baked macaroni – not as heavy, but just as cheese-pleasing

orange food almost always does well. mind you, macaroni can be white-ish too and just as tasty, but for now, let’s all envision golden melty macaroni with a gooey-crunchy top and warm soft middle. this recipe stems from one my dad made up; the main difference being I’ve added a few more things to flavour up the pasta and some panko for extra crunch. so, if you please, crank your oven and get yourself hungry!

pulled out of your fridge and cabinets:

half a bag of macaroni, 450g or so
1/2 a small onion, finely diced
1/2 tsp salt
lots of cracked black pepper
3-5 shakes of worcestershire, depending on how bitey you like it
1 big egg or 2 little ones
1/2 C milk
1/2 a medium tub of cottage cheese, 250 ml-ish
1/2 tsp white sugar
3-4 C sharp cheddar grated
1/2 C panko or bread crumbs

. preheat thine oven to 350
. boil the macaroni, but drain it 2 minutes before it’s properly cooked. it will finish tendering-up in the oven
. in a bowl, add the egg, diced onion, pepper, salt, sugar, worcestershire and beat with a fork
. add the cottage cheese and milk and stir
. drain the pasta and pour the milk/cheese mix over the pasta and stir

. dump half the pasta into a nice casserole dish
. sprinkle just less than half of the cheese on the pasta so it’s evenly distributed
. dump on the rest of the pasta, and the rest of the cheese on that
. sprinkle the panko on top and give it a few cracks of pepper

. either put a lid on your dish, or lightly wrap it in tinfoil and bake for half an hour
. remove lid/foil and bake for another half hour or so. you may want to turn on the broiler for the last 2 or 3 minutes if you’re partial to a crispy top

I like this with cheddar, but a cheddar/mozzarella blend is nice, or gruyere and fontina… or maybe add a little blue cheese if you like it zippy. so many cheeses, so many dinners…

 

the satisfaction of new from old – food

I derive an epic amount of satisfaction from making something terribly tasty from leftovers. you’ll always need to invest a little more, but it’s so worth it. BAM masher soup. Also, there’s no photo, because it’s a truly ugly looking soup, not quite as bad as french canadian pea soup, but still. let’s just say it tastes miles better than it looks.

1 tbsp butter and a glurg of oil
1/3 of an onion diced fine
1 stick of celery also finey fine
1 or 2 mediumish carrots cut to thumbnail size
a few shakes each of garlic powder, poultry seasoning, thyme, cracked black pepper
1 round tsp of chicken bouillion
1 bay leaf
1/4 C white wine
any leftover gravy you may have
2 C mashed potatoes
1-3 potatoes (depending on their size) sliced into thin discs
water

. get a goodly sized pot on medium low heat. put the oils in and melt them together
. add the onion, carrot, celery and spices. when they start to get glossy, add the bay leaf, left over gravy and wine. cook off
. add the mash, boillion and water. stir, cover and simmer on low for twenty or so minutes
. add the sliced potatoes and continue to simmer until the slices are tender

butter up some bread or biscuits and tuck in
also, please, stray from the outline here and experiment. I don’t actually measure anything I cook (the baking, I do for obvious reasons) but prefer to go by my nose and tastebuds. throw in some diced tomato or spinach or peas. maybe substitute regular potatoes for sweet potatoes and add half water, half apple juice… just be creative and adventuresome. it won’t always turn out, but I think what you learn from making a bad dish will always outweigh the frustration of having to chuck your dinner and have peanut butter sandwiches instead.