CJ's Haute Cuisine, Part 2

[cjsmith]

I took one of those Trader Joe's frozen all-you-need-to-do-is-bake-it pork chops with apple and almond stuffing. I popped that into the oven alongside some potatoes au gratin I was carefully overcooking (I like 'em thickened up and all crispy on top). Why no, tonight's dinner is not at all good for my heart.

It sure looks a lot more like Real Food than most anything I do around here. "It even smells like food," Rob said. (This in direct contrast to lunch. Or maybe it isn't, given how Rob feels about food.) I was all impressed.

I don't know if it particularly qualifies as fine dining, but wow do I ever have three feline furforms who think it must be. I have their complete and undivided attention. :-)

Comments

[lkeele.livejournal.com]

My cat thinks it's haute cuisine when I open a tin of kippers. She *loves* Russian night, because I usually open herring, sardines, smoked salmon, and smoked oysters. The smell drives her mad.

Your post is driving me to the same kind of hunger. I think it has to be a pork chop night tonight. You wouldn't share your recipe for carefully over-cooked potatoes au gratin would you?

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

The ones I made yesterday are from a box. Simply Idahoan, or something like that. I think they say to cook for 45 minutes and I always wind up with about an hour or an hour and ten.

I'm working on a recipe from scratch -- where, naturally, "working on" mostly means "learning how many ways I can cheat". I started with the easiest one I found on the web and started reducing the work. (Slice the potatoes really thin so you don't have to cook them twice. Omit the breadcrumbs and save some of the cheese to sprinkle on top. That sort of thing.) I'll happily send that to you when I like it!

I wonder now if the reason I always have to overcook these things is that the only baking dish I have that has the right capacity is a meat loaf pan, which isn't shallow.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Whoops! Wrong numbers. They say 20 on the box and I wind up with 40 or so. Wow, my memory was way off on that one.