Cooking with Carter - Mac and Cheese

As I have let on before here at Press On, I am an avid cook, somewhat of a foodie and kill an unspeakable amount of hours watching the Food Network, Top Chef, etc. My friends often ask me, “Carter, how did you learn to cook?” Well, the simple answer is that I loved to eat long before I ever picked up a spatula, and my mother was not always willing to make for me whatever it was I desired. Since I didn’t always have a car or money at my disposal to order out, I was forced to try my hand at it.

Cooking can be a daunting task for some, as it requires some practice, patience and attention to craft meals that you enjoy at your favorite restaurants. But, I assure you, it is not impossible, and not even that difficult, to make a delicious meal at home for yourself and friends. But first, you have to have on hand a couple of simple ingredients that are the base for almost anything you’ll make.

Milk
Eggs
Bread (for sandwiches, whatever your favorite may be)
Olive Oil (can be expensive, so you can substitute canola, peanut or vegetable)
Salt
Pepper
Basil (one of my favorite spices, I use it in almost everything - oregano is the same way)
Thyme
Chives
Crushed Red pepper (if you like things spicy)
Fresh garlic (or garlic powder - don’t buy the garlic salt, because it’s, well, too salty)
Onions (or onion powder - same thing as the garlic)
Frozen vegetables (I love fresh, but if you aren’t going to be cooking that often, they will go bad and waste a bunch of money)
Butter
Soy Sauce (great for marinades and a good way to add some flavor to plain old salt)

These are all ingredients that have longevity in your cabinet or fridge and can be used universally and substituted for many other ingredients a recipe may call for. You will also need some hardware.

Cutting board
Chef’s knife (as seen at this link)
Spatula
Saute´pan
Wooden spoon
4 quart pot
Glass pyrex (as seen here - can be purchased for under $20 at any grocery store)

If you are going to be doing a lot of cooking, invest in a 6-piece set. I recommend stainless steel, because it lasts forever, is easy to wash and works well on all cooking services. Teflon pans are nice, because food doesn’t stick as much, but if you buy cheaply, they will flake off into the food, and that can be dangerous and not too tasty.

So, what do you like to eat? Today, I will debut my favorite recipe, my home made mac and cheese. This is the beginner’s version, the one I started with. I have progressed beyond this since I started with it about five years ago, and if you are ready to move on, shoot me an e-mail and I’ll walk you through it. But this is a great recipe, and a nice change of pace for ridding the blue box blues.

You will need
1 pound macaroni (elbow, shells, it doesn’t really matter)
Cheese (I like to use a variety - cheddar, Parmesan, mozzarella, jack - but I will leave it up to your discretion) For a pound of mac, you’ll need about two cups of shredded cheese
Butter
Onions
Garlic
Milk
1 8 oz can of a creamed soup (chicken, mushroom, celery, it doesn’t matter)
Bacon
Goldfish crackers

To begin, bring about 4-6 cups of water to a boil in your pot. Add salt to help it boil, and oil to avoid it bubbling over. Once it boils, drop in the macaroni and cook for about eight to ten minutes, stirring occasionally so the noodles don’t stick to each other or the bottom of the pan. Strain the macaroni.

When the macaroni is done and straining in the sink, drop some butter back into the pan . Add some chopped bacon, garlic and onions into the butter (An aside here - to chop garlic, place a clove, pictured here, on your cutting board, and take the flat edge of the knife’s blade and smash the garlic, so the wrapper peels and the garlic begins to fall apart. Throw away the wrapper, cut off the hard bottom end and toss it in the trash, and carefully chop the garlic as fine as you’d like. For onion, chop off the top and bottom, peel off the skin, cut the onion in half from top to bottom. Then, lay the onion flat on the cut side and slice it, then finish by chopping the slices.) Let the onions and garlic cook, stirring frequently, for about 2-3 minutes over medium heat. If you let it go longer, the garlic will begin to burn. The bacon won’t be done yet, but that’s ok, you’re going to bake it soon. If you like your bacon crispy, cook it alone for 2-3 minutes before adding the veggies, but be wary of burning the bacon as well.

Once the veggies have cooked, dump in your can of soup, add half a can of milk, and stir. Cook for about 3-5 minutes or until it begins to steam. You don’t want it to bubble. Once it is starting to steam, dump in your cheese and stir until the cheese melts.

Once the cheese melts, slowly add macaroni to the pot and stir; if it doesn’t all fit, that’s ok. Once you have added as much macaroni as possible, dump the remaining pasta into your pyrex dish and top it off with what’s in the pot. Turn on your oven to 350 degrees, at this point. Top the macaroni in the pyrex with pepper, basil and chives and add any left over cheese to the top. Then add some crushed up Goldfish crackers to the top (you can use bread crumbs if you don’t like Goldfish) and slide it into the oven. Bake for about 20 minutes, or until the cheese bubbles or it begins to brown. Remove, let cool for about 5 minutes, and enjoy! Makes about 5 to 10 servings.