Thyme & Time

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Even a simple grilled cheese can get messed up. Follow these basic tips to get the perfect sandwich every time

Low and Slow Remember the tortoise and the hare? What was the moral there? Slow and steady wins the race. The rate of bread toasting is much faster than the rate of cheese melting. To keep your cheese and bread in harmony, cook your sandwich as low on heat as possible. Yes, it may be boring and impatient but trust me when I say waiting the extra few minutes for melty gooey cheese is better than cold cheese and burnt bread. If you think your flame is low, you can probably go even lower.

Mayo instead of butter In order to get that perfect crispiness on the outside of the bread, reach for mayonnaise. I cant explain why it works better than butter but if you’ve ever seen the movie chef, he uses it. I trust him. If you haven’t seen chef, finish reading this and then go watch it. Mayo equals a perfect crunch every time and for those of you who don’t like mayo, you cant even taste it.

The more cheese the better Need I say more?

My family is extremely low key. Sometimes, dinners are balanced sit down events with the correct amount of food groups, and in really rare cases, include dessert. More often than not, dinners are spent either around the coffee table with my dog perched next to me on the couch, hanging on for dear life, and watching my fork move from my plate to my mouth. But the majority of the time, dinners in my house usually start with "I could have eggs or tuna fish and be fine" and end with the three of us standing around our granite counter top sampling olives, cheeses, dips, pretzels, melba toast and questionably expired cold cuts, while I pray to god that someone suggests the quiet sushi place 5 minutes from my house.

Not wanting to subject myself to the third option, I decided to get creative with my hunger and landed on a safe meal my family makes (well, I make) when its 7pm and "what to eat" as my mom calls it, hasn't even crossed our minds. There are so many times one can eat tuna.

This recipe is extremely flexible in what you can put in it, so I will give you what I made in the picture, and you can interchange almost everything in it to fit your needs.

Im not going to give you exact measurements because this is one of those things that you kind of just throw together:

Your base is your pasta or grain:

Mini Ravioli (shown), tortellini or any shape or regular pasta works, rice, quinoa etc. Make as much as you want, or make more than you want. #Leftovers<3

Your protein: Stick with white meat, don't go for red meat. Or do, let me know how it goes.

Chicken Breast pieces (shown), we really love garlic spinach chicken sausage (found in the meat area usually near the organic chicken, 4 to a package, many flavors. Stay away from the sweet ones like apple smoked for this dish, those are more for breakfast), ground turkey works, chicken thighs are awesome because they have a little more fat on them to work with, even scallops or other fish!

Add ins:

Any veggie at all that can be sauteed. Broccoli and peas are shown, zucchini is always a go to for me, halved cherry tomatoes, red peppers if youre into that kind of thing, onions, spinach, kale, you get the idea.

Your sauce:

EVOO, sea salt & cracked pepper, white wine drink whatever you don't use, thyme (lol) or other herbs like parsley or rosemary, I'd bench cilantro for this one. Like 1-2 cloves of diced or pressed fresh garlic, those red pepper flakes you put on pizza, Lemon, whatever. Keep it simple but keep it flavorful.

process:

Boil your pasta according to package. Drain and let sit.

Cut up your meat into smallish pieces. For chicken breast or chicken sausage, cutin half length wise and then cut horrizontal 1/4 inch pieces from those usually works. Season with salt and pepper and let it sit for 2 minutes or so. Throw that in a large-ish saute pan (large enough that you know you can fit other things in there) with some canola or olive oil on medium heat and let it do its thing until you start to see a nice brown color on the chicken.

Veggies in next. Root veggies like carrots, broccoli, etc should go in first,  they take longer to cook. Then throw in zucchini, peas, peppers or whatever else you got. Add a teaspoon of oil as needed so nothing dries out.

Throw in your garlic and watch that shit. Garlic burns quickly and once that happens you cant come back from it. It smells bad and tastes worse and then you have to start over which is SO much effort. Let it saute for like a minute until tender and fragrant. Throw in your drained pasta, and toss around, add oil as needed, add your wine. The wine will make a cool noise and you'll feel like you're being attacked by an inanimate object and it's always terrifying. Keep tossing and let the liquid reduce so you're not left with soup. Add in more s&p to taste, herbs, more wine, more oil, red pepper flakes, some granulated garlic etc until you are completely satisfied with how it tastes. If you're using seafood, throw in lemon and fresh parsley and thank me later

Couple more tosses in the pan, plate, cover in a mountain of parm cheese and go. to. town.

You're gonna want to take a minute to process this when its over.

I am very specific about a lot of things and dairy is one of them, especially cheese. I like cheese either ice cold right out of the fridge or so hot it could give me a second degree burn. There is no in between for me. That is why this Mac and Cheese recipe is so important. Historically, I have always been one to "accidentally" add too much milk to the fake cheese roux made from a classic box of Annie's or Kraft (Annie's white cheddar shells preferred). I like I thin, liquid-y and not too rich. The last thing I can stomach is a dry mac and cheese and to my mother's disappointment, that is the exact reason why I don't eat it.

My mom ran the NYC Marathon this weekend on her 50th birthday and the only thing she wanted was a baked mac and cheese. So I could partake in this magic I decided to forgo her recipe and develop my own and thank effing god I did. Inspired by some of the best mac and cheese in New York from Dinosaur BBQ I took their recipe and made a few modifications of my own:

Ingredients

1 tablespoon of olive oil

1 whole white onion diced

1/2 a green pepper diced

1 cup of AP flour

3 cups of water

3 cups of Half and Half

2 8oz blocks of Sharp cheddar cheese shredded

1 8oz block of Colby Jack cheese shredded

1 12oz package of American Cheese singles (keep these in the fridge until called for because otherwise they get melty and hard to peel from the packages and then your fingers smell #gross)

1/2 a cup of shredded Peccorino Romano Cheese

1 teaspoon of lemon juice

1 teaspoon of sugar

2 teaspoons of white/ wine vinegar

2 teaspoons of yellow mustard

salt/pepper

A box and a half of a small to medium size fun shaped noodle like elbows, pipette or even cavatappi

Boil pasta according to packages, drain and set aside.

In a medium sauce pan, sautee peppers and onions in oil until soft and translucent. On medium heat, add in flour and coat the onions and peppers. Add in water and half and half, stir to combine, and raise to a boil. Be careful at this point because dairy boils very quickly so just make sure to stir often and watch it.

Once at a boil, turn off heat and either using a hand blender or in smaller portions in a blender, blend until the onions, peppers, flour and liquid have combined and is now a smooth liquid.

Transfer to a large metal mixing bowl over a double boiler (to keep the mixture hot with out burning the bottom) and begin to add in the shredded cheese small amounts at a time, stirring while melting. Do not add more until what you already added has melted completely, keep 3/4 a cup of the shredded cheese aside for topping later. Add in the american cheese slices 1-3 at a time stirring until melted completely.

Once all the cheese (aside from the romano and the 3/4 cup reserved shredded cheese) has been added in, add in the sugar, lemon juice, vinegar, mustard, salt and pepper and stir until combined.

Remove the mixing bowl from the double boiler and continue mixing until you are left with a smooth creamy addicting cheese sauce. Once at that point, add in the cooked pasta and fold gently to combine completely.

Grease two casserole pyrex dishes and pour half of the mixture in each. Top with the rest of the shredded cheese and the romano. Either broil for 13 minutes until melted and a little brown on top, or cover with foil and freeze until you want to eat it.

There you have it, your next heart attack.

Thank me when you can move again