I had the chance to cook with my daughter Katya last night. I use to prepare meals all of the time with my son, but with the two girls, I have not done so as often. The problem has been that I have to be more cautious with my youngest, which makes the meal preparation take much longer. Sakura was asleep, and Katya was excited to be the assistant. They have never experienced macaroni and cheese from the box. My son, who is quite a bit older, went through a phase at one point where he wanted this meal. He had it at a friend’s house. This is not a hard dish to make from scratch, which I did for him, but he wanted that artificial flavoring. When Katya and I started the meal, I was not planning a specific meal, so this dish evolved as we were cooking.

    I knew that we were going to make a pasta dish. We began with sauteeing onions and carrots from the garden. Katya likes peeling the vegetables, but she was nervous about crying (the onions). I added the third part of the classic, which is the celery. Once these had some brown on them, we added the homemade chicken stock with salt and pepper. When looking for the pasta, I found the macaroni we had purchased. We dumped these into the pot. I did have to add a little more stock to cover. We let this come to a boil, stirring to prevent any sticking to the bottom of the pot.
    For a traditional macaroni and cheese, you cook the pasta alone, and make the cheese sauce in a separate pan. Cooking the pasta in the sauce reduces the cleanup. By using less water or stock, you can create a sauce from the liquid that was not absorbed. Katya wants cheese on all of her pasta dishes. I had a large block of quesedilla cheese, so I cut about a cup of cheese into cubes. Katya stirred in the cheese along with a pat of butter. We tasted for seasoning. We did have to add a bit more. At the last moment, we added cubed summer sausage (this having been made by son and father). This may have been a little more than a cup.
    This dish had the cheese sauce, although not the same as the traditional meal. We decided to add slices of avocado to the top. Mixed into the pasta, the avocado made the dish creamy. The avocado tree that I planted late last year has not produced yet, but I am hoping to have these from the garden for the meal. The children loved this pasta, and they did not ask for more cheese. They did want more avocado though. For me, there were two great parts to this meal. First, was that the vegetables were prominent in the meal, which is not the case in macaroni and cheese. Second, was the time spent with Katya in making the meal. 

From a Houston garden to the table - A site dedicated to gardening and cooking in Houston.

My day begins at three in the morning, and last week I was getting home around 5:30 in the afternoon. My family was waiting for me to serve a meal, so I needed a quick dinner idea. I hit upon making a one pot dish to minimize clean-up: a pasta cooked in soup.

    I remember years ago a friend saying his pasta sauce was the best. He mentioned that his secret was to buy one of these pre-made sauces in a jar that he would add herbs and spices too. Since I had some canned soups for my hurricane kit, I began to prepare the soup. I added the box of pasta directly into the soup. I headed out to the garden where I harvested parsely, oregano, and rosemary with some onions and celery. The herbs went into the dish just before serving. Adding herbs in last seems to keep their flavor better. Since the soup contained salt, I did not add anymore. I did throw in some pepper, paprika, and garlic flakes. I had my meal in thirty minutes.
    I do not buy too many canned goods, but I always try to have a good supply on hand for the hurricane season. This does mean that I have to use before they go bad. After our last hurricane in Houston, I found my vegetable garden in ruins. I was still able to harvest some vegetables and herbs, but I do not rely on the garden after such a storm. The nice thing about cooking pasta in this way is that the pasta absorbs the flavors of the soup, which becomes the sauce. Adding the fresh ingredients helps with the flavor, and I imagine that the nutirtional value improves.
    I think that I need to keep more soup on hand for those days where I have no time to prepare a meal. I think thirty minutes is pretty good for a quick dinner.

From a Houston garden to the table - A site dedicated to gardening and cooking in Houston.