Posts tagged ‘mac and cheese’

Because 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.

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.

I mentioned this in my compound butter post earlier this week, but if you don’t have an outdoor grill, the next best item might not be a stovetop grill pan but a toaster oven. When I’m feeling lazy, I’ll just throw my dinner protein in there instead of firing up the burners. True, this doesn’t work when you’re making an entire roast chicken or pork tenderloin, but unless you’re a crazy person like me, you’re not contemplating this on an August weekend anyway. Go for smaller portions, like lamb chops (10 minutes at 450 degrees for medium-rare, slathered with rosemary butter upon removal) or my summer take on what the Italians call involtini (basically a meat roll):

Summer Chicken Involtini

• zest of one orange
• 3/4 cup bread crumbs (I like to grind the ends of my baguettes or ciabatta in the food processor for soft, big crumbs but you can use panko too – and Whole Foods now sells cans of house-brand panko in the baking aisle!)
• 1 tbsp chopped rosemary
• 1/4 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley
• one handful chopped golden raisins
• eight boneless chicken thighs
• salt, pepper, and olive oil

Mix all the ingredients except the chicken thighs together in a bowl and season with salt and pepper to taste. Lay your thighs out on a work surface, fill with the mixture as if you were assembling a burrito, and roll each up into a neat little package. If you were doing these in a real oven, I’d recommend tying with twine or stabbing with toothpicks, but it can get dangerous when doing this in a toaster oven. Carefully move the rolls over to your foil-lined toaster oven pan, brush the tops lightly with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Cook four at a time in a 375-degree oven for about 15 minutes, or until the chicken is browned and the juices run clear. Please note that cook times vary greatly in toaster ovens vs big ovens, so always keep an eye on your creations.

If you don’t have a toaster oven, this can be done stovetop-style too. You don’t have to brush with olive oil – just brown the rolls in a bit of butter and olive oil over medium-high heat for 2-3 minutes, then flip, cover and reduce the heat to medium-low until the rolls are cooked through, about 7 minutes.

As a side, salads are obvious solutions for a course that doesn’t involve the oven or stove, but as the garden lettuces start to fade away, how about making a peach caprese? Just substitute peaches for tomatoes (a good idea considering this summer’s tomato blight) layered with fresh mozzarella and drizzled with your best olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Add a little mint to the traditional basil chiffonade to further the sweet/savory connection.

Finally, I haven’t tried it yet, but White on Rice Couple’s one-pot stovetop mac and cheese looks like a worthy alternative to my traditional version. You’re still going to be burning some BTUs while you stir the mixture, but it’s better than resorting to baking or the broiler. To pump it up for an impressive parental dinner, try a combo of fontina, istara (a great Spanish cheese similar to manchego), or Gruyere cheese instead of basic cheddar.

Ask Casey about anything food-related (unfortunately, I’m not very good at answering home improvement questions or giving advice on housebreaking puppies) at caseyATgoodfoodstoriesDOTcom.