Posts tagged ‘mac and cheese’

ReadyMade Camping Cook-Off – a behind-the-scenes peek
Casey | May 21, 2010

Good. Food. Stories. is an online food magazine, but that doesn’t mean we have anything against the print world. Far from it, in fact—our recipes for “car camping” (AKA camping for the non-hardcore) have just hit newsstands in the current issue of ReadyMade magazine.

As Danielle noted in her original camping post, this level of roughing it is probably the most rustic either of us can comfortably handle, and it was a fun challenge to come up with a day’s worth of meals that could be a) chilled and held safely in a cooler and b) only cooked over an open flame. I’m nothing without my stand mixer, as you all know.

Our roster of breakfast, lunch, and dinner options looked solid on paper. But these things needed to be put to a real-life test, and magazines are produced months in advance. This meant that for a June issue, we would be testing recipes in February in the middle of a snowstorm. What to do for a suitable campfire? Luckily, my in-laws had a chiminea which was accessible through the drifts.

chiminea camping foods
>> Was the camping food a success? Read on to find out. >>

Camping food
Danielle | August 26, 2009

i love not campingBecause I’ll try anything once, I decided to go camping in the Catskills last week. Not surprisingly, my fellow campers put me in charge of the food.

As I mulled over my grocery shopping list, I remembered a thought I had the first time  I walked into an EMS store: you need a lot of stuff to live simply. The obvious choices—frozen burger patties, peanut butter and jelly, cans of beans and packets of oatmeal—were not appealing to me. I could make my own burger patties, and I could shut up and deal with the peanut butter and jelly, but I wanted to have one really good satisfying meal to follow the full day hike that was planned. What could I make that could survive three days in a cooler and be cooked in one pan?

Chicken cutlet parmigiana casserole. Friends, the disposable aluminum tray may not be the greenest option out there, but neither was the DEET required to keep the mosquitoes from consuming me like the 5pm buffet on a senior citizen’s cruise. Bread and fry 10-20 (depending on the size of your group) chicken cutlets until golden brown. Layer in the tray pan, and cover each layer with mozzarella and tomato sauce. The final product will be baked right on the rack of your campfire. For vegetarians, try this especially good and simple eggplant parmigiana recipe.

Chilaquiles. Essentially a Mexican lasagna, layers of tortillas separate melted queso blanco, tomato salsa, and your choice of meat. I found this Epicurious recipe to work especially well. 

Mac and cheese with cut-up hot dogs!!! Initially, I contemplated a mac and cheese with a bechamel base, melted fontina and asiago cheese over celantani pasta, with a touch of truffle oil. I make that and it’s good. But I believe in knowing your audience, and the great outdoors are not the place for such hard to digest cheeses. Here’s my lowbrow, stick-to-your-ribs version perfect for warming up over a campfire:

Mac and Cheese for the Great Outdoors

  • One can Campbells cheddar cheese soup
  • 1 bar of Cabot cheddar
  • 1 bar of Cabot monterrey jack (Cabot cheese contains no lactose so it’s friendlier for the camping tummy.)
  • 1 box ziti rigati pasta (Tubes with the ridges.)
  • 3/4 stick of salted butter
  • 2 cups of breadcrumbs
  • 5 kosher hot dogs. (Hot dogs are sketchy so I appreciate that whole, we answer to a higher authority thing.)

Boil pasta for 8-10 minutes (or till al dente) in salted water. Drain and spread inside a 9 X 12 aluminum tray pan. Meanwhile, warm can of cheddar cheese soup in a saucepan. Cut the cheddar and monterrey jack into cubes and melt down into the soup.  Once full melted, pour the cheese over the pasta waiting in the aluminum pan, stir to coat, and add hot dogs, cut into half inch slices. Mix well. Finally, toast breadcrumbs in dry pan for 2 minutes, add butter and stir until golden and crumbly. Spread breadcrumb mixture over the top of your mac and cheese. Let it cool, cover it up with foil,  and stick it in your cooler. Leave room in your belly for s’mores.

Oh, and for those of you wondering how my camping trip went…well, let’s just say that I retain a firm belief that nature is best enjoyed when one can return safely to a HoJo’s at the end of the day.

Ask Casey: hot-weather cooking
Casey | August 13, 2009

I’m cooking dinner for my parents…but it’s August and I don’t want to heat my apartment. What can I cook that doesn’t involve the oven and a minimal amount of long boiling pots?

This is a tough call for me, because I am a full-fledged kitchen sado-masochist. I have no compunction about turning on the oven in 90-degree weather, torturing myself and my extra-furry, extra-sheddy cats in the pursuit of delicious cherry pies, peach galettes, the best breakfast bread, and even mac and cheese. But maybe it’s time to rethink my ways.
>> Read on for hot-weather recipes that won’t make you overheat. >>