Cooking Challenge Week 33 - Turn Something Boring into Something Great - Chipotle Mac 'n' Cheese

I think this might be the worst picture in the history of my blog, but, I realized, just as I was about to reheat the last chunk of leftovers for breakfast, that I hadn't gotten a picture.  If I were a pretentious artist, this would be titled "Spicy, 4:30 am."  So yeah, very little effort went into this awful picture.

But the dish? Not awful in the slightest.  In fact, it's the best non-standard mac 'n' cheese I've ever had.  Which is why it immediately came to mind for this challenge.

Here's the recipe, which, of course, I highly recommend you try.

Cooking Challenge Week 23 - 20 Minutes or Less - 18-Minute Pasta with Sausage and Peppers

Not the fanciest thing, I know, but it's hard to beat for filling, delicious, and fast.

I set the timer for 20 minutes and got to work.

1. Set the water on to boil.
2. Started 3/4-lb. of bulk hot Italian sausage browning in a saucepan.  This has to be good sausage, folks.  Lots of the flavor that will eventually be in the sauce starts here.  My local grocery chain does their own sausage, which is invariably high-quality and delicious.
3. Chopped one small onion and one medium green bell pepper, and added them to the sausage when it was mostly browned.
4. Stir, stir, cook, wait for the water to boil.
5. At 11 minutes left, the water was boiling, so I added half a pound of rotini, which needed to cook for 7 minutes.  A little early, perhaps, but I wanted to be sure I'd have time to assemble.
6. Back to the sauce--time to add a 15-oz can of tomato sauce.  Not jarred spaghetti sauce, thank you, but the plain stuff that lives next to the other canned tomatoes.  Remember that I said it should be good sausage?
7. I'm not above nudging my sauce with herbs, though.  In went a little basil, oregano, and mint.  Yes, mint.  Don't look at me like that, it really adds something, and it won't taste like toothpaste, I promise.
8. While the pasta was cooking and the sauce was simmering, I realized I had a good three minutes with nothing to do, and remembered a wedge of Asiago in the fridge, which promptly became friends with my micrograter.
9. Drained the pasta, tossed with the sauce, and boom! Done at 18 minutes.

Cooking Challenge Week 17 - Childhood - Round Steak Special

My parents do know how to cook, but they don't do it much.  My dad has worked retail my entire life, and his hours have always been unusual and long, meaning he wasn't home for dinner often.  When I was old enough, my mom went back to work too, and often worked nights.  We were not a family that sat down to a lovingly home-cooked meal every weeknight--once or twice a week, if we were lucky.

So there aren't a lot of meals that mean childhood, or home, or even family to me.  Of the few there are, this is the best.

All through college, I missed this, and jumped at every chance I had to make it--mostly when I was visiting a friend's family on vacation and offered to take a turn in the kitchen.  It was always well-received.  Two different mothers told me I should bottle this sauce and make a fortune selling it.  (I don't think they realized how easy it is to make!)

The original 70's-era Campbell's recipe this is based on is lost to the mists of time.  I vaguely remember seeing a battered page torn from a magazine when I was very small, but I think it got lost one of the times we moved.  By then, my mother had decided how she liked it, what to leave out and what to add--she told me the original had kidney beans, which, even though I like beans, I simply cannot grasp!  I bet it would be good with cannellini beans instead of the beef, though...maybe I'll try that sometime when I can't find a good price on the beef.

So this is our family's version.  Whatever it was once called, it is now known only as Round Steak Special.

Round Steak Special
(makes 4 servings)

• 8 oz. wide egg noodles
• 2 tsp vegetable oil
• 1 large white (or sweet) onion, chopped
• 1 lb. bottom round steak
• 1 15-oz. can stewed tomatoes, undrained, cut up (I open the can and use kitchen shears to cut them without having to drain first--no mess!)
• 1 can condensed Campbell's Golden Mushroom soup

Set water on to boil for the noodles, and cook the noodles according to the package directions.

Slice the round steak as thin as possible across the grain.  (Freezing the meat for 30 minutes before slicing can help.)  Cut the slices into 1 1/2 to 2-inch strips.

Meanwhile, in a large saucepan or skillet over medium heat, heat the oil and cook the onion until soft and translucent.  Add the steak strips and cook until just browned.  Add the canned tomatoes and undiluted soup, and stir well to combine.  Bring to a simmer, cover, and cook gently for 10-12 minutes, until the beef is fully cooked.  (I usually cook until the noodles are done, then drain them and check the beef--almost always done at the same time!)

Check for seasoning at the end--because both the tomatoes and soup are relatively high in sodium, I usually don't feel the need to add any extra salt.

Ladle the meat and sauce over the noodles, and go to town!

Cooking Challenge Week 16 - Asparagus - Chicken Asparagus Pasta Salad

This was one of those lightning-flash inspirations.  I like asparagus just fine, now that I eat my green vegetables, which wasn't always true.  But aside from the deep-fried asparagus at Scottys when we visit my husband's parents during prime asparagus season....I really don't eat it much.  Looking though the few recipes I do have, the seasonings for asparagus sides always seemed to involve lemon, garlic, or both.  I didn't want to throw some token roasted asparagus next to a steak and squeeze a lemon over it.

When I realized I had another meal planned this week that needed chicken, so I was already dragging out my beloved pressure cooker, and I have lemon juice and olive oil and garlic and pasta all sitting around anyways...

Chicken Asparagus Pasta Salad

•  8 oz. uncooked small pasta shapes (like rotini, in my case)
• 1 lb. asparagus, cleaned and trimmed
• 1 cup chopped cooked chicken

Dressing

• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1 1/2 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 small clove garlic, minced
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp pepper
• 1/4 tsp dry mustard

 In a small bowl, combine all the dressing ingredients and blend thoroughly with a whisk.  (Alternately, if you have a cocktail shaker, those work great for mixing viniagrettes too--thank you, Good Eats!)

Slice the asparagus spears into 1/2-inch pieces, and load into a steamer basket.  Steam over barely simmering water, covered, for five minutes--we're shooting for cooked but not mushy.  Transfer to a large mixing bowl and allow to cool while preparing pasta.

Then, cook the pasta in well-salted water according to package directions, as times will vary by pasta shape.  Drain, but do not rinse, and add to the asparagus.

Add the chopped chicken to that, then pour over the dressing and toss to coat everything.  Refrigerate until fully chilled before serving.