Bread lasagna is layered dish of rolled bread slices, vegetables and yummy mozzarella cheese. It is good alternative to lasagna sheet which is not easily available in market. It is mouth watering recipe loved by everyone.Can be prepared for lunch or dinner or as evening snack or even party snack. Ingredients:- 4 brown bread slices rolled, 1 ½ cup boiled chopped carrot and Sweet corn(add ¼ tsp salt while boiling), ½ cup chopped onion, 1 cup mozzarella cheese, ½ cup chopped capsicum, 2 tsp chilli flakes, 2 tsp pizza seasoning, ¼ tsp black pepper, ¼ tsp salt, 2 tsp garlic flavoured butter(If not available use garlic paste with normal butter), Optional: 1 slice of cheese for extra cheesiness Note:- Use microwave safe bowl.
Yes, I went a little nuts in Trader Joe’s recently and purchased every single mac and cheese item I could find. Can you blame me? With this product review, the fifth in the series, we move from the boxed, powdered mac and cheeses to the big leagues: frozen. Okay, so maybe not the big leagues, but better than boxed and powdered, right? This review is for Joe’s Diner Mac ‘n Cheese. It featured four cheeses: Cheddar, Swiss, Havarti and Gouda.
Apr 4, 2014 - Trying every mac and cheese recipe under the sun - one spoonful at a time! With this product review, the fifth in the series, we move from the boxed, powdered. I put the pasta and the water into the microwavable bowl, stirred, and placed it in. Into my mouth.). Foodista Food Blog of the Day Badge. Oct 19, 2010 - That was the basic idea behind today's video recipe for crispy potato chip mac and cheese. Oohhh, my mouth is so watering for this!
Here is the nutritional information. Close-up of the frozen product right out of the box. Ingredients needed: 1 box of Joe’s Diner Mac ‘n Cheese and a microwave or conventional oven. I used a microwave. As directed on the package, I removed the package from the box and punctured the plastic film with a fork. The product was microwaved for six minutes, then allowed to sit for an additional minute. I removed the film, gave it a good stir, and popped it into a bowl.
Four elbows up. It was just a tiny bit dry, but I like my mac and cheese saucy. It was actually very similar to Stouffer’s frozen macaroni and cheese – just not quite as creamy. Because Trader Joe’s offers so many mac and cheese options, this post is the fourth in a series of TJ’s mac and cheese product reviews. This review is for Trader Joe’s Microwavable Mac & Cheese – single servings. Here is the nutritional information.
Pasta and cheese powder. Ingredients needed: 1 packet of Trader Joe’s Microwavable Mac & Cheese, microwavable bowl, 1/2 cup water. I put the pasta and the water into the microwavable bowl, stirred, and placed it in the microwave on high power for 3 minutes.
I added the cheese packet and stirred, breaking up little powder clumps. I then let it sit for a minute to allow the cheese sauce to thicken. Eh. I’d give it 2 elbows, and that is being generous.
Even after allowing the mac and cheese to sit for a minute, the sauce was watery and thin. Great is there’s nothing left in the cupboards but otherwise, I’d pass. I’ve been reviewing Trader Joe’s various mac and cheese offerings lately. The first two were boxed mac and cheese, like this one, but this one’s a little different – it is gluten free. Instead of wheat in the pasta, it is rice. Here’s what the box says: Trader Joe’s Gluten Free Rice Pasta & Cheddar.
I like that they call out its gluten-free-ness and also let you know exactly what the pasta is made of. And I dig the pasta smile on the box. Here is the nutritional information. Close-up of the cheese powder. Ingredients needed: 1 box of Trader Joe’s Gluten Free Rice Pasta & Cheddar, 1/4 cup fat-free milk. I boiled 3 quarts of water and added the pasta.
Once they were cooked (about 11 minutes), they were drained and popped back into the pot. I added the milk and cheese packet and stirred. In addition, I followed their suggestion to add 2 tablespoons of unsalted butter “for richer flavor”. I think the butter punched up the flavor of the mac and cheese to a new, better level.
3 1/2 elbows up! Delicious for a boxed mac and cheese. It’s all Trader Joe’s fault. They offer too many great things to try! One of these items is mac and cheese.
Because of Trader Joe’s, this post is just the second in a series as they has soooo many great mac and cheese options when we last visited their store! This review is for Trader Joe’s Macaroni & Cheese – Wisconsin Cheddar.
Here is the nutritional information and preparation instructions. Close-up of the cheese powder. Yes, it is indeed Day-Glo orange.
Ingredients needed: 1 box of Trader Joe’s Macaroni & Cheese – Wisconsin Cheddar, 2 tablespoons fat-free milk. There is a suggestion that you can add 2 tablespoons of unsalted butter “for richer flavor”, but I wanted to get a good idea of how the product tasted out of the box. I boiled 6 cups of water and added the macaroni. Once they were cooked (about 7 minutes), they were drained and popped back into the pot. I added the milk and cheese packet and stirred, breaking up little powder clumps.
At first, the powder didn’t want to integrate into a sauce-like consistency. I stirred the heck out of it and it eventually produced a creamy texture. I’d give it 2 1/2 elbows. The “cheese powder smell” was really prevalent (if you’ve smelled cheese powder, you know of what I speak – generally, the smell goes away after the powder has been mixed with a liquid) but it held its creaminess pretty well. It was just a touch dry, so I’d add an extra tablespoon of milk next time. One caveat: you need to scarf this down immediately. If not, it gets a little gluey.
And my immediately, I mean start eating within 30 seconds of your last stir. On occasion, the Mac & Cheese Chick takes a break from scratch-made macaroni and cheese. Hey, I love Velveeta Shells and Cheese as much as the next guy.
No, wait, probably much more. Anyway, we were at Trader Joe’s the other day and, seeing all the lovely mac and cheese options in the store, of course I had to try them all. So, this post is the first in a series covering reviews of all (well, at least everything I could find while I was there) of Trader Joe’s macaroni and cheese offerings. First up: Trader Joe’s Organic Shells and White Cheddar Macaroni & Cheese. What a mouthful, right? You can guffaw here, I won’t mind. Here is the nutritional information.
Close-up of the cheese powder. Ingredients needed: 1 box of Trader Joe’s Organic Shells and White Cheddar Macaroni & Cheese, 3 tablespoons fat-free milk. There is a suggestion that you can add 2 – 4 tablespoons of unsalted butter “for richer flavor”, but I wanted to get a good idea of how the product tasted out of the box. I boiled 6 cups of water and added the shells.
Once they were cooked (about 8 minutes), they were drained and popped back into the pot. I added the milk and cheese packet and stirred like mad, breaking up little powder clumps. The shells, by the way, were cute, little, and adorable. The powder integrated nicely into the pasta and produced a creamy, good white-cheddar flavor. It was slightly salty, in a good way (flavor!).
One caveat: you need to scarf this one down immediately. If not, it gets a little gluey. And my immediately, I mean start eating within 20 seconds of your last stir. Great for a boxed mac and cheese. My Friday nights are saved for a friend of mine.
We tend to meet up most Fridays and grab dinner together. Sometimes, it’s just whatever neighborhood or cuisine sounds good to us; other times, we follow a theme. Last year’s overall theme was “Seattle Icons”.
This year’s theme is “Best of”. The stars aligned this past Friday, when the “Best of” on Capitol Hill in Seattle happened to coincide with “Best of” macaroni and cheese spots in the city. Enter Skillet Diner on East Union Street. Chef Josh Henderson started Skillet Street Food, a food truck, in a vintage Airstream trailer in 2007. Business has grown to two physical locations, but the truck is still in action. I’d heard of Skillet through the grapevine but hadn’t yet been able to try the food. Boy, was I missing out.
Knowing that Skillet was quite the hot spot and that parking on Cap Hill can be impossible Friday nights, I made a reservation for 4:30pm. You heard that right, early-bird-special-4:30-in-the-afternoon. The only thing to be done about the early hour was to make sure I chose wisely from the drink menu when I arrived. I found parking in the condo building in which Skillet is located – score! I love my Seattle Parking.
Walking into Skillet at 4:30pm, I found my friend sitting at the counter. We love sitting at a counter because you get more of an insider’s view of the kitchen and the goings-on – more fun and interesting! I sat, and Steven, our server, immediately appeared with a menu. My friend had arrived early and ordered an appetizer: poutine (hand-cut fries, gravy, Cheddar, herbs).
The plate/bowl was the size of a dinner-plate and filled with a huge mound of gravy-topped fries. I sat down and immediately the delicate sage essence of the gravy hit my nose.
But first, the libations menu. I settled on a hey girlheeeyyyyy (gin, St.
Germain, Aperol, Starvation Alley Farms pure cranberry juice, lime juice). You can get it with vodka or gin, but on our server’s recommendation I went with gin. First taste: I had chosen wisely. One of the better drinks I’ve had in a while. The poutine was delicious. It was one of those dishes that starts as a finger food but quickly progresses, as you munch, to the point where you need a fork.
We noshed while deciding on our entrees and while I knew I had to try the mac and cheese, there were so many other items that looked delicious, it made it hard to decide. I did end up ordering the macaroni and cheese: smoked Gouda, orecchiette pasta, herb cheese crisp, bruleed Cheddar cheese. And while I planned on ordering it with bacon jam. I’m still peeved at myself that I forgot to order the bacon jam! I am a bonehead.
My friend ordered Friday’s special, the walnut-braised pork shank. It features slow-braised pork shank, spiced walnut crostini, sweet potato and red apple hash, and fried walnuts. I has a small taste of the pork and the crostini washed with sauce, and it was STELLAR. I want to come back just to try it. The main event: the macaroni and cheese. Just enjoy that beautimous image for a moment.
Imagine how good it smelled, how tantalizing the sound of the subtle sizzle was. The Cheddar bruleed crust was, in a word, sublime. After anticipating my first bite for an eternity (okay, maybe only about three minutes – the thing was HOT!), I plunged in. Creamy to the max. Subtle smoky flavor from the Gouda. Nice hint of herbaceousness. Honestly, 5 elbows up and one of my new go-to’s for mac and cheese in Seattle.
Seriously, it is that good. You need to go to here now. And plan on either splitting the dish with a few friends, or having the best breakfast and lunch ever the next day – there’s a lot of mac to love in that skillet. For me, I was eyeing the fried chicken sandwiches and the burgers that went by me while I was seated at the counter.
You can bet I’ll be back there to try both soon! And by the way, Steven was fantastic – I want him to be my server every time. And NEXT time, I WILL remember to order the mac and cheese with bacon jam. It all started at Costco. In affairs of cheese, it either starts at Costco or my local.
There doesn’t seem to be much middle ground. Anyway, Costco. We are there on a Saturday, because that is when all the samples are out and the hubs firmly believes that samples eaten at Costco don’t count. Not calorically, not fat- or sodium-wise; any nutritional detriment simply ceases to exist outside the walls of Costco. In real life, he scoffs and turns his nose up at fried mozzarella sticks, then runs some wind-sprints outside. In Costco, they disappear down his gullet before you can snap your fingers.
Anyway, Costco. (I promise to stay on track this time.) The cheese aisle always holds a sense of wonderment for me, and today was no exception. I left with five new cheeses to try. And believe me, that’s not a large amount for me. One of these cheeses was Steakhouse Onion Cheddar.
Just take a moment and think on that: steakhouse – onion – Cheddar. There was no way on earth I was leaving Costco without this cheese.
We return home and I pop the wedge of Yancey’s Fancy into my fridge. I refrained from rubbing my hands together while fiendishly laughing.muahahahahahaha. but I was indeed thinking it! So many ideas for a new macaroni and cheese recipe veered through my headit was too much to process. So I let it (the cheese, and my thoughts) sit overnight. After warning the hubs of severe bodily harm if he touched the cheese.
Sunday dawned, and it wasn’t just any Sunday, it was Super Bowl Sunday. Super Bowl XLVIII. And our very own Seahawks were in it! Since most of our friends had dismissed us (we weren’t quite rabid enough, as far as fans go, to hang out with), we were on our own for the game.
And as much as I wanted to see the game, I didn’t want to sit idly by on the couch. So, with a great view of the television from the kitchen, I cooked. Start by caramelizing two onions (recipe ). Once they are cooked, pop them into a bowl and set aside.
Next, in a large pot cook the Maccheroni al Torchio per package directions and drain, then set aside. While the pasta is cooking, shred the cheese (I am not responsible for the bits that went missing. Into my mouth.) and strip the thyme leaves from the stems. Now is a good time to go ahead and make your bread crumb topping as well. In a small bowl, combine 1/4 cup caramelized onions, 1/2 cup Panko bread crumbs and about 1 tablespoon of fresh thyme. Stir and set aside.
Back to the mac! In the same large pot over medium heat, melt the butter. Once the better is melted, add the flour and whisk like mad, cooking for about a minute. Add the milk next and continue to whisk.
Cook the mixture over medium heat until the sauce begins to thicken (about 3 – 5 minutes). Add the seasoned salt and seasoned pepper and stir, then add the caramelized onions and stir well to combine. Add all but the reserved 1/2 cup of Yancey’s Fancy Steakhouse Onion Cheddar cheese and stir until the cheese is melted. Add the pasta and mix until everything is thoroughly incorporated. Spoon the mac and cheese into a Pammed loaf pan (or an 8×8 oven-safe pan), top with the reserved 1/2 cup of cheese, then sprinkle with the bread crumb topping. Broil for about a minute (watch it closely!!!), just until the topping begins to brown. Remove from the oven and let it sit for five minutes before serving.
Isn’t it beautiful all decked out in Seahawks colors? Well, let me tell you. It was amazing.
Like eating mac and cheese onion rings. Or mac and cheese French onion soup. Or, in the words of my taste-testers: D: “Stroganoff mac and cheese!” (said as she devoured half the plate) T: “The bomb. Perfect cheese. Perfect texture.
Maybe slightly too much caramelized onion as a slight burnt taste. Overall amazing. Mushrooms would be good to make it Stroganoff.” V: “Umbf ibs goob.” (said around a mouthful of mac and cheese) I give it four enthusiastic elbows up! Next time, I will add a little olive oil or melted butter into the bread crumb topping mix. And if you don’t like the bold onion-y flavor, definitely decrease the amount of caramelized onions (you could make the recipe using one onion rather than two). Here is my recipe.
Ingredients. 1 caramelized onions, divided (reserve ¼ cup for bread crumb topping). 8 ounces Maccheroni al Torchio (or other short dried pasta). 1 pound Yancey's Fancy Steakhouse Onion Cheddar cheese (or any extra-sharp white Cheddar cheese), shredded & divided (reserve ½ cup to top mac & cheese before broiling).
2 tablespoons butter. 2 tablespoons flour. 2 cups fat-free milk. ½ cup Panko bread crumbs. 1 teaspoon seasoned salt. 1 teaspoon seasoned pepper. Fresh thyme, about 1 tablespoon (strip leaves from stems).
Instructions. Combine ¼ cup caramelized onions, ½ cup Panko bread crumbs and thyme in a small bowl. Mix and set aside.
Heat oven to broil and Pam an oven-safe loaf pan. In a large pot, cook pasta per package directions. Drain and set aside. In the same large pot, melt butter. Add flour and whisk, cooking over medium heat, for one minute.
Add milk and continue whisking over medium heat until sauce begins to thicken, about three minutes. Reduce heat to low. Add seasoned salt, seasoned pepper and caramelized onions and stir to combine. Add cheese and stir until cheese is melted. Add pasta and mix thoroughly.
Spoon macaroni and cheese into Pammed loaf pan and sprinkle reserved cheese on top. Add bread crumb topping, then broil for one minute. Remove from oven and allow to sit for five minutes. Serve and scarf down immediately! There is a top-secret element that not many will tell you about caramelizing onions: time. You can try to short-cut it all you want, but your end result is always going to be sub-par.
In caramelizing onions properly, patience is a virtue. You’ll need about an hour, grasshopper. An hour, and three ingredients. 2 yellow onions (you can also use white onions, or for a more interesting depth of flavor, red onions). 2 tablespoons butter (salted or unsalted, whatever floats your boat). 1/4 cup chicken stock (or pretty much any clear liquid: water, beef stock, white or red wine, sherry, amontillado, etc.) How simple is that?!? The stars of the show are your onions – grab two of them.
You’ll also need a little butter and a little chicken stock. And in a perfect world, a not-non-stick pan.
Since all I have is a non-stick, that is what we’re going to work with here. Start by slicing your onions. They must be thin.
The easiest way I found to accomplish this is to first cut each end off, then slice the onion in half lengthwise. Take each half and cut into thin slices. Melt the butter over medium heat in a large skillet. Allow the butter to get nice and frothy and happy.
Once your butter is frothy, add the onions (separate them a bit with your fingers as you add them to the pan). Give the whole thing a good stir to coat the onions and pop the heat down to low. Here are the onions after they’ve been stirred and coated with frothy butter. Now comes the “patience” part. Unlike a mac and cheese, where you and the whisk practically become one during the process, you really don’t want to stir these too much.
Maybe once every five minutes or so. Here they are after cooking over low heat for ten minutes. Here they are at twenty minutes. Right around the twenty-minute mark, the house begins to small amazing. And this from someone who cannot stand raw onions. Here they are at thirty minutes. Looking good, right?
Still, not quite done yet. Here they are at forty minutes. Almost there! I gave them another five minutes, then added the chicken stock to deglaze the pan.
Make sure you scrape up all the yummy brown bits. So for me, it was about 45 minutes of cook time. Remove the caramelized onions from heat, then either dish up and serve, or allow them to cool if you’re using them in another recipe.
Now you know exactly how to caramelize onions. In honor of the Seahawks making it to the Super Bowl this year, I am hereby changing my name from Mac & Cheese Chick to Mac & Cheesehawk. Enough with the chit-chat, let’s talk Super Bowl food. You have your chips and dips; these are the foundation of most Super Bowl munchie menus. Someone, especially here in Seattle, invariably brings along a veggie plate and while most of the revelers scoff, a small percentage hover around it like it’s a lifeboat. A healthy lifeboat in a sea of unhealthy food options.
And then, we get to the good stuff. The serious, hearty, stick-to-your-ribs casseroles that are a mainstay of a good Super Bowl feast. It is one of the few times each year that you can drag out the heavy, mom-made recipes that you secretly love but tend to forgo in the spirit of being “healthy”. Top on the list of these amazing mainstays of Super Bowl food is the wonder that is macaroni and cheese. And because the Seahawks are in the Super Bowl, we needed to gather the best mac and cheese recipes from Seattle’s top restaurants. After all, if you’re going to serve macaroni and cheese at your Seahawks Super Bowl party, it had better be from a Seattle mac and cheese institution.
Here are the recipes for our favorite mac and cheeses from our favorite restaurants around the Seattle area. Beecher’s “World’s Best” Mac & Cheese, for me, is the gold-standard of cheese. It stands to reason, then, that their “” Mac & Cheese lives up to the hype. Let me tell you, it goes way beyond the hype to a totally different plane (more about that ).
Amazing stuff, it is. And even better? If you’re just not up to whipping up a batch for the Super Bowl, you can pop down to their Pike Place and grab some freshly made. Or if you’re feeling really lazy, like me on occasion, you can just order it from to be delivered to your door. There’s even a gluten-free option. Instructions.
To prepare sauce, melt butter in a heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium heat and whisk in the flour. Continue whisking and cook for 2 minutes.
Slowly add milk, whisking constantly. Cook until sauce thickens, about 10 minutes, stirring frequently. Remove from heat. Add cheeses, salt, chili powder and garlic powder. Stir until cheese is melted and all ingredients are incorporated, about 3 minutes. Preheat oven to 350F.
Butter or oil an 8-inch baking dish. Cook penne 2 minutes less than package directions. (It will finish cooking in the oven.) Rinse pasta in cold water and drain well. Combine pasta and sauce in a medium bowl; mix carefully but thoroughly. Scrape the pasta into the prepared baking dish. Sprinkle top with cheeses and then the chili powder. Bake, uncovered, 20 minutes.
Let stand 5 minutes before serving. 3.2.2265 icon Grill’s Ultimate Macaroni & Cheese with Molten Cheese Sauce mac and cheese is the stuff of legends.
Some blessed soul thought, “Let’s take macaroni and cheese to the next level. We’ll start with a stellar mac and cheese. And THEN, we’ll pour more luscious cheese on top!” I’m already salivating. Your Super Bowl guests will be torn between watching the game and scarfing your amazing mac and cheese.
And yes, they use Velveeta. In fact, they downright revel in their Velveeta use. I love them for it. Chef Nick Musser is so dedicated to macaroni and cheese that he held a mac-and-cheese-making contest a few years back and featured the four winning recipes in the restaurant for an entire month. Now that’s my kind of thinking. Instructions.
SAUCE BASE. Melt butter in a 4 quart sauce pot over medium high heat. Add flour and mix until flour is incorporated into butter. Cook, stirring frequently for about 2 minutes. Add milk and chicken broth and continue to cook until sauce is thick and bubbly.
Remove from heat and season with mustard, Tabasco, Worcestershire, salt and pepper. Allow to cool before using. TOPPING.
Mix all ingredients in a bowl and set aside. MIX FOR MACARONI AND CHEESE.
Cook macaroni in salted water, drain and rinse with cold water. Place all ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Add ¾ of the Sauce Base (about 2½ cups) and mix thoroughly. Place the mix evenly into 4 small casserole dishes, or one large one.
Sprinkle with topping and bake in a 400-degree oven until hot a bubbly. MOLTEN CHEESE SAUCE. Take the remaining sauce base and warm over a medium burner in a small sauce pan. When warm, add cheese and cook until melted. Season as necessary. Save for service.
TO SERVE. Make sure to present each serving with lots of molten cheese sauce!
3.2.2265 WildFin American Grill’s Cougar Gold Macaroni & Cheese Ask around the greater Seattle area about who has the best mac and cheese, and will invariably be mentioned. With locations in Issaquah and Renton, they have the Pacific Northwest covered. Executive Chef Chris Bryant was born and raised here, and he loves to highlight our area’s best local ingredients. In WildFin’s mac and cheese, these ingredients ( and cheeses) shine. In the future, minstrels will sing about their Cougar Gold Chili Prawn Mac & Cheese.
Because Chris knows the Mac & Cheesehawk is a purist at heart, he has offered a more pure, spotlight-on-the-pasta-and-cheese recipe for WildFin’s ethereal Cougar Gold Macaroni & Cheese. Instructions.
MACARONI & CHEESE. In a large sauce pan, place the lobster bechamel sauce, bacon and the cooked pasta along with both the cheeses and mix well. Let cook over low heat until the sauce is warm, the cheese is melted, and the pasta is well coated.
Transfer the heated mixture to a baking dish. Sprinkle the top with bread crumbs and Parmesan. Place in a 350-degree oven and let bake for about 3 - 5 minutes or until breadcrumbs and Parmesan have browned and the sauce is bubbling. LOBSTER BECHAMEL SAUCE. Melt the butter in a large sauce pan. Add the flour and mix it to form a roux. Let the flour and butter roux cook over low heat about 1 minute.
Add the milk to the pan and whisk the mixture until it is smooth with a wire whisk. Add the remaining ingredients to the pan and mix them until smooth over low heat.
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3.2.2265 Kingfish Cafe’s Macaroni & Cheese Those in the know in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood, when asked about the best mac and cheese in their ‘hood, might or might not be willing to share their knowledge of the Kingfish Cafe with you. Because if too many folks know how decadent it is, they’ll never be able to elbow in to the restaurant for a table. Chef Kenyetta Carter puts her own spin on a down-home favorite and the result is simply sublime.
Owners and Seattle locals explain where the Kingfish Cafe got its name, “The restaurant name comes from George “Kingfish” Stevens, a character on the 1950′s Television show Amos ‘n Andy; his business ventures were many, and often chaotic, but always comical. Like “Kingfish”, we encountered a myriad of challenges on our journey.” Seattleites are very glad that they persevered through that journey. Noted on TripAdvisor, Kingfish Cafe’s mac and cheese is among the “Best Mac N Cheese on Earth!” I wholeheartedly agree with that statement. Instructions. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cook elbow pasta in boiling salted water until al dente. Strain and put in a large bowl with a dash of olive oil.
Toss and set aside. Saute onions and pepper in butter oil until translucent. Add salt and pepper.
Add to macaroni. Mix in cream of mushroom soup. In another bowl, mix eggs, milk and cream. Add to macaroni. Add half of cheese to macaroni mix. Grease a deep casserole dish and pour mixture in. Top with remaining cheese and cover with lightly oiled foil.
Back for 1 hour. Macaroni is done when center is set and top is lightly brown. Remove foil to cool. Let sit 5 minutes before serving. Image courtesy cookbookman17 via Flickr – The is a Seattle icon and phenomenon. Home of the “ American Food Festival Series“, their menu offers big flavored food and kitsch from all points of the continental U.S. While a portion of the menu changes, some items have a permanent spot. Among those is the 5 Spot’s macaroni and cheese.
General Manager Holly Olson was able to offer me a recipe similar to the Heartland Cafe’s: it is an outline, so home cooks must be a little creative in their preparation. But, I think it is worth trying – it is indeed delicious!
One of the highlights of this particular mac and cheese is the breadcrumb topping. It takes this recipe from great to GREAT, and makes it one of the top mac and cheeses in the Pacific Northwest. Flash back – way, way back, to August of 2012. The Mac & Cheese Chick was plugging away at the blog, testing and reviewing mac and cheese recipes and creating her own for posterity (and, of course, for the blog).
One day, she was contacted by Stephanie Stiavetti. Steph was looking for recipe testers for her new book. After picking herself up from beside the chair from which she’d fallen, the Mac & Cheese Chick excitedly accepted.
And after testing a wonderful recipe that included fresh ricotta and raspberries and providing feedback, the Mac & Cheese Chick was to be forever linked (in her mind, anyway) with the progress of the new book:. To her, it was like meeting mac and cheese rock stars – and she even got an autograph! Back in the present, it is now autumn and Steph and Garrett are gearing up for the new book to hit the shelves and take cooks and chefs everywhere by storm. The photography, according to their blog, is simply amazing – and I cannot wait to see how the book looks! After being tantalized by Facebook and email updates from Steph, the day finally arrives and I receive the most wonderful surprise in the mail: my very own copy of Melt!
I curl up in my favorite purple chair by the window and peruse the book, lamenting the fact that it arrived after I’d eaten lunch and pondering if it was too decadent to whip up one of the new recipes anyway for a second lunch. Fitting in to my jeans won out over decadence, but by the time I finished reading Melt it was so dog-eared from all the recipes I wanted to try that it didn’t quite close flat anymore. I decided I wanted to try the Red Hawk Macaroni with Prosciutto and Raspberry Jam. After looking in several local shops and online in vain for a wheel of Red Hawk, I contacted my local cheese monger, Holly, at. She did some additional research and after speaking with the folks at, learned that this year’s Red Hawk distribution was limited to their local area. I could hear the Soup Nazi screaming, “No Red Hawk for you!!!” in my head. Holly took some time researching Red Hawk alternatives and found that Meadow Creek Dairy’s cheese might be a great substitute.
Isn’t it beautiful? This lovely little baby had an amazing, earthy scent that defied its wrapping and wafted up at me on the drive home from Savour.
I gathered my ingredients, including the four Le Creuset cassis that you see here. To start, I preheated the oven to 350 degrees and cooked the elbows per package directions (al dente), then drained and popped it back into the large pot in which it was cooked. While the pasta was cooking, I chopped the Grayson into small chunks, and chopped the prosciutto as well. I then added the cheese and prosciutto to the elbows, stirred, then seasoned with salt and pepper.
Into the Pammed ramekins! And top each ramekin with heavy cream. Slide them gently into the oven, and 35 minutes later, you have this. Looks mouth-watering, right? Bet you wish your computer had smell-o-vision. Hellooooo, cheesy-gooey-chewy goodness. Here it is pre-jam.
Some of you may scoff at the idea of topping this little lovely with raspberry jam but trust me, Steph and Garrett know of what they speak: don’t leave off the dollop of jam! In a word: decadent. Earthy, delicate cheese-funk, slightly salty when you get some of the prosciutto. And the sweet of the jam balances the pungency of the Grayson perfectly. It’s like the ingredients got together and did a three-way tango in my mouth. Here is the recipe, direct from Melt: The Art of Macaroni and Cheese.
Instructions. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cook pasta in a large pot of salted boiling water until al dente. Drain through a colander and set aside. In a large bowl, mix pasta, cheese, and prosciutto. Sprinkle with salt and a few good turns of the pepper grinder. Toss until well combined.
Lightly oil four 8-ounce ramekins (I Pammed four 7-ounce ramekins instead) and fill them with equal amounts of the pasta, cheese, and prosciutto mixture. Add a scant ½ cup of cream to each ramekin.
Line a rimmed baking sheet with foil and place your ramekins onto the sheet. Slide into oven and bake for 35 minutes, or until the cream has thickened into a nice gratin. Remove from oven and allow to sit for 10 minutes.
The cheese is supposed to bubble over the edges of the ramekins - that's part of the charm of this dish. And it's why you lined the baking sheet with foil. Top each ramekin with 1 tablespoon raspberry jam before serving.
Add more spoonfuls of jammy goodness if you see fit.