Love is a slow kiss goodnight

Seven years ago today, I married my best friend. :) Yay us! That's generally accepted by me as one of the best things I ever did. To celebrate, I roped him into an organizational project and we cleaned out a (craft-containing) dresser in our bedroom to use for our clothes. Exciting! I also threw away old, shoddy undergarments and put away all my maternity clothes, and gave M a stack of my old t-shirts that I will never wear for use in his woodshop. And he mowed the front lawn to chop up some leaves! And Evelyn refused to nap! And then we made a broccoli casserole for dinner because the prospect of having it just once in a week (crucial part of the Thanksgiving meal) is just not enough, I guess.

Look, I am sort of embarrassed that my signature dish, the one that I have to make for every food event, for my family is broccoli casserole. I mean, it's Velveeta. Is that even real food? And crumbled crackers! And yet, it is so, so good. I had to type it out for my cousin Rae, who moved herself away to North Carolina and will be missing out on my cheesy goodness on Thursday, so I'll post it here in case anyone is feeling peckish. I thought I already had but I can't find it. Try it, it's good stuff. It is so much better than the nasty broccoli casserole with cream of mushroom that some people make. My other 'signature' dish is lasagna, and I will post my recipe for that soon, too. It does not contain butternut squash or spinach, no matter what my dear crack-smoking friend says. Lasagna is brilliant because everyone likes it. It's the perfect dish to make when you have potentially picky people coming over for dinner. It's not too weird, it's full of cheese, and you can make it ahead of time, unless your baby wakes up in a phenomenally bad mood, screaming her sweet little head off, just as you have cheese dust and pasta starch all over your hands and houseguests arriving JUST RIGHT NOW KNOCK KNOCK! Because then, it does not get fully prepared in advance. I'm just saying, that's all, not that that happened to me recently or anything.

My cousin Rae doesn't cook a whole lot so I was fairly explicit in my directions, just in case. Does anyone but me really enjoy reading chatty, non-technical directions for recipes?

Broccoli Casserole
2 (10 ounce) packages frozen chopped broccoli
8 oz Velveeta
1/2 stick margarine (for broccoli)
3/4 stick margarine (for crackers)
1 sleeve townhouse crackers

Preheat oven to 350. Cook broccoli. You can do this in the microwave or on the stove. Drain. While you're doing that, cut the Velveeta and butter (for broccoli) into chunks and microwave until melty--you don't have to do this but it's MUCH easier to get it smooth like this than just adding it at the end like the original recipe says. Also, cut up the butter for the crackers and melt it in a different bowl. Add the crackers to a ziplock bag and whack the hell out of them with something hard like the bottom of a glass or (no kidding, what I used tonight) a rubber ducky. When the broccoli is done, mix it with the cheese and butter and pour into an 8x8 pan or something like that. When everything is completely ready, add the crackers to the butter and stir, maybe with a fork. I usually use my hands for the cracker part, to be honest. To get both a solid crust and a nice flaky topping, which seems to be what most people prefer (from all my research, you know) dump about 3/4 of the cracker crumbs on top and pat down firmly in an even layer. Then sprinkle the remaining crumbs on top. Bake for about 25 minutes or until golden brown, bubbly and delicious. Oh, and it works just fine if you fix it the night before and put it in the fridge before baking--it will take longer in the oven the next day, though, especially if you're baking it at the same time as something else. Plan for at least about 40 minutes (usually).

This recipe actually usually tastes better when you double it. It's the broccoli to crust ratio, I think.

food, again, but I think I'm done with this topic now.

When Carrie made enchiladas for us, there was a batch of leftover chicken and a batch of sauce leftover, so we put those in the freezer. The only corn tortillas that we could find were in a pack of 100, so we had a few of those leftover, too. Last week, I went into the kitchen to make something for dinner. Feeling uninspired, I decided to make quickie quesadillas. Suddenly, I was frying up my own tortilla chips, and then defrosting the chicken, rolling it up in a flour tortilla and making chicken chimichangas covered in a cheese sauce. It was sooo good. I felt a tad guilty for using the chicken for that instead of with the sauce for another batch of enchiladas, though, but then I found out that Carrie put squash in a lasagna* and so I have to conclude that all is fair in love and food. ;) Seriously, it was fantastic. I guess I'll have to make another batch of chicken to make it all work out evenly. The chips were really good, too, so I guess I'll have to do it again to make a dent in that monster stack of tortillas in the fridge.

*I am not bothered by this, but I did find it oddly amusing. I would have picked carrots and celery if I were going to add veggies.

Since I mentioned last night that I would post this.. for no particular reason, really.. then I'll do it while I'm thinking of it and Babyo is asleep. No, this is not going to win any awards for authenticity but to be honest with you, it's damned good and I would rather have tasty food than authentic food, so I never worry about it.
( lasagna recipe' )