So, the weekend before Thanksgiving, back at school, we had a wonderful celebration known as Danksgiving. Danksgiving is the pre-Thanksgiving feast where the marijuana runs a’plenty, and the food even more so. We had about 15 different dishes, feeding 20 different mouths, each with various tastes and diets. My contribution was a vegetarian take on Irish Stew. It was absolutely delicious, and I cannot wait to make it again.

What you need:

1tbsp Olive Oil
4-5 stalks of celery, cleaned
14 small carrots, cleaned and peeled
1package of baby bella mushrooms, washed well
1bag of pearl onions
3 cups diced potato
3 cups diced sweet potato
1qt Vegetable stock
1tbsp Flour
1 12oz can Murphy’s Stout
2tbsp tomato paste
2 bay leaves
1.5tsp Black Pepper
1.5tsp Paprika
1tbsp brown sugar
1tsp salt

NOW! I know this list looks incredibly lengthy, but I assure you it will totally be worth it.

How to make it:

Wash, clean, and peel the carrots, celery, mushrooms, and onions (not pictured). Finely chop the celery, about 4 or 5 pearl onions, and 4 mushrooms. Add the tablespoon of olive oil into your stew pot, and heat on medium-high. Throw in the vegetables, and cook for about 10-15 minutes, or until the onions start to brown.

While this is happening, you should chop the potatoes and carrots (but you REALLY should do this beforehand, as it is time consuming).

Once the vegetables in the pot have cooked, add the flour, and stir to coat. Now, pour in your stout beer of choice, and stir. Make sure no vegetables are stuck to the bottom/sides of the pot. Pour in the vegetable stock, and add the remaining vegetables and spices. I chose to not chop up the mushrooms and the rest of the pearl onions, but this is at your own discretion. Bring this wonderful stew goodness to a boil, then let simmer uncovered on medium-low heat for about 45-50 minutes.

Devour this bitch with the rest of your holiday meal, or by itself!

This disgusting concoction that you are currently staring at is what one would call a Rochester-style Garbage Plate. Do not be fooled by the horrendous amount of ketchup on those homefries, or the flattened grilled cheese, it is the most delicious thing, ever, especially at 3:30am and drunk. This is tame for a garbage plate, seeing as I do not eat burgers, but most of them consist of: potatoes (french/homefries), macaroni salad, refried/baked beans as a base, with two hamburger/cheeseburger patties on top, covered in meat sauce and mustard (ketchup, if you’re going to deviate from authenticity), and is usually served with a roll on the side.
University Hots of Buffalo, New York specializes in serving garbage plates to the drunken masses of UB students, with hours from 4pm to 4am. We decided, one evening, that we wanted to go to UHots, failing to realize that it was Sunday, and they were closed, so, we did the next best thing and made garbage plates at home…here is our story…(kidding)

What you need:

Macaroni Salad:

1box pasta, we prefer elbows
carrots and celery, grated
4tbsp mayonnaise

French Fries:

Rusett potatoes, scrubbed and peeled

Beans:

1can Bush’s vegetarian baked beans
1can Bush’s vegetarian BBQ beans

How to make it: 

Honestly, the most intensive parts of making garbage plates is the macaroni salad, and finding room on the stove for everything.

Macaroni Salad: Boil water with a pinch of salt in it, and once boiling throw the pasta in. As soon as pasta is done cooking, strain and immediately rinse with ice cold water. This stops the pasta from cooking, and cools it down. Once it is cool, transfer to a large bowl, and add the carrots, celery, and mayo.

French Fries: You know the drill. Heat vegetable oil in a pan to 175f, or on high heat until super runny. Chop potatoes into desired thickness, or make them into homefries. Fry until crisp, about 20 minutes or so.

Beans: Empty both cans of beans into a pot, and heat on medium heat for  about 20 minutes or so.

And now the fun part: putting it all together. This is where you can experiment and combine to your liking. Since we had a variety of people with different diets eating, we also cooked up some bacon, veggie burgers, and chicken nuggets. Lay down your sides, and top with meat of your choice, followed by a generous amount of ketchup, mustard, hot sauce, or whatever condiments you prefer.

Good luck! Don’t make a mess!

So, what do you make for breakfast when you’re out of eggs? Vegan pancakes, of course! Granted, they’re only vegan if you have soy milk on hand, but we always do!

What you need:

1cup flour
1tbsp sugar
2tbsp baking powder
1/8tsp salt
1cup soy milk
2tbsp vegetable oil
1tbsp cinnamon (optional)

How to make it:

Combine all your dry ingredients, feel free to add fresh fruit, or a tablespoon of cinnamon to the mix. Then proceed to combine the wet ingredients. Mix well, so that there are no lumps

It really upset me that it looked like pumpkin batter, because I absolutely abhor pumpkin, but I digress. At this time you should be warming up a nonstick pan with about a tablespoon or so of olive oil in it, on medium heat. Spoon about three tablespoons of batter into the pan, and cook for about 3 minutes on each side.

Should look just like that. Take them off the heat, and serve with butter and syrup!

And now, my favourite meal of the day: Breakfast. Chris and I mused over the theory of what would happen if one ate nothing but breakfast for a month, and how well that would work. There are so many options, that one possibly could go without eating the same thing twice.
I had a dish similar to this, but exponentially better, while I was on holiday in Toronto. It was thick french bread and gruyere cheese, and bruschetta with two poached eggs and homefries. My attempt to re-create this dish worked out pretty well, however.

What you need:

Bruschetta:

1 beefsteak tomato
1/2 red onion
Fresh basil
2tbsp Olive Oil

Poached Eggs and Homefries:

2 eggs
1tbsp vinegar
4 russet potatoes,  scrubbed and peeled

Cheesy Toast:

4 slices of whatever bread you prefer
Butter
Shredded Parmesan cheese

How to make it:

Bruschetta: 

Dice tomatoes, onions into a bowl, add olive oil and basil. Mix well

Poached Eggs:

Grab a large, nonstick pan, and fill almost to the top with water. Set to boil on the stove, with about a tablespoon of vinegar (it keeps the eggs together). Once the water is at a rolling boil, crack the eggs right into the pan. Watch them as they cook, and when the whites are, in fact, white, use a silicone spoon to remove them, and place them onto the toast

Cheesy Toast:

Preheat the oven to 325F. Grab an oven tray, and line it with tinfoil. Place slices of bread onto the tinfoil, butter them liberally, and cover with parmesan cheese. Place in oven, and watch until cheese is melted, usually about 5-10 minutes.

Homefries:

Skin the potatoes, and dice them. Add about 2-3tablespoons of vegetable oil into a non-stick pan, and heat on medium-high. Add potatoes, and season them as you so choose. Fry to desired crispiness. I like mine on the crispier side, so it takes about 20 minutes or so.

So, I kind of fucked up on this one. I was far too distracted with the actual process of making this, and then devouring it to take photos of the creation. I apologise. However, I will tell you how to make this, and share the secret of COMPLETELY winging this dish. My friend Chris aptly titled this dish “what the fuck, gumbo?” due to the fact that “what the fuck?” was the general sentiment while cooking this.

Without further ado…

What you need:

3 tbsp. oil
3 tbsp. flour
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. black pepper
1/2tsp crushed red pepper
1/2tsp paprika
1tsp cumin
1 1/2 qts. water
1 tbsp. roux
1 onion, finely chopped
1bag cleaned shrimp
1 salmon steak, diced

How to make it:

So, if you don’t know how to make a roux, you should take note as of now:

1/2c butter
1/2c flour
1 bay leaf

Melt butter in a saucepan with bay leaf, and add flour. Cook until browned. That’s it.

And now, back to the gumbo:

Brown flour in oil. Add onion and stir until brown. Add water. Bring to a boil. Add shrimp, salmon, salt, pepper, cumin, paprika, and roux. Reduce heat and simmer 30 minutes.

Serve this over yellow rice. It’s fantastic

Good news everyone! I am slowly being brainwashed into turning Canadian, and as a result, I decided to try my hand at making poutine last weekend. I have about three different gravy variations for this dish, considering I am always feeding a variety of people with different dietary issues going on. So, yes, here is the delicious, delicious goodness:

What you need:

For chicken-curry gravy:

4tbsp Butter
6tbsp Flour
3.5cup Chicken stock
3tbsp Indian curry
2tsp Cumin
2tsp salt
2tsp pepper

For vegetarian/vegan gravy:

4tbsp butter/Earth Balance spread
6tbsp whole wheat flour
3.5cup Vegetable stock/vegan bouillon cubes
1/2cup chopped scallions
2tsp salt
2tsp pepper

For regular chicken gravy: 

4tbsp Butter
6tbsp Flour
3.5cup Chicken stock
1/2cup chopped scallions
1/2cup finely chopped mushrooms
Salt/pepper to taste on this one

How to make it: 

Heat butter on low heat in small pot. Once butter is melted, add flour, and stir until it is of a roux-like consistency. Add chicken/vegetable stock, and turn heat up to medium, and proceed to add all other ingredients. Stir, and let thicken on low heat. If you find your gravy is too runny, add another tablespoon of flour. This should take you all of 10-15 minutes.

And now, here comes the fun part: the fries!

What you need:

About 3-4 large russett potatoes
1/2cup vegetable oil, if you are doing this in a frying pan
Salt to taste.

How to make it:

Wash potatoes, and peel them. Proceed to cut them into whatever size fries you prefer. I decided to make rather thick fries this time around, about 1/2″ thickness.  At this point you should be heating the vegetable oil on high in a large frying pan. Once vegetable oil is heated (about 175f), throw the potatoes in, and cook until desired crispiness.

Okay, now that we’ve gotten the two important steps out of the way, it is time for assembly. Find the largest plate/shallow bowl you have. Throw the fries in there, and cover with gravy. You should top this with cheese curds, but if you cannot obtain those, fresh mozzarella is an acceptable substitute, and for you vegan folks, try Teese Vegan Mozzarella. It is the closest substitute I have come across, and the tastiest.

There you have it. Poutine.

Have leftover chili? Have no idea what to do with it? Make nachos, you fool! Also, make guacamole on the side.

What you need:

Leftover chili
Tortilla chips
1 tomato, diced
1/2 small white onion, chopped
Handful of olives
Salsa
Shredded cheese

How to make it:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. LAYER ALL THE THINGS! No, seriously. Tortilla chips first, then chili, tomatoes, onions, olives, salsa, and cheese onto an oven-safe plate. Stick it in the oven for 10-15 minutes. Serve with homemade guac (directions below)

HOMEMADE GUACAMOLE:

What you need:

1 ripe avocado, mashed
1/2 tomato, diced
1/4 small onion, diced
2 tbsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp salt

How to make it:

Clean and pit avocado, and mash in a clean bowl. Add diced tomatoes and onions, and stir. Add lemon juice and salt to taste. Quick and easy.

I come from a very Russian background, and two of the biggest staples in the diet are potatoes and mushrooms. There are very few dishes that do not contain at least one or the other. This makes for a very good side when you have leftover chicken/fish/what have you in the fridge, that needs reheating.

What you need:

2 russet potatoes, cleaned, peeled, and chopped
1 package of sliced baby bella mushrooms
3 tbsp olive oil

How to make it:

Heat olive oil on high heat, and when heated, turn down to medium-high and add potatoes. Fry potatoes until they begin to brown, and then add the mushrooms, since they take much less time to cook. Stir frequently for about 5-10 minutes, or until potatoes are crisp. Take off of heat, and lightly salt.

As a college student, I eat a LOT of sandwiches. Not an unreasonable amount…just a lot. This is by far one of my favourites, because at least every food group is tackled, and I can still reasonably bite into it.

What you need:

Whole wheat bread (the food, not the hardcore band, please be aware)
Roasted red pepper hummus
Swiss cheese
Alfalfa sprouts
Tomatoes
Avocados
Olives
Sliced white onion
Cucumbers
Baby bella mushrooms

How to make it:
Stack ingredients as you see fit. I can’t tell you how to make a sandwich!