Cooking Idea

[cjsmith]

This isn't food porn. This is sleaze... bad sleaze.


I started with:

5/8 lb ground turkey, browned and drained

I put it in a skillet. Then I found:

Bow tie pasta, about as much as you'd pull out of a Hamburger Helper box that got way too old so its sauce mix had to be thrown away but you kept the pasta for another year or so because you figured it must be good for something -- maybe two cups?
One can Campbell's Cheddar Cheese Soup

I added those. Then I started to improvise:

Hmm, the soup is usually made with milk. Okay, a can of milk
Hmm, the pasta will need water. Okay, a can of water
That looks gooey. 2 tablespoons cornstarch
Minced onion -- I used dried-up instant minced onion -- quantity: fill up the jar lid and pour that in
Ground black pepper, enough to cover a patch about the size of an index card on the surface of the sauce
About ten shakes of garlic powder
Nutmeg until it starts to smell really really good

I covered it and simmered about ten minutes, stirring a lot because I hadn't been smart enough to use a whisk to break up the Campbell's soup glop before it glued itself into every fold of the pasta. Then I took the lid off and just boiled it all down until the resemblance to barf was less noticeable. It wasn't bad! In hindsight I believe I overdid the garlic, but everything else seemed okay. It's much less hideous than most of my kitchen experimentation!

The cats didn't want to lick the bowl when I was done. I think they don't like nutmeg. (One of 'em will definitely eat garlic, onion, or pepper, if there's either cheese or turkey in the offing. So it must be the nutmeg. Or they don't like the look of barf.)

Next time: less garlic (all it's for is to disguise the fact I'm a bad cook) and use anything but bow tie pasta. The middle of a bow tie pasta piece doesn't even get al dente before the ends are actively disintegrating.

Comments

[redgrrl.livejournal.com]

Here's an idea for your pasta -- cook it al dente while you're cooking up the other stuff, and then stir it in in the last 5 minutes...

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Yeah, problem I have with bow tie is that it cooks so unevenly; the center cooks sooooo slowly that by the time the center is remotely edible the ends are the consistency of pudding. Would cooking it separately help with that? Maybe cooking it more slowly would help? Maybe me having a clue would help? I'll cover up my ineptitude by using egg noodles or elbows or something next time.

[redgrrl.livejournal.com]

Yes, cooking it separately will help with that. Most smaller pastas are so delicate that they MUST be cooked separately, for just the problem you encountered.

As for "having a clue" -- what fun is that? Most of the fun of cooking is experimentation and figuring out combinations that work. I say keep experimenting -- the occasional pot of food that looks like vomit is a small price to pay! :)

[butterfly-smile.livejournal.com]

Oh my, not sure what to say.....

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Nasty, huh? It really was good, honest! Hideous as it sounds.

Re:

[butterfly-smile.livejournal.com]

I find that most things that sound aweful
are the best.....hey I would like to invite you to a dinner that I am having for chiefted but your e-mail is not right on your Lj page....i am not sure how to get the invite to you....

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Huh, cjsmith at livejournal dot com ought to work, and the one on my userinfo page sure LOOKS correct to me! :-O Don't know what's going on with that.

[just-cyd.livejournal.com]

*APPLAUDS*

Congrats on a successful science kitchen experiement!! there's nothing better than having the results be edible.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I got three big servings out of it. I wonder whether I'll dare show any of it to my mother when she arrives. 8-) (She's still appalled that I don't shave my legs, have children, wear makeup, etc etc... I think if she saw me in the kitchen she'd disown me.)

[hopeforyou.livejournal.com]

It sounds a bit tacky but it's got a beat and I can dance to it.

Funny entry -- thanks for making me laugh!

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

*grin* thanks, or you're welcome, or something!

Off topic

[firecat]

Great usericon!

Re: Off topic

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Thanks! It's rarely so appropriate, but times like this I love having it. Feel free to steal it; someone else made it for me with the same offer.

[(Anonymous)]

Seems like you're just as... hmm, what's the word for it... "organically brave" comes to mind... as you were at MIT :-) _Mark_

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

*snicker* I have probably mercifully forgotten most of the things I was willing to consume back then. I do remember my peanut-butter-and-orange-Tic-Tacs sandwiches, but those were from grade school...

Being a little less brave would mean I could cook things OTHER people would eat. I still have your ziti casserole recipe, by the way. It is Yummy. 8-)