Mac and Cheese

So Mac and Cheese has been coming up on Stacey's blog as of late. Let me preface by saying we are BIG mac and cheese fans at Domestic Goddesses. At least, I know Stacey and I are...

Anyway - mac and cheese. Who doesn't love this, quite possibly the ultimate in comfort food? But do we resort to the nuclear-colored love that Kraft provides? Well... to be honest, yes, I do enjoy the nuclear orange fuzziness that coats my belly that can only be found in a box of Kraft (the Kraft Blues Clues mac and cheese is really good... and the paw prints are blue...), but I digress. So to celebrate the opening of Sarita's Macaroni & Cheese in NYC, I bring to you, the mac and cheese recipe given to me by my own mom, given to her by my Nana. This recipe has brought joy to the faculty and staff at P.S. 139 and my own family. Enjoy, be creative, and customize where you will - and let me know what you do and how it comes out:

Roe's Nana's Baked Macaroni and Cheese

Boil up a 16 oz box of elbow-shaped pasta. I use Barilla, but I've used Rienzi and Ronzoni - basically, if you like the pasta, use it.

Shred a block of cheddar cheese (sharpness is to your taste. I happen to like sharp.) and a block of Monterey Jack cheese (an addition of mine, not part of the original recipe), set aside.

In a small saucepan, combine 2 cups milk and a stick of butter. Let the butter melt, keep the heat low enough to heat and melt but not boil - you don't want scalded milk here, you want to create a nice roux. Slightly thicken about 1/2 cup -1 cup of milk with flour - you don't want to create spackle here, you want to thicken up the milk a little bit so your mac and cheese won't be runny. Add to the roux along with a small handful of the cheese you just shredded. DO NOT use a lot of the cheese - you need it for the main course, this is just a flavoring agent.

Boil the pasta 'til it's al dente (a little firm - you're going to cook it after this, so you don't want it mushy when it comes out of the oven). Drain. Get a casserole dish and spray or butter lightly so your pasta won't stick. Spread some pasta over the bottom of the dish, then layer with the roux sauce you've just created, and enough cheese to cover the first layer. Repeat twice more or to the size of your casserole dish. Pasta, sauce, cheese.

Take some bread crumbs - again, flavoring is your call - I've used plain, but I find using the seasoned one gives it a little extra taste. I've also combined plain with parmesan cheese to give it a different taste - and sprinkle over top of pasta so it will crust up nicely. If you'd like, sprinkle any cheese you may have left over the top of the bread crumbs. Bake in an oven preheated to 350 deg. for about 30 minutes or until done. Let it cool for about 10 minutes, then dig in and enjoy!

My husband loves ham (ugh... or SPAM...) and I will occasionally throw the ham in when I'm layering - so it would be pasta, ham, sauce and cheese... On these occasions, I make two trays - one for Mike, the other for me, Will and Alex. Feel free to experiment and enjoy.

Viva Mac and Cheese!

Some Mac and Cheese-related links:
Alton Brown's Baked Macaroni and Cheese (it's a Roe post, you didn't expect an Alton reference.?)
Emeril's Macaroni with Four Cheeses
Behind the Bash - Macaroni and Cheese in Parmesan Cups
Calorie Commando's Creamy Four Cheese Macaroni

Quiz: Which Macaroni and Cheese are You?

Household Items...

So, I've seen this in Real Simple, but let's do a posting about common household items that we've found an uncommon use for!

Here's mine:

Shoelaces
Yes, they are a fantastic way to keep your shoes on your feet. But did you know they also make great barette and hairclip holders? I've got one tied up near my "getting-ready" mirror, and I can just clip them all up on there for easy access. I suppose a ribbon might work also, but the shoelace has a nice fluffy traction to it that can't be beat. It's so much better than digging around at the bottom of some toiletry bag, or drawer because they're all in plain view.

Guacamole!

I love saying that word. It's just a happy kind of word.

I've been a fringe admirer of guacamole for a little while, and finally started trying various versions a few months ago. Mmmm... so cooling, refreshing and tasty. And coming across a recipe for "Too-Easy Guacamole" in the Spring 2006 issue of Better Homes & Gardens' Eat Magazine was the perfect excuse for me to give it a shot, because anything called "Too Easy" is something I need to find out for myself.

Too-Easy Guacamole (from Better Homes & Gardens Eat Magazine, Spring 2006 issue, page 80)

Prep: 15 mins Chill: up to 8 hrs
Makes: about 1 cup

2 ripe avocades, halved, seeded, and peeled
2 tablespoons dairy sour cream
2 tablespoons snipped fresh cilantro
1 tablespoon lime juice
1/8 teaspoon salt
Tortilla chips
Sliced green onions
Chopped tomatoes

Place avocado halves, sour cream, cilantro, lime juice, and salt in a sturdy, resealable plastic bag. Seal bag. Knead with your hands to combine ingredients. (Will loved this part, since I shanghaied him into helping me.) Place in your refrigerator until ready to use (up to 8 hours).

To serve, arrange chips on a serving platter. Snip a hole in one corner of the bag. Squeeze avocado mixture onto corn chips. Sprinkle with onions and tomatoes.

Per 1 tablespoon: 39 calories, 4g fat (1g sat fat), 1mg chol., 21 mg sodium, 2g carb, 1g fiber

Okay - I deviated a bit here. I didn't squeeze my mixture onto tortilla chips, I squeezed it into a Rubbermaid thingie to store in my fridge for snacking purposes. But today, I realized that I don't like the texture of onions and tomatoes, I wanted to explore blending it all smoothly together. So I threw about 3 tablespoons of salsa into a little mini food processor along with the guac, blended it up with another pinch of kosher salt to bring out the flavors, and bingo. Tasty guacamole!

Home...

So, to Roe's reccommendation, I'm going to post on other domestic matters. Since I never seem to cook much of consequence. Though I am tempted to do a little baking this weekend. I'm going to try some cupcakes maybe.

Anyway...

Do any of you have this problem?

Piles of unopened mail.

They haunt my dreams. They haunt my waking hours.
Here's the issue. I rarely even open my statements, and what not, because I get most of that info delivered to me online. And almost all of my bill paying has gone digital. From automatic withdrawls, to online bill pay through my bank, there just isn't much need.

So, if it doesn't have a handwritten address on it, or it's not something I've been waiting for. It tends to get thrown in the "I need to file this pile".

I'm now on the 3rd style of mail basket. First there was the wall hanging basket, that was just pointless, it got full way too fast and then the pile just migrated to the kitchen table. Next there was the Inbox style plastic thing from staples. That only had 3 sides, so you can imagine how long that lasted. Now we're onto the deeper rectangular sized basket. And that works pretty well, until someone throws a CD or a hat on top, and things start to slide off.

Yes, a couple months can go by before I decide to actually open and file these into my yearly expandable file. So as you can imagine, this year has been pretty busy, and Adam's schooling and my making my sister's wedding favors have used up spare time rather than opening mail I didn't need to read. So yesterday I went through it all.

Between junk mail, statement inserts, coupons for free pen sets, and empty envelopes, I filled up 4 grocery bags full of paper. They weren't stuffed to the gills, but wow. What a waste of paper and natural resources.

So, I'm starting a new "Mid-Year Resolution".

• I'm going to weed out the junk mail daily and only keep what's necessary in "Mount Postal"
• I'm going to try to remember weekly to file away the week's mail.
• I'm going to request electronic delivery with more of my bills. I already get that with Verizon, and it uses up so much less paper.

So that's that... keep me honest people.

The Tostone... a Little Slice of Heaven Found in a Plantain...

So I've recently rediscovered my love of the tostone, introduced to me in my childhood by Annie and Sandy (who, along with their dad Pop, are directly responsible for my addiction to rice & beans, potatoes, and achote of all stripes). Seized with the compulsion last week to make a tostone after watching - yes, you guessed it, Alton, I am now a tostone-cranking madwoman.

Alton pretty much does the same as I've learned as a kid, but with a new twist in letting the tostones dry out on a cookie rack rather than letting them sit in their own oil to dry. I am always on the lookout to try new things but not at the expense of my waistline, so I tried it and it works. So let me share Alton's/my tostones recipe (I've melded the two into one) with you. I can't find Alton's recipe on the Food Network page - what did they do with him??

Anyway - here it is.

I usually use two plantains; one usually yields anywhere from 10-12 tostones depending on how thickly you slice them. I usually make them about an inch thick because you have to squash them.

Buy the green plantains - not unripened bananas, there is a difference. Plantains are a hard, starchy banana used in cooking and will be marked as "plantains" in the grocery store. You can buy yellow ones, too - they get sweeter as they ripen. Slice off the ends, and remove the outer skin. They do not peel like a regular banana - I slice them (not penetrating the meat of the fruit, so try to keep an eye on this) down one side, stick my thumb into the incision, and slide it down the cut. From there, you should be able to peel it off the fruit. George Duran recommends soaking the greener ones in cold water at first to help this process, so give that a shot if you're having a hard time.

Slice into pieces about an inch thick. Fry them for about 2 minutes on each side in oil (I use canola in a frying pan and use tongs to flip them) and remove, letting them dry on a baking rack. I put the baking rack on top of a cookie sheet lined with either newspaper or a paper shopping bag to soak up the oil.

After they've dried out for about 2-3 minutes, fill a bowl with room-temperature salted water. Give the plantains a little bath, not too long or they'll fall apart on you. Put them back on the rack to dry for another couple of minutes. Then take a flat spatula and press gently (GENTLY!) on each individual tostone (use a cutting board for this, the baking rack is too unstable) so it flattens out a bit.

When you finish smushing your tostones, put them back in the oil for another 2 minutes on each side, until they're golden brown. Let them dry out one more time on the rack, salt to taste, and enjoy!

While watching Ham on the Street last night, turns out George Duran has his own version of tostones, which also look darn tasty. Wander over here to check it out.