Throw yourself into the kitchen to momentarily suspend thoughts of your troubles!
I realized yesterday while I was grocery shopping that I was really, really getting down in the dumps. This two weeks of waiting with your head on the chopping block is the worst work-related experience I've ever had. I do not recommend it.
So, time to go for the comfort food.
Shrimp scampi in five minutes, anyone?
Ok... maybe not five minutes. I started about a half hour earlier with a quick shrimp stock... the shells from the shrimp (and I almost always get one shrimp that I threw in the wrong bowl) with some parsley stems, garlic, pepper, about a cup of water and about 3/4 cup of wine. Let that do it's thing while you waste time waiting to start the rest of the recipe.
GO!
That was actually my timer for the pasta... the package directions said it took five minutes to cook. I do not know what particular space-timey-wimey phenomena encompasses my stove top, but I should never trust the package directions. (Wooo... foreshadowing!)
At that point, melt the butter and heat a little olive oil, and add a big pinch of red pepper flakes...
The red pepper flakes, added at this point, don't give overwhelming heat to the dish, they just give it a nice, overall spice.
That's about a minute down... add the shirmp....
Cook for a minute, add the garlic....
Cook for a minute, add some of your quick shrimp stock....
At this point, I also like to take out a little of the pasta cooking water....
Pasta cooking water is like magic. Final sauce too loose? Add some pasta cooking water over the heat and it will thicken up. Final sauce too tight? Add some pasta cooking water and it will slightly loosen up. Just a magic little liquid full of starch that you should ALWAYS have on hand if you need it.
Add the parsley, and I was also adding some tomato confit to my scampi...
Heat through, and done.
Usually.
Wasn't what happened to me. My pasta was no where NEAR done.
Le sigh.
So, time to push the shrimp over to the not-hot side of the pan and let the rest of the sauce simmer. I did end up needing to add some pasta cooking water to keep it loose.
When your pasta actually finishes... dump that in....
Toss over a low/moderate heat to combine...
Yum. It was a tasty dinner.
Today, when I found my mind going to the not-so-happy place (and myself going to the kitchen too many times to find anything that I could snack on) I decided I'd tear myself off the couch and be productive in the kitchen... time to finally try Ellie Krieger's Macaroni and 4 Cheeses.
It's actually a pretty argued-about recipe. Some people love it, some people hate it. I know the hubby's freakish "non approved ingredient" detector meant there was no way he'd eat this, but I wanted to give it a go.
Main complaints about the recipe are about the squash... it gives it good color, but a lot of people complain about the squashy-ness of the finished recipe. I kept that in mind while I was making mine.
Butternut squash, milk, and low-fat cream cheese (forgot to buy ricotta, and I was determined to keep this with 4 cheeses... ) in a pot, let everything simmer and come together...
Add cheese....
Mmm.... cheese...
And time for the spices. I went with about double what the recipe had for everything, and then started to play around. Quite odd.... each thing totally changed how squashy/non-squashy it tasted. I threw in some smoked paprika, and it almost seemed to undo all my "supress the squash" efforts, it was just weird. In the end, I ended up bulking up the cayenne and mustard quite a bit. And a little Bacon Salt was just the thing to make it PERFECT.
Threw some leftover french bread from yesterday into the food processor and topped the casserole with that...
Bake for 20 minutes and.....
Um, yeah, I forgot to take a beauty shot before I took my tasting portion. Ooops.
Overall, pretty good. The squash actually goes MUCH more starchy while it's in the oven, and it is just a neat thing that it gets all nice and thick without any flour in the sauce. Is it real mac & cheese? No. But if you know what it is going into it and are willing to play around to make it suit your own tastes, it's pretty good.
Tonight's dinner... roast chicken. Let comfort food reign...
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