Culinary adventures, part 2.

So tonight I cooked my first dinner all by myself. I know that doesn't mean a lot, but for me, it's kinda a big deal. No help from anyone usually means Jen ends up flustered and dinner ends up in a huge mess.

But not tonight.

Tonight's meal was crab-stuffed pasta shells in a Parmesan-cream sauce, with chocolate mousse as dessert. By now, y'all are probably like "Crab what? How'd she do that?" With a few tricks up my sleeve, of course. I picked this recipe myself, knowing that I know what a stuffed pasta shell is supposed to look and taste like. I knew what the ingredients cooked like. It was actually a blast to cook, besides all the dishes I ended up messing up in the process that I then, inevitably, had to wash.

PROPS:

• Ricotta and Parmesan, for being practically my two favorite cheeses in the world.
• Crab meat, for being a very delicate but not overpowering fishy flavor. I love seafood, and that was just the right amount of seafoodiness.
  
• I finally learned how to boil water! (Yes, that is how terrible I was at cooking anything.)
• Going off the board for 1000 and making the dish that I really wanted to make without being intimidated by a 15-ingredient list, 3 steps of preparation, and 45 minutes of prep time.
• Realizing that this recipe is actually incredibly easy to make ahead of time, if the pasta and filling are made a day or so ahead.
• Timing everything right so that I could make the dessert while the shells were baking in the oven.
  

SLOPS:

• Not knowing what crab cartilage looks like.
• PASTA SHELLS ARE REALLY HOT WHEN THEY GET OUT OF BOILING WATER. I swear I steam-burned myself about 20 times while I was stuffing those shells.
• That little dried-glue layer that cream sauces get when they're not being babysat.
• Not knowing that refrigerated evaporated milk probably needs shaken before using it in a recipe.
• Still (!) managing to fling little bits of chocolate-fudge pudding all over the place while I whipped up the mousse.

REVIEWS:

• My brother stayed home instead of going to his Ultimate Frisbee pick-up game to try this recipe. I got him excited about cooking something later this summer and I got an actual "thank you for making dinner" out of him. He also mentioned that he was full from just 4 stuffed shells -- which is impressive when you consider that this kid is 17 and thus has four meals a day and is never full. ****1/2 out of 5.
• My dad got home from work just in time to sit down at the table and have dinner. "This is really good. Very rich." Only ate four shells, but trust me, that's enough for anyone. **** out of 5.
• My mom was super-impressed by my ability to refrain from asking her any questions during the cooking process. She wasn't even on the same floor of the house while I was cooking. "The filling is set just right. Overstuffing the shells was the right thing to do. I'm surprised you were able to make such a complicated recipe on your own." ***** out of 5.
• J ate dinner with us, since the recipe said it would serve 6 (it would probably serve even more, it's very rich and filling). He's one of the most finicky eaters I know, but he gladly ate my off-the-board concoction as his first experience having crab in anything. He was surprised by the amount of cooking I had to do... probably comes from not being in a kitchen longer than a microwave time, haha. He loved dessert and thought that the meal was very rich and filling. ***** out of 5.

OVERALL: I will definitely make this again. Not so much a fan of the 1:15 that it takes to make it, but with the time it was in the oven I was able to make dessert. Makes leftovers not just in the pan but also with leftover shells that couldn't make it in the pan with everybody else. One of the best culinary decisions I've made in a while. Definitely boosted my cooking ego.

Want the recipe? I'll post it in the comments. For now, I'm raiding a cookbook that I got earlier this week for more recipes that I can try out next week.

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In other news, I didn't realize that season 4 of LOST would be so short - only about 14 episodes! Apparently it got hit pretty badly by the writer's strike in Hollywood a few years ago. But props to Faraday for being science-fictiony and awesome, and tears of joy at Desmond/Penelope. (If you spoil any of it for me, more than I've spoiled for myself by watching episodes here and there, I will find you. And you won't like it.)

Le Tour de France has been pretty quiet lately. Still makes me want to go to France. Am expecting a huge charge from Astana any day now. (My dad didn't know until a few days ago that Astana is the capital of Kazakhstan, and he follows the Tour religiously. Wow.)

Anyhow, I'm busy for the rest of the summer with personal Super-Secret Projects. Don't expect many, if any, updates about them, because the Internet is an increasingly not-private space and I wouldn't want anyone's surprises to be ruined. So, as Desmond might say, see you in another life, brother.

- Jen -