mac & cheese

I forgot how long we have been doing this shelter-in-place. I just know it has been long enough that I can't actually tell you for sure the exact day of the week. We are trying to establish somewhat of a routine around here though. I have always been an early riser, so I go to sleep and wake up just as I would on any given day. I still shower, but I may be wearing sweats or "athleisure" more often than not. Currently, our dining table is doubling as our "office workspace" with our laptops side-by-side. After we each make our morning Nespresso, we plug in our earphones and get to work. Ryan is doing actual work. My work is making this blog happen and doing some continuing education to stay busy. At some point during the day, in addition to taking Bella outside, I will also go to our second bedroom to do a workout so I don't bother Ryan while he is on work calls. I stopped doing my 1000+ piece puzzles daily because it was hard keeping my iPad charged. I felt a little judged when I was trying to finish a puzzle and had to resort to sitting on the floor next to an outlet. And to clarify, I felt judged by Bella [not Ryan]. Ryan said he could get a longer charging cord and, at that moment, it caused me to evaluate how my life might continue through this shelter-in-place. Let's just say, it wasn't looking good for me. I was feeling so determined to finish a very challenging puzzle every day that I was losing my mind a little bit. So I made an executive decision to cut that out.

I have been cooking a lot still but also conscious about how much we are eating since we are spending a great amount of time indoors with less physical activity than normal. Sometimes we have a small breakfast and small lunch with dinner later. Other times we may skip the early breakfast and just have a brunch situation and maybe some fruit as a snack if we get hungry before dinner. I always check in with Ryan to see how hungry he is feeling. Most consistently, Ryan has a lunch break time around 12-1pm so, at that time, we put everything aside and eat together. After lunch, Ryan goes back to his work and I am already thinking about what I will be making for dinner so I can plan accordingly. At the end of the work day, we take Bella on a good walk down the trail and around the neighborhood. When we come back, I'm making dinner while Ryan decompresses from work. We eat dinner, clean up, and watch a tv show or play a board game. And that's kind of it for the weekdays. It is not super exciting but it is a routine that seems to work for us.

When it comes to cooking and making meals, I am mostly trying not to waste any food. In general, it is important when you buy food to set expectations for the week [or however long it may be until you are at the grocery story next] as not to be wasteful and also avoid overspending. It may look like we have a new meal every day. But, around here, leftovers have to be eaten or repurposed into another meal. Even all the baked goods I make are shared and dispersed out of here as much as possible because Ryan has a pretty serious sweet tooth.

I am not sure how everyone else is eating during shelter-in-place given that all the canned goods and non-perishables are constantly wiped from the grocery stores. However, we are cooking and eating mostly fresh produce and protein like normal over here. I do have some types of "emergency" food always stored in the pantry [regardless of this whole situation], but I tend to avoid actually using any of it unless there is an actual emergency. An emergency for us would mean having zero time to put a meal together. That doesn't happen very often. However, there are occasional weeknights when we both get home late from work, and I am not opposed to taking a few shortcuts. I am a normal human after all- someone who usually also has to go to work and has other responsibilities besides preparing meals. It just happens to be that, right now, I have all the time in the world to do meal planning and cooking.

So, whatever day it was last week when I went grocery shopping, I was craving macaroni and cheese. I have never made mac and cheese for Ryan, because I honestly thought he didn't like it. He rarely ever chooses it off a menu and I swear he has mentioned in the past that he's not into it. However, Ryan said he was all in for mac and cheese and got really excited when I brought it up. So, okay, here I am making mac and cheese for the first time in over three years. This is a real treat.

Years ago, my sister found a mac and cheese recipe that she really liked and it became her go-to recipe. There are a lot of opinions about stovetop versus baked mac and cheese. Let me preface this by saying that I like them both equally. You can't go wrong with pasta and cheese, so really there is no right or wrong here. Sometimes, I may be in the mood for a baked crispy panko topping on my mac and cheese. Other times, I do not want to preheat my oven. And those are really the biggest deciding factors when leaning towards making one versus the other. I wanted to tell you all of that because with this mac and cheese recipe, you can make it however you want. It is a very saucy mac and cheese, which was originally intended to be baked. But, like me, you may just want a really saucy, creamy stovetop version, And, you know what? You can have that, too. I am here to make all dreams come true.

Mac & Cheese

Adapted from Fannie Farmer's Baked Macaroni & Cheese

INGREDIENTS

1 lb elbow macaroni (or whatever your favorite shape pasta)

1/2 cup butter [1 stick]

1/2 all-purpose flour

2 cups whole milk

2 cups heavy cream

1 tsp salt

fresh ground black pepper to taste

3 1/2- 4 cups freshly shredded sharp cheddar

2 cups freshly shredded fontina

additional toppings (optional) suggestions include: bacon, jalapeños, truffle/truffle oil, green chiles, green onion, parsley

DIRECTIONS

1. Cook and drain macaroni according to package instructions. I prefer al dente.

2. Warm milk and heavy cream together. You can do this in a small sauce pan. Or, in a measuring cup, combine milk and heavy cream and microwave for 2 minutes. 

2. In large pot on medium heat, melt butter. Once butter is completely melted, add flour, salt and a few cracks of freshly ground black pepper. Use a whisk to stir until blended well, for about 2 minutes so the raw flour cooks out. 

3. Gradually add the warm milk/cream mixture a little bit at a time, whisking constantly. Take your time adding the milk/cream in. Once you add in all the milk/cream, allow to boil for 2 minutes while whisking. Then reduce the heat and continue whisking. You will see it thicken and will be left with a béchamel sauce. 

4. Once the sauce coats the back of a wooden spoon, whisk in 2 cups of the shredded sharp cheddar and 2 cups of the shredded fontina until all cheese is melted in. Use a small tasting spoon to take a small taste. From there, decide if you would like to add more of the shredded cheddar, salt, and pepper. [always go with your own taste buds, everyone has preferences] If you make any adjustments, just remember to whisk it in so it's a cohesive mixture.

5. Turn off heat. Add cooked macaroni to cheese sauce. With a wooden spoon, stir well so all the macaroni is evenly coated with sauce.

6. Allow to cool a few minutes so the sauce sets a little and serve. Initially, it make look like there is a lot of sauce, but as it sets, the pasta will absorb a lot of the sauce. Before serving, add whatever toppings you like.

7. You can freeze in ziplock bags for later enjoyment. Just make sure that it has cooled to room temperature before converting to bags and putting in freezer.

IF YOU WANT TO MAKE A BAKED VERSION:

Before you get started, preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Butter a large baking dish. Melt a couple tablespoons of butter. In a small bowl combine melted butter, 1 cup panko breadcrumbs and a handful of freshly shredded cheese. 

After you make the mac and cheese mixture, transfer it into the buttered baking dish. Spread the mixture out into an even layer. Sprinkle the panko breadcrumb mixture evenly across the top. In preheated oven, bake for 20 minutes or until the top is golden brown and bubbling.

BAKING AFTER FROZEN: Allow the frozen mac and cheese to come to room temperature before transferring to buttered baking dish and adding panko mixture. Bake for 20-30 minutes or until golden brown and bubbling.

SIDE NOTE ON THE IMPORTANCE OF GOOD QUALITY CHEESE: I just wanted to highlight that it is very important to use good quality cheese. Buy the cheese in blocks and shred it yourself. Packaged shredded cheese has other additives in there that prevent the cheese from sticking.  I use packaged cheese for a lot of things, so I have nothing against it. You just do not want to use it for this.

RECOMMENDED KITCHEN TOOL: A flat whisk. It is awesome. I used it for all the whisking required in the recipe. A traditional balloon whisk would be fine, but the flat whisk works very efficiently for sauces. This is the one I have from Sur La Table.

So, as you can see, non-baked and sans panko topping is equally as delicious. We added crumbled crispy bacon on top, which was a given according to Ryan. We only had a small portion each and we were plenty full. This is a rich and decadent mac and cheese recipe. But, as my sister says [specifically about this mac and cheese], "this is not for the faint of heart." I am not kidding. That is a direct quote. I will not expose how many blocks of cheese she advised me to buy because more cheese is very important in her book. 

Anyway, we ate a little bit, refrigerated a little bit for tomorrow and stored the rest in the freezer. With just the two of us, I know we cannot eat all this mac and cheese ourselves. We would likely go into some gluttonous food coma after eating this for so many days. I can only imagine the dairy sweats that would come as a result. I am just not ready for that type of scenario, and we are way too early into the shelter-in-place for that to happen. Plus, my goal is for both of us to still have happy thoughts about mac and cheese. So freezing most of the batch will allow us to enjoy this again at another time (for round two, possibly add the panko topping and bake it) and maybe we won't be sick of dairy this week. Moderation is key, people.