TheBanyanTree: FW: Dinner Is Served

[Julie Anna Teague]

Forwarding for Pam...
-----Original Message-----

I'm not a very original cook.  When baking, I follow recipes to the letter
(except maybe when adding more chocolate!).  But to actually *cook*
something?  Like dinner?!!?  I am just NOT creative, nor can I 'see' how it
should all happen!!

I love watching the show 'Chopped' on the Food Network!  Okay, I hate
watching the snooty judges tell how they would have liked to see a bit more
of this, or something else just didn't tingle their taste buds, but I find
it fascinating that those contestants can take four or five totally
unrelated ingredients, and whip up a meal!!  They can SEE it!

I remember one time somebody made some kind of beef stew.  It was totally
delish, and I wanted to know how they did it!  It started with cubed beef
tossed into a slow cooker, with a few other ingredients - just totally
easy-peasy and anybody could make it!!!  Except me.  I tossed in cubed beef
and added *exactly* what they had, but with totally different results!   The
meat was tough and chewy and did NOT melt in my mouth, nor did it have any
flavor!!

And besides not being very talented in the kitchen, I live with two guys who
are pretty picky about what they'll eat!  My husband is allergic to
shellfish, and mostly just loves red meat and fried potatoes (or French
fries!) - oh yeah, and everything's better with Creole seasoning on top!!
And he hates broccoli.  My son loves broccoli!, and has actually said to me,
'we’re having steak again?'.  Something that's vegetable-laden and light
though, just does not appeal to either of them!  But I could probably never
eat anything with meat and I'd be perfectly content!

I have a group of friends who are awesome cooks and who use a variety of
ingredients!!!  I yearn to be able to use their recipes in my kitchen,
instead of just wishing I could go there to eat with them!!

Meanwhile we have a pretty busy household.  My son is an athlete and doesn't
get home from practice until six or seven at night, and my husband and I
don't sit around waiting for him, so he ends up eating quite a bit of
fast-food.  It seems like I'm always trying to find something the kid will
eat that's halfway healthy and quick!

Several weeks ago I stumbled upon a frozen dinner of sorts, ready in ten
minutes!  A chicken Alfredo with peppers and FLAVOR!  The kid really liked
it, and in fact, could eat 8 servings worth in one sitting!!  So I started
thinking that *I* should be able to make that at home - healthier and
cheaper!!

So I started the hunt for the perfect alfredo sauce.  I've eaten it in
restaurants where it's incredibly flavorful, and I've had it when it was
bland and boring.  Of course I wanted to make the tasty sort!!  And I had
great plans!!  I'd get a red or yellow pepper and some fresh mushrooms to
throw in it!!!, and I'd use the broccoli in the freezer - and just pick the
pieces out of my husband's!, and I'd slice up the chicken breasts and sauté
that.... Oh this would be LOVELY!!!

Being smart, I inquired to my good-cook-friends and got all kinds of helpful
advice!  One chick - I'll call her 'Dee'! - actually out-googled me for a
recipe!!!  Dee's was titled 'The Perfect Alfredo Sauce'!!! Which sounded
much more appealing than my boring 'Alfredo Sauce' recipe, and the site
Dee's recipe came from included comments from other cooks about variations
and warnings!  So I had the sauce recipe and I was ready to go...

I stopped at the store to pick up the few ingredients I needed.  Not
surprisingly, colored peppers were quite pricey, and instead of paying $1.87
for one yellow pepper, I chose the 3-pack of orange/yellow/red peppers for
just $3.50.  True I now had THREE peppers, but they were only medium sized
and they'd be so PRETTY!!

I got a head of garlic (is it called a head of garlic?!), and I finally
found the containers of fresh sliced mushrooms!  More motivated I moved onto
the dairy section and picked up a tub of grated parmesan cheese!  I
remembered reading in the comments section about how you HAD to get grated
cheese but that it was harder to melt so right before adding it the cook
turned the heat up, and then back down.  Because I knew I was NOT going to
get the tacky Kraft stuff we sprinkle over spaghetti, it didn't click that
what I WAS getting was grated, and to remember the whole heat thing...

And so I headed home, armed with enough ingredients to be considered an
aspiring Chef!

It was when I was cleaning and slicing the chicken breasts that I realized I
had seven of the darned things!  Crap.  I couldn't refreeze a couple of them
so I just kept on slicing until I had a large pile.  That done I started on
the peppers until I had another large pile of them (but they were so
PRETTY!!).  I rinsed the mushrooms and got them ready, and I finely chopped
the fresh basil I'd bought!  Oh, I didn't mention that!!  When I questioned
whether I should add some not mentioned seasoning like tarragon or basil to
the sauce, another good-cook-friend - I'll call this one 'Julie'! -
responded by telling me that basil sounded "fab"!!!  Oh yeah... If Julie
said 'fab', there would BE fresh basil!!!

All I knew about fresh herbs (then) was that you should add them right at
the end of cooking.  I didn't know a thing about amounts, or how much is too
much, or not enough.  I did know that it smelled great while I was chopping
though!!

And the garlic.  The recipe called for three cloves crushed when I made the
sauce.  I *like* garlicky Italian food, so if three is good - then five and
a half are better!!  (Sort of the same philosophy I use with chocolate!!)
Finally I had all the ingredients ready, and just had to wait a bit to time
the whole cooking thing so dinner would be ready right when my kid got home
from practice early, but before we had to leave for an awards ceremony -
about a 15-20 minute window!  (Oh?  You wonder what award?!  Well, as a plug
because what mom could resist!, the town we live in was recognizing him for
being the state heavyweight champ in wrestling at 3A schools!!)

Because I am an enlightened cook with cool stuff in the pantry that I have
no idea how it got there, I used virgin olive oil to sauté my peppers and
mushrooms!  (And yes, I've always wondered about the slutty olive oil too!)
My house smelled SO yummy with all that garlic floating around in the oil
and infusing its flavor into the veggies!  (Okay, it DID smell good, but I'm
not so sure about all that 'infusing' crap!)  Can I just mention that I had
a butt-load of peppers cooking!!! I knew that they'd cook down, but I didn't
want to cook them down THAT much because then they'd be all limp and yucky
looking!  (Okay, so I do know SOMEthing!)  When I thought they were just a
bit softer than 'crisp-tender' (it's a look), I got them off the stove.
Actually I used a slotted spoon and took them out and put them into a bowl
on the counter.

Then I added some more oil to the pan, and dumped in all that chicken.
Pounds of chicken in fact!  This I quickly browned because I didn't want to
overcook it and have tough chicken - it had to be tender and soft!!  While
it was browning I got the flavor-seal-steam-in bag of broccoli out of the
freezer and nuked it for a few minutes.  When I thought the chicken was
done, I dumped the peppers on top, and the broccoli on top of that, and set
it all on low eat with the pan covered.

One layer of what was turning into a by-the-way-there's-some-sauce-in-here
dinner, was done.

I got a large pot to start boiling the pasta water in, and realized I was
running out of burners.  I always cook pasta on the back big burner on the
right.  The other big burner is on the front left.  There was not enough
room to have two large pans front to back, and I only had large pans.  So I
shuffled.

Finally, the actual alfredo sauce!!  Dee's googled recipe said to melt the
butter before I added the heavy cream.  Julie, who ONLY uses heavy cream for
ice cream!, said she just mixed some flour into the melting butter and that
thickened her milk-made sauce just fine!  Since I was going to use a mixture
of half-and-half and milk, I plopped a couple of tablespoons of flour into
the butter.  No I didn't measure!!  I was pretending to be an accomplished
chef and accomplished chefs do NOT measure stuff!

When the butter and flour were all melted and mixed, I poured in the
half-and-half and milk.  I was originally just going to use the
half-and-half, but when I saw how much chicken and peppers I had, I figured
I'd better half again the recipe so there'd be enough sauce to work with!  I
was iffy on the garlic at this point.  The recipe called for garlic in the
sauce, but I'd already used that up in the veggies, and more than it called
for!  What to do!!  Besides which, the chopper I'd used to mince the garlic
was already in pieces!!  But no, you can't hardly ever have too much garlic,
so I quickly reassembled the chopped and used my fine culinary skills to
thump on the cloves with a knife to remove the skin, and then minced up a
few more cloves for the sauce.  And where it called for white pepper???  I
just used regular old everyday black!  Who cares?!?!  But I did grind it
right over the sauce so I think I got a little extra credit for that!

Over medium heat, I waited for the mixture to simmer so I could add the
parmesan cheese.  Still I failed to remember the note about grated cheese,
and alas, I don't think mine ever did fully melt.  After stirring for awhile
I DID jack up the heat a bit, but it didn't seem to make a difference.  My
sauce was not smooth.  Finally, racing the clock, I just added the
mozzarella cheese the recipe called for, and stirred until it DID melt!  And
finally, right at the end, I added my fresh chopped basil!!

And then I rang the dinner bell!  Pam's Chicken-Mushroom-Pepper Alfredo
Sauce Dinner over Pasta was ready!!

And about that pasta.  In the frozen dinner thing, it had tubular shaped
pasta.  There's probably an Italian name for it, but I don’t exactly
remember.  Maybe penne.  Can I just tell you that what I bought was not
penne.  Think penne as the 'baby' tubes - and I got the big daddy version!!

So on a purple plate I scooped a dozen or so pieces of giant pasta.  Then I
layered on chicken and veggies, and spooned sauce all over it.  Out of my
husband's, I removed the broccoli.  Out of my son's, I picked out the
mushrooms.  When he came home he walked into the kitchen and over to the
stove.

"Whaddya making?"

"Oh!, I'm making the frozen stuff you liked so much!"

"What are the mushrooms doing in it?"

"Aren't there mushrooms in it?"

"No!  I *hate*  mushrooms!"

"Well then you can just pick them out!"

(And my husband's reaction was much the same... "It was looking good until
you added the broccoli.")

Anyway, after all the advice and recipes prep and cooking, dinner was
served.

My son must have worked around any mushroom pieces because he sucked down
his plateful rather quickly.  (And an hour later was going to the Mexican
restaurant to eat again with his father.) Ever honest though, when I asked
him if it was as good as the frozen stuff, he told me 'no'.  It was not.

My husband thought it rather bland, and didn't even finish what was on his
plate.

I forgot salt.  And there wasn't near enough basil.  And while my housed
smelled garlicky and yummy - you couldn't taste it in anything!!

Boring and bland.  When I'm cooking, dinner is served.

Pam








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