Who Let You Cook?! Presents: Mac and Cheese!

One of the things that I've loved since I was a kid was mac and cheese. It didn't matter if it was from a box, or if Dave made it from scratch, I was a mac and cheese nomming little monster, and some things never change. I'm still a mac and cheese nomming monster, and the other day, I got hit right in the face with cooking brilliance: What if I made mac and cheese, and put sausage in it?

Yes, sausage. It sounded like a brilliant idea to me, though Dave looked at me for a moment like I'd lost my mind, though in my defense, it can't be all that worse than that one time he made sushi out of salami and mashed potatoes.

So, ingredients in hand and ready to go, I set out to make awesome mac and cheese with sausage. And everyone, including Dave, was surprised when I made them taste it: Truly, this is the god of all mac and cheeses. Dave tasted it and let out a mildly surprised, "Holy shit!" and even my mother, who's not really into the whole "culinary ridiculousness" thing like I am, said that it "tasted good" (which is about the best compliment she knows how to give food.)

Lynnafred's homemade mac and cheese (with sausage!)

Makes about 8 servings

• 1 pound small pasta (small shells work great for mac and cheese, but elbows are fine too.)
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 tablespoon flour
• 1 cup of milk
• About 2 pounds or so of assorted cheeses (for best flavor, comb your local supermarket for cheese ends. My mac and cheese is always made with ends, and usually consists of: American, cheddar, provolone, muenster, Swiss, mozzarella [for body], pepper jack [for a hint of spice], and a small crumbling of bleu [it adds an amazing tangy zip to the cheese sauce that can't be gotten any other way.])
• Worcestershire sauce
• 1/2 pound bulk breakfast sausage (not in casings)

Cook pasta according to the package instructions; meanwhile, use the butter, flour, and milk and make a basic white sauce. Don't season it. Don't do anything to it but add the cheeses. (Hint: keeping the white sauce on low heat as you're adding the cheese makes it melt faster and more evenly, and you're not left with any strange looking chunks.) Add cheeses small blocks at a time, or (if you got lucky with those cheese ends) slice-by-slice. The greater variety of cheeses you use, the deeper and more complex your cheese sauce will be, which is really what you're looking for here. And better yet, the cheeses you use will add all the salt and flavoring you'll really need, except a shot of Worcestershire sauce to bring out all of the cheese's flavor.

Once the cheese sauce is done, set it aside (over very low heat to keep it from setting.) Don't add it to the pasta just yet. Get a pan and start frying up that half pound of breakfast sausage. Once it's fully cooked, drain the fat off of it and dump it into the pot with the pasta. Stir it around, then add the cheese sauce. Continue stirring it up until the pasta and sausage is evenly coated; serve immediately, or top it with crumbs and bake it.

The Triumphant Return of Who Let You Cook?!

Lynnafred here.

I've been doing a lot of cooking lately. I've been making dinners, coming up with creative new lunches, and generally been spending a lot more time than should be normal in the kitchen. (Dave even told you all about my most recent baking rampage which resulted in two full batches of cookies, and two half batches of cookies, for well over 100 cookies total.)

So it should come as no surprise that when my friend and partner writer over at Lynnafred's Fashion Disasters, Nannerkins, stayed overnight because of the recent tornado, the first thing we did in the morning was look for something to eat. And what happens when the only things in the fridge are cheese, meat, eggs, and a green pepper? If you said omelet, you're close. But we were far too lazy for the whole "omelet" thing, so we went for dirty scrambled eggs instead.

"Dirty" scrambled eggs are one of our favorite morning snacks where we just take whatever we have in the fridge and throw it into our eggs. They're not pretty, but they taste delicious.

This one's got kielbasa, green peppers and cheese in it. The one below has ham, cheese, and green peppers in it.

They're a really easy thing to make in the morning (especially if you're omelet impaired, like Yours Truly over here.) I usually chuck the meat and veggies in the pan first to saute in the butter, then pour the eggs over the entire lot, and as they're cooking, add the cheese and mix it all up until the eggs are set and the cheese is melty. DELICIOUS!!

Pasta Week, Days 2 & 3 (Tuesday and Wednesday)

What's better than a breakfast made of pasta?

Tuesday was kind of an unadventurous pasta day. In fact, it wasn't even really a pasta day at all.

When I finally decided to get up on Tuesday morning, I wasn't feeling all that adventurous or hungry, so I had a few fistfuls of cold pasta that morning for a makeshift breakfast instead. For lunch later on in the day, I still wasn't really feeling all too hot, so I decided to have the rest of that awesome sauce from the night before with even more pasta. So, nothing really special was done.

I told myself I had to make up for it on Wednesday, and when I woke up this morning, I had an idea of some cool things I could make with each of them that would probably still be tasty while I experimented in the kitchen.

I ended up starting today off with a bang because I decided to play a quick game of "Who Let You Cook" with my breakfast. Taking a lump of angel hair, two eggs, peas, and some salt and pepper, I stir fried the pasta in a little bit of butter, added the peas, and then added the eggs - scrambled style - to the entire mix and waited for the eggs to set. I didn't season it with anything other than salt and pepper, but in retrospect, putting some five spice powder in it probably would have been a good idea. And while I'll admit that it's not really all that pretty to look at, it tasted pretty good. This was actually a pretty versatile one-pan wonder that would've been pretty good if I'd added some chicken or something to it, too. If I'm ever so inclined, I might make it again.

Later on that day, for dinner, Dave and I made a repeat of something I've made before: take a simple white sauce and season it to compliment bacon and turkey, and pour it over some sort of noodle. In this case, we had penne. It was kind of like a "Turkey peas on Toast" thing, but better. Because it had bacon in it.

Lynnafred's Who Let YOU Cook?! Volume Two

So, what do you get when you have nothing appealing in your fridge, a handful of eggs, and some leftover cheese and bacon from cheeseburgers the night before? If you answered "Who Let You Cook?" you were right!

With the aforementioned eggs, cheese, and bacon, as well as about a half teaspoon of milk, I made myself a bacon and cheese omelette. For most people, this wouldn't be really "Who Let You Cook" worthy, but it definitely is for me. For as long as I've been making simple things in the kitchen, I've never once successfully made either a fried egg or an omelet. My fried eggs always come out busted and vastly overcooked; my omelets come out either vastly undercooked and crumbled to bits, or vastly overcooked and crumbled to bits. Either way, it's never been successful.

How did I make it?:  So after preparing my egg and milk mixture (I used no salt, figuring that the bacon and cheese would have more than enough) or pepper (because I forgot about it), I started to heat up a small amount of butter in a pan over low heat. When it was just starting to bubble at the edges, I poured in my eggs and let it start to set. When the bottom layer was fully cooked, I used a spatula to push some of it over and let the top layer of uncooked egg take its place. Then I did the same thing on the opposite side. When there was nothing but a thin layer of sticky egg inside, I dumped in my roughly cut bacon and cheese mixture, carefully folded it over, and let it finish cooking, flipping it once. It never split apart on me. I added a little bit of extra cheese on top before I ate it, because I love cheese.

So how was it?: Very good, actually. I've always enjoyed the flavors of bacon, egg, and cheese together, so this was definitely something I'd try making again. It needed a bit of pepper, but that was easily added afterwards, so it was nothing that was a meal destroyer. I'll do this again, for sure, but maybe I'll experiment with different cheeses next time.

Lynnafred's Who Let YOU Cook?! - Volume One

Welcome to the very first edition of "Who Let YOU Cook?!" - the online game show where I make up a recipe on the fly and then share the results. Winning is easy - eat my food and live. Die, or get sick, and you lose. *audience applause*

So, for the first edition, we have something presumably easy: pork loin bits pan fried with onions, red bell pepper, and zucchini.

How did I make it?: I took the pork and browned it on all sides in a pan with about a tablespoon of olive oil, then dumped in the peppers and onions. I seasoned it with some of Dave's own Pork Salt - just a touch. Stirring occasionally, and when I thought it was about ready, I added the zucchini and tossed everything around. When I figured everything was good, I turned off the heat and served.

So how was it?: This failed hard, and it's all because of human error on my part. I'd never cooked pork before, to start, so I'd figured that if I cut the three or so thickest pieces in half and they were cooked through, everything else would be. That was only semi-right. Some of the pieces were done really well; others were so dry and tough they were hard to chew. The next problem was the pork salt. It seems that "just a touch" was a touch too much, because while the pork seemed bland, the zucchini and peppers absorbed all the saltiness and made them unbearable to eat. Oh well, live and learn, eh?

Conclusion:  This is not something that I'd want again. Unfortunately, I have leftovers, so that means I'll be having it at least once more. When I heat it up, I'll have rice with it or something to cut down the vast amount of salt.