Dumbass

One of my favorite quick meals is Knorr Lipton Pasta Sides Stroganoff. (That link should take you to the stroganoff. It might take you to the chicken. Apparently, the Knorr Lipton site has some issues ... but you should be able to find what you are looking for. If you have patience, like I did.)

I discovered these tasty noodles during a random walk-by grab at Big John, back when we used to have an actual grocery store in this town. Nowadays, the choices include the local box store, the way-too-convenient Farm Fresh Store and, of course, the Wal-Mart SuperCenter — which, amazingly enough, did not appear to be carrying this particular flavor of Pasta Sides when I started looking for it.

Anyhoo, these noodles take, like, 15 minutes to make. And the recipe calls for half a cup of milk and a tablespoon of margarine, but you can actually make them without milk or without margarine. (I, of course, am usually without one or the other of these products; however, I have not attempted to make the noodles without both ingredients ... though I strongly suspect they would be just fine.)

Good for a side dish, as the product name suggests, or the way I usually have the noodles: As the main dish — or, rather, the only dish.

One suggestion, though: Do NOT leave the noodles simmering in the saucepan while you sit in the living room, sorting through the collection of junk that you have managed to ... well, collect ... between the pages of your address book. The noodles WILL boil dry, and you will end up with a collection of a different sort: a bunch of mushy noodles, half of them stuck to the bottom of the pan.

(Fortunately, I did manage NOT to burn the noodles, so there were plenty for me — and my cat! — to enjoy. I did, however, manage to pretty much ruin my saucepan ... unless I wanted to let it soak for 3 days and then see if I could borrow a jackhammer to remove the cooked-on noodles ... but instead, I decided, what the hell, this was one of the pans my old roommate left behind when she moved out some 14 years ago; this is my opportunity to get myself a brand new saucepan!)

: )

I am such a dumbass sometimes when it comes to cooking. If I stay at it long enough, though, I should have me a pretty fine collection of cookware.

: )