me make food

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We have a huge mass of fresh herbs kicking so a fist of basil and parsley

Julienned the basil and chopped the parsley

Squeezed tow lemons for their blood

Some shredded garlic.

Smashed some chicken breasts to about 1/4 an inch thick

put it all in a bag

I captured none of the sauce. I swear I will do that here soon. We have it really down.
Boiled some shells and tossed them in with more basil and parsley

Blurry pic, but them some flavor filled smooshed breasts. I added salt and pepper and got a good browning from cooking them in clarified butter.

The tangy tart chicken was balanced out by the pasta sauce and the salad. We prob could of mixed them and made an amazing meal (not the salad :p )

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I cut the recipe in half since it was huge. I doubted I would find Irish butter or cheddar and was amazed that ghetto Russ’s had both. Did not have the smoked gruyere so I substituted some apple wood smoked cheddar for a 1/4 of the cheddar.
Funny thing about the Irish butter. I was gonna ask the friendly Russ’s associate what made Irish butter so cool when she grabbed it and went insane telling me how cool it was. “Oh my gosh we have this?” “This stuff is sooooo good, I had it on the plane heading over there and enjoyed it with everything.” “You can eat it plain with a spoon like candy” I told her where to find it in the store, for which she thanked me. I was intrigued and had to try it on some baguette when I got home. It does seem denser and a bit sweeter than regular butter, but nothing all that special.

The irish cheddar was white and very good. With our usual mac and cheese we use plain ol Kraft cheddar. I think we will not do that again though. Quality cheeses really make the meal.

Of course I used the uber bacon from Ideal. There simply is not a better bacon available year round here in Lincoln.
Just look at how amazingly beautiful that bacon is. It looks like a rainbow of deliciousness.

This is not a baked mac and cheese, more of an instant. The bacon and bread crumbs are sprinkled on top of the cheezy pasta.
The bread crumbs are from some baguettes I made, dried, and chopped to a powder in my food processor. I have to admit that I took extreme pride making my own bread crumbs from bread I made.

This dish was severely rich. I almost went into a coma from the intense flavor. The smokiness from the cheese and bacon were strong. It was a bit thin after adding the cheese so we tempered in an egg, that added to the thick mouth feel. Neither of us made it through 1/2 of our bowls. It was nap inducing, artery clogging, tongue humping bliss. Theresa said she could taste the beer a bit too much. I did not notice it, but there were so many complex flavors maybe I just did not pick that one out.

I doubt we will make it again, but it has changed the way we look at mac and cheese forever. Our usual recipe is gonna get a nummy cheese tweaking for sure.

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Was gonna take a good amount of gravy so I made a bunch of roux.

the skillet was pretty full, but it worked. I blotted off most of the grease after this pic.

She should get a good 4-5 meals out of this.

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Made the dough earlier in the day and let it rest in the fridge.

notice the tape measure for extreme accuracy

used our wedding plates cuz we wanted to use the ones we did not care about incase cooking on them messed up them up. That is kinda funny

This was so rich, look at all that cheese and goop. I have no idea how the noodles tasted, but the whole thing was awesome. Neither of us came close to finishing ours, but we will definitely do it again and mix it up even more.

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Cook up some bacon. We used about 6 slices.

3 tablespoons of butter to make the roux

3 tablespoons of flour to make the roux

let the roux brown just a bit. Will hide the flour flavor a bit.

3 cups of milk

a bay leaf, cayenne pepper, and black pepper

Let that thicken and lightly boil till you only see a few bubbles for 10 minutes.
Temper in 1 egg after the 10 minutes.

Get the pasta going. We use shells. Any type of pasta that can hold stuff will work fine.

can’t hurt to salt it

brown the meat. Bigger chunks make it a bit more fun.

I did about 10 ounces, mac and cheese takes 12

with the stove on med low mix in the cheese.
Do not let it get above med low if you use any heat at all. If the mix is too hot before you add the cheese, or let the cheese get too hot it will go grainy and ruin everything. Melt, not cook.

get that cheese melted and mixed in

we rinse off the beef to get rid of the fat.
Although it is cheese, bacon, and beef we in no way want to have this be greasy.

pasta should be al dente, or just still a bit hard. Not all the way done for sure.
Still have to bake it in the sauce, so if they get overdone it ruins it as well.
Cool the noodles once they get there so they stop cooking.

mmmmmmmmm bacon mixed in

time for it all to come together

we split it up into our thingies we freeze / bake in and add some cheese on the top.
the one we eat we cook at 350 till the cheese is melted.
Frozen ones get foil @ 350 till the center hits a decent temp. Remove foil to get the cheese melted to serve.

kicks hamburger helpers ass and feeds us 3 times. Love it

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resh Pasta:
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 large eggs
3 tablespoons water
1 teaspoon olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt

By Hand: On a clean surface make a well with the flour. In a measuring cup mix the eggs, water and oil and salt. Pour the wet mixture slowly into the flour and mix with your 2 fingers until all of the wet is incorporated. Do not force the dough to take all of the flour. If you are going to use a pasta machine to roll out the dough you may at this point form the dough into a disk and cover with plastic wrap. Place in the refrigerator for 1 hour to rest. If you going to roll this by hand you should knead the dough on a floured work surface for 8 to 10 minutes.

Kind of reminds you of american pie, but it is not warm. Actually it is a pretty big mess, but it works pretty good.

get them into the fridge for at least an hour. Ours sat in there for a day or two.

I did not get the pic of our pasta roller in action, but it is your normal hand cranked model. Takes a bit, but not having to knead it by hand makes it so worth it.

browned the meat.

threw in some ricotta, parm, mozz, spinach, and an egg. Chopped it up pretty good.

For the cheese ones it was the 3 cheeses, sun dried tomato, garlic, spinach, basil, and an egg.

mmmm refrigerated goop. Makes dishing it out with a disher much easier.

got the sheet down to the setting of 3 and dished the goop out. Theresa brushes on the egg wash which will be the glue.

fold it over and squeeze all the air out.

same with the meat ones.

made two trays of them. They freeze well.

Theresa whipped up a red dipping sauce, I made my basil, sun dried tomato, garlic, cheese sauce.

for the fried ones we boil just like the others. Once they float they are done.

Breaded with breadcrumbs with a little parm cheese in there. Fried in some oil. Only takes a minute to fry.

adding the basil at the last moment traps in the flavor

An awesome meal with a salad on the side. So nice knowing we made all of it from fresh ingredients.

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Boiled some penne

some parsley

the basil we grow. Purple basil is stronger than normal, and some citrus basil.

some fresh garlic

1 tblsp of butter and 1 tblsp of olive oil

brown up the garlic

8 oz of tomato sauce

1 cup of cream

diced up blackened chix

the basil and parsley. Basil is very fragile. Adding it right at the end will help it hold its flavor.

Really good. We know how to tweak it now. It will be even better next time. Maybe a ground sausage would work well. Just nice to try something new and have it turn out so well.

Oh and just for the heck of it I tried to make the pic all pretty. Added some more chicken on top and parsley sprig. We have been perfecting our garlic bread. I like mozz cheese and Theresa likes the parm.

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