Pasta two times

Last night, we had some pasta, with plain tomato sauce, herbs from the garden (oregano, lots of basil), fresh tomato, crumbled Morningstar vegetarian breakfast patties and romano from Calandra's Italian cheeses.

Today for lunch, I was feeling like a needed a hearty meal, so I fried some honey ham, tore it, and dropped the leftover noodles in the frying pan with the ham. As it heated, I added shredded gruyere. Perfect for this rainy day.

Exotic Mac and Cheese

Why do I always have dinner parties on the hottest days of the year?

I have guests coming tonight for the mac and cheese party, but due to some confusion and some scheduling upheaval, I appear to be the only one cooking. I made about 4 quarts of mac and cheese. 2 varieties. One rather plain and French/ croque monsieur inspired. The other artery-clogging and Italian-inspired.

Neither are cheap.

The French-inspired Mac and Cheese

mixed in saucepan, stirring constantly for about 3 minutes:
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh chives
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1/2 teaspoon four color organic fresh ground pepper
Once bubbly, add
- 2 tablespoons flour, still and heat until bubbly
Warm separately
- 1 cup whole milk
- 1 cup heavy cream
Add to the butter base and heat to boiling.
Remove from heat and add
- 1/3 pound shredded gruyere
- 1/4 pound smoked gouda, grated or chopped
Stir and add to noodles. Bake in oven as you would with normal mac and cheese.

The Italian-inspired mac and cheese

- Two tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- one teaspoon garlic powder
- about 1 teaspoon fresh oregano
- about 8 leaves fresh basil, chopped
cook until fragrant and sizzling and add
- two tablespoons flour
cook a few moments and add
- about 1 cup diced proscuitto (spelling?)
- about six pepperonis, diced
when the meat seems glossy and done, add
- 2 cups milk
slowly bring to a boil
remove from heat and add
- about 6 ounces extra sharp provolone, chopped
- about 2 ounces mozzerrella
Combine with noodles
Top with chunks of mozzerella
Add pepperonis.
Bake.

How to make basic mac and cheese, according to Betty Crocker:
http://angelfoodcooking.blogspot.com/2009/06/spinach-herb-apple-meatloaf-and-simple.html

Shopping and excuses...

So, I haven't prepared a decent meal since Tuesday because I started fighting a sinus infection on Wednesday. And then last night we spent $24 on dinner for the three of us dining out at Shruty's. A taco pizza, because it has lots of lettuce and tomato to count as vegetable.

My daughter has requested mac and cheese and in the interest of time, Dad is making his variety with frozen peas. He makes a cheese sauce with some cheese, butter, and some milk that's about to go sour and mixes it up in the pot. It comes out nice, but not quite as thick and comforting as baked mac and cheese, but it's technically healthier because he uses about 1/3 of the cheese I would use.

He also ran to the warehouse club because the little one's ear doctor said they had a generic of her medication (they didn't) and after everyone in the house having some sort of ailment this week, we had no tissues. So he bought ten boxes of Kleenex and six boxes of Puffs Plus. (And we bought 10 boxes last month, gone already.)

He also bought a HUGE carton of microwave popcorn for our "movie nights." And more of those Special K breakfast bars that I keep in my purse for food emergencies. And half and half, and cheddar cheese.

Note: Gruyere is $12 a pound there. I have to investigate what the per pound price is at Wegmans and Giant.

Spinach Rigatoni with Garden Vegetable Sauce & Gruyère

I made spinach rigatoni from Aldi tonight. I like the spinach rigatoni from Aldi. It's $3.99 for the bag, and the bag feeds the family with some leftovers, especially when I doctor it.

The bag supposedly feeds three. Because of all the cheese, they are high in saturated fat, but they are also high in protein and nutrients. I don't use the seasoning packet so that may reduce the sodium significantly. I don't know.

But one serving of just the pasta has 19 g protein, 5% RDA Vitamin A, 35% RDA calcium, and 15% RDA Iron.

And tonight I made this funky sauce:

• 1/4 cup leftover crôque monsieur sauce
• 1/4 cup heavy cream
• 1/4 cup shredded gruyère
  
• 2 teaspoons butter
• one teaspoon cornstarch
• 1/4 cup diced tomato from the garden
• 4 basil leaves from the garden
• One handful parsley from the garden
• 1 tablespoon chopped chives (from the garden)

I melted the butter, added the cornstarch and whisked until combined. I added the crôque monsieur sauce, the cheese and the heavy cream. Once combined, I added the herbs and the tomato. I cooked until bubbly.

When the noodles were done, I poured the sauce over the noodles in a big pot. Then I added:

• 3/4 cup finely chopped fresh broccoli, cooked
• 1 cup peas, cooked
• 1 shredded morningstar vegetarian chicken finger

And that was dinner.

Salad wraps

To use up some produce and get some veggies into our systems, we had salad wraps for lunch. Depending on your dressing and whether or not you add cheese, they can be vegan or vegetarian.

I had my daughter peel a carrot. My mom had brought a cucumber and tomatoes from her garden. I contributed a pepper from my garden.

I got out some cheese leftovers: gruyère, smoked gouda, ricotta salata and cheddar.

I used the ranch yogurt dressing from Wegmans. And because she got to assemble it herself, my daughter is eating hers to the last drop.

We had red leaf lettuce and some Italian salad blend, all of which was starting to look a little less than perfect. Yeah, we could have had salads in a bowl, but putting them in a wrap and eating them with your hands is fun-- and silly.

Mystery Quiche

My daughter and I just whipped up a quiche that may turn out odd. We started with a store-bought crust, added two strips Morningstar vegetarian bacon in crumbles in the bottom, about a half cup frozen peas, and about a half cup each frozen broccoli and frozen cauliflower. (It was California Medley but we picked out the carrots.) Then we added about 2.5 ounces of cheddar and about 3 ounces gruyere.

In a separate dish, I poured almost two cups of soymilk, a big tablespoon of sour cream, four eggs and a container of Papa John's garlic butter sauce. My daughter whisked it until smooth and we poured it into the pie crust with the other goodies. It's baking now, so we'll see...

Open Faced Mini Sandwiches

Breakfast today was leftover birthday goodies, banana cake and pumpkin roll. For dinner last night we had those Aldi spinach rigatoni with some gruyère on top to spice them up. Then my family surprised me with an ice cream cake.

For lunch, I sliced homemade bread into hors d'oeuvres sized pieces and made one small can of chunk light tuna. Half of the slices got a heaping tablespoon of tuna. The others got a slice of bacon. Each then got either gruyère or cheddar. I heated them in the oven.

Bacon wraps

I made bacon/salad wraps for lunch. I think this is a good example of how I stretch the food budget. Remember all that cheese for the dinner party and the croque monsieur? We still have a fairly nice chunk of gruyère left. And since I bought about $12 worth of gruyère, that makes me happy.

So, I started with some real smoke flavored bacon (not vegetarian, how odd is that?). I fried it in an ungreased skillet. Two slices for each wrap. Then, I heated each tortilla shell in the drippings. I placed each heated shell on a plate, and arranged the bacon inside it. I used salad leftover from Wednesday's dinner party for some vegetable matter. Next I grated some gruyère, sprinkling less than two tablespoons of cheese in each wrap. For dressing, I used a hair more than one teaspoon organic ranch for each. I rolled them up and served with a side of canned peaches (using up the can from the other day) and some potato chips which actually came free with some takeout sandwiches a while ago.

Fancy Dinner with Mark and Julie

Last night, my husband confirmed that our friends Mark and Julie would be coming for dinner... tonight. So, with 24 hours to prepare, I had a dinner party to whip up. This would mark the fourth time this week we went to the grocery store, and I believe our grocery total for the month is about $200 (and it's not even the 15th yet) and we spent $25 on eating out (pizza one night). If I try really hard, I can survive the next two weeks without hitting the store again. And be on budget...

My husband had mentioned croque monsieur to our guests, so they were interested. And I figured it was scrumptious last night so it would be yummy again. And I thought I'd get some raspberries and make some Vouvray-lavender honey sauce to complement them. And a prepackaged salad. A baguette. And voilà, simple multi-course dinner.

And the guests said they'd bring dessert.

I had enough cheesy bread left to make a couple small sandwiches. I needed a little more of everything, so I headed to Wegmans. I spent about $42, way over what I wanted to but I bought double what I intended. Ham, 1 lb., $6. Gruyère, 1/2 pound, $6. smoked gouda, $5. baguette, $2. batard, $2. The salads looked awful, so I opted for a hunk of La Chaume cheese instead ($5). If I couldn't whip up a salad, I'd serve a cheese platter. Two quarts of raspberries, $10. Maille imported French dijon mustard, $4. And my daughter insisted on petit ecolier cookies, $4. Yes, I caved. They're French and dark chocolate.

My husband agreed to stop on his way home for salad. Mark and Julie would get a cake.

Plus a bottle of wine I had on hand means I made dinner for five for $5o. Not so bad...

The recipe for fruit salad with white wine-honey sauce can be found under the "French" link and probably under "Vouvray" too. I followed those basic instructions, cut back the sugar and used only raspberries.

I prepped the sandwiches so they just needed to bake. I got 11 or 12 sandwiches. But my cheese sauce wouldn't thicken so they were a tad dry. I needed another tablespoon flour, but ran out of time.

My daughter set the table with the Royal Doulton Isabella. We got out the silver. We even went to the rose bush and picked the first buds of the spring for a centerpiece. We filled the princess house glasses with water and when the guests arrived there was Vouvray for everyone.

Two types of bread were on the table.
First course: raspberries
Second course: croque monsieur
Third course: Dole Spring Fling Salad with almonds and berry vinagrette dressing
Fourth course: International Cheese Flight of Swiss gruyère, German smoked gouda, French Chaume and New York Extra Sharp Cheddar (from Aldi no less!)
Fifth course: (here's where the courses get funky, order wise) chartreuse
Sixth course: decaf with coffee mate Parisian Almond Cream creamer and strawberry shortcake torte

Full bellies, happy bellies. Very sleepy grown ups...

Croque Monsieur

I've been dying for Croque Monsieur for days... but it's not an easy thing to solve a craving like this... For one, buying the proper cheese can be very expensive. In this case, $6-plus at the Giant. For a tiny hunk of Gruyère.

So, you economize where you can.

I based my croque monsieur on Ina Garten's recipe in Barefoot in Paris, but where she uses two cheeses, I used four. Sounds fancy, but really, it was an attempt to keep the gruyère from making my daughter turn up her nose, and an attempt to cheapen the overall cost of the sandwich.

Step one:

I sliced 12 slices of homemade cheesy bread that I had thawed from the freezer. I arranged them on a very large cookie sheet. In an oven preheated to 400, I toasted each side of the bread for five minutes.

Ingredients for the sauce: 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, 1 tablespoon flour, 1/2 cup light cream, 1/2 cup soy milk, 1/2 teaspoon freshly-ground coarse sea salt (from Aldi), 1/2 teaspoon fresh ground four-color pepper, pinch nutmeg, 1/8 cup grated asiago (also from Aldi), 1/8 cup grated parmesan (Aldi), 1/8 cup grated gruyère, and 1/8 cup grated smoked gouda.

Melt butter over low heat, stir in flour and stir with wooden spoon for two minutes. Heat milk and add, slowly, whisking constantly until sauce thickens. Remove pan from heat and add other ingredients. Set aside.

Step two:

Take toasted bread and if desired, spread dijon mustard on one side. I skipped this as my husband hates mustard.

Ingredients for the middle: ham slices (I used tavern ham, one long slice per sandwich. It used more than 1/4 a pound but not 1/2 pound), a slice of smoked gouda for each sandwich, and slightly more than 1/4 cup grated gruyère. Go crazy with the cheese if you wish, but I can't afford it.

Method: On one side of the bread, fold a slice of ham, then add the gouda. I then added a thin layer of sauce and put the second side of the bread on. Smother the top of the sandwich with sauce, I used close to two tablespoons for each of my little sandwiches. Then sprinkle the gruyère on top.

Bake five minutes in the oven. Then, turn on the broiler and broil three to five minutes until bubbly and golden brown.