Aww cuteness

I bought these cuties at Urban Outfitters, they're by Loungefly, and they rock.

I love geeks and a depressing conclusion

Stove Top Mac-n-Cheese

Ingredients

• 1/2 pound elbow macaroni
• 4 tablespoons butter
• 2 eggs
• 6 ounces evaporated milk
• 1/2 teaspoon hot sauce
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• Fresh black pepper
• 3/4 teaspoon dry mustard
• 10 ounces sharp cheddar, shredded

Directions

In a large pot of boiling, salted water cook the pasta to al dente and drain. Return to the pot and melt in the butter. Toss to coat.

Whisk together the eggs, milk, hot sauce, salt, pepper, and mustard. Stir into the pasta and add the cheese. Over low heat continue to stir for 3 minutes or until creamy.

Today my mother chose to dine at her friend Robin's house. So instead of our traditional Friday night dinner at the grandparents' house, Valerie and I were on our own for the evening. We were both feeling lazy and a bit under the weather. At first I searched for recipes for bacon and cheese, but I was a little underwhelmed by my finds at all recipes.com and I quite frankly didn't feel like dealing with bacon today (I know, crazy). I then typed in macaroni and cheese recipes to Google, just to see what popped up, and to my great surprise the first recipe to pop up would be a Baked Macaroni and Cheese recipe by none other than Alton Brown.

For those of you who don't know Alton Brown, stop what you're doing and go watch him. Do not watch his grape juice commercial, do not watch the American Iron Chef, or the Next Iron Chef, or whatever cooking show he plays host to. Find him in his own show, "Good Eats" when it is on whether on Food Network or YouTube. In fact, you can watch recipe clips, including this recipe on Food Network's website (if you want to see a link to this particular recipe, click here) I have to warn you because in the next line I am going to swear.

Alton Brown is a motherfucking genius.

I first caught his show after watching Emeril one night (I used to worship Emeril Lagasse, I met him, I have an autographed cookbook. Bam!) He did a special on how to cook a steak. He has this weird off the wall humor while he teaches you what seems really simple but can actually be fairly difficult. In my first episode he taught you how to purchase the right steak for your tastes/particular need, what kind of pan to buy, and how to cook the steak to your liking. He teaches you the terms to use while making goofy references. I can't think of any now, but trust me they're priceless. Alton (yes, I am going to refer to him by his first name, cause I feel like I know him) and his team used to run their show out of his neighbor's house (yes, an actual house) because cooking is THAT easy, so easy you don't need a fancy set with funky fridges and stoves. All you need is a live honest to goodness house. Anyway what I love about Alton is how he makes everything so easy. Plus he's a geek. Like me.

But you're saying "Laura you didn't bake macaroni and cheese" and the answer is, no I did not. The answer to that is that Alton's baked recipe sounds a lot like the mac and cheese we made last week which Valerie has yet to blog about (it's no longer my fault I made her an admin :P) So instead I chose this easy one pot macaroni and cheese that is also Alton's recipe off of an episode entitled "For Whom the Cheese Melts 2" (Bwah haha! Get it? Get it?!)

On the plus side:

+ It was easy. (In the clip, a kid makes this while Alton sticks his head in a window) It only took one pan, and if coordinated correctly minimal measuring utensils. (Guess who didn't coordinate correctly but I am mildly stupid so, yeah no.) This is good when you are looking for a not processed alternative to boxed macaroni and cheese, which bring us to point two.

+It was fresh which means its just better

+The cheese is waaaaay yummy, and again the mustard adds a lovely bit o' flavor to it.

On the minus side:

-The cheese sauce wasn't as smooth as I wanted it to be, not like macaroni and cheese number one chronicled in our descent into the underworld.

-It lacked the special something brought by macaroni and cheese number one.

What I'm trying to say is, Valerie and I picked the wrong first recipe. Or perhaps the right first recipe. It has set the standard, it had creamy cheese sauce and interesting flavor, things no other macaroni and cheese have yet to bring to the table. I hope we didn't find our holy grail on the first try and will now be futilely searching for a better recipe. I hope this is not the case. Although I doubt it because my mom says her friend Robin has a recipe involving GORGONZOLA MMMMMMMM.

Tomorrow night our grandparents are taking us to MorMor for dinner, last I checked they had a delicious macaroni and cheese with salmon or something on top. Maybe my new blog post will be closer than you think. :D

In the name of science

Valerie and I bought a couple different boxed macaroni and cheeses to try over the course of our very boring day off tomorrow. I am ready to try these Kraft-y delights after tonight's debacle.
Tonight we dined at Red Robin. Although renowned for their burgers, Red Robin also has several other tasty options including chicken fingers, and chicken sandwiches. Their menu also includes macaroni and cheese. So we ordered it, in the name of science and this blog. While the waitress gets points for splitting it for us in two adorable cups, this is the only way this macaroni and cheese gains points. Ok yes, it fools you with Cavatappi noodles which are awesome, but the cheese sauce was underwhelming. Moreover its like they sprinkled some cheddar on top and thought that passed as home baked crust. Uh-uh girlfriend. This is unacceptable mac and cheese. It has no flavor! Cheese always has flavor! (unless its swiss...ewww...it must have included swiss).
We have decided that we need to make rules about ordering macaroni and cheese in restaurants, that perhaps not every time will it be a good idea, but now we have the macaroni and cheese behind us, and we can continue on with our regularly schedule Red Robin burger consumption.

A Laura Side Note

I can't speak for Valerie, but I (Laura) am an awful cook. I grew up with my mother, who is a fabulous cook, and my grandmother who taught my mother how to be a fabulous cook. She did the cooking in our house, I did not. Furthermore, in college when I had a kitchen of my own I had a roommate, a boyfriend, and a roommate, who made wonderful food for me. So I have never really needed to be good at cooking, believe me when I didn't have these wonderful people to cook for me, I subsisted on tomato soup, salad, and beer (beer has nommy calories). Plus I don't think I'm good at cooking, and I don't tend to enjoy things I'm not good at. I think if I was proficient at chopping, slicing, and measuring I would enjoy it more, but that comes with practice of which I have none. But maybe this new blog will give me the necessary skills to like cooking. Maybe.

Our Descent into the Underworld

Ham and Cheese Bowties

Ingredients

• 8 ounces farfalle (bow tie) pasta
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 2 cups milk
• 1/2 teaspoon prepared mustard
• 2 1/2 cups shredded Colby cheese
• 4 ounces cooked ham, julienned
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add pasta and cook for 8 to 10 minutes or until al dente; drain.
3. In a large saucepan over medium heat, melt butter. Saute garlic 30 seconds. Whisk in flour, salt and pepper. Cook and stir until smooth. Pour in milk, a little at a time, stirring constantly. Bring to a boil for 1 minute. Stir in mustard and Colby. Continue to cook, stirring occasionally, until cheese is melted. Remove from heat and stir in pasta and ham.
4. Pour into a 2 quart baking dish. Sprinkle with Parmesan.
5. Bake 20 to 25 minutes, until bubbly and golden.

Valerie and I chose this recipe as our first because, well I hadn't eaten anything except frozen yogurt all day, so I wanted something with meat in it and I love bowties (one of my favorite noodles-noodles probably another future blog). Here's what we thought:
On the plus side:
(+) This recipe involves mustard, which I've never really thought of as an ingredient for macaroni and cheese. I just got into dijon mustard, after a long period of mustard celibacy, and I have to say mustard is delicious. It can be way overpowering, but here the 1/2 a teaspoon of mustard is exactly the right kick this macaroni and cheese needed.
(+)Bowtie pasta, or farfalle for the Italians among us, is a deliciously whimsical pasta. Nuff said.
(+) The Parmesan sprinkled on top. To die for, to die for! It adds another little kick to this recipe (thats two kicks if you're counting) and adds a nice little top crust.
(+) Garlic is always good.
(+) The cheese sauce is super good, the colby we used was orange, so it looked like that fake nacho cheese (which I love) but this cheese sauce is actually fresh. Its creamy, and gooey with just the right amount of flavor.
(+) This recipe is relatively easy to follow and doesn't take much time, only 45 minutes to make, which is pretty groovy.
On the minus side:
(-) The ham. This is my own personal preference but I hate ham. I consider it the lowest of all pig products (bacon being the highest, holla!)I usually try to limit its consumption to once or twice a year over the holidays, but even then I would rather consume lamb or turkey. Anyway, the ham actually caused Valerie and I to argue, because I have no idea what julienned ham looks like, Valerie swears its just thinly sliced ham, and she's the one who looked it up online. So she just buys some sandwich ready ham from the deli, I don't think that is what the ham is supposed to look like. Arguing ensues. I follow her instructions. I think if we properly julienned bits of ham, then it would have been alright, but I don't think ham would add anything to this recipe. But again maybe its my personal preference.
(-) To experienced chefs, the cheese sauce is probably nothing to worry about, but for me, making the cheese sauce, was a little scary, because things like melting cheese happened faster than I thought. It didn't help that Valerie, the one who read the recipe was in the bathroom and everything I read came as a shock.

Overall, this recipe was solid, I would definitely nom it again, so would Shannon, our guest, and my Mom.

I'd probably take out the ham though, ham sucks.

Putting on the cheese

Hello!
This is Laura, one of the duo here at "I Wear the Cheese" my other partner is Valerie, my sister. I had the idea for this blog at the beginning of this summer (2010). My best friend Shawna runs a food blog (her blog is: ) and I really love blogging, but what am I supposed to blog about? Well, this summer I found myself eating a looooot of macaroni and cheese. I mean if a restaurant has macaroni and cheese on the menu, I order it. I mean what does macaroni and cheese consist of? Noodles and cheese. Two of the most delicious ingredients on the planet. Gods created noodles and Gods created cheese. Yeah, they're that good. Combined they are unstoppable. Plus all summer I've been eating the most random mac n cheese recipes. So which one is best? We're about to find out. :D