By: Bianca Rojas / Columnist
At a Spanish wine tasting, I was asked to prepare a few small dishes to serve. At first I was filled with what I call “chef’s anxiety.” I get this because there are so many dishes I can make, and then the introspection begins – “Will this pair with the wine?” “Is this ingredient in season?” “Is this dish within the budget?”

Then I quickly went through “cooking apathy” I love food, I love to cook – but when I am forced to cook something that I am uninspired about, I just end up not caring.

The key is to make food that sits in the middle of these two spectrum’s – one where you care to much to the point of hyperventilation, and the other where you don’t care at all. This is where I develop quick and easy dishes because they still showcase great flavors, but take so little time.

For the wine tasting I decided to make two very simple appetizers – Patatas con Aioli and a Warm Quick-Marinated Goat Cheese.

Patatas con Aioli roughly translates to potatoes with fancy-shmancy mayonnaise. It is a dish commonly served in Spain in several variations. For simplicity’s sake, I decided to just make one style of the appetizer, and I decided to buy my potatoes from the freezer section of the grocery store.

(I know, I know, I am slightly ashamed of my cheating but at the same time I need to save time – if I didn’t I wouldn’t have time to write Foodgasm!)

I purchased the 20 oz. package of Ore-Ida Original Roasted potatoes. These are perfect because the small bite-sized cubes are traditional to the dish and they are only seasoned with salt and pepper – flavors that will not compete with the aioli. Follow the directions on the bag for cooking the potatoes.

While they are in the oven make the aioli by whisking one room temperature egg yolk with two teaspoons of lemon juice and half a teaspoon of dijon mustard in a bowl. Once combined whisk in 1/4 cup of olive oil and three tablespoons of vegetable oil a few drops at a time until the mixture resembles a thick dressing or thin mayonnaise. At this point you can flavor your aioli with whatever you like. I decided to grate four big cloves of garlic and whisk it into the finished aioli, and finally season it with salt and pepper to make a classic garlic aioli. Serve this alongside your roasted potatoes and save the rest for a yummy sandwich spread.

The Warm Quick-Marinated Goat Cheese dish is just as simple but sad to say, a little expensive – it costs about $16 to make. The trade off is that this dish can be made in under five minutes. To make this dish, in a small pot heat 1/2 a cup of olives – any kind you like – a few sprigs of fresh thyme, three over-poured tablespoons of olive oil, the juice of one lemon, and its zest, and a pinch of pepper on low heat until the point that the oil is warmed and you can smell the fragrance of the lemon and thyme emerging. Then simply pour this over your piece of goat cheese, that you have let sit at room temperature for about half an hour. Serve this with a crusty bread or crackers and you have a show stealing appetizer. The warm, melty and tangy goat cheese paired with the citrus and herbal fragrance is a quick and sophisticated meal opener fit for any occasion.

In all honesty, it took me longer to write this article than to make these two appetizers for my wine tasting, and it will probably take us longer to eat them. But regardless of how quick and easy these dishes are, they are still packed with flavor. The integrity of the food was not lost in my race to cure my “chef’s anxiety” before plateauing into my depressing “cooking apathy.” We’re students after all, we’re allowed to take short cuts to feed ourselves and our loved ones, as long as it is foodgasmic.

Need help with a recipe or finding a place to eat? Bianca is here to help! Send any questions, comments or “Foodgasm” ideas to bianca.rojas@fiusm.com