Monday, September 04, 2006

Food

I'm having a major comfort food urge today, go figure. While contemplating such loverly foods as macaroni and cheese, grilled cheese and tomato soup, and other stuff like that, I remembered a dish I made about a month ago for my family.

Before I married my husband, my culinary abilities were limited to variations of stir-fry, boiling pasta and dumping Newman's Own sauce over it, breakfast foods, and one chicken dish wherein I panfried chicken breasts in Italian dressing. With the exception of the second item, all the things I knew how to cook took a bit of time, which as a single childless woman wasn't an issue.

Now, though? Time? Hah! There ain't much of that commodity present in Casa Justice, let me tell you. I am blessed in that my husband currently does most of the cooking, saintly man that he is. Also, Kitchen Nazi that he is. I've learned over time that drafting him as a vegetable chopper is pointless, as I am swiftly relegated to knife duties while Himself takes over the composition of whatever dish I opt to cook.

And God help me if it's lasagna. More on that another post.

Anyway, even HRH gets tired of cooking, or is otherwise tied up at times, so I do end up having to feed the family on occasion. At this point in my life I can adequately roast a chicken, do an awesome pot roast in the pressure cooker, and am fairly competent in general with cooking. However, I like to cut corners wherever I can, and I do that as often as possible. What follows is a dish I made one day when I wanted to go a little further than my standard "Desperation Pasta" dish, but was still determined as hell to use pasta. Because I like pasta, dammit.

So... to the store I went. I had noticed that I already had a sundried tomato Alfredo sauce that had been gathering dust in my cabinet. From there, I also purchased a jar of sliced mushrooms, a pack of Louis Rich Italian Style chicken breast pieces, a pack of prosciutto ham (and if I spelled that incorrectly, please forgive), an onion, fresh basil, and garlic. Two other items I used which were already in my possession were rotini pasta and a Parmesan/Romano shredded cheese blend.

I first chopped the onion and browned it and two cloves of garlic in a skillet-like pan. While trying to ignore the hot stove, I chopped the prosciutto which I then added to the skillet. Once that was well-browned, I added the sundried tomato Alfredo (whole jar) and the happily pre-cooked chicken. As I allowed the combination to simmer, I started boiling the rotini pasta and also chopped the basil (approx 1/4 cup worth).

With five minutes left on the pasta boil, I added the drained sliced mushrooms and chopped basil to the skillet and continued to stir. Once the pasta was finished, I drained it, then put it into a bowl. Next, I poured the contents of the skillet over the pasta, and added 1/4 cup of the grated Parm/Romano cheese blend, and mixed well.

It went over well that night with both the husband and the offspring. I thought it was pretty tasty and I refrigerated the remainder.

The next night, oh wow. Himself and I divided the leftovers for dinner, and I must say this dish was INCREDIBLE after it had time to meld its flavors during the refrigeration period.

Would I make this "throw-together" again? Heck yeah. But I'd definitely make it a day ahead and let it sit for a night, then reheat.

R.I.P.

Steve Irwin
February 22, 1962 - September 4, 2006


Rest in peace, Steve-O.
My most sincere sympathies to Terri, Bindi Sue, and Bob.
I've never see a man love becoming a father so much.
Damn. Just... damn.

Saturday, September 02, 2006

Steve, Don't Eat It!

Oh holy Jesus God... if anyone reads this blog (not that I expect anyone does), please check out this guy's website. The Sneeze is self-described as "Half zine. Half blog. Half not good with fractions. "

The segment which entertains me the most is archived at: http://www.thesneeze.com/mt-archives/cat_steve_dont_eat_it.php

Folks, in the pure interests of journalism and vicarious nauseated experiences, Steve has tried many "food" products of interest that are marked for the consumption of the unexpecting public, including potted meat food product (also linked from an entry on http://buccaneers.mostvaluablenetwork.com -- the guy who writes the featured Buccaneers column on that site had the misfortune to take potted meat food product on an FTX with him, and lived to tell the sorry tale and commiserate with Steve), pickled pork skins, breast milk, infected corn (long explanation), fermented soy beans, prison wine, and silkworm pupae.

A word to the queasy: If you are easily grossed out, this site may not be for you. Please think before you click. However, if you're easily grossed out but curious beyond belief anyway, have a look. It'll be well worth your time.

Just bring a bucket.