Mac ‘N…ew!

I have this thing for Mac ‘N Cheese. I love it, even the florescent Kraft stuff, on occasion. Mac ‘N Cheese and potato salad, I am a happy happy camper. Thank goodness my dad likes to make homemade Mac ‘N Cheese a lot.

You can only imagine my joy when a local paper ran it’s weekly food article on Mac ‘N Cheese. I have no complaints about the recipe that both my dad and I use when we make the dish but I am always looking for new and improved recipes when dealing with golden oldies. The article consisted of a three page layout in the tabloid style entertainment pullout the paper runs every day. There was a one page collage of the various types of Mac ‘N Cheese, a half page article outlining the author's search for the perfect homemade Mac ‘N Cheese, a half page article reviewing several premade, boxed Mac ‘N Cheese dishes and then a full page of six of the author's favorite Mac ‘N Cheese dishes. (Challenge: Count how many times I type Mac ‘N Cheese in this blog.)

I saved this article and was toying with the thought of inviting my closest amigos over for a Mac ‘N Cheese tasting party. I could see it so clearly, I would prepare at least five of the recipes from the article and my old standard recipe. I would provide small plates with just a taste of each dish and have my guest fill out a comment/rating card. Just like a real food challenge/recipe contest. At the end, I would ask my guest to rank the recipes from most to least favorite and I would have a new recipe in my repertoire.

Well, my cravings got the better of me and I decided to make one of the Mac ‘N Cheese recipes this weekend for myself, a dry run if you will. I reviewed the recipes and chose one of the easier ones that would require the least shopping. I chose the creamy stovetop Mac ‘N Cheese.

I do not think that I have ever had a more disgusting batch of Mac ‘N Cheese in my life. The recipe called for a can of evaporated milk, which gave the whole dish a sickening sweet smell and taste. Not even dousing the dish with Tapatio hot sauce helped. I ended up eating a little and then scraping the rest into a couple of plastic bags and disposing of the rest.

I followed the recipe exactly. The only thing I wonder about is if I should have used sharp cheddar instead of the mild that I prefer. But the recipe did not specify which type of cheddar to get so I figured it didn’t matter. And this is not necessarily a dish I would want to make again to see if the sharp cheddar would make a difference - the entire house had that sickly sweet smell. Bleh! Maybe one of my friends would be willing to experiment with this recipe and the sharp cheddar but this is one recipe that I am striking from my list. It takes a lot for me to dislike pasta but I found a recipe that does just that. I hope the rest of the recipes are not that bad. Four of the remaining recipes sound interesting in a good way, I’m just not sure about the Greek style Mac ‘N Cheese. I’ll let you know how they all turn out.