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.

Don't be a bore; make Boar!

Wooop! Josie cooked for me! The lovely little nubbin made me boar ragu the other day while I worked! We found a fatty boar shank at The Meat Hook and immediately purchased it--they cryovac-ed the thing for us, too--with visions of boar ragu dancing through our hungry minds. I wasn't sure when I'd have time to braise the thing, but I was pleasantly surprised when Josie emailed to say the shank was simmering away.

Sloshed over eggy pappardelle pasta and generously doused with pecorino and rosemary, that ragu simply cannot be beat. I will emphasize that the rosemary is quite key--something about it pairs gorgeously with the boar meat.

Here's the recipe that Josiah used. Thanks, Babbo!