Lobster Mac and Cheese

After forgetting what Shannon wanted after a ridiculous day of work.  I promised I would make her some.  I figured this would mean trying to find some lobster substitute, or canned lobster or something, then I see that lobster tails were on "sale" at Whole Foods, so we took a trip over to get them.  I have bought lobster meat from the Waterfront before (quite expensive, though understandably so), but I figured I would save a bit of money.  It really didn't.  Yes I spent less, but when I buy two pounds of lobster meat, I'm not exactly going to use that all in one session.  So I skimmed around the internet, and decided to steam the lobster tails.  I think this is probably the 3rd time I've used the steaming insert on one of my large pots.

It was pretty amazing as the time counted down, the 3 lobster tails got a brighter and brighter shade of red.  I took them out with tongs, spread and split them with and older (blade nicked cause I dropped it long ago) chef's knife.  I then picked out the meat with my less then heat sensitive fingers (years of cooking abuse).

Side note here, we took my little brother Joseph out to eat at A Dong (Vietnamese) for his birthday, we're both having the fresh out of the fryer appetizers, while Shannon can't handle them cause they are to hot.  I don't know if that's a good thing or not, but it does come in handy from time to time.

While that was happening I made the rest of the mac and cheese.  I made modifications to the recipe because of the comment on it that it was a bit bland.  I added more spices, I topped it with more Parmigiano Reggiano.  And it turned out pretty well, after the modifications.  If i didn't make those modifications, I would imagine that it would be bland.

Everyone liked it.  I had fulfilled my promise and covered my mistake.

Tuna Noodle Casserole

I like tuna, I like casseroles, but this was bland.  There's not enough spicing along the way.  Yes it says season to taste at the end, but usually that's what you do after you have your seasoning in there to a certain extent.  I tried to save it as best I could, but really without dashing some table sauce or etc on it, which I just happened to run out of.  It still looked pretty, but that is only part of what makes a good dish.

Sausage, spinach and tomato pasta

So this ended up being a empty out the fridge pasta.  I used tomato paste, the leftover turkey and beans from the burgers, spinach and tomatoes and the sausage.  It turned out very well, considering the randomness of it.  The leftovers didn't make it through the next day.

Cow-milk Free Pizza experiment (will be leaning heavily on the Cheese Shop)

So I headed over to the Cheese Shop and asked for some advice, I was advice to go with a combination of Neal's Yard Dairy's Berkswell (raw sheep's milk) (~0.25 pounds) for a bit more of the savoriness, and some Avalanche Cheese Company's Cabra Blanca (raw Goat's) (~0.5 or so pounds) (for the meltiness) and fresh chèvre (Reichert's) (~0.25 pounds).  It turnend out very well, though we do have concerns about the younger palettes may not like the chèvre in there.  Certainly a good start.

Seared Turkey & White Bean Burgers

These were nice.  Didn't take to long, a good use of turkey and a nice change up.  I spiced it up a bit (not to much), and it was well received.