Mouthwatering Macaroni & Cheddar Cheese

AND HOTDOGS AND BROCOLLI.

Lou whipped this up the other night. 

Ok, probably a few weeks ago.

It was one of Lou's quick and dirty meals that would have taken me hours,

but he can pretty much make in his sleep.

Which works out pretty well for me :)

Nom!

What's your quick and dirty go-to meal?

What's your favorite thing to add to macaroni?

 Patty

Fried Calamari

So when friends are in town,
for RAMMSTEIN!

delicious meals are in order.

Patty was out of town the night prior, so unfortunately there were no pictures taken of the schnitzel I made.  Or the broccoli cheddar mac-n-cheese. 

Lou (my man cute manly guy)(i know where you sleep) whipped up some of his infamous fried calamari.

Using fresh calamari from our favorite (#1 out of... 1) Italian Market,

and seasoned (I'm assuming?) flour.

As Patty continually reminds (he meant nags) me, I need to start writing down my recipes.  I added: generous amounts of dry mustard, a moderate amount of celery seed and pepper, a pinch of cumin (it's strong and makes everything taste like tex-mex, tread lightly), a little salt too. 

He even made his own cocktail sauce,

(it was his first time!).
(i didn't know the components of cocktail sauce, pro chef-in-training)
 

Needless to say, no left overs.

If I didn't eat a few from the draining rack, I wouldn't have had anything! 

How can anyone go back to restaurant calamari after they've had this??

The correct answer is, you can't...


How do you like your squid?
Any good cocktail sauce recipes out there? 

Tips for calamari : Either cook it fast (fry dem suckers, get it, because of the suction cups) or cook them slow, but not more than an hour.  Any other way will leave you thinking of eating rubber, and if you eat rubber; you're going to have a bad time. 

You can make these again anytime you want, Lou!

Patty(rocks my socks)

Jack Daniels (and DR. PEPPER) Ribs

Sometimes, we go down to the Italian Market on 9th Street in South Philly.

Sometimes, we buy massive amounts of meat there.

All of the times, Lou does incredible things with them.

 Sauce ribs were braised in.

These ribs were not truly braised.  Braising is a longer process that involves rendering juices, cooking aromatics in the juices, removing nasty bits.... I didn't do that.  I whipped up a marinade using vinegar, generous seasonings, and some sweated veggies.  My mindset was: vinegar smells like death, add flavorizers to clear death and make way for the flavor angels.

Also, Dr. Pepper was on the scene, healed many of my tastebuds and tenderized many-a-rib.

This time, it was ribs. 

Garnished with carrots and parsley, 

and served with steamed brocolli with a dash of white pepper.

My life, it doesn't get any more delicious.

I should have made more broccoli, these ribs were freakin' amazing though.

Another success :) 

Obviously, there were no leftovers.

Patty (smells(good))

Fresh Zucchini Bread

So... zucchini's alias is 'green squash'... who knew?
I sure didn't, I should have known this was a trap.

RECIPE TIME!!!

Zucchini Bread:

Dry Ingredients

•  8 oz Sugar
• .1 oz Baking Powder
• .08 oz Baking Soda
• Pinch of Salt, Cinnamon, Nutmeg
• 5.3 oz Bread Flour
• .75 oz Pastry Flour (Pastry Flour is 40% Bread Flour, 60% Cake Flour, I couldn't find it in the store so I just followed the ratio)

Wet Ingredients

• 2.6 oz Beaten Eggs (eggs are always abused)
• 9 oz Shredded Zucchini (its not really wet, but it's gotta go somewhere)
• 2.6 oz Melted Butter

Combine all wet and dry ingredients and whisk vigorously for about 5 minutes.  Line a loaf dish with parchment, and pour your batter in, make sure to use a rubber spatula to get all that batter in the dish.  350°F for 45 minutes to an hour, best way to check is with a toothpick, if it comes out clean your bread is done.

Sift Dry stuff after adding them all together.
Sifting helps not only remove lumps where dry ingredients may have absorbed moisture, 
but it also makes for a more homogenized mixture.  
Droppin' dat knowledge.

Look concentrated, and cute, while doing it.
Im not cute, I'm manly.  Manly man I am.
Manly. Manly AND cute. 

Cut two zucchini in half width-wise.

Take a spoon and scrape out the seeds.

Grate two zucchini (or two green squash) with skin on.
This paragraph was brought to you by the department of redundancy department. Wakka wakka.
Har har. Don't drink and blog. Lesson learned.

Scale measurements are almost always better recipes.
Yeah.. I love eating me some scale measurements.
Scales are yummmmy. 

Whisk about two eggs and the other liquids together.
After you have your wets and dries all together you must combine them, 
you have to whisk the living crap out of the batter for about 5 minutes.
Your forearems are mighty in shape... from all that whisking! 

Diligent notes. 
 Baker's Percentage is serious business.

Warmin' up the butter.

Fresh out of the oven.

Enjoy :)

And that's all I have to say about that.
All I have to say is: "OM NOM-na-NOM-GNASH"

Bacon Wrapped Cream Cheese Stuffed Jalepenos!

Once you see these...

there's no going back.
Once you eat them... they were just so good.

Sliced jalepenos, baked until soft. 

Stuffed with cream cheese whipped with a dash chili pepper

<Probably some other spices in there too?>
Clever girl: Smoked paprika ;)

Wrapped in pre-fried bacon perfection.
Corrections : Steamed the sliced jalapenos, the whole package was then baked at the end, make that cheese all gooey'n'warm.

Mouth watering, yet?
Most important lesson from this cooking experience: Slab bacon from a butcher is awesome.  Spiderweb bacon with all fat and no meat from your grocery store is crap.  Pure crap.
Thick. Slab. Bacon.

Breaded Pork in Cream of Mushroom Soup & Roasted Asparagus

 Steamed carrots and onions with white pepper for starters.

Homemade bread. 

...Yea I couldn't get a pic of the before because we ate it too fast!

Asaparagus over breaded pork in cream of mushroom soup. 

My mouth is watering just remembering it :)

Celery & Franks Red Hot - Bleu Cheese Sauce

Superbowl Done Light! 

GO GIANTS!