in the “you must be speaking of some other bald-headed ecuadorian futbol lovin gemini poet” department: i have been developing my culinary skills as of late. to date i have made a damn nice meat lasagna (meat = 1 part ground chicken breast to 3 parts turkey sausage) with only a minimal of cheating . i used a jar of marinara sauce as opposed to making my own and i used no-cook lasagna noodles, which i seriously recommend. then i went buck wild and used four cheeses in the ricotta mix (ricotta, shredded asiago, shredded romano and real grated parmesan) and sliced up some fresh mozzarella as well. so i used six cheeses in total cuz, really, you cant have enough good cheese. the results were pretty damn good ‘specially with the fresh bruschetta i made up as well.
only prob with all that is that we had way too much left over basil, cheese and an extra jar of sauce. since there was also some extra veggies in the fridge as well, i decided to get down with a pasta penne with summer vegetables topped with a basil red sauce and cheese which also came out damn well.
on to bigger and better things as i remember bexn posting a while back about how good alton brown’s mac & cheese recipe is. ok, lets go for it.
it took a bit of work and i messed up the panko crumb topping but in the end we ended having a great dinner finished off with strawberries balsamico with mascarpone & biscotti.
half way through the mac & cheese recipe i realize that the bechamel sauce i have looks like it would make a great base for a chowder. with almost no true recipe to go by, i improvise a salmon potato corn chowder topped with fresh dill. the potatoes coulda been softer and at one point i had to thin out the soup with some water which means i would have LOVED to been able to use a nice stock instead but the chowder was definitely on the money.
more experimenting as i need to get rid of all the fresh dill in the fridge and go off to chinatown to find me some shrimp so i can make a lemon dill fusilli with broiled shrimp. this time around, the vinaigrette proved to a bit over oily and i only had enough time to add some sliced maui onion and green onion but less was more in the veggie dept and the most important ingredient, the shrimp, came out superb. props again to alton brown for teaching me the proper way to broil shrimp
back to the mac & cheese. this time around i used sharp irish cheddar which i didnt like as much as the new york white i used last time. *note to all of y’all who may want to take a crack at this– take the time and grate your own cheese* but i didnt mess up the panko topping and even added a little grated parm to get a perfect crust.
i keep promising barb that ima make a turkey chile but i keep goin by what we got in the fridge and its been workin out really well so why mess with a good thing.
love ya like rachael ray loves ee.vee.oh.oh.
