Welcome...

...to the first post on Chefetta!
First, a little about the name. My dear friend always says "you're quite the chefetta" while enjoying something I've made for her. It seemed like a fitting name for a blog about me and food.
Here I will write about things I make, eat, drink and often photograph(like the photo in the banner.) I should say that I am not professionally trained, but I have been playing around and figuring things out on my own for about five or six years now. Working in the front of the house for restaurants, most recently at a bistro, has given me a lot of exposure to how things are done and a few people who took the time to show me how and answer my endless questions. I should also say that i don't typically follow recipes. While I read a lot of them here and there, I rarely have one out to refer to when I'm cooking. That leaves a lot of room for me to play and work intuitively. So far, I haven't had very many disasters. I will go on record now to say that any recipe I might include is the best guess approximation of measurements and memory of execution of something I've already made. The process is a lot like working in my studio(my day job) painting and often provides the instant gratification that is sometimes lacking from the paintings, especially when I'm working on something large scale. In the next few posts to come, I'll try to include a little more about how I became interested in food etc.
Now, on to the food!

I was on the phone with a friend today while packing a little lunch to take with me on my day's adventure when she said something along the lines of making my lunch my first post. I told her that it was kinda boring, just some tomato soup made from a leftover pasta sauce and a cheese quesadilla. For me, it was something fast to grab while using up what I had in the fridge. She thought it could be interesting. So to spare myself the stress of what will my first post be???? I'm gonna roll with it.


photo by Kristin
Let's get the quesadilla out of the way. Corn tortillas. Cheddar cheese. Heat until cheese has melted. Not much more to say than that.

Soup that used to be pasta sauce:
I recently made a pasta sauce consisting of canned San Marzano* tomatoes, shredded carrots, onion, garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper, all pureed together. Garnished with flat leaf parsley and grated pecorino cheese, the end result was simple, sweet and good. The carrots added an extra layer of sweetness that almost made us believe that we were in the middle of tomato season.(read sunny and warm!)
The next night I wasn't feeling too well and wanted something super easy to make for dinner. Into a pot went the pasta sauce, a little water to make it, well, soupy and some spices to take it from Italy to Mexico--cayanne and cumin. Paired with the same simple quesadillas from lunch today, it was easy peasy and really hit the spot. What was left was the perfect lunch to grab and go today.

Whew! I made it through my first post. I was kinda nervous!

*a note about San Marzano tomatoes. They are a variety of plum tomato that has a little bit thinner skin and not as many seeds. They are named for a town near Naples, Italy(not sure why on that). I love their flavor and lack of seeds. The seeds can be a little bitter sometimes.