All Hail Mac n' Cheese

My favorite food of all time is bread and cheese in any of its many incarnations; pizza, grilled cheese, fondue, French onion soup, baked Brie, you name it. I must also give the shout out to its not so distant cousin, the one and only mac n' cheese. I love this stuff. I even love the crappy box kind. Come the apocalypse, I will last a long while on tuna mac n' peas with a little help from our friends at Kraft. I remember one time getting sick as a kid, I was probably 5, and asking my dad to make me some mac for lunch. Me being the snotty brat I was, was greatly disappointed when he whipped some up from scratch.

Little did I know then that good, homemade mac and cheese is possibly the best thing on the planet. I ate macaroni and cheese for three meals yesterday. After polishing off the left overs from my own homemade batch, I was still up for a late night visit to the mac n' cheese cart on 8th ("Muncheese" I believe). Theirs is pretty good- I went with the basic version sprinkled with a little green onion.

After some recipe scouring and alteration, this is more or less the one I stick to:

You will want to eat this by the bucket, so it's good to make a lot.

• 2 lbs pasta
• Dash olive oil

• 4 tbs butter
• 5 tbs flour
• 1.5 tbs mustard powder
• 1 tbs salt
• 2 tsp black or cayenne pepper (your preference)
• 3.5 cups Milk
• 2 cups 1/2 and 1/2
• 2 cups monterey jack cheese (for excellent melty-ness)
• 2 cups sharp chedder, Gruyeres, or other flavorful cheese. If you want to use a blue cheese, up the montery jack by 1 c and use one cup of blue

• 1 cup potato chip crumbles (the ridgy kind)

If you have a dutch oven, it's the best pot to use. Other wise you'll need a heavy bottom sauce pan and a baking dish.

Pre-heat broiler on the oven

Cook up the pasta. Al dente is fine, but it's better to over cook it that be left with crunchy mac. Drain, toss with just a little oil and set aside. With the dutch oven on the stove top, melt the butter over medium heat. Add in the flour and spices, whisking as you go. As it starts to brown, add the milk and 1/2 and 1/2. Stirring constantly (I mean it!) bring the milk to a low boil. I've burnt it before, and it's not bad- kinda smoky, but it's way better when you don't. Remove from heat and quickly whisk in the cheeses, stirring until melted. Add the pasta, and return to heat over medium low until the pasta is warmed through. If you're  not using a dutch oven, transfer to baking dish. Sprinkle the top with the potato chip crumbles and place under the broiler for 2-5 minutes until crispy golden brown on top. Eat it!

Variations: I am often a purist when it comes to tried and true goodness, but adding some bacon crumbles or prosciutto when you add the cheese is pretty good. Brown some chopped up leeks in the butter before you add the flour, also very nice. Fresh chives/ green onions are a bright contrast.

Putting my nose where it don't belong: 2010 Election

With election day here and gone, and with Oregon yet to know if our future governor will be the a former NBA center or the guy who champions universal healthcare, I am left a little depressed that this is even a choice. Celebrity politicians are a ridiculous concept, which we as Americans embrace like no other country. At least famous is more important than rich. In California, a state that can't pay its bills, the gubernatorial race was the most expensive in history. Meg Whitman (former Ebay executive) spent 160 million dollars on her campaign only to lose to Jerry Brown, who is now old as dirt and sports a comical track record for presidential attempts. Did the Dead Kennedys teach us nothing? I almost understand why people give up on voting, but then I look at Oregon's governors race and I can't help but think that if more of my friends did vote then at least we wouldn't be the next state in line to elect a pro-athlete. I know that America can seems like a terrible place. Still, to take for granted the right to vote seems selfish and lazy. We still discriminate against felons by taking their right to vote, and I am sure plenty of them would like to use it- and allowing them the vote could lead to much needed prison reform.

Does voting change everything? No. Does it help a little? Yes, particularly on a local level. It's too late now for my griping, but remember that while Obama may not be the knight in shining armor we hoped for, he hasn't started any intractable land wars in the last little bit either.

http://whatthefuckhasobamadonesofar.com/