Project dinner

For the past several weeks, if it’s a Wednesday evening I’m sure to be found sitting on my couch in front of the television. I would say that I’m not one who watches much television, but I’ve been noticing lately that I’ve been sitting and staring at a black box for more hours of a day than I’d like to admit. And, my recent obsession has been Project Runway, the real-life competition where 16 fashion designers duke it out to see whose designs and sewing skills have the edge to beat out their competitors.

This Wednesday was the season finale, the grand showdown where the four remaining designers would show their collection at New York’s Fashion Week. And, for this momentous event, we had to have an equally momentous dinner, which obviously meant fried chicken and mac ‘n’ cheese.

The last time we made fried chicken in this house, Jeanne did it so I had no idea how it came about. But this time, I was frying solo. When I got home from work, I prepped the chicken pieces and soaked them in buttermilk with some salt, pepper, and Tapatio for seasoning. I dunked my hands into the pot of chicken and buttermilk to make sure everything was coated, and didn’t realize how numbingly cold chicken and buttermilk could be. I stuck the whole pot in the refrigerator as I made the cheesy casserole.

After cooking the macaroni to a super al dente, I poured in the mixture of evaporated milk, eggs, dry mustard, and more Tapatio, along with about half the grated cheese. After that got mixed in and melted together, I poured in the rest of the evaporated milk and the rest of the cheese. When its cheesy goodness looked like it had melted, I seasoned with salt, pepper, a little more dry mustard, and a little more Tapatio. It then got poured into a baking pan and topped with bread crumbs and more cheese (I had forgotten the butter on this batch too, making the top crust a little more bread crumbly). It then got put in the oven to get a nice golden brown crust but it got a little more brown than I would have liked. Scott had to remind me that the mac ‘n’ cheese was still in the oven, and he did so just in time since another few minutes in the oven would have been a catastrophe. Ryan spent the next few minutes scrapping off the darkened bits of cheese and bread crumbs.

As for the frying the chicken, I started by first scooping out cups of Crisco into my cast iron skillet and watching that heat up. Then, in went the buttermilk-soaked and floured-dredged chicken pieces skin down. As I put in piece after piece, I noticed how the level of melted Crisco was climbing very closely to the top of the pan and decided to ladle out some of the liquid Crisco. Mmm…how appetizing that bowl of melted fat looked. Ten minutes on one side, ten minutes on another, and the chicken was fried to a dark tan deliciousness.

Scott sautéed some spinach and made some brownies from a box. Prasad brought over some chips. And Ryan came with pink lemonade. We were ready to sit in front of the television for hours and to scoff and marvel at the designs.