We Heart Mac and Cheese

Kickin' It Mac Style! Truxton's American Bistro

noreply@blogger.com (Suzy Gruyere) — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 21:07:00 +0000

By Suzy Gruyere

I haven’t eaten mac and cheese in over a month. I know!! Tragic!! But I’m back on the job now and raring to go, so it seemed only fitting that I should apply my new energy and focus to a dish that calls itself “Kicked Up.” It turned out to be a fine choice.

Truxton’s American Bistro is located near LAX, as is my workplace. In its former incarnation as an old-school Chinese restaurant, this address welcomed my colleagues and me for many enjoyable lunches. The building’s transformation from a dingy, stereotypical 1960s Asian joint into a modern, sundrenched wine bar is dramatic. For anyone who never knew it as Madame Wong’s, the space probably feels a little schizophrenic because the comfy booths and Restoration Hardware lighting fixtures shout “old fashioned Midwest diner” while the exposed ductwork ceilings and big screen plasmas say “contemporary California sports bar.”

The menu is all over the place, too. It adheres to the Cheesecake Factory “something for everyone” philosophy of dining, but on a blessedly smaller scale. Still, there are numerous Asian-ish, Italian-ish, Mexican-ish and healthy-ish offerings in the mix as well as good old American classics. Truxton’s is known for its hearty burgers and garlic fries, and the ones I observed looked and smelled really, really good. I am all in favor of their stated “crate to plate” philosophy of sourcing fresh ingredients locally. The breakfast menu is intriguing enough for a return visit, too. But on this day, my objective was the Kicked Up Mac and Cheese!

Truxton’s mac is billed as “Jumbo elbow macaroni in our creamy sauce made with a blend of five cheeses and oven roasted tomatoes, topped with crispy onions.” It will set you back only $9.98 for a serving that is ample enough to ensure leftovers.

The elbows are a bit larger than usual and they feature prominent ridges in which the sauce may nestle. And what a sauce it is! When the dish arrived at my table, the sauce was too loose, dribbling out of the noodle cavities as I lifted each forkful to my mouth. But after a moment to cool and set up, this runny sauce resolved into a perfect consistency, creamy enough to cling and with just a bit of rebound to it.

I was skeptical about the inclusion of roasted grape tomatoes but they added a nice acidic counterpoint to the richness of the cheese. There’s not so much tomato presence as to redden the sauce, it’s more like an occasional burst of surprise in your mouth. Even the sprinkle of minced parsley, which at first seemed superfluous, proved to be a valuable flavor note. And the tender house-made fried onions that crown this mac – sigh! Very nice touch. (Note to self: Try topping a home-cooked mac with a layer of crushed French’s onions, the kind that usually are relegated to Thanksgiving's green bean casserole.)

My first bite of Truxton’s macaroni and cheese included a morsel of browned cheesy goodness and suddenly a wave of déjà vu washed over me. It was such a familiar flavor but I couldn’t quite place it. Eventually the server jogged my memory. Turns out the most prominent element of this dish’s five cheese blend is blue cheese. I know!! Unusual. And totally delicious! It really works. She wasn’t 100% positive but my server thought the other four cheeses were Cheddar, Parmesan, Gruyere and smoked Mozzarella.

Mmm, does that look yummy, or what?! I don’t know if it was because I hadn’t eaten macaroni and cheese in so long, but I thoroughly enjoyed Truxton’s Kicked Up Mac. The sharpness of the blue cheese really won me over. I look forward to dining there again, probably on a Monday evening when wine sold by the bottle is half-price. Care to join me, Hilary?

Truxton’s American Bistro
8611 Truxton Avenue
Los Angeles CA 90045
310-417-8789

www.truxtonsamericanbistro.com

No to Nolita House's Boozy Bluegrass Brunch - NY Part 2

hilary@swell-a.com (Hilary Hattenbach) — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 19:30:00 +0000

By Hilary Havarti
For anyone who missed the Part 1 recap of my recent trip to NY, it started on a high note with scrumptious mac and cheese from Gourmet Garage. The next stop on the itinerary was Nolita House in SoHo. According to the website, this establishment prides itself on its friendly setting, neighborhood charm, great comfort food, libations, artisan cheese, entertainment, a relaxed environment and oh yeah, lots and lots of mac and cheese. I met up with my friends Dana and Lydia at Nolita House on a Sunday afternoon right smack in the middle of the their weekend Boozy Bluegrass Brunch rush.

Having spent a low-key morning seated in a ballroom listening to experts expound on the children’s book market, I wasn’t quite ready for the fiddlin’ Deliverance-esque ruckus awaiting me at Nolita House. The tiny restaurant seats only about 40-50 people tops and was at max capacity. Add to that a screaming four piece Bluegrass Band and you’ve got the makings of a very jarring meal. Perhaps if I was partaking in the “boozy” part of the bluegrass brunch, I might have been more equipped to handle the noise. But truth be told, I’m not a huge bluegrass fan, drunk or sober. I do, however, love me some Blues, like Bobby Blue Bland Blues, that is.

Now in case you hadn’t heard, New York seems to have instituted a hard core Brunch Law. Meaning, if you show up at a restaurant on a weekend, anytime between 8am and 4pm, you’ll eat only off the brunch menu whether you like it or not. I’ll spare you the Andy Rooney diatribe but it seems silly to make the regular menu totally off limits on weekends. Needless to say, I ran into this problem at Nolita House. My friends and I had studied the menu prior to our visit and were excited to try many of their mac and cheese offerings i.e., Mac and Cheese Spring Rolls with bacon dipping sauce, Lobster Bake mac and cheese, The Popeye with spinach, bacon and four cheeses, Original and a Mac and Cheeseburger! But when we arrived, the only mac and cheese available on the brunch menu was Original. Ah well. In spite of our disappointment and gentle nudging of the waitress (Dana told her I was a VERY important food blogger) to ask the cook if he’d make an exception (he would not) we settled for the Original. Don’t get me wrong, our server was lovely and the diners seated next to us very friendly. They even gave us an extra pillow for our sensitive back sides, as our table butted (pun attended) against a window and the bench had a very uncomfortable ledge requiring several stacks of pillows to make it sitable.

The Food
We waited a pretty long time for our food to arrive, I won’t lie. Poor Lydia nearly had a hypoglycemic fit and might have eaten a sugar packet in desperation, but that could be my memory playing tricks on me. The mac and cheese came out first and looked very promising as you can see from the photo. It arrived in a little iron skillet lightly dusted with almost burned panko bread crumbs.

After the first bite Lydia said, “This tastes like Fettuccini Alfredo.” She nailed it. It was a very creamy dish but the Béchamel and nutmeg overpowered everything else. It lacked a kick and was borderline bland. The Fusilli noodles were cooked correctly, though it's not my favorite mac pasta. I gave it top marks on the gooey/creamy/rich scale but at the end of the day, it did not impress. The menu said it was prepared with four cheeses but we couldn’t convince our server to reveal the secret ingredients. My best guess is Parmesan, Cheddar, Gruyere and maybe another kind of Swiss. Dana missed a crispy cheese crust like we’d enjoyed on the Gourmet Garage mac and she found the chalky aftertaste off-putting.

The rest of the food fared better. Lydia’s grits were tangy and creamy and we wished the mac had more of that tang. We suspected the same Béchamel sauce used in the mac was repurposed as gravy for the Biscuits and Gravy dish of which Lydia applauded the addition of sausage. Eggs Benedict (pictured above) got a big thumbs up from Dana but my Salmon Salad was inedible due an overabundance of celery salt. Another friend who joined our party later informed me that the East Coast salts everything 25% more than the West Coast. Who knew? All in all, it was a satisfying meal for most of the guests. I will have to wait for another trip to sample some of the other macs and I’ll make sure not to go on a weekend.

So there you have it. One GREAT mac and cheese from Gourmet Garage and one meh, nothing special mac from Nolita House. Next stop, Westmount Smokey Mac and Cheese. Stay tuned.

Nolita House

47 East Houston Street Upstairs

NY, NY 10012

212-625-1712

http://www.nolitahouse.com

Veggie Grill: Mac and Cheese sans Cheese.

hilary@swell-a.com (Hilary Hattenbach) — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 17:37:00 +0000

By Suzy Gruyere

My friend Laura is a vegan but I love her anyway. I kid! Anyway, we meet occasionally for dinner and lately we’ve been enjoying Veggie Grill, an emerging chain of casual restaurants featuring a 100% plant-based menu. I am a carnivore, no two ways about it, and I am not usually a fan of Faux Meat. But the stuff at Veggie Grill is okay by me.

Recently they’ve rolled out some new menu items that include a vegan-friendly cheese-like product called daiya. Imagine my delight to see Vegan Macaroni and Cheese ($3.50) among the specials! Naturally, I ordered some to go with our “chickin” pesto sandwiches and sweet potato fries with chipotle crema dipping sauce (yum!). When I placed the order I learned the second alarming fact about my dear Laura, which is she does not like mac and cheese. At first I worried about her mental health but I quickly realized it meant I wouldn’t have to share, so I’ll allow it. Reluctantly. Infidel!

When the little dish of vegan mac arrived at our table, I regarded it with equal measures of enthusiasm and suspicion. Clearly it wasn’t a mac of the preferred baked variety, but the top of my portion was sprinkled with dark, irregular breadcrumbs which I took as a good omen. I investigated further, carefully processing one sensory input at a time.

It looked right… It smelled good… The tender noodles yielded to my fork, perhaps a bit too easily, but they were generously cloaked with a pale orange sauce that appeared pleasantly gooey…

The first bite was a delightful surprise, because it really did seem like “real” macaroni and cheese. But the more I ate of it, the less the resemblance held.

The pasta is rice-based elbows, each slightly ridged along its length to help cradle the sauce. As rice pastas go, this stuff was okay if slightly past al dente. So the vehicle was fine. It was the “cheese” part of the equation that was less and less convincing as the meal progressed. It looked cheesy and it behaved with an acceptable level of cheesiness, in fact the consistency of the sauce reminded me of the smooth Velveeta-based macs I’m not too proud to admit I’ve enjoyed occasionally: a very creamy, unctuous and satisfying mouthfeel. But this vegan “cheese” falls short in the flavor department. My eyes said, “Cheddar” but my tastebuds said, “Um, what is that flavor that is not at all the flavor of cheese?” It tasted a little sweet and not at all zingy like a good mac should be.

I wondered if this daiya product might be one of those sauces made from soaked and pulverized cashews, ubiquitous on vegan menus. But no. This vegan cheese looks and melts like real cheese, but it is made from tapioca, inactive yeast, various plant-based gums and stabilizers and a lot of water and oil. I probably liked it better before I read that.

But why fight it? The stuff is not bad. In fact, Veggie Grill’s mac and cheese is probably manna from heaven for actual vegans, who lack my extensive frame of mac and cheese reference and have missed being able to enjoy this most magical comfort food. Me? I’d order it again, but I’d jazz it up with lots of hot sauce. It definitely needs a little something-something. And if I’m going to go all healthy and order steamed kale with a ginger-miso dressing, I think I deserve a little comfort, even if it is faux.

Find locations at www.veggiegrill.com

Little Town Blues Aren't the Only Thing Melting Away in New York

hilary@swell-a.com (Hilary Hattenbach) — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 02:39:00 +0000

By Hilary Havarti

This year, I decided to shake things up and spend my birthday in New York City. If I HAD to get older (and try as I might, there seemed no realistic way to avoid it) I may as well do it in style with great friends and good food. And thus began the week I ate my weight in New York's *best* mac and cheese.

Welcome to New York!
Stepping out of the sliding glass doors at JFK airport, I immediately got into a fight with a pushy gypsy cab driver (as if there is any other kind.) I heart New York but I never use the words "rip off" or think about getting "ripped off" unless I'm in the city that never sleeps. I resent the shifty way drivers descend upon unsuspecting disoriented travelers and try to suggest only numbskulls stand in line for a cab. Say what you will about Los Angeles but you'll never be assaulted by a mob of aggressive brutes trying to corral you away from the taxi stand into a dirty town car.

I tried to shake off the agitation from the taxi altercation as I headed to Brooklyn to visit my dear friends Terence and Martine. As soon as I set eyes on my friends and the delicious home cooked meal they prepared for my arrival, all my cares melted away. A steaming bowl of home made tomato bisque soup with crackers and delicious puffy cheese toasts warmed my empty gullet and heart.

The next day, I headed into Manhattan to attend a two day writer's conference at the Grand Hyatt Hotel. After the first day of sessions ended, I hopped in a cab to visit another dear friend, Dana, near Lincoln Center. Without much prompting, my cab driver launched into a sad tale about his unmarried daughter, her deadbeat baby daddy, his own near death heart attack and finally wondered if I thought the baby daddy would ever get a job with a prison record. By the time I arrived at Dana’s pad, I was in desperate need of a pick me up (and yes I tipped him very generously. But in the back of my mind I thought, is he making this up to get a big tip?) With temperatures as low as 15 degrees, it was perfect mac and cheese weather and just what the analyst ordered. Dana lives above a Gourmet Garage or "New York's favorite neighborhood market place," as it is coined on the official website. GG is kind of like a mini Whole Foods stocking a nice selection of organic and non organic produce, fish, meat, fresh pasta, baked goods, coffee etc. It's not quite as high falutin' as Whole Foods but the prices are pretty much on par. What do you expect? It is New York after all.

Photo courtesy of Gourmet Garage (In my ravenous state, I failed to snap a photo)

Popping down for a quick bite, I made a bee line for the deli cases. There were two pans of mac behind the glass; One pan was 3/4s empty, a sad gummy mess having seen better days. The other had just emerged from the oven, a thick crispy cheese layer blanketing the top. I requested a scoop from the unadulterated pan and the server said in typical NY impatient fashion, "They're exactly the same!" Beyond the obvious differences, I could see the fresh pan was made with ziti noodles and the near empty pan, elbow pasta. Holding back my desire to yell, Hey! Do I look like I was born yesterday? Don't try to rip me off!, I politely pointed out the noodle difference to the server. He scooped out a portion and acquiesced with a sheepish smile, "You're right. I thought they were the same but they are different."

Believe it or not, this was one of my favorite mac and cheese preparations from the trip. Similar in taste to the New York Times recipe, it was comfort food at its best. A straight forward preparation made with mostly cheddar cheese and either ricotta or cottage cheese, it had that kind of lasagna like consistency. There may have been another mild white cheese in the mix, a Monterey Jack perhaps. Sadly, nary a crumb dusted the top but the thick cheese crust acted as a stand in, providing texture and crunch over the cheesy casserole lying beneath the surface. Homey and hearty but not too rich, the noodles were firm, a miraculous feat for steam tray fare. It was seasoned with just the right amount of salt and my friend Dana and I wiped the container clean in ten minutes flat. If I lived above that Gourmet Garage it would be very dangerous indeed.

After this delicious foray into New York's mac offerings, I believed it was a sign of great mac to come. The results were unexpected.

To be continued...

Gourmet Garage

LINCOLN SQUARE
155 W 66th St. btw B'way & Amsterdam
212 595 5850
7:00am - 9:00pm

www.gourmetgarage.com

Beecher's Frozen Fresh Kale and Brown Rice Gratin

hilary@swell-a.com (Hilary Hattenbach) — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 21:19:00 +0000

by Hilary Havarti

The name of this blog is We Heart Mac and Cheese and we tend to focus solely on the dish featured in our namesake, but when we received a shipment of frozen cheesy entrees from our friends at Beecher's cheese, we just had to give them a try. The first one I sampled was the Fresh Kale and Brown Rice Gratin.

Here's how the dish is described on the Beecher's website where it is available for mail order:
"Fresh kale and perfectly cooked brown rice are folded into a savory combination of sautéed onions and our signature Flagship cheese. The dish is at once earthy and rich, making it flavorful enough to stand alone or serve as the perfect vegetable side."

I popped the entrée in the oven at 375 and waited the required 40 minutes. They provide microwave instructions on the package as well but I prefer to get a good crisp going on my cheese dishes. Spooning out a steaming portion, I found the gratin to be light and creamy, highlighting the sharp flavor of Beecher's famous Flagship cheese. The kale wasn't bitter but lent a nice tang to the dish and the brown rice added a robust texture. The edges got nice and crunchy in the oven and those were the bits I enjoyed the most. Now the folks at Beecher's claim this dish can stand alone but it felt like a side dish to me. It lacked the heartiness of a good baked mac and cheese and I can't imagine eating it on it's own without anything else to round out the meal.

I do admire Beecher's attention to quality ingredients. There are no artificial additives or filler in these frozen entrees. If you have a cheese lover in your midst, you might consider sending a care package of frozen treats available at: http://www.beechershandmadecheese.com/shop_frozensides_all.html.

If you missed our review our Beecher's World's Best Mac and Cheese, you can read it here: http://www.weheartmacandcheese.com/search/label/Beechers

Macaroni and Murrrrrder: The mac & cheese episode of Bones

noreply@blogger.com (Suzy Gruyere) — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 19:56:00 +0000

By Suzy Gruyere

A few months ago, my stepmother emailed me in that curious cadence that, even though it isn’t spoken language, still manages to denote breathlessness. “Suz! Do you watch Bones?” she inquired, “Because I recorded an episode for you. The story involves macaroni and cheese!”

Dun-dun-dunnnnnnnn!!!!!

In case you’ve never watched Bones, the title character (played by Emily Deschanel) is a forensic anthropologist who specializes in, you guessed it, bones. She’s not into typical cadavers, with all their icky gross decaying flesh and stuff. I’m with her, although her reasons are probably far different from mine.

Bones works with a team of impossibly attractive and clever-boots forensics types at the Jeffersonian Institute in Washington DC, where she also partners with FBI Special Agent Seeley Booth (David Boreanaz) to solve murders.

Booth is wacky; we know this because he wears funny socks and ostentatious belt buckles that his psychiatrist (Stephen Fry in the unforgettable role of Gordon Gordon!) refers to as “the modern equivalent of a codpiece.” Meanwhile, Bones is soooo intellectual, she is missing most of the social interaction filters the rest of us came equipped with. Comedy ensues! Except it is grounded in some really hideous, gruesome murders and a lot of graphic special effects in the Jeffersonian lab.

Episode #42 is called “The Glowing Bones in the Old Stone House,” and the reason I mention it now is because it will air tonight on TNT (consult, as they say, your local listings). If you are a true macaroni and cheese fan, you may wish to check it out.

Seriously, somebody on the Bones writing staff is a mac and cheese nut, because ever since Dorothy made me watch this episode, I’ve started watching Bones reruns and I’ve kind of gotten hooked, and I’ve spotted at least two other macaroni and cheese references sprinkled among the witty, sexually charged banter and fancy scientific nomenclature they toss around. If you’re reading this, Bones writing staff mac and cheese lover, drop us a line! We’ll meet you at Comme Ça for LA’s best mac anytime.

Anyhoo, as you may have guessed from the episode title, the team is called in to investigate some glowing bones. Yeah, like glowing in the dark. Neato! (Spoiler alert: I’m about to unravel the murder mystery, so if you’d rather be surprised, watch it on TNT tonight and then come back for the commentary later. I believe this very special mac and cheese episode of Bones is the second in a block of three eps they will show tonight.)

Back at the lab, they figure out that the deceased is a local celebrity chef named Carly, whose restaurant is “like, impossible to get into,” according to one character. As luck would have it, though, Bones recently met Carly at a cooking lesson or something (sorry, I am not a good note taker) and she takes a personal interest in solving this one.

Carly is – I mean, was -- famous for her macaroni and cheese. “She puts leeks and little bits of pancetta” in her famous dish, one character sighs. I’ve never noticed any other episodes in which Bones (or anyone) shows any particular interest in cooking (or even eating), but for the purposes of this episode, let’s just accept that Bones really likes to cook macaroni and cheese. One of us! ONE OF US!! And more than once in this episode, FBI Special Agent Booth rhapsodizes about our favorite comfort food. “Well, mac and cheese…that’s God’s best handiwork!” Amen to that, sir. I’m not as much in favor of the scene set at Carly’s bustling and impossibly huge restaurant, in which Booth sticks his finger into a passing dish of mac as a waiter whisks it either to or from someone’s table. Ew, either way. But who among us has not felt that impulse?

You can tell this episode is several years old because they look at the victim’s Myspace page for clues. Today they’d go to her blog or her Facebook fan page. But for the purposes of this episode, let’s just accept that Carly’s Table has a comprehensible Myspace page that is not only easily navigable but also strewn with important clues!! What luck!

I’ll spare you the ins and outs of the investigation and cut to the chase. The bones were glowing because the knife that stabbed her to death was contaminated with some kind of enzyme that is found in a certain type of sea urchin, which is a popular sushi dish. The enzyme entered her bloodstream through the stab wounds. I am pretty sure it was the stabbing that killed her. The enzyme just made her bones glow.

So anyway, the sea urchin enzyme and the Myspace page clues lead our heroes to conclude that the murderer is another local celebrity chef, a sushi expert with whom the deceased apparently had an affair. Ta da, mystery solved! Or maybe not. My notes trail off at this point, and although I did not know it at the time, this show usually cycles through two or three suspects before arriving at a conclusion. The sushi chef may have been framed. I honestly don't remember. I guess I sort of lost interest in what others would consider to be the main storyline, because I was nervously perched on the edge of my seat anticipating the conclusion to the thrilling mac and cheese subplot.

As the saying (sort of) goes, a macaroni and cheese in the first act always goes off in the third. The final scene is set in Bones’ apartment where she has prepared Carly’s famous mac and cheese recipe for a certainly-not-romantic, no-way, uh-uh, nevertheless candlelit dinner with FBI Special Agent Booth. Bones proudly brings two individual gratin dishes of piping hot macaroni and cheese to the table and Booth digs right in.

“Mmm, this is unbelievable!”

“You like it?”

“I’d like to be alone with it!”

I know, we’ve all been there.

Of course, it’s difficult to properly review a macaroni and cheese that one merely glimpsed on television, but here goes. Earlier in the show, leeks and pancetta were mentioned as being components of Carly’s special recipe, but there is no sign of those ingredients in the prop mac. Instead, what Bones brings to the table is yellow and stiff enough to be mounded high in the gratin dishes. WeHeart Nation, we know this goes against the physics of mac baking, but I’ll allow it since we are dabbling today in the realm of fiction. There is no telltale crunch when Booth’s fork dives in, so no breadcrumb topping. My guess is that they used cold, gelatinous supermarket deli mac and cheese topped with a sprinkling of grated Cheddar to dress it up. Nothing we experts would get too excited about, but perhaps I expect too much from a humble television drama.

PS Just in case you're like me and worry about someday finding yourself trapped in the trunk of a car, as someone did in this episode and about every fifth episode of Law & Order (evidently I watch too many reruns on TNT): A Federal law passed several years ago requires that every new car must have a release lever accessible from inside the trunk. You can even install them in older cars as an after-market item. Phew! Sorry, tv scribes. You’re going to have to find another cliché.

Cheese Drawer Mac and Cheese - A Night at the Improv.

hilary@swell-a.com (Hilary Hattenbach) — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 16:36:00 +0000

by Hilary Havarti

If you prepare as much mac and cheese as Suz and I, you're bound to end up with loads of cheese odds and ends. I had several tiny hunks leftover from the Amy Sedaris mac, but not enough to try out any of the recipes I had on hand. Without a fondue pot or penchant for cheese sandwiches, I had no choice but to improvise. Drawing inspiration from the TV show Chopped, I decided to make mac and cheese using only ingredients I had in the kitchen (or I was too lazy to go to the store, you decide.)

For anyone unfamiliar with the show Chopped here's how it works: Four chefs go head to head in a three course cooking competition where they must prepare a dish using the ingredients found in a mystery basket. The cooks are allowed to use anything they find in the pantry to enhance their dish but all mystery ingredients must be incorporated.

It's important to preface this by saying, I rarely make up recipes. Sure, I can whip together a stir fry or some spaghetti sauce without looking at a recipe but anything more complicated, I leave to the experts. In this case, I did glance at a couple of roux recipes for ratios of flour to milk and to figure out spice amounts but everything else was accomplished by winging it.

The first step was to grate all the cheese. I then weighed out each portion so I'd be able to pass on the info should this preparation prove successful.

Next, I made the roux using 2 cups of 2% milk and 3/4 cup of heavy cream and whipped it like the Dickens until it was nice and thick. Once I added in all the cheese, I knew I had some serious sauce. Almost resembling an aioli in texture, it was dense and hella cheesy. Instead of elbow macaroni, I used Conchiglie noodles, a ridged pasta shaped like an elbow but pinched on one side presumably to keep the sauce its prisoner.

When I dumped it over the noodles, it drowned the pasta in a sea of rich gooeyness. I figured it couldn't possibly be a bad thing for the sauce to outweigh the noodles.

Staring at a box of crackers leftover from a recent gathering, I thought, what if I mash up these butter crackers to make a topping? Is that crazy? And what if I add some Parmesan cheese? Could be great, could be a disaster. Who knows!

The End Result
I don't want to be accused of hubris but this was by far, the best mac and cheese I've ever prepared. It was as if the noodles were born in the sauce.* The nuttiness of the Gruyere tantalized the taste buds while the smokiness of the Gouda gave the sauce that je ne sais quoi. The overabundance of cheese sauce insured every noodle was crammed with flavor. The butter cracker topping was light, crunchy and strangely refreshing.

But don't take my word for it, listen to the pros. I delivered portions to The Humboldt Fog and my friend Dina and they raved. THF and Mr. THF said it was my best mac and cheese to date. She also noted that it reheated very well in the oven and I found the same to be true of the microwave. Next time I'll double the recipe in order to yield more leftovers but otherwise, this one is a keeper. In my first ever attempted Chopped competition, I emerged "The Chopped Champion." And then I turned to face the imaginary judges and cried tears of joy...slow fade.

Cheese Drawer Mac and Cheese
Serves 6-8

Ingredients
8 oz macaroni noodles - I used Conchiglie noodles
4oz extra sharp grated Cheddar
2.5 oz grated Gruyere
3 oz grated Jack cheese
3 oz grated Smoked Gouda
2 tablespoons shaved Parmesan
2 cups of 2% milk
3/4 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup of flour
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/8 tsp cayenne
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp pepper
1 tsp kosher salt

Crumb top
20 butter crackers
4 oz shaved Parmesan

Preparation:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Grease a 9 x 12 baking dish
Warm milk and cream in a separate sauce pan
In a larger sauce pan, melt butter
Add flour and cook for one minute until melted
Slowly add in milk, whisking like crazy for 8-10 minutes until thickened
Remove from heat and stir in cheese, salt, pepper, cayenne and nutmeg
Set aside
In a large pot boil 8 oz of pasta
Cook for 3 - 5 minutes until pasta is al dente

Topping
In a food processor grind crackers and Parmesan together into crumbs

Rinse noodles in cold water and drain
Add noodles to cheese sauce

Transfer cheese and noodle mixture to baking dish and cover liberally with crumbs. Bake 30 minutes until top is golden brown.

*At the Gardens of Taxco, a kitschy Mexican restaurant in West Hollywood, they describe their signature chicken dish as being "born in the sauce."

Peg Mac - A new spin on the Trader Joe's box

hilary@swell-a.com (Hilary Hattenbach) — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 19:09:00 +0000

By Peggy Pecorino

I like all three of Trader Joe’s boxed mac and cheeses. The dish pictured starts with Joe’s Gluten Free Rice Pasta and Cheddar. In addition to the box contents, the directions call for a quarter cup of low-fat milk. But I like embellishments, and can't resist adding more protein and pizazz to the basics.

While boiling water for the noodles, I sauté a big handful of raw pumpkin seeds in grapeseed oil, then add chopped onions, thin slices of Trader Joe’s Original Baked Tofu (Savory Flavor), and chopped broccoli. I spice with a big shake of cayenne pepper, a bit of rosemary, a dash of soy sauce and some artisan sea salt.
.

All quantities should be to taste, but no single ingredient should overwhelm. The cooked noodles fit nicely in a Pyrex pie dish. After mixing in the package’s powdered cheese and the low-fat milk, add the pumpkin seeds, onions, tofu and broccoli, then stir in as much grated goat Gouda cheese as you crave.

Be sure to leave a bit of Gouda for the top, and sprinkle some more coarse salt on top, too. Bake for about 15 minutes at 375 degrees. It’s delicious the next day if you have any left over. ;-)

West 5's Astral Mac 'n' Cheese

hilary@swell-a.com (Hilary Hattenbach) — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 06:47:00 +0000

by Jill the Raclette

After a rather harrowing 2009 it was well past time for Mr. the Raclette and me to indulge in some serious comfort. Our beloved Astral Mac 'n' Cheese was calling. Either that or Suzy Gruyere's flattering insistence on a review was haunting my brain.

We'd hoped for a front table near the windows (more flattering light for photography), but there was none to be had. Fortune smiled upon us, however, from our booth near the kitchen. Though I normally enjoy looking out I found myself facing the kitchen and, after our order was taken, spying the lad ladling heaping spoonfuls of mac into individual baking dishes. So it's pre-mixed in a giant silver bowl, is it? Interesting...!

Our order was taken at 2:47 pm. We chatted and enjoyed the ambiance until I saw two blisteringly hot dishes taken from the oven. Yes! Out at 3:02 pm were our entrees. In the past an order seemed to take forever--eager anticipation, no doubt--but in reality it was a mere 15 minutes for the macs to be baked, sprinkled with more cheese and a bit of parsley and delivered.

We ordered two small portions rather than one large as I can't be trusted to share. I know from past experience with this mac that thick, delicious cheese sauce envelops radiatore pasta under the crisp topping. Share? Outlook not so good. After being given the usual warning about hot plates I saw that, fresh from the oven, these babies were molten. At the edges the cheese sauce bubbled and popped. Weirdly a childhood image of Yellowstone Park's mud pots leapt to mind. In a less smelly, more tasty way. The first bite burning its way down my throat was so worth it.

The pasta was soft, but not mushy. The cheese sauce worked its way into every nook and cranny of the little radiators. I will not accept a dry mac, but there was no danger of that here. The generous coating of breadcrumb topping means that every bite is guaranteed a satisfying crunch. Or for a bit of fun one can tunnel under to get a cheese-only bite while trying to decipher which cheeses make up the "five marvelous."

"A West 5 house favorite -- oven-baked pasta with five marvelous cheeses. Indescribably delectable! Like Excalibur, and the great word-of-mouth buzz, quickly becoming a sublime legend for the ages!"

Endeavouring to make the sublime experience last, I sucked down the water which brought our server repeatedly to the table. After a while I girded up my loins and asked, "Are you allowed to reveal the five marvelous cheeses??" He was coy, but allowed himself to name 4 of the 5: Cheddar, Reggiano, Jack and...American! I don't deny I was taken aback by the American cheese, but then that could account for the gentle orange hue. I prefer a bit of color to my macs, if I'm honest. Perhaps there was a hint of the processed in the sauce, but I can't find it within myself to complain.

Still I was missing one cheese. My Google-fu uncovered two rather different combinations of cheeses: one site claimed Pecorino, Cheddar, Swiss, American, and cream cheese while another listed Cheddar, Swiss, Cotija, Parmesan, and cream cheese. Alas my taste buds are not talented enough to break it down, but again not complaining. Some future kitchen experimentation might be revealing, but undoubtedly I'll just return to the source.

*****
West 5 Lounge and Restaurant
4539 California Avenue Southwest
Seattle, WA 98116-4110
(206) 935-1966

Amy Sedaris's Macaroni and Cheese - "Not appropriate for diners with heart problems."

hilary@swell-a.com (Hilary Hattenbach) — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 21:01:00 +0000

By Hilary Havarti

After suffering from the stomach flu for a week and surviving mostly on broth and toast, I had a serious hankering for some mac and cheese. Instead of choosing a light, healthy version for my weakened constitution, I gravitated towards Amy Sedaris’s recipe from her book, I like you:Hospitality Under The Influence.

That’s what happens when your mind screams, “Yes! Please,” and your stomach retorts with an angry grumble, “Are you insane?” On the cover, Ms. Sedaris is posed in a party dress and silver lamé heels holding a crispy cooked turkey on her arm, sans platter. Chock full of a dizzying array of recipes, entertaining advice and craft ideas, I almost had a seizure scanning the page. Of course a seizure or mild heart attack is just what the author had in mind as evidenced by this warning on her mac and cheese recipe, “This is a very rich dish. Not appropriate for diners with heart problems, the elderly, or breast-feeding mothers.”

I may not have had a “heart problem” when I set out to prepare this recipe but after eating a couple of servings, I’m pretty sure I felt palpitations. Take a gander at the ingredient list, if you will; one stick of butter, a cup of heavy cream and four and a half cups of cheese are just a few of the bypass inducing ingredients.

Amy Sedaris’ Macaroni and Cheese

1 box of elbow macaroni
1 stick of butter
1 cup grated smoked Gouda
1 cup grated white Monterey Jack cheese
2 cups grated mild yellow Cheddar cheese (I used sharp)
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup milk
Salt and pepper to taste

Topping
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 cup of breadcrumbs
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
Salt and pepper to taste
8 thin pats of butter

Boil macaroni in salted water to al dente. While you are waiting for it to boil, melt together butter, cheeses, cream, milk and salt and pepper.

Drain macaroni and put back into the pot. When cheese mixture is melted and smooth, pour over macaroni and mix well. Add to a 2-quart casserole dish.

For topping, mix together Parmesan cheese, breadcrumbs, parsley, salt and pepper, and sprinkle on top of the macaroni and cheese. Top with pats of butter.

Bake at 425 degrees F for 20-25 minutes or until browned on top. One should be forewarned: this is a very rich dish. Not appropriate for diners with heart problems, the elderly, or breast-feeding mothers.

Assembled more like a scrapbook than a cookbook, some of the instructions required intuition. I did a bit of head scratching about the pasta quantity i.e., “A box of elbow macaroni.” Does she mean a “box” like a Kraft Macaroni and Cheese box, or a box of Barilla? I ended up choosing an eight ounce package of penne pasta. Meanwhile, there was no note to preheat the oven but I did it anyway out of habit.

This recipe doesn’t require a slurry or roux as the HEAVY cream and milk act as thickening agents for the sauce. The steps to the recipe are few. All ingredients for the sauce are thrown in a pot and melted together at once then tossed over the cooked noodles. As I typed in the recipe above, I noticed (OOPS!) I inadvertently left out the Parmesan from the cheese sauce. The case of the missing ingredient strikes again. The topping also calls for a half cup of Parmesan so I must have gotten confused. I used panko bread crumbs and though she suggested adding parsley, I skipped it (this mac doesn’t need no stinkin’ parsley) but more importantly, I refrained from putting “8 thin pats of butter” on top because I’d mixed a tablespoon of butter into the crumbs not to mention the stick of butter already in the sauce. Popping it into the oven, it baked for 20 minutes and boy did it look purty when it emerged golden brown in the white soufflé ramekin.

Sadly, I broke this ramekin right after I carted off the leftovers but it’s easy enough to replace.

So how did it taste? Let’s just say the warning label was well warranted. I couldn’t eat more than three bites. This mac and cheese could very well be the richest recipe I’ve ever cooked up (even without the Parmesan) but the flavor is very good. The combo of Cheddar, Jack and Smoked Gouda married well, with just enough smokiness to give it a kick but not enough to overpower the dish.

Right from the oven it was creamy, cheesy and crunchy and is a dish that should be served immediately. Upon reheating, it was a grease-fest. In retrospect, leaving out that 1/2 cup of Parmesan could have affected the consistency but I can’t be certain. My noodles were floating in a kiddie pool of butter and cheese slick to the point of unappetizing. I dropped off a portion to The Humboldt Fog (who, incidentally, gifted me the book for x-mas) and she agreed, the oily texture was a turn off. Although she thought the noodles overcooked, she liked the flavors but suggested cutting the butter in half or even less. I might try that next time just to see how it goes but first, I plan to attempt Amy S’s Baked Alaska recipe. Ice cream baked in a cake? Yes! Please!

PS- If you’ve never seen Strangers With Candy, add it to your Netflix queue, stat. Amy Sedaris stars as Jerri Blank, a 46-year-old "boozer, user and a loser" who tries to put her life back together again by returning to high school. It also stars a young Stephen Colbert who doubled as a producer on the show. It’s HIGH-larious.

Clang, clang, clang went the trolley! Granville Café Mac and Cheese. Fasten your seatbelts. It's going to be a bumpy ride.

hilary@swell-a.com (Hilary Hattenbach) — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 16:34:00 +0000

By Hilary Havarti

When it comes to shopping, I avoid malls like the H1N1 virus. But every now and again, I have no choice but to join the teeming masses of humanity in search of an item only available at the mall e.g., a bra or maybe some See's candy (or if I'm feeling a little nutty, a bra AND See's candy). Happy New Year, Cheese Lovers!

One of these blue moon occasions surfaced on New Year's Day. With a friend in town from New York wanting to do a little shopping, I figured the only place cruel enough to force employees to work on a day most everyone else is sacked out on a couch nursing a hangover is: the mall. So off to the Americana Mall in Glendale we did go and let me tell ya, it was really something.

The Americana Mall, conceived and designed by the same shopping center "impresario" responsible for The Grove, has an unwarranted superiority complex. My old man affectionately referred to it as, "The Grove with uglier people." Here's a little snippet from the official website: "Experience the ultimate in shopping, dining, entertainment and luxury living at The Americana at Brand in Glendale, CA. From the carefully chosen boutiques to the beautiful ambiance, every care has been taken to surround you with luxury." To this I say, "HA." Sure, there are expensive shops but there's also a trolley carting lazy ass shoppers about 20 feet forward and back depending on how many Wetzel's Pretzels they've stuffed in their gaping luxury awestruck maws. And riddle me this, dear readers: What person in their right mind would want to live at a shopping mall? I'd rather commit hara-kiri on the trolley. Oh, but I digress. I'm here to review mac and cheese and believe it or not, I was able to locate a tasty specimen even in the midst of all the "elegance." It was like a New Year's Day miracle.

Granville Café

Most of the food options on the directory were immediately kiboshed. Nobody wanted pricey sushi from Katsuya or diner food from "The Diner," so I made the executive decision to check out Granville Café. I'd never heard of it but any place with word "café" tacked on the end usually means there's something for everyone. And sure enough, that was the case at Granville. I was pleasantly surprised to learn they use organic locally sourced ingredients and everything is made fresh to order plus there were TWO mac and cheese options on the menu.

Uptown Mac and Cheese ($12.95) is a main course made with peas, asparagus and chicken and Classic Mac and Cheese is a side dish ($5.95) prepared in the traditional sense sans add-ins. I opted for the latter as I don't like foreign ingredients dumped in my mac.

In spite of my cynicism, the mac at Granville was top notch. Made with Gruyere and sharp Cheddar, it was creamy and had a nice crunch on top, though I would have preferred a blanket of crumbs over the chosen dusting. The elbow macaroni noodles were prepared perfectly, slightly al dente. If I must nitpick, I'd suggest throwing in more sharp Cheddar for tang but overall, it was a very satisfying dish. I also ordered the Thai Ginger Salad ($9.95) with fresh organic spring greens, Asian slaw, soft Soba noodles, avocado, mango, carrots, green onions, grape tomatoes and roasted peanuts with Granville’s Thai Sesame Dressing. Delish!

I must say, it sure beat the heck out of a typical mall food court but I doubt I'll be racing back for a repeat performance. I'm just uncomfortable surrounded by all that luxury.

GRANVILLE GLENDALE
The Americana at Brand
807 Americana Way
(on Brand between Broadway & Colorado)
Glendale, California 91210
http://www.granvillecafe.com/
(818) 550-0472

Moment of Truth: What about low-carb pasta?

noreply@blogger.com (Suzy Gruyere) — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 18:29:00 +0000

By Suzy Gruyere

Following our recent raves for two cream cheese-based macs, I started believing that cream cheese was The Answer. Any macaroni and cheese containing a decent amount of cream cheese would turn out creamy and, well, cheesy. But to every rule there is an exception, and I found it.

I’m not sure how Dreamfields low-carb pasta found its way into my kitchen, but I do know it languished there for a long time while I reveled in the mac and cheese decadence required of me, as a professional macaroni and cheese journalist. Finally one day, perhaps feeling a little logy, I pulled the Dreamfields box from its shelf and decided It Was Time. I found a low-carb mac recipe online, and it involved a whole brick of cream cheese so how could it be bad? Cream cheese = silver bullet, even where fake noodles are concerned, right?

Um, sort of right.

This recipe employs not only an eight ounce brick of cream cheese, but a whole pound of Cheddar AND a whole pound of Mozzarella. Now, that’s cheesy!! Two and a half pounds of cheese to be married with less than a pound of elbows, as the Dreamfields box contains only 13.25 ounces of fake pasta! Wow. PLUS eggs! Plus butter! Plus heavy cream! And I thought full-carb mac was decadent. Have the paramedics on speed dial before you attempt this one, folks.

I should stop referring to Dreamfields as “fake” pasta because, according to their website, the pasta is made with wheat semolina just like standard pasta. In fact, the gross carb count is comparable to standard pasta. The low-carb claims (and they do seem to be legit, according to happy customers who test their blood glucose after eating it) are due to the fact that they encase the carbohydrates inside a protective matrix of gums, pectin and other stabilizers so that the protected carbs pass through your body similar to the soluble fiber found in oats.

Okay, so, fewer carbs to weigh me down and extra fiber to clean me out?! This sounds too good to be true. It must taste like crap.

Surprisingly, it doesn’t taste like crap. It tastes fine, and I like it much better than rice pastas and other Franken-noodles that have been engineered for better nutrition. In fact, if I hadn’t opened the box myself, I don’t think I’d have noticed anything “healthy” going on in the finished dish. Dreamfields gets two increasingly slender thumbs up from this tester.

The only caveat is that overcooking this pasta will break down the protective matrix, releasing the carbs to do their usual thing. So you must be diligent about cooking it per the box directions (I’ve thrown out the box but I think it said to cook for only five or six minutes, as opposed to 9-10 for regular elbows). Also, reheating leftovers will unlock some carbs you don’t want, so only cook what you can eat in a sitting.

The following recipe says it serves eight, but I dished up one-eighth of the pan and could not finish anywhere near that much. The vast quantity of unadulterated cheese makes this stuff super-dense, and all that chewing really cues your stomach to the fact that You Have Eaten and better stop now.

Oh yeah, all that cheese… The sheer volume of cheese is exacerbated by the fact that this mac is assembled in an unusual way. You blend the cream cheese, butter and a small amount of heavy cream into a thick sauce that gets mixed with the al dente noodles, and then you layer the saucy elbows with handfuls of grated cheese – a pound of mozzarella as your middle layer, and then a pound of Cheddar on top. A pound of Cheddar on top!! It’s crazy, I tells ya. All that cheese creates pockets of stretchy, cheesy gooeyness that was revelatory (as well as inflammatory) when piping hot. As it cooled, the melted cheese formed a browned crust not only on the top of the dish, but also all along the sides of the casserole (be sure to butter your baking dish well).

I have to admit that this crusty cheese was the best part of this mac. The mac itself was not saucy at all, disproving once and for all the Cream Cheese Hypothesis of Guaranteed Mac Deliciousness. But ohhh, that burned crust! Similar to a Parmesan frico, the outer crust of this loaf o’ mac was salty and chewy and a little bit crunchy, and over the course of several days I ate it all while sending quite a bit of mac innards down the Insinkerator.

So, wait: Did I like the Dreamfields pasta or not? I did, I really did. But I wouldn’t waste it in this recipe. Maybe if you aren’t low-carbing, you can play around with the proportions and come up with something creamier and gentler. This low-carb mac and cheese provides too much of a workout for my jaw to be truly comforting.

LOW-CARB (High Everything Else) BAKED MACARONI & CHEESE

3 eggs
8 oz cream cheese
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 lb grated sharp Cheddar
1 lb grated Mozzarella
1 box Dreamfields low-carb elbow macaroni

Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter a 2 quart baking dish.

Cook Dreamfields pasta as directed on box, drain and set aside to cool slightly.

In a blender, combine eggs, cream cheese, butter and heavy cream until smooth. Fold this mixture into the cooked macaroni.

Place half of the macaroni mixture in baking dish. Top with Mozzarella. Add remaining macaroni mixture and top with Cheddar.

Bake for 1 hour.

Total Net Carbohydrates = 66.72
Digestible Carbs in 1/8 Serving = 8.34

Makes 8 servings

Something festive for the holidays: Macaroni and Cheese Cake

noreply@blogger.com (Suzy Gruyere) — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 16:46:00 +0000

By Suzy Gruyere

My birthday was last week, and as you might imagine, I was given numerous macaroni and cheese related gifts. Sort of like when I was ten and expressed the slightest interest in unicorns, and then was given unicorn stuff for every gift-giving occasion for the next twelve years. Hey, at least I don’t have to dust mac and cheese.

Among the birthday gift cookbooks is this odd little tome, 101 Things To Do With Mac & Cheese by Toni Patrick. Every one of the 101 recipes calls for a box of macaroni and cheese – yes, the Dreaded Blue Box! Patrick cheats on a few recipes by only using the noodles, but the vast majority also use the cheez powder packet along with fresh ingredients, sometimes even including actual cheese.

I flipped through the cookbook quickly, expecting to curl my lip in disgust approximately 99 times, but I must admit that I dogeared at least a dozen recipes to try ASAP – sounds like it’s time for a Costco run to procure the giant brick o’ Blue Boxes. And honestly, after the holiday orgy of cooking and spending, I tend toward low-budget eating in January anyway, so this book will help add some variety to my self-imposed program of moderation. The recipes include soups, mac salads and hot macs of the stovetop and casserole variety, as well as a few surprises. The obvious enhancements are all here – bacon, pesto, breadcrumbs – and there are some unexpected flavor profiles in the mix too – the ones that spring to mind are curry powder and, I kid you not, Dr Pepper.

I decided to start with the oddest recipe, Macaroni Cake. Yup. A mac and cheese dessert. To be fair, it’s not a traditional cake in that it does not contain any flour or leavening. It’s more like a crustless macaroni pie. It actually reminded me of noodle kugel except that the cheez powder made it fluorescent orange.

And here’s the really surprising part: I liked it. I liked it so much I’ve already cooked it a second time!

The recipe is very easy to prepare. You just boil the noodles and put them in a greased baking dish, mix together everything else (including the cheez packet, come on, be a sport!) and pour it on top of the noodles, then bake. An hour later: cake! Ish.

The recipe below is my adaptation of Patrick’s original. I decreased the sugar (she uses 1 cup) and added lemon zest to brighten the flavors. Next time I’ll cook it in a round cake pan and crown it with a dusting of powdered sugar so it’s a little prettier and more cake-ish-looking. And the time after that, I’ll bust out some orange extract and zest, or cocoa powder and espresso, or any number of other flavorings...

I think that may be the best thing about this cookbook: Since its premise is to play around with a boring box mix, it felt natural to use this recipe as a jumping-off point for further experimentation in a way that would be too scary when dealing with Serious Recipes from Serious Chefs.

So we’re off to a promising start with 101 Things To Do With Mac & Cheese. I love that the book is spiral bound so it lays open flat, and the outside is protected by plastic covers in case things get messy. There’s a wide variety of add-ins sure to please any palate (ones that can tolerate the Blue Box to begin with, I guess). And you can find boxed mac on sale for way under a buck, so trying these recipes will cost a lot less than making typical mac and cheese. Here’s hoping the other 100 recipes yield more winners.

Macaroni Cake
Adapted from 101 Things To Do With Mac & Cheese by Toni Patrick

1 box macaroni and cheese mix
3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon anise extract
1 teaspoon fresh lemon zest
6 eggs
8 oz Ricotta cheese**

**Note: This photo depicts an error, so don’t be misled. I dumped the entire 15 oz tub of Ricotta into the bowl before realizing my mistake. That’s why I made a second Macaroni Cake immediately – I already had half a pound of spare Ricotta that had traces of egg on it. Good thing I liked this dish! Also, the math whizzes reading this will note that a 15 oz tub of Ricotta could, at best, be split into two 7.5 oz portions. Relax, it’ll work fine.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray or butter a 9x9 baking pan and set aside.

Boil macaroni in lightly salted water for about 5 minutes, until pasta is al dente. Drain.

Beat remaining ingredients, including the packet of cheez powder, until blended.

Place cooked macaroni in prepared baking dish and pour egg mixture over pasta, making sure the noodles are completely covered.

Cover with foil and bake for 45 minutes. Remove foil and bake for another 15 minutes. Allow cake to cool before serving.

"A basic crowd pleaser" - The Barefoot Contessa's Mac & Cheese

hilary@swell-a.com (Hilary Hattenbach) — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 16:23:00 +0000

By Hilary Havarti

If I had $10 for every time someone asked, "Don't you ever get sick of macaroni and cheese?," I'd have at least $50 by now. I need to start charging people to talk to me. Now that's an innovative business idea! The answer is squarely, "NO." I never get sick of macaroni and cheese. In fact, if I don't have it for a couple of weeks, I crave it. So in actuality, I'm probably addicted to mac and cheese and somebody might think to stage an intervention. But I'll warn you meddling interventionists, I won't go gently. There will be struggle and histrionics.

Experiencing serious mac "withdrawal" symptoms, I cracked open my Barefoot Contessa Family Style cookbook and decided to take a stab at her "Mac & Cheese" recipe. Now for those of you who don't know, Ina Garten has a Julia Child-esque, dream come true, success story I find inspiring. She had a boring job, crunching numbers as a budget analyst in the White House, before tossing her calculator in the garbage can to pursue her dream of opening a specialty food store. Without a cooking degree or chef experience, she purchased The Barefoot Contessa in The Hamptons in 1978 and the rest, as they say, is herstory. Yes, the shop had the name before she did so strike the image from your mind of Ina frolicking around the shop in bare feet and a crown atop her head.

The Recipe
The biggest innovation to this recipe was the use of tomato slices layered on top of the gooey casserole. I'd had tomatoes added to one other mac and cheese dish, I believe it was in the Hugos Three Cheese entree, and remembered enjoying the contrast of the tanginess with the creaminess.

Those familiar with Ina's work know she doesn't skimp on calories and this recipe is no exception. Requiring a stick of butter, a QUART of milk, 12 ounces of Gruyere and 8 ounces of Cheddar, it's a stretchy waist band kind of meal. She suggested spiffing up the dish by using cavatappi, a corkscrew-shaped pasta, instead of traditional elbows. I sent the old man to the store in search of said pasta and he returned with something called Galletti (more about that later.)

The recipe is pretty straightforward in terms of preparation with a few innovations. To prepare the roux she said to whisk the flour and butter in a large pot while heating the milk separately. That was weird and I didn't really understand the point but Suz explained warming the milk prevents shocking the flour/butter mixture into unruly clumps. (She's so smart!) Meanwhile, Ina cautioned, "don't boil the milk." I'm not sure if the milk ever achieved appropriate hotness as I was terrified of boiling it and ruining the whole magillah. When I added the cheese I wasn't able to achieve optimum smoothness probably because the milk wasn't hot enough. Oh well. The Cream Cheese Dream recipe lets you throw the cheese right in with the noodles without melting it into the roux first, so I wasn't sweatin' it.

Results
The biggest surprise reaction I received was from my old man who shuns mac and cheese, if you can believe it. He's just not a big cheese fan. But something about the presentation enticed him (I credit the crispy breadcrumbs over a layer of tomatoes) and he sampled a small portion. And lo and behold, he liked it. Don't get me wrong, he stopped after a tiny portion so he won't be joining me at Mac Rehab, but he thought it was tasty, enjoyed the tomatoes but thought it needed salt. Which is nuts because the recipe calls for 1 TABLESPOON of salt. I too enjoyed this dish but it didn't blow me out of the water. It's not Martha or Cream Cheese Dream or even the New York Times recipe good. I found the nutmeg a bit overpowering and if I ever make it again, I'd use less. But it's very creamy, cheesy and rich; all the things you look for in a macaroni and cheese.

The Humboldt Fog was "wary of the tomatoes," but ended up liking them. She called this recipe, "A basic crowd pleaser. Nothing too special," and I would have to agree. As for the Galletti noodles, they reminded her of calamari but "in a good way."

For me there is no good way to think of calamari as I do not care for the gelatinous blobs and you can see from the photo, Galletti does resemble some kind of ocean bottom feeder. However, they did the trick in terms of providing a hollowed out middle for the sauce to seek refuge.

Here's a little secret. One of the reasons I never tire of Mac and Cheese and I think Suz will agree is, sharing. Both Suz and I deliver portions of each recipe to friends, neighbors and family around town like Santa's little helpers. This way we get to poll our sample group for reactions and don't ruin our love of mac by gorging ourselves to the point of sickness like I did with marzipan when I was eight years old. But that's a story for another day.

Ingredients

* Kosher salt
* Vegetable oil
* 1 pound elbow macaroni or cavatappi
* 1 quart milk
* 8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, divided
* 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
* 12 ounces Gruyere, grated (4 cups)
* 8 ounces extra-sharp Cheddar, grated (2 cups)
* 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
* 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
* 3/4 pound fresh tomatoes (4 small)
* 1 1/2 cups fresh white bread crumbs (5 slices, crusts removed)

Directions

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Drizzle oil into a large pot of boiling salted water. Add the macaroni and cook according to the directions on the package, 6 to 8 minutes. Drain well.

Meanwhile, heat the milk in a small saucepan, but don't boil it. Melt 6 tablespoons of butter in a large (4-quart) pot and add the flour. Cook over low heat for 2 minutes, stirring with a whisk. While whisking, add the hot milk and cook for a minute or two more, until thickened and smooth. Off the heat, add the Gruyere, Cheddar, 1 tablespoon salt, pepper, and nutmeg. Add the cooked macaroni and stir well. Pour into a 3-quart baking dish.

Slice the tomatoes and arrange on top. Melt the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter, combine them with the fresh bread crumbs, and sprinkle on the top. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until the sauce is bubbly and the macaroni is browned on the top.

Against My Better Judgement: The Cracker Barrel Mac

noreply@blogger.com (Suzy Gruyere) — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 18:34:00 +0000

By Suzy Gruyere

I spend a lot of time in Phoenix visiting my mom, and I’ve often asked her friends if they know of any noteworthy macaroni and cheese in the area. I’m always hoping to discover a great little bistro or a genuine soul food palace, but invariably people tell me, “Cracker Barrel has wonderful mac and cheese.” Ugh. That’s what I get for using a polling sample whose median age is 75.

Cracker Barrel is a chain that revels in a fake homeyness that sets my hair on end. And I resent any establishment that forces me to not only leave but also enter via an overstuffed tacky gift shop. But “Cracker Barrel” was the only answer I was getting, so I finally gave in. Who knows, maybe their mac is a sparkling gem in an otherwise brass crown.

The verdict: Not so much. In fact, the best thing I can say about the Cracker Barrel macaroni and cheese is that, according to their menu, mac and cheese is a “vegetable.” It’s official! Congratulations, Weheartmac Nation!! Wooo!!!

The Cracker Barrel mac might actually be baked, because a telltale scrap of browned cheese perched atop the small mound of noodles that arrived at my table. But there’s definitely no topping involved, so ten thousand Hilary Demerits for that. The texture wasn’t awful, it was probably the most toothsome item I sampled at that meal, and it was respectably saucy. Like a li'l kitty cat, I almost wanted to lick the bottom of the bowl. I wonder if they use evaporated milk, because there’s a compelling uber-milky flavor going on in there. But it might just be the “processed cheez food” that inevitably must play a big part in this dish.

I might have been in a better mood and more predisposed toward liking the Cracker Barrel mac if not for the fact that I made a glaring error when I ordered my meal. The folks who recommended Cracker Barrel’s mac also spoke highly of their fried apples, their “Chicken n’ Dumplins” and their hash brown casserole, so those are the things I ordered. Less than two minutes after placing my order, the server returned with a big plate of mushy food that was all the same color (beige) and pretty much all indistinguishable. Obviously it had been slopped onto the platter from big vats of “food” that was prepared hours ago. Ugh. I begged my server to bring me something green, an actual vegetable if possible, and she returned in under sixty seconds with a bowl of green beans that looked like they had been pre-chewed for my convenience, and they were definitely overcooked but at least they tasted like something (mostly, salt), unlike nearly everything else on the plate.

I probably won’t return to Cracker Barrel for this macaroni and cheese, but their breakfasts didn’t look too bad… Anyone wishing to dissuade me, please do so in the Comments ASAP.

Epilogue: There is an old saying about how the good Lord watches over babies and fools, and this came to mind when, as I tried to depart the restaurant via the overstuffed tacky gift shop, something magical caught my eye. Yes, there was a reason I was brought to this place: Cracker Barrel sells Valomilks!

If you don’t live in the Midwest and/or you haven’t read Steve Almond’s hysterical book, Candy Freak: A Journey Through the Chocolate Underbelly of America, you may not be aware of the elusively delicious Valomilk candy. It’s shaped like a peanut butter cup, but made of dark chocolate instead of milk chocolate, and the filling is runny marshmallow loaded up with a triple dose of vanilla. I don’t even like marshmallow, but to me it tastes like a thick vanilla milkshake that oozes out when you take a bite. The stuff runs down your chin and you’ll have it in your hair until bathtime. And it’s so dang good!

Valomilks are delicate creatures that tend to explode and leak when subjected to the pressure fluctuations of air travel, so it’s rare to see them outside a certain radius of the Kansas City factory where they are lovingly crafted. I guess Cracker Barrel trucks them into Phoenix along with the huge vats of processed cheez food and pre-chewed green beans. And I’ve gotta say that, no matter how rhapsodic I feel about Valomilks, $1.79 for a two-pack is highway robbery. But that happy little confection rescued my entire day, and for that I salute you, Cracker Barrel! Just not for your insipid mac. Sorry.

Holy Moly Macaroni (and Cheese) - Another prize winner!

noreply@blogger.com (Suzy Gruyere) — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 21:47:00 +0000

By Suzy Gruyere

At our recent Mac & Cheese Potluck / Cookoff, there were more than a dozen amazing dishes vying for the top prize and it was remarkable how different they all were. As our guest tasters marked their ballots, I worried that votes would be all over the map and no clear winners would emerge. But there were a handful of macs (eww!) that were universally praised, and this was one of them. Today we’re very pleased to bring you Jessica Landy Raymond’s Holy Moly Macaroni (and Cheese) which placed second, just behind hostess Hilary’s excellent cream cheese-based mac (and we swear the voting wasn’t fixed!).

Although I'd already been eating macs and cheeses for an hour by this point, when I sampled a small bite of Jessica’s macaroni and cheese, my fork immediately dove back into it for another bite. It was that good! I spent the next ten minutes savoring it while trying to reverse engineer it in my mind: It was creamy in a familiar way, but it was marked by emphatic flavors that really made this one stand out in a kitchen full of macs. Garlic was the most prevalent flavor, and a welcome one, that seemed to be concentrated in the crunchy topping while the luxurious macaroni and cheese below offered a nice chile kick – the sneak-attack kind of peppers, not the light-you-on-fire kind. But it wasn’t just the decorative spiciness that captivated me; the foundation of this mac and cheese held its own with a great sauce-to-noodle ratio and a number of different cheesy notes. It was addictive and I ate every morsel of my modest tasting portion.
I may even have scooped up seconds, but I'll never tell.

Later, when I had a chance to chat with her, I understood why I loved Jessica’s mac and cheese so much: Her recipe is based on Martha Stewart’s classic mac and cheese, which we reviewed way back when and which is still the best darn mac I’ve ever made. When you start with something this good, it would be difficult (not to mention a sin) to really screw it up!

But Jessica’s additions and tweaks are perfectly balanced. “I added chipotles in adobo sauce -- three peppers, plus some of the sauce they come in,” she revealed, “and instead of breadcrumbs, I used panko crumbs sauteed in a bit of oil with garlic (three or four cloves that I put through a garlic press). I also added more cayenne than the recipe called for, to give the dish more heat.”

With so many bold flavors vying for attention, wasn’t she afraid of overseasoning the dish? “People at the party loved it! They said it was spicy like me!” she grinned.

Jessica considers herself an “expert home cook” and her confidence really shines through in this adaptation of a classic. She cautioned, “In general, I'm not big on measuring, but I tried to approximate for your readers. I definitely would add some of the chiles and then taste as you go to make sure you don't overdo it on the heat, especially as it will get more intense as it cooks and sits.”

Good advice, Jess. Thanks! And in case you are unfamiliar with chiles in adobo: You’ll find them in small cans next to the jarred salsas and other Hispanic ingredients in any decent supermarket, and you can freeze unused chiles and sauce in an ice cube tray so you’ll have perfect little individual heat-bombs to add to soups, stews, chili etc. A little goes a long way.

I’m looking forward to preparing Jessica’s amped-up version of my cookbook favorite. Here’s her prize-winning recipe! (Her casserole is pictured below, on the far left. Note to self: At next year's potluck/cookoff, nobody eats until Suzy shoots glamour shots of each dish! LOL)

Holy Moly Macaroni (and Cheese)
Serves 12

6 tablespoons unsalted butter, plus more for dish
5 1/2 cups milk
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper, or to taste
4 1/2 cups grated sharp white Cheddar (about 18 ounces)
1 cup grated Gruyere (about 8 ounces)
1 cup grated Pecorino Romano (about 4 ounces)
2 to 3 tablespoons chopped chipotle chiles in adobo (to taste)
1 pound elbow macaroni

For bread crumbs:

2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 large garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 cups coarse fresh bread crumbs

Heat oven to 375 degrees. Butter a 3-quart casserole dish; set aside. Heat butter and oil in a 10-inch heavy skillet over moderate heat until foam subsides, then cook garlic and bread crumbs, stirring, until crumbs are golden. Transfer to paper towels to drain and season with salt. Set breadcrumbs aside.

In a medium saucepan over medium heat, heat milk. Melt remaining 6 tablespoons butter in a high-sided skillet over medium heat. When butter bubbles, add flour. Cook, whisking, 1 minute.

While whisking, slowly pour in hot milk. Continue cooking, whisking constantly, until the mixture bubbles and becomes thick.

Remove pan from heat. Stir in salt, nutmeg, black pepper, cayenne pepper, 3 cups Cheddar, all of the Gruyere and 1/2 cup Pecorino Romano. Stir in chiles and taste to adjust seasonings/level of heat. Set cheese sauce aside.

Fill a large saucepan with water; bring to a boil. Add macaroni; cook 2 to 3 minutes less than manufacturer's directions, until the outside of pasta is cooked and the inside is underdone. Transfer macaroni to a colander and drain well. Stir macaroni into the reserved cheese sauce.

Pour mixture into prepared dish. Sprinkle remaining cheese and breadcrumbs over top. Bake until browned on top, about 30 minutes. Transfer dish to a wire rack to cool 5 minutes; serve hot.

Midwestern Mexican Macaroni and Cheese - The Dark Horse

hilary@swell-a.com (Hilary Hattenbach) — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 20:02:00 +0000

By Hilary Havarti

After the last guest stumbled out of the Mac Attack Pot Luck in a carb induced stupor, I glanced at the Sarah Sylvia Cynthia Stout avalanche of cheese encrusted dishes and picked-over aluminum serving pans. I thought about cleaning up, I really did, but then my legs buckled and I collapsed in a heap on a nearby chair. Saddened by the fact I missed out on tasting several contenders as my hostess duties kept me running around the house like a kid hopped up on Halloween candy, I searched in vain for leftovers. Almost all the pans were empty but, to my delight, I unearthed three quarters of a pan of Amanda Williams' award winning Midwestern Mexican Macaroni and Cheese.

By the time Amanda appeared at the Mac Attack Pot Luck, two pans of spicy mac in tow, the competition was in full swing and counter space limited. Many people had already chosen their favorites and it seemed Amanda might have been "late to the party" if you catch my drift. But Midwestern Mexican Mac turned out to be the dark horse tying for third place honors.

I must admit I was skeptical. I'm a mac traditionalist; Just the cheese and noodles, mam. Amanda's mac had big ol' hunks of Jalapenos scattered about and the cheese was Crayola Sunglow yellow. But after one bite, I was sold. The Jalapenos didn't overpower the cheese, it had a great tang, a creamy texture and you could dance to it. There was something else though, some kind of illegal substance that forced me to keep eating it even though I technically should have been full. Well now that I've read the recipe, all has been revealed. Feast your eyes on this, if you dare.

Midwestern Mexican Macaroni & Cheese

Ingredients:

16 oz elbow macaroni
1 stick of butter (softened)
1 12 0z can of evaporated milk
1/4 cup milk
24 oz sharp cheddar cheese
1/2 loaf Velveeta (16 oz)
Nacho Jalapeno peppers
1 small can green chili peppers
Salt and Pepper to taste

Instructions:

Cook the macaroni according to package directions.
Cook about 1-2 minutes less than the package directions.
While the macaroni is cooking, Cut cheese into small cubes.
Then, take the cooked macaroni, drain but do not rinse.
Return the macaroni to pot.
Add butter, milk, and most all of the cheese cubes to hot macaroni.
Mix well, until butter and Velveeta melt. The mixture will be soupy. The cheese cubes will not melt completely.
Add peppers.
Add salt and pepper to taste.
Pour into baking dish.
Cover the top with the remaining cheese.
Bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes.
You want the top to brown and the pasta to set.

According to Amanda (@losamanda) this recipe is a variation of a recipe from Sienna Farris @rawsienna. She thought the original version was too thick so she tweaked the recipe by adding peppers and more milk. Amanda loves to cook and eat and considers her level of cooking experience,"medium." She wants everyone to know this about her dish: It is spicy and not for children or The Weak.

Keepin' It Hot - A Mac Attack contestant shares his recipe and food warming secret

hilary@swell-a.com (Hilary Hattenbach) — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 01:19:00 +0000

Charles Rosenberg, a fellow food blogger and Mac Attack contestant, gives us the lowdown on the Fissler CookStar Induction Pro heating device he employed to keep his Mac Attack entry, Felicia's Mother's Macaroni and Cheese, piping warm all evening. Critics found this mac and cheese satisfying though a little less cheesy than desired. Made with yogurt and reduced fat cream cheese, this one is filed under "healthy version" so if you're trying to watch your waistline, give it a whirl.

Felecia’s mother’s macaroni and cheese

1 T mustard (optional)

1 cup low fat plain yogurt

2 T reduced fat cream cheese (American Neufchatel)

1.5 cups shredded reduced fat Cheddar cheese

1/3 cup plus 2 T shredded Parmesan cheese

1.5 cups whole wheat elbow macaroni (cooked seven minutes)

Stir all ingredients into hot cooked macaroni

Pour in casserole and sprinkle with 2 T Parmesan

Bake uncovered in 375 degree oven for 20 minutes or until lightly browned

Makes 4 to 6 servings

Dare to Cream - A winning recipe from Mac Attack 2009

hilary@swell-a.com (Hilary Hattenbach) — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 19:46:00 +0000

by Hilary Havarti

After Suzy G and I identified cream cheese as the secret ingredient in the mac and cheese at Joan’s on Third, I embarked on quest to find a similar recipe. Google search yielded several results but one particular recipe, Cream-Cheesy Macaroni and Cheese*, found on a site called www.recipezaar.com, rose to the top with an overall user rating of almost five out of five stars (the fifth star was about three quarters shaded in). Cooks across the country raved, "Amazing. Best baked mac and cheese I've made so far. The cream cheese really makes the difference" and "Good, easy and it makes a LOT!" And so, with the confidence of the fourteen cooks that took the time to rate the recipe preceding me, I pressed on.

*Dieters beware. Requiring one pound of Cheddar cheese and eight ounces of cream cheese, this is not what I’d call a “slimming” recipe. But hey, you gotta live a little, right?

The Recipe:
* 1 lb elbow macaroni
* 3 tablespoons butter
* 1 tablespoon flour
* 3 cups milk
* 8 ounces cream cheese (reduced-fat OK)
* 16 ounces sharp Cheddar cheese, shredded
* salt
* breadcrumbs (optional)

Spray a 9x13" glass casserole dish with cooking spray. Set aside.
Cook the pasta according to package directions, in a large pot. Drain, rinse, and return to the large pot. Set aside.
In a large skillet, melt the butter over medium heat.
Add the flour, and cook until bubbly (about a minute).
Add the milk slowly, stirring after each addition and cook until slightly thickened.
Add the cream cheese, again stirring until completely melted.
Season with salt.
Remove from heat.
Carefully pour the cream cheese mixture over the pasta, stirring gently to combine.
Add the shredded Cheddar cheese, stirring to combine.
Pour the mixture into the prepared casserole dish, top with bread crumbs if desired, and bake at 350 for 20 minutes.

Now that I’ve (DUH!) started using my Cuisinart to grate cheese, I’m amazed at the limited prep-time, not to mention my forearm is much better for it. I had everything ready to roll in about 20 minutes.

First step was to melt the margarine into a large pot with the flour to get your roux on. Once that started to sizzle, I gradually added the milk until slightly thickened - pretty standard fare roux preparation. Next, I added the cream cheese to the roux and was instructed to stir until smooth. After lots of stirring, the cream cheese had mostly broken down but there were still little globs scattered throughout the sauce. I didn’t want to turn up the heat for fear of charring the bottom of the pan so I grabbed a whisk and let her rip. That was just the ticket and after a few quick flicks of the wrist, the sauce, she was nice and smooth. But, here’s where things got a little unpredictable. Instead of melting the cheddar into the sauce as is usually done in mac prep, the recipe said to dump the cream cheese sauce over the noodles then stir in the grated cheese unmelted. Quelle surprise! I’d seen this done at two different diners on Diners, Drive Ins and Dives and figured, if it’s good enough for Guy Fieri, it’s good enough for me. I did as advised, throwing the cheddar into the pot with the coated noodles and I won’t lie, it did clump together here and there, though I think that’s part of what makes this mac special.

“Breadcrumbs optional” is listed above, but for me there is no option but to use them. I whipped up a topping of 1 1/2 cups of panko bread crumbs and and 1 tbs of melted butter and sprinkled that on top. Popped it into the oven for twenty minutes and voila, delicious cream cheesy mac emerged.

Taking one bite of this mac and cheese, the first words that sprung to mind were, “This Is It!” Granted I’d just seen the Michael Jackson film of the same name (which I loved and highly recommend if you are a fan). Rich, creamy, comforting and sublime, this mac is “such stuff as dreams are made on.” (Thanks, Shakespeare!) Suzy Gruyere and The Humboldt Fog along with their discriminating palates, were also fans. Suzy G said, "Just like the NYT mac and cheese with the surprise ingredient of smooth-blended cottage cheese, the melted cream cheese in this recipe does double duty, keeping everything moist and kicking up the tangy end of the flavor profile. It’s definitely a winner!" And the Humboldt Fog added, "It doesn’t taste like mac and cheese you’d get in a restaurant but rather a really good homemade dish." I’ll take that as a compliment.

Placing first at the Mac Attack Potluck followed closely by Jessica Raymond’s Holy Moly Macaroni and Cheese, a few critics found my dish a little “too rich.” That may be true but the combo of cream cheese and Cheddar lends the dish not only luscious texture, but a tangy cheesy flavor. I may use less cream cheese in the future to cut the richness but only when I have time to experiment and the stakes aren’t as high. I needed to bring my A game to the competition.

Stay tuned for more winning recipes.

Mac Attack Pot Luck Competition 2009

hilary@swell-a.com (Hilary Hattenbach) — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 19:29:00 +0000

By Hilary Havarti

Many people ask us how this blog came to be, so let’s step into the Way-back Machine and take a journey through time.

In 1998, I'd just moved to LA from SF to take a job working for a relative and he was pretty much the only soul I knew in this ginormous city. I'd spend my Friday and Saturday nights flipping through the LA Weekly in search of social gatherings, concerts and events I could attend on my own, without looking like a total loser. On one of these auspicious evenings, in the back pages near "Missed Connections," I found a tiny ad recruiting members for a book club. I'd been in a book group in SF and enjoyed pontificating about authors’ prose and gossiping over finger foods. "Perfect!" I thought. Maybe I'll meet some intellectuals or, at the very least, cute guys who like to read.

The first meeting had about ten people in attendance and Suzy Gruyere was one of them, sporting groovy vintage eyewear and wielding a sharp wit. Naturally I planted myself right next to her. I don't remember any cute guys but that might have been because Bridget Jones' Diary was the first selection, or maybe it was that Suz was so riveting, I ignored everyone else. As luck would have it, that book club was a bit of a bust, it only takes one crazy person to ruin the whole bunch, but Suz and I became fast friends sharing a love of music, Karaoke, making art stuff, and comfort food.

There was a stint where we lost touch due mostly to geography. Living on opposite ends of this town made it difficult to stay in touch as many Angelenos know. But then Facebook came along, providing a daily means to connect, and plans were forged to get together in person and eat mac and cheese, of course. We did this because it's delicious and narrows the restaurant choices. If the joint had mac on the menu and/or Karaoke, we'd be there. (We are still searching and praying for a cool bistro that caters to both of our obsessions – Karaoke mac and cheese parlor, anyone?) After a few mac dates, I teased that we should put our findings into a blog, and in the way that only a kindred spirit can do, Suzy took my nutty idea completely seriously and TA DA, back in June, http://www.weheartmacandcheese.com was born.

Last weekend we hosted the first official Mac Attack Potluck Competition. Friends brought over their favorite mac and cheese creations to be evaluated by an army of comfort food aficionados. There were fifteen varieties of mac and cheese entered into the contest and several stand outs that received top honors. You might wonder, how different can one mac and cheese be from another mac and cheese? Very different, in fact! There were interesting add-ins like pancetta, chile peppers, garlic and a multitude of cheeses. And our guests took this contest very seriously, spending time considering and debating the merits of each dish. "Strange to wander and overhear people discussing mac and cheese with the same highfalutin vocabulary and seriousness of purpose that H and I use," Suzy G noted.

We'll be dedicating the next several blog posts to this event so stay tuned for prize winning recipes and event "how to" and "how not to" tips.

I'll have the slab of mac and cheese, please.

hilary@swell-a.com (Hilary Hattenbach) — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 05:09:00 +0000

Suzy Gruyere: Here comes another tag-team review! This time Hilary
Havarti and I are catching a quick bite at Joan's On Third prior to an
evening at the theatah. My, aren't we la di dah! :) I wish we had more
time to explore this charming little shop, but we'd better focus on our
singular mission: We've heard good things about Joan's mac ($4). I must
say, its appearance is a bit odd...

Hilary Havarti: Right? It's cut into these big, dense looking cubes and
stacked in a deli case which reminds me of your "hewn from a mother mac"
metaphor.

Suzy: The cross-section view is startling, all those macaroni eyes
winking at us. I've seen lasagna presented this way but somehow its
ribbons of color are more agreeable in this format. This mac looks a
little creepy...

Hilary: Looks can be and often are deceiving. The true test, after all,
is in the taste! And here comes our gently reheated cube o' mac now...
Mmmm...

Suzy: Mmmm... (much thoughtful chewing and mmmm-ing) I take it all back.
I can see why Joan's macaroni and cheese is widely praised. This is
pretty basic but also pretty darn good!

Hilary: Agreed. The elbow noodles might be slightly past al dente but
the texture is still good, and the sauce's creaminess is a nice surprise
considering it was congealed into a chilled block five minutes ago! Of
course, I would have preferred a crumb top, but the baked cheese crust
is a decent concession (and crumbs might just get soggy in the deli
case, anyway).

Suzy: Cheddar is the star of this show, huh?

Hilary: Yah, but it must be a high-class Cheddar because there's very
little grease on this plate, and reheated mac sometimes leaves an impressive
oil slick. And wait, what's this big white blob embedded in our mac?
Could it be Feta or some other exotic substance...? No, I think it's...

Suzy & Hilary squeal in unison: CREAM CHEESE!!

Hilary: Sounds wrong but tastes delicious! It's creamy and tart, and
really enhances the mouthfeel of this dish.

Suzy: It's like finding buried treasure.

Hilary: Like! (gestures a thumbs up a la Facebook) I'm going to try
putting some cream cheese into the next mac recipe I cook at home.

Suzy: I can't wait to try that, too. In the meantime, we're running out
of macaroni and cheese so I'm going to dig into our salads. I love how
we always order salads with our macaroni and cheese, as if we're fooling
anyone. LOL What did you get?

Hilary: Butter lettuce with dried cranberries and high-quality Feta
($9). This cheese looks a little drier and more crumbly that what I'm
used to but it still tastes rich and tangy. And this scallion pancake
($3) is chewy and delish, especially with a schmear of hoisin sauce on
it. How's yours?

Suzy: I got the salad sampler trio ($12) and these snappy green beans
are flavored with the same hoisin sauce. Yummy scrummy! I love this
pasta salad. The little deli case sign mentioned pine nuts and saffron,
and I also see blanched broccoli, tiny cubes of good Parmesan and golden
raisins in there.

Hilary: The saffron must be the slightly earthy, unfamiliar flavor we're
noticing, huh? I like it too! I'm almost too full to consider dessert,
but the bakery case is calling my name...

Suzy: Never let it be said that the mac and cheese girls said "NO" to a
great dessert. This spice cupcake with maple frosting is amazing!

Hilary: My double chocolate cupcake is a tiny bit dry but GULP, I just
swallowed it whole. And hey -- the server at this high-tone joint just
asked me if I'm the driver of the black BMW blocking their delivery
door! In what world do I look like someone who drives a BMW? As if.

Suzy: Right! But then, anything is possible in a world where macaroni
and Cheese is enriched with gobs of cream cheese.

Joan's On Third
8350 W Third Street
Los Angeles, CA 90048
323) 655-2285

www.joansonthird.com

What a Crock! by The Humboldt Fog

hilary@swell-a.com (Hilary Hattenbach) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 19:11:00 +0000

Recently, in my non-existent quest to become a 1960s housewife, I bought my first CrockPot. Well, technically not my very first CrockPot. I used to own one. I bought that at a thrift store for $1.50 and used it for melting wax back in craftier times. I do think I can safely say, however, that not only have I never cooked in a CrockPot, but unless it occurred without my knowledge, I have never eaten a CrockPot-prepared meal. So, as far as I am concerned this is indeed my first real CrockPot – and needless to say, I am very excited about the future of one pot cooking. In fact, I thought I could be like Julie of Julie & Julia fame – detailing the trials and tribulations of slow cookery on a CrockPot blog. Genius! But guess what, fellow food fans? There already is one! I give you Stephanie O’Dea’s “A Year of Slow Cookery” http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/

But what has she done for me lately? Well, luckily, she has a quick and easy CrockPot mac and cheese recipe, which (bonus!) does not involve pre-boiling the pasta. Why is this important? You tell me – I mean, would you buy a CrockPot imagining perfect one-pot meals, only to have to use up other pots and pans to prepare the ingredients to go into your CrockPot? It’s throw and go – right? Stephanie feels the same way, and thus – the no-boil mac and cheese recipe!

Recipe below cut and paste from the website: A Year of Slow Cooking.

Ingredients:
1/2 pound uncooked macaroni or hearty pasta (I used a penne)
4 cups of milk
1 egg
4 cups shredded cheese
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 tsp dried mustard
Directions:
Spray crock well with cooking spray. In a mixing bowl, whip egg and milk together. Stir in spices.

Add cheese and noodles, and stir well to combine. Pour the mixture into the crockpot.

It will be very liquidy.

Cover and cook on low for 2-5 hours, or on high for 1-3. The cooking time will vary depending on what size crockpot you are using, and how quickly it heats and cooks.

I made it pretty much as written, with these modifications:
2 tsp Grey Poupon instead of 1 tsp dry mustard
Paprika, white pepper, nutmeg, cayenne (to taste)
½ cup of water (it didn’t seem liquidy enough)

My cheeses of choice: 6 oz of Gruyere and 6 oz of extra sharp Cheddar

So, how did it go? As stated, I’m a CrockPot novice, therefore I checked in on this dish about every ½ hour (especially as some of the comments to the recipe stated there had been “curdling,” a word that makes my blood, well…curdle) so it wasn’t the ideal “set it and forget it” kind of dish I was hoping for in my CrockPot fantasies.

Truth be told, after about two hours the pasta was on the far side of done but there was still a lot of liquid, so I quickly boiled up another ½ cup of pasta and threw it in the pot to help absorb the sauce (so much for my “no-boil” plan). Unfortunately, the damage was done and the noodles had lost their firmness – which seems to be a common challenge with cooking pasta in the CrockPot. I think that definitely hurt the overall effect.

But in the end – I got a creamy cheesy pot of somewhat overcooked but deliciously rich mac and cheese, and frankly, I felt like it was success. The biggest downside was the lack of a crunchy crumb topping. It just doesn’t feel like true mac without it! Hilary Havarti agreed, and also mentioned that reheating didn’t do this mac or its sauce any favors. Mr. Humboldt Fog seemed to think it improved upon reheating, but hated that there was no topping. Definitely one of the more controversial mac dishes I’ve made.

The upshot? Although there are better mac and cheese recipes around, if you need to take something to a potluck, or, you know - the Junior League or church social – you could do a lot worse.
http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/2008/06/crockpot-macaroni-and-cheese-recipe.htm.

Pizza Hut Premium Bacon Macaroni & Cheese -- or, I really need to start eating at better restaurants

noreply@blogger.com (Suzy Gruyere) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 21:20:00 +0000

By Suzy Gruyere

Some days, a girl just needs her mac. I’d had a long day at work and there was nothing in the fridge, and our favorite comfort food was on my mind. So I took a leap of faith and dialed Pizza Hut to have their Premium Bacon Macaroni and Cheese delivered to my doorstep.

It arrived in about 40 minutes, still hot. A typical cardboard pizza box cradled the disposable pan of macaroni and cheese, with a paper bag of breadsticks nestled alongside. It looks pretty in the pan, the top apparently having been browned for a few minutes in the pizza oven.

I got a half-order of the pasta for $7.99 and I believe it could serve two adults and a kid if you added a salad or something (a pizza, perhaps?). The half-order pan measures 5” by 9” so I’m guessing a full-size pan is a 9” square. Keep in mind that these pans fit inside a pizza box so they are quite shallow. Even so, I must admit that this dish represents a decent value. A full order goes for $12.99 and in all honesty I don’t think any of the homemade macs I have prepared for this blog have rung up anywhere near as low as that price, cheese being the primary cost driver.

And there I’ve hit upon the secret to keeping mac prices down. Fortunately or unfortunately, I don’t think there is any actual cheese in Pizza Hut’s “Premium” Bacon Macaroni & Cheese. Is there a white, food-service-only version of Velveeta out there somewhere? Because that’s what this seemed like. It had a good ratio of noodle-to-sauce, but I could not identify the flavor of any particular cheese variety, and the sauce was homogeneous to a worrisome degree. My guess is that it comes out of a can from Pizza Hut HQ. It’s initially pleasant enough, but after a few bites you notice a certain…plasticity is the word that comes to mind.

The “premium” bacon is the best tasting part of this dish, but there’s very little of it. It is thick-cut and agreeably salty, but it was only sprinkled on top of the mac, not mixed in, and all the little chunks probably amounted to less than one full strip. I suppose the fact that it is only sprinkled on top would be a bonus for purists who do not like bacon in their mac – you might be able to order it sans bacon. But by doing so, you’d remove nearly all the flavor from this dish.

The pasta is a corkscrew shape, possibly a fusilli, and it does a good job of holding onto the sauce, such as it is. To my surprise, the noodles were cooked to the perfect degree.

Honestly, I can imagine plenty of people liking this mac, and I think the bland flavor and consistency would go over well with kids and other picky eaters. But if you are a worldly macaroni and cheese adventurer like me, unless you are a completist you may prefer to skip this offering, convenient though it may be. You’re welcome.

Halloween Mac and Cheese; The Devil's In The Details

hilary@swell-a.com (Hilary Hattenbach) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 18:19:00 +0000

By Hilary Havarti

Truth be told, I've never been a "detail oriented" person.
Example: When I was ten years old, I awoke with a wild hair to surprise my family with "home-made" pancakes. I grabbed the box of Bisquick from the pantry and set to work. It wasn't long before my mom turned up and cast a wary eye towards my bowl of batter, "Did you follow all the directions?" she asked with obvious skepticism.
"Um, yeah...."
She raised her eyebrows as if to say, "Sure you did," and zombie walked over to the coffee pot to get her fix.

Refusing to let her suspicion get the better of me, I dumped a heaping spoonful of batter onto the sizzling surface and waited for the perfect round disk to form. As the batter spread into a sad, misshapen, wafer thin smear, it resembled my creeping dread that somewhere, somehow, I'd screwed something up. Holding out hope, I chalked it up to, "the first one is always the worst one," and gave it another go. After a couple more ghetto crepe blobs adhered to the bottom of the pan, I had no choice but to call mom over, which, believe me, was the last resort.

My mother, never one to mince words, looked at the crispy pile of batter scrapings and shook her head, "Well these are inedible."
Here's a rough approximation of the conversation that followed:
Me:"What happened?"
Mom:"How many eggs did you put in?"
Me:"Eggs?"

I'd like to say that was the last time my attention to detail faltered but, alas, no. There are many entertaining anecdotes I could relay including the time I failed to mention to a boss that the very important meeting, the one he'd been preparing for all day, had been cancelled. Oops.

I've recounted these stories as an intro for my latest omission debacle involving mac and cheese. I'd been waiting for the heat to subside and pumpkin to be available in stores to attempt a recipe for pumpkin mac and cheese. As Halloween lurks around the corner, it seemed the time was nigh.
What intrigued me about the following recipe was (a) it didn't require a roux or a slurry because the pumpkin acts as a thickening agent for the sauce, and (b) the cheese options seemed to suggest you could use whatever you had lying around in the cheese drawer .

I have to admit, beyond the aforementioned omission of an ingredient or two, I took several liberties with this recipe. The original cheese ratio was written as follows:
4 ounces extra-sharp Cheddar, grated (about 1 1/3 cups)
4 ounces blend of melting cheeses – Mozzarella, Asiago, Fontina, etc.
1/2 cup part-skim Ricotta cheese

I ended up using a combo of Asiago, Pecorino Romano and Parmesan along with an ounce of Gruyere and 8* ounces of extra-sharp cheddar with the required ricotta.

The first step was to build the cheese sauce by combining milk, cheese, pumpkin and Dijon mustard in a large pot. I melted the cheese and milk then added the other ingredients. Tasting the sauce, I didn't think it was cheesy enough and decided, Oh to hell with it, I'm adding *four more ounces of extra-sharp cheddar to give it some zing and nobody can stop me. That seemed to do the trick and for a few minutes I basked in the glory of my impromptu Top Chef finessing skills before soldiering on.

According to the recipe, you dump the cooked noodles, in this case large elbow macaroni, into the pot with the cheese sauce, stir, and put everything into a buttered baking dish, top with parmesan and bake. The absence of a crumb top seemed like a gross oversight so I whipped up a topping with panko bread crumbs, butter and Parmesan and sprinkled it atop what I hoped to be my Fall mac and cheese masterpiece.

Dum da dum dum Dum! Calling for 30 minutes of oven baking time, the recipe also advised putting the mac under the broiler for three minutes to get it crispy but, after only one minute had elapsed, I could smell we had trouble in Noodle City. I yanked the pan out of the oven to find a few of the crumbs very close to charred. Able to pick off the worst, the topping was more or less salvaged (see photo below).

Spooning out a generous serving, I took my first bite and it was obvious what was missing. I totally spaced on seasoning the cheese sauce with salt and pepper. Too busy giving myself a big old pat on the back for the cheese addition, I failed to notice the part that said "season with salt and pepper." But do not despair dear readers, I shook some salt and pepper on my plate and was pleased to discover this mac was tasty. Adding extra Cheddar was a good call as it gave this mac some Bada Bing. The pumpkin didn’t overpower the dish but I speculate it was responsible for creating a less creamy texture then one might desire. There was a little sweetness which contrasted with the sharpness of the Cheddar quite nicely. I would have preferred a creamier texture but overall this dish was solid and extremely hearty. Stuffed to the point of unbuttoning my pants after one bowl, I had to take the dog for a very long walk to get my circulation going again.

Never one to take my own opinion as law (I blame mom for this), I dropped off a portion to The Humboldt Fog to get her two cents. Her review was less than glowing. Overall, she found it too bland even after adding salt and pepper. "It wasn't cheesy enough," she said and, surprised to learn I had used three quarters of a pound of cheese, remarked, "It didn't taste like it." She also thought the noodles were a little mushy but suggested that could have been caused by reheating.

I do agree the cheese should have been more prominent but at the same time, this recipe is called Pumpkin Mac and Cheese. Perhaps the idea is to put a different spin on what we've come to expect of this classic dish. If it tasted just like regular mac and cheese what would be the point of adding the pumpkin? Food for thought. That's all I'm saying.

Open for some debate, but this recipe might qualify as a “healthy version.” The milk was low fat and the butter used to grease the pan and moisten the crumbs negligible. Meanwhile, I hear pumpkin is a Superfood with its potassium, magnesium and fiber. Of course don’t take my word for it -- fact checking isn't my strong suit either.

Pumpkin Mac & Cheese

Steamed pumpkin – about 1 pound – You can also roast the pumpkin, which gives it a more robust flavor. I used pumpkin from a can.
1 pound elbow macaroni
2 cups 1 percent low fat milk
4 ounces extra-sharp Cheddar, grated (about 1 1/3 cups) - *I used 8 ounces
4 ounces blend of melting cheeses – Mozzarella, Asiago, Fontina, etc.
1/2 cup part-skim Ricotta cheese
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

2. Steam the pumpkin in a pot with just an inch of water. Season with salt. After it is cooked, puree in a food processor.
3. Bring a large pot of water to a boil for the pasta.
4. Meanwhile, start building the cheese sauce. In a pot under medium heat, mix together the milk, blend and melt the cheeses, mix the mustard, and pureed pumpkin. Season with salt and pepper. Make sure the pot is big enough to accommodate the sauce and the pasta when it’s cooked.
5. Add the macaroni to boiling water seasoned with salt and cook until tender but firm.
6. Drain cooked pasta and transfer to the pot with the cheese sauce. Mix well.
7. Transfer to a buttered baking dish. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and some extra cheese blend (if you have it) all over the top. Or – Combine one cup and a half of panko bread crumbs, 1 tablespoon of melted butter and 1 tablespoon of Parmesan, and use that to top your mac instead.
8. Bake for 20 minutes, and then broil for 3 minutes so the top is crisp and nicely browned. Everything is already cooked; you’re just heating everything together and browning the cheese on top. Caution - when I put it under the broiler it nearly burned. I'd recommend only putting it in there for 30 seconds to one minute.

Just Passing Through: Au Bon Pain's mac

noreply@blogger.com (Suzy Gruyere) — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 22:41:00 +0000

by Suzy Gruyere

On a recent layover at Baltimore Washington International Airport, I was dashing to my gate when I realized I was starving. Having been on two airplanes for five hours at that point, and having been fed a grand total of two packets of peanuts, some animal crackers and less than a full can of Diet Coke, my hunger pangs were not surprising.

The mac and cheese at Au Bon Pain, however, was a surprise.

The line was long and my time was short, so I intended to grab a pint of self-service soup there. Imagine my surprise when I noticed that the sign on one of the “kettles” said it contained macaroni and cheese. I thought, “Mac and cheese soup?” and cautiously opened the lid. But no: it wasn’t soup, it was mac and cheese. Or a reasonable facsimile thereof.

And it was reasonable, I must say. Sure, the noodles were in a sorry state in terms of texture. Who knows how long they’d been holding in the constant heat of that electric soup kettle? These elbows were well past al dente, I’ll grant you.

But they were enrobed in a sauce that honestly wasn’t half bad. The overall dish was gummy but the sauce itself was savory and velvety, with distinct flavors of Cheddar and nutmeg. Oh, and a ton of salt, as I learned when I looked it up later. No wonder my ankles were so swollen on that trip (I blamed it on the time spent at altitude but now I know better).

By the time I reached the cashier, my flight was boarding so I stowed the mac in my carry-on and didn’t actually eat it until we were airborne again, probably a good forty minutes later. And I’m sure that didn’t help with the texture issues! But the nutmeg fragrance was agreeable and I appreciated the mac’s silky warmth as the plane surged into the night.

All things considered, I can’t heartily endorse the Au Bon Pain mac and cheese. But I do give it props for attempting to have a genuine flavor personality, and for being there for me when I needed a friend at BWI, midway through a grueling day of traveling.