Chic Cheap Lunch

We've been eating pasta while we get settled in SF and wait for jobs to start and paychecks to come. LOTS of pasta. But pasta for lunch and pasta for dinner gets a little too pasta for me, so I was forced to become creative, which quite logically led me to bread, which is similarly cheap and comforting and capable of mixing with many ingredients.

We did not have many of those, either, so I rounded up everything in the fridge: the remains of a can of cannellini beans, some leftover sprigs of basil and the butt of a lemon, all of which I fork-mashed (blender?! food processor?! you're kidding, right??) into a frankly very delicious spread for bread. Spread for bread. Rhyme!

We splurged on a peppery cacciatore salami and some blood oranges--MY FAVORITE CITRUS EVER--paired it with Mexican Coke in a glass bottle and called it lunch. Pas mal, eh?

As a side note, this is Napoleon on his new bed after a long play at the greatest dog park ever.

The Temp Apartment Challenge: 2 Pots + a Cookie Sheet

The view from our temporary perch in sunny San Francisco is lovely: blue sky, green hills, clean streets and a Whole Foods 30 seconds away.

We are happy! But alas, the state of my cooking is not. While we look for our permanent home, our temporary one is equipped with two pots and a cookie sheet and not a whole lot else. How to gourmet dinner-ize????

It could be a new chef-challenge show on Food Network! Here's what we made last night with just two pots and a cookie sheet:

Pot 1: Battuta di pollo. A thinly pounded (utilizing pot 2, pre-salad) chicken breast sautéed in butter--LOTS of butter to prevent sticking.

Pot 2: Insalata di arugula, tomato, cannellini and shallot with the coup de grace... bergamot vinaigrette! We found this little delicacy at the incredible Bi-Rite market, where I hope to eventually live immediately across from, and we squeezed it all into our little salad "bowl" (aka pot 2) along with olive oil, salt and pepper. We also took the excess bergamot juice and added it to the little crispy chicken bits and butter left in pot 1 to make a tangy reduction. Delicious. Me smart.

Cookie sheet: Roasted potatoes with olive oil and **foraged** rosemary--it's growing out in the little tree-box thing in the middle of the sidewalk next door!! Shh. Don't tell I snatched some. I felt sooo hippie-like and cool with my foraging effort.

Bonus points for this being A) super-affordable and B) well-paired with the neat little lighter-bodied, fresh and rosy 2008 Julien Sunier Fleurie we picked up.