When I was a kid, my mom would make one box of generic macaroni and cheese for my two sisters and me (and we’d usually have leftovers!). We all laugh about that now. Last time we were all together, I had to go out and buy a bigger pot just so we could all eat. The macaroni I made yesterday… definitely not my mom’s mac and cheese!
It starts with exotic-sounding cheeses like fontina and gruyere… cheeses that cost in the neighborhood of $12.99 a pound. I was inspired to try my very own grown-up mac and cheese (and so many other things…) by watching the Food Network while running on the treadmill this weekend. I hate the treadmill and would much rather run outside, but there is something to be said for the model with the little TV built in.
The problem: I usually watch cooking shows while running, which causes me to cook (and eat… and eat…) when I am done running. I watched Giada De Laurentiis and Ina Garten both make mac and cheese, so when I went to the store I bought some fancy cheeses. Of course, I forgot to write down the exact ones, so I bought a few from memory. Then I looked up the recipes for both of those, and they required different cheeses. Normally, I wouldn’t let this slow me down. However, this being the first time in my life I have made not-from-a-box macaroni and cheese, I was leery of substitutions.
Luckily good old Emeril had a recipe for which I had all of the ingredients, except half and half. I used 1 cup of heavy cream and 2 cups of whole milk instead, and it turned out fine. Actually, it was more like “I’d-run-a-marathon-just-for-a-bite-of-this” good. Words nor pictures can do it justice. (I also didn't have pancetta, which this recipe calls for, but we took a ~3-mile family walk to the grocery store to buy some (which might have burned off a fraction of the calories).
While I can’t afford to cook $20 macaroni regularly, it feels more like a special occasion dish anyway, although it was just the two of us on a Sunday night (the baby was already asleep). Never mind that I should have skipped that second helping… I had my best run in weeks this morning (perhaps there is something to the whole carb-loading thing…) and spring is in the air. Life is good.
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