Monday, August 11, 2008

Cooking Catastrophes: Mac & Cheese edition

I love to cook. No, that's not really true... I love to bake. Anyone who wants to can cook dinner and I will bake dessert, ok?

I have had my share of cooking faux pas... like the time I was going to double the cookie recipe so I put in twice the amount of butter called for an then forgot to double everything else. It wasn't until the cookies turned out flatter than pancakes and slightly oily-looking that I figured out my mistake, and by then what can you do?

My most notable cooking catastrophe was the time I messed up the Mac & Cheese. I know you are thinking, "How do you mess up boxed pasta??" Well, I'll tell you...

My new husband and I we were both still in college, so we weren't exactly raking in the dough. I was new to the whole concept of having to come up with dinner EVERY night and having someone else eat my concoctions with me. One particular night I couldn't think of anything good to make for dinner.

Tentatively I ask, "Love, is it ok if we just have Mac & Cheese for dinner?"

"Sure." he replies.

Awesome... good man! I thought.

So I got down to business. I followed the directions and everything... I boiled the noodles the right amount of time, drained them, and then added the milk, butter, and cheese powder (Yum-O, right?).

My downfall occurred when I tried to get FANCY with the Mac & Cheese.

Mac & Cheese is SO boring... There has to be SOMETHING I can add to make it a little tastier. Hmm... oh! I know, season salt!

Not a bad idea, right? What I neglected to remember is that the taste of salt becomes stronger as food cools down. So the Mac & Cheese tasted fine when I added the season salt, but by the time I got it into the bowls and on the table it had cooled down quite a bit.

As we sit at the table I take a bite of my "gourmet" Mac & Cheese and nearly gag.

"So what do you think?" I ask.

"It's... um, interesting. What did you add to it?" He replies.

"Season salt... It's awful, isn't it?!" I said, letting him off the hook. We both started to laugh.

At first I was terribly embarrassed because WHO on earth can't cook Mac & Cheese? My attempt at creative cooking for my new husband had completely backfired.

But it we both got a really good laugh about it because it was so ridiculous. Honey Daddy teased me about that one for a LONG time. He told me that I wasn't allowed to make Mac & Cheese unsupervised. Hey, at least I didn't BURN it, right?

Apparently even thinking about cooking catastrophes can throw you off-kilter. I was thinking about writing this post yesterday afternoon while making bread. While the bread was raising I remembered that I forgot to ADD the salt that the recipe called for. Oh well! I guess maybe I have finally achieved some sort of cosmic saline balance or something. I just hope the bread is still edible!

10 comments:

  1. I have messed up mac n cheese before too. It's not impossible.

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  2. I too have messed up boxed macaroni, and cookies, and bread! Thankfully, I don't mess up everytime! :)

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  3. Every time I try to make a new and improved dish it bows up n my face! I feel your pain.

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  4. The boxed mac n cheese is so salty anyway I can't imagine how it would taste with seasoning salt added as well! Your post was so funny you had me laughing the whole time I was reading it! LOL big time!

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  5. I too have attempted to add ingredients to the ole' mac and cheese. I don't think that's supposed to happen...ever. The powder must contain some chemical that ruins the whole dish if you try to add something else.

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  6. Too funny! Why does this sound like something I would do?

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  7. Cute story.....I can't recall any cooking mishaps to share, but I've had many!

    My bf always want Mac & Chee for dinner, I have to put my foot down sometimes....haha

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  8. My hubby loves mac and cheese with season salt. He won't eat it without. The trick is to add it on top of your portion after you cook it. And don't overdo it!

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  9. I love your good stories. I don't think I ruined Mac & Cheese, but my cookies were a little flat last night. Alas, we can't always be perfect. Oh - and I am terrible with bread - yeast and I don't get along.

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  10. Mac and cheese is one of my favorite foods and I still manage to mess it up sometimes when I deviate from the recipe. (My mistake: trying to add more cheese-once in awhile, I'll add the right amount of extra cheese to make it taste the way I want, but more often than not, I add too much extra and it could gag a maggot! lol)

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