Mac’n’Cheese

OK, this is some of the best Mac’n’Cheese I’ve ever had. I love M’n’C in all of it’s variations, from Kraft Easy Mac right on up to super-fancy-expensive restaurant versions, because, well, noodles and cheese. Hard to go wrong there. That said, it tends to be the kind of dish that’s so heavy and greasy and cheesy that you will (temporarily) vow to never eat cheese again. This recipe fixes that. It’s cheesey-noodley-awesomeness without the heaviness. Also, if you use all non-fat ingredients (except cheese. Please don’t use non-fat cheese, because it’s disgusting and tastes like plastic) it’s actually pretty low calorie. Also: don’t leave off the breadcrumbs.

Light Macaroni and Cheese (serves ~6)

  • 1 egg
  • 1 cup low/non fat cottage cheese
  • 1 cup low/non fat sour cream
  • 1/2 cup non fat milk
  • 1 small or medium onion, grated
  • handful of sage, finely chopped
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp ground pepper
  • 2 cups (8 oz) grated medium or mild cheddar cheese*
  • 4 cups cooked noodles (8oz uncooked)
  • 3/4 cup Panko bread crumbs
  • 2 tbs olive oil
  • pinch of salt, pepper, and paprika
  1. pre-heat oven to 350
  2. Mix together the egg, cottage cheese, sour cream, milk, onion, sage, salt and pepper and cheese.
  3. Stir the cooked noodles in well, making sure they get a good coating (I like spiral noodles better than elbow macaroni because I feel like they take the coating better, but feel free to use the noodle of your choice.)
  4. Pour then press down coated noodles into a greased 2qt baking pan
  5. Mix bread crumbs (go for the Panko here, it’s awesome) olive oil, and spices together – spread as evenly as possible on top of the noodles
  6. Cover with foil. Bake for ~40 min covered, then ~10 min uncovered, until top is lightly browned

*feel free to use another kind of cheese, but I’d advise against anything too strong, as you don’t want to overwhelm the tanginess of the sour cream.

adapted from The Chef and Photographer

Resolutions

I don’t usually make New Year’s resolutions, but for some reason this year I changed my mind. I’m really excited about 2010, I just have generally good feelings about this year. So here we go:

1) start posting in this space regularly again, at least once a week

2) start making art, of some type, again, something I haven’t done consistently since leaving art school 6 years ago

3) in an effort to master the art of baking bread (or at least get good enough to make several types of bread well,) bake 100 loaves of bread this year. the photo above is loaf #1.

4) actually finish decorating the house. I mean, it’s been 3.5 years. Also, actually get the basement organized so that I can a) move some of the stuff out of the house that I don’t use very often but want to keep and have easy access to and b) utilize the giant work tables I have down there. Which will help with #2.

4b) once my bedroom is finished being decorated/organized, keep it *clean.* or at least *clean-ish* Also – spend more time in there.

5) finally finish losing the weight I gained in college. I lost 2/3 of it in 2007 & 2008, and then pretty much stalled out in 2009 (but didn’t gain anymore!) Time to finish the job. Do this despite have fresh bread in the house twice a week from #3

6) practice regular random acts of kindness towards both other people and myself

lampe gras

part of re-vamping my bedroom was putting a desk back in there (I haven’t had a desk in the bedroom for years.) I ended up pulling a long-ignored table out of my over-full basement to use as a desk,  but the basement, while home to many things, was unfortunately desk-lamp free. This one was *way* out of my price range, but isn’t it beautiful?

Lampe Gras – No. 205, $644 from Brook Farm General Store

Shots of what I ended up with at some point in the future . . .