#45, #46 and #47: Soccer Chicken, Cheesy Pasta and Green Pasta

By Ryon - Four score and 15 years ago, my sister, Tanda, was just a wee freshman at Thetford Academy. Her wee-ness did not stop her from making the girls varsity soccer team, however. In fact, that year's team turned out to be a Div. III powerhouse in the state of Vermont, ultimately winning the state championship. At the start of the tournament, after receiving a #7 seed, the girls turned to my father for culinary inspiration. My father's answer: soccer chicken.

The evening before the girls' first playoff game, my parents hosted the entire team for a dinner. Along with the soccer chicken, my dad served two different kinds of pasta and a mesclun salad with his famous maple syrup dressing (see #35). Needless to say, the girls won their game the following day and subsequently demanded that my parents host the exact same dinner the night before the next playoff game. You can see where this is headed...

The soccer chicken dinner became a playoff ritual for Tanda and her

friends throughout their high school career. Unfortunately, it never spawned another state championship, but that did not stop my younger sister, Chapin, and I both from requesting that the soccer chicken dinner be part of our soccer postseason tradition, as well.

In the long history of this meal, my favorite story comes from my freshman year of high school. I think it goes without saying that, for a 15 year old boy, it does not get much better than having 24 young,

attractive, athletic females at your house for

dinner. For those of you who know me well, it probably also goes without saying that I usually spent these times hiding in another room. There was one instance, however, that social interaction with these exceptionally intimidating females was unavoidable. During a postseason run in 1996, my dad had to travel to Chicago on business and would be absent the night before one of the girls' playoff games. This was obviously unacceptable. In desperation, the eyes of the entire girls soccer team fell on me. With my dad dictating recipes over the phone, I whipped up this dinner for the team and they went on to win their game the following day. Was it because of me? I like to think so.

At that season's sports awards ceremony, I was presented with a large metal whisk as a thank you gift from the team... probably the best moment of my life up to that point.

We recently had a bunch of friends over for dinner and I decided to try to recreate that magical moment. You know... minus the large group of underage females. I cooked the soccer chicken and both types of pasta, but left out the salad since I had people bring sides. It was a great evening. Caitlin set some beautiful tables and we somehow managed to cram everyone into our tiny living room!

I know I should say something about the recipes themselves, but all I'm going to give you is this. It is so easy that a 15 year old version of me could do it. So can you.

I will say this one extra thing about the cheesy pasta, however. This is a dish that is almost a meal on its own and is a huge crowd pleaser. I always get tons of compliments on this. Just make sure you use REAL parmesean cheese!

Rating: SECCDI

#44 - Parsley Soup

By Ryon - For those of you who live on planet earth, it is no secret that this summer was hot. Really flipping hot. Us folks down here in Virginia saw a record number of 100 degree days in June and July... and not a lot of rain to help out with the oppressive temps. So, as the saying goes: When the days get hot, make parsley soup. Ok, I just made that up, but I think we should make an effort to spread that saying, because it's true! This chilled parsley soup provides a tasty relief to a hot summer day... or warming nourishment on a cold winter's day, which is likely more applicable to you now.

This is a Ginny Bently original recipe. Over the years, Bently, a native of Barnet, Vermont, has been a muse of sorts for my father and is represented in the family cookbook with a few of her recipes. I have to thank my dad for putting this one in, because it is fantastic.

And like most soups, this is really easy, albeit a bit time-consuming. Once the potatoes and onions have cooked in the broth, this soup must be cooled enough to be transfered to a blender for pureeing with the parsley. Once this is done, add your cream and curry powder, reheat and you're done!

Unless it is 100 degrees outside and you want to eat this chilled. Then you have to wait again... sorry. Luckily for you, I waited until November to write this blog and you will most likely want to eat this hot. I just saved you a few hours. You're welcome!

Rating: RHC

#43 and #43.5 - Salsa Picante and Southwest Salsa

By Ryon - I wasn't sure whether I should blog about these separately and count them as two distinct recipes. I finally decided that would be cheating since this is really one recipe, the Southwest salsa having just a couple extra ingredients.

This is real salsa. Forget about whatever you buy in the store. That stuff is crap. What you end up with at the end of this recipe is salsa how it is meant to be. Simple and fresh. How fresh depends on whether or not you are able to shop at your local farm stand or farmer's market, and what time of year you are making this, of course.

I did make the salsa picante back over the 4th of July weekend when Bryon and Lindsay were visiting. We had it with a plethora of other BFG dishes at our 4th of July party and they have been sitting in my pile of catch-up blogs ever since (it was a busy summer). I thought it would be a great time to write this blog since I just recently served the Southwest salsa, as well!


The salsa picante really just requires a bunch of chopping... and access to a food processor for fine chopping the peppers and carrots. I recommend testing your peppers for heat before adding them to the salsa and adjust according to your tolerance. I've been burned (pun intended) before by assuming all jalapenos are created equal, only to find that my salsa is either too spicy or not spicy at all.

The Southwest salsa is a big leap forward from the salsa picante. Got your notebook out? Ready?... Ready?... Add corn and black beans. Ok, take a break. I know that was a lot to take in.

If you are making the Southwest salsa during the summer season, please use fresh sweet corn. It makes all the difference in the world as far as flavor. Canned corn just can't touch it. Unfortunately, good corn was very hard to come by this summer in Charlottesville and I used canned corn for this recipe. Sinner.


Rating: SECCDI

#42 Chicken Stock (soup)

By Caitlin- I love fall...the way that they air becomes crisp and fresh. People begin warming their houses with wood fires, the smell of which mixes with the earthy aroma of leaves as I walk down the street. On the Cape, this was always my favorite time of year. The tourists are gone, the beaches are quiet but still warm. The ocean, sand and beach grasses fade from the vibrancy of the summer to a muted palette of oranges, rusty reds, and golden yellows. It is chilly enough to wear a comfy sweater, but the sun is still strong enough to warm your cheeks. Break out the warm cider, oktoberfests, wool socks, and angora blankets, fall is upon us.

The first weekend it was chilly enough to feel like fall, warming up to a nice bowl of soup was just what I wanted. I am such a sucker for being comfortable and warm. So even though 60 degrees may seem warm to many of you readers, I got out my sweatpants, wool sweater, and made up a batch of homemade chicken soup. This recipe is gluten free, which is a new point of emphasis in our household. Quite a complication, I might add, is that beer is generally not gluten free, well the good beers anyway.

So this gluten free chicken broth...may....be....the....simplest recipe in the cookbook. Throw a bunch of chicken and veggies in a pot. Cook it for a couple of hours. Strain the broth, put the veggies back in the pot with some of the broth. Serve with rice. The end.

Rating: SECCDI

#41 Blanchard's Corn Chowder

By Caitlin- Though not an original Barefoot Gourmet recipe, this dish certainly fits the style of Barry's cooking: light with fresh and simple ingredients. It is certainly not a thick chowdah that you end up with (a little homage to my Massachusetts roots). This recipe would have been ideal to do for the end of the summer, or when you can get your hands on some farm fresh sweet corn. Perhaps due to the strange year of weather C'ville was affronted with (5 feet of snow, 2 microbursts, 2 months without rain), our corn crop here wasn't particularly enticing. We had to settle for canned corn in the recipe, which leant itself to being a little less sweet and flavorful than we had expected, but delicious nonetheless.

Like the ingredients, the recipe itself is fairly simple. After cooking up the onions, celery, and onions in butter for a bit, I added three cans of corn. I like how this mixture actually became the base of the chowder, giving it a little more substance. I took about a quarter of the original mix (four cups) and blended it up before putting it back into the pot. I added some chicken broth from a box. Had I been clever I would have recalled the condensed broth (that equals approx. 18 gallons) in the fridge that had arrived in our stockings at Clarke Christmas. Had I been really clever I would have scheduled my cooking a little better... I actually made the chicken broth recipe the day after I made the chowder. It recently got chilly for Virginia (no, I am serious it has been in the 60s this weekend) so chowders and soups have been very attractive.

At the very end I added in some red pepper bits and finally some fresh dill, which really gives the dish a great color. Though the Barefoot Gourmet suggests that you eat the chowder hot, I think it is equally yummy cold. The recipe makes a lot, so Ryon and I have been enjoying this chowder, and the fall weather, all weekend.
Rating: SECCDI

#40 Lemon Sponge Souffle

By Caitlin - In an attempt to equally contribute to our blog, I decided that I would take on all of the desserts. Though I have had some success with pies and such (my family may recall a turkey shaped piece of dough baked onto the top of an apple pie for Thanksgiving a few years back, I get points for creativity right?) the Barefoot Gourmet's list of desserts may be a little much for me. The first hint was from Barry himself, who talked me out of preparing Chocolate Ice Box cake the morning of our dinner party last weekend. His reasoning was that he typically makes that recipe the night before, but I could tell from the increased pitch in his voice that he was letting me down easy. "Perhaps you should try the lemon sponge souffle instead." So here we are...

With the confidence of the Barefoot Gourmet himself I embarked on my first souffle...ever. First I got all of the ingredients out of the fridge. No, first I check in the freezer to make sure we have a back-up. Ice cream. Perfect. Then I read the recipe. Boom. The eggs need to be at room temperature.After waiting a few hours for the eggs to warm, I refuse help from Ryon and do an awesome job at separating the egg whites from the yolks. A little pour-pour action. I begin beating the egg whites until stiff, just as our esteemed guests are arriving. You know, I never would have realized that there were so many opportunities for the statement "that's what she said" while making a souffle, but in honoring our PG audience I will leave it to your imagination as you read the recipe.

I actually felt a little Top-Chef-ish as I created this fluffy (confirmed by Ryon), creamy mixture of butter, sugar, yolks, flour and lemon juice. I learned how to "fold" egg whites and grate lemon rind to perfection. I think my confidence in cooking is building. Watch out America!

At this point I placed a baking dish full of my creation in a larger dish with water, and both into the oven. I set the timer for 40 minutes and grabbed a beer to hang out with our friends. The buzzer goes off and I am expecting to see a lightly browned souffle...or an utter disaster. Instead, I see nothing. The souffle is not burned, it is not even browned. I check the oven every 10 minutes or so, but it looks like nothing is happening. Ryon walks by and turns up the oven...still no change. We sit down to eat the tenderloin and it was delicious. The wine was flowing, conversation enjoyable. As we are all remarking on the wonderful evening after dinner, boom. The souffle! I ran inside, about 2 hours after the dessert originally went into the oven, and pulled it out. Wouldn't you know that the thing was just barely browned on top. Actually it could have used a few more minutes. :o)

The ladies helped me serve it up with heavy cream. Everyone ooooed and ahhhed about the deliciousness of the souffle, and how remarkably timed it was. I have to say though, it did not turn out to be a particularly eye-catching dessert (hence no pictures), but it was very tasty, tart, and refreshing. Perhaps, with a little more luck I can get through the rest of the dessert recipes with little supervision. I can only hope.

Rating: RHC

#38 and #39 - Tenderloins on a Fire with Righetti Ranch Mop

By Ryon - Last weekend we had a number of our Charlottesville friends over for a dinner party to celebrate the end of a very hot and busy summer. And what better way to do that than to throw half of a cow on the BBQ?

This might be one of my dad's most famous dishes. Mostly because it is delicious, but also for the fact that it is a great way to feed a large number of people. Obtaining this piece of meat usually requires asking your butcher for a whole tenderloin, because this is not often something they put out in the meat section. Unless, of course, you are getting the meat from Ed the Butcher at Raquette Lake Supply. He's always pretty well stocked with this cut of meat, especially when expecting the Clarke/Gowan horde.

The Righetti Ranch Mop is the baste used for the meat in this recipe combo. The actual Righetti Ranch is located in Harmony, California (the area of the country that my dad came to as an exchange student in 1969). The ranch was also where he first encountered basting and barbecuing meat in this way. According to him, the baste was "mopped" onto the meat with a brush made of fresh sprigs of rosemary tied together. To this day, my dad often cooks the meat like this when he can get a hold of enough fresh rosemary. I actually had the opportunity to cook the meat with this rosemary brush because our neighbors have huge bushes of rosemary that spill out through their fence and onto the sidewalk, but I chickened out at the last minute and did not steal any. I used a regular BBQ mop instead.

Getting a proper fire going is crucial for the outcome of the meat if you are using a charcoal grill. Make it large, but not too hot. Keep the meat as far away from the flames as possible, as this has a long cooking time and you do not want to burn the outside of the meat. As stated in the recipe, an aluminum foil tent can help with getting the meat to cook evenly. I was intimidated going into this because I had never cooked a piece of meat this large before, but it actually required less attention than I had anticipated. Just be sure to turn the meat every 15 minutes or so and "liberally sploosh the baste onto the meat". And when I cut into the tenderloin after an hour and a half of worrying about it, it was cooked to perfection. The fatter end of the meat was a beautiful rare red, while the thinner end was cooked to a more medium temperature. And if you are looking for a more well done piece of meat, well, you are looking at the wrong recipe.

The smell of this baste has so many great memories attached to it because this is always a meal that we enjoy with great family and friends. This particular occasion was no different. We had a beautiful evening to eat outside and there was plenty of food, wine and great conversation to go around.

I apologize for not getting a better shot of the final product. I was too excited to eat it to take pictures!

Rating: RHC

#37 - Leg of Lamb

By Ryon - We were fortunate enough to have my very good friend Bryon and his wife Lindsay visit us over the 4th of July weekend. They made the drive down from Albany, NY and stayed with us for a few of the hottest days we've had in Charlottesville in recent memory. We did not let the heat stop us from enjoying the finer things that the Shenandoah Valley has to offer, however. On top of Fridays After Five, golfing, breweries, wineries, tubing on the James River, and lighting off a fireworks arsenal that you could use to invade a small country, we were able to squeeze in some time to sit back and enjoy a few home cooked meals and many a libation. This is the first of many meals from the cookbook that we tackled over the long weekend.

When planning the menu for the weekend, one thing was a given: I had to include leg of lamb. Without hesitation, when asked what his favorite meal is that my dad cooks, Bryon will answer "leg of lamb" every time. I'm not inclined to argue with him. With this in mind, I paid a visit to The Organic Butcher. They just so happened to have some beautiful pieces of deboned leg, which I made sure to snatch up so that I could feed my friend's lust for lamb.

I had originally planned to cook this on the first night that Bryon and Lindsay were in Charlottesville, but the beer truck at Fridays After Five (a free concert/social gathering put on by the city every Friday evening during the summer months) had other ideas. We settled for an evening catered by Five Guys instead. I did manage to stay lucid enough to make this on Saturday night.

The recipe in the cookbook actually is for roast lag of lamb, but there was no way I was roasting a lamb on a 100 degree summer day. The grill handled this one. Everything else in the recipe remained the same. After liberally spreading salt, pepper,

garlic, and fresh chopped rosemary on both sides of the lamb, I rolled it and tied with cooking string. I got my fire going well in advance to make sure it was not burning too hot when I put the meat on. It took about 30-40 min to cook and I'm kicking myself for not taking pictures of the final product. You'll just have to believe me when I say that it looked even better than the uncooked version. And the taste... well... let's just say I got a lot of meat and was expecting left-overs... and that did not happen.

I served this up with the Midsummers Night Beans (see #5) and a garden salad with the Maple Syrup Dressing (see #35). Add to that some drinks and great company and what we had was nothing short of an amazing evening.

Rating: RHC

#36 - Bread

By Caitlin - Pan. Pain. Bröd. Xлеб. No matter how you say it, bread has not only been a staple in a just about every culture throughout history, but this magical doughy-crispy-crunchy-chewy delight also happens to be a perfect accompaniment to a variety of cheeses, meats, and spreads. I am a simple person, you say? Well you are in luck, bread also is conveniently delicious on its own. Barry's bread is one of the first recipes that I remember eating after meeting him and Sarah (aka Mrs. Barefoot Gourmet, aka Ryon's mom). We ate oysters cooked over an open fire and Vermont cheddar cheese atop the most delectable white baguette that simultaneously was soft and delicate in the middle and crisp and flaky outside. It is amazing how his fresh homemade bread can transform any appetizer into something truly spectacular. This recipe also doubles as a pizza dough, which traditionally has been used to hold our toppings at the Clarke Christmas eve dinners.

I have to admit, I was a little nervous about how this was going to work. It very likely could have been our first blog fail. As simple as it seems, there are several places where things can go horribly wrong (I know from experience; this was not my initial foray into the depths of this recipe). I provide this warning so that if you are to attempt bread and things go awry, do not fret! Run to your nearest grocer (or, as I did, have a spare baguette from the store) and try again later. The BFG mentions in the recipe that the dough is "alive" and that every loaf is different. What he fails to point out is that these aspects combine to create a very mercurial product. Two out of three times I have been able to create delicious home-made bread. We shall leave it at that for today.

As I have pointed out in my previous posts, I have learned that it is very important to read the recipe in its entirety while accounting for enough time to make said recipe. Bread is an all day adventure. I began around mid-day and had a finished product around supper time. So the recipe... mixing up lots of flour, water, yeast and salt. I always have some difficulty deciding on the appropriate utensil to mix ingredients with, which typically results in a large spoon, wisk, spatula, mixer, and fork needing to be cleaned at the commencement of my day's adventure in cooking. That is all to preface the fact that the BFG provided me with the utensil to use! A stainless steel cutting fork! No questions and significantly less cleanup. To be honest, this recipe likely has some of the most detailed directions in the book (even telling you when to wash your hands), so it really is a mystery how I messed this one up so badly that time we are not talking about.

Next, kneading the dough. This may be my favorite part. I love feeling the dough begin to have some spring to it; it reminds me of bubblicious bubble gum. After coating the bowl with oil, grab the ball of dough like a bowling ball (see pictures) and flip it. I had to watch the BFG himself to understand what the heck this meant. Basically you want to make sure that both top and bottom are covered in oil so that they do not stick to the bowl.

Next, wait a loooong while for the dough to rise. Ryon confirms that the actual amount of time differs on your location, temperature and, well, the climate in general, but the BFG says around 90 minutes. After pushing it down, flipping it, you let it rise for another 45-ish minutes. Shape some loaves (we chose to do 2) and then stick them in a 400 degree oven for 25-30 minutes. Now clean up that huge mess of flour all over your floor :o)

The loaves were a little more flat than we had imagined, but they tasted like bread, and that is the important part.


Rating: SECCDI 2/3 times

#35 - Maple Syrup Dressing

By Ryon - I'm actually surprised that I have not written about this one already. I've probably made it 10 times since we began this blog. The maple syrup dressing is an absolute staple in my fridge. I can honestly say that I have not purchased a single bottle of salad dressing in the last 5 or 6 years, since I learned how to make it. There is no need. All dressings pale in comparison to this recipe. My siblings and I (among others) have been pushing my dad for years to bottle this and sell it. It's a million dollar dressing. I am hoping, now that the catering business is up and running, that this will actually happen. Do it, dad!

I think this dressing single-handedly made me appreciate salads. Salads, for a long time, were an attractive addition to a plate for me... nothing more. You could not drown a leaf of lettuce in enough ranch dressing to make me really enjoy it (actually ranch is kind of gross, too). But then along came the gateway drug of salad dressings and I've come to appreciate salads in a whole new way. Ok, I may be over-dramatizing this a bit, but seriously, this stuff is good.

Being a dressing, there is no cooking involved. So for those of you out there who would rather use a stove-top as a place to keep your incoming mail, you can breath a sigh of relief. You can do this. Just combine apple cider vinegar, maple syrup and olive oil. Add garlic, salt and pepper. Shake. Enjoy.

This goes well with just about any meal. I particularly like it as a salad dressing to use with the pastrain recipe (see #3). When the pastrain mixes together with this dressing on the plate, it is sooooo good. However, my all-time favorite is when this dressing makes an appearance with beef tenderloin cooked on an open fire and mopped with a red wine herbal tisane (recipe to come), salt potatoes (recipe to come), and fresh mesclun from Crossroads Farm in Post Mills, VT. This is a regular on the menu rotation when my dad is entertaining large crowds at Echo Camp on Raquette Lake. And it was during one of these meals that I saw one of the more impressive things in my life: Ian Gowan eating his weight in beef. It was awesome. Thanks, Ian.

Rating: SECCDI

#34 - Asian Salsa

By Ryon - This is the first of many salsa recipes in the cookbook, and by far the simplest. When my dad would make this, I always thought that there had to be more to it then just two ingredients. The flavors seem much more complex than that. But really all you need are a few Thai peppers and some soy sauce. Chop up your peppers, throw them in soy sauce and enjoy! You can adjust your heat preference by adjusting the number of peppers you use.

While this can be enjoyed right away, the recipe points out that the salsa really gets better with age as the peppers marinate in the soy sauce. Make this in advance, if you can. I love to have this with steak and I made up this particular batch to have with a flank steak a did on the grill with some veggies. A birthday dinner for Caitlin!

By the way, I'm not sure if you can tell, but she is showing off a new ring in this photo... because we got engaged!!! We both could not be happier. :) :) :)

Rating: SECCDI

#33 - Hash Browns

By Ryon - Over the course of my life, I have had an interesting and ever-changing relationship with potatoes. When I was a boy, my interest in the vegetable mostly ended at anything beyond the french fry. If it was not cut into strips and fried to a golden crisp, I couldn't much care for it. Slowly, I have come to appreciate potatoes in all of its many culinary forms... most recently ending my 27-year boycott of mashed potatoes.

Hash browns may never have made it onto my "don't eat" list, probably because of their close resemblance to the french fry. The hash browns that come out of this recipe, however, are not your typical hash brown. You don't end up with a shredded pile of browned potato or the cubed version served with onions that you will see at most diners. This is more like a potato pancake or a latke. Whichever name you'd like to give it, what you end up with is potato at its finest. The big thing that separates this recipe from a latke is that the only seasonings you are introducing here are salt and pepper.

These take a little bit of babysitting. I remember, my senior year of college, I tried to make these without first getting the recipe from my dad. The end result was a total disaster because I had no idea that you needed to pay so much attention to the pan heat and cooking time. My thought was, "They're hash browns. How hard can they be?" Not hard. Just a bit finicky. Pay close attention to the times and stove top settings that my dad lays out in this recipe. And it is crucial to have a fry pan with a lid so that these cook properly. If you don't have a lid, use aluminum foil to fashion a makeshift cover. Remember, "What you are aiming for are hash BROWNS... so adjust your heat accordingly."

These are a perfect match for a nice NY strip steak... or eggs, if you're wanting hash browns for breakfast.

NOTE: When grating potatoes, be careful not to grate your fingers along with them. (See below)

Rating: RHC

#32 - Rice and Beans

By Ryon - Our first recipe on the new house! Caitlin and I made the epic 1.2 mile journey across town to our new location by Martha Jefferson Hospital in Charlottesville. While we were sad to leave our old house, we are very excited about our new place and the kitchen we now have. What an upgrade! We hope you will enjoy the food that comes out of here as much as we do.

The inspiration for this dish comes from our family vacations with the Gowans in Virgin Gorda in the late 90's. The only thing that rivaled the pristine beaches and breathtaking sunsets that we were privy to was the amazing food we had while we were there. Most of it was prepared by my father, naturally, but there were several memorable meals that did not come from his kitchen. This rice and beans recipe is an adaptation of a dish purchased from some locals who were selling meals from a stand on the beach.

I love rice and beans in any form, but the addition of nutmeg in this recipe gives it a very earthy and exotic flavor. Just be careful not to overdo it with the nutmeg because it is a very powerful spice. Also, be careful not to overcook the rice. It can give you a mushy final product. I made both mistakes here and, although it was still great, it was not anywhere close to the incredibly satisfying dish my dad makes.

I served my rice and beans up with BBQ chicken and a garden salad: a perfect summer meal. Even though I messed this one up, I'm still giving it a rating of "RHC" because this really is a simple recipe. Just make sure you pay attention to what you are doing.

Rating: RHC

#31 - Pannekoek

By Ryon - Chapin, my younger sister, is crazy about this dessert, and after one bite you will understand why. A traditional Afrikaner desert, pannekoek (pronounced PUNNA-cook) is much like a crepe and, like a crepe, can be filled with strawberries, blueberries, bananas, etc. The traditional method involves nothing of this sort, however. Simply cook the "pancake", sprinkle with cinnamon sugar, roll, squeeze lemon over it, and top with cinnamon and cream/ice cream. It is beautifully light and simple. A real crowd pleaser.

I chose to use strawberries this time around because they are my favorite addition to pannekoek. Get crazy and experiment with your favorite toppings.

Rating: SECCDI

#30 - Macaroni and Cheese

By Ryon - For much of my childhood, Mac 'n Cheese meant the stuff that you pour out of that little blue box, add lots of cheese powder, milk and butter to and voila!... you have a creamy, mixture of processed goodness! Don't get me wrong, I still think that stuff is delicious, but my palate has thankfully grown to appreciate the real thing. And this, my friends, is the real thing.

Yes, this recipe calls for making a roux and I'm always a little intimidated by the prospect of making a roux because I feel like it can be so easy to screw up (especially when it comes to gravy). Not to worry, the roux for this recipe is hard to screw up and is on the easy end of roux-making. Once that process is out of the way you can enjoy building the dish, which consists of layering breadcrumbs, pasta and cheese until you are left with a mountain of gooey deliciousness. Bake for 30 min at 350 and you're done.

We brought this over to Stephen and Jess' house for a dinner with them and Jess was very excited about it. Jess is a mostly-vegetarian, part-time cook, full-time mom of Italian heritage and she has a few opinions when it comes to anything involving macaroni. Apparently she's a huge fan of macaroni and cheese. I had no idea what I would think of this meal since the last time I had it was when I was a kid and I categorically refused to believe that anything was better than Kraft, but I'm happy to say that I think this exceeded both mine and Jess' expectations. It got demolished. Everyone raved about the little bit of kick that the cayenne pepper gives to this dish.

Our hosts looked at me like I had five heads when I used ketchup as a condiment, but I must say that my dad was on to something with this suggestion. It just works. Try it if you are not a mac n' cheese purist.

Rating: RHC

#27, #28 and #29 - Pork Loin Braised in Milk, Petit Pois, & Scalloped Potatoes Au Gratin

By Ryon - Pork loin braised in milk, or just "milk pork", for as strange as it sounds is really an amazing dish. It reminds me of winter in VT, but for some reason I chose to do this on a warm spring day. I have not been choosing recipes to match the weather very well recently... I'll work on that from now on.

I had trouble finding a good piece of pork for this recipe. I know my dad likes to get a pork loin with a healthy portion of fat on it and this is so the meat does not dry out while you cook it. Unfortunately, I could not find such a piece, since supermarket butchers tend to cut most of the excess fat off, so the end product ended up a bit on the dry side. Besides that, I was pretty happy with how this turned out. Be aware that this is not a "set-it-and-forget-it" type of recipe, like a pot roast. You have to be sure to turn the pork loin often and scrape the bottom of the pot so that you do not burn the milk. But I was keeping myself busy in the kitchen during this time, so it was not a problem. The real trick to this is getting the milk to coagulate into the "small nut-brown clusters" that my dad refers to in the recipe. These little morsels of goodness are by far the best part and worth the effort you put in.

I was able to knock off two other recipes along with the milk pork: petit pois and scalloped potatoes au gratin. Now some of you may be asking: "Petit pois? Au Gratin? Ryon, stop speaking Spanish, I can't understand you." Well, it's French, you idiot, and "petit pois" means "small peas". I believe they are really just a baby version of your garden-type variety pea. They tend to be sweeter than their older brothers and, as an added benefit, you get to sound cultured and intelligent by speaking French while you're cooking. Abigail, my sister-in-law, loves these peas. Nothing fancy in this recipe. Just add mint, a pinch of sugar and butter. The mint really gives the peas an amazing flavor.

The scalloped potatoes au gratin may have been a poor choice ("Milk was a bad choice!") as the final side for this plate. In my mind, the milk pork was going to be awesome with the cheesy, heavy potatoes ("au gratin" is French for "with the grating" but in cooking translates into "with breadcrumbs and/or cheese"). And I was right... kind of. These two dishes were delicious together, but a bit too heavy. Caitlin and I could not move for a couple of hours after we ate.

In the end, this was a great meal but looking back I would have done a few thing differently. First, make sure you find yourself a fatty piece of pork so that it does not dry out. Second, be aware that the milk pork is a very rich dish and choose your sides accordingly. Thirdly, learn to speak French so you sound like a sweet dude (or dudette) while you're cooking.

Ratings:
Milk pork - RHC
Petit pois - SECCDI
Scalloped potatoes au gratin - SECCDI