Fourteenth Post: Hamburger and Mac & Cheese ~ All Grown Up!

Here's a classic comfort favorite that's given a new spin with some cheese that you might have on hand (if you're a fan of Wegman's cheese flights, which I am) and some marinade.

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This was also a good dinner for tonight because it was minutes in prep time, which was good, as I have a pitiful puppy on the sofa demanding attention - Ginny was spayed today, and it has taken some wind out of her normally full sails...

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So, here's what you'll need for tonights quick, easy and tasty meal:
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For the hamburger:

~ 1 ground beef patty

~ herb marinade

~ basil (optional)

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For the mac & cheese:

~ pasta (I use the term "mac" loosely: penne worked just as well
~ cheese you have on hand (I used Beemster classic, sage derby and Yancy's XXX sharp and a little parm)

~ butter

~ white wine

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One sick puppy (optional)

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Get your water boiling and put some marinade directly on your hamburger patty in the pan. Don't start it heating just yet. While your water is boiling, sit with optional puppy. Once water starts boiling, toss in pasta. Sit with puppy. Smell scorching pasta and race in to actually stir it once or twice. In between, sit with puppy.

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Once you've got a few minutes to go on your pasta, start the cheese and butter melding. Pour in a bit of white wine. Check on puppy. Stir sauce and drain pasta into collander. Check on puppy. Start the heat under your hamburger and marinade. Check on puppy. At this time, pour your pasta into the pan with the (by now) creamy, cheesey sauce. Let it simmer. Flip burger. Check on puppy. Flip burger again, toss pasta around and put it all on a plate. Top burger with fresh basil, if you like. I am getting to enjoy basil on pretty much everything. Watch, I'll be on Medical Mysteries with some strange basil-induced overdose.

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This meal came together nicely. The burger was nice and juicy (the trick, I've learned, is a very low flame). I think the pasta would have been better with a little bit of cream, as it wasn't quite as "saucy" as I had hoped. It still tasted very good, though.
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Check on puppy.

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Pour self a glass of Norton Cab to hopefully chill out a bit.

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Check on puppy.

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Enjoy meal and wine while sitting next to puppy.

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Yours in the love of good food and wine and the stressful moments in life that they help us through,

AL

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The blogger is not an experienced chef. She takes no responsibility for the quality of the meals prepared while following her advice. Use your own judgment regarding cooking times and proper food handling.

Eleventh Post: Meat, Cheese, Bread, Fruit ~ Enjoying the Simple Things

Cooking involves combining tastes for maximum enjoyment. But sometimes it's just nice to savor each of those tastes independently.
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As long as I can remember, my favorite lunch was what my mom named a "Goodie Lunch." In grade school, nothing made me smile more than snapping open a tupperware container to find neatly rolled slices of ham or turkey, a piece of cheese, crackers and some fruit or vegetables. (Yeah, I seriously had the world's greatest mama.) Today, I enjoy grown-up "goodie lunches," and have fond memories of my lunchbox days!
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This type of selection can be prepared as a larger plate, and might serve as a rustic offering at the next party you host or attend! There's something timeless about its appearance - and in fact, there's very little about this selection of food that has changed in a good number of centuries!
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Today, I got a hearty slice of ham off the bone (which I can use for dinner later on this week, too!) a cheese flight (this week's: Beemster classic, sage derby and Yancy's XXX sharp) which came with a bunch of grapes, and a bulk roll. Paired with a tall glass of lemonade, it's the perfect lunch to nibble on as I work on grading papers!
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Yours in the love of savoring the timelessly simple things one at a time,
AL
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The blogger is not an experienced chef. She takes no responsibility for the quality of the meals prepared while following her advice. Use your own judgment regarding cooking times and proper food handling.

Sixth Post - Spiced Pear with Cheese Flight Appetizer

Ah, girl talk... nothing beats it. So when my friend Meg called, we made plans for a full-fledged evening of chatting and food. She'd bring the beverage and dessert (wine and chocolate, of course!) and I would cook dinner. I decided to start things off with an appetizer that actually originated as a sneaky plan of my mom's to get everyone in our family to the table for dinner.

See, during family dinners, we always get carried away with the visiting part, and no matter how many times or how loudly you ask everyone to get to the table, no one will listen. My mom solved that problem by wafting the smell of this appetizer through the air, and magically, everyone turned up at the table to eat it. She could then get the last-minute dinner things prepped while everyone was in one place - eating the appetizer.

Here's what you'll need. Note the flexibility of ingredients - that's what makes this such a nice easy app!

~1 can half pears in heavy syrup

~Brown sugar

~Extract - vanilla, almond, even cherry brandy works

~Dried fruit - cherries, cranberries, raisens, apricots, anything goes

~Small bowls/dessert dishes

~The capacity to not scald yourself with extremely hot liquid

Place a pear half in a dessert dish with a bit of its own syrup. Add brown sugar (a good tablespoon or so) and then add a bit of extract. Place a piece of dried fruit on top. You can even garnish that with a clove or a sweetened nut. Put the dishes on a plate (because they will boil over) and put them in the microwave for about 3 minutes. When they're about the temperature of molten rock, take them out of the microwave. This produces the effect of an intoxicating aroma that will be sure to get everyone to the table. Don't worry - if your dinner guests move as slowly as my family, the pears will cool enough to an edible temperature in no time.

~~~PAUSE~~~

No matter how simple a recipe, there is ALWAYS something that can throw a speedbump into the leisurely road that was your dinner. The trick to this, I've learned from observation and experience, is not to panic, but rather, to take stock of what you have on hand and use it. Creativity as a last-minute fix can lead to some pretty fun inventions.

~~~UNPAUSE~~~

So I prepared to make this appetizer for Meg tonight, and upon surveying my pear supply, forgot that I had eaten most of the can the other day on my way out the door... leaving the two smallest halves in the can. Well this just won't do. I supplimented the lack of pear by adding two dried apricots and ample almond extract, but still wasn't satisfied. This was supposed to be a dessert dish brimming with fruitful goodness. It just looked scant.

Thankfully, WEGMANS came to the rescue! I had one of their cheese flights for one in my fridge (don't I always?) so I cut a slice of bread (Wegman's hearty potato, naturally) into six small squares (3 for each of us) and toasted them in my toaster oven. I then placed a slice of each kind of cheese on them. The effect was an appetizer consisting of the spiced pear and apricots and three squares of toast with cheese. The cheese in this week's flight was strawberry cheddar, St. Andre (a sheep's milk cheese with a taste that's a cross between brie and chevre) and roqueforte.

So what you'll need for the second part:

~1 slice of bread for every 2 guests

~An assortment of cheeses

Meg brought over the most lovely pinot noir called Gala Rouge by Bon Vivant vineyards. It was the perfect wine for our evening! It paired wonderfully with the pear appetizer and cheese, and then it continued to pair well with the parmesan chicken, tortellini in herbed butter and green beans... and it even went delightfully with the Cadbury dark and milk chocolate bars she brought with the wine!

Dinner with a good friend, wine and chocolate... the triumvirate of companionship!

Yours in the love of good food and wine,

AL

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The blogger is not an experienced chef. She takes no responsibility for the quality of the meals prepared while following her advice. Use your own judgment regarding cooking times and proper food handling.