Dinner Dans le Townhouse: Unbelievably Good Mac and Cheese

I received a few emails requesting I share the recipe for the mac & cheese that made an appearance in yesterday's post.  I'm happy to oblige because I think it's important other people are as severely addicted to this as I am.  It's easy to make, but has a fabulous, restaurant-quality taste.  When you're craving some mac & cheese, you'll never turn to the boxed stuff again!

The recipe is from Macaroni & Cheese, 52 Recipes from Simple to Sublime, but has been modified to maximum tastiness by my Mom & I!

Ingredients:
1 lb pasta (a 500g bag works for me)
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp flour (generous heap)
2.5 cups whole milk
1 tsp herbs du provence (one of our modifications, be generous!)
1 tsp nutmeg (again, generous spoonful)
Pinch of salt & cayenne pepper  (we skip the Tabasco sauce suggested)
2 cups grated gruyere cheese (another of our mods because this cheese is so tasty)

Countdown to tastiness:
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
2. Butter a 9x13 pan.
3. Cook pasta and drain, set aside (in the pot).
4. While pasta is cooking, you can start on the roux: melt the butter over low heat, then add the flour.
5. Whisk the flour and butter mixture so it makes a paste, cook for about one minute.
6. Whisk in milk and increase heat to bring to a boil - it will start to thicken and gently bubble - but keep whisking as it heats (this takes some time, around 15 minutes).
7. Add the spices and cheese to bubbling, thickened milk, stir until melted.
8. Pour sauce on noodles and stir together.
9. Resist eating it at this stage.  Hubby struggles with this, hovering around, asking why we can't eat it now.  Your patience will be rewarded.
10. Bake 25-30 minutes (until the top is a little browned with slight crispy cheese).

Our substitutions make this a fancy "gruyere mac and chesse," with spicing fit for a nice restaurant.  It is excellent as a side dish, or on it's own.  Cheesy but not too gooey - know what I mean?  Perfectly creamy.  This is winter comfort food, but perfect for dreary, cold, rainy spring days too! 

Dinner Dans le Townhouse: Broccoli & Feta Frittata

A frittata for dinner?  Not on Hubby's watch.  He once ate a combo #7 at a fast food place around 5:00 p.m. and then asked, "what's for dinner?" a couple hours later.  Although Hubby & I ate the frittata pictured here as a brunch recently, if Hubby's out of town for work then it's breakfast for dinner dans le townhouse.  And Hubby was out of town this weekend, so guess what I made for dinner . . .

I used to have a mild allergy to eggs that my family refused to believe, so I was served eggs before every car ride and trip to amusement park.  That always ended badly.  It took me a long time to warm up to eggs cooked any other way other than into a cake.  So I figure that if I have a hankering for a frittata for dinner I should go for it, to make up for years of egg-avoidance.

Whether you're going to sneak this in as a dinner, or eat it as a proper breakfast, I hardly reinvented the wheel on this recipe.  But even if you and eggs aren't good friends, I bet you'll agree that this frittata is yummy & super easy to prepare.

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1/2 onion, finely diced (I use a mini food processor)
6 eggs
1 cup feta, cut into itty-bitty pieces
3.5 cups loosely packed, washed broccoli
Salt & pepper (to taste)

Minus the tomatoes - they just like to photo-bomb any kitchen shots

Tools:

1. Oven: set broiler on high
2. Food processor (only if you like your onion diced really finely, like I do)
3. A cast iron pan or any oven-safe pan that is non-stick
(My le creuset cast iron pan is 9.5" and 2" deep.  For a larger pan, try adding a couple extra eggs and a smidge more broccoli.)

Cook Away:

1. Melt the butter over medium heat
2. Add the onion and cook until the onion is a bit glossy (3-5 minutes)
 (Be careful not to overcook because overcooked onion is bitter)
3. Season with salt & pepper and stir
4. Whisk eggs and pour over broccoli and onion
5. Don't stir, just lightly nudge the eggs over the broccoli and onion so the eggs have spread evenly
6. The eggs will begin to set immediately, so quickly toss the feta on top but do not stir
7. Cook over medium heat until the eggs are firm on the bottom, gently life with a spatula to take a peak (4-6 minutes)
8. Place pan under the broiler for only a couple minutes (watch carefully because the eggs will brown quickly)
9. Enjoy!

We actually had a nice, leisurely brunch not too long ago.  We even used the dining room, something we typically only reserve for guests for some bizarre reason.  When I ate my dinner-frittata over the weekend though, I gobbled it on the sofa, watching The Vampire Dairies via Rogers on Demand.  So sad.

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