Nerd Pride Cookbook

[Iantha]

Alfredo Mac & Cheese

1 stick unsalted butter
as much garlic as you can handle (I usually do 8 cloves)
lemon juice
white wine
chicken bouillon
heavy whipping cream
white pepper
salt to taste
1 box penne pasta (or whatever pasta you prefer for cheesy goodness)
1-2 Cups Mozz

Preheat oven to 375

Boil your pasta until just underdone. Strain, run under cold water to stop the cooking process, and set aside.

In a large (18-24 inch) cast iron pan, melt butter, crush garlic into butter, add about 1-2 cups of white wine, juice of 1-2 lemons

Simmer until garlic is translucent

Add chicken bouillon, heavy whipping cream, and white pepper.

Add salt to taste.

Bring just to a very gentle simmer and turn off heat.

At this point you can either add the pasta into the cast iron pan, mix in the mozz, and pop it in the oven for 25 minutes to finish or you can put the pasta in a clear baking dish, pour the sauce over it, mix in the mozz, and then place in the oven. Either way. I'm a fan of cast iron but whatever floats your boat.

Have it as a side or as a main meal with sauteed chicken.

[Phoebe]

So basically, a garlic dish, with some starches and fats to hold it together?

I am basically This is not merely a philosophy about recipes but life itself. Check out the eyebrow situation here, if you're sitting down. What I really appreciate is how they rise and fall like the waves with each word that receives special emphasis.

[Phoebe]

We have decided to cook almost nothing for Easter and it's wonderful. If it could be bought instead of prepared, we bought it. Thus I wish to hear about what other people are cooking.

[Tahlvin]

My Easter will probably consist of frozen pizzas. My wife is out of town with one of the kids visiting her sick mother, so I'm home with only one of the kids. And that one kid is a semi-vegetarian (she's watching what she eats so she can fit in her prom dress in a couple weeks), and makes all of her own meals.

[Phoebe]

Ahhh, well, you live too far away unfortunately. I broke down and went grocery shopping and will cook tomorrow after all. No cooking today though! Just the drinking. I shall also cheat in the sense of making broccoli tots instead of potatoes. But who doesn't like tots? Also will make Jacques Pepin style carrots.

[Phoebe]

So let me talk about . I used to have feelings about being a carrot for Alton Brown, not even sure if that's the right name - forgot all the other names once I learned the name Jacques Pepin. Annnyway, the problem you have here is that "little piece of butter", much like for Julia Child, for him means Giant Slab of Fat that will accrue straight to Phoebe's tummy. AND then he adds oil! I try this without the butter and it's still awesome, so whatever. The other problem is that shallots are expensivo. It's not as good as fresh, but luckily you can get a big bag of dried ones inexpensively. I need to grow shallots more.

The point is, if you make this carrot dish, and then you just spend a few more minutes in the same pan sauteeing your piece of salmon or whatever, you have a delightful meal. Because it's not ok to actually eat Jacques Pepin. I wonder if I could just eat the eyebrows?

[Phoebe]

Talk about meatloaf from the other thread, reproduced here:

For meatloaf, every recipe seems to suggest egg. Why? It creates the texture problem many people have with meatloaf. It isn't needed. Liberate your meatloaf from the egg, I say, and try other forms of binding. Normally I put no cheese in meatloaf, but if what you want is one of those bacon-wrapped or topped loafs with cheese inside, I suggest mixing very sharp cheddar or some other nice cheese like a gruyere into the whole meatloaf, and adding about 1/4 or 1/3 cup (depending on size of your loaf mixture) uncooked rice or barley to soak up juices. Barring that, crushed saltines or Ritz/Club crackers work better than panko or bread crumbs.

IMO meatloaf absolutely needs at minimum a few tsp chopped garlic, and preferably a chopped, sauteed banana/poblano/anaheim pepper or a heavily drained small tin of precooked green chilies or a spoon of minced adobo peppers in their sauce for flavor. Also needs a liberal sprinkling of onion powder, two tsp Worcestershire sauce, mustard powder or squirt of mustard, and if you're using mild peppers add a drizzle of A-1. Use a loaf pan. Squirt the ketchup and a little hot sauce on top and if you want bacon, slap the bacon on top of that.

Another something good, on a different route, would be adding a half-cup of peas and half cup of mashed potatoes to the meat (add onion powder, garlic, Worcester, mustard powder, and banana or mild sauteed pepper), and mix the ketchup or tomato paste straight in. That one is good with gravy and good cold the next day. You can also add cheese to this potatoey one because they soak up the cheese fat. Note if you have no leftover mashed potatoes, the easy way to do this is microwave the potato and then scrape it out into the meatloaf mix. Bonus: sprinkle cheese on the leftover potato skins and put it in to bake at same time... A few minutes crisps and melts it exactly right.

My preferred go-to meatloaf has sauteed banana or anaheim peppers, no cheese, peas, a little barley, all the spices/sauces and garlic listed above, and ketchup rather than tomato paste. No bacon. No sugar.

[Iantha]

Huh, interesting. Does the rice cook fully this way, or do you recommend half-cooking the rice, mixing it in, and then letting it cook the rest of the way? I think it would be rather unfortunate to bite into half-cooked rice in a fully-cooked meatloaf.

[Phoebe]

Totally agree, that would be terrible! I have never had an issue with that, but I also use a fair bit of liquid from the Worcestershire sauce, ketchup, hot sauce, mustard et al in my loaf mixture, so it's wet enough to fill the barley or rice, and I cook it 50 min to a full hour, so it has time to soften up. I started doing this with rice because i often made porcupine meatballs - basically doing a similar thing in loaf form. Then switched to barley since it was better than rice for flavor and nutrition. There is also quick barley, which is an even safer bet to soften. I'd use only 1/4 cup or less if you make one smaller loaf. Usually I make 2 at once. My mom always browns the whole loaf first, but I like it in a loaf pan with no pre-browning.

[Iantha]

Oooh, I LOVE barley. I'll have to try this sometime. We don't eat much ground beef but I may have to make an exception for this.

[Phoebe]

Me too, my favorite is either barley soup with tomato/carrot/potato/celery, or barley mixed with farro and rice in a pilaf. I hope you like it in the meatloaf - I really should make one now and pay attention to the actual measurements so a recipe can be presented.

[Kyle]

[Phoebe]

How are you with quinoa or farro? They make excellent substitutes. I really like farro with a little wild rice for pilaf, or quinoa in pretty much anything you'd put grains or rice in.

[Note: if people stop buying quinoa, that doesn't make farmers eat any better, if their staple before was quinoa and they're being priced out of it. Rather, the point is to make sure farmers are profiting from that burgeoning market. I seem to hear only from people on the far left or far right these days.]

[Kyle]

Farro is wheat- so that's a no-go.

Quinoa is fine with me and the couple times I've had it, I haven't had any issues. I'm just not as familiar with cooking it.

[Stan]

Most soups are better with barley.

I use oats in meatloaf. I'll have to try barley.

[Phoebe]

Oats in there is brilliant; I am totally doing that!

[Iantha]

[Kyle]

I'm fine with oats- it's my second go-to breakfast (instant oats and brown sugar).

[poorpete]

My wife was busy so I looked online for hardboiled eggs.
Internet: cook on high until almost boiling, place lid on pot and set aside for 17 minutes.
Wife: set timer for 20 minutes, cook on high, turn to low once it starts boiling.

Result: wife's recipe worked, internet I was left with a soft-boiled mess.

Anyone have similar/different ways?

[Bluedevyl]

I have this great cookbook by a guy named Kenji Lopez-Alt called The Food Lab. There is an entire section on hard boiled eggs that was really interesting, if you can believe that.

Here's how it's done in his book, mostly from memory:

Boil water in a large pot.

Once the water is boiling, move eggs from the fridge to the water. (its important that they stay cold)

Leave water at a boil for 30 seconds, then lower to a simmer.

Simmer for 11 minutes. (yes, 11. He timed it and took pictures... like I said, interesting)

Move them to a bowl filled with ice water and chill for 15 minutes before peeling.