Nomtastic Mac 'n Cheese, the divine cousin of the Flying Spaghetti Monster

I love mac 'n cheese.
I love mac 'n cheese a lot.
The only thing better than mac 'n cheese is cheese 'n mac.
I could eat mac 'n cheese all the time and be perfectly content with life.

I take that back. I like a lot of other foods too. However, I wish I could eat mac 'n cheese a lot more than I get to. 

I've been trying for months to find a macaroni and cheese recipe that is easy to make and taste delicious. I've pinned countless amount of recipes on Pinterest and tried most of them, but none of them ever did it for me. I got so frustrated that I began to resort to Kraft Mac 'n Cheese for my fixes because as unhealthy it is for you, it's always reliable. Anyway, after hearing about my failed attempts to make homemade mac 'n cheese my mom finally stepped in. One day she handed me Joy of Cooking and said to try the recipe for Baked Macaroni and Cheese. I was skeptical at first because Joy of Cooking is, in my experience, dated and tends to make recipes more difficult to make than necessary. However, I tried it anyway and boy was it worth it.

The mac 'n cheese was gooey, and delicious, and wonderful, and delicious, and om nom nom. It uses a LOT of dishes; four in total, but it's sooooo worth it. I've made some alterations to the original recipe to make it just a little bit better. I have got to say though, the onions in the recipe is what makes the whole dish. If you're making this for kids, just don't tell them that there is onions in it. They cook down so you can't tell they're in the dish when it's being served.

And now, without further ado....

Joy of Cooking: Baked Macaroni and Cheese (with alterations) 
                    Rombauer, Irma S., Joy of Cooking. New York: Scribner, 1997. 320.


 

Serves 6-8 (allegedly).

- 6 cups water
- 1 1/2 tsp salt, plus extra for taste
- 2 cups elbow macaroni
- 2 1/2 cups grated cheddar
- 4 tbsp butter
- 2 tbsp flour
- 2 cups whole, skim, or soy milk
- 1/2 medium onion, minced
- 1/4 tsp paprika
- 1/4 tsp dry mustard
- 1 cup fresh breadcrumbs
- ground black pepper to taste


Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 1 1/2-quart deep baking dish.

Boil water with 1 1/2 tsp salt and add macaroni. Cook until barely tender according to package instructions.

In a large saucepan over medium-low heat melt 2 tbsp of butter. Add in the 2 tbsp flour and whisk for approximately 2-3 minutes. Slowly whisk in 2 cups of milk, onion, paprika, and mustard. Simmer gently for 15 minutes, whisking (or just plain stirring) often. Once done, remove from heat and quickly add in 3/4 of your cheese. It should made a nice sauce. Add salt and pepper to taste. Stir in macaroni.

In a small pan melt 2 tbsp butter and toss in breadcrumbs until they are coated.

There is only 1/2 a cup of breadcrumbs in this batch. Definitely use a full cup.

Put half of your macaroni mixture in the baking dish. Top with half of remaining cheese and repeat process with the rest of the macaroni and cheese. Top off the whole casserole with the breadcrumbs.  Bake for 20-30 minutes depending on how creamy you want your mac 'n cheese. Take out of the oven and ENJOY!

Apparently my mac 'n cheese is in a Texas mood.

Honestly, I think the only way that this recipe could be any better is if it used less dishes and had BACON. Lots of bacon. Then it would have almost all the food groups! Anyway, I personally could have eaten this dish without baking it. Next time I think I'll just cook the noodles longer, add them to the cheese sauce, eat it just like that.

The Good [Shows] Die Young

 


I just had a thought and by "just now" I mean less than a minute ago which is the time it took for me to have the idea and then boot up my computer so I could talk about.

What if Heroes hadn't been cancelled?

I'll give you a second to give it some thought...

What if Heroes, the phenomenal show about people with genetic mutations which gave them "super powers," was still on the air? 

I'll be honest, I have no idea why this question popped into my head. I haven't thought about Heroes in months. There's no reason to other than the fact that Hayden Panettiere is in a new show that ABC won't stop promoting, which I suppose is reason enough. What I realized though was that I still miss Heroes like crazy. It was a great show. Well, mostly. Kinda. A little bit. Actually, season one was great. Everything after that was sub-par. But it wasn't the show's fault! Let me explain.

Heroes premiered in 2006. The show was BRILLIANT. People which genetic mutations is by no means an original concept (X-Men, anyone?), but the writers made it work in a way that the audience completely bought the whole storyline without a thought. The Bennett and Petrelli families are so wonderfully corrupt. Hiro and Ando are adorable (especially since Ando has no powers and is basically dragged along unwillingly on all of Hiro's misadventures). Niki/Jessica/Tracy kept us confused beyond all reason. And Sylar. Oh, Sylar. Whether or not he actually ate the brains of his victims is of no matter as long as he kept up with his unadulterated evilness. Seriously. He's the perfect villain. And so nice to look at.

Season One, which can easily be summed up in one phrase - save the cheerleader, save the world - kept us on our toes. It remains up in my top five television series to this day. However, we the audience was soon to be crushed and disappointed. The writers' strike of 2007. What this meant was that all television sitcoms, dramas, late night comedy talk shows, basically anything with a script was put on the wayside and meant to suffer through dropped ratings and cancellations. Season Two of Heroes, for lack of a better word, sucked. I'm not saying that I still didn't watch religiously every week. I did. But the quality of the show wasn't the same. Even after the members of the Writers Guild of America went back to work Heroes never recovered.

I owe some of my best college friendships and roommate arrangements to Heroes. I left for college in August of 2008, not knowing a single person at my school. By chance I overheard a conversation several girls were having about "Monday night at nine on September 22nd" which I knew to be the Heroes season premiere. I took a chance and spoke up.

"Are you talking about Heroes?"

The group fell silent and stared at me. Had I misheard? Did they think I was rude for interrupting? Was I going to be labelled as totally lame for the next four years of my life?

"You watch Heroes?" asked one of the girls.

"Yes," I replied. "But I don't have anywhere to watch it this season since I don't have a T.V."

"You'll watch it with us." insisted another member of what was to become my core group of friends, also known as the Round Table.

And so a beautiful friendship was born. I gained three future roommates and someone I considered to be my Freshman mom and mentor. I was not going to be alone and friendless and, even better, I had a place to watch Heroes.

Heroes Night, I learned, was a weekly ritual and one that I partook in for a year and a half until the show was abruptly cancelled. Room 111 was frequently filled with the sounds of shouting, screaming, laughing, and (sometimes) even crying. Mostly, we were just loud as hell. But we didn't care. We had each other and a wonderful show that, while lacking quality, still managed to keep us coming back every week.

And so now I return to the original question and intent for this blog post. What if Heroes was still on the air? What would have happened? Who would have died? Who would have died and then been resurrected as oh so many main characters were? What new characters would we have been introduced to? Would the cheerleader finally not need saving? Would the world ever be safe from exploding? Would Peter ever not be full of angst? Would Niki/Jessica/Tracy finally stick with one character? And what about Baby Push-and-Go? Would he have grown up to be a kick-ass crime fighter or an evil villain because his parents still had serious marital issues?

We'll never know.

We'll never know, and it saddens me. There was a point when the show was finally getting back on track. It once again showed promise during Season Three, but then the writers went on holiday or something and the quality once again began to suffer. But we, the viewers, persevered and stayed loyal. Heroes Night continued until that fateful day when "To Be Continued..." flashed across our screens and then...never did.

What if Heroes hadn't been cancelled?

I guess we'll never know.