Mac and Cheese – Like an Adult!

My old college roommate is coming over for dinner.  When I lived with her a typical meal for me consisted of Oreos dipped in the milk of Cocoa Pebbles with more Oreos to follow the eating of the Cocoa Pebbles, so I want to wow her with my culinary skills.  The meal that will wow her?  Mac and Cheese.  Oh yeah.

This is no ordinary Mac and Cheese.  This is adult Mac and Cheese.  With cauliflower.  And chili powder.  And lotsa lotsa thyme, because thyme makes things taste more adult.

The Man and I received some vegetarian cookbooks for Christmas because his family was afraid we were going to starve if we took meat of our diet, and those cookbooks are awesome; they have definitely saved us from starvation a night or seventeen.  Today’s recipe is kinda out of Martha Stewart’s Meatless cookbook.

No, I'm not a photographer.  Why do you ask?

I say kinda because I don’t follow half the recipe.  She calls for an even more adult Mac and Cheese, featuring homemade bread crumbs and fancified tomatoes.  I hate tomatoes, and The Man complained last time I made the recipe with bread crumbs, so there go half the steps.  I’ll have my version of the recipe fully written out sans commentary at the bottom of this post, but if you’re feeling more fancy, feel free to purchase Mrs. Stewart’s book.

 

If this looks yummy to you, buy her book.

Step one: gather your ingredients.  You will need thyme, butter, pasta (calls for macaroni elbows; I used penne), veggie stock, flour, nutmeg, chili powder, milk, cheddar, parmesan, and cauliflower. 

You start off with some boiling salty water (salty like the sea, as the famous tv chefs say).  Put in 16 ounces of pasta.  Ignore it for a while.

While your pasta is cooking, whisk ½ cup of veggie stock (make sure you shake it before pouring!) together with 5 tablespoons of flour (all-purpose).  I just did it in the measuring cup, but if you’re feeling fancy you can do it in a bowl.  Put it to the side.

In a medium to large saucepan, melt 1 Tb butter.  Add a pinch of nutmeg, a pinch of chili powder (a pinch is around 1/8 tsp), ½ tsp thyme, and 1 tsp salt (which seems like a TON when compared to other stuff, but it’s right).

 

Mmmmm....salt...

Add 2 cups milk and 1 ½ cups veggie stock.  Whisk.

Whisk in that flour mixture you have off to the side.  Bring the whole lovely mess to a boil, then let it simmer 8 minutes (whisking frequently the whole time).  It was right about now that I realized my saucepan was cutting it close in the size department.

Motion-capture! 

After your butter/milk/stock/herb mix has simmered the proper amount of time, add about 2 ¼ cups of cheddar cheese and ¼ cup of parmesan.  Right about now is where I realized I should have grated the cheeses in advance.  Thankfully The Man was able to come whisk while I grated. 

 

I don't have a good caption for this.

You may be admiring my grater.  IKEA sells them; they’re wonderful.  It’s a grater, it’s a bowl, it’s a grater-bowl!  If you don't live by IKEA, Amazon sells them!  Click here to buy it!

Also, I am terrified of grating cheese once they get down to the tiny nubs so I just cut the nubs up into little pieces and threw them on top of the grated cheese.  My fingers thanked me.

Your pasta should have finished by now, so go ahead and drain it.  I poured some pasta into the sink when I tried to drain it, but that’s totally optional ;)  Throw the pasta into a 9x13 baking dish (or place gently).  Add about 1 ½ - 2 cups of chopped cauliflower (bite-sized – I guess I should have told you to chop it up prior, but mine was pre-chopped by me several days ago so I figured yours was too).  Pour the cheese mix on top.  Stir it all together!  Throw some more thyme on top because you’re an adult!

Num num nummy!  Nice and soupy. 

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit sometime during this whole thing, then place your adult Mac and Cheese in the heated oven and bake it for 30 minutes.  It will start to brown a tiny tiny bit – that’s how you’ll know it’s done.  Let it cool, and then feast!

 

Bam!  Wow, my captions are all terrible.  Sorry. 

By the way, Martha Stewart’s dish was 530 calories per serving and I didn’t use low-fat ingredients like she did…this is by no means healthy.  It is delicious though.

If you want an option that takes fewer dishes, cook the pasta first, then drain it and put it in the 9x13.  Use the same pot you cooked the pasta in to make the sauce – don’t bother washing it in between because all it held was pasta, water, and salt.  One less pot to wash!

Mac and Cheese – Adult Style!

Ingredients: 16 oz pasta (macaroni, penne, fusilli, whatevs)

                     2 C veggie stock

                     5 Tb all-purpose flour

                     1 Tb butter

                     1/8 tsp nutmeg

                     1/8 tsp chili powder (or cayenne pepper, if you have it)

                      ½ tsp thyme (plus some more for the end)

                      1 tsp salt

                      2 C milk

                      2 ¼ C cheddar cheese

                       ¼ C parmesan cheese (or Parmigiano-Reggiano, if you’re rich and fancy)

                      1 ½ - 2 C chopped cauliflower (bite-sized)

Directions:

-Before you do anything, grate your cheeses and chop your cauliflower.  Done?  Okay, now we can continue.

- Boil salt water.  Once boiling, add pasta.  Cook about 2-3 minutes less than the package recommends for doneness.  Drain, rinse with cold water, drain again, set aside.  (Feel free to let it cook while preparing the other parts of the Mac and Cheese if you’re short on time.)

- Whisk ½ cup of the veggie stock together with the flour.  Set aside.

-In a large-ish saucepan, melt butter.  Add nutmeg, chili powder, ½ tsp thyme, and salt.  Whisk until combined.

-Add milk and remaining veggie stock to the saucepan mixture.  Whisk some more.

-Whisk in the flour mixture.  Bring the whole mix to a boil, then simmer it for 8 minutes, whisking frequently the entire time.

-After 8 minutes, add both cheeses to the mixture.  Whisk until the cheeses are melted.

-In a 13x9 baking pan, combine the drained pasta, the cheese mixture, and the cauliflower.  Once mixed, sprinkle a bit of thyme on top.

-Bake at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for 30 minutes.

-Allow to cool, then enjoy.