Manicotti

Two years about this time we were discussing the upcoming Thanksgiving dinner. Neither of us were too thrilled about the idea of turkey. It's just not our all-time favorite and besides it's really, really hard to find a turkey that'll feed 2 not-so-excited-about-it adults and 4 equally-not-that-excited-about-it kids (think 3 or 4 good slices) and not have a grundle of leftovers to continue to feed that not-all-that-excited-about-it brood. So we thought about what we'd REALLY like to feast on and planned what we now joke about as our traditional Thanksgiving manicotti dinner.

Bennett really did a bang up job and as usual, made a triple batch to freeze for later convenience. He went all out with honeydew with lime and pepper (thanks for that delicious tip, Raymond), while I made some to-die-for French bread. Good times. Good times.

When Bennett's parents came to visit earlier this year, he wanted to show them a good time true to his mom's fashion of serving up delicious grub... so once again he pulled out the manicotti noodles. Typically, our family will eat the entire batch and want for a bit more, so Bennett again made the triple batch. With Clair and Sylvia here, we thought we ought to go ahead and cook two of the pans, and have leftovers for the next day. Once again, we got honeydew with lime and pepper and I made French bread. Steamed broccoli on the side. You get the picture... good stuff.

Since cold manicotti is not nearly as tasty as warm/hot manicotti, when dinner was served, we left the second pan of manicotti in the oven. We ate, we chatted, we ate some more, and chatted some more. Again, good times.

I can't exactly remember, but 4 or 5 days later, I was getting ready to use the oven again. I wanted to make sure the rack was in the center of the oven since we frequently move it up to make quesadillas on Sundays after church. It was indeed in the center of the oven... with an entire, untouched pan of manicotti on it. :)

 

Can you see the white spots? That would be mold. :) How in the heck we forgot about an entire pan of manicotti for almost a week is beyond me. Well, not really. Our lives are indeed just that busy.

By the way: I promise that Bennett's manicotti is much more tempting to eat when it's fresh.