Well, the heat is finally back on. I’m not going to bore you all with the details but suffice it to say that six days without heat really brought out my need for comfort food.
On Thursday, YA made macaroni and cheese. Nothing fancy – just out of a box, but I had a few bites right out of the pan and it really hit the spot. So on Friday, as I was waiting for what turned out to be the first of a series of boiler/chimney bad news, I decided to make a big batch of mac and cheese for the weekend. I used my Instant Pot and instead of water, I used a box of vegetable broth that I had in the cabinet. Then instead of cheddar, I used some pepper jack, a little mozzarella and a handful of shredded parmesan. I wasn’t following a recipe – just punting. It was really really good. So I had mac and cheese for dinner. Then for lunch on Saturday. And Sunday.
So you’d think that by Monday I might be sick of mac and cheese? I would have thought so too. But when the caterers showed up at my warehouse event to set up the mac & cheese bar, I wanted to just dive right into the big chaffing dish. The mac & cheese bar had been my idea, but I hadn’t known how much I would personally want it myself. There were lots of toppings on the bar (bacon, scallions, toasted breadcrumbs, etc.) but when the participants headed back to their hotel, I had a bowl without anything but the pasta and cheese. If I’m counting correctly, that’s mac and cheese five days in a row! And I still have some of the pepper jack dish in the fridge, so it might be six days in a row. If YA doesn’t have any tomorrow, maybe I can make it seven days!
Do you like to adulterate your mac & cheese??
Trail Baboon 
yep
i am a punter at heart
at my house we call kraft cheese slices s**t cheese and the mac and cheese crowd here likes milk and s**t cheese in addition to the powdered orange mystery packet that’s poured in like mortar between concrete bricks
i like pasta variations but like bread and pizza the gluten free version will be ready for the market by the 22nd century in an edible version
rice spinach quinoa black bean are all ok but not quite right and when you leave out the cheese and milk what have you got?
i end up with a rue of coconut oil and oat/rice/garbanzo flour soy or almond milk and the real taste comes from the sauté pan with mushrooms onions garlic red peppers green peppers green onions artichoke hearts and kalamata olives
if you decide ahead of time which way you’re going the spices used in the sauté go italian cuban cajun or indian
fake cheese is ok as a sandwich adder but for mac pizza or lasagne it’s a weird blob of a cheese you’d never buy again and damn it’s expensive a tomato and plant protein crumbles are a good pan pf eaton’s. not mac and cheese but a variation on the notion
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Oh tim, I wish the 22nd century was here already for you with gluten-free pasta and some kind of fake cheese that didn’t blob up on you.
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i end up with results that make me appreciate the spice collection and the way bean’s and flours are so much more readily available than they were back in the 60s.
i tell my 18 year old veggie daughter that it’s like cheating
the veggie bacon chicken hot dogs and black bean burgers are decent and make it possible to build a diet of frozen entrees without really cooking
the cafeteria at depaul is not worth a damn at veggie food
they order veggie burgers to arrive every monday and they are all out on tuesday for the week
cheese pizza is the option
but it’s crap pizza
salad is what she gets to eat mostly and she eats out a lot
good pizza
submarine sandwiches
taco bell
i taught her my 1960 go to mc donald’s cheeseburger without the burger but they used to charge for 10 cents 25 was expensive
today it’s retail and so i get the burgers on the side to feed the dogs same at subway with the cold cut sandwich with the meat on the side
“plant based meat” is the rage and it’s decent
cheese and bread and pasta will catch up but it will take 10 years
maybe i can help
it’s on my new idea list
veggie meet like brew pubs
do it tasty. chef folks can do it with finesse and panache
i end up with brown stuff in a pan that tastes pretty good but presentation is only ok for me
i’m working on it and have a vision for making plant based stuff that the world will enjoy
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I put slices of fresh tomatoes on my mac and cheese, and bake it.
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My dad’s recipe ends with “Dot with butter.”
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That sounds like a good addition to any recipe.
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Because my revulsion for cheese is well known, you probably didn’t expect me to respond to this topic. You lost me at “cheddar,” then really pushed me away with “pepper jack,” “mozzarella” and “parmesan.” Whooo! I need some wine, although it is a mite early in the day.
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Oh, it is 5:00 somewhere. So is it a taste or a texture issue or something else with cheese?
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Taste, texture and odor. Odor is such an issue I can’t understand how anyone eats cheese. After all, people who smell something foul will ask “Who cut the cheese?” My position apparently surprises people, but it is shared by approximately 1.386 billion Chinese.
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Do you have the same reaction to sour cream, yogurt, or cream cheese?
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Not the YA. Despite her Chinese origins she adores cheese. She even has an opinion on which is the best cheese for raclette, the Swiss or the French.
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There are some odors or flavors that really don’t agree with people—usually it is cantaloupe. You are the first cheese person I know.
Mine is curry powder and coriander. The flavor turns into a metallic taste in my mouth and I can not endure it.
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Yup. If I mix sour cream with other things, I can eat it. Just barely.
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Replace macaroni with new red potatoes, replace cheese with some good beef, add some onions and some spices
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Sounds delicious – what shall we call it?
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Baboon Hot Dish!
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Meat and potatoes.
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Glorified Hash.
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I would suspect this ABD is tim except there are Capital letters here.
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And tim doesn’t do meat
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Rise and Shine Baboons,
I love Mac and Cheese, with all the textures MN Steve does not like. The gooey-er the better. I like the pepper jack in there, finely diced peppers and onions, etc. That said, I do not make this or eat it often because of the carbs and calories involved. I also do not like processed cheese (read that, Velveeta-ish, salty cheese-like food) I like the real thing which rules out most restaurant Mac and Cheese that relies heavily on a processed cheese base.
VS, I need Instant Pot lessons. I can’t even get that red sealer strip into the top so it will stay and get the top closed. I must be doing something wrong, but only Blevins knows what that would be. And I have things to try! It does not help that I fear pressure cookers after having known several people who lived through malfunctions. In 1980 mine old-fashioned one malfunctioned while canning, melting the safety valve. I need help.
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Remind me to talk to you about the instant pot at Blevins in December.
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What about pastitsio?
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Gesundheit
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Yum – hmmmm, I haven’t made that in a long time…
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I like the toasted breadcrumbs on top. But plain and simple works for me too.
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OT: for my Apple using friends here. There are some exceptionally slick and convincing phishing schemes being run under the guise of messages from Apple’s data security people. Don’t fall for pitches that claim your Apple account has been compromised so you need to click on a link to set things straight.
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I don’t have an Apple account, even though I have a Mac. Or at least I don’t use an Apple account. I get a million of those messages, though.n Nobody falls for those.
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Today I received an official-looking notice in the mail that the warranty on my vehicle was running out. It gave me five days to respond by calling a certain number to extend the warranty. There was no company name, and though the mailing originated in Texas, the address that corresponds with the phone number is in St. Ann, Missouri. There was no indication that they even know what kind of car I drive. I reported them to the AG, and tossed the notice in the recycling bin, but no doubt, someone will fall for this scam.
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I’ve never had a car that was under warranty, so I wouldn’t even look at that one.
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I think “slick and convincing” and “phishing schemes” constitutes an oxymoron.
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I love both cheese and pasta, but for some obscure reason, I never make mac and cheese. It’s one of those dishes that seems like more trouble than it’s worth to make from scratch, and I’m not into the boxed mix stuff.
Back in the day when I was trying to figure out what Americans eat so that I could cook it for wasband, we ate a fair amount of boxed stuff, simply because I didn’t know any better. Mac & cheese, scalloped or au gratin potatoes, jarred spaghetti sauce, you name it, I was clueless. It wasn’t till two years into our marriage that I experienced his mom’s cooking for an extended period of time, and that’s when I realized that wasband’s memories of her food was a bit slanted. She did make good pizza, I’ll give her that.
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Easy, non box Mac and Cheese
Boil 2c of elbow macaroni and drain.
In a separate sauce pan melt 4T of butter, and then add 4T of flour. Cook for a couple minutes, then add 2c of milk. Stir over medium heat until it thickens. Add 1 1/2 c grated cheddar. Stir until smooth. Add 1/2 t. of salt.
In a buttered casserole (I use a 8×5 pyrex) put in the elbows, then add the sauce. Top with sliced tomatoes, top the tomatoes with 1/2 c of grated cheddar and sprinkle with paprika. Bake at 350° for 30 minutes.
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Instant Pot is even easier. 16 oz dry pasta into pot. One box of broth, 2 T butter and any spices you want. 5 minutes on manual. Stir in 3/4 c milk and 2 c shredded cheese.
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But the Instant Pot doesn’t warm up the kitchen when your heat is not working like the oven would.
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um… i’ll let you decicde
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This one is really basic…
Dad’s Macaroni and Cheese
– 1 # box of macaroni: cook, drain, and cool to room temp (i.e. run it under cold water in a strainer to speed things up)
– an 8-oz. package of cheese (dad used Longhorn cheddar), shredded
Mix in a large bowl, transfer to buttered baking dish.
Add:
– ½ – 1 C. milk (scalded and salted) — enough that when you tilt the dish, you see the milk pool up the side.
– Pepper, to taste
– Dot with butter.
Bake ½ hour at 350˚ F. – will have a crusty top unless you cover it with foil or a lid
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That’s nice
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