I was driving home from work the other night and it was cold, blustery and overcast. It was one of those nights you want to curl up by the fire and have some "comfort" type food. You know what I mean? Something like a great soup with some crusty bread, or meatloaf with mashed potatoes and gravy, or some really good mac n' cheese. That's when something inside my head clicked. Mind you this is a different type of clicking from when JP has a revelation. There's less smoke, bells, and lights flashing...
So last night I tried to reproduce the S'MAC gooey goodness. I tried to make their Napoletana dish. It was pretty good, but it fell short of what I had in mind. Sharkey liked it too, but said I needed to tweak it a bit.
Tonight was round 2. I felt that the mozzarella cheese really wasn't a good cheese for mac n' cheese, so I went to the traditional sharp cheddar. I have used recipes of Alton Brown before, so I figured I would give another one of his creations a try. So I made the Stove top Mac & Cheese. This dish was picture perfect. I thought it had the right texture and it looked yummy. Unfortunately, the dry mustard gave it a weird taste and Sharkey thought it was a bit salty. GGGGGGGGRRRRRRR... Alton you let me down brother!!!! I also felt really unsatisfied after eating it, so I filed it under "T."
My next attempt with be to modify the S'MAC recipe and replace the mozzarella and muenster with other cheeses. Maybe American/Cheddar? Or perhaps a Gruyere? I will get it right. I need to get it right. Anyone have a good recipe I can try?
6 comments:
Maybe it's obvious to everyone else, but you filed it under "T"--what does "T" stand for? Totally gross? Titillating? Tremendous?
I could eat that blue box crap every day! Especially the spirals!
My mom makes the best mac and cheese from scratch. I believe that her recipe is very simple and that is what makes it so great. She makes a basic cheese sauce (butter, flour, milk and cheese) using your basic 'old' type orange cheddar and instead of using macaroni elbows uses some other kind of spiral type pasta called cavatappi. She puts lots of grated cheese on the bottom of the pan as well as on top and also sprinkles on PANKO BREADCRUMBS! This makes it super awesome.
I have to say all the mac and cheese in the photo looks yummy.
Ooh, I just made Mac'n Cheese for my lunches this week. I stole the recipe from Shutterbean and just made a few minor tweaks. Instead of garlic powder, I threw 4 or 5 garlic cloves in the food processor with the bread, parsley and oil. I also used smoked gouda cheese in addition to the cheddar. Plus I used regular sour cream (I'm not one for saving calories, as you can probably tell by looking at me ;-)
I must say, it's pretty darn delicious! Of course, if you don't like cauliflower, I'm sure it'd be just fine without it ;-)
cb You know T=TRASH
kranki Ah the rue method! I do like that method Kranki. And the panko on top. I think I will have to try to make your Mama's recipe! Thanks for the tip!
Q I will also give yours a try. I did see a recipe w/ pureed squash.
Jerk...I have a wedding in 3 weeks and you put up homemade mac?
For shame.
Okay, it actually looks amazing and if claire wasn't worrying about fitting into a skimpy bikini in aruba, we would be so joining the make your own mac...guess it will have to wait until March.
bogart Oh come on, a little mac n' cheese wouldn't hurt. Besides, tux pants are adjustable on the fly right?
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