Sole à la meunière (Translation: Fancy-ass fish sticks.)

• 1 lb Dover sole filets*
• salt, pepper, flour, milk
• 1 stick of butter
• 3-4 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped fine

Season the sole filets with salt and pepper on both sides, then dip them in milk and dredge them in flour until lightly coated. Heat 4-5 tbsp of butter in a skillet on medium until melted and foaming, then fry the sole filets, turning once until browned on both sides. Remove the sole to a serving platter (cover it with a paper towel if desired), and remove the skillet from heat. In a fresh saucepan, melt the remaining butter and let it brown slowly on medium-low heat (it will turn a brown color and smell nutty). Carefully pour the hot butter into the fishy skillet, stir it to let the butter absorb the fishiness, then pour the resulting butter mixture over the fish. Sprinkle with the parsley and serve immediately.

* So apparently you have to be very careful when buying sole, because there are two species of fish named Dover sole, and one of them (the one I expect is more commonly available in American supermarkets) is not truly sole. They are both flat fish, but real Dover sole has a very delicate flaky texture and an unmistakable subtle taste which the other kind lacks completely.

The fishing industry is really sketchy with naming, by the way (another example is how basa swai can’t be labeled “giant catfish” even though that’s what it is, because the catfish lobby is just that powerful). I guess they figure that one white, flat fish looks the same as all the others!

Okay not really.  This is going to be short and sweet.

WHAT YOU NEED:

Pork Chops

Parmesan Cheese (flaked if possible, shredded if not)

Italian Breadcrumbs (homemade or otherwise)

~2 eggs

Salt, pepper, spices as you desire

Canola Oil

This is incredibly easy.  First grab three good sized bowls large enough to dredge the chops through.  Fill teh first with your parmesan, crack your eggs into the second (whisking them smooth), and fill the third with your breadcrumbs.

From there, go down the line.  Dredge each chop through the parmesan to get a nice coating, then the egg to make em sticky (and layer the parmesan inside), and then dredge through the breadcrumbs.  After that, place them in a frying pan with enough canola oil to reach 3/4 of the way up the chops, or to barely cover them.  Fry until golden brown, be sure to cut them open to make sure the pork is cooked all the way through.  That’s it!

Chicken and summer squash cornbread casserole

• 4-6 chicken breasts, cooked/leftover or poached, then shredded (see below)
• 3 boxes pre-mixed cornbread batter (such as Jiffy) prepared according to instructions (for Jiffy, you’ll need 3 eggs and also X c of milk)
• optional: 4-10 diced jalapeños mixed into the Jiffy cornbread, for added heat. :9
• 1 lb summer squash, peeled, sliced thin, and browned in a pan with some salt for about 5 minutes
• 2 1/2 c frozen then thawed corn kernels, or about 5 ears worth of corn kernels (instructions on cooking fresh corn can be found by consulting the internet)
• 3 c shredded cheese, in whatever combination of cheddar and monterey jack pleases you. Panela is actually the preferred variety, but it’s hard to find(?)
• 4 cups roasted tomatillo salsa, recipe below (can be substituted with store-bought salsa verde, but it is really easy)

Preheat oven to 375˚F. In a greased lasagna dish, lay down about half of the cornbread batter, then half of the squash, half of the corn, half of the chicken, half of the salsa, and half of the cheese. Repeat. Bake for 30 minutes, covered with foil. Remove foil, bring the oven down to 350˚F, and bake another 30 minutes, or until outer layer of cheese is golden brown and an inserted knife comes out clean. (The real difficulty is getting the middle layer of cornbread to cook; it is essential to the casserole’s structure.

Roasted tomatillo salsa
This yields about 6 cups. The recipe calls for 4 cups, but the rest is for serving. Also, salsa verde is something awesome to have around for other reasons.

• about 60 tomatillos, leaves removed, and rinsed under warm water to remove the stickiness
• 10 large cloves garlic, *with* skins
• 12 jalapeños (or 8 serrano chiles, if you can find them)
• 1 c fresh cilantro leaves, roughly chopped
• salt, to taste

Preheat broiler to high, oven rack in center position. Place tomatillos, garlic, and chiles on a foil lined baking dish, and broil for 8 minutes, turning tomatillos halfway through. Skin garlic, stem chiles, and blend these, the tomatillos, and the cilantro in batches in a food processor.* It doesn’t have to be puréed, but fairly smooth is better for this dish.

Poached chicken breasts

• chicken breasts
• water, salt
• appropriate herbs and spices

Put chicken breasts at the bottom of a pot such that they do not overlap (too much). Fill pot with water such that the chicken breasts are fully submerged. Add salt and other flavorings as desired (for this recipe I used about 2 tsp salt for two chicken breasts, plus some garlic powder and probably about 2 tsp of chili powder, but it depends on what you’re making). Bring to a gentle boil on medium-high heat, then bring it down to a simmer on low, cover, and simmer for 2-4 minutes. Turn off heat, and let the pot stand covered on the range for 20-30 minutes. Chicken should be done all the way through by then. You can reuse the water for more chicken breasts, too… also, you don’t really have to thaw them if they are frozen, because you’re heating them already, and adding water when poaching is a-okay. Poached chicken breasts are ready to eat, and there’s no added fat from the cooking. D:

Shredding a hot poached chicken breast is fairly easy; I found the best way was to attack it like some kind of madman dual-wielding forks. Shredded chicken is great in Mexican dishes (esp. enchiladas verdes) and also you can make it into delicious chicken salad for lunchtime sammiches.

It’s grade-A coma-inducing comfort food. :v

*Apparently we obtained a food processor at some point, and I didn’t even know! So useful.

Anyway, we really wanted to go to Uva, my favorite place in SF ever—it’s an Italian small plates/wine place (an “enoteca”) in Upper Haight. Cav was much closer to Davies Symphony Hall, so we ended up eating there instead (after deciding Bistro Clovis was not “for us”). I had never been or had any reason to believe Cav would be any good, but it was amazing. The waitress had lots of opinions and advice to offer, and she was SASSY as all get out. (Also I’m pretty sure she was flirting with Chris! the hussy!) We took her advice and had a selection of the appetizers, followed by the cheese and charcuterie plates. No pictures of the appetizers, unfort (*sniffle*) but they were:

• Braised baby octopus with roasted garbanzo beans and cherry tomatoes. Delicious! The garbanzo beans were still somewhat green; this gives your teeth just enough resistance and keeps its flavor “nutty.” The other stuff on the plate was really good too.
• Beer-batter tempura squash blossoms with mahi mahi ceviche and tempura zucchini. Good, but honestly was somewhat over-fancy. Maybe I’m just not easily impressed with $12 plates of “deep fried stuff,” but it was definitely the best of this time-honored appetizer genre I have tasted. Also, I’m not a huge fan of ceviche, mostly because I can never tell if it’s too citrusy.
• Crispy pig trotters with poached quail eggs, frisée, pickled vegetables, and mustard vinaigrette. Om nom nom. I was scared they were going to bring us a whole pig foot, but no, it was three circular disks of deep fried pork… and it was oh so good. The quail egg went perfectly with the pork (though I was sad there were only two of them), and the vegetables also matched quite well. The vinaigrette might have been a tad more sour than I would like in an ideal world, but in our imperfect world this was a formidable appetizer.

The cheese plate! (A choice of three from the list.)

(Picture was on Chris’ phone, which was not made by Steve Jobs… for shame.) There’s lots more than cheese on the plate, obviously. The cheeses were (from left to right)

• Queso Azul de Cabrales. (The cheese of my people!*) A Spanish blue made from a mix of sheep and goat milk! Ours was this interesting deep brown color, and true to both its blue cheese and Spanish cheese roots, it was very very strong. Chris figured out that you have to close your mouth and just let it sit a while, because the pungency sort of tingles your tongue and stimulates different taste buds as it melts… some sort of interesting, unfolding evolution of flavor. The wikipedia entry reports that some cheese tasters report a “numbing sensation” to the tip of the tongue after eating it, and I totally believe this. A++, would buy again.
• Brillat Savarin. A triple cream brie from Normandy named after a French political figure and gastronome (thanks WP!). The texture was amazingly rich and velvety, and it tasted like heaven. It reportedly pairs perfectly with champagne, and I’m going to have to try that sometime if I can hunt some of this cheese down. :9 Maybe the Cheeseboard stocks it? Preparing it en croûte (baked in a pastry shell) would make it even better I imagine… it would come out all nice and oozy. (Oh god.)
• Québec Seven Year Vintage Cheddar. The name says it all… this was our waitress’ choice, and she did not disappoint us. Certainly you all know the difference between the cheez-its white cheddar and the much tastier stuff you can get in blocks at Whole Foods—this cheese was light years away from all that. It was set seven years ago and this is definitely reflected in the taste.

The charcuterie plate!

I have less to say about the plate of meats, though it was also quite good. Cheese is just so interesting and fun to describe (despite the difficulty of conveying gustation and olfaction through clumsy ol’ words). Anyway! Counter-clockwise from the center bottom: (1) Prosciutto, (2) Coppa, (3) Leonese chorizo (The sausage of my people!), (4) Duck prosciutto (I think), (5) Salami, (6) Pancetta, (7) Duck liver pâté, (8) Pork liver terrine, (9) Roast beef tongue with horseradish, (10) Another liver pâté (?), (11) Head cheese, (12) Pheasant gallantine. If it’s not clear, (1-3,5,6) are pork and (11) is beef. In the center of the plate are a bunch of garnishes, including pickled pearl onions, shallots, gherkins, fig jam, and olives, and three mustards: A smooth dijon, a whole grain with crème fraîche, and a whole grain with apple cider.

Steve (the one on the left in the first picture) is from England, so he got to eat most of the stuff I wouldn’t touch (Chris is braver than I), including (11), which sounds pretty gross already (if you don’t know what it is, I do not suggest looking it up). I also shied away from (9), only because I don’t really like the texture of tongue. Everything else was very good though! Number (12) was probably my favorite (first time eating pheasant!), and (4) definitely wins the “decadent sounding food product” prize. I also discovered while in Germany that I really like mustard now. My favorite on this plate was the apple cider one. :v

Unfortunately I had to run out the door before we got to dessert (Chris and Steve only got port, though). But I will definitely be back to see what’s on that menu. =D Also, the wine list looked fantastic, even if none of us were in the mood.

Oh, brunch was tasty, too. (And much cheaper.) We went to Sugar Café where I had the “Tex Mex Scramble,” which I ordered because it involves fresh avocado. (Om nom nom.)

* Well, a bit further north from my people… but close enough. I do have cousins who raise pigs and turn them into chorizo and jamón serrano, though. Apprenticing to one of them is Escape From Grad School Plan #344.Lower

Ingredients:

• 4 boneless chicken breasts,* cut into bite sized pieces (1 ½ – 1 ¾ lbs.)
• 6 slices swiss cheese
• ½ cup white wine
• salt, pepper, tarragon to taste
• ¼ cup melted butter
• 1 can cream of chicken soup
• 2 cups Pepperidge Farm stuffing

* Or thighs. I’m sure everyone knows the deal on chicken breasts vs. thighs: the thighs are cheaper but fattier.

Directions:

1. Put chicken pieces in greased 9×13-inch baking dish. Season with salt, pepper, and tarragon and top with cheese slices.
2. Mix soup and wine, pour over chicken.
3. Mix stuffing and melted butter, crumble on top.
4. Bake uncovered at 300 for 90 minutes.

Be generous with the cheese and soup and wine and stuffing. They’re the best parts. The chicken is almost superfluous. (Though maybe I say that only because I’m not much of a carnivore.)

The only bad thing about this recipe is that it takes 90 minutes to cook… sometimes more like two hours. Conveniently, you probably have extra swiss cheese and white wine sitting around, so you can serve yourself some while you’re waiting.

Also while we’re waiting for my dinner to cook, I’ll introduce you to my grocery bag.

I made my grocery bag using the How to sew a curved bag gusset tutorial over at the U-handblog. It’s one of the most useful things I’ve ever made. In the picture above, it’s holding all the ingredients necessary for the cheese & wine chicken (sans wine — I forgot my ID and had to go back out for that later, le sigh — and also sans chicken, which was leaking, so I put it in a separate plastic bag) plus ingredients for the next two dinners I’ll make, which, since I’m cooking for one, is almost a week and a half’s worth of food.

I don’t have a car, so my grocery bag makes shopping much easier. I hardly ever buy more food than can fit in the bag (thanks to not having a car, of course), and it slings comfortably over my shoulder with a padded strap. Plus, it’s all in cheerful colors, so it makes me feel a bit more cheerful when I pull it out.

And now my food is done, after taunting me with its smell for an hour and a half:

I stumbled upon parrano at the store; the label read something like,  ”nutty flavor of parmagiano-reggiano, soft texture of gouda,” and I figured it would be pretty good even if that was mostly (but not entirely) true.  I got it.  I tried it.  Believe the hype.

• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cap of largish shiitake mushroom; I was amazed by how much flavor I got out of such a small amount of mushroom.
• Tiny dash of thyme, powdered probably preferable.
• grated parrano, enough to make a very thin coating on the inside surface of the omelette. Too much and you will taste nothing but parrano- not bad, but not the point.

Whisk your eggs then add the thyme and the shiitake strips and whisk a bit more.  Cook in an omelette/small frying pan with the top on;  I think the extra moisture and heat will help bring out the delicious aroma of the mushroom.

The rest is, to me, common-sense egg and cheese preparation 101 but I’ll write it out anyway.  Flip once the egg is sturdy enough and put the parrano on top while the bottom solidifies a bit.  Once the bottom is good, fold the egg in half, enveloping the parrano in warm egg.  Put the top back on and remove from heat; let it stand to melt the cheese some more.  I suggest eating it with some bacon and a roll of bread with olives in.  Maybe it will fill you up; two eggs just gets me started.

Edit- this just in from Wikipedia: “Parrano won a gold medal at the 2006 World Championship Cheese Contest in Madison, Wisconsin for ‘Best of class, Gouda.’ It was also first runner up for the World Champion Cheese Title.”  I think I would enjoy visiting the World Championship Cheese Contest.

Calzones are a mysterious breed of creatures. Delicious, but remarkably hard to find in this area. (There are two restaurants with decent creations, both about an hour away.) Calzones aren’t as difficult as you might think; more trouble than stirfry, certainly, but making dough, mixing the filling and folding/shaping are all rather straightforward.

Dough: 1/4 oz yeast, 1.5 cups warm water, 4 cups flour (I chose a bread flour, which resulted in far tougher dough that I anticipated. Beware.) 1 teaspoon salt, 1.5 teaspoons sugar, 1 tablespoon olive oil

Proof the yeast, as necessary, add ingredients together, knead until smooth, let rise for ~90 minutes. If you’ve ever watched the I Love Lucy episode on bread, in which bread rises and takes up the entire kitchen, this is about what you should expect. I formed 6 flat sheets (~8″x10″)to roll the filling into. The dough was rather tough and a rolling pin is suggested.

Filling: Here is your chance to go absolutely crazy, put in anything your heart desires! Add some combination of Salt, Pepper, Olive Oil, Mozarrella, Parmesean, Provolone Cheeses, Pepperoni, or anything else. Brocoli works well, but be sure to chop it up, soak it, and boil it first. Unless health issues are of concern, one can never add too much cheese. I added perhaps 3/4 of a cup of filling to each 8″x10″ sheet of dough, leaving about an inch perimeter.

Brush this outer edge with a mixture of a beaten egg and 1 tablespoon water. This will serve as a sort of glue. Fold the dough over the filling and then fold the edges and seal them. This is more annoying than it sounds. If the dough bunches up anywhere, you’ll get a lump of dough without any of the tasty filling. D: Spending more time here is absolutely worth it.

Brush the rest of the egg mixture on top of each ‘zone. I added sea salt, parmesean cheese and a sprinkle of love to the top of each one, just to make it even better.

Cook at 375 for 25 minutes. The surface should be firm golden-brown but not a rock-solid or carbonized black.

Calzone with Fork on Table

Here is a recipe I’ve cobbled together from several different sources, complete with a twist from my own deranged mind.

What you’ll need:

• Boneless Chicken Breast (1-2 per person, more if it’s a HUNGRY BOY)
• Sliced cheese (Swiss or Muenster are good choices, Provolone is acceptable but oh-so-boring. Honestly, use what you like)
• Sliced Ham (Bacon works as well, but I much prefer ham. For this example, I used Ham Capocolla, for the very slight salami-spice twist to its flavor)
• An Egg
• Bread Crumbs, Italian seasoning or Plain (Store-bought is actually just as good as any home-made, and a lot easier)
• Flour
• Salt & Pepper
• Toothpicks
• Cooking Oil of any variety (Olive Oil is a big plus)

Preheat your oven to about 400 degrees.

Begin by grabbing your nearest local meat tenderizer and gently beating the breasts into 1/8-1/4 of an inch in thickness.  Dust both sides of the breasts with salt and pepper to taste.  After you have done so, place 1-2 slices of your ham atop each breast, and top that with a slice of cheese, which you’ll probably have to tear in half and lay down length-wise.

*OPTIONAL RYAN MURPHY TWIST* – Lay down a line of Cholula or Sriracha right down the length of each stack. Really, use a hot sauce of your choice, but this step is deee-licious.

Okay, hot sauced or not, take one of the ends of each chicken breast and roll it up with the ham and cheese on the inside. Once all rolled, secure with a toothpick. When complete, they should look something like this:

Naked!

Now get three bowls. Fill one halfway with flour, the second with a single egg whisked to a smooth viscous wash, and the third with your bread crumbs. At this point, pour a little bit of your oil (Olive I hope!) into the bread crumbs and mix by hand. Continue to mix and add small, tiny amounts of oil until the bread crumbs are the consistency of slightly damp sand. Not thick and heavy, but crumbly. This is a trick my mom taught me to help a breading brown and crisp nicely, rather than have the breading risk remaining dry and burning to carbon instead. Dredge each chicken roll through the flour, then cover it with the egg wash, and finally coat it in your crumbly, damp, erotic(!) bread crumbs. Place the rolls into a casserole dish or other safe baking dish that has either been coated in Pam or had a layer of aluminum foil placed within it. Cover everything with aluminum foil and slide it into the oven, setting the timer for about 35 minutes.

Here’s where it gets good. The extra bonus that really brings this dish together is the Moray sauce. A Moray sauce is absolutely divine precisely because it will kill you and make you love it. Essentially, it’s butter and cheese. Anyway, here we go:

• Butter
• Cheese (The poor man’s version is Parmesan. if you have it, you’ll want some Gruyere as well.)
• Salt, pepper, Garlic Powder
• Whole Milk

Heat your stovetop to a medium heat. Take a small saucepan about 2 cups in size, and melt 1-1.5 tablespoons of butter into it. Once it melts, add one tablespoon of flour per tablespoon of butter into the mixture and whisk it until it’s thick and mixed otgether, which should take about 30 seconds. Then quickly add 1 cup of whole milk per tablespoon of butter to the sauce pan, and stir slowly.

Once everything has smoothly evened out, continue stirring as you add salt, pepper, and garlic powder to taste. I recommend going light on the salt, as the cheese and garlic powder will be salty in and of themselves. After those blend in, add about a half cup of Parmesan per 1 tablespoon of butter, stirring all the while. If you have the Gruyere, make it 1/4 cup Parmesan and 1/4 cup of Gruyere per 1 tablespoon of butter instead. At that point, just keep the stovetop going at medium heat, continuing to stir as the sauce thickens. It will thicken, trust me. You can add more cheese if you feel it needs thickening or a stronger cheesy flavor, though.

Once the Moray Sauce is done thickening, reduce the heat and prepare to take your chicken out of the oven, as the sauce prep should not take any longer than half an hour. Remove your chicken, and let cool for about five minutes. You may remove the toothpicks if you like, as the rolls should hold together on their own, though I feel they lend the dish a certain something… Anyway, plater the chicken with whatever else you are serving, and pour the warm Moray Sauce on immediately before serving. Tah-dah! Now you too can delight your tongue and belabor your heart, for your Chicken Cordon Bleu with Moray Sauce is done! Now you certainly can be knocked out as my momma told me to do, and have no regrets. In case you need convincing, just look:

Eat it. You know you want to.

Check out that spiral!

FOOD + FACE = OM NOM

1. FUCK YOU, GUATEMALA.  For the love of God, don’t go to Guatemala anticipating a beautiful meal that tastes delicious.  The local meats are no good, and cow doesn’t have ‘cuts’ so much as ‘parts that probably came off of a cow somewhere.’  The water is undrinkable, which means the salad is untrustworthy.  The Spanish word for “hummus” is apparently “homma,” which sounds so damn different from “hummus” that if you order “hummus,” your Spanish-speaking waitress will not understand a damn thing you say.   (This isn’t fair. My mom had a truly extraordinary shish kebob, which had onions and beef and eggplant, but the beef was nothing to write home about, and you have to work magic to make a shish kebob look beautiful enough to photograph.)

2. Fanta made with sucrose is the most delicious soda.

3. The national beer of Belize, Belikin, is truly delicious if you have spent all day baking in hot hot direct South American sunlight.  It is kept in the thickest damn bottles I have ever seen, so much so that you can’t tell if you’ve finished your beer or not.

4. It is incredibly hard to cook spaghetti properly on a boat.

5. If a crazy tanned man ever hands you homemade mango vinegar, accept.  I can guarantee you that it’s incredible, flavorful but still light, and emulsifies beautifully with a little mustard and olive oil for a simply perfect vinaigrette.

6. On the subject of mangos: DON’T TRUST CHILDREN.  You think you have to pay one quetzale for a mango.  In truth, you can get 10 mangos for 5 quetzales!  According to this handy chart, I had common mangos.  I could not shut up about mangos. Corellary to #1, you can go to Guatemala for the express purpose of eating mangos.

7. Allspice leaves smell just like allspice seeds, if not moreso.

8. Corellary to #6: If your boat’s bathroom decides to spontaneously break, then mangos are the worst food to have.  Seriously.  It’s like woo WOO, all aboard the express train to your worst goddamn nightmare.

9. Thanks to the Restaurant Villa del Chef in Flores, Guatemala (also home of the delicious shish kebob), I have discovered my new greatest hope for the Obama administration.  I want him to mend ties with Cuba and stop making Cuban goods illegal, so I can have a Cuba Libre.  It’s just a rum and coke with some lime, but godDAMN.  The Cuban rum I had was the most amazing thing I’ve ever tasted, and I can’t wait until that shit is legal stateside.

And finally, the most delicious food I had during my Spring Break:

10. A fucking ham and cheese sandwich.  NOT KIDDING.  We went on a five-hour hike through Tikal, Guatemala, which is the site of a very famous Mayan ruin.  We had five minutes before our tour to eat, and half of the sandwich survived to be eaten after climbing 80,000 perilously stupid steps.  It had thick-sliced white bread which was just a little crusty, and had a normal piece of American cheese and a normal slice of ham.  But there was some spiced mayonnaise on it which I will endeavor to reproduce soon, which made the whole thing taste both fulling, aromatic and savory.  My mom saved hers all the way to the last temple complex, and we were all really, really jealous.

And now, since I didn’t take any food pictures, Mayan ruins! Wooooo!

*Reportedly, you can burn the sugar using a broiler. It is less awesome or precise than a culinary torch, but it is certainly safer, and I already own a broiler. Also, here’s a sad story: The ramekins I purchased are made by a company called Corningware, whose ramekins used to be flame-safe. However, Corningware was bought out by “World Kitchen, Inc.” (of Reston) who decided to replace Corningware’s stoneware with cheap knockoffs and (I can only assume) charge the same price. Great!

Our casserole dish was a gift from Henry's mom. It has served us with honor in many culinary battles.

Michael, being from that cultural wasteland we call “The Midwest,” has long conspired to fill his arteries with as much cholesterol as possible, mainly by filling our refrigerator with as much grated cheese as possible. Every grocery trip, another bag of cheddar, monterey jack, or “mexican cheese” sneaks itself into our cart. Shocked and skeptical faces are met with ominous warnings: “Are you sure we’re not out of cheese? What if I want nachos, &c.? Why are you so mean to Michael?” So when our landlady finally replaced our old (and hilariously malfunctioning) oven, there was a whole shelf in our refrigerator devoted entirely to cheese. Please don’t laugh, I’m really not joking.

Four-cheese sauce, in all its glory.

 
Easy n’ cheesy chicken and broccoli casserole

• 2 1/2 cups dry short pasta (we had rainbow rotini)
• 2 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cubed
• salt and thyme
• olive oil
• 2 medium heads of broccoli, florets ONLY. screw the stalks.
• 1 cup leftover cheese sauce (algorithm follows)
• 1/2 cup shredded cheese (we had monterey jack)
• 2/3 cup milk

Before popping it into the oven, enlarged to show texture.

 
Sprinkle salt and a generous amount of thyme on chicken and brown the outside in olive oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. It does not need to cook through.

Heat cheese sauce until melted, toss with broccoli in a bowl, then toss that with the pasta in a casserole dish. Toss chicken with monterey jack cheese, then fold that into the casserole dish. Pour milk over top, and bake the casserole, covered, for 35 minutes. Eat and be merry.

Eat me, you sexy fool.

 
Cheese sauce algorithm
You will need 1 stick of butter (theoretically you can substitute olive oil, though I’ve never tried this), an equal amount of flour, milk (preferably warm), salt and spices (black pepper, cayenne, and nutmeg are what I usually use for mac n’ cheese), and as much shredded cheese as you can possibly imagine.

Melt the butter on medium in a saucepan, and add the flour in small portions, mixing between additions until thick. This is what is called a roux. Now add milk in small portions, mixing between additions until smooth; thickening will occur, this is what you want. When all the milk is added, you have bechamel (French for “generic white sauce”). Add salt and spices to taste, and then add cheese in handfuls, constantly stirring until the cheese has melted through. When the desired consistency/taste have been achieved, remove from heat and pour the liquid happiness over things you would like to eat.