Smelliott's Cooking Dinner

Since I needed to go to Chip's anyway to do over 2 month's worth of laundry I decided to help out my nephew with his "cooking day". As I was at my house discussing menus with Smelliott I got a call from Pepper's sister (doesn't have a cat so I don't know what to code her) and I invited her to join us. We cooked pastitcio and watched a documentary that I wholly recommend, " Bigger, Stronger, Faster". It was a very well-made film about steroid use. It really made you rethink about a lot of issues, not just athletes and steroid abuse. It also introduced a lot of facts about steroids I didn't realize mainly that the evidence of long term damage from steroid use is shaky. It also didn't necessarily condone steroid use either. At the end of the DVD you couldn't really say what side of the debate the narrator was on.

Anyway, here is my recipe. The only think that we didn't quite do right was the macaroni; we should have cooked the macaroni to just underdone because it cooked a bit more in the oven. Also, I used 3 different bags of macaroni as they were each sitting opened (hidden) in my cupboard and they might have had different cooking times due to brand and age.

Pastitcio

Cook 2 cups of dried macaroni until almost done. Rinse well to quick cooking.

Meat Sauce

1 tbl oil
1 onion, diced
1 lb burger crumbles, I used 1/2 bag of Morningside crumbles & 2 Morningside Veggie Patties that I smooshed myself after nuking for a minute or 2
1 can tomato paste
1 can diced tomatoes
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg

Heat oil in pre-heated cast iron skillet. Saute onion until golden (or until nephew's arms fall off). Add crumbles, cook for a while then add the crumbles, then the paste and tomatoes and last the spices. Reduce heat and simmer (and stir occasionally) while you make the bechamel. Taste again before assembling to adjust spices, may need to add more.

Bechamel Sauce

4 tbl oil
4 tbl flour
4 cups unsweetened soymilk heated in microwave (don't boil)
1/2 tsp nutmeg

Heat oil in large sauce pan. Wisk in flour and cook until floury taste is gone (about as long as it takes to heat the milk) Pour in hot milk while wisking constantly. Heat on medium/high until it bubbles. Reduce heat to medium and continue cooking until thickened.

Assembly

Preheat oven to 350. Spray Pam large casserole dish. Add the cooked macaroni to the bechamel sauce and stir. Should be soupy, the pasta will soak up a LOT of sauce. Layer macaroni and meat mixture and make sure you end with pasta on the top. (We didn't do it right last night and the meat sauce ended up in a funky layer top crust) Optional: sprinkle top with Parma, bread crumbs or French Fried Onions (last is expensive but if you have some left over from Thanksgiving it doesn't count)

Cook for 45 minutes then let stand for 10. Delicious and just as good the next day for lunch.