Cheese sauce saves the day

After yesterday’s “fowl up”, I was a little nervous to step back into the kitchen today and at a loss as to what to make for dinner. Lunch was easy: a great big salad full of veggies from the farmer’s market and chicken from last night. However, I had no clear idea of what to make for dinner; my farmer’s market haul is starting to get a little low and I’m not super experienced in the kitchen. So I spent a little bit of time googling, looked through my fridge and pantry and tried to channel my mother’s inventiveness (no matter what we had on hand, she always managed to make something work).

Finally, I found a basic cheese sauce recipe that called for butter (check), flour (check), heavy cream (check) and havarti (nope, but I do have Mountaineer, an “alpine-style cow’s milk cheese” from a dairy in Virginia – that will work). I used the last of my store bought pasta, asparagus, bacon and chicken breast to make a pretty yummy pasta dish. Paired with a glass of chenin blanc (I thought it was from VA, but just realized it’s from California… Oops – I invoke the drinking exception) it was quite tasty.

I also got started on some homemade mint chocolate chip ice cream. A good friend was kind enough to let me borrow her ice cream maker, so I started the process by heating up some heavy cream, whole milk and sugar with a big bunch of fresh mint from our yard. I’m letting it sit in the fridge until tomorrow to really infuse it with mint flavor. Looks good so far, I’m pretty excited!!