Dinner-October 25, 2011 A Gourmet Hamburger Helper Casserole

Dinner-October 25, 2011

A Gourmet Hamburger Helper Casserole or Boeuf Bourguignonne with Macaroni and Mornay Sauce

This meal is a good example of Suzette’s creativity with leftovers.

She made a cheese spread with bits of different cheeses from the fridge.  “The best way to use left over cheeses is to make a cheese spread.” “To make the spread add into a food processor four or five of you left over cheeses (from which all obviously bad parts and rinds have been removed) cut into small chunks, with two table spoons of butter and two tablespoons of white wine and process the mixture until almost smooth.”  We used Welsh cheddar, goat cheese, French brie, and some unidentified hard cheese, perhaps Comté.  We had rejected as choices a Danish Bleu and Mexican Mennonite cheese and threw out several pieces of moldy cheese as unusable.

Then Suzettte made a Béchamel Sauce by sautéing flour and butter and then adding milk and then added to the Béchamel Sauce ½ cup of the cheese spread to make a Mornay Sauce.

To this sauce she added about three cups of left over macaroni (leftover from Monday’s Pasta dinner) and about two cups of Boeuf Bourguignonne.  The Boeuf Bourguignonne was leftover from the batch made by the Greenhouse Bistro and Bakery for the Equestrian Event on Sunday October 24, 2011.

Then Suzette placed the (cheese) Mornay Sauce, Macaroni and Boeuf Bourguignonne mixture in a 2 quart soufflé dish that had been sprayed with olive oil and sliced several of the yellow fuzzy peach tomatoes bought at the Albuquerque Farmer’s Market on Saturday and layered them on top of the mixture and I grated about 2 tablespoons of Parmesan Cheese on top and we baked the soufflé dish in the oven at 350°F for 45 minutes. 

During this 45 minute time I snapped the last two cups of the green beans bought on Thursday and we steamed these for about 8 minutes.

We tried a bottle of the Cutler Creek Cabernet Sauvignon and it was okay.  Not great; but okay, especially at 3 bottles for $10.00.

So we made a container of cheese spread that can be used as an appetizer.  I spread some on two slices of the bread we had left over from the Equestrian Event and ate them with some of the Cabernet Sauvignon as an appetizer while the Casserole was cooking.  It had a slight zippy taste (from over ripe cheese) and was a little chunky, but was definitely edible with a glass of red wine. 

So, we now have an almost complete casserole of the Macaroni and Cheese and Boeuf Bourguignonne and some leftover blanched green beans in the fridge with ¼ bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon.

This meal illustrates how we use leftovers to make new dishes.  The casserole was surprisingly delicious.  The chunky cheese bits, wine and butter and milk in the Mornay Sauce had melted into solution and combined with the moisture in the Macaroni and the mushroom, vegetable and meat sauce in the Boeuf Bourguignonne to make a new delicious, creamy meat sauce. Voila, Suzette made a new sauce and dish; our own version of gourmet hamburger helper.

We thawed out two frozen balls of hamburger meat for tomorrow evening’s meal.  I am guessing it will include hamburgers garnished with a slice of Bleu Cheese served with fried macaroni and cheese with red wine and a green vegetable.  That is how the trajectory of our meal planning works.  We still have that bucket of turnip greens picked from the garden.

       

Bon Apetit