Late Nite Mac&Cheez

This is actually how I always make boxed mac&cheese, but in this instance it was late-nite--after the second-ever concert of my new fave chicago band, Close Hits.

First you boil the noods, in this case $0.99 Trader Joe's not-organic mac&cheese. Drain it, and then melt about 2 Tbsp. butter and 1/4 cup milk together. Grate a large amount of sharp (preferable extra or Seriously sharp) cheddar cheese and parmesan. Mix them in with the mix. Add the cheese packet, mix it all together, and put in the noodles. Add cracked pepper and then sprinkle on dried basil and dill until the top of the noodles in the pot are more green then yellow. Mix it all together and eat it. What a treat!

I promise to post soon about the lunch I had at Google HQ when I was in San Francisco, btw.

Vday

Last night Miriam and I made a dinner and, in a departure from our usual method of choosing things to make, we took an interactive quiz on epicurious.com to find out which romantic dinner menu would fit our style. The answer was Casual Comfort, comprised of Roast Chicken with Rosemary-Garlic Paste, Caramelized Shallot Mashed Potatoes, and Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Lemon and Bacon.

Is it a violation of foodblog ethics to just link to the recipe instead of writing it out? Oh well.


The roast chicken was a pretty good recipe, overall. I don't know if a roast chicken really needs a thick paste like this one in order to be herby and juicy--I think a slathering of butter and some salt and pepper and ground up thyme and sage is enough, with maybe some garlic cloves under the skin and tucked under the legs--but this was a nice idea and came out pretty tasty. The chicken we used was only about 4.5 pounds and got a tiny bit dry, but oh well. It was good. Also, I like the method that this recipe calls for, of cutting out the backbone and flattening the chicken out to roast it faster. Mark Bittman has a video for this involving a turkey, and it's a pretty great method. Unfortunately we couldn't find bulk juniper berries and had to buy a whole bottle (we only needed 5), so if anyone in Chicago needs juniper berries, let me know. You can have them.


The potatoes were probably the best part of this little menu. Miriam made these. The sweetness from the shallots was everything that's been missing from even the best mashed potatoes I've had. This is really a recipe to hold onto for life, and to have around for a number of instances in which it would be the perfect thing to make.


The brussels sprouts were probably the weakest part. They were just a little too lemony, and the bacon didn't really get crisped even though I pre-cooked it for a bit before putting it all in to roast. They were good, but just not the best part of dinner. I have a way of making brussels sprouts where I sautee them in butter or bacon fat with garlic, leaving the lid on so that they get browned and steamed at the same time, and I think my way is better. Maybe I need to experiment more with roasting them, though. If you make this recipe, use about half the called-for amount of lemon and make sure you get the bacon almost crispy before you put it in to roast. Actually, though, this would be a pretty good recipe if you made it a little more subtle.

Anyways, it was a really nice dinner. We drank Portuguese Vinho Verde from Miriam's boss's husband's really cool wine store, Cellar Rat. That's going to be my summer drink for sure. I also got a bottle of Biodynamic (!) rosé that I'm saving for a special occasion.


Get it?

BBQ X-Plosion

Last night we went to Brand BBQ Market on Armitage, and it was really good. Miriam got a good brisket sandwich and I got a superb hamburger with cheesy mac & cheese sauce and "burnt ends," which are delicious pieces of fried brisket fat. The main event of the evening, however, was what Seth got: Brand BBQ's in-house food challenge sandwich, the Brandeurysm. It's a 1.5-foot long wide sub roll heaped with burnt ends, topped with a great deal of mac & cheese and more burnt ends and fried onions. It comes with cornbread, coleslaw, and kind of a lot of french fries, and if you eat it alone in an hour it's free. Otherwise, it costs $30.

Seth went very hard in eating his Brandeurysm, but in the end wisely decided to stop midway through, preventing certain misery and ensuring a supply of reheated barbecue for days to come. Unfortunately we did not take pictures, but the restaurant did and pledged to post them on their website. Also, I liveblogged the experience here.

To date, no one has eaten a Brandeurysm alone, and really I wish such an accomplishment on no one.

Bfast

This is what we ate for breakfast our first morning in SF:

--Rustic olive sourdough bread
--5 year aged cheddar cheese
--salami
--blood oranges.

This, to me, is the ideal traveler's breakfast. It is pretty cheap, lasts a big chunk of the day, and is much tastier than it costs. Also, in my imagination it's more or less what French people eat all the time.

The next day we had the same basic thing, except different cheese, bread, and cured meat. The oranges were the same, and we also had mini cupcakes for dessert.



This is us later, in the museum.