gouda

The Best Homemade Mac and Cheese

The combination of creamy gouda and havarti cheese make a silky, cheesy macaroni and cheese sauce that tastes far better than the boxed kind.

There are several basic, classic, everyone-loves-them-because-even-when-we-shouldn’t-we-still-crave-them recipes I am driven to master.

The best steak. Check.

The juiciest roasted chicken. Got it.

The best potato salad. Double check and thank you mom.

The best homemade fudge. Ever. End of story. Period.

I’ve made several macaroni and cheese recipes on the blog, one with lobster, another with gobs of cheese and bacon, and yet another loaded with veggies and such and I’ve deemed each of them a wonder in their own right.

But I was missing something. I was missing the basic, homey, comfort food classic of a good old-fashioned baked macaroni and cheese.

But not anymore.

This recipe, affirmed by all of the “mmm-this-is-so-unbelievable”, “can-I-have-more-please” comments, THIS recipe, with it’s incredibly silky, cheesy sauce, is the best classic yet.

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Zucchini and Chorizo Cheese Toast

Spicy chorizo gives a nice kick to this cheesy gouda and squash topped toast which can easily be doubled for a crowd pleasing appetizer or main meal.

I’m always happy to add an appetizer to a family meal, but when they get too dainty and precious, that’s when I bow out.

Finger food. Tidbit. Munchie.

Really? I want (wo)man food. I want flavor. I want a mouthful. I want an appetizer that doesn’t leave me lurking over someone else’s shoulder as they reach and snatch that last canapé at the buffet table.

Foiled again by a measly morsel of food.

That’s why this cheese toast is so extremely satisfying. Sure it could be cut down to size as an easy appetizer with full-strength satiation, but the beauty lies in its ability to stand on its own bread basket and become a meal in itself.

When you take the combination of seasonal squash, sturdy but still toothsome bread, spiced up sausage and cheese, oh glorious cheese!, then my friends, you have a recipe that’s going to do just fine holding its own.

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Ham and Smoked Gouda Grilled Cheese Breakfast Sandwich

This easy to make recipe is made with deli ham, smoked gouda, fried egg, tomato, and arugula, and it’s everything you want in a breakfast sandwich!

I once had a boss who had a habit for emphasizing the sensational.

He gauged quality and effectiveness by his gut, his intuition. By his visceral reaction. With a squint of his eyes, he’d push his glasses back up his nose, clench his hands and fist pound the air in front of him as he said the word visceral. “Back when I worked at [insert company name here], we created x, y, z product to get consumers to respond with a VISCERAL reaction.” You always knew he meant business when the word visceral spit out of his mouth with an extra dramatic paused slur in the middle of the word.

After pulling this sandwich from the grill, I had a flashback to those days of hearing that statement over and over. This sandwich. I had a visceral reaction to it. Visceral! My gut, my intuition, it all said that his sandwich, even before tasting it, was a fist-pump-in-the-air success.

My former boss would be proud.

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Sweet Corn, Gouda and Farro Risotto Plus 15 More Farro Recipes You’ll Love Forever

Move over quinoa, there’s a new grain in town.

Well, now, wait a minute. Farro is far from new with its roots running deep, deep, deep (pun intended) and this ancient grain is making major waves in the foodie scene.

The 90’s were all about couscous (which I still adore), the 00’s saw the wave of wild and unusual rices, and who can’t open a cookbook / food blog / food magazine for the past few years without seeing the glories of quinoa being extolled from the high heavens. But do you farro? If not, you should.

Farro is one of those wonder grains that to a lot of us mainstream eaters in the U.S., seems a bit outlandish and even exotic. But is it? If you consider the grain of choice that ancient Egyptian kings dined on as exotic, then yes, exotic it is. I mean, they were KINGS! But that hardly makes this grain unapproachable or intimidating. In fact, farro might be the easiest grain of all to cook and it’s versatility will have quinoa looking hard and fast in the rear view mirror, just waiting for farro to take over it’s first place run in the superfood popularity polls.

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Stovetop Pesto Macaroni and Cheese with Corn and Sun-Dried Tomatoes

This week I’ve been visiting my old hood in Venice, California, where the air has been clear (surprise, no smog at the beach folks!), the sand and surf has beckoned every. single. day. and I’ve woken up each morning to the kiss of the ocean breeze coming my bedroom’s french doors.

I think I’ve finally hit my stride of relaxation and I’m lapping it up as much as I can.

Before I left for vacation I was asked to make you a summertime macaroni and cheese in honor of today being, drumroll please, National Macaroni and Cheese Day!

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Beet Lemonade and a Cheese Lover’s Giveaway Plus Friday Faves

Beets. Lemons. Sugar. Combined into one lip-smacking Beet Lemonade. Have I lost my mind? That’s entirely possible, but most likely not due to this drink.

Who came up with this root vegetable meets citrus elixir? It wasn’t me. No, It was the bunch at Wisconsin Cheese who asked me to photograph cocktails and cheese for their latest issue of Grate, Pair, Share.

You thought I just did photo shoots for my own online magazine? Nah, I spread my foodie love around.

But just to be sure, you have read the summer issue of FoodieCrush magazine, right?

I must admit I had my doubts about trying this Beet Lemonade from the get-go. Kind of like my Smudge whenever she spies some foreign looking object on her plate. That would be a new vegetable and you’re going to try it little lady.

I’m a novice juicer on a time schedule so I went the much easier and far less messy route and let my juicer languish in the pantry while I shopped for beet juice at Whole Foods. I dutifully followed their recipe, still skeptical of this unusual combo and then…I was stunned at the taste.

In a good, very, very, very, very good way. Very.

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Cobb Grilled Cheese and Friday Faves

Okay, okay, I know. This grilled cheese is much more than just cheese. It’s a cacophony of flavors. Fresh, California-esque flavors packed and stacked into the theme of a grilled cheese sandwich.

With Grilled Cheese Month in full swing, completely creative cheese concoctions are popping up all over the web. Which makes coming up with something original not the most original idea.

Case in point: Last week when I posted my Spinach and Artichoke Grilled Cheese I knew from the get go that the ingredient list may not be the most original, but the combination wasn’t something I had recently seen. That is until later that night when I was perusing my Feedly blog feed and BOOM, right there in the popular post column (natch) I saw a version of the same sandwich on Joy’s site from 3 days earlier.

I took comfort in my duplication that at least I was somewhat in the same hemisphere of recipe creation as a doyenne food blogger and hey, there aren’t that many original ideas left in the world. And who cares? Nothing ever comes out the same way twice from the exact same cook anyway. There’s plenty of room for all of us.

Some food bloggers scour the web to see if their recipe ideas have been posted on sites far and wide. I’m not into that. If it’s something I think sounds tasty, I’ll post it. If someone else features the same recipe idea, I’ll consider that fate, fluke or simply a happy accident with the world telling us we need more Spinach and Artichoke Sandwiches. Of which we do.

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