Been having this tangly urge for real macky cheese. The creamy, cheesy and just a little sparky roasted dish. You know the one, yup. I was perusing Kevin’s Seriously Good and read that he and Cookiecrumb of I’m Mad and I Eat had partnered up for some cooking. The dish? You guessed it, macky cheese. I was in and yesterday was the deadline. I’m a day late and 2 pounds fatter. Oh well, what can you do?
Category Archives: SIDES
George checks in with his version of General Tsou’s Chicken
While Biggles is off-planet for the moment, his good friend George steps in with General Tsou’s Chicken. George and I go way, way, way back to the late 1980’s. He’s always been colorful character. Someone who maintained an operating computer retail storefront in an abandoned building to a guy who bought a shiny, metallic purple Thunderbird (the Purple Penetrator). We’ve kept in contact over the years and he’s always had some tasty skills in the kitchen. I’ve offered to post a recipe of his anytime. Today is that day … take it away George!
Edith Key Haines’ Skillet Corn Bread Recipe or Biggles botches another batch of cornbread
What the HELL am I doing wrong? While I truly believe it’s the recipe’s fault this time (shift the blame), why does my cornbread suck so badly? I’m talking so bad it separates and the center of the bread looks and feels like a gooey, yellow custard.
Check out the recipe though, it is kind of interesting.
High Roast Cauliflower – Redux
That was a most outstanding meal and I had to share it with the world. Veggies and I have been at odds for years and I think cauliflower has won my heart over. I smile when I prepare this and can’t wait for the roasty smells to start. If you search Meathenge you’ll run in to this preparation method with a few different recipes and experiments. This vegetable dish is so good you can eat it as a meal and it’s good reheated the next day. Plus it’s easy and takes no longer than 35 minutes to cook. Here we go!
Rind On? Rind Off? Bacon loves me.
I have to admit, I’m a creature of habit. Some would say closer to your red bearded bucktoothed creature more than anything else. I require my wooden spatulas to be in that one red container, no spoons wooden or otherwise. My fry pans are returned to the place from which they sprung. My wood handled sandwich knife goes on the magnetic knife holder located on the right and at the lower position. If these items aren’t there, they’re in the process of being cleaned. I search for nothing. I bask in the warm glow that my items are just where I need them, when I need them.
What is it that I allow to vary? What is it that curls my toes when I find something new? What is it that calms my life long collection of psychoses?
Meathenge’s Grease Beans – (they’re vegetables)
It seems as though Mama’s blood sugar is too high, doctor says so. She went to the library (free books) to see if she could find some cookbooks for diabetics, easy enough. She found a GREAT one and it turns out the guy cooks like I do. Ain’t that somethin’? In any case, this caused Mama to do some grocery shopping and she came back with a load of green things, she calls them v-e-g-e-t-a-b-l-e-s.
“What are these, things?” asks Biggles. Mama’s eyes roll as she turns and leaves the kitchen, leaving him alone in his bewilderment. Biggles returns his cleaver to his holster and grabs his 13″ Sabatier carbon and decided to split these suckers open and see what’s what. “Whar’s the damned HEAD?” he grumbles. “Must be this twiggy thing, off you go then.” And Biggles is off and slicing like a madman. Or in this case, a Norwegian Axe Murderer.
Sauteed Cauliflower, toasted walnuts with quark cheese – Recipe comin’
As I left today for work with my new borrowed book in tow, Mama said she wanted a picture of me reading this vegetable book (insert gasp here). I beat a hasty exit, stage left.
That’s right, a vegetable book. And a darned good one too. I’ve been wracking my meat riddled mind for new things to try, do and experiment with. Up until this last weekend, I haven’t been inspired enough to do anything, at all.
Friday evening Jlee offered up her Chez Panisse Vegetable book, yay!
Oh shaddap, yeah I know Alice is living in her own little world and gets a lot of flack for it. But this is an excellent book, even if I don’t know anything about vegetables. I like it cause the recipes are arranged by vegetable and at each entry you’re told what time of year to expect it. Very handy for us novices, I must say.
Wanna see my version of what Alice originally called, “Whole-wheat Pasta with Cauliflower, Walnuts, and Ricotta Salata?
Scallion Pancakes (non-traditional) from Too Many Chefs
I love scallions, green onions or spring onions. Whatever you call them, they’re fresh, spritely and add fun to anything they’re used in. Plus they’re cool to look at when swimming in a sauce, cute little buggers.
So when I was over having a gander on Too Many Chefs and caught Barrett’s Scallion Pancakes? I was hooked.
Braised Endive – A gift from Paris
WAhoo! I cooked a vegetable! And I owe it all to Meg in Paris over at Too Many Chefs.
Honestly, I’m not sure what happened yesterday. There was something so inviting (easy) about her Braised Endive recipe she posted on the 18th (yesterday). Everything fell in to place so quickly, I knew my corner market had the endives. The deal was sealed, I was off on a mission.
Meathenge Remembers – Garden ‘Maters
Nikon F2a, 55mm f2.8 Micro lens with dumb old Kodak 200 asa print film. Sanned with flatbed from print, originally at 300 dpi.
Many moons ago I found myself taking pictures of food (meat). This started with film probably back in the early 1970’s. Clearly things progressed, changed and happiness grew. In 1997 we found ourself in a really cool rented house with 2400 sq. ft. on a 1/4 acre for 850 dollars a month. Boy, talk about a playground …
Biggles Eats Salad – It’s got oranges & red onion!
That’s not my plate.
Mama gets the credit for making this one. I picked up a few goodies on the way home. And speaking of stopping by a local market to get some ingredients, what’s up with grocers and where they decide things should go? If I can get away with it, I usually stop by Giovanni’s Produce in El Cerrito. It’s a smallish little neighborhood store with decent stuff and of course, Rick’s Quality Meats. Okay, so we’re talking just a few rows of canned/bottled/boxed goods here, not much. If you want tomato sauce you only have a few choices, which is fine. Okay, one of the things on my list was Red Wine Vinegar. That’s an easy one, the vinegars are over here with the salad dressings, oils AND OTHER VINEGARS, right? Nope. No sir, ain’t there. They got white vinegar and cider, but no red wine vinegar. Looks as though I’m going to have to make another stop, which I don’t want to do. I’m weary from working all day and want to go home. At this point I remember some other things on another shelf on the other side of the store. I’ll check there, just to see. Bingo! There it is, next to all the expensive balsamic vinegar and imported olive oils (2 kinds). GOLDANGIT MAN !!! Why the hell can’t they put the vinegars with the damned vinegars !?!
Wanna see what’s in the salad? Yes, there’s red wine vinegar in it.
Side Dish Comin’ – Bake Fried Taters – Breakfast & Supper
OoooOo, there’s nothing earth shattering here. I was having such a good afternoon a few days ago. It turns out there is ONE thing on FoodTV that I found worth watching. Jamie Oliver’s first season is being shown again. And before you go off on your Jamie hate spew (he deserves it), his first season rocks. He had the same production crew that the Two Fat Ladies used (I miss them SO MUCH). Anyhoo, Jamie was roasting sliced potatoes in a large roaster. I believe he was going to layer in some kind of fish situation. Man, that sounded like such an easy way to have Fried Potatoes. And it was, easy. And it was, yummy. Interested?
High Roast Cauliflower v2.0
A few weeks ago I presented a Roasted Curry Cauliflower here on Meathenge. It was good enough for me to want to try some spice and cooking modifications. I was really interested in using some TexMex flavors and using a rack inside the roaster to set the florets on. And I wanted to see what non-organic cauliflower was like (probably not 11 dollars for two heads). I did it all.
Roasted Curry Cauliflower – Monday Night Tasty Side
Contemplate this on the tree of woe. The mighty cauliflower. I paid over 11 dollars for nearly 4 pounds (about 2 heads worff). Don’t think we’ll be doing Organic Cauliflower again, this I assure you. Even so, it’s an interesting beast. Looks like white broccoli, it ain’t. The little trees (florets they say) are far more uniform and sturdy. I aint’ never cut one up, but after pulling the green fronds off it’s butt, nature took it’s course (along with my 10″ Cook’s knife) and it came to pieces readily. Why did I drag this thing to my abbatoire? Molly has been very helpful and kind in the wily ways of introducing the Biggles to a wider variety of vegetables. She offered up a Roasted Curry Cauliflower for me to try out. It looked easy enough for a Monday night. Off I went to El Cerrito Natural Grocery in a flash. Then to my local Indian grocery that opened up around the corner for fresher Coriander seeds (ours were old). I was READY. In the now famous words of Tommy Tang, Let’s Get Cooking!
From Inspiration to Table – Meathenge Goes Macaroni & Cheese
Macaroni & Cheese in one of its purist forms. That’s cheesy love. Reminds me of the feeling I get while sitting in front of a fire during the coldest part of winter. You and the fire, you and the cheese. Eat half, it’s okay. How could love be so wrong?