log)

[racheld]

I garnish cause I care 

←

TOLD YA SO!!!!! See Ann's blog today.

And I guess the confit delivery truck was right on time---gotta get me a subscription to that service.

[BryanZ]

This was from monday night...  After I went on this Japanese Bar Crawl...

←

Somehow this just seems very Daniel.

[Daniel]

It's not 3 yet.. But at 1 am I will add this.. We are making this dinner for tomorrow night.. So we have a lot of things laying around.. Plus I dont like to see my cast iron go to bed without some grease on it... I fried some double smoked bacon until crisp.. I took a circle of bread and dipped it into bacon fat.. I then added the round to an already hot cast iron pan... I then took some lobster knuckle meat and fried it in the bacon fat.. On top of the bread disc I placed bacon, lobster, orange creme fraiche, and red currants..

Used a water bottle cap for my round..

Both are great shots...

[Daniel]

This is my second time trying to post this.. So, now its all business..

Take rolls you havent seen in 3 weeks..

Cut out circles and fry in a cast iron pan with butter..

Keep the pan on and add schaller and weber double smoked bacon.. Cook until perfectly crispy.. Then keep the pan on and fry a super farm egg sunny like.. Take the egg off and cut all the white off so its all yolk.. Keep the yolk together.. Then top with perfect bacon, chives, and caviar..

Top with other buttery round of hamburger bun..

bite:

Its a cute little sandwich.. Three bites and your done.. Two to one if your are hungry enough..

To end.. Clean the kitchen before the girl wakes up

Edited July 26, 2006 by Daniel (log)

[Mallet]

This is my second time trying to post this.. So, now its all business..

Take rolls you havent seen in 3 weeks..

Cut out circles and fry in a cast iron pan with butter..

Keep the pan on and add schaller and weber double smoked bacon.. Cook until perfectly crispy.. Then keep the pan on and fry a super farm egg sunny like.. Take the egg off and cut all the white off so its all yolk..  Keep the yolk together.. Then top with perfect bacon, chives, and caviar..

Top with other buttery round of hamburger bun..

bite:

Its a cute little sandwich.. Three bites and your done.. Two to one if your are hungry enough..

To end.. Clean the kitchen before the girl wakes up 

←

It's the last part that I usually forget...