Three cheese mac and cheese
March 3, 2011 § Leave a comment
When we were younger, my sister Laura loved Stouffer’s microwaveable macaroni and cheese dinners. For the longest time, her after-school routine consisted of throwing her bookbag on the floor after getting home, walking to the fridge and pulling out a mac and cheese dinner, nuking it for two minutes, and then plopping herself in front of the television.
I, on the other hand, hated the stuff. I wasn’t a fan of dairy products in general, and everytime she’d pull out that tray of yellow gunk, I’d gag a little, which was a shame because mac and cheese seemed like such a quintessentially American food and I was all about the hamburgers, fried chicken, and mashed potatoes while growing up.
Then, when I got to college, something changed. Maybe it was because I started baking brie for wine and cheese gatherings and making grilled cheese sandwiches for quick dinners, but one day I went to Trader Joe’s and randomly picked up their four cheese macaroni, and since then, I’ve been hooked.
This past Thanksgiving, I decided it was high time to do a homemade version and went with Ina Garten’s classic, topped with sliced tomato and fresh breadcrumbs. It was a big hit among the guests, but when I made it again last night, I decided to do away with all the embellishments. Even when cut in half, the recipe has a high yield. But for someone who’s trying to get into the habit of cooking batches of food and then saving them for meals during the week, it totally works.
And in relation to a “flexitarian” lifestyle, this obviously falls under “unrestricted” meals due to the generous amounts of butter, milk, Gruyere, sharp cheddar, and parmesan. It’s well worth it though.
Ingredients
salt
vegetable oil
1/2 pound elbow macaroni
2 cups milk
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
6 oz Gruyere, grated
4 oz extra-sharp cheddar (I like Cabot)
1 teaspoon salt or to taste
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/3 cup freshly grated Parmesan
Directions
Preheat the oven to 375 F.
Drizzle oil into a large pot of boiling and salted water. Add the macaroni and cook according to the directions, 6 to 8 minutes. Drain well.
Meanwhile, heat the milk in a small saucepan but don’t let it boil. In a deep skillet, melt the butter and then add the flour. Cook over low heat for about 2 minutes, stirring with a whisk. While whisking, add the hot milk and cook for a minute until it thickens a little and reaches a smooth consistency. Off the heat, add the cheeses and the salt, pepper, and nutmeg. Add the cooked macaroni and mix well. Pour into a 8 x 8 baking dish or whatever else fits. Top with grated parmesan. Bake for about 30 to 35 minutes, until the top is golden brown and the mac and cheese is bubbly.
Food Matters and reflection
March 3, 2011 § Leave a comment
2011 has been a major fail on the cooking front. Last semester, despite all the stress of settling into school law, I still managed to have people over for small dinner parties and cook lunch for the week. What happened? A sprained ankle (that's still in the process of healing), a bitterly cold Ithaca winter, and general lack of inspiration. But NO MORE.
Last weekend, while cleaning my apartment for the first time in weeks, I stumbled on Mark Bittman's Food Matters which had been hiding under a pile of my Economist magazines and once again read about the truly disgusting practices of factory farms in America, the impact such practices have on the environment as well as our bodies, and Bittman's gradual shift to a lifestyle he liked to call, "vegan 'til six," where he'd eat a vegan diet for breakfast and lunch and then indulge in whatever he wanted for dinner each day. In the process, he got rid of his sleep apnea, high cholesterol, and high blood sugar and shed 35 pounds.
As a grad student with (very) limited funds, it's not realistic for me to suddenly buy grass-fed beef, only whole grains, and all organic fruits and vegetables. I am, however, very intrigued by the notion that, in a country where it's sometimes much cheaper to buy instant mac and cheese in bulk than locally grown fruit, it's nevertheless possible to eat healthily and responsibly without spending more money on groceries.
No, I don't plan on becoming a total whole food zealot anytime soon; there will still be bacon cheeseburgers and Cajun fries for this occasional glutton, but it'll be interesting to see how well I can exercise my restraint for baked goods, diet soda, and junk food, whether vegetarian food can ever really compare to food that includes meat, whether this kind of "flexitarian" lifestyle is feasible for someone on a low budget, and how much of an effect such a lifestyle can really have on one's health. And to set some parameters for myself, my approach to flexitarianism, at least initially, is going to entail two vegetarian meals (well, technically, they'd be ovo-lacto-vegetarian meals since I'm allowing myself eggs and dairy products at first) and then one meal that's completely unrestricted, with no specific distribution as to which meal is veg or nonveg.
Here's to a new year (two months late) with high goals for health and perhaps a permanent change for the better.
Notes on Food 