The perfect PMS dinner

Sometimes you just have to serve melted cheese for dinner. This is an especially fine idea when you are PMSing your brains out and can't stop the salt monster. So tonight I put guilt aside and made some fantastic cheesy goo for dinner:

Food to make a PMSing woman happy--salt, fat and alcohol.

Since it is Tres de Mayo and Brian is going out of town on the Cinco, I decided that this (and my insane PMS this month) was a good excuse to make a recipe for Queso Fundido with Roasted Poblano Vinagrette. That's a fancy name for a the rectangular pan of gooey cheese sauce that is pictured above. This is a Bobby Flay recipe that I saw posted somewhere (can't remember where) when the Super Bowl was approaching and people were talking about what to feed the masses in front of the TV. Mr. Flay suggested this as a dip, not as a fine family dinner, but we were a happy crowd of chip chomping, cheese scooping maniacs (I made a separate little pan for the kids with cheddar cheese on top and no poblano vinagrette). And since Momma is a little on edge today, having a dinner in which not one word of complaint was uttered was worth the nutritional vacuum.

I know they say that salt, alcohol and caffine (which I have also had a great deal of today) make PMS worse, and maybe after this cycle is over, I'll try to be better next month. But once the monster is there, chomping on your brain, making you bitchy about the stupidest things, I find that feeding the monster and feeling happy is much better than attempting to be virtuous and getting meaner.

I feel a little ill right now from excessive cheese consumption, but I think that it'll have subsided in time for me consume a bar of bittersweet chocolate I have stashed away while watching some crap TV later tonight (because really, after salt and alcohol, one must complete the PMS trinity with chocolate, preferably eaten in front of the TV. No PBS allowed unless it is a soppy costume drama.)

Queso Fundido with Roasted Poblano Vinaigrette
from Bobby Flay

Cheese Goo
3 T butter
3 T flour
3 cups whole milk
8 oz monterey jack cheese, grated
1/4 t salt
fresh ground pepper
6 oz goat cheese, crumbled
3 T chopped fresh cilantro
Roasted Poblano Vinaigrette (see recipe below)
a whole lot of Tortilla chips for scooping

Make the cheese goo:
1) Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Add the flour and cook for a minute. Gradually whisk in milk and cook until thickened. Remove from heat, add grated monterey jack cheese, and stir until melted. Season with salt and pepper.

2) Preheat the broiler. Scrape the mixture into a 9 inch ovenproof pan and sprinkle the goat cheese over the top. Put the pan under the broiler until the goat cheese is golden brown on top. Remove from the oven, drizzle with poblano vinaigrette and sprinkle with chopped cilantro. Serve hot with chips.

Roasted Poblano Vinaigrette
2 poblano peppers, roasted, peeled and seeded
1/4 C red wine vinegar
3 cloves peeled garlic
1/4 C canola oil
salt and pepper

Place the peppers, vinegar, garlic and oil in a blender and blend until smooth. Season with salt and pepper to taste.