mac and cheese - hangover style

I woke up today, just as I did yesterday, feeling uneasy and slightly delirious. Once again, I crawled downstairs rummaging through the kitchen for food to soak up my burning stomach. I guess this weekend could be considered my roommate's "birthday weekend" seeing as how her birthday was yesterday. Going along with that, I figured I'd cook food for the whole house to enjoy. In order for that, I'd have to create something not only meatless (she's a vegetarian because of the texture of meat, yes you heard me right) but should consist of something with pasta (which is 99.9% of her diet). Easy enough- mac and cheese it is.


For every few chunks of cheese I chopped, I rewarded myself with a little nibble (or two, or three...).


Le roux et le beschamel. (My attempt to speak French. Hey, I did take two years in high school!)


The delicious smell of cheesy goodness wafted throughout the house, and soon I found my two hungry roommates by my side, birthday girl M and newbie A.


"Hey, whatcha making?" ... Obviously they knew it was mac and cheese, but I guess they just wanted to let me know they acknowledged that I was making it.


We set out some plates and piled the cheesy tubed pasta atop. How does this compare to your boxed plastic rubbery crap, huh Kraft?


Nice and warm, the yellow-tinted sauce smoothly coated each and every macaroni. The cheese wasn't overpowering, but retained that cheesiness I deem a necessity for awesome mac and cheese. Seeping through the center of the macaroni, the creamy sauce was dominant in every bite. Also, every so often you'd get a piece of crusty breadcrumb topping, which also lent the sauce those adorable little specks of flavor.


After feeding myself, my two roommates, and all three of our boyfriends, you can guess how much mac and cheese was left... Yeah, basically nothing. I guess everyone enjoyed it.

---RECIPE---
Taken from Cook's Illustrated.

ingredients:
1 pound elbow macaroni
1 tablespoon table salt
5 tablespoons unsalted butter
6 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1+1/2 teaspoons powdered mustard
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional) (omitted)
5 cups milk
8 ounces Monterey Jack cheese , shredded (2 cups)
8 ounces sharp cheddar cheese , shredded (2 cups)
1 teaspoon table salt

directions:
1. Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat broiler. Bring 4 quarts water to boil in Dutch oven over high heat. Add macaroni and 1 tablespoon salt; cook until pasta is tender. Drain pasta and set aside in colander.

2. In now-empty Dutch oven, heat butter over medium-high heat until foaming. Add flour, mustard, and cayenne (if using) and whisk well to combine. Continue whisking until mixture becomes fragrant and deepens in color, about 1 minute. Gradually whisk in milk; bring mixture to boil, whisking constantly (mixture must reach full boil to fully thicken). Reduce heat to medium and simmer, whisking occasionally, until thickened to consistency of heavy cream, about 5 minutes. Off heat, whisk in cheeses and 1 teaspoon salt until cheeses are fully melted. Add pasta and cook over medium-low heat, stirring constantly, until mixture is steaming and heated through, about 6 minutes.

3. Transfer mixture to broiler-safe 9-by 13-inch baking dish and sprinkle evenly with bread crumbs. Broil until crumbs are deep golden brown, 3 to 5 minutes, rotating pan if necessary for even browning. Cool about 5 minutes, then serve.

pepperoni pizza - easy as pie (pizza pie, that is)

"Do you want to order pizza tonight for dinner?"
"No, grandma. Just this past year I learned how to cook, so I mean, I should like cook things for you. You know?"
"Oh sure honey. Can we cook pizza then?"
... So to appease all sides, we instead opted to create a pizza at home. I'm not quite ready to make a pizza dough from scratch (I've only made one yeast bread before- honey whole wheat bread- and although it was successful, I'm not emotionally ready for the second time around).


Enter: Pillsbury pizza dough in a can.


Okay, so for once I cut a few corners- kill me. Canned tomato sauce, shredded mozzarella, and sliced pepperoni helped out too.


Who knew pizza was this easy to make? No joke- it tasted like a regular pizza you could have got from anywhere.


I mean, nothing to write home about. But at the same time, it took literally 5 minutes, allowed me to put whatever toppings I wanted, and made my grandma happy. Score.


Stringy mozzarella cheese is my shit.

stuffed tomatoes - valiant effort to save the day

I'm not one to let things go to waste. If I'm going to spend $8 a pound for good parmigiano reggiano cheese to make crappy crackers, I'm going to at least turn those crackers into something magical. I refuse to be defeated by these measly chalky crumbly pieces of edible goodness. If I could somehow manifest the taste and flavors into something more palatable, then this recipe could be pulled together.



By crumbling the already crumbled crackers, I was able to make a creamy filling for these tomatoes.


I've never made stuffed tomatoes before, but I couldn't imagine it'd be that hard. I mean, you don't need a rocket scientist to figure out how to seed, stuff, and bake a tomato.


I retract that last statement. I should have read a recipe first, fuck.


The skins were inedible at this point, and had to be pulled off before eating. The filling was perfect, but the cheesy crust on the top should have been covered with foil before baking.


Only once a person removed the bottom skin and peeled away the top cheese crust, could they enjoy my very first attempt at a stuffed tomato.

parmesan thyme crackers - my worst fear manifested

I can not reiterate this enough: I am obsessed with the Barefoot Contessa. Everything she makes looks, well, fucking awesome. A while back I saw her making these (hear me out) ...crackers. Not just any old store-bought cardboard tasting square pieces of flour and butter. No, no, no. These were parmesan cheese and thyme crackers, rolled up and cut into dainty cute little medallions. How hard can crackers be to make? I mean, I'm practically a professional baker at this point.


These cheesy and herb-full crackers are gonna kick the socks off those Ritz crackers any day.



Fast forward an hour: I'm having a panic attack. I chilled the dough, as stated, but for some odd reason I could not cut my cute little medallions without them breaking apart! I tried and tried, but all that was left were crumbles of cheesy dough. Instead, I tried an old trick I used for my similarly crumbly macadamia nut shortbread- I literally dumped the whole thing into a baking pan, packed it down, and hoped for the best.


My worst possible fear has manifested- I have created something delicious, but it is not presentable in any way shape or form. I was lucky if I could crumble a piece that was bigger than a quarter.


My dream may have been in shambles (literally), but my spirit was not. I had big hopes for these little guys, and trust me, I'll find a way to reuse these broken pieces of deliciousness.

---RECIPE---
Taken from Ina Garten.

ingredients:
1 stick) unsalted butter
3 ounces grated Parmesan
1+1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme leaves
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

directions:
1. Place the butter in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and mix until creamy. Add the Parmesan, flour, salt, thyme and pepper and combine.
2. Dump the dough on a lightly floured board and roll into a 13-inch long log. Wrap the log in plastic wrap and place in the freezer for 30 minutes to harden.
3. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Cut the log crosswise into 1/4 to 1/2-inch thick slices. Place the slices on a sheet pan and bake for 22 minutes.

mini cheese & bacon quiches - "big purses, big hair, big men"

I live by this rule: The bigger, the better. Big purses, big hair, big men, ...and I should probably stop this here. I follow this philosophy probably because subconsciously it makes me feel smaller. Now, I know I'm no huge obese whale, but I'm definitely not a teensy tiny twig. To contradict everything I have just said (haha), I actually love mini-sized food. Okay, I can actually put the two concepts together- Miniature foods allow me to portion control my food intake, thus keeping me a smaller size. (Complete blatant lie- I end up eating more in the long run.)



There's just something about tiny cutesy edible things that are so fucking adorable. I'm obsessed with the concept of appetizers, and I think every meal of every day for the rest of my life should consist of tiny handheld balls of cuteness (that's what she said). Completely unrealistic, especially seeing how long these things can take to create. I actually cut my time drastically by rolling my dough into balls and flattening them out, opposed to rolling the entire thing flat and cutting individual sized circles.



I had this grand image of me creating tons of mini appetizers and making assorted plates of deliciousness for all of my grandma's friends. Didn't happen. After doing the crust of these quiches (a minimum hour), it was time to create a filling. I whipped together what we had in the fridge- assortments of cheeses and meats. I then attempted to pour them into the muffin tins with the differences noted in my head. Unfortunately I forgot where I put what. Fortunately, although not purposely, they all tasted the same anyways.



I used a pate sucree (how you like them French apples?), which is a pastry crust made for tarts and similar shit. It's on the sweeter side, but I figured I'd go with it anyways because this dough is just a thousand times easier to whip up than regular pie crust.


So what exactly does a sweet crust taste like with a savory filling? Unusually satisfying, that's for sure. I guess I never took into consideration how that contrast would play out in the final step. Well lucky for me- I have a very huge sweet tooth!

For those not so keen for the sweetness, I have actually attempted savory quiches- My mexican quiche tart came out extraordinary, as did my previous mini cheese and bacon quiches.