Sometimes, nostalgic dishes just don’t turn out as good as you remember….

Tonight, I made a recipe that I reserved for special occasions when I was in college oh-so-many years ago. I made it for my mom once when she visited, and I was very proud of it. I’m guessing I had crappy tastes back then, because this was just not good. I adapted this from Food & Wine. The original recipe makes double the amount, and uses flour to thicken instead of a potato.

Creamy Scallion-Mushroom Soup

3 tbsp butter

1 lb scallions, chopped

2 1/2 cups chicken stock

1/2 pound white mushrooms, sliced thinly

1 baking potato (~8oz), peeled and chopped

1/2 cup Italian parsley, chopped

1/4 cup heavy cream (or milk)

salt and pepper

Melt the butter in a large saucepan. Add the scallions and mushrooms and season with salt and pepper. Cover and cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until softened, 10-15 minutes.

Add the stock and potato and bring to a boil, then simmer over low heat for 15 minutes, or until the potato is soft. Stir in the parsley.

Using an immersion blender, puree the soup. Stir in the cream, and season with salt and pepper. Ladle into bowls and garnish with whatever (I remember being very fond of crumbled pretzels in this).

Okay, I STILL have not made anything. Bad Sarah! Bad!

However, Jon and Ryan invited me over for dinner, because Jon was going to try the new, revamped Cook’s Illustrated macaroni and cheese recipe. I think the new recipe is definitely an improvement over the old one. Still, it’s awfully soupy. We decided that Vermont people must really like their mac and cheese creamy. I might suggest more salt and more cayenne. Or a bunch of Tabasco would probably fill both of those.

I realize Cook’s is trying to make their recipes accessible to everyone, but man, they’re wordy. I don’t think you need to start heating the broiler quite that early. It’s on for a long time! If you were to make this in the summer, that’d heat your kitchen something awful, with the broiler as well as the boiling water. Well, whatever. This recipe is a little more difficult than their last recipe, but it did turn out better.

Classic Macaroni and Cheese

Bread Crumb Topping
6 slices good-quality white sandwich bread, torn into rough pieces
3 tbsp cold unsalted butter, cut into 6 pieces

Pasta and Cheese
1 lb elbow macaroni
1 tbsp plus 1 tsp salt
5 tbsp unsalted butter
6 tbsp all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp powdered mustard
1/4 tsp cayenne (they say optional, I say BS, it’s necessary)
5 cups milk (any fat content)
8 oz Monterey Jack cheese, shredded (2 cups)
8 oz sharp cheddar cheese, shredded (2 cups)

Bread Crumbs: Pulse bread and butter in food processor until crumbs are no larger that 1/8 inch, ten to fifteen 1-second pulses. Set aside.

Pasta and Cheese: Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat broiler. Bring 4 quarts water to boil in Dutch oven over high heat. Add macaroni and 1 tablespoon salt; cook until pasta is tender. Drain pasta and set aside in colander.

In now-empty Dutch oven, heat butter over medium-high heat until foaming. Add flour, mustard, and cayenne and whisk well to combine. Continue whisking until mixture becomes fragrant and deepens in color, about 1 minute. Gradually whisk in milk; bring mixture to boil, whisking contantly (mixture must read full boil to fully thicken). Reduce heat to medium and simmer, whisking occasionally, until thickened to consistency of heavy cream, about five minutes. Off heat, whisk in cheeses and 1 teaspoon salt until cheeses are melted. Add pasta and cook over medium-low heat, stirring constantly, until mixture is steaming and heated through, about 6 minutes.

Transfer mixture to broiler-safe 9×13 baking dish and sprinkle evenly with bread crumbs. Broil until crumbs are deep golden brown, 3 to 5 mintues, rotating pan if necessary for even browning. Cool about 5 minutes, serve.

Nothing very exciting today. I clipped a bunch of recipes out of old issues of Food & Wine; I’m preparing to put them in with the ones I got out of Cooking Light in my magazine recipe binder. Beyond that… Jalapeno Cheddar Cheese Nips and Diet Coke. Because I have a very sad addiction.

Ah, matzoh. Very tasty with butter or made into grilled cheese. Matzoh’s one of those weird things that would normally taste horrible, but during Passover, it almost seems like a treat. Any other time of the year, I would be thinking, “A cracker version of Tuscan bread. Now why would I want to eat that?”

(Before you all get on my case, I’d like to say that I’m only Jewishish. Our family, we love the holidays and their ritual pomp and circumstance, but we don’t take it all that seriously. I describe our seders as “the story, the songs, and the snark.” I’ve tried not eating leavened items for Passover- it’s really hard! You’ll never catch me doing the whole Atkins thing.)

I’m at a loss for what to make for dinner. I’ve got all this food purloined from my parents (well, not so much purloined as much as they were going away and needed J. and I to take their perishables). I could make a twice-baked potato. But that’ll take over an hour and I’m munchy now. Hm.

(ETA: I steamed some eggs and made egg salad. Yum.)

First off, a sentence to pacify my mother. Yes, I threw out the chicken.

The story:

So, tonight I was going to make something with the rest of the chicken I made on the 28th, possibly a pasta sauce with crimini mushrooms and boursin cheese. However, when I brought this up to my mother, she refused to let me go through with it, seeing as the chicken was a week and a half old and was never fully cooked. So I came around to realizing that I really didn’t want to chance the food poisoning and got rid of it. Damn it. I should have more of a schedule for my leftovers. I hate throwing away food.

Onward! Last night Jon, Ryan, and I drove over to my parents house for a seder. Our seders are such fun. I sang the four questions for the first time and only screwed up a little. My mother made an excellent meal- matzoh ball soup, braised short ribs, mashed potatoes, and haricot vert. Mm. I have got to get back into braising again- love that collagen!

Tonight for dinner, I ate the rest of the macaroni and cheese. It’s much less soupy as leftovers; it cooled into a solid shape. However, when I reheated it, it separated. It’s not really a problem, but I thought you’d like to know. I think next time I have a craving for homemade mac & cheese, I’m going to try Alton Brown’s stovetop recipe.

To conclude, I hate Food Network. Why? More Sandra Lee. Damn you.

So I made macaroni and cheese yesterday, America’s Test Kitchen-style. It turned out kind of soupy, but I think that’s my fault. The recipe calls for one cup of evaporated milk. I didn’t have that, but I did have buttermilk, so I put that in. I don’t know whether evaporated milk is more viscous than buttermilk or not. They also called for using sharp cheddar, American, or Monterey Jack cheese, and I used a combination of very sharp cheddar, gouda, and gruyere, which meant mine was probably stronger-tasting. Lastly, I didn’t have macaroni, so I used gnocchi 46 (one of the shapes in the Rummo variety pack from Costco).

I have an affinity for the blue box, I have to admit. Something about that orange color not found in nature. Here’s a tip- try making it with buttermilk instead of regular milk. The tanginess is really nice.

Yes, this last week has been all about trying to use up the buttermilk.

Stovetop Macaroni and Cheese

America’s Test Kitchen

2 large eggs

1 (12 oz) can evaporated milk (buttermilk)

1/4 tsp hot pepper sauce (I used more like 1/2 tsp)

1/2 tsp salt (plus more for salting the water)

1/4 tsp ground black pepper

1 tsp dry mustard, dissolved in 1 tsp water

1/2 pound elbow macaroni

4 tbsp unsalted butter

12 oz sharp cheddar, American, or Monterey Jack cheese, grated

Bread crumbs, enough to top (optional)

Mix the eggs, evaporated milk, pepper sauce, salt, pepper, and mustard mixture in a small bowl. Set aside.

Bring 2 quarts of water to a boil, then add the macaroni and some salt. Cook until almost tender but still a little firm to the bite (around 6 minutes). Drain and return to the pan over low heat. Add butter and toss to melt.

Pour egg mixture over buttered noodles along with three-quarters of the cheese. Stir until thoroughly combined and the cheese starts to melt. Gradually add the remaining milk mixture and cheese, stirring constantly, until mixture is hot and creamy (about 5 minutes). Serve immediately, or….

Turn on your broiler. Pour the macaroni and cheese into a 9×9 ovenproof dish and top with bread crumbs. Broil until crumbs turn deep brown (anywhere from 1 to 5 minutes, depending on your broiler strength and how far away the dish is from the heat).

Well, I finished off the banana cake this morning. I have figured out the reasons for the cake’s overmoistness. The extra banana was only half of the problem. I added an extra half cup of butter to the mix. At the time, I was not thinking, or rather, I was thinking, “One stick of butter’s a quarter cup.” Dumb, dumb Sarah. Pity her in her ineptitude.

I didn’t do any cooking today, although I did help Rob out with making cookies. He recently bought a remarkably ugly (it’s true, he agrees) KitchenAid stand mixer for very cheap on Amazon. The color is “pistaschio.” It had mad discounts. So he broke it in making chocolate chip cookes. Nestle Tollhouse recipe, very good. We went out for Indian food, discussed Dungeons & Dragons, watched Futurama (The Farnsworth Parabox), and played video games (Dr. Mario, Frogger, Rush’n Attack, and Castlevania).

I can’t believe I put in an extra stick of butter.