Larry the Good called last night to let us know that Clan Larry have not seen our renters for a month. It turned out that we already knew the renters were on vacation, but still, how awesome is it to have such good neighbors?
They miss us; Keith heard Mrs. Larry holler "Tell them to come home!" in the background during the conversation. We miss them. They sent us pictures of our front yard, (it's pretty much a dirt pile now, but what can you do?) and just seeing the house made us achingly home sick. It brought back just a slew of good memories, I could taste Doritos and smell barbecue and orange scented floor cleaner and hear the traffic and smell the fresh, fresh air.
Summer continues unabated here. Well, the mornings are getting a little cool and almost fresh. But all that is completely gone by nine thirty. Larry the Good said the temperature in Colorado was seventy five degrees. Seventy five and sunny on a Saturday. We would have been up in the Rockies where it would have been even cooler and where the aspens would be starting to turn yellow and we would have been roaring down the wide, dusty trails in the dappled shade.
I can't remember what seventy five degrees feels like, to be honest. We drove the Jeep on post to do some shopping at the PX and to meet up with some potential buyers. It was hot, meltingly hot and by the time we got home we were exhausted. (They didn't end up buying the Jeep either.)
I made the baked macaroni and cheese. First I had to call my dad to get a check on quantity, as I was merging two recipes into one. Sometimes, though, you just don't know until you try and you just adjust fire as you go. I made a little rou with flour and butter, and waited for it to turn bubbly and take on just a bit of color. Then I slowly whisked in two cups of scalded milk. (This meant that I was heating the milk at the same time that I was cooking the rou, which means I was stirring two pots at once, which was ridiculous looking and did not work so well.)
Then I continued stirring with one hand while with the other impaling a bay leave to an onion with a clove. I dropped that in and stirred for another twenty minutes. This was a labor intensive recipe. It's easy to type, "twenty minutes" but setting your timer and then standing in front of the stove for that long, just stirring, really brings it home. I can see why this sort of sauce is out of style.
I added a cup of mild Cheddar and a cup of shredded Mexican (I happened to have it on hand), pepper and a bit of nutmeg. Then I tasted it.
Holy Crap. I do not even like cheese that much and this sauce was The Bomb. I put a sheet of cling wrap over the top to prevent a skin from forming and boiled some whole wheat pasta (they happened to be shells, not macaroni) and browned some turkey sausage. These I combined. Finally, I topped it with bread crumbs from my own home made bread- how foody am I?
As you can imagine, what with the sausage, the cheesy bechamel and the nutty flavor of the pasta, it was too die for. But incredibly rich. It's not something I'll be cooking all that often, but now I feel like I have a working understanding of white sauce.
The next frontier: home made egg pasta. Oh yeah. It's gonna happen. Then I'll made pasta primavera with the fresh egg noodles. But right now I don't have all the succulent baby vegetables that I need for a primavera, so I'm thinking that for Sunday dinner I might make a ravioli. Which is a ridiculous thing to plan for one's first attempt at pasta, but here's what I'm thinking:
I make the pasta and set aside to dry out a little. Meantime, I roast a sweet potato with olive oil, whole garlic cloves and some rosemary and thyme. I mash this, set aside and refocus on the pasta, which I shape into raviolis or tortellini. Then I make a bechamel, and add a little mozzarella cheese for a sauce. That, or simply a light tomato and basil sauce. I can't decide.
There's also the recipe for spinach egg noodles and I'm thinking, why not butternut squash flavored egg noodles? Wouldn't that be a delicious fall recipe, with a wild mushroom cream sauce and maybe some toasted pine nuts?
Also, I'm planning on trying out a souffle sometime this week. I remember both my mom and my dad being able to make this and how impressive it looked coming out of the oven, all risen and golden-puffy. I seem to remember there being broccoli in it on occasion.
On the baby making front, everything is happening right on schedule, so that is encouraging. Whether or not this produces a baby, I will not know until the very end of the month, possibly early into next. I'm just taking it one day at a time, as much as possible.
