on the menu yesterday was macaroni and cheese... made from scratch and not of the box-orange variety. too bad i suck at making macaroni and cheese. i heard that making the meal was fairly simple, so i figured i would give it a try. plus, marc loves macaroni and cheese. (i aim to please.)
anyway, marc and kelley lent me a macaroni and cheese cookbook in preparation for my culinary task. after reviewing all of the recipes in the cookbook, i decided that i would start with the basics and if it went well, would progress further with more complicated recipes. unfortunately, the aforementioned cookbook did not have a basic recipe. thus, i ended up scouring the internet.
the recipe i finally used came complements of my man, alton brown of food network fame.
it was definitely an interesting exercise in making macaroni and cheese. the recipe calls for the use of a diced yellow onion. well, needless to say, i have never diced an onion... ever. i have cut them into strips... but never dicing. my eyes were actually tearing by the end of my dicing experience. lucky for me, i have two working tear ducts unlike my friend (hot amy).
as well, i had a little setback with my "rue". i have no idea what a rue is. in fact, i just got exposed to the word yesterday only because karen started telling me that i should be doing x, y, and z for the rue. (i am thinking this is why karen cooks the majority of the time... bossy boots tendencies.) of course, karen was absolutely correct in this case because i was making the rue incorrectly.
when all was said and done, i had created a cheese filled mess in a casserole dish... and not only in the dish, but also in the kitchen... all over the countertop... all over the stove... yes it was fun to clean up.
(pictured below is the macaroni and cheese dinner prior to baking. the guinness bottle is just a shameless plug.)
i was actually concerned because the cheese filled mess looked nothing like the picture online. as well, the cheese filled mess looked like it contained more cheese than macaroni. unfortunately, i did not have a plan b. all i had was faith... in my man... alton brown.
to my surprise, the meal actually came out pretty well. everyone told me that they liked it. of course, they could have just been saying that. i was pleasantly surprised. and let this be a lesson: always have faith in alton brown. alton brown will never lead you astray!
needless to say, all of us polished off the mac 'n cheese while we watched the latest episode of "lost". the episode of "lost", by the way, was excellent. had someone walked by the window at the right moment, that person would probably have seen all of us pumping our fists in excitement and joy over the latest twist in the show.
and naturally, after "lost", we were also able to catch a few more episodes of the greatest tv show ever: buffy the vampire slayer. the three episodes were "helpless" about buffy's rite of passage upon turning 18; "the zeppo" about xander and his usefulness to the group; and "bad girls" which introduces the new character: wesley wyndham-pryce.
"the zeppo" is one of marc's favorite episodes proabably because the episode is xander-centric and he enjoys the xander character. of the three episodes, i actually liked "bad girls" the most... not only because it has the faith character in it (which it does)... or introduces wesley... but because the episode sets up the rest of season three. (this is probably where you can tell i was a psychology and sociology major because i find the episode so interesting with its id versus ego underlying theme.)
anyway, last night was quite enjoyable... with the macaroni and cheese... lost... buffy the vampire slayer... and hanging out with marc and kelley. it was definitely a good time.
2 comments:
ooh, the mac and cheese looks really good!
the zeppo is one of my favorite episodes too!
Do we need to have a macaroni & cheese bake-off?
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