Well, it’s Thursday night and time to make dinner. It’s the time of the day when I shut down from being a reporter and become dad–even though two of my three kids are no longer living here–they’re 29 and 26 so that’s not unusual–and my wife/ex-wife’s two new kids–6 and 9–might not be here either. Doesn’t matter. I cook like everybody is coming and three or four times a week, they all do and we wind up with a table of 9 or 10. Tonight is heart attack city. My oldest, Italo, has been working relentlessly to redo my bathroom for about 8-9 days now, before work, after work, on his days off. So what he wants is what I’m making. The other night it was chicken parmesan. One night it was swordfish; another night a good steak with sliced mushrooms and onions with mashed potatoes.
Tonight it’s macaroni and cheese with spareribs.
The mac and cheese starts with medium shells. While they’re cooking, I cut up the last of the Easter ham, most of it going to the four dogs, but the good part minced and put into a pan with garlic, diced onions and a bit of olive oil. When the onions–red–were clear, three nice diced organic tomatoes went in there. When the tomatoes were done, I pulled it all and set it aside.
Drained the shells, and while they cooled, in the same pot I put 12 oz each of sharp cheddar, smoked gouda, baby swiss and a bit of bleu cheese. Added a cup of 0 fat organic milk and a couple of eggs to let it get creamy, plus lots of good butcher ground black pepper. When that was done I tossed in the ham, onion, garlic and tomato mix. It started to thicken too much so I tossed in a bit of organic vegetable broth to loosen it up.
I put the shells in a very lightly lined–with olive oil–baking dish, then covered it with the cheese mix, got it all well mixed, then topped that with shaved parmesan cheese mixed with good bread crumbs and put it aside.
I took another large pan, cut off the excess fat from the spareribs, then browned them in a bit of garlic and olive oil on all sides, sea-salted and black-peppered them, then tossed them in another baking dish. Put the oven at 325 and let the ribs go. 30 minutes from now I’ll toss in the mac and cheese. In an hour the ribs will fall off the bone and the mac and cheese will be a bubbling heart attack just waiting to happen.
I’ll make some fresh asparagus and a nice salad to go with it. Everybody in the family will smell it, I hope, and come over. If not, well, then you’re invited if you’re in the neighborhood. There’s always enough food at the Gormans.
I hope all of you are eating well tonight.
