"childhood" news and stories

Macaroni & Cheese: 52 Recipes from Simple to Sublime is a single-subject cookbook that comfort food fans can really get behind. This book starts most of its recipes off with a basic roux, a mixture of flour, milk and butter that is the foundation of many oh-so-creamy sauces, and nothing in it resembles the stuff that comes from a blue box and bright orange cheese powder. The author tackles a very classic macaroni and cheese, but also takes advantage of cheeses from around the world, including Asiago, Roquefort and Feta. She blends the cheeses and pastas with other ingredients to create down-home comfort dishes, like Green Chile Mac and Cheese, and adds in things such as lobster meat, prosciutto and artichoke hearts for more upscale variations. There is even a dessert macaroni and cheese, made with a creamy, sweetened mascarpone mixture.

Some of the recipes are original, while some have been collected from various chefs that Joan Schwartz, the author, has worked with. Regardless of the origin of the recipe or the distance it has developed from what why may remember from childhood, the fact that the basic technique is the same or similar for each recipe means that you'll be able to add 52 recipes to your repertoire in very short order.

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It seems like there's finally an end to the dreariness for us introverted extremists who keep frozen veggie chix patties in our freezers all the live long day. This is good because those things were like forgotten glue you didn't fry them up in a frying pan with olive oil or something, and if I had a pan and olive oil, why would I make a chick patty?

I'll be honest, I'm such a crazy dude these days I can't even get it together to get a plate and a pan and the oil in one room on the same day. I'm busy. I'm a city-livn' son of a gun.  I just put the veggie burger on a plate and microwave it (uncovered) for 90 seconds, then put some mustard on it and eat it like a pie, or a small thin round meatloaf. In other words, I don't pick it up at all. I use the fork to cut it and then left it to my mouth, tenderly, I don't even get hummus anymore, because it goes bad all the time before I can finish it.

All the other bloggers on this site praise the lastest breakthrough in food porn technology and I'm all for that, but for me food isn't porn, it's a drug, it's a consciousness raising tool. It helps ease the panic attacks and keeps the world in focus. It makes me feel warm and fuzzy instead of disoriented and hostile. I like it in small doses, in bar sizes, in easy to prepare portions. I'd be right at home in a future like the one portrayed in Soylent Green, or with K-rations like Saving Private Ryan. The spreads in films like Babette's Feast cause me anxiety, as if I'm going to end up being the one who does all the dishes, or worse-- made to feel guilty the whole ride home by my mom, "That nice French lady made that huge feast and killed a sea turtle and evrything and you couldn't even volunteer to do the dishes." Such guilt! Who needs it?

Nosheteria was craving some Oreo cookies and happened to stumble upon Wayne Harley Brachman's cookbook Retro Desserts, which contains a recipe for homemade Oreo cookies. I happen to love my copy of his cookbook and have made homemade graham crackers and other goodies on many occasions. I have not tried these chocolate sandwich cookies, but I definitely will now. Nosheteria says that the cookies taste surprisingly similar to - if not better than - the original Oreos. They are crisp, with just the right amount of delicious vanilla cream filling. I recommend picking up a copy of the book, but the recipe is posted online, too.

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Snack cakes are a hot-button issue for a lot of people, especially if the controversy over snackable wedding cakes is any indication. They represent a classic comfort for as most people had them during childhood. Even if your parents kept them out of the house and out of your lunchbox, chances are good that you were able to indulge once in a while at the home of a friend. From Twinkies to jam-filled krimpets, everyone has a favorite. If I had to guess, though, I would say that any kind of cream-filled chocolate cupcake is the favorite for most people.

Ding Dongs and Ring Dings are actually the same thing: a chocolate covered, cream-filled cupcake. Though sold under different brand names, Hostess and Drake's, respectively, they are produced by the same company. Hostess also sells their Ding Dongs as King Dons in some states, where there was a competitor with a similar name and they wanted to avoid confusion. The when the competitor went out of business, they tried to return to selling only Ding Dongs, but there was such an outcry, that they kept the King name. Little Debbie also makes a similar product, called a Devil Square and Tastykake makes a cream-filled chocolate cupcake, though only their Kandy Kakes are fully covered in chocolate, not their cupcakes.

Some people swear that they can taste the difference between these products, but I think that it's unlikely. Packaging doesn't impart any flavor into the cake within. Personally, I think that Tastykake makes the best of the bunch, though I'll take a Butterscotch Krimpet over a cream-filled cupcake any day.