It is clearly the busy season in my world. I know this because yesterday was supposed to be my day off this week and I still felt like I needed to get things done so I put in an appearance for a few hours in the morning before coming home to nap, falling asleep with Food Network in the background.
To that end, I have tried to make time to improve my meals so that they are no longer spent hovering over a sink at 10pm, stuffing my face with whatever is available and needs no cooking. There seriously was a time in the not so distance past that triscuits and pepper jack cheese served as dinner because I was just too damn tired to make anything. Even a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
A few nights ago (I can’t tell you which, because in truth, I don’t even know what today is) I had a craving for lobster macaroni and cheese. I know, right? I couldn’t just crave something normal like spaghetti or a burger.
So I took my recipe from Market Restaurant in St. Helena (a lovely parting gift received when I moved to New Orleans) and added some lobster…with the help of someone who does crustaceans way better than I do. I can’t really get past the idea that they are alive, trying desperately to get out of the stainless steel kitchen sink that is pretty much the equivalent to a slippery ice rink for them. I know they aren’t gonna get out but live creatures with pinchers in my sink y’all.
So I handled the mac and cheese and my crustacean keeper dealt with the two lobsters that tried (unsuccessfully) to avoid their large stock pot fate.
It wasn’t half bad but it was so decadent and I maybe enjoyed too many pita chips and roasted red pepper hummus while I was cooking it to truly enjoy it. Luckily I have no idea about portions in cooking and we made enough to last us multiple nights of lunches and dinners. And you may note that, according to the picture, we ate at what is known in my family as “Jean Ray time,” mostly because my great aunt would have us for holiday dinners and tell us to arrive at a ridiculously early time but not serve dinner until closer to 8pm. 5 hours of Chex mix later, I would have a beautifully prepared meal that I wasn’t much hungry for. Kinda like this night.
The mac and cheese turned out pretty well, although it was a lot of rich things in one pot….fiscallini cheddar cheese, lobster, all in a rich sauce. I will say it held up for lunches and dinners in the coming evenings so score one there since I’m fairly picky about what leftovers I will eat. I may have actually OD’ed a bit on it, as the craving was sufficiently satisfied and there was still some left in the fridge, but honestly, I might turn into a bowl of mac and cheese if I eat anymore.
I kept within the genre of cooking massive portions of comfort food last night with tomato bisque (that started out as soup) and grilled cheese but the tomato soup bisque debacle is worth telling in a post of its own, mostly because it ends with me needing a new food processor. I’m sure more kitchen disasters will pop up from time to time and Gordon Ramsey would probably be appalled by some of my methods but at least they make for decent blog posts. I hope to get around to telling it before the week is out. We’ll see how that works out for me.