Okay, after all that rending of garments and gnashing of teeth, I got inspired by the Rotund’s love of pot roast and thought of something to post about: Macaroni and cheese.
Macaroni and cheese is my favorite food, and has been for as long as I can remember. In my family, oven-baked mac and cheese was a special occasion dinner staple. No Thanksgiving, Christmas, or Easter dinners were complete without a hot dish of ooey, goey noodles and cheese topped with a crunchy crust. I started looking forward to any holiday dinners months in advance because I couldn’t even fathom how to make macaroni and cheese happen all by myself, plus? Mac and cheese is like the worst and most evil fat-making food in the world and if I ever ate it on a day that was not a major holiday I would suddenly swell to roughly the size of house and nobody would love me anymore. Yeah!
As an adult, I have made macaroni and cheese, to varying levels of success, a number of times. The version I made the most is a Weight Watchers recipe that was actually pretty decent, all things considered. Most recently, I made the Cook’s Illustrated version and it was close, but not quite perfect – too creamy, and the breadcrumb topping tasted like bread.
And so, for love of cooking and food and to prove to myself that macaroni and cheese is not evil but rather possibly the most perfect distillation of all that is good and right on earth, I am now on a mission and that mission is this: create the perfect macaroni and cheese. I want to make a mac and cheese that evokes the magical casseroles of my childhood, that lives up to my memories, that is super delicious, that my hypothetical grandchildren will demand the recipe to lest I take the secret of such an amazing foodstuff to my grave.
I plan to try different cheeses, different shapes of pasta, different binding agents, different sauce bases, and different toppings. I’ve got a block of two year cheddar that I bought at the Federal Plaza farmer’s market today and will sally forth this weekend. I will, of course, document my progress here.
If nothing else, this can be Ottermatic’s Macaroni and Cheese Blog.
So, mac and cheese fans, if you have any recipes to share, suggestions, or just want to revel in a shared love of cheesy pasta casserole, comment away!
7 comments
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October 17, 2007 at 7:24 am
teresaduncan
Please post the best recipe when you find it! My son will be in your debt forever :-)
October 17, 2007 at 9:44 am
Sarah
The best I’ve ever had is Martha Stewart’s. oh wow.
October 17, 2007 at 10:09 am
OTM
Martha! Great, great idea.
October 17, 2007 at 3:11 pm
Lindsay
‘Round these parts, macaroni and cheese is so popular we call it smack’n'cheesey. It all starts with a standard box of mac’n'cheese – trick is, don’t buy the expensive kind. For some reason, that stuff just doesn’t taste as good. We’ll buy the store brand, make as directed… BUT! Toss in some extra cheese, maybe some veggies (broccoli, yum) or some meat for extra protein (tuna, summer sausage or breakfast sausage are all favorites). Sometimes we’ll add some salsa to it, or just whatever goes well with cheese.
October 18, 2007 at 7:45 pm
Orodemniades
Mr Oro likes my cheese sauce, which is your basic white sauce/bechemel with good cheese, pepper, and English mustard. Chopped fresh jalapeno added to the sauce at the last minute is also nice.
November 11, 2007 at 7:08 pm
kateharding
I’m dying to hear how your search turns out.
November 12, 2007 at 10:14 am
Macaroni and Cheese, update « Ottermatic
[...] November 12th, 2007 in fat, food So I was like, really excited about macaroni and cheese, remember? In the comments, Sarah suggested I check out Martha Stewart’s recipe and since I do love [...]