Adult Mac and Cheese

Bon Appetit has derailed my Good Eats efforts ever so slightly but boy am I eating well. Bon Appetit has their line of “basically” recipes that are around 10 ingredients or less and super easy to execute which I think is fantastic. They have videos on YouTube that have the chefs cooking some of the recipes which is nice if you’re one of those people that needs a visual guide or aren’t familiar with different cooking techniques. I’m getting to see the chefs’ personalities and I get pretty excited when I see that a video includes one of my favorites but honestly, at this point, they’re all my favorite.

Molly Baz is the chef behind this recipe and she’s great and super easy to understand. This is a great recipe for mac and cheese lovers but also for the young college student that loves boxed mac and cheese because it’s just as easy to make. Molly’s recipe doesn’t requite a roux and isn’t complicated but it tastes so much better than boxed mac and cheese. You boil whatever kind of pasta you want, Molly uses shells but we used rotini because that’s what we had in the pantry, and then you make the cheese sauce using butter, black pepper, milk, and freshly grated parm. Molly says in her video that you can use KRAFT singles if that’s all you have on hand and I love that she makes it so casual and accessible. You do you; add whatever cheese you want that is melty and delicious. You make the sauce, add the pasta, and season to taste. It’s literally the same as a boxed mac and cheese and takes the same amount of time but it’s so good and much more satisfying. I’m not sure I can go back to boxed mac and cheese after this. It’s got everything; it’s quick, it’s simple, and it tastes great.

Chicken Pot Pie

I’ve never made a chicken pot pie before but I do love eating it and Alton does a little twist in season 6 of Good Eats that’s super easy and fun to make. Episode 11 of that season is called Casserole Over where Alton’s beloved dog, Matilda, gets kidnapped for ransom after Alton wanders over to a church potluck and eats all of their homemade casserole dishes. That’s right, church ladies steal his dog and hold her as a hostage until he comes back with casserole dishes to replace the ones he’s ruined. This show is gold.

Because of the premise, Alton is in a hurry to get Matilda back so all of the casseroles in this episode are easy to make. The Chicken pot pie recipe actually contains curry but I skipped out on that because I didn’t have any curry powder. It’s a twist on a pot pie because there’s not bottom crust and the top isn’t fully sealed, which inches it over into the world of casseroles.

This recipe honestly is super easy to make and not terribly time consuming. I get pretty hungry after work and now I’m a super old lady who likes to eat dinner closer to 5 than 7 but this was totally worth waiting for. My only issue with it was that I don’t currently have round cookie/biscuit cutters so I had to improvise a little and my puff pastry didn’t rise up around the edges like it should. I knew it would bake off a little pinched because of the way I cut it so it wasn’t unexpected but it still tasted great so that’s all that matters. I actually love crust on a pot pie so I do wish there was a little more but I see an actual closed pot pie recipe coming up in upcoming episodes so stay tuned. I have a feeling I might enjoy that a little more though I’m sure it’ll be more difficult and time consuming having to make a double crust. Overall, I’d make this again. Unfortunately, Caleb doesn’t like pot pies so I’m going to be eating this one alone so maybe I’ll be tired of pot pie by the end of the week when I’ve eaten leftovers every day. I’ve already recommended this recipe to someone else so get cooking guys, it’s worth it.

ROC - Sticky Lips

It was homecoming at RIT this past weekend so that’s exactly what I did, came home. I had work Saturday morning but I’m loving that Rochester is only 2 hours away because I can be back in a snap. Caleb agreed to come with me and we spent Saturday afternoon running small errands for my dad and checking out the local hobby shop/game store before eating a semi-early dinner and heading to the Brick City Hockey game downtown. I love RIT Hockey. Sunday was a pretty relaxed day laying in bed a little later and catching up with my mom. Caleb and I decided to head to RIT because we really wanted to hit up the Salsarita’s on campus but when we got there we found out it was closed for the day. I had hopes that it would be open this Sunday because of all the parents visiting but I was wrong. I guess parents take their kids off campus to eat, who knew? So we stopped by ShopOne to check in with my crochet pieces and drove off campus for lunch

LOCATION: 830 JEFFERSON RD. ROCHESTER, NY 14623

Jefferson Rd happens to be right by my parents house and RIT and has been filling up with commercial stores and restaurants through the years. If you want to go to a chain, it’s probably on Jefferson or right off of it. It’s pretty convenient. This leaves us with a whole slew of choices when it comes to lunch spots and we considered going somewhere with pasta; Olive Garden, Macaroni Grill, and Carrabbas are all nearby. But Caleb loves BBQ and I kept bringing up Dinosaur BBQ the day before because it’s right by the hockey arena so I think BBQ was on his mind a little. We decided to head to Sticky Lips BBQ because they have a location right on Jefferson and have that for lunch. It was almost 2pm on a Sunday but we had about a 20min wait which wasn’t bad. We hung out at the bar and I watched some football and checked out the menu.

Caleb and I both decided to build our own combos which is what we typically do when we get BBQ. I went with a 2 meat combo with Texas Beef Brisket and St. Louis Cut BBQ Pork Ribs (with a dry rub) and Cajun Corn as my side and an added side of Home-Cut Fries. Caleb couldn’t decide so he went with the 2 meat combo and also got the St. Louis Cut BBQ Pork Ribs because we both wanted our own servings, Boneless Chicken Breast, and Smoked Turkey with Mac & Cheese (of course) and an extra side of Sweet Potato Fries. The combo also comes with a side of corn bread which is perfect because I don’t like corn bread and Caleb does so he gets his piece for now and my piece for later. We always go into these things knowing we’ll get two meals out of it and it’s always worth it.

So, usually I only get brisket because I love it, or so I thought. I was watching some Bon Appetit and there was an episode where Brad Leone went to a BBQ joint and they did a little view of some pork ribs that looked so good so this time around I got both and I was not disappointed. In my mind, I have the vision of saucy messy ribs and it’s deterred me from eating them but this was a tender dry rubbed fall apart rack of ribs with amazing flavor and I officially have a new favorite. I can’t go to a BBQ place and not get ribs now. They beat out the brisket easily. The beef brisket wasn’t bad here; a little dry and not as tender as I want it to be. The first bite of these ribs was fatty but meaty and just so good. I’m actually getting myself excited for leftovers today. I almost got mashed potatoes with gravy, I’ll keep looking, but I yelped some photos before we had to order and they didn’t look like they were the smashed, chunky texture I’ve been craving so I opted for the french fries and Caleb and I split between those and his sweet potato fries and weren’t disappointed. I love starchy hand cut fries like this. His sweet potato fries were so good! it was like a dessert explosion in your mouth. They have a cinnamon/brown sugar coating on them that tastes so sweet but balances perfectly with the potato starch and tastes like you’re eating a pie. Caleb doesn’t get my like of corn because I always order it on things or as a side when it’s an option and he never wants it. To him, it’s just corn. But this Cajun Corn was a step up for sure and I’m so happy I got it. They come dusted with this seasoning that’s a little salty and a little spicy to give the sweet corn a kick of an aftertaste. It was fantastic. I’ve never had corn with seasoning like this before and I’m all for it. I’ve got to make my own blend at home or something, not that I’m really making that much corn at home, but this is going in the books because it’s so good.

Overall, it was a fantastic meal. The staff was so nice and it was a little slow once we finished eating to get our check and some boxes but I think another table was having some issues with their cards or orders so our waitress was occupied but as soon as she had a chance she came back to us so it was all good.

Sticky Lips also has one of those food challenges for anyone out there who’s looking. It’s called the Atomic Bomb Challenge and it’s about 5lbs of meat and sauce and fries and food that you have to eat in 30mins. While I would never be able to do one, I’m so fascinated by them. I guess I should be watching Man vs. Food or something. It’s so gross but crazy to see someone do one of those plates or challenges. It’s so much food. This one was only $20 which seemed pretty fair and if you finish I think you get a t-shirt and possibly some other stuff. Our waitress told us to check it out on youtube. Sound’s like a great time.

Baked Eggs and Hash

Not gonna lie, I got a little side tracked in my Good Eats watching and ended up watching Bon Appetit youtube videos featuring my favorite test kitchen chef, Brad Leone. Brad does a series for youtube called It’s Alive mostly featuring fermented dishes and ingredients like kombucha and miso but he get’s a little out of the box sometimes too. I love the silly sounds and fun graphics that come along with his videos and just feel happy watching him. He did a little three episode series where he went to the woods and ‘camped’ and cooked food including some breakfast in a cast iron skillet. I’m highly susceptible to food in videos and shows and want to eat everything I see. Which is pretty dangerous seeing that I spend most of my days watching food related shows.. very curious.

In any case, I watched Brad crack these eggs into a great pan of veggies and decided I had to go home and make my own cast iron skillet of hash. This is not the first time I’ve seen a cast iron skillet with beautiful yolk-y eggs on top so I’m not new to this dish but this is the first time I’m taking notes so here we go.

I of course, love potatoes - so I started my skillet off on the stove with a little oil and a sliced potato base. I still like a potato-y, starchy feel to my potatoes so I don’t tend to like a traditional grated hash as much so something sliced or cubed works better for me. I let it go on low so it would cook through better and give it time to get a little brown on the bottom while I figured out what else I was going to do. I ended up mixing in some of my left over acorn squash and stuffing because this skillet hash tends to be great ‘refrigerator velcro’ as Alton Brown would say. This is just that this is a great place for leftovers to go to give them a second life before they have to get thrown out after sitting in your fridge dreaming of getting eat. I decided to search this recipe on the Bon Appetit website and found their Portuguese Baked Eggs and got some good guidelines for oven temps and times and set the oven to 400F.

Once everything was warmed through, I cracked my eggs on top and baked it in the oven. Bon App suggested a baking time of 15-18mins and I went for the lighter end of that spectrum and went for 15mins myself. The whole dish looked so good and I took Brad’s tip from one of his videos to drizzle olive oil around the edge of the pan so when it cooks the edge is crisp and lifts off the pan and this worked perfectly. I timed this really well and got some solid golden hour light in my apartment as I pulled this out of the oven so of course I ran around the place with a hot skillet trying to get a shot before the sun set even more and I missed out. Overall, this was great. My squash was a good idea and sweetened up the eggs and potatoes really nicely but the potatoes added a nice mellow taste to the acorn squash that I appreciated. Unfortunately my eggs, while looking perfect, were completely cooked through and not runny at all. Highly disappointed but I still ate the whole thing so it wasn’t really bad. I’m still craving that runny yolk so hopefully I can get it right next time. That’s the note boys and girls (and future Emily - reading this to remember what I did) - bake for less time, 5-10mins maybe? Just enough to let the whites set and for everything else to be warmed and ready to eat.

Stuffed Acorn Squash

I know it’s been slow going on trying to cook new recipes but it turns out groceries cost money and my funds are quite small right now. Instead, I’m trying to save some money and make my way through my stockpile of food in my freezer and in my cabinets before I buy a lot more food. This ends up meaning I’m eating ramen and lots of frozen chicken breasts. Not a very exciting time but economical. It reminds me of being back in college except I think I still had better groceries back then.. Adulting has turned out to be way less fun that it should be. I digress.

I’m still working my way through Good Eats and have decided to treat myself to cooking new food this week. Season 8 episode 14 is entitled “Stuff It” and has a recipe that I’ve decided to give a shot. Alton has spent 7 full seasons reminding viewers that “Stuffing is Evil” but by season 8 he’s gotten so many fan letters asking for a stuffing recipe because, let’s be honest, stuffing is the best part of Thanksgiving. I just love side dishes and could live off of those and appetizers as full meals. I love snacks. Of course “Stuff It” starts off with a traditional stuffing, turkey and all. Alton gives the tips to stuffing and how to make sure that everything is done cooking around the same time so you’re turkey isn’t raw, or dry. Not Good Eats. However, I’m not going to be making a whole turkey with stuffing for myself anytime soon so I’ve decided to move onto the next recipe.

Sorry for the terrible photo; literally crawled out of bed when the timer went off on the oven and almost didn’t take one before laying back down.

Stuffed Acorn Squash is where I’m at. I love acorn squash but I’ve never made it for myself. It’s peak fall season so they’re in every store and stand that I pass and they look so good and I love the way they taste plus they look so cute so I figured this was the time to do it. I cut the recipe in half and by in half I mean I made the whole serving of stuffing and only bought two acorn squash but I think it worked out well. I ended up baking the extra stuffing in a small casserole and had extra rice to eat on the side. It turns out you can’t really fit too much in an acorn squash so it was nice to have a little extra to fill me up because I made this as my dinner, not just a side. I planned on having one squash for dinner and the other for lunch the next day and I’m pretty happy about this decision. I followed the recipe and filled with ground pork, rice, carrots, onions, and celery but I switched out the spinach for mushrooms because I didn’t have it thawed and ready to cook. A little unprepared on my part. I may add the spinach for the second one at lunch today though. I added a little extra wine to the casserole with the extra stuffing and it’s only a little overpowering so some spinach could help cut that flavor just a bit.

This tasted better than I expected. I will put a disclaimer that I have a cold right now so my taste buds are all off kilter and I know that it could use a pinch more salt but I enjoyed making this dish and eating it and I’m really happy with this process. I would totally do this again, it was super easy and really filling and it made my apartment smell great and feel so warm for fall.