Icarus's blog: "Hurts to watch."

First and foremost
applewood smoked gouda
use it in everything
you'll thank me later.

It's a medium soft cheese, melts easy, grates easier, I've put it in white sauces, tomato cream sauces, and yes, even in my carbonara

Usually the heat of your cooked grains will melt it, pasta, grits, rice but a little skillet heat isn't a bad thing.
It goes great with bacon, because we already know smoked
apple wood smoked
and cheese
goes great with bacon.
Don't overthink this shit people.

Next up my very simple putanesca- I think I've mentioned it in passing, but hey anything that bears trying, bears mentioning more than once.

First you will need some stuffed olives, I like feta cheese
because at this time I'm determining if I'm lactose intollerant or not *gasp* ... you are NOT going to stop me from having icecream and cream sauces

its just not happening.

But despite this ongoing investigation- I like the big manzanella ? spellcheck spanish olives.
They're big, they're yummy, and they can hold a lot of stuffed stuff.

So
mince some garlic
take about ... 6 ounces of olives and moosh and chop them roughly
gather any brine or reserve oil and stuffing goo from the process, also if you REALLY like the stuffing element- you could use it in the sauce in greater quantities if you have it.

Grab a completely average crushed tomato sauce
no special styles, no prepackaged herbs
completely unremarkable and often 56 cents a can

put it in your skillet and cook down some of the liquid

Now the reason I emphasized stuffed olives
because you can really have anything in it
anchioves, cheese, nuts (almonds and pine nuts are nice) garlic, habaneros
whatever you want savy?

I think some funkyness is DUE in a putanesca
well...
cuz you know why
and a lot of olives have a funky herby brine/oil, and they often have an intense flavor element in the stuffing
pimentos are exempt here- too average.

So pop your crushed olives and goo, and garlic

make sure everything's incorporated and mellow
play with your flavors here- if you have brine packed add brine- oil packed use the oil to cook some meat if you're making a meatsauce variant (And yes, you can use any meat- I've even used tuna and diced white meant chicken, pork, lamb, beef, it works. Really)

I'm not asking you to spice your sauce much because the olive elements of the sauce SHOULD be adequate- but taste test, modify
one of my favorite variations of this method are as follows
if you INSIST I be specific

*sigh*

Alright

Saute 1 3/4 cups ground lamb in about 1 1/2 tbs of the reserve olive oil
when the meat is browned, add 1/4th teaspoon of tumeric to the oil and meat
2/3 teaspoon of red chile powder
2 teaspoon (about one large clove) minced into a fine paste
1/4 cup of coarse crushed salted dry roasted soy nuts (yeah- it gets weird and wonderful here, you could use breadcrumbs.. why the hell would you? and I compensated for the lack of brine by using the roasted salted variety)
~1 cup of storebrand crushed tomato sauce
6 ounces of crushed and diced fetta stuffed olives

Combine the ingredients incrementally in the skillet until the mixture takes on a homogenized thickness, add a portion of your favorite pasta
applewood smoked gouda optional
add one heavy pinch of salt if you think it needs it

Remove from heat,
serve
Consume

It's spicy, exotic, funky, salty, savory, meaty, thick, nutty, (and smokey and rich if you so decide)
I probably broke 30 italian laws in the construction of this dish.

Its about 4 different regions of mediteranean, and they're all pissed, wonder what would happen if I added some barely wilted greek greens...
just eat the damn thing before I tell you to try using wine braised diced tongue or liver
because so help me crhist
I will.

Actually that'd be fucking great *dials his dealer up*

And yeah- just serving it with rice, or grits (polenta for you high felutin fucks) is totally an option
a sexy option in fact.
Hell- if I had the budget I'd up the olive ante and make myself more of a tepanad/pesto and serve it on bread.

Gives me an idea for a minced olive and cheese grits...
that's another blog.

In the meantime- I've started the paperwork to get two MasterGrade 1/100 scale models.
And yes, they are the two on the top of my priorities.
No word back on my 30th anniversary Gundam yet.
No word on an instock Nieu Ziel... anywhere.

I almost purchased a custom suit but I eventually found out the detailing was not as awesome as advertised
comes in this pristine pearl white finish
it's beautiful, but the suit I fell in love with was sand blasted and battle scarred like I saw in the pictures :/
... I really am just going to have to break down and get an airbrush kit... and a garage full of micro power tools for that "lived in" effect.

Also started drawing Altruz for the hell of it, with some minor technical adaptations like... making him carry a rear loading assault rifle with an underload grenade launcher and shoulder mounted gatling cannons.

... it's what I'd put on him if I had the option and still upholding some of his original technical capacity.

Not the point, the point is that I'm going to some stranger's birthday party in the middle of nowhere tomorrow.

... *sigh*
and they're all christians.
God help me.