DASH!!!

What do you know...I have dashed away and they served Meat Lasagna. Its ok I made Chicken Pot Pie. I know, intense right? The fun part was making a crust without having a rolling pin. Ended up using a Martinelli's bottle, still full, to flatten out the dough. Worked out well in the end. In the background there was the sizzling of the onion, carrots, and celery in butter...have I mentioned I love butter? It just happens to find itself in almost everything I cook. The crust alone used a stick and a half and then there was another stick of margarine added as well! My mother fears that I will have a heart attack by the time I am twenty-one, I guess I may only have six more months to eat more butter. On that note, cooking off campus also means that I can use alcohol - which a twelve year old could buy - cooking sherry. A little cooking sherry can improve lots of dishes. The alcohol burns off and the flavor is left behind. Goes great in Alfredo! Imagine that : )

Garlic, thyme, chicken broth, heavy cream, chicken, bay leafs, and parsley. I almost forgot salt and pepper! Key to almost any dish. By the time it was done cooking in the pot it could have just been served as a soup with dumplings, but I am a traditionalist and like my chicken potpies covered.

I bought a loaf of thin french bread five days ago and it is now as hard as a rock. Don't worry, I planned this. The hard loaf was cut into thin slices, brushed with olive oil, and then topped with Parmesan cheese and rosemary. When broiled perfectly they turn golden brown and the cheese melts to the same beautiful shade - something that didn't happen tonight. The cheese was perfect, yes, but the bread definitely started to blacken around the sides. The final product was way too dry for my taste, and being burned didn't really encourage me to eat them, thankfully others weren't as picky. Burned food is one of my pet peeves.

In my past I have heard that there is a huge difference between olive oils but it wasn't until today when I really learned that. I tasted the one my friend had provided for me to use. There was no flavor to it at all. It was like licking, well, oil. It was just a greasy liquid with no substance. I now know the reason why it’s good to buy expensive olive oils. Too bad I don’t have the spare cash, or space, to buy and store a ton of olive oils just so I could know the differences between them all.