the review: cauliflower gratin
Today was one of those days where I ran around with four different lists and half of the things on one list were also on another list but I never quite got my mind wrapped around the fact that of the 30 things I had to do, seven of them were the same. In short, today was a run on sentence. Confusing, distracted, and non-stop.
So it should come as no surprise that when 5:30 rolled around and I had not even started dinner, we might be in for a bummer of a meal. Pizza night? Nope. Did that last night. You’ll just have to wait for the soba noodle and veggie review. For one thing, we somehow picked up chow mein noodles at the store on Sunday instead of soba noodles. So I guess we will be having chow mein next week. And, of course, we decided to carve pumpkins and have pizza with Gran instead of having veggies. Really, who wouldn’t make that choice when offered?
Anyway, once again completely off topic. Can you tell what kind of day it was? Right. Back to the food. The good news is that I started dinner at 5:30 and it was ready at 6:30, which included 25 minutes of cooking time and 10 minutes of cooling time. The other good news is that my daughter ate two servings of cauliflower. This after announcing at the table that she would not (imagine the emphasis here) be eating anything with ranch. I have no idea where she gets this stuff. I don’t even have ranch dressing in my house.
The prep for this recipe takes no time at all. Set some water to boil, cut some cauliflower, make a sauce while you are waiting for your cauliflower. I would actually skip the boiling step because I found that the cauliflower was a bit over-cooked. My dining companions did not agree. Personal preference strikes again. I’m a crunchy veggie kind of person. If you are like me, skip the boil. If you prefer your veggies cooked, go with the boil.
As for the dish itself, I felt like there was too much sauce for my cauliflower. This may be because my head of cauliflower was just too small or I over did it on the cheese. Don’t get me wrong, I love cheese. All cheese. To be fair, I didn’t really measure the cheese. I may have used more gruyere than parmesan. Possibly because I ran out of pre-grated parmesan and didn’t feel like grating any. I really don’t think it was the recipe, I think it it is just that I really like my cauliflower roasted.
As for the chicken, there was no recipe here. I slapped on some olive oil, lemon juice, salt, pepper and rosemary and stuck the chicken in the oven with the cauliflower. If you are a mediocre cook like I am, use a recipe. Really. I have no idea why I continue to cook as if I don't need a recipe. Things come out SO much better when I follow instructions. Can I get some instructions for life people? Simple, step-by-step instructions. That might help a bit.