Tag: cheese

Found Mac and Cheese

I love mac and cheese. I found this recipe years ago (or something like it in a cookbook for girlfriends). It’s a great way to use up cheese bits.

What you need:

Noodles (doesn’t fucking matter, however I recommend smaller shapes like elbow or rigatoni)

Cheese (look for the small pieces leftover from parties, those in the back of the fridge that you’re not sure you should eat or what they are other than some kind of cheese)

Eggs 

Panko

Spices like garlic powder, onion powder, paprika, turmeric, salt, Franks Hot Sauce, you know, whatever you feel like.

What to do:

Heat the oven to 3500F.

Boil the noodles according to the package.

Shred the cheese.

Drain the noodles and immediately mix in most of the cheese. (Save some for the top)

Dump that into a casserole dish (you should probably grease it first)!

Mix eggs and spices together and dump on top of cheesy noodles. 

Mix panko and last bit of cheese…spread that on top of cheesy noodles.

Bake until the top browns and the eggs are cooked. 

Enjoy with hot sauce or veggies. 

I made this at my MIL’s using not only found cheese, but found noodles. Dried noodles don’t really go bad. They might stick to the bottom of the pot more but you know, scraping takes care of that. It was a success for the adults but the edges got a bit too crusty for the kids. So keep an eye on it!

The kids think this is a treat for dinner and usually eat it up (unless it has too many crunchy parts). But then again they would eat mac and cheese from almost any source all day long. 

chefmckean

Enchiladas

Nothing fancy here.

What you need:

Several cans of beans – you know your family’s appetites, I don’t.

Spices. Cumin, garlic powder, onion powder, salt and anything else you like. It really is up to you.

Cheese, medium cheddar or less (sharp is oily as fuck) or get the “Mexican” mix – get stuff that tastes good for the love of god.

Tortillas – how many do you want to eat?

Green salsa – yes I know it’s not the enchilada sauce in a can but this tastes way better and is a little spicy, we like Herdez Salas Verde, mild. Yes, even my kids who don’t like spicy like it.

Once again this is about how much your family eats. Mine eats about 10 tortillas worth (2 adults, 3 kids). This is also about 3 cans of beans and a large block of Tillamook Medium Cheddar. The whole block!

Mix the beans, spices, cheese together. Save some cheese. Spread on tortillas and fold the damn things up. Put them in a large glass baking dish, and dump the salsa on top. Top with the rest of the cheese . Bake at 3500F till you see bubbles and the cheese is melted.

Eat your hearts out.

I hate leftovers but the kids will eat enchiladas for days so I always try to make enough for a lunch or two of leftovers. Then I don’t have to think about those meals. Sometimes I get so fucking tired of thinking of meals for everyone. Why cant they just eat cheese and crackers and salami? Nooooo we have to have veggies and other things.

chefmckean

Stuffed Pasta i.e. Manicotti or Jumbo Shells

I found recipes online and made modifications. Is that cheating? I mean what are all food blogs for anyway.

What you need:

Jumbo Shells or Manicotti tubes.

Cheese: I used ricotta, fontina, fresh mozzarella and parmesan and a medium/large bag of shredded mozzarella (for the top).

Eggs

Spices

Red sauce: jar or make your own. I got my sister-in-law to make her awesome red sauce with Italian sausage. Also the sauce from Lasagna will work.

Every recipe I read said to boil the noodles first. Fuck that. I don’t have time to boil noodles then stuff sad limp dick noodles and then bake them.  Remember how all noodles are oven ready? Well this is a good time to use that gem of wisdom. I assure you the moisture from the sauce will make the noodles soft but not too soft. You know al dente as the fancy people like to say. If you are at all worried about the liquid content in the sauce put in some wine.

Mix the ricotta, fontina, fresh mozzarella and half the parmesan. I recommend using a food processor. add in eggs so that it moves around the bowl and doesn’t become one big lump of cheese. Add some salt and Italian spices.

Scoop cheese into a piping bag or a gallon size zip-lock.

Put some sauce on the bottom of your casserole dish or whatever the fuck you’re baking these things in.

“Pipe” the cheese into the noodles…or scoop it in…just get it in to the fuckers. These may be hard with some of the jumbo shells because of the shape. For those I just put them in and said they were “meat stuffed” since the sauce(which had meat) will go on top. Fill up your dish with the stuffed noodles and then put all the sauce on top. I added a little wine so I could justify opening the bottle. Cover with the shredded mozzarella and leftover parmesan. Cover with foil.

Bake at 3500F till you see bubbles (or finish a bottle of wine, you know 60 mins). Remove foil and bake till cheese browns. This might seem familiar. That’s because it is lasagna with slightly different noodles and cheese. You could use this cheese mix in lasagna!

My middle kid called the jumbo shells slugs and wasn’t a fan. He also then referred to the whole dish as slugs at the top of his 4 year old lungs. That’s a super pleasant family dinner.  The other kids were cool to eat it if we called it lasagna, which we did. And since some shells were cooked without cheesy stuffing, I had happy dairy-free family members too, even if they now had the image of slugs in their minds. And you do too! You’re welcome.

chefmckean

Lasagna; or as my son used to nasally say, ah-yah-yah (see video at end)

Things you need:

“Oven ready noodles.” Or as I like to call them, noodles.

Sauce: diced tomatoes and tomato sauce, wine, onion, garlic, spices, ground meat, and more wine.

Cheese: Ricotta Salata, Mozzarella, Parmesan.

Once again this is almost a follow-the-recipe on the box. However, the “oven ready noodles” are a rip off. All noodles matter. All noodles are oven ready. As long as there is liquid for the noodles to absorb/soften, they are fine to cook in-situ. That’s a fancy word for in place. Because I’m fancy!

As much as I hate to admit it, here my husband is probably right: the sauce is the key, and the key to sauce is spices. So add garlic powder, Italian seasoning (oregano, basil, thyme, rosemary), onion powder and salt.

Brown some meat, beef, lamb, pork, or turkey; whatever you like. Add the spices and salt at this point.

Add onion and garlic into the meat. Then add cans of diced tomatoes and some tomato sauce. Then add wine.  Once this is bubbly you have sauce!

Save some wine for yourself. You deserve it. You’re making lasagna for your fucking family. Depending on how fast you drink and how much wine is left you can use it as a timer. I tend to find that after ¾ of a bottle the lasagna is ready for the last stage.

For the cheese mix this is what my family likes (and by family, I mean husband; the kids go along).

Mozzarella – like a big bag. I mean, not the CostCo size big bag but the normal grocery store big bag. Let’s not get carried away here. We all love CostCo but there are limits.

Ricotta Salata (about 5oz) – because my husband hates regular ricotta. I know he’s weird, but ricotta salata is actually pretty good. It has a texture more like feta and is salty like feta.  A possible substitute according to the internet is Pecorino Romano. (I’ll let you know if this is true—trying tonight.)

Parmesan (two cups-ish; maybe three).

Mix ¾ of the big bag of mozzarella with ½ of the parmesan and all the ricotta salata in one bowl – this is your inside-the-lasagna cheese.

Mix the rest of the mozzarella and parmesan for the top.

Now we layer. Start with a few scoops of sauce on the bottom, this helps the lasagna not stick and moistens the noodles.

Then a full layer of noodles, then sauce, then cheese, then noodles, then sauce, then cheese, then noodles again. Until your pan is full. End on cheese with the mozzarella/parmesan mix.

Cover with tin foil. If you don’t want the cheese to stick use a spray oil on it (like PAM or the organic version that makes you feel good about yourself).

Cook till the bottle of wine is gone. 45-60 min. If you don’t want to drink watch for bubbles in the pan.

Once the pan is bubbling and/or your wine is gone remove the foil and cook for another 15 or so mins. You know, enough time to aerate another bottle of wine and brown the cheese on top.

Remove and eat.

In other news…we talked with the 6-year old about racism because that came up. We tried to explain after a glass or two of wine. Needless to say, we will have to try again.

I’m concerned about my daughter. She speaks in the third person. The other day she also said: “I love you mom. I won’t break you apart.”

How many psychopaths am I raising? Will homeschooling and Covid make this worse? I might need a wine club membership.

Here is the boy trying to say lasagna.

chefmckean1 Comment

Bean and cheese mini tacos

Beans – add cumin and garlic powder.

Cheese – get the good stuff.

Street taco sized tortillas.

Heat beans, spread beans on tortillas, sprinkle cheese on top.

Broil fuckers until cheese melts.

Top with things you like.

My kids like olives. My husband likes things that have to be chopped, screw him, he can chop is own damn green onions.

That’s it. IDGAF today about anything complicated.

Tonight I accused my dad and husband of needing a pap-smear to sleep with…I meant c-pap…they both snore.

Given that Freudian slip I thought I should drink more. They advocated for water. I catapulted… I mean capitulated.

chefmckean