food, cooking, surviving.

So, I'm not a very good cook. Compound that with the fact that grocery shopping here looks very different than in the states. Add the lack of desire to stock a nice kitchen when you're only going to be somewhere for a few months. You get lots of pizza and döner take out.

However, there are a few things that I can make tastily with some variation: pasta with just about any combination of vegetables and tomato sauce; tiny spicy hamburgers (without buns); fajitas with either chicken or ground beef; eggs; things that come from cans.

With this limited background I have been attempting to prepare food for myself (which, btw, is much more difficult for one person than for ten). There have been some minor victories. For example, I can pan fry potatoes like nobody's business. I now know how many grams of cheese slices I am capable of consuming in one week. I have discovered the joys of zucchini and plain white rice. But my greatest victory thusfar, since I've mostly been spending a lot of time cooking individual foodstuffs with very little attention to spices and even less to making sure they fit together, was this soup.

Naturally, I paired it with potatoes, because it's what I love the most, but I only had one left, so I also ate some bread with this deliciousness. This was the first time I got thin-cut potatoes cooked through but not burnt, as well (I usually cook chunky potatoes). I took a regular ole can of tomato soup, added zucchini slices and some leftover gnocchi from the day before, and voila! it was delicious, if I do say so myself. And warm! Oh, boy, was it warm!

For those of you who like recipes, and ingenuity, I'm going to start adding stuff like this, so that you can try to eat like me--poor and away from home!

Kat's Rainy Day German Tomato Soup
1 can plain tomato soup
1 medium tomato
1 small zucchini, sliced not-that-thin
1/2 cup leftover gnocchi
1/2 cup lowfat milk
salt
white pepper
oregano (to taste)

Let tomato soup (not thinned) and diced fresh tomato simmer over medium heat. Heat sliced zucchini covered over low heat with a splash of water (just enough to keep it from burning) and some butter for 5 minutes or until water is almost evaporated. Add gnocchi, salt, white pepper, and milk. Cook until gnocchi is hot. Add to tomato soup. Let cook all together 2 minutes, flavoring as desired.

Serves: 2

TRY: substituting leftover rice, pasta, or potatoes for gnocchi!