Mind you, there is nothing wrong with your mom's mac and cheese. But here is a variation that is dangerously delicious: Adjust recipe for number of people. I have no amounts here, that is how I cook when the recipe is my own. Sorry. I make enough for around three people.
Macaroni, ziti, or some other short pasta
One chile poblano
Cream
Chicken consomé powder or cube
Manchego, Chihuahua or Monterrey Jack cheese
Cook the pasta and drain well. Pour into a baking dish.
Prepare the chile: if you live in an area where you can find frozen chile poblano, go for it. They are already charred and ready to use. If you have to buy a fresh chile poblano, notice the stem end. If the stem is sunk into the chile with a big indentation around it, avoid this chile because it will be hot. Hunt for a chile with the stem end minus the indentation.
Char the chile over a direct flame until the skin is blackened and splitting. Put the chile into a plastic bag in order to sweat it, ten to fifteen minutes. Strip off the skin as well as you can, cut off the stem end, and remove the seeds and veins. Be careful not to touch your face; you can use rubber gloves or you can oil your hands in order to avoid the chile's heat. Poblanos are not very powerful but they are uncomfortable when rubbed into your eyes!
If using a frozen poblano, just thaw out, remove the stem end, seeds, and veins.
Put the chile into the blender with cream and chicken consomé powder or a crumbled cube; I use half a cube for a three-serving amount. Add the cream and chile mixture to the macaroni and stir well. Cover the macaroni with grated cheese and pop into the oven until the cheese is melted and beginning to brown.
If the chile poblano makes your eyes burn or makes you cough as you remove the seeds and veins, it may be too hot unless you really enjoy heat. It can be toned down by the salt in the dish, or by letting it soak a while in salty water. Dry and proceed to blend. If you pay attention to the shape of the chile and the stem end, you should be okay.
jueves, 19 de julio de 2012
More odds and ends...
On this month's reading list, "The Future of Freedom: Illiberal Democracy" is a must for anyone who would like a succinct statement of how democracy works--or doesn't work that well--in the aftermath of laws permitting more democracy but inhibiting real freedom. Sounds strange, but it explains beautifully why so many of us think Congress is the biggest collection of rogues, con men, and idiots to come down the tubes--and that holds on my side of the border as well, although for different reasons.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the husband is on the mend, mother on the mend, dog and horse in the hands of vets, and I am waiting for everyone to get shipshape so that I can take my turn being hospitalized or sick!
My park companion, TootSweet, has an eye infection that may actually be an allergy; although I don't know how it is possible for something two blocks away to cause an allergy in my dog when whatever it is doesn't affect him in his own back yard, there is always that possibility. At the moment the vets are trying a change in antibiotic, although they are beginning to suspect the allergy. The next step is either a biopsy of eyelid tissue, or a few days away from the park to see if that helps. Obviously, the Toots will not go to the park for a while if the change in antibiotic doesn't do the trick.
Gitano, on the other hand, has developed a kind of blister over his backbone, almost over the haunches, which seems to be a sequelae of his former owner's use of a big, heavy, stiff saddle that was poorly fitted to the horse. It reminds me of the Animal Planet series on animal intelligence: every kind of animal has unplumbed depths of perception and smarts that we are just beginning to understand, but I notice that people aren't included on the show. If only my horse's former owner could be one of the test subjects! With luck, he might rank up there with the invertebrates.
People are incredibly cruel to animals, and I am sure that Nature is going to wreak some kind of horrendous vengeance. Maybe that will happen when we overfish the seas into emptiness, or eliminate the habitats of so many species, or when the rain forests no longer exist and our sources of medicines have dried up along with them. It seems odd to me that so many people who believe in a benign deity don't take the trouble to care for the Earth. The short term goal always seems to predominate, as if we were never going to have to pay the piper--you know, a kind of ecological subprime loan.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the husband is on the mend, mother on the mend, dog and horse in the hands of vets, and I am waiting for everyone to get shipshape so that I can take my turn being hospitalized or sick!
My park companion, TootSweet, has an eye infection that may actually be an allergy; although I don't know how it is possible for something two blocks away to cause an allergy in my dog when whatever it is doesn't affect him in his own back yard, there is always that possibility. At the moment the vets are trying a change in antibiotic, although they are beginning to suspect the allergy. The next step is either a biopsy of eyelid tissue, or a few days away from the park to see if that helps. Obviously, the Toots will not go to the park for a while if the change in antibiotic doesn't do the trick.
Gitano, on the other hand, has developed a kind of blister over his backbone, almost over the haunches, which seems to be a sequelae of his former owner's use of a big, heavy, stiff saddle that was poorly fitted to the horse. It reminds me of the Animal Planet series on animal intelligence: every kind of animal has unplumbed depths of perception and smarts that we are just beginning to understand, but I notice that people aren't included on the show. If only my horse's former owner could be one of the test subjects! With luck, he might rank up there with the invertebrates.
People are incredibly cruel to animals, and I am sure that Nature is going to wreak some kind of horrendous vengeance. Maybe that will happen when we overfish the seas into emptiness, or eliminate the habitats of so many species, or when the rain forests no longer exist and our sources of medicines have dried up along with them. It seems odd to me that so many people who believe in a benign deity don't take the trouble to care for the Earth. The short term goal always seems to predominate, as if we were never going to have to pay the piper--you know, a kind of ecological subprime loan.
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