Tweak Tweak

I have not blogged the past 2 nights because I've been catching up on some very important things. Like my Tivo'd episodes of Selling New York that I missed while we were out of town. OMG, I am completely addicted to that show. DH and I honeymooned in New York many years ago, and in my fantasy world, one of these days we buy a little place up there and get there about once a month. (Uh-huh. Right after I get my book deal and ocean front beach house).
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The past few times I've made my homemade mac and cheese, it hasn't come out all that great. The sauce was a little gritty and tasted almost dry. It occurred to me later that I was using the pre-shredded packaged cheese, which I don't normally use. I switched back to the block cheese that I grate myself, and it came out perfectly again. So if you've done the same thing, and your results haven't been fabulous, try going back to block cheese and put a little elbow grease into grating it yourself. Another tip: because I use a combination of mozzarella and cheddar cheese for my sauce, I often use my food processor to grate entire blocks of both at one time. This is far more cheese than you need for one batch of mac and cheese, but the grated cheese freezes beautifully and is all ready for you the next time you need it.
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For those who need it, here's the sort-of-recipe:

Melt 2 tablespoons butter over medium heat. Add 2 tablespoons flour and cook for 1-2 minutes. Add one cup milk, and whisk constantly until it starts to thicken. If it gets too thick, add more milk slowly, up to one additional cup (I find how thick my white sauce gets depends on whether I am using skim, 1%, or 2% milk. It's an inexact science, but you'll get the hang of it.) Once you have a nice thick-but-not-too-thick white sauce going, turn off the heat and whisk in 1 cup each of cheddar and mozzarella cheese (disclosure: I vary these amounts all the time, because I just throw the cheese in by the handful until it gets as cheesy as I want it) (wow, it's harder than you would think to write down recipes for food preparation that just floats around in your head).
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This is THE best whisk for making the cheese sauce. The flat bottom lets you get all the nice floury bits at the bottom of your pan and helps ensure your sauce isn't lumpy. If you don't have one, get one! You will use it all the time.

Stuffed

My kitchen ate too much.

I don't really know how it happened, but all of a sudden it's overflowing. There's absolutely no good excuse, because I have lots of drawers, cabinet space, and two, yes, two, pantries. And yet I can't get to anything, because everything is stuffed completely full. We have crossed the line between a well stocked pantry and an overstocked one, and why I have 3 brownie pans when I make brownies only a couple times each year is completely beyond me. My favorite serving pieces are never used because they're wedged so deep into the cabinets, and I keep rebuying pantry staples because I can't see what I've already got in there. A total waste of time and energy, and of course money.

It's time for the great clean out. I do this periodically with the kids' toys - I go through it with a big basket and get rid of all the toys that are broken, missing pieces, or generally ignored. Time to do it with my own stuff...

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No new recipe today, since last night DH was working so the boys and I had our standby comfort food - homemade mac and cheese (see above picture!), with apples and pears. Mmmm...

Mac & Cheese, Please

There are many, many things I love about Savannah. The beautiful downtown, the beaches and islands, the restaurants...it's a long list. But if I have a teensy complaint about this place, it's that we are a smidgen behind the rest of the country. By say, oh I don't know, 20 years? (Exhibit A: I saw a woman wearing stirrup pants in the grocery store the other day. I was SO TEMPTED to take a picture, but my good manners prevailed). So while the rest of America has things like Costco, nanny services, and local TV news on weekends, we putter along in a weird version of 1989.

I am therefore incredibly thankful to my out-of-town friends who, understanding my plight, keep me well supplied in whole wheat pasta, which is ridiculously hard to find here. Without it I couldn't make my weekly batch of my mother's homemade mac & cheese, a true family favorite. (If your kids have access to a microwave at school, this is a great thing to make Sunday nights and send for lunches during the week).

Cheese sauce:
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons flour
1.5 cups skim milk
2 cups of your favorite cheese, shredded (I usually use a combo of sharp cheddar and mozzarella, but will throw in any bits and pieces of cheese I might have sitting around - gouda, havarti, etc.)
Salt and pepper to taste.

Melt butter in sauce pan. Stir in flour, let it cook 1-2 minutes until flour is slightly brown. Add milk, whisking well. Cook over medium heat, whisking quickly to get out all the lumps, until thickened. Don't let it boil! Once thickened enough to cling nicely to a wooden spoon, add the cheese, whisking in until smooth and creamy. (Oops - did you have to leave it unattended for a few minutes while you intervened in some child-crisis and then it thickened so much it was more like paste than sauce? Just add a little more milk until it gets back to your desired consistency. Not that I know anything about this...). Add a generous sprinkle of salt and pepper. Taste. Taste again. Taste one more time and remind yourself it's meant to be eaten on pasta, not fingers. Pour over cooked macaroni (this makes enough to nicely coat a 16oz box of macaroni).

A true story - I once left my 4 year old in the care of his babysitter and a box of Kraft mac & cheese for their dinner, the deluxe kind, no less. The next morning he sweetly requested that I never, ever, never again serve "that store-bought stuff." A food snob at age 4. Awesome.

Dinner tonight: Whatever dinner-to-go the farmer's market is selling this afternoon. Happy eating!