Bleah

[discord35]

I skipped square dancing last night to try a new recipe. My mom always made macaroni and cheese with Velveeta. When I shacked up with Russell, I adopted his mom's recipe which called for sharp and extra sharp cheddar cheese, so when I'm planning to make macaroni and cheese, I go buy the cheddar.

So the recipe I wanted to attempt was a baked macaroni and cheese which specified American cheese. Rather than go out and buy the American, I substituted the cheddar, which turned out badly. It was edible enough for me to have it for dinner, but not enough to pack it in my lunch today. I chucked the remainder of it. Live and learn.

I still have cheddar left over. I think I'll prepare it according to my usual recipe tonight and actually follow the directions for new recipes in the future, at least for the first time.

Comments

Queso

[deege.livejournal.com]

Sorry it didn't turn out. As you probably know, American cheese is a processed product that contains other things besides cheese (usually it has oil in it, sometimes sugar and other things) that help it stay soft and make it melt smoothly. If you're using the real thing (i.e. actual cheese) in your mac & cheese you usually need to do something to smooth it out for melting and keep it from separating. The best option is to make a simple white sauce (flour, butter, milk) and melt the cheddar into it.

Yum. I love mac & cheese. I would probably have even eaten your rejected product! :=)

Re: Queso

[discord35.livejournal.com]

The recipe that I picked up from Russell's mom (always good to know how to prepare comfort food for your man!) is just macaroni and cheese. Nothing else, except that it is usually served with stewed tomatoes.

The recipe I tried had me sautee some onions in butter, then add flour and milk. Perhaps I should have cooked the flour a little longer to make a roux, but the recipe didn't seem to indicate that.

I did melt the cheese in a little at a time and it seemed like it was looking good, but ended up kind of "clotted" for want of a better term.

I'm thinking that I really should have cooked the flour instead of just adding it.

[allanh.livejournal.com]

Take 2 minutes and register for free, then look up this recipe on America's Test Kitchen:

http://americastestkitchen.com/recipe.asp?recipeids=1571&iSeason=5

It's a scrumptious and easy mac-n-cheese. ATK is the test lab for Cooks Illustrated magazine. Their TV show takes classic American recipes, and experiments to find the best/easiest/tastiest versions of each recipe. One week may be chocolate chip cookies, another week may be pot roast. The recipe above is from their "Macaroni & Cheese" show. ATK recipes are usually easy to follow and alter to taste.

[discord35.livejournal.com]

Great! I'll check that out. Thanks!

[billeyler.livejournal.com]

When I think of Mac and Cheese, it's ALWAYS a flashback of boiled boxed Mac with the powdered cheese, or Velveeta...those were my mom's fall-backs in lean times. That along with miscellaneous things to do with hot dogs.

We had a lot of lean times.

I don't think I knew about actual block cheese until I went to college.