the ultimate bad for you food.

refined starch, processed cheese, fake butter, liquid meat, and YUM

9 Cheese Mac and Cheese

1 small block Velveeta
1 package elbow macaroni 8 or 12 oz package
1 bag Italian cheese blend (usually like 6 cheese, with Parmesan, etc)
1 bag casserole cheese blend (usually 4 cheese, with cheddar and Monterrey jack)
2 tbsp black pepper
kosher salt
1/2 milk
1/4 butter or margarine
a big microwave bowl and a big bowl for mixing

Preheat oven to 350 F. Prepare macaroni and drain. Set in a greased baking dish. Mix all the shredded cheese together in a mixing bowl. In a microwaveable bowl, add cubed Velveeta, milk, pepper, and butter. Microwave in 1 minute increments for 3 minutes, or until cheese is melted, stirring in between nukings. Add one handful mixed cheese to melted stuff and stir. Pour a little over noodles in pan and stir. Pour remainder of Velveeta over noodles and stir till evenly mixed. Sprinkle all the cheese on top of the pan and bake until top is golden brown.

Some Basic (but new) home cookin.

This is lovingly pilfered from my post from yesterday on facebook.

So today, i whipped up 3 really good recipes.
The middle one is the only one that can be made veggie. This is kind of everyday style home cooking, but new recipes.

Key ingredients:


FRESH shittake mushrooms and


Bonito and soy based soup base (usually called memmi, tempura sauce, or bonito soup base).





You can find the soup base and noodles in the Asian isle from Krogers, and the mushrooms by the.... well... mushrooms.

(the pic shows somen noodles, but you get the idea. still my cooking)

Udons
Fresh Udons are the best! For a variation, add a couple of pieces or chopped crab stick a couple of minutes before the snow peas or a scrambled egg. Even if you buy the udons in the package (for 89 cents... you know those), use the broth and still tastes better.

1/4c soup base
3 cups water
1 thumb size piece ginger, unpeeled, and halved
2 servings dried udon noodles
8 fresh shittake mushrooms, cleaned and destemmed
1 handfull of snow peas
2 green onions, sliced
1/2 c diced tofu

boil udons and shittakes in 3 cups of water for about 8 minutes, till noodles are tender. drain, and run under cold water. remove mushrooms, slice, set aside. Put 3 cups of water with soup base. Add sliced mushrooms, tofu, and ginger. Bring to a boil, fish out ginger, taste, add more soup base if needed, add noodles and everything else and turn off heat. Serve!




Stir fried yum
I love shittakes. Not only are they good for you, but they are hearty enough to be a meat substitute in many dishes.

2 handfulls fresh shittakes, cleaned, destemmed, and slides in thirds
3 cloves garlic, sliced
2 cups sugar snap peas
sesame oil
olive oil
1/4c bonito soup base OR 1/4 soy sauce with 4 tbsp sugar dissolved in it
some red pepper flakes

make a swirl of olive oil and a swirl sesame oil in a pan over med high heat. add mushrooms and garlic, cook for about 5 minutes, until all oil is absorbed and a couple of the edges of the mushrooms brown. Add 1/2 c water, and cook for another 5 minutes. add bonito sauce and about 1/2 c water and snap peas. Toss frequently, cook until peas are steamed




spicy squid salad
I had a squid salad the other day at nidda thai that was phenominal. this is not AS good, but still pretty damn good. Not to mention, it only costs about $5 to make, cause most of the stuff i already have in my fridge.

1/2lb calamari steak
6 tbsp fresh lime juice
3 tbsp fish sauce
sugar (to taste)
3 red dried chilis, crushed (really, to taste. I added 4 and it was perfect heat for me)
black pepper (to taste)
1.5 c shredded green cabbage
3 stalks celery, chopped
2 roma tomatoes, chopped and de-seeded
3 green onions, sliced

Boil calimari in 2 c of water until it starts to cool. Rinse with cold water and put in a plate in the freezer to cool it off. Add all veggies into a tupperware (covered) bowl. Mix it up a little bit, shake it. Mix fish sauce, a little pepper, chilis, sugar, and lime juice in either a bowl or a shaker jar. Mix until sugar is dissolved. taste the sauce to make sure it is sweet, it should be a nice combo of sweet and sour... Remove calamari from the fridge and cube into little 1/2" cubes. add to veggies. add fish sauce mix to bowl, cover tightly and SHAKE. Put in the fridge for 20 minutes, pulling it out to shake everything up about every 5 minutes. Shake and serve on a bed of lettuce if you like.

means feeds...

Well, I've set this up as a sister site to my design site. However, I fear that I may actually blog on this one more...

Ever since I was little and discovered ramen noodles, I've loved to cook. When mom moved to Texas before us to scope out a pad, I sometimes cooked for our family. I was 9! When i was about 13, I discovered Julia Child (cooking shows in general really - preFood Network) and became an avid watcher of the Frugal Gourmet. I made many, many horrible dishes that eventually moved beyond adding hot dogs to ramens.

Over the years, I've experimented with all sorts of things: vegetarianism, macrobiotics, high protein, atkins, weight watchers, you name it! I've had periods where I have money to spend, and some where I have to make do on very little. However, I find what does my body best is a combination of everything. I use food as a tool to keep my energy high and my design process fresh. I also understand that careful planning (although not LONG planning) is much smarter and more rewarding than eating out 90% of the time.

So, with that introduction, on to the food!

Cheers,
B