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November 17, 2008
What I’ve Been Eating Lately, Since We All Know My Life Revolves Around Food
Macaroni and Cheese
Because of my weekly produce deliveries, all of my meals over the last six months have in some way, shape, or form involved a fruit or vegetable. This past week was my last week of produce. I felt a little sad about it, so I decided to cheer myself up with something fatty and wonderful—and what could be more fatty and wonderful, more far from produce, than macaroni and cheese? I used a recipe I found in one of my Cook’s Illustrated magazines that I’d never tried before and that I think is now my Official Favorite.
Butternut Squash with Ginger, Pepper, and a Wee Pat of Butter
I’ve been eating this every single day for the last week, and it is not getting old.
No-Mayo Cole Slaw
I have a conflicted relationship with cabbage that stems from the seasons in which they’d plant cabbage in the fields surrounding my house when I was a child. If you’ve never had to endure months of smelling rotting cabbage, then you may not understand why sauerkraut is one of the very few foods in this world I avoid. It’s a smell you don’t get used to. So, anyway, I’d never made anything much with cabbage, but I got a couple heads in my last two produce deliveries. I decided to make a No-Mayo Cole Slaw with Apples this week from Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything Vegetarian. Cole slaw has always been my cabbage weakness, and this no-mayo variety dressed with a vinaigrette is really yummy and not nearly as high in fat as the kind with mayo. It kind of made up for the macaroni and cheese. Did I mention that I used whole milk in the macaroni and cheese?
Chocolate Chip Cookies from Elegant Expressions Bakery
I’m a little snooty about cookies because my chocolate chip cookies kick ass, but Elegant Expressions’ are better than mine. If you live in the Rochester area, you need to know that a.) these cookies freeze very well, and b.) you can eat them right out of the freezer, no thawing required. If you don’t live in the Rochester area, I offer my condolences, because Elegant Expressions' chocolate chip cookies make up for a lot of bad things in the world. Matter o’ fact, I think I’m going to go eat one right now.
Book mentioned:
Bittman, Mark. How to Cook Everything Vegetarian: Simple Meatless Recipes for Great Food. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2007. (HC: 9780764524837)
Posted by adrienne at November 17, 2008 09:53 PM
Comments
This is definitely my kind of post! Everything sounds so yummy . . . will have to check out the Bittman book.
Posted by: jama at November 18, 2008 06:38 AM
Thanks, Jama! You'll be glad you checked out the Bittman book. One could really live off that cookbook alone, although, goodness knows, I collect cookbooks the same way I collect post-its. That one's one of my most frequently consulted titles, though.
Posted by: adrienne at November 18, 2008 08:04 AM
I am glad I do not live near rotting cabbage fields. I love sauerkraut and just went through a phase where I could not get enough. I want those chocolate chip cookies.
Posted by: jone at November 18, 2008 08:31 AM
I love cabbage, but most of the time it gives me terrible stomach cramps. This is a hardship, because I love Polish stuffed cabbage. What comfort food! ...For the eating part of it at least.
Real macaroni and cheese is decadent and lovely.
I may make one of my comfort foods this week: spanikopita. I used olive oil instead of butter on the filo dough sheets last time, and it turned out well, but peeling those layers of filo dough away from each other without ripping them is a real challenge. I do the lasagna-pan version instead of the individually wrapped triangles, because I would just cry from all of the ripped filo dough.
Posted by: Alkelda the Gleeful at November 18, 2008 11:38 AM
Cabbage is the thing we find hard to get through in our veggie box, and it's included in all them at the moment! I was looking for a good cook book to add to my Christmas list, shall try out your rec!
Posted by: emmaco at November 18, 2008 01:00 PM
We have the yummiest mac and cheese recipe that involves cheddar, mozzarella, AND GOUDA! Mmm: Gouda.
If you want, I'll send!
Posted by: Jules at November 18, 2008 02:30 PM
Jone, Next time I'm in Portland, I'll totally bring you some of the cookies. (Not so far-fetched, by-the-by--I'm hoping to do PLA 2010.)
Alkelda, I would like some spanikopita. It's never occurred to me to try to make it myself. Filo dough, in general, is a mystery to me.
Emmaco, Those veggie boxes are a bit of a weekly adventure, aren't they? I'm planning to do it again next year. In fact, I found one in our area that does veggies every other week in January, February, and March, which I'm *also* planning to do.
Jules, Yes, please do send that recipe. Sounds like heaven.
Posted by: adrienne at November 18, 2008 02:51 PM
The best mac and cheese recipes are made with a cheese alloy, like Jules'
Posted by: chuck at November 18, 2008 07:06 PM
I would like some macaroni and cheese, please. :(
Posted by: Olivia at November 18, 2008 11:27 PM
I'm so sad for you that your vege box goes away after this week! Ours went all year 'round even at home, and here... well, in the winter it means a metric ton (or tonne, as the Scots spell it) of horribly hard to get used to (for this Californian, anyway) things like rutabagas and parsnips and turnips and yes, cabbage -- but on the up side, lots of beets and KALE, which is my all-time favorite vegetable, ever.
Ooh, sorry about the rotting cabbage thing. I can't say I would be in love with that, either.
Posted by: TadMack at November 19, 2008 08:59 AM
Chuck, This is true. I used a blend of cheddar and jack cheeses in mine. Mmmmm.
Olivia, I'm sorry! You can have some with the pretend cheese, though. I've heard that's pretty good. :)
TadMack, I don't think that I have ever in my life eaten a parsnip. I'm not even sure I could identify one in a lineup. That's what I love about The Box, though. I like the challenge of figuring out what to do with everything, and it's forced me to learn a lot in a really short amount of time. I think my winter boxes will be very much like yours; at least they're things that don't spoil quickly. It was a little stressful when I was getting two or three heads of lettuce in my box every week.
Posted by: adrienne at November 19, 2008 09:24 AM
Ohhhhhh,that mac&cheese was so good!XOXO
Posted by: a reader at November 19, 2008 03:09 PM
I'm glad you liked it!!! :)
Posted by: adrienne at November 19, 2008 07:56 PM
I so want to see the Cook's Illustrated version of Mac and Cheese! That sounds sooo good right now on this very rainy day. I actually use Mark Bittman's Mac and Cheese recipe from his vegetarian cookbook. Is Cook's different? Now that I'm in the Pacific Northwest I've fallen in love with Tillamook for Mac and Cheese -- I use the medium and the sharp.
Posted by: Bridget Zinn at November 20, 2008 01:11 PM
I suppose having that awesome hummus you made makes up for not being able to eat the mac and cheese recipe. I will accept that as a substitute. :)
Posted by: Olivia at November 20, 2008 11:42 PM
Bridget, It's similar to Bittman's with a couple variations that I think make for a better texture and also the cheese combo is more kid-friendly than Bittman's (a concern with my godsons, who subsist largely on macaroni and cheese). I'll email the recipe.
Olivia, Whew! I'm off the cook, then! :)
Posted by: adrienne at November 21, 2008 08:09 PM