Recipes

Martha’s Macaroni-and-Cheese

It’s summer! Despite the rain, and dreary skies, and the chill in the air, it’s still technically summer and I couldn’t be happier. This will be my second summer in Montreal, and I can’t wait for it to really start. Everyone was moving in and out of apartments yesterday, but I’m staying in my little apartment another year. I’m hoping to do a few touch-ups here and there, but overall I love my place like crazy.

Since I had 2 exams Monday, I didn’t get my act together on the blog. Don’t worry – I’ll make up for it from here on out. I have a couple of great things to share, as well as a brand new project that I’m working on, which is going to be totally awesome. Stay tuned for that!

Today, it’s a mac-and-cheese kind of day where I am. It’s rainy. It’s dark. It’s cold. It’s blah. I made this mac-and-cheese a couple weeks ago, but boy am I wishing I had a bowl right now. I made it right this time: making sure I had all the right ingredients (not just winging it with what I had in my fridge), used real butter, baked it in my Grandma’s casserole dish, tore up baguette for the top, and felt like a regular Martha! For me, the key was the chewy bread “crumbs” – they added a really nice texture that contrasts with the softness of the pasta. I really can’t see myself making any other mac-and-cheese recipe ever again. Except if I’m lazy and just make it from the box!

I used Deb’s recipe, which is adapted from Martha Stewart’s famous recipe. There are many adaptations, but it’s all the same really: lots of butter, lots of cheese, lots of pasta. Carbs. A lot of carbs. I ended up using the Pecorino Romano cheese instead of Gruyere, mostly because I’m a cheapskate and Gruyere is more expensive. My mac-and-cheese was delicious with Romano, as I’m sure it would have been with Gruyere. But just in case you’re a cheapskate like me, go with the Romano and it’ll still taste super-duper.

My favourite part was piling all the sort-of-al-dente pasta into the pan with the cheese sauce. I just think it looks awesome. How do they do that? How do they make tiny little macaroni noodles so perfect? I left it like this for a few seconds before stirring it all in together. By the way, the cheese sauce is out of bounds. If you wanted to stop and dip some leftover baguette into it and eat a bunch of it, I would not judge you. I would understand you.

But it’s worth it to wait until there is pasta and bread involved, until it’s been baked, until there’s a glass of fruit punch (sadly, that’s not red wine, though I wish it had been!) in your hand and you’re ready for a beautiful lunch. Comfort food, for real.

Do you love macaroni-and-cheese? What recipe do you normally follow? Or what brand do you like out of the box? Happy eats, folks!

Best Chocolate Ice Cream

Cabin fevAH. Cabin feverrrr. Got the fever! Fever when you lock me inside, fever all through the night.

Oh great, now the word “fever” looks like it’s spelled wrong. Is it? Better check.

It’s not. It’s right. My brain just isn’t used to having to read the word “fever” 8 times in a row. Oops, did I do it to you too? Forgive me. This is how my brain works when it gets cabin fever.

As usual, I’m being overly dramatic. It’s only been a couple of days since my nose has been glued to my books, and I haven’t yet gone a day without going outdoors. Staying inside for entire days tends to be a staple of my exam-studying prep, but now that it’s gorgeous and sunny outside I don’t know if that’ll happen this semester! Cause for celebration!

Here’s how cabin fever generally manifests itself: I fidget. I switch positions when I’m reading notes – from sitting to standing to the chair to the couch to the floor. I read out loud when my brain gets sleepy and doesn’t want to pay attention anymore. I obsessively use FocusBoosterApp (lifesaver). I leave all the dishes unclean. I take impromptu dance parties. If my phone tells me I have a message, I lunge across the room at it, even if it’s only from like, Amazon.com. Texting becomes a lifeline. I eat, probably too much. I eat the last of this ice cream later at night than I probably should.

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Six Layer Chocolate Malted and Toasted Marshmallow Cake

Brace yourselves.

Wait, maybe I should have somehow written that in the title. The title alone sometimes stops my heart. It’s okay though guys: I only had one piece, and went for a run this morning. (Let’s just ignore the fact that the run probably burned 1/3 of the calories I consumed from that piece of cake alone.)

It’s probably a good thing that the birthdays of my closest friends all lie between March 12 and April 23. Because by the time April 23 rolls around I am not going to want to so much as see a cake until, like, at least 2013. I mean, pie maybe, but not cake.

Joking aside though, there are 5 birthdays (including my own) that fall between those dates, and that means that we, as a group, gain approximately a cake each, right before summer, aka bikini season. Way to plan that one out, parents, way to plan. Because it’s not as though cake is optional, on a birthday. For me it sometimes is, because icing can occasionally make me nauseous, but if there ain’t cake there sure as hell better be a tray of brownies or something.

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Chocolate Zucchini Cake + Mixed Berry Sorbet

I wish I could pinpoint where my mantras come from, but in all honesty they just float in like fluffy clouds and take up residence in my brain. I don’t get a choice in the matter. Earlier this year, my mantra was “follow your bliss”. I still love that one, and it still guides me, but recently another one has made itself known: “choose art”. Mmm. I’m in love with it.

Choose art. It’s a mantra, but it’s also a paradigm: it shapes my choices and changes the way I think about things. I’m defining “art” loosely, but it all makes sense to me. By “art”, I mean anything that enriches me + my life. So flipping through a glossy spread in Bon Appetit counts. Reading a book counts. Baking, food styling and photography definitely count. And when I “choose art”, I spend less of my precious free time soaking up TV shows or movies like a boring sponge. Choosing art keeps me busy, keeps me entertained,  stops me from being lonely.

Last week, I was feeling particularly listless and lonely, and I had just finished a midterm so I had a bit of free time. So instead of watching TV, I decided to create. I made double chocolate zucchini cake and mixed berry sorbet. Both are delicious, and together are even better! Not to mention that getting to practice my photography that made me the happiest of girls.

Here are the recipes for double chocolate zucchini cake and mixed berry sorbet. As recipes go, they’re very simple. I was able to make both without leaving my house because I had a 3-pack of zucchini that needed using, and a plethora of frozen mixed berries in the freezer.

I’m lucky enough to have this ice cream maker at my disposal, but I promise the cake is good on its own too! If you do have access to an ice cream maker, let me assure you that the sorbet is amazing on its own as well. I’ve also been adding a little to smoothies, and it packs a flavour punch.

Enjoy!

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