Macaroni and cheese has long been a favorite of mine (as I’m sure it is for many of you). Growing up, Mom always made our mac-n-cheese “from scratch”. Hers was a simple recipe. Boil some shells, chunk up some Velveeta, and stir, stir, stir until it all melts. That’s it, no milk, no butter. In fact, when someone added those things to mac n cheese, it tasted weird to me. I just wanted Mom’s.

Somewhere along the way, I decided to add a little milk and butter to my version of Mom’s. I think it was in college and I was running a little low on Velveeta, so I had to stretch it out somehow. I decided that wasn’t half bad, and I could eat that again if I had to. A few years later, and at a luncheon I had baked macaroni and cheese. The kind that has a bechamel sauce base, and bread crumbs on top. This took me back to “something’s not quite right with this”. Additions to my macaroni are apparently an acquired taste, but out of the necessity to stretch what’s in the cupboard or fridge, my palate learns to adapt. And that’s how I ended up making this Baked Mac n Cheese with Broccoli. (more…)

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Comfort food, Dinner, Vegetarian by Courtney

Tonight for dinner, instead of ending with a sweet note, I decided to put together a cheese plate of local cheeses to round out our meal. At the cheese counter, I picked up a favorite, the Humboldt Fog from Cypress Grove. As I was perusing the other selections, I noticed a new offering from Cypress Grove – Truffle Tremor. I added that to my basket, and randomly selected a Cowgirl Creamery to round out my offerings (because I always like an odd number of cheeses). The Cowgirl was Red Hawk, and man, was it stinky! Very tasty, but so stinky you almost needed to hold your nose around this cheese. (more…)

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Appetizers, Dessert, Dinner by Courtney

With the return of Monday night football comes yummy, cheesy, not-good-for-you foods. And to begin the season, I decided to break out one of my recently pickled batches of jalapenos and make a plate of these guys.

I saw this recipe on America’s Test Kitchen many moons ago, and I immediately had to make it. Fast forward a year, and silly me hadn’t saved the recipe. While the nachos part itself I could remember, I couldn’t remember the recipe for the guacamole, which is one of the best I’ve ever had. Recently, I found the recipe again, as a download to promote the America’s Test Kitchen cookbook. Luckily I saved it this time, because it looks like its already gone again. (more…)

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Appetizers, Comfort food, Gluten free, Vegetarian by Courtney