This site is just awesome... the information... the recipes...

Food Timeline

Cool! Great find, jinx.

Jinx, just damn you! Do you have any idea what time it is? Tnxs. Have a big bird day.

A Winner! Comfort food from a Simi Valley cop
 

He won a contest with this one, and a prize of twenty five thousand bucks too.

Cheese Lovers' Five Cheese Mac & Cheese

From Foodnetwork.com

And for anybody not wanting to use the link:

I have some ground beef+pork+lamb here and will be needing your meatloaf recipes for tomorrow night.

Nothin' good looking on the 'Net, or will that be the backup plan?

I like a meatloaf and haven't made any in simply decades.

I went looking for Heloise's Meatloaf. So far I've found this:

And this:

And I guess it will take fairly serious Googling to find the Heloise meatloaf actually on the 'net, instead of some incidentals gleaned from Heloise columns.

The only problem with making that dish is that once my kids get a taste of it I will never get away with making mac and cheese from a box ever again.

I have learned to not make fancy stuff unless there is no analogous plain jane version to compare it to thus saving me from ridicule and scorn when subsequently preparing said vanilla version.

Teach them how, and tell 'em if they want it, they cook it, and no kvetching. One or more of those kids is likely to turn into a good cook once they get good with Five Cheese Mac & Cheese. And why should this not work more than once? But don't spring it as a surprise: tell them ahead of time that this is what you're going to be doing with the grand recipes that kick the plain-jane ones around like a football.

But this optimistic campaign plan might best be implemented a few years down the line -- keep it on file for Great Feasts, Meals Of Occasion, and other capital-letter festivities.

Re: Five Cheese Mac & Cheese

Had it at TGIFriday's last week -- the winning recipes in the contest were added to the Friday's menu. It is very rich and fairly oily. Decidedly a restaurantish kind of recipe. A small portion will do all but the hungriest.

Define 'small'

The contest being the Food Network Challenge or something like that? Was bleu one of the cheeses?

I can't think of five cheeses I want want to waste in Mac n Cheese!
I'd rather have them with crusty bread.

Oh wait, yes I can think of cheese I'm happy to waste, but it's all the bland grim stuff which is barely worth the name anyway - and won't really get any better when served on my least favourite pasta anyway.

Once each quarter, I go to a meeting that features a pot luck.

Most of the time I'm in too much of a hurry to actually make something. This month I planned ahead and had everything on hand to make some Thai Peanut Noodles.

I decided what I wanted to make and then went hunting for a recipe.

It was awesome. Everybody at the meeting said so, and I have a lengthy list of people who asked for the recipe.

For convenience, I served it cold, but it's awesome when it's hot.

Also, you can throw whatever else you want into it to make it more of a meal ... stir fry veggies for sure, and perhaps chicken or tofu.

SPICY THAI PEANUT NOODLE RECIPE

Ingredients:

• 6 Tbsp of Crunchy Peanut Butter (Note: I used Jif)
• 4 Tbsp of Water
• 3 Tbsp of Vegetable Oil
• 3 Tbsp of Sesame Oil
• 3 Tbsp of Rice Vinegar
• 3 Tbsp of Soy Sauce
• 4 Tbsp of Honey
• 1 Tbsp of Sugar (optional)
• 1 ½ Tbsp of Minced Ginger Root (Note: I cheated. I used 1 tsp of Powdered Ginger)
• 1 ½ Tbsp of Minced Garlic Cloves (Note: I cheated here too. I used 1/2 tsp Garlic Powder)
• 1 Tbsp of Crushed Red Peppers (Note: I used a bit less than one Tablespoon. As noted below, the recipe originally called for 1-1/2 Tablespoon. With the amount of crushed peppers that I used it was pleasantly hot, with even the hot-wimps liking it without too much complaining.)
• 1 16oz Package of Spaghetti or Linguine

In a large saucepan, bring 8-10 cups of water to a boil and cook the pasta as directed on the box (usually 8-10 minutes).

While the spaghetti is cooking, place another saucepan on low heat and mix together the peanut butter and water. Once the peanut butter warms up it will mix nicely with the water and you should end up with a soupy peanut butter mixture in the saucepan.

One by one, add the vegetable oil, sesame oil, rice vinegar, soy sauce, and honey thoroughly stirring the sauce after each ingredient is added. If the sauce begins to bubble, turn the heat down a little bit. By now you should have a few minutes left before the pasta is done.

Peel the garlic and ginger root and chop them up with a food processor. If you don’t have a food processor, you can finely chop the garlic and ginger with a knife (it is tedious work, but these ingredients are essential). Once the garlic and ginger root are chopped up, stir them into the saucepan along with the optional 1 Tbsp of sugar.

Drain the pasta, and then place it back in the large saucepan until you are done preparing the sauce.

Add the crushed red pepper to the sauce. The original recipe called for 1 ½ Tbsp but you may find this too spicy. I would start with a little less than 1 Tbsp of crushed red peppers and gradually increase to your taste. Simmer the sauce for two minutes to allow all of the ingredients to blend together. Keep in mind that more “spicy heat” from the crushed red peppers will be released as it simmers in the saucepan. If you feel that the peanut sauce needs a little more “kick” add more crushed red peppers after the initial 2 minute simmer.

Once the delicious peanut sauce has simmered and you have adjusted the “spiciness” to your taste, simply mix the sauce in with the cooked pasta and serve!

Maidrites/Manwiches


2T +/- minced garlic
1/2 c. +/- onion (fresh is best, but flakes can be used if you cook them with the meat when it browns)
1 lb hamburger (or whatever meat or meat substitute you want)
1 can Campbells chicken gumbo soup
Heinz ketchup
French's yellow mustard
Seasonings of choice. I like Trader Joes 21 seasoning salute or Garlic Garlic and garlic or onion salt.
medium salsa/picante sauce (wtf is the difference, anyway??)

In large skillet brown hamburger. Pour cooked meat into spaghetti strainer sitting in 2 plastic shopping bags in garbage can*.

Use the residual fat in the pan to saute the onions and garlic while the hamburger is draining. When the onions are soft, add the hamburger back to the pan, then add the can of gumbo soup. Stir well.

From this point on, I don't really measure anything, I go by taste. :blush: My best guesstimates are:

Add ~1/4 c. yellow mustard, ~3/4 c. ketchup. (the last time i made this though, I cut back more on the ketchup and added more salsa/picante for a little more kick)
1 T. 21 seasoning salute.
1/2 T. onion/garlic salt
1 c. salsa/picante

Sorry, every time I make it, it's a little different depending on my mood and whatever seasonings I have in the cupboard.

At this point, you can throw it in a crock pot on low for however long you want, or let it simmer uncovered in the pan for 20 minutes then eat it right away. By letting it simmer with the lid off, it concentrates the flavors a bit, and isn't quite so 'runny'.

This keeps well in the fridge, I've never tried to freeze it. Leftovers are good on triscuits as well if you've run out of buns.



*Pouring grease down your sink will eventually clog your pipes and be very disgusting/expensive to clear. Even if you run the hot water. I learned this the hard way :)

Oval dish, no longer than five inches on the major axis. About an inch deep too. A little dab will definitely do ya. (is there a burp smilie?)

Jinx, yeah, that's it. Certainly the sprinkle of bleu cheese really makes the dish... or Gorgonzola or Stilton. Lends it a piquancy. If you have to fudge on the cheeses, don't lose the bleu.