Oct 15
train of thought
I made homemade mac n’ cheese tonight. Also, I made scampi, which isn’t normally something you have with mac n’ cheese, but I am telling you, that shit was super fab. My Cooking Light cookbook is the bomb, seriously. Why did I never like to follow recipes before? You cannot go wrong if you follow directions, it’s a fact! Experimenting in the kitchen is only okay if you have every ingredient and all the time in the world on your hands to make up for the inevitable mishaps that come with experimental cooking. Like…you know how you always hear about ‘secret ingredients’? Sugar in tomato-based recipes, or…unsweetened cocoa in chili. Yeah, because secret ingredients are supposed to be the…oh, mayo in chocolate cake, or whatever–that’s another one, albiet disgusting. I realize that mayo is eggs and oil and in theory those two things should work fine in cake, but in reality, it’s not like I would ever pair a slice of cake with a spread of mayo soooooooo…eww.
Anyhow. Secret ingredients.
They’re supposed to bring out miraculous flavors or whatever, but. I have tried sugar in my spaghetti sauce, and cocoa in my chili, and guess what? Both of those dishes ended up tasting like a crap dessert.
Now, I follow recipes to a T, with the exception of vanilla, of which I always at least triple, because VANILLA IS AWESOME, and everything always turns out yum. Sometimes there’s a bomb, but only because the entire dish sucked to begin with. One time, for example, I made African Sweet Potato Chicken Stew Pot Bake. Not the real name, by the way. I can only remember tomato paste, sweet potatoes, chicken, and peas, but there were definitely more ingredients–it turned out like super glue. SWEET super glue. Bleh. Definitely not one for the keeper file.
Back to tonight, however. I got a flu shot (a flu MIST, actually, the kind they shoot up your nose) today and now I’m tired. Goodnight.
Tschuss!!
Share on Facebook
October 15th, 2008 at 9:38 pm
Yeah, I would love mac n’ cheese and scampi together. What’s not to like?!! OK, now I’m hungry…gotta go. Love ya.
October 16th, 2008 at 2:10 am
lol flu mist that always makes me laugh
October 16th, 2008 at 6:01 pm
spaghetti sauce…one large can of tomato sauce, one small can tomato paste, one each bay leaf, and two each chicken bouillon, half a sauce can of water. flavor with your choice of meat…just cook the meat in the sauce.
October 17th, 2008 at 5:23 am
Kori – I know! It was awesome!
Rodney – I have to say, they’re getting better with the administration of it. Not so much fire hose anymore.
Jeff – Hm…no basil or garlic? Could I add those? And how do you handle the grease from the meat? Do you skim it off later? Do tell!
October 17th, 2008 at 7:34 pm
Absolutely. you can add whatever you like. i usually put a little wine in it but thats about it. If you cook a fatty meat, you can just skim the grease off the top. i usually cook meatballs(my recipe) in it and I use the lowest fat version i can find of burger or turkey burger, so theres not too much fat. the turkey doesn’t flavor it to well, so its a good idea to put cook some kind of beef or pork in it too. brocioli made with burger/turkey burger is good too.
October 18th, 2008 at 1:57 am
they were semi smart about it here this year… a third of the base processed for an atso for the upcoming ori… while we were processing they gave us the nasal flu thingy when we got to the med part of the line… there goes fairchild thinking logically… sign of the end methinks