For today's post, I decided to do something that I've wanted to do for a while and revive an old post of mine. Now, if you didn't already know...I've been blogging for technically 2 years. My original blog can be found here or here. Initially, I was excited about blogging, but Monochromatics died extremely quickly for me because as much as I love makeup and cosmetics...I just couldn't support myself enough to be a beauty blogger, plus I have way too many interests to just blog about one thing. So Monochromatics was a sham. A year, to the day exactly, this blog was started. And I'm by far, much more comfortable here. However, I'll never delete Monochromatics on either Tumblr or Blogger, so it's always there for people to see if they wish to look.

However, that's not the point of this post. Even though, my blogging birthday technically passed...we'll venture away from that. Since I posted a recipe yesterday, I thought I'd bring back the first and only recipe I posted on one of my blogs. Last year for Thanksgiving, I spent it with my wife, otto, and while there, I ended up cooking (of course she helped out.) The full, original post can be found here...but I am going to repost it to this blog to join yesterday's post.

So enjoy and ignore the rambling in the directions. ♥

Our pot of pasta without flash. No matter how many pictures we took, it still looked bad.

Our food with flash. It's ridiculous at how not photogenic the pasta was in the pot.

Hyunnie's plate. She had a cup of root beer. There was no ice in it and it was warm. How does one have warm soda? -.-;

My plate. I had a cup of Minute Maid Fruit Punch mixed with Root Beer. It was delicious if I do say so myself.

My empty plate, cup, and my cell phone. The aftermath of my destruction on this episode of YASU VS. FOOD.

Now, Hyunnie recommended that we post the recipe for this sauce, so I'm gonna post it here. I should let it be known that you are making the sauce in a sauté pan because it has the perfect amount of space for this. When something is marked with an *, it means there is a note that will go with it after of the directions.

— Ingredients

» Frozen Spinach + Green Peas
» Block Cheese
» Milk (Preferably Half & Half)
» Flour
» Salt, Black Pepper, Ground Cinnamon, Lemon Pepper Seasoning, Adobo
» 1 Stick of Butter
» Oil


— Directions

» Taking your oil, place a few drops of it into your sauté pan and make sure that the oil coats the bottom of the bottom pan...all of the bottom needs to be coated in oil so nothing sticks during the next part. (Note: Make sure it isn't too much oil, just a thin layer.)
» If you hadn't thaw your vegetables, this is when you're going to thaw them. Once the sauté pan has it's oil, pour in your spinach and green peas. No, the fire should not be on until all the vegetables are in*. Once your vegetables are in the sauté pan, shake the pan a bit so that the vegetables are rested some what decently in the pot and then turn on the fire. You don't need the heat to be at too high of a temperature, no higher than medium heat.  
» Placing the pan's cover over the vegetables*, let it cook through and thaw itself out. While that cooks down and thaw out, check on it every two or three minutes and stir it occasionally to keep the vegetables from sticking together.
» Depending on how close to medium heat you have your fire too, the vegetables should be cooked through. Once it's all thawed out, it's time to add the butter and yes, the whole stick is going in. Melting the butter with the vegetables gives it a wonderful smell and gives it a bit of a salty taste.
» Once the butter is melted, you may add your seasonings. No more than a pinch of salt and pepper (each) and few shakes of the ground cinnamon, lemon pepper seasoning, and Adobo seasoning is required to bring the vegetables to a good taste. The ground cinnamon should be the prominent taste you get from these vegetables, but it should still remain decently savory.
» If you haven't put your fire to medium heat completely, now's the time to do it. We're adding the milk and flour in. A cup of milk and two tablespoons of flour is enough for this sauce. Our flour is going to act as a thickening agent for this sauce. Remember that once these ingredients are added, you will need to stir them in immediately so that everything is incorporated and thickened properly.
» Once your sauce is half way thickened, it's time to add the cheese. You'll barely be able to taste the cheese in the finished product, so one and half to two tablespoons of the cheese should be added at most.
» As the cheese melts into the sauce, you should notice that not only does the area around you smell like yumminess, but the sauce remains a light colour. Remember to continuously stir the cheese so it melts properly.
» Now that the cheese has melted, turn your heat down to low so that the sauce is simmering down. We're doing this to keep it warm. At this point, you should taste test the sauce to see if anything more should be added.
» As the sauce simmers, your pasta should be cooked by now* and before you strain your pasta, take a ladle and add two ladle-ful of the water from the cooked pasta into the sauce.*
» Once the two ladle-fuls of water are added to the sauce, strain your pasta and place it back into the pot you cooked it in. The pasta should still be warm as you add your warm sauce to the pasta*.
» Rather than stirring the sauce, you should fold the sauce into* the pasta to combine them. It may bit tough to fold it, but that means that your sauce has thickened appropriately.
» Now that your pasta and sauce have been folded together completely, you're done! You can plate your food and enjoy your meals.
» OPTIONAL: If you are making the toast like we did, slice your block cheese and place it on the bread before popping the bread into the oven. As the bread cooks, the cheese will melt and once you take the bread out, just spread the cheese along the bread.


— Notes

» Keeping the fire off until after all the vegetables are in the pan gives all the vegetables the same amount of time to cook and prevents some of the vegetables from being overcooked and others from being undercooked.
» Covering the pan keeps the heat from escaping and also cooks the vegetables quicker while making sure to keep the cooking time even for everything.
» I omitted the directions for cooking the pasta because people cook pasta according to their own tastes and I believe pasta is one of those things that need no directions.
» Pasta is a starch. Starches can be used as a thickening agent in cooking. In this case, the water from the pasta has some of the pasta starch in it and adding it to the sauce thickening it a bit more. Kind of like tightening a screw until it bucks.
» Adding warm sauce to cold pasta would have cooked the pasta and cooking pasta after it's just been cooked changes the texture of the pasta slightly. On the flip side, adding cold sauce to warm pasta would cook the sauce and it could soft the vegetables or mess with the consistency of the sauce due to the starch in it (starch is a thickening agent, but if cooked too long it will thin out horribly).
» Folding the sauce rather than stirring it keeps all the vegetables intact and saves the sauce from looks like a green mess.

Looking back at this post, I can't believe how much time has past and how much has happened in that time. I remember this weekend like it was yesterday. It was probably one of the most fun I've had with a friend in a while...if ever. I do recommend you read the post. It's such a huge trip down memory lane and is just a nice thing to read. Or well, it is to me. And I'm happy about that.  

Anyway, I'm going to finish off my last fuzzy navel and get started on some other shit. Probably a new Tumblr layout. 

Until next time. ♥

Labels: cheese sauces, flashback posts, pastas, recipes, vegetables

For today's post, I decided to do something that I've wanted to do for a while and revive an old post of mine. Now, if you didn't already know...I've been blogging for technically 2 years. My original blog can be found here or here. Initially, I was excited about blogging, but Monochromatics died extremely quickly for me because as much as I love makeup and cosmetics...I just couldn't support myself enough to be a beauty blogger, plus I have way too many interests to just blog about one thing. So Monochromatics was a sham. A year, to the day exactly, this blog was started. And I'm by far, much more comfortable here. However, I'll never delete Monochromatics on either Tumblr or Blogger, so it's always there for people to see if they wish to look.

However, that's not the point of this post. Even though, my blogging birthday technically passed...we'll venture away from that. Since I posted a recipe yesterday, I thought I'd bring back the first and only recipe I posted on one of my blogs. Last year for Thanksgiving, I spent it with my wife, otto, and while there, I ended up cooking (of course she helped out.) The full, original post can be found here...but I am going to repost it to this blog to join yesterday's post.

So enjoy and ignore the rambling in the directions. ♥

Our pot of pasta without flash. No matter how many pictures we took, it still looked bad.

Our food with flash. It's ridiculous at how not photogenic the pasta was in the pot.

Hyunnie's plate. She had a cup of root beer. There was no ice in it and it was warm. How does one have warm soda? -.-;

My plate. I had a cup of Minute Maid Fruit Punch mixed with Root Beer. It was delicious if I do say so myself.

My empty plate, cup, and my cell phone. The aftermath of my destruction on this episode of YASU VS. FOOD.

Now, Hyunnie recommended that we post the recipe for this sauce, so I'm gonna post it here. I should let it be known that you are making the sauce in a sauté pan because it has the perfect amount of space for this. When something is marked with an *, it means there is a note that will go with it after of the directions.

— Ingredients

» Frozen Spinach + Green Peas
» Block Cheese
» Milk (Preferably Half & Half)
» Flour
» Salt, Black Pepper, Ground Cinnamon, Lemon Pepper Seasoning, Adobo
» 1 Stick of Butter
» Oil


— Directions

» Taking your oil, place a few drops of it into your sauté pan and make sure that the oil coats the bottom of the bottom pan...all of the bottom needs to be coated in oil so nothing sticks during the next part. (Note: Make sure it isn't too much oil, just a thin layer.)
» If you hadn't thaw your vegetables, this is when you're going to thaw them. Once the sauté pan has it's oil, pour in your spinach and green peas. No, the fire should not be on until all the vegetables are in*. Once your vegetables are in the sauté pan, shake the pan a bit so that the vegetables are rested some what decently in the pot and then turn on the fire. You don't need the heat to be at too high of a temperature, no higher than medium heat.  
» Placing the pan's cover over the vegetables*, let it cook through and thaw itself out. While that cooks down and thaw out, check on it every two or three minutes and stir it occasionally to keep the vegetables from sticking together.
» Depending on how close to medium heat you have your fire too, the vegetables should be cooked through. Once it's all thawed out, it's time to add the butter and yes, the whole stick is going in. Melting the butter with the vegetables gives it a wonderful smell and gives it a bit of a salty taste.
» Once the butter is melted, you may add your seasonings. No more than a pinch of salt and pepper (each) and few shakes of the ground cinnamon, lemon pepper seasoning, and Adobo seasoning is required to bring the vegetables to a good taste. The ground cinnamon should be the prominent taste you get from these vegetables, but it should still remain decently savory.
» If you haven't put your fire to medium heat completely, now's the time to do it. We're adding the milk and flour in. A cup of milk and two tablespoons of flour is enough for this sauce. Our flour is going to act as a thickening agent for this sauce. Remember that once these ingredients are added, you will need to stir them in immediately so that everything is incorporated and thickened properly.
» Once your sauce is half way thickened, it's time to add the cheese. You'll barely be able to taste the cheese in the finished product, so one and half to two tablespoons of the cheese should be added at most.
» As the cheese melts into the sauce, you should notice that not only does the area around you smell like yumminess, but the sauce remains a light colour. Remember to continuously stir the cheese so it melts properly.
» Now that the cheese has melted, turn your heat down to low so that the sauce is simmering down. We're doing this to keep it warm. At this point, you should taste test the sauce to see if anything more should be added.
» As the sauce simmers, your pasta should be cooked by now* and before you strain your pasta, take a ladle and add two ladle-ful of the water from the cooked pasta into the sauce.*
» Once the two ladle-fuls of water are added to the sauce, strain your pasta and place it back into the pot you cooked it in. The pasta should still be warm as you add your warm sauce to the pasta*.
» Rather than stirring the sauce, you should fold the sauce into* the pasta to combine them. It may bit tough to fold it, but that means that your sauce has thickened appropriately.
» Now that your pasta and sauce have been folded together completely, you're done! You can plate your food and enjoy your meals.
» OPTIONAL: If you are making the toast like we did, slice your block cheese and place it on the bread before popping the bread into the oven. As the bread cooks, the cheese will melt and once you take the bread out, just spread the cheese along the bread.


— Notes

» Keeping the fire off until after all the vegetables are in the pan gives all the vegetables the same amount of time to cook and prevents some of the vegetables from being overcooked and others from being undercooked.
» Covering the pan keeps the heat from escaping and also cooks the vegetables quicker while making sure to keep the cooking time even for everything.
» I omitted the directions for cooking the pasta because people cook pasta according to their own tastes and I believe pasta is one of those things that need no directions.
» Pasta is a starch. Starches can be used as a thickening agent in cooking. In this case, the water from the pasta has some of the pasta starch in it and adding it to the sauce thickening it a bit more. Kind of like tightening a screw until it bucks.
» Adding warm sauce to cold pasta would have cooked the pasta and cooking pasta after it's just been cooked changes the texture of the pasta slightly. On the flip side, adding cold sauce to warm pasta would cook the sauce and it could soft the vegetables or mess with the consistency of the sauce due to the starch in it (starch is a thickening agent, but if cooked too long it will thin out horribly).
» Folding the sauce rather than stirring it keeps all the vegetables intact and saves the sauce from looks like a green mess.

Looking back at this post, I can't believe how much time has past and how much has happened in that time. I remember this weekend like it was yesterday. It was probably one of the most fun I've had with a friend in a while...if ever. I do recommend you read the post. It's such a huge trip down memory lane and is just a nice thing to read. Or well, it is to me. And I'm happy about that.  

Anyway, I'm going to finish off my last fuzzy navel and get started on some other shit. Probably a new Tumblr layout. 

Until next time. ♥

Labels: cheese sauces, flashback posts, pastas, recipes, vegetables