monthly macaroni 11

my last trip out to denver was crazy. my plane was scheduled to leave about 6pm wednesday night, but that did not happen. it was delayed a few hours due to rain in dallas (where our plane was coming from) and then continued being delayed until the plane finally arrived at about 10pm. a bit after it landed, they announced that there was snow in denver so our plane was delayed again. i know, snow in may?! and the denver airport is unable to handle it?! how is this possible when they can handle snow during the winter?! i was baffled and irritated from being at the airport nearly all day. they assured us that the plane would be going to denver, we just had to wait for denver to give us the okay. i honestly did not care what time i arrived as long as i made it there. it hits 1:30am and we get a call saying they canceled our flight. definitely not what i wanted to hear. i had to rebook my flight that night and got home at about 2:30. i then had to wake up at 4:45am to head straight back up to the airport. what i did appreciate what that southwest ended up making a new direct flight that morning for those of us who were on the canceled flight. i did not think i was ever going make it to denver and i was so excited once i finally made it. it felt amazing! what does this have to do with monthly macaroni? well, when my flight got delayed until about 10pm handsome offered to make dinner and bring it in the car for us to eat and enjoy together. 

we decided to try a new macaroni recipe with fontina, spinach and bacon. it sounds delicious doesnt it?! he had finished making it about the time my flight was canceled so we were unable to eat it fresh. we decided to eat it for dinner on thursday and made a bit more sauce and more bacon to make it taste a bit more fresh. well, drama and all, it was very delicious! handsome did an amazing job and this years monthly macaroni recipes were immediately redeemed! since we had made more sauce, it was soooo rich and creamy. and i absolutely loved it that way. handsome put a bit more spices in the sauce than the recipe called for and it tasted great. a very delicious move on handsomes part because it gave the macaroni the perfect amount of spiciness. another plus about this recipe, besides the spinach and bacon, was that it reheated wonderfully! we got to eat the deliciousness for multiple meals and it was perfect. i will definitely make it again!

love.

monthly macaroni 10

i was very excited to try a new macaroni recipe called south of the border mac and cheese with handsome, and one that he would probably like because it would be spicy. however, i was very disappointed. this macaroni did not have much spice at all and really was not all that good. i did not even eat any of it as left overs because i was so disappointed. it may have not tasted good to me because my comparison to the spicy macaroni dish, the first one i ever tried, that was absolutely delicious. dare i say nearly the best ever (behind caprese, of course). however, i do not believe that its sub-par taste is entirely attributed to having an outstanding comparison. it should still taste good, right? you would think. 

it also may have been caused by the large amount of difficulty i had while cooking it in the high altitude. it is clear that i need some more practice, but i also doubt that my lack of skills caused the macaroni to lack spiciness and flavor. maybe you will be more successful than i was!

this experience is why i do not recommend trying out any of the 2011 recipes. it just left a bad taste in my mouth, literally and figuratively. i am going to try out a few more before i completely throw all of this years recipes out the window. plus, i do not want to miss out on potentially amazing macaronis. and the other food bloggers should not be associated with one mediocre recipe. maybe i have jaded macaroni eyes at this point and maybe i need to get out of this funk. lets just hope a few of the recipes have some deliciousness to offer and get me out of this pessimistic macaroni view that i am currently in! lets eat some delicious cheese!

love.

our national cheese lovers day celebration

do not think that i have not been making any macaronis during this monthly macaroni hiatus. i have made handsome some of my favorite recipes i have made so far to see if he agrees with me as well as celebrating the day of cheese! for national cheese lovers day (january 20th) i made the spicy mac and cheese. it was the first one i ever made and it was so good that it actually started this monthly macaroni journey. what a perfect way to celebrate national cheese lovers day, cheese with a bit of historical significance mixed in! and deliciousness of course. i love this recipe a lot. it has the perfect amount of spiciness and creaminess all at the same time. and i think it is perfect as a main dish. do yourself a favor and try it if you have not already!

i have also made handsome the caprese macaroni and cheese that is my favorite. i think this one is his favorite too, but he says he cannot remember and i have to make them all over again for him to sample. that sounds very difficult, but would also be a super fun adventure. maybe there is a macaroni and cheese sampling night in my future. we will see! i also made him the smoked paprika and gouda macaroni. this time i used smoked gouda cheese instead of regular cheese and omg does it make a difference! the smoked gouda was amazing!!!! try it!

love.

monthly macaroni 9

wow, this is way late! my sister and i made spinach and artichoke macaroni and cheese as a side for our thanksgiving meal. yes, the thanksgiving that was over five months ago. 

this macaroni was delicious and continued being delicious after being reheated as leftovers. it was very good as a side dish and paired well with our meal. if i was going to make it again, i would still make it as a side dish. even though it has good flavor, it is not a flavor i would want as a main dish. i would also use less spinach next time. i believe the package of spinach we used contained more than the recipe called for and that may have been the problem, but i dont remember exactly. if it looks like too much spinach, it probably is. i would also use fresh spinach instead of the frozen spinach that was called for in the recipe. i am not a big frozen food fan and this includes spinach. fresh spinach is much more delicious. in fact, i may even say that i do not really like frozen spinach at all. it is kind of gross and seaweedy. yeah, i am not the biggest frozen spinach fan. you should use fresh spinach too.

if you visit the 30 days 30 ways website, you will notice that they added more recipes during this last january to once again celebrate national cheese lovers day! i have tried one of these recipes (i will post later) and was not too impressed. however, you are still able to view all of the 2010 recipes! just scroll to the bottom and click on 2010 recipes. i suggest trying those first. i need to experiment with the new ones more before i will recommend them.

happy cheese baking!

love.

monthly macaroni 8 (this also counts as day 20)

last week i decided it was about time to catch up on my monthly macaroni and made me and my handsome man the mushroom and herb macaroni and cheese. there were a few flaws with this macaroni. they were mainly due to operating errors so i do not blame it on the recipe. i admit that they were all my fault. i am going to go ahead and talk about them right at the beginning so that you can realize that my opinions may be a bit biased due to my mistakes.

mistake #1: i failed to use an appropriate amount of mushrooms. this was not because i did not have enough, but because my pile of mushrooms after chopping was super large and seemed that it would have turned out being a mushrooms and cheese dish instead of the desired macaroni and cheese. i should have thought about the fact that noodles expand quite a bit after they are cooked. everything is always easier after the fact! i dont think that the amount of mushrooms i used made the dish bad, i just wished there were more. i liked them!

mistake #2: i kind of messed up the sauce. i'm not sure if this is really a mistake or not because i may not have liked the sauce had i made it by actually following the recipe. i think in the future i need to figure out the correct way to adjust the recipe so that the sauce turns out better when i choose make alterations. basically, the recipe called for a sauce where flour is used to make it thicker (i cannot for the life of me remember exactly what it is called). i am not the biggest fan of this kind of sauce because i feel that the flavor from the flour is far too overpowering compared to the flavor of the cheese. i dont know about you, but i do not like my macaroni and cheese having any flour flavor at all. i became more passionate about this opinion with the last monthly macaroni where the sauce had great consistency, but not great flavor. at least until i grated nearly an entire 0.5 lbs of parmesan into it. anyway, because of this i only put about half the amount of flour into the sauce that the recipe called for. this caused the sauce to not have an even consistency at all. it was a bit too watery, but then seemed to also have some clumps in it. this description is more related to the reheated lunch version rather than the fresh out of the oven version. the fresh out of the oven version was only a bit more watery than desired, no weird clumps. i really liked the flavor and somewhat the consistency when it was fresh. my recommendation is to only eat it fresh.

mistake #3: i failed to get the sauce to simmer before adding the cheese. maybe it was a laziness factor or maybe it was the fact that i altered the sauce initially, but i waited 15 minutes for the sauce to simmer and it would not simmer no matter how hard i tried. i am just going to blame it on the fact that i accidentally ripped off the knob to that burner a few weeks ago and it may be messed up now. why did i not use another burner then? that would be because that burner happens to be the only semi large one that is on my stove. my pan is so large that there is no way the tiny burners would disperse heat evenly.

other than the errors i made, i really liked the flavor of this macaroni. it was very fresh tasting and exactly what i was in the mood to enjoy. the herbs made it have a bit more of a garden taste that is very uncommon in most macaroni recipes. i love herbs! and melted gruyere cheese is always amazing (i began to get a craving for tracys delicious swiss fondue)! i think this recipe would be very delicious in the summer months because of its light and refreshing flavor. however, the sauce issue needs to be fixed (if i did not need to eat so many leftovers i probably would not feel this way). i hope i figure out how to properly do it next time!

happy macaroni eating!

love.

monthly macaroni 7

this month i chose to make the pan-roasted scallops with white cheddar mac and cheese, grilled asparagus and lemon gremolata. i obviously altered it by not using any pan-roasted scallops, but im sure they would taste great to those who actually eat them. it tasted pretty good, but needed many alterations. this could possibly be due to omitting the scallops, but i am not quite sure.

i was a bit nervous about the white cheddar because it is always a hit or miss whether i will like it or not. sometimes i absolutely hate the taste of white cheddar, like when it is involved in cheez-its, but sometimes i love it, like when it is involved in pasta roni. because of this i purchased the plain white cheddar over the sharp white cheddar. looking back, i feel that i should have gone with the sharp white cheddar because the regular white cheddar did not seem to have much flavor or really any flavor at all. it still tasted good, but i needed to add extreme amounts of parmesan in order for it to get to that point.

one thing i really liked about this macaroni was how creamy and thick the sauce was. this may have been due to me adding way more cheese than the recipe called for, but regardless, i enjoyed it. my favorite macaroni that i have made thus far does not have such a thick sauce and seems a bit more oily/greasy, but the flavor makes up for it!

another alteration i would make in the future is to cook an entire pound of asparagus. i did not make the entire bunch this time because i did not want it to be overpowering and i actually made the amount the recipe called for. i would also not cute the asparagus or mix it in with the macaroni. i thought it looked a bit messy and i think things taste better when they look beautiful. instead i would keep them whole and put the asparagus on the plate first and place the macaroni on top of it.

despite the few alterations i would make during the next go around, the plates were still cleaned and stomachs were satisfied! overall, i think i would rate this macaroni recipe 5th out of the 6 i have made thus far. that ranking is a bit unfair and does not give this recipe much credit because i rate the macaroni recipes on an awesomeness scale. this macaroni was still good, just not awesome.

happy cooking!

love.

monthly macaroni 6

i have become seriously behind on my macaroni and cheese that it feels nearly impossible to catch up! however, i will still try! i know i am calling this macaroni 6, but i made the caprese macaroni and cheese again in order to prove i'm not actually a failure at it. maybe i should have named it a redo of number 4, but i chose not too. but guess what the important part is?! it turned out perfectly perfect! no lumpy rubber bands or anything! and because of that, i feel like i have even more reason to blame it on the kraft cheese. i seriously will never use it again. i was also excited to use my new baking dish once again. i fall in love with it more each time i use it!

just look at that basil! im pretty much only excited about it because i plucked those leaves from my very own basil plant that i grew from seeds! i almost killed it in the initial stages, but it has come back pretty strong. and for that, i am proud!

i dont feel like i need to go into too much detail since i wrote about it last time. basically, it is very delicious and not rubber bandy! i just really love the caprese flavor. i may start making it in sandwich form. i am super glad i made it again without a failure!

love.

monthly macaroni 4 and 5

i ran out of time in may to make a macaroni so i made up for it by making two in june. unfortunately, both seemed to land in failure town. at least in respect to all the others i have made.

the first one i attempted was baked caprese that used fresh mozzarella. i am not quite sure what happened (i am going to blame it on the fact that i used kraft shredded cheese for the first time instead of market pantry), but when i made the sauce the cheese immediately turned into a goopy ball! goopy really is the wrong word though because it was more elastic or rubber band like. it was the strangest thing i have ever encountered! the only things that were different when making this particular macaroni was that the stove was different and i used kraft cheese. i did everything else exactly the same! never again will i use kraft cheese!

(look, you can even see the rubber band of cheese in the picture!)

nevertheless, i chose to try and stretch the cheese over the noodles in hopes that the cheese rubber band would melt in the oven. once again, i was wrong! it stayed like a rubber band and was even difficult to cut and especially eat. but despite all of these drawbacks, this macaroni had an absolutely amazing flavor! dare i even say perfect flavor. ill just say it, i loved it! im not sure if it was the basil, the oils from the cooked tomatoes, or the melted fresh mozzarella, but it was amazing. i am going to make it again in hopes that the cheese will respond normally and melt. it deserves another try. and i would like to taste the deliciousness in the way it was supposed to be enjoyed!

the second one i made was broccoli and squash and used monterey jack as the main cheese. i was unable to find frozen squash so i bought a fresh organic one and pureed it myself in the magic bullet.

i was happy to discover that the first disaster was not caused by my stove because the cheese melted beautifully this time! i also chose to freeze half of it so that i wouldnt have to eat the same macaroni and cheese for at least 12 meals in a row. it also made for a super quick meal a week or so later.

this macaroni and cheese smelled very delicious and looked super delicious since the sauce wasnt a rubber cheese ball, but the taste just didnt live up to the smell, or the work i put into it. i think it may have partially been due to the fact that i didnt have enough parmesan. the monterey jack had a plain taste to it and i feel like if i used more parmesan it would have had more flavor. if i didnt have many other macaronis to make, i would probably try it again using a good amount of pecorino romano. it has such strong flavor and tastes amazing when mixed in a dish (thank you kelly for that discovery!) so i think it would kick this one up a lot and get rid of the bland taste.

well, i hope that my next one is more of a success! i may take this month off, i havent fully decided yet. and in the words of hosty, eat your mac and cheese! ah! ah! ah!

love.

monthly macaroni 3

i am beginning to sound like a broken record in that every time i write about a macaroni and cheese the only word i can think of to describe it is absolutely amazing, and i am about to do it again!

i realized a week or so ago that it was nearing the end of the month and i had yet to even think about which macaroni and cheese i was going to make or when would be the best time to make it. that is when i decided to get down to business and narrowed it down to the one entitled creamy macaroni and cheese with spinach. it calls for using gruyere and parmesan cheeses and lots of spinach so it looked very promising. it was not until i began cooking the onion and its sweet carmelized smell filled the kitchen that i knew i would love it. i instantly began anticipating its first taste! (i contemplated just eating the onions out of the pan, but refrained so that i wouldnt mess up the entire dish i was slaving over)

the sauce is very thick, which for me is a good thing because i would gobble down the entire casserole dish if it wasnt. if you are turned off by thicker sauces, this may not be the best recipe for you, but i still feel like everyone should try it because i absolutely loved it!

i ended up eating two servings of it before i was absolutely stuffed and opted for going on an extremely short bike ride to work off a bit of the heaviness and check the mail at the same time.

overall, this may be my favorite macaroni thus far. i know i say that every time and i will probably continue to say it. it just feels absolutely impossible to decide on one! the onion added the absolute perfect flavor that i wanted and the amount of spinach is perfect to break up the noodles. it's a good thing i am looking forward to eating it some more because there is an entire casserole dish sitting in my refrigerator waiting for me! (well, hopefully i will still have some left because i keep nibbling at the leftovers when i walk past)

love.

monthly macaroni 2

the macaroni that i made this month was aged gouda macaroni and cheese with smoked paprika and was picked out by my sister because i wanted to make one in celebration of her birthday. and i must say, she did a great job picking because just like the last one, it was delicious!

it was not overly cheesy and had an interesting vodka sauce-like taste to it. it was also a bit lighter feeling than the one i made last month. very delicious, very satisfying, and of course also caused me to stuff my face so much that i needed to take a small rest before moving on to the rest of the day. it was a shorter rest this time though.

i was hoping to have some left over for a small snack, but it was so good that we could not resist eating the whole pan!

since i already have all of the ingredients, i think i may make this again pretty soon so i will have a bunch to bring for lunch during one of my upcoming weeks of awfulness. we will see what turns out!

i am loving this monthly macaroni more than i can even explain. everything has been very delicious so far and i cannot wait to taste the one i choose to make next month! until then, i will cherish the taste of this months choice! yum. yum. yum!

love.

cheese coma filled with spicy excitement

so, i guess i lied in my previous macaroni post because the first mac and cheese i actually made was a spicy one! not spinach and artichoke. and let me tell you, it was the most amazing thing ever! and so far, it has provided me 4 meals! with at least 3 more! as long as im not a pig that is.


i ate four plates when i made it the other night because i just could not refrain no matter how hard i tried! but dont worry, the only cheese i used that wasnt 2% was the pepper jack, and that was only because it is impossible to find.


i WILL be making this again. im a bit afraid that i wont try any of the other ones that i want to try because i will just keep making this one over and over again.


the next time i make it, i will use 2-3 jalapenos (i only used 1 this time), a bit more onion, and much more roasted red peppers. i cant wait! and yes, if you cant tell, i do recommend you try it soon. you wont be disappointed!


love.