Don't ever make lasagna with cheddar cheese (D2)

So my husband is a chef. I know, lucky me right? The funny thing is, I love to cook too and I'm damn good at it. But he does most of the cooking, and that shit works for me too.

Last week I get home from work to smell something-a-cookin' as I open the front door. He proceeds to tell me that he's made a lasagna. So I wonder to myself, "Self, do we have mozzarella? Do we have ricotta?" Me thinks not. So I ask him how me made a lasgna when I know we don't have the ingredients?. "Well, I just used the cheese that we had in the fridge". Ooooo this is gonna get interesting.

So we sit down to dinner and this oily, dry noodle thing in a lasagna dish appears before me. I realize he's used cheddar cheese without cutting it with another cheese to change the chemistry of the melting habits and the omission of oil. Go with me on this one. I'm no cheese scientist - but I have seen melted cheddar on its own... lots of oil... and melted cheddar with some other kind of cheese.... delicious goodness. Ok, this story is getting long I'll wrap it up.

Anyhoo --- no ricotta, no mozzarella, hardly any red sauce does not a lasagna make. This basically tasted like a cheeseburger with noodles. Crazy enough? We ate b/c it still tasted good - but don't call this shit lasagna.

I love being right like any other woman and I love winning. So over the weekend I bought the ingredients for a real lasagna and made it on Tuesday. Shit was ridiculous. Even the chef said so. BAM! I win!


Shit you're gonna need:

-9 lasagna noodles. Don't cook the whole fucking box unless you're making 3 lasagnas, k?

-Small thingy of ricotta cheese. If you use cottage cheese I'll come to your house and smack you around. Gross.

-Mozarella cheese slices and a bag of shredded mozzarella. A lot of cheese, I know. it gets better

-Bag of Shredded Parmasean - yes, they sell this not in a shaker container.

- 1 egg

- 1 lb-ish of ground beef or turkey

- jar of spaghetti sauce. - I use the super expensive Raos sauce b/c its fucking awesome and tastes right and requires no effort on my part except coughing up $8.99 for the jar. If you wanna use Ragu or Prego or make your own - get crazy and do it.

- Italian Seasonsing

Shit you're gonna do

Cook up your meat in a plug in skillet or big ass pan in the stove. Sprinkle some salt and the Italian seasoning on that meat and let it cook - I believe they call this "browning". In a mixing bowl, plop out the ricotta from its container, crack an egg in there, pour in 1/2 the bag of Parmesan cheese, and like 1/3 of the shredded mozzarella bag. I don't measure, I eyeball and you should too. Sprinkle some Eye-talian seasoning in there too - why not?

Now stick your lasagna noodles on the stove in a boiling pot of agua and let all that magic happen at once. Oh, and turn your oven on to like 350.

Once you meat is browned, throw in your jar of sauce and let that simmer for a minute. Once your noodles are done, drain them.

Take out your glass lasagna dish and spray with a tiny bit of kitchen KY. Then let's start layering...

Bottom layer: 3 noodles, then your ricotta mixture, then sauce/meat, then mozzarella slices. Then repeat... once you're out of stuff and you're on the last step use the shredded mozzarella as the very last layer and maybe throw the rest of the shredded Parmesan on there too. Get crazy with the cheese whiz, folks.

And Voila! You have yourself a REAL lasagna. Stick that baby in the oven for 30 minutes uncovered. It'll be done with you see it a-bubblin and all melty and shit.

Mangia!

Chili Cheese Homemade Hamburger Helper. Just admit that you get lazy too.

Alright, I gotta give super props to this website for this recipe. http://chickensintheroad.com/cooking/homemade-hamburger-helper/

This chick has about nine different versions of homemade hamburger helper (HHH). But the one I adapted was the Chili Cheese. And it worked. I didn’t actually give my family any other option. This ain’t fucking Denny’s. Eat it…eat it and like it!

I now make this shit about once a week. It’s easy, it’s fucking fantastic as leftovers and my kids eat it. It’s the ménage á trios of cooking.

Shit you’re gonna need:

1 small onion chopped (I’ve also been known to add half of a chopped green pepper in here because I needed to use it. My kids had a shit fit when they saw little bits of green, so I don’t do that anymore, but I wanted to give you the option)

1 lb of ground beef (again, if you don’t have balls, feel free to use ground turkey)

1 cup of hot water (I didn’t heat mine up. Used it straight from the tap. Made no difference.)

1 ½ cups of milk (regular milk. Don’t use the fake blue shit)

½ cup of sour cream

1 ½ cups of elbow macaroni

(Seasoning)

1 tbs. of corn starch

1 tbs. of chili powder

2 tsp of garlic salt

1 tsp of sugar

½ tsp. of paprika

1 cup of cheese (Come on ya’ll…you know me by now…you know I used two cups)

Shit you’re gonna do:

Brown up your onion and your ground beef. I personally rinse and drain it after cooking to get any fat that might be left on it. Not that I think it’ll matter since I use butter on everything, but at least I can tell my cardiologist that I tried. If you rinse it, put it back in the pan and add your water, milk and sour cream. Stir and then add your macaroni. Nothing fancy here people. I’ll tell you what is fancy though…manchego cheese dipped in honey. It’s just like a wedding; expensive as fuck but so freaking worth it. Even if your wedding day was the first day of turkey hunting season and your in-laws wore their hunting gear there, but don’t worry, my Aunt Tom got over it.

In a separate small bowl, mix all your spices together and then add them to your beef mixture. Cover and let this shit cook for about 12 minutes or until your pasta is done. You’ll want to stir it every now and then so you don’t get shit stuck to the bottom of the pan. Once it’s done, stir in your cheese, and holy macaroni (literally), your shit’s done. I personally shovel this into my mouth while hovering over the stove with the same spoon I just stirred with. But that’s just me. And that’s just another option for you.

Fyi…don’t fucking rip my head off when you taste this and it needs more salt. Because it probably will. Just settin’ ya’ up…

Sausage Gravy. And a story about a tramp..oline.

Since it’s the day after Christmas and I’m filled to the fucking gills with food, I thought I’d make you long for something more. More fat and more artery clogging nonsense to fill your thighs with. God Bless everyone.

The kids got a trampoline for Christmas. And Christmas day here in sunny fucking Florida was a beautiful 75 degrees. But of course, the day AFTER Christmas it was windy and as cold as Angelina Joile’s soul. I knew it would be a feat in to get that fucking trampoline up because it was so damn crappy here. But since I had to work the next day, we HAD to get that shit up or the kids would be all up my ass about how fucking bored they are. Even though Toys R Us basically just shat in my living room, but I digress…

Sausage Gravy.

Shit you’re gonna need:

½ pound of ground sausage (I used half a package of Jimmy Dean. It’s those fat ass blunt rolled sausages that work the best, if you ask me.)

2 tablespoons of butter (I fucking ran out of butter after this. Sucked. But at least the butter gods were there to assist me in my devious attempt at getting that fucking trampoline going.)

2 tablespoons of flour (I hate the smell of that shit.)

‘Bout 1 ½ cups of milk (You may need more if you like your gravy creamier. Again, double meaning there.)

Salt and Pepper

Shit you’re gonna do:

I used my iron skillet, but any skillet will do. Don’t beat yourself up about it there Mike Tyson. But go ahead and brown up your sausage. Once it’s browned, you’ll notice that it doesn’t necessarily render a lot of fat, so we’re gonna have to add our own. Drop in your two tablespoons of butter and then your flour. Now, since flour tastes like shit (and smells like shit too), let this crap cook for about a minute. Then start adding your milk. I add about ½ cup at a time whisking the hell out of it to get those little bits of sausage goodness into your sauce. It’ll thicken; then add more milk. Keep doing that until you get the consistency you want and then salt and pepper the shit out of this until your arteries are happy.

Seriously – you’re fucking done. That’s it. Pour this shit over biscuits…homemade or canned, I don’t give a rat’s ass…and then stand with your back to a mirror and watch your ass grow.

I’m now off to put the “tramp” in trampoline…

Buckeyes

Let me rephrase myself. I’m not “from” Ohio. I was born there. I was born in September and as soon as the temperature dropped to 72 degrees, my mom got the hell out of dodge. Don’t blame her one bit. It’s witch tit cold up there.

What is a buckeye? I think it ‘s a nut. From a tree. Which is pretty close to describing myself.

Shit you’re gonna need:

2 cups of peanut butter (I used creamy. Isn’t creamy always better?)

½ stick of butter, softened (Take your finger, poke it in the fattest part of your ass and that’s how soft the butter should be. Good rule of thumb there.)

3 ¾ cups of powdered sugar (You don’t have to sift it. Seriously, I don’t want to dirty another dish, nor do I give a shit if there’s lumps. And yes, I know it’s a lot of powdered sugar, but really? Do you care? Didn’t think so.)

12 oz. bag of semi sweet morsels (I used generic and I used the mini ones. They melt faster, kinda like the ice in my vodka when it’s a 127 degrees here in July.)

2 tbs of vegetable shortening (It’s crisco smart guy.)

Other shit you’ll need to get out:

Baking sheet

Wax paper

Shit you’re gonna do:

Beat together your peanut butter and butter. Yeah, I said “beat”, moving on…once it’s combined you need to slowly add your powdered sugar. Believe me when I tell you to do it slowly. Add a little at a time. Because when I first read that way back when I didn’t know shit, I dumped all of it in and let it fly. Literally. And trust me; powdered sugar on the floor is NOT easy to clean up. (Bonus powdered sugar story right after the recipe, it’s a doozy.)

So, now you’re trying your damndest to not stick your face into the bowl of sugary goodness that you just created. You’re gonna roll this into little balls. Me? I like big balls for a couple of reasons. Let’s break that down, shall we? First, there’s a lot of this fucking mix, if I make small balls, it’ll take me more than one bottle of vino to finish. I don’t like to just stand there, playing with balls getting drunk. At least not on a Tuesday. And second, the more balls I make, the more I have to stand there and dip the bastards in chocolate. I ain’t got that kind of time. So, I made them all exactly 1 tbs each. Yes, I used a measuring spoon. Now, start rolling, lay them on your waxed paper on a baking sheet and throw those bitches in the freezer for an hour. Ooooooh snap…didn’t see that coming did you? Yeah, I’m making you wait. Girls do that.

Hop in your phone booth, bill and ted time machine and fast forward an hour. Now, before you take the balls out, melt your chocolate and shortening in the microwave. You’ll want to use a bowl that’s kind of deep so that you have enough dipping room. Start with about a minute, stir and then if you need a little more, do it in 30 second increments. Then dip your balls in your chocolate but leave a little of the pb showing. That way it actually looks like a buckeye. I used a skewer which is why it looks like a nipple of some sort. Or some other falic term. Keep these little fuckers in the fridge when you’re all done. Enjoy!!

Now…the powdered sugar story. Me and D2 were latch key kids. And during our middle school years, over the summer, we were allowed to stay by ourselves. Big mistake. But out of boredom came the best experiences of my childhood and 98% of them have D2 in the story. Wouldn’t change it for the world. So, on this particular day, we decided to pretend we were smoking. We took tampons, yes, I said tampons, emptied them (which means you take out the absorbent shit inside) and put powdered sugar in it so that it would look like we were blowing smoke. Fucking idiots.

At the time, we thought we were being smart by doing it in the kitchen. Shit was all over the floor. At least we thought ahead, right? Wrong. We were like “Oh, we’ll just mop it up.” Ummmm, guess what happens when you mix water with powdered sugar? You get icing. Sticky, white, creamy icing. THAT’S what ended up all over the kitchen floor. Hours after trying numerous amounts of mopping, our keds were still sticking to the floor. And then we’re like “Oh shit, mom’s coming home in like, 10 minutes. We’re fucked.” I don’t remember much of the outcome but I do remember her mother being pissed. She’s British and I remember spitting soda out of my nose when I heard her say “It makes me so mad I could spit.” What? My mom would be all “What the hell did you do to my fucking kitchen floor?” Two moms, two different worlds.

Things that make me wanna punch a crack addict.

1. People who chew their gum like a cow. Are they trying to get an award for this shit? It’s disgusting no matter who’s chewing it or where it’s been placed after chewing. Fucking gross.
2. Terrible mothers. I’m not a fucking angel and yes, I lose it every now and then. But come on, get a grip, you’re the only one they’ve got. Own up sister or keep your legs crossed.
3. When I’m over the moon to try a new recipe and then realize I don’t have one ingredient. Fucking annoying.
4. When I call someone, they don’t answer and then they immediately text back and say “what’s up?” Um. I get it if you’re in a meeting or something, but don’t text me right away. Wait an hour and then say, “Sorry, I was in a meeting discussing the budget deficit and couldn’t take your call.” Because I know your lazy ass was sitting on the couch avoiding me. Trust me asshole, I wouldn’t be calling you if I didn’t need to actually speak to your dumb ass.
5. I hate “vague-booking”. You know those assholes that put their status as “Omg, I’m so excited!” Of course they just set you up to say “Wow, for what?” Listen douchenozzle, just say whatcha gotta say. We’re probably not reading it anyways. And if we are, we’re bored out of our fucking minds or drunk. Either way, it’s annoying as hell.
6. People that give me a dirty look when I lay coupons on the counter for the cashier. Look princess, I’ve got 932 items on the belt, six or seven coupons isn’t gonna break your day. You saw that when you walked up, you pretentious little twat. If you’re in that much of a hurry to buy your KY 20 minute battery operated cock ring, use the customer service counter so I don’t laugh at you for not actually going to an adult superstore.
7. Annoying hookers who wear high heels that first, don’t fit, and second make them walk like they just got gang banged by WWE wrestlers. You obviously didn’t pay much for the cheap ass dress you’re sort of wearing, so spend the money on some heels that don’t make you look like a dog trying to walk on two paws.
8. People who hold one glass of wine for an hour. “Are you going to drink that? No? Then I will.” Let’s not waste it people. There’s starving people in Africa wanting to get drunk.
9. Crossing guards who help another crossing guard cross the street. I swear I see this dumb move once a week when I head to carpool. It’s not like two bright orange vests are gonna make me slow down any more than one, so just hurry up there jumpin’ jack flash.
10. When I leave the house phone off the hook and it’s dead when I try to use it. Why don’t I just put it back on the charger after I use it? Because sometimes, even though I’m perfect, I fuck up every now and then and become lazy as shit. Just like right now while I’m writing all this fucking nonsense.

Tramp Scampi

Tramp, because I used frozen, pre-cooked shrimp which is easy. Like a tramp. Scampi, because well, it’s scampi. Brilliant.

This was so fucking easy. It’s baked so you’re not standing over the stove with one hand stirring the shit while the other is holding your wine. You now have both hands free to keep filling your glass. You’re welcome.

Shit you’re gonna need:

16 oz. of frozen pre-cooked shrimp that’s been thawed (I’ll say it again, thaw the little bitches first. My shit was also sale for $4. Holla!)

½ cup of butter (it’s a full stick there genius)

2 tbs of Dijon mustard (I used generic because I’m still a redneck at heart and I refuse to pay full price for Grey Poupon. And what kind of name is Grey fucking Poupon. Shitty marketing department if you ask me.)

1 tbs. of lemon juice (I used the shit that’s in that little squeezy bottle that looks like a lemon. I don’t keep fresh lemons on hand. Only limes…and I think you can figure out why.)

2 cloves of crushed garlic (I used the jarred kind because I wanted my little crushes to be symmetrically perfect. Can’t get that when you’re chopping the shit yourself and you’ve had a glass of wine. Don’t ask how many times I’ve tried. It’s embarrassing. But not as embarrassing as having your son’s baseball coach seeing you in your robe with wet hair while you run out to the driveway with Tupperware in your hand yelling at your husband who’s pulling out of the driveway that he left his lunch. The guy actually waved. Ugh.)

1 tbs of parsley (Yup. I used dried. And dried is fine. You’re not on fucking Iron Chef, so calm yourself there Morimoto.)

½ tbs of Old Bay (ahhhh, good ‘ol Old Bay. Fucking genius came up with that shit. Or maybe it was Jesus. Because it’s that fucking perfect.)

Shit you’re gonna do:

Preheat your oven to 450. Imma throw a tidbit in here for ya’…I put my scampi over spaghetti noodles, so if you’d like to do that, start boiling your water now and get those noodles cookin’.

Use your Kitchen KY (aka, non stick cooking spray) and spray down a 9x13 pan. Put in your shrimp and slide those bitches over cuz we ‘bout to make the sauce.

Melt in a saucepan your butter, your Dijon, the lemon juice, garlic, parsley and old bay. Basically all your shit except the shrimp. Once it’s melted, pour it over your shrimp and since the shrimp is already cooked, just bake it for about 10 minutes so it doesn’t get tough. You’re just heating it up. Then put your shrimp on your noodles, pour some of the sauce on it and voila mother fucker – you’re done!!! (insert sound of our wine glasses clinking together) Cheers!

My kids won't eat shit. Part Quatro

Chicken, Brocolli, Cheese and Rice

The hubs caught the cold I had. Oooooops. That's what happens when you make out with someone. Thought I’d share.

So, with this cold, he requested chicken and rice. But I thought, “…that’s fucking boring.” Kinda like watching the Suite Life of Zak and Cody. Fucking dumbass show. Those twins should’ve stopped at Big Daddy. But anyhoo…

Shit you’re gonna need:

3 cooked and shredded chicken breasts. (I like breasts. Double meaning there.)

¾ of a bag of frozen broccoli, cooked and put aside

2 cups of cooked rice. I mean, I used 2 cups of rice and then cooked it. Who the hell knows how much it actually made. I also used the quick boil shit. Don’t judge.

4 tablespoons of butter

4 tablespoons of flour

‘bout 3 cups of milk

‘bout 3 cups of cheese

Salt to taste. (In my house, that means a shit load of salt.)

Shit you’re gonna do:

Since you’ve already cooked and shredded your chicken and cooked your broccoli and your rice, all your lazy ass has to do now is make your cheese sauce and throw this shit together.

I’ve posted homemade cheese sauce before, but because I know you’re probably just as lazy as I am and you don’t wanna be diggin’ through shit to find the recipe, let’s just go over it again, shall we?

I cooked this in my dutch oven pot. But a big stockpot will do you good. Something you’d make chili in. Melt your butter in your pot and when it’s pretty much all melted, put in your flour. Now, flour tastes like shit, so you’re gonna need to cook this with the butter for about a minute to get that shitty raw flour taste out. Don’t get your panties in a wad when it gets a little clumpy, kinda like mascara on a walk of shame; it’s supposed to do that.

The reason I said “bout 3 cups of milk” is because I eyeball this shit. I start by adding about a cup of milk at a time and then whisk the hell out of it. Keep adding milk until you get the consistency you want. Start adding handfuls of cheese until the “cheesy” flavor your arteries desire is accomplished. Keep whisking and adding milk if you like more cream (again, double meaning there) and then this is where the salt comes in.

In this house, salt means love. I don’t typically salt food too much when I’m cooking. Because I feel it’s the person’s responsibility who’s eating your shit to clog their own arteries. Also, the desired level of salty goodness is as individual as your ability to pull off a pencil skirt versus an a-line to cover up your gut. But whatever.

Once your cheese sauce is perfect, because with my help, I know you nailed this, put in your chicken, broccoli, and rice and stir. It makes a shitload. And in this case, shitload means “it feeds 6-8”.

If you’re a badass, try this with it…pour your shit in a 9x13, put breadcrumbs and cheese on top and bake at 350 for about 30 minutes. You can also cover your 9x13 and stick it in the freezer to cook later. Now, there’s three options for you…don’t tell me I don’t care…cuz deep down in the bottom of the hooker heels I bought last night, I do.