February 1, 2013

While preparing for a “food that will impress your man” cooking class, I polled men on facebook. “What food would you most love a woman to cook for you that would inspire you to want to give back to her?” I asked with genuine curiosity. You got it. Macaroni and Cheese. Who knew?

This must be why I am still single.  I would have said steak. Right? But that was not even in the list of responses. Second in line was enchiladas. Another shocker that confirmed my bachelorette-hood.

I clearly did not learn from my slender, grilled-fish-eating dad that creamy comfort food seems tp soften the stress of manhood.  And no wonder so many married women I know have the same complaint: “I wish I could get my husband to lose weight, but he just won’t stop eating junk.”

(Of course many husbands would like to see their wives slim down also,  but no man would risk verbal castration by saying such a thing publicly.)

Let’s face it. If you are reading this recipe, chances are you already feed – your kids, husband, self – Mac n’ Cheese from a box which involves powdered orange cheese. ( Powdered orange cheese? I mean, please, don’t even get me started. It's not even cheese!)

Or if you don’t fall in the boxed Mac N’ Cheese category, perhaps – you, your kids, your husband – are ordering gourmet Mac N’ Cheese at restaurants to satiate a deep creamy, carb-y urge which is not being fulfilled at home. Honestly, your kids can get away with it, but chances are you and your hubby cannot.

This macaroni and cheese exemplifies the real food of dudes and is dedicated to all the women who want an un-tubby hubby and to be hot-mama matrons themselves. This less-guilty recipe was invented based on the following simple criteria.

1. It must be easy to make. I’m lazy and chances are, so are you.

2. Quinoa pasta would replace white-flour pasta to make a yummy gluten-free meal. Quinoa pasta is white and has a neutral taste so you can fool whoever you want, including your kids.

3. No cream. Empty calories.

4. No breadcrumbs on top. Empty unneeded calories and also prevents a gluten free recipe.

5. There would be no besciamel sauce used.

6. Besciamel is a pain in the ass to make. The women I teach to cook do not want to measure flour on a typical Tuesday night. I avoid flour at all costs, primarily because it means an inadvertent mess I won’t want to clean up. Creaminess is added instead with the addition of mascarpone.
7. Without this butter, flour and milk concoction, this mac and cheese is gluten-free, less rich and has less empty calories.

6. It must be elegant enough for sophisticated adults but still a favorite of children. If your child asks why this mac n’ cheese is not orange, start telling them the truth now: Milk Is Not Orange, So REAL Cheese Cannot Be Orange!!!

7. Must be elegant enough for sophisticated adults, but un-sophisticated enough for a football party.  Dude Food.

    

Ingredients:

4 people

To read health benefits of ingredients, what I call Vigor Triggers, click on them.

• a half pound of  2 cups grated White Sharp Cheddar  1 ounce of freshly grated  ½ cup Gruyere grated (for children, add more cheddar cheese)
• 4 oz Mascarpone
• hefty groundings of the pepper mill
• ¼ 

  Set a pot of water to boil.

• Preheat oven to 350 F

• Grate or chop cheddar cheese in the food processor.

• When water is boiling, throw in a handful of kosher salt. This is the Italian way.

• Cook pasta until 2 minutes before al dente, still quite a bit chewy.

• Reserve a cup or so of cooking water ( I just dip in a mug and get some out). Drain pasta.

• Return pasta to pot and add in the mascarpone, the cheddar and a little of the cooking water, just enough to help melt cheese.

• Mix until all mostly melted.

• Add pepper and nutmeg. Taste and adjust if needed.

• Put in baking dish or in small ramekins. Kids love mini-anything. Use ramekins for them!

• Top with Parmigiano and Gruyere (or more cheddar). You can refrigerate until ready to bake.

• Bake in oven for 20 minutes until top is very melted, longer if you had refrigerated it first.

• Put under broiler for a minute if you want top to be brown.

   

February 1st, 2003, 16:30 pm. My family and I were all sitting in the car, on our way to visit long distance family members. This was supposed to be a big day: Ilan Ramon, the first Israeli Astronaut and an old family friend, was supposed to land at Cape Canaveral, along with six fellow Astronauts. Ilan Ramon's voyage to space was the most talked about topic in the Israeli media. We all followed Ilan and his family from the moment of the takeoff, through his videos from space, and the romantic song his wife dedicated to him from millions of miles away. We all saw him as a symbol of Israeli achievement. He was the one we all believed in, the one we were all united in admiring.

We all waited for February 1st, when Ramon would step out of the space shuttle, wave to the cheering crowd, hug his wife and kids, and return home a hero. Even while on the road, we did not want to miss the historic moment, and my father turned on the radio, where the landing was recorded and broadcast. I will never forget that moment when we realized something went wrong. I remember my mother starting to cry, and my father catching his breath. I remember me asking what happened, and slowly gaining the understanding that Ilan Ramon will not step outside of the shuttle, and won't be reunited with his family. I don't remember Ilan very well. I grew up with his son, Tal, as both families lived in a family-residence next to an Air Force base. Both our dads were officers in the Air Force, and worked together. Tal and I were good friends in kindergarten, and our ways separated when my family and I moved back to the city when I was six. A few years later, I remember my dad asking me if I remember Tal's father, and saying that he might become an astronaut. Since space was my main interest at that time, my dad said that maybe someday I could meet with Ilan and he would tell me all about space. In the meantime, the Ramon’s moved to the States, and both families drifted apart. But even though I haven't spoken to Tal in years, when Columbia had left the atmosphere, I bragged to the entire school that it is the father of one of my closest childhood friends up there…

When Ilan Ramon boarded the Columbia, he had become an Israeli hero, a symbol of success beyond imagination, a realization of a dream. February 1st, 2003, was meant to become an historic day for the state of Israel. That day was meant to be written as the day when Israel stepped out of its borders and left a mark on the world's history. That day did become an historic day, but one we would rather we could erase. In that moment when the countdown ended, and the clock started counting back up, that day turned from a day of excitement into a day of grief.

It's been ten years now, and Ilan Ramon's smile is still in our hearts. Ramon, and the six other astronauts that assembled the Columbia team are all heroes. They will always be a symbol of achievement beyond any imagination, a symbol of national and worldwide pride, and an inspiration. May they all rest in peace.