Comfort Food: Mac & Cheese

Nobody makes mac and cheese better than my momma. Not even me. Especially me -- and I can cook my butt off.

I don't really know very many black folk who wouldn't co-sign that statement, probably because of the emotional connectedness we feel towards the foods we love. One bite of something delicious brings us back to a beautiful childhood memory and into the arms of the person who turned a slice of cake or a piece of chicken into a celebration of life and all the goodness that the world could hold. For some of us, eating those things brings us right back to those moments. No wonder we've got weight/body issues.

So of course, it is with all of that in mind that I post the absolute best mac and cheese recipe I could possibly find, anywhere, ever. Do I eat mac and cheese?  Rarely.  It's not a dietary staple for me. It's a treat -- and I believe that if you're going to have a treat, you should really do it up.

How many people does this serve? I dunno. Technically, 8 to 10 but hey -- once I put it on the table, it's gone and only 4 or 5 people got some, so...

Ingredients:

3 cups of large elbow macaroni noodles

3 cups of shredded mild Cheddar cheese

2 cups of shredded Moneterrey Jack cheese

1 8 oz. block of Colby Cheese

1 8 oz. block of Monterrey Jack cheese

2 cups of milk

1 jumbo egg beaten

2 tsps of ground white pepper

1 dash of black pepper

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Boil the noodles for 15 minutes or until tender, then drain. Then put noodles in a bowl and add the milk, 2 cups of the mild Cheddar cheese, the shredded Moneterrey Jack, the white pepper and the jumbo egg. Mix thoroughly. Dice the block cheeses into 1 inch cubes and add them. Mix again, put in a 4 quart baking pan and place into the oven for 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and top with  the remaining cup of Cheddar cheese on the top and the black pepper. Place the dish back in the oven at 450 degrees for 20 minutes or until top layer of cheese is starting to brown. Remove from the oven, cool for 5 minutes and serve.

Don't say I never gave you anything...

i'm eating clean so of course i'm craving all kinds of things i can't have. a slice of this cornbread is definitely one of them. it'll probably be awhile before i eat corn or wheat gluten or dairy again.  my body really likes to eat clean so some of these changes will have to be permanent.  i'll be making this a lot for my friends, so i thought i'd share this fairly simple, delicious recipe with you -- if you aren't on the clean program, that is.

this recipe is foolproof, it's a crowd-pleaser and it's really delicious.  once you get into the habit of making it, you'll be coming up with all kinds of excuses to make it. ideally, it'll be one of those things to throw in the oven when you're having a few guests over for dinner or if you happen to be the dinner guest and pot luck is on the menu. enjoy!

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three layer cornbread!

ingredients:

1 cup cornmeal (coarse)
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup unbleached flour
1/4 cup wheat bran or germ
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1/4 to 1/2 cup of honey
1/4 cup of oil or melted butter
3 cups milk or buttermilk

directions:

combine dry ingredients in one bowl.
combine wet ingredients in another bowl.
mix them together thoroughly.
pour into a well oiled 9x9 inch pan.

bake at 350F (or 176C) for 50 minutes.

would you like some tequila lime sorbet?

i'm making a batch of this yummy goodness tomorrow. it's so good, i thought you should have some, too.

tequila lime sorbet

you need:

sugar
water
lime juice
lime zest
tequila
an ice cream machine (preferrably electric)

that's it!

here's what you do:

make simple syrup -- put this in a saucepan on low, let it dissolve.

one cup sugar
one cup water

then add one cup of fresh squeezed lime juice to the dissolved hot simple syrup, pulp and all. put in two tablespoons of lime zest. stir this, make sure everything is dissolved and totally liquid, then let it cool to room temperature and then refrigerate it for TWO HOURS.

after TWO HOURS, yank it out and put 4 tablespoons of tequila in it. stir carefully, then pour all of it into an ice cream maker for 30 minutes. after 30 minutes, take it out and put it in the freezer. leave it there overnight for best results -- but it should be ready in TWO HOURS, at least.

eat up and think of me...