Cooking of the week: Stuffed shells! ( C- )

[thistlechaser]

When I didn't eat meat, I was eating pasta a few times a week. Once I went back to it, I never ever wanted to eat the stuff I had been eating for the past eight years (pasta, pizza) ever again. Finally, for the first time, I was semi-craving pasta.

Checking around the net, I found this recipe for stuffed shells. Looked simple enough, so I decided to try it!

First off, this cooking at home thing? So not saving me money. Which is backwards of how it should work.

Anyway, the whole process ended up taking a heck of a lot of time and was messy as hell. Clever fellow that I am, I used a trick I saw on some cooking show: I put the cheese mix into a ziplock bag and cut the corner off so I could "pipe" it into the shells. I'm really not sure if that was all that helpful or not. I really needed a third hand or a helper, it was really hard to hold the slippery shells open without ripping them with one hand and fill them with the other hand.

Following the recipe, I put the mozzarella cheese into the sauce instead of sprinkled on top. I thought that was kind of odd, but that's what the instructions said... That didn't work out. Instead of getting nice stringy cheese, I got bits of it in the sauce, not stringy at all.

The whole thing was seriously lacking in flavor, which is a problem since the recipe made a metric buttload of shells. Seriously, I must have enough for ten or more meals. My tiny freezer is overloaded! (All these leftovers would be great if it actually tasted good. Hopefully they'll be better reheated or I'll end up just throwing them out.)

I probably should grade this lower than a C-, but my rule is if it doesn't make me sick, it gets a passing grade. So this passes, barely. All eight ziplock bags of them.

Anyone want some stuffed shells?

Comments

[socksofjello.livejournal.com]

I find it's always helpful to check the comments before trying anything from the internet. There are usually dozens of suggestions and ingredient additions or alterations that can transform a meal from 'passable' to 'perfect'. While most of the comments for this recipe are praise, there are several that suggest adding garlic (garlic powder, garlic salt, fresh garlic--there doesn't seem to be a consensus on which) and reducing the salt. Adding meat or leaving out the mushrooms seem popular, too.

Experiment, experiment, experiment! You might salvage it yet.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I skimmed the first page of comments, when they all seemed positive and used it as-is, I picked this one to do.

Any of those things would have helped! Heck, maybe I'll pick up a jar of meat sauce to dump on the leftovers, see if that helps. :P

[machinegirl.livejournal.com]

If you have a crock pot, I highly suggest this recipe. Garrett and I have been eating off it since yesterday, and we have enough left for at least lunch tomorrow, if not lunch for both, and one dinner. I couldn't find a pork shoulder, so I used two tenderloins. I think the total meat was about 4 pounds, instead of 3, but that's okay. More food! I used less chicken stock because I only had one can available, but it still came out yummy. Also, I added about half a handful more of brown sugar to the sauce, because I like mine a little more sweet and spicy. I also didn't strain the onions and bacon out of the sauce, but did dump all the cooking liquid from the pork.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Omnomnom! That looks so good! I love my crock pot, and I bet even more so now that I finally got liners for it (they're not sold around here, I had to order them online).

*bookmarks* Maybe I'll try that one this weekend! Thanks!

[ani-mama.livejournal.com]

XD Ah well, if stuff taste bland I tend to just drown it in hot sauce.

As for saving money by eating at home, that assumes you already have a well stocked pantry and "eating out" means sit down restaurants, not cheap takeout. It does cost a bit to stock the pantry with all the spices and other essentials.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that makes sense. Two weeks ago I paid $6 for two packets of fresh herbs. Used them once (just a tiny bit of them) and eventually they got old and I tossed them out. This time I had to by a whole jar of spices (though at least since it's dry it'll last).

I'm half-pondering growing herbs in a pot or something...