Everyone needs a go-to mac and cheese recipe; this is mine, from a 1994 Gourmet magazine via Epicurious.com. I've made it for numerous Fourth of July parties, birthdays and summer lunches by the pool and it's the freakin' definition of "crowd pleaser." Nothing fancy, no additions of curry powder or green onion or smoked mozzarella (though those would probably all be good), just elbow macaroni, cheddar and Parmesan, bread crumbs, milk and butter, with a dash of cayenne, dry mustard and a little flour. Baked in the oven with a bread crumb topping and sliced into wedges, it's dense and creamy in the middle with a delicate crunchy top.
If you do want to try some additions, dozens of Epicurious commenters have left their suggestions. But I think it's just perfect for what it is, which is why I wanted to share. I'll be making four batches later for my pig pickin'. More on that later...
I bet Burger King hates coming in second to McDonald's all the time. In fact, I'm pretty darn sure, if only because of the new products the company is introducing.
According to a report from the Chicago Tribune, the world's second largest burger chain is going to start serving Kraft brand macaroni and cheese in test markets (which were not named in the article). And soon the corporation will roll out "BK Wrappers" to compete directly with its McDonald's counterpart.
Kraft brand macaroni and cheese is pretty well known in the supermarkets, but the company has a whole division for making the cheesy pasta dish for restaurants. Kraft has said it will make a macaroni and cheese just for Burger King.
Burger King spokespeople have said that while not completely aimed at children, they were a major consideration. Now parents can have one more reason their kids will love the King.
We've talked a lot about guilty pleasures here at Slashfood, and our friends at AOL Food have a whole category devoted to it. And one of those guilty pleasures (and also a comfort food) is Macaroni and Cheese.
Here's a recipe for Mom's Mac 'n' Cheese. Now, it's not my mom's mac 'n' cheese, but it's the type of dish someone's mom might make. My mom didn't put tomatoes in hers, but that's a nice touch. Full recipe after the jump.
Last night, NPR's News and Notes featured a brief but serious piece about macaroni and cheese by Los Angeles-based columnist and actor Joseph C. Phillips. Phillips seems truly distressed, and rightly so, that his kids have been served a powdery, imitation mac and cheese at a local restaurant. He uses this experience of what mac and cheese isn't as a springboard for talking about what mac and cheese is, and, more specifically, what it is in the African American community. "This is the storytelling," Phillips says of the guarded recipes and mystique that surround really good homemade examples of the dish. He then goes on to share a few of his favorite mac and cheese-related stories. His own recipe is available on his website, here. The photo is of Sarah Gim's liveblogged mac and cheese from last winter.
The Oregon-based cheese company has teamed up with LA's McCormick
& Schmick's to sponsor the contest. Entries have to be
submitted by Tuesday, May 2, 2006. Hey! That's today! The winner of the contest, which will actually be held on May
25, 2006, will receive $1,000 and will go on to the next "round" in Portland, OR to vie for the $5,000
national grand champion prize.
So hurry! But remember, the "directions" on the back of the box don't count as
a recipe.
Do you do mac-n-cheese? If you're reading any
mainstream food media this month, chances are, you do. Today's Seattle Times Food & Wine section has a cover feature on macaroni &
cheese. They must have been reading The St.
Louis Post-Dispatch, which did a cute "blue" variety of the dish earlier this month. Or the New
York Times, where "Crusty Macaroni &
Cheese" has been a top-five most-emailed story for a solid week. (They also did creamy, it wasn't nearly so popular.) Everybody's doing it.
But I
think it all (obviously) started here. Sarah Gim did her
macaroni & cheese liveblogging on Christmas Day. And in early January, mainstream media goes mad for
mac-n-cheese. Coincidence? You be the judge.
The penne pasta is al
dente and hanging out in a colander on the counter. When I was growing up, my mother whipped me with a wet noodle
if ever I forgot to rinse cooked spaghetti under cold water. Only recently have I found out that this is actually a bad
idea (thanks, Mario, though I'm not exactly sure why it's bad), but
still, I feel a little weird about leaving my penne unrinsed.
Now begins the sauce part, but here is where I
have learned lesson #648 about Holiday cooking. Never assume that the satellite kitchen in which you're going to
cook the Holiday ham ("satellite" meaning not your home base) is going to have all the equipment you
need.
But in the deep recesses of my mother's "tupperware cabinet," I found a Benriner,
the Japanese version of a mandoline. I grated a block of medium cheddar and Monterey jack that had been
shoved in the freezer for a half hour to make it easier to grate to make 5 cups of shredded
cheese. On the Benriner, the cheese actually came out looking more like long, flat noodles.
Every month, Karina Longworth picks a different food and eats her way around New York until she finds the best preparation in the Five Boroughs. This month, her search for New York's best macaroni and cheese will take her from speakeasies to supermarkets. First stop: Dumont.
I'm thinking back to the lardon-studded macaroni and cheese ($9) I had Sunday night at Dumont (432 Union Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11211) and I'm torn. As I'm craving the meaty chunks of salty ham, my mouth is simultaneously puckering from the memory of the even saltier islands of Parmesean.
I bet 
We've talked a lot about guilty pleasures here at Slashfood, and our friends at AOL Food have a whole category devoted to it. And one of those guilty pleasures (and also a comfort food) is Macaroni and Cheese. 
Last night, NPR's News and Notes featured a 
Do you do mac-n-cheese? If you're reading any
mainstream food media this month, chances are, you do. Today's Seattle Times Food & Wine section has a 
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