mac *cheese

Actually it's rotelle spiral pasta guys and cheese. I like the recipe out of Bittman's How to Cook Everything- the dry mustard adds the right flavour note for me.

And it turns out that the secret to panko? What makes panko those Japanese shardlike crumbs so fantastically crisp and light and amazing and why the crunchy top is like the best part of mac and cheese? PARTIALLY HYDROGENATED FATS, that's what.

Which is why I bought the Shirakiku brand Honey Panko, JAPANESE BREAD CRUMBS; soft finished flakes with honey. It's also "A GOOD BARGAIN." Says so on the package. The plan is to make some crispy crumbed chicken with these someday soon.

welcome back post hibernation

Non happy meat short ribs have gone up to ~$5/lb from $4 last year. There were a bunch of pork shoulder braises. And things like this mushroom risotto. It turns out that risotto is freaking easy to make delicious, especially with large amounts of parmesan reggiano at the end. Also you can be totally lazy and not make your own broth etc.